MARCH 24, 1999

C U R R E N T   A F F A I R S

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With the first NATO air strikes only hours away, Czech President Vaclav Havel called upon his Yugoslav counterpart Slobodan Milosevic to agree unconditionally to the demands of the international community. According to Havel, Milosevic bears full responsibility for the impending attacks, as the Kosovo Albanians have already signed the peace agreement. He stated that the Yugoslav president should avoid further escalation of this conflict, as he has no chance of winning.

Foreign Minister Jan Kavan supported the alliance's decision for air strikes. He expressed his hope that they would encourage the Serbs to compromise...

"It is still possible to hope that after the first of these strikes on military targets that president Milosevic will reconsider the situation and return to the negotiating table, which we would of course welcome".

On Tuesday, the foreign affairs parliamentary committee, and its defense and security counterpart recommended to parliament that it approve a measure to send a field hospital and an unarmed transport plane to Macedonia to support NATO forces. According to Defense Minister Vladimir Vetchy, the military aims of the operation are to separate the two warring factions, prevent the renewal of hostilities, enable refugees to return home and thus prevent a humanitarian disaster.

The Czech Communist Party openly opposes these initiatives, and has so far unusccessfully tried to block them in parliament.

Lower house speaker and leader of the opposition Civic Democratic Party, Vaclav Klaus, spoke out against using military force in Yugoslavia on Tuesday, and stated he is still for resolving the situation by negotiations. He said, that all sides should continue their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. According to Klaus, air strikes will not solve anything...

"I am convinced that resolving a political problem with violence can never be beneficial or have a long-lasting effect, and this is especially true for the current conflict in Yugoslavia".

First of all, I'll stress that both of them are very strongly opposed to Temelin, regardless of the fact that so much has already been spent on its construction. Edward Smeloff, former director of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, now head of the energy project at New York's Pace University stresses the negative economic aspects of the South Bohemian nuclear power plant.

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Arnie Gunderson, a nuclear energy consultant, stresses the safety hazards connected with Temelin

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So much for two American experts speaking up against the construction of Temelin. They have been invited by Czech activists and are taking part in numerous discussions on the topic. Others are backing Temelin. There are arguments on both sides, and at this point 45 percent of the Czech population want to see Temelin finished, while 25 percent would like the project to be discontinued.

But this meeting will not be like the others as the World Bank will have to restrict its programme because Prague's festive halls are too expensive said CTK News Agency on Wednesday, which received this information from sources that did not want to be named. "The prices for the rent of sociable space in Prague by far exceeds all other price offers that the World Bank has ever been given", one of the sources noted.

The annual meeting will go on for about a week and will be attended by several thousand top government officials, and many leading figures of the world of finance, exchange, and economics. Beside the meeting, there will be various performances, conferences, discussion forums and regional meetings. Festive halls that hold 500 to 600 people and are equiped with the necessary social settings will therefore have to be available.

But apparently, it would cost DM35 000 at to rent such a hall at the Hilton hotel and $30 000 to use Prague Castle's Spanish Hall. These prices are far too high for the World Bank so its administration sent notices to the offices of its Boards of Directors, national divisions and regional presidents stating that the year 2000 meeting in Prague, will have to go on without the traditional social and professional activities that have been part of all the other meetings in the past. A suggestion was made, to have these activities in the fall this year, during the World Bank and International Monetarry Fund meeting which is to take place in Washington. 

The Anti-monopoly Bureau approved a merger of two of the largest Czech breweries, Pilsner Urquell and Radegast last week. While large breweries do not feel threatened, breweries associated in the Czech Union of Small Independent Breweries have been considering a court appeal to reverse the decision, as they are worried whether they will be able to compete with such a dominant player on the market who may dictate prices.

Fortunately for them, Radegast has just announced a 10-percent price hike. President of Radegast brewery Jan Sykora explained that the low prices his brewery has maintained for a long period are not sustainable.

Pilsner Urquell, according to spokesman Jaroslav Pomp, has never produced cheap beer, as this would not fit its product portfolio. Pomp also said that the growing number of small breweries is proof that they are not threatened by larger ones. While in 1997, there were 34 small independent breweries, in 1998 three new ones were founded.

Small breweries have also won a 50-percent tax allowance through lobbying in Parliament. In this way, the state indirectly subsidised small breweries with 140 million crowns in 1998.

Nevertheless, the price war has caused inflicted massive losses on another key player on the market, the Prague Breweries company, owned by British Bass, which has been the main opponent to the merger of Pilsner Urquell and Radegast. Its efforts to prevent the merger brought it to the verge of bankruptcy, when its base capital dropped to only 10 percent of its original value.

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The Romani singer Vera Bila, with a brief extract there from a track on her latest album, "Kale Kalore". Vera Bila is the subject of an unusual hour-long documentary film being premiered this Sunday by Czech Television. She has become well-known not just in the Czech Republic but also in Western Europe, and especially in France, where she's become almost a cult figure. The film offers a fly-on-the-wall record of Vera Bila's life, showing the dramatic contrasts between her high profile tours and her life back home in the Czech town of Rokycany, where she struggles to make ends meet. Radio Prague's David Vaughan had a sneak preview of the film on Tuesday. Afterwards he spoke with David Charap, the film's editor and co-producer who also happens to be the husband of the director, Mira Erdvicki. He began by asking him how difficult it was getting financial support to make the film.

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David Vaughan was talking with David Charap, who edited the new film on Vera Bila "Black and White - in Colour". Here in the Czech Republic you will be able to see it on Sunday the 28th of March on CT1 at 8.40 pm. And David Charap assures us that the film - with English subtitles - will also be showing at some picture houses in Britain and the States in the near future. It's well worth seeing.

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