Archive of articles - page 6 - The Slovak Spectator

Did you know?

- Brazil is the world's fifth biggest country. It covers an area much larger than Western Europe and is slightly bigger than the United States excluding Alaska.

Party slogans hit the billboards

NEW jobs, a crusade against public debt and corruption, more effective law enforcement, a simpler tax system, and security for citizens are some of the catchphrases coming from the election programmes offered to voters by political parties as the March parliamentary elections approach.

Israel to recognise 17 Slovaks

ANOTHER 17 Slovaks will be awarded the title Righteous among the Nations, which is given to individuals who helped save the lives of Jews before and during World War II. The awards are given by Israel and Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem-based memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, and will be presented on February 1 in the historical building of the Slovak parliament by Alexander Ben-Zvi, the Israeli Ambassador to Slovakia, the TASR newswire reported.

Slovakia’s credit downgraded

THE COMFORT of markets often hinges on a single letter, or a plus or a minus sign: this is the name of the sovereign ratings game. And on January 13 nine eurozone countries lost a round of that game. Following through on its warning in December last year, the Standard & Poor’s international credit rating agency downgraded the long-term rating for nine European countries, including Slovakia. Slovakia’s rating fell one notch, from A+ to A, but unlike the other eight its future outlook was ranked as ‘stable’ rather than ‘negative’, meaning that a further credit downgrade in the near future is judged to be less likely.

New US defence strategy presented

US AMBASSADOR to Slovakia Theodore Sedgwick met Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová on January 16 to inform her about his country’s new defence strategy, as unveiled by President Barack Obama earlier in the month. The document focuses on the Pacific region, yet still considers European countries to be the United States’ most important allies, the SITA newswire reported.

Organisations and institutions of Brazil in Slovakia

Embassy of the Federative Republic of BrazilAmbassador: Marília Sardenberg Zelner Gonçalves bratislava.itamaraty.gov.br/pt-br

Nové Mesto nad Váhom

NOVÉ Mesto nad Váhom is a typical example of a town which emerged at crossroads of trade routes. The region along the Váh River, called Považie, was one of the busiest trade areas in the territory of Slovakia as it was also intersected by a road from Moravia.

Branislav Chovan

Vazovova

LUCKILY, Bratislava is not a city where the streets have no name, so you too can get to know some of the most notorious ones. Here is a short guide:

Opening doors between two diverse countries

CULTURE can be the best, or easiest, way to bring together two nations, however distant and different they might be. The question is where it is best to start. “We have been opening windows and doors since we came here in 2008,” Luiz Francisco Pandia Braconnot, minister-counsellor of the Brazilian Embassy, told the Slovak Spectator. Edna Ferreira de Souza from the embassy’s cultural section added: “I have come to think that culture and cultural exchange starts with children because they are open, have open minds, and perceive things differently from adults. That is why we try to address children specifically.”

Slovak film wins awards at Palm Springs festival

AFTER several barren years, Slovak cinematography has seen an optimistic upturn recently, with some domestic films even garnering prizes abroad. Dom/The House, the feature-film debut of Slovak scriptwriter and director Zuzana Liová has now won a prestigious set of awards at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The jury judged it the best foreign movie without distribution in the US. It also got the New Voices/New Visions Award, according to the festival website.

Little pieces of Slovakia in Brazil

AT FIRST glance, it might appear that Brazilians could know little about Slovakia and could confuse it with Slovenia. But if you look closer there are more signs of Slovakia’s presence in this South-American country than you might think.

Radka Minarechová

Stalemate over new head for FNM

THE CABINET of Iveta Radičová may have sacked Anna Bubeníková, a nominee of Radičová’s own Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), from her job as chair of the National Property Fund (FNM), the state privatisation agency, on January 11, but it now seems unlikely that the FNM will get a new chair before the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 10.

'In' names for 2011

NAMES change in popularity over time and each year certain names become more fashionable while others start to fade into oblivion. The most popular name for boys born in Slovakia in 2011 was Jakub, given to 1,188 newborns. Meanwhile the most popular name for girls, 1,027 of them, was Sofia, the TASR newswire reported, citing data provided by the Interior Ministry.

Danubiana to remain an art museum

CULTURE Minister Daniel Krajcer and representatives of the art community have now agreed that the Danubiana private art gallery will be transformed into a national museum of modern arts and not a Kunsthalle – or space for mounting temporary exhibitions – as the ministry had originally announced, the SITA newswire reported.

TV talk show trades barbs with RTVS

THE LIVE television talk show Lampa, broadcast by public-service Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), will present five more editions before the March parliamentary elections. But the the process of negotiating a new contract between RTVS and the show’s creators to air them became the subject of a public shouting match this month as both sides sent barbed comments back and forth via the media. The show’s previous contract expired at the end of 2011.

Bratislava gets Brazilian sculpture

THE PETRŽALKA Catholic Church of Our Lady of Sorrows (the patron saint of Slovakia) was due to receive a special arrival from Brazil on January 20, just after this issue of The Slovak Spectator went to print. At a special mass held in this modern church a sculpture of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil, is being enthroned after having travelled all the way from Brazil. The ceremony will be overseen by the archbishop of Bratislava, Stanislav Zvolenský, and by the cardinal archbishop of Aparecida and president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, Raymundo Damasceno Assis. Monsignor Mario Giordana, the apostolic nuncio to Bratislava, also planned to participate. The image is being brought to the church at the initiative of Brazilian Ambassador to Slovakia, Marilia Sardenberg Zelner Gonçalves.

Brazilian-owned companies or companies with Brazilian investors

Embraco Slovakia, Spišská Nová Ves, www.embraco.skCRW Plásticos Slovakia, Spišská Nová Ves, www.grupocrw.com.brMicro Juntas SK, Spišská Nová Ves, http://microjuntas.sk (under preparation)Rudolph Usinados SK, Spišská Nová Ves, www.rudolph.com.br

Lots of 2011 newborns at Bratislava Zoo

ABOUT 650 animals are being bred at Bratislava Zoo and last year the zoo recorded a baby boom. “The most recent newborn is a giraffe named Miss Salome, who will surely be popular with visitors,” Katarína Matejovičová of the zoo’s marketing department told the TASR newswire. Salome was born on December 4, 2011, to her parents Tejla, age 13, and Batar, age 14.

NGOs see the ruling as confirmation of onging segregation.

Court ruling opens door to integration

HUMAN rights watchdogs in Slovakia have long highlighted cases of segregation involving Roma children attending primary schools. They argue that being separated from their non-Roma peers disadvantages Roma children when it comes to reaching higher levels of education. However, some Slovak teachers have responded by arguing that the practice of special classes for Roma children is justified in order to maintain educational standards. Now, a ruling by the Prešov District Court, which recently found that a school applying the practice was in violation of the principle of equal treatment, could result in a breakthrough in the stand-off on the issue.

Embraco grows in Spisšká Nová Ves

EMBRACO Slovakia, the largest employer in the Spiš region, launched production of a more efficient compressor model in its plant in Spišská Nová Ves last June. The SITA newswire wrote at that time that the company’s investment in the new production line totalled €13.5 million and that the Slovak government provided investment stimuli worth €6.9 million. These included a €1.5 million subsidy for creating the new work positions, €2.3 million in tax relief between 2012 and 2014 and a €2.7 million subsidy to procure production assets. Embraco Slovakia is part of what is now a global corporation that was founded in 1974 in Joinville, Brazil.

Archive of articles - January 2012, page 6