Lilac trees have started blooming. Around 2,000 cyclists took part in yesterday’s Prague Spring Critical mass by the non-profit organisation AutoMat. Every fifth person living in Prague is using a bike to get around the city at least once a month, a survey by GfK agency found. Another 18% of Praguers would like to travel on a bike if the conditions were better. Meteorologists said pollution in Legerova street has returned to levels measured before the arterial road was narrowed a month ago with intention to improve the air situation in the area.
“As long as there is a national minority associated with reluctance to work, lack of education and other similar issues, there will always be insane and bad-minded people taking advantage of them,” Interior Minister Ivan Langer said in response to last week’s fire intentionally set at a house in Vítkov where a Roma family lived, causing serious injuries to a 2-year-old girl. The latest report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 64% of Roma living in the Czech Republic had faced at least some discrimination in the past 12 months, the highest percentage in the EU.
Lidové noviny reported Monday that more Romanies have applied for asylum in Canada in the first two months of this year. The daily said, referring to unnamed sources, that Czech Romanies are motivated by ‘prospectors’ linked to Canadian authorities and profiting from the Romany influx. “They leave because their attackers do not have to fear any repercussions from the courts or the police,” said Paul St. Clair, an executive director of the Roma Community Centre in Toronto.
To avoid criticism and provocative reactions, the Charles University cancelled the planned lecture by former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. The EU delegation led by the Czech Republic left a conference on racism in Geneva over remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling Israel a country with a racist government.
ODS celebrated 18 years of existence. Václav Havel spoke warmly of the current ODS and said he hoped voters would punish ČSSD for the government’s collapse in the October election. Ivo Strejček (ODS) said he would call an ideological congress if the party decided to seek Havel’s support. Only 8% of Czechs are satisfied with the current political situation, a CVVM survey found.
In response to a Swedish court ruling last week, which jailed four men behind the file-sharing site Pirate Bay for breaking copyright law, a group of people around Brno-based computer programme designer Jiří Kadeřávek have started collecting signatures to launch a new political party, Česká pirátská strana (The Czech pirate party), with an aim to reform copyright laws and make site-sharing a legal activity. Outgoing Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek is also considering forming a new political party before the autumn elections.
“The Social Democrats are going to win the early parliamentary elections and the Czech Republic’s relations with Russia will once again be great. Until then, I will give them my best support as a lower house chairman,” said Miloslav Vlček at the Russian embassy in Prague on the occasion of a meeting with oil company Lukoil. Aeroflot and Odien have been excluded from the Czech Airlines privatisation tender.
Czech wine production almost doubled to a record 820,000 hectolitres last year as new vineyards planted four years ago gave harvest. Czech artist Kateřina Šedá, who once convinced neighbours of a Moravian town to help her cross the fences between their homes, has been offered to prepare a solo exhibit at London’s Tate Modern. Czech literature award Magnesia Litera was for the first time awarded to a woman, author Bohumila Grögerová, 87, for a book of poetry, she wrote using a magnifying glass as she is almost blind.
Six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hašek is ending his retirement again to play for his former club in Pardubice. Czech hockey star Jaromír Jágr has caught a virus only a few days before the world cup opening.
Czechs are more responsible when it comes to their first sexual experiences and more men use condom when having sex with a prostitute, a survey on the sexual behaviour of Czechs conducted every five years revealed. A giant steel cast of 140 tonnes and 2.4 metres in height, manufactured by ArcelorMittal Ostrava, has set off for a one-month trip to Sheffield, where it will be used in nuclear and shipping industry.
Statisticians decided that having radio receiver and tape recorder at home is no longer a sign of high living standards. The Czech economy could contract by 3.5% and the state budget deficit could reach as much as CZK 200 billion this year, according to the latest IMF reports. The government approved a loan of CZK 27 billion to IMF’s aid programme for countries affected by the economic crisis. The hypermarket chain Globus has become the first retailer in the Czech Republic to also sell household, car and travel insurance.
The Environment Ministry has started distributing subsidies to cover insulation and energy-saving boilers installments. Top managers of Czech Railways, Czech Post and ČEZ revealed their monthly pay. “This is the first time I have heard such information and I don’t like it,” Industry and Trade Minister Martin Říman commented Kalousek’s decision to abolish share bonuses for new ČEZ managers.
Following a ban by the Prague 1 City Hall to organise concerts at Rock Café, a group of Rock Café fans started collecting signatures via Facebook, trying to revert the decision. The newly opened Hard Rock Cafe at Prague’s Old Town staged its first concert.
An interactive exhibition marking the 20th anniversary of Velvet Revolution and inviting visitors to experience what life was under communism, opened on náměstí Republiky.
