Last week 42/2005

The media brought news of the destructive earthquake with tens of thousands of dead in Kashmir; Czech humanitarian organizations started collections to help the victims and dispatched their experts to the region. The price of potable water rose. Former president Vaclav Havel commenced the ninth annual international conference he founded, Forum 2000, this time under the motto, “Our Global Coexistence: Challenges and Hope for the 21st Century,” in Prague’s St. Anna church. Current president Vaclav Klaus set off for the Great Pardubice Steeplechase. It’s better now, I can hold my hockey stick with all my fingers, but I was taken by surprise this morning – I was stretching and all the sudden I couldn’t raise my arm. My neck hurts, famous hockey player Jaromír Jágr said in an interview for MF DNES when asked how his little finger, broken four months ago, was healing.

After news that the bird flu had reached the Romanian border from Asia, the government banned imports of poultry, eggs, and feathers from Turkey. Regional Development Minister Radko Martínek (Social Democrats – ČSSD), began his fall tour of Bohemian and Moravian lookout towers. Deputies began negotiating the government’s budget proposal for next year. The Czech army definitively parted with its Soviet Antonov An-24 aircraft, which had served it loyally for forty years. The ratings of the reality show Wife Exchange (Vyměna manželek) on Nova shot up. We’ve already launched our own investigation and we’re determining whether it was a systemic mistake or individual misconduct, said Zlín Deputy Mayor Martin Janeček, commenting on the fact that the local police had charged two municipal police officers with manslaughter after they had come to take a drunken local from a restaurant late one night and some passers-by found the kicked-to-death man in some nearby bushes the next morning. ČSOB bought the Hornický fond from OKD. The ombudsman’s web site www.ochrance.cz joined the list of sixty Czech web sites that can be used by the blind and vision impaired. Senator Jaromír Štětina (Green Party – Strana Zelezných) handed over to the speaker of the upper chamber of Parliament Přemysl Sobotka (Civic Democrats – ODS) the first 50,000 signatures on his petition calling for a ban on communism. British detectives launched an investigation into suspicions that IRA leader Thomas Murphy is investing his bloodily obtained money in real estate and the entertainment industry in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic donated 1,500 machine guns to Iraq for the guards protecting national monuments. An in-depth international study by a scientific team from Science magazine concluded that Czechs, who see themselves as a confrontational and disagreeable nation, are actually among the most amicable cultures in the world. Mr. Chairman relays that he uses the helicopter in situations when his duties require reliable transportation in a relatively short period of time for longer distances, replied the press secretary of Chamber of Deputies Chairman Lubomír Zaorálek when asked by MF Dnes why Mr. Zaorálek, the author of the ethical codex for deputies and the beneficiary of a state limousine with a chauffer, flies home to Ostrava from Prague in a military helicopter on weekends. The Czech Philharmonic’s Horn Octet performed the world premier of Andrew Downes’ Wagner Tuba in Řevnice. The Food Inspection filed criminal complaints against supermarkets Julius Meinl and Hypernova for selling packaged rotten meat. Health Minister Milada Emmerová had to step down from her post at the premier’s appeal. While cleaning the American Embassy in Prague, a box containing public prosecutor’s dockets from the era of Red Terror in the 1950’s was found. The European Parliament stripped Vladimír Železný of immunity. Seychelles Islands authorities informed their Czech counterparts that they would not extradite Krejčíř. Playing without Nedvěd, the national soccer team lost to the Netherlands 0:2. We Czechs, who have a steadfast Hussite faith in human brotherhood, dignity, and social justice in the foundations of our traditions, have to stand up to all manifestations of human aggression and malice, fuelled by greed, current Czech Premier and member of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church Jiří Paroubek, declared at Prague’s Vítkov Monument during a ceremony commemorating the 581st anniversary of Jan Žižka’s death. Photos of Mars were exhibited in Valašsko Meziřící’s planetarium. Bollywood took control of the Prague cinema Kino Aero. The Friends of Nature Society started planting trees on the Ještěd crest for a future ancient forest. Meteorologists announced that the lovely sunny weather would stick with us for a while.