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Carolina (English) No 116
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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 116, Monday, May 2, 1994.
FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (April 20-27)
Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus Returns from South America
Vaclav Klaus concluded a ten day trip to Argentina, Chile and
Brazil on Tuesday, April 26, returning to the Czech Republic after
discussions of economic and cultural matters in all three countries.
Negotiations on the formation of a free trade zone with Argentina
will commence following the signing of a memorandum by Klaus and the
Argentine Minister of Economics. In the near future agreements covering
the protection of investments, prevention of double taxation and visa
free relations for diplomats and businesspeople will also be signed,
said Klaus.
A cultural agreement was signed in Santiago de Chile and, according
to the Czech press, Klaus spoke in favour of removing the final barriers
preventing the countries from mutual economic and trade relations.
In Brazil an agreement on trade and economic cooperation between
the Czech Republic and Brazil was signed and the possibility of
exporting Czech transportation devices (trams, busses and
trolley-busses) to Sao Paolo was discussed.
Dusan
Minister of Foreign Affairs Has 9 Day Visit to Asia and Australia.
Boosting Czech foreign trade and assisting Czech businesspeople in
finding new markets was the aim of a nine-day visit to Vietnam, Malaysia
and Australia by Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Josef Zieleniec,
according to reports in the Czech press. The visit ended on Sunday,
April 24.
The daily Rude pravo reported that in Vietnam Zieleniec declared
that Czech-Vietnamese relations had a good base to build upon and that
both countries must take advantage of their mutual understanding of each
other. there is something to build upon and that it is necessary to take
advantage of the good mutual knowledge of the two countries.
Approximately 100,000 Vietnamese speak Czech.
Zieleniec presented a proposal on trade and the mutual protection
of investments in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia represents an entry gate to the
Assembly of South-Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the Czech Republic,
noted Zieleniec.
A seminar on economic opportunities in the Czech Republic was the
focal point of the visit to Australia. Over 100 influential Australian
businesspeople took part in the program at the Chamber of Commmerce and
Indusry. Last year Austalia accounted for only 0,3% of the foreign trade
of CR in export and in import only 0,1%. Incentive for the development
of commercial contacts between the two countries should come in the form
of an agreement on the support and protection of investments.
Sofi
State Visit from Luxemburg
The first official state visit from Luxemburg to the Czech Republic
took place on Tuesday April 26th when President Vaclav Havel welcomed
the grand-duke and the duchess of LUxemburg to the Prague Castle.
The grand-duke and duchess dined with president and Mrs. Havel and
discussed the future of both countries and the European Union.
The two-day visit continued with a tour of the Karlovy Vary Moser
glass factories and in a visit to Prague's Waldstein riding stables,
where the exhibition Imago Luxemburgi will soon open.
Katerina
Minister of Education Resigns from Health Reasons
The resignation of Minister of Education Petr Pitha was accepted by
President Havel on April 27. Pitha became minister in July 1992 at the
proposal of the Christian Democratic Party (KDS). The KDS coalition
proposed that first deputy minister and chairman of KDS, Ivan Pilip, be
appointed to Pitha s position.
Lida
Most People Trust the President
68 percent of Czech inhabitants trust President Vaclav Havel,
according to an early April poll by the Institute for Examination of
PUblic Opinion. 53 percent of inhabitants trust the Government and 25
percent trust the Parliament, the survey found. Trust in the President
fell one percent since the March survey and trust in the Goverment fell
four percent. Trust in the Parliament has remained at 25 percent since
January. Those who place the most trust in the Government and Parliament
are from 15 to 29 years old. 72 percent of respondents in this age group
trust in the President, 57 percent trust the Government, and 31 percent
trust the Parliament.
Fatema
Cultural Agreement with Isreal
Minister of Culture Pavel Tigrid returned from a 4-day visit to
Isreal, where he signed a cultural agreement covering education, the
arts, and other intellectual activities. The agreement is valid until
1996. Tigrid noted that the Czech Republic will soon returnthe Prague
Jewish Museum's complete collection to the Federation of Jewish
Communities.
Fatema
Police Prevent Skinheads from Celebrating Hitler's Birthday
Fewer than 100 skinheads attended an April 23 rally in Hradec
Kralove to celebrate the 105th anniversary of Hitler s birth. 600
police, some equipped with billy-clubs, helmets, and plexiglass shields,
were on hand to control the crowd, which had been expected to be larger.
43 participants were detained. 15 were held for identification, 27 were
fined for taking part in an unlicenced gathering, and one was jailed for
an offence against a public functionary.
Alois Svoboda,press spokesman for the Czech Police, said that 35
assault items were confiscated, among them knives, chains, brass
knuckles, and tear gas. Thanks to precautions taken by special
intervention units and mounted police, no serious disturbences occured,
he added.
CTK (Czech Press Agency) reported that tens of Romani families and
several foreign students fled Hradec Kralove, fearful of skinhead
demonstrators. Skinheads destroyed a 5-member student group's banner,
which proclaimed "Stop fascist violence".
According to Svoboda, the actions taken by police to ensure
a peacefule event is a clear signal to foreign countries that the Czech
Republic refuses to tolerate racist and fascist propaganda.
Filip
Czech Republic Celebrates International Earth Day
International Earth Day was marked in the Czech Republic with
several events. Earth Day has been observed for nearly a quarter of
a century.
On Wednesday, April 20, activists from the ecological movement
"Children of the Earth" protested a planned lime-factory in Tman (near
Beroun). The project calls for lime to be mined in the natural reserve
of Cesky Kra. Protestors raised a cross for the Cesky Kras reserve, and
then blocked the entrance to the near-by lime factory for an hour.
On April 21, the Cyclist Union and the Rainbow Movemen held a bike
demonstration in Prague, with nearly a hundred cyclists partially
blocking a road in the city center.
At the same time, a small procession of supporters from the
"Friends of the Forest" association was marching through the city. They
presented a letter to Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus' secretriat expressing
their discontentment with the current way business concerning forests is
handled.
An ecological "happening" and discussion with current Environmental
Minister Frantisek Benda, and his predesessor Ivan Dejmal, was held
Thursday evening on Old Town Square. Environmental education exhibits
were held on town squares in a number of other Czech towns.
A reminder of the 8th anniversary of the Chernoybl tragedy was
erected on Prague's Old Town Square on April 26. Greenpeace members
created a sign with indicators pointing towards the nearest nuclear
power plants, claiming the sign illustrates that disaster can stike from
anywhere.
Honza
Will An Agreement Create a Cleaner Atmosphere?
A "Protocol to an arrangment for international transfer of polluted
air through the Czech Republic and for regulation of sulphur compound
emissions" will by signed by minister of health Frantisek Benda in Oslo
on June 13 and 14. The agreement will mandate that emissions of compound
sulphurs in the Czech Republic should by 2010 decrease by 72 percent
compared to 1980, according to Vladimir Novotny, deputy minister of
health care.
In the early 1980 s nearly 2, 257 tonnes of acid sulphur were
released into the atmosphere and then often transferred to other
countries. The so-called Geneva Protocol, which was pressuring the
people having signed this protocol to degrees the production of bads by
30 percent until 1993, showed to be unable of doing so and that
even though that some countries along with the Czech Republic crossed
the line of the given percentages. That's why the "Protocol of other
degrees..." is not either standpointing any potential "duty" to any
individual party, nor is obliging them to "reach such a final reduce of
the sulphur's emission so that their effect on nature and its ecological
system wouldn't cross the so-named critical overload, which still
secures maintainably lasting life.
For the Czech Republic such a determined definition of degressing
the production of SO2 by 72 percent (=to 632 tones per year). The deputy
Novotny expressed, April 21, convincement that he will manage to attain
the determined limit before 2010. The Ministry is leaning against the
fact that the biggest role will be, by the way, played by the savings of
electrical energy by its consumers and the degrees of containing sulphur
in lead and liquid fuels, which its burning is contributing to the
manufacture of smog in towns. Not in the least in the years 1995-1996
odsirovaci equipment should be put in operation in three northczech
thermal power stations - I. and II. in Prunerov and III. in Pocerady.
Zita
Prague's Taxi Drivers Won't Pay
The association of Prague taxiservice operators rejected the
decision of the Prague Representative Council imposing an annual fee of
6, 000 Czech crowns for use of taxi cab ranks. Currently, groups of taxi
drivers lay claim to lucrative taxi ranks in the center of Prague and
make it difficult for drivers not associated with their group to use the
ranks.
Dusan
FROM SLOVAKIA
New Political Party Turns to Liberalism
A new political party, the Democratic Union of Slovakia (DEUS), was
established during the weekend of April 23-24. The party represents the
merger of the Alternative of Political Realism with the Alliance of
Democrats of the Slovak Republic, both established after the break-up of
ousted premier Meciar s party, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia.
Current Premier Jozef Moravcik was elected Chairman of the new body and
Milan Knazko the first Deputy Chairman.
DEUS places itself in the political center and, acccording to
vice-chairman Knazko, will apply to enter the Liberal International.
Moravcik confirmed the present political direction of the
government that will be controlled by DEUS: continued economic reforms
and Slovakia's merger with the European Union, among others goals.
Viktor
CULTURE
Placido Domingo Performed in Prague
One of the most famous tenors in the world, the Spanish opera
performer Placido Domingo performed on April 24, in Prague's Sports Hall
to an audience of 10, 000 people.
The Romanian sopranist Angela Gheorghiu performed with Domingo. Both
artists were accompanied by the 60-member Czech Symphonic Orchestra,
conducted by the American conductor Eugen Kohen. Domingo's opera
performance included opera airias from Mozart, Verdi and Puccini.
Domingo opened with a piece from Don Giovanni opera.
In the audience were president Vaclav Havel and his wife Olga and
Pavel Tigrid, minister of Culture.
Domingo's performance was the biggest and most expensive concert of
classical music in the Czech Republic. Part of the profit was dedicated
to charitable purposes, including children's cancer hospital in
Prague, Motol.
Katerina
The Beauty of the Terrible World--Review
An exhibition of work by photographer James Nachtwey opened last
week at the Carolinum gallery in Prague. Named Photographer of the Year
in the World Press Photo '93 Competition (for photos of the Somalian
famine), Nachtwey is a member of the prestigious agency Magnum, which
has carried his work in the 1980 s and 1990 s.
Nachtwey concentrates on extraordinary life situations, taking most
of his photos in conflict situations. When covering wars, he focuses
heavily on the life of people in an abnormal enviroment. He has covered
the race riots in Los Angeles, the departure of Jews from the USSR to
Israel, the riots in Northern Ireland, fighting on Israeli occupied
Arabian territory, and wars in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, El
Salvador, and Southern Africa. He photographed giant industrial plants
in former Eastern Germany, Poland, and Slovakia, and documented living
conditions in Rumanian orphanages. He also covered the fall of the
Berlin Wall and the famine in Somalia.
The distinguishing feature of Nachtwey's photographs is their
aesthetic quality. In contrast to the "beautiful" form of the pictures,
the content is often startling and disturbing.
His exhibition is a testimony to life on our planet. It reminds us,
the people who were lucky and were born in quieter parts of the world,
that we should respect our lives. Those less fortunate must fight for
life every day and they often lose their lives in stupid and meaningless
wars and fighting.
Pavel B.
Pavel Kohout in Prague
Czech writer Pavel Kohout is working on a new book that tells the
story of a demented mass murder, the author divulged at a discussion
hosted by the Charles University Philosophical Faculty on April 21.
Kohout currently lives in Austria and said he plans in the future
to live both in the Czech Republic and Austria.
Austria is a quiet country where he goes to relax, explained
Kohout. When he starts to be bored he goes to the Czech Republic. He
also spoke about his daughter, the writer Tereza Bouckova, who began her
career last year with a book called The Indian Run (Indiansky beh).
Kohout s play, August, August, August will be performed in the
Dramatic Club Prague as a first run.
Zuzana
Monthly Magazine Elle Ushers in a Period of Elegance
Since April readers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia can buy
a Czech edition of the international fashion magazine Elle.
The cover of the first issue sports the face of twenty-three-year
old Czech model Daniela Pestova. Helena-Katerina Fialova is editor in
chief. The magazine costs 75 Czech crowns and 85 Slovak crowns.
Elle, first published in 1945 in France,now appears on five
continents, in 23 languages. Other international fashion magazines are
soon slated for publication in the Czech Republic.
Clara
ECONOMY
First Round of the Second Wave of Coupon Privatization Ends
April 25 was the last day to invest privatization voucher points in
businesses participating in the first round of the second wave of coupon
privatization. Although lines of voucher holders were expected late into
the night, the only post office that remained open until the midnight
deadline was the Prague Main Post Office. In most places, investors
waited no longer than 10 to 20 minutes.
DIKs (Investment Coupon Holders) share the stocks of 860
businesses. On Friday, three days before the end of the round, the
Computer Center recorded less than one and a half million purchase
orders for available stocks. Experts suggested it was likely that
two-thirds of DIKs, who decided to invest at least a part of their
coupons directly into businesses and not through investment funds, took
part in the first round of privatization. Results of the first round
should be announced by May 21.
Andrea
Bohemia Bank in Trouble
The Czech National Bank appointed interim management for the
troubled Bohemia Bank in early April and froze all accounts, after
disclosures that Bohemia Bank had issued Prime Bank Guarantees and Bank
Guarantees valued at more than 1.2 billion dollars prompted heavy
withdrawals by depositors that threatened the institution s collapse.
It is not clear yet when depositors will have access to their
accounts. One of the conditions mandates that all guarantees must be
withdrawn. Currently, 300 million US dollars in guarantees remain.
According to the weekly Respekt, the Pilsener company Max Line owns
a deal worth about 35 million dollars. The Swiss firm Sofitom owns
shares valued at 300 million US dollars, and is asking one million
dollars for return of their shares.
According to Respekt, former Bohemia Bank vice president and
lieutenant-colonel of the communist State police Jiri Cadek was the
creator of the fake guarantees. He gained more than half a million
dollars from the deal.
Massive withdrawals are expected when accounts are open. Coopers
and Lybrand, which was appointed by the interim administration to gauge
the quality of credits, found that as many as one third of the bank
s credits can be judged as risky. A rapid increase of reserves was
recommended, which will require Bohemia Bank to take out a loan to cover
the expected depletion of funds after initial depositor withdrawals.
Finop Company owns 51 percent of Bohemia Bank and Czechoslovak
Trade Bank is also a partial owner.
Tomas
The Prague Stock Exchange Report
Trading took place on Thursday, April 21, Monday April 25 and
Tuesday, April 26.
On the whole a drop in prices continued and was most evident on the
quoted market. On Thursday shares of Zivnostenska Bank and Ceska
Sporitelna fell most steeply, to respective rates of 4950 KC and 7730
KC. On Tuesday the steepest decline was in IPS, to 1890 Kc and
Cokoladovny, to 6750 Kc.
The average value of all trades was roughly 280 million crowns and
most traded public funds were shares and obligations of CEZ (they were
sold at a value of 100 million Kc in shares and 106 million crowns in
obligations).
Brnenske veletrhy a vystavy was the 12th company to enter the
quoted market on April 26. This company achieved 136 million crowns net
profit last year with a 1,4 billion crown turn-over. Application of
Jihoceske mlekarny to the qouted market was als approved on Tuesday.
Tomas
EXCHAGE RATES OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK (valid from April 28)
CHECKS CASH
country Buy Sell Middle Buy Sell
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Australia 1 AUD 21.036 21.248 21.142 20.07 22.21
Belgium 100 BEF 84.633 85.483 85.058 82.36 87.76
Great Britain 1 GBP 43.675 44.113 43.894 42.47 45.31
Denmark 1 DKK 4.438 4.482 4.460 4.26 4.66
Finland 1 FIM 5.364 5.418 5.391 4.89 5.89
France 1 FRF 5.076 5.128 5.102 4.90 5.30
Ireland 1 IEP 42.466 42.892 42.679 40.68 44.68
Italy 1000 ITL 18.218 18.402 18.310 17.54 19.08
Japan 100 JPY 28.449 28.735 28.592 27.29 29.89
Canada 1 CAD 21.296 21.510 21.403 20.51 22.29
Luxemburg 100 LUF 84.633 85.483 85.058 82.06 88.06
Netherlands 1 NLG 15.494 15.650 15.572 15.09 16.05
Norway 1 NOK 4.013 4.053 4.033 3.88 4.18
New Zealand 1 NZD 16.813 16.981 16.897 16.15 17.65
Portugal 100 PTE 16.974 17.144 17.059 15.88 18.24
Austria 1 ATS 2.477 2.501 2.489 2.43 2.55
Greece 100 GRD 11.875 11.995 11.935 11.23 12.65
Germany 1 DEM 17.416 17.592 17.504 17.04 17.96
Spain 100 ESP 21.379 21.593 21.486 20.49 22.49
Sweden 1 SEK 3.731 3.769 3.750 3.59 3.91
Switzerland 1 CHF 20.384 20.588 20.486 19.99 20.99
USA 1 USD 29.332 29.626 29.479 28.78 30.18
EC-ECU 1 XEU 33.646 33.984 33.815 -- --
IMF-SDR 1 XDR 41.363 41.779 41.571 -- --
Slovakia 1 XCU -- -- 33.815 -- --
SPORTS
Prague's Dukla Soccer Players Reached Their First Victory
In the 23rd round of the highest soccer competition there were only
14 goals. Sparta Prague confirmed their leading position by defeating
Plzen 1:0. Slavia Prague lost to Cheb 2:0, again increasing its points
deficit. In the match for third place, Ostrava defeated Ceske Budejovice
4:2 and Olomouc unexpectedly lost to Viktoria Zizkov with a goal made in
the lasta minute, O:1. Matches Bohemians Prague - Zlin, Drnovice
- Liberec and Brno - Vitkovice ended identically with a goal victory of
homefield team.
WEATHER
The weather is quite fine, with summer-like conditions expected over the
weekend.
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