Last week 48/2006

James Bond dominated the theatres. Scientists from Charles University invented self-disinfecting bandages from nanofibre. The European Commission decided to ban trade with goods made of dog or cat fur. Toll booths started being placed on the D1 highway. Gas prices dropped. Nova TV founder Ronald Lauder received an international Emmy award for “pioneering and developing independent television broadcasting in Eastern Europe.” At his party’s congress in Prague, Mirek Topolánek was voted Social Democratic Party (ODS) chairman again, and, following his win, announced he would like to make a deal with his thus-far rival Jiří Paroubek (Social Democratic Party – ČSSD) on a coalition government with the his party, ČSSD , the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL), and the Greens. Non-alcoholic beer became more popular.

The International Monetary Fund warned Czechs that continuing to draw out this period of political uncertainty and instability would harm the economy, which is in crucial need of reforms after the last pre-election squandering. “The toolkit of Democrats, and not only Christian ones, should not include creating ghettos and deportation, which is why Jiří Čunek will not get my vote,” former KDU-ČSL chair Miroslav Kalousek replied when asked by Lidové noviny whether he would support a bid for party chair by Vsetín mayor and Senator Jiří Čunek, who became unusually popular with his fellow party members and across the nation after he, despite experts’ warnings, moved all the problematic and poor Romas in his town into a dilapidated building in the center of Vsetín, and then, once they had “deinhabitabilitized” it as expected, he, in his own words, “excised them like an ulcer,” and moved them outside of the city limits to houses made of metal containers to the public’s applause. “Jiří Čunek appeals to me as a man, I like the decisiveness with which he did a good thing; he had the courage to evacuate delinquent tenants and to say, ‘if you pay, dwell, if you don’t, don’t dwell,” Czech TV star and meritorious diva Veronika Žilková praised the Vsetín Senator. Škoda automaker introduced its Octavia for the Chinese market. An unknown perpetrator stole a metal figurine of a police officer that monitored compliance with speed limits in the western Bohemian town of Stod. Meteorologists announced that the current warm weather would probably last till mid-December. Daisies bloomed. Jaromír Jágr beat his 600-goal record and became the best European in the NHL, newspapers reported. Slovakia’s cartographical office renamed a host of High Tatra locations from Czech to Ťažký or Ťažká (difficult) – Český štít is now Ťažký štít (peak), Česká dolina Ťažká dolina (lowlands), České pleso Ťažké pleso (tarn), and Česká věž Ťažká vež (tower). The American investment bank Lehman Brothers bought Radiokomunikace. Mortgage rates went up. Deputy and well-known critic of tougher traffic laws David Šteich (ODS) was caught driving through Brno in the wrong lane and local police officers measured his blood-alcohol level at 2.5 promile; Šteich then flashed his parliamentary ID card, refused any further checks, and declared he would “ensure there would be consequences for their behavior.” One hundred and ten years passed since Klement Gottwald’s birth. The crown hit a record high against the dollar. “I woke up and was really cold, I had broken bones, I couldn’t stand up; it took me four hours to walk those ten meters to the road – I would take two steps in that direction, then sleep for an hour,” a fifteen-year-old boy recovering in the hospital told reporters how he managed to survive being hit near Kunštát by a murderous driver from nearby Lysice, who then put his vicitim in the car, drove him a little further, flung him on a deserted forest path, and left him to his fate. Statisticians announced a rise in cases of shoplifting. It came to light that Komerční banka had been charging its clients twice for ATM withdrawals due to a software glitch. Current Chief of the Czech President’s Military Office Vlastimil Picek replaced Pavel Štefka as Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Army. Due to a court dispute over election results, two men have taken over as Lord Mayor of Brno – one from ODS and the other from ČSSD. Jan Koller told reporters did not want to leave Monaco for Sparta. Scientists began cracking the Neanderthal genome in order to finally settle the question of whether Homo sapiens deemed these beings game animals or mating partners. Czech Television decided to move its main news program to seven p.m.