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Date:         Sat, 7 Nov 1992 16:46:03 -0500
From:         PMUZILA@MACALSTR.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Slovakia's Hydro-energy Potentials

Dear Joe,
        I somehow cannot understand the blindness of your thoughts. (sorry but
I have to use these strong words.
        Half of my family is Hungarian and I have almost learned Hungarian when
I was small. Unfortunatelly my grandmother did not teach me. Therefore I
consider myself to be an observer without any nationalistic hate against
Hungarians, but in the last weeks I am getting annoyed with what Hungarian
politics do and the way they act. I have to say that both sides have their
share of guilt on what is happening now but I cannot deny that Hungarians where
the initiators of Slovak problems. I would advice you to revise the history of
1930 - 1950 and especially the treaties on national problems.

        Secondly, the sign. Please open your atlas and check the flags of
Poland, Malta and San Marino. Than open the page of national and regional
signs and count the signs having lions and eagles. And just afterwards ask
yourself the question about the right part of Hungaian emblem. I advice you to
read the passage in Encyclopedia Britanica on Austrio-Hungarian Empire.

        And at the end the dam. You have some kind of unclear idea of what the
rivers in Slovakia look like. Please specify the sentence :"has plenty of
mountain rivers". If you know the geography of Slovakia (I suppose you have
been there and you saw your "mountain rivers" ) please show me a place where
you would build a "mountain river dam" in Slovakia. Remeber that the last dam
on VAH has been build in the area of Kralova nad Vahom, and I can tell you that
the area around is flatter than Minnesota. What do you think why did they
decided to build the dam there, and not on a "mountain river" ?

        Do you remember Orava. The dam on Orava was build in a valley (let us
call it mountain river). The whole village with a large forest had to be
sacrified there, but by far the power if this dam does not even aproach the
power of Gabcikovo.

        When thinking about the Gabcikovo dam please try to think logically
about this fact:

        - Budapest has been the past point on Danube where the large Black Sea
ships could have got in the past. By building the dam, a system of "vzduvadiel"
should have alloved the ships to get to Bratislava. Please think of economical
impact of this fact on Slovak and Hungarian transport industry.

        - Compare the amount of money Slovakia and Hungary invested in the
project of the dam before the new negotiations began.

        - Compare the cost of removal of the already built parts on Slovak and
Hungarian side. Hungarians did not even began the last part of their side when
the turbines were already being installed on Slovak part.

        - Imagine the present situation. Both countries will carry the negative
impacts of the dam (there must be some negative impacts) but only Slovakia will
profit from the dam.

        - The effect of floods in Slovakia usually retard and reduce the floods
in Hungary. After finishing the dam, Slovakia will have absolute power upon the
regulation of the flow of water in the river. I do not consider this to be
right, but imagine : the floods in Slovakia will be reduced, while Hungary will
have to face even stronger floods. You can also imagine how strategically
important can be this "weapon". Simply, Slovaks will have the tap.


        After looking at these points you will probably understand better why
is the dam politicaly so important. I think Hungarians would do a very clever
economical move if they decided to finish the Nagymaros part of the dam, that
would allow them to profit from the dam at least partially. But of course this
is in politics and unacceptable; imagine how would Hungarians react.


        I am sorry if I used some strong words at the beginning but I felt I
hd to write it in this way.
                                        Patrik Muzila
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