Re: EC says Slovakia lags behind in internet skills and capacity, Flash news briefs, Feb 23 - 29, 2004, Vol 10, No 7
It isn't the fact that Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia that is the reason for [the population's lack of internet savvy], but the fact that the price of internet access is kept artificially high. Some of the best computer programmers are from Slovakia and always have been. The statement that the Czechs were robbing the Slovaks is a myth and was never true. Slovakia actually had a very good starting position, especially compared to Hungary and Poland, but blew it during the "macroeconomic miracle" of Mečiar's government. Actually, I think that Slovakia would have been doing a lot better if [the Czechoslovak Federal Republic] had stayed together, maybe except for Bratislava. That would have meant a bigger market, less barriers, and more tradition. With the split, billions of crowns were spent building such useless things as border posts with the Czech Republic. This money could have been better spent elsewhere.
Anonymous,
Montreal, Canada
