Poor and rich are concepts Heidegger used in his 1929-1930 lectures, published posthumously as Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik. Welt-Endlichkeit-Einsamkeit”. (The Basic Concepts of Metaphysics. World – Finitude – Solitude). He used them in relation to a world that – because of its metaphysical essence – is one of his key concepts, in addition to the ones mentioned above (world, finitude and solitude). However, this is not the point I intend to discuss here even though it is very interesting. What really interests me now is what Heidegger said later. He said that the world of the animal is poor although […]

For the past few months a neighbour has been leaving the tabloid Nový Čas by my front door. I guess this is his way of paying me back for the eight years I used to put through his letter box the next day’’s issue of Slovakia’’s largest-circulation serious daily SME of which I was editor at the time. Today I learned from the tabloid that our left-wing Prime Minister Robert Fico, who had won the hearts of the poorest voters, wears a 20,000 Euro watch and that his coalition partner, the nationalist populist Ján Slota has several luxury cars in […]

What does Slovakia mean to Slovaks? It means a country, a land, a homeland, a nation, a society they identify with – some intensely, others less so – based on ties, particularly some newer ones that bind them to their formative period or, as the case may be, the period that preceded their birth and is thus part of the world they can perceive as their current awareness and that is not beyond their powers of navigation. It means a period of 75 years or a century at most, a historical arc aligned with their identity which has been, to put it simply, shaped by the memory […]

Možno je to stareckým pesimizmom alebo jasnozrivosťou, ktorú si človek vypestuje časom, isté je, že keď si odo mňa časopis L’Espresso objednal článok na obranu slobody tlače v Taliansku, zareagoval som zdráhavo a skepticky. Ak sloboda tlače potrebuje advokáta, tak to o spoločnosti a jej tlači nehovorí nič dobré. V zdravej demokracii netreba slobodu tlače brániť, lebo nikomu ani vo sne nenapadne ju obmedzovať. To je prvý z mnohých dôvodov mojej skepsy. V Taliansku nie je problémom len premiér Silvio Berlusconi. Už od rímskeho politika Catilina musel tento národ zniesť celý rad charizmatických hochštaplerov, ktorí mali oveľa viac na srdci […]

Nie nevoliči sú nebezpečenstvom pre demokraciu, ale predvolebný boj. Už niekoľko rokov rastie percento nevoličov. Politici o tom často a so znepokojením hovoria. Že či je to až tak veľa: aby voliči hlasovali o tom, čo majú na výber. Demokracia si žiada účasť ľudí. Alebo, ako nedávno povedal Peer Steinbrück: “Staraj sa o mňa, inak Ťa opustím. Tvoja demokracia.” Je pochopiteľné, že politikom na vysokej volebnej účasti záleží, pretože tá morálne legitimizuje výsledok. Tieto výzvy, čo majú útočiť na svedomie nevoličov, rečených hrobárov demokracie, platia len obmedzene. Pretože to, že nízka volebná účasť signalizuje otrávenosť z politiky, je už tiež […]

The Central European Forum An international conference (open to the public) Bratislava, 17-18 November 2009. In the autumn of 1989 Eastern and Central Europe became a real part of Europe again. Let’’s Open Up to the World –  this was one of the key slogans of Czechoslovakia’’s Velvet Revolution and we believe that the best way of not allowing the anniversary decline into cheap nostalgia and turn into a sentimental walk down memory lane is to embrace the international context, especially the one the countries of this region have shared since 1989. The civic association Project Forum has invited a few […]