Archive of articles - October 2002, page 12

Judge given anti-corruption award

What have computers got to do with classic art?

IN the years following 1968, when Warsaw Pact troops came to reinforce the fading communist regime in then Czechoslovakia, renowned sculptor Jozef Jankovič became excluded from public life for political reasons. Prohibited not only from exhibiting but also from creating his sculptures, he began to search for other means of self-expression.He soon found himself experimenting with a rapidly developing technology - computer graphics.On the one hand, Jankovič was limited by a lack of access to computers and by his reliance on a computer programmer. There were no more than two or three large computers in any of the state companies, and, because he was a layman, he needed a programmer to help him express his ideas through the complicated computer systems. On the other hand, he was exposed to the new possibilities that technology offered.

New telephone plans block competitors

WITH THE cancellation of the fixed-line telecoms monopoly enjoyed by Slovak Telecom (ST) now less than three months away, customers may find they have less choice than they thought.According to the current telecoms law, ST's monopoly on fixed-line service ends in January 2003, after which time the company is obliged to ensure access between its clients and alternative telecoms providers, as well as enabling users to keep their current phone numbers.However, in late September ST customers received leaflets along with their phone bills indicating that users of optional ST services for high and low call volumes, as well as optional ISDN services for high-speed data, would not be eligible to switch operators in the future.

Lexa out of hospital, faces new charges

SE sale may be delayed

Kaník for Labour raises doubts

Reader feedback: Do toho, Slovensko

Church leads flood prayer

Reader feedback: Standing up for ourselves

Mečiar keeps grip on HZDS

Marx and Engels live on

Budget deficit higher, but according to plan

Countrywide Events

BRATISLAVAWESTERN SLOVAKIACENTRAL SLOVAKIAEASTERN SLOVAKIA

Reader feedback: Mečiar's pre-emptive strike

Around Slovakia

Bear litter sets Guinness recordCarpenter plays human statueChewing gum artist hangs from bridgeGoing to the dogsFish, officer?Guitar museum an educational hitPit bull attacks people, kills poodlePupils forced to buy saints' picturesAlleged payback fight takes life

Devín investigation finished

Campaign money limit a "useless law" say experts, politicians

ELECTION campaign 2002 has caused tax advisors, watchdog organisations and politicians to rethink the effectiveness of the existing Sk12 million ($222,000) limit on expenses for party promotion prior to elections.The law on limiting party expenses during election campaigns has existed since 1994, and as yet, authorities have never found any financial inconsistencies. However, the country remembers a number of lavish election campaign appearances, like that of supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who came to support Vladimír Mečiar of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) prior to the 1998 general vote.

Leaving Slovakia: The things unsaid

THIS ISSUE of The Slovak Spectator is the 202nd I have edited, and it is also my last. Without getting maudlin, though the temptation is strong, I want to share some of my experiences in Slovakia over the last 10 years, believing you'll know what I'm talking about.December 31, 1992: It's New Year's Eve, and I've been teaching for three months at a training academy for hotel staff in west Slovakia's Piešťany. I'm in the little garret I've been assigned in the school's student dormitory, typing a letter on a borrowed typewriter. I've vowed to quit drinking, and have cut off my long hair to mark the occasion.Several hours before midnight, my letter isn't going anywhere, my shorn locks are regretted, and I slink off to the pub for a bottle of red wine. I drink it in the company of a party of sullen East Germans in the echoing school cafeteria. None of us is aware that Slovakia has just become an independent state. The unfamiliarity of the country has reduced me to a state where myself is all I can think about.

Seat production comes to Bratislava