List of author's articles, page 6
Tolerant Dutch notch gay-rights first
For the first time in its history, Slovakia has a non-pornographic homosexual magazine, a feat its Slovak creators said would not have been possible were it not for the Dutch community in Slovakia.The Dutch, long considered beacons of liberalism by the international community for their stances on abortion, hard drugs, legalised marijuana and prostitution, have in this country been lauded for their open-mindedness and acceptance."If it weren't for the Dutch embassy's support of the [Atribút gay/lesbian] magazine, we would have had to find some other way to get the money," said Marián Greč, spokesperson for the Bratislava-based HaBiO homosexual rights group and external editor of the magazine. "We needed the financing because we wanted to create a magazine focused only on the social, political and cultural themes of the homosexual community."
Ex-Mečiar aide attempts to kill son, self
Blažena Martinková, a former advisor "for everything" to then-Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, attempted to murder her nine-year old son on October 27 in Vienna. After the failed attempt, she then unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide.According to the Slovak press agency TASR, Martinková attacked her sleeping son, Filip, with a knife at 5:00 on Friday morning. Her husband Karol Martinka, who was awoken by screams, broke down the door to his son's room and flung his wife aside. She then repeatedly stabbed herself in the chest before jumping out of a second-floor window nine feet above ground level.Filip Martinka was rushed to the Vienna general hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery. He suffered serious back, spinal column and heart injuries. Martinková, who is receiving treatment in a different Vienna hospital under police guard, incurred broken vertebrae from her fall, as well as the self-inflicted stab wounds.
Italian flair leavening dogged Slovaks
A car with Italian plates pulls over to the curb in the Bratislava Old Town in front of Ján, a 25 year-old pedestrian. An Italian couple in their 40's leap from the car and ply the young man with questions, presumably in search of directions.After fruitlessly attempting to communicate with the couple in Slovak, English - even Turkish - Ján gives up, and the animated couple jump back into their auto in a blur and speed off. Bemused by their boldness, Ján smiles as the car speeds away. "Italians are definitely not shy," he says. "They'll just drive into Bratislava, jump out of their cars and start speaking to anyone in Italian."
Crime boss appeal receives boost
The government's apparent inability to put important Mečiar-era criminals behind bars, despite its 1998 promises, may weaken voter confidence and lead to a backlash the next time Slovaks go to the polls, a prominent political analyst said this week."A big part of the population voted for the ruling coalition because of issues unrelated to the economy like democracy, European Union accession and fighting crime," said Grigorij Mesežnikov, head of the Bratislava-based think tank Institute for Public Affairs (IVO). "Therefore it is important for the government to solve crime, one of the hottest problems in society. If they don't, people will perceive the government as weak."
ST punished for monopoly abuse
Telecoms monopoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (Slovak Telecom - ST) has been punished by the Anti-Monopoly Office (PMÚ) for the second time in the last 18 months for "abusing their dominant position on the market".The ruling came after the Association of Private Internet Providers (API) filed a complaint with the office against ST for installing a "frequency filter" limiting data transfers for Internet access on the fixed line used by the Slovak Agriculture University in Nitra.PMÚ director Imrich Cvíp told The Slovak Spectator that his office had ruled in favour of the API and had levied a 10 million Slovak crown ($200,000) fine against ST for abusing their monopoly status.
Transients hurt English teachers' image
Do Slovaks want to learn English? "Yes. It's the world language," said Andrea Janeušková, a 28-year old English student and pharmaceutical firm employee with aspirations of heading West. "And if you know English, you can get a better job with a foreign firm."And how do Slovaks believe they can best master the language? "When learning English, it's better with a native speaker," she added. "I have had Slovak teachers and some are good, some are not. It's best with a native speaker because then I am forced to speak and express myself only in English."The Slovak appetite for the native speaker has, since the 1989 fall of communism, brought a flood of expat English teachers into the country. As any student, teacher or language school manager can verify, the rush of westerners has brought its fair share of dedicated and qualified teachers; it has also, however, brought the so-called 'backpacker', a sub-group of transient, unqualified teachers more interested in experiencing cheap beer and Slovak women for a season than in imparting knowledge of their mother tongue to their eager students.
Catholic Slovaks open to religious minorities
Limping about her Bratislava Open Society Foundation office ("I threw my back out," she said with a weary grin), 28 year-old Tatiana Rajniaková explained with a mixture of fond recollection and rapt concentration the heady days following the fall of communism."After the revolution we were soul-hungry, we were searching for spirituality," she said. "Many different religions came [to Czechoslovakia] and especially the younger people were very open to their messages."In 1990, Rajniaková came into contact with members of the Bahá'í faith and, attracted to their belief in 'progressive revelations' and their non-institutional structure, she became a member. "It's not like a church, there's no clergy, no one to say whether you're doing enough," she said. "It's an individual search for truth."
ST in monopoly fracas again
A heated battle has again broken out between the Association of Private Internet providers (API) and telecoms monopoly Slovenské telekomunikácie (Slovak Telecom - ST). API has angrily accused ST of abusing its monopoly status by installing a "frequency filter" [limiting the speed at which data can be transferred] on the fixed line used by the Slovak Agriculture University in Nitra, prohibiting the school's Internet access."By installing the filter, ST reduced the capabilities of the line to less than 1% of its previous capacity in an effort to force the institution into ordering the new Analogue Plus [an Internet service provided by ST] - which costs three times as much as the original line - or an even more expensive digital network," wrote API chairman of the board Ján Vigaš in an official statement on September 12.
Slovak gays pushed to limit
Gloomily shaking his head, 25-year old homosexual Slovak resident Juraj [not his real name], pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a deep sigh. He had just re-read anti-homosexual comments made August 17 by Slovak Justice Minister Ján Čarnogurský and his party-mate Alojz Rakús."It's not a surprise at all, but it depresses me and makes me want to leave the country," said Juraj. "I'm jaded and I simply want to get out of here, go to a big city in the West and lead a normal life."Juraj's depression is the result, he said, of the fact that he lives in a country where high-profile politicians are free to say that same-sex marriages "degrade the family" (Čarnogurský), and that homosexuality is cureable; indeed at a 52% rate (Rakús). Politicians say these things, Juraj continued, because the citizenry generally agrees with such statements.
Roma murder sparks call to action
Slovakia's so-called 'Roma problem' has reached boiling point in recent weeks. On August 22, three unknown assailants armed with baseball bats broke into the home of a Roma family in the northern Slovak city of Žilina and began attacking the youngest children as they lay in bed.As the attackers screamed racial epithets, including, "We will kill you, black faces!", the children's mother, 50-year old Anastázia Balážová, tried to intervene to protect her daughters, two of whom had to be treated later for their wounds in hospital. During the assault, Balážová was struck in the head and died two days later.
Language school's woes pit owner against employees
Slovpro language schools are in trouble, and the two camps involved are pinning the blame on each other. With branches in Bratislava, Košice, Banská Bystrica, and Trnava, about the only thing that former Slovpro regional managers can agree upon with Slovpro founder and director Andrew Miller is that the school's recent financial results have been abysmal.Besides that point, however, the two sides can find no common ground as an ugly battle of barbed words and legal threats has resulted in Miller "cleaning house" while his former employees demand immediate payment of late salaries."Everyone is jumping ship on him [Miller]," said Gabriel Kindernay, the former Banská Bystrica regional manager.
New US Ambassador picked after long wait
Carl Spielvogel was sworn in as the new US ambassador to Slovakia by Bill Clinton on August 8, ending an American ambassadorial void which had lasted over a year since the departure of former ambassador Ralph Johnson.Spielvogel, a backer of the Clinton administration and a successful businessman in the US, was first appointed to the post on June 29, 1999. The selection was then blocked, however, by Republican Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa, who was protesting the firing of Linda Shenwick, a UN employee accused of giving away secret information when she complained to Congress about UN waste and mismanagement. Would-be US ambassadors to Switzerland and the Philippines were also held up by Grassley's actions.But Grassley dropped his protest last week, clearing the way for Spielvogel's second appointment on August 3, a move which a spokeman at the US embassy in Bratislava said had been "unexpected." Spielvogel's arrival, he added, would be "sometime in the near future," although he could not give a specific date.
Scarred refugees view Slovakia as a "transitional country"
BREZOVÁ POD BRADLOM: Four year-old Anna and her three year-old brother Hamlet giggled uncontrollably as they wrestled over a ball at a refugee camp in western Slovakia. Considering their harrowing journey to Slovakia just three months ago, their laughter was remarkable.The children's' father, 30 year-old Geno, said he had seen "something I should not have seen" in their native Armenia. When the people committing the crime he had witnessed threatened to kill him, Geno scraped up $10,000 to pay a local ring of so-called body smugglers to take him and his family to Slovakia. The journey meant hiding in the back of a truck with a group of others fleeing the country."They drove us up here through Turkey - we were in the truck for 15 days," Geno said at the Brezová pod Bradlom camp on July 25. "Armenia has many political problems, it's better here in Slovakia."
'Assisted reproduction' gives hope
Silvia Veľká (30) has spent the last 12 years with ovarian cysts, a condition which had made it impossible for her to bear children. Frustrated by her apparent infertility, she went to Iscare, an Israeli firm with a centre in Bratislava which specialises in "assisted reproduction" through artificial insemination.Today, Veľká can hardly mask her euphoria - she's pregnant. "I never imagined I'd be able to have children," she said ecstatically shortly after learning of her pregnancy in June. "I'm so happy, and my husband is incredibly happy, too."Veľká underwent a process known as in vitro fertilisation (IVF), explained by Iscare gynaecologist Jozef Valky as the "basic procedure" of taking a woman's egg and a man's sperm, placing them under a microscope and waiting for natural fertilisation to occur. If successful, the fertilised egg is placed in an incubator for maturation.
Chinese wary of talking to outsiders
Wang Zhen thought he was going to Japan, and then to Austria - but certainly not to Slovakia.After finishing culinary school in his native Tsing Tao, a Chinese city of seven million inhabitants, he expected to head off to the island country of Japan to be a cook. When that job didn't pan out, his sister arranged an international job for him. Soon thereafter, a surprised Wang found himself cooking Chinese meals in Bratislava's Shangai Restaurant in Hotel Astra."I thought she'd get me to Austria," he says now. "When I came here in 1992, I didn't have any free time for more than one year. I used to work all day long."
Nuclear plants anger activists
No environmental issue in Slovakia invokes the passionate emotions the nuclear debate does. Burning questions over the safety of the Russian-designed plants are unlikely to vanish until they are completely shut down: the US Department of Energy in 1995 ranked one of the country's reactors one of the nine most dangerous in the world, while the company Electricité de France, a former key supplier to Slovakia's nuclear sector, said the reactor in question could never reach an acceptable level of safety, regardless of upgrades.But while Slovak energy officials say that safety concerns have been met through upgrades and the promise of shut downs beginning in 2006, other questions have arisen, concerns which are forcing the country's energy policy makers to examine the operation of the nuclear sector.
Review: Kriváň: Serving up the catch of the day
On a recent mid-June day, the weather in Bratislava was windy and rainy, the swollen Danube River was at some spots less than a metre short of spilling into Petržalka, and Kriváň - the new boat restaurant and museum on the river - was rocking in the excited water.Kriváň opened just this spring, across from the Old Town, down-river from Nový most (New Bridge). While the unseasonably cool weather has kept visitors to its deck at a minimum, the staff appears to have spent the down-time polishing up their act, resulting in an excellent dining experience.
Bookshop an English lifeline
When Big Ben Bookshop on Bratislava's Michalská ulica shut its doors last spring, foreigners in the capital city were left with few outlets at which to purchase English-language books. Most book stores in the Old Town limit their English selections to a shelf or two, mainly dictionaries, grammar books, travel guides, and maybe some Penguin Classics.But soon after the departure of Big Ben, a new shop entered the scene: Eurobooks, which celebrated its first anniversary on June 15, and today offers any book available in English to its customers."It's usually the first place I go for books in Bratislava," said Dušan Djurovič, himself an aspiring English-language author. "I'm not really a book-reading fanatic. But, I've been quite satisfied with Eurobooks."
Slovak forests facing uncertain future
Slovakia's picturesque national parks and nature reserves are among Europe's most impressive; indeed, with forests covering over 40% of the nation's total area, Slovakia is the fourth most wooded country in Europe.But the country's trees are a prime example that strength does not necessarily come in numbers. Maintaining a healthy forest is an uphill battle, as environmentalists say that economic interests outwiegh environmental concerns, while irresponsible Slovak firms and citizens further the molestation of the land."There is currently an intense exploitation of Slovakia's forests occurring," said Mikuláš Huba, president of the environmental non-government organisation Society for Sustainable Living. "The forests are now consequently suffering from poor health."
Waste Law to clean up Slovakia
When Environment Minister Lázsló Miklós recently confessed that his country faced a tall order in fulfilling the chapter on environment in the acquis communautaire, Slovakia's national programme for adopting European Union legislation, few environmental observers were surprised. Slovakia, the minister said, lacked the resources and the know-how to raise its national environmental standards to those of its western European counterparts.Garbage, and what to do with it, is a typical problem confronting the Environment Ministry: Slovakia generates too much waste, and does not recycle enough by Western standards. According to ministry statistics, the average Slovak in 1998 produced 322.6 kilograms of garbage, of which only 7.8 kilograms (2.4%) was recycled.
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