Slovakia is a country that is rapidly modernizing. It’s like a teenager that is on the verge of adulthood, it’s still insecure and is surprised that it manages to function independently. Slovakia is a country with a huge inferiority complex, but at the same time it’s also proud. It carries several collective traumas around. One of them is the shadow of the failed totalitarian system that was an attempt to build a socialist paradise. This attempt failed and turned the country in some kind of large jail in which only the intimates who didn’t feel like working felt great. Communism has been gone for over a quarter century, but if something goes wrong here people still like to blame it on communism. People around here have an extremely low opinion of politicians, even lower than in the west. Everybody assumes there is widespread corruption, there probably is, but few people can give you concrete examples of this corruption. There are also huge regional differences, especially west versus east. The typical joke is that eastern Slovaks have jobs in the western part of Slovakia because back in the east all the work has already been done. This is not true of course, the western part is much better developped especially when it comes to infrastructure. There is also a huge difference between the atmosphere in Bratislava and almost any other place in this country. Slovaks tend not to like their capital and seem to consider it a necessary evil to spend time there if they want to have a decent paying job. Slovaks have a very different idea of what a well paid job is and easily think they are being paid well, whereas as a foreigner from the west you can easily see that prices in Bratislava are steep as compared to salaries. Just services are a lot cheaper. Slovaks are formal, neurotic in fact, and find all kinds of unwritten rules super important. Like vykanie and tykanie, taking off your shoes before you enter someone’s dwelling, etc. In public life and at work they are rarely spontaneous, but if you get to see the same people at an informal event they can be radically different and very spontaneous. Again, this odd dichotomy is blamed on communism since at work you could always be surrounded by informers, being spontaneous could get you into trouble. Worth mentioning: Slovaks feel looked down upon by Czechs and feel some envy towards Czechs but at the same time they also admire them. They have no problems with their neighbours, just occasionally you meet someone who does not like Hungarians all that much. Slovaks are rather racist and I have heard some outrageous remarks about so called colored people, but I have heard far more racist things said in the west… All in all Slovaks are very peaceful, almost passive, one cannot imagine a movement like the current yellow vests protests here in Slovakia. Slovaks don’t unite, labor unions are very weak which is one reason why salaries are so low, but this never go on strike mentality probably also attracts foreign companies as Slovaks will do everything to be employed. Slovakia has some beautiful nature, but I don’t care about nature at all, so I assume this is the truth. Slovak men are usually not flirtatious and the foreign women I have met in Slovakia were very negative about Slovak men, apparently communication, lack of tenderness, too small a range of interests and passions and a very stereotypical idea of what a woman should be like are often a problem. Far more positive are the reactions of foreign men when dealing with Slovak women. Slovak women are charming, elegant, often highly educated, cheerful, very feminine, graceful, have a great sense of humor, are grateful and appreciative and very considerate. The nature of Slovak women makes it very hard not to fall in love with this country.
PS
Of course I can’t restrict myself to ten sentences
My nerdy world 
Educational for me. What’s the diff between this & the protected version? Why can’t I have the password?
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1. I absolutely love this castle. Was there several times and reminds me fairytale of my childhood.
2. Did you actually see carpets of houses where people dont take off their shoes and just go in?
3. Hmm we are rasistic a lot I would say. Way more then in west, because there high edicated people dont go racism while here yes and dont feel even bad or shamed for saying such stuff.
4. Slovak men – passive but protective
5. Slovak women – beautiful, caring but neurotic.
Slovaks are very proud. They are extremly proud on anything, did you notice it? You dont even know most of time on what exactly you so proud about but you just go with wave.
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I grew up in Belgium and I can tell you that people say incredibly racist things, but only when they are with people they trust, and certainly not in public. No sane Belgian would share his racist remarks with a foreigner. Some things just stay hidden
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Hm I wasnt really talking now about belgians, they prefer also pervert jokes honestly, at least what I ve noticed. But for example germans. They are way more conservative as slovaks, especially german ppl living in south of germany. One rasistic joke and they freak out trust me.
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true
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It is all quite interesting about race and racism. The strange part about racism is that to be, think or feel racist is NOT a crime. It is an ideology in my book. The ONLY problem with racism, trust ME is not the jokes. Jokes are just words that are meant to be funny, offensive, oppressive etc. When any among us step outside of our heads and materialize your feelings of disdain and become physically violent towards another person then it becomes a crime motivated by racism. And in this era everyone will fight back.
My experience is that if WHITE skinned humans say they are racist it’s as if WHITE people laid the foundation of and are the kings of it(racism) so, therefore be afraid of me, very afraid and stay away from me. NOT so. I know many races that are racist against a variety of skin tones for that matter. But none of them want to be called out as a racist. Yes, they may be proud of it and so what.
But what is the real issue with a person who seems to feel, believe that another race is superior or inferior to others? The point of it is what? What does it give the individual? Is there a special club or a sense of belonging to be racist?
I have lived many places in the world, I have been racist toward and have been racist against even if it was/is just in MY self-inflated mind to think that my look or stare of disapproval to someone really means a damn thing.
I try to stay very open-minded about many social issues, even ones that don’t affect me directly. I’ll admit that I have a hard time believing that these people still exist in a true sense. It is hard to grasp that people who self-deem their race as some echelon of a desired society by behaving and treating people less than they would won’t be treated in their whatever-color-ness and would want some measure of respect.
I find it valueless to think that anyone wakes up in the morning motivated to say, ” Good morning, another fine day to be racist and hate N*g*ers, H**ki**, Spi***,” all of the words and names we’ve all made for each other and there aren’t any races that doesn’t have their own mental dictionary of the best, worst and offensive terms for each other. What does that bring a racist? What drive does that give you? Are people so dejected within themselves that to put out the energy to others they don’t want to receive for themselves? Is society so insecure and low that these actions, actually give them a boost?
We can be very stubborn and stupid as people. I think if white people are the desired society or whatever, why would they need to even be racist? There are many races who are very proud of who they are without the approval or disapproval of anyone else.
Here’s a kicker about racism today; A friend of mine; a friend, not an acquaintance, shared with me this; ” I think more white people are becoming more militantly racist because of Karmic fear of history.” ” That is why Muslims are a threat, they could wipe out white people without any fear or regret because of past ‘sins of our forefathers’.
Oh BTW Happy New Year.
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Am watching ‘where hands touch’. I have never understood racism as anything else than compensating for one’s massive insecurities by pretending to be superior just because you were born a certain color. I hear racist comments every week here in Slovakia. Genre: ‘Am not racist, but black guys are promiscuous, you risk getting sick if you have sex with them.’ or ‘Black people smell bad, am not racist, it’s just a fact.’ ‘Am not racist, but black people are always late.’ CPT. Colored people time. Or the idea that muslims are breeding children on purpose to take over Europe. In my home country Belgium you can now board a train or a random bus and very often most of the passengers will be black. This scares white people incredibly much. There’s very little contact between black people and white people in Belgium, blacks have their own churches. On the whole though, there is much more hatred towards muslims than towards blacks. There’s the idea that blacks cause not that much trouble apart from being lazy, chaotic and sex obsessed, whereas muslims are seen as a real threat. As of 1998 one of my best friends is black, he’s as Belgian as they come, even more specificially his culture is the culture of the small Belgian town of Aalst and his skin color has nothing to do with it. I myself am also more prejudiced towards Turks, Arabs, etc. Even though I had a wonderful time in Palestine and Morocco and only met very nice people. We’re funny beings.
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and Happy New Year!
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