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Hana has left the chamber. That was
the signal for the government to call a vote on its deficit-ridden
budget and this time it squeaked by 100-99. Hana Marvanová,
who had sunk the last vote in September, excused herself
long enough for the bill to pass and her conscience to remain
intact. The Social Democrats needed the win after coming
up way short in local elections. They didn't do so hot in
senate elections, either, but the upper chamber has become
a joke now that people like Vladimír ®elezný are winning
seats in it. He will be joined there by scruffy Martin Mejstrík,
a former student activist who campaigned as a former student
activist. He gave up his day job as a gardener because he
couldn't bear to stand by and let the world suffer anymore.
The poor showing by the Social Democrats had some of them
reconsidering their ban on working with Communists. But
that was before Communist leader Grebenícek got edgy during
the NATO summit in Prague and called Premier ©pidla a toady,
George Bush a moron and sent one of his deputies on a friendship
tour of Iraq. No word about who sent his other deputy to
the Castle to dine with officials of the alliance, however,
or what they ate. On the menu for the big state dinner was
crawdad, which was chosen to give the guests a taste of
Czech cuisine. More like medieval Czech cuisine. In any
event, when it was discovered that this particular crawdad
was an endangered species in this country, the Castle quickly
announced that it had been imported from France. And that
was about the biggest stir to come out of the summit. The
12,000 police and security forces that had been deployed
around the city were left wondering where all the anarchists
were. The dire predictions about the city coming under seige
came down to just a few tomatoes being tossed at secretary-general
Robertson. President Havel, who single-handedly brought
the summit to Prague, was noticeably unhappy with the tanks
parked in the streets. Here there were 18 presidents and
prime ministers coming to toast his career as a crusader
for freedom and the joint looks like a police state. He
needn't have worried, though. French President Chirac for
one gushed that "dear Václav" radiated "the
light of a humble and kind person with an iron will."
He talked about him being a dissident and the time he spent
in prison, perhaps not realizing that the last Communist
president of this country was also a dissident who spent
time in prison. He was also unaware, or simply didn't care,
about ominous signs of this country going back to the bad
old days, and with Havel's consent no less. One case involves
two men being tried for registering the internet domain
dagmarhavlova.cz and then filling its pages with porno.
Since the president's wife is named Dagmar Havlová, the
other star of the summit, the prosecutor is seeking to imprison
the men for up to two years for sullying her name. Most
legal analysts don't give the case much chance, which begs
the question as to why the president's office would file
charges in the first place. Because, the spokesman declared,
"a lot of criminal charges are filed every day in this
country." And that's that. Freedom of the press had
gotten a boost last month when the high court finally overturned
the verdict of Michal Zitko, who was convicted for publishing
Mein Kampf in Czech. Havel has shown a conspicuous lack
of sympathy for Zitko and so far hasn't shown any interest
in another case involving the recent conviction of a man
and his sister-in-law for libel. Theirs is all the more
disturbing because they received suspended prison sentences
for spreading a rumor that Libuąe ©afránková, the wide-eyed
waif in the Christmas classic Popelka (Cinderella), was
an alcoholic and that her actor-husband Josef Abrhám was
a bully. Although such cases are normally settled in civil
court, the government decided that criminal charges were
necessary to protect the honor and dignity of Cinderella.
The reason the government didn't prosecute the people who
actually put the rumor into print was because prosecutor
Zoya Bayerová couldn't be bothered. "We chose the path
of least resistance," she claimed. But such cases are
still small potatoes. What is important is that the world
loves Havel and because of that, the Czech Republic has
gathered more respect and attention than any of the other
post-communist countries. And as a symbol of this love,
the president has personally lit a gigantic heart that now
adorns the top of the Castle. It's a red Valentine's heart,
measuring 15 meters by 15 meters, which the artist, Jirí
David, calls Záre (Splendour). Splendid it certainly isn't
and jokes have already cropped up that the NATO delegations
invited to meet with Havel might be under the impression
they were on their way to a whorehouse. The artist himself
calls the heart profane, dull and pure kitsch. But, he added,
in its proper place, it displays an unmistakable character.
Exactly. Whorehouse.
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