Paula Svatoňová: “I would say: be as active as possible but do what you are interested in.”

Paula Svatoňová: “I would say: be as active as possible but do what you are interested in.”

Il Ponte Magazine
INTERVIEW, EXPERIENCE

Paula Svatoňová, Réka Hegedűs, Lucia Kobzová

Paula graduated in 2019. She is currently studying Human Rights and Humanitarian Action at Sciences Po in Paris. Even now, she is willing to take part in BISLA activities and help current students with any questions they might have regarding graduate studies and her experiences. She came a long way since she started studying at one of the best universities in the world. How did she manage to get there and how did BISLA help her on her way? All of this will be answered in the following interview.

The EU, a dethroned Prince?

The EU, a dethroned Prince?

Il Ponte Magazine
ECONOMICS, EDITORIAL, OPINION, SOCIETY, POLITICS

Markus Formel

A year ago the European project was heading for the first place in the echelons of the world of politics. The United Chaos of Donald Trump and the never-ending Brexit talks with the United Kingdom resulted in a power-vacuum of the standard superpowers, which the EU was happy to replace. However, the first dents in the European tent had started to appear. The bleak response to the Hong Kong security law and the Uighur deportations only raised the finger of European diplomats, with few condemning tweets and press releases. The poisoning of Alexey Navalny and his detention and sentence of 3.5 years is, as of today, only being met with a raised finger, press releases and threat of sanctions.

An interview with Alumnus Matej Bílik

An interview with Alumnus Matej Bílik

Il Ponte Magazine

Réka Hegedűs and Lucia Kobzová

Matej Bílik is familiar to most of us at BISLA. He graduated only last year and has remained an active member of our community ever since, helping out with Orientation Week or just popping by for a chat. We have asked him to tell us more about his time at BISLA and what he has been up to since leaving the college.

Europe's Second Pandemic

Europe's Second Pandemic

Il Ponte Magazine
EDITORIAL, POLITICS, ECONOMICS

Markus Formel

Europe has a problem. The sickness of political unwillingness to reform, even slightly, has put us on our deathbed. The indebtedness of large European economies, with the largest political leverage - France, Italy, Spain, has combined dangerously with a wide dislike for reforms. Europe needs to solve this on the local level and the European level, or it will perish. European unwillingness to change was demonstrated long before the Corona-crisis.

Russia today: Different Tsar, same story

Russia today: Different Tsar, same story

Il Ponte Magazine
OPINION, POLITICS

Maximilian Weber

Ever since its inception, Russia has been defined both by itself and by its (often short-lived) neighbors as an aggressively expansionist power. Like many other powers, this became the defining feature of Russia, a form of consistency across regimes. Whether it was the ancient Rurikids, expanding 18,000 miles a year under Ivan the Terrible, or the Romanovs expanding into the Ukraine and Alaska, Russian rule was synonymous with expansion.

Let's talk about mental health

Let's talk about mental health

Il Ponte Magazine
OPINION

Patrícia Beličková, Peter Sterančák

Everybody feels sad from time to time. It is a natural part of human life. As the Danish philosopher and writer Søren Kierkegaard wrote in his book Disease to Death, if we had a real knowledge of man, we would have found that there was never such a person who was not at least a little desperate in some moment during his life.

A Hungarian perspective on the upcoming elections

A Hungarian perspective on the upcoming elections

Il Ponte Magazine
OPINION, POLITICS

Dániel Cséfalvay

History has shown that the Slovak-Hungarian relations are fragile and if the grievances are not approached carefully it can easily become confronting and even hostile. Growing up during the notorious Jan Slota era, I personally experienced how comments fuelling hate can easily be translated to every-day conversations, even between children.

What2Play: The last of us

What2Play: The last of us

Il Ponte Magazine
GAME REVIEW

Max Radó

There is a good chance that you have heard this title before, even for someone who is not a follower of the video-game culture. This game is able to give you the single greatest experience you can get from a video game for the last decade. If you will not take my word for it, take into consideration that it was crowned to be the best game of the decade by Metacritic’s users or users on the PlayStation Blog.

I grew up in Minsk

I grew up in Minsk

Il Ponte Magazine
EXPERIENCE

Anna Vasilenka

I was born and raised in Minsk, my school years passed here, where I first fell in love and then broke up, skipped classes at McDonald’s and drank champagne in the yard. Here I made friends, rode on a skateboard, and drank a lot of coffee. Here I went to university, found a job for the first time, and it was from here that I always wanted to escape.

INTERVIEW: Timothy Garton Ash on Slovakia: “You are now leading the way in Central Europe”

INTERVIEW: Timothy Garton Ash on Slovakia: “You are now leading the way in Central Europe”

Il Ponte Magazine
INTERVIEW

Michal Micovčin

1989 and the Crisis of the Post-Wall World was the title of the lecture that was given by Professor Timothy Garton Ash from the University of Oxford. During his recent stay in Slovakia, he participated at the International Conference on November 89: 30 Years After, which was held at Comenius University and organized by the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Il Ponte was lucky enough to take part in this event and conduct an interview with Prof. Garton Ash. The given interview was done after the 30-year commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall and prior to that of the start of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.

Sanders under fire again

Sanders under fire again

Il Ponte Magazine
OPINION, POLITICS

Maximilian Weber

Suffering a shocking defeat to the populist Republican Donald Trump left the Democrats of the USA in an uncertain position. Clinton, despite winning the popular vote and running on a strong feminist narrative that appealed to the liberal voters of the USA, lost. This narrative was especially important for the Democrats, as they had effectively sabotaged the campaign of Sanders, and thus needed to find a candidate which would fill the shoes of the Social Democrat.

Angry rant - Hipsters and cafes

Angry rant - Hipsters and cafes

Il Ponte Magazine
RANTS

Martin Klein

I don’t consider myself a snob in terms of music or coffee at all, at least compared to every hardcore hipster friend I’ve ever had. You know, hipsters, the subculture responsible for a whole generation looking like homeless people wearing gold chains, their favorite indie band being called something like “bananas in outer space” with a cult following consisting of ten people on Bandcamp.

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