The Czech Puzzle Is Here

I just launched a new photo blog where I want to show bigger photos that do not fit the template of The Czech Daily Word. It is called The Czech Puzzle and it should show this country in all its beauty and ugliness.

Four-Day Week To Save Gas?

Apparently, some places in the United States are attempting to compensate the huge increase in oil prices by introducing a four-day week, some bloggers noted.

Seems like one of the places where this new idea is going to be implemented is the state of Utah. Coincidentally, the place where I went to high school and where I suffered in hot days knowing there is no nude beach in the entire state.

What I think might also work for ordinary folks [and I am certain many American have found out already themselves] is some substantial lifestyle change represented by the use of Utah Transit Authority buses, or by simple walking to grocery stores and back [yes, WITH the bags], by letting kids walk to school.

Specifically in the towns of Utah, that might well work because there are sidewalks everywhere and if it is hot you can occasionally walk under a sprinkler and two blocks later you are dry again.

The gas prices will definitely affect the everlasting equation number of family members over 16 = number of cars in the driveway.

Four-day week in some sectors of public life will not affect some public budgets, just their general ledgers will look better at the end of the fiscal year.

When I was there, I would sometimes go for 10 blocks without meeting a single person on the same sidewalk.

For those who know Provo, UT, I would sometimes go from 300 North University Avenue all the way to University Mall, which is actually in Orem.

Four-day week is not a new strategy when it comes to government and public administration institutions. Which brings the idea that normal people could restrict their mileage quota by their own rules: like “I will only drive on Wednesdays and Fridays” or “Once I reach 100 miles in a particular month, I will stop driving for the rest of the month“.

 

UPDATE: Speaking of oil, Russia just cut its crude oil supplies to the Czech Republic by approximately 40 percent. Experts claim it is almost definitely a reaction to the treaty between the Czech Republic and USA on the construction of a U.S. missile defense radar facility.

 TO BE UPDATED…

New Photoblog Coming Up

In a few days I should be launching a one-photo-a-day photoblog. As usual with new projects, I must prepare it a few days in advance so that there is some content when it is introduced. I will have it, of course, on WordPress. Link will be announced as soon as possible…

Executive Clemency: Rich Businessman? Yes. Poor Janitor? No

The principle of executive clemency has  been criticized in this country ever since the now former president Vaclav Havel started to apply this executive power of his.

President Vaclav Klaus, after he was elected, said he would not overuse it. Well, he doesn’t but the cases are just as questionable as Havel’s.

Mr. Zdenek Kratochvil is a businessman from the town of Jihlava. A woman named Monika from the same town is a janitor.

He was charged with fraud worth billions (!!!!). She misappropriated CZK 5,865 ($420). They both have health problems.

Kratochvil applied for executive clemency from the president in January, while the woman did the same two years ago.

The businessman GOT IT within weeks and avoided going to jail. The woman appealed her case repeatedly, she even paid the ”debt” after she had been sentenced, but nothing helped and she had to go to jail for a month. She was released a few weeks ago. But a local district court judge sent all necessary documentation for the executive clemency in February 2006. Which means the people working for the president who are in charge of the agenda had had two years to process this case. Somehow, it seems like they did not.

It is a widely spread opinion in this country that the Civic Democrats of whom Klaus was the Chairman and “true leader” and who are in the government now are a party that supports “big criminals”, i.e. businessmen who make money in a very questionable way, or sometimes even ilegally, and nothing happens to them. I am afraid that this case will even refresh this image.

President Klaus’ Hip Joint Is For Sale! Allegedly.

How creepy is this?

Some people have been attempting to sell President Vaclav Klaus’ hip joint in internet auctions. They tried two Czech ones but with no luck. Apparently, in one case due to its definition of an “organ”, despite the fact that it can no longer be re-used, and in the other case because Vaclav Klaus is not a saint, so his body parts can not be worshipped like bones and a scull of a saint. To put it simply and on a lighter note…

Either way, anyone who would buy it could well receive a free pass to a mental institution.

The president’s spokesman says he totally trusts the hospital in which Klaus got his new artificial joint, that the real one could not have gotten lost or stolen…

TV Nova secretly taped one of the men who claimed to have tried eBay, too, but with no response from eBay people so far…

Czech Foreign Minister Hit With A Tomato

People who demonstrated against the existence of U.S. missile defense radar construction on the Czech territory threw a tomato on Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. He was hit in the neck. He brought it to his office and put it on a plate…

A proper matured tomato should squish if you throw it. This was is like made of rubber. Not even a drop got on my suit, and I was hit in the back of the neck. Next time the protesters should bring some better ones that grew in a normal garden, not these chemical-induced ones…

Hmm, sense of humor…

Yet Another Case of Child Abuse

UPDATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 7

The police are investigating another case of child abuse!! A reportedly mentally ill mother forced her two children to wear dog collars and she tied them to a crib. She ended up in a mental institution, the children are in an asylum home slash orphanage for abandoned children.

The mother of a three year-old boy and a six year-old daughter was interrogated by the police and released, obviously no judicial custody was ordered. According to investigators the children were accidentally spotted by a neighbor who contacted the local social welfare administration.

Reportedly the children has some haematoma on their bodies, too.

Their father seems to have had no idea as he was only questioned by the police as a witness…

Condoleezza Rice Visits the Czech Republic

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed the treatey on the construction of U.S. missile defense “radar” in the Czech Republic.

According to Schwarzenberg, this treaty will provide for security of the entire Europe.

But according to some polls, 53 percent of Czechs are against the “radar”.

But then again, it all depends on how the survey question is formulated.

Is it: Do you want the U.S. to build a missile defense shield radar facility in our country?

or

Do you want to be protected from possible threats? etc…

Speaker of the Lower House Miloslav Vlcek from the opposition Social Democrats made a childish gesture when he did not attend the signing ceremony. He wanted to talk to Rice in person to tell her about the  no-attitude of most Czechs but Rice’s schedule was so tight she did not have time to meet him. As a response, Vlcek decided not to attend…

Mature, eh? How typical for Czech social democrats whose favorite tool of political activity is rendering.

Islam Online: Brno Celebrates Mosque Anniversary

I must admit I totally forgot about this anniversary, especially since I had been on vacation last week. Muslims in Brno celebrated the anniversary of opening the first mosque in a Central European country, Islam Online news server reported.

There is also one mosque in Prague. Muslims in other (smaller) cities must visit smaller prayer rooms adjusted for their specific purposes, the server notes. There are reportedly some 50,000 Muslims in this country, but the religion is not as established as it is in other countries where Muslims have a stronger voice when it comes to their very own mosque(s). In fact, a vast majority of Czechs are atheists.

Prague Announced Its No-Alcohol Zones

Drinking alcohol in public? A misdemeanor charge and a fine of up to CZK 30,000 ($2.100), as the Municipality of the City of Prague announced a list of places where drinking alcohol in public will be banned, the Aktualne.cz news server reports. The list includes ALL subway stations [public areas, not bars], playgrounds or major squares, as well as the perimeter of 100 meters from kindergartens, elementary, junior high and high schools and healthcare institutions.

If you are familiar with Prague, the list of streets and squares and other places is here [scroll down a bit for a blue table].

Some boroughs selected specific locations, like sidewalks alongside theater buildings, or parks…

The ban applies to the “brown bag trick” as well… Apparently, cops might try to inspect the beverage if they find a person whom they suspect of drinking alcohol.

FIVE WORDS: It is about f**king time.