Archive of articles - November 2012, page 7

Aréna Theatre offers show with English subtitles

THE BRATISLAVA-based Aréna Theatre is opening up to the world – by staging plays with English subtitles. The first piece to be premiered in this way, on November 19, is the play November by US playwright David Mamet.

President lashes out at journalist

“ARE YOU a complete illiterate?” was how Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič responded when a reporter from the Sme daily asked him to explain why he has so far failed to appoint as general prosecutor Jozef Čentéš, who was elected to the position by parliament on June 7, 2011. Gašparovič then recommended that the journalist read a recent decision by the Constitutional Court: “Read – if you are able to read – the decision of the Constitutional Court: it is there in black and white”. As he left the room, the president, referring to the reporter, muttered: “She is not normal.”

Outlets planned in Slovakia

One Fashion Outlet, www.onefashionoutlet.sk-a €65-million project divided into three phases with total selling space of 36,500 m2. Investment in the first phase of 15,000 m2 is €30 million.

Smer maintains clear lead in polls

SMER, the ruling party led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, has emerged victorious in the latest political opinion poll. In a survey conducted by the Polis Slovakia polling agency, 43.1 percent of respondents said they would have voted for the ruling party if a general election had been held between November 2 and 12, the TASR newswire reported.

The threat of a strike remains

REPRESENTATIVES of teachers’ trade unions met President Ivan Gašparovič and Education Minister Dušan Čaplovič on November 12, less than two weeks ahead of an indefinite nationwide strike due to begin on Monday, November 26. However, they failed to make a breakthrough. Teachers are demanding a 10-percent salary increase as of January 2013, the TASR newswire reported.

Optimistic forecasts for Xmas spending

SLOVAKS stick to traditions and this may be the reason for high expectations for Christmas spending this year. But while some experts forecast higher Christmas spending, others warn that inflation might play a role in these higher predictions.

Retail sales continue to fall

RETAIL sales in Slovakia have now been falling for several years, and their pace of decline grew even steeper in September 2012. Sales fell by 1.7 percent in September year-on-year, while the August decline was 0.9 percent, the Slovak Statistics Office reported in early November. The September trend confirmed the medium-term negative trend. The last time Slovakia registered a year-on-year increase in retail sales was May this year, the SITA newswire wrote.

Analphabeticism

IN A FUNCTIONING democracy people give power to public officials by electing them to office and public officials give people information so that they can effectively control them and make informed decisions in elections, explained Pulitzer winning journalist Tim Weiner during his meetings with students of Slovak universities in which he stressed that information is power. If the students were listening carefully, they cannot help but see the recent response of Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič to a journalist inquiring about an issue of public interest in this context.

Curbing a dangerous form of theft

A LITTLE girl died for the sake of a couple of euros. That was how the media reported the death of a child who was swept away after falling into a sewer in Nitra on May 10 because a surface manhole cover was missing. The three-year-old’s body was later found in a wastewater treatment plant. The case prompted a debate among MPs about a long-term problem in Slovakia: the theft of public property for sale to scrap metal merchants.

Professionals in Shopping Malls & Shopping Centres

Books in English now available in Slovakia

The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins. Scholastic Children’s Books, 2012 (first published in 2008).

Demandice’s mystifying origins

DEMANDICE lies to the south-east of Levice, in the western part of Ipeľská pahorkatina in Nitra Region. The first written mention of the municipality dates back to 1291, and the town’s chief land owners are mentioned in this historical document – the aristocratic family of Démendis. It was not uncommon for land owners to bear the name of the municipality in which they lived. It is not clear, however, whether the Deméndis family took their name from the municipality, or if the municipality was named after them.

Quote of the week

“Can you not read the Constitutional Court ruling? It is there in white on black [sic].”

Slovak power juggler Roskopf made two more world records

Bratislava power juggler Milan Roskopf was successful on October 21 at a world festival of non-traditional records, called Impossibility Challenger 2012, held in Budapest. The athlete famous as “the man with three balls” wanted to achieve a world record by juggling bowling balls weighing 12 pounds each – a total weight of 16.3 kilograms.

Victims’ families to get compensation

THE COMPANIES involved in building a highway bridge which collapsed on November 2 near the villages of Kurimany and Iliašovce in Prešov Region, killing four and injuring 12, will compensate some of the victims’ families. Representatives of Váhostav – SK and Bögl & Krýsl promised that every month until the end of the investigation they would pay an amount equal to the salaries of the four workers who died in the accident, the SITA newswire wrote.

Memorial tiles placed in front of Holocaust victims’ houses

The cities of Banská Bystrica and Brezno joined many others in 11 countries on October 31, when, as part of the Stolpersteine project, they placed memorial tiles in front of the houses of those who were deported during the Holocaust.

More places to shop

THE COMPLICATED economic situation and concerns about the future may be curbing retail sales in Slovakia, but are not preventing the opening of new shopping complexes. In October, a new shopping centre opened in Bratislava and more projects are in the pipeline. It also appears that Slovakia will finally have its own factory outlet, with two new projects underway, less than 20 kilometres apart. Experts predict that only one of them will survive.

Modern burial technologies were presented at the Slovak Funeral 2012 exhibition

Slovak Funeral 2012, the first international fair of its kind, displayed for professionals as well as lay visitors, modern technologies connected with funerals. It took place between November 8 and 10 at the Expo Centre fair-ground in Trenčín.

New law applies to retail chains

THE BARGAINING position of Slovak suppliers of retail chains should soon improve. The Slovak Parliament adopted a law with this objective on October 26. Taking effect on January 1, 2013, the law on unfair terms in retail chains, the subject of which is food, defines as unreasonable conditions the requirement of a fee for the inclusion of a supplier in the register of suppliers, a fee for the inclusion of a food product into the records of sold products, as well as financial benefits for services that were not provided. A merchant can be fined from €1,000 to €300,000 if such inappropriate terms are anchored in a business contract with a supplier, the SITA newswire wrote.