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Carolina (English) No 078
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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.cs
Fax: (+422) 231 7391
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 78, Monday, June 7, 1993.
FROM LAST WEEK'S EVENTS (May 26 - June 2)
Ambassies in Prague and Bratislava opened
Slovaks in the Czech Republic feel slightly discriminated, said on
Friday at the opening of Slovak ambassy in Prague ambassador Ivan
Mjartan. According to him this concerns particularly social security and
education. "People with Slovak nationality could not arrange social
security. In some cases it even took months. There are certain hints
that school fees should be paid in hard currency. We will point this out
to the Czech government, and ask to restore things as soon as possible,
" said Slovak ambassador. He also remarked that his ambassy will try to
persuade Czech parliament to approve a norm that would characterize the
Slovaks living in Czechland as a national minority.
Ambassy of the Czech Republic was also opened on Friday in
Bratislava.
Vaclav Havel for a dialogue with Sudeten Germans
A dialogue of representatives of Czech political parties of the
governmental coalition (Civic Democratic Forum, Civic Democratic
Alliance, Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Pary, and
Christian Democratic Party - edit. note) with Sudet-German organisations
that was suggested on Monday by chairmen of the coalition parties, is a
sensible platform for leading a dialogue. Spokeperson for the President,
Ladislav Spacek said this on Tuesday.
The challenge of a working group which according to Vaclav Klaus
should consist of representatives of "a by one degree lower party
structure", should mainly elaborate attitudes of governmental parties
and explain them to the German side.
Minister of Foreign Affaires Josef Zieleniec pointed out that this
dialogue does already exist at certain levels. According to him the
group make-up should correspond the fact, that this is not a negotiation
between political subjects, but a dialogue between Czechs and Germans.
The participants to this dialogue should be also oposition parties
because foreign policy must be to a certain extent consensual, and
relations which Germany should not be an exception in that.
Social democrats are, according to chairman Milos Zeman, against
any governmental negotiations with Sudet-German representatives, and
they also reject any dialogue outside the government. Communist Left
Wing did not participate in any negotiations at this stage. Chairman of
Liberal Social Union, Frantisek Trnka earmarked this suggestion as
a "Troya Horse". A member of the same party, J. Vlcek regards the group
created by the government as a dangerous deed leading to other
concessions. Chairman of Liberal National Social Party, Pavel Hirs said
that his party declined the Sudet-German claim for negotiating with our
government. " I am here for the representation of Sudet-Germans to be
able to talk to our organisation, but at the same level," said Hirs and
pointed out that he rejected blackmailing through economical levers,
Ingolstadt oil pipeline etc.
Socialists with a new name and chairman
Liberal National Social Party (LSNS) is as of this weekend the new
name of Czechoslovak Socialist Party which is a part of the oppositional
Liberal Social Union. The change of the name as well as the new chairman
- former secretary of the party, Pavel Hirs, was decided upon at the
26th congress of Czechoslovak Socialist Party.
It is expected that LSNS will step out of the Union, and move
towards the middle stream in the political spectrum. Mass media also
point out that the condition of his candidacy to the post of the
chairman was a five-year continuous membership in the party, that is in
the period before November 89. This condition was not fulfiled for
example by former Czechoslovak ambassador to Italy, Jiri Holub. Some
delegates who were not satisfied with the course of the congress,
appealed to the members defending the socialist indentity not to leave
the party and consider a possibility of establishing a socialist club
within LSNS.
Border-lining began
The process of defining the state border between the Czech and the
Slovak Republic has already begun in the territory of Nothern Moravia.
The demarkating assigned to a 16-member Czecho-slovak border commission
will proceed gradually in 20-30 km sections. The total lenght of the
border is 265 km.
Ozone state cannot be foreseen.
"The ozone layer is in an unnatural negative state but UV
radiations values are not particularly alarming, and do not exceed
maximum values," said at international conference Workshop Ozon 93 in
Hradec Kralove Mgr. Michal Janouch. As in the mensuration carried out by
specialists on May 24-28 in the frame of the mentioned meeting at
Hradec's meteorological observatory, the concentration of the ozone
layer above Europe is by 7-10 percent below the longterm normal state.
Ultraviolent radiation should thus not be any danger for people with
hypersensitive complexion.
The conference organised by World Meteorological Organisation and
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Institut of the USA along with Czech
Hydrometeorological Institute, was attended by 50 experts from 20
monitoring stations from the world. The aim was to compare particular
databases mainly among European station, that means to find out whether
their methods and accuracy of mensuration differ, and to compare the
results of satellite mensuration with that on land. According to M.
Janouch, the mensuration divergence at any of the instruments do not
exceed one percent.
The monitoring of the state of ozone in the stratosphere 22-25 km
above the Globe dates from 1957 when the danger of ozone decrease (O3)
was earmarked by scientists. Since December 1991 the divergence from the
long-term normal state is constantly negative. In October 1992 the ozone
layer above the Antarctic decreased temporarily by 65 percent! Above the
mean latitude (45-65 degrees) the shrinkage was the biggest 20 percent
this February. Yet, as Mgr. M. Janouch said, it is necessary to consider
these numbers with regard to yearly season.
In winter, for example, the sun is low at the scope,and its
radiation pierces through larger atmospheric mass than in summer. People
are also dressed more and thus protect their complexion. Only mountain
sojourns without sun-glasses can be dangerous.
In summer the complexion is used to the radiation and protects
itself. Yet it is necessary to help it with a tan creme, and not to stay
too long in the sun. Generally, cold air from the North comprises more
ozone that the air from the South or South-West.
The causes of the decrease of O3 in the stratosphere are of two
kinds: natural as is hovering of sun radiation and volcanic activity
(important changes in the atmosphere happened for example after a huge
explosion of the Filipini volcano Pinatubo in 1991), which have always
existed, and man does not know how to influence them, and unnatural
causes such as elements like halocarbons and freons manufactured by man
and containing mainly chlorine and bromine which easily react with ozone
and destroy it.
The state of the ozone layer is no alarming yet but a long-term
trend leads to a gradual decrease. Therefore in 1987 (MOntreal), 1990
(London) and 1992 (Kopenhagen) protocols about the controll and decrease
of the production of halocarbons, freons and other instances containing
chlorin and bromium were approved. The Copenhagen protocol even bans
with validity as of 1996 the production of some of these instances. Yet
this document from last year's November counts on the fact that for
another 15 years the ozonosphere will be deteriorating and only then the
trend will turn to the better.
At the end of the conference "Workshop Ozon" in Hradec Kralove the
specialists agreed that it is not necessary to spread alarm news because
"at present there is no reason for any special measures", and if the
ozone decreased significantly, the public will be informed about it.
Yet some scientists admit that O3 concentration above the mean
latitude of the Nothern semi-globe is much better than that above the
Souther semi-globe.
An important shortcoming of this scientific research is the fact
that we are not able to foresee the state of the ozonosphere, and
according to M. Janouch , changes may occur from day to day. Therefore
is is good to watch the state of ozone regularly, particularly in
summer.
David Snajdr
FROM SLOVAKIA
Party of Democratic Left Wing for Preliminary Election
Only people fearing for their posts deny the preliminary election,
said on Wednesday, May 26 at a press conference of Party of Democratic
Left Wing (SDL)its deputy-chairman Pavol Kanis. He also said that the
preliminary election is one of the alternatives proposed by his party to
solve the crisis in Slovakia:"The preliminary election would not help
SDL, as many people think, but mainly to the Slovak Republic". Chairman
of the party Weiss also explained why Communist Party of Bohemia and
Moravia was not invited to the recent assembly of SDL:"When I learnt
that they wanted to come, I announced them on the phone, that our
parties had parted for known reasons." As an explanation he added that
SDL finished the process of transformation into a moder leftist party of
a social democratic type, and applied for enrollment to the Socialist
Internationale.
EXCHANGE RATE OF CZECH CROWN
buy sell
Great Britain GBP 42,90 45,74
Franc FRF 5,09 5,49
Canada CAD 21,47 23,25
Austria ATS 2,49 2,61
BRD DEM 17,41 18,33
USA USD 27,74 29,14
The rates are valid as of June 1, 1993.
SPORT
Football league (29th round) - Sparta Praha is the last federal master
Sparta Praha (46 pts) ensured the champion title already in the
next-to-last round of the last year of the federal league having beaten
Nitra 1:0. Next year Czech and Slovak teams will play in separate
competitions. Slavia Praha (43pts) is after a victory over Brno 3:0
definitely the second and next year will play for Czech Republic in the
UEFA Cup. The third Slovan Bratislava (41 pts) beat Dukla Praha 6:1 and
in UEFA Cup will represent the Slovak Republic. The last is now Trnava
(16 pts) after defeat with Ceske Budejovice 0:5.
FROM THE HISTORY OF CZECHOSLOVAK SPORT
Winter sports and sport peripheries
Skiing and figue-skating are after hockey the most popular winter
sports.
The popularity of skiing even exceeds the succesfullness of most of
our representatives in this sport, and thus our spectators are in slalom
and down hill run forced to watch transmission from international
competitions.The discipline that has always ranked our country on the
world top is sky jumping. Our representatives carried off not only
a winner title of the prestige Intersport tournament, but also medals
from World Championate and Olympic games. The most legendary was our
jumper Raska. Recent heroes were mainly the phenomenal Pavel Ploc, or
young Jez and Sakal. The Czech Republic has good conditions for this
sport, mainly in the Krkonose mountains there are several quality jumps,
so the only troubles are with finances (as in all sports) or with a lack
of snow. Also our ski runners can be proud of successes at the Olympic
Games, we became a world power in tobogganing, too.
This year's World Mastery of Figure Skating in Prague only
confirmed the popularity of this sport in our country. Though we do not
have figure skating personalities at the present, names like Nepela,
Vrzanova, Divin, Roman or Maskova are the history of this sport.
The fact that we did not include certain sports in this short
series does not mean that they do not have their fans in here. Yet the
other disciplines could be described as a certain sport periphery
surrounding the world of several "big" sports. These sports usually do
not have crowds of fans and succeses occur only when some talented
sportsman appears. Such were for example brothers Jan and Jindrich
Pospisil who won twenty world master titles in bycicle polo,
rock-climber Jozef Rakoncaj who captured 8000 metres nine times,or our
drivers who succesfully participated in rallye Paris - Dakar. We will
keep you informed about similar extraordinary performances in our Sport
section.
WEATHER
Weather did not change much, temperatures keep around usual 7-12
degrees in night and 20-25 degrees in day. The sun rises at 4.56 and
sets at 21.00. The ozone layer above the Czech Republic is decreased by
10 percent
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