Christmas Tree: Booooooring!

Friday November 30, 5 p.m. CET.  Mayor of Brno Roman Onderka led the ceremony of lighting the Christmas tree. A crowd of way over 5,000 people observed. I almost missed it. Suddenly I heard “three-two-one” and there it was.

Boooooooring….

The lights look like normal street lamp lights. I expected more colors, some imagination, some light bulb chains, perhaps, like those you can see on the surrounding buildings.

Nope…

Small Blogroll Update

The most recent blogroll update includes several blogs written by Americans (and other English-speaking nationalities) living, working and blogging from Prague and other Czechs towns. Always interesting to read:

- An American Blog From Prague / Phillip
- My Prague Journal by Rick Powell
- Delbert Peaches In The Czech Republic

Stop, Or The Lady Will Throw A Hammer

Apparently, the Chicago police are now using stun guns against 82-year old people, Jim Freeman noticed. An elderly woman was swinging a hammer when an official from the welfare department arrived at her house. The Internal Affairs department of CPD is now investigating whether the use of the gun was legitimate.

Without wanting to be insensitive, I would have to say that when it comes pensioners in the Czech Republic posing threat to people around them, most often we hear about, well, old drivers. Famous Czech psychiatrist Jan Cimicky calls the behavior that over-70 drivers manifest “senile recklessness” [sorry, Czech only].

There is a widely-popular and many times already proven theory that one should be very careful on the road if one encounters a Skoda 120 car with a driver who is wearing a old-fashioned old man’s hat and who, sometimes, has a box with eggs on the rear window platform….

Idiot Behind The Wheel Baros Faces Suspension

Czech soccer star Milan Baros might lose his license for up to three years. Baros was caught several weeks ago by French police after being clocked doing 271 kph in his black Ferrari.

I said it before and I will say it again: he should go to jail.

Ironically, license suspension does not apply across borders. Baros might have a French license as well as a Czech one. Losing his French license does not mean he can not drive in the Czech Republic. Sure, he does not live here permanently so he does not have many reasons to drive around. But still… I am sure he can’t drive around a prison yard…

Brno Christmas Tree: Lights On

Brno central square will host the Christmas market again. The booths are almost finished and most of them are occupied.

In previous years many of them offered junk stuff. Blankets, towels, second grade T-shirts, kitsch gifts. The place didn’t look anything like a Christmas-mood place. More like a Hong Kong backstreet market after a heavy rain. No offense.

This year the website of the Brno Center borough municipality promises:

The council set out very strict rules as to what can be sold during the Christmas market. Out of 137 booths most of them will sell traditional foodstuffs, handmade gifts and crafts… There will also be Santa Claus’ Post Office… 

The Christmas tree will light up on Friday at 5 p.m. CET. Photos to be updated and uploaded…

Czech Nudists In Winter: Heading To Germany

There are many favorite places for nudists in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately their season ends in early September. Those who want to enjoy their hobby between October and May might go on vacation to the Canary Islands. Which is relatively expensive, even though last-minute sales are pretty good deals.

Or they get in the car and in three hours they are in Ludwigsfelde, near Berlin. There is a thermal water park. And it is a no-swimsuit-allowed waterpark: Kristalbader Ludwigsfelde.

Several pools, more than ten kinds of sauna with all kinds of aromatherapy.

Was there last weekend. During five hours I met/saw twenty Czechs. That’s a lot…

Only several pools offer nude swimming in winter. In some towns a certain number of people must be signed up in advance. And in others only couples, families and single women are allowed.

Czech MP’s And Their Lazy Asses On Buses

Czech Members of Parliament will no longer ride for free on bus lines operated by private companies, a court has ruled Wednesday.

The court found in favor of Student Agency company owner Radim Jancura who refused to have MP’s on board of his buses because he was losing money this way. And so the court said there is no way a law can force private businessmen to “sponsor” MP’s by giving them free rides.

Czech MP’s are very ignorant when it comes to this issue. They get special benefits (thousands of crowns) for transportation, even though they do not take advantage of it.  Some have both free public transportation AND their own car provided to them by the Parliament etc. etc.

According to the ruling the MP’s will now HAVE TO pay for their tickets and they will have them remunerated within the public transportation benefit arrangement.

But still – are these people so fucking poor that they can’t pay their own transportation costs on the way to work? The answer is hell no. They argue by their “public service status”. Well, screw them. Doctors, cops, municipality officials, garbage men, bakers…they all ride trams and subways and they pay for it.  

So it’s good news…

There have been numerous discussions in the Parliament about the necessity to cut down the benefits because the general public hates them. Most MP’s nod their heads in agreement. But when it comes to the vote on this issue, they start backing out.

Brno City Hall Sells Old Crap

What does the Brno Tourist and Information Center do when it wants to sell old and no longer used assets? It makes a public sale announcement, pursuant to Czech legislation.

Local administration institutions sometimes have to get rid of old things. A normal person can just throw them away. A local administation institution must often “sell” them.

This is ridiculous, funny and absurd. If you look at this list, it includes the following items:

DeskJet 690C printer
bought for 9,726 CZK in 1998
offered for 80 CZK

Christmas tree
bought on December 27, 1990
offered for 2 CZK 

Artificial palm tree
purchase price unknown
offered for 36 CZK

Ceramic bowl
purchase price unknown
offered for 30 CZK

Two-hole punch
bought in 2005 for 85 CZK
offered for 5,50 CZK

What kind of a normally thinking person would go for this offer?

Notice in particular the Christmas tree sale. It was purchased two days after Christmas Eve in 1990. Here is your our local government at work…

Discussion Boards Cancelled. Again.

Famous Czech actress Venonika Zilkova gave birth to her fifth child in May. She was 46 at that time. The baby boy died a few days ago due to diaphragmatic hernia.

Zilkova has six children already: her own, aged 21, 17, 9, 1 – plus two adopted: aged 19 and 15.

For “some” reason many news servers that are affiliated with major Czech dailies decided to cancel discussions under the news articles that informed of the death of the baby [the first example is from Novinky.cz, here is one more from iDNES.cz]. 

It is more than obvious what most of the contributors said. That having a baby at the age of 45 and then one more immediately at the age of 46 is far from wise. Sure, it is everybody’s personal decision. But it is not wise.

It makes absolutely no sense to cancel discussions even when most of the contributors are insensitive. Their remarks are not racist, they are not illegal. They might be to some extent offensive (“she got what she deserved”) but being offensive is not illegal. There are U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq and there are numerous posts on this subject underneath the articles in U.S. dailies and I don’t think anybody has ever thought of cancelling particular discussions. 

In principle, you either DO allow discussions or you DON’T. You either decide you let people say what they feel like saying about the particular subject, or you don’t. It is legitimate to erase single contributions that violate appropriate legislation [racist attacks]. But that is as far as a decision could go.

Klaus: This “Minister” Is Way Too Young

President Vaclav Klaus does not feel very convinced about appointing the new Education Minister. It should be Ondrej Liska, the Green Party MP. He is thirty years old.

“My hands would be shaking during the ceremony,” Klaus said during a debate with Masaryk University students. “I had this young man’s birth year double checked. He is almost your age,” he told the students.

Klaus does not like the idea that “this youngster” would be the “boss” of all the honorable university rectors.

Why the hell not? Liska did graduate from a university. He has some political experience. A young mind can be very helpful when it comes to a government sector that deals with kids and students….