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Copyright (c) 2009 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Sunday, November 8th, 2009
By: Ian Willoughby
* Confusion surrounds the selection of the Czech Republic's nominee for
a place on the next European Commission.
* A strike by workers at the Prague transport authority planned for
Tuesday looks likely to be averted.
* Javelin star Barbora Spotakova has been named Czech Athlete of the
Year for the third time in a row.
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Confusion over selection of Czech nominee for Euro commissioner's post
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Confusion surrounds the selection of the Czech Republic's nominee for a
place on the next European Commission. On Sunday the caretaker prime
minister, Jan Fischer, said that the governor of the Czech National
Bank, Zdenek Tuma, was the choice of the government and the country's
two biggest parties, the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats. Mr
Fischer said he had told them last Monday that Mr Tuma would be his
choice - if they themselves could not agree on a joint candidate. But
the leader of the Civic Democrats, Mirek Topolanek, said the party
would not back the central bank head for the commissioner's post. Mr
Topolanek and Social Democrats chairman Jiri Paroubek are set for talks
with the prime minister on Sunday evening.
The Civic Democrats and Social Democrats had evidently agreed that Mr
Fischer himself should be the Czech candidate. However, the prime
minister rejected that possibility, saying he would continue to lead
the government until elections next year. Mr Topolanek then accused Mr
Fischer of making a complete u-turn, after previously showing interest
in the job.
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Klaus glad Fischer uninterested in commissioner's post
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Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Vaclav Klaus said on Sunday that the
Czech president was very glad that the prime minister was not
interested in going to Brussels. The president thinks Mr Fischer's
government should keep running the country until elections next year,
the spokesperson said.
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Prague now unlikely to see transport strike on Tuesday
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A strike by workers at the Prague transport authority provisionally
planned for Tuesday looks likely to be averted. Union leaders said that
the city's branch of the Civic Democrats were electing a new leadership
on Tuesday and a strike could influence voting. The workers say they
will not accept a mooted pay cut of seven percent. The Civic Democrat
mayor of Prague, Pavel Bem, said on Sunday that city hall would provide
the struggling transport authority without 900 million crowns in
reserves in order to help it overcome its dire financial situation. Mr
Bem has set up a crisis committee to help deal with the problems at the
company; however, union leaders said they found unacceptable the
make-up of the committee, which features executives who they say helped
bring about the company's current problems.
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Boy seriously injured after being bitten by family Rottweiler
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A six-year-old boy was left very seriously injured after being attacked
by two Rottweiler dog in the town of Racice nad Trotinou in east
Bohemia on Sunday. At least one of the animals bit the boy badly on his
head and body, the CTK news agency reported. The dogs are believed to
have belonged to his family. The boy is fighting for his life in a
hospital in Hradec Kralove after being taken there by helicopter.
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Posters of Velvet Revolution remembered in new book
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A new book has been published about the posters which accompanied the
fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. Entitled Posters of the
Velvet Revolution, it collects various posters that appeared in the
country's towns and cities during that period, for instance calling for
the removal of the communist government or for a general strike at the
end of November that year. The authors, many of whom were university
students, are mostly unknown. The book features texts in both Czech and
English.
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Spotakova named Czech Athlete of Year for third time in succession
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Barbora Spotakova has been named Czech Athlete of the Year for the
third time in a row. Spotakova holds the women's world record in the
javelin and is the reigning Olympic champion. This year she took silver
at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, becoming the only
member of the Czech team to take home a medal. Hurdler Petr Svoboda
came second in the annual poll, while high-jumper Jaroslav Baba was in
third place. Barbora Spotakova's coach Rudolf Cerny was named trainer
of the year at Saturday night's award ceremony in the Czech capital.
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Czech hockey players lose all three games in Karjala Cup
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The Czech Republic's ice hockey players lost all three of their games
at this year's Karjala Cup in Helsinki. On Sunday the Czechs were
beaten 4:3 in overtime by tournament winners Russia, despite having
gone 2:0 up through Jan Bulis and Pavel Brendl. They had previously
lost 4:3 to Sweden and 2:1 to hosts Finland.
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Teplice go three points clear in top-of-table clash
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Teplice extended their lead at the top of the Czech football league on
Saturday, with a 1:0 home win over second-placed Jablonec. Teplice are
now three points in front of their nearest rivals, with 14 of the
league's 30 rounds played. The only goal of the game was rather
curious; the ball bounced off the cross-bar and went in after hitting
the fit of the Jablonec goalkeeper.
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Weather
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We can expect some bright spells over the next few days, though there
will also be some rain. Temperatures will reach up to 8 degrees Celsius.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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Letter from Prague
Czechs: a nation of cauliflower eaters
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When you ask foreigners living in the Czech Republic how they perceive
Czechs and whether there are any typically Czech qualities, they
usually avoid answering the question, saying they don't want to
generalize. However, after spending nearly two years in an office with
three Brits, I couldn't fail to notice some of their remarks. Talking
about Czech stereotypes may be a dangerous thing if you are a
foreigner, but as a Czech, I feel I have the right to do so.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/121946
Mailbox
Mailbox 11.8.2009
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This week in Mailbox: problems with downloading sound from Radio
Prague's website, US President Barack Obama congratulating the Czechs
on 91 years of statehood, Czech scientist Frantisek Behounek, reactions
to proposed budget cuts. Listeners quoted: Colin Law, Jaroslav B.
Tusek, Karl Strauss, Lenfant Lee, Ian Morrison, Atsuhisa Kageyama.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/121945
Czech Books
Ivan Klima: a sceptic in the era of entertainment culture
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The 78-year-old novelist, Ivan Klima, is one of the best known and most
widely translated of all Czech writers, with novels like "Love and
Garbage", "Judge on Trial" or "No Saints or Angels" acclaimed
worldwide. Nearly all Klima's work focuses on human relationships, in
particular between men and women, but at the same time he offers far
broader insights into modern Czech society. In a recent interview for
Radio Prague Klima spoke about his latest book "My Crazy Century" in
which he looks back at the first half of his life including his years
in a Nazi concentration camp and his later flirtation with communism.
But when I went to see Ivan Klima last week at his house in a leafy
suburb of Prague, it was to talk about the more recent past. I was
interested in how he perceives the years since the fall of communism.
The Velvet Revolution came suddenly, but did it take Ivan Klima by
surprise?
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/121943
VELVET AT THE FILM SCHOOL
Monday, November 9, 2009 at 18:30 - FAMU, Smetanovo nabrezi 2,
Praha 1,
Room 1.
Admission free.
Radio Prague and FAMU - Prague's celebrated film school - invite
you to a discussion in English with some of those who were at the
heart of the Velvet Revolution, to examine the legacy of the
revolution 20 years on.
The film school was one of the focal points of the dramatic
events of November 1989, so it makes an apt backdrop for a
discussion with some of those who played a central role in those
events. Guests include Vaclav Bartuska, who was the first person
to be given access to the secret police files after the fall of
communism, and Jiri Stransky, who survived years in the Stalinist
gulags. The dean of FAMU, Pavel Jech will also take part, along
with student activists from the time of the revolution. And
we'll be asking representatives of today's student generation
whether student activism is still alive and well in the Czech
Republic.
Space is limited, so do try to arrive early.
The entire discussion will later be made available in audio on
Radio Prague's website (www.radio.cz), and highlights will be
broadcast by Radio Prague on November 17, exactly 20 years after
Czechoslovakia's revolution broke out.
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