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 STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA Faculty of Social Science of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic e-mail: CAROLINA@cuni.cz tel: (+42 2) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+42 2) 24810987 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 146, Friday, February 3, 1995. EVENTS FOR THE WEEK OF JAN. 25-FEB. 1 Vaclav Havel in Auschwitz Czech President Vaclav Havel visited Auschwitz last week to take part in a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis' largest concentration camp from World War II. Havel joined other statesmen to honor the memory of approximately 1.5 prisoners, most of them Jews, killed in the Auschwitz-Brzezinka complex in southern Poland. Also present for the ceremony were many of the prisoners who survived the terror of the death camp. Martina Krizkova/Martina Vojtechovska Czechs May Join European Union by Year 2000 The Czech Republic could become a member of the European Union by the end of the century, EU Chairman Jacques Santer told Czech Television on Saturday at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In a discussion on the topic of "Forming Europe", Czech Premier Vaclav Klaus said that Europe was defined as much by the goals it sets for itself as by its geography and institutions. Also, in talks with German President Roman Herzog, Klaus and Herzog agreed that it was necessary for the Germans and the Czechs to work on their relations with one another. The Czech premier also took part in a closed meeting of leading politicians and businesspeople (IGWEL), held in Davos in conjunction with the WEF, to discuss the role of short-term capital. In a speech delivered on Monday to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Klaus compared the transformation of Communist societies into free societies to the development of European integration. As of Feb. 1 the Czech Republic is an official associate member of the European Union. Martina Krizkova/Martina Vojtechovska Tomas Jezek Leaves Civic Democratic Alliance Tomas Jezek, co-author of the Czech privatization scenario and former Czech privatization minister, resigned on Friday, Jan. 27, from the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA), the party he helped found in November 1989. Jezek, who served as chairman of the National Property Fund until last June (see Carolina no. 123 for details of his resignation) and is currently head of Czech Parliament's Budget Committee, said he was leaving the party because of accusations made against the Security Information Service (BIS) by ODA Chairman and Deputy Premier Jan Kalvoda. (Kalvoda has charged the BIS with spying on Czech political parties, see Carolina nos. 144, 145.) According to Jezek, the charges levied by Kalvoda were a poor attempt to divert attention away from ODA's efforts to eliminate a debt of 50 million Kc with the Credit and Industrial Bank. Said Jezek in Monday's edition of Mlada fronta Dnes: "It disturbs me that not a single person on the ODA political council was able to recognize that the behavior of Jan Kalvoda is crudely damaging the reputation of the republic, more crudely than anything else since November 1989." The newspaper also quoted Jezek as telling Nova TV that this was not the first time he had felt isolated in important decisions made by the ODA leadership and as a result he decided to leave the party. On Thursday, Feb. 2, Jezek asked the parliamentary club of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) for permission to join its ranks. Lida Truneckova/Martina Vojtechovska Kalvoda Met With Head of Social Democrats in Secret Last Fall Jan Kalvoda, deputy premier and chairman of the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA), a member of the Czech government coalition, met in secret last autumn with Milos Zeman, chairman of the Social Democrats (CSSD). The meeting took place in the apartment of Jaroslav Vlcek, who was head of the Green Party at the time. Zeman told the press that a listening device was found in the apartment after their meeting, but no bug has been found yet. The meeting between the two politicians was reported to have been purely for informational purposes. They discussed issues of state administration and the separation of retirement funds from the state budget, among other things, and the possibility of a coalition between their two parties did not come up. Vlcek said he called the police immediately after he discovered the listening device. But First Deputy Police President Jan Zatorsky told Nova TV that the only thing the police found in the apartment was technical problems with a poorly connected parallel phone line. Martina Krizkova/Martina Vojtechovska 1994 Record Year for Traffic Accidents There were 156,242 traffic accidents on the territory of the Czech Republic last year, approximately one every three minutes. A total of 1,473 people lost their lives in accidents, an average of four a day, while 6,232 people were injured seriously and 29,590 only slightly. According to Mlada fronta Dnes, which published this information on Wednesday, police officers blame the increased number of accidents on heavier traffic than in years past. The Czech Republic has one car for every 3.8 inhabitants, while in the capital of Prague one out of every two citizens owns an automobile. Lida Truneckova/Martina Vojtechovska ECONOMY/BUSINESS Government Abolishes Import Tax on Spuds The Czech government abolished the import tax on potatoes at its meeting of Wednesday, Jan. 25. This decision took effect the same day and will remain in effect until May 30 of this year. The government hopes this measure will in part solve the biggest problem currently facing homemakers, restaurateurs, food vendors and cafeterias: a shortage of potatoes on the Czech market which has driven up the price. A kilogram of potatoes now goes for 18 to 26 Kc, more than the cost of imported fruit such as oranges and bananas. Potatoes are a staple of the Czech diet. They are the most common side dish (served boiled, mashed, french fried or made into potato dumplings), they are also served as potato pancakes and in potato salad, and are used as the base for many vegetable soups. Today, however, they are becoming a luxury. Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder Prague Stock Market Takes Another Blow The last Tuesday in January went down in history as a black day on the Prague stock market as the official market index fell below the 500-point mark. Skeptical market analysts had been predicting the fall for the past several weeks. The market index is compiled from the stocks of the most important companies traded on the capital market. CEZ, which holds a monopoly on the Czech Republic's energy supply, is the largest company traded on the market. Falling prices of CEZ shares over the last several days were the main cause of Tuesday's devastating drop. Market analysts say the current market crisis will probably last until the stocks from the second wave of coupon privatization are introduced into the market. The crisis, they say, was most likely caused by the mass sale of quality stock by foreign investors, which were then bought up by Czechs. But since Czech investors do not have enough buying power to cause another radical change in prices, another price decrease is very likely, analysts said. Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder EXCHANGE RATES OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK (valid from 3 Feb.) CHECKS CASH country Buy Sell Middle Buy Sell Great Britain 1 GPB 43.397 43.833 43.615 42.20 45.04 France 1 FRF 5.211 5.263 5.237 5.04 5.44 Japan 100 JPY 27.522 27.798 27.660 26.36 28.96 Canada 1 CAD 19.544 19.740 19.642 18.75 20.53 Austria 1 ATS 2.567 2.593 2.580 2.52 2.64 Germany 1 DEM 18.065 18.247 18.156 17.70 18.62 Switzerland 1 CHF 21.365 21.579 21.472 20.97 21.97 USA 1 USD 27.428 27.704 27.566 26.87 28.27 Slovakia 1 XCU -- -- 34.281 -- -- CULTURE First Czech Film of 1995 Now Playing "Ucitel tance" ("The Dance Teacher"), a new Czech film produced in cooperation with Czech TV, opened in Czech theaters last week. The story takes place in a sanitorium, where former dance champion Richard Majer - played by Martin Dejdar, who received a Czech Lion, the equivalent of the American Oscar, for his performance in last year's rock musical "Sakali leta" ("Years of the Jackal") - comes to have his tuberculosis treated. Despite his debilitating illness, Majer tries to lift the spirits of his fellow patients with his sense of humor and dancing. This brings him into conflict with the chief doctor and head nurse, played brilliantly by Jana Hlavacova. Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder SPORTS Playoff Battles in Hockey Extra-League In the last issue of Carolina, we wrote that five teams (Vitkovice, Sparta Praha, Slavia Praha, Jihlava, and Pardubice) remained in the running for the playoffs. However, in the course of the last three rounds, everything has changed. First, both Jihlava and Pardubice lost their shot at the playoffs by failing to win any points. After the 36th round, the number of candidates hadn't changed, only the names, as Litvinov and Plzen replaced Jihlava and Pardubice. Currently the pool has narrowed to three: Vitkovice, Praha Slavia, and Sparta Praha, but there may yet be changes in the two rounds to come, prior to the Czech national squad's appearance in Sweden's Globe Cup. Round 35: Jihlava-Plzen 5:7, Slavia Praha-Ceske Budejovice 5:3, Pardubice-Vsetin 3:5, Zlin-Sparta Praha 2:5 Olomouc-Vitkovice 5:6, Litvinov-Kladno 1:2. Round 36: Kladno-Olomouc 5:1, Sparta Praha-Jihlava 3:0, Ceske Budejovice-Zlin 4:3, Vsetin-Slavia Praha 1:1, Plzen-Litvinov 1:3, Vitkovice-Pardubice 4:2. Round 37: Slavia Praha-Vitkovice 8:5, Litvinov-Sparta Praha 2:2, Pardubice-Kladno 3:3, Vsetin-Ceske Budejovice 6:3, Olomouc-Plzen 1:1, Jihlava-Zlin 2:4. Tomas Kopecny/Andrea Snyder WEATHER The Czech Republic, unlike the rest of western Europe, is not threatened by floods. Most rivers are exhibiting only first-degree flooding, the lowest level. So far the only rivers with second-degree activity are the Ohre and the Elbe. Martina Krizkova/Andrea Snyder ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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@cuni.cz To subscribe to CAROLINA news you send an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@earn.cvut.cz The text of message for subscription of the English version must be: SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name or for the Czech version SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name To delete your subscription from the list of subscribers you send the following message to the address LISTSERV@earn.cvut.cz: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS We ask you not to send automatic replies to our list. 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