Magazine

Kateřina Klasnová (Public Affairs) in the calendar, photo: Ondřej Pýcha After years of debates about why there are so few women in Czech politics, last weekend’s general elections saw a record 44 women elected into the 200 seat lower house. For the time being though, the media are focusing more on their looks than their brains. This is partly due to the stir caused by the attractive young women running for the Public Affairs party who posed for a sexy calendar and billboards where they appeared in bathing suits under the slogan “ forget about the boys, vote for the girls”. Many people did – for whatever reason - and the newly-elected women MPs say it is time to go to work. As one of them pointed out “I am not so good-looking, I can afford to be stupid”. However their hot election campaign photos are still selling papers and one weekly magazine has even asked its readers to elect Miss Parliament 2010.

Václav Havel Most teenage attempts at poetry remain locked up in private diaries – but things are different if you happen to be a famous dissident and playwright who is widely regarded as a moral authority. The former Czech president Václav Havel said he was mortified to have to read his own attempts at poetry –written at the tender age of 17 – to a Prague literary audience this week. Mr. Havel said he had rashly agreed to do so and as the deadline approached he had been increasingly horrified by the prospect. Having finished reading the first poem – the ex-president quipped that the audience would now understand why he had soon after stopped writing verses and turned to other literary genres instead.

Illustrative photo The persistent rain has ruined many an outdoor event in the past few weeks. The organizers of Balloons Jam 2010 were forced to cancel the event twice due to bad weather. When it finally did take place – and a dozen hot-air balloons ascended over Brno – their enjoyment was short-lived. Overcast skies and the threat of an imminent storm forced them to make an early landing with three balloons ending up stuck in a muddy field. The teams were forced to carry the filthy balloons several hundred meters to their cars. Not an experience they’ll want to repeat in a hurry.

Photo: CTK It’s also a sorry time for the annual sand festival in the town of Písek –or Sandville. Every year there’s a happening at which people build sand-castles and statues on the banks of the Otava river – creating an outdoor exhibition that lasts for several weeks. Many of the locals see it as a challenge and every year the statues get bigger and better. The authorities had 160 tons of sand deposited on the river banks this year and art students created some really amazing statues. Usually people come to admire them in the course of the summer but this year they are already beginning to look sad and droopy.

The town of Tábor is to get a Museum of Chocolate. Apart from documenting the history of chocolate-making the museum will have on show an extensive collection of chocolate wrappers- dating back as far as the 16th century, a march pane model of the town’s main square and will let visitors see chocolate-makers at work in two work-shops. Visitors will be able to sample different varieties of chocolate and children will be able to visit an interactive corner where fairytale characters make chocolate in a melting-pot and let them take part in the process.

The zoo in Dvůr Králové has opened a Safari camp on its premises promising visitors the closest they can get to the real experience in central Europe. The safari offers visitors the opportunity to spend the night or weekend in one of its African-style bungalows and watch the dusk settle on a herd of grazing giraffes, buffaloes or zebras. People can also pitch their own tents or spend the night in their own caravans. The camp has five bungalows, built and furnished in African-style, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi and bike rental. A night in one of the bungalows costs just over 2,000 crowns, if you bring your own tent you can spend the night for 600.

The police in Znojmo are investigating a miscarriage of justice in which two men were wrongly sentenced for a postal robbery – a crime which another, recently-arrested criminal has taken responsibility for. Close questioning revealed that the latter was indeed telling the truth, but in the meantime it has emerged that the two men who served time in prison for the robbery had in fact committed a different robbery elsewhere. Which they couldn’t use as an alibi.