Last week 20/2007

Sixty-two years passed since World War II ended. Firremen set off to extinguish tens of fires ravaging the land in fields and forests despite sporadic rain showers. A natural gas pipeline supplying the Czech Republic exploded in the Ukraine and another branch of the network had to take over deliveries. Gas prices skyrocketed. The Scottish nationalists’ election-day victory galvanized Moravians.

The Meteorological Institute informed the public that the “frozen brothers” Pankrác, Servác, and Bonifác would not visit the Czech Republic this year. Following record windpower output, domestic solar power plants also reported exceptionally high energy production. Severočeské doly let it be known that it wants to mine coal under the devastated village of Libkovice, and Industry Minister Martin Říman publicly declared that he “utterly agrees” with the northern Bohemian mining company’s plan.

“Every person from every country who has gone to the Czech Republic thinks the people there are fucking assholes,” American actress Bijou Phillips told the American magazine Stuff; while shooting in Prague, the actress became outraged that the staff of a fashion boutique in the city center would not allow her to smoke while shopping. The hospital in Uherské Hradiště began performing glaucoma surgery. The yachting season opened on the “southern Moravian sea” near Nové Mlýny. Not even the unexpected win over Austria balanced defeats against the Germans, Slovaks, Canadians, and Russians, which thereby eliminated the Czech national ice hockey team from the World Championship in Moscow. The Czech Republic dropped from 28th to 32nd on the list of most competitive economies established each year by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development; the USA maintained first place, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong.

After a nine-month pause, the Directorate of Roads and Highways announced it was preparing a new public tender for building roads and highways, this time for 30 billion crowns. “Finally,” Jiří Svoboda, who heads the Czech branch of Strabag, said of the resurgence. Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek announced that he would push for the Czech state to adopt the euro on January 1, 2012. Deputies from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) decided their party would nominate Klaus to the Castle again next year.

After a week of consideration and audits by its commanders, the Prague Police admitted that arresting unruly May Day anti-fascist demonstrators, stripping them bare at the station, and forcing them to do knee-bends was a mistake; at the same time, police officials stated that at the moment it is still unclear exactly who had erred or how they would be punished for it. Pelhřimov’s city assembly adopted an ordinance banning people from skateboarding and inline skating in front of the local cinema and cultural center. “The aim of the ban is not a war on skaters, but rather the protection of municipal property, which has sustained significant damage from those activities in the locations in question,” explained Miroslav Kubánek, the author of the new by-law and the head of the mayor’s office.

In Jihlava, the first five-thousand-crown reward was paid to a person for turning in a vandal. A pair of fishermen rescued a little girl who was drowning in Plumlov Reservoir near Prostějov. Participants of the traditional bird song welcoming party in Havlíčkův Brod informed media that among the forty different tunes they heard was the melody of the rare nightingale. A gathering of accordion players was held in Nové Město na Moravě. “I view my case as a witch hunt,” Jan Hlaváček, who directed the Criminality Institute to date, but has to leave because his lustration certificate declaring no cooperation with the communist-era secret police was discovered during a screening to be false.

Statistics revealed that people are pulling out of Czech share funds even thought they are on the rise. Staropramen’s profit fell by a quarter billion crowns. Butchers disclosed to Mladá fronta DNES that cheap salami is no longer in fashion. J&T announced it would open the world’s first Buddha Bar Hotel next year in Prague’s Old Town Square. Žďár nad Sázavou city councilors decided to illuminate the UNESCO-listed Pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora. The British Embassy screened a pre-premiere of a documentary about legendary pilot and war hero Josef Bryks, the man, who, in his words, “overestimated the Czech spirit”: after years of fighting against the Nazis and suffering in their concentration camps, he was then imprisoned and tortured to death by local communists at home. Viktor Kožený was released from custody in the Bahamas. Spider Man opened in cinemas.