Last week 3/2007

Czech President Václav Klaus named the second cabinet of Mirek Topolánek. Carlo Ponti (94) passed away. The temperature rose to 14 degrees Celsius, cherry trees blossomed on Petřin Hill in Prague, and bees flew from their hives in the Highlands. Meteorologists informed citizens that this January is the warmest in recorded history. Škoda Auto’s management announced the company would sell a record 550,000 cars this year. Russia stopped European arms of its Družba pipeline due to price disputes with Belorussia, and oil did not flow to the Czech Republic for two days.

The TV show StarDance increased interest in dance classes. Psychiatrists informed the public that the shortage of snow could deepen their seasonal depression. The European Commission began seriously considering adopting a directive to break up the big energy giants, which it believes are squeezing out the competition and raising electricity and gas prices for consumers. The Slovácké Theatre in Uherské Hradiště played the last performance of Liška Bystrouška directed by J. A. Pitínský. Plummeting ČEZ stock prices caused the Prague Stock Exchange to nosedive. One hundred soldiers returned from their mission in Kosovo with KFOR international forces. MobilKom obtained the fourth mobile network license in the Czech Republic from local authorities. David Bowie celebrated his sixtieth birthday. “I really believe the punishment taught him a lesson and that he’ll change,” a woman from Jirkov whose husband was the first man in Czech history to be banned from his family’s home for ten weeks under the new law on domestic violence told reporters. Due to an offer to participate in the Fulbright Scholarship Program, Petr Matějů left his position as deputy to the education minister and was replaced by Pavel Komárek. The Center for Public Opinion Research found that the percentage of optimists in Czech society has increased: a full 68 percent of those surveyed said they were positive about the future (compared to 61 percent last year). The American software company Red Hat decided to build a technological center in Brno. “It’s a huge disgrace, everybody’s talking about it here,” Josef Shrabal (85), publisher of a web site for a Czech compatriot association, said of the fact that the Czech Republic has yet to finish repairs to the National House in Manhattan, which Czechs living there donated to the country in 2000 on the condition that the Prague government would repair the building within four years and allow the association to use one of its three floors; the long overdue repairs, whose cost has already risen from the original 350 million to 750 billion crowns, has now come to a complete halt due to the foreign ministry’s failure to hold a public competition to find a domestic firm to replace the failed Průmyslové stavby Jihlava and finish the job. A fire broke out in Brno’s policlinic. Statisticians noticed that the number of murders was on the rise again. “The man who committed it did not apologize and behaved extremely arrogantly; and it pains me that none of the other traffic officers apologized either – on the contrary, they suggested to me at the scene that Linda could have been to blame; they literally told me that pedestrians don’t always have the right of way, even if they’re in a crosswalk,” Jiří Janda of Vrátě described to reporters what happened after a reckless driver in a police uniform hit and seriously injured his thirteen-year-old daughter on a crosswalk and his colleagues came to investigate. A Security Information Service officer shot himself to death in Ďáblice Grove outside of Prague. Scouts commemorated the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of their organization. While driving dead drunk, famous ski jumper and Czechoslovak Athlete of the Year 1987 Jiří Parma crashed into a power pole, then passed out behind the wheel. When returning from Buenos Aires a young Czech was detained at Ruzyně Airport with three kilograms of cocaine in a suitcase with a double bottom. Italian authorities warned European consumers against vacuum bottles made by the Czech company Tescoma after tests revealed that they contain the dreaded, highly carcinogenic asbestos. “We wanted to add a spiritual dimension to the gastronomical experience,” said the sales director of Brno’s Voroněž Hotel, explaining why her company offered guests a chance to order along with dinner the presence of one of “Moravia’s interesting personalities” for a single price of 4900 crowns; several actors, a make-up artist, a manager, and a priest are available so far. Jan Budař released an album of love songs, Uletěl orlovi. Ski-lift operators started calculating their losses.