Archive of articles - September 2002, page 11

Health care reforms proposed by major political parties

Who is the SMK: Still Hungarian, despite attempts to break mould

BÉLA BUGÁR, head of the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), says it isn't his fault that his traditionally ethnically-based party has failed to attract a new generation of Slovak voters despite four creditable years in the nation's coalition government."The SMK is [still] perceived as an ethnic party because Slovaks react very sensitively to minority issues," said Bugár in a recent interview with The Slovak Spectator. Those who call the party ethnic "should read our [election] programme more closely", the SMK leader added.Political analysts, however, say that while the SMK's programme for September 20-21 elections has embraced some issued of concern to the nation as a whole, its priorities remain issues of direct import to ethnic Hungarian voters in the south of the country.

Ford selects import winner

Future bright for crown if next government credible

DESPITE marked volatility in the strength of the Slovak crown this year, analysts say that if pro-Western political forces win September parliamentary elections as expected, the long-term outlook for the currency is decidedly bright.Political uncertainty and loose fiscal policy have left investors jittery over the past year, sending the crown from a two-year high of 41.5 crowns to the euro in April to a three-year low of 44.9 SKK/EUR in July.However, entry into the European Union (EU) and Nato, which the country hopes to achieve this year and next - and which presupposes the defeat of the authoritarian former PM Vladimír Mečiar at the polls - should bring long-term stabilisation.

September 11 as presented in the media

New Commercial Code takes effect

Can ST fulfill its promises?

Anti-corruption measures proposed by major political parties

Gang members out on technicality

Forgotten Jewish music returns to old Bratislava haunts

A DOCTOR, a programmer, a journalist, a lawyer, an engineer and two music students - it's not the intro to a bad joke, but an enthusiastic bunch of musicians called the Pressburger Klezmer Band, or PKB for short. A band whose music is as varied as its members' personal and professional backgrounds.The PKB comes from Bratislava (which used to be called Pressburg during the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and plays 'klezmer' music, a traditional form that originated in eastern and central Europe and was influenced by Jewish liturgical music, Hassidic tunes and the folklore of the local non-Jewish environment. Established in 1995, the PKB is so far the only band of its kind in Slovakia, playing Jewish traditional music with a Slovak and gypsy flavour.

The unbearable lightness of flying

FOR DIRECTOR Jacques Perrin, known for his films Microcosmos and Himalaya, the filming of Travelling Birds was the fulfilment of a childhood dream, and no mean technical accomplishment besides.Over the three-and-a-half years they spent in 40 different countries, 14 cameramen followed each 'step' of this stunning film's migrating birds, while 350 technicians took care of the film equipment, some of which had to be specially invented for the movie.The main stars of the film are the geese, pelicans, condors, storks and albatrosses it tracks; the plot is their perilous trip of several thousand kilometres around the globe.

HZDS - With people & for people for a dignified life

Ano - We want to be better off, freely and responsibly

Smer - Choose order and a decent life

Sponsors come to aid of young victim

EDKO HIRSCHNER, 13, used to be a lively child. Every winter, when the lake in his village froze over, he would spend hours chasing a puck across the ice with his friends.But his dreams of becoming a hockey player were destroyed one morning on his way to school. A car accident left the boy paralysed from his chin to his toes, and changed his life forever.He spent four months in a coma and a total of three years in hospital before he could finally return home. He has recovered some vision from his initial blindness, but he still needs a special device to breathe, which makes it difficult for him to talk. He remains bedridden.

Top Pick: The Spanish have it in their blood

THE ANDALUSIAN gypsy woman Carmen had no problems getting a man. Her beauty, wildness, eroticism and feminine dancing could have melted the coldest of hearts. Bratislava's male population will get a chance next week to fall again under her spell, women to envy her charms.While the story of Carmen portrays the temperamental Spanish culture, it actually came from the pen of Frenchman Prosper Mérimée. Accompanied by the music of compatriot Georges Bizet, Mérimée's hugely successful opera has swelled theatre repertoires across the world.

Nafta Gbely gets new directorship

Schuster returns from Vienna 'cure'

Festival of nations and cultures