Peter Kasalovský: Utmost wishes for 2022

Bratislava January 4, 2022

Founding member and representative of the IEC Economic Club association  since 1993 and of its International Peace Committee since 2015

I sent out a message to my friends in early December about my recollections of  our member and Slovakia’s outstanding personality Cardinal Korec who believed that God can listen to an unbeliever as well. So I sent a wish or rather a prayer to God and all people of good will at home and abroad to protect Slovakia. It was because I – and many others – feel there is too much foolishness, ignorance, egoism, arrogance, aggression, disrespect, rudeness, greed, possessiveness and lack of esteem of people and humanity in general. The relation to our nation, the message of past generations, order and discipline, honesty and integrity, the endeavour to beat the rest of the world in one’s field of expertise – this all has been topped by consumerism, uncultured politics and  irresponsibility.

It is unbearable to observe year by year that we deserve our governments. It becomes obvious despite tens of thousands of outstanding individuals and hundreds of thousands of hardworking people. Recalling the history and the mass migration form Africa and Asia to Europe in 2015 as well as numerous focal points of tension involving world powers and their allies, the defensive capacity of our country, our cities and families seems at least uncertain. This is being pondered more and more often, although by stealth for the time being, among people aged 50+.

The knowledge that other countries experience similar situations makes no difference because it is more than unpleasant and significant nowadays. We gradually realise that our nation’s memory vanishes under the new regime since more than two million contemporary witnesses passed away in the past tree decades. And that is what suits many political leaders not only in Slovakia but also in the EU member states and NATO member states, and on the UNO level too. What a surprise – but only until you learn that history can be manipulated  and evident facts and events can be concealed. “Memory” is acceptable only if accepted by the elected and their media.

Many times have we heard, here and abroad, the opinion that people should think and act as “ordered” by politicians in power and media they accept and support. As a matter of fact, that has applied more or less to all regimes at least in the past three centuries.

If I mentioned Cardinal Korec in the introduction it is because he was the one who facilitated the communication of our opinions on international relations developments directly to Pope John Paul II. We were in disagreement with Pope’s view that the world was getting better and we asked the questions whether there were less wars, violence, maliciousness and victims – military and civilian, less criminality and terror, less starvation, poverty, suffering, less diseases and less illiteracy. Back in the late 20th century he listened to our appeal inviting him to make use of his authority in order to establish dialogue among the world powers leaders, to support the continuation of disarmament, to   promote the investment of saved fundings into reduction of social tension, economic recovery and assurance of acceptable living conditions.

We have sincerely welcomed the recent response from Pope Francis to our initiative last spring to convene a worldwide security conference, but also to our views. It could be embarrassing that, since 2014, neither of the presidents of Slovakia, nor the presidents of parliament, nor the prime ministers, nor the ambassadors of the USA – our strongest ally and friend, have responded to similar and repeated suggestions. As if dialogue on peace was exclusively a subject matter for the great powers, or just the one that always presents itself as willing to decide anywhere in the world on what is democratic and what is right.

We are increasingly hearing “powerful declarations” against Russia from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and from the new German Foreign Minister Annalena Baebock, instead of invitations to a fair dialogue bearing in mind the history and lessons to be learned from it. Nothing from history will be forgotten, not even the genocide of the Slavic nations and the victims in the fight against German fascism during World War II. However, it is crystal clear to people with common sense, and time will not change that, that a confrontation of the great powers could only end in an apocalypse and destruction of our civilisation. And I doubt it could only be a local or regional war between the great powers or against one of them.

The association and I personally received hundreds of Christmas and New Year’s wishes by email and regular mail. They all mentioned happiness, well-being, peace and a happy life. However, only presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir V. Putin added in their wishes for the near future what is the most important – peace talks of the great powers. Although the issue of supporting the development of war-torn countries is undesirable for now. We did not notice anything else in the available media. Those who support or directly provoke either civil or military conflict – ultimately leading to a global confrontation, and who reject a peaceful solution must be blocked by the authority of the great powers and in cooperation with the powers as soon as possible because the fear of the “virus” and social fear are spreading with equal intensity across the world, and fear for lives on top of that would turn into a knell announcing the death of our civilisation. This possibility is one of the reasons why we should wish for peace and, in other words, for a return to better times which have been here for a while, when the world, regional and national leaders affirmed honesty, wisdom and responsibility through their policies.

May presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir V. Putin be the models of real peacemakers!