Blogs & Ecology

On Nov. 15, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart, Ferenc Gyurcsány, met in the border town of Komárno, Slovakia, in an attempt to ease nationalist tensions that have escalated due to Nov. 1 football game violence in Dunajská Streda, Slovakia.

Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum has been blogging a lot recently about the Slovak-Hungarian relations, and here are some of the highlights.

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia reports that Google has added the Slovak language to their online translation service.

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia writes about the most famous Slovaks.

The 8th Circle reports that citizens of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia will now be able to visit the United States for up to 90 days without an entry visa; Polish citizens, however, are not included in this list: “It’s ironic, because of the immense role that Poland has played (and continues to play) as a stedfast ally of the United States. It’s also awkward, because Bush has promised visa-free travel to Poland’s neighbors while not being able to do the same for Warsaw.”

Central Europe Activ writes about political views of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia.

Photos and video of seven activists holding a rally at Red Square in Moscow on Aug. 24 - “For your and our freedom” - in commemoration of the protest against the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (posted by LJ user moscow_river_25 in the legal_team LJ community).

Margarete of The foreigner's guide to living in Slovakia calculates Slovakia's number of Olympic medals per capita that Slovakia, ranking 10th in a list headed by Slovenia.

The Czech Daily Word reports that John McCain “still thinks that Czechoslovakia exists.” Lituanica reports that “the Czech-Moravia Football Federation officially apologized to the Lithuanian Football Federation and Lithuania’s Embassy in Prague for playing the national anthem of Lithuania’s neighbouring Baltic State Latvia during a friendly match between the Lithuanian and Czech national teams.” Eternal Remont concludes: “It is for this

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia writes about what it feels like to be a foreigner in Slovakia.

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia writes about American football in Slovakia.

A Fistful of Euros reports that Slovakia has “won EU approval to adopt the euro on Jan. 1 2009, thus becoming the 16th member of the European single currency zone.”

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia writes about plans to demolish Hotel Kyjev in Bratislava: “Though I agree that buildings like the Hotel Kyjev are part of Slovakia’s history, I disagree that they are part of true Slovak culture. Are the communist principles, good or bad, embodied in socialist-realism architecture a part of Slovak culture simply because Slovaks survived through those 40 years of it?”

Edward Lucas of the Economist re-posts his piece on the “shrinking” of “media freedom” in Slovakia and Romania.