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PAGE 18 JEDNOTA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010 Easter Cards Available From The Slovak Institute Since 1952, the Slovak Institute in North America has been a dedicated source of knowledge about Slovakia with material in the Slovak language. Over the years, it also has published books in Slovak that are offered for sale, along with packets of greeting cards, a large black and white map of Slovakia, flags of the Slovak Republic, and other popular items. Easter greeting cards – in Slovak and English –are among the seasonal items it has for sale. Specifically, the following are available for purchase from the Slovak Institute: • SLOVAK Easter Cards (10/pkg) - $10.00 • SLOVAK Easter Cards to CANADA (10/pkg) - $12.00 (USD) • ENGLISH Easter Cards (10/pkg) - $10.00 • SLOVAK Easter Cards to CANADA (10/pkg) - $12.00 (USD) Please note: your need to include an additional $3.00 charge with each order to cover postage and handling. Go to www.slovakinstitute.com and click on the Books link for more information; or email slovakinstitute@cbhs.net Jednota 3/31/10 Crossword JEDNOTA GOLF LEAGUE NOTICES TThursday Jednota Golf League, Bedford Trails Golf Course. The season begins on April 29, 2010, with available start times: 8:00 - 8:30 AM and/or 2:00 -2:30 PM. New members are still welcome to join by calling Paul Ritz at 330-744-2377. (Look for new scoring system this season) Friday Jednota Golf League, Knoll Run Golf Course. The season starts April 30, 2010, 4:30-5:30 PM. New members are still welcome to join by calling Paul Ritz at 330-744-2377. Paul Ritz, Secretary vvv vvv vvv Branch 45 Spring Dance Party in NYC St. Matthew’s Evangelist Society, Branch 45, kindly extends an invitation to its Spring Dance Party on Sunday, April 25, 2010. The dance will be held after the Slovak Mass at 12:30PM in the church hall of St. John Nepomucene on East 66th Street, New York City. Admission is $25.00 and includes: lunch, coffee, and Slovak-style homemade cookies. During the dance party, a raffle will be drawn and children from the Slovak school will have a special performance. Music will be provided by the well-known Slovak band Kontakty, under the leadership of Joseph Jurasi. We are looking forward to your attendance. Maria Jurasi, Financial Secretary vvv vvv vvv U.S. Commercial Service Helps American Companies with Slovak Roots The U.S. Commercial Service is an agency of U.S. Department of Commerce. The office, which is part of the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia, was created to provide an excellent source of customized services for U.S. companies that seek new customers for their products and services in Slovakia. The U.S. Commercial Service offers a variety of very free and low-fee services that help U.S. companies expand into the Slovak marketplace. For more, go towww.buyusa.gov/slovakia/en vvv vvv vvv Solution Answer to Puzzle Solution to Puzzle from page 11 **SpecialIntroductoryOffer** New8YearFlexiblePremiumDeferredAnnuity TO INTRODUCE THE NEW “8 Year Flexible Premium Deferred Annuity”, AND CONTINUE EXCEPTIONAL FRATERNAL BENEFITS, FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION ANNOUNCES A 5.60% (5.449% apr) FIRST YEAR INTEREST RATE ON ALL “8 Year Flexible Premium Deferred Annuity” FUNDS DEPOSITED WITH THE FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION. (MINIMUM $10,000.) Here’sHowItWorks: DEPOSIT A MINIMUMOF$10,000.00 INTO THE FPDA8YR ANNUITY AND YOU WILL RECEIVE 5.60% (5.449% apr) INTEREST GUARANTEED FOR THE FIRST YEAR. NO ADDITIONAL DEPOSITS WILL BE ACCEPTED DURING THE FIRST YEAR. MEMBERS WHO TRANSFER AN EXISTING FCSU ANNUITY ($10,000.00 MINIMUM) INTO THE FPDA8YRANNUITY (new contract early withdrawal penalties apply), WILL RECEIVE 5.60%(5.449% apr)INTEREST GUARANTEED FOR THE FIRST YEAR. NO ADDITIONAL DEPOSITS WILL BE ACCEPTED DURING THE FIRST YEAR. (NOT APPLICABLE TO ANNUITIES ON A SETTLEMENT OPTION OR CASH INTERST OPTION) NEW ANNUITY DEPOSIT AND TRANSFER REQUESTS MUSTBERECEIVEDPRIORTOJULY31,2010. THIS ANNUITY/IRA PROGRAM IS AVAILABLE TO EXISTINGMEMBERSANDNEWAPPLICANTS AFTER THE FIRST CONTRACT YEAR, FPDA 8 YR ANNUITY FUNDS RECEIVE A .25% HIGHER INTERESTRATE THAN THE RATE PAYABLE ON FPDA 6 YR ANNUITY. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SPLENDID OPPORTUNITY TO EARN EXTRA INTEREST ON YOUR LONG- TERM ANNUITY FUNDS. REMEMBER, WHEN YOU DEPOSIT ANNUITY/IRA FUNDS WITH FCSU, 100% OFYOURMONEYEARNSINTEREST.THEREARENOADMINISTRATIONCHARGESOROTHERFEES. YOUR INTEREST RATE BEGINS ON THE DAY WE RECEIVE YOUR FUNDS OR CONVERSION REQUEST. DON’TWAIT! THISISALIMITEDTIMEOFFERAND ENDSJULY31,2010. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR ASSISTANCE, CONTACT YOUR LOCAL BRANCH OFFICE OR THE FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION HOME OFFICE. FCSU – 6611 ROCKSIDE RD – INDEPENDENCE OH 44131 PHONE 1-800-533-6682 • FAX 1-216-642-4310 • WEBSITE FCSU. COM B A L I S L A W P A T I R O N M A I N E E N O S A L G A A G A T E A I D E S O O N E R R E D A C T O R E D D Y D I S E A S E S H E D I O R N I P A O R T A K I N G S I Z E L O G E E G O P E A L P O L Y G L O T B E R R Y E A R R E A L O N E A L I G N E D D R A Y D O O R K N O B O B E Y E D D A N A A L A R M A U R A S N I P D O R I A S L O B S C H A R E O T E S S Address Changes Readers are reminded that all address changes for the JEDNOTA newspaper must be done at the Home Office in Independence, Ohio. If you have an address change, cancellation, or wish to receive the paper, write to: First Catholic Slovak Union, FCSU Corporate Center, 6611 Rockside Road, Suite 300, Independence, OH 44131-2398; Phone: 1/800-JEDNOTA (1/800-533-6682); Fax: 1-216-642-4310; or E-mail: FCSU@aol.com.
JEDNOTA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010 PAGE 19 News From Slovakia Hungary Should Re-create Fertile Ground for Ethnic Minorities Bratislava, March 12 (TASR) - Slovakia is disquieted by the conclusions concerning Hungary in the Council of Europe’s latest evaluation report focused on the application of the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages. The Council’s committee of ministers earlier this week discussed the report which, among other things, assesses Hungary’s attitude towards maintaining bilingual education in Slovak language in schools. “We expect that Budapest, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, will do its best to carry out what it was recommended, in order to prevent the currently unfortunate state from worsening, when it comes to minority language use in Hungary,” said spokesman of the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry Peter Stano on Friday. He added that Hungary is expected to recreate favorable conditions to make way for national, cultural and linguistic diversity - so typical for this region of Europe in the past - to survive. The report, evaluating Hungary’s fulfillment of what the country is obliged to in the Charter, critically concluded that Hungary has taken a stance that will make it hard to save minority languages. In the past, the problem was also raised by Hungary’s ethnic minorities ombudsmen. Baska Discusses Joint US-Slovak Military Unit With Indiana Governor Bratislava/Indianapolis, March 12 (TASR) - Slovak Defence Minister Jaroslav Baska and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels have agreed that a joint Slovak-American military unit will take part in the training of the Afghan national army, TASR learned from Defence Ministry spokesman Vladimir Gemela on Friday. At their meeting held in Indianapolis the day before, the two politicians appreciated the long-term and continual development of relations between Indiana and Slovakia, based on co-operation between the Slovak Armed Forces and National Guard of Indiana state. They also discussed the global economy crisis and its impact on defence budgets. The Defence Minister along with Chief of General Staff of Slovak Armed Forces Lubomir Bulik and Slovak Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Burian paid a visit to Indiana’s National Guard headquarters. “Nobody wants the NATO forces to stay in Afghanistan forever. This policy represents a way how to reinforce the army of Afghanistan, while gradually handing the security control over the country to Afghans,” said Baska. He also added that Slovakia plans to strengthen its participation in the ISAF Operation to 400 persons in 2010-2011. Eighteen Parties Submit Their Election Slates to UVK Bratislava, March 15 (TASR) - A total of 18 political parties have submitted their slates for the June parliamentary elections, Central Election Committee (UVK) records clerk Livia Skultetyova told TASR on Monday. According to Skultetyova, the parties will be registered only after UVK checks whether all the requirements have been met. Candidate lists were submitted by the Alliance for the Europe of Nations (AZEN), the European Democratic Party (EDS), the Slovak Communist Party (KSS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), LS-HZDS, People’s Party-Our Slovakia, Most-Hid, New Democracy, Paliho Kapurkova, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), SDKU-DS, the Slovak National Party (SNS), Smer-SD, the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), the ethnic-Hungarian SMK, the Party of the Roma Coalition (SRK), Union- Party for Slovakia, and the Slovak Workers’ Association (ZRS). A total of 21 parties ran in the last parliamentary elections four years ago. According to Skultetyova, apart from four exceptions, all the slates have 150 candidates listed, which is the maximum amount. The smallest number of candidates - only one - was submitted by Paliho Kapurkova - a light-hearted political party [founded by Pali Vass, a train driver from Humenne (Presov region), who claims that he didn’t take part in elections for 20 years as there was nobody to vote for, so founded his own party instead. - ed. note]. The total number of candidates is 2,401. “The slates are better prepared and elaborated than in past years,” stated Skultetyova. “UVK still has to be created, and as soon as it holds a session I will submit all the slates for UVK to check. The final number of parties could be known by the end of March,” she said. One of the conditions for parties to register themselves was a deposit of €16,596. This will be returned to parties that gain at least 2 percent of all votes cast within 30 days of the announcement of the official election results. The non-returned deposits will be added to the state budget. Slovakia’s Foreign Trade Surplus Reached €1.19 billion in 2009 Bratislava, March 12 (TASR) - Slovakia’s foreign trade reported a surplus of €1.19 billion for the year 2009, with the highest active balance with Germany, France and Poland and the highest trade deficit with South Korea, Russia and China, the Statistics Office reported on Friday. According to the Stats Office, Slovakia’s total exports reached €39.72 billion last year, which was a drop of almost 20 percent year-on-year. Imports were on €38.53 billion, a drop of almost 25 percent. When it comes to individual products, export of cars and other vehicles experienced the steepest decline - almost by €2 billion, followed by export of oils and bitumen minerals, down by €661 million. Export of plates and metal sheets and unalloyed steel dropped by €429.2 million. Import of medicinal drugs saw the largest increase - by €112.7 million, followed by import of TV sets, which rose by €85.6 million. Statistics concerning our main business partners show that Slovak exports to Germany dropped by 18.4 percent, to the Czech Republic by 23.5 percent and to France by almost 7 percent. Export to Poland also saw a y-o-y decrease by 11.6 percent and in the case of Hungary it was 24.1 percent. Within the EU-member states, exports were down by almost 20 percent and a similar drop was reported vis-a-vis OECD countries. When it comes to imports, a drop was seen in case of Germany - by 30.3 percent, the Czech Republic by 11.4 percent, and Russia by 36.3 percent. Imports from EU countries decreased by 23.4 percent y-o-y and from OECD members by 16.4 percent. In December 2009 the overall trade deficit was on €67.1 million. Indian Firm Reva Probing Slovakia for Production of Electric Automobiles Bratislava, March 12 (TASR) - Reva Electric Car Company (India) is interested in having a factory in the European Union from which to launch its Reva electric car and the company is exploring Slovakia, the Economy Ministry reported on Friday following Reva’s representative Ravi K. Rishi’s meeting with Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek on Thursday. If it opts for Slovakia, Reva would prefer the area around Banovce nad Bebravou (Trencin region) as its mother company Vectra Group already has a production facility there that makes, among a host of other things, trucks. Vectra Group is the main shareholder in Banovce nad Bebravou-based company Tanax, which, together with Indian company Beml Limited, is a key business partner to Trencin-based firm called Konstrukta Defence. Jahnatek said that Slovakia is highly interested in value-added investment projects in which the so-called green technologies are involved. Rishi told Jahnatek that his company has had a positive experience doing business in Slovakia. Reva Electric Car Company, established in 1994 and headquartered in Bangalore, is one of the world leaders in production of environmentally friendly vehicles. As far back as 2001, the firm launched production of the first Indian electric car, which is fully-automatic, with zero emissions, designated mainly for urban traffic use. The vehicle is easy-to-use and known for economical performance, and is now being exported from India to 24 countries. Shopping in Neighboring Countries Not So Favourable Any More Bratislava, March 13 (TASR) - After the euro adoption in 2009, Slovaks went shopping to the neighboring countries to exploit the 10 to 30 percent lower prices than in their home country. “This was fully reflected in the retail sales, which slumped more than in surrounding countries,” said UniCredit Bank analyst David Derenik. More than a year later, however, currencies in surrounding countries have firmed up, with Poland’s cheapest zloty appreciating the most, by nearly 20 percent, and Hungary’s forint and the Czech Republic’s koruna by 13 percent and 8 percent respectively. With currencies firming, the shopping in surrounding countries ceased to be as favorable. “But it still holds true for food that we can buy the cheapest food in Poland, 12 percent less than in Slovakia. Hungary and the Czech Republic offer average savings by some 6 percent, which doesn’t necessarily offset the transportation cost and spell sufficient savings,” said the analyst. Slovaks may purchase cheaper clothing and footwear in Poland and Hungary with 16 percent lower prices than in Slovakia. The Czech Republic is less favorable in this respect. IT Fitness Test Shows That Average Slovak Is an “IT Apprentice” Bratislava, March 16 (TASR) - IT skills of more than 55.000 Slovaks have been tested this year within the so-called IT Fitness Test, the results of which have shown that the average Slovak is as IT skilled as an “apprentice”. However, Education Minister Jan Mikolaj said he was satisfied with both the project and the results. Organizers of the test program said on Tuesday that the tested Slovaks passed an IT test of advanced level only with 38.49 percent on average. “The results have revealed that the majority of Slovaks uses only the very basics of what information-communication technologies offer,” said Slovak IT Association President Juraj Sabaka. According to him, the participants have shown a good knowledge of computer software components, and they did well in searching information on the Internet. The most significant shortcomings have been identified when it comes to the Internet security awareness, however. Also, the test (running between February 1 and March 5) revealed that Internet banking represents the most commonly used online service among Slovak Internet population. The testing, which is part of the activities under the European Commission’s campaign called ‘e- Skills Week 2010’, was carried out on a sample of all age categories of Slovaks, with the youngest participant aged 9 and the oldest 76. Commenting on the conclusions, Mikolaj said his administration understands well that the students’ results have proven to be “slightly better” than those of teachers - although the test wasn’t focused on teachers as such. “We’re now concentrating on educating teachers to help them improve their IT skills,” said the minister.
Page 1 and 2: FOR GOD AND NATION - ZA BOHA A NÁR
Page 3 and 4: JEDNOTA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010
Page 5 and 6: MONEY MANAGEMENT & TAX TIPS By Jose
Page 7 and 8: was $113,055,636 compared to $102,4
Page 9 and 10: Scholarships Available For Study in
Page 11 and 12: Minutes of the December Quarterly B
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Page 21 and 22: Nová kniha v slovenčine Po stopá
Page 23 and 24: • Už mesiac majú možnosť obyv

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