Last week 44/2005

Daylight Saving Time ended. Eighty years passed since the founding of Czechoslovakia. An earthquake struck East Bohemia. After two years, representatives finally elected someone to head the Supreme Audit Bureau: František Dohnal, deputy administrator of the Vysočina Region. Some two hundred crawfish were reintroduced in the wild near Svatý Kopeček. After a fourteen-year legal battle, the court awarded St. Vitus Cathedral to the Catholic Church. Actors Petr Čtvrtníček and Jiří Lábus went on the road with a performance where they read wiretap excerpts from football corruption scandals. Physiology professor Václav Hampl was appointed the new rector of Charles University.

The media reported on the death of American Rosa Parks, who refused give up her bus seat to a white man in 1995 and thereby sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Czech Romas František Sivák and Ludvík Lendel were invited to visit the European Parliament to describe the conditions under which Romas live in the Czech Republic. “If it were just some goldsmith with gold and such, who’da cared, but there were even young people fleeing who would come back shortly thereafter as armed agents,” said former border guard Jiří Vrzal, who gathered in Prague with three hundred other fellow culprits to protest accusations of wrongdoing for shooting at people fleeing to the West in search of freedom. The latest James Bond film is supposed to be filmed in Prague. Local neo-Nazis who disagree with the investigation of Ernst Zündel, who has been accused of denying the Holocaust and hatemongering against Jews, protested in front of the German Embassy. Radio Free Europe’s headquarters in Prague had to be evacuated due to an anonymous but false tip that there was a bomb in the building. Invex showcased computers in Brno. It was warm in the Czech Republic. Critics of Darwin’s theory met in Prague. The BBC announced it was canceling its Czech broadcasts because it wants to focus more on the Arab and Muslim world. Singer Phil Collins did not sing in Prague; instead, he nursed his vocal chords. “If there is anything that could harm this investment, it is the comments by the prime minister and the chairman of ODS (Civic Democratic Party),” said Moravian-Silesian District Administrator Evžen Tošenovský, following Jiří Paroubek’s and Mirek Topolánek’s criticism of the regional administrator and mayor of Ostrava for letting Hyundai, which wants to the invest in the region, pay for his trip to South Korea. Two pages of the oldest Czech Bible, printed in 1488, were found in Polička. Drummers pow-wowed in Prague for the fourth time. The non-profit organization Iuridicum remedium bestowed awards on authorities and companies who most infringe on citizens’ right to privacy; the top prize was given to Prague City Hall for installing camera systems without even having rules for archiving and using the video recordings. Libina na Šumpersku launched public internet access. There were 3,500 car accidents in just seven days. Veterinarians discovered two more cases of mad cow disease. “I cannot reconcile myself with courting human envy and nodding to those trying to get a piece of our society’s wealth without contributing to it,” said Václav Klaus, notorious for his support of Vladimír Železný and Viktor Kožený while facing police investigations, during a ceremony commemorating the founding of the republic. Next year, poorer college students will be able to apply for a stipendium of 1,600 crowns. The web site of the South Bohemian Region promotes the region in six languages. A train and a locomotive engine crashed in the Bruntal Region. There was still no outcome from talks between President Václav Klaus and Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek regarding the appointment of David Rath as Health Minister. Two more hectares of woods in the White Carpathian Mountains were bought by conservationists in order to create a buffer zone. “These two cases are deliberately shoved in the spotlight, and forgive me, but I really do see it as a witch hunt,” said first deputy chief of police in Zlín Milan Caha after detectives accused his men of beating a homeless man to death and other offenses. According to the polling agency STEM, sixty percent of Czechs do not trust Czech police. Defense Minister Karel Kühnl made an offer to our allies to send Czech parachutists on a mission in Afghanistan. The police announced that the theft of wood from forests is on the rise. The fight over Werich’s Villa, located on Kampa in the Lesser Quarter, began. Zorro, the Avenger returned to the theatres.