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Carolina (English) No 110
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STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC
School of Social Sciences of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
Czech Republic
E-mail address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cz
Fax: (+422) 24810987
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 110, Friday, March 18, 1994.
EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (March 9 - 16)
Klaus Signs NATO Partnership for Peace
The Czech Republic became the eleventh country to join the NATO
Peace Partnership when Vaclav Klaus, prime minister of the Czech
Republic, and Manfred Woerner, NATO's general secretary, signed an
agreement in Brussels on March 10.
During his one- day visit to Brussels, Klaus also met with Jaques
Delor, president of the European Committee and with his Belgian
counterpart Jean- Lucke Dehaen.
Government Wants to Return Jewish Property
The Czech government passed a decision on March 9 on returning
state-owned property to Jewish religious communities. Under the
decision, government ministries that currently own properties taken from
Jewish communities after the 1948 Communist coup must prepare within one
month model contracts for the transfer of this property to the pre-1948
owners. If direct transfer of such properties will prove too
complicated, ministries are directed to develop a plan to privatize the
property to the Jewish communities.
The transfer or privitazation plans will be incorporated into a bill
that will be presented to Parliament on the restitution of Jewish
property seized after the Communist coup in 1948 and the property seized
by the Nazi regime during the Second World War, which failed to be
returned according the Act from 1946.
Extreme Rightist Republican Rallies in Prague and Brno
In honor of the 55th anniversary of Czechoslovakia's occupation by
nazi armies on March 15, 1939, the republic's Gathering Committee-
Czechoslovakia's Republican Party (SPR-RSC) - organized conventions in
Brno and Prague.
Miroslav Sladek, chairman of this extreme rightist party, directed
his extensive comments against " German expansion in the Czech Republic,
and the sale of national properties and recognition of claims of the
Sudeten Germans" .
On Brno's square of Liberty, 3, 000 Sladek fans gathered on March
14 despite a meeting ban announced by the city. Eventhough the
organizers didn't allow city officials to announce the meetings ban to
the gathered crowd, police and city authorities decided not to
interfere.
A group of 30 shouting and whistling anarchists continuously
interrupted SPR-RSCs chairman Sladeks' speech, charging his party with
racist and fascist tendencies. City police prevented clashes between the
two groups.
In Prague, more than 2,000 SPR-RSCs fans gathered on Old-Town square
on March 15. Police units were present, especially to control skin-head
groups.
Fascist skinheads reject the republicans because the republican
effort to keep Slovaks in the federal state betrays the idea of "pure
Bohemia" .
Citizens demonstrating against Sladek and his party were immediately
driven away from the square by Sladeks armed bodyguards. No serious
conflicts occurred.
Zhirinovskij Visits Czech Republic
Vladimir Zhirinovskij, leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic
Party, is preparing for a two-day visit to the Czech Republic beginning
on March 20, Russian officials announced at a March 14 press conference
in Warsaw.
Zhirinovskij was invited to the Czech Republic by the Republics
Gathering Committee - Czechoslovakias' Republican Party. He has met
previously with SPR-RSCs delegates in Warsaw.
The ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it is concerned that
Zhirinovskijs visit may not make a positive contribution to relations
between Russia and the Czech Republic.
President Vaclav Havel, on his weekly radio program " Hovory z Lan",
expressed surprise that this party, which wants to be patriotic, invites
a politician who has deep concerns over the future existence of the
Czech Republic. (During one of his speeches Zhirinovskij announced that
the Czech Republic will soon disappear from the European map).
Czech United Nations Peacekeeping Units Move to Bosnia
Czech soldiers with the United Nations Peacekeeping Units in the
former Yugoslavia will be transferred from Croatia to one of the most
problematic areas of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
One mechanically armed squad of Czech blue beret soldiers will be
moved from Chorvatia to a the Bosnian region of Zepce, which lies about
70 km north of Sarajevo. According to Antonin Baudys, minister of the
Czech Defense Department, Czech soldiers will not engage in combat,
because they have a peace mandate.
Zepce is a Muslim town surrounded by Serbs and Croats and is one of
the most devastated regions of the war zone.
Czech peackeeping units in ex-Yugoslavia previously operated only in
the areas of so-called Serbian Republic Land of Northern Croatia. By
this month their number should be raised from 500 to 1000 men.
Air France Leaves Czech Airlines
The French airline company Air France will sell its 19 percent stake
in Czech Airlines (CSA) to the Czech government. This is the result of
a mutual agreement between both sides.
The Czech government was considering buying these shares since the
end of 1993, following disagreements among the board of directors.
Jan Strasky, minister of transportation, said that all parties
agreed on the final solution of Air France leaving the joint venture.
Air France was originally to purchase shares worth 30 million U.S.
dollars, but according to an Air France spokesperson this amount was
smaller
In order for the Czech government to purchase the shares there must
be a third partner that will own the same number of shares as Air
France. The European Bank for Renovation and Development (BERD) had
expressed an interest in the purchase and on March 14, BERDs
spokesperson announced agreement with the transaction.
Czech Trade Inspection Check-up
The Czech Trade Inspection (COI) presented the results of almost
eight thousand inspections of retail and wholesale outlets, announcing
that fines levied on some businesses were as high as 4,200.000 Czech
crowns.
In the beginning of March inspectors focused heavily on sales of
unstamped cigarettes, visiting 975 stores and 17 warehouses. Since March
1 all tobacco products sold in the Czech Republic must be stamped. COI
banned sales of unstamped tobacco products valuing 115 million Czech
crowns.
During several warehouse inspections, COI discovered wholesalers
gathering unstamped tabacco products for export from the Czech republic.
COI is unable to intervene in such cases, however, according to the
Finance Ministry taxation department.
Chairman general of COI, Pavel Caslavsky, confirmed a fine of 1
million Kc to the home delivery firm Markfest Sokolov. This firm sold
cooking pots containing harmful levels of chrome and lead on the Czech
market despite a ban put on their sale. This is the first million Czech
crowns fine levied on a domestic home-delivery firm, and similar
punishments may be expected, said Caslavsky.
COI also reported highly unsatisfactory results from random
check-ups of hotels and other public boarding houses. Restaurants in
many of these establishments break hygienic rules when preparing and
storing food and serve food and drinks in smaller portions or of lower
quality than required by law. The situation has deterioted since the
last inspections, noted Caslavsky.
The Fastest Beer Drinkers Compete in Brno
Juraj Reguli broke his own record for drinking one liter of
10-degree beer on Tuesday, March 8, during the international tradefair
PIVEX in Brno. In the race, dubbed "Grip and Drink", this brewery driver
from the Slovak town of Martin finished a liter of beer in 4.51 second.,
a 0.47 second improvement over the old record, which he also held.
Humpolec's trade mark Bernard was named the most popular beer of the
trade fair, winning the Golden Cup PIVEX and named as the best beer by
both the expert and layman committees. Bernard is a family brewery with
62 employees and produces 132 OOO hl of beer, most of which is sold in
the Czech Republic.
SLOVAKIA
Jozef Moravcik Appointed Slovak Prime Minister
Jozef Moravcik was named Slovak prime minister by president Michal
Kovac on March 14, following a March 11 parliament vote of no confidence
for former prime minister Vladimir Meciar and the president's subsequent
dissmissal of the prime minister and his administration.
The March 11 vote was spurred by a speech made by Kovac, in which he
charged that Meciar had tried to appoint a friend and financial
supporter of the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) as Minister of
Privatization last fall. Parliament scheduled a secret no confidence
vote after hearing Kovac's speech. The vote was held after several days
of parliamentary debate between HZDS supporters and the opposition.
MPs for the Slovak National Party and members of HZDS refused to
participate in the vote, with only 82 of 150 parliament members casting
votes. With a simple majority parliament vote needed to oust Meciar, the
vote passed by a margin of two, with a total of 78 no confidence ballots
cast. Meciar left parliament after the vote carrying a bunch of red
roses.
Seven chairs in the new administration are held by the
crypto-Communist SDL (The Democratic Left), six chairs are in the hands
of the former HZDS members who are now organized as a new association
with no official name and the remainder are held by the
Christian-Democratic Movement.
We shall introduce the new government in the next issue of Carolina
Introduction to the New Slovak Premier (according CTK report)
Jozef Moravcik was born on April 12, 1945, in Ocova in the Zvolen
region. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University,
Prague, and became a teacher at the College of Economy and the Law
Faculty of Komenskeho University in Bratislava, Slovakia. He became
a dean of the Faculty of Education in 1990. Moravcik was elected to
parliament as a member of VPN (Public Against Violence). He became
a member of HZDS and was appointed to the post of the federal Minister
of Foreign Affairs. He was later dismissed from HZDS by Vladimir Meciar
and founded his own party, Alternative for Political Realism. (see
Carolina, issue number 106).
CULTURE
Thousands Say Goodbye to Czech Music Legend Karel Kryl
"Can someone tell me what goes on here ?"
"It's Karel Kryl's funeral, man"
"Is he some kind of politician that half of Prague came here, or what ?"
This exchange took place in front of the cemetary at St. Margareta
Church in Prague-Brevnov, where some of the thousands of people who knew
of poet, singer-songwriter and 1968 hero Karel Kryl was came to say
their last good-bye to him on Friday, March 11.
Kryl died of a heart attack in a Bavarian town Passau on Thursday,
March 3. He would have been 50 on April 12.
Among the mourners were dignitaries including Minister of Culture
Pavel Tigrid, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Jiri Dienstbier, former
chancelor Karel Schwarzenberg, Polish ambassador Jacek Baluch, Slovak
ambassador Ivan Mjartan, female singer Yvonne Prenosilova, and VOA
commentator Ivan Medek. Flowers were sent by Czech president Vaclav
Havel, political prisoners from Toronto and many others. The requiem
mass was held by the archabbot Anastaz Opasek and Charter 77 signatory
Vaclav Maly.
"I spent a couple of Christmas Holidays with Kryl in our cloister
and also the day when he sang to the nation", Opasek remembered. "This is
no farewell, it is just a break before we meet each other again".
Jacek Baluch thanked Kryl for his concert in Poland, part of which
Kryl sang in Polish, and Ivan Medek lauded Kryl's poetry. "Karel knew he
mustn't lie and he never did so,"said Medek. "He was a hero of the whole
generation and, after he returned from his exile in Germany, he became
a hero again. He was wrong when he thought today's mighty didn't like
him." Following this comment,shouts of "bullshit" and "Yough" came from
some of the mourners, some of whom exhibited undignified behaviour
throughout the funeral.
"I respected Karel because he blamed only himself for his personal
falls,never others," said the last speaker, Vaclav Maly. "He didn't
shirk the strict standards he set for himself. After his return to
Czechoslovakia in 1989, a shining future awaited him here. However, Kryl
never stopped working, which is the second reason why I respected him.
And the third one was his social consciousness. It wasn't just
a fashion, it was deep inside him, in his heart, and he had to sing it
out. I thank the Lord that Karel helped to open our eyes".
The coffin was carried out of the church to the sounds of Kryl's
most renowned songs, "Little Brother, Close the Gate" and "Angel".
Kryl was buried at the same cemetary where one of the most famous
Czech philosophers and writers, and one of the co-founders of the
Charter 77, Jan Patocka, is buried.
KAREL KRYL was born on April 12, 1944 in Novy Jicin, Northern Moravia.
He graduated from a printers high school. He began writing songs in the
1960s and became famous in 1968 with his protest-songs against the
Russians. He was forced to emigrate after releasing his first LP. He
settled in Munich, Germany, and began working for Radio Free Europe,
where he was able to play his songs on air. Once abroad, Kryl studied
art history and journalism. He gave concerts around the world, published
8 books and released a number of LPs, mostly abroad.
Oscar Schindler Memorial Dedicated at Film Premiere
The newest movie of the American filmmaker Steven Spielberg,
Schindler's List, had its Czech premiere last Wednesday in the Moravian
town Svitavy which had been home to Oscar Schindler. To mark the
premiere, a memorial citing Schindler for saving the lives of more than
1100 Jews in Nazi concentration camp was dedicated. The Czech
Republic's highest rabbi, Karol Sidon, dedicated the monument and the
Israeli and German ambassadors were in attendance.
Oscar Schindler was born in Svitavy in 1908. He was a member of the
German minority that had lived in the Czech lands since the Middle Ages,
when they settled in the so-called Sudety area, a frontier of the Czech
land and Moravia. Czechoslovakia lost Sudety after the Munich conference
in 1938 and regained it after World War Two. Most of the German
inhabitants were evicted from Sudety and sent to Germany following the
War.
ECONOMY
EXCHANGE RATES OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK (valid from March 15)
CHECKS CASH
country Buy Sell Middle Buy Sell
Great Britain 1GBP 43.929 44.371 44.150 42.73 45.57
France 1FRF 5.110 5.162 5.136 4.94 5.34
Italy 1000ITL 17.603 17.779 17.691 16.92 18.46
Japan 100JPY 27.712 27.990 27.851 26.55 29.15
Canada 1CAD 21.608 21.826 21.717 20.83 22.61
Netherlands 1NLG 15.468 15.624 15.546 15.07 16.03
Austria 1ATS 2.471 2.495 2.483 2.42 2.54
Germany 1DEM 17.374 17.548 17.461 17.00 17.92
Switzerland 1CHF 20.456 20.662 20.559 20.06 21.06
USA 1USD 29.457 29.753 29.605 28.91 30.31
EMS-ECU 1XEU 33.572 33.910 33.741 - -
Slovakia 1XCU - - 33.623 - -
Czech Republic 1XCU - - 39.072 Sk*)
*) the exchange rate listed by the Slovak National Bank
SLOVAK CROWN IN THE CZECH REP. CZECH CROWN IN THE SLOVAK REP.
Bank Buy Sell Bank Buy Sell
---------------------------------------------------------------------
CSOB 0.86 0.90 CSOB v SR 1.11 1.17
Agrobanka 0.86 0.91 Vseob.uverova b. 1.07 1.17
Ceska sporitelna 0.80 0.85 Slov.st.sporit. 1.12 1.18
Invest.a post.b. 0.76 0.81 Ludova banka 1.11 1.17
Komercni banka 0.77 0.81 Slov.pol.banka 1.10 1.18
Trading at the Brno Commodities Market
Although only one deal was transacted at the Brno Commodities
Exchange On Tuesday, March 15, its worth exceeded one million Czech
crowns-- a total of 1.364 000 Czech crowns. 440 tons of the wheat were
sold for an average price of 3,180 Czech crowns per ton.
The Most Expensive Advertising Campaign
The advertising campaigns mounted by mutual investment funds during
the second wave of coupon privatization cost about two billion Czech
crowns, making this the largest and most expensive promotional activity
ever undertaken in the Czech republic, according to the market research
company A-Connect
According to A-Connect's estimates, the investment funds paid nearly
800 hundreds million Czech crowns for the media advertising. This amount
does not include billboard advertising, and not all radio stations were
monitored. Moreover, the analysis did not cover the entire campaign
period, since the research was concluded at the end of February and the
peak of the campaigns came at the beginning of March.
Therefore, it is highly probable that real expenditures for media
advertising was about 900 million Czech crowns. In addition, public
relations professionals claim that the cost of buying media time and
space is only half of the total advertising costs, since production
costs must also be added. If these claims are honored,the entire
campaign expenditures would be near two billion Czech crowns.
According to A-Connect, of all the mutual investment funds, Harvard
Investment Funds spent the most on advertising - at least 300 million
Czech crowns. The PPF Funds purchased media advertisments worth roughly
140 million Czech crowns and allocated another 15 million Czech crowns
for promotional lottery "DIKovka".
A-Connect found that the majority of advertising expenditures were
for print advertisments in dailies and magazines, where the funds
invested more than 431 millions crowns. The smallest advertising
investment was made in radio, with total expenditures of less than 20
million Czech crowns. Approximately 320 million Czech crowns were spent
on television advertising.
Half Million Czech Crowns For the Shares From One Coupon Book
Despite a drop in the share price of the Power Station Opatovice
(from 10,000 Czech crowns per share on Monday to 9045 Czech crowns on
Tuesday) investors who placed 1,000 investment points in the
company--the total points allocated to citizens purchasing coupon
investment books as part of the privatization program--could earn nearly
half million crowns today.
More than 100,000 Czech crowns could have been earned from one
coupon book if a holder took shares in Water Constructions Prague (266
thousand Czech crowns), Ironworks Trinec (185,000 Czech crowns) or Zetor
Company (178,000 Czech crowns).
Prague Stock Exchange Stock
Prague's Stock Exchange traded for three days this week, marking the
first time the Exchange operated on Monday as well as the usual Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Monday trading volume was lower than later in the week, with total
trades of 346 million Czech crowns, a phenomena observers attributed to
the unfamiliar operating scheduled.
On Monday, March 14 the ratio between rising and dropping shares was
149:85. Power Station Opatovice were the most heavily traded shares on
the open market, with total volume of 35,2 million Czech crowns, at
a rate of 10,000 Czech crowns per share. In direct sales, the most
heavily traded shares were CEZ1, at a volume of 34,6 million Czech
crowns.
On Tuesday March 15 trade increased slightly to a total volume of
438,7 million Czech crowns and the price of higher-priced shares fell,
such as Investment and Post Bank which experienced a 10% drop to 5510
Czech crowns per share. Czech Savings Bank (Ceska sporitelna) was the
most heavily traded stock, with a volume of 19,4 million Czech crowns.
The Exchange accepted into quoted markets the shares issued by Fatra
Napajedla, the biggest Czech plastics processor.
SPORT
Hockey League Pre-Playoff Match Results:
43. round (Friday 11.3.): Sparta Praha - Kladno 3:4, Zlin - Litvinov
6:2, Olomouc - Vitkovice 4:2, Jindrichuv Hradec - Ceske Budejovice 3:7,
Jihlava - Plzen 5:3, Hradec Kralove - Pardubice 0:5 in contumacio.
44. round (Sunday 13.3.): Litvinov - Sparta 3:2, Vitkovice - Zlin
9:1, Kladno - Jihlava 3:6, Pardubice - Jindrichuv Hradec 8:1, Ceske
Budejovice - Olomouc 8:3, Plzen - Hradec Kralove 3:3.
In the next part of the Hockey League the first eight teams start
the quarterfinals play-off matches, the last four teams will fight to
remain in the Hockey League.
The quarterfinal pairs: Kladno - Litvinov, Ceske Budejovice
- Olomouc, Vitkovice - Pardubice, and Zlin - Sparta Praha.
The "rescue" matches: Plzen - Jindrichuv Hradec, Jihlava - Hradec
Kralove.
Eight Players Expelled in the 17th round of the Soccer League
The second spring round of the Soccer League has brought - with the
exception of the eight expelled players - no surprises. The very last
federal champions, Sparta Praha, consolidated its lead at the top, and
the last-place team, Dukla, is apparently resigned to maintain its low
standing.
Ceske Budejovice - Slavia 1:1
Drnovice- Brno 2:1
Bohemians - Dukla 3:1
Cheb - Zizkov 1:1
Sparta - Hradec Kralove 2:0
Ostrava - Olomouc 1:1
Plzen - Liberec 0:0
Zlin - Vitkovice 4:1
WEATHER
Nothing to be enthusiastic for.
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