List of author's articles, page 7
CIA and Britain's MI5 also criticised
THE UNITED States has 17 intelligence agencies that had a collective annual budget of $44 billion in 2005. The CIA alone, whose job is to collect information on foreign governments, companies and individuals, employs an estimated 20,000 people, making it a challenge for civilian oversight to keep tabs.
Slovakia’s spies avoid the limelight
WHEN Jozef Magala took over as director of the Slovak secret service in the summer of 2006, the SIS was in crisis. A power struggle between two of its top officers – inspection head Anton R. and counter-intelligence chief Ľubomír A. – had spilled into the open.
Gay pride, Slovak shame
As the tear gas filled our eyes at Gay Pride Bratislava on Saturday, causingmy two-year-old daughter to shriek with pain and fear, my first thought was- where are the police? How can this be happening?
Co-founder of Smer claims party signed deals with sponsors ahead of 2002 elections
ONE OF the co-founders of PM Robert Fico's Smer is claiming the party signed secret deals with off-the-books sponsors ahead of 2002 parliamentary elections guaranteeing them state posts and other benefits in return for multi-million crown gifts.
One Goooly too many
AS SOMEONE who has taken a bit of ribbing over the years for his malapropisms in Slovak, I feel I have earned the right to comment on the use of English by Slovaks. And I’m afraid to say that the name the authorities chose for their World Hockey Championships 2011 mascot – Goooly – is rather unfortunate. In Britain, gooly is slang for testicle, although it can also mean a pathetic loser, according to the online “urban dictionary”. Either way, the Slovak ice hockey association might want to have another crack at it.
The week in Slovakia
Content of programme: Government flunks the corruption test; A town shuts off the water to the Roma; Freeway completion is in sight; An activist loses his home to fire; The first day of May reawakens memories
Land mafia preyed on absent owners
WHEN police raided the Stupava residence of Radoslav Zimčák in the fall of 2008, they struck pay-dirt – their search turned up 18 forged personal ID cards, a laminating machine and a variety of spare photographs. The find confirmed what they had already come to believe, that an organised gang was impersonating absentee owners of land around Bratislava in order to get their hands on hundreds of hectares of prime real estate.
The week in Slovakia
Content of programme: Cabinet cooks books on freeway project; Language police not laughing at Hungarian comedy; Scientists appeal to cabinet to save Tatras; New public attractions in Bratislava
David John Wingell - The life and death of an ex
DAVE Wingell passed away on April 19 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 45.
How to make €60 million
FROM the outset it looked like a strange decision. A Poprad district court judge ruled on March 26 that the Slovak Land Fund (SPF) was liable for at least €60 million in damages for allegedly breaking a promise to sell some farmland to a would-be investor. The land itself was worth €10 million at most, and developing it would have required a far greater outlay. Judge Peter Koman did not explain how he arrived at his compensation figure.
Fulmek: We need a signal from foreigners
The Slovak Spectator (TSS): What possessed you 10 years ago to buy an English-language weekly? Alexej Fulmek (AF): It’s not that it occurred to me, but that we were approached by the founders of The Slovak Spectator in 1999 or 2000, at a time when they all wanted to leave Slovakia and were looking for someone to invest in the newspaper. For us it was less an investment opportunity than a chance to own an English-language newspaper that produced quality journalism and that reported on events in Slovakia through the prism of values that were similar to those of the Sme daily. Those were the reasons we wanted to keep the newspaper on the market. If we hadn’t bought the paper it probably would have folded.
When courts fail, media deliver justice
Back in simpler times, back in the 1980s, we were taught that age determines politics. As one teacher put it, if you’re not a socialist in your twenties you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative in your forties you have no brain.
The week in Slovakia
Content of programme: Poland buries its president; An ash cloud shuts the skies over Europ; Campaign in full swing; Fico and Mikloš lock horns on the economy; Feeling dumped on in Pezinok
The week in Slovakia
Content of programme: Right and far-right win big in Hungary; Mourning Poland’s tragedy; Russian president ignores 1968; Justice system in crisis; Thousands protest opening Tatras to logging; Thieves make withdrawal; Slivovica, the wonder drug
Interblue scandal gets some names
THE EMISSIONS scandal now has a name to go with the millions of euros in lost state revenues: Rastislav Bilas, a little-known businessman from a small town in east Slovakia.
The man behind the horse
RASTISLAV Bilas, an obscure entrepreneur from Slovakia’s far east, did his best to take the blame for the country’s most recent political scandal. During a colourful and occasionally bizarre press conference on March 24, Bilas claimed that he had been “project manager” on a deal last year which saw 15 million tonnes of state emission quotas sold by the Environment Ministry to a US-based shell company for about half of their real worth, or €75 million.
Working both sides of the deal
OF THE TWO “project managers” for Interblue, the US shell company that earned almost €50 million trading 15 million tonnes in Slovak state emissions quotas, Norbert Havalec seems to have been the better businessman.
The week in Slovakia
Content of programme: The man behind the emissions scandal steps forward; Secrets of the secret service revealed; Campaign season opens with political broadsides; And… helping the toads of spring
Mill workers still waiting for privatisation money
WHAT new charges can be aimed against “privatisation” – sales of state property – during the 1990s in Slovakia that have not already been laid? That the process was ruled by kickbacks, nepotism and discrimination against foreign investors is common knowledge. And that public assets were grossly mismanaged is certain: companies with an accounting value of Sk109 billion were sold off during the four frenzied years of Vladimír Mečiar’s government (1994-1998), but yielded only Sk20 billion in income.
Land Fund manager on trial for fraud
VALUABLE undeveloped land beneath the High Tatras mountains handed out to companies with ties to the ruling coalition. Dozens of hectares sold for a song to a firm that helped a senior coalition figure, Vladimír Mečiar, explain where he got the money to pay for his estate. The Slovak Land Fund (SPF) has been at the centre of some of the gravest scandals involving the handling of public property during the Fico government.
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- A partnership centuries in the making
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- What abides: Giving a shit
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- Foot-and-mouth outbreak hits major Slovak cattle farm near Austrian and Czech borders Photo
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- Strange romance: Slovak leaders’ affection for Russia has yo-yoed
- News digest: PM Fico questions Europe's rearmament
- Young Slovak ice-hockey sensation helps her team secure US title
- One of the biggest car makers enters Slovak market
- Parts of Bratislava to witness significant development in near future
- Last Week: And then they came for the NGOs
- Slovakia brings back border checks with Hungary and Austria starting April 8
- News digest: Crisis, what crisis? Culture minister's empty limousine tours Europe
- Don’t be afraid to use cash, say entrepreneurs as transaction tax begins
