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.
Recent world news in a nutshell: Upcoming elections in Slovakia and the new political forces represented by Harabin. Iraq flooded by protests and riots. Hong Kong's standstill between the government and citizens continues.
Marek Vagovič is an investigative journalist working for web portal aktuality.sk. He won the Open Society journalist’s award 8-times already while being nominated for the same award 18-times so far. In 2018 he won Biela Vrana (White Crow) award together with other 6 fellow journalists for the civic courage and promotion of truth in society. One of the 7 recipients of the award was also his murdered colleague Ján Kuciak.
According to an internal report by Hewlett Packard, men apply for a job interview when they meet at least 60% of the required criteria. However, women only apply for work if they meet 100% of them. Uncertainty or dubiousness seems to be a more feminine character feature. I talked to Martina Sokolíková, who runs Google education and marketing activities in Slovakia
“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?
The joke goes like this: "Sociologists don´t do it. They just observe." Well, Prof. Vašečka is a sociologist and his observations are certainly thought-provoking and valuable, which is why we, in Il Ponte, decided he is a great candidate for a long interview in this edition. However, when it comes to discussing important sociological issues, he can be also witty, proving he does not take himself too seriously. As you can guess from the title, we covered a wide variety of topics: migration, globalization, polarization, communication, education, space exploration, and everything in-between.
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.”
There is a growing wave of nationalism sweeping through Europe today. However, while many reject any form of nationalism whatsoever, as a reaction to it, Prof. Harari suggests that there is a positive side to nationalism which we should preserve.
Artistic freedom, being a major domain for the freedom of expression, belongs to the fundamental pillars of democracy. It is art which encourages diversity of cultural expression by embodying heterogeneous values, ideas and worldviews.
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.
“Well, up until now the planet warmed up by 1 °C and we can already see some critical changes. Perhaps the most important change is the decline of biodiversity, which is caused, aside from other factors, directly by climate change. Then there is the death of coral reefs, which is already massive due to oceans warming up. Another problem is the biosphere on land.”
It is a daunting task to talk about this film, given how much of an impact it has had. To this day, it continues to influence cinema. It revitalized independent filmmaking, revived the careers of John Travolta and Bruce Willis, as well as made its director a household name.
According to the official Facebook statement, it’s the anti-racist football tournament which celebrates diversity and the enriching aspect of different cultures in our own society. The organizers shy away from any form of discrimination based on nationality, race, gender or sexual orientation. I was keen to interview one of them, Peter Vrbjar, to know more…
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.
Often imitated yet never quite surpassed, “Taxi Driver” is one of the most unsettling motion pictures ever made. It manages to both capture the zeitgeist of its era, whilst addressing pervasive issues relevant to our world today. Taking place in New York City during the ‘70s, it tells the story of a man, haunted by his experiences, crippled by loneliness.
The victory of Zuzana Čaputová became the symbol of the fact that politicians can win their campaigns with a believable authenticity and without aggressively attacking their opponents. Let us all hope that this type of politics is the new trend.
