CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC School of Social Sciences of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic E-mail address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs Fax: (+422) 231 7391 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 78, Monday, June 7, 1993. FROM LAST WEEK'S EVENTS (May 26 - June 2) Ambassies in Prague and Bratislava opened Slovaks in the Czech Republic feel slightly discriminated, said on Friday at the opening of Slovak ambassy in Prague ambassador Ivan Mjartan. According to him this concerns particularly social security and education. "People with Slovak nationality could not arrange social security. In some cases it even took months. There are certain hints that school fees should be paid in hard currency. We will point this out to the Czech government, and ask to restore things as soon as possible, " said Slovak ambassador. He also remarked that his ambassy will try to persuade Czech parliament to approve a norm that would characterize the Slovaks living in Czechland as a national minority. Ambassy of the Czech Republic was also opened on Friday in Bratislava. Vaclav Havel for a dialogue with Sudeten Germans A dialogue of representatives of Czech political parties of the governmental coalition (Civic Democratic Forum, Civic Democratic Alliance, Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Pary, and Christian Democratic Party - edit. note) with Sudet-German organisations that was suggested on Monday by chairmen of the coalition parties, is a sensible platform for leading a dialogue. Spokeperson for the President, Ladislav Spacek said this on Tuesday. The challenge of a working group which according to Vaclav Klaus should consist of representatives of "a by one degree lower party structure", should mainly elaborate attitudes of governmental parties and explain them to the German side. Minister of Foreign Affaires Josef Zieleniec pointed out that this dialogue does already exist at certain levels. According to him the group make-up should correspond the fact, that this is not a negotiation between political subjects, but a dialogue between Czechs and Germans. The participants to this dialogue should be also oposition parties because foreign policy must be to a certain extent consensual, and relations which Germany should not be an exception in that. Social democrats are, according to chairman Milos Zeman, against any governmental negotiations with Sudet-German representatives, and they also reject any dialogue outside the government. Communist Left Wing did not participate in any negotiations at this stage. Chairman of Liberal Social Union, Frantisek Trnka earmarked this suggestion as a "Troya Horse". A member of the same party, J. Vlcek regards the group created by the government as a dangerous deed leading to other concessions. Chairman of Liberal National Social Party, Pavel Hirs said that his party declined the Sudet-German claim for negotiating with our government. " I am here for the representation of Sudet-Germans to be able to talk to our organisation, but at the same level," said Hirs and pointed out that he rejected blackmailing through economical levers, Ingolstadt oil pipeline etc. Socialists with a new name and chairman Liberal National Social Party (LSNS) is as of this weekend the new name of Czechoslovak Socialist Party which is a part of the oppositional Liberal Social Union. The change of the name as well as the new chairman - former secretary of the party, Pavel Hirs, was decided upon at the 26th congress of Czechoslovak Socialist Party. It is expected that LSNS will step out of the Union, and move towards the middle stream in the political spectrum. Mass media also point out that the condition of his candidacy to the post of the chairman was a five-year continuous membership in the party, that is in the period before November 89. This condition was not fulfiled for example by former Czechoslovak ambassador to Italy, Jiri Holub. Some delegates who were not satisfied with the course of the congress, appealed to the members defending the socialist indentity not to leave the party and consider a possibility of establishing a socialist club within LSNS. Border-lining began The process of defining the state border between the Czech and the Slovak Republic has already begun in the territory of Nothern Moravia. The demarkating assigned to a 16-member Czecho-slovak border commission will proceed gradually in 20-30 km sections. The total lenght of the border is 265 km. Ozone state cannot be foreseen. "The ozone layer is in an unnatural negative state but UV radiations values are not particularly alarming, and do not exceed maximum values," said at international conference Workshop Ozon 93 in Hradec Kralove Mgr. Michal Janouch. As in the mensuration carried out by specialists on May 24-28 in the frame of the mentioned meeting at Hradec's meteorological observatory, the concentration of the ozone layer above Europe is by 7-10 percent below the longterm normal state. Ultraviolent radiation should thus not be any danger for people with hypersensitive complexion. The conference organised by World Meteorological Organisation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Institut of the USA along with Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, was attended by 50 experts from 20 monitoring stations from the world. The aim was to compare particular databases mainly among European station, that means to find out whether their methods and accuracy of mensuration differ, and to compare the results of satellite mensuration with that on land. According to M. Janouch, the mensuration divergence at any of the instruments do not exceed one percent. The monitoring of the state of ozone in the stratosphere 22-25 km above the Globe dates from 1957 when the danger of ozone decrease (O3) was earmarked by scientists. Since December 1991 the divergence from the long-term normal state is constantly negative. In October 1992 the ozone layer above the Antarctic decreased temporarily by 65 percent! Above the mean latitude (45-65 degrees) the shrinkage was the biggest 20 percent this February. Yet, as Mgr. M. Janouch said, it is necessary to consider these numbers with regard to yearly season. In winter, for example, the sun is low at the scope,and its radiation pierces through larger atmospheric mass than in summer. People are also dressed more and thus protect their complexion. Only mountain sojourns without sun-glasses can be dangerous. In summer the complexion is used to the radiation and protects itself. Yet it is necessary to help it with a tan creme, and not to stay too long in the sun. Generally, cold air from the North comprises more ozone that the air from the South or South-West. The causes of the decrease of O3 in the stratosphere are of two kinds: natural as is hovering of sun radiation and volcanic activity (important changes in the atmosphere happened for example after a huge explosion of the Filipini volcano Pinatubo in 1991), which have always existed, and man does not know how to influence them, and unnatural causes such as elements like halocarbons and freons manufactured by man and containing mainly chlorine and bromine which easily react with ozone and destroy it. The state of the ozone layer is no alarming yet but a long-term trend leads to a gradual decrease. Therefore in 1987 (MOntreal), 1990 (London) and 1992 (Kopenhagen) protocols about the controll and decrease of the production of halocarbons, freons and other instances containing chlorin and bromium were approved. The Copenhagen protocol even bans with validity as of 1996 the production of some of these instances. Yet this document from last year's November counts on the fact that for another 15 years the ozonosphere will be deteriorating and only then the trend will turn to the better. At the end of the conference "Workshop Ozon" in Hradec Kralove the specialists agreed that it is not necessary to spread alarm news because "at present there is no reason for any special measures", and if the ozone decreased significantly, the public will be informed about it. Yet some scientists admit that O3 concentration above the mean latitude of the Nothern semi-globe is much better than that above the Souther semi-globe. An important shortcoming of this scientific research is the fact that we are not able to foresee the state of the ozonosphere, and according to M. Janouch , changes may occur from day to day. Therefore is is good to watch the state of ozone regularly, particularly in summer. David Snajdr FROM SLOVAKIA Party of Democratic Left Wing for Preliminary Election Only people fearing for their posts deny the preliminary election, said on Wednesday, May 26 at a press conference of Party of Democratic Left Wing (SDL)its deputy-chairman Pavol Kanis. He also said that the preliminary election is one of the alternatives proposed by his party to solve the crisis in Slovakia:"The preliminary election would not help SDL, as many people think, but mainly to the Slovak Republic". Chairman of the party Weiss also explained why Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia was not invited to the recent assembly of SDL:"When I learnt that they wanted to come, I announced them on the phone, that our parties had parted for known reasons." As an explanation he added that SDL finished the process of transformation into a moder leftist party of a social democratic type, and applied for enrollment to the Socialist Internationale. EXCHANGE RATE OF CZECH CROWN buy sell Great Britain GBP 42,90 45,74 Franc FRF 5,09 5,49 Canada CAD 21,47 23,25 Austria ATS 2,49 2,61 BRD DEM 17,41 18,33 USA USD 27,74 29,14 The rates are valid as of June 1, 1993. SPORT Football league (29th round) - Sparta Praha is the last federal master Sparta Praha (46 pts) ensured the champion title already in the next-to-last round of the last year of the federal league having beaten Nitra 1:0. Next year Czech and Slovak teams will play in separate competitions. Slavia Praha (43pts) is after a victory over Brno 3:0 definitely the second and next year will play for Czech Republic in the UEFA Cup. The third Slovan Bratislava (41 pts) beat Dukla Praha 6:1 and in UEFA Cup will represent the Slovak Republic. The last is now Trnava (16 pts) after defeat with Ceske Budejovice 0:5. FROM THE HISTORY OF CZECHOSLOVAK SPORT Winter sports and sport peripheries Skiing and figue-skating are after hockey the most popular winter sports. The popularity of skiing even exceeds the succesfullness of most of our representatives in this sport, and thus our spectators are in slalom and down hill run forced to watch transmission from international competitions.The discipline that has always ranked our country on the world top is sky jumping. Our representatives carried off not only a winner title of the prestige Intersport tournament, but also medals from World Championate and Olympic games. The most legendary was our jumper Raska. Recent heroes were mainly the phenomenal Pavel Ploc, or young Jez and Sakal. The Czech Republic has good conditions for this sport, mainly in the Krkonose mountains there are several quality jumps, so the only troubles are with finances (as in all sports) or with a lack of snow. Also our ski runners can be proud of successes at the Olympic Games, we became a world power in tobogganing, too. This year's World Mastery of Figure Skating in Prague only confirmed the popularity of this sport in our country. Though we do not have figure skating personalities at the present, names like Nepela, Vrzanova, Divin, Roman or Maskova are the history of this sport. The fact that we did not include certain sports in this short series does not mean that they do not have their fans in here. Yet the other disciplines could be described as a certain sport periphery surrounding the world of several "big" sports. These sports usually do not have crowds of fans and succeses occur only when some talented sportsman appears. Such were for example brothers Jan and Jindrich Pospisil who won twenty world master titles in bycicle polo, rock-climber Jozef Rakoncaj who captured 8000 metres nine times,or our drivers who succesfully participated in rallye Paris - Dakar. We will keep you informed about similar extraordinary performances in our Sport section. WEATHER Weather did not change much, temperatures keep around usual 7-12 degrees in night and 20-25 degrees in day. The sun rises at 4.56 and sets at 21.00. The ozone layer above the Czech Republic is decreased by 10 percent ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Send them please to the address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs To subscribe to CAROLINA you send an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@CSEARN.BITNET. The text of the message is: SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name for the English version or SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name for the Czech version. To delete your subscription from the list you send the following message to LISTSERV@CSEARN.BITNET: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS Please, don't send automatic replies to our list. 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