By Daniela Lazarova

A recent public survey on preferred holiday destinations revealed that for those Czechs who can afford it "the land of the free" is the place to go. The one-time "forbidden land" for socialist citizens still holds an immense fascination, yet seven years after the fall of the Iron Curtain money is not the only hurdle on the road to that dream holiday. Getting a visa to the United States in the summer of 1997, is neither an easy nor a pleasant experience judging by the letter section in this week's Prague Post and a lengthy article in the weekly Respect entitled "Czechs go Home".

In the spring on 1996 the Visa Waiver Pilot Programme which allows foreigners 90-day visa-free stays in the States appeared to be within easy reach. The Czech republic fulfilled the required conditions and there was talk of it coming into effect by the end of the year. This failed to come about - according to an unnamed diplomatic source- due to pressure from the FBI which did not want visa free travel with any of the post communist states so soon after their transformation. By the time the FBI was ready to move, it was too late, a tightening of the required conditions for participation in the Waiver Pilot Programme disqualified the Czech republic. And within the tightened regulations the US embassy is giving some applicants a simple " no" for an answer, on the grounds that a growing number of young Czechs request a tourist visa under false pretences and then work in the States illegally. Even so the interest in getting a visa is such that the embassy is practically under siege working to process the applications.

And Czechs - who have lots of practice in queuing up for what they want - are actually spending nights in sleeping bags outside on the pavement just to get a slip of paper which places them on the register of applications to be processed . Those who have money to spare can buy a place in the queue for a mere 5,000 crowns, ie. half the average monthly wage or hire someone to wait in line at a 100 crowns per hour tariff. Not the ideal start to a holiday -but for many still worth the 24 hour wait. Neither the fact that Czechs now have visa free travel with 50 countries - among them Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain - nor the recently raised US visa fees are having an effect on the queues outside the US embassy.

In fact, in an article entitled "The promised land of bureaucracy" Tyden reports that the anti-bureaucratic commission set up with fanfare at the end of last year as the light at the end of the tunnel for long-suffering Czechs seems to be loosing steam as well as the war against bureaucracy. According to Vladimir Budinsky, who plans to resign from the post of chairman this fall, not all ministries have been overly cooperative - and in his view the war was lost when against the commissions advice the Klaus cabinet recently approved the establishment of 13 regional administrations. I don't even want to begin to imagine what that will mean in terms of bureaucracy, Budinsky says, and he's not staying around to find out. Neither are the commissions fast dwindling members. A mere four of the most persistent turned up for the commission's latest meeting.

This is a game the media loves - and the Mlada Fronta Dnes supplement has lost no time in zeroing in on the Cabinets luxury fleet of automobiles. The short lived " Buy Czech" campaign left little impact on the Cabinet, after all ministers are only mortals and in the Czech republic of 1997 clothes are not what makes the man - his car is. Among the three bright exceptions is the health minister who gets around in a Czech Tatra and -somewhat unfortunately - smokes only Czech cigarettes. The others shopped abroad - and gave various reasons for their choice. Vice premier Josef Lux -under a barrage of criticism for buying a three and a half million luxury BMW model at the time the Cabinet announced steep budget cuts, said the car came cheap, with a million off from the usual price. While social affairs Jindrich Vodicka -who is busy seeking means of disqualifying middle income families from benefits - was surprisingly frank about his two Chryslers. " I couldn't help myself, " he told the press "ever since I was a little boy I've loved everything American."