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Carolina (English) No 118
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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 118, Friday, May 13, 1994.
EVENTS FROM THE PAST WEEK (MAY 4 - 11)
49th Anniversary of Prague Uprising Marked
On Thursday, May 5, at 12:33, just a few dozen people gathered at
the Czech Radio building to recall the broadcast that announced the
start of the anti-Nazi Prague Uprising in 1945.
Czechs have forgotten those who participated in the uprising,
according to Jakub Cernin, chairman of the Union of Fighters for
Freedom. Cernin, quoted in Mlada Fronta Dnes, said many of the
commemorative plaques honoring those killed in the uprising have been
removed from the sides of Prague buildings.
Parliament speaker Milan Uhde attended the commemoration, as did
representatives of the Union of Fighters for Freedom, Prague Magistrate
and people involved in the Uprising.
Another commemoration was held in the Olsany Cemetery. The memory of
soldiers killed during the liberation of Czechoslovakia was honoured by
military attaches of Great Britain, Canada, Poland and Russia and by the
Bulgarian ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Daniela/Daniela
Vaclav Havel Pays Tribute to Czech Soldiers Abroad
The celebrations of the end of the Second World War began May 9 in
Prague with a festive oath of the Prague Castle guard soldiers, and
President Vaclav Havel appointing new generals of the Czech Army.
In his speech, Havel said the involvement of the Czech legions and
soldiers during the Second World War is continued by the activities of
the Czech Army in the Persian Gulf War and in the former Yugoslavia. The
willingness to fight for justice and peace shown by the soldiers
contributed to the international recognition of the Czech Republic,
Havel said.
Daniela/Daniela
Douglas Hurd On Visit to the Czech Republic
British Foreign Affairs Minister Douglas Hurd arrived for
a two-day visit to Prague May 5 to meet with Czech Foreign Minister
Josef Zieleniec and Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus.
The main topics of their discussions were the possible integration
of the Czech Republic in European economical and security structures and
the future of the European Union.
"It depends on you alone when you will be ready to join the
European Union," Hurd said when asked at a press conference if the Czech
Republic will become a member of the Union by 2000.
Hurd also said that while membership applications of individual
countries will be judged separately, cooperation among neighboring
states is welcome as a precursor to collaboration within the Union.
However, such efforts are not a precondition for the entry into NATO or
the EU, Hurd said.
Klaus said the Czech Republic will ask for membership in the EU
before 1996. Klaus also asked Hurd to convey an invitation to visit
Prague to British Prime Minister John Major.
Daniela/Zuzana
Government Names State Attorney, Highest Ranking Woman in Goverment
JUDr. Bohumira Kopecna was appointed the highest state attorney May
4, after her nomination by the Justice Minister Jiri Novak was
unanimously approved by the government.
The Attorney's Office came into being January 1, 1994, as successor
to the former Prosecutor General's Office, where Kopecna worked since
1971.
Kopecna has never been a member of any political party and said she
did not intend to become one. Kopecna, 48, has a 17-year-old daughter.
She is the only woman at such a high post in the government.
In the May 6 issue of Lidove Noviny, Miroslav Korecky wrote on the
issue of woman and politics. He wrote that none of the 19 ministers are
women, and only one of the 53 deputy ministers is a woman. However,
women make up nearly 10 percent of the members of Parliament (19 out of
200).
Korecky also notes that only one woman in the history of
Czechoslovakia attained a top post of president, prime minister or head
of Parliament. That was Dagmar Buresova, who was the post-November,
1989, head of the Czech National Council. Under the Communist regime,
women appeared from time to time as ministers of such areas as
education, though never more than two at the same time.
Zuzana/Zuzana
Vaclav Klaus Meets Richard Falbr
"I think we wanted too quickly, too simply and without any argument
to skip from one social system to another after the November revolution.
I confess that the same without further analysis appeared in the
governmental declaration." said Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus after
meeting with Richard Falbr, head of the Czech and Moravian Chamber of
Trade Unions (CMCTU) May 5.
According to Rude Pravo, which quoted Klaus, the meeting was
Falbr's first after being elected chairman of the union group. He was
elected in April.
Falbr and Klaus did not agree on regular meetings, but did agree on
regular contacts between the government and representatives of the
chamber, Falbr said.
Lida/Tonda
Bata Shoes Worn for Hundred Years
The Bata shoe company celebrated 100 years of business May 7 in the
Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle. The celebration was held by Tomas
Bata, son of the founder of the company and attended by Czech Prime
Minister Vaclav Klaus, among others.
Bata Shoe Organization is the world's largest shoe producer. Its
factories are in 60 countries and it employs 65,000 people. Tomas G.
Bata, Jr., who represents the third generation of the shoe dynasty, has
been head of the enterprise since 1984.
The company was founded in 1894 by a shoemaker Tomas Bata from the
little Moravian town of Zlin. He started making shoes under the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bata provided social benefits for his
employees, building them houses and paying great attention to the
raising of the worker's young.
The slogan of the Bata company was: "Our customer, our master."
After 1948, the company moved to Canada, but returned to the Czech
Republic in December, 1989. The firm now employs 1,700 people and owns
a factory in Dolni Nemci which produces 1 milion pairs of shoes per
year. The business has returned to Zlin and its shops are in all the
largest Czech towns.
Four-hundred people were invited to the festive dinner at the
Prague Castle May 7, but nobody knows how many of them came in shoes
made by Bata.
Pavel B. and Zuzana prepared this report based on information
from Lidove Noviny /Zuzana
Constitutional Changes to Address Security Issues Unlikely
In accord with an Interior Ministry proposal, no major changes are
needed to the constitution to cover response to a security threat,
according to the government.
However, Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus said a minor amendment may be
needed to make explicit the duties of citizens to defend their country.
Klaus said the state will need to ensure functioning of the
ministries of defense, interior, health and enviroment in the event of
a threat. He also said that in the future the government should
determine who will declare a possible threat to the state and who will
decide if certain laws will be suspended.
Ruling party calls for end to restitution
The ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS) is calling for an end to
restitutions and rehabilitations. The party announced the postition
during weekend negotiations of its executive council in Teplice nad
Becvou.
Twenty Years of the Prague Metro
The Prague Metro was put into operation twenty years ago May 9, but
one of the world's youngest undergrounds is also, on a per capita basis,
the most heavily used subway system in the world.
In 1990, the metro carried 629 million rides, accounting for 40
percent of the Prague public transport.
The network of three lines is 38.5 kilometers long: Line B is
longest at 14.3 kilometers. There are 41 stops in the system, and the
deepest one, Namesti Miru, is 53 meters underground.
The longest distance between stops is between Smichovske Nadrazi
and Radlicka on the B line - 2240 meters, the shortest one is between
Hlavni Nadrazi and Muzeum - 425 meters.
Zuzana/Zuzana
From the History of the Prague's Underground
"In Prague, the history of the subway actually begins in Austro-
Hungarian times, when the thought of building a tube was first proposed
in 1898 by the patriotic ironmen J.V. Rott," said Metro system spokeman
Ing. Lochman.
The first serious proposal submitted to the town hall came from
engineers Bohumil Bellada and Vladimir List in 1926. Their proposal
offered details such as optimal distances between the stations, but the
plan was not been accepted.
In August 1967, the government finally decided to build the Prague
underground. The first train pulled out on the line Florenc - Kacerov on
May 9, 1974.
Dusan/Clara
Traffic jams expected due to highway repair
In the coming turist season, walking, rollerskating and public
transportation will all be preferable to driving down the main Prague
traffic artery, which will be closed for repairs from May 16 to the end
of October.
During reconstruction, the six-lane highway will drop to two lanes.
Bypass routes with overpasses of 3.7 meters will be impassable for some
double-decker tourist buses. These buses will be rerouted with the help
of Czech, German and English information signs on the approaches to
Prague.
Zita/Sofi
ECONOMY
Czech Trade Inspections (COI)
One in every seventeen cigarette vendors sells cigarettes that do
not carry legally required government stamps, according to a study by
the Czech Trade Inspections office.
Pavel Caslavsky, Czech Trade Inspections director, announced the
results of the investigation, which ran from March 1 to April 20, the
first period after the ban on selling cigarettes without the stamps came
into effect.
COI inspectors discovered 19,396 unmarked packs with a value of
575,907 Czech crowns in the Quanto company warehouse in Karlovy Vary. In
total, goods worth more than a million crowns were seized in the
operation. Nearly 40,000 stampless packs are to be liquidated.
At the same time, COI inspectors also checked the quality of various
goods offered by street vendors. They found that one out of five
inspected items had relevant irregularities, especially poorly sewn
pockets and button-holes, differing parts and interrupted seams. Sellers
were fined a total of 50,000 crowns.
Katerina/Andrea
Pig Plague Discovered, Pigs Perish
Pigs have made the news pages in the past week, as the media
followed an investigation of swine disease at the Turovec farm of
Agropodnik Tabor in southern Bohemia.
Agricultural Minister Josef Lux said lab results confirmed an
outbreak of a classic swine disease. "The last white island on the map
of Europe has disapeared, because the Czech Republic was the only
country in central and western Europe, where, until now, the pig plague
had not been found in pig farming," Lux said.
At the Turovec farm, 6,456 pigs were kept in two barns. Following
the decision of the inspection committee, the animals were killed. The
slaughterhouse in Plana nad Luznici, where the pigs were exterminated
was disinfected. The police closed off a 10-kilometer area around the
affected farm.
The disease cannot be passed on to humans.
The disease first came to Czech farming in the 1960's, and
innoculations were introduced. However, innoculations were stopped two
years ago because European Union regulations forbid the import of
vaccinated animals or their meat.
Andrea/Andrea
EXCHAGE RATES OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK (valid from May 11)
CHECKS CASH
country Buy Sell Middle Buy Sell
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Australia 1 AUD 20.959 21.169 21.064 19.99 22.13
Belgium 100 BEF 84.954 85.808 85.381 82.68 88.08
Great Britain 1 GBP 43.561 43.999 43.780 42.36 45.20
Denmark 1 DKK 4.473 4.517 4.495 4.30 4.70
Finland 1 FIM 5.379 5.433 5.406 4.91 5.91
France 1 FRF 5.107 5.159 5.133 4.93 5.33
Ireland 1 IEP 42.373 42.799 42.586 40.59 44.59
Italy 1000 ITL 18.306 18.490 18.398 17.63 19.17
Japan 100 JPY 28.146 28.428 28.287 26.99 29.59
Canada 1 CAD 21.068 21.280 21.174 20.28 22.06
Luxemburg 100 LUF 84.954 85.808 85.381 82.38 88.38
Netherlands 1 NLG 15.582 15.738 15.660 15.18 16.14
Norway 1 NOK 4.031 4.071 4.051 3.90 4.20
New Zealand 1 NZD 16.861 17.031 16.946 16.20 17.70
Portual 100 PTE 16.948 17.118 17.033 15.85 18.21
Austria 1 ATS 2.488 2.514 2.501 2.44 2.56
Greece 100 GRD 11.872 11.992 11.932 11.22 12.64
Germany 1 DEM 17.496 17.672 17.584 17.12 18.04
Spain 100 ESP 21.324 21.538 21.431 20.43 22.43
Sweden 1 SEK 3.776 3.814 3.795 3.64 3.96
Switzerland 1 CHF 20.488 20.694 20.591 20.09 21.09
USA 1 USD 29.097 29.389 29.243 28.54 29.94
EC-ECU 1 XEU 33.723 34.061 33.892 -- --
IMF-SDR 1 XDR 41.246 41.660 41.453 -- --
Slovakia 1 XCU -- -- 33.892 -- --
SPORT
Sparta Praha Only One Step From the Title
In the 24th round of the football league Cheb stayed unbeaten in
spring and beat Liberec 2:0. Sparta Praha maintained its lead, beating
Ceske Budejovice on its field 2:1. Last-place Dukla Praha bothered
Olomouc, which managed a 1:1 draw with a penalty in the last minute. In
other matches Slavia Praha beat Brno 6:0, Plzen - Drnovice 1:0 and
Viktoria Zizkov - Bohemians Praha 1:0. Vitkovice - Hradec Kralove 1:1
and Ostrava won in Zlin 1:4.
In the 25th round Sparta Praha moved closer to the title. They beat
Zlin 3:2 and lead by 7 points ahead of Ostrava, which drew with
Bohemians Praha 1:1. Third-place Slavia Praha lost in Hradec Kralove
1:0. Drnovice beat Ceske Budejovice 4:0, Olomouc - Vitkovice 3:1 and
Brno - Liberec 1:0. Dukla Praha lost to Viktoria Zizkov 0:2.
Dusan/Tomas
Scandal of Hockey Players at WCh
The Czech hockey team fell at the World Championships. They did not
get to the matches for the medals because of a lost in the quarter
finals, like at the Olympics in Lillehammer, to Canada 2:3. Coach Ivan
Hlinka has resigned and it is often said there is a crisis in Czech ice
hockey .
Lida/Tomas
WEATHER
Maybe the sunny days won't jeopardize the coming of the three
ice-men Pancrac, Servac and Bonifac.
Lida/Sofi
Dear readers,
we hope that the problems with the distribution of Carolina will come to
the end very soon. The editorial staff are still working according the
original timetable, ie. deadlines on Thursday/Friday. However, due to
technical difficulties we are never sure, if our connection to the
listserv is O.K. or not. The English version of this issue was finished
on Friday, 16:30.
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