Cheese and politics
Jun. 5th, 2008 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99As I had fried mozzarella and blueberries for dinner last night, my host/student had a local fried cheese. He gave me a taste. It was slightly less melty than mine, but otherwise just as tasty. In conversation later he said that his cheese is a local specialty, and they are working on making Slovakia the primary manufacturer of it. He said it is very healthy, high in calcium, though lately the manufacturers have been reducing the calcium in favor of fat. Fat is cheaper, just as tasty, and faster to make. He said that the height of this particular cheese-making was when the government paid for everything. They made the cheese not for profit, but simply because they could make it the best they could.
I tried to be diplomatic, but I asked, "You make it sound like being under Communist rule had its benefits."
Oh, yes, my student and his girlfriend said. It did. If you wanted to live a regular life, even without working, you could. The government would provide everything you needed.
If you wanted a bit more... Two cars, a really nice house... That would bring you under scrutiny by the government. But if you kept your wishes to what was considered ordinary, it was not so bad.
That said, my student said that both his grandfather and mother resented that they could not finish or start their college degrees. They refused to join the Communist party, so no university. He called his grandfather "stubborn" and shook his head as if joining the Communist party was no big deal.
My student said that some people did not like the fact that they could not go into Austria (Vienna is 45 minutes away, driving, from Bratislava). Not that Austria is so special, they said. But it was easy to go to Cuba under Communist rule. Hard to go to visit the neighbors, but easy to go far away. Strange.
I tried to be diplomatic, but I asked, "You make it sound like being under Communist rule had its benefits."
Oh, yes, my student and his girlfriend said. It did. If you wanted to live a regular life, even without working, you could. The government would provide everything you needed.
If you wanted a bit more... Two cars, a really nice house... That would bring you under scrutiny by the government. But if you kept your wishes to what was considered ordinary, it was not so bad.
That said, my student said that both his grandfather and mother resented that they could not finish or start their college degrees. They refused to join the Communist party, so no university. He called his grandfather "stubborn" and shook his head as if joining the Communist party was no big deal.
My student said that some people did not like the fact that they could not go into Austria (Vienna is 45 minutes away, driving, from Bratislava). Not that Austria is so special, they said. But it was easy to go to Cuba under Communist rule. Hard to go to visit the neighbors, but easy to go far away. Strange.
