Archive of articles - January 2003, page 3

Slovaks rush for EU jobs

IF THERE was ever any doubt about young Slovaks' enthusiasm for the European Union, a recent recruitment drive has dispelled it. In the EU's campaign to fill 500 auxiliary positions from the 10 candidate countries, more than one in five applicants were from Slovakia.The campaign was launched at the beginning of January by the European Communities Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), which expected over 10,000 people to apply for the jobs based in Brussels and Luxembourg. Instead, organisers were overwhelmed by nearly three times that number of applications."Over 25,000 people applied and almost 6,000 of them were from Slovakia. Applications keep coming, even now," said Vladimír Grieger, head of the EPSO Enlargement Task Force, on January 15, five days after the deadline for applications.

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State railway cuts 25 lines

SLOVAKIA'S state railway company, ZSSK, will cancel 25 local passenger lines and reduce passenger service on other lines from the beginning of February in an effort to reduce costs and control runaway debts.According to the Transport Ministry, the cuts will bring savings of Sk468 million (11.2 million euro), as the railroad struggles to meet reduced budget targets for 2003. Unions and local officials, however, complain that the move will cost thousands of jobs and will result in hardship for those living in areas where service is set to be cancelled."For every crown of revenues [on the 25 lines to be eliminated], there are expenses from Sk2 to Sk25.80," said Transport Minister Pavol Prokopovič, adding that ZSSK had been allocated Sk4.3 billion (103 million euro) from the state budget for 2003, well below the Sk5.7 billion (136 million euro) the railroad had requested. In 2000, Sk6.7 billion (160 million euro) from the state budget was allocated for Slovakia's railways.

Schuster: I paid ransom to kidnappers

Harabin's re-election as chief justice in doubt

SUPREME Court Chief Justice Štefan Harabin may not lead the court for another five years if the Constitutional Court rules that the rights of Harabin's competitor were breached in the elections that returned Harabin to the post.On December 20 the Judicial Council (SR) re-elected Harabin, who is also head of the SR, to lead the court for a second time by the closest possible margin, with the new term starting February 12 this year.But Harabin's only rival in the vote, Justice Sergej Kohut, lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court January 13, saying that he had been at a disadvantage because Harabin was entitled to vote in the elections, while he could not do so, not being a member of the SR. Although he has not confirmed it, observers suspect Harabin used his ballot to vote for himself, thus swinging the election in his favour.

Kukan wants meeting with Hungary

EU candidates lack resources for environment

Reader feedback: Mud, massage, and not many clothes

Month of Slovak culture in Canada

World music beyond definition

SHE HAS a name that is not easy to remember and a voice that is difficult to forget. Suí Vesan's artistic first name is an abbreviation of the phrase 'Som u teba ihneď' or 'I'll be right with you'. It reflects Vesan's wish that her music will always be a comfort to her listeners. Her surname is an allusion to the number 120 in Italian. That is how many songs she would like to have credited to her name.A relative newcomer to the Slovak world-music scene, 36-year-old Vesan has made a name for herself by performing original works. Starting out as a guitar-playing folk singer, she soon stood out among her fellow musicians. It was not only her unconventional voice but also her lyrics that caught the audience's attention.She has a great range and sings her songs in Slovak and the invented language 'Tatlanina', which to some seems like an exotic language, to others like baby talk. The sounds are freely improvised during concerts, and sometimes resemble the jazz vocal technique called scat. But what seems to the listener to be a random assemblage of syllables has a deep significance for Vesan.

Countrywide Events

BRATISLAVAWESTERN SLOVAKIACENTRAL SLOVAKIAEASTERN SLOVAKIA

Murdered policemen honoured

Homage to Bratislava

Jewish graves vandalized

Dream road to China

IT WAS snowing hard when the 50-year-old Chilean cycling sculptor Juan Carlos Lizana, accompanied by his student, a 19-year-old Romanian girl, arrived in Bratislava on a recent Sunday.Leaning over their heavily loaded bicycles, they peered into the windows of the closed Bratislava Information Service, searching for information about the local bicycle clubs that usually serve as their first contact in a new country. Lizana then noticed two cyclists passing by and, with the hope of getting advice, he approached them."That day was perfect, when me and my friend decided to try cycling in the snow," said one of the passing cyclists, Martin Jarábek. After Lizana approached him with his request, Jarábek tried to contact several bike clubs and hostels. Nothing worked out. "I could see no other solution than to take them home with me," he recalled.

Pope John Paul IIcoming to visit

Would-be assassin detained

Police probe corporate raiders

SLOVAKIA'S attorney general has reopened an investigation into alleged insider trading by a trio of financial speculators in the December 2001 sale of shares in steel-maker VSŽ. One of the firms involved in that sale, the J&T financial group, is also under a separate police investigation for allegedly stripping assets from wiremaker Drôtovňa Hlohovec in 1996.The three financial houses - Penta Group, Istrokapitál, and J&T - acquired a 21 per cent stake in VSŽ through an anonymous trade on the Bratislava stock exchange less than two hours before the close of the last trading day of 2001.Investigators say that the Sk160 (3.80 euro) per share price paid by the group was well below market value, as well as below competing offers for the stake made by VSŽ itself and by its strategic investor US Steel Košice.

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