The country is beginning to move. The recent Dublin Airport explosives incident and the surfacing inadequacies as a result of the controversial electronic toll system - obtained by a tender procedure which was, to say the least, grossly irregular - people's impatience with the political arrogance of the present government seems to come to an end. The fierce discussions, which are visible on social network groups like Facebook, showing a growing discontent, provide some indications but what is equally siginificant; people start appearing openly in the streets to air their grudges.
Yet I see some understream tendencies, which do cause me to worry quite a bit. Initially, some users have indeed genuine attempts to kick off some valid and inspiring ideas, however very soon some crypto extremist members penetrate and start referring to links containing ambiguous and questionable content, which imply even racist tendencies.
Furthermore, there is also a presence of those, who hardly seem to grasp the logic of simple argumentation. They are therefore easily prone to the former group, or at least remain completely passive to the whole situation. Not out of indifference, just because they remain convinced of the fact that there is no necessity to move towards a change.
It has become really a clear reality, which in truth pains me to admit - and not because I seem to enjoy criticising, but because it is a sheer fact - that generally this society is alarmingly lacking some skills to deeper analyse problematic situations and create constructive solutions. Having articulated this harsh verdict, I also have to add that there are of course some individual exceptions. But overall, there is a high wall, impenetrable, causing superficial sophist (half-truths) argumentation to be willingly accepted, leading a vast majority into erring.
Personally, I have witnessed very strong pieces of examples, where 'professionals' would without blinking their eyes, use the lamest excuses to dodge their responsibilty (or repercussions of their earlier decisions), where signed contracts mean nothing, where a risk analysis is regarded as offensive (instead of a tool to avoid further harm), and so forth. The fault lies mainly in the educating system; if you do not raise your children from an early age what basic moral values and principles are, about ethics, debating skills, etc, then this nation will remain (as a prominent politician once admitted) "a bunch of peasants". But though all the negative influences from the past - wars, communism and so forth - there must be a drive to accellerate. Allowing ourselves to "understand" the problem, easily we slip into passivity: "there's nothing we can do about it, because... ". Exactly this forms a downwards spiral only profitable for those opportunistic elements. Slovakia is still facing some serious risks, simply because it fails to analytically see the broader picture. A dramatic tendency to underestimate, the latent risk of a blasé attitude.
To conclude, I would still like to illustrate one last example, even though it might look irrelevant, it clearly depicts the situation; Slovakia's language skills are still needing improvement. One can but wonder, how it is possible, that in an information age as we experience now, English texts on official web-sites of the Slovak Government still contain errors? Perhaps there are not enough capable translators in Slovakia? (Guess not). I tried another one this morning: the website of the Slovak Embassy in the UK. According to my information, the majority of people in the UK do speak English, most of them even as a native speaker (correct me if my assumption is wrong or outdated). Why then, that even this Embassy, is not capable posting English texts without grammar errors - since they are hardly just typo errors - while one would gather, that you have ample English speakers around you? You tell me. Whether it makes such a difference? It's about principle. But will it mobilise the nation now into the right direction?
MS
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