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Slovak ministerial delegation in...

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting a Slovak ministerial delegation in Malta. On the 26 of October H.E. Jahnatek, Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, opened the Honorary Consulate in Malta. I was happy, actually ecstatic, of meeting my fellow country men holding such important posts. Well the minister himself looked a decent person, at first sight. When he heard me speak in Slovak, he said “look someone speaks Slovak here (and does not form part of my delegation)” I was happy that he noticed me, it showed his human side. Interesting, people occupying a high public post are usually not that humane.

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From the people that I didn’t know but gotto know within those few hours, were an advisor of the Slovak Ambassador inRome and his wife, very nice people. The ambassador, Mr. Vallo I knew frombeforehand, we met after he presented his credentials to the Maltese Presidentupon being appointed the ambassador to Malta,residing however, in Rome.He too is a nice person. The businessmen that were part in the ministerialdelegation were typical Slovak businessmen, there’s not much to comment on thatmatter.

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However thereason for this article is the shock that I got from observing the attitude ofa particular group of people. They looked Slavic; my guess was right when mysister told me that those “younger” people (most of the people there were overthe age of 45, this particular bunch looked like they were in their late 20’searly 30’s) were the employees of the ministry, what posts they hold I have noidea. From their gestures and attitudes I perceived that they were sobbing offeveryone. I stopped for a second at the sight that presented itself. From anangle they looked like a communist poster of Marx, Engel, Lenin and Stalin.Strangely that was the first thing that crossed my mind, even though they wereexamples of two female and two male species. They had a look in their eyes thatsaid “my eyes will pierce through your heart if you as little as annoy us!” infact no – one spoke to these people. It’s a pity, maybe they are different, intheir “home” environment, and I don’t want to invent things about them that arepossibly false. It is just that the way they acted and presented themselvesgave all the other attendees of the reception a red light in talking to them. Ican safely say that if they act like that everyday, the Slovak tax payers’money is “well” spent. If you want employees to make contacts outside their owncircles these employees are not going to manage to go far. This goes for theministry as well. If you cannot send people that are friendlier and more opento entertaining others, especially when abroad, I am sorry but you will paint agrim picture of Slovaks to the foreigners. I think you should sit in for acouple of classes of “way to mingle and entertain guests”.

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Having said allthis, the event was a success. Everyone seemed to have had couple of secondsafter finishing off their 1st plate of Slovak specialities. Iremember eating a lot of “korbaciky” they are typical Slovak cheese produce(they look like noodles, well sort of, made of cheese of course). People whohave tried them know what I am talking about. I spoke to couple of interestingpeople.

This event was agoldmine for contact making. There were people such as CEO’s of banks,businesses, heads of different public agencies and departments. There wasMinister for Justice and Home affairs Tonio Borg, who was very sociable,talking to several people. The person who impressed me most out of all the attendeesis president emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici. He is over seventy years old yet hestill talks about lecturing students. He is very quick in analysing peoples’arguments. He is well versed, he is a lawyer at the end of the day, nodisrespect meant towards this profession as many of my friends are lawyers ;) .Just by looking at him he commands respect, yet he is willing to listen to andaccept a different opinion to his, not many people are able to do that. Nowthis is a person whom I can imagine mingling with anyone and everyone whilstyoung in order to obtain contacts to help his ‘young’ country. It is peoplelike him that Slovakianeeds in order to be invited over more than once by its friends and allies. Thesemeetings cannot be made purely for the formalities sake, but people mustactually look forward to inviting and meeting you. Language is quiet importantin achieving this. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of Englishproficiency of H.E. Mr. Jahnatek, congratulations, I am pleased that we, fromcentral Europe are no longer to be perceived as being nice to look at but nosound comes out of us due to language barriers, like looking at a muted TV set. I don’t know whether H.E. Mr.Jahnatek has been taking English lessons for a long time, but my impression ofhim is that he was capable of making himself understood as well as entertainsomeone for couple of moments.

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Some food forthought:


Wheneverdelegations go abroad, be they government or private, think of what assets it would bring not onlyto yourself but also to the organisation that you represent if you mingled withothers and took home with you not only pleasant memories but also valuablecontacts?

Damian Kovac

Damian Kovac

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Manžel, Otec, Projektový Manažé, člen hnutia NOVA Zoznam autorových rubrík:  Kunsill Studenti UniversitarjiMy ESIB ExprienceOpinionsSúkromnéNezaradené

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