Archive of articles - September 2002, page 7

Justice Ministry keeping Roma crime stats

Murderer arrested in bed

Budget tax income up 15%

Roma attacked in Poprad

DS withdraws from elections

Changed EC report date will not affect Slovak EU entry

Pyramid victims suing ST

Tax guru says Slovakia should cut rates before EU entry

Airlines up in arms about EU customs rule

DS casts support behind SDKÚ

CEFTA to lose members after EU expansion

Energy liberalisation weeks away

He knew Košice, but Košice never knew him

THE DREAM of every publisher is to discover a lost work by a famous writer, or failing that to promote an unrecognised talent who becomes a classic.The latter is the case of Sándor Márai, an ethnic Hungarian writer born in Slovakia at the turn of the last century, and whose work was discovered posthumously. His novel 'Embers' is now praised as a masterpiece of European literature.However, while Márai has been compared to such literary heavyweights as the Czech Franz Kafka or the German Thomas Mann, and while publication of 'Embers' caused an earthquake on the international book market, the novelist remains an obscure figure in the country of his origin - Slovakia.

HZDS: All ages rally with mixed feelings

SENEC - PEOPLE of all ages, not just the grey-haired supporters the party is famous for, came out to hear members of the opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party denounce the Mikuláš Dzurinda government in west Slovakia's Senec on September 6.Most of the speakers' arrows were aimed at the current government's economic policies, which the HZDS says have caused the nation's 18 per cent unemployment rate and have brought hardship on many families."It's impossible to accept [Deputy PM for Economy Ivan] Mikloš's thesis that we shouldn't produce groceries if we can import them cheaply. This is nonsense," said former Finance Minister Sergej Kozlík.

Top Pick: European hopes meet on Slovak stage

BROTHERS István and János Mohácsi have bombed two Hungarian cities, and are heading to the southern Slovak town of Nitra with the same intention.Only figuratively, of course, for the two men are not pilots but theatre directors. Inspired by Joseph Heller's war-tragicomedy We Bombed in New Haven, the two Hungarian innovators have created a modern parody on army life, adapting Heller's original play to the central European environment.The version they bring to Slovakia following its premiere in Hungary, We Bombed in Nitra, reflects local realities and (contrary to its destructive title) opens the 11th annual Nitra Theatre Festival at 17:00 on September 20.

SE plans tender for nuke decommissioning

Countrywide Events

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Report scolds Dzurinda government's fiscal management

UPON ASSUMING power in 1998, the government of Mikuláš Dzurinda inherited great problems, especially in the field of public finances, that had been left behind by its predecessor, the 1994-1998 government of Vladimír Mečiar. These problems lay mostly in the murky nature of financial flows and the significant number of official and 'hidden' debts, including large amounts of guarantees issued by the state for business loans.For these reasons, among others, the government in its 1998 programme declaration pledged to:

Blow 'em up real good: How to pick a political melody

MEMBERS of The Slovak Spectator staff, after a night listening to a local radio station, once decided that we should form an all-powerful music judgement tribunal, with the authority to call before us egregious sinners against good taste (i.e. Michael Jackson, Def Leppard) and wipe them off the face of the earth. "Blow them up real good," as John Candy used to say on the Canadian Second City comedy show.Since live music and free beer have set the tone of Slovakia's election campaign 2002, at the expense of sensible ideas, we thought our music tribunal could also help clear some of the dead wood from the country's cluttered political landscape.