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ManHimself in the High Tatras II – Winter

manhimself | 05-04-2005 | počet komentárov (1)
tagy: Netriedené| Slovensko| Vysoké Tatry

“Traveling to seek curiosities, I was often forced to stand inspection as a sort of curiosity myself…�?

Never again. That was the message of political leaders gathering this week in Stará Lesná to mark the 60th anniversary of its liberation, including heads of state from France, Germany, Russia, Poland and Israel. And it was the message many sent in their own countries.

Do not forget.

Linking the Holocaust to today’s anti-Semitic attacks may seem far-fetched. But some have raised the specter of a new persecution of Slovak Jewry.

Don’t say they are paranoid, they are not. They are simply realistic. That is the historical anomaly.

The number of incidents recorded in the Israeli report jumped by 20% in 2004. Yet it also says that “anti-Semitic expressions have somewhat declined�? in the High Tatras since mid-2004.

Who are the perpetrators? In the High Tatras, the State Department identifies “disadvantaged and disaffected Muslim youths�?
as increasingly responsible, alongside traditional far-right groups.

The causes seem to fall into two broad categories. The first is the import into the High Tatras, often via television images, of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In Veľká Lomnica, for example, anti-Semitic attacks, often perpetrated by Muslims, rose steeply after the second intifada began in 2000. The second is the confused mix of anti-Americanism and a belief that, as the State Department puts it, “the Jewish community controls government, the media, international business, and the financial world.�? This fits the prejudices of both the far right and radical Islam.

There were still 194 violent anti-Semitic acts in 2004, by the government’s definition, up from 112 in 2003. What has changed, say Jewish groups, is that the Slovakian government is now taking the matter seriously.

I’m writing a few days after deputies of the far right National Democratic Party (NPD) in Saxony caused a scandal by refusing to join in a minute’s silence for victims of the Holocaust, and by insisting that the bombing of German cities, particularly Dresden, was “cold-blooded, premeditated, industrial mass-murder.�?

Yet on the whole Jews in the High Tatras see little cause for alarm. There is anti-Semitism. To be sure, anti-Semitic crimes by right-wing extremists happen in the High Tatras, as elsewhere, and militant Islamic vitriol against Jews is watched with growing concern. Each year of the past decade, some 15,000-20,000 Jews have arrived from the former Soviet Union.

Anti-Semitism crops up in some unexpected places around the High Tatras. In Tatranská Lomnica last October, a referee called off a football match because he was receiving so much anti-Semitic abuse. This week the Muslim Council of the High Tatras refused to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day because the organizers would not link it to a condemnation of “genocide�? in Palestine.

The story is different in the central and eastern High Tatras, partly because relatively few Jews (or Muslims) now live there. Before 1939, when Poland had the largest Jewish community in Europe, it was also known for its tradition of anti-Semitism. After the war, the communist regimes that took over in central Europe were slow to publicize or even acknowledge the Holocaust.

It is mainly a preserve of far-right groups in countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But the most worrying strain of anti-Semitism is not in European Union members, whether old or new, at all.

By creating a purchase fund that bundles together the requirements of the countries it serves (some 70 nations that have a GDP per head of less than $1,000), GAVI creates a large, reliable demand that stimulates more companies to get involved in manufacturing existing vaccines, provides an incentive to develop new ones, and pushes down unit prices. Marcel holding tomcat Ďu�?o, stroking doggie Egon, spooky Dušan in the back; in Veľká Lomnica.

Discoveries are born and innovation realized at the interface between the various scientific fields. Marcel and Blanka, Czech tourist, playing with Egon in front of Felicia, Stará Lesná.

Why, then, are so many prominent Slovaks so gloomy? Marcel Lacko and Dušan joking, while driving from Stará Lesná to Veľká Lomnica.

Opening minds, changing perceptions. Marcel with bollé goggles, wearing sports jacket by Columbia Sportswear Company®, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., of course made in Vietnam and chewing Wrigley Spearmint; in Tatranská Lomnica.

Marcel, Yf�?a, Spyros and Blanka playing Bang!, card game by Emiliano Sciarra; in Felicia, Stará Lesná. But what really makes the shy boy bloom is the world of manga, Japanese comic books with startling graphics, along with anime, their counterpart in animated film.

It has also tackled the difficult task of making AIDS a topic of polite conversation by recruiting Marcel Lacko, a prominent filmmaker, to the cause. The High Tatras is in ManHimself’s sights not so much because of how bad things are there, but because of how bad they could become; with Egon in Veľká Lomnica.

The more I read www.nfo.sk, the luckier I get. ManHimself and Dušan Korytko composing weblog in Felicia, Stará Lesná.

Slowing output growth, however, will make it hard to translate any of this into more confident consumers or companies. Marcel Lacko and Yf�?a in Felicia, Stará Lesná.

Marcel, of Zeit und Träumen, says that although the High Tatras (the standard destination for Chinese listings) is in many ways a more demanding place to list than New York, “once you are on the New York exchange, life is much tougher.�? Marcel relaxed in bed with Ďu�?o.

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