Archive of articles - October 1999, page 3

Interior Ministers to fight computer crimes

Industrial output down 5.4% year-on-year in August

NBS slaps caretaker administration on Priemyselná Banka

Schmögnerová says US Steel's second bid for VSŽ better

Project Infovek brings schools into Internet age

A project designed to provide Internet access to every primary and secondary school in Slovakia by the year 2009 has gotten off to a promising start, organisers say. Blessed with "a lot of heart and not a lot of money," Project Infovek has managed to connect 80 schools to the Internet this year alone.Tibor Papp, co-founder of Project Infovek, said that these 80 schools will officially go on-line in November. If the project can continue to secure adequate funds, Papp added, the original 10-year timespan set for achieving Infovek's aims could be cut in half.Papp called the project's launch "a great success," adding that Slovakia had taken a giant step towards arming its younger citizens - the workforce of the 21st century - with computer-age skills. Without such workforce skills, Papp explained, Slovakia could not hope to attract high-tech foreign investors or to make its own domestic industry more competetive on world markets.

Community Grapevine

Go Kart crazy

Around Slovakia

Zeman spurns offer of Slovak beerTerry Fox Run remembers 'Marathon of Hope'Army is most trusted Slovak institution

Černák quits as Minister and MP

Economy Minister Ľudovít Černák gave up both his ministerial post and his mandate as a member of parliament on October 18, bowing to public pressure to resign after a series of economic scandals that had sullied his reputation.Černák left his post vowing to sue journalists who, he felt, had turned him into a scapegoat for every cabinet mis-step. "I became just a punching bag, good for slapping in the face any time, and that was the straw which broke the camel's back" Černák said in an interview with The Slovak Spectator shortly after a press conference on October 19.

EU-Slovakia committee supports reactor timetable

Visegrad PM's debate Ukraine visas

A weekend meeting between the leaders of the 'Visegrad Four' countries - Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia - left the participants split over whether to impose visa restrictions on the Ukraine. The Czechs and Slovaks have vowed to restrict the free movement of Ukraine nationals across their borders by the end of this year, while the Poles and Hungarians said that their economic and social ties with the Ukraine were too close to permit such a move.The October 15-16 meeting in Slovakia's High Tatras was attended by Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda and Czech Prime Minister Miloš Zeman. While this pair found common ground on the Ukraine visa issue, they were opposed by Poland's Jerzy Buzek and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who urged caution.

Culture Shock: In Bratislava, you are what you read

You can judge a Slovak by his cover. Newspaper cover, that is. If his cover says Hospodarské noviny, then he likes numbers; if it screams Nový čas, then he enjoys pictures; if it reads Roľnické noviny, think farm animals. And if two people holding copies of Slovenská Republika and Új Szó happen to meet, they are probably not going to get along.The cliché 'you are what you read' has been given a refreshing new application in Slovakia with its dozens of periodicals jostling for newsstand space and reader identities. Coming as he does from a country where nearly all cities are now dominated by one bland mainstream daily, this newspaperman calls the Slovak media scene a free speech paradise.

Budget 2000 debate monitored by banks

Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová vowed last week that the state budget for the year 2000 would be approved by the government by the beginning of November. Economic professionals say she has a tough job on her hands, caught between international pressure to cut the fiscal deficit and demands from her cabinet colleagues to increase spending on cash-strapped ministries.According to the budget draft presented to the cabinet by Schmögnerová on October 13, next year's budget deficit should be 18 billion Slovak crowns ($450 million), less than 2% of forecast GDP. The deficit in public finances, meanwhile, should come in at 3.7% of GDP. The Finance Ministry also expects inflation to be reined in to 10%, while unemployment is set between 16 and 17%.

Nextra makes net cheaper

Internet connection rates in Slovakia are among the lowest in Europe. Even compared to other former communist bloc countries like the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, the percentage of Slovaks using the Internet is minute - a survey done in September, 1998 by the Focus polling agency found that less than 10% of Slovaks use the net even occasionally (see also chart, page BF I).Information technology (IT) insiders say the Internet has not caught on in Slovakia because Slovaks are still widely ignorant of what the Internet is, while those who do know generally can't afford the connection fees or the hardware needed to use the service.

FNM leaders Kaník and Sklenár fired by parliament

PosAm sells news system to Bosnian press agency

Schmögnerová admits 1999 budget targets shaky

Poll shows Mečiar is most and least popular politician

September Slovak car sales second lowest this year

John Sanchez Bendezu: Of Mice and Men

In standing up to defend a Korean fellow-student from three skinheads, and taking a punch that fractured his skull in the process, 26 year-old Peruvian student John Sanchez Bendezu set an example for Slovaks and ex-pats living in Slovakia to follow.Skinheads are despicable. With their cowardly pack mentality and their repulsive fascist slogans, skinheads have turned life in many European cities into hell for their dark-skinned residents. They are tolerated by the police only because security forces across the continent are controlled by white-skinned administrators, who themselves are kept in office by indifferent electorates.