From: g.matas@ee.surrey.ac.uk (George Matas)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.czecho-slovak
Subject: Re: Will this group split in 2 parts?
Date: 29 Aug 92 10:59:17 GMT
Organization: University of Surrey, Guildford, England

In article <1992Aug28.190328.9289@cbnewsc.cb.att.com>, peter@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (peter.pavlovcik) writes:
|> So I thought maybe I will translate a part of this letter for this
|> newsgroup -- could be an interesting reading, since it is a "strong
|> opinion of one of the CS citizens". Before I do that though,
|> I would also like to make a few disclaimers:
|> 1) Her opinions are not necessarily shared by me,
|> 2) I apologize if any parts of this offends anybody (esp. Czechs),
|> 3) no flames please, although all opposing opinions are welcome,
|> 4) my translation is not necessarily the best, this is
|> 	aggravated by the fact that I do not understand the current
|> 	political situation at all.
|> 
|> My own comments are enclosed in /*   */. So here it goes:
|> 
    It is very sad to read such a letter, especially as it was written by
a (former) teacher who should (at least sometimes) distinguish between open
propaganda, nonsense, rumor etc. If the opinions expressed in the letter are
held by a large proportion of Slovaks I'd say there is a *big* cultural
divide and the split is a reasonable thing. I just can't resist a few
comments..
|> ...
|> So why Slovakia did not vote for Havel? That's what
|> the Czechs are complaining about. But that's not quite right,
|> since he did not make it in the Czech house of the Parliament
|> either. Why?
|> 
|> 1. When he took office, he let out of prison all the murderers,
|> who are still murdering. Just so he can show the world that
    I didn't like the large scale release either. Some murders were
committed
in the following month, but very soon those who committed them were back.
The current increase of crime rate has nothing to do with the release. 
I guess one would have to have a look at the statistics..
|> he is a humanist, he abolished the death penalty -- which even
|> the USA still has. But as they say, /*... here is a hard-to-translate
|> folk proverb: "hors^i poturc^enec od turka"*/.
    Funny. Does it mean: "Everything in the US is perfect?". Majority of
European states abolished the ultimate penalty. 
|> 
|> 2. He stopped weapon manufacturing in Slovakia, like it is Slovak's
|> fault that for 40 years the Russians ordered the former governments to
|> build weapon plants. But the weapon plant in Brno /*in Moravia*/
|> continues weapon manufacturing and export.
  Maybe the difference is that exporting submachine guns and tanks is a
slightly different matter. And the manufacturing was not stopped, it goes
on. (I agree that Havel's decision to stop all weapon production was a
mistake, but it is interesting to see how it can be interpreted as
anti-Slovak) 
|> 
|> 3. Before the election he was campaigning in southern Slovakia and
|> he was encouraging the hungarian political parties to join together,
|> american Hungarian names Soros, a millionare, gave VPN /*Havel's party*/
    VPN is not Havel's party.
|> a few millions and they paid him back by passing a law that in southern
|> Slovakia are now two official languages. There were many protests and
|> hunger strikes, but that did not help. Hungarians changed street names.
|> From names of 19-century Slovaks that fought against forced
|> hungariazation to names of their Hungarian oppressors. If you speak
   1. Who has the right to decide about street names? I guess the local
authority (not the central government). I understand that in a town
inhabited by Hungarians (say 95%) they prefer hungarian names.

|> Slovak in the store, they will not serve you. And if there is 50% or
|> less Slovak population, the only schools available to Slovak children
|> are hungarian. And even the hungarian representatives do not speak
|> Slovak very well. Meciar wants now to pass the law to make Slovak
|> the only official language and reinstate the death penalty. Imagine
|> that in the USA, each nationality would demand that they want to use the
|> tax money to build schools and pay teachers so their children can
|> be taught in their native language. /*I better not comment on this one*/
   The same pattern of reasoning can be detected in many newly formed
republics of the former USSR (Georgia, Estonia ..). Every
minority group requires all possible rights. Once they become the majority
group they deny all rights of the minorities in their states. 
|> 
|> 5. He used federal money to rebuild the Praha Castle - he should have
|> used the communist's money. Instead of Tatra-613, he bought BMWs,
  I didn't like it either.
|> 
|> 6. He surounded himself with foreign advisors who were not here for 40
|> years, for example prince Schwarzenberg. And Havels is returning them
|> the castles, forests, farms, etc.
  I didn't like it either. 
|> 
|> And now the Czechs are spreading lies to the world that the Slovaks
|> are nationalistic and are breaking up the republic. They do not say
|> the truth.
  I just can't understand why the Slovaks think that the mass-media are
under Czech control and influence. 
| sLovaks want to live in Czechoslovakia, but
|> on their own budget, because the Czechs are constatly complaining
|> that Slovakia is costing them money.
  The budget of the Slovak republic is supported. If a remember right, the
amount of money siphoned from Bohemia to Slovakia was discussed for a long
time last year. I understand that some Czechs don't like it (I agree with
it). So the sentence says: The Czechs are giving us money, some are
complaining about - isn't that a good reason to leave.
I don't understand the logic.
|> economy. I even think that in the USA each state has its own
|> economy, they live on whatever taxes they collect, they have city,
|> state and federal taxes. But Czechs say, no way, that the Slovaks
|> would be taking advantage of them if the economies were separate,
|> while defense and currency would be stay common.
 No comment. Who would take advantage of what?
|> 
|> The Czechs are also suggesting that after the breakup, they will
|> call their part Czechoslovakia, because there are enough Slovaks
    I wonder who are the mythical 'Czechs'. This was suggested by someone
in the US (perhaps the chairman of something like "The Czech Americans").
All Czech politicians (as far as I know)   condemned it.

|> living in Cechy. Or that Slovaks and Gypsies currently currently
|> living in Cechy will be considered foreigners and expelled to
|> Slovakia. Meciar found this information in a secret memo from the
|> Czech Parliament.
|> Most of Slovakia's industry produces raw materials or parts, the
|> finished products are manufactured in Cechy and the money goes into
|> the Czech treasury. Because Czechs consider the federal treasury
|> as the Czech treasury. And every such plant has its headquarters
|> in Praha, so there are scores of Czech parasites we have to feed.
|> And when the country gets some foreign financial help, it all stays
|> in Cechy. When we got money for railroads, Slovakia got 1%, because
|> "Cechy have older railroads". Yesterday, news said that the country
|> received 150 million crowns for rebuilding the border crossings.
|> Out of that, Slovakia got nothing.
   I don't know railroads and the rest of the cr.. . But the border
crossing story is a nice one. Two days after the accusation appeared
it turned out that 150 million cr. haven't been received yet (not
mentioning spending them). But even so, if you want to hate it is possible
to make a lot of mileage of it anyway. 
|> stink about it, they said that Slovakia was not interested.
|> That's why they are so afraid of Meciar, he finds out these things
|> and exposes them.
  Magic Meciar.
|> 
|> Now Meciar found out that all good embassies are staffed only with
|> Czechs (including cooks and maintenace people), Slovaks are sent only
|> to some podunk places. Meciar is trying to make the ratio 1:1.
  I'd like to see the numbers and names. BTW, I'm not sure the ratio 1:1 is just
(it seems to be an axiom in Sl.). It would mean that there would be 2x as
many Slovak diplomats per capita.
|> And as for the crude oil pipeline to the West /*Russian oil*/
|> the Czechs get 17 million, for which they give us 1%.
|> 
|> The Czechs even want to detach some small part of Slovakia on the
|> Moravian border to Cechy, because many of the Czech companies have
|> their vacation villas over there.
   When I first heard about boarder changes I thought: "Oh, this is
dangerous". What is being discussed is a territorial swap of a couple of
hectars. The Slovaks would like to shift the border in small town where the
railway station is just inside Bohemia. As an exchange the area with summer
houses will be given. A reasonable solution? No big deal? Not for everyone.
(I don't know who initiated the negotiations, but the railway is certainly
more important than the summer houses)
|> 
|> And why did not people vote for the previous government?
|> /*government AFTER the revolution, VPN in Cechy and KDH in Slovakia*/
     VPN is a Slovak political party. 
|> 
    
    Jirka Matas
Newsgroups: soc.culture.czecho-slovak