Archive of articles - March 2008, page 9
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Spring jazz festival
JAZZ lovers no longer have to wait for fall and the three-day jazz festival called Jazz Days to hear world-caliber jazz. Now, festival organisers have proposed a new spring jazz festival as well.
Real estate prices up 24 percent on average in 2007
Last year, the average price per square metre of real estate in Slovakia rose to Sk37,306, a 24% increase compared with 2006, when the average square metre cost Sk30,114. In the final quarter of last year, these average prices posted the highest growth rate of the whole year, up 32.5% year-on-year. Compared with 2002, the average price per square metre of real estate is up by 109%, according to data from the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS). The NBS monitors real estate together with the National Association of Real Estate Agencies (NARKS).
Economic boom trickling down to Košice restaurant scene
Košice is Slovakia’s latest boomtown. Following the arrival of major investors like US Steel and the Getrag car parts maker, other foreign firms have followed suit. Last year, the Košice region was No. 1 in FDI, attracting fully one-quarter of the 64 new investments to Slovakia, worth Sk42 billion overall.
Slovakia needs an Obama of its own
Barack Obama is a gifted speaker. If the first time you see him is after reading for months how good he is, you may be underwhelmed, because he’s not Martin Luther King. But there’s no doubt he’s leagues better than his rivals, and he may well be the most inspiring political orator the US has seen since John F. Kennedy.
Opera Ball opens ball season in Slovakia
The 8th Opera Ball held at the Slovak National Theatre’s (SND) historical Opera House on Hviezdoslav Square in Bratislava on January 12 opened the ball season in Slovakia. The event was attended by some 600 guests and was hosted by actress Diana Mórová. At midnight, American singer Belinda Carlisle put in an appearance, while other performers included SND Opera soloist Adriana Kučerová, the SND Ballet company, the Boom Band orchestra, the Golden Violin orchestra, and singers Sisa Sklovská and Pavol Hammel with his group ‘Prúdy’. The event was organized under the supervision of the Honorary Ball Committee, with members such as SND head Silvia Hroncová, actress Emília Vášáryová, actor Martin Huba, tenor Peter Dvorský, and Professor Pavol Traubner.
It’s a diner’s market
It’s difficult to keep up with Bratislava’s restaurant openings. Fond old faces regularly disappear in a cloud of construction dust to emerge in unfamiliar garb. New arrivals crowd converted office buildings or renovated Old Town memorials. Five or ten years are enough to qualify a business here as “established”, or to lend its cuisine “tradition”.
One third of Slovaks blow entire income on household expenses
One-third of Slovaks spend all their monthly income on household expenses, according to a study called Deposits 2007 that was carried out by the GfK Slovakia agency last November. A further 20% also spend everything, but are paying off loans at the same time. In total, only around one half of households are able to save money for a rainy day.
In the footsteps of the heroes of the Uprising
Crossing Slovakia on foot is a challenge for any hiker. You have to be willing to spend about a month on the road, and you have to be able to learn from your mistakes, to handle sudden changes in the weather, hunger and the possibility of getting lost. It’s the kind of trip that will show the true characters of everyone traveling in a group. It’s an adventure that will take you far from civilization.
Manhunt for Červenka marred by blunders
The manhunt for Roman Červenka, accused of robbing a bank and then slipping his police escort through a window in a washroom, was marred by blunders. According to Police VP Stanislav Jankovič (above), the first input on the fugitive was entered into the PATROS national information system on January 18. “Because certain data were incorrect, the system failed to automatically provide the information to the international Schengen Information System,” Jankovič said.
My friend Heinz
One of the most famous Slovak Jews of all time was Josef Chaim Sonnenfeld, who was born in 1848 in Vrbové, near Piešťany in Western Slovakia. In the 1870’s he moved to Jerusalem, where in the 1920’s he became the city’s chief rabbi.
SND offers two premieres and much, much more
The Slovak National Theater has prepared one opera opening for the next three months. On April 25 it will premiere Boris Godunov by Modest Petrovič Mussorgsky, featuring Peter Mikuláš, Ľudovít Ludha, Monika Fabianová, Linda Ballová, Katarína Polakovičová and many others under the baton of Stefan Lano.
The boy from Partizánske
He danced during the 1990s with the Nederlands Dans Theater, and then joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal as a principal dancer. He has been choreographing ballet since 2002, his work presented across Canada and Europe. His life partner, Anik Bissonnette of Les Grands, retired from the ballet last year after 18 years, but he has danced on as the director of the SND Ballet in Bratislava since September 2006, a role he was offered “like a bolt from the blue”. Mário Radačovský.
Where do I pay taxes?
Of key concern to Slovak residents buying real estate in Austria is whether they will continue to be able to enjoy Slovakia’s favorable 19% income tax rate when they actually live in Austria.
Sandwiches worth taking out
Finding a decent place to eat lunch in the Slovak capital is getting easier. Not only are decent restaurants starting to offer regular lunch menus – soup or starters, main course, coffee and desert for a discounted price – but competition is also fierce between lower-end restaurants and canteens, who are trying to speed up service and table rotation to make as much as possible from the lunch hour.
STV plans a debt and asks for a billion crowns
The council supervising public broadcaster Slovak Television (STV) has approved the new STV budget, which again forecasts a loss in 2008 and expects the state to cough up Sk1 billion to cover part of the loss. The rest of the funds will be used to launch a new sports channel, STV3.
Mayors furious over manipulated Eurofunds registration
Mayors across Slovakia are outraged by the new methods of applying for EU funds for the reconstruction of schools.
Metalurg fulfilling Havel’s vision
SEVENTEEN years after former Czechoslovak president Václav Havel ordered the country’s weapons factories to be converted to civilian production, a privately-owned steel plant in Western Slovakia is finally doing just that.
Sýkora and the oil scammers
The ‘oil for diesel’ scam involved the substitution of lower-taxed heating oil for higher-taxed diesel fuel at the pumps; the key to the fraud was that the oil could be altered to give it similar properties as diesel. The fake diesel was often imported as oil and then traded among a complex network of shell companies until it emerged as auto fuel. Companies in Slovakia also manufactured the ersatz diesel by mixing cheap petroleum products together with chemicals. The scam earned the mafia hundreds of billions of crowns in profits in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic during the 1990s (in Slovakia it continues unabated). It was originally devised by the Russian mafia in New York in the 1980s, and was then ‘exported’ to the former Warsaw Pact countries after the end of Communism.
Message in a tower
TRNAVA has been known as the city of towers for centuries. No wonder, since as the centre of Catholicism in the Middle Ages it became home to many religious orders that built monasteries and churches here. The Town Tower, a Renaissance building in the city centre, has been Trnava’s best-known landmark ever since it was built. Originally it was erected as a watchtower to protect the town, whose open and flat location made it vulnerable. However, at the beginning of February this year, the importance of the Town Tower was overshadowed by another structure.
Jewel of modernist architecture slated for demolition
TIMES and tastes change, and while the Hotel Kyjev’s 15 floors of Brutalist splendour which loom over the heart of Bratislava might not be to everyone’s liking, a not-so silent minority is trying to prevent its demolition and the planned development of the wider Kamenné námestie area.
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- From eight to thousands of runners. How Košice marathon rose to prominence Photo
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- Iconic Slovak barn still draws crowds. Without donors, it might have been lost Photo
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Slovakia loses another EV model to Spain as Stellantis chooses Zaragoza over Trnava
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Slovakia loses another EV model to Spain as Stellantis chooses Zaragoza over Trnava
- From eight to thousands of runners. How Košice marathon rose to prominence Photo
- Convicted of multiple murders, Slovakia’s mafia boss seeks release from prison
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Malacky Photo
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners
- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- A mayor resigns over €2.7 million fraud scandal at town hall
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- Fico praises China and Vietnam as models, says liberal democracy has failed
- News digest: Violent gang in Bratislava is under arrest
- He designed Gatwick. But this is his masterpiece
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- News digest: Prosecutor seeks jail for NBS Governor Kažimír as his political support wanes
- Slovakia loses another EV model to Spain as Stellantis chooses Zaragoza over Trnava
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Malacky Photo
- News digest: Fico’s bloc wants to save money by restricting electoral access
- Slovakia plans to restrict access to new medicines amid funding shortfall
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process More articles ›
