Around Slovakia

Blackout at Roosevelt Hospital
Czech soccer champs forced to play in HZDS jerseys
Fastest halušky makers and eaters awarded

BANSKÁ BYSTRICA
Blackout at Roosevelt Hospital

Banská Bystrica's Roosevelt Hospital experienced a total blackout on June 5, endangering the lives of two patients in the intensive care unit when electrical devices had to be replaced with human power. The back-up power system was not activated, forcing nurses and doctors to replace respirators with rubber sacks for about one hour. "It is easier to talk about those stressful moments now", said Miloš Herko, the doctor who was on duty during the critical moments. "Usually, we have about five or six patients who depend on respirators. Fortunately, on Friday there were only two." The power went off again four days later, but this time the back up system worked smoothly. "The equipment that is supposed to back up the electricity is so old [here] that they don't have a similar one even at the museum", said Ján Buchala, who is in charge of power supply. "Last July, I asked the Health Ministry for financial help, but we did not even get an answer from them," he added.


PREŠOV
Czech soccer champs forced to play in HZDS jerseys

Players of the Sparta Prague soccer club, the reigning Czech champion, were taken by surprise when they were forced to trade their traditional red jerseys for the jerseys of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) at a June 5 benefit game against the Slovak team Tatran Prešov. Shortly before the game, Alexander Rezeš, HZDS election campaign manager and majority owner of the Prague team, came into the team's locker room and put the HZDS jerseys on the table, ordering the players to wear them. In their new jerseys, Sparta Prague players suffered a humiliating 3-2 defeat at the hands of their opponents, a tenth-place team in the Slovak league. Originally, Mečiar had been scheduled to play along with the Sparta players for a few minutes, but eyewitnesses reported that the Slovak Premier confined his participation to a ceremonial kick-off. Prešov spectators reacted to the jersey switch by whistling and jeering at Mečiar, but drew no reaction from the HZDS leader. "I am a professional, so it doesn't matter to me what jersey I wear," commented Jiří Novotný, Sparta and Czech national team defender. The match was part of the 100th year anniversary celebration of football in the Prešov region


TURECKÁ
Fastest halušky makers and eaters awarded

The fourth world championship of makers of halušky, original Slovak dumplings, took place in the small village of Turecká on May 30, with 52 teams from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Great Britain competing. The winner was a Slovak team from Šaľa, Zvolen, and Neresnice, which cooked the set amount of halušky in one hour and 20 minutes. Afterwards, all teams had to eat what they had prepared. The newly-crowned fastest halušky eaters in the world are the members of the Mišiak Model team from Banská Bystrica.


Compiled by Andrea Lörinczová

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