Rising extremism a danger to Czech minorities

The Czech government, prompted by a recent racially motivated attack, which left a Roma family, including a two-year-old girl, struggling for their lives, promises to come up with a plan to fight extremism. The details regarding the plan, however, remain to be seen. The government has been promising to put such a plan into place for months.

A comprehensive survey of ethnic minorities living in Europe, conducted by The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and published earlier this month, shows that the Roma in the Czech Republic report discrimination in the largest numbers in all of Europe. The Roma (sometimes also called Romanies) experience discrimination at work, in access to education, housing and healthcare.

With extremism and racially motivated violence on the rise (more also here), the survey results only add to the pressure on policy makers in the Czech Republic, who have not shown much strength in dealing with the dangerous trend.

Roma rights organizations and activists favor a comprehensive approach, including development, education and tough-on-hate-crime legislation. Minority group advocates have been lobbying for change not only on the local and state government level, but on the level of the European Union as well. Recently, Roma activists have even asked the Pope to help by organizing a debate on the social position of Gypsies in the Czech Republic and in other European countries. Last February, a Romani activist association wrote an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama about the position of Romanies and "the expansion of nationalists" in Czech society.

A much publicized trial to dissolve the far-right Workers' Party (Dělnická strana, or DS), which has been organizing extremist rallies and provoking the Jewish and Romani communities around the country, took place in March this year. In the end, the result was that The Supreme Administrative Court rejected the government's proposal to disband the party. Many minority rights activists were dismayed about the court's decision, however, others (myself included) feel that the banning of extremist parties isn't necessarily an effective solution, as the party can -- and promised -- to reform, and also because banning parties hinges on undemocratic in a country which lauds freedom of speech as one of its credos. Furthermore, such a ban can strengthen the far-right movement under the guise of victimhood in light of persecution of the group by the state.

The outgoing Minister of Human Rights and Minorities wants to establish a committee of experts on extremism, which a number of Romani activists support as but one of the possible solutions, especially when it comes to helping shape public opinion regarding extremism and racially motivated violence, which is such a threat that Czech Roma are applying for asylum in Canada in droves. InterPress Service reports today:

Roma organisations have called on those Roma who feel unsafe in the country to leave. There are up to 300,000 Roma living in the Czech Republic, that has a population of 10 million. (. . . ) At least 853 mostly ethnic Roma Czech citizens have applied for refugee status in Canada over the last year, and 84 have obtained it. But in only the first two months of 2009, there are already new 570 Czechs, mostly Roma, seeking asylum there.

Earlier this week, the Czech press reported that the Czech police and military employ neo-Nazism and extremist movement supporters, who provide the far-right groups with sensitive information and smuggle weapons to them, thus strengthening their movement.

Additionally, according to the Roma rights activist Gwendolyn Albert, it has been revealed that skinheads serving time for violent offenses in Czech prisons are well-served by organizations that send them racist literature and pay their legal fees.

Strategies among international experts on how to curb extremism vary widely. The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the most respected and successful organizations at fighting extremist groups in the US, takes the legislative as well as educational approach. The organization tracks hate groups, providing comprehensive updates to law enforcement, and has a strong track record of fighting white supremacist legislatively. To combat the underlying causes of hate, the center runs an educational program for school children called Teaching Tolerance.

The organization People in Need (Člověk v tísni), for instance, runs educational campaigns and helps monitor hate groups in the Czech Republic in concert with similar organizations across Europe. Step by Step, Czech Republic is an example of an organization which conducts anti-bias education projects in Czech schools. There are several such organizations in the Czech Republic. However, legislative-based activism against extremist groups is quite weak here.

In its latest Hate Crime Report Card for the Czech Republic in 2007, The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, reported:

The implementation of criminal law provisions devoted to racially-motivated crimes remains inadequate, and (. . .) reports of racially-motivated violence continue unabated. This conclusion is shared by the League for Human Rights, a Czech human rights organization in its report in February 2007 to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for the Czech Republic. This observes that cases of racially motivated violence persist. Unfortunately, the cases are not always vigorously pursued by the relevant authorities. Sometimes the police play down the gravity of the violence.

Throughout Europe, members of the most vulnerable populations, when questioned about the solvency of hate crime legislation for the FRA survey, across the board stated that they are not aware of any legislative recourse:

When asked whether there is a law prohibiting discrimination against people on the basis of their ethnicity when looking for work, the majority of respondents, with the exception of the Czech Republic, either indicated that there was no such law or that they didn’t know. (. . . ) Given that EC legislation against discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin in employment is now in place throughout the EU, this lack of rights awareness suggests that the message about anti-discrimination rights is not reaching some of the most vulnerable minorities in Europe.

The survey also asked respondents to identify any organisation in their country that can offer advice or support to people who have been discriminated against for whatever reason. Between 71 and 94% of respondents could not name a single organisation. In sum, the results indicate that although roma respondents in the seven countries experience very high levels of discrimination, they are generally unaware that discrimination against them might be illegal, and they also are unable to name organisations in their country – either State bodies or NGos - that might be able to assist them.

Clearly, there is an opening for action here. A crucial step the Czech Republic can take is to pass anti-bias legislation. The country is currently -- and embarrassingly -- the only EU country without such legislation, though the EU governing body has reprimanded the country and threatened it with a fine if the Czech government doesn't pass such legislation, required by the EU charter. The existing penal code can be strengthen, as was done earlier this week in the neighboring Slovakia, where the Parliament approved tougher legislation to combat extremism. Focus must be put on law enforcement and better screening of police recruits.

Long-term solutions include training and job opportunities as well as access to sound, affordable housing, especially in smaller towns and more isolated regions, as unemployment and poverty-rates among the Roma are disproportionately high, reinforcing the stereotype of the welfare-dependent person who doesn't contribute to the society. Such sentiment is shared by countless Czechs. Recently one Czech town decided to take action against the "unadaptable people" (a euphemism racist Czechs often use to mean the Roma) who owe the city back rent. The mayor of Chomutov decided to "cleanse" the town of these "undesirables" and to send collectors to the welfare office to confiscate the residents' welfare money, which is actually unlawful. This situation drew staunch criticism from local humanitarian groups as well as the Human Rights and Minorities minister. Unfortunately, the move also gained a tremendous amount of support (including praise from the Minister of Interior), which is still gaining momentum. On the internet networking website Facebook, a petition in support of the drastic and racist measures proposed by the city has been signed by nearly 165,000 people, the largest number of Czechs that has ever signed an online petition of any kind.

On a positive note, last week a new European platform for Roma inclusion met for the first time in Prague, to improve coordination of national actions to tackle the exclusion of Europe's biggest ethnic minority. As the European Commission website reports:

The meeting brought together national governments, the EU, other international organisations and civil society and stimulated cooperation and exchange of experience on successful Roma inclusion policies. (. . . ) The meeting identified a set of basic principles to effectively address the inclusion of Roma. In addition, the European Commission will outline how it plans to target the needs of Roma people with EU-level instruments and policies in 2009 and 2010. It will report too on the implementation of a new EUR 5 million pilot project which the European Parliament has added to the 2009 Budget.

Still, the threat of violence looms for the Roma and other people of color living in the Czech Republic. May 3 is a day of solidarity with the Roma and the victims of the latest brutal racist attack. Demonstrations entitled "Enough is Enough" against extremism will take place across the country. I will be there.

Wall Street Journal: The Czech Republic Pays for Immigrants to Go Home

Earlier this month I wrote about the Czech government's scheme to encourage foreign workers to leave the country. The Wall Street Journal ran a story about this incentive program today:

In 2007, foreigners scooped up nearly 40% of the new jobs created in the Czech Republic. In the last five years alone, the number of immigrant workers doubled to nearly 362,000 by the end of 2008.

With demand for exports down, unemployment has soared to a two-year high of 7.7%. Economists say the rate could hit 10% by year's end, and there are signs rising joblessness is pushing some Czechs to apply for the low-wage work they once left to foreign laborers. The Czech economy is set to contract by 2% this year -- a sharp fall from a growth peak around 7% in 2006.

In February, the government, fearing crime, homelessness and immigrants overstaying visas, launched a $3 million program to pay newly jobless migrants to go home. The pitch: €500 per legal immigrant, €250 for children under 15, and the cost of the tickets home.

Since February, 1,345 immigrants have signed on for the Czech program.

Though The Wall Street Journal mentions the high debt many of the foreign workers accrue just signing up to work in the Czech Republic via the "pay-to-go programs," no word is uttered about the mafia-like nature of the pay-to-go agencies, which immigrant rights experts say need to be scrutinized much more than individual workers on whom the police have stepped up their raids. The journal doesn't speak about the dangerous myths perpetuated by politicians and the press alike, flying the flag that falsely links crime to the foreign worker communities, and thus helps fuel the xenophobic sentiment already so prevalent among the Czechs.

For the rest of the article, go here.

Racism, discrimination of minorities widespread in Europe, especially the Czech Republic

Last week, a report based on yet the most comprehensive survey of ethnic minorities living in Europe conducted concluded that "the majority experience racism and discrimination on a day-to-day basis," with the Roma and Africans at the highest risk. In fact, "around 90 percent of North Africans in Italy and France reported discrimination, while around 85 percent of Roma living in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece said they had been treated with prejudice because of their ethnicity." As a group, the Roma reported the highest overall levels of being discriminated against of all groups surveyed.

The Czech Republic "leads" the pack with the highest percentage in all of Europe of Roma reporting discrimination. About 83 percent of Czech Romanies, of whom there are estimated to be 250,000 in the country of just over 10 million, believe that discrimination is rife in the Czech Republic.

The report by the EU’s agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found that "minorities reported racially-motivated obstacles when looking for work or a home to rent or buy, when trying to open a bank account or get a loan, when dealing with healthcare, social services or school officials. They also experienced discrimination when entering cafes, restaurants and shops."

One of the key findings was that racist crime, harassment and discrimination are grossly underreported. As a matter of fact, 80 percent of the minority respondents stated that they did not go to the authorities about the racist crimes they or ethnically inspired bias they witnessed or experienced, reflecting the belief that little could be done to tackle the problem.

FRA concludes that "the results suggest a sense of resignation among ethnic minorities and immigrants who lack confidence in the mechanisms designed to protect victims of discrimination or racist crime. The main reason given for not reporting incidents was that respondents felt that nothing would happen following their complaint."

Additionally, "80% of the respondents did not know of any organisation that could offer support or advice to victims of discrimination." The survey thus "demonstrates an urgent need for better information, but could also reflect a real absence of effective support services in many Member States," states the FRA report.

The main purpose of the report was to provide statistical evidence in order to support anti-discriminatory policy-making across the EU.

Incidentally, the Czech Republic, which got the worst grade regarding racism and discrimination experienced by the Roma of all of Europe, is the only EU27 Bloc member state without anti-discriminatory legislation in place, for which the EU court has reprimanded the country. Shame on Czech politicians!

xenophobia?

According to a March survey by the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences, more than half of Czechs feel there are too many foreigners living in the Czech Republic and nearly a fifth believe that the country should stop taking in refugees. It turns out that those who say the country is a home to too many foreigners are older and, surprisingly, also left-leaning individuals.

This is paradoxical, since ccording to Amnesty International's latest report, in 2005 out of 3,750 asylum seekers in the Czech Republic, only 219, that is 5.8 % of applicants, were granted asylum. Considering the world total number of asylum seekers and persons with official refugee status was 2,799,500, the argument that the Czech Republic should accept fewer refugees is ludicrous. This opinion is obviously not supported by statistics or reality.

As of December, 2008, the Czech Foreigner Police office informed that the number of foreigners living legally in the Czech Republic is 438,301. Of that number, 172,927 have a permanent status. Others are mainly holders of long-term temporary residency permits. In the Czech Republic, a country of nearly 10.5 million, foreigners make up 3.9 percent of the population.

It is true that the press has recently been giving some attention to the fact that the country's population increase -- as much as 90%, in fact -- can largely be attributed to immigration, but that's mostly because the birth rate has been so low for so many years. In fact, in 2004, it was reported that the Czech Republic has the second lowest birthrate in the world. Though the birthrate has begun to rise, ever-so-slightly, in 2007, the Czech Republic still had the second lowest birthrate in Europe after Slovenia.

The Czechs' institutional and social xenophobia has further been exasperated by the economic crisis and rising unemployment. In February, the Czech government came up with a scheme to push foreigners out of the country. Based on the prognosis that 12,000 foreign workers could lose their jobs in the first three months of 2009, and that the work visa of 70,000 additional individuals will expire, the government decided to offer a voluntary program: a free plane ticket home and a 500 euro "motivational contribution." The foreigners who want to take advantage of this "service," which is available for eight months, have to apply within one month of losing their jobs due to the economic crisis.

This controversial program had wide-spread public support, judging from the surveys of public opinion the newspapers published. However, it was ill-conceived according to experts on refugee and foreigner integration. Firstly, the "project of voluntary returns" was conceived, based on an assumed link between rising unemployment and crime within the foreign worker community, for which there is no statistical support. Secondly, the program was created without a deep understanding of the situations within which many foreign workers find themselves. Many of them have large debt they owe the sometimes mafia-like recruitment agencies, which prevents the workers from leaving the country prematurely. Additionally, the cost of returning home for many of them is much higher than 500 euro, and thus prohibitive.

So far, about 1,000 international workers have taken advantage of the program. The government has vowed to also make this program available to foreigners living in the Czech Republic illegally. Simultaneously, the police have been conducting raids and random checks of businesses, sweeping up foreigners who they deem could be in the country illegally. During these raids, they also apparently inform their targets that they can apply to receive government aid to leave the country. What a fiasco!

In an interview with the weekly Respekt, Marketa Kadlecova, coordinator of the project Migration of the People in Need, urged that the Ministry of Internal Affairs should collaborate with the refugee community organizations, who have approached the ministry with suggestions for effective solutions. Martin Rozumek, immigration lawyer and director of the Organisation for Aid to Refugees, argues that the Czech government should primarily focus on cracking down on the mafia-like recruitment agencies which bring workers to the Czech Republic, often bound by highly exploitative contracts (collecting up to 50% of the workers' salaries as fees, for instance).

What gives me hope is that the younger generations are actually more interested, and less threatened by the idea of diversity. I hope that is the case, anyway. The Czechs, as much as anyone, benefit from contact with other cultures. I hope the younger generation will pioneer a more open, truly multicultural, and just society. Teachers, too, can play their part in helping to encourage critical thinking and media analysis. Here is an excellent lesson plan by the organization People In Need (Člověk v tísni) on xenophobia in the Czech media, for instance, which Czech instructors can take advantage of.

What moved me was this poem by a Vietnamese poet living in the Czech Republic.

Here is an excerpt from To My Wife by NGO VAN Cuong:

The town of Mladá Boleslav is so sad in the fall, my dear
Though I am half the world away,
I think of you each day, my dear
Such longing I have inside
I think of home
(...) I have to work like an ox
and I earn so little money
After work I'm all broken
Those who've come here are not at all lazy
(... ) Take care of the children while I'm not home
Educated and nice children are a gift
So I have the strength to go on
I will keep earning money
I could not earn at home
Only two more years and our family will be together again

study: women and the Roma face discrimination in the Czech job market

This week, it was reported in the Czech press that, according to Social Watch, an international human rights watchdog, Czech women and the largest racial minority, the Roma, are discriminated against in the job market.

As I also wrote on this blog last month, Czech women’s salaries are, on the average, 25% lower than men’s. Furthermore, Social Watch has found this:

Women are also overrepresented in the secondary market, where labour positions are characterized by lower prestige, worse working conditions and higher insecurity. Those with children up to six years of age and women-breadwinners are particularly threatened by long-term unemployment and poverty. In a recent survey, 13.2% of Czech women reported that they had suffered sexual harassment at work.

The study examined women’s representation in places of power. It found that "in 2007 women’s representation was 11% in the Government, 15.5% in the Chamber of Deputies, 13.6% in the Senate, 15% in regional councils and 25% in municipal councils." Worldwide, the average percentage of women in government positions is 17%, though the minimum benchmark of at least 30 percent was established in 1995 at the World Conference on Women in Peking.

Though 97 countries around the world have mandated quota for numbers of women in government, no quota systems or other forms of affirmative action have yet been proposed in the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek was, in fact, quoted by Social Watch as declaring at the inauguration of the European Year of Equal Opportunities in April 2007:

As to women – who in my opinion do not represent a disadvantaged group, even though they are usually designated as such – we cannot talk about equal opportunities (…). A woman has the freedom to decide not to have children and by making that choice, I am convinced, she can have the same professional opportunities a man has.

In addition to women, the Roma (a self-identifying term used instead of the derogative term Gypsies), are severely discriminated against in the market place. Social Watch states that the Roma, who represent 3% of the population, have "a dog’s chance for equal rights."

The report continues:

Although they became a recognized ethnic minority after 1989, growing inequality caught a significant part of the Roma population in the trap of social exclusion and ghettos started to spring up. The Roma suffer discrimination in the labour market and in education. Restaurants frequently refuse to serve them. Racist-based aggression, sometimes ending in the death of the victim, has increased (...) Housing discrimination exacerbates spatial exclusion. More than 300 slums and slum-like housing estates are inhabited largely by some 80,000 Roma.

On the whole, the report states, public services in the Czech Republic have been gradually shrinking. The Government is implementing a far-reaching privatization of public services, including health services, and the the gap between rich and poor is growing.

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Tento týden byla v tisku zveřejněna zpráva mezinárodní organizace Social Watch, že český trh diskriminuje ženy a Romy. Podle této organizace, která monituruje pokroky a nedostatky v boji proti chudobě a za rovnost mužů a žen, ženy v České republice vydělávají o 25 procent méně než muži a častěji zastávají pracovní pozice s nízkou prestiží. Ženy jsou také více ohroženy nezaměstnaností. Matkám dětí do šesti let a ženám, které jsou hlavami rodiny, obzvláště hrozí dlouhodobá nezaměstnanost a chudoba.

Zpráva také informuje o tom, že 13.2% žen v Česku v nedávném průzkumu uvedlo, že se v práci setkává se sexuálním obtěžováním.

Šetření se zabývalo i podílem žen na moci. Podle SW "v roce 2007 bylo ve vládě 11%, v Parlamentu 15.5%, v Senátu 13.6% a 15% v regionalních radách a 25% v městských radách." Celosvětový průměrný podíl žen v zákonodárných orgánech je 17%, i když na Mezinárodní konferenci žen v Pekingu v roce 1995 byla stanovena minimální 30 procentní reprezentace.

I když v součastnosti existuje 97 zemí s kvótami na poměr žen v politice, v České republice se zatím návrhy na podobná opatření nevyskytla. Předseda vlády Mirek Topolanek, ocitován organizací Social Watch, se naopak vyjádřil proti podpoře rovnoprávnosti při slavnostním zahájení Evropského roku rovných příležitostí v dubnu 2007:

V případě žen – což není znevýhodněná menšina, ale obvykle se tak o ní mluví – rovněž nelze mluvit o rovnosti příležitostí. Těhotenství a mateřství je výsadou žen a tato výsada činí ženy apriorně odlišnými od mužů. Například na trhu práce (...) Žena se může svobodně rozhodnout děti nemít a pak jsem přesvědčen, že má stejné příležitosti uplatnění jako muž.

Český pracovní trh dále diskriminuje Romy, kteří tvoří 3% populace a podle zprávy SW mají "mizernou příležitost (doslova pod psa) dosáhnout rovnoprávnosti" s majoritou.

Zpráva pokračuje:

Ačkoliv jsou Romové oficiálně uznáváni za etnickou menšinu od roku 1989, zvětšující se nerovnoprávnost je svrhla do pasti sociálního vyloučení a díky jí se začala objevovat ghetta. Romové jsou diskriminováni na trhu práce a ve vzdělání. Restaurace je často odmítají obsluhovat. Množství zločinu podloženým rasovou agresí, někdy končící až i smrtí oběti, se zvyšuje (...) Diskriminace v bydlení stav vyloučení zhoršuje. Ve více než 300 chudinských čtvrtích a slumům podobných osadách žije přibližně 80.000 Romů.

Dále zpráva zahrnovala informace o tom, že veřejné programy se v České republice postupně ruší. Vláda provádí rozsáhlou privatizaci veřejných služeb, včetně zdravotnictví a rozdíl mezi chudými a bohatými roste.

the gender gap, here and there

Metro, a Prague daily, today reported that Czech women earn, on average, 22% less than their male counterparts with the same jobs. However, the gap widens for women between the ages of 35 and 44, who earn 40 percent less than men in identical professions. This is according to a survey by the employment agency Profesia, which conducts salary surveys in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

For comparison, in the U.S., in 2004, women earned 23.5% less than men, according to the the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Pražský deník Metro dnes zveřejnil zprávu, že ženy v České republice si vydělávají v průměru o 22 procent méně než muži ve stejných povoláních. Mezera mezi platy mužů a žen dosahuje ale až 40. procentního rozdílu pro ženy ve věku od 35 do 44. O tom informovala firma Profesia, která nabízí služby zaměstnanosti a provádí průzkumy mezd v České republice a na Slovensku.

Pro porovnání, podle statistik Americké vlády ve Spojených státech si ženy v roce 2004 vydělávaly o 23,5 procent méně než muži.

the young and the restless speak their minds

The organization People In Need, together with the consultancy and research firm Millward Brown, conducted and just published the results of a survey, One World in Schools, of the attitudes of young people in the Czech Republic. This week, in the magazine Respekt, sociologist Martin Jílek, who analyzed the data, was interviewed, discussing the results.

One of the most interesting aspects of the study was the surprising finding that young people are interested in learning about Czech history from the period of communism. Although the generation which participated in the survey was born after the revolution, it's clear that its members' understanding isn't limited to the stereotypical notion that communism was primarily a time of "economic lack." Instead, the generation surveyed understands the period as a time when freedom was lacking. In fact, the study shows that those surveyed -- youth between fifteen and twenty years of age -- are much less materialistic than the older generations would have one believe. According to Jílek, young people "prefer non-material over material values." Family for the students surveyed is the first criterium for happiness. Next are friendship, good health and education. Finances are not found on the list until the fifth place from the top.

Furthermore, the findings show that young people feel they are not able affect events, whether at home or abroad. Even when they desire to do so, they are not sure, unless the media show specific examples, how to deal with world problems (e.g. recycling to help protect the environment). Coincidentally, young people are very affected by the media, it turns out. Only the occasional young person doesn't follow current events. The most frequent source of news for this age group is the television, followed by the internet, which a third of students consume as their primary media source. Based on this information, it could be concluded that the television should broadcast more programs focused on current events and ideas for solutions of the societal, environmental or political problems presented.

According to the study, the most serious problems faced by the young generation are: getting along with the Roma minority, problems with drug use, and transportation issues. Racism and xenophobia surprisingly placed very low on the list of concerns, perhaps because the white majority doesn't acknowledge that a key issue in "getting along with the Roma" is racism. This topic is interestingly listed as one on which the young get their information not from the media, but from personal experience. For the young, the media are the main source of information on local issues related to crime and also, to a degree, on the topic of their local environment.

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Společnost Člověk v tísni spolu se soukromou výzkumnou agenturou Millward Brown uskutečnila a právě zveřejnila výsledky průzkumu názorů mladých lidí v Česku, Jeden svět na školách. V časopisu Respekt se tento týden k výsledkům vyjádřil sociolog Martin Jílek, který průzkum analyticky zpracoval.

Jedním z nejzajímavějších aspektů průzkumu bylo například překvapivé zjištění, že mladí lidé se zajímají a chtějí víc dozvědět o dějinách z doby komunizmu. I když se dotázaná generace narodila až po revoluci, době rozumějí převážně jako období nesvobody, zdaleka ne jen zkresleným stereotypem ekonomických nedostatků. Šetření poukazuje i na to, že mladá generace věkem mezi patnácti a dvaceti je překvapivě méně materialistická, než by mnozí ze starších věkových skupin odhadovali. Podle Martina Jílka studenti, kteří se průzkumu zúčastnili, "preferují nemateriální hodnoty před materiálními." Rodina je pro studenty prvním kritériem k životní spokojenosti. Následuje pak přátelství, dobré zdraví a vzdělání. Finance jsou až na pátém místě.

Dále se ukázalo, že mladí lidé mají pocit, že dění ani doma ani v zahraničí nemohou ovlivnit. I když by chtěli, nevědí, pokud v médiích nenajdou příklady (jako třeba recyklování za účelem ochrany životního prostředí), jak problémy řešit. Shodou okolností jsou mladí lidé velimi ovlivněni médii. Jen málokterý student vůbec nesleduje zpravodajství. Především je jejich zdrojem zpravodajství televize, ale internet je pro třetinu studentů hlavním zpravodajským médiem. Podle těhle informací by se dalo vyvodit, že by televize měla častěji vysílat programy zaměřené nejen na zpravodajství, ale i na způsoby řešení lokálních i globálních problémů.

Jako nejzávažnější problém pro dotázanou mládež se ukázalo soužití s romskou menšinou, a problematika drog a dopravní situace. Rasismus a xenofobie se ale kupodivu umístily mezi méně významnými problémy, možná proto, že bílá majorita si nepřipouští, že v otázce soužití s romskou menšinou je rasismus klíčovou záležitostí. Na toto téma nejsou ovšem uvedena jako nejdůležitější zdroj informací média, ale osobní zkušenost. Média studenti uvádějí jako hlavní zdroj informací pro lokální problémy týkající se kriminality a do určité míry i u stavu životního prostředí v blízkém okolí.

organic farming on an upward trend in the Czech Republic

I'm always tearing the Czechs apart on my blog. Here is something positive for change.

Last year, the number of organic food producers in the Czech Republic grew from 169 to 422. Organically farmed land now takes up about 350.000 ha, which equals more than 8 percent of total farm land. That's more than a 20 percent increase from 2007.

The demand for organically-grown goods and organic food-stuffs is also increasing despite the higher-than-conventional food cost. 39 percent of consumers buy organic products, and of that number, 14 percent shop organic regularly, or at least once a week.

***

Počet registrovaných výrobců biopotravin loni vzrostl z 169 na 422. Ekologicky se v Česku hospodaří na bezmála 350.000 hektarech a podíl ekologického zemědělství na celkové výměře zemědělské půdy přesáhl osm procent. Výměra orné půdy, na které rolníci hospodaří ekologicky, se loni zvýšila o 20 procent na více než 35.000 hektarů.

Stejně jako zájem o ekologické zemědělství roste v ČR poptávka po biopotravinách, i když je jejich cena většinou vyšší. Biopotraviny kupuje 39 procent spotřebitelů, z toho 14 procent pravidelně, tedy alespoň jednou týdně.

Source: Denik.cz

the winds of change

As reported in the business daily E15 yesterday, the amount of wind power produced in the Czech Republic doubled from 2007 to 2008. That is excellent news.

In 2008, wind-generated energy supplied approximately 170,000 people with power. Still, wind power comprises only less than one percent of the total energy production in the Czech Republic.

Michal Janeček, the president of the Czech Wind Energy Association (ČSVE), estimates there is potential in the Czech Republic for manufacturing enough wind power to supply about 4 million Czechs with energy. In a country of just over 10 million people, that would be quite a large slice of the pie.

However, as stated on the ČSVE website, wind energy is the cheapest, but simultaneously the least-well compensated and least-funded renewable source in the Czech Republic.

According to the European Wind Energy Association, of which the Czech association is a member, "the European Union has set a binding target of 20% of its energy supply to come from wind and other renewable sources by 2020. In order to achieve this 20% energy target, more than one-third of the European electrical demand would have to come from renewables, with wind power expected to deliver 12-14%."

Can the Czech Republic live up to this standard? Last year, the amount of energy from all renewable sources combined was at approximately 4 percent of total energy production, while one third of energy was supplied by nuclear energy. Compare the numbers to Sweden, where clean energy sources account for 40% of energy production, Latvia where the rate is 35 %, Finland with a rate of 29 %, and Austria with a 23 % renewable source energy production rate.

According to E15, by the year 2010 the amount of renewable energy produced in the Czech Republic should be raised to eight, then by 2020 to 13 percent of total consumption. Those numbers are lower than the goals set by the European Union, but we have to consider that the Czech Republic is one of the smaller land-locked countries with not as much land mass and as many resources available as some of the other European countries.

The Czech Republic is also a relatively population-dense country, so the reality is such that wind turbines are never too far removed from "civilization." According to the green lifestyle-oriented website Nazeleno.cz, the energy giant ČEZ plans to invest into wind energy. One of the company's first project is the planned construction of a wind farm in the Stříbro area. The people near the future site of the farm, however, are opposed to the project.

A study of the attitudes of Czechs toward wind turbines as part of the landscape was released last October. The study's results showed that local residents' support of wind energy projects tends to be much stronger once they have one to three years of experience with wind farms in their area than before the start of a new construction project. Therefore, the study concluded that "the rate of support for wind farms rises based on personal and direct experience with such projects in operation." When people lack information about wind energy projects, negative attitudes seem to take root. Some of the common concerns are: disruption of the feel of the landscape, the danger of ice chunks chipping away from the turbine, the interference with satellite signals, noise levels, and negative impact on birds and animals. Once given information and time, though, people eventually do warm up to this source of energy in their backyards. Still the eyesore issue is a big one whether before or after the installation of wind turbines.

Interestingly, about half the opponents of wind farms said they would support such a project if their region received economic benefits as a result. Surprise, surprise.

Wind energy will likely continue to be harnessed in increasing quantities in the Czech Republic, however, it will be in the hands of private companies, which tend to deregulate and inflate prices as time goes on. Let's hope the local people have a say and reep the benefits that can be associated with switching to renewable resources.

If interested, here is an overview and text of Czech legislation pertaining to curbing global warming and to government benchmarks and support for renewable energy sources.

Hooters: the dis-ease spreads to the Czech lands

It's official. The papers report Hooters will be opening up restaurants in the Czech Republic. The brief paragraph in E15, a business daily today described Hooters as a restaurant with a "relaxed beach kind of atmosphere." How about telling it like it is to those who don't yet know: scantily dressed Barbies bouncing their big boobies and "bootielicious" butts in boozers' faces. One of Hooters' jingles is "add a little spice to your life." How about "add a little sauce to your entree of breasts?"

If I told you that Hooters' mission is:

to provide a family of hospitality and services that achieves excellence and enhances lifestyles of all who come in contact with the Hooters brand

Would you believe me? It's true. But here is the juicier part of their mission statement:

We are committed to providing an environment of employee growth and development so that we can provide every guest a unique, entertaining dining experience in a fun and casual atmosphere delivered by attractive, vivacious Hooters Girls while making positive contributions to the communities in which we live.

Employee growth, I can imagine! Not to mention patron growth, if you know what I mean. Wow wow weewah! My mouth waters at reading the bit about positive contributions to the communities by the attractive, vivacious Hooters Girls just being who they are. Fabulous! Truly.

Where I lived in the U.S. prior to moving back to the Czech Republic, Hooters billboards were vandalized to point out the sexism and objectification of women inherent in the advertising and profit-making of Hooters.

Hooters, by the way, is a privately held company which sells franchises and doesn't disclose information about its earnings. Its profits last year were supposedly just short of one billion dollars. The company with the exclusive franchise rights to run Hooters restaurants in the Czech Republic is Na Zdravi Ventures, "the brainchild of six U.S. and two Czech partners" -- predictably all men -- with background in finance, investment, construction and manufacturing. And now a new venture in pimping, thinly disguised as gastronomy. "Na zdraví!" or "To health!" as the Czechs would say, clinking their glasses of bubbly together to seal a new deal.

When Hooters was about to open a restaurant in the U.K. last spring, feminists protested, arguing that the brand "normalises the sexual exploitation and harassment of young women," as the Guardian reported last year. An additional argument put forth by the protesters was that the restaurant would encourage the spread of the sex industry in the surrounding area, which had already happened in Nottingham, the first, and so far the only, site in Great Britain.

The Guardian article continues:

Hooters girls in the US have to sign a contract that reads: "I hereby acknowledge and affirm that the Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and that the work environment is one in which joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace." It continues: "I also expressly acknowledge and affirm I do not find my job duties, uniform requirements or work environment to be intimidating, hostile or unwelcome." Quite how it is possible to affirm this before you've started your job is anyone's guess. As Carol J Adams, an American academic who has written extensively about Hooters, says, "What this document is making clear is that the women at Hooters should expect to be sexually harassed, and put up and shut up." A Hooters spokesperson denies this, saying that the company has a "model programme" for reporting harassment. "All signing the document means is that we have taken the time to give [the waitress] the full picture of the Hooters concept," he says.

Not surprisingly, a number of sexual harassment lawsuits have been filed over the years by former Hooters girls, following a notorious case against the company in Florida in which the plaintiff alleged that she had been subjected to "an endless torrent of sexually inappropriate remarks, demands for sex and uninvited touching that created a situation in which no reasonable woman would have continued to work".

Will the Czech feminists react? And to what effect? Oh, I almost forgot. In the Czech Republic, feminism is still a bad word and being called a feminist is about as harsh as being cussed out by any other awful nasty name. That's how much work needs to be done.

I have noticed that in the past fifteen years, the Czech Republic has toned down its in-your-face sex-for-sale displays quite a bit. I remember still in the nineties, the Prague city bus drivers' dashboards plastered with stickers of naked and topless women posing like there's no tomorrow. Porn magazines were everywhere and prostitutes roamed the streets completely inconspicuously. All that has definitely tampered down. Though, sometimes just walking down the street on a warm day, Prague seems like one big Hooters with perfectly manicured, mostly naked, fake-tanned blonds, going about their everyday business while "incidentally" advertising their assets.

So, Hooters will probably be a hit with the hetero men here. One Czech paper summarized Hooters' marketing goal as targeting the male parts of society. Male parts is right. From the Hooters own website:

Sex appeal is legal and it sells. Newspapers, magazines, daytime talk shows, and local television affiliates consistently emphasize a variety of sexual topics to boost sales. Hooters marketing, emphasizing the Hooters Girl and her sex appeal, along with its commitment to quality operations continues to build and contributes to the chain's success. Hooters' business motto sums it up, "You can sell the sizzle, but you have to deliver the steak.”

Sex appeal sells even during recession, which the Czech Republic has entered for sure. And with unemployment numbers rising fast, especially among the freshly-out-of-school crowd, Czech girls will probably be lining up at the door, especially in areas outside the capital, where the unemployment rate is the lowest. What a relief. Even the Czechs will get to experience the sizzling end-result of an American "growth leader's" vision: a playful combination of boobs and meat, golden-fried, or better yet smeared with a generous serving of Barbie Q. sauce.

live for today, forget tomorrow: the state begins gutting social security

Last June, as part of a sweeping state finance reform, the Czech government approved a new tax cut for employers and employees alike. As a result, employers are able to divert less of their revenue -- specifically 1.5 percent less -- toward the state social security fund. The employer's contribution to the fund has been lowered from 8 to 6.5 percent of the employee's gross earnings. Employees' social security payroll tax rates have been cut as well from 12.5 to 11 percent.

These changes have just gone into effect this January, and for the first time this month, workers will see a difference, albeit a miniscule one, on their paychecks.

It behooves to say that the social security fund covers disability and unemployment insurance as well as retirement, the largest slice of the pie.

No matter the spin the media gives these changes and the promises that the pension portion of the government fund will remain untouched, the tax cuts reek of a backdoor effort to bankrupt the social security fund in order to force its privatization, a goal the right-wingers and big-wig financiers such as the IMF, have been pushing for, not without opposition.

Originally, in addition to lowering the social security tax rates, the government promised to lower income tax, but the Minister of Finance Miroslav Kalousek fought against it, citing that those in the higher income brackets would be the hardest hit since the lowest earning individuals already don't pay taxes. Instead, the government opted for reducing social security tax rates for both employers and employees - this in exchange for eliminating a whole host of other tax cut incentives in the process.

I find it fascinating that the tax cuts have already been planned since June, well before the global financial crisis hit Europe. Then they were "sold" to the public as extra money in the pockets for just about everyone, other than the self-employed.

Since the financial crisis has hit, the tax cuts have suddenly become the government's way to help boost the economy and prevent lay-offs, which are now taking place at a record high.

However, the correlation between tax cuts and reduced lay-off rates just hasn't been proven. And as far as helping the regular folk with these tax cuts, most will not really feel much difference. With rent and electricity prices up sharply as well as record personal debt, there is doubt that people will go wild spending the pitiful extra sum of 150 to 200 crowns (which equates to roughly $7 to $10) per month.

If indeed the social security fund is getting gutted out, in part because of this tax reform, the timing couldn't be worse for the working people. The financial crisis is hitting the Czech Republic hard. Retirement funds are already stretched thin, considering the population is aging fast and there soon won't be enough people in the workforce to replenish the fund for the next generation. Perhaps a pension reform to compensate for that fact is in order, but is privatization the answer? Certainly lowering social security tax is not.

Clearly, however, the direction the big players in the government are taking is clear: cutting government spending, slashing state and regional budgets, continuing privatization of public assets, which leads to more profits for the lobbying parties. Whether the last remaining state-run domains will be sold out and securities such as pension and quality, affordable health care pulled from under the people like a rug, remains to be seen. May the people put up a good fight.

out with the uranium?

The Czech Republic has some of the largest uranium deposits in the world - eighth largest in the world, it is estimated. The mining of uranium, used in the nuclear industry, dates back to the mid-19th century in the Czech Republic. After World War II, uranium mining was of significant interest to the Russians. In fact, the Czech Republic was then the only source of uranium for the Soviets, who controlled its extraction and imported the Czech uranium exclusively until the fall of communism in 1989.

The two dominant types of mining technology have been used here: conventional underground mining (much of it done by political prisoners in the 1940s and 1950s as forced labor) and in-situ leaching with sulfuric acid. In a nutshell, the method consists of injecting a leaching liquid, in this case sulfuric acid, through wells into the ore deposit, and then pumping uranium bearing liquid from other wells.

In-situ leaching supposedly reduces the possibility of accidents and radiation for the miners, but the environmental risks are great. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic can attest to the detrimental environmental risk of uranium leaching. As a result of the uranium extraction, whole aquifiers have been contaminated. Just imagine: over the approximately thirty-two years of the chemical leaching of uranium, more than 4 million tons of sulphuric acid and other chemicals had been injected into the ground at North Bohemian in-situ leaching site of Stráz pod Ralskem.

The chemical leaching of uranium has been put to a halt in 1996, though uranium extraction continues using different, "remedial" techniques. Meanwhile, the contamination of ground water endures and the company responsible for government-mandated clean-up is the same company that polluted the area and still, as the only uranium mining company operating in the European Union, continues to extract uranium to this day.

The plans are for the state-run mining company DIAMO to close shop permanently in the foreseeable future. However, with the hopes of earning a good fortune some day when commodity prices rise again as they did up until 2007 before coming down sharply, and with the push for energy self-sufficiency spurred by the recent natural gas shortage caused by Russia turning off its supply to the West, DIAMO has approached the Czech government with a request to continue mining. The deposits could, according to the director of DIAMO, supply the Czech Republic with enough nuclear energy for the next 150 years. At present, The Czech Republic has 6 nuclear reactors generating about one third of its electricity.

Many locals are opposed to the continued uranium extraction, passionate about water quality over profit and afraid of radioactivity. The ministry of environment agrees the extraction must end soon. We will see who wins out in the end. Before the contract is renewed, I'd bet that following the latest trends, the state-run mining company will be privatized. Australia's Uran Ltd has already expressed interest in conducting the uranium exploration and extraction operations in the Czech Republic. So far, their offer has been rejected by the ministry of environment. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time...