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MagazineMagazine
The garage looks great, but where’s the door? A Czech mountaineer climbs
Mount. Kilimanjaro wearing replicas of the shoes used by Otzi the Iceman,
and a five year old crashes the family car on an early morning joyride.
Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
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From the ArchivesCzechoslovakia’s Second Republic: a vain attempt to put the piecestogether
The six months leading up to the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia
in March 1939 were a strange period. After Germany, Poland and Hungary had
annexed over a quarter of the country’s territory as a result of the
Munich Agreement in September 1938, it was hard to see how the rump
Czechoslovakia – the so-called “Second Republic” - could keep going.
But Radio Prague’s shortwave broadcasts continued, and not surprisingly
they focused on sustaining the much shaken international confidence in the
country. Here is the famous Czech professor and scholar of English
literature, Otakar Vočadlo, talking in November 1938. More
Current AffairsSmoothing the way for compulsory purchase of land
On Thursday Parliament approved -in its first reading - a bill which would
smooth the way for compulsory purchase of land and property from private
owners for projects in the public interest, such as the construction of
roads and railways. Although this is an accepted practice in most
countries and has been going on for years in the Czech Republic under
existing legislation, the bill met with opposition from the right wing
Civic Democratic Party.
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Business NewsBusiness briefs
Some 25 companies announce intentions to opt for 'squeeze out' buy of
minority shareholder stakes; Hotels, language schools exempted from 19pct
VAT; MPs look to prevent supermarkets from 'dumping' sales items; Finance
Minister Bohuslav Sobotka submits 2006 budget... acknowledges failure to
meet 19 of the EU 'convergence' targets; CzechInvest mid-year report: 70
deals worth 25bn mediated by the agency
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Current AffairsWhy do most Czechs regard early 90s voucher privatisation as unfair?
The Czech president Vaclav Klaus has just signed a new law making it easier
for majority owners of companies to acquire the shares of small
shareholders. Ironically Mr Klaus himself is the reason why the Czech
Republic has such a large number of small shareholders in the first place.
In the early 1990s, when still finance minister, it was Mr Klaus who
introduced an unprecedented voucher privatization scheme. Thousands of
companies were privatised after four decades of communism, by virtually
giving away shares to citizens. At the time the scheme seemed to many like
a dream come true, but today many Czechs feel cheated and say the process
was grossly misused. Ian Willoughby asked to the Czech financial analyst
Jan Schiesser about the scheme and its legacy.
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Current AffairsNew book highlights lack of transparency during 1990s' privatisation process
Anyone living in the Czech Republic in the 1990s will remember how the
business world seemed to reel from one financial scandal to another, as
the country grappled with the difficult process of post-communist
privatisation. Now, a new study has been released, which looks at some of
the successes and failures of this turbulent period in Czech history.
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Current AffairsPolice charge Kozeny and Vostry with fraud
Ask any Czech today who Viktor Kozeny is and the answer would probably not
be suitable for children. There is no doubt that there is nothing many
Czechs would like more than to see Mr Kozeny behind bars, forever. He has
been accused of abusing the so-called coupon privatisation after the fall
of Communism through which he absconded with billions of Czech crowns
belonging to thousands of small shareholders. On Monday, the Czech police
finally decided to take action, giving those affected fresh hope that the
man responsible for their losses will soon be brought to justice.
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