Archive of articles - October 2000, page 3

The Last Word: "Terrible arrogance from Czechs"

Slovak film industry attempts to rebound from dismal 90's

"This country never was, this country never will be," begins the narrator of the new Slovak film Krajinka, accompanied by sweeping shots of a Slovak landscape - mountains, forests and rivers.In many ways, the statement expresses the current reality of Slovak film making, a tradition so stifled during the 1990's that it sometimes appeared as if it had never existed. But if Krajinka turns out to be as popular as its backers believe it will, it could spark a revival in one of the country's richest forms of cultural expression.

Review: Optimistic Sister Hope short on wit and humour

Illegal renting leaves tenants vulnerable to landlord whims

Any foreigner that has ever rented a flat in Bratislava knows that it's a seller's market. With a shortage of places, and information on availability most often spread through word of mouth, a stranger in Bratislava is often at the mercy of the first offer he or she can find."The market in Bratislava is absolute chaos," agreed Laurie Farmer, head of Spiller Farmer real estate firm, who says his real estate company gave up finding apartments for clients. "Everything here works on chance, on who you know."

This Week

Public administration reform: Time, gentlemen

It's sometimes easy, when listening to the Babel of opinions volunteered by coalition MPs on the best way to reform regional governments, to forget how many thorny problems the government has had to tackle since taking office in 1998."It's the economy, stupid" is a mantra that would not have been out of place on Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda's desk these past 24 months. The twin deficits, foreign investment, interest rates, unemployment, foreign debt, real wages and inflation - not to mention the pressing need to restructure banks and industry and press ahead with energy sector privatisation - have all clamoured for attention, and in most cases the government has done a commendable job of halting the country's slide into an economic quagmire.Now that the economy is back on track, it's the turn of political, legal and social reform to occupy the minds of the country's leaders. Unfortunately, the government isn't showing the same courage and unity it displayed in the first half of its term.

-NAZOV- Slovak Olympians: The higher the hopes, the harder the fall

When the XXVII Olympics Games in Sydney rolled to their festive end on Sunday evening, October 1 - marked by a grandiose fireworks display over the Sydney Harbour and Olympic Commitee President Juan Antonio Samaranch's speech calling the event "the best Olympics Games ever" - competitors from all around the world reflected on their personal results.Along with reflection came the comparisons. How did this Olypmics' results stack up to those of former years, and to expectations coming into the events?For Slovakia's 112 member-team, which finished 38th on the medals table out of the 80 competing national teams, the Olympics were both the most successful Olympics ever, and a source of disappointment. While the team notched five medals, compared to three at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (independent Slovakia's first summer Olympics), key members of the national team performed more poorly than had been hoped.

Land acquisition: Simple task made difficult for investors

For French investment advisor Michel Lacombe, the end is finally in sight. Six months after he began looking for a 200,000 square metre Slovak factory location for French auto parts manufacturer Plastic Omnium, he now has only one more hurdle to clear - the owner of a small plot of land who is holding out for 12 times the price Omnium is willing to pay."All the owners, including the town of Lozorno, agreed on a price - 150 crowns per square metre - but one owner is refusing to play the game, and wants to sell for 1,700 crowns," said Lacombe October 3. "But it's not a real problem - Plastic Omnium has the status of a 'strategic investor', and because of that it's possible to ask for expropriation. I expect that in three or four weeks the state should expropriate this property [and sell it to Omnium]."

Top Pick: Death metal Blizzard Festival thunders into town

The Bratislava suburb of Dúbravka will on October 14 celebrate the aggressive musical stylings of 'death metal' and 'black metal' groups from Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The bands will rock the Dúbravka Culture House at the Blizzard Festival, the fourth such metal festival in Bratislava this year.The Blizzard Festival formerly provided a platform only for Czech and Slovak amateur metal groups, but organisers this year decided to go international. The black metal band Ancient (from Norway, the cradle of black metal, which celebrates the 'structure and beauty of death'), will be the featured group at the festival.

ST punished for monopoly abuse

Telecoms monopoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (Slovak Telecom - ST) has been punished by the Anti-Monopoly Office (PMÚ) for the second time in the last 18 months for "abusing their dominant position on the market".The ruling came after the Association of Private Internet Providers (API) filed a complaint with the office against ST for installing a "frequency filter" limiting data transfers for Internet access on the fixed line used by the Slovak Agriculture University in Nitra.PMÚ director Imrich Cvíp told The Slovak Spectator that his office had ruled in favour of the API and had levied a 10 million Slovak crown ($200,000) fine against ST for abusing their monopoly status.

Headhunting: Pay not only factor in job change

My previous two articles dealt with the question of why international firms pay higher salaries than domestic companies. The reasons were many but did not give an answer to the other question of how to prevent people from leaving your company.Let's first look at the reasons why people leave their present job for another employer. You might think that a higher salary is the main motivation but surprisingly this is not the case. It is obvious that a person changing from one job to another is unlikely to accept a lower salary and will probably negotiate (and get) a higher salary. But it is not the initial reasonfor change.

Boys next door buy Dubliner Irish pub

"They've moved the flap on the bar, I mean they've already done that. And that table, they've moved that too."John, a 27 year-old Briton, looks mildly exasperated at the changes that have been made to one of Bratislava's cultural ex-pat institutions, The Dubliner Irish Pub. The pub, which on most nights has little more than standing room only, passed from the hands of its founders - three Irish brothers named Billy, Robby and Peter Norton - to the owners of a recently-opened bar right next door on Sedlárska Street, El Diablo, in late September.Already the spectre of change is hanging over regulars at the pub, which since its opening late in 1996 has found the majority of its clientele change from predominantly ex-pat to a more than healthy share of Slovaks. However, one of the new owners of the pub, Boris Mravec, told The Slovak Spectator October 3 that patrons would have little to fear from the purchase.

Energy regulator the key to future sell-offs

Six months after its original deadline, Slovak cabinet approved the draft project for transformation and partial privatisation of the Slovak energy sector at its regular session on September 27. However, both government officials as well as analysts have said that approval will mean nothing without the smooth creation and working of an independent regulatory body to oversee the utilities market, something that investors consider the 'alpha and omega' of the upcoming energy sector privatisation process.The privatisation project proposes selling 49% stakes in all power and heat distribution companies over the next 12 to 18 months, followed by a gradual full liberalisation of the market after that.

Ministry urges that rent caps be raised to boost building

Despite partial liberalisation of housing market prices at the beginning of this year, the Construction Ministry is pushing for further de-regulation to boost housing construction and put an end to subsidised rents that economists say are stifling the supply of houses.Experts have pinpointed the nation's housing supply as an acute problem, affecting both rent and sale properties. The shortage is keeping workforce mobility at a low ebb, preventing people from moving away from employment blackspots into more thriving cities, such as Bratislava. But if people are forced to pay higher rent on state-owned properties, the government theorises, the state in turn will have more cash to spend on building new houses.However, despite pledging to help hike the volume of state-financed housing to alleviate the supply problem, the Construction Ministry has said that Finance Ministry intransigence on the issue is delaying its plans.

Russians find Slovaks bear no grudges

Eleven years after the fall of communism, the relationship between Slovaks and Russians remains in limbo. While the Slovak government pushes for acceptance into western bodies like the European Union, NATO, and the OECD - often at the expense of retaining close ties with Russia - the country itself seems split over how the future relationship should develop."I have nothing against Russians," said 26-year old Patrik Roľko from central Slovakia's Brezno. "I don't have any trauma from the past. Maybe the older generation remembers bad things, but I had no negative experience with the Russians."

News Briefs

Schuster undergoes final operation in AustriaRezeš returns to Slovakia to face criminal chargesUS Air Force CD's recovered by Bratislava policeIvor denies that key mafia witness changed testimonyKukan condemns Milosevic and election fraudSlovak marriages and births down, divorces up

Advisors find new role in bankruptcy

Bankruptcy legislation passed in June not only brings Slovak company bankruptcy proceedings closer to that of more developed economies, but may also have greatly widened a business niche for financial consulting firms - restructuring troubled firms with viable assets.Lauded as one of the most important economic laws passed in Slovakia since its independence in 1993, the changes to the bankruptcy laws, including wholesale revisions to the Commercial Code, Civic Code, Tax and Customs Laws, have, firms say, allowed companies to be made far more viable targets for buyers even after bankruptcy has been filed for.

MP charged with spreading hate

A Bratislava district prosecutor laid charges of inciting racial hatred against far-right MP Víťazoslav Moric this past week as the ruling coalition continued in its efforts to improve Slovakia's image on minority issues.Moric, who in August suggested that some of the country's Roma (gypsy) population be put on reservations and called them "idiots" and "retards", was stripped of the immunity from prosecution he enjoys as an MP by his parliamentary colleagues on September 21, clearing the way for the investigator to file a case on October 2. If convicted, Moric faces either a fine or a jail term of up to one year.While Moric himself has appeared unconcerned by the uproar, inviting parliament to strip his immunity and saying it mattered to him "less than whether tram number three is going to or from the station", human rights activists have said the latest developments confirm that the government is getting somewhat tougher on bigotry and racism.

Crown Concerns: Referendum spreads crown anxiety

In the first week of September, the peaceful holiday atmosphere of the Slovak foreign currency market was disturbed by President Rudolf Schuster's announcement of a referendum on early parliamentary elections. On September 8, the day the referendum was set for November 11, 2000, investors and domestic banks responded neutrally and the expected sell-out of the crown failed to materialise.The exchange rate of the crown against its reference currency - the euro - stalled at 42.750 crowns to the euro and despite analysts' predictions of a negative effect of the referendum on the crown's exchange rate, the following day it actually slightly improved its position to 42.600 crowns to the euro. Contrastingly, the cross reference crown to the dollar far from stabilised. After the euro reached a historical minimum against the dollar in early September the cross dollar to crown rate fell from 47.300 to 49.300 crowns to the American currency.