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Carolina (English) No 146
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Faculty of Social Science of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
Czech Republic
e-mail: CAROLINA@cuni.cz
tel: (+42 2) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+42 2) 24810987
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C A R O L I N A No 146, Friday, February 3, 1995.
EVENTS FOR THE WEEK OF JAN. 25-FEB. 1
Vaclav Havel in Auschwitz
Czech President Vaclav Havel visited Auschwitz last week to take
part in a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of
the Nazis' largest concentration camp from World War II.
Havel joined other statesmen to honor the memory of approximately
1.5 prisoners, most of them Jews, killed in the Auschwitz-Brzezinka
complex in southern Poland. Also present for the ceremony were many of
the prisoners who survived the terror of the death camp.
Martina Krizkova/Martina Vojtechovska
Czechs May Join European Union by Year 2000
The Czech Republic could become a member of the European Union by
the end of the century, EU Chairman Jacques Santer told Czech
Television on Saturday at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland.
In a discussion on the topic of "Forming Europe", Czech Premier
Vaclav Klaus said that Europe was defined as much by the goals it sets
for itself as by its geography and institutions.
Also, in talks with German President Roman Herzog, Klaus and
Herzog agreed that it was necessary for the Germans and the Czechs to
work on their relations with one another.
The Czech premier also took part in a closed meeting of leading
politicians and businesspeople (IGWEL), held in Davos in conjunction
with the WEF, to discuss the role of short-term capital.
In a speech delivered on Monday to the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe, Klaus compared the transformation of Communist
societies into free societies to the development of European
integration.
As of Feb. 1 the Czech Republic is an official associate member of
the European Union. Martina Krizkova/Martina Vojtechovska
Tomas Jezek Leaves Civic Democratic Alliance
Tomas Jezek, co-author of the Czech privatization scenario and
former Czech privatization minister, resigned on Friday, Jan. 27, from
the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA), the party he helped found in
November 1989.
Jezek, who served as chairman of the National Property Fund until
last June (see Carolina no. 123 for details of his resignation) and is
currently head of Czech Parliament's Budget Committee, said he was
leaving the party because of accusations made against the Security
Information Service (BIS) by ODA Chairman and Deputy Premier Jan
Kalvoda. (Kalvoda has charged the BIS with spying on Czech political
parties, see Carolina nos. 144, 145.)
According to Jezek, the charges levied by Kalvoda were a poor
attempt to divert attention away from ODA's efforts to eliminate
a debt of 50 million Kc with the Credit and Industrial Bank.
Said Jezek in Monday's edition of Mlada fronta Dnes: "It disturbs
me that not a single person on the ODA political council was able to
recognize that the behavior of Jan Kalvoda is crudely damaging the
reputation of the republic, more crudely than anything else since
November 1989."
The newspaper also quoted Jezek as telling Nova TV that this was
not the first time he had felt isolated in important decisions made by
the ODA leadership and as a result he decided to leave the party.
On Thursday, Feb. 2, Jezek asked the parliamentary club of the
Civic Democratic Party (ODS) for permission to join its ranks.
Lida Truneckova/Martina Vojtechovska
Kalvoda Met With Head of Social Democrats in Secret Last Fall
Jan Kalvoda, deputy premier and chairman of the Civic Democratic
Alliance (ODA), a member of the Czech government coalition, met in
secret last autumn with Milos Zeman, chairman of the Social Democrats
(CSSD). The meeting took place in the apartment of Jaroslav Vlcek, who
was head of the Green Party at the time.
Zeman told the press that a listening device was found in the
apartment after their meeting, but no bug has been found yet.
The meeting between the two politicians was reported to have been
purely for informational purposes. They discussed issues of state
administration and the separation of retirement funds from the state
budget, among other things, and the possibility of a coalition between
their two parties did not come up.
Vlcek said he called the police immediately after he discovered
the listening device. But First Deputy Police President Jan Zatorsky
told Nova TV that the only thing the police found in the apartment was
technical problems with a poorly connected parallel phone line.
Martina Krizkova/Martina Vojtechovska
1994 Record Year for Traffic Accidents
There were 156,242 traffic accidents on the territory of the Czech
Republic last year, approximately one every three minutes. A total of
1,473 people lost their lives in accidents, an average of four a day,
while 6,232 people were injured seriously and 29,590 only slightly.
According to Mlada fronta Dnes, which published this information
on Wednesday, police officers blame the increased number of accidents
on heavier traffic than in years past. The Czech Republic has one car
for every 3.8 inhabitants, while in the capital of Prague one out of
every two citizens owns an automobile.
Lida Truneckova/Martina Vojtechovska
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
Government Abolishes Import Tax on Spuds
The Czech government abolished the import tax on potatoes at its
meeting of Wednesday, Jan. 25. This decision took effect the same day
and will remain in effect until May 30 of this year.
The government hopes this measure will in part solve the biggest
problem currently facing homemakers, restaurateurs, food vendors and
cafeterias: a shortage of potatoes on the Czech market which has
driven up the price. A kilogram of potatoes now goes for 18 to 26 Kc,
more than the cost of imported fruit such as oranges and bananas.
Potatoes are a staple of the Czech diet. They are the most common
side dish (served boiled, mashed, french fried or made into potato
dumplings), they are also served as potato pancakes and in potato
salad, and are used as the base for many vegetable soups. Today,
however, they are becoming a luxury. Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder
Prague Stock Market Takes Another Blow
The last Tuesday in January went down in history as a black day on
the Prague stock market as the official market index fell below the
500-point mark. Skeptical market analysts had been predicting the fall
for the past several weeks.
The market index is compiled from the stocks of the most important
companies traded on the capital market. CEZ, which holds a monopoly on
the Czech Republic's energy supply, is the largest company traded on
the market. Falling prices of CEZ shares over the last several days
were the main cause of Tuesday's devastating drop.
Market analysts say the current market crisis will probably last
until the stocks from the second wave of coupon privatization are
introduced into the market. The crisis, they say, was most likely
caused by the mass sale of quality stock by foreign investors, which
were then bought up by Czechs. But since Czech investors do not have
enough buying power to cause another radical change in prices, another
price decrease is very likely, analysts said.
Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder
EXCHANGE RATES OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK (valid from 3 Feb.)
CHECKS CASH
country Buy Sell Middle Buy Sell
Great Britain 1 GPB 43.397 43.833 43.615 42.20 45.04
France 1 FRF 5.211 5.263 5.237 5.04 5.44
Japan 100 JPY 27.522 27.798 27.660 26.36 28.96
Canada 1 CAD 19.544 19.740 19.642 18.75 20.53
Austria 1 ATS 2.567 2.593 2.580 2.52 2.64
Germany 1 DEM 18.065 18.247 18.156 17.70 18.62
Switzerland 1 CHF 21.365 21.579 21.472 20.97 21.97
USA 1 USD 27.428 27.704 27.566 26.87 28.27
Slovakia 1 XCU -- -- 34.281 -- --
CULTURE
First Czech Film of 1995 Now Playing
"Ucitel tance" ("The Dance Teacher"), a new Czech film produced in
cooperation with Czech TV, opened in Czech theaters last week.
The story takes place in a sanitorium, where former dance champion
Richard Majer - played by Martin Dejdar, who received a Czech Lion,
the equivalent of the American Oscar, for his performance in last
year's rock musical "Sakali leta" ("Years of the Jackal") - comes to
have his tuberculosis treated.
Despite his debilitating illness, Majer tries to lift the spirits
of his fellow patients with his sense of humor and dancing. This
brings him into conflict with the chief doctor and head nurse, played
brilliantly by Jana Hlavacova. Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder
SPORTS
Playoff Battles in Hockey Extra-League
In the last issue of Carolina, we wrote that five teams
(Vitkovice, Sparta Praha, Slavia Praha, Jihlava, and Pardubice)
remained in the running for the playoffs. However, in the course of
the last three rounds, everything has changed.
First, both Jihlava and Pardubice lost their shot at the playoffs
by failing to win any points. After the 36th round, the number of
candidates hadn't changed, only the names, as Litvinov and Plzen
replaced Jihlava and Pardubice. Currently the pool has narrowed to
three: Vitkovice, Praha Slavia, and Sparta Praha, but there may yet be
changes in the two rounds to come, prior to the Czech national
squad's appearance in Sweden's Globe Cup.
Round 35: Jihlava-Plzen 5:7, Slavia Praha-Ceske Budejovice 5:3,
Pardubice-Vsetin 3:5, Zlin-Sparta Praha 2:5
Olomouc-Vitkovice 5:6, Litvinov-Kladno 1:2.
Round 36: Kladno-Olomouc 5:1, Sparta Praha-Jihlava 3:0,
Ceske Budejovice-Zlin 4:3, Vsetin-Slavia Praha 1:1,
Plzen-Litvinov 1:3, Vitkovice-Pardubice 4:2.
Round 37: Slavia Praha-Vitkovice 8:5, Litvinov-Sparta Praha 2:2,
Pardubice-Kladno 3:3, Vsetin-Ceske Budejovice 6:3,
Olomouc-Plzen 1:1, Jihlava-Zlin 2:4.
Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder
WEATHER
The Czech Republic, unlike the rest of western Europe, is not
threatened by floods. Most rivers are exhibiting only first-degree
flooding, the lowest level. So far the only rivers with second-degree
activity are the Ohre and the Elbe. Martina Krizkova/Andrea Snyder
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