All in OPINION
History has shown that the Slovak-Hungarian relations are fragile and if the grievances are not approached carefully it can easily become confronting and even hostile. Growing up during the notorious Jan Slota era, I personally experienced how comments fuelling hate can easily be translated to every-day conversations, even between children.
Suffering a shocking defeat to the populist Republican Donald Trump left the Democrats of the USA in an uncertain position. Clinton, despite winning the popular vote and running on a strong feminist narrative that appealed to the liberal voters of the USA, lost. This narrative was especially important for the Democrats, as they had effectively sabotaged the campaign of Sanders, and thus needed to find a candidate which would fill the shoes of the Social Democrat.
The revolution is like drinking too much vodka. The first few shots are hopeful – even euphoric. The world seems to be in equilibrium with your improving mood – ready for a personal revolution, everything seems bright and shining, solutions seem easy and within a grasp of another shot of vodka. Then, as the ethanol in your veins increases in amount, things start to look blurry and incomprehensible.
On this day 30 years ago, the police of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime has used violence in order to suppress a student demonstration that has started as a celebration of the international students' day. The protesters started to demand from the government to uphold the human rights of all citizens, the freeing of political prisoners, as well as dialogue between the government and various independent initiatives. Due to that, the police tried to dissolve the demonstration.
“The voters know absolutely nothing. They have no idea what is going on. These people apprehend only the tiniest superficial bits.” According to the audio recordings, these are the words of Jaroslav Haščák, one of the wealthiest Slovaks, describing his perception of democracy in practice. But, are these comments so far away from reality?
When we talk about culture, we tend to overemphasise emblematic features such as language, art, laws, customs, beliefs, knowledge and morals of a particular people and to underemphasise one particular feature: food. But food – like these other features – is a potent force of cultures and identities not only because it is a biological necessity but also because it connects people everywhere.
Alabama’s new law imposes the most severe restrictions on abortion in the United States. The law was passed by 25 Republicans with the deliberate intention that it ends up before the Supreme Court. These 25 men decided what women should do with their bodies. How absurd.
“A selective view of history is often employed by mainstream politicians as well as by governments. In this article, I would like to look at one such case, which is quite close to our hearts at Il Ponte: namely, the Slovak treatment of medieval Great Moravia.”
It is on social media where the vast majority of political expression is carried out after all. Is this just because of the technology’s widespread popularity or are the digital commons the only place in which one can be public? Is the virtual in our eyes virtually the only option? So much of one’s identity is increasingly tied up into these social media platforms.
May 8, 1945, Europe. The wave of enthusiasm, hope, and relief, is flooding Europe. The war (for Europeans) is over! German Nazi forces representatives are signing unconditional surrender to the allied forces in Europe, merely 8 days after Hitler’s suicide (April 30, 1945). His "Thousand-Year Reich" lasted for 12 years (1933-1945).
Recently, the school which I am student of, the Juraj Hronec Gymnasium (GJH), was going to have a day on which students could come dressed as the opposite gender. It quickly became medialized and the school decided to cancel it.
25 years ago, on April 6, 1994, the plane of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down, killing everyone on board. The day after, on April 7, an apocalyptic genocide started to unfold in this small Central African nation. Over the course of the next 100 days, somewhere between 800 000 to 1 000 000 people have died, in the country with a population of 7 million.
A great jump towards racial equality in football took place in recent years all over the world. Racism though, still prevails, although Western Europe's leagues are more tolerant than the Eastern European.
These seem to be the only two options possible after the first round of presidential elections on Saturday 16, 2019. Zuzana Čaputová (read: tschaputova) won the first round with 40.6 % of the vote (870 415 votes), while Maroš Šefčovič (read: marosh chef-tchovitch), the candidate of the ruling party, secured only 18.7% (400 379).
How can we find the middle ground? Is there a way to be a proper feminist without stepping on anybody’s rights? People will always be offended or judgmental no matter the ideology.
On March 14th, 1939 the Slovak State declared its independence from Czechoslovakia. Since its inception, the Slovak State was tied to Nazi Germany by a ‘treaty of protection’ that allowed Germans to control all strategic industries as well as provided them with control of the Slovak foreign policy.
Sunday 18:00, 3 March 2019. This day and time will probably be remembered by every fan of ŠK Slovan Bratislava – historically the most famous and successful football club in Slovakia. It’s a day when Slovan, after 10 years, will return to the place where the history was written and where his fans feel at home– the iconic Tehelné Pole stadium (a brick field – loosely translated).
It has been twelve years now, twelve years of a government headed by Robert Fico and made in the likeness of that strongman of the ‘90s. There have been numerous scandals in Slovakia on Fico’s watch. Somehow, we tolerated all that. Until the headlines hit our screens on Monday morning, February 26, 2018. Several groups of organized crime have operated in Slovakia.
Two months ago, I was diagnosed with a case of chronic mistrust. Today, I am struggling with the disease, trying to defeat it. The disease started out inconspicuously. I received dose after dose of bold faced lies but did not realize that it what was happening.
First published by eTrend.sk 26.02.2018, 14:05
[WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED THE DAY AFTER INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST JÁN KUCIAK AND HIS FIANCÉ MARTINA KUSNIROVA — BOTH 27 YEARS OLD — WERE FOUND SHOT TO DEATH AT POINT-BLANK RANGE IN THE HOME THEY WERE FIXING UP TO MOVE INTO FOLLOWING THEIR WEDDING IN MAY 2018 – ED.]
