Archive of articles - August 2002, page 3

What to do and where to go in Trnava region

With the holidays already here, this section may help you to plan trips on free days to explore natural beauties, visit cultural events or just learn more about Slovakia

Penta and Lexa Sr: Mutual business is past

The Slovak Spectator interviewed Penta Group founder Jaroslav Haščák on August 20 about apparent ties between the firm and Vladimír Lexa Sr, father of former secret service chief Ivan Lexa.Jaroslav Haščák (JH): Let's get to the question which is bothering you. That was the aim of this meeting, as far as I understand.

Samsung's global expansion brings factory to Slovakia

AS PART of its programme of global expansion, South Korea's Samsung conglomerate is shifting its European manufacturing focus from western to central Europe, and from October will begin making computer monitors and televisions in SlovakiaWhile closing plants in Spain and Britain, in early August Samsung officials announced the purchase of the factory area of defunct furniture producer ZNZ in the southern Slovak town of Galanta with an eye to making 200,000 monitors by year's end, expanding to 1.5 million in 2003."In computer monitors we are number one world-wide, which means this factory has quite an important position in the Samsung organisation," said Ivan Škula, head of Samsung Electronics Slovakia, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Samsung Hungary.

Flood danger passes, damage assessed

Around Slovakia

Camping for the homelessGot a light?Bear shot after attacking touristsTrain hits horsesSpaniards to turn wrecked manor into posh hotelLucky bagPolice send axe attacker to clinicBiker hits moving train, suffers bruise

Smer member busted for birds

OTP banks expects 2002 loss

Lexa: Slovakia treated me worse than US would bin Laden

FORMER spy boss Ivan Lexa gave an interview to the Nový deň opposition daily shortly after being released from pre-trial custody August 16.Up before the courts on 10 charges from his 1995-1998 tenure as the head of the Slovak secret service (SIS), Lexa fled the country in 2000 but was recently run to ground in South Africa and deported to face justice in his homeland last month.However, he was set free after the Supreme Court ruled his jailing had been legally flawed (see front page story).

Spiritual art finds rich home

SUZANNE and Csaba Kiss have a maple tree in their garden planted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama - only one of the many illustrations of the spiritual atmosphere that surrounds their living and working place, significantly called the At Home Gallery.What started in 1995 in the apartment of the Canadian-Hungarian-Slovak couple as a small initiative after they had moved from Vancouver to the southern Slovak town of Šamorín has now grown to be a full time job for 35-year old Csaba Kiss.With the permission of the Šamorín town council and the Council of Jewish Communities in Slovakia, they rented the local synagogue and changed it into a gallery. To prepare the first exhibition, the damaged building needed six months of repairs and cleaning until it was suitable to open after 50 years

Countrywide Events

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Lexa again freed from custody

IVAN Lexa, the former Slovak secret service (SIS) chief who faces 10 charges including alleged involvement in the 1995 kidnapping of former president's son, smiled and flashed a victory sign to journalists as he left pre-trial custody on August 16.Lexa was released following a Supreme Court ruling that a lower court judge had been biased in taking Lexa into custody last month after he was deported to Slovakia from South Africa after two years in hiding. The panel of judges who issued the decision added the lower judge had not been authorised to rule on jailing Lexa.It was the second time Lexa has been released from pre-trial custody in three years; in 2000, after a court ruled the reasons for his remaining in custody had expired, Lexa fled the country pursued by an international Interpol warrant for his arrest.

Quote of the Week

Dobrofest prepares hoedown

THE international country and bluegrass festival Dobrofest in Trnava promises six days full of music with 30 concerts, featuring 200 musicians on 11 stages.The 11th annual festival is dedicated to the memory of John Dopyera, who invented the distinctive resonating guitar. The word Dobro, deduced from DOpyera BROthers, not only means 'good' in Slovak, but is also the name of the instrument itself.The guitar is considered to be an original American folk instrument and only a few people today know that its inventor and original constructor was Slovak. John Dopyera, originally called Ján Dopjera, emigrated from the Trnava region to California in 1908.

HZDS drop confirmed

IN THE FIRST voter opinion poll released by a widely trusted polling agency since the formation of the HZD party in July, the splinter group recorded five percent support, while its parent HZDS fell to under 20 per cent.The poll, conducted by the Focus agency from July 31 to August 8 on 1,074 respondents, largely confirmed the results of two earlier polls, giving the HZDS party of former PM Vladimír Mečiar 19.8 per cent support (down from 24 per cent in a July Focus poll), the non-parliamentary Smer of Robert Fico 16.3 per cent (16.4), and the governmental Hungarian ethnic coalition 11.7 per cent (11.4).

Penta: No links to alleged former secret service operatives

A FOUNDER of Slovakia's self-styled corporate raiders Penta Group has admitted doing business in the past with Vladimír Lexa Sr, father of the former head of the Slovak secret service, but has denied closer ties to either Lexa or to a group of ex-secret service officers and civilians who allegedly carried out the 1995 kidnapping of the former president's son."I've known him [Lexa Sr] for five years, we are friends, and I actually appreciate some of his ideas, others I don't agree with," said Jaroslav Haščák during an interview with The Slovak Spectator August 20. "We have done some deals with him in the past, in real estate."

HZDS takes Sk12 mil. loan

Winter's legacy continues to charm and heal guests

WHEN Ľudovít Winter, one of the founders of the Piešťany spa, was looking for a trademark for his company, he wanted a symbol of recovery. A young man from the local printing house designed for him a figure of a man breaking a crutch. This was the perfect image, and later became the coat of arms for the city.The history of the Winter family is closely tied to the city of Piešťany and its spa. Alexander Winter rented Spa Island and its surrounding from count Erdödy in 1889. He invested all his savings into reconstruction, the building of hotels and the promotion of Piešťany as the most luxurious spa in Europe.

US: Cars, ice and old people in sport jackets

There is an old truth that says you can find your own identity only when meeting other people. Only then, when you can compare your qualities with those of others, can you discover your own qualities. The same is true about culture. You cannot realise your cultural identity until you meet people of different cultural backgrounds and roots, who keep traditions and customs of a different kind. For instance, you cannot understand how strongly European you are unless you leave this old continent and spend some time in some "other" world - I cannot say whether that world is better or worse, it just has to be different.

Jobless rate down to 17.6 per cent