Magazine

Photo: www.bild.de One of the most notorious photographs symbolizing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe relates to the German exodus via the Czech Republic. It shows a man half-way up the fence of the West-German embassy in Prague desperately trying to climb over to safety as a Czechoslovak policeman tries to pull him back down. The man who eventually scrambled to safety was Michael Fleishman and this summer Mr. Fleishman expressed the wish to meet with the officer in question – shake hands with him – and ask how he feels about the incident 20 years after. Finding him was not an easy task but with the help of the Prague Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes journalists from the internet news site aktualne.cz managed to trace the man – allegedly he is now 47 and still works in the police force. However, to Mr. Fleishman’s disappointment he has no interest in meeting with him. Michael Fleishman says he understands and accepts that decision adding “I had no intention of making him feel bad. We were both affected by the same kind of regime. He was just doing his job.”

A secondary school graduate from the Czech Republic has got herself into big trouble for a rather original school-leaving tableau that she made. Instead of just using a group photo the girl scanned 200 crown banknotes replacing the picture of Jan Amos Komenský – the teacher of nations – with pictures of her classmates. She made several doyen banknotes and scattered them around the school building just for fun. To her surprise passers-by not only collected the notes but used them in nearby shops where most unexpectedly salespeople failed to recognize them as fakes. The girl is now accused of producing counterfeit cash and is doing her best to convince the police that it was all just a joke.

Photo: CTK Most people are packing away their bathing suits, but members of the Czech club of hardy men and women are looking forward to a season of winter swimming. Over 160 swimmers from the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Great Britain – the youngest just 8 years old, the oldest 96 – took a dip in one of the lakes of the Moravský Kras caves where the temperature of the water was just 9 degrees Celsius – lukewarm by their standards. The Czech club for hardy men and women has an 81 year tradition and it has organized autumn and winter swims since 1948. The most publicized are those that take place on the first day of the new year when members of the club swim in the freezing cold Vltava river.

Photo: David Povolný, www.muni.cz The Masaryk University in Brno has put together the country’s first blind football team – a game that is specific in that the football contains ball bearings so that it makes a noise when it moves and the crowd must remain silent, so the players can hear the ball. The team has nine enthusiastic players and lots of fans. Their only problem is they have no-one to play against in the Czech Republic. They recently attended a tournament in Great Britain and much to their chagrin found that rival teams were far more advanced because they had lots more practice. Now they are hoping that some other Czech university will set up a rival team to give them the needed boost.

Do cows have horns? Many people are unaware of the fact that not only bulls but also cows have horns. The horns of either sex may curve up, down or grow sideways. However it is a common practice in most European states to remove the horns of cows for fear that the animals would attack and bruise each other. The horns are usually burned off under local anesthetic using heat or a chemical as soon as they start to bud, not long after calves are born. Now a farm in Zvíkov, southern Bohemia has decided to break with this practice on the grounds of an international study that suggests cows with horns give higher quality milk that cows that have had them removed. The farm has said it would discontinue the practice and simply take precautions to avoid cows attacking and hurting each other. Other farms are disbelieving and say they are not ready to take the risk – bruised meat would pay less on the market – but it may be that the farmers in Zvíkov may establish a new trend and in a few more years even kids will be able to tell you that yes, of course cows have horns.

Photo: www.dobryden.cz The town of Pelhřimov has a new attraction – a statue made entirely of sugar, the work of a Czech art student which has been placed out in the open. Student Jan Trejbal says it was his intention to create an art piece that would undergo a series of transformations before disappearing altogether. The statue is over 70 centimeters tall and weighs just over 50 kilos. Very few of the visitors who come to see it, see the same thing as the statue gradually melts with every rain shower. It is expected to remain there – in one form or another – for a number of weeks, possibly months, depending on the weather.