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Home / Archive / Newsletter - Summer 2002
On June 7, 2002 Slovak President Rudolf Schuster led a high level delegation
Including Pal Csaky, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights and National
Minorities; Jozef Stank, Minister of Defense; Eduard Kukan, Minister of Foreign
Affairs; Ron Weiser, U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia; and President Schuster’s
wife, Irena Schusterova, to Washington on an official visit to the United States
at the invitation of U.S. President Bush.
President Schuster met with President Bush, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, Senator Mitch McConnell and Congressman John Mica while in Washington, DC. Bill Tucker, FOS Vice Chairman, was instrumental in setting up the meeting with Senator Lott.
After those meetings, President Schuster visited the Iwo Jima Memorial to lay a wreath honoring Michael Stank, a U.S. soldier of Slovak origin and one of the soldiers depicted in the Iwo Jima Memorial statue. He also visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
FOS hosted a noon reception for President Schuster. Over 200 people attended with FOS Donors as honored guests. FOS donors with individual plaques on the FOS Wall of Honor were able to have their picture taken with President Schuster in front of the Wall of Honor on the embassy grounds. At the reception, President Schuster awarded the Slovak Republic Presidential Medal and Citation to Mary Ellen Callahan, member of the FOS Executive Committee, for her work in strengthening U.S.-Slovak ties; Brooks and Olga McClure for their contributions to Slovak education for donating National Geographic magazine to multiple Slovak schools for 20 years, and to Jan Simko for his generous gift to Comenius University in Bratislava.
That evening the Schusters were guests of honor at a gala black tie dinner at the Slovak Embassy. President Schuster presented Presidential Cross to Emilie and Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, Congressman John Mica, Julie Finley and Bruce Jackson. Finley and Jackson were honored specifically for their sustained efforts promoting Slovakia's entry into NATO. President Schuster graciously thanked Friends of Slovakia for its work in advancing Slovak-American friendship
During the visit of her husband, President Rudolf Schuster, to Washington, Irena Schusterova researched issues close to her heart by visiting the Children's National Medical Center and Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health to learn about care and medical advances for the treatment of terminally ill children. Mrs. Schusterova has been a staunch advocate of children's health issues since she was in Kosice, Slovakia. Mrs. Zora Butorova, a prominent Slovak sociologist and wife of Ambassador Martin Butora, accompanied her.
Ingrid Aielli, a Slovak-American, hosted a luncheon for Mrs. Schusterova at Teatro Goldoni, a Washington restaurant owned by Mrs. Aielli and her husband. Mrs. Aielli has been recognized as Woman of the Year for her work with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and accompanied Mrs. Schusterova and Mrs. Butorova during their visits to the hospitals. At the lunch attended by Slovak Honorary Consul Barbara Pivnicka, Slovak American Society of Washington Board member Helen Fedor, and FOS Secretary Mary Ellen Callahan, among others, the conversation ranged from issues of health care and preventive medicine in the U.S. to social issues for women worldwide.
On April 22, 2002 Deputy Prime Minister Miklos met with Ross Connelly, Executive Vice President and COO, Dulce A. Zahniser, Senior Advisor to the President, Rod Morris, Vice President for Insurance, Robert B. Drumheller, Vice President for Finance, Dan Nichols, Vice President for Foreign Investment and other OPIC executives to discuss investment opportunities in Slovakia. The meeting was arranged with the assistance of Friends of Slovakia. Deputy Prime Minister Miklos was given the opportunity to summarize the economic reforms and progress made by the Slovak government in recent years in an effort to encourage more foreign direct investment into Slovakia.
The OPIC executives expressed admiration for the reform efforts made by the government of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda. They also expressed an interest in working with U.S. companies that have already expressed an interest in the Slovak market (e.g., Emerson Electric and possibly some defense contractors). This informal, introductory meeting ended on a positive note with OPIC stating that they would like to work with Slovakia and would try to identify specific sectors within the country where U.S. investors may have an interest.
On May 16, the Slovak Embassy, with the support of Friends of Slovakia, presented a photographic exhibit of projects designed by each of the five architects who designed the new Embassy building.
Three of the five architects who designed the new embassy came to this event from Brat-islava: Dusan Fischer, Ludomir Kralik and Ludovit Urban.
Their two colleagues on the embassy project, architects Michal Bogar (Bratislava) and Peter Lizon (Knoxville, Tenn-essee), were unable to attend.
In addition to the exhibition of their work, the architects were joined by Slovak architectural critic and editor of the journal, Arch, Henrieta Moravcikova, in a panel discussion on modern Slovak architecture and the building of the new Slovak Embassy.
Friends of Slovakia member Ann Johnson mod-erated the panel discussion.
The discussion included a lecture by Ms. Moravcikova, featuring photos of some of the country's best post-Velvet Revolution architecture.
On April 25, 2002, the Slovak Embassy in conjunction with Friends of Slovakia hosted a cultural program at the embassy.
The city of Bardejov and the region of upper Saris exhibited and sold paintings and folk art from area residents.
Several of the artists were present to discuss their works. In the evening, the Raslavican Folk Ensemble from Eastern Slovakia, appearing in beautiful hand made regional dress, gave a command, full house performance of several vibrant and perfectly choreographed folk dances from the region.
After the dance performance, the enthusiastic audience was also treated to fine foods specially prepared by the embassy's young chef.
The program here was one of nine made by these fine artists in New Jersey, Penn-sylvania, Michigan, Ohio and New York during their whirl-wind tour.
The Embassy of the Slovak Republic and FOS have begun a monthly film series, screening well-known Slovak films at the embassy. The films were shown during the last week of each month. There is a summer hiatus, but the series will return in the fall.
Over the past several months, over two hundred spectators have been treated to such movies as:
*Millennial Bee, a saga about the Pichanda family, depicting Slovak society at the turn of the century;
* Angel of Mercy, a World War I love story;
* Tinted Dreams¸ a drama and love story about Roma and Slovak culture and their tempestuous relationships in Slovak villages;
* A Ticket to Heaven , a modern drama depicting the clash between traditional and contempor- ary roles for women in Slovakia, and
* The Garden, a wonderful journey to the country for a confused young man.
After the last movie of the summer FOS and the embassy sponsored a reception to thank the patrons.
This film series has been a wonderful way of increasing the audience for Slovak films in the Washington DC area.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter and a national sponsor of Friends of Slovakia, spoke to an invitation-only group of 25-30 people at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association in Bratislava on May 10.
Dr. Brzezinski addressed the issue of NATO integration, and specifically the thinking in Washington regarding the size of the coming expansion and the rati-fication process that will follow the Prague summit. Attendees included Peter Weiss, a Slovak parlia-mentarian, two state secretaries, business executives, and other government officials.
SPFA and FOS jointly organized the event.
FOS sponsored a U.S. - Slovakia Security and Foreign Policy Roundtable on the current political situation in Slovakia, prospects for the September Parliamentary elections and their impact on domestic and foreign policy. Grigorij Meseznikov, president of the Institute for Public Affairs in Bratislava and Alexander Duleba, director of the Research Center at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association were guest speakers. Co-chairs were Janusz Bugajski, head of the Eastern Europe Project at CSIS and Amb. Ted Russell of FOS.
The State Department, think tanks, diplomatic and business communities, NGOs and Congressional staff were represented. A generally upbeat assessment of the Slovak political situation emerged from the discussion with the caveat that much would depend on voter turnout in the fall election.
Milan Hodza, the last prime minister before Czechoslovakia was partitioned by the 1938 Munich Agreement, was honored in a series of events in Chicago on June 23-24, organized by Slovak Honorary Consul in Chicago, Thomas Ward.
Afterwards, his remains were transported to Slovakia and reburied June 27 in the Slovak National Cemetery in Martin alongside his late wife, Irena.
Mr. Hodza had desired to be buried in his native Slovakia. However, the communist regime would not allow that wish to be fulfilled.
Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda initiated the effort to bring Hodza back home.
Friends of Slovakia (FOS) contributed to the commemorative events, including a reception on Sunday, June 23 at the Garfield Park Conservatory.
During the event, Bill Tucker, FOS vice chairman, Slovak Ambassador Martin Butora and Slovak Minister of Culture Milan Knazko, presented the FOS/Embassy Medal of Honor to several individuals for their efforts in strengthening the U.S.-Slovak relationship. They are:
- John M. Palka, a grandson of Milan Hodza and co-director, Program on the Environment, and professor of zoology, University of Washington.
- Pavol Lukac, Slovak Foreign Policy Association scholar who has written extensively about Milan Hodza.
- Susan Mikula, Professor of Slovak Studies at the Benedictine University
- Tom Ward, Slovak honorary consul in the Chicago area
- George Pradel, mayor of Naperville, Ill., who has been instrumental in forming a strong sister city relationship between Naperville and Nitra, Slovakia that will mark its tenth year in 2003
The B+ Business Centre, the Foundation for a Civil Society and other organizations hosted the Inwest Forum in Washington. DC on May 30, 2002.
Bill Tucker of Friends of Slovakia gave the opening remarks at the Forum and moderated the first panel.
The forum’s objective was to present information on investment opportunities in Central and Eastern European countries.
Session I consisted of presentations by representatives of various countries and by a U.S. Steel executive on investment opportunities in the region. Session II focused on the engineering and defense industries, Session III on bio technology and Session IV on information technology and telecommunications.
Dan Renberg, Member of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank, was the keynote speaker at the luncheon. Individual negotiations were scheduled to take place from 2:00-4:00 pm so attendees could mingle and discuss areas of interest with some of the speakers.
A reception for the participants was held in the evening at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic.
In an event showing Slovakia's tremendous strides in the development of human rights and its efforts to confront the past, Friends of Slovakia is proud to report that on June 6, the American Jewish Committee's Washington Chapter bestowed on Slovak Ambassador and Friends of Slovakia board member Martin Butora its Celebration of Freedom Award.
The award ceremony and accompanying reception took place at the Slovak Embassy and was attended by numerous local and national leaders of the Jewish community as well as by a representative of the Israeli embassy in the United States, who spoke of the appropriateness of this award.
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