Silver

May 28, 2012

Allan Stevo

As I have long pointed out, Slovaks tend to be fond of their hockey. On Sunday May 20, 2012, Russia faced Slovakia in the world finals of hockey. Russia beat Slovakia 6-2. While Russians offered their world championship hockey team a bit of a weak welcome home, Slovaks offered their silver medal winning team a grand celebration.

In 2002, Slovakia won the gold and many Slovaks proudly mentioned that fact for seven or eight years. In 2012, they have won the silver. I think visitors to this land will be hearing about that victory for at least a few years to come – unless, of course, next year’s team outdoes this year’s team.

Below are a few photos of memorable moments from this year and some photos of Slovaks watching and celebrating hockey. I think these photos are likely enough to demonstrate the deep appreciation for hockey felt by many in this country.

Early in the Tournament – Slovakia Had Some Success

USA v Slovakia 7 May 2012. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

Czech Republic v. Slovakia – May 19, 2012

19 May 2012 view of a crowd watching the Slovakia v. Czech Republic hockey match televised for viewers gathering in this square in Prague, Czech Republic| Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 - Cadca, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 - Bratislava, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 - Kosice, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 - Prievidza, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 - Zilina - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 - Zvolen - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

19 May 2012 Presov - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Czech Republic. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

Russia v. Slovakia – May 20, 2112

May 20 2012 - Bratislava, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Russia in the gold medal game of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

May 20 2012 - Kosice, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Russia in the gold medal game of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

May 20 2012 - Zilina, Slovakia - viewers gather to watch Slovakia play the Russia in the gold medal game of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

Winning the Silver in Ice Hockey at the 2012 IIHF World Championship

Slovak National Team Captain Zdeno Chara accepting the sliver. | Photo: Slovakia Little Big Country Facebook Page

Slovak National Team Captain Zdeno Chara accepting the sliver. | Photo: Facebook Group RIP Pavol Demitra

After the championship game against the Russians, several Slovak players put on backwards Pavol Demitra jerseys in memory of their late teammate who died September 7, 2011 in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Air Disaster along the rest of his KHL (Russian Hockey League) team. The KHL stands for Continental Hockey League. It is an expanding league that includes teams across the former Soviet Union and during the 2011-2012 season also had one team outside of the former USSR - in Poprad, Slovakia. | Photo: R.I.P. Pavol Demitra Facebook Group

The entire Slovak team after the Slovakia v. Russia match. | Photo: Hockejportal.sk

Celebration – Slovaks Welcome Their Team Home

Champagne on ice at the rally.

Slovak players in a modified bus on the way to the rally. | Photo: Forbes Slovensko FaceBook Page

Slovak hockey players on the way to a rally in a converted bus. | Photo: Ondrej Klokoc

Slovak hockey players arriving at the rally. | Photo: Ondrej Klokoc

At the rally, a photo of the crowd facing up SNP Square in Bratislava, Slovakia. | Photo: Jaroslav Michalco

At the rally, a photo of the crowd facing down SNP Square in Bratislava, Slovakia. | Photo: Jaroslav Michalco

Players on stage at the rally. | Photo: SITA

Champagne shower on stage. | Photo: Ondrej Klokoc

Champagne shower on stage. | Photo: Ondrej Klokoc

Spraying the crowd with champagne. | Photo: Ondrej Klokoc

Converted bus with players hanging out. | Photo: Slovensko zije hokejom Facebook Page

Converted bus with players hanging out. | Photo: Slovensko zije hokejom Facebook Page

Getting off the bus and going home. | Photo: Dusko Scibrany

Might you have any memorable photos or videos to share from the past few weeks?  Please mention them in the comments section and link to them.

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com.  He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing.  You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com.  If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email.  You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

It was not one year ago when one of the most well-recognized magazines in Slovakia declared the death of Slovak hockey. The good players were all born during communism claimed the allegedly conservative publication. Good hockey was a product of those times.  Perhaps bad hockey was inevitably therefore a product of the times after communism. Were Slovaks being left with only two options – either return to communism or forever be doomed to bad hockey? Without the logic of central planning, the wealth of the nation could simply not be used to muster the resources required to succeed in a post-communist era.

Did communism really lead to better hockey players? Could there be some other answers that explain this scenario? Is it possible that communism might not be the only answer to the question of how the Slovak national hockey teams that came of age  a decade after the fall of the iron curtain got so good? Surely I know that no logically minded Slovak would say to himself  ”There is only one way to achieve a good hockey team and that is through communism.”

Something would be lacking in that explanation. Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia somehow do not prosper in hockey despite similar central European traditions and communist governments on their lands. Germany, with an East German communist hockey program combined with post reunification West German wealth-spreading would logically bring the best hockey teams imaginable. The idea that Canada or the U.S. would have strong hockey teams despite being less statist than former Czechoslovakia, might cause one to question that theory linking communism and good hockey.  To assume there is only one way to get from point A to point B lacks creativity. If one were to add to that and say “The only way to get from point A to point B is through a specific form of government that was popular for a small fraction of human existence” would be even less creative as it would ignore all the other successful methods humans have used to organized themselves toward shared goals.

As with many of the things that I write, I seek to understand the cultural trend and look for ways that these aspects benefit Slovak society. I am uncertain how this Slovak fatalism does benefit Slovak society. I have noticed that several members of the Slovak national hockey team are on my email address list.  If a member of the Slovak national hockey team were to come across this, I would be especially interested for his insight on this matter.  Does a Slovak athlete feel more comfortable after privately and maybe even publicly declaring himself a loser than after declaring himself a winner? does that declaration make success more likely? As you see, there are many more questions in this piece than there are answers. As you watch Slovakia face Russia in the contest that will determine the world’s best hockey team later today, I hope you will be kind enough to think over some of these questions and to help me answer them in this space.

SME

April 13, 2012

Allan Stevo

Good news from Slovakia.  The most widely circulated Slovak daily newspaper – SME - contacted me looking to pick up the March 30 piece from 52 Weeks in Slovakia “Is Slovakia Stuck in the 1950s?”  From what I understand, the piece caught their attention for being 1. written in English 2. long, and 3. heavily circulated among Slovaks on the internet.  An abridged and translated version of the article should run in this Saturday’s edition of SME and will appear online as well.

Update: The article can be found here in Slovak on the sme.sk site under the title “Uviazlo Slovensko v 50. rokoch?”  It will be behind the Piano paywall for the first 24 hours.

Update II: Here’s a photo of the article from J. Michalco.

Update III: SME is not the top circulating Slovak newspaper.  I forgot about the tabloids!  Two of them are higher circulating than SME according to this website, which says that based on audited results, two tabloids have higher circulation than SME.   Thank you to Matus B. and Miro for pointing this out to me.

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com.  He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing.  You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com.  If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email.  You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

“What has become clear in the new research is that the soaring oratory that once filled the floors of the House and Senate with million-dollar diction and sophisticated syntax is making way for a more modest approach,” the LA Times story reads. The story photo features Congressman Paul and his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, highlighting that the latter Paul especially speaks on an eighth grade level.

Paul regularly draws 5,000 people in audiences rain or shine to hear him speak in any state. TheLos Angeles Times misses that story. They miss the story of his Republican supporters stepping up into leadership roles across the Republican Party to help rebuild a directionless Republican Party. Paul is running for the highest office of the land and by simply acknowledging Paul’s presence in the race they can broaden the debate that takes place; they can broaden the discourse. Instead, they choose to use infantile logic and language in covering the candidates. What is that logic: “Ron Paul different, so Ron Paul scary.”

But they do not overlook Paul when there is a chance to say that he delivers speeches that are at an eighth-grade level. They go so far as to imply he is “sophomoric” and lead the story with a photo of Paul speaking to his son Senator Rand Paul. The message is a hard one to miss: Ron Paul is stupid. Is this how hard it has become to attack Paul’s ideas that the Federal Reserve Bank must be audited, our foreign policy strategy must be rebuilt on more solid foundation, and a congressman’s oath the Constitution should be taken more seriously? Is the only way to attack him to descend to the grade school tactic of calling a superior adversary “stupid?”

Mascaro, in an article written at a freshman year of high school grade level,does not mention, list, or link to any metric of how she evaluated these grade levels. Following the same methods, one could just say Mascaro writes at the second grade level – much worse than the literal sophomoric moniker she applies to members of congress.

Curiously, the thrust of Mascaro’s argument is that it is appropriate to denigrate plain-spoken politicians while praising those who use the most contorted of language. This is praise that I have honestly never heard from any single human being before, perhaps helping to demonstrate how out of touch Mascaro is.

After denigrating Paul, she even goes so far as to cite a quote that Paul uses in virtually every stump speech and claims that it was something that is no longer used by politicians. Here’s Mascaro:

“Consider Everett M. Dirksen, the legendary Republican Senator from Illinois, who defended a civil rights bill in 1964 by paraphrasing 19th century French writer Victor Hugo: ‘Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.’…But that was then.”

This is all quite typical of many in the media: lack of research, superficial view of topics, low level of discourse. In a childish hatchet piece, Mascaro has neglected to acknowledge the substance of Paul’s important statements, statements that are resonating with a generation of young people, are echoing cross-generationally, and are single handedly changing the face of public discourse in America. This piece by Mascaro is typical of an arrogant media that prides itself on being good grammarians, yet who so many Americans look at ruefully for turning their profession into one virtually indecipherable from that of the mindless stenographer.

Will Ron Paul Force Mitt Romney Into a Debate

After Ron Paul spoke in Sparks, Nevada, earlier this month, observers took note of Mitt Romney supporters crumpling up their Romney signs and vowing to vote for Paul. It was the first time many Republican activists had ever heard Paul speak outside of the several minutes of sound bites allotted to him during televised debates.

The Paul campaign’s recent announcement that he has doubled down on its delegate strategy has made it increasingly likely that Ron Paul will appear at an increased number of state conventions this year. Republican state conventions, such as Minnesota’s this past weekend, are increasingly making their way onto Paul’s busy speaking schedule.

As an example, this weekend Paul spoke to an estimated 2,000 Republicans at the Minnesota Republican Convention in St. Cloud. Later in the convention, Republican National Committeeman Jeff Johnson spoke words of unity and praise, perhaps indicative of Paul’s ability to win the hearts and minds of the Republican Party. Recent analysis has even shown that Paul has seen his base double.

In Sparks, Paul spoke opposite Josh Romney, the son of Mitt Romney. Many a political strategist will point out, however, that a surrogate is never as effective as having the candidate himself speak. By not attending state conventions, Romney cedes ground to Paul. He also saves face. It’s unlikely that the moderate Romney will fare well at a convention next to the conservative Paul. Last week in Arizona, reports indicated that Republican activists went so far as to refer to Romney as “Obama-lite.”

With growing discontent for the moderate Romney in the Republican Party and Ron Paul surging, how much terrain can Romney risk losing to Paul? How long will it be before Romney joins Paul at state conventions, prompting impromptu debates?

Perhaps Paul’s “It’s the Delegates, Dummy” strategy of focusing on delegates and speaking at state conventions is deserving of more praise than most pundits realized. Paul may succeed at convincing Republican voters to force a head-to-head comparison alongside Mitt Romney.

On May 6, Nevada Republicans announced that 22 Paul supporters were chosen to fill 25 spaces for the Republican National Convention. Recent analysis shows that of those delegates were two female delegates who identify as Hispanic and one black delegate.

One Paul supporter said about Sunday’s results: “A common critique of small-minded opponents on the left is that Paul is racist. He’s exactly the opposite – he sees everyone as an individual, the guy doesn’t give a damn about what ‘group’ we are a part of. He represents a belief in the importance of the individual – something the Republican Party used to represent.”

While Paul speaks an old message, one of freedom, it still resonates with people of all ages and is clearly attracting a new kind of energy to the stodgy, pro-establishment Republican Party.

One of the recently-elected delegates to the Republican National Convention, Wiselet Rouzard, who identifies as African American, commented, “The 15% minority delegation being sent to Tampa to represent Ron Paul is not a surprise but rather reassuring of what the movement is about.”

While some on the left claim the Tenth Amendment insistence of states’ rights and constitutional calls for individual liberties are a veil for racism, Rouzard has a very different perspective: “It’s a movement and revolution that defends civil liberties and equality for all ‘Individuals’ regardless of your skin color, religion, health, wealth, creed. Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate that truly stands and abides by the Constitution and does what he says.”

Going even further in his displeasure with politicians playing the race card, Rouzard commented on how politicians who cater to specific groups of people tend to do more harm than good. Ultimately, these politicians end up being divisive and undermining the personal liberty of all in our society.

Said Rouzard: ”Ron Paul and the Constitution have always understood that blacks, Hispanics, Native-Americans, Christians, the poor, are not the minority in a growing tyrannical government; the Individual has and always will be the minority. All the other candidates look to cater or promise to other sub groups and dismiss the Individual. [This] has continued to divide America.”

Rouzard compared Paul’s protection of the individual to Dr. King’s: “As Martin Luther King, Jr., said of an America where children ‘will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,’ and Ron Paul’s character is the embodiment of our founding fathers and what this great nation is all about, Freedom and Equality.”

Recent analysis done by Hamdan Azhar, a political analyst and former Columbia University researcher, shows Paul supporters as a youthful and rising demographic across the U.S. and a dominant force in an aging Republican Party.

Sadly, not all members of the Republican Party are as welcoming as Paul and his supporters. On Sunday at the Nevada Republican Convention, an attempt by a Republican delegate to open debate on attracting conservative Hispanic voters to the GOP was loudly booed down by a vocal few members of the old guard before ultimately being voted down. Admittedly, the issue could have been better presented, but an ugly segment of the GOP reared its head in a gesture that offered a reminder of how unwelcoming the GOP insiders seek to be.

The message of liberty inspires regardless of age or race. As unwelcoming as some in the GOP can be, 2012 seems to be demonstrating that the GOP old guard is incapable of preventing newcomers from using the Republican Party to make America a freer place.

“So I want to say something to both the Ron Paul lovers in the room and the Ron Paul haters in the room. And there’s a whole bunch of us, I would argue most of us, somewhere in between those groups.

“To the Ron Paul lovers in the room, the ones who are here because of Ron Paul, you know what the chatter is, you know what the talk is, you know there is a lot of anger. Some of the anger is from people who have been sitting in those chairs for 20 years or 30 years doing hard work and are not here this year because you are here instead. So you have got to understand that anger. And you have to appreciate that anger. And the chatter is, fair or not … they don’t care about the Republican Party, they are going to lose interest in a year, they are going to disappear, they are going to let someone else do the work, and then they aren’t even going to vote for Republicans. And it might not be fair, but a lot of people are saying that. And if that makes you mad, if that perception makes you mad, and I think it should, because it would make me mad, make sure it doesn’t happen, don’t disappear. If we are part of the Republican Party, then we all need to vote for Republicans in November.

“For the Ron Paul haters in the room, and that’s a strong term, but it’s out there. For the folks who just want to purge the party of the Ron Paul people, the folks I hear say, ‘Why can’t it just be like it was six or eight years ago?’ My advice to you is: get over it.

“There is no such thing as standing still. If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. If we don’t grow, we die as a party. When I look at the Ron Paul people and I see their enthusiasm and I see their passion and I see their ridiculous ability to organize and I say, thank God they are here and we should welcome them with our open arms and we should help them succeed.”

The convention adjourned with Paul supporters winning 32 of 40 national committee delegates and securing a Senate nomination.

This is Paul’s “It’s the Delegates, Dummy” strategy and in many states it’s working. While Paul saw delegate victories Saturday in Virginia, Michigan, and Vermont, Paul’s biggest delegate victory of the weekend has to be Minnesota.

At the Minnesota Republican Convention held in St. Cloud Minnesota on May 18-19, Paul’s supporters swept 12 of the 13 available delegate positions. The thirteenth delegate spot went into a runoff. Observers report that one of those in the runoff was Minnesota Congresswoman and former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. The other was a grassroots Paul supporter, Don Huizenga.

The large size of Paul’s delegation present at the St. Cloud convention left was little question who would win the runoff. It would not be Michele Bachmann. With Paul supporters already in control of a dominant 32 of the previously selected 39 national delegates, a commanding 82%, the Paul supporter did something surprisingly gracious.

Don Huizenga conceded the contest. While standing before the delegation he announced his concession to Bachmann “out of respect for the work she’s done.” This allows the congresswoman to travel to Tampa, alongside 32 Ron Paul supporters to vote as a delegate to the Republican National Convention August 27.

State Representative Kurt Bills, who received Ron Paul’s difficult to obtain endorsement, became the GOP nominee for the Senate elections in Novemeber. This victory was another success for Paul and his constitutional platform. Bills is poised to face Minnesota’s Senior Senator Amy Klobuchar in November. Klobuchar is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Referring to the upcoming Minnesota Republican Party convention this weekend,Shortridge stated, “I am pleased to announce that Congressman Ron Paul will be addressing the Republican State Convention in St Cloud on Friday, May 18, sometime in the evening following the conclusion of the U.S. Senate endorsement.”

“Having the Congressman speak will highlight our common Republican purpose of restoring limited government and individual liberty by electing Republican candidates who believe in those core party principles. It will also establish the Republican Party as the growing party that is welcoming new people and new ideas and preparing to be a long-term, conservative governing majority.”

Shortridge’s announcement earlier this month comes on the heels of a dominant performance by Ron Paul supporters in recent congressional district elections – sweeping 5 of 8 congressional districts and winning 20 national delegates for Ron Paul.

Shortridge’s statement of inclusivity draws a stark contrast against the behavior of many other state GOP chairmen across the country. When asked about the running of his state party, a veteran political observer stated about the running of his local party:

“Obfuscation and confusion is how these people run their meetings, and they do it intentionally,” Shortridge said. “They try to force through votes that not a single delegate understands. They are terrified that the grassroots of our party threaten the status quo. We threaten their stranglehold on power.”

In Minnesota this weekend, if Paul gets a strong turnout from his supporters, he may complete his delegate sweep. Minnesota fits into the Paul campaign’s plan for the Republican National Convention: show up with a strong delegate count and present Paul as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. To date, Paul has officially secured 20 of the 40 national delegates from Minnesota, two were won by Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and two more who went to uncommitted delegates. Thirteen more delegates will be up for grabs this weekend in St. Cloud Minnesota at the Minnesota Republican Convention scheduled to be held Friday and Saturday.

If Ron Paul supporters show up in full force, Minnesota may be added to the nationwide shows of strength for Ron Paul that have been seen so far this year in states as varied as Nevada, Iowa, Maine, and Washington. In these states, among others, Ron Paul supporters have meticulously worked through the political process by trial and error, repeated many times, until ultimately showing themselves dominant at the highest levels of their state Republican parties.

An interview with Shortridge might shed light on his thinking about the olive branch approach. “I think it’s important that contrasts are about ideas … I’m not so much a fan of personality contrasts and the political back-and-forth contrasts because, honestly, I don’t care about it, and I don’t think most Minnesotans care about it.”

If Shortridge’s words about getting rid of the political back-and-forth shed light on how he runs a party, the Minnesota Republicans are looking at a meeting this weekend that is likely to be a vigorous discussion of ideas, but with little of the threatening and thuggish drama that other state party leaders have pushed on Ron Paul’s supporters.

The goals of meetings like these are to decide on the delegates of the Republican Party, decide on the platform of the party, and decide on the rules of the party. However, GOP insiders on the ground claim that Romney supporters and Republican insiders in Virginia are seeking to stop that important business of the party from taking place.

“The Central Committee plans to block any moves to change the rules by Paul supporters at the Republican Central Committee meeting. They said they would do anything in order to block Paul supporters. They are not afraid of going to court and think that if they did, they would win,” stated an unnamed Virginia GOP insider after a meeting of party officials.

Understandably, preventing the business of the meeting from taking place causes frustration among meeting goers who travel a distance to the convention at their own expense in order to conduct the business of a party that they want to see be a strong and effective champion of their shared Republican ideals.

This obfuscating behavior has been repeated in state after state as the process has played out. Reformers in the Republican Party have pushed for fairness and transparency and insiders have tried to railroad reformers in an attempt to maintain a hold on power. In some states such as Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Washington, and Louisiana, these results are playing out nicely for the coalition of reformers who are led by supporters of presidential candidate Ron Paul. In other states such as Oklahoma or Arizona, which took place just this past weekend, Ron Paul supporters were chased out of the convention halls prematurely.

Virginia, home to Thomas Jefferson, has a long history of rebellious behavior against insiders. It is also adjacent to the federal nexus of power, nearby Washington, D.C. It will be the scene of a conflict between the supporters of a greater concentration of power and supporters of a greater decentralization of power.

In 2012, the numbers appear to fall on the side of those seeking to decentralize power — as supporters of numerous other presidential candidates form coalitions built around topics of openness and transparency. Because dirty tricks can always be used by party insiders to stop a meeting following the will of the delegates in attendance, it remains unclear whether this weekend will bring change and transparency in the Republican Party of Virginia or a greater consolidation of power. As with most politics, this nomination process can’t be accurately reported as a horse race — August at the RNC will be the indicator of how these ideas of delegates meeting today are starting to play out and years from now we will learn how effective these ideas were at trickling through the Republican Party.