Last week 50/2005

Like every year, Nicholas and devils and angels visited Czech households last week. The 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death was commemorated in cinemas and newspapers. Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Warmer weather surprised skiers. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jaiboa visited Czechia and twenty people demonstrated in front of the Chinese embassy in Prague against the Chinese Communist regime's cruel clampdown on political and religious freedoms.

„It was just those kind of people about whom John F. Kennedy wrote his book called Profiles in Courage,“ Lidové noviny columnist Ondřej Neff wrote referring to Václav Klaus after the president signed the church act, which was recently passed by the votes of the communists and socialists and is opposed by all the country's churches, which call it an attack on their freedom; unlike Neff, Prague Archbishop Miloslav Vlk wrote the president that it is sad that the country's top official violates the constitution. Czech Christians, Muslims, and Jews announced a joint fight against euthanasia. Former General Health Insurer (VZP) director Jiřina Musílková pronounced on the radio that she decided to leave her job voluntarily because she had learned that plans were being developed at the police presidium to arrest her for at least a few days so she would soften up; in no time, the police presidium denied there were any plans to arrest Musílková. Gas lanterns returned to the center of Prague. “Greed, indolence, deviousness – that’s what’s going on here,” music critic Jiří Černý wrote in Lidové noviny, describing the motivation and character of those who download free music and films from the internet instead of buying them in shops. Christmas trees went on sale. Conservationists appealed to Czech breeders to control their fear of bird flu and stop driving from their flats parrots and budgies, for whom „being set free“ now, before the forthcoming winter, most certainly means death. Statistics showed that beekeepers are on the decline in the Czech Republic. Another person – the sixth this year – took advantage of Kladno City Hall’s offer: turn in your neighbor who illegally rents out his flat and you will get their rent-control right. Battle enthusiasts reenacted the battle of the three emperors at Slavkov again. Culture Minister Vítězslav Jandák dismissed the head of the National Monument Institute when it surfaced that a negligently supervised investor demolished 10 meters of the preservation-protected Hunger Wall in Prague. „We proceeded according to Section 159a of the Criminal Code, that’s all I’ll say,“ Interior Ministry Chief Inspector Miroslav Borník replied to reporter when asked how his institution could have halted the investigation of four police officers who, while dispersing dancers from CzechTek, shoved to the ground and brutally kicked one of the festivalgoers while being filmed by a bystander.

Shepherding returned to Moravská krása. Fate decided that the Czech national football team won’t play the Dutch team in the group stage of the upcoming football World Cup. Explaining that the „act was not a crime,“ a Prague court acquitted a group of Komerční banka managers under whose management the institution lost a total of eight billion crowns in 1997–1999 which the bank lent to Austrian businessman Barak Alon for highly suspicious deals and never got back; in the end, the loss was paid by taxpayers. Karol Sidon was named Prague Rabbi again. Vladimír Kůrka was appointed as the last, 15th member of the Constitutional Court. Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek warned landowners in the northern Moravian town of Nošovice that if they didn't sell their land to Korean carmaker Hyundai for its new factory, he was prepared to „take stringent action“ against them and to expropriate their property through a special law. Heavy snowfall paralyzed life in northern Moravia. „‚By the wood means‘ we’ll meet in U Vaclava IV restaurant in Prague, ‚on the table‘ means on the program, and ‚five in Czech‘ means that cabinet members will attend the meeting,“ former secretary to prime ministers Gross and Paroubek Zdeněk Doležel explained to the parliamentary investigative commission the real meaning of his statement „we’ll meet by the woods and five in Czech will be on the table,“ which he said not long ago at a meeting with Polish lobbyist Jack Spyra, which was captured by hidden camera and which has also been explained since as a request for a five-million-crown bribe in exchange for the possibility of meeting with Prime Minister Gross and influencing the privatization of Unipetrol through him. Stand vendors counted their profits from „bronze“ Sunday. The Prague club Roxy announced that the renowned Ukrainian-Isreali group from the New York underground Gogol Bordello would perform there on December 14th. One hundred years has passed since the invention of the game Man, Don’t Be Angry (the Czech version of Sorry!).