The "babkas", or grandmothers, or, in extreme cases as seen in a previous post, OLM (Old Lady Mafia), are to some extent the backbone of Slovak society. Unfortunately, it could do with some sort of lumbar support, as there are various pains and complaints that surround the aforementioned back area. Maybe even a bit of sciatica for good measure. To put it bluntly, most of them see the 80's during Communism as some sort of Golden Age where they knew where they were, knew where they stood in the bread line, and also knew that it was going to take an impressively long time to get their own car, if they could afford it.
The ones in the village are the worst and the best at the same time. They will give you vegetables for free, while dishing out "advice" (scantily-clad orders) for the husband to find a better job so that he can finally fix that roof, repair that hole, and get rid of that, that and especially that. Their pensions are tiny, as back in the bad old days, everyone got the same and everyone was more or less on the same level regardless of experience or skill. A doctor would only earn a little more than a factory worker. Once they get to a certain age, the beige, brown and off-white clothes come out, and they would rebel against any sort of fashion sense and stick with those colours, thankyou very much. There are some fundamentalist extremists that go the other way, and insist on doing the high-heel, I've-still-got-it look, but those are in a tiny minority, and none of them can pull it off. The other small minority are those who actually do try to keep working everyday, and have some appreciation of other colours in the visible spectrum.
And let's not forget the "everyday advice" (basically more orders). This could range from anything. The babkas are, mostly, some of the most pessimistic bunch there are, while being the most friendly. It's a strange mix, and it really doesn't have to be experienced. You can live without it and die happy, it's fine. During our lil' Joseph's baby dedication, I was bouncing him on my knee so that he didn't squirm too much, get over-stimulated from all the people looking at him, and cry. I was dead in the water. Almost instantly, I was set upon by a couple of ladies who wanted to give us their so-called help. After what happened, we were lectured on what not to do... not what to actually do in the first place, but what not to. Nothing positive really came out of it, as happens when you're given a tongue-lashing for the sake of it. As new parents, we're thankful we're not that type who ignore the child by just shutting yourself away. We show love to him, we play with him, we attend to him. We keep it healthy, because we want him to have a healthy relationship not just with us, but with others as well later on down the line.
There's one massive difference of almost biblical proportions between the babkas and today's generation. We have passports, they didn't. They could only have permits to go around the other countries around Eastern Europe, such as Hungary. It is becoming more and more common for Slovaks to leave the country and find work abroad, and then come back with new, positive ideas. One of my colleagues wishes to open up a community park, as he saw one at work in Dubai. Another knows the importance of being successful while having a balanced life, and not getting sucked into the "new wealth" of the country. There are always nay-sayers and there always will be, but taking a fresh, reasonable approach to things is a great start to this post-Communist time. We've probably gone into post-post-Communist, and it might end up being pre-(insert something here) at this rate.
Working towards establishing a community through actually doing something rather than telling other people what to do should be a growing trend here, or anywhere for that matter, and if today's people can do that, then they can stand tall.
0 comments:
Post a Comment