Eights
2018. A year in which a lot has happened so far, but little of what we would really like. Yet it is such a symbolic year that it calls directly for big words and even bigger actions.
In 1918, one hundred years ago, the Czechoslovak Republic was established. It was the beginning of our modern history.
The year 1938 marked the end of the First Republic and, through the Munich Agreement, the realization that as a nation we must rely primarily on ourselves.
February of 1948 ended the brief post-war respite with the Communist coup and began many years of economic, political, cultural and moral decay.
Fifty years after the establishment of the Republic, in August 1968, we were unprecedentedly attacked militarily by the armies of five countries. The annexation or protectorate arrangement that followed the so-called Prague Spring plunged the then Czechoslovakia back into unfreedom.
The year of the delay meant that the overthrow of the communist dictatorship and the establishment of a democratic regime were associated in our calendar with 1989 and not 1988.
In 1998, at the Nagano Winter Olympics, Czech hockey players won gold medals in the tournament of the century. The sport then confirmed the Czechs' ability to unite patriotically.
2018. A year in which nothing state-building has happened yet. For many months we had a government without confidence and now we have it only thanks to the "generosity" of the communists and the poor judgement of the social democrats. The functioning of the state administration and ordinary institutions has not improved, quite the opposite. Deadlines are not being met, promises are not being kept, the atmosphere among the people is not improving, and civil society is not using the basic principles of democracy to promote society-wide interests. Among other things, the time taken to start construction is not being reduced. This is why we do not have enough housing for young people, new sports facilities for children and young people, we are not adding kilometres of motorway and trains continue to chug through the region.
So nothing this year, and I was counting on that year a lot. It's not a good idea to wait for 2028, we still have a few months left in this year. Maybe it will come to fruition.