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Carolina (English) No 016
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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
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C A R O L I N A No 16, Friday, February 28, 1992.
LAST WEEK_S EVENTS (February 19th - 26th )
Czechoslovak Contingent Ready To Go
The Czechoslovak Ministry of Defence states that a contingent of
500 men can be dispatched to Croatia on two weeks notice as part of the
U.N. peacekeeping troops. The Czechoslovak unit consists of volunteers,
half being men presently enlisted for military service. The contingent
is preparing for their mission in the Southern Bohemian town of Cesky
Krumlov.
The United Nations have not asked Czechoslovakia officially to
participate in the peacekeeping mission, because the Czechoslovak
parliament has not approved the participation as yet. Without
parliamentary approval Czechoslovakia cannot join the peacekeeping
troops which are being dispatched to Yugoslavia to monitor the
ceasefire there.
As the Czechoslovak daily Mlada Fronta Dnes stated (February 24)
the task of the peacekeepers will be to separate the two enemy forces.
The Czechoslovak soldiers will therefore be equipped only with personal
self-defense weapons - submachine guns and pistols and the contingent
will use armoured carries for surveillance.
Teachers Will Not Strike, They Will Get Payraises
This is the final result of a weekend meeting between
representatives of the Czech Ministry of Education and directors of
school administrations and unions.
As of April 1st, 1992, all employees of the educational sector
will get a payraise of a minimum of 31 per cent. The Ministry of
Education will pick up the bill. Salaries were supposed to be adjusted
according to the new law of employees payed by the state. However,
based on a proposal by the federal government, this law will not be
coming into effect until May 1st, and not April 1st as was expected.
Salaries in the educational sector belong to the lowest in
Czechoslovakia.
Helmut Kohl coming to Prague
The Czechoslovak press announced Saturday, that German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl will be visiting Czechoslovakia February 27th and 28th. It
is expected that during his visit he will be signing the
Czechoslovak-German Treaty with President Vaclav Havel at the Prague
Castle.
Commotion before signing
A politically peaceful weekend was disturbed by news broadcast on
Czechoslovak T.V. In it the Premier of the Czech Republic Petr Pithart
was quoted from an interwiew he granted to the German daily Die Welt.
Supposedly the Czech Premier stated that if the Germans annulled the
Munich Accord from its very beginning then President Havel would make
it possible to the Sudeten Germans to affect their restitutional claims
(in Czechoslovakia). Directly following the broadcast of this
information, President Havel telephoned Mr. Pithart, who assured him
that he had not said anything to that effect. The presidential office
iussed a statement on Sunday night saying that the President held talks
about the accord last May in Bonn. During the tallks he mentioned the
possibility of renewing the Sudeten Germans_Czechoslovak citizenship,
if Germany expressly recognized the annullment of the Munich Accord
from its very beginning. The reinstatement of citizienship would by law
enable (the Sudeten Germans) to participate in the privatization
process had not been discussed. This information was also confirmed by
the correspondent of Die Welt who had conducted the interview ( with
Premier Pithart) at a Monday briefing at the Prague Castle.
German Historian Speaks About Jewish Holocaust
On February 27th, at the Goethe Institute in Prague, a
distingusihed German historian, Professor Jackel (form the Freie
University in Berlin), held a lecture about the extermination of Jews
in Europe. Based on yers of research Professor Jackel presented his
thesis that the chief architect of the Holocaust had been Reinhard
Heydrich. The attention of the audience, which consisted of many who
themselves had been concentration camp prisoners, was captivated
primarily by the Professor_s idea that leading Nazi figures who
ordered and directed the extermination of European Jews were not
motivated by racism but by career advancement. They wanted to please
Hitler and thus gain more power. Even though this thesis became cause
of a contraversial discussion, it sounded as a kind of warning in
Czechoslovakia_s preelection atmosphere. Especially in Slovakia the
motive of power overshadows human rights (issues).
J.Cousteau In Prague
President Vaclav Havel receivd famous oceanographer Jacque
Cousteau on Monday, February 24th. The two disussed political iusses as
well as the conversion of the defence industry. Jacque Cousteau_s
appeal to protect the environment is currently being signed in Prague.
M. Vopenka : I came to complain
The Minister of Education M. Vopenka held a lecture on some of the
difficulties of his job infront of students of the Mechanical
Engineering Faculty of the Technical University in Prague. He stated
that there are two main obstacles to improving the present situation in
the educational sector, a lack of fiances and unsatisfactory
legislation. A large number of unsatisfactory laws are derived from the
constitution. Any changes to the constitution are impossible under the
existing parliament. Another problem is the question of jurisdiction.
This applies to both the law about elementary education and the law
pertaining to higher academic institutions, because it is still unclear
whether these will be discussed in the federal parliament or in the two
national parliaments.
The Minister further explained his views on unifying the
leading scientific institutions in the country - the Czechoslovak
Academy of Science and the Universities which is presently under
discussion in the Czechoslovak press. (A new) superior organ - Ministry
of Education and Science - should be founded. According to the
Minister, this would be a step in the right direction for all
concerned. The Academy (of Science) could be financed by the newly
estabilished ministry and it would offer, in return, a wide background
of expertise and offer job opportunities to top graduates. The Minister
presented this idea in relation to the drafting of the new law about
the Czech Academy of Arts and Science in the Czech government. Thaks to
Vopenka_s initiative the approval the parliament. The Academy
disapproves of Vopenka_s concept, and seems to have the parliament_s
support on this issue. According to the chairman of the Academy,
Professor Wichterle, this is all part of a campaign to liquidate the
Academy, according to him the real reason for these efforts is to block
the approval of the law which would create a legislative vacuum and
would discredit the continuation of the academy_s acitivities. In his
opinion it is a totalitarian concept of control where the independence
of the Academy and the distinct autonomy of higher educational
institutions are being ignored.
Asked whether students will have to pay for their higher education
the Minister responded that not for the time being but probably in the
future. The main reason will not be a lack of finances but the need to
objectively evaluate the standards of individual faculties. The
students will only be willing to pay for the best ones and those will
also be the ones which will receive the most funding.
Bronze for the third time
Czechoslovak athletes brought home three bronze medals from the
Olympic Games in Albertville. The first came from the team of high ski
jumpers (Parma, Jez, Goder and Sakala), the second from the ice-skating
pair Mr. and Ms. Barna and the third came the hockey team which beat the
U.S. 6:1. All winners received the model of the car Skoda Favorit made
in Czechoslovakia.
CULTURAL SERVICE
Eastern Slovakia commemorated the 5th anniversary of the death of Andy
Warhol
A commemorative mass for Andy Warhol was celebrated on Saturday,
Ferbruary 22nd, at a Greek-Catholic churc in the village of Mikove,
which lies at the foot of the Carpatian Mountains.
On the day of the 5th anniversary of the American artist_s death
three more of this graphics were added to the Warhol Family Museum of
Modern Art. They are hand coloured and they come from the colection
called Flowers, which he created in 1974.
They were bought for 115,000 Cz. Crowns each from a Prague
collector.
Warhol was of Ruthinian origin and is considered to be one of the
most significant artists of the 20 century.
Cubism still inspires
The Crossroads of Cubism was the name of a discussion organized by
the Institute for Art History of the Academy of Science, the Central
European University and the Goethe Institute in relation to the
extensive exhibit of Czech Cubism 1909-1925. It took place Monday,
February 24th. A number of foreign as well as local experts took part
in the panel discussion. Part of the program was a joint visit of the
exhibit which took place at one of the galleries of the Prague Castle.
It is a well known fact that Czechoslovakia owns a number of very
interesting art pieces and it especially holds its own in Cubist
achitecture.
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