Hey Joe, am sorry, this post will include some of the familiar Slovak shittiness, but already less, okay? Already less. So here goes: Nothing indicates that Amnesty International has its office here. Google maps indicates it, but am standing in front of an unmarked building. It’s sufficiently ugly for me to feel calm. Polish saddens me.

Walking over I didn’t realize I was headed for an area I had been in before. I once ate at a Korean restaurant with two former friends in this neighbourhood and got silly drunk. I’ve been to Dungeon Pub, to play boardgames, also closeby.

I’d like to protect the privacy of the person I spoke to, so I will not share any personal things the person was kind enough to tell me. Let me just say: I talked to someone who has been through some very rough things in life.

I gave him one of my books and a pack of muffins. I was always taught to never arrive empty handed.

Now for the part that may be of interest to those who only follow me because I write about Palestine:

It’s tricky to organize events around Palestine, because unfortunately in Slovakia you risk attracting seriously messed up Neo-Nazis who are still enamored with Slovakia’s fascist history under the rule of a Catholic priest, named Tiso.

So they of course make sure to avoid having any of those at their protests.

The Slovak media is only interested in those. So if those do show up, that’s the only thing the Slovak media cares about. Look at the crazy half a dozen Neo-Nazis at the pro-Palestine protest. Slovak mainstream media are disgusting. The only thing they do relatively well is write about corruption in Slovakia. They’re clueless about anything else and just copy paste American mainstream news outlets on most other issues.

At the same time Slovakia has a horrid experience with communism, with only the most conservative, paranoid, anti-Western elements in society having fond memories of those times. What does that mean for activism around Palestine? All topics considered leftists are highly suspicious here. Only naïve commies support Palestinians. Ridiculous. I wholeheartedly support Palestine and am an ex-communist myself. I used to work for the Belgian communist party (PVDA) as one of their paid propagandists. I was more interested in reading books on entrepreneurship after hours, so I made sure to get fired for making fun of their neo-stalinist policies. I’ve struggled a bit to find a place to belong in this world. That’s how a Belgian can end up in a backwater like Slovakia. Not really a country but a collection of shopping malls, lip filler ads and automobile idolatry with mountains in the background.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with the spokesperson. I have no doubt he lives and breathes activism. I find it doubtful he will stay in Slovakia.

He gave me a book. The Slovak translation of a French book, the Slovak title goes: ‘Moral abdication. How the world did not stop the destruction of Gaza.’ By Didier Fassin.

Which I will read this weekend, because I have an exam to get a B2 certificate in Slovak at the end of the month.

I’ve always dealt with the Slovak mainstream. Everyone I know here is mainstream. Mainstream aspirations. Mainstream passtimes. No activism, but taking courses to captain a small boat in Croatia.

To a mainstream Slovak the reason we are here on earth is to somehow get to experience as many pieces of the life style of the rich.

They run a game where they collect ‘life style points.’

And if you don’t play that game you were dropped on your head as a baby.

So, I got all sorts of promises of being introduced to the small, but active alternative circuit here. If so, I will show up for their events.

And maybe I start dating, not a blonde KIA SUV driving hockey mum, but a red head in combat shoes with a mostly black wardrobe, no driving license, half read books in late stage capitalism, who still smokes, has no private fitness trainer, but has about equally good thighs as the mainstream Slovenky.

With no taste for dope, and too much love for a son to swing at the end of a rope, you can hope.

I now need to pick up some cash by listening to people who think a corporate job exists to organize fancy team breakfasts.

And maybe they understand better than the late David Graeber what bullshit jobs are really about.

I desperately seek aliveness in a world where owning things has replaced the sacred, whereas they excel at easy peasy survival and adaptation to a world that rewards putting on the right make-up and punishes, at least with a cut in your monthly income and your access to the ‘cool glamorous crowd’, the reading of Moralna Abdikacia. Ako svet nezastavil destrukciu Gazy’

We make our bargains and if we are wise we embrace them fully.

Last but not least: I did have fun watching cleverly funny Minion clips on Youtube this morning between 7 am and 7.30 am.

We watched in his ‘bunker’. To you it’s a cheap IKEA table. To us it’s a fortress. See picture.

Talk to you later.