The last day of school in the Czech Republic. Kids get their report cards

(c) CTK - Czech News Agency

The last day of June is generally the last day of school for elementary, junior high and high school students. Usually if the day falls on a Monday or Tuesday school principals may give their kids two days off (they have about 5 to 10 days per year to use up as they need), so that they get their report cards on Friday.

Accepting a report cards is a ceremony of some sort, even though it seems to be it is not that big a deal anymore. Students sit in their class and when their class teacher announces their name they go to the front of the class, shake hands with the teacher and receive their report card (note: sorry for the image quality):

(c) UIV

The report card is arranged by courses/subjects and for every course/subject the grade is stated in words. First-graders are an exception because their grades are expressed by numbers, which they understand more… And it motivates them to see “one huge number 1″ (as in “excellent”).

Today you can see hundreds of kids in the streets around 9 a.m. because the ceremony usually takes a few minutes and the kids can not wait to get the hell out of there…You can see that they do not treat their report cards with “respect”: some fold it into an oblong envelope, and some roll it into tubes…

Floods in the Czech Republic! Again. Twelve casualties reported so far

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Some parts of the Czech Republic were hit by storms on Thursday night. The resulting tidal bore, falling trees and floods damaged a large part of the Novy Jicin County. So far 10 people are reported dead: some drowned but some died of various health problems and they could not be reached by paramedics on time.

(c) Blesk.cz

People are encouraged not to travel to the affected parts of Moravia, as the main train track from Prague to Ostrava via Olomouc is damaged and even SuperCity express trains end half-way.

Storm/flood aftermath video:

And a photo gallery embedded into a news article…click on the arrow to view the photos…

TO BE UPDATED…

UPDATE JUNE 28: More regions were hit by the sudden floods over the weekend. In the South Bohemia Region several villages ordered evacuations. A tiny stream that is as wide as an elbow of an adult person became a river ten metres wide… No deaths are reported in this region, but the death toll is now 12. A volunteer fireman drowned in Moravia during the first stage of the floods…

Masaryk University: Plagiarists beware! Our new program will hunt you down

Masaryk Univesity in Brno has become a pioneer when it comes to fighting plagiarism. A while ago it introduced a program that can identify parts of texts that students have copied from previous works handed in at the university. Now it introduced a new web-based program called Odevzdej.cz (“Hand it in”) that goes even deeper, the iDNES.cz news server wrote.

The original program was called Theses and it could detect plagiarism in, well, theses. But the school officials found out that students cheat in minor works most often, the server wrote. However, the system will not recognize the entire Internet contents. It is impossible, MU experts say. According to TV Nova the system can check the authenticity before the assignment is handed in: students just copy their text into the system and their teachers receive an e-mail stating whether any part of the particular thesis has been “borrowed”…

Flash mob in a Brno park: bring your rubber duck to a fountain

A very interesting flash mob is being organized for the upcoming Sunday, June 28. People are encouraged to bring their rubber bathtub ducks and let them swim in a fountain in a downtown Brno park. The participants can also use the nearby artificial stream that runs down a staircase leading into a nearby street. After the event they can give their ducks to a child who arrives to watch the event, or they can save the toy for next time.

I think I will go and observe. I do not own a rubber duck, as I do not have a bathtub in my bathroom. And I am not allowed to bring the only rubber toy that I have in my household because the rightful owner said no. Plus, I am pretty sure it would A) scare the kids, B) sink to the bottom since it is not hollow… (Not the author’s note: That’s not rubber, silly.)

Brno borough mayor: the city should forbid drinking alcohol in public

(c) Getty Images

The Mayor of the Brno-stred (Brno-Center) borough Libor Stastka wants to do something about people who drink alcohol in public places. This activity is most often associated with the homeless people, some of whom spend the whole day in groups of five to ten in downtown Brno. They occupy many benches and bother people by begging for money.

According to the MF7 news server the mayor wants to define the radii of buildings within which alcohol consumption would qualify as a misdemeanor. However, this ban must be enacted by the assembly of the City of Brno, not the “small assembly” of the borough.

The radius of 50 meters shall apply to schools and school facilities, playgrounds and sports grounds, cemeteries, churches and healthcare institutions (“hospitals and policlinics”), the mayor argues.

The original radius was considered to be 20 metres, but that does not seem to be sufficient. Exceptions shall be granted to restaurants during their opening hours, if they run “gardens” (outdoor seating).

Some of the homeless people who frequent the benches on the main square in Brno have previously been quoted by some media as saying that they can always pour their alcohol into water bottles (water, or vodka? noone can tell). And that just sitting around is not against anything and it is unfair to judge by one’s clothes… “There is a girl who is dressed in GAP head to toe. It may bother me but I don’t ask her to leave,” one of them said…

Man’s got a point…

Czech Army to sell bunkers and other real estate for millions

(c) Getty Images

Do you want an old Czech Army armoured bunker or even a former armoured vehicle testing range slash proving grounds? The Czech Army is selling real estate it no longer needs, the iDNES.cz news server writes. One of the bunkers was on sale before but nobody wanted it for more than CZK 2 million.

How do you put a price on a bunker or a testing range? You can’t really discuss the real estate market because there aren’t that many bunkers offered. However, two million is insane. They should be glad that at least SOMEONE wants it and they should sell it to the highest bid (envelope-style).

These bunkers, if sold, are often renovated by military history fans, and there are some that have been rebuilt and people live in them…

This reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons where the family is trying to sell their house because the traffic from the local airport has been rerouted and the planes on final are right above the roof. Ralph Wiggum offers three crayons and a box of milk and the family is encouraged to take it…

The army should do the same…

Prague to give up 2020 Olympics. Too expensive in this crisis…

(c) Reuters via Google

Councillors of the City of Prague decided that Prague would drop out from the race to host the 2020 Olympic Games, the iDNES.cz news server wrote. Due to the ongoing economic crisis the city receives much less money from tax incomes. According to the news server it should be CZK 2.9 billion. Hosting the Games would be too expensive for the city.

VERY wise move. But it should be noted that “too expensive” does not cover the whole truth. The truth is that the city is FAR from prepared and it would have to build many stadiums and other venues. Not to mention the fact that due to the nature of the events many of them would have to be held in different parts of the country, i.e. in smaller towns that would have EVEN LESS money to contribute to the common projects of building, let’s say… greyhound racing grounds…

I know it does not match the principle of the Olympic Games, but I think it would not hurt anybody if the upcoming OG (the yet-undecided) were actually awarded to a city that does not need to spend billions, i.e. city that is “almost prepared”… i.e. a city that has hosted the Games before. The financial crisis is going to take some time and it does not seem like the Games are going to be profitable… “the cities that know” will have to deal with it…

Czech Billa supermarkets sell Austrian groceries. Without Czech labels

Billa is an Austrian supermarket chain owed by Rewe Group. There are more than one hundred supermarkets in the Czech Republic. And they seem to be selling groceries that are intended for the Austrian (German, Italian or Swiss…) markets – without Czech labels that define ingredients, content specification, expiry dates, etc…

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The photo on the right is of a bottle of Rauch Ice Tea. First I was surprised to notice (as I was taking it from the shelf) that it would have a German SMS competition on the label but then I remembered that there used to be international shows and the labels displayed the instruction in multiple languages. But no, the label is entirely in German with some Italian pieces of information.

According to the Czech Consumer Protection Act products sold in the Czech Republic must have “instructions” in English. There are some rare exceptions applicable to products in case of which the use is obvious. I can imagine. Hammers, potato peelers and similar tools.

Sec. 9 of act number 634/1992 says:

The vendor is obliged to inform the customer accordingly of the characteristics of a product, its use and maintenance and risks that might arise out of improper use of the product. The vendor can not explain his failure to do so by arguing that the necessary information was not provided to the vendor by the manufacturer, supplier and the like.

And Sec. 11 of the said act says:

The vendor is obliged to make sure that the information referred to in Sec. 9, if provided in a written form, is provided in the Czech language.

Hier brauchen Sie ein Woerterbuch

Obviously there is some logistic mystery behind the Billa company. This batch was imported directly from Austria with no intermediary company involved. And naturally, the table of ingredients is, again, entirely in German – which I am sure must be a blatant violation of the law (Czech Consumer Protection Act). The “general tips for consumers” provided by the Czech Food Inspection Authority suggest the same.

Not listing the ingredients in Czech might be very dangerous. Of course, people who are allergic do not buy groceries they are unsure about, but there might be customers who assume that they understand what the label says and they may die from a specific form of “overdose” or food poisoning because they are something-intolerant.

UPDATE JUNE 18: I contacted the Czech Food Inspection Authority regarding the potential violation of the Consumer Protection Act. They have fifteen days to “investigate” and let me know… I am thinking of doing a guest-writer article for this weekly news-magazine that I have had professional contacts with…

The worst Czech habit ever: calling your wife “mom”, calling your husband “dad”

Czechs love American soap operas and family sitcoms. But there is one thing many of them hate, whether they watch old reruns of Beverly Hills 90210, Step By Step or Dallas. Scenes where daughters hug their mothers (and to some extent, fathers, too) and say “I love you, mom” to which the parent replies “I love you too, honey”.

Let’s skip the fact that it is a translator’s hell. Czechs NEVER EVER say “I love you, mom” to their parents under such trivial circumstances like coming home from school one hour later and seeing an angry mother saying “I was worried sick”. Nope.

Many Czech men do something that sounds much worse, if you think about it.

They call their wives “mom”. Of course, the meaning is transferred and it is supposed to be affectionate. But it sounds primitive.

Most often the term “mom” would be used by middle-aged less educated and “rather simple” men. The origin of this form of addressing is said to be in the fact that the married couples use the “mom” and “dad” to address the spouse in front of their small children and when the kids grow up and go to college the couples retain this form of addressing one another for some reason…

My theory is that these middle-aged couples never experienced single life. The men went from their parents’ houses or apartments straight into marriage where the pre-1989 roles were strictly defined. Emancipation, career women, equality of sexes? Pleeease… Mom was mom and dad was dad. And a few decades later, they are fifty-something, the world has changed but they didn’t…

Photo (c) Getty Images

Empty Brno Dam revealed its secrets: grenades and mud traps

The Brno Dam is famous weekend destination for families, lovers, sport lovers. It features beaches, boats, beach volleyball courts, hot-dog stands, biking paths etc.

Oh yeah, there is almost no water there now. The dam has been emptied to facilitate mud cleaning to prevent cyanobacteria formation.

Two World War II grenades were found in the mud today and the police warn that there will be more. People are discouraged from entering the banks of the “river” that flows in the middle of the dam valley. There are huge mud traps that can be even six feet deep and one can’t get out, if trapped. However, hundreds adventure and treasure seekers enter the restricted area anyway — to search for former houses that had been there before the dam was built. People had to leave the former village of Kninicky…