As anyone reading enough of my posts knows, I read a fair amount of Britské listy. The web site has a particular point of view, and so I keep asking myself whether the writers there are to some extent simply malcontents, making mountains out their molehills of disagreement with a legitimate government. But this issue of debt collection seems to go to something undeniably rotten in the state.
As detailed here, the current law was originally proposed in 1999, worked its way through the process, and was eventually signed into law by the president--at that time, the president was Václav Havel. The legislative process shaved a couple of excesses off the original form of the law, but left many of them in. It really does look like a legal regime meant to help unethical people get control of other people's assets by turning trivial debts into large sums and then blocking control over the victim's wealth.
And it's a multipartisan effort. The law was proposed by legislators from the Christian Democrats and from the Freedom Union (a now-defunct party with libertarian leanings). The government at the time, which didn't block its enactment, was headed by Miloš Zeman, a Social Democrat. It was signed by Havel, the great humanist and humanitarian whose life story seemed to embody the triumph of idealism even amidst the muck of real life and real politics. And it has since been carried on with narry a complaint by further governments, whether headed by ODS (the Civil Democratic Party) or ČSSD (the Social Democrats).
As another post asks in its title, Why aren't (at least) the left-wing parties intervening against the debt-collection extortion of the population? "How is it possible that when ČSSD was in power it allowed such a drastic privatization of one of the state's existing powers into the hands of a fistful of predatory entrepreneurs? Why hasn't the battle against the debt-collection lobby been topic number 1 of leftist politics for a long time already?" It's like the dog that doesn't bark--as the author says, one possible answer is that everyone who is or might be in power finds the current situation advantageous to themselves.
All of that is background for the following commentary about students and their political activities. The other piece of background is the fact that communist parties throughout the Soviet bloc made a big deal out of their anti-Nazi credentials. There were two parts of that credential. The first was the rather obvious contrast between communists on the left and Nazis on the right. The second was the fact that the Soviet Union played the largest single role in the defeat of Hitler's Germany. Conveniently overlooked were the facts that Stalin had seen fit to make a pact with Hitler to divide up the space between them, and that setting ideology aside, the Nazis and the Soviet communists shared a fondness for killing people or otherwise ruining their lives, either because of the victims' opposition to the ruling ideology, or just out of shear cussedness. But hey--bygones! What's important was that, by the end of World War II, everybody knew that Nazis were bad, everybody knew that communists were enemies of Nazis, and so if you encouraged people to have anti-Nazi demonstrations, you (the government) could have them doing something you approved of, even if they didn't have much use for you.
As I mentioned in another post, the recent local and Senate elections produced relatively strong results for the KSČM, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, which in turn has prompted a great deal of angst among people who identify the KSČM with the KSČ, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, that ruled from 1948 to 1989. Students from the gymnasium (high school) in the town of Třeboň demonstrated against the communists, eliciting the following response.
Open letter to the Třeboň students
Demonstrating against the KSČM in 2012 is like using a demonstration against the Naziism of 1989 to support the communist regime
by Boris Cvek
Dear students of the Třeboň gymnasium (and also all other students who are bothered by the KSČM),
I often hear or read about you, usually in admiring tones, about how you're supposed to be an emancipated, independent generation, which won't stand for the communists. But have you ever asked yourselves what's so horrible about the communists?
You must have answered that question by saying that, thanks to their ideology, anywhere in the world where communist parties have taken absolute power, they've murdered, jailed, tortured, and stolen.
Nothing of the sort can be expected of today's KSČM (except for the thievery it would represent if it were to adapt itself to today's system and support corruption and the theft of public funds the way the rest of the "democratic" parties do).
It's true that the KSČM has the word "communist" in its name and it is a particular successor of our country's repellent past of normalization. ["Normalization" was the reimposition of more repressive measures after the increasing openness of the 1960s, culminating in the Prague Spring of 1968.] Nonetheless, it bears no responsibility for the real wrongdoing and horror of the present day.
Today, the tradition of normalization thievery and lawlessness continues along the line of "right-wing" policy, from coupon privatization (whose founding father sits today in the Castle), light heating oil, the methanol affair, the unregulated system of usury and debt collection, and the general unobtainability of justice. [Coupon privatization was part of how state property was privatized after the fall of the communist government. There were complaints about the corruption involved. One of the intellectual fathers of the program was Václav Klaus, who is now the president and thus has an office in Prague Castle. A couple of months ago there was a scandal where methanol found its way into bootleg liquor, killing several people and blinding others. I don't know what the deal is with the light heating oil.]
If you're truly troubled by human suffering and by injustice, then you must demonstrate against today's government, you must concern yourselves with the situation of the Roma from around the railway station in Ostrava or with the tragedies of families destroyed by usurers.
If you demonstrate against the KSČM today, you would be like students in 1989 demonstrating against the Nazis, thereby providing cover for the communist regime of that time and for its crimes.
You too would serve the pro-regime media who want to draw attention away from serious contemporary problems.
The growing support for the communists was and is related to the fact that people have been pushed into misery, that democracy hasn't been working, that the ruling stratum of rich people has been decimating the society.
So if you really were opposed to the KSČM and wanted to take the wind from the communists' sails, you would push for our thieving and fraudulent democracy, built on normalization principles, to become a real democracy, where the law functions and where people can live decently and securely and without fear of criminal mafias.
Showing posts with label Czech stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Czech stuff. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Differing visions of the 17th
November 17th is an important day in Czech history. That was the day in 1939 that Czech students demonstrated against the Nazi occupation that had started in March of that year. Many of the student leaders were executed, and the Czech universities were shut down for the rest of the war.
It was also the day in 1989 that a student march from Vyšehrad to downtown ran into a wall of riot police, resulting in an incident that touched off the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia.
This past weekend there were conventional commemorations of the day, featuring the president and prime minister (the pictures that follow are from here):
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| President Klaus (to the soldier's left) and Premier Nečas (in the plaid scarf) at a wreath-laying |
But there were other responses as well. The picture at the top of the post shows an anti-government demonstration that filled the upper portion of the square (organizers claimed a turnout of 20,000). Some more humorous messages for the rulers:
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Return of the Wild Wild East
Back in the early 1990s, just after the fall of communism in the Soviet bloc, there was a minor stampede of young people from English-speaking countries into the former communist states--including me.
Motivations differed. Some wanted a cool place to hang out. I was interested in learning Czech as part of my bizarre path from music school to economics. Pretty much all of us were drawn by the relatively cheap cost of living and the easy ability for a native speaker of English with a college degree to get a job teaching English.
And we were drawn by a sense of adventure.
Motivations differed. Some wanted a cool place to hang out. I was interested in learning Czech as part of my bizarre path from music school to economics. Pretty much all of us were drawn by the relatively cheap cost of living and the easy ability for a native speaker of English with a college degree to get a job teaching English.
And we were drawn by a sense of adventure.
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| from http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/02/05/cowboys-communists-and-capitalists-in-stolis-wild-wild-east/, though the commentary there suggests a lack of awareness of the background |
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
When is a Stalinist not a Stalinist?
Last Saturday a serious kerfuffle blew up in the Czech press. It seemed there was a Facebook post from a young fellow named Jaromír Petelík, an assistant to an important Communist Party representative and himself a newly elected representative of Prague's 8th district. And it wasn't a nice Facebook post, either, something along the lines of, "Look at the email my cat just sent your dog."
The Facebook post talked about "hanging all right-wingers," and forcibly nationalizing property.
The Czechs just had local elections, and the Communists did relatively well. The country has a right-wing government that's been in place since elections in May, 2010. People are heartily fed up with the government's corruption, and it has an approval rating in the teens. Part of that may be that, as the governing party, it has more opportunity to be corrupt, so the Communists and Social Democrats are only clean by comparison, and even that may be only by virtue of not being in power. Still, the conservative ODS and TOP 09 parties are in power, and they're a coming off as a pretty nasty bunch of operators, and one of the reactions is for people to vote for the leftist parties.
So the Communists did well in the recent local elections, triggering a national freakout.
The Facebook post talked about "hanging all right-wingers," and forcibly nationalizing property.
The Czechs just had local elections, and the Communists did relatively well. The country has a right-wing government that's been in place since elections in May, 2010. People are heartily fed up with the government's corruption, and it has an approval rating in the teens. Part of that may be that, as the governing party, it has more opportunity to be corrupt, so the Communists and Social Democrats are only clean by comparison, and even that may be only by virtue of not being in power. Still, the conservative ODS and TOP 09 parties are in power, and they're a coming off as a pretty nasty bunch of operators, and one of the reactions is for people to vote for the leftist parties.
So the Communists did well in the recent local elections, triggering a national freakout.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Theater of the dangerously absurd
Friday was a national holiday in the Czech Republic, the day they commemorate the murder of Duke Václav, by his brother, Boleslav, who didn’t like his policy (and who also wanted to be duke). This happened in 935, or maybe in 929. Boleslav went on to rule for decades and helped build up what was becoming the Czech state. Václav went on to become St. Wenceslaus—the patron saint of the Czech nation and the namesake of a beloved English Christmas carol about a king bringing food and wine to a poor man.
Friday was also the day of an assassination attempt on Czech president Václav Klaus.
No wait, that’s not right. The president was in the town of Chrastava, making his way through a crowd after participating in the local celebrations, and it’s true that a man stepped from the crowd, held a pistol to Klaus’s side and fired seven times.
But it was a (realistic looking) plastic pistol used for games and the president merely received medical attention for bruises, so … no harm, no foul?
But that’s just the beginning of the weirdness. On this video, Klaus’s security detail watches the whole thing happen, and once the man’s done, they … do nothing. Well, that’s not entirely clear either.
The “assassin” backs away, hesitantly. We see him from behind, but his body language looks like he’s unsure of what to do now, or as if he were trying to melt inconspicuously into the crowd—dressed in a camouflage shirt amidst a crowd dressed for the holiday. Klaus scowls at him, but then sort of smiles. The nearest security agent looks at the attacker, looks at Klaus’s side, looks at the attacker, and the whole party keeps making their way through the crowd.
But just before the camera footage cuts away, another young fellow in a suit moves in the direction of the attacker. Maybe he's a security guy, and maybe he's tracking down the ... attacker, though he certainly doesn't seem to be doing it with any sense of urgency.
The man walked away, gave an interview to TV news, lit up a cigarette, and was finally apprehended by a policeman—who let him finish his cigarette before searching him and finding a can of pepper spray. In his interview, he says he did it because politicians are deaf to the calls of the people.
According to Lidové noviny, Klaus turned to his detail and said, “You really messed that up.” Or maybe it would be better translated as, “That really didn’t work out for you.” Right.
From the same source, “According to security expert Andor Šándor the security detail totally failed. ‘If the man had had a real weapon and had fired live ammunition, we would now be without a president and would be dealing with constitutional problems.’” [This suggests that there are no rules for automatic succession, as with the U.S. vice president becoming president. I don’t know whether that’s true.]
On the other hand, the head of the presidential security service thinks his men did just fine. “[The security chief explains that] when they saw that the man didn’t have a firearm, they also didn’t shoot. According to him, they thus saved the life of the attacker.” True enough, though it seems like there’s a middle ground between, say, pulling out your guns, firing wildly and killing 20 innocent bystanders, or just watching the guy go. You can see why Obama travels with his own Secret Service people. Though they do have their own failings …
Perhaps the most charming part was the worry that nobody would notice: “People are writing about the attack on Klaus elsewhere in the world. From Slovakia to New Zealand.” But not in the U.S. On Saturday when I first read of the incident on the website of the Czech newspaper Lidové noviny, I Googled “Vaclav Klaus”, and the only thing in English that came up about the attack was from a website in Angola. By now the BBC is on the case, though as of Sunday morning the New York Times still hadn’t gotten around to it (when you search their website, their most recent coverage of Klaus is from when the Czech Republic took over the presidency of the European Union—in 2008!).
In contrast, commentator Daniel Kaiser is worried about the death of charm. “At first glance, the incident in Chrastava played out in ‘Czech’ style: a man approaches the president and empties into him the contents of a plastic air pistol. In the footage, you can hardly pick out the members of his security detail. They don’t come off as sharp or determined, but like everyone else around: sweetly immobilized. In the background you can hear the Radecký March, the hymn of Biedermeir. The police only pick up the man after he’s given an interview.
“A discrepancy between radicalism in words and moderation in deeds is typical of Czech culture, and it gives it a certain charm. We can argue over whether to call this an assassination attempt on the president. But it certainly was an assassination attempt on that charm. Next time, the security detail will have an un-Czech tendency to shoot.”
Friday was also the day of an assassination attempt on Czech president Václav Klaus.
No wait, that’s not right. The president was in the town of Chrastava, making his way through a crowd after participating in the local celebrations, and it’s true that a man stepped from the crowd, held a pistol to Klaus’s side and fired seven times.
But it was a (realistic looking) plastic pistol used for games and the president merely received medical attention for bruises, so … no harm, no foul?
But that’s just the beginning of the weirdness. On this video, Klaus’s security detail watches the whole thing happen, and once the man’s done, they … do nothing. Well, that’s not entirely clear either.
The “assassin” backs away, hesitantly. We see him from behind, but his body language looks like he’s unsure of what to do now, or as if he were trying to melt inconspicuously into the crowd—dressed in a camouflage shirt amidst a crowd dressed for the holiday. Klaus scowls at him, but then sort of smiles. The nearest security agent looks at the attacker, looks at Klaus’s side, looks at the attacker, and the whole party keeps making their way through the crowd.
But just before the camera footage cuts away, another young fellow in a suit moves in the direction of the attacker. Maybe he's a security guy, and maybe he's tracking down the ... attacker, though he certainly doesn't seem to be doing it with any sense of urgency.
The man walked away, gave an interview to TV news, lit up a cigarette, and was finally apprehended by a policeman—who let him finish his cigarette before searching him and finding a can of pepper spray. In his interview, he says he did it because politicians are deaf to the calls of the people.
According to Lidové noviny, Klaus turned to his detail and said, “You really messed that up.” Or maybe it would be better translated as, “That really didn’t work out for you.” Right.
From the same source, “According to security expert Andor Šándor the security detail totally failed. ‘If the man had had a real weapon and had fired live ammunition, we would now be without a president and would be dealing with constitutional problems.’” [This suggests that there are no rules for automatic succession, as with the U.S. vice president becoming president. I don’t know whether that’s true.]
On the other hand, the head of the presidential security service thinks his men did just fine. “[The security chief explains that] when they saw that the man didn’t have a firearm, they also didn’t shoot. According to him, they thus saved the life of the attacker.” True enough, though it seems like there’s a middle ground between, say, pulling out your guns, firing wildly and killing 20 innocent bystanders, or just watching the guy go. You can see why Obama travels with his own Secret Service people. Though they do have their own failings …
Perhaps the most charming part was the worry that nobody would notice: “People are writing about the attack on Klaus elsewhere in the world. From Slovakia to New Zealand.” But not in the U.S. On Saturday when I first read of the incident on the website of the Czech newspaper Lidové noviny, I Googled “Vaclav Klaus”, and the only thing in English that came up about the attack was from a website in Angola. By now the BBC is on the case, though as of Sunday morning the New York Times still hadn’t gotten around to it (when you search their website, their most recent coverage of Klaus is from when the Czech Republic took over the presidency of the European Union—in 2008!).
In contrast, commentator Daniel Kaiser is worried about the death of charm. “At first glance, the incident in Chrastava played out in ‘Czech’ style: a man approaches the president and empties into him the contents of a plastic air pistol. In the footage, you can hardly pick out the members of his security detail. They don’t come off as sharp or determined, but like everyone else around: sweetly immobilized. In the background you can hear the Radecký March, the hymn of Biedermeir. The police only pick up the man after he’s given an interview.
“A discrepancy between radicalism in words and moderation in deeds is typical of Czech culture, and it gives it a certain charm. We can argue over whether to call this an assassination attempt on the president. But it certainly was an assassination attempt on that charm. Next time, the security detail will have an un-Czech tendency to shoot.”
Thursday, August 30, 2012
"The communist regime was tyrannical"
This is Part III in a series that started with one Czech writing why he was going to vote for the communists. Part II was the first response, and this is another.
This page provides some background on the political history behind this question. Italicized text in square brackets is my explanatory comments.
The communist regime was tyrannical
by Jan Čulík
Although I fully understand the frustration of Mr. Tůma (in decent countries, effective laws eliminate discrimination against old people or women, and by the way, 43 isn’t old) and respect the opinion of a clearly significant part of today’s public that the coming of “democracy” and “freedom” to the Czech Republic over the last 22 years was a disappointment, I think that recollected optimism and anger at today’s political and economic situation gives people a false conviction that “it was better under communism.”
This page provides some background on the political history behind this question. Italicized text in square brackets is my explanatory comments.
The communist regime was tyrannical
by Jan Čulík
Although I fully understand the frustration of Mr. Tůma (in decent countries, effective laws eliminate discrimination against old people or women, and by the way, 43 isn’t old) and respect the opinion of a clearly significant part of today’s public that the coming of “democracy” and “freedom” to the Czech Republic over the last 22 years was a disappointment, I think that recollected optimism and anger at today’s political and economic situation gives people a false conviction that “it was better under communism.”
Friday, August 17, 2012
What should the communists do?
This is the first in a series of replies to an article by an unemployed Czech worker explaining why he was done voting for the country's democratic parties and was going to vote for the communists. I've provided historical background here.
What should the communists do?
by Jiří Drašnar
Although I can identify with Mr. Tůma in his criticism of the current regime in Bohemia (by the way, “frikulín” is a really great neologism), his appraisal of the forty-year government of the communists strikes me as more the result of cognitive dissonance relating to the way in which our memory works, rather than as the result of an effort at even remotely objective analysis. In short, just a modicum of self-examination shows that memory is not a reliable tool and definitively is not a perfect copy of the past, engraved in our brains.
What should the communists do?
by Jiří Drašnar
Although I can identify with Mr. Tůma in his criticism of the current regime in Bohemia (by the way, “frikulín” is a really great neologism), his appraisal of the forty-year government of the communists strikes me as more the result of cognitive dissonance relating to the way in which our memory works, rather than as the result of an effort at even remotely objective analysis. In short, just a modicum of self-examination shows that memory is not a reliable tool and definitively is not a perfect copy of the past, engraved in our brains.
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| from http://scotterb.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/memories/; the post gives another example of what Drašnar is talking about. |
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
"Why I'll vote communist"
For background on this article, see here.
I thought this piece was of interest because it struck me as representative--not in the sense that this is necessarily the "average" voter of the communist party in the Czech Republic, but because, along the way, he touches on many of the reasons that different people might make that choice.
As usual, my explanatory comments are in italics, surrounded by square brackets.
Why I’m going to vote for the communists, or, Why this is no country for old people
by Radek Tůma
I’m now unemployed for the second time, and only because it’s possible here to tunnel without being punished. [“Tunneling” is Czech slang for extracting the value from a company for yourself, and leaving behind a worthless shell.] I’ve had five different jobs: the first two were in the state sector, the others in the private sector. Two of the three private firms fell victim to tunneling out—so symptomatic for our times. I and many others lost our jobs so that some bastards could buy more cars, villas, and yachts. They buy up the shares of a firm, eat the meat, spit out the bones, and move on to the next house on the street. Once again I’m going through this degrading merry-go-round of looking for work—when you get an answer at all, it’s something along the lines of, “We’ll call you” (meaning: stop bothering us) or, “We truly value your experience quite highly, but we regret to inform you that we gave preference to other applicants (meaning: You’re old).
I thought this piece was of interest because it struck me as representative--not in the sense that this is necessarily the "average" voter of the communist party in the Czech Republic, but because, along the way, he touches on many of the reasons that different people might make that choice.
As usual, my explanatory comments are in italics, surrounded by square brackets.
Why I’m going to vote for the communists, or, Why this is no country for old people
by Radek Tůma
I’m now unemployed for the second time, and only because it’s possible here to tunnel without being punished. [“Tunneling” is Czech slang for extracting the value from a company for yourself, and leaving behind a worthless shell.] I’ve had five different jobs: the first two were in the state sector, the others in the private sector. Two of the three private firms fell victim to tunneling out—so symptomatic for our times. I and many others lost our jobs so that some bastards could buy more cars, villas, and yachts. They buy up the shares of a firm, eat the meat, spit out the bones, and move on to the next house on the street. Once again I’m going through this degrading merry-go-round of looking for work—when you get an answer at all, it’s something along the lines of, “We’ll call you” (meaning: stop bothering us) or, “We truly value your experience quite highly, but we regret to inform you that we gave preference to other applicants (meaning: You’re old).
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| The logo of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, from http://tema.novinky.cz/kscm |
Thursday, August 9, 2012
The basis of power
Yet another post from my frequent source, Britské listy, this time about the nature of political power and revolution. The author is a lawyer who teaches at Masaryk University in Brno, the principal city of Moravia (the eastern part of the Czech Republic).
The general problems of unaccountability that Valach points to seem real enough to me, based on my observations during my recent year there. The specific issue that's really roiling the waters here is church restitution. Communist governments throughout the region took property from churches. They all have the task of figuring out what's a fair compensation: what properties can or should be returned, whether there should be financial compensation and how much.
In the Czech Republic, the government's proposal is to return some property, give financial compensation for the rest, and turn back to churches the job of paying clerics. I'm not sufficiently familiar with the proposal or the critiques of it to have a view of it. But it does seem like the government seems hell-bent, as it were, on getting this law through parliament, rather than having a referendum. And in the "alternative" press like Britské listy I've seen references to strong public opposition, but it's hard to find that discussed in more "mainstream" sources, such as Finančni noviny or Lidové noviny. You can find articles about how the Communist Party leader's speech against restitution is reminiscent of the 1950s (scroll down a bit). Or an article about how the Catholic church is comparing the opposition's campaign to the Third Reich (at the end they quote the opposition leader's claim that 80% of the public opposes the law). Or how a number of artists and public figures have signed a petition in favor (at the end they mention a couple of other public figures who are opposed). Overall, it does seem like coverage is being colored in favor of the proposed law.
At the same time, Vlach describes the legal system itself as a tool for controlling the thoughts of the public. When you get to that point, I'm not sure how you separate it from a view that, "The public doesn't think what I think they should be thinking--somebody must be controlling their thoughts."
The general problems of unaccountability that Valach points to seem real enough to me, based on my observations during my recent year there. The specific issue that's really roiling the waters here is church restitution. Communist governments throughout the region took property from churches. They all have the task of figuring out what's a fair compensation: what properties can or should be returned, whether there should be financial compensation and how much.
In the Czech Republic, the government's proposal is to return some property, give financial compensation for the rest, and turn back to churches the job of paying clerics. I'm not sufficiently familiar with the proposal or the critiques of it to have a view of it. But it does seem like the government seems hell-bent, as it were, on getting this law through parliament, rather than having a referendum. And in the "alternative" press like Britské listy I've seen references to strong public opposition, but it's hard to find that discussed in more "mainstream" sources, such as Finančni noviny or Lidové noviny. You can find articles about how the Communist Party leader's speech against restitution is reminiscent of the 1950s (scroll down a bit). Or an article about how the Catholic church is comparing the opposition's campaign to the Third Reich (at the end they quote the opposition leader's claim that 80% of the public opposes the law). Or how a number of artists and public figures have signed a petition in favor (at the end they mention a couple of other public figures who are opposed). Overall, it does seem like coverage is being colored in favor of the proposed law.
At the same time, Vlach describes the legal system itself as a tool for controlling the thoughts of the public. When you get to that point, I'm not sure how you separate it from a view that, "The public doesn't think what I think they should be thinking--somebody must be controlling their thoughts."
The power of the Nečas government, by Milan Vlach
The government and the representatives of the governing coalition dominate this country. If they decide to accomplish something, it happens, even if the majority of the citizens don't agree with it. For example, a massive majority of citizens doesn't agree with so-called church restitution in the law's current form, and the government itself has the confidence of only 16% of citizens, while the representative assembly has even less support. Representative democracy is functioning in a paradoxical way. Although it's supposed to be a democracy, to a great extent citizens don't perceive it as a democracy, and even though it's termed "representative," a majority of citizens don't trust their representatives and don't feel like they are represented by them.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Joey Jump-up!
As if more evidence were needed that it's hard to pull apart knowing a language from knowing a culture ...
There was a post yesterday at Britské listy about direct election of the president in the Czech Republic. When Czechoslovakia was set up after World War I, the system was established that the people elect the parliament, then the parliament elects the president. This procedure was retained when the country was re-established after World War II, and through the communist period, though the parliamentary elections at the time were predetermined, so the election of the president was a formality of power rather than a real political event. Parliamentary election of the president continued into post-communist Czechoslovakia and then into the Czech Republic after the "Velvet Divorce" in which Czechoslovakia became the two independent states. The parliament recently changed this, so in 2013, the successor to current Czech president Václav Klaus will be chosen in a direct election by the voters, not by the parliament.
Yesterday's post was titled "The direct election of the president is just a pacifier," the point being that the new form of election won't accomplish much of importance, but is mostly about distracting the public from things the politicians don't want them to be thinking about.
"Now that the candidates for president include Vladimír Dlouhý, Ladislav Jakl, and Pepek Vyskoč from Putim, the dance of the candidates has assumed an utterly grotesque character." Who are these people the writer is talking about?
Czech Wikipedie will tell you that Vladimír Dlouhý is a politician, the first minister of industry and trade in the new Czech Republic back in the early 1990s. The same source informs you that Ladislav Jakl is a former journalist and currently the director of the political section of the Office of the President of the Republic.
And Pepek Vyskoč from Putim? Czech Wikipedie won't tell you who he is.
He's this guy (the one with no hat, not the police commander):
He's a character from one of the most famous Czech novels, The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk in the World War. He's the town shepherd, a half-wit (or maybe a quarter). He often bleets when he talks.
The police commander has been ordered by his district superior to find a paid snitch to get information about the mood of the populace regarding the war. He can't think of who to get, when into his office walks the shepherd, bleeting. The commander pulls him aside, slips him a coin ("borrowed" from one of his officers), and speaks with him confidentially. "If you hear anyone say that the Emperor is an ass, or that we won't win the war, you come tell me." He sends him out, and as the fellow reaches the door, the police officer says to him, "Pepku, vyskoč!" ("Joey, jump!") and the man does an odd little jump.
Afterward, he's dictating a report for his superior, about how he's found a paid informant. He's not sure of the shepherd's name, so he asks the underling who's taking dictation. "I've only ever heard him called Pepek Vyskoč."
"Alright, then," says the commander, "our informant is Josef Vyskoč."
The next day the priest comes to commander all concerned and asks to speak to him in private. "The shepherd told me you said the Emperor is an ass and that we won't win the war!"
That's Pepek Vyskoč from Putim. A world of denigration hurled at the presidential field in four quick words. And a grammar book or dictionary won't be of much use in helping you figure out what the writer means. Knowledge of a language is tied up with knowledge of a culture.
Well, that's less true now than it used to be, thanks to Google ... (How do you think I refreshed my memory of who Pepek Vyskoč was, or found the picture above?)
There was a post yesterday at Britské listy about direct election of the president in the Czech Republic. When Czechoslovakia was set up after World War I, the system was established that the people elect the parliament, then the parliament elects the president. This procedure was retained when the country was re-established after World War II, and through the communist period, though the parliamentary elections at the time were predetermined, so the election of the president was a formality of power rather than a real political event. Parliamentary election of the president continued into post-communist Czechoslovakia and then into the Czech Republic after the "Velvet Divorce" in which Czechoslovakia became the two independent states. The parliament recently changed this, so in 2013, the successor to current Czech president Václav Klaus will be chosen in a direct election by the voters, not by the parliament.
Yesterday's post was titled "The direct election of the president is just a pacifier," the point being that the new form of election won't accomplish much of importance, but is mostly about distracting the public from things the politicians don't want them to be thinking about.
"Now that the candidates for president include Vladimír Dlouhý, Ladislav Jakl, and Pepek Vyskoč from Putim, the dance of the candidates has assumed an utterly grotesque character." Who are these people the writer is talking about?
Czech Wikipedie will tell you that Vladimír Dlouhý is a politician, the first minister of industry and trade in the new Czech Republic back in the early 1990s. The same source informs you that Ladislav Jakl is a former journalist and currently the director of the political section of the Office of the President of the Republic.
And Pepek Vyskoč from Putim? Czech Wikipedie won't tell you who he is.
He's this guy (the one with no hat, not the police commander):
 |
| http://zputimi.webz.cz/svejk/flanderka.html |
The police commander has been ordered by his district superior to find a paid snitch to get information about the mood of the populace regarding the war. He can't think of who to get, when into his office walks the shepherd, bleeting. The commander pulls him aside, slips him a coin ("borrowed" from one of his officers), and speaks with him confidentially. "If you hear anyone say that the Emperor is an ass, or that we won't win the war, you come tell me." He sends him out, and as the fellow reaches the door, the police officer says to him, "Pepku, vyskoč!" ("Joey, jump!") and the man does an odd little jump.
Afterward, he's dictating a report for his superior, about how he's found a paid informant. He's not sure of the shepherd's name, so he asks the underling who's taking dictation. "I've only ever heard him called Pepek Vyskoč."
"Alright, then," says the commander, "our informant is Josef Vyskoč."
The next day the priest comes to commander all concerned and asks to speak to him in private. "The shepherd told me you said the Emperor is an ass and that we won't win the war!"
That's Pepek Vyskoč from Putim. A world of denigration hurled at the presidential field in four quick words. And a grammar book or dictionary won't be of much use in helping you figure out what the writer means. Knowledge of a language is tied up with knowledge of a culture.
Well, that's less true now than it used to be, thanks to Google ... (How do you think I refreshed my memory of who Pepek Vyskoč was, or found the picture above?)
Friday, July 6, 2012
And so it begins?
A couple of weeks ago I posted a partial translation of an article from Britské listy by Jan Čulík, about how the Czech Republic should be doing more to cultivate friends among influential citizens of important countries. Čulík said, "The fact is, as Czechs know from history, that when it comes to a crisis, valid agreements are not fulfilled, unless their fulfillment is in the direct interest of the given power." So the Czechs need friends among the citizenry of the Western powers who will make the case that protecting the Czech Republic is in the interests of the West.
Then on Wednesday I came across a Guardian article about British Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement in Parliament that his ministers were considering measures for keeping Greeks out of Britain in case of Greek withdrawal from the euro leading to chaos in Greece. Later that day, I saw a post on Britské listy titled, "Is it beginning already ...?" and thought it must be about Cameron's move, and it was. What follows is my translation.
~Karl
Is it beginning already ... ?
by Jan Čulík
I published a warning here recently that, in the current European situation, getting progressively less and less stable, the Czech Republic does not have strategic allies I argued that Czech politicians should be dedicating substantial sums to the expansion of Czech studies centers in (Western) countries where the fate of the Czech Republic is decided and will be decided. Not at all because I'd like money for my "area" (I myself will leave my university soon in any case) [Čulík is currently the Senior Lecturer in Czech Studies at the University of Glasgow], but because over the last twenty years I've witnessed what a tremendous cultural, social, economic, and strategic boon this is for the Czech Republic when it's done well.
Then on Wednesday I came across a Guardian article about British Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement in Parliament that his ministers were considering measures for keeping Greeks out of Britain in case of Greek withdrawal from the euro leading to chaos in Greece. Later that day, I saw a post on Britské listy titled, "Is it beginning already ...?" and thought it must be about Cameron's move, and it was. What follows is my translation.
~Karl
Is it beginning already ... ?
by Jan Čulík
I published a warning here recently that, in the current European situation, getting progressively less and less stable, the Czech Republic does not have strategic allies I argued that Czech politicians should be dedicating substantial sums to the expansion of Czech studies centers in (Western) countries where the fate of the Czech Republic is decided and will be decided. Not at all because I'd like money for my "area" (I myself will leave my university soon in any case) [Čulík is currently the Senior Lecturer in Czech Studies at the University of Glasgow], but because over the last twenty years I've witnessed what a tremendous cultural, social, economic, and strategic boon this is for the Czech Republic when it's done well.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
All dressed in white?
I've written elsewhere about the particular brand of corruption in the Czech Republic. This may not be a unique way of going about it, but the Czech approach seems to be centered in the prosecutorial function. That is, make sure the "right" people hold the position of prosecutor, and you can sleep soundly knowing that, however much your corrupt behavior in office gets written about in the press, you'll never see the inside of a jail cell, or even a courtroom for that matter.
The current Czech government was put together after elections in late May, 2010. The coalition parties were sort of an odd ménage à trois, but one of the things holding them together was their stated commitment to deal with corruption, and one of the great hopes in that effort was Jiří Pospíšil, the minister of justice.
Pospíšil was a young guy who'd earned a law degree from the law school of the University of West Bohemia (and unlike some of his fellow alums, he actually earned it--the law school was caught up in scandal when it turned out that there were mayors and others scattered across the political landscape who held law degrees from West Bohemia, but whose transcripts included passing grades for exams they'd evidently never taken).
The current Czech government was put together after elections in late May, 2010. The coalition parties were sort of an odd ménage à trois, but one of the things holding them together was their stated commitment to deal with corruption, and one of the great hopes in that effort was Jiří Pospíšil, the minister of justice.
Pospíšil was a young guy who'd earned a law degree from the law school of the University of West Bohemia (and unlike some of his fellow alums, he actually earned it--the law school was caught up in scandal when it turned out that there were mayors and others scattered across the political landscape who held law degrees from West Bohemia, but whose transcripts included passing grades for exams they'd evidently never taken).
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The nightmares of small countries
Go take a look at the first two pictures accompanying this post--no, seriously, go look, I'll wait right here; there's one right at the top and a second half a screen below.
They're taken from the terrace of the Czech embassy ... yes, of course, in Paris. After World War I, the new Czechoslovak state obtained the building from a lady, a French aristocrat, a fact which the author submits as evidence of what good connections the founders of Czechoslovakia had with influential people among the citizenry of important Western countries. He's sees connections like these slipping away, and he's concerned about the consequences for the modern Czech state.
What follows are excerpts from that post. In a couple of spots I've included a summary of connecting material in square brackets, or explanatory comments in curly brackets.
~ Karl
The Czech Republic lacks strategic allies among the citizenry in the West
- Jan Čulík
In the long run, has the safe existence of a democratic Czech Republic been secured from a foreign-policy perspective. Can we safely foresee what the situation in Europe will be five or ten years from now? We all know that in our unstable times, the foreign-policy situation can change radically. In 2007, who would have suspected that a serious economic and financial crisis would occur and that even the future of the euro, the Eurozone, and the European Union would be called into question? In 1932, who could have predicted that in ten years, Jews in Europe would be murdered by the hundreds of thousands?
… Historically, the Czech lands have always been the victim of the great powers and their influence. They have had to march to the colonizer’s tune.
They're taken from the terrace of the Czech embassy ... yes, of course, in Paris. After World War I, the new Czechoslovak state obtained the building from a lady, a French aristocrat, a fact which the author submits as evidence of what good connections the founders of Czechoslovakia had with influential people among the citizenry of important Western countries. He's sees connections like these slipping away, and he's concerned about the consequences for the modern Czech state.
What follows are excerpts from that post. In a couple of spots I've included a summary of connecting material in square brackets, or explanatory comments in curly brackets.
~ Karl
The Czech Republic lacks strategic allies among the citizenry in the West
- Jan Čulík
In the long run, has the safe existence of a democratic Czech Republic been secured from a foreign-policy perspective. Can we safely foresee what the situation in Europe will be five or ten years from now? We all know that in our unstable times, the foreign-policy situation can change radically. In 2007, who would have suspected that a serious economic and financial crisis would occur and that even the future of the euro, the Eurozone, and the European Union would be called into question? In 1932, who could have predicted that in ten years, Jews in Europe would be murdered by the hundreds of thousands?
… Historically, the Czech lands have always been the victim of the great powers and their influence. They have had to march to the colonizer’s tune.
Monday, June 18, 2012
"The struggle continues"
I thought the piece within the piece was noteworthy for the pre-1989 language and perspective.
~ Karl
The congress of the “radical leftist” party—the KSČM—has ended. [Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the successor to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]. The second-strongest party on the Czech political spectrum, if we can believe public opinion surveys. Most journalists' broadcasts from it were “diary” entries about nothing; nobody offered a more analytical perspective. Vojtěch Filip was (again) chosen as chair, while his opponent Grospič lost all down the line. Even the already impotent Haló noviny didn’t offer an analysis of the congress in a journalistically respectable fashion. Of course, there was an analysis of the defeat of the “dinosaur wing,” personified by Grospič and Semelová, an analysis offered by the camp of the dinosaurs themselves: in the magazine Dialog, which you won’t find on newsstands.
As an aside: Allow me to point out for the narks from BIS [Bezpešnostní informační služba, the Security Information Service, something like the FBI] and the communist-baiting Senator Štětina, that the editorial board of Dialog is entirely independent of the KSČM. In terms of personnel, in terms of organization, and in economic terms. Just to be clear.
Monday, June 11, 2012
The spitting image of democracy
A few days ago in Prague, someone spat on the Finance Minister, Miroslav Kalousek. What follows is a translation of a press release from ProAlt, an activist group (their name is short for “pro alternativu,” or “for an alternative,” and their subtitle is “initiative for a critique of reforms and in support of alternatives”).
I encountered the press release on the website Britske listy, which bills itself as a "journal about everything which isn't much talked about in the Czech Republic."
The video of the slapping incident (see the link below on the text for "incident from September 21st, 2011") is worth watching. It comes from a security camera, and in February it somehow made its way to Blesk, a tabloid that bills itself as "the most entertaining news portal. From there, of course, it made its way around Czech media. (The narrator of the attached video says that Kalousek paid a fine of 1000 crowns--about $50--for the slap.)
They've come a long way from the heady days of November '89.
I encountered the press release on the website Britske listy, which bills itself as a "journal about everything which isn't much talked about in the Czech Republic."
The video of the slapping incident (see the link below on the text for "incident from September 21st, 2011") is worth watching. It comes from a security camera, and in February it somehow made its way to Blesk, a tabloid that bills itself as "the most entertaining news portal. From there, of course, it made its way around Czech media. (The narrator of the attached video says that Kalousek paid a fine of 1000 crowns--about $50--for the slap.)
They've come a long way from the heady days of November '89.
Position of ProAlt on Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek being spat upon
Kalousek was intentionally provocative
Press release
Prague, June 8th, 2012
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