Archive of articles - September 2000, page 2

Top Pick: Krajinka: Film aims to put Slovakia on film map

The Slovak movie industry, which produces one or two new films a year, is hoping to reach out to a broader international audience with the film Krajinka (Landscape) by showing it with English subtitles. Written by two experienced Slovak screenwriters, Dušan Dušek and Martin Šulík (who also directed the film), Krajinka is also meant to put an end to international ignorance of Slovakia, to judge from the PR plug that appears on posters:"This country never [existed] because nobody remembers it, nobody talks about it. So let's try. We'll begin to talk of its forgotten history and perhaps we'll learn something about it. And perhaps this county will appear on somebody's map."

Domestic reality defies foreign image

A shadow keeps falling over the Slovak government's redoubtable accomplishments in foreign policy and economy. It's not one cast by President Rudolf Schuster's monumental self-pity or ignorance of the law, but by a mountain of destructive government acts that increasingly looms over the cabinet's golden image abroad.Take, for example, a roundtable that was held one week ago between Dutch investors, diplomatic and commerce chamber representatives and government officials. In all, about 25 people were present, including Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Mikloš, late on a Thursday afternoon in Bratislava.Mikloš spoke in fairly general terms about conditions for foreign investors in this country, and after fielding several questions, picked up and left for another engagement. His advisor, Katarína Mathernová, lasted about five minutes before packing up as well. Alan Sitar, investment advisor to Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda and a lead player in the new SARIO investment agency, stuck it out bravely, but in the end had to excuse himself too.

Money laundering war reaches impasse

With the fate of a law on money laundering hanging in the balance as The Slovak Spectator went to print September 21, questions were once again being raised over the price the country may be paying for irresolution within the government coalition.Amendments to the country's 1994 law on money laundering had been previously approved by parliament in June but were returned to the house in July by cabinet, which was using powers inherited during President Rudolf Schuster's critical illness. In addition to the refused bill, the government sent an entirely new set of amendments to parliament which, it said, corrected grave deficiencies in the earlier draft.

Taking Account: Accountants becoming key players

A man was walking through the forest one day when he heard a small voice. He listened carefully and the voice called out "Please help me. I'm a frog, kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful princess and make you happy for the rest of your life." The man looked around and sure enough he found the frog. He picked it up, put it into his pocket and walked on. After a while the frog said to him: "Why won't you help me? I can really make you happy if you will just kiss me and break the magic spell." The man replied: "I'm afraid I don't believe in fairy tales." The frog then asked why, in that case, the man had not released it. "I haven't got time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog... well that's really trendy!" was the answer.This man, with his skepticism and sense of fun, could have been an accountant geared up for modern business. Understanding the complex relationships between resources that contribute to a successful company is a highly exciting business, and one in which the modern accounting/finance function plays a major role, because, let's face it, a successful company is a profitable one.

Top Pick: Bratislava Music Festival pays homage to Bach

The most significant orchestra festival in Slovakia is set to turn Bratislava into a mecca of music from September 22 to October 6, for the 36th year in a row. As in previous years, when the musical scores of the festival reflected significant anniversaries in music history, this year will be no exception.In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death in 1750, most of the programme will be devoted to his works. Other works will celebrate various Slovak music composers. The aim of the festival is to present performances of foreign orchestras and soloists alongside the local symphonies here in Slovakia.

Community Calendar

French InstituteDutch EmbassyInternational Women's Club in Bratislava

Around Slovakia

Gypsy teenagers killed in hit and runJozef Štumpel to start season with SlovanPolice arrest bride outside church

Hungarians want demands met now

Slovakia's unstable political scene promises to grow even more tumultuous over the next few months. As uncertainty of the government's future is increased by the upcoming November 11 referendum on early elections (see story, front page), the Hungarian Coalition party (SMK) - which political analysts have called the most stable member of the government until now - renewed threats to walk out on the coalition if their demands were not finally taken seriously by their government partners.The SMK has charged the other government parties (Slovak Democratic Coalition - SDK, Party of the Democratic Left - SDĽ, and the Party of Civic Understanding - SOP) of ignoring Hungarian special interest priorities which had been included on the list of this year's 22 cabinet priorities.

Culture Shock: Roma village: A different world

Many of us believe that to find something truly 'different' in life we have to travel thousands of kilometres to distant lands and peoples. The truth is, however, that this 'otherness' often lies close to hand, part of our everyday world that we have somehow never really noticed.In Slovakia, this forgotten otherness is the Romany community, or rather the 600 Romany settlements scattered across the country, where people have lived for decades almost in isolation from our world.This past July, I decided to spend a month living among the Romanies of the village of Jarovnice in eastern Slovakia. The village is known for its children, who are exceptional painters - and who died in droves during the devastating floods that swept the settlement in the summer of 1998.

This Week

Slovak women still face long road to workplace equality

The problem of finding work in a country where unemployment averages 20% can be a mountain for any jobless person to climb. But for Slovakia's women, experts say, the task is made doubly difficult by a prevailing attitude of discrimination in Slovak society running from the highest levels of politics.Sociologists and activists complain that while women have begun to take small steps along the road to equality and emancipation, the patriarchal model of society propagated under the former communist regime has deep roots, and that discrimination is covered up, preventing collection of accurate statistics to prove the existence of unfair play.

Hardware technology: SAN: new millennium fix (part 2)

In the first part of this column, published on August 14 (Vol. 6 No. 30), I explained the need for SAN - Storage Area Network. Businesses which manage IT systems that are located far apart, it was explained, often run into problems reading and sharing data in a heterogenous IT environment, as platforms may be incompatible with each other and creating data backups may interrupt or interefer with data transmission.

News Briefs

Ján Čarnogurský survives vote of non confidenceCommittee fails to lift Móric's immunityPhysicians' trade union launches hunger strike

IT 'stuffing', the lure of the West threatening sector health

As ideas on the best date for Slovak accession to the European Union are bandied between the German Chancellor and EC leaders, potentially one of the most important sectors of Slovak industry is bracing itself for an exodus of talented young professionals to EU states.IT industries across central Europe, analysts say, are seeing the beginning of an exodus that is unlikely to change as Europe's giant economies, such as Germany's, implement plans to relax visas for workers in the country's e-business sectors. Already, the sector in Slovakia has begun to witness the kind of HR catastrophe that may befall other industries unless the government and businesses can entice the country's most talented workers to stay in the domestic market.

Doctors' clairvoyant sick notes plague Slovak companies

One of the most pressing problems for human resource managers in Slovakia is the práceneschopnosť - the permission note given by doctors to excuse an employee from work due to illness. Although employers can ill-afford these days to pay an unproductive workforce, some workers are still happy to take advantage both of a system which allows employees unlimited sick days, and of doctors who will readily offer signatures of approval."We have really big problems with employees taking advantage of sick leave," said Ľubica Štugelová, human resources and legal director for Levitex textile manufacturer in Levice.

Business Briefs

Doprastav projects 2000 profit of 120 million crownsSony Slovakia expands production at Trnava plantSlovak Telecom revises profit forecast for 2000Poštová Banka 228 million crowns in red in H1Public transport companies livid over diesel prices

The culture of protest: Why aren't Slovaks picketing?

Protest at high gas prices has spread like wildfire across Europe recently. Beginning with the furious French it has been taken up by the bolshy Brits and the belligerent Belgians. It has not, however, made significant inroads with the long-suffering Slovaks, who in real terms pay four times more for a litre of gas than their European confreres.Despite the fact that an average wage in Slovakia will now buy only 314 litres of gas compared to 1,150 in Britain, we've seen no action here stronger than a plea by transport union Česmad that Slovaks boycott gas pumps owned by domestic refinery Slovnaft. True, Česmad has said it "can't rule out" a blockade of some sort, but them's hardly fightin' words, and other major gas consumers like taxi companies have already ruled out any kind of protest.

The Last Word: Tiso knew about Jewish tragedy

Slovak historians have long debated what happened in Slovakia during World War II, when the country was ruled by a Nazi puppet government. The debate has gone to the heart of the modern Slovak identity, since nationalist Slovaks have maintained that the WWII government did what it could to protect citizens against Nazi aggression, while others argue it was guilty of the deaths of thousands of the country's citizens, and thus can never be a source of national pride.Historian Ivan Kamenec was interviewed for the Domino fórum newspaper regarding the Jewish codex, a body of anti-Jewish legislation approved in 1941 by the World War II Slovak government of Jozef Tiso.Domino fórum (DF): What was the content of the 'Jewish codex'?

Review: Werther: A quicker death would have been merciful

Jules Massenet's opera Werther, based on Goethe's book and currently showing at the Slovenské Národné Divadlo, opens at this very spot in the story. The young poet Werther (played by Jozef Kundlák, a smallish man with a near pompadour) sees the nubile Charlotte (Denisa Šlepkovská) feeding her brothers and sisters bread. The familial sight stokes Werther's love for Charlotte, and soon he tells her all. She is receptive, but a shout from Albert, the suitor her dead mother preferred, tears her away.This is only the end of the first act, and nothing much has happened, but opera is a world of fast decisions and irrevocable consequences - Werther's tragic course is set: he won't get the girl and that's going to kill him. But does the audience really care? Not really.