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Carolina (English) No 306
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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@mbox.fsv.cuni.cz
tel: (+4202) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+4202) 24810987
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 306, Friday, October 30, 1998.
FROM THE EVENTS OF THE LAST WEEK (October 21 - October 27)
Czech Crown Jewels on Exhibit
The Czech crown jewels are on exhibit for one week in the Old Royal
Palace, probably for the last time this century. This exceptional
exhibit is part of the celebrations of the anniversary of
Czechoslovakia's founding October 28, 1918.
Of the crown jewels, the oldest is the golden crown - it was made in
1347, during the reign of Charles IV. The king's apple and scepter are
from the first half of the 16th century. The crown is filled with 20
pearls, the biggest ruby in the world used as a jewel, 19 sapphires and
30 emeralds from Egypt. The crown jewels were made a national monument
in 1982 and the president must agree with their exhibition. The jewels
are locked in the St. Wenceslas Chapel in St. Vitus Cathedral and there
are seven keys - they are held by the president, prime minister, the
chairmen of Parliament's lower and upper house, the Prague archbishop,
the Prague mayor and the provost of the Metropolitan diocese of St.
Vitus.
There is a legend that anyone other than the Czech king who puts the
crown on his head will die in one year. This allegedly happened to
Reinhard Heydrich, leader of the Nazi German protectorate of Bohemia and
Moravia in 1941-42. He supposedly put the crown on his head when he came
to Prague and was assassinated 10 months later by Slovak Jozef Gabcik.
The crown jewels were exhibited in 1993 and more than 50,000 people
came to see them. "This year there is great interest in spite of the
horrible weather," said after the first day of exhibition Frantisek
Kadlec, the head of tourism for Prague Castle. More than 200 people can
see the jewels in one hour and there are still lines lasting for hours
in front of the palace.
Zuzana Galova/Jakub Jirovec
Klaus: Not Giving Award to Zilk Might Harm Czech-Austrian Relations
President Vaclav Havel refused at the last minute to award the
Order of the White Lion, presented on the anniversary of the October
28, 1918 founding of Czechoslovakia to former Vienna Mayor Helmuth Zilk
because of suspicions he cooperated with the Communist secret service.
Zilk, who organized free trips to Vienna for Czechs and Slovaks
after November 1989, denies the accusation. "I clearly declare I have
never worked for the Prague intelligence service. The charges are sheer
nonsense. There are conflicts in Prague related to the president.
A small war is being waged over me," said Zilk to the DPA agency.
According to the Austrian daily Kurier, Zilk, an honorary citizen of
Prague, will ask Havel for evidence: "I will write a letter to Havel and
ask for all documentation and foremost evidence."
The president's decision has been strongly criticized on the Czech
political scene. Parliament Chairman Vaclav Klaus, according to the CTK
agency, said, "It is a scandal, a terrible scandal. It will very
seriously damage Czech-Austrian relations, and it bothers me." Jaroslav
Basta, the government minister in charge of intelligence services, said
the president's attitude was rather strange. "It is very unusual,
I think the president should have known this earlier," said Basta to
CTK.
Vaclav Benda, a senator and former director of the Office for the
Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, said Zilk
was an intelligence agent. Based on his information, Havel October 26
asked for Zilk's records. The same day, the president said to Czech
Radio that Chancellor Ivan Medek, the first man to speak about the
affair, had been blackmailed by the German newspaper Suddeutsche
Zeitung.
Radan Dolejs/Denisa Vitkova
Havel Attends 350th Anniversary of Westphalia Treaty
After visiting Vienna, Belgium and Great Britain, Czech President
Vaclav Havel October 17 attended the European Council's celebration of
the 350th anniversary of the Treaty of Westphalia. Signed October 24,
1648, the treaty brought the Thirty-Year War between the Hapsburgs,
France and Sweden to a close and led to the religious division of much
of Europe.
The president visited Muenster without regard for his doctor Ilja
Kotik's warning. After the president's four-day stay in Great Britain,
his chronic bronchitis flared up and there were doubts about his visit
to Germany. The doctors agreed to Havel's trip in the end, on the
grounds that the celebration would not be too demanding.
The one-day program included a gala lunch and the opening of the
exhibit 1648 - War and Peace in Europe in the regional museum.
Ten presidents and eight European leaders, whose predecessors took
part in signing the treaty, attended the celebration. Along with Havel,
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk of the Czech Catholic Church was among the members
of the delegation.
Michaela Prokopova/Sofia Karakeva
ODS Launches Election Campaing with Unveiling of Klaus' Mega-Billboard
The 1998 election year will be brought to a close by the
mid-November local elections and the elections to the upper chamber of
the Czech Parliament, where one-third of the Senate will be contested.
The political parties involved hope that combining the dates of the
local and Senate elections will improve voter turnout from two years
ago, when only one-third of registered voters participated in the first
Senate elections in the Czech Republic. Opinion polls do not bring any
evidence of increased electorate interest, and some experts say the
candidate who makes more voters come out on election day in any given
election district will be the winner. Nevertheless, the election
campaign has been rather gray and boring.
The exception to the rule is the Civic Democratic Party (ODS),
which October 26 launched its election campaign on Prague's Letna plain,
where the massive Stalin monument was erected in the mid-50's. The
invitation to the Letna meeting took the form of a mobilization appeal,
warning against socialist experiments. The event come to a head with the
unveiling of a mega-billboard with ODS Chairman Vaclav Klaus, who was
mentioned in the opening address as a "symbol of a free society".
Among the ODS supporters performing at the meeting were Vinohrady
Theater actress and director Jirina Jiraskova, pop singer Ales Brichta,
the Tesarik brothers and their Yo Yo Band, cartoonist Vladimir Jiranek
and the pop star Lucie Bila. The 25-meter-wide poster with the portrait
of Klaus has in its upper-left corner the black-and-white face of Prime
Minister Milos Zeman and in the upper-right corner the red-lettered
slogan We Think Differently.
According to some Czech media, the mammoth construction was put up
without a construction permit and the ODS is facing fines of up to
200,000 crowns.
After deadline: A windstorm destroyed the mega-billboard October
28 such that it had to be removed for reparation in order to be
re-installed.
Radan Dolejs, Tomas Kohout/Milan Smid
FROM SLOVAKIA
SDL' Confirms Interest in New Government
The post-Communist Party of the Democratic Left (SDL'), which
became the third-strongest party in Slovakia after its surprising
showing (14.7 per cent) in the September national elections, held its
much-anticipated party congress in Zvolen October 24-5 and decided to
take part in the formation of a new government. Re-elected party
Chairman Jozef Migas is one of the favorites for the position of
National Assembly chairman.
Any remaining hopes of Premier Vladimir Meciar's Movement for
a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) were dashed by the congress, which decided
the SDL' is willing to form a government with the Slovak Democratic
Coalition (SDK), the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) and the Civic
Understanding Party (SOP), which together will have a constitutional
majority in the National Assembly. HZDS collected the most votes in the
election, but none of the above parties was willing to enter
a government with the heretofore ruling party.
The four parties began negotiations on forming a government
immediately after the close of the congress, with results expected by
the end of October.
Petra Machova
Jazz Days in Bratislava
Thousands of People in Bratislava saw a cross-section of jazz
musicians and styles during the Bratislava Jazz Days Corgon '98 in the
Social Hall of the Park for Culture and Relaxation.
While October 23 belonged to Yugoslav violinist Felix Lajko,
British saxophonist Courtney Pine and the American group New York
Voices, the October 24 program boasted Austrian saxophonist Wolfgang
Puschnig, American singer Michele Hendricks and American guitarist
Charlie Hunter. The festival was brought to a close October 25 by the
French group Arfi, American Trombonist Ray Anderson's Pocket Brass Band
with trumpetist Lew Soloff, and American guitarist Larry Coryell with
French drummer Alphonse Mouzon and bassist Richard Bona from Cameroon.
The hall, which seats more then 11,000, was sold out for all three
days. The October 23 crowd seemed most taken by Pine, who combined the
intensity of John Coltrane with the showmanship of Roland Kirk and
elements of hip hop - his call-and-response soloing with DJ Pogo on
turntables moved the frontiers of jazz further. The next day was
propelled by Puschnig, who had previously appeared at the festival as
one of the founding members of the Vienna Art Orchestra, while Hunter,
who plays an eight-string guitar fashioned from three bass strings and
five guitar strings, was perhaps overshadowed by his vibraphone player.
After Anderson and Soloff impressed the October 25 public, the festival
was closed out by Coryell, one of the godfathers of fusion, who, with
Mouzon, founded the band the 11th House. Soloff made a cameo appearance
with Coryell, who first played the festival in 1983, but, if the crowd
response October 25 is any indication, will be welcomed back any time.
Michael Bluhm/Michael Bluhm
ECONOMY
Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank
(valid October 19)
country currency
-----------------------------------------
Australia 1 AUD 20.305
Belgium 100 BEF 90.318
Great Britain 1 GBP 55.529
Denmark 1 DKK 4.894
ECU 1 XEU 36.848
Finland 1 FIM 6.129
France 1 FRF 5.559
Ireland 1 IEP 46.957
Italy 1000 ITL 18.909
Japan 100 JPY 24.258
Canada 1 CAD 22.713
Luxemburg 100 LUF 90.318
IMF 1 XDR 44.245
Hungary 100 HUF 15.392
Netherlands 1 NLG 16.533
Norway 1 NOK 4.406
New Zealand 1 NZD 17.300
Poland 1 PLN 9.646
Portugal 100 PTE 18.196
Austria 1 ATS 2.648
Greece 100 GRD 10.971
Germany 1 DEM 18.630
Slovakia 100 SKK 95.158
Slovenia 100 SIT 19.778
Spain 100 ESP 21.958
Sweden 1 SEK 4.222
Switzerland 1 CHF 22.301
USA 1 USD 33.246
CULTURE
Vladimir Macura and Jindrich Pokorny receive State Prizes
Culture Minister Pavel Dostal October 22 presented in the Prague
Castle's Ball Room the State Prize for Literature and the State Prize
for a Translated Work. The literature laureate was novelist and critic
Vladimir Macura, for his novel The Governess (Guvernantka) and for his
collection of literary essays The Czech Dream (Cesky sen). The
translation award went to Jindrich Pokorny for his wide-ranging
translation, essay and editing work.
Macura, born in 1945, studied Czech and English and worked in the
Czech Literature Institute, where he has been director for the last five
years. He helped create the Community of Writers and worked closely with
the important literary magazine Tvar. He garnered recognition with his
books The Sign of Birth (Znameni zrodu) and The Happy Age (Stastny vek),
in which he demystified the atmospheres of the National Revival and
Communist rule.
Pokorny, born in 1927, attended the Charles University Law School
and was persecuted in the 50's for his editorial activity. In his own
words, the barriers of the former regime pushed him into his current
work translating from Medieval German. Today he is chairman of the
Rainer Maria Rilke Society Foundation. Pokorny translated anthologies
from Voltaire, Hugo, Rilke and others.
The state prizes have been awarded annually since 1995 on the
anniversary of the October 28, 1918 founding of Czechoslovakia, and last
year's laureates were Ivan Divis and Ludvik Kundera.
Pavel Sladky/Sofia Karakeva
Prague International Jazz Festival - This Time in Reduta
The International Jazz Festival is in Prague October 22-30 for the
23rd time. In contrast to past years, when jazzmen performed in the
Lucerna's Great Hall, this year's event has been situated into the
modest, chamber-like environs of the Reduta jazz club and Nostic Salon.
The organizer of the festival, PRAGOKONCERT, explained the move as the
result of a lack of funds and decreasing audience interest, as well as
the event of the 35th anniversary of Reduta's opening.
Pragokoncert representantive Michal Maka said interest in jazz is
declining and today's younger generation is more inclined toward rock.
For example, last year's performance of American jazz singer Tony
Bennett in Lucerna was attended by 300 people.
Among the guests of the festival were the Finnish group Jyvaskyla,
Duo Durnman and the Italian Jazz Quintet. The most well known performers
are American pianist Walter Norris and the New York Voices.
Zuzana Galova/Milan Smid
Jaroslav Foglar Christens Complete Edition of Fast Arrows Comics
The Czech children's literature classic The Fast Arrows (Rychle
sipy) was published completely for the first time. The 315 comic books
were written by Jaroslav Foglar from 1938-1971. Only one story from
1948 was held out, as the arrows were helping to move clay at
a socialist youth construction site.
The stories, which deal with the adventures of Mirek Dusin, Jarka
Metelka, Jindra Hojer, Cervenacek and Rychlonozka, have already been
adapted for television, film and theater.
Katerina Kolarova/Katerina Kolarova
SPORTS
Agassi Wins Biggest Tournament in Central Europe
American tennis player Andre Agassi fulfilled the favorite's role
in the 5th year of the IPB Czech Indoor in Ostrava. He defeated
surprising finalist, Slovak Davis Cup team member Jan Kroslak, after
a hard struggle 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. He won 137,000 USD and 220 ATP points,
while Kroslak had to be satisfied with 81,000 USD and 160 points in the
ATP rankings.
Petr Novy/Mirek Langer
Soccer League: Fans Make Trouble Again in Letna
Sparta Praha's match against Banik Ostrava was the biggest draw of
the 10th round in the soccer league, but the unspectacular game finished
in a tie, leaving fan disturbances the center of attention.
Hradec Kralove introduced new coach Stanislav Kocourek, the team
scored its first goal after three scoreless matches and knocked Dukla
Pribram to the bottom of the standings with a 3-0 spanking.
Teplice continues its parade through the autumn season and, after
beating Karvina, its lead at the top of the standings continues to grow.
Results of the 10th round: Sparta - Ostrava 1-1, Jablonec - Brno
1-1, Hradec Kralove - Pribram 3-0, Olomouc - Zizkov 2-1, Karvina -
Teplice 0-2, Opava - Liberec 2-0, Plzen - Blsany 2-1, Drnovice - Slavia
1-1.
Standings: 1. Teplice 23 points, 2. Olomouc 19, 3. Drnovice 19, 4.
Sparta 18, 5. Opava 17, 6. Blsany 16, 7. Ostrava 14, 8. Zizkov 14, 9.
Slavia 14, 10. Liberec 11, 11. Hradec Kralove 11, 12. Plzen 11, 13.
Jablonec 8, 14. Brno 7, 15. Karvina 7, 16. Pribram 6.
Jirka Wazik/Mirek Langer
Sparta Praha Owner Alexander Rezes Only Wags His Finger
The visit of Sparta Praha owner Alexander Rezes from Slovakia was
only a warning. Rezes said he is not preparing any sanctions or
personnel changes yet, but he admitted that if the situation does not
improve, no one's job is safe.
Players had to promise they will be in first place after the autumn
half of the schedule - they are in fourth place and did not play well in
the European Cups. Rezes denied rumors about the club's sale, saying he
will have majority in Sparta forever and has recently been looking for
a strategic partner.
Vladimir Vorechovsky/Mirek Langer
FC Bohemians Say Farewell to Stadium with Win
The Prague-Vrsovice soccer club Bohemians will move to Strahov
Stadium after chronic disputes with the owners of its stadium, the
Bohemians Real company. It played its last match on its field by the
creek October 24. The second-league leader defeated NH Ostrava 4-1. The
match was watched by some 4,000 spectators, who came to say goodbye to
the popular Little Pit (Dolicek). Bohemians is one of the most famous
Prague clubs, having featured stars like Antonin Panenka, who scored the
legendary penalty kick in the 1976 European Championships final.
The club's statement about the situation circulated among fans, who
led several chants against Dalibor Lacina and Petr Batek,
representatives of Bohemians Real. However, the players' performance
deafened the anger.
After deadline: The club's management announced the team will also
play its last autumn home match in the Little Pit, but it does not want
to sign a new contract with the owners of the stadium.
Pavel Sladky/Mirek Langer
Hockey Extraleague: Coaching Changes Continue
During the 15th and 16th rounds more Staropramen Extraleague teams
changed coaches. The substitutions were begun by Litvinov (see Carolina
305), followed by Opava (Jaroslav Latal added to the three-coach
committee) and Jihlava (Augusta replaced by Vladimir Caldr).
Former Sparta coach Vaclav Sykora led Litvinov to its first win
after five losses. Another streak ended in Trinec, where Plzen lost
after 11 games without a defeat. Karlovy Vary goalkeeper Rudolf Pejchar
added his third shutout in a row in Opava.
Forward Tomas Jelinek played his 686th league match, tying the
league record of Josef Cerny. Jelinek celebrated the event by scoring
a goal.
Result of the 15th round: Opava - Karlovy Vary 0-2, Ceske
Budejovice - Trinec 2-3, Plzen - Sparta 2-0, Slavia - Pardubice 2-2,
Litvinov - Zlin 2-1, Vitkovice - Kladno 2-2, Vsetin - Jihlava 3-0.
Result of the 16th round: Zlin - Opava 5-3, Pardubice - Vitkovice
0-2, Trinec - Plzen 3-2, Jihlava - Slavia 4-3, Litvinov - Sparta 1-5,
Kladno - Ceske Budejovice 1-8.
Standings: 1. Vsetin 24 points, 2. Trinec 23, 3. Zlin 21, 4. Plzen
20, 5. Sparta 18, 6. Budejovice 17, 7. Karlovy Vary 17, 8. Slavia 15,
9. Vitkovice 15, 10. Pardubice 15, 11. Litvinov 14, 12. Kladno 10, 13.
Jihlava 7, 14. Opava 6.
Robin Rohrich/Mirek Langer
Handball Team Earns Three Points in Hard Games against Turkey
The Czech men's handball team met Turkey in its third and fourth
qualification matches for the World Championships. The first match was
played in a stormy atmosphere in a Turkish police building, which must
have influenced the wild result. Although the Czechs led throughout the
match, the final was a 35-35 tie.
In the second match in Chomutov, the poor performance of the
defense was repeated. However, the Czechs were able to win 28-25, thanks
mainly to Lanca's 10 goals.
The Czech players have to win at least three points in the last two
matches against Norway to advance, because only the first-place team in
the qualifying group will participate in the championships.
Vladimir Vorechovsky/Mirek Langer
WEATHER
The end of the past week brought temperatures which broke all the
records documented in the Klementinum meteorology observatory. The
temperature of 19.2 degrees Celsius/66.6 degrees Fahrenheit made Friday
the warmest October 23 in the last two centuries. A day later, the 19.6
degrees Celsius/67.3 degrees Fahrenheit set another all-time record.
That evening, however, summer clocks turned to winter clocks, and as
evidence that summer is definitely over the cold front brought the Czech
Republic wind storms and cold rains. Prague is still pretty - from the
window of a cafe or a pub.
English version edited by Michael Bluhm
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