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Carolina (English) No 162
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC
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
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 162, Friday, June 2, 1995.
EVENTS FOR THE WEEK MAY 24-31, 1995
Central European Presidents Plant Oak Tree for Unity
Last weekend President Vaclav Havel took part in the third
gathering of Central European heads of state in Kesezthelyi, Hungary, to
discuss the problems of Europe and especially the integration of the
post-Communist states into the institutional structures of the West.
The first gathering - with the heads of state of Austria, the Czech
Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia - took place
in Salzburg, Austria, in 1993, followed by last year's meeting in the
east Bohemian town of Litomysl. This year's event included the president
of Italy as well.
At the conclusion of the talks, the presidents planted an oak tree
dubbed the "Tree of Europe" in the garden of the local chateau.
Martina Krizkova/Katerina Rus
Rich to Give to Poor Under New Child Support Legislation
Starting next year, the wealthiest 5 percent of Czech families who
receive child support from the state will lose their benefits, while the
poorest families will get an additional 60 to 80 crowns per month, under
a law adopted by Parliament May 26.
Members of Parliament from the parties in the government coalition
voted in favor of the law (100), while opposition deputies (67) opposed
it. Czech Parliament has 200 members.
While the Communists and the Social Democrats, who backed increased
benefits across the board, came up with 27 proposals to amend the law,
only two of them were accepted, and neither one addressed the
opposition's main objections to the legislation.
Under the new law, half of Czech families will receive the same
monthly payment as they have up until now, while 25 percent will be
getting 170 to 240 crowns less. Also, the level of payments will now be
based on families' net income. Stepanka Kucerova/Katerina Rus
LSNS Members of Parliament to Go "Independent"
Members of the National Liberal Social Party (LSNS) elected
Vavrinec Bodenlos their new chairman at the party congress Saturday in
Sec u Chrudimi. Bodenlos beat out the previous LSNS leader, Pavel Hirs,
by 16 votes.
Bodenlos is also president of the Melantrich company.
In response to this outcome, Pavel Kulicka, who represents LSNS in
Parliament, announced that LSNS deputies would change the name of their
parliamentary club to the Club of Independent Deputies, which will
continue to be headed by Hirs. LSNS has five representatives in Czech
Parliament.
Delegates to the congress also adopted a resolution calling for
a referendum on reintroducing the death penalty for brutal murders, to
be held in conjunction with the 1996 elections to Parliament.
Ludek Stanek/Katerina Rus
Six Foreigners Perish in Hotel Fire
Shortly after 6 p.m. last Friday a fire broke out in Prague's Hotel
Olympik. The blaze began in a storage space on the 11th floor and
quickly spread to the upper floors of the building. Several firefighting
teams arrived on the scene within minutes, but the "chimney effect"
caused thick smoke to rise through the building, forcing several guests
to climb out on window sills dozens of meters above the ground to escape
the suffocating smoke.
More than 100 police officers assisted the Prague fire department
in dousing the flames. Given the height of the fire, they used
a helicopter to get to the roof to rescue guests. At about 10 p.m., the
fire was localized, and shortly after it was completely extinguished.
Five persons were found dead in the hotel during the fire, while
a sixth died on the way to the hospital. A total of 36 people, including
three firefighters, received medical care. Most of those injured were
released from the hospital after a brief examination. Two woman from the
U.S. are still in the Na Homolce hospital in serious condition.
Petr Link, a spokesman for the Prague police, told Carolina that
the guests who died of suffocation were identified Saturday morning as
two Finnish woman, three Belgian women, and one German.
The fire destroyed eight floors of the hotel, including equipment
and guests' personal property, causing total damages estimated at 15
million crowns. More than 500 of the Olympik's guests were given
replacement lodging in other Prague hotels after the fire.
Ludek Stanek/Andrea Snyder
HaDivadlo Actors Clash With Police in Brno
Three actors of the Brno HaDivadlo theater company are being
charged with assaulting a public official after a confrontation with the
police in Brno last Friday night.
The police were responding to a call from a neighbor complaining
about noise on the street in front of the Kabinet Muz, where the members
of HaDivadlo were celebrating the 100th performance of their musical
"Stars on a Willow."
Spokesmen for the Brno Police said the three actors called the
police officers "cretins," "black pigs" and "Gestapo" before physically
assaulting them. "The crowd acted like it was trying to lynch the
officers," said police spokesman Vit Cvrcek.
Actors Josef Polasek, Hynek Chmelar, Pavel Liska and Jaroslav
Ludvik were taken to the police station, and the first three were
charged with assault of a public official. Polasek needed 12 stitches at
the hospital to sew up a head wound.
HaDivadlo Secretary Karel David said the police "hit women and
people lying on the street, and beat people who were standing by the
wall." David said Polasek suffered his head injury when the police
shoved him under a car.
The actors say they called the State Police for help, but that the
state troopers turned around and drove off when they saw what was
happening.
HaDivadlo canceled the premiere of "The Death of Hubert Perna,"
citing injuries sustained by the leading actor in Friday's clash with
the police. Jiri Chvojka/Andrea Snyder
Doors at Czech Universities Open to Foreigners, Too
Charles University's Institute of Language and Professional
Preparation in Prague is making it possible for foreign students to
prepare for studies at Czech universities by offering courses in the
Czech language at centers in the towns of Marianske Lazne, Podebrady,
Dobruska, Zahradky and Prague.
These centers have been training 185 students in the 1994-95 school
year. Ninety-six of these students - for the most part from Greece,
Saudi Arabia, and the countries bordering the Persian Gulf - are paying
their own way and most of them are preparing for study at the medical
school. The other 89 are in the Czech Republic on scholarships from the
countries of the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Africa.
Muhammad Shah/Andrea Snyder
One Fifth of Czech Male Smokers Won't Live to See 70
Due to smoking, 20 out of every 100 Czech men now in their mid 30s
will not live to see their 70th birthday, according to Richard Peto,
a professor at Oxford University.
Peto was in Prague this week for the third annual Central European
conference on the treatment of lung cancer, which ended Wednesday, the
World Health Organization's Day Without Tobacco.
According to Peto, more people, percentage-wise, die of lung cancer
in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland than anywhere else
in the world. Six thousand cases of lung cancer are discovered in the
Czech Republic each year, causing 5,000 deaths.
While 120,000 Czechs are giving up smoking every year, nearly 48
percent of Czech men and 30 percent of Czech women still smoke. As
a whole, the Czech Republic consumes around 20 billion cigarettes
annually, said Alexander Sir of the National Center for the Support of
Health.
Although lung cancer rates are low among Czech women, it is only
recently that they have begun to smoke in large numbers, so it stands to
reason that there will be a sharp increase in female lung cancer
patients after the year 2000, Peto said.
He said that in the Czech Republic one-third of doctors and
two-fifths of nurses are smokers, equivalent to the situation in Great
Britain 40 years ago. Peto dismissed the idea that lung cancer in this
country had anything to do with air pollution.
Stepanka Kucerova/Andrea Snyder
BUSINESS/ECONOMICS
Ceska: National Property Fund May Be Endangered
National Property Fund (FNM) Chairman Roman Ceska urged President
Havel on Tuesday not to sign a legislative amendment that would prevent
the Fund from paying for expenses incurred beyond its regular budget,
saying it could endanger the FNM and the Czech Republic's privatization
process along with it.
Parliament adopted the amendment last Friday when it approved the
FNM's budget, and Ceska fears it will slow, if not completely stop the
progress of privatization and paralyse the operations of the FNM.
According to Ceska, the amendment does not allow the FNM to
reimburse individuals or firms who work with the FNM, particularly firms
that organize auctions of state property.
"If (the firms organizing the auctions) take a commission from the
sale, they have an interest in making the auction price as high as
possible. This increases the earnings for state coffers," Ceska said.
The new amendment, he said, only allows the payment of commissions
directly from the FNM budget, meaning, "Either we will be constantly
exceeding our budget, or we will stop having an interest in selling
property at the highest price possible."
Tomas Jezek, chairman of Parliament's budget committee and Ceska's
predecessor as head of the FNM, believes, however, that the amendment
does not change anything in the process of approving and drawing up the
Fund's budget. "The budget committee has a routine approach for dealing
with the FNM," Jezek said. Jiri Chvojka/Eftychia Damianidou
CULTURE
Slovak Comedian Finds New Home on Czech Television
Milan Markovic appeared last Saturday on Czech Television's Channel
1 in a new program titled "On a Slanted Surface" ("Na sikme plose"),
a follow-up to "Evenings" ("Vecery"), his popular comedy show that was
dropped from the airwaves in Slovakia after the last parliamentary
elections brought a new director to Slovak Television.
Markovic's guests in the live broadcast from Prague's Branik
Theater were Minister of Transport Jan Strasky and blind athlete Pavla
Valnickova. Mirek Langer/Eftychia Damianidou
Exhibition of Drawings by Klimt Opens at Prague Castle
President Vaclav Havel opened an exhibition of drawings by Austrian
painter Gustav Klimt last Wednesday at Prague Castle.
Klimt was one of the most important painters of the art nouveau
movement. Along with Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, who followed his
lead, Klimt is considered one of the founders of modern visual arts in
Austria.
Under the influence of the symbolists, Klimt created his own style
of painting known as the "gold style," a combination of drawing and
stylized surfaces, in which he presents all the shapes of the human body
then enriches and expands them with decoration, his response to the
atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Vienna.
Martina Vojtechovska/Eftychia Damianidou
SPORTS
Partly Cloudy in Soccer League Skies
While it is now clear that Bohemians Praha and Svarc Benesov will
bow out of the first league in Czech soccer after this season, it
remains to be seen which team will take the title.
Last week Sparta Praha defeated Ceske Budejovice away from home, as
Budejovice had two players expelled from the match and two penalty kicks
assessed against them. Slavia, meanwhile, came out on top in Ostrava, in
a hard-fought match featuring one goal each by the Knofliceks - one from
Ivo of Slavia and one from Lubos of Banik.
Sparta, then, continues to lead the standings on points, while the
Bohemians will say goodbye to the first league after a stay of 22 years,
including a league championship in 1983.
Round 27 results: Sparta Praha - Dynamo Ceske Budejovice 4:0, Banik
Ostrava - Slavia Praha 1:2, Union Cheb - Slovan Liberec 3:1, Petra
Drnovice - Hradec Kralove 5:2, Svarc Benesov - Svit Zlin 0:3, Viktoria
Zizkov - Viktoria Plzen 1:1, Sigma Olomouc - Boby Brno 2:1.
Mirek Langer/Alex Zucker
Golden Stick Goes to Jagr
Last week Jaromir Jagr of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins received
the "Golden Hockey Stick" as the best player in the Czech Republic. This
year was the first time players from teams outside the Czech
extra-league were eligible for the award.
Goalie Roman Turek of Ceske Budejovice came in second in the
balloting, followed by Pavel Pater of Kladno, the extra-league's most
productive forward. Rounding out the top five were Jiri Kucera of Lulea,
Sweden; and goalies Roman Cechmanek of Vsetin and Dominik Hasek of the
NHL's Buffalo Sabres. Mirek Langer/Alex Zucker
Zelezny and His Javelin Grace Athletics Event in Bratislava
Nine thousand spectators turned out for Tuesday's Slovnaft 95
athletics meet to see Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic heave the
javelin 90.80 meters, the best throw yet of the year.
Sarka Kasparkova leaped 14.38 meters to set a Czech record in the
triple jump, but it still was not enough to beat out Galina Chistjaka of
Russia. Igor Kovac of Slovakia also set a national record, finishing the
110 meter hurdles in 13.41 seconds. Mirek Langer/Alex Zucker
SPORTS IN BRIEF
* Martin Dvorak placed fourth in the Goetzis decathlon, while Olympic
champion Robert Zmelik returned after an injury to finish 13th.
* Prague Dukla fought to fourth place in the final of the athletics
Champion's Cup in Algavre, Portugual, while the women of Olymp Praha
took third in Paris.
* Hockey extra-league champion Vsetin got a new sponsor, Petra
cigarettes, replacing Dadak Suchard Jacobs.
Mirek Langer/Andrea Snyder
WEATHER
Summer heat fell on the Czech lands last weekend, only to
give way to rain storms on Monday and Tuesday, causing blackouts
in much of Prague and in other towns around the country.
Jiri Chvojka/Alex Zucker
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