News: The Prague Post Online

To the Editor:

Orchestrating cash

In a country where doctors make $300 [12,000 Kc] a month, is it realistic for musicians to want more? ["Silent Spring," Tempo, May 30-June 5] Do they want at least as much as in Vienna or New York? This is absurd. Someone should clue them in that the $3,500 average rent in New York City is not a myth.

We must also not forget who foots the bill for the Czech Philharmonic, Czech taxpayers, most of whom make half of what the musicians do and have jobs that they may very well hate.

I am not against government support, but how about matching funds? The Prague Symphony should also start looking for some cash on its own. Need ideas? Tune to U.S. National Public Radio during a fund drive.

George Janecek
Plzen

Kuchma, firsthand

I know that humor is prescient, but I had no idea how much until reading your "Second Hand" ["Slovakia desperate for pals," Tempo, June 13-19]. It was with much amusement and surprise that I read this funny take, while knowing that the infamous president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, was at the same time cuddling up to Slovak dignitaries and politicos. I hope I don't have to mention the need for governments to keep him at arm's length in light of his milking of his country of billions of dollars and the now-accepted tapes of his own voice ordering the murder of Georgy Gongadze, a journalist and critic. It is particularly notable that the Slovak government opened their arms to him.

I just returned from living in Kuchma's kingdom. He is a [Slobodan] Milosevic in the making. I hope the Czech Republic continues to label this man and his regime as persona non grata and tell the world this emperor has no clothes.

I also hope The Prague Post will continue shining light in this direction, even if it is only second hand.

David Deubelbeiss
Karlovy Vary

Like, get real

I found the article ["Slovakia desperate for pals," Tempo, June 13-19] with the word like repeatedly used hard to believe. Did a foreign minister really talk that way or was that the young journalist's eagerness to put their twist on it? 嘹 found the whole article to be very unsophisticated writing.

Anna Weddington
Charlotte, North Carolina

Editor's note: With all due respect to reader Weddington, "Second Hand" is a humor column.

New format

Just a quick note to say how very good indeed the new Real Estate section looks and also how excellent I thought the article ["Real estate goes 3-D," Real Estate, May 16-22] featuring the DatArt Virtualizace project was. It was informative, but also funny and original. My friends are still laughing about it. Keep up the good work.

Charles Butler
DatArt, Real Estate Karlin
Prague 8

Hail Profile

I have just read (on the Internet) your "Prague Profile" of Hana Pravda ["If the truth be told," Night & Day, May 30-June 5], and I wanted to thank you for the way in which these extraordinary profiles have cheered and moved me over the years. I lived in Prague from 1992 to 1994 and did financial business in the Czech Republic up until 1999. Alan Levy's profiles were a regular source of inspiration.

Andrew Reicher
London

I found the article concerning Hana Pravda to be both extremely interesting and deeply moving, perhaps the best reading in the entire edition. It compels one to read more about her.

Graham Coates-Gibson
Haj ve Slezsku

We just finished reading Alan Levy's "Prague Profile" ["Steiners: Dislocations and relocations," Night & Day, May 9-15]. We sat and laughed and laughed over the story of Vienna Steiner receiving her name and the bureaucrat who decided that "Nonexistent people have the right to bear children with nonexistent names."

We enjoy the "Prague Profile" as much as anything in The Prague Post and await eagerly for Mr. Levy to put them all in a book so we can enjoy all those we missed from the years before we arrived in Prague in 1996.

Bob and Dian Jones
Manakin Sabot, Virginia

Winner loses

I'm sorry, but Christopher Winner's latest musings in his "E-Male" column ["Warning: Contains carnage and ugly verbs," Opinion, June 6-12] are too much to comprehend for a number of expats who appreciate an English-language newspaper in the city, but who also despair at the unintelligible garble offered by the only game in town.

The executive editor should not only consider giving up that job, but bid adieu as well to the four and a half inches of wasted space he takes up each week at the bottom of the opinion page. He does nothing but make a mess on the body of the printed page.

John McKillop
Prague

Someone either fire Christopher Winner or at least give the man some therapy. His column is a damn joke.

Also, whose idea was it to put yet another story on the Roma on the front page ["Off the map," News, June 6-12]? It has nothing to do with those of us who live in the Czech Republic -- it takes place in Slovakia. To put another Romany story on the front page is just sensationalism. What next? Starving children in Africa? Prostitutes? Oh pardon, you have run that story into the ground.

Also, we Czechs and Americans who actually live here (unlike your backpacking "journalists") really don't care about political stories and stories about communists -- or haven't you looked at the polls?

Brent Statsny
Prague 7

With the advent of Christopher Winner, the paper, especially the editorial page, has been more and more slanted in one direction -- his. It has gone so far that several issues appeared without letters to the editor. I wonder, and other readers do too, if it wouldn't be more beneficial that the space devoted to "E-Male" be used for more thought-provoking information.

If Mr. Winner does step back, there will be more room again for what the readers have to say and for articles from very interesting people, like Gene Deitch, Jan Drabek and other columnists.

Peggy Albert
Prague 2

Editor's note: The Prague Post generally publishes letters to the editor once monthly, depending on the number it receives.

Raid, continued

The letter from Alexander Weiss in New York ["Bar raids," Letters to the Editor, June 13-19] shows that he is both misinformed and has missed my point. I do not support drug dealers and prostitution. But prostitution is not illegal in the Czech Republic, for either sex, over 18 years of age.

If the police who entered the bar had warrants for several "known" criminals, why did hundreds of innocent gay people who were just enjoying a quiet beer face being treated like criminals?

Weiss' blase statement that the police have "probable cause to prevent a crime" is ridiculous. That could be applied in just about every circumstance and, as was the case in this instance, leads to "abuse of power." If it wasn't homophobic behavior from the police, why target the few gay bars? Why not one of the many dozen straight bars where underage girls and drugs are rife? They didn't find either in the gay raids.

Willem van Wick
Amsterdam, Holland

Language barriers

I read your article ("Prague, Vienna seek detente," News, April 4-10) and object to Sudeten Germans being called "German-speaking Czechs." Go to Belgium and call the Flemish "Flemish-speaking Walloons" and see the reaction. Czechs were one ethnic group (or two), not the generic label for all people living in that territory. Sudeten Germans can be called Bohemian Germans or Moravian Germans, but not Czech-Germans.

Thomas Reimer
Via e-mail

Nice explanation

Regarding the rejection of the Nice Treaty by Ireland ["Czechs, EU downplay Irish 'no' vote," News, June 13-19], you should know that the reason many people voted "no" was bully tactics by a government that assumed it could just tell us to vote in favor and that citizens would blindly follow, without debate.

Most Irish people look forward to an expanded Europe -- particularly businesspeople who see an expanded Europe as an opportunity for all. No one has benefited from Europe more than Ireland.

I voted against because of a provision barring free movement of labor for a certain period for the new member states, a right every citizen in a current member state enjoys. This would create a two-tier EU with haves on one side and have-nots on the other. Fair? Not quite.

Adam O'Callaghan
Dublin, Ireland

Missile shield

Although U.S. President George W. Bush may wish to disregard treaties and waste our money on something that will not work ["Bush, in Europe, plays Havel's tune on defense," News, June 20-26], that doesn't mean Europe has to go along with it. Not everyone in the United States agrees with the proposed "Missile Shield," and I urge likeminded Europeans to inform their leaders of this.

To maintain the relative peace throughout the world, we cannot have one country creating a global missile network that would undermine agreements and increase tensions in already unstable regions.

Eric Halleman
Grafton, Wisconsin

No Go

Surely the tale of Go's success ["All signals Go: Airline sold," Business, June 20-26] can't be all silver linings and no cloud? Go has finally made an operating profit, but has British Airways recouped its total investment through this sale? Or is it taking a loss on Go?

I noticed not a word about the fact that Go's low advertised prices are only available for less than one-fifth of all seats on any aircraft. (Try booking a cheap seat on Go.) Most Go seats sell for prices comparable to those on scheduled airlines.

And why on earth does The Prague Post carry an article about a British company whose Czech-related business takes up only one of its 28 routes? Why not write about McDonald's? They have restaurants here.

Martin O'Doul
Singapore

Bathroom humor

The only thing more disappointing than the near-complete takeover of public space by brand-obsessed corporations is the media's failure to address the issue in a critical manner. Leah Bower's piece on advertising in public washrooms ["Stall tactics," Business, June 13-19] served as a case in point.

Given the increasingly vociferous and compelling arguments directed against corporate branding and its effects, I was stunned to see the writer provide myriad examples of branding without seeking a single dissenting viewpoint. In fact, the story's lone sources consisted of those profiting from the venture.

Why is corporate appropriation of public space called advertising, while a person's thoughts written on a wall are called vandalism?

Matt Gailitis
Prague 4

Feedback?
E-mail us at: letters@praguepost.cz

Or write to us at:
The Prague Post attn: News Editor
Stepanska 20 110 00 Prague 1 Czech Republic

Letters submitted to us by e-mail may be printed in either the online or print version.