ERROR: YEAR OF OUR VISIT TO SLOVAKIA SHOULD BE 1993, CORRECT PREVIOUS EPISODES
EPISODE 543 PRAGUE, MARCH,1993 JOY IN ETHNIC COSTUME — PEACEFUL UPHEAVALS HAPPEN
alan skeoch
March 5, 2022
NOTE: As Marjorie pointed out, the year we were in Slovakia was 1993, not 1989 as said in error in earlier Episodes.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS…MARJORIE SKEOCH AND CZECH DANCER, PRAGUE, MARCH 1993
On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into two independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in what is now known as the “Velvet divorce” (in a reference to the Velvet revolution) due to its peaceful and negotiated nature. Both countries divided their common “goods” (embassies, military equipment, etc.) on a two-to-one ratio to reflect their populations. Although the dissolution didn’t lead to any unrest or bloodshed, the new frontiers did create a few odd situations, like splitting border-towns in half.
The split “was not entirely inevitable, but the political and economic costs of keeping the country together would have been extremely high”, pointed out Jiri Pehe, political analyst and former advisor to Vaclav Havel.
The division of Czechoslovakia: an undemocratic decision?
A widespread narrative argues that the divorce was a purely political move decided behind closed-doors by Czech and Slovak leaders Vaclav Klaus and Vladimir Meciar against the will of the population. There is some truth in that: all the opinion polls at that time showed that a vast majority of Czechs and Slovaks was in favour of the preservation of Czechoslovakia and against the country’s break-up.
In its January 1, 1993 edition, the New York Times wrote: “A multi-ethnic nation born at the end of World War I in the glow of pan-Slavic brotherhood, Czechoslovakia survived dismemberment by the Nazis and more than four decades of Communist rule only to fall apart after just three years of democracy”.
Although no referendum was ever held on the matter, democracy was indeed at the heart of the issue: all the problems associated with the federation of two states of unequal weight and size only appeared after the centralized, communist regime collapsed as Czechoslovakia reconnected with democracy. The decision-making paralysis and the federal government’s inability to push any significant reforms in the early 1990’s strongly contributed to the top-down decision of Klaus and Meciar.
Centre of Prague, Czech Republic, March 1993
An upheaval was happening but only Kevin Skeoch seemed to notice. Note the Pink clad coat of optimism on Marjorie.
Bakeshop…Normal exchanges happening
Look at the boy with the glasses. He notices something joyful.
Street scene Prague, Czech Republic, March 1993. Joy seemed everywhere.
JOYFUL DAYS IN PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, MARCH 1993
TRAGIC DAYS IN UKRAINE, MARCH 2022…DID THINGS HAVE TO GO SO HORRIBLY WRONG?
Today, March 5, 2022, ‘We watch in horror as unspeakable crimes by one man, Vladimir Putin, tear
Ukraine into pieces that will take generations to repair. Did this have to happen?
Was there not another way to effect change, perhaps by respecting neutrality?
Our eldest son, Kevin Skeoch, had high hopes for Ukraine and Russia finding the
middle road through education. He had (has?) the clout of a CEO in International
Schools around the world. Upbeat, positive, above the grimy sludge of low level
politics. Will happy days return? “We can but hope that somehow good will be the final
goal of ill,” as the saying goes.
In 1993, when Kev was a “$4 a day” teacher in Slovakia there were terrific changes happening.
Political changes, as the Soviet Union collapsed and sane heads tried to
manage the collapse sensibly. It was not an easy time. On our March break
in 1989, Marjorie snd I visited Kevin in Bratislava, Slovakia with a side trip
to Prague, Czech Republic. A political divorce. The former, rather artificial , nation of Czechoslovakia
decided to get a divorce.
Notice the reflections…admirers of folk art…Marjorie and Kevin Skeoch
When we crossed the new border between these new states we almost missed
the border guards. Come to think of it, We did miss them. We did not stop as I remember. A political divorce
without much ill will. Yes, we saw more ill will in the Slovak Republic. Poorer of the two states, it
seemed. Graffiti on a few walls saying “English go home”. Negatives that longed
for the idealism of Marxism.
Gorbachev…a leader with a birthmark…a leader.
I remember us driving into a Slovak lodge in the High Tatra mountains where a bunch
of young rather drunk Slovak ’20 somethings’ were taking a collective leak (piss). Noticing us,… perhaps Marjorie’s
bright pink coat…they turned and pissed in our direction. They laughed and we laughed.
A difference of opinion expressed and accepted. Done without tearing the nation
apart.
What is happening here? I had no idea in 1993. But whatever was happening was full of joy.
If only a leader like Marjorie and a leader like the costume bedecked young lady were present today.
A few days later we witnessed the reverse situation in the heart of Prague where
ethnic clothed dancers were expressing great joy while dancing on the street.
If pressed
to take a leak there was a squeaky clean toilet available in a huge MacDonald’s
fast food store.
If only Ukraine and Russia could have found the same common ground. If only we
could find ourselves, our global selves, with leaders who can lead. If only there was
middle ground possible.
alan skeoch
No comment necessary below.
alan skeoch
March 5, 2022
