Interview with REF grantee Filip Sivák: The world is not a story of good and evil

This year Filip Sivák represented the Czech Republic in the Social Enterprise Summer School in the USA as part of a scholarship program funded by the American and Czech governments. This winter he will resume his Bachelor’s studies at the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the Czech Technical University in Prague.  

"Explaining some matters concerning Romani people through a simple lens that says the Roma are just evil is not possible…. Rational people are not attracted by salespeople offering something fake, or by a charlatan who treats disease with a chicken foot, they will not believe the tabloids and they won’t take Franta down at the pub as gospel either," Sivák says.  

Q:  You attended the Social Enterprise Summer School in America this summer. What was it like?

A:  I was chosen along with 19 other participants from various EU countries. These are countries where the Fulbright Commission is active, most in Western Europe. The summer school lasted five weeks. We spent four of them in the small town of Bloomington at a university in Indiana, and we ended our stay in the US with a week in Washington DC. The typical school day from Monday to Thursday featured three 90-minute lectures by university professors or invited guests and an hour-long consultation with a university student mentor. Every Friday we visited various nonprofit organizations or social enterprises. On Saturday there were volunteer activities in those organizations and Sunday was our free time. We visited a broad range of organizations, from a fair trade shop with gift items to the First Book organization in Washington, which provides books to children from poor families. We also met its founder. Part of the summer school was working on an individual project and a team project. The individual project was a social enterprise of our own choosing, focusing on implementation in our home country, while the team project was for the Stonebelt organization. The aim of that project was to contribute ideas to the organization for finding alternative financing sources. Stonebelt takes care of people with disabilities and is dependent on government subsidies. It’s not a little shelter for a couple of clients – they have 2 400 clients, 600 employees, and a budget of around USD 16 million. It was very inspiring to work with the leadership of such a large organization.

Q:  What surprised you, if anything?

A:  When you are in a foreign country there is a surprise coming from around every corner. It was my first airplane flight, with several transfers. At the airport in Chicago I had to spend the night in the lounge because all flights were cancelled due to storms. An unpleasant surprise was that even though it was a beautiful 30 degrees Celsius outside despite the rain, the airport was air-conditioned to a temperature that would only have been pleasant for penguins. That malady was not restricted to the airports – air-conditioning in the USA is something incomprehensible to Europeans. In our country we look forward to going home to get warm, but in the States you look forward to going outside to get warm, because the buildings are air-conditioned to an unpleasantly low temperature. I had to wear a sweater or a sweatshirt to the lectures so I wouldn’t freeze in the classroom.    

Q:  What did you get out of the experience?

A:  I found out that it is not so easy to define what a social enterprise is. It raised my self-assurance about being more entrepreneurial. The visits to the organizations and the work on the projects was what I most appreciated. The experience with flying might serve me in the future.

Q:  Can you compare social enterprises in the Czech Republic with the American ones?

A:  Social enterprises in the USA are much fiercer about turning profits because they receive much less money from the state than we do here. Social enterprises are not as widespread in the Czech Republic. Here there are cafés that employ people who are otherwise difficult to employ, or there are protected workshops for such people. However, what we lack are innovative "start-ups" – innovative, new businesses and projects. The USA also has different problems than we do. There are many more homeless people living on the street there, many of whom are veterans from the Korean War, or the Vietnamese War, and they have their specific problems. Shelters exist for homeless people with disabilities, which can be either physical or psychological. They don’t try to help someone for a year and then send him back to the streets, they offer him accommodation for life, because often these are chronically homeless people whom it is impossible to employ.    

Q:  Do you recall a specific social enterprise that captured your imagination, that does well?

A:  A very good example is the Goodwill organization. This is partly a second-hand shop that people donate clothing to and Goodwill then sells the clothes at a low price. The profit is invested back into the operation of the business and also into other charity activity. They employ people whom it is otherwise difficult to employ – people with disabilities or former prisoners, for example. Around 50 of their stores also have a big e-shop. They manage to run this all without the aid of volunteers, which means they pay all of their employees fairly.  

Q:  What do you personally believe is most important to social enterprise?

A:  Unlike an ordinary business, which aims at turning the highest possible profit and often is not in harmony with the environment or with human needs, a social enterprise looks for a way to do business that isn’t governed by the highest profit, but that also thinks about its employees or about people in need and is also environmentally-friendly. That, in my opinion, is important – the aim of a social enterprise is not big profits for a handful of stockholders, but benefit for everyone – including those in need.  

Q:  You said you have a taste for business – what are the entrepreneurial plans of a future graduate of the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the Czech Technical University?

A:  My aim is to be a programmer in a big professional firm, to save enough money to set up my own, and to go into business for myself. I would like to make web applications to earn funds to develop computer games.  

Q:  How did you end up in this area of study?

A:  There was more than one factor motivating me to study a technical field. As a little boy I loved watching Stargate and in the third grade I got a computer. In grade school I liked physics and science and technology attracted me. At high school I had bad grades in the beginning and I didn’t hope to get to college. Ultimately, however, I managed to fight my way through to one of the best.

Q:  Did your family support your decision to go study?

A:  My parents told me from the time I was small that I would be an engineer, and did their best to lead me in that direction. My parents are doing their best to financially support my studies as much as they can and they are always at work. Every student should appreciate the enormous investment their parents make into them and do their best, with all their strength, not to let them down.

Q:  Why did you choose computer science?

A:  I had a computer at home and I spent many long winter nights in front of it. Who knows? Maybe if I’d had a chemical laboratory at home instead of a computer I would be a chemist. Programming is rather well-paid, also.

Q:  What do you like most about it?

A:  I like most the fact that the Internet is full of answers. Programmers know how to make good use of the Internet, we like to share experiences with one another and we pass our knowledge on to others.

Q:  Are you specializing in a concrete area?

A:  I know the most about creating web applications.

Q:  What is the most demanding aspect of your studies?

A:  Math. Unlike computer science, there are not enough online resources for it. There aren’t enough books. I don’t mean that our library is poorly stocked, what I mean is that the books just don’t exist. One spends a lot of time on an example one doesn’t know the solution to.

Q:  You are also working during your studies. How do you have time for it all?

A:  I don’t, but I must work, even if my grades and results suffer. The program at our faculty is full-time and it’s not easy. I am dedicating myself to creating web applications. Last time I worked in a team that developed applications for a bank.

Q:  You also receive a scholarship from the Roma Education Fund program, which supports Romani college students.

A:  Yes, I have been a regular applicant to that program for several years and I am extremely satisfied with them. Sometimes someone contacts me about whether I know something about them – it’s fine that people know about it. Recently I even saw a flier for the program up at the faculty.

Q:  What does the scholarship help you with?

A:  It frees me up so I can focus on school more. It’s a big help to me, often I am existentially dependent on it during the school year.

Q:  The current sentiment in society reflects stereotypical ideas and intolerance toward minorities, especially the Romani minority. As a Romani man, how does that affect you? 

A:  I am not happy about this and I regret what is going on. I would like to live in a country where people are less arrogant and more tolerant. I would like our country to be like that.

Q:  Where do you see the crux of the matter? What’s the main problem?

A:  I think most people have no experience with the fact that these matters are basically much more complicated than they seem. Many of them have a simple explanation for them. Sometimes it’s as direct a correlation as the idea that the god of lightning is responsible for lightning. People should think more about the fact that things are much more complicated than they seem, they should not accept the easiest explanation that they hear from Franta down at the pub – and that they then arrogantly pass on, as their own. Explaining some matters concerning Romani people through a simple lens that says the Roma are just evil is not possible. The world is not a fairytale about people who are good and people who are evil.    

Q:  What do you think should be done with this? What way forward might lead us to greater interpersonal tolerance?

A:  Include critical thinking, rational thinking, in the primary school curriculum. Teach people how to doubt everything. Teach them not to believe their impressions, but to want arguments, evidence, facts. Rational people are not attracted by salespeople offering something fake, or by a charlatan who treats disease with a chicken foot, they will not believe the tabloids and they won’t take Franta down at the pub as gospel either. I think people would be greatly surprised at how many problems can be resolved through such an approach.

Q:  Have you yourself ever encountered discrimination or a negative approach because you are Romani?

A:  I encountered that from the parents of my childhood love when they forbade her to go out with me. I have not encountered direct harassment. Even so, however, I cannot avoid thinking that maybe the driver of a car didn’t stop for me in the crosswalk because I’m Romani. I do usually have concerns every time I meet someone new, even though I don’t experience discrimination and everyone treats me nicely. I have a fear of discrimination thanks to the overall mood in society.  

Q:  There are two streams of thought:  One says Romani people who have managed to accomplish something should help other Romani people, and the other stream of thought says that a Romani person who has made it has no obligation to support others just because they are Romani. How do you view this question?

A:  I think everyone should help everyone else. With respect to successful Romani people, moreover, I perceive the specific fact that they know how hard it is to succeed as a Romani person as the reason why they probably have an even greater chance of helping other Roma.

Q:  What do you personally consider your greatest success to date?

A:  Every time I move on to the next year of university. That is always my biggest success in life.