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Carolina (English) No 013
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
School of Social Science of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
C.S.F.R.
e-mail address: CAROLINA@CSEARN.BITNET
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 13, Friday, February 7, 1992.
LAST WEEK'S EVENTS (from January, 29 to February, 5)
The Board of Ministers CSCE in Prague.
The board of ministers of CSCE convened on January 30th and 31st,
in Prague, presided over by the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, Jiri
Dienstbier.
Ten countries of the Union of Independent States have become
full-fledged members, and Slovenia and Croatia have acquired observer
status.
One part of the document is an appeal to all member coutries and
states that acquired independence only recently to participate in the
negotiations on conventional weapons. The document stresses the member
states' willingness to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction and missile technology.
As to the confict in Yugoslavia, the ministers stressed the
necessity to respect international bonds, the rights of the ethnic
minorities, the integrity of inner and outer borders, and to guarantee
that no state will make territorial claims upon its neighbours.
The next meeting of the board of ministers is to be in Stockholm
in December.
The Joint Session of Both Houses of Parliament Disrupted on Friday,
Jaunary 31st.
On February 17th, discussion will continue on the report issued by
the Parliamentary Investigative Commission to Parliament on January
30th. The commission, whose task it was to clarify the events of
November 1989, excluded the conspiracy theory.
A stormy discussion arose in Parliament after footage released by
Christian Science Monitor Television was aired on Czech TV the evening
before the commission released its findings. The footage showed
Stanislav Devaty, who, in the presence of another two commission
members , quoted from secret documents about the positively-screened
deputy of the Federal Assembly Jan Kavan. Only the next Parliamentary
session will reveal whether it was an illegitimate leakage of
information or whether the commitee was unrestrained in its use and
distribution of information.
All that is clear today, is that the deputies, who gave the
information to the American team, lied to the Czechoslovak public,
because until the footage was shown on TV they denied its existence.
Constitutional Court Born Again.
President Havel appointed 12 constituional court justices (one
woman and eleven men) on Friday, January 31st. He also selected
38-year-old Slovak Ernest Valko as Chief Justice. The court was sworn
into office in a formal ceremony at the Prague Castle the same day.
All the appointed justices had to forfeit their elected offices
(such as Federal Assembly deputies, Government membership or posts in
political parties). The seat of the Constitutional Court will be Brno,
the largest Moravian city.
On the occasion of the court 's opening on Monday, February 3rd,
the Deputy Chairman of the Federal Goverment, Pavel Rychetsky, said
that one of the tasks of the new constitutional body will be to
harmonize the Czechoslovak laws with the constituion. Private citizens
will also be allowed to appeal directly to the court, if they feel that
their human rights as defined in the constitution have been violated.
Millions of Share-Holders
8,236.000 Czechoslovak shareholders registered their voucher books
by January 31st. The citizens's interest in voucher privatization far
exceeded all expectations (4 million). The registrations increased in
January, mainly due to the activity of investment funds, promising
investors a fifteen-fold increase on their money within a year. The
voucher booklets cost 1035 crowns.
With the increasing number of registered people, the property
value to be acquired in the privatization decreases.
The registration of voucher booklets continues until February
29th.
Hunger Strike
Miloslav Marecek of Kyjov has been on hunger strike since December
25th in protest against the manner in which the General Prosecutor of
the Czech and Federal Republics is handling his complaints.
M Marecek demands that the authors of the 1989 "baton law" be
revealed and prosecuted. The law was used against the signatories of
the petition "Just a Few Sentences". His second demand concerns the
handling of his official protest by the prosecutor. He is also
protseting against the prosecution's dismissal of his charges
of psychiatric abuse against the doctor who tretaed him.
In a statement issued February 2nd, the prosecution insisted his
complaints were legally unfounded.
Mr.Marecek refuses to accept their decision and continues with his
hunger strike.
SCHOOL SERVICE
Deadline for University Applications February 29th.
We remind all people intersted in studying at Czechoslovak
Universities that all applications must be mailed by February 29th.
In Carolina No 11, we informed you that - like last year - every
student can apply to several universities and take several entrance
examinations.
Depending on the branch of prospective study, some faculties
require additional materilas, such as a curriculum vitae , a medical
certificate and examples of the student's creative work.
Universities can ask the students to pay a fee to cover the
expenses of the entrance exam. Last year the fee was about 100
Czechoslovak crowns.
CULTURAL SERVICE
Boris Hybner and the Gag Studio.
Twenty five years ago, Boris Hybner read the book The Greatest of
the Pierots by Frantisek Kozik and saw the film The Children of
Paradise starring J.K.Deburau. It was a natural step for him then to
exchange light athletics for mime. He wrote a letter to Ladislav Fialka
of Theatre Na zabradli, but never received an answer. So he
hitch-hiked from his small town of Vyskov to Prague to meet him
personally.
The theatre Na zabradli became his mime crandle. Nevertheless, he
soon relaized that the poetic and distinguished style of Ladislav
Fialka didn't suit him, and he decided to pursue his own way.
He was a member of theatre Alhambra and Magic Lantern. He was one
of the founding members of Pantomima Alfreda Jarryho, a group which
attracted a great deal of attention with their performance Harakiri
after August, 1968. Soon conflicts arose between the regime and Boris
Hybner. Fate took him to the Czechoslovak state Ensemble of Songs and
Dances.
In 1979 Boris Hybner founded The Original Society of Slapstick
Comedy, Gag. It became mainly for its trilogy of scenic slapstick
comedies, "At the End of the Garden Called Hollywood". The TV serial
Gagman, which was based upon it, was shown on TV in many countries and,
in 1989, it was awarded the Bronze Rose at the festival in Montreau.
In the same year the "velvet" revolution occured, and with it
Boris Hybner's desire to have his own theatre resurfaced. After
visiting a couple of places and halls he fell in love at first sight
with a small room in the passage of the Metro in Narodni trida. And he
got it! So the ensemble Gag, which started its career in the theatre
Atelier and later toured all the Prague suburbs as well as the world,
found its permanent stage in the centre of Prague.
Boris Hybner is not only a mime, gagman and script-writer, but
also a theatre director. On the small premises of the Studio Gag,
a gallery, a bar, a theatre agency a film company of the same name can
be found. Recently a private school of mime for young talented people
was established. The visitors to the theatre Gag can see the
performance Stars (a second sequel to "At the End of the Garden Called
Hollywood"), Mizz (an evening of improvizations based on evergreens of
world mime), Gagman (a story describing the hard job of inventing
gags), and Some Like It Horror (a rough Comitragedy from dreary
London). And that is not all! The Gag Studio in their performance
Gag-Session hosts musicians, composers, lyrics writers as well as
foreign guests.
The End of the Theatre Festival.
The last performance of the Week of the Czech and Slovak Theatre
was a performance by the Slovak National Theatre in the Prague theatre
Labyrinth. The comedy by the Czech - British author Tom Stoppard
That's the Right Thing, starring Emil Horvath and Zdena Studenkova, was
a great success. The next, music, set and the performance of the actors
created a dynamic, witty as well as philosophical display.
A Ball in the Opera.
After more that fifty years, a ball in the opera will be held in
Prague. One thousand guests are expected in the Smetana Theatre on
February 8th. The patron of the evening is the millionaire Ivana Trump;
other distinguished guests are expected: Rafael Kubelik, Sir Peter
Ustinov, the Czech Minister of Culture, Milan Uhde, the Czechoslovak
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jiri Dienstbier.
As czech press commented, the ball will be attended by people
whose income allows them to pay the steep ticket price. One ticket
without a seat reservation costs 500 crowns, a table for two 2,800
crowns and a box for six 17,500 crowns. University students (but only a
very limited number, as stressed on the invitation), can enter after
submitting student ID cards.
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