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Date:         Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:18:07 EST
From:         George Frajkor <gfrajkor@CCS.CARLETON.CA>
Subject:      Re: Czechoslovakia
              Haindl" at Jan 22, 93 8:45 am

M. Haindl writes:
>
> Reading George Frajkor's mails about Slovak suffering I was expecting to
> see finally some arguments. Suggestions ?
>
> 1. Comparison of 1918 and 1992 statistics in:
>     education (no. of universities, secondary and basic schools, percentage
>        of illiteracy, percentage of people with university education) ,
>     culture (no. of theatres, orchestras, museums, exhibition halls, printed
> books...)

       We had this argument late last year so I don't think we should
do it all over.  In general, things got much better for the slovaks
in this field.  But since the baseline of comparison was what they had
under Hungary (close to zero), ANY improvement would have been better.
If you mean did things get as good for Slovaks as for Czechs the
answer is NO, as is self-evident even today.

>     living standard ( Czech-Slovak difference, life expectancy, health care,
>        accommodation, cars, vacation houses ...)
>     legislative suppression, science, industrial and agricultural output,
> export, number
>     of inhabitants with Slovak nationality etc.

    see above.

>  If your arithmetic calculus finds any positive changes the natural question
> remains - what were the resources (Saint Claus ? Slovaks? Czechs?).

      With rare exceptions, the whole world was richer in 1992 than in
1918. I doubt that it was the peculiar genius or generosity of any one
nation that did it, although I am inclined to believe that the
ultimate cause was the US presence in the World economyh after 1918,
and the Japanese after 1950.
  But the period in which Slovakia made the greatest economic
gains on an annual basis was 1939-1944.  During this period more
industries were established,. more power generated and more roads
and railways built than in the 21 previous years.
>.... when the whole Czechoslovak federal era (1968-1989) was
>     in the following Slovak hands (not everybody 21 years exactly):
>     first secretary of Czechoslovak communist party and president of country
> Husak
>     secretary for ideology of CCP Bilak
>     defence minister Dzur, foreign affairs minister Chnoupek, foreign trade
>     minister Barcak, vice-premier ... ?


          More investments were diverted to Slovakia during the Husak
era than previously.  Again, as is self-evident in today's statistics,
it was not enough to bring economic life up to the standards the
Czech lands enjoy,  but it was an attempt to even the playing field.

>
>   An example ? Famous problem with Gabcikovo Nagymaros dam, first proposed
>  by Slovak politicians in 1964 - rejected by the CCP leader A.Novotny
> Czech)
> later in federal era the second proposal approved by G.Husak (Slovak).

      No one could ever accuse Novotny of having brains.

>            M.Haindl - The Netherlands

    Jan George Frajkor       _!_
 School of Journalism       __!__
 Carleton University,         |
 Ottawa, Ontario             /^\
 Canada K1S 5B6           /^\   /^\
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