Archive of articles - February 2001

An idiot's guideto getting a green card

So - you've visited Slovakia and you're so impressed with the country that you want to settle here. Or maybe you've just graduated from university in England, and you're not ready to step into a career - a year teaching English in Slovakia looks like just the way to put off the inevitable. Or are you a foreign business person who has been transferred to Slovakia to set up a new office?Whoever we are and for whatever reason we come to live in Slovakia, getting a residence and work permit - a 'green card' - is one of the most tedious hurdles ex-patriates have to cross.The reason it's so tedious is that the law changes constantly, and is difficult to obey. Originally passed in the summer of 1995, the Law on the Stay of Foreign Nationals - the 'foreigners law' - requires you now to submit your application to work and reside in Slovakia to the Slovak embassy in your country of origin.

Anonymous donor posts cash for kids

A surprised Brigita Schmögnerová received an unusual package through the post last week: 50,000 Deutsche marks and 15,000 Swiss francs, accompanied by a letter asking the Finance Minister to donate the money to Slovak child health care facilities."This was a wonderful gesture which is very much appreciated," the smiling Finance Minister said February 19 in parliament.Schmögnerová said that the gift - banknotes worth a total of 1.5 million Slovak crowns ($32,000) in three different envelopes - had been sent to her office with a letter reading, "Mrs. Minister, please give this money if possible to children's health care centres".

Business Briefs

Fitch may raise ratings for Slovakia in next yearSettlement of SPP 'bills' may cost 2-3 billion crownsSlovak Telecom against exclusion from FWA tender

Contaminated land: Slovakia and what EU law says

Last month we offered a brief introduction to the issues surrounding contaminated land in Slovakia and Europe more widely. This month we focus on the question: how have governments responded to the problem and what legislation exists?Perhaps because it is a largely local issue with few trans-boundary implications, there is as yet no EU legislation dealing directly with the issue of contaminated land, although proposals for an environmental liability regime are in the pipeline. At present, therefore, contaminated land is an issue addressed mostly at a national level within the EU.Interestingly, very few European countries have specific legislation dealing with contaminated land - it is usually covered under more general environmental law, or in legislation on waste or groundwater - and Slovakia is no exception.

Culture Shock: Of beggars and breasts: what a shame

"What a shame," I said. I had just heard the life story of a pregnant crack addict. She had accosted me outside a bar in New York City, and after accepting an offer to feel her baby kick, I felt obliged to listen. Things were bad. She was alone and pregnant again. She was bored with life.I told her she shouldn't smoke while pregnant, and gave hertwo dollars.The next day I got on a plane, left America for the first time and came to Slovakia. The roads were narrow and the cars were tiny, and I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. But what struck me was how similar things seemed in the important matters - Nazareth's Love Hurts was the first song I heard on the radio.

Six years on: The Internet and old-guard Slovakia

Loathe as we are to add a new diversion to people's lives, we simply must spill the beans about www.orsr.sk , Slovakia's new Internet site featuring a searchable business registry. March 1 marks the sixth anniversary of the founding of The Slovak Spectator, and few other changes we have seen over this period say so much about where the country is heading, or what has gone before.The site, which is entirely in Slovak, can be searched by the name of the person whose business activities you want to inspect, by firm or by each company's ID number. Records are kept by region, meaning you have to know (or search) which of Slovakia's eight regions contains the information you are looking for. You can see either currently valid information, or records stretching back to 1993. In other words, who owned what, or sat on which company boards, and when.

Firms stung by employee pilfering

Only a few months after the American steel company US Steel took over the largest industrial monolith in Slovakia, VSŽ Košice, its management may have come face to face with an example of what sociologists and human resources experts have said is a problematic remnant of communism - employee theft.At the beginning of February, the US firm discovered that a 145,000 crown ($3,100) electrical engine, weighing 7.2 tonnes, had been stolen. US Steel Košice management, led by company president John Goodish, offered a 500,000 crown reward for information leading to the detention of the thief, saying that in offering the huge reward they hoped to persuade employees with any information to come forward and help the compny, not protect their friends.Košice regional police said that their experience with similar cases had invariably proved employee involvement in the crime, adding that "in this case as well it is more than likely that employees of the firm played a part in this theft".

Martin disco shooting leaves one dead

An armed attacker in central Slovakia's Martin opened fire in a local disco on February 17, leaving three injured and one dead.At approximately 4:00 in the morning, three large, middle-aged men approached the entrance of the Alpia discotheque. When the front-door bouncer refused them entrance, a fight between the bouncer and one of the three men broke out.One of the men not involved in the fisticuffs then pulled out a gun of an unknown calibre and make, entered the club and began shooting at random. Eye-witness accounts said that the patrons of the crowded club immediately began scurrying about in panic.

US opera star to sing in SND

World-renowned American opera singer Jessye Norman is coming to Bratislava on April 15, Easter Sunday, for a one night - invitation only - performance.US Ambassador to Slovakia Carl Spielvogel made the announcement at a press conference February 21, saying that the 55-year old soprano would perform at the Slovak National Theatre (SND) and be accompanied by the Slovak National Theatre Orchestra."It will be the most significant concert in Slovakia since [Spanish opera tenor] Jose Carreras came in 1991," said Peter Feranec, chosen as guest conductor for the performance. Feranec, who conducted the Bolshoy Ballet in Moscow from 1995-1999, added that "Jessye Norman is one of the greatest opera talents of the last century."

President's eco-plan seen as meddling

Economic experts have given a cautious welcome to President Rudolf Schuster's February 14 request to former central bank governor and current Deloitte & Touche Slovakia President Vladimír Masár and head of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce Peter Mihók to draw up an economic "vision for development" of the economy for the next 15 years.While the necessity for such a plan was questioned by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Ivan Mikloš, macroeconomic experts said any large-scale economic policy initiative was good if kept on an independent basis. They did warn, however, that such ideas ran the risk of overlapping with the government's, and especially Mikloš's, current economic policy concepts.

News Briefs

Csáky plans national programme against alcoholismEU Commissioner worried about Roma conditionsKukan signs Minority Languages Charter

State close to sale of Globtel stake to AIG insurance firm

The government extended exclusivity in negotiations on the sale of a 36% state stake in the mobile phone operator Globtel February 16 to a consortium of international investors, led by insurance firm AIG, as the two sides came close to a concluding a sale."The negotiations have been extended until the end of February. We remain hopeful [that a deal can be reached with AIG] and there is certainly interest from their side," Peter Benčúrik, spokesman for the Economy Ministry, told The Slovak Spectator February 19.Valued at $700 million for a planned IPO last year, Globtel has outstripped its sole rival in the Slovak mobile market, Deutsche Telekom-controlled EuroTel, recording profits of 1.07 billion crowns last year ($22.6 million) on revenues of 7.49 billion crowns, and taking a 56% share of the market with 650,000 active clients. EuroTel had 493,032 active clients in 2000.

Communist Jača says dissidents happier in jail

The Slovak Spectator (TSS): How do you explain your recent increase in support, when you get so little coverage in the media?Ladislav Jača (LJ): For a long time there has been an information embargo on our party. Slovak media are simply silent about us, even though the KSS has existed since 1992. Since then we have been trying in vain to get coverage on public radio and television.TSS: Why should media give coverage to you as one of many non-parliamentary parties when even parliamentary parties have a tough time getting coverage?...

How workplace theft became a national tradition

Under communism, experts say, petty pilfering from firms was commonplace. Workers had little concept that they were committing a crime, and the massive state subsidies for companies meant they had no idea that their company was suffering as a result.Although during the previous regime people were punished if caught stealing or 'taking things away', the phenomenon was generally accepted, sociologists say, and permeated all levels of business, management included."People didn't worry about the economic situation of their companies because they were subsidised by the state when they fell into trouble," said Iveta Radičová, a sociologist at Comenius University.

This Week

Review: Like the dark and light sides of the moon

Blue Moon café's manager was standing on the other side of the cafe's front door as I pushed on a handle that didn't budge."Outside," he snapped at me through a thin plate of glass covered in heart-shaped stickers."You're not open?" I shouted. It was 9:00 and the sign on the door read open: 7:00 to 24:00.He rushed toward the door, slammed it open, almost hitting me in the face, and pointed to a small sticker marked 'pull'. "Don't you know how to read?" he said. By shouting "outside" he had been telling me the direction in which the door opened.I mumbled an apology and followed him into Blue Moon, one of the Bratislava Old Town's newest restaurant/cafés.

Letters to the editor

Visa rules hindering tourismLamenting moral erosion misses true pointForgiven at last for stockings column

Juraj Majchrák: Judges separating the gold from the dross

A man who loathes being photographed ("This is unfair," he said to The Slovak Spectator's photographer - "We didn't agree on pictures being taken"), Juraj Majchrák stands in the middle of Slovak media attention as the Deputy Chief Justice of the Slovak Supreme Court and the newly elected head of the Association of Slovak Judges (ZSS).But while he may be camera-shy, he is candid in his responses to media questioning over the integrity of the Slovak judicial system."I'm tired of explaining that not all judges are corrupt," says Majchrák, "but I'm willing to say it again and again." And he may have to, considering the tainted reputation of Slovak judges. Complaints against the Slovak judiciary read like a bad novel: controversial decisions, such as in July 1999 when the Bratislava regional court freed former secret service boss Ivan Lexa from jail as he awaited prosecution for charges ranging from theft of government arms to plotting to have the president's son kidnapped (Lexa has since fled the country); lengthy, drawn-out trials; and accusations of bribery.

Top Pick: Opera Premiere of Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans

The opera Maid of Orleans will mark the first opera by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky without a Russian theme ever to be performed at the Slovak National Theatre. While the dramatic story of Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France, has received popularity around the world, inspiring several movie versions including the 1999 major motion film starring Mila Jovovic, this will mark the epic drama's first performance in Slovakia's national opera house.The opera tells the well-known story of Joan of Arc, who was born in the 15th century. As a young girl, Joan hears the voices of saints urging her to go to the French King's generals with a military plan when war breaks out between France and England. Surprisingly, under her leadership the demoralised French troops regroup, battling to a heroic victory. But eventually, Joan is captured by the English and sentenced to death at the stake, charged with witchcraft and heresy.