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Carolina (English) No 195
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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 195, Friday, March 22, 1996.
FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (March 13-20)
US Secretary of State Christopher Visits Czech Republic
US Secretary of State Warren Christopher called the Czech Republic
one of the most valuable partners contributing to peace and stability in
Central and Eastern Europe, in a speech March 19 after his arrival at
Ruzyne Airport in Prague.
Christopher met with the diplomatic heads of 12 post-communist
countries working on entrance into NATO, including Czech President
Vaclav Havel and Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus.
Darina Coufalova/Andrea Snyder
Havel Meets with Polish President for First Time
Czech President Vaclav Havel and Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski met March 19 in the Czech border town of Nachod to discuss
bilateral relations and their countries' integration into NATO and the
EU.
Havel says both countries agree on integration, on strengthening
European security systems, and on expanding the Central European Free
Trade Agreement (CEFTA).
The Czech Republic and Poland are not competing in these issues,
and will work very closely together, said the Polish president. He is
convinced the integration process should not stop with Central European
countries, but should also include the Baltic countries of Romania,
Bulgaria and Russia. According to the Czech president, cooperation in
Europe should be on the level of regional structures, one of which
should be a NATO that does not include Russia. Havel was quoted in the
Czech daily Lidove noviny as saying "Cooperation should be on
a partnership level. At this moment, I can't imagine Russia as being
a part of this alliance." Zora Kasikova/Andrea Snyder
Josef Zieleniec Criticizes Russian Decision on USSR Disintegration
Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Josef Zieleniec March 18
criticized the Russian Parliament's recent decision calling invalid the
1991 pact upon which the USSR disintegrated. "This resolution means that
a large part of the Russian political spectrum is more absorbed in its
imperial past than to the future cooperation and coexistence of the
European nations," Zieleniec said. Petr Mrzena/Andrea Snyder
ODS Still Strongest
The March poll of the Institute for Public Opinion Research showed
that the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) dominates the Czech political
scene. Twenty-five per cent of the population would vote for the
currently governing party. Fifteen per cent would vote for ODS's main
competitor, the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD). The Civic
Democratic Alliance (ODA) takes third with 8 per cent.
Political parties need a minimum of 5 per cent of the voting
spectrum to be eligible for Parliament. Meeting this requirement are the
Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU-CSL) with
7 per cent, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) with 6 per
cent, and the Association for the Republic-Czechoslovak Republican Party
(SPR-RSC) with 5 per cent. According to the poll, 76 per cent of the
population would vote in the elections.
Matej Bartosek and Arsen Kocarjan/Andrea Snyder
Election Program on Internet II
One can locate the election platforms of all significant political
parties at the E-mail address http://www.vol.cz/CS/CS/VOLBY96/volby.htm
Czech On Line is a company that arranges these and similar services
on the Internet. Jitka Motejzikova/Andrea Snyder
General Health Insurance Company (VZP) Raises Wage Tariffs
The Czech government is immediately releasing 2 billion crowns into
the healthcare system, enabling insurance companies to increase the wage
tariffs of workers in the healthcare sector. The VZP administrative
board decided March 19 that tariffs will increase by 8 hellers
(eight-tenths of a Czech crown) starting in April. Prime Minister Vaclav
Klaus took part in the negotiations between VZP and the government. VZP
holds more than 70 per cent of the health insurance market. The
Physicians' Union Club (LOK) has announced that it will continue with
the planned strike March 25-6, because an increase in the wage tariffs
will not guarantee the demanded increase in salary.
Jitka Hejtmanova/Andrea Snyder
Hotel Owner Bars Romanies
Rudolf Baranek owns a hotel in Breclav, a town in southern Moravia,
and figures in second place on the southern Moravian parliamentary
ballot of the Free Democrats-National Social Liberal Party (SD-LSNS). He
decided to bar Romanies from his hotel when a group of them stole
11,000 crowns from the hotel reception. The Czech daily MF Dnes quoted
the hotel manager March 19 as saying "we endured small thefts, but the
last incident was the peak."
Romanies feel slandered by Baranek's decree. Chairman of the
Breclav chapter of the Romany Civic Iniciative Vit Herak said, "He
simply can't throw all Romanies into one bag. What he did is against the
Bill of Basic Rights and Freedoms." However, Baranek denies accusations
of racial intolerance, arguing that he has one Romany employee.
Baranek's approach has become the target of criticism. For example,
Left Blok Chairman Jaroslav Ortman has called the situation paradoxical,
considering such a ban was issued by a SD-LSNS leader - a liberal. First
Deputy to the Director of the Czech Trade Inspection Jaroslav Vaic said
Baranek's approach can be considered as breaking the law on consumer
protection. The law states that a service supplier may in no way
discriminate against the consumer.
Viktorie Reschova/Andrea Snyder
Anna Masarykova Dies
Anna Masarykova, the granddaughter of first Czechoslovak president
T.G.Masaryk and the daugther of his son, painter Herbert Masaryk, died
in Prague March 18 after a long illness.
She worked in the National Gallery for many years, engaged in
general history and art history, in which she majored at the College of
Humanities (Filozoficka Fakulta) at Charles University in Prague. She
was interested in Czech painting of 19th and 20th century as well as
Prague architecture at the turn of the century. She organized several
exhibitions in the National Gallery. Moreover, she is the author of
several biographies on painters Antonin Slavicek, Jan Slavicek and Josef
Maratka, and she also wrote a study on Czech sculpture in the 19th and
20th centuries. Lucie Dvorakova/Milan Smid
Customs Inspectors Find 2 Billion Crowns Worth of Marijuana
Prague customs inspectors discovered six tons of Indian hemp on
a train from Varna, Bulgaria. The two containers originally came from
Nigeria.
According to the accompanying documents, the containers were to
have held cotton. However, cotton was present only as the top layer for
the 50-kg (110-pound) barrels of pressed marijuana. The load was
destined for Belgium.
No owner for the containers has been found. The case is under
investigation, because the importers allegedly know nothing about drugs.
The value of the narcotics is estimated to be roughly 2 billion crowns.
Zbynek Vicar/Andrea Snyder
Nine Tons of Disulphuric Acid Escape in Olomouc Accident
Nine tons of disulphuric acid escaped during the accident in
Olomouc's Farmak pharmaceutical plant March 4, not the previously
reported two tons. The accident resulted in the death of two people. One
plant employee, responsible for the pumping operation, has been accused
of allowing the process to continue unsupervised. Conviction on these
charges could bring up to 10 years of imprisonment. The Czech
Enviromental Inspection can issue the plant penalties of up to 1 million
crowns. Katerina Zachovalova/Katerina Zachovalova
Czech-French Workshop on Bilateral Relations
About 20 students from the Paris Journalism Education Center and
Charles University's Journalism Department participated in
a Czech-French workshop organized by the university's Faculty of Socvial
Sciences from March 9-16. The future journalists published a bilingual
magazine, Reciprocity (Vzajemnost - Reciprocite).
Jakub Knezu's article there states that "The Czech republic
exported to France goods worth 7.962 billion Czech crowns and France
exported into the Czech Republic goods worth 16.310 billion Czech crowns
between January 1995 and September 1995. In a global context, France is
the 8th biggest importer of Czech goods and 6th in exports to the Czech
Republic. French investments in the Czech Republic reached 534 million
USD between 1990 and 1995, placing them 6th, behind Germany and
Switzerland, among others. Among the biggest French investors are
Renault, which invested money in Karosa Vysoke Myto; Danone, the yogurt
king, or CBS company, which is building a commercial center on the
Myslbek lot on Prague's Na Prikope Street. A huge contract with a dash
of trouble is how the expansion of Prague's Ruzyne Airport appears, the
project being done by Bouygues for 703 million francs. The company's
director faces charges in France in connection to a corruption scandal.
Other topics were Czech-French relations in culture, politics and
education. The magazine contains interviews with the mime Ctibor Turba,
poet, singer and translator Jiri Dedecek and Radio Evropa 2 Director
Michel Fleischmann. Michaela Vysoudilova/Katerina Zachovalova
Visas for Canada Unnecessary after April
The Czech Republic will become, after Hungary and Slovenia, the
third post-communist country with a visa-free relationship with Canada.
Canadian International Trade Minister Arthur Eggleton and Czech Foreign
Affairs Minister Josef Zieleniec exchanged documents in Prague March 13
canceling visa requirements as of April for Czechs going to Canada.
Livia Savelkova/Katerina Zachovalova
FROM SLOVAKIA
Proposed Law for Protection of the Republic Sparks Variety of Reactions
The rightist opposition has taken a strong stance against the
government's proposed penal code, called the law for protection of the
republic. The Christian Democratic Movement's March 16 council meeting
approved a challenge to citizens, which said, "At the beginning of
Nazism there were the Nuremberg Acts. Crimes in our country began after
the acceptance of the law for protection of the people's democratic
regime (in the 1950's). The government of Vladimir Meciar has presented
Parliament the law for protection of the republic."
The executive committee of the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL'),
which met March 16 in Kysucke Nove Mesto, supported the basic parts of
the government's proposal. According to SDL' Vice-Chairman Robert Fico,
the only sensitive point of the proposal is the section on spreading
false information abroad, as quoted in the Slovak opposition daily SME
March 18. In an interview with Fico for Slovak radio, he said the
committee has not taken a definitive standpoint concerning the proposal.
Criticism came also from Vienna during the weekend - the Helsinki
International Federation for Human Rights (IHF) considers the proposed
amendment to be another blow to free speech in Slovakia, as reported by
the Czech press agency CTK. The IHF declarations imply that the Slovak
government fears differing opinions inside the country, and assumes that
supressing opposition opinions will help to better its reputation
abroad. "The government, in its effort to muffle its opponents, again
significantly ignored its international commitments," stated the end of
the declaration, referring to Slovakia's ratification of the European
Human Rights Agreement, as a member of the Council of Europe.
Marketa Skodova/Katerina Zachovalova
Celebration of Slovak Anniversary
A gathering dedicated to the anniversary of the creation of the
independent Slovak state in the year 1939 took place March 14, with
about 150 people in attendance. About 1,500 people came to the next
event comemmorating the anniversary, the "Academy" in Bratislava's
Istropolis March 16. The event was arranged by nongovernmental
organizations, such as the Andrej Hlinka Society, the Slovak
Organization for the Protection of Human and National Rights and the
state-supported Motherland Slovakia (Matice slovenska). Speakers
emphasized that the independent state saved Slovakia from aggression of
Horthyovsky's Hungary.
The President's office, The Slovak Union of Anti-fascist Fighters
and the Party of the Democratic Left issued declarations denouncing the
attempts to rehabilitate the state, which collaborated with Nazi
Germany.
The Slovak state was declared March 14, 1939, on the basis of
agreememt between Adolf Hitler and Jozef Tiso, who became the Slovak
president. The new state was officially under the protection of the
German Reich. Political regime is characterized as "cleric-fascist,"
conecting Italian Fascism and German Nazism with the strong influence of
the Catholic Church. Petr Pabian/Jitka Hejtmanova
One-Third of Slovaks Would Vote for HZDS
The governing Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) would again
win an election, getting 30.5 per cent of votes, according to research
conducted by the Method-Research Department of Slovak Broadcasting at
the beginning of the month. Second place was taken by the Christian
Democratic Movement (13.9 per cent) and third place went to the Party of
the Democratic Left (11.5 percent].
Marketa Skodova/Jitka Hejtmanova
Meciar and His Ministers Start to Lecture at University
"It will be a normal custom that members of government will lecture
at the University of Matej Bel, and today we inaugurate this series,"
said Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar at a press conference, after he had
lectured first-year law students about basic goals and guarantees of
national security and defense policy. At the same time, three other
members of government lectured to students from other departments.
Non-students were not permitted to attend the lectures.
Marketa Skodova/Jitka Hejtmanova
ECONOMY
Mobile Telephones Users Will Wait To See Lower Prices
Minister of Economy Karel Dyba announced March 14 the results of
the public tender for construction of a GSM digital mobile telephone
network. A consortium headed by the German firm DeTeMobil, a daughter
company of the public Deutsches Telecom, beat out four other competitors
in the in the bidding process.
The foreign company committed itself to operating the network for
the lowest posible prices. Rates for a one-minute call will fluctuate
from 4 crowns to 9.5 crowns. Eurotel, which now operates a mobile
telephone network and has also been granted a GSM license, charges 4.40
crowns to 9.90 crowns. The cheapest Eurotel phone costs 13,700 crowns,
but DeTeMobil anticipates prices starting from 999 crowns. The Eurotel
monopoly will wait till September to face off against its new rival,
which plans to serve 500,000 costumers by the year 2005.
Zbynek Vicar/Klara Schirova
Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank
(valid from March 22)
country currency
------------------------------------------
Great Britain 1 GBP 41.925
France 1 FRF 5.388
Japan 100 JPY 25.544
Canada 1 CAD 20.045
Austria 1 ATS 2.625
Slovakia 100 SKK 90.581
Germany 1 DEM 18.458
Switzerland 1 CHF 22.809
USA 1 USD 27.246
ECU 1 XEU 34.193
SDR 1 XDR 39.877
CULTURE
Sister Anxiety Declared Best Play of 1995
The Alfred Radok Prizes for 1995 were presented March 15 in
Prague's Comedy Theater. President Vaclav Havel, as a patron of the
Alfred Radok Foundation, took part in the festive afternoon.
The prize for the best play of 1995 was taken from Minister of
Culture Pavel Tigrid by director Jan Antonin Pitinsky for Sister Anxiety
(Sestra Uzkost), performed by Prague's Dejvicke Theater from the prose
of Jan Cep and Jakub Deml.
A first prize for the best original stage play was not awarded to
any of the contenders, but a ceond prize was received by two - Marketa
Blahova for The Little Trap and Viliam Klimacek for the drama Gothic.
Prizes awarded by the magazine World and Theater for best dramatic
performance were taken by Tomas Topfer (Jakobowski and the Colonel) and
Ivana Hlouskova (Marysa), Zuzana Stivinova was awarded talent of the
year. The work of Egon Tobias on Sister Anxiety was rewarded with the
prize for best stage design. Play of the year was again declared Sister
Anxiety and Dejvicke Theater was voted theater of the year.
Alice Ticha/Alice Ticha
Dark-Blue World of Jaroslav Jezek
The premiere of the new Czech musical Dark-Blue Revue was held
March 12 in Prague's ABC Theatre on the occasion of the 90th anniversary
of the birth of Jaroslav Jezek. The musical was conceived as a slightly
nontraditional look at this composer from the Liberated Theater. The
performance finds Jezek in the period when he parts with the writing and
acting duo Jiri Voskovec and Jan Werich in the USA. He remembers, in his
loneliness, the happy years in Prague. The part of Jaroslav Jezek was
taken by Petr Soch, while the roles of Voskovec and Werich were
performed by Dalibor Gondik and Vilem Udatny, respectively. The authors
of the musical, Roman Stolpa and Ladislav Pesek, were satisfied, among
other things because of the full house.
One of the most important guests was Voskovec's widow Christine,
who came from the USA, and the last living member of the Liberated
Theatre, Jan Novak. After the performance, the audience asked them to
come to the stage, where both received a great ovation. Christine
Voskovec danced in the final encore to the rhythm of Jezek's melody with
the producer of the musical, Roman Wimmer.
Barbora Spevakova/Alice Ticha
Lenny Kravitz Enthralls Czech Fans
American retro-rocker Lenny Kravitz appeared together with his
five-member band March 13 in Prague's Sports Hall, as part of his world
concert tour. Kravitz, in Prague for the first time, presented during
the two-hour concert most of the songs from his last album, Circus. He
also played his biggest hits from his three preceding records - Let Love
Rule, Mama Said and Are You Gonna Go My Way. About 12,000 people
attended the show. Jakub Konecny/Alice Ticha
The Beatles Are Popular Again
The six-part Beatles Anthology, shown by Czech Television at the
beginning of the year and repeated once, have evoked an unexpectedly
strong response from viewers. Karel Zeman from the Center of Program and
Auditorium Analysis announced that about 1.5 million viewers watched the
series and about 400,000 watched the reruns, which were shown just
before midnight. He compared the mass character of the viewing with the
Czech-Sweden hockey match in last year's World Championship.
Negotiations for the rights to the Baetles' film Yellow Submarine are
being conducted. Alida Kassymova/Jitka Motejzikova
Buty Becomes King of Czech Popular Music
The festive announcement of the annual Academy of Popular Music's
Gramy awards took place in Prague's Palace of Culture March 16.
The Ostrava-based band Buty appeared most often on the dais to
collect awards, in the form of a small phonographer. Buty won in three
categories: best band of the year, best song, for Francis (Frantisek)
and best album, for Wood (Drevo). The title of best male singer was
given to Kamil Strihavka, producer Ondrej Soukup received the Gramy for
best female singer for Lucie Bila, who was ill. The Academy awarded the
Beatles with two prizes: Liverpool's band was foreign personality of the
year, and its comeback was annointed the event of the year.
The singer Alice Springs won in the category discovery of the year.
Singer Hana Hegerova was voted into the Hall of Fame (after Karel Gott,
Petr Janda, Vladimir Misik and Karel Kryl).
A majority of those nominated performed live, for the first time in
the five-year history of the Gramys.
Other winners: best sound - No guitars! (Cimfe, Mazac, Strihavka);
best cover - Nostalgia (Robert Novak); producer of the year - Ivan Kral;
folk and country personality: the Eben brothers; best video: Thank You,
It Was Beautiful (Dekuji, bylo to krasne), Ondrej Havelka.
Michal Kubal/Jitka Motejzikova
SPORT
Slavia to UEFA Cup Semifinal
Historic success for the Slavia Praha soccer team was born March
19 in the Rome's Olympic Stadium. In spite of losing 1:3, Slavia fought
through to the last four teams, during the extra time of a revenge match
of the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup.
In the first duel March 5, Slavia, playing on its home turf, beat
the favored AS Roma 2:0 and thus prepared itself a promising start. But
a real hell, represented by almost 65,000 fans, awaited it in the
eternal city. The Czech Penicka had a chance at the beginning, but that
was for a long time all Slavia could muster. Slavia survived the first
half without allowing a goal. In the 61st minute the overmatched Slavia
defense could not hold any longer, and Moriero scored the first goal.
Seven minutes before the end, Giannini rised the score to 2:0 and
overtime began.
In overtime Moriero cashed in the first goal chance, and things
looked bad for Slavia. But in the 113rd minute Vavra got the ball after
a kick-off from the Czech goalie Stejskal, and Vavra's shot from the 16
line decided the advance of the Slavia team to the semi-final, on the
basis of away goals. Jan Palicka/Klara Schirova
Jablonec Streak Ends in Drnovice
The top soccer league continued with its 20th round, by which
two-thirds of this year's matches should have been played. They have
not, because of matches postponed by weather-related problems. In the
20th round, half of the matches did not take place, while the stronger
teams came out on top in the matches played.
Results of the 20th round: Drnovice-Jablonec 2-0, H.
Kralove-Sparta 0-2, Slavia-Cheb 2-0, Olomouc-Opava 3-2, Liberec-Zizkov,
Uh. Hradiste-C. Budejovice, Ostrava-Plzen a Brno-Zlin suspended.
Make-up from the 16th round: Brno-Liberec 1-1.
David Sprincl/Klara Schirova
WEATHER
During last week it became warmer in the Czech Republic. First of
all, the temperatures were moving around 0 degrees Celsius/32 degrees
Fahrenheit, but in the beginning of this week the Celsius mercury even
reached positive numbers. March 19 we could actually feel the coming
spring in the air - but nobody knows for how long.
The warming brought also some negative things. Thawing snow became
haevier at the mountains so that more injuries occure.
This year's long and severe winter can prove graduation of
depressing feelings for weaker people. Psychiatrists say that men go
through no-reason depressions in the Spring and Fall.
Olga Huderova, Maria Tripoliti/Petra Sevcikova
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SUPPLEMENT
WHO'S WHO IN CAROLINA (Part Four)
My name is Alida Kassymova. I am from Kyrgyzstan. I arrived in the Czech
Republic almost two years ago. I was educated as a musician, and for my
parents, my decision to study journalism in a foreign language came as
a big surprise. I love my family, classical music, interesting books and
movies. Alida Kassymova
I was born in Yerevan of Upper Armenia. I am Armenian, 20 years old and
last January my son Hovsep was born. At home I studied at Hracja
Adcarjan University. Because of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
and because of the bad social situation in my country, I am continuing
with my studies at Charles University in Prague. I have always thought
that one does not have to fight and rescue his country with a weapon,
but also with a pen. I am here, therefore, because I hope to help my
country with my education and good knowledge.
I like Prague a lot. Czechs are also a very good and interesting nation.
They just have a strange opinion of Armenians. Half of the nation thinks
that Armenians are Russians and the second half thinks they are mafia.
And I always say that we are not mafia, and that now, thank God, we have
our independence. So don't be afraid! Armenians are not mafiosi.
Arsen Kocarjan
My name is Maria Tripoliti and I was born in Athens in Greece 21 years
ago. I like music, movies, photos, traveling and I do not like to write
about myself.
I was born 19 years ago in Brno. While in high school I became a fanatic
player of the "Game of Heroes" and together with one of my debauched
schoolmates began to write a magazine on this theme. If not for this,
I would not be here. In high school I also tried one other activity
which has influenced my life significantly. I began to bowl. This
brought out that healthy aggression so necessary for a journalist.
Propelled by these two motors I successfully got into journalism school.
And here I am. Zbynek Vicar
My name is David Vozdecky. I celebrate my birthday on the 2nd of May
under the sign of Taurus. Last year I became an adult, and so according
to Czech law (but probably any other, too), I am fully responsible for
myself.
I have been active in the study of journalism since the beautiful day
I madly fell in love with actress, moderator, and popular hostess of
Games without Frontiers Martina Adamcova. Before my studies at the
university I worked in a small, regional newspaper. But the press is not
exactly what I would like to do in the future. I am attracted by the
work of reading news on television or on the radio.
I am not from Prague. I live in Chomutov, a city of 70,000 in the
northern part of the Czech Republic. But already today I know that
I want to stay in Prague.
I graduated kindergarten and grammar school in a village (Trsice), high
school in a city (Olomouc) and I amtrying to graduate from the
university in a metropolis (Prague). I am interestedd in many things. In
one day I could: swim the Moldau, attend the theater and cheer on the
Olomouc hockey team in an extraleague match. I really like the heat, and
therefore I spend lots of time in the sunshine in the summer, and under
a blanket in winter. If I won a million Crowns, I would take a trip
around the world and write about it for Carolina afterwards.
Michaela Vysoudilova (1976-?)
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