Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Carolina (English) No 290
CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA
CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A
CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A
CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA
CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A
STUDENTS' 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: (+4202) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+4202) 24810987
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 290, Friday, May 22, 1998.
FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (May 13 - 20)
Street Disturbances in Prague
Prague May 16 witnessed the largest street disturbances since 1989.
A planned and permitted happening to protest against multinational
corporations' and capitalism's effects on the environment, arranged by
ecology organizations on Peace Square (Namesti miru), continued with an
unannounced Global Street Party which got out of the organizers'
control.
Approximately 3,000 participants, led by a group of militant
anarchists and ecology activists, first blocked the north-west
Prague-Brno highway where it runs through downtown Prague and asked
drivers to leave their cars at home. Then, however, the crowd's front
line and the police collided and the action continued with the
destruction of a neo-Fascist Republican's election billboard, the
ransacking of two stores in Vodickova Street, and breaking windows at
McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, which the ecology
organizations consider a symbol of globalization and consumption.
Finally, a special police unit dispersed the demonstrators.
Seventeen policemen were injured, 64 young people were arrested, damages
were estimated at 1 million crowns and dozens of complaints against the
police were filed.
The alleged police brutality received much attention. Prague Police
Deputy Director Jan Charvat said the intervention could have been
harsher, but there have been cases publicized where police attacked
citizens who were not part of the demonstration. The only concrete
consequence thus far has been the request of Police President Oldrich
Tomasek to add more members to the SWAT team.
Jakub Svab/Denisa Vitkova
Audit Confirms Doubts about ODS Finances
The accounting books of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) are full of
mistakes and the party's sponsoring activity has repeatedly broken the
law, said the final report of the independent accounting firm Deloitte
& Touche. The report was commissioned by the ODS and was made public May
13.
The audit declared that "the ODS accounting files did not properly
reflect the state of party finances." There are also donations which
were not registered in the accounting, and moreover were later legalized
as party membership dues which were never actually paid.
Deloitte & Touche found that some party members "highly probable"
made a personal profit from the party, and were exercising "fraudulent
practices" in getting money.
Speculations about the existence of a secret foreign bank account
were neither confirmed nor rejected. However, further information was
added to the issue.
Lubomir Reichsfeld, a former employee in the ODS headquarters, told
Deloitte & Touche he was informed by office manager Marta Sorfova that
the TelSource company paid the equivalent of 100 million crowns to an
ODS bank account in Switzerland. The sum of money was supposedly
a reward for the outcome of the privatization of the Czech
telecommunication monopoly SPT Telecom, which TelSource won. The same
thing was referred to as "second-hand information" also by Jan Ruml,
former ODS leader and present chairman of the Freedom Union, but Sorfova
rejected the charge.
ODS is not going to take any further measures as a result of the
audit. "I think that political consequences, respectively a political
toll, were already assessed. I think they were assessed strictly,
uncompromisingly, and it has also been paid," said Ivan Langer, ODS vice
chairman, at a press conference. He said he meant the fall of the former
Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus' government, ODS' absence in the present
government and a loss of public confidence in ODS.
Nonetheless, several employees from ODS headquarters will have to
pay a price. Sorfova and chief accountant Marie Krcmarova are said to
have been fired. The auditor called them the link in chain of people who
organized the acquisition and distribution of money not registered in
the accounting. According to Oldrich Vojir, the manager of the ODS
headquarters, their future will be decided next week.
Ondrej Drabek/Milan Smid
Political Parties Get Ballot Numbers for the Elections
Central Election Committee members May 18 drew ballot numbers for
parties taking part in the elections. That way, graphic artists could
add the last detail into campaign advertising materials.
The biggest interest was in numbers 1, 7 and 13. Number one went to
the Christian Democrats, the supposedly lucky seven to the Social
Democrats, who have been using it as a symbol for a while, and the Czech
National Social Party received number 13. The Freedom Union said it was
satisfied to received 11, or two ones. The Civic Democratic Party (ODS)
drew number 5, the Communists number nine and the Retirees for Life
Security number 12.
The Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) also received a number, although
the party announced over the weekend it would not participate in the
elections. Its preference in voter polls has been about 1 per cent, and
the 200,000 crowns each party has to pay in every county it is on the
ballot probably influenced their decision.
Eva Fronkova/Denisa Vitkova
Unions Cannot Agree with Tosovsky
Representatives of 10 labor unions May 19 met Prime Minister Josef
Tosovsky to present their demands, particularly cost-of-living increases
for state employees' wages from July 1. In 1998, this increase would
require approximately 3 billion crowns from the state budget. However,
the prime minister said he did not see room for releasing this amount of
money from the budget, and he agreed only the union's demand to
participate in creating the state budget for 1999. Last year, real wages
in the public sector decreased because of inflation and the cancellation
of planned bonuses. Immediately after the unsuccessful discussion with
Tosovsky, the labor unions agreed on further joint negotiation. They
also announced an hourlong warning strike to take place June 8.
Jaroslav Mares/Denisa Vitkova
Havel Surgery Postponed
The medical consultation group for President Vaclav Havel decided
May 19 that the follow-up surgery on Havel's abdomen to close his
colostomy should be postponed until middle of July.
The removal of the artificial outlet for the colon is technically
more demanding on a patient than its introduction. Despite the
president's wish to be operated on as soon as possible, Dr. Frantisek
Antos, an expert on digestive system illnesses from Prague Bulovka
Hospital, did not recommend the early surgery.
The presidential couple said they were disappointed by the decision,
since the president's mood has improved, and Havel said he would have
liked to have the colostomy removed before the June elections. At the
request of Havel's family the surgery will be performed by the Austrian
surgeon Ernst Bodner, who performed the emergency operation on Havel's
perforated colon in Innsbruck April 14. One of the Dalai Lama's personal
doctors also offered his services to the president.
Paula Majorova/Milan Smid
Book of Interviews with Vaclav Klaus Released
The Votobia publishing house released Thus Spoke Vaclav Klaus, in
which the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) chairman and former prime
minister answers questions from Peter Jungling, Tomas Koudela and Petr
Zantovsky. The interviews cover the time from Klaus' entry into politics
until last year's cabinet collapse and the split of ODS. Klaus speaks
openly about the people around him and describes situations he witnessed
as a politician.
"We did not intend to build a monument to Vaclav Klaus. We wanted to
know who Vaclav Klaus is. Who he was before he became prime minister and
the biggest right-wing party leader, and why it was him," say the
authors in a book review. Jungling, Koudela and Zantovsky say they
consider Klaus "an incredibly consistent personality as far as his
opinions and pushing them through is concerned ... We decided to give
the book a Nietzsche-like name because ... this kind of metaphor and
distance, after all, is appropriate with Klaus," said the authors.
The book created a wave on the Czech political scene. Political
opponents of ODS said they do not fear the content of the book but the
possibility that Klaus' party will use the book unfairly in leading its
election campaign. Some Social Democrats expressed their worries over
the cover, with Klaus' portrait, being printed on billboards. Except for
the neo-Fascist Republicans, parliamentary parties agreed not to use
billboards in the campaign. Billboards of the most popular Czech singer
Lucie Bila with the words Lucie Bila for Vaclav Klaus received
a negative reaction because they were considered a breach of the
agreement. ODS claims they neither paid for the billboards nor ordered
them. Bila said Klaus knew his name was going to be used on the
billboard.
Ondrej Drabek/Jana Ciglerova
NEWS IN BRIEF
* Former Editor-in-chief of Czech Television's news Petr Studenovsky
replaced Minister Vladimir Mlynar as government spokesman May 19. Mlynar
resigned after joining the Freedom Union and a deciding to lead their
Prague election ballot.
* President Vaclav Havel won a court case brought by his
sister-in-law, who sued him for allegedly not upholding her
pre-purchase right to the half of Lucerna Palace Havel sold to Chemapol
for 200 million crowns. The Prague City Court ruled that Havel did not
break the law.
* This weekend the convention of the Czech and Moravian Chamber of
Labor Unions took place, during which Chairman Richard Falbr was
re-elected. The session also changed the name of the group's
headquarters from Chamber to Confederation because of the unsuitability
of the word chamber, which is more fitting for professional
organizations.
* The Light for Aids campaign, which took place May 16 in 50
countries, was also observed in some Czech cities, where a symbolic
light was inflamed in memory of the disease's casualties. The greatest
number of people gathered in Prague.
Eva Fronkova/Ajla Zinhasovic
FROM SLOVAKIA
Nuclear Power Plant Mochovce Launched
Operation of the Mochovce nuclear power station, planned for May
20, has been delayed. Power station management announced the delay May
18, citing the extended presence of group of experts in the station.
A full-capacity test run is still planned for July 21.
Austria, which has opposed the power station from the beginning, is
not the only opponent of Mochovce. Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima May
18 formally asked Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar to delay activating
Mochovce, as did head of the international expert team Wolfgang Kromp,
citing security reasons.
Both the coalition and opposition parties agree with the power
plant's activation, while the Slovak Green Party and Greenpeace are
against it.
Paula Majorova/Matej Cerny
Slovaks Restrict Imports of Czech Beer
The Slovak government decided to restrict the import of Czech beer
by lowering the import quota from 532,000 hectoliters to 300,000
hectoliters last week. According to Vice Premier Sergej Kozlik, the
decision has been made and now it is just a question of finding a way to
put it into practice without excessively irritating the Czechs.
The reason for the step is that local breweries are running at
65-per-cent capacity while imports make up 13.2 per cent of the Slovak
beer market. Kozlik also said foreign brands being made in Slovakia will
not be included in the restrictions. Agriculture Minister Petr Bac said
Slovakian breweries will have to purchase Slovak hops.
The issue is about to be discussed by the Customs Union Council
soon, but the Alliance of Czech Breweries and Malt-houses already
protested. Alliance Chairman Antonin Kratochvil said one-sided quota
reductions are a violation of the World Trade Organization rules.
Jakub Svab/Matej Cerny
ECONOMY
Insurance Company Goes Bankrupt
The Morava Insurance Company (Pojistovna Morava) went bankrupt last
week when the Ministry of Finance took away its licence May 11.
According to Ministry spokesman Michal Jirkovsky, the state overseer of
insurance companies had been trying without success to improve the
company's situation since 1996, so removing its licence was only the
logical last step.
Morava, the 12th largest insurance company in the country with 0.7
per cent of the market, was blamed for low premiums which could not
cover expenses and risks. Moreover, it did not have property insurances
secured and so had problems paying people who had claims from last
year's floods.
The Czech legal system does not allow insurance companies to acquire
the policies of another insurance company that went bankrupt, and so it
seemed that Morava's clients would have a long wait for their money.
However, the Universal Insurance Company proposed that it will acquire
all insurance policies of Morava, but that clients will individually
have to sign a new contract. This agreement was made with the help of
the Czech Insurance Companies Association and must be approved by the
Finance Ministry.
Jakub Svab/Matej Cerny
Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank
(valid from May 22)
country currency
------------------------------------------
Australia 1 AUD 20.291
Belgium 100 BEF 88.534
Great Britain 1 GBP 52.514
Denmark 1 DKK 4.793
ECU 1 XEU 35.925
Finland 1 FIM 6.010
France 1 FRF 5.445
Ireland 1 IEP 45.950
Italy 1000 ITL 18.515
Japan 100 JPY 23.821
Canada 1 CAD 22.227
Luxemburg 100 LUF 88.534
IMF 1 XDR 43.153
Hungary 100 HUF 15.321
Netherlands 1 NLG 16.203
Norway 1 NOK 4.312
New Zealand 1 NZD 17.194
Poland 1 PLN 9.376
Portugal 100 PTE 17.821
Austria 1 ATS 2.595
Greece 100 GRD 10.576
Germany 1 DEM 18.260
Slovakia 100 SKK 94.444
Slovenia 100 SIT 19.604
Spain 100 ESP 21.496
Sweden 1 SEK 4.190
Switzerland 1 CHF 21.883
USA 1 USD 32.201
CULTURE
Czech/Czechoslovak Radio Celebrates 75th Anniversary
Czech Radio (CR) celebrated its 75th anniversary (having spent the
vast majority of its years as Czechoslovak Radio) May 18. The
celebrations, which began some weeks ago, came to a head May 17 in Old
Town Square with a daylong program.
Celebrities like Helena Vondrackova, Karel Gott, Miro Zbirka, Ilona
Csakova and Frantisek Nedved appeared. A double album of CR's key
moments and a partial history of Czech music was introduced and the
theme song of the Czech version of the musical Evita, now being
prepared, was performed publicly for the first time. CR's foreign
correspondents presented their book, named after their program, The
Foreign Correspondents' Notebook. Part of the program was broadcasted
live by CR's Radiojournal.
On May 18 at 9:15 p.m., precisely 75 years from CR's first regular
broadcasting, listeners enjoyed a repeat of the first show. CR first
broadcast May 18, 1923 from the famous tent in Kbely on the outskirts of
Prague, making Czechoslovakia the second country with its own radio
station, after the British BBC. Only about 250 people who paid the
license fee for their radios could listen to the CR's daily one-hour
program from 8:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.. It mainly played music for solo
instruments and solo singing, along with brief news, mainly weather and
sports, and later also stock exchange reports.
CR on February 12, 1925 became the first radio station in Europe to
broadcast an entire theater performance.
Eva Fronkova/Sofia Karakeva
The Faculty of Social Sciences Held a Student Festival
From May 13-15 the home of the Social Sciences Faculty hosted the
third-annual Pavlac student festival, which celebrates the end of the
spring semester. On the school's terraces and courtyard performed its
students, as well as students from the film, theater and music schools.
This year, organizers divided Pavlac into three separate sections.
On May 13 the festival was infantile, as visitors could watch a puppet
performance, a concert by the band Mr. Tycka and a video of the popular
comics figure Green Raul (Zeleny Raoul) from the Czech weekly Reflex.
For those wanting to return to earlier times, children's magazines and
children's cartoons were also on the program.
On May 14 Pavlac had a naturalistic flavor, and the highlight was
the filming of the Czech Television talk-show On the edge (Na Hrane)
about the return of totalitarian culture.
The festival came to its end on May 15 with experimental theater,
dance and musical performances. A concert by the band Vanishing World in
the Subterra Club at the Prague Fairgrounds brought the festival to
a close.
Eva Fronkova/Sofia Karakeva
SPORTS
Czech Hockey Players Get Bronzes
Czech hockey players won the bronze medal in the World
Championships, defeating the host team of Switzerland 4-0 May 15. They
failed to advance to the final a day before when they did could not
defeat Finland and take the series into overtime (Czech Republic
- Finland 1-4 and 2-2). Finland lost in the first final 0-1 to Sweden
and the rematch finished in a scoreless tie. Sweden regained some
prestige after its poor showing in the Nagano Olympics.
Czech player Frantisek Kucera was voted to the Championships
all-stars and named best defender of the tournament.
Jaroslav Mares/Mirek Langer
Bottom of Soccer League Clearing up
After the 28th round of the first soccer league, the probable
appearance of the final standings is becoming clearer. FC Dukla and
Petra Drnovice saved their spots in the league, while the chances of
second-to-last Ceske Budejovice grew darker. Budejovice is now three
points behind Hradec Kralove and it has tougher opponents in the last
two rounds.
Sparta Praha sewed up the championship two rounds ago and second
place belongs to Slavia. Ostrava and Olomouc are playing for the third
place, and the better team will take part in the UEFA Cup next year.
The soccer league's schedule will now take a break because of the
national team's start in Japan.
Results: Olomouc - Jablonec 1-0, Hradec Kralove - Teplice 1-1, Brno
- Plzen 5-1, Dukla - Sparta Praha 2-2, Slavia - Liberec 1-0, Drnovice -
Ceske Budejovice 3-0, Opava - Zizkov 3-0, Ostrava - Bohdanec 6-1.
Jaroslav Mares/Mirek Langer
Speedway World Championships Start in Prague
The first of six races in the Speedway World Cup took place in
Prague's Na Markete stadium May 15. The favorite for the championships
became first-race winner Tony Rickardsson of Sweden, riding a Czech Jawa
motorcycle, while the United States' Hamill finished second and
Sweden's Nilsen third, both riding GMs.
Czech racers Antonin Kasper and Bohumil Brhel both started thanks to
wild cards and both finished among the first 16 racers.
The race, concluded by a fireworks display, was watched by about
8,000 spectators, mostly from Poland and the Czech Republic.
Eva Fronkova/Mirek Langer
WEATHER
Everything is clearing up not only in the Czech soccer standings but
also in the sky. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, the clouds are
clouding, the sunset is sunsetting and the daytime 20 degrees
Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit is tempering. In respect to the starting
exam period the weather is so fine that it is ugly. Thunder clouds are
going to hang not only over Charles University, but frequent showers and
possible thunderstorms and hail will become highly probable also outside
the school.
Jaroslav Mares
English version edited by Michael Bluhm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The
subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Send them
please to the address:
CAROLINA@cuni.cz
To subscribe to CAROLINA news you send an e-mail message to the address
LISTSERV@listserv.cesnet.cz
The text of message for subscription of the English version must be:
SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name
or for the Czech version
SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name
To delete your subscription from the list of subscribers you send
the following message to the address LISTSERV@listserv.cesnet.cz:
SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS
We ask you not to send automatic replies to our list. You can
temporarily stop receiving of Carolina by sending the command:
SET CAR-ENG NOMAIL
All Listserv commands should be sent to the address:
LISTSERV@listserv.cesnet.cz
Please, don't send commands SUB, SIGNOFF, NOMAIL etc to the address
CAR-CS@listserv.cesnet.cz or CAR-ENG@listserv.cesnet.cz!
