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By Daniela Lazarova
Although political matchmaking still holds a prominent place in all
of the weeklies the reader who has had his fill of potential coalition
scenarios will find enough diverting reading. Tyden magazine has cast
a spotlight on the social phenomenon which football has become,
analysing the emotions, commercial background and enormous prestige
of football heroes who are received by heads of state and who, not
infrequently, become excellent ambassadors for their countries - or
never-to-be forgiven traitors, as the case may be...What is it about
football that evokes this incredible interest, regardless of race,
generation or creed -Tyden asks, noting that according to sociologists
"football is an ideal model of social activity within a group and as
such reflects the common fate of mankind". Whatever its magic, it is
certainly not waning - the weekly notes - the World Cup in France is
the longest ever lasting 33 days and is being watched by a record 37
billion TV viewers worldwide.
Meanwhile, the Mlada Fronta Dnes weekly supplement has focused on
growing football hooliganism. In the Czech Republic these rowdies
evolve mostly around the teams Sparta, Banik Ostrava and Boby Brno.
While most of the time the police are able to keep them under control,
the most serious disturbances date back to 1986, when aggressive
Sparta fans demolished a train on their way from the match and
terrorised regular passengers, pushing the woman conductor half way
out of the window of the speeding train. In 1994 Boby Brno fans
actually committed this atrocity throwing a young man out of the
window when he attempted to protect other passengers from bodily harm.
He was crushed under the wheels of an oncoming express train.
Although the past year has brought no deaths or serious disturbances
in this respect the police and Czech football clubs are unwilling to
repeat the mistakes of their Western counterparts and act in the wake
of tragedy. They are calling for more funds to be channelled into re-
building and modernizing stadiums now and insist on expert
organization of these events. The last thing we can afford to do is
give these hooligans the idea that they can get away with anything,
a police spokesman told the magazine.
Though by no means comparable to the number one world sport, the
importance of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival is also said to be
growing. With every passing year the festival is bigger and more
glamorous, Tyden says - but is its existence really justifiable -in
a small country with a meagre annual film production? According to its
advocates the festival has sufficient "raison d'etre" first and
foremost by helping to cultivate the Czech film-going public, at a
time when the country is being flooded by block-buster movies, and not
least by helping to raise the prestige of Czech and East European
films on global scale. For instance the winner of the 1996 Karlovy
Vary film festival -the Russian film Prisoner of the Mountains -
received considerable publicity and acclaim -and won the prestigious
Oscar award on the following year. Similarly, the Karlovy Vary awards
which the films The Garden and Forgotten Light received two years ago
have greatly helped their foreign distribution. The number of foreign
newsmen who come to Karlovy Vary grows by the year -and they are more
interested in Central and East European films than in American or
French productions. That kind of interest could not be created in
Cannes for instance. In this way it is indisputably a powerful form
of advertisement,says Marek Brodsky, head of the festival's press
department. This year the festival will screen more than 250 films in
14 categories, that include competitions for both features and
documentary films. Seventeen films are in the running for the
festival's grand prize. Among the expected guests are Ornella Muti,
Micheal Douglas and Paul Morrissey.
And finally, Respekt, takes a look at what is happening inside the
ultra-right Republican party in the wake of its election defeat. In
an article entitled "Krejsa's Remorse" the weekly notes that some of
the party's prominent members are deserting ship. In a surprise
development Josef Krejsa, widely believed to have been the main
architect of the party's racist policy programme, has offered abject
apologies to those whom he may have hurt by his ill-considered
statements, most especially Romanies and Jews. Krejsa who is known to
have expressed the view that "Romanies should be eliminated because
recycling them would not help" has faced charges of racism in the
past. Observers note that his belated remorse may have a lot to do
with him getting cold feet, now that he would no longer be protected
by parliamentary immunity. The party has also lost another very
prominent figure in the departure of 31 year old Petr Vrzan, described
as the "least offensive" or "most sensible" member of the party.
Meanwhile Republican leader Miroslav Sladek has been accused of
blackmailing party members and abusing party funds. Whether all this
will be a fatal blow to the Republican party remains to be seen. All
but the most radicalized of its members -neonazis aged around 25 or
so - appear to think the party will not survive this setback.
©
Copyright 1997
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