Archive of articles - April 2002, page 11

Allen's well-trodden path

THE CURSE of the Jade Scorpion (2001) is a typical Woody Allen movie - typical in the sense that it lacks any new impulses that might differentiate it from his other recent lukewarm successes.The movie's plot unfolds in New York. We are again in the 1940's, a decade which seems to have given Allen a curious amount of inspiration. The main character, insurance investigator C.W. Briggs (Allen), works for the North Coast company and is known for his unusual investigative methods.

Whirlpool France mulls Poprad move

NEGOTIATIONS continue between French labour unions and Whirlpool about the future of Whirlpool's production of top-loading washing machines in the French city of Amiens.Although talks are expected to be long and confrontational, Whirlpool representatives in Slovakia said that the company's intention to consolidate its production in Slovakia was part of a natural process."We are waiting for the end of negotiations in France and decisions from our management. After that, if the decision will be to move the operations to Poprad, we will be ready in short time," said Errico Biondi, director of Whirlpool's Poprad facility.

Taking it to the streets

PRACTICED hands assemble hypodermic syringes, alcohol swabs and condoms into kits for street workers. In a few minutes, members of Odyseus, a Bratislava-based non governmental organisation (NGO), will be back on the job among the capital's drug users and prostitutes.Barbora Uhereková, one of 11 women on the staff of Odyseus, sets off on this chilly spring Sunday for a housing complex called 'the Pentagon' - a huge derelict concrete housing block with few green spaces in the Bratislava suburb of Dolné Hony.The Pentagon is the first of several places in the capital Uhereková will visit, bringing her mobile 'office' to at-risk people. Most of Bratislava's 3,000 officially registered heroin addicts and 1,000 prostitutes come from suburban housing complexes.

Arab residents protest for peace in Palestine

Arabs and Slovaks launched a joint protest in Bratislava over the continuing conflict in the Middle East.Carrying banners with slogans such as "Israeli generals are war criminals" and "Freedom for Arafat, freedom for Palestinians", as many as 100 Slovaks and members of the Arab community met April 5 on Bratislava's SNP square, demanding Israeli troop withdrawals from Palestine and calling for more awareness among Slovaks of the conflict."We want to show the people of Slovakia what is really going on in the West Bank. We are also doing this because there are a lot of Slovaks who support our cause and believe that we have a right to our own state," said Ibrahim Al Khatib, an Arab resident in Slovakia and one of the organisers of the protest.

Not overdue, stolen

HZDS stalwart leaves party and parliament

Lexa wants to return to Slovakia

Schuster to meet George W. Bush

Inflation at record low

Farewell to arms delayed

UNTIL a proposed law is passed, Slovak airlines which transport military equipment face few restrictions on their trade.At the moment, an Economy Ministry licence committee grants permission to trade in arms and military equipment. The committee's authority, however, extends only to licences for the import and export of arms.When arms are transferred through Slovakia in less than seven days, an air carrier needs only permission from the Transport Ministry's civil aviation section to be able to handle the shipment.

Letter to the Editor: Vacval not our man

Wheelchair mountain man

CANADIAN Paul Malon knows what it is to be at the peak of a mountain during a violent thunderstorm. He has seen a snowbridge over a deep crevasse in a glacier collapse minutes after he crossed it. He has experienced ferocious windstorms at night, when his tent was blown towards the edge of a cliff.He has done all of these things in a wheelchair.The beauty and wildness of mountains have long enchanted the 44-year-old physician, who was born without the use of his legs. Malon started photographing mountain scenes in 1991.

Around Slovakia

Law requires poop be scoopedOld West rules in capitalA painful zebra partingMoney and storks generating babiesBaby dies in hospital cribJob with a catchA bad gamble

Talking tough: Get it from the kitchen

EVER wonder how Slovak tough guys (tvrďasi) talk? What Miki Černák says when he wants da boys to do a numbah on Ivan Miško's gang?We got a glimpse of tough talk in a telephone conversation reprinted in the Sme daily paper on April 2. The transcript featured two key players in the collapse of the Horizont unlicensed investment fund this spring. One of the men in the conversation - Horizont co-owner Vladimír Fruni - was recording the call, apparently from his hideout (skrýša) in Croatia. The other - and long-fingered financier Jozef Majský has said it's not him - was not identified by the paper, and was apparently unaware he was being taped.

Another investment fund closes

SDĽ to demand Ftáčnik's seat

Textile factory puts jobless Roma women to work

TWENTY ROMA women from the eastern Slovak village of Ladomirová will soon start work in a textile shop set up by a local factory as part of an employment project called Roma to Roma.The project will feature local Roma women sewing small articles for sale in local shops. Its aim is both to put more Roma to work, and to turn local Roma into customers for Roma-produced goods. It will open May 1.Slovakia's estimated 400,000 to 500,000-strong Roma minority has been generally poorer, less educated and more vulnerable to disease than the majority population since the fall of communism in 1989.

Countrywide Events

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