I have asked a young, bright Czech – living in the Czech Republic – to give me some insight on the ‘migrant crisis’ – from his individual point of view.
He agreed – but said it will take more than one post….because the whole ‘thing’ is so complex and complicated.
Here is Part 1 of his response, laying out the background to the story itself. Frankly, I think it is vitally important!
Please, do read for yourselves:
Many of you know about migration crisis in Europe. It is the most discussed topic in whole Europe right now.
There are many oppinions, TV debates, blogs, newspaper articles…
But, from my point of view, we have to look further back to the past than few months.
First, let me introduce myself. I am fresh graduate of Czech Technical University – Faculty of Electrical Engineering and I live in a city near Prague.
My first thoughts will lead us to the media.
Most newspapers, and their related internet versions, are owned by few Czech billionaires.
There are lots of TV stations, but only one of them is owned by Czech state. It is called “Czech Television” (CT). A few years back I would have said “It is the only independent media in Czech republic”.
But, times are changing and now I say “I do not believe any news containing important topics in CT”.
Our media are full of “political correctness” and “multiculturalism”.
But this situation is all around the world. It has spread like a cancer!
All media are following those lines.
Do you have different opinion? “Oh, sorry. We think you have a problem. You are not enough politically correct/multicultural (we call it that you are not “truth and love” enough – the motto of first Czech president, Vaclav Havel, was “Truth and love will defeat hate and lies”).”
I am sick of those practices, but what can I do against them?
Absolutely nothing!
If you say something that goes against the line set by official media, you will get tagged with the sign “extremist” or “pro-Russian fundamentalist”.
One example for all is our president Milos Zeman.
He is the first president elected by the people, not the parliament.
After his election, opinions were voiced that a president should not be elected by people (clearly, somebody thinks, that the Czech citizen is stupid and not capable to choose one’s own president – democracy in its purest way) and put this duty back to Parliament.
Milos Zeman has a different opinion on almost everything that the representatives of European Union say (e. g. Angela Merkel). When he presents his oppinions to public, he is always called “pro-russian”, “xenophobe” etc.
The worst part is when media say that he acts against the “interests of our nation”, but his actions are absolutely logical!
I cannot say that our president is 100 % allright and everything he does is good, but our media are throwing dirt at him way too much. He is just not that “multicultural and politically correct”. He has his own oppinion and that is his “worst crime”.
My summary is that if media can blame democratically elected president for being a “traitor”, there is something wrong.
How could you believe your media’s ‘news-reports’ about the global situation, if they are trying to throw dirt at the President, just because he has different opinion then the rest of the EU?
Especially if it is the only “independent” TV in your country. I will tell you, there might be something wrong.
“Aren´t we talking about freedom of speech here?”
Hell yeah!
Freedom of speech started to disappear in our country around the year 2003.
First, there was a great attenuation of provocative humour.
You cannot see those innuendos from 90´ s now!
And if you do something like that, you would be definitely sent to prison for “racism” or “xenophobia”.
Maybe prison is way too comfortable. You get qa warm meal three, times a day, you do not have to work and you can watch TV all day.
Better way is to push you down. You will lose your job and no one will hire you.
Then you know what comes next…
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