On The Streets of Prague

Not even a petition, where loyal customers subscribe they really do want to keep the kiosks there, won’t prevent the Prague Town Council from closing them. The kiosks should have been gone on 1st July, at the present moment they are still there, but that is not going to last long. From the present 26 there should be only a few left, only now it is not clear when.

There is also a lot of people, who welcome the proposal of closing the kiosks with a relieve. They say the kiosks attracted, together with tourists, a weird sort of people who were getting drunk there. The owner still keeps protesting, he doesn’t like the idea he should take the kiosks away, when he recently bought new ones.

The council of the capital city of Prague have agreed on a bill, banning drinking of alcohol on chosen public spaces. The deputy of the Prague Mayor Rudolf Blazek stated the locals complain about being annoyed or offended by drunks, that seek some typical places on everyday basis. When he talked to deputies of Prague parts, he reportedly even needed to calm their efforts to ban it almost everywhere.

When reading the list of ‘no drinking’ zones, I could nor resist the feeling the law is mainly intended as a tool to repellent homeless and other individuals from places of their hang-out. Typical is the Narodni Trida square just behind Tesco, also the Wenceslas Square would need to get rid of some drunks. The space in front of the Main Train Station is notorious. What surprises is the Kampa park, which was somehow the park where even ‘mainstream’ locals go to have their drink in, because the location is so pro-tourist and expensive one has to travel a few tram stations before he/she can afford a beer.

If the bill will be passed, it will definitely bring changes, significant changes to the face of the streets. Hopefully, it won’t turn into a tool for police bullying, but sustains its original purpose – to bring the locals revelation from the mess.

Olympic Day was held for the first time in June 1948 with a total of 9 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) hosting ceremonies in their respective countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In an effort to encourage all NOCs to commemorate and celebrate Olympic Day, the IOC Sport for All Commission launched the Olympic Day Run concept with the objective of promoting the practice of participation in sport by men, women and children from all corners of the world and all walks of life, regardless of athletic ability. The first Olympic Day Run was held in 1987, over a distance of 10km, with 45 participating NOCs.

Over the last 17 years, the Olympic Day Run has developed into the only worldwide celebration of the Olympic Day, and helps to spread the Olympic ideals to every corner of the world.

25th June 2008, in 15 Czech and Moravian cities the traditional Olympic Day Run takes place.

Those cities are Brno, České Budějovice, Hodonín, Chrudim, Jilemnice, Liberec, Lomnice nad Popelkou, Mladá Boleslav, Most, Ostrava, Praha, Stříbro, Turnov, Vrchlabí and Zlín.

“It is not merely a run for health or win. We want to remind to the participants the idea of Olympism and fair-play fight” The Olympian Imrich Bugár, director of the race, says.

The Czech Olympic Committee is among the organizers from the first year. Those are public races, in categories from pupils to veterans. To participate is for free, the participants do not pay any charges.

Event: Prague , 25th June 2008
09:00 : youth – the area of Troja slalom canal
17:00 : the main 10 km race – adults at Strahov, area among stadiums of Rosickeho and treningovy.

The noise at Old town Square can be heard at Charles Bridge. 12 thousand fans gathered at the Square in front of the biggest Euro football television so far, drunk hectolitres of beer, and when the 71 minute brought the winning shot, the whole crowd shouted “goal” at the whole Old Town. Some of the fans dance in a way, you would expect to dance savages around fire.

The organizer of the event, Taiko company, who takes care of the ‘football festivities’ promises, there will be a second television, in the case Czechs will advance. If that happens is a question, because even when we have won the first game, the show wasn’t very convincing, except for Petr Cech, who didn’t let anything behind his back. The other chance our players get is 11th of June against Portugal at 18:00, and 15th of June against Turkey at 20:45.

So anyone who wants to support Czechs at the Old Town Square, has a chance. Of course there will be, like yesterday, hectolitres of beer and quintals of sausages.

The tower started to broadcast seventeen years ago, and at the time its futuristic design and 216 metres of height raised much dispute. Now, when it is newly and nicely illuminated, with the inherent babies crawling up by the artist Cerny, the tower belongs to positive dominants of Prague.

After the years of service, an upgrade became necessary, as the Czech Republic broadcasting is now in digital quality. And the action itself will be something that could fit into Hollywood blockbuster, as the new tip of the tower will be brought on the spot by the Russian helicopter Ka-32, which has two machines and can carry 12 700 kg.

The flying derrick is to replace the antenna during September 2008. During that time, there may be no-entry zone around the whole Zizkov tower zone because of obvious security reasons.

Caricatures of the Islamic prophet Mohamed appeared in the area of Florenc and Cerny Most, where are mosques of Prague Muslims. One of the posters is the famous Danish caricature of Mohamed with a bomb instead of a turban, on the another he is labelled a pedophile.

The posters link to web pages, where the authors present their concern with freedom of speech, and adverting to increasing numbers of extremists among Islamists. The photocopied posters are accompanied by slogans like: “Maybe provocative, but freedom of speech is worth of it”

A similar action took place in Brno last year – somebody put stickers with Mohamed on public places. Muslims of Brno disapproved of the action, however they decided not to take legal proceedings.

At more than sixty places in the metropolis, the traffic needed to be stopped, because of the 14th annual year of Prague International Marathon. There were five thousands participants of the Marathon run and related events.

In various, also joke competitions the people could obtain tickets to Skybar, hanging from one crane. From there, they could watch the races, for example the in-line, 6,5 or 3 km race. There was also a small Brazilian carnival with samba and dancers.

Some contestants didn’t prepare for such a hot day, some needed to be taken care of by the prepared medical teams. In the emergency truck at the Old Town Square they welcomed 26 of them, dehydrated and exhausted.

The Extreme right-wing booked Jiriho z Podebrad Square. About six hundred members and fans of the Delnicka strana (Worker’s party) and Narodni odpor (National resistance). Their speeches dealt mostly with critique of the government because of its reforms, but they also criticised origin of Karel Schwarzenberg and Dzamila Stehlikova. They also directed some critique to Israel.

A part of the right-wing extremists came in black masks and hoods, carrying black flags or paper shields with the Delnicka strana sign. Their banners had signs like: No multi-culti, Wake up, Europe! Or Nationalism instead of globalism.

The Nationalists were cleaning toys off the steps in front of the church at Jiriho z Podebrad, which were left by Young Social Democrats at their morning meeting, organized with the motto: More toys for deprived Neo-nazis. They wanted the right-wing extremists to know, that it will be better, if ‘they will play with something less dangerous than are baseball bats.

Prague was full of radicals of various motions, however the day passed without conflicts among groups. A few thousand people came to Prague, the biggest crowd came to support the communists and the right-wing extremists. The opposers in ideas have however avoided each other, so there was no need of a police strike. Five thousands of police officers didn’t have to arrest anyone, except for one neo-nazi, with racist signs on his clothes.

The biggest gathering, the one of the communists on Letna, combined political and entertaining programme. The entrance to their meeting point was guarded by the Nationalists, who prepared a ‘corridor of shame’ for them, distributing materials and decorating the entrance with information, that communism and Bolshevism killed more people than Nazism. Large group of Nacionalists demonstrated on Jiriho z Podebrad Square

About 150 anarchists gathered at Strelecky Ostrov, to demonstrate ‘the present government is spying on us and prohibits various ideas’.

Among the most expected gatherings announced to be that day is the neo-nazi gathering ‘corridor of shame’ prepared to humiliate the communists, who are going to come to their traditional communist meeting at the Prague Exhibition Ground.

Another very closely watched event is the gathering of ‘left-wing supporters’ at Namesti Miru in Prague 2. The participants than get on their way to the Svatopluk Cech Sady.

More extreme left-wingers are planning to get together at Strelecky Ostrov, There should be approximately 150 of them, they are going on parade, heading to Namesti Miru Square. Than they will probably move to Cisarska louka, where is planned a festival against racism.

There is something in the air. Something will happen. Do the City Hall expect clashes? We are going to inform you about the events.

Four groups of the town-council officers will be in the streets assisted by the police, ready to disband demonstrations prepared for the day, at the first violence shown. 56 events were reported to take place, but there will be probably less of them, as e.g. only the Jewish community have registered 20 gatherings.

Two from the registered gatherings were forbidden already. Those were gatherings of right-wing extremists of the National Party, who wanted to demonstrate ‘National Power’ The deputy of the Mayor Rudolf Blazek informed they intended to appeal for limitation of human rights according to race, political or religious beliefs.

Rocker Lenny Kravitz unexpectedly concerted in the centre of Prague close to Rudolfinum. He sung to flamed out fans on an improvised stage. The surroundings of the stage were however closely watched by a security agency and everything closely shoot by cameras.

That was why Kravitz came in the first place – to shoot an advertisement for a clothing company. The New-York singer and musician Lenny Kravitz appeared in Prague just for two days. He was accommodated in Four Seasons hotel, and his clothes ad has Rudolfinum as a background.

The 1st May is probably going to be quite interesting; The Nacionalist National Party, well known for their extreme stances and provocations, like the neo-nazi marches, prespres another action. The date and setting is well planned; they plan it as a counter-action for the Communist party, at the very same place.

1st May is known as the date, when during Cummunism most of people were expected to defile with lampions to demonstrate their love for the red party. Now it only attratct the communist core, who mostly come to recall the old days at the Prague Exhibition Ground.

The Nacionalists (generally assumed to be neo-nazis) prepared a surprise – they plan to form a ‘corridor of shame’ for those who plan to come to the communist meeting – who wants to come in, has to go throught the corridor.

About 300 fans of techno gathered on Saturday on a techno parade which motto was Legalize Squatting. The parade went from Paladskeho namesti to Albertov. The crowd with techno-system-vans was accompanied with police officers from the front and back, however there was no action taken as the crowd’s intentions were mostly based on having fun.

According to the organizers, squats in empty houses in the CR and in Germany are being violently cleared by the police, only to be let empty before fall down. They have the opinion those can be used for realization of culture projects.

10th November 2007. The day will be remembered as the Cristalnight anniversary with very violent course. The capital city of Prague had gone through the biggest police maneuvers in the past seven years, since the IMF meeting in 2000. The fighting groups were neo-nazis, anarchists and the police.

The right-wing radicals originally wanted to march thought the Old town Jewish town. However the synagogue was reached by just a few of them, as they were scattered by police forces. In the moment they were in smaller groups, they found themselves encircled by the police and ‘secured’. Confiscated weapons include clubs, knives and tear gas pistols.

There were few street fights, usually of small groups. Concerning the speaker of the Czech neo-nazis, Petr Kalinovsky, one would say he got what he deserved, as he was attacked at a site close to Rudolfinum and even when he fired two times at the (anarchist?) attackers by his tear gas gun, and he was beaten black and blue.

You can watch the news footage here:

Concerning Czech Political representation, the demonstration on support of the biggest Tibetan revolt against China oppression of the past 20 years, the only who found their time and came were Martin Bursik, the leader of Green Party, and Katerina Jacques, cloaked in Tibetan Flag. At the end, even Vaclav Havel appeared, not to stay silent.

To stay in warmth of their offices and demonstrate from there decided Mirek Topolanek, who anyway spoke for the whole government and expressed “great alarm” they feel about events in China provinces.

Only a fraction of us can imagine, how bad the situation in Tibet really is, the more is necessary to show some support. The situation is desperate, and there is no hope for success – isn’t it a good reason to raise and come? Come. Come in front of the China Embassy, Pelleova 18, Praha 6, this Wednesday, 19th March 2008.

About two hundreds protestants came to Prague to demonstrate against Independent Kosovo declaration, and to support Serbia. On the action, which was called in by an extremist organization ‘Autonomous Nationalists Middle Bohemia’, went without fights, police didn’t have to step in.

The afternoon demonstration took place in Prague, Paladskeho namesti, the Czech Hyde Park, and continued to Kinsky Square. Demonstrants carried flags and chanted “Kosovo is Serbia”.

It was also possible to hear anti-american slogans, and the participants also, among others, applauded the Serbia radicals, who set the American embassy in Belgrade on fire.

Czech diplomacy still haven’t acknowledged Kosovo independence, the Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg stated it will happen when ‘the time will come’.

The main part of Bohemian Carnivale took place this weekend. Among few hundreds of participants stood out original masks from Sardinia, but the actors on stilts stood out even higher.

What else was possible to see? Masks, clowns, jugglers, allegorical baby-carriages, drummers and motorbikes. Hundreds of people walked with the parade, or stopped at the Old Town Square and watched the fun.

The theme of this second year of Bohemian Carnivale is metamorphosis and everything connected to it. People change, or morph, into something they want.

The smell of burning sausages is not going to disappear from Prague Wenceslas Square before long. Wenceslas Square it is going to undergo reconstruction, there should have been some reductions of kiosks standing there, offering bradwursts, burgers, beer, and shots. Rudolf Blazek from the ODS informed those stances do not belong there, and attract ‘troublesome individuals’.

The opposite side in this ‘Battle of Sausages’ is formed by the owner of those kiosks “There has never been any complain on the individuals buying things there”, some historians “There were kiosks with bradwursts during Austria-Hungary” and almost 9000 (!) people who signed the petition the kiosks should stay there.

As in the case of the last march, the right-wing extremists organized in Prague, most of foreign support was hold out of the Republic. The expected German support in the end counted just a few heads, and they arrived to Prague. Prague Paladskeho Square, which is a Prague ‘Hyde Park’, so became the host place for the neo-nazi once more.

As the Pilsen Mayor Pavel Rodr forbid the march in Pilsen, the right-wing radicals moved the place of their march to Prague, and those who stayed in Pilsen faced much dismay of the locals, especially those of Jewish origin, but also left-thinking groups, who organized even an open air concert of punk groups. Few dozens of neo-nazi, facing huge numbers of police, ended their attempts to demonstrate ‘for the freedom of speech’ and moved into a pub. 3 neo-nazis from Poland were taken into custody for heiling, which took place at half past eleven am already.

Prague meeting at Paladskeho square attracted about 150 neo-nazi. They had their heads talking about ‘the oppression in which those who tell the truth live’ or about ‘how many foreigners sell drugs to our kids right now’ than they all shouted ‘Protest! Protest!’ The whole action took place without fights, as the police managed the crowd quite professionally. There were also many of ‘civilians’ who came to control the radicals, and many from the press. Four demonstrates were taken into custody, two for identification and two because of weapons they had (a boxer and a nunchuck)