List of author's articles, page 13
Slovak rockets sold to war-torn Sri Lanka
IN AN APPARENT violation of the EU’s Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, the Economy Ministry has approved a shipment of 10,000 artillery rockets to the Sri Lankan government, which is engaged in a civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels in which both sides are suspected of grave human rights abuses.
Very little sympathy for the code
IN THE SHOWDOWN over Slovakia's new Press Code, the governing coalition is giving no quarter on its most controversial provision.
International editors pan draft Press Code
FEW internationally-known newspapers publish replies to articles on their front pages - This is the result of an informal canvassing of newspaper editors by The Slovak Spectator.
Dzurinda quashes rebellion
FACING a rebellion from its Bratislava region branch, the national leadership of the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) has taken the unprecedented step of abolishing the entire organisation and building it again from scratch.
Mikloš: "They paid the price"Party vice-chairman explains leadership's stance on rebels
ON THE DAY the SDKÚ party leadership decided to abolish the 32 local party organisations making up the Bratislava region wing, The Slovak Spectator spoke with SDKÚ No. 2 Ivan Mikloš about the political and economic background to the party's internal dispute. Mikloš, in a relaxed mood at party headquarters, gave no indication of the radical step he and his colleagues were about to take against the rebel Bratislava group.
Smer member implicated in land transfer scheme
AN INFLUENTIAL member of the ruling Smer party has rejected allegations that he orchestrated the transfer of a lucrative parcel of state land near Bratislava to a private firm owned by his girlfriend and his former employee for a fraction of its real worth.
“Willingness to learn” Mác’s business edge
JURAJ Mác, a mild, fast-talking man in his late 30s, is the driving force behind Metalurg. He grew up in a middle-class family in a housing project in the Karlová Ves suburb of Bratislava, the son of a pharmaceutical employee and a water and sewers official. Even while in school, he says, he always had odd jobs to earn money on the side, from a paper route, to stocking shelves in the country’s first privately-owned grocery store, to cleaning wagons in a brick works.
Financing Austrian real estate
Some Slovak buyers are surprised to find that the final purchase price of real estate in Austria may be up to 10% higher than the list price, as it includes the real estate agent’s fee, a 3.5% real estate tax, a 1% fee for recording the sale in the land register, and 2% for the public notary’s fee. Real estate agents commonly inform buyers of all the supplementary fees before a binding offer is submitted, however.
Slovakia needs an Obama of its own
Barack Obama is a gifted speaker. If the first time you see him is after reading for months how good he is, you may be underwhelmed, because he’s not Martin Luther King. But there’s no doubt he’s leagues better than his rivals, and he may well be the most inspiring political orator the US has seen since John F. Kennedy.
It’s a diner’s market
It’s difficult to keep up with Bratislava’s restaurant openings. Fond old faces regularly disappear in a cloud of construction dust to emerge in unfamiliar garb. New arrivals crowd converted office buildings or renovated Old Town memorials. Five or ten years are enough to qualify a business here as “established”, or to lend its cuisine “tradition”.
The boy from Partizánske
He danced during the 1990s with the Nederlands Dans Theater, and then joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal as a principal dancer. He has been choreographing ballet since 2002, his work presented across Canada and Europe. His life partner, Anik Bissonnette of Les Grands, retired from the ballet last year after 18 years, but he has danced on as the director of the SND Ballet in Bratislava since September 2006, a role he was offered “like a bolt from the blue”. Mário Radačovský.
Where do I pay taxes?
Of key concern to Slovak residents buying real estate in Austria is whether they will continue to be able to enjoy Slovakia’s favorable 19% income tax rate when they actually live in Austria.
Sandwiches worth taking out
Finding a decent place to eat lunch in the Slovak capital is getting easier. Not only are decent restaurants starting to offer regular lunch menus – soup or starters, main course, coffee and desert for a discounted price – but competition is also fierce between lower-end restaurants and canteens, who are trying to speed up service and table rotation to make as much as possible from the lunch hour.
Metalurg fulfilling Havel’s vision
SEVENTEEN years after former Czechoslovak president Václav Havel ordered the country’s weapons factories to be converted to civilian production, a privately-owned steel plant in Western Slovakia is finally doing just that.
Sýkora and the oil scammers
The ‘oil for diesel’ scam involved the substitution of lower-taxed heating oil for higher-taxed diesel fuel at the pumps; the key to the fraud was that the oil could be altered to give it similar properties as diesel. The fake diesel was often imported as oil and then traded among a complex network of shell companies until it emerged as auto fuel. Companies in Slovakia also manufactured the ersatz diesel by mixing cheap petroleum products together with chemicals. The scam earned the mafia hundreds of billions of crowns in profits in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic during the 1990s (in Slovakia it continues unabated). It was originally devised by the Russian mafia in New York in the 1980s, and was then ‘exported’ to the former Warsaw Pact countries after the end of Communism.
Thousands discovering advantages of Austria
A century ago, Bratislava was a multicultural city where you were more likely to hear German or Hungarian on the streets than Slovak. Now that the last borders separating them from the rest of Europe have been raised, the residents of the Slovak capital are reasserting themselves as citizens of Central Europe – in part by buying up Austrian real estate.
Friends in high places
THE AVOCAT law firm and the Doxx food vouchers company are proving remarkably successful at winning contracts from state institutions led by nominees of the Slovak National Party (SNS). Coincidentally, the owners of both firms know SNS Chairman Ján Slota.
CIA uses Bratislava airport
THE MYSTERIOUS unmarked jetliner that was parked at Bratislava airport until suddenly departing on March 11 belongs to an American company that owns other aircraft used by the CIA.
Slovakia’s mafia pioneer
If Slovakia has a Mafia Godfather, the police say, it is Miroslav Sýkora. A stalwart six-footer with cropped dark hair, Sýkora is believed to be one of the founders of organized crime in Slovakia in the early 1990s along with a former wrestler, Ján Takáč. At the outset, the pair agreed not to work with the Russian mafia, but the ink on their “deal” was scarcely dry before Sýkora broke it. His bad faith led to a split with Takáč, forming two competing mafia groups in the Slovak capital that would eventually become known as the Sýkorovci and the Takáčovci.
Cops get jail for torture
KAROL Sendrei, a Roma from the mining town of Magnezitovce in south-central Slovakia, died seven years ago after spending 12 hours in police custody. He was handcuffed to a radiator by officers at the local station in Revúca and beaten, kicked and jumped on until he was pronounced dead at 07:15.
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- US giant pulls plug on Slovak factory, axing 137 jobs
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- Hundreds of people ousted from Bratislava’s Volkswagen
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- Bratislava’s embassy-backed events you don’t want to miss
- Water supply to be cut in parts of Bratislava’s Old Town in late April More articles ›
