Archive of articles - November 2011, page 6
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Creating jobs while cutting carbon emissions
IN THE floodplain forests of the Danube River, a short distance from the Slovak-Hungarian border town of Komárno, a small NGO is attempting to harness traditional methods of working with nature to stabilise a disrupted ecosystem and combat climate change. BROZ, the Bratislava-based NGO behind the project, aims to restore animal grazing to the area and regenerate its indigenous population of willow trees. The NGO also hopes to bring employment, skills, and education to people in this deprived region, where unemployment reaches 16 percent.
Schools offering MBA programmes
Bratislava Business School of the University of Economics in Bratislava, www.euba.sk/bbs
Merger of companies – a legal tool to aid the restructuring of a group of companies
The lingering global financial crisis has had a significant impact on corporate and M&A markets. It is obvious that clients are more prudent when it comes to acquisitions of local companies, and even more careful when it comes to cross-border acquisitions.
Will the election force Hungarians to cooperate?
NEXT YEAR’S parliamentary elections pose an opportunity for parties that failed to make it into parliament in 2010 to recover their seats and once again have a say in top-level politics. The Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) has one of the best opportunities to return to parliament, with some recent opinion polls giving it a fair chance of exceeding the 5-percent threshold to enter parliament. But political observers note that ethnic-Hungarian politicians from the SMK and Most-Híd parties, who have been rivals for the past two years, might find it necessary to begin cooperating with each other if they want to win representation in parliament after March.
Košice to Bratislava in one day – on bicycles
A GROUP of four cycling enthusiasts decided to prove that Košice and Bratislava are not as far apart as many think and managed to cover the 450-kilometre distance in 23 hours 50 minutes on bicycles.
Law on eco- burdens passed
SLOVAKIA has finally adopted legislation that could begin to eliminate decades-old environmental burdens, with Environment Minister József Nagy calling it the “law of the decade” and representatives of the chemical industry and Slovakia’s Greenpeace environmental organisation calling the law a good compromise. Legislation to deal with hazardous sites that have been identified in about 30,000 locations in Slovakia has been kicking around in the government and parliament for nearly 20 years and finding consensus was not easy.
2012 deficit target set at 4.6 percent
THERE is one thing all parliamentary parties gearing up for the election campaign can agree on: Slovakia needs an approved state budget for 2012. Avoiding a provisional budget next year is so appealing that even opposition Smer party has said it is inclined to support the draft budget tailored by the ruling coalition if some last-minute modifications are made.
Craft skills are 'gold-bottomed'
THE 20th edition of JUVYR, an exhibition of products and services generated by students of secondary schools in Slovakia, was held in Bratislava between November 14 and 16, the SITA newswire reported.
Judge in Mello case disciplined
A DISCIPLINARY senate has found judge Stanislav D. of the Bratislava I District Court guilty of a misdemeanour due to procedural mistakes in two cases he handled, one of which contributed to the release of Karol Mello, a fugitive accused of a double murder, the SITA newswire reported on November 14. The Justice Ministry had filed the proposal for the judge to be disciplined.
Interest grows in management degrees
MBA. This abbreviation, standing for Master of Business Administration, is one of the top globally recognised qualifications for managers who aspire to work in leading positions. Slovaks do not need to travel very far to obtain the title now that a number of schools offer a MBA programme in Slovakia or nearby. That their number has grown suggests increasing interest in MBAs. But job applicants should recognise that having an MBA can carry rather less cachet than it does abroad.
Searching for threads of Velvet
PEOPLE need a sense of time and history to measure their collective progress or decline and anniversaries can provide that perspective. If the past two decades in Slovakia are measured strictly through the prism of the unsettling issues that strike observers on November 17, 2011, then the anniversary of the fall of the communist regime will be a gloomy celebration. Nevertheless, people need to be reminded of the immense progress their society has made in various areas, or the gloomy picture will be all that they are left with.
Poll finds Smer could govern alone
IF PARLIAMENTARY elections had been held in November, opposition party Smer would have received 45.2 percent of the votes according to a poll conducted by the Focus agency. That would have been enough to win 79 seats in the 150-member parliament, an outright majority. The poll was conducted between November 3 and November 8 and involved 1,041 respondents, the TASR newswire reported.
University students seek more practical skills
IN A LARGE Bratislava supermarket, two of the seven cashiers on duty are young women with university degrees, as customers can see from the academic titles on their nametags. It is not that one needs a university degree in economics to be a cashier in Slovakia but rather that the two graduates have not been able to find jobs that better match their qualifications. While working as a cashier in a supermarket may be a better option than the unemployment office, human resources professionals say it is often a lack of practical experience that makes it difficult for new university graduates to find suitable jobs and that employers are often quite hesitant about hiring people who have just graduated.
Will shoe repairers become extinct?
JUST a decade ago most neighbourhoods had their own grocery store, drugstore, tavern and shoe repair shop. But changing lifestyles have brought different kinds of neighbourhoods and some traditional crafts now seem to be on the road to extinction. The most frequently cited reasons for the disappearance of certain traditional crafts are a lack of interest among the younger generation in learning these skills and a general decline in demand for such services.
Theatre performance features mentally-handicapped actors
A FORMER theatre in Bratislava has been renamed Staromestský klub (Old Town Club) and the actors performing there are mentally-handicapped residents of the Prima House of Social Services who staged their first performance on October 1 with Stopy snov alebo Komentované obrazy z netradičného dialógu (Dreams’ Traces or Commented Images from Non-traditional Dialogue).
'Velvet' campaigning begins
NOVEMBER 17, one of the red-letter dates in the Slovak calendar, is a holiday devoted to the memory of the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Each year it recalls among Slovaks warm memories of their liberation from the communist regime. But this year it has lost some of its shine, after several political parties started using the occasion to take swipes at each other. Their moves portend a tough, albeit relatively short, campaign before the general election in March.
Inflation rose slightly in October
THE RATE of inflation in Slovakia grew by 0.3 percentage point month-on-month in October to reach an annual rate of 3.5 percent, Slovakia’s Statistics Office announced on its website on November 15. It also noted that the year-on-year increase in consumer prices as measured by the EU-harmonised index of consumer prices was 4.6 percent.
Countrywide Events
Western SLOVAKIA BratislavaTENIS: The 4th year of the Tennis Classic will welcome, for the first time, the current world women’s tennis number one, Caroline Wozniacki, who will compete with Slovak star Dominika Cibulková. It promises to be a dramatic match, as their record so far in 2011 is 2:1 in Cibulková’s favour. The exhibition will also bring tennis showmen Henri Leconte and Mansour Bahrami (above), who previously visited Bratislava in 2009. This time round they will appear in the National Tennis Centre Sibamac Aréna, Príkopova 6, on November 21 at 18:30. Tickets cost from €29 and are available through www.ticketportal.sk.
20 alleged mobsters detained
THE BIGGEST police operation against an alleged mafia group in the history of independent Slovakia, according to the interior minister, has resulted in the arrest of over 20 people including the reputed boss of a Bratislava-based criminal group. They have been charged with various crimes, among them fraudulent application for and receipt of housing loans from the United States.
Slovakia scraps bond auction
SLOVAKIA scrapped a five-year floating-rate government bond auction on November 14 after receiving a limited number of bids due to the deepening eurozone debt crisis, the Finance Ministry's debt management agency announced. While expecting to sell €100 million to €150 million of five-year bonds, investors offered to buy only €13 million of the bonds, the Hospodárske Noviny daily reported on November 15.
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- Convicted of multiple murders, Slovakia’s mafia boss seeks release from prison
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Malacky Photo
- Slovakia loses another EV model to Spain as Stellantis chooses Zaragoza over Trnava
- UK appoints Bilal Zahid as new ambassador to Slovakia
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Malacky Photo
- Slovakia loses another EV model to Spain as Stellantis chooses Zaragoza over Trnava
- News digest: Prosecutor seeks jail for NBS Governor Kažimír as his political support wanes
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- Convicted of multiple murders, Slovakia’s mafia boss seeks release from prison
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Malacky Photo
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners
- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list
- The disinformation scene has become a tool of media capture
- Paris leads, Bratislava trails: European cities ranked on safe travel for children
- 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
- He designed Gatwick. But this is his masterpiece
- Fico praises China and Vietnam as models, says liberal democracy has failed
- News digest: Violent gang in Bratislava is under arrest
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- 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
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners More articles ›
