Archive of articles - January 2011, page 9
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Parties not charged, but doubts linger
WIDELY publicised claims about dubious financing of Slovakia’s two biggest political parties seem destined to remain the subject of conjecture after official decisions not to pursue court action. After a prosecutor discontinued a criminal inquiry into the financing of the opposition Smer party in early December, at the beginning of the year Special Prosecutor Ján Šanta halted a separate high-profile investigation into a case involving the financing of the ruling Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ). Transparency and political ethics watchdogs expressed doubts about whether the prosecutors’ moves will dispel suspicions arising from the cases.
Mafia seeks names of new witnesses
THE BRATISLAVA mafia is seeking to learn the names of new witnesses who have apparently testified about the murder of student Daniel Tupý in 2005. TV Markíza reported on January 9 that money is being offered for the names of the witnesses. The purported rewards from the underworld came after Slovakia’s Interior Ministry announced that new testimony had been given last year in the murder investigation.
Hungary silent over wannabe citizens
HUNGARY has refused to say how many Slovak citizens have applied for Hungarian citizenship.
Court and ministry at war – again
ONGOING wage discrimination lawsuits being pursued by hundreds of Slovak judges have provoked yet another conflict between the Supreme Court and the Justice Ministry. The latest spat erupted after the Supreme Court plenum, convened by court president Štefan Harabin, recommended that he should not launch appeals against judges who win lawsuits against the court.
Slovaks to produce sterile tsetse flies
SLOVAKS are helping to reduce numbers of tsetse flies and thus also the spread of sleeping sickness in Kenya via a sterile insect technique. In December, Slovak Ambassador to Nairobi Milan Zachar officially opened a lab in the Kenyan capital built as part of a project to fight sleeping sickness. The project reduces the occurrence of tsetse flies and thus hampers the spread of the contagious disease. The lab, at the premises of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in Nairobi, was constructed with the cooperation of the Institute of Zoology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), the SITA newswire wrote.
Brand loyalty continues to reign among Slovaks
SLOVAKS, in general, are brand-oriented and their desire for branded products is even stronger than consumers in other countries as many here still remember the decades during which they could not buy many international branded goods. Marketing experts say the economic crisis has had some effect on the receptiveness of Slovaks to brands, strengthening their traditionally strong craving for the quality of certain brand names but also making them more price-sensitive.
Industry surpasses pre-crisis highs
THE GROWTH rate in Slovakia’s industrial output accelerated in November and, according to the latest figures from the Statistics Office, industrial output in the country in the eleventh month was 17.3 percent higher than a year earlier and 3.9 percent higher than in October.
Slovak design firm garners top awards
IT IS a truism confirmed by the market: the success of a product depends greatly on how it is packaged and whether customers perceive it as attractive. After the grey years of communism, during which packaging was typically plain and uninteresting, Slovak designers can now create interesting and eye-catching designs. And collect awards for them. One of them is Pergamen, a small design studio from the western Slovak town of Trnava, which has garnered national as well as international awards for its design for a new bottle and logotype for Tatratea, a strong Slovak spirit. The design for the bottle, which resembles a traditional thermal flask, and its distinctive ‘T’ logo, created from elements of folk artwork, in May won Pergamen the Zlatý Klinec 2010 national creative advertising competition award in the category of packaging design; later in 2010 it also picked up a gold Pentaward and Reddot Design award.
Countrywide Events
Western SLOVAKIA
Quote of the week
“Persecuting someone for their opinion is an example of totalitarianism in the 21st century.” Supreme Court President Štefan Harabin reacts to criticism of judges’wage-discrimination lawsuits by SDKÚ chairman Mikuláš Dzurinda
Still going strong after all these years
SLOVAKIA, since becoming part of the world market, has been flooded with global brands and products originating from every corner of the world. In spite of this there remains an impressive array of local brands, labels and products which still attract Slovak customers and whose popularity has not faded. This is especially visible in the food sector, in which local brands continue to claim the loyalty of consumers. But this would not be possible without the money and effort invested by their producers. The story of each of these products is interesting and represents part of the wider picture that makes up Slovakia.
Books in English now available
Cryptography, A Very Short Introduction. Fred Piper & Sean Murphy. Oxford Books, 2002.
Financing of political parties to be overhauled
PARTY financing in Slovakia has long been a dark room into which the public has been allowed only a very limited, and poorly illuminated, view. Political ethics watchdogs have been calling for years for more transparency and more effective control of the financing of political parties.
Slovaks help in Afghanistan
WITHIN a year a brand new Slovak-funded building will appear in the Afghan city of Kunduz. It will house a multi-functional centre providing several services to citizens: a library, access to the internet, educational lectures, exhibitions, and other cultural events. Iveta Liberková, the head of the Spoločnosť ľudí dobrej vole (Association of People with Goodwill), an association of volunteers providing humanitarian aid, explained the project’s development goals to the SITA newswire.
Private rail firm comes to Slovakia
THOUGH the effects are still to materialise, Slovakia has taken the first step on the path to liberalising its subsidised passenger rail transport market. The first state-subsidised private train will start running in March 2012 and will widen the choices of those travelling between Bratislava and Komárno.
Skalica’s sugary new weapon
THE TOWN of Skalica will introduce ‘a younger sister’ of the traditional trdelník cake at Bratislava’s biggest tourist fair, being held between January 20 and 23. It is the so-called tall Skalica wedding cake (skalická vysoká torta), which was once ever-present at Skalica weddings, according to Renáta Fasurová from the local municipal office, the SITA newswire reported.
Claims fly over botched police sting
TWO weeks after a Czech truck driver with a full load of a chemical substance that can be used to produce heroin was detained in Turkey after a bungled international sting operation initiated by the Slovak police, the Turkish government has issued its first statement – saying Slovak police had made mistakes during the operation.
New power plant goes online
ENERGY company E.ON launched electricity production at a newly built combined-cycle power plant near the village of Malženice, in Trnava Region, on January 10.
Dioxin scare subsides
EGGS and poultry from Germany are appearing on the shelves of Slovak supermarkets once again after tests conducted by Slovak authorities determined that there is no threat of dioxin contamination in any of the food products imported to the Slovak market from Germany since early January. The potential health threat, however, will impose some additional burdens on importers who must now attest that their products are dioxin-free.
Transparentnosť
THAT transparency is not exactly a local concept is best illustrated by the borrowed term Slovaks use to describe it – transparentnosť. But its principles are slowly creeping into Slovak public life, and the new government, in particular, is doing a lot to make transparency feel more at home, by demanding that all public contracts be published online and through its plans to put all court decisions on the web.
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