Last week 11/08

Windstorm Emma passed through the Czech Republic. Trials of a possible cancer treatment began at six domestic clinics. The media reported that Dmitry Medvedev had been elected Russia's next president. „The Czech Republic will not be an exception, and it will be affected by the crisis; however, I anticipate that the impact won't be deep and will be manageable,“ said Thomas Laursen, World Bank chief economist for Central Europe, regarding a report that the global crisis has crossed the ocean and is heading towards the Czech borders. Newly elected Czech President Václav Klaus chose New York as the destination of his first trip abroad, where he attended a conference organized by the Heartland Institute NGO, which, under the motto „From Climate Alarmism to Climate Realism,“ called on the world to fight against „climatic change bugaboo.“ The One World film festival began in Prague. Detectives began investigating why a broken branch fell from a tree in Líbeznice, during Windstorm Emma, and killed an 11-year-old girl who was passing by. Tomáš Klvaňa ended his stint as Czech government coordinator for construction of the American radar base in Brdy and returned to his post at British American Tobacco. After an 18-year-long „tactical silence,“ the head of the Communist Party again referred to the February 1948 putsch by which the Communists usurped power for the next 40 years and unleashed a reign of terror. „Nobody is calling us murderers now, but what were we to do? The Communists had weapons and they couldn't have expected us to throw dumplings at them,“ Milan Paumer, a member of the Mašín brothers' legendary anti-Communist resistance group, told reporters; during the era of red terror in this country, the group took up arms against the Bolsheviks and killed six members or helpers of the totalitarian regime; Paumer now - like the Mašín brothers not long ago - was honored for his heroism by Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. „Learn from your elders before they pass away,“ Hospodářské noviny advised the Czech public in the newspaper's „Career“ section. The City of Prague sent ticket inspectors to catch parliamentary deputies and senators who ride for free on public transport and give them stiff on-the-spot fines.

„It's the same as it is with castles and chateaus - the red cow is also a product of our ancestors, and must enjoy the same protection,“ said Václav Řehout, a University of South Bohemia (Jihočeská univerzita) professor, explaining why the state must protect a special breed of cow, the Czech red cow (Červinka), as „cultural-historical heritage“; today, there are just 109 such cows in domestic dairy farms and large-scale breeding operations. News agencies reported of China's growing fear of the international community. Ivan Martin Jirous commemorated the 144th anniversary of the birth of Antonín Sova by reading his poems at the Pacov museum. The government approved a bill enabling private companies to measure driver's speeds in villages. Joska Skalník's collages were exhibited in Prague. A Nymburk woman who had been convicted of producing intoxicating substances by lower courts was declared „not guilty“ by the Supreme Court; the woman had grown marijuana in her garden for medicinal purposes, and the Supreme Court ruled that growing cannabis for treatment could not be criminalized. The management of the Baumax chain announced it would open 30 stores in the Czech Republic and no more. „I'd like to suggest to the Czech government that it ask Brussels to classify coal as a renewable resource; for as far as I know, nowhere in any EU directive does it say how long renewable energy sources have to replenish themselves,“ Senator Václav Roubíček (Civic Democratic Party) wrote in the newspaper Lidové noviny. In a poll conducted by CVVM, three-fifths of all male respondents and four-fifths of all female respondents agreed that there are too few women in Czech politics and that that situation should change quickly. A statue of Colonel Josef Jiří Švec, a celebrated member of World War I's Russian-based Czechoslovak Legions, was erected in Třebíč. A Prague doctor who convinced healthy patients that they had cancer and then „miraculously cured“ them of the deadly disease for 30,000 crowns was charged with fraud. As a result of protests from residents and elected officials, Wind Energy Systems abandoned plans to build a wind farm in Tasovice. The Dejvické divadlo theatre staged Miroslav Krobot's Idiot. „I didn't spit - I was shouting at my opponent and the saliva flew out spontaneously,“ said Czech footballer Jan Koller, responding to an accusation by the German football association's disciplinary commission that he spat at a Hannover player while playing for Nürnberg.