Czech government after no-confidence vote. Early elections coming up?

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and his cabinet did not survive a no-confidence vote instigated by the opposition leader Jiri Paroubek. It is a result of multiple disputes which the opposition claims has included forms of political corruption. In my words, fight for power, nothing else.

I said it before and I will say it again: the socialist politician Jiri Paroubek is the biggest danger to this country.

No-confidence vote during an economic crisis, during the Czech EU presidency and shortly after the economic events in Hungary is stupid, stupid, stupid. This is not democracy, this is lust for power. Sure, the senior coalition party of PM Mirek Topolanek (ODS) – or some MP’s, to be exact – have been acting unacceptably, but it is NOT hurting people.

If Paroubek wins the early elections, he will ruin this country economically, I am afraid.

Here is why…

1. In the Czech Republic people who employ vote for right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS), while people who are employed or unemployed vote for socialists (CSSD). In times of economic crisis a socialist PM can promise to do anything his voters but guess who is going to pay for this… those who still employ, who decided to hang in there. And they don’t deserve this because we are all in this crisis together…

In other words, the difference between ODS and CSSD is that ODS creates conditions and says to people “here, try your best”. CSSD just says “if you need anything, you might as well try, but if you don’t, just extend your hand”.

2. If he offers serious cooperation to communists, who are still in the Parliament but play a minor opposition role (having around 12 percent) it will be a huge bummer. Foreign investors will start fleeing because they will recall what happened in 1948 when Czechoslovak communists did their coup and this country was fucked … until 1989. And there will be less employers to employ the voters of Social Democrats…I wonder if Paroubek knows this…

High school student planned a bomb attack against his own school

(c) Getty Images

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  Last update March 27
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It was a matter of time, but it is here… high school violence in the Czech Republic.

The police have a 17 year-old student in custody who is said to have planned a bomb attack against his own school and people in it, the iDNES.cz news server reports, citing a senior investigator of the Organized Crime Department with the Czech Police. Since the suspect is under 18 the police can not disclose any details that would/could reveal the person’s true identity and there are certain restrictions media as well.

We almost had our own Columbine.

Just like the two nutcases Klebold and Harris the young Czech almost-assassin was “acting weird”, his classmates say. And he has made several announcements that “he would shoot everybody in his class and himself”.

April 20, 2009 is the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre…I wonder if there is a connection with the most recent Czech case…

UPDATE:: Apparently there is! The young man made a video inspired by the Columbine shooting…

The young suspect, if convicted, can go to jail for five years. (ONLY!!! -ed.)

According to the school principal who talked to a Czech Television reporter the school management still hopes that this turns out to be a juvenile joke.

UPDATE:: Apparently not. According to TV Nova news at five the student was arrested in class and search warrant was conducted in his house during which 30 police officers were present… And since the Organized Crime Department claims that they prevented a disaster, it was NOT a joke…

He wrote in his online journal: We live to experience pain, suffering, fear and death. Self-injury is the way to understand life, and I really mean it.

UPDATE MARCH 27: The police have found a plan of the school along with some explosives, several dailies claim today. The boy was transported from the police custody into a special center for juvenile offenders while the investigation continues. It does seem like he actually was planning the attack. Another piece of (somewhat circumstantial) evidence is his blog with amateur comics with Nazi topic (be advised it is very offensive!)

Industrial architecture disappearing from Brno

Loft lovers and fans of industrial architecture don’t have much to look at in Brno, when it comes to renovations, new projects or former factories turned into places to live. Places that citizens of New York City often turn into apartments with cranes or beams left across their living rooms are practically non-existent in Brno (click on photos to enlarge them).

There are huge demolition works in progress now, just two blocks from my apartment, i.e. within ten-minute walking distance from downtown. It is fair to say that it was not a factory but rather an army facility. And it is a widely known fact that the pre-1989 Czechoslovak Army did not care about architecture. And neither did communists who did not hesitate to turn former monasteries, castles and fortresses into barracks that nobody cared of/about.

The place where this demolition is taking place will see a brand new project in a few years — one in which famous Czech architect Eva Jiricna participates. Apartments, offices, businesses and recreation and sports facilities should be there when the project is completed. Any renovation of the former buildings would allow MAYBE offices only. However, Brno city developers are trying to avoid projects that would remain dark and unoccupied at night. In other words, you don’t want two blocks east-to-west and two blocks north-to-south to accommodate firms only.

The loft target group does exist in this country, but the conditions are not suitable for it: there are ownership right problems, certificate of occupancy issues etc. Strangely, many lofts are renovated by construction development companies that sell the loft apartments to clients.

Weekend photo-walk in Brno

A random selection of various parts of Brno during one 45-minute tram ride. Just point-and-shoot this time, with no real thought with respect to journalistic quality

Bystrc borough. A 20-minute tram ride to downtown Brno.

Bystrc borough. A 20-minute tram ride to downtown Brno.

Pekarska St.

Pekarska St.

Old houses on Mendel Sq. housing a tea room, a pub and an army store.

Foreign spammers flood Czech matchmaking servers

I thought spammers had ideas and were always one step ahead…

Having said that, I really don’t understand what the idea is behind the efforts of some third-world spammers who send crappy replies to Czech matchmaking servers, like Seznamka.cz… This is what a friend of mine received as a reply to a boy-seeks-girl ad:

how are you! hope you are fine and in perfect condition of health.i went through your profile and i read it and took intersest in it,please if you don t mind i will like you to write me on this id(hellen4xx2@yahoo.co.in ) hope to hear you soon,and i will be waiting for your mail because i have something very important to tell you. lots of love hellen4xx2/@/ya/hoo./co./in

No doubt there is a human being behind this idea, I don’t think there is a computer or a robot named Helen who wants to meed a Czech 17 year-old student. And this shit-for-brain person really thinks that anyone will fall for this?

UPDATE: Hmm, this person has obviously been trying it all over Europe…

When a naked Trojan horse eats your notebook…

No more Internet porn. A typical resolution for a man whose firewall and anti-virus programs are beaten and eaten by a Trojan horse dressed as an EXE file with no clothes on and doing things we all do…

Yes, my systems crashed yesterday and the computer started to do strange things, like rebooting when I clicked on an innocent Mozilla icon.

And it wasn’t because I like to watch videos of landing aircraft on YouTube. A technician who cleaned the hard drive had a lot of work and he said there had been multiple Trojan horses, some of them from hacked e-shops that their owners fixed only after I had downloaded the bug…

Czechs are generally very open-minded when it comes to pornography, as long as it is legal. A while ago we (we = when I was the senior editor at the Brnensky denik daily – not a tabloid!) did a story on the Mayor’s adult son who turned out to be a gay porn star. Most people I talked to reacted by “so what” and “it does not mean that the Mayor is a bad Mayor”.

I did see a sample clip of the Mayor’s son because we had his ordinary-life photo and we had to be absolutely sure before calling him and asking for a statement, so more people’s “it-IS-him” opinion was necessary.

And I hope it was not the Mayor’s son’s clip that ruined my notebook hard drive. That would, well, suck…

North Korea invites Czech tourists. Thirteen days, eleven nights, fifty grand

(c) Ahn Young-Joon/AFP

It is a magnet of this season and you shouldn’t hesitate if you want to go, a travel agent of an agency offering holiday in North Korea told me. The country, she said, is now offering group visa for European tourists.

Five nights in an all-inclusive hotel in Pyongyang.

But prior to that, three nights in Beijing, where the tourists can have “two days off” to arrange their own program, like the Forbidden City and other landmarks. And then they travel to North Korea by, big surprise, sleeper train.

And of course guided visits to all the creepy places everybody has heard about: museums, Demilitarized Zone, empty eight-lane boulevards with almost no cars.

CZK 50,000, i.e. some $2,300

It gets you thinking. How much of this money will actually go to the state budget from which the government finances its nuclear program, while regular people struggle with power outages, and lack of everything, including food, household needs… and democracy?

I was told that all groups of tourists are assigned a nice commie lady who follows them everywhere they go to make sure the foreigners only see what they can be allowed to see. And hear. And ask. And get answers to.

It is hard to swallow that you would pay some country to show you a place where its regime killed people in a military conflict.

A friend of mine who works in the United Nations repeatedly witnessed situations that might be described as “you can’t tell the North Koreans your truth about the human rights”.

A trip to North Korea for CZK 50,000 is for adventure seekers, so that they can say “Been there, seen that”. Not the best way to start the efforts to talk to the regime…

Teacher sex tape scandal: footage was made by her student, police say

(c) Getty Images

The Czech high school teacher who was taped having sex with an 18 year-old young man (not a student of her school) might go to jail after all.

According to the police the footage was indeed made by a sixteen year-old student who IS in the woman’s English class. Or was, because the woman quit on her own before her principal could find a legal way to fire her.

The woman will probably be charged with what we might call (it is my translation of the particular provision of the Penal Code) “endangerment of moral development of the youth”. Apparently, it is what you commit if you have sex and let an 16 year-old watch you, even though the age of consent is fifteen.

I used to defend the woman, claiming that “teachers have sex and tape themselves doing it too, big deal”. Hmm. I stand corrected. As a teacher she was supposed to know where the legal-illegal borderline was. Intoxication is not an excuse.

Czech spotters are preparing for Air Force One and the Secret Service

Ryanair (c) Petr Bokuvka

U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Prague on April 4-5 and Czech spotters are getting ready for a unique visitor to the Prague Ruzyne Airport – Air Force One.

There are only two runways so they should know well in advance which is going to be in use. Another thing they are getting ready for are pain-in-the-ass cops, and even Secret Service agents. Some cops are known for harassing people who stand on a parking lot, or other similar public place, near the airport fence and take pictures of departing and arriving aircraft. The spotters discuss typical situations when cops would ask for an ID just as the spotter is about to snap it.

A U.S. Secret Service agent has no jurisdiction over a Czech citizen on the Czech soil. So if such an agent accompanied by a Czech cop approaches a spotter and confronts them about being there, the spotter can legally say: [to the Czech cop] Good morning, Sir and [to the USSS agent] Give me a f*cking break.

I know, I know, it is a precaution to protect Obama. But all they have to do is observe the spotters from a distance for one minute, to find out they possess no rocket launcher…

Associated Press editors think Czechoslovakia still exists

Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, it is still a country somewhere, eh? my colleagues from the Associated Press probably think. The news agency wrote yesterday that Barack Obama is about to visit Prague, Czechoslovakia. The screenshot below is from IHT:

IHT March 14 news item screenshot

My former editor-in-chief used to say that if you make a mistake like this you are a human with no benefits for the particular month. But if you reprint a mistake like this, you are a moron. I wonder who works in IHT’s foreign news desk, or whatever they call it, if they just robotically reprint AP without double-checking…

I will take “1993 World Events” for $200, Alex.