A Lesson in Accounting

It feels a bit like a crash course in economics, one that all of Slovakia seems to be attending. The curriculum consists of only one subject: how can the government reduce an unhealthy level of indebtedness? How much should it cut itself and how much should it squeeze out of its citizens? For the past four years Robert Fico’s left-wing government did not bother the Slovaks with news about the state’’s indebtedness and now they have suddenly woken up to the news that the country is in a big financial mess. However, the problem is that, unlike in the neighbouring […]

Wajda’’s Katyń and the Slovenian Antigone

When Andrzej Wajda’’s film Katyń was shown in Slovenia this spring, first in cinemas and then on public television, it aroused enormous audience interest but was met with almost complete silence in the media. Slovenian public opinion is tired of the issue of post-war mass murder and the seemingly endless discoveries of mass graves. The film advertisements talked of exposing Europe’’s greatest lie of the century and of the Polish nation’’s profound trauma.  After the screening a number of film critics analyzed the film’’s aesthetic values and discussed its narrative techniques yet nobody took notice of the universal message of this horrific […]

Please keep an eye on my country!

I guess I’d better do something about my subconscious. I don’’t like my dreams one little bit. For a few months now they have been haunting me with an astonishing intensity and persistent regularity. They started around the time when Ukrainian reality itself began to resemble a total dream. And the worst thing is – this is a dream you cannot wake up from. It will go on for at least ten years, as incorrigible optimists claim. That is, at least during our current President’s two terms of office. But back to my dreams and the theme that runs through […]

Kispál hráli pro mě / Stĺpček

Festival Sziget (Ostrov) ve mně letos nějakým nepochopitelným vnitřním pochodem vyvolal refrén prachstarého šlágru maďarské rockové skupiny LGT ze 70. let, věnovaného upracované Budapešťance: “Ta kytara hraje pro tebe / pro tebe bubnujou bicí / pro tebe jsou ty reflektory…” Když se člověk octne na budapešťském Ostrově (koná se skutečně na dunajském ostrově jménem Hajógyári), největší hudební a kulturní akci ve střední Evropě, může se cítit ztracen – mezi pětapadesáti pódii. Letos v srpnu jsem tam byl jako dvousettisící padesátý čtvrtý návštěvník… Hraje pak ta kytara ještě pro tebe? Člověka trochu popadne nostalgie po dobách, kdy jsme – vyhladovělí po […]

Selma Steinerová: A Life Among Books

My dear friend Selma Steinerová (27. 11. 1925 – 28. 8. 2010), who passed away last Saturday, will be fondly remembered by scores of locals as well as those who visited Bratislava since the 1990s. They will remember her smiling, advising and sometimes admonishing her visitors (never mere customers) in the revived Antikvariát Steiner in Ventúrska Street, the last station in her long and thorny journey through life. This sunny period was preceded by years of struggle and suffering.  Yet in 1925 it seemed that she was born under a lucky star, into an affluent, harmonious, educated and genuinely religious […]

Dáma medzi knihami / Nekrológ

Keď sa moja dávna a verná priateľka Selma Steinerová (1925 – 28. 8. 2010) minulú sobotu ráno už nezobudila, zanechala za sebou krásnu spomienku: množstvo Bratislavčanov aj ľudia, ktorí sa tu od 90. rokov niekedy ocitli, ju v duchu videli znova pred sebou. Spomínali na ňu, ako sa usmieva, radí, občas aj napomína svojich návštevníkov (teda zákazníkov) v obnovenom “steinerovskom” antikvariáte na Ventúrskej ulici. Doviedla ju sem dlhá a ozaj tŕnistá cesta, tento slnečný záver života si vybojovala a vopred odtrpela. Vojnu prežila ako dieťa Pritom sa v roku 1925 zdalo, že sa narodila pod šťastnou hviezdou, do zámožnej, harmonicky […]

Denník, písaný neskôr / Esej

Alebo raz v lete v Zgorzelci. Ráno som vstal a vybral sa smerom k mostu. Mesto sa mierne skláňalo k rieke. Všade boli zmenárne a nápisy, že sú tu lacné cigarety. Chlapíci už postávali v dvojiciach, v trojiciach. Štvrť páchla po starej omietke a práchnivejúcich drevených schodoch. Ako stará Ząbkowska a Brzeska. Stáli, fajčili a dívali sa, ako sa začína deň. Vyčerpaní večným vyčkávaním. Ďalej sa začínal most. Nevedno prečo mu dali meno Jána Pavla. Možno, aby zaimponovali Nemcom, že tu nie sú len tie lacné cigarety? Prešiel som na druhú stranu do Görlitzu. Mali tam park, ranný chládok a ešte námestie, všetko […]

Anti-Semitism in Hungary is stronger than ever

Some Hungarian media such as “Echo TV”, “Magyar Hírlap”, “Magyar Demokrata” and to some extent also “Magyar Nemzet”, have published anti-Semitic statements of a kind that would not be possible in mainstream media in Western Europe. Yes, in Hungary you can have anti-Semitic discourse that is impossible in Western Europe. Some people began to make openly anti-Semitic statements right after 1989, and when they saw that Hungarian society showed almost no resistance to it, they felt reassured and continued to do so. I believe that only a small number of Hungarians are actually anti-Semitic but only a few have stood […]