If you have tried for more than twenty years to work in social services in Slovakia not only responsibly and professionally, but with your heart, and you have given them not only your years of life but also your health, then you have the right to ask. Why aren’t wise people sitting where our future is being prepared?
I refuse to believe that there are no wise people in Slovakia. They are here, they have just withdrawn. Where are they hiding? Who drove them into silence? Why don’t we seek them out? Don’t we miss them?
Last week I was looking for something in my work papers. I came across an old newspaper from 18.08.2001 that had been put away. On the weekend section Osudy there are two photographs. One smaller one belongs to me. One about three times bigger belongs to Mikuláš Černák. My article was published as Duchovné slovo under the title Augustové slzy. I don’t know what the editorial wanted to express with this image and those words when it placed us on the same page. But today I realized the strong symbolism. The symbolism of fear of evil and the desire to live in a good world. The murder of two young people for freedom of speech and the fight against evil.
What bad thing can happen to me if I keep asking? If you are not yet tired, I allowed myself to rewrite part of my 2001 text so you can decide for yourself what has changed in those 17 years. “There was a small city, and there were only a few people in it. A mighty king drew near it, besieged it, and built against it a great wall of siegeworks. But in it there was found a poor wise man, and he would have saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.” (Ecclesiastes 9:14–15)
This story is short but full of human tragedy. One city was destroyed because the people did not remember the poor wise man. We ask, what kind of city was it that was occupied and destroyed? Who was the destroyer, and who was the poor wise man whom no one remembered? In what did his wisdom lie, the wisdom that could save the city?
The questions remain open, and we are warned that the same events may repeat themselves under a different name and in another time.
A similar story happened in Jerusalem, in a “small” provincial city of the Roman Empire. Its “mighty” king was Titus, son of the Roman emperor Vespasian. He besieged it, conquered it, and left it in ruins on 10 August 70. But before that, one poor wise man lived there—Jesus. “When he approached and saw the city, he wept over it and said: O that in this day you would recognize what is for your peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes, for the days are coming upon you when your enemies will surround you, encircle you and hem you in from all sides, and bring you down to the ground.” (Gospel according to Luke, 19, 41-44) Yet the people silenced him with death.
To the date 10 August, some calendars give the name Laurentius. The man with this name—a deacon—was arrested at the time of the persecution of Christians in Rome. People say he was known as the keeper of the treasure hidden in the catacombs. Emperor Valerian demanded from him the surrender of the treasure. Laurentius asked for three days so that he could lay at the emperor’s feet all the wealth of the Church. During those days, in Rome, he gathered the people he had cared for as a deacon. And then he brought these poor, sick, blind, lame, old people, as well as the persecuted, before the emperor in a demonstrative way. Presented before him, he pointed to the crowd and declared, “Look, this is the treasure of the Church.” The emperor took offense that he believed him a fool and ordered the poor man to be burned at the stake.
Wisdom is one of the treasures of the Church; with it comes mercy and a ministry of love. Events repeat themselves. And Slovakia? It is a small state. Its cities are small. Would Jesus have wept over our country, our cities? Perhaps he would weep that a good word, a word of wisdom and mercy, is losing its value, and perhaps he would also weep that good service must be paid for “properly.” And we have to obtain the money, because being sick, old, and poor today means gradually disappearing from memory. It would be best if people like that, who worked their whole lives in this country, simply vanished when they are no longer needed.
What is the treasure of our Christian state? What values do our state Christian believers and Christian politicians, as well as Christian politicians of municipalities and local authorities, recognize, according to which Christian values do they live, for whom facilities for seniors are only a voter base, but otherwise in ordinary times only a financial burden?
A month ago, on a work trip in Denmark, I asked my husband to let me stay there. He has for a long time insisted that Slovakia needs no external enemies because in this we are fully self-sufficient. That is, I wanted us to stay and work and live in a country where experts are valued, where experts are supported, and where experts can responsibly make laws, prepare social policy concepts, and evaluate their impact. That is why they are considered the happiest people.
When we returned, I was not surprised. Forgotten social services woke up from winter sleep, but not from a bad dream. The bad dream continues. Not only do we lack professional workers at clients’ beds and experts in state administration, but after elections in self-governments, a hunt begins for directors of social service facilities in the powers of the regions and, in the autumn, also in municipalities. It is a popular sport. Interesting that baiting animals is forbidden, but for people—it is acceptable. Still, I feel compelled to appeal. Before you dismiss them, if you have not done so yet, make sure who these people actually are. Give them time to present the results of their work, which they often had to carry out without support from the Ministry, and also without support from their sponsor. Before you dismiss them, present your own vision and ask them how they can contribute to it through their work. Try together to find first the wisest vision and strategy that will help citizens who depend on our professional help. In Denmark they have a beautiful proverb: “The doctor and the peasant together know more than the doctor alone.” That is a very wise proverb. Among us, however, the word peasant is something like an insult.
What bad thing can happen to me when I ask questions? Will “someone” try to instill fear in me? Will they try to discredit me? Will they send retaliatory inspections? Will they try to destroy my professional or civic reputation? Will they try to destroy my livelihood? My business? Will they start saying something about me that may not be true, but who still cares about boring truth when a lie is so juicy?
I know that fear, as the basic tool of communication of foolish power, works on many people who have children, mortgages, are near retirement, or simply have no one to lean on. It works exactly like that; exactly this can be counted on. The symbolism of fear and the desire for good has convinced me today that silence is not always golden. It is necessary to ask questions. And not only that. Evil is not supported only by doing bad things, but also by not doing and neglecting good things. As president of the Association of Professional Workers in Social Services, I will defend those who are purposefully being dismissed, and I will carefully study the outcomes of million-euro projects as well as concepts.
It is small Slovakia, and paradoxically its own inhabitants have surrounded it, and they are building around it their own fortifications, trenches and machine-like engines of mutual hostility, envy, intimidation, slander, and lies. For the destruction of a good life in Slovakia, we can rely on ourselves alone. And that is possible only by fear—not standing up to evil.
August tears of falling stars are also today’s May tears, which can save us, not destroy us. Tears are said to cleanse the soul. Let us keep faith in good and look together for wise people who have fallen into oblivion, and let them save our country and help build dignified and quality social services. The “experts” who are born overnight and by dawn will not truly help us. The true experts would be able to do that. If anyone remembers them at all, they will be listened to and will not take offense.
Autor: PhDr. Mária Kovaľová, PhD. MHA
The author is a theologian focused on deaconic social work and a master of public health with a focus on managed documentation and risk management. Since 1991, she has worked in caregiver services with a focus on seniors. She is a consultant and quality auditor in social services. Since 2014 she has been president of the Association of Professional Workers in Social Services and a co-founder of OZ Planéta malého prínca. www.aopss.sk