North Korea's all-female pop group perform in China

Do watch this. I don't think I can embed just the video from the BBC site, so watch it there. It's very impressive and kinda depressing too. But none of the 100 seconds of your life it'll take to watch it will be wasted. And look how much fun the audience is having.

Unequal reporting

From today's Czech news summary in English comes a story that wasn't reported in the parallel Czech edition. Nor in the other five languages that Cesky rozhlas reports.

Ballet dancer wins Czech Mr Gay pageant

Michal Klepetek, a ballet dancer of the Moravian Theatre in Olomouc, has won the Czech Mr Gay pagent. The 28-year-old dancer defeated another six finalists in the competition’s final held in a Prague theatre on Friday night. The contestants competed in several rounds including a swimsuit catwalk, question responses, and a free discipline. The organizers raised 35,000 crowns that was donated to a cancer-research endowment fund.

Ah, the Swiss. doG love 'em

Last week, Obama told us that he used to hear car door locks clicking when people saw this black man nearby. Today, we learned that a Swiss shop assistant didn't think that some anonymous-in-Switzerland black woman would be able to afford a 35 thousand (some currency, who cares?) Tom Ford handbag. Oprah's trying to keep up with the Anistons, huh?

What surprises me is that Oprah isn't better informed. Who else doesn't know that the Swiss are racist, uncaring, greedy, shameless and self-serving? What a racist comment I've made! Tarring a whole country with the same brush.

The problem in Switzerland is their democratic system - everyone votes for everything which puts power in the hands of the plebs, the rabble. There is no moral leadership.

You arseholes: too many foreigners

Poll: Number of people drops who believe there are too many foreigners------------------------------------------------------------------------The number of people who believe there are too many foreigners living in the Czech Republic has dropped by 9 percentage points over the past three years, suggests a new poll by the CVVM agency released on Wednesday. While in March 2009, 57 percent of Czechs surveyed said there were too many foreigners in the country, some 48 percent expressed the same opinion three years later. Around 43 percent of those surveyed in the latest poll said the number of foreigners in the country was "appropriate" while 11 percent of Czechs who took part in the poll believe foreigners should not be allowed to gain permanent residence in the Czech Republic at all.

I'm not going to waste my time looking into the credibility of this poll. The last one I looked into had less than a 1,000 respondents. Where from? Who knows.

Some of my best friends are foreigners living in the Czech Republic. Come to think of it, so am I. How many thousands of times have I heard from Czechs, oh why are you living here when I would happily swap to live in your country? Well, my xenophobic friend, my counrty welcomes foreigners and even teaches them English for free when they arrive so that they can feel at home, participate in the community, society and economy. You get permanent residence within a few years. It took me 15 years to get it in the xenophobic Czech Republic. And I've never had a free Czech lesson, not even a good one come to think of it. A few weeks ago, in the space of one week my Czech accent was criticized twice by young adult Czechs who can barely speak English. But don't you just wonder what is behind their criticism? Of all the horrible English I've had to listen to in my decades in this country, I've never really heard native English speakers criticising the Xenophobe's English accent. I wonder why not.

Just in case spring pokes its head around the corner

... we could do worse than a dose of Beethoven's Spring Sonata, to usher the season in. For sheer tone and recording quality, I've opted for Anne Sophie despite her wayward ta-fe-te-fes in the opening phrase. Another half dozen fiddler's performing in the same venue are quite precise. Her playing is not sloppy - she's too damned good to be unaware of what she's doing. I just think she's not chosen well. But that's between me, Anne Soph and LvB. Meanwhile, the western world is crumbling before our very ideas, North Korea is playing with fire (power) and with less care and far greater consequences than any ta-fe-te-fe could ever hope to exact, and the Palestinians are leading their miserable lives under the cruel occupation of a people who came home only to find that their old place had new inhabitants whom they didn't much care for or about.

Come on Sophie, cheer us up.

Will it never end?

Last week a serving MP went to jail, and another one is on the run. Today we learn:
Police charge four members of judiciary with corruption
The organized crime unit of the Czech police has charged six people with corruption, including four members of the judiciary. Among those facing the charges of

bribery 

fraud

blackmail

abuse of authority 

is a

judge of a Prague district court 

state prosecutor 

attorney

junior attorney  
who are suspected of colluding to influence court verdicts.

Extracted from Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha) News Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

Just keeps getting better

Some prisoners freed under presidential amnesty did not meet necessary criteria

Mlada fronta Dnes reported that some judges made mistakes due to the fact they were dealing with so many cases in a short time period, while others have said the wording of the amnesty is unclear. The minister of justice, Pavel Blazek, said it was not possible to return prisoners who had been mistakenly released.

Santa Klaus's departing shot

Several stories in today's Cesky rozhlas quietly bask in a recent error of judgement by the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus. After years of his dubious and often embarrassing stewardship, his second and final term is wending its way to its natural, and in the view of many, belated end. It's been in my diary for almost four years. Fee Fi Fo Fum, how can I get up everyone's bum, he must've been pondering his departing shot ...  As an expert, he probably didn't have to overly exercise his synapses for an extended period.

An amateur might have poisoned the air with anthrax, poisoned the rivers with pesticides or mercury, or even poisoned streetside vendors' alcoholic beverages. But an arch professional chooses instead to release thousands and thousands of prisoners and halt the judicial processes of many cases.

Such is the public outrage, that across the nation they are ripping his portrait from their town halls and classrooms, while those amnestied return to a life of crime, terrifying the nation to some extent, but mainly outraging their sense of justice - literally. Shakespeare may yet have one of them assassinate him.

So, one can imagine Santa Klaus's delight to learn today that two German tourists, mugged by amnestees, in turn apprehended them. BTW Mr Klaus, don't piss Germany off - she is a better friend to the soil that you now soil, than she has been in the living memories of most of your subjects, including centenarians, which was also reported in Cesky rozhlas today: 1,103 of them.

El sistema blows my mind off the adjectival planet

La sistema must surely be the envy of the world. A generation of kids brought up with free music tuition across a nation far removed from the white first world where the music they play originates. But they are not polite young musicians - there is all the wild testosterone in their playing that clearly excites European audiences, who normally hear beautifully nuanced performances of The Repertoire by their (our?) orchestras. The Last Night of the Proms is a fair exception. But how about this: not a bad headline for these kids: Dudamel and Bolivar Orchestra spark an audience frenzy at Symphony Center – Chicago Classical Review. 

Now when they play for this TED talk, they really look like a bunch of kids before they start. The intellectual precision of their playing is astounding. It'd be impressive for Chicago or Berlin, but my god, these are kids, dressed up as kids. And the director of photography has unashamedly made the most of this. 

I don't want to sound like a big fat white snob, but those kids don't look the part. Youth orchestras are usually made up of clean skinned white elegant polite smart kids. When I played in Sydney Youth Orchestra, our principal violinist was brought to and from rehearsal by a chauffeur. Yes,  I know, egalitarian Australia - ha! The kids here look like they've been dragged up from somewhere. It suits my agenda very well to assume that these kids are exactly that. According to Wikipedia, 70 to 90% of the kids who play in the 125 youth orchestras across the country come from poor socio-economic backgrounds. Did you say 125 youth orchestras?

I live in the Czech Republic, a country with a pretty good history of music- think Smetana, Dvorak, Martinu and Janacek for a start. And Venezuela with c 30 mill inhabitants has three times the population. And yet how many extraordinary youth orchestras does CR sport? One third of 125? Not on your nellie. 

It is interesting watching the audience in LA's response to the "incredible high school musicians from Venezuala" as the Ted Talk production is entitled. They look as though they are applauding an orchestra which is playing well. But they do not get what is behind it. If they did, they would be in tears, or silent. Or someone would say something. I don't think they don't get it. 

Here is someone who gets it: 

From Chile, I have the pleasure and orgasm of present you the Great Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra with The National Youth Choir of Great Britain, ...

commenting on  Dudamel conducting the Bolivar Orch in Mahler 2nd at the Proms.

OMG.

International artists pay for tapestry in Vaclav Havel's honour

Musicians Bono, The Edge, Peter Gabriel, Sting and Yoko Ono have paid for a large tapestry in honour of the late Czech president Vaclav Havel which will be unveiled at Prague's Vaclav Havel Airport next month, a spokeswoman for the airport said. The tapestry, designed by Czech artist Petr Sis, cost CZK 1.5 million, or USD 75,000. The artists have been invited for the unveiling which will take place on December 9, the spokeswoman said but it's not clear if they'll arrive for the occasion. The former Czech president, playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel passed away on December 18, 2011, at the age of 75.

This news story, as usual, comes from Cesky rozhlas this very day. It is interesting that the story cannot be found on their website in Czech of in English. The story comes to me in my daily English email, and it was not in today's Czech email. Apparently someone thinks that this story is of interest only to speakers of English, many of whom may well be Czech.

HOW VERY VERY RUDE

Airport attendees note absence of President Klaus (5th Oct 2012 Cesky Rozhlas)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The absence of President Vaclav Klaus from Friday's airport ceremony was remarked upon and even criticised by a number of the VIP guests in attendance. Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra and Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda both said they would have expected the president to attend. The author of the plan to rename the airport, producer Fero Fenic, said he was disappointed by the president's absence, as he had hoped Mr Klaus would be consistent in the admiration he had shown for his predecessor at Mr Havel's funeral last December. Mr Klaus did not give a reason for not attending and his schedule for the day was unknown. Presidents Klaus and Havel were generally considered to be heated political rivals and distant from one another personally and professionally.


James' Comment: 
This is not appropriate behaviour for a president
I don't like President Klaus any more.
By the time I take Cz citizenship, he will no longer be president.

Self-taught flautist

This young man has taught himself to play the flute. I just heard him say so on a BBC World Service piece on the Iraqi Youth Orchestra. The same we heard about a double bass player and a cellist.
What extraordinary obstacles they have overcome to be what they are and, at the moment, where they are: the Bonn Beethoven Festival. Deutsche Welle story here.

When did we last see a new storys that related to any improvement in this country?

The headlines of the five news stories today in Cesky rozhlas

• Police president Petr Lessy has been sacked after being accused of libel and abuse of public office.
• Vit Barta has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court over his suspended sentence for bribery.
• President Vaclav Klaus wants assurances before signing the church property restitution bill.
• Martin Knetig, former aid to the Environment Minister, has been acquitted of corruption charges.
• Government looks favorably on Senate's proposal to get rid of lifelong immunity for lawmakers and consitutional court judges.

One wonders how the government has time to govern, when so much time and money is spent on weeding out one form of corruption after another.

The times they are a-changing. Slowly but surely

2006 Dec 30, Saddam Hussein - sentenced to death by hanging
2011 May 2, Osama bin Laden - carefully orchestrated blitz execution
2011 Oct 20, Muammar Gaddafi - killed by NTC forces
2012 May 30 Charles Taylor - sentenced to 50 years
2012 June 2nd, Hozny Mubarek - sentence to 25 years half an hour ago

A couple of days ago, Aung San Suu Kyi made her first foreign visit in decades.
Still at large, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali - Tunisia.

Still committing atrocities:

• Bashar al-Assad - Syria
• Israel

Who knows what's happening in

• Russia, the Sudans, Congo, Zimbabwe, Somalia, and too too many etc?

Where are the trillions these despots siphon off? In Swiss banks alongside Jewish wealth the Nazis deposited there? In  Swiss banks alongside anonymous accounts that makes tax dodging an extreme sport?

Do profiteers from Swiss bank accounts realise that if the money were in the right hands, the economies of many African nations would be full of shoppers? Their lives would improve X-fold. And when MacDonalds, KFC, Gucci, Sony, Samsung, Colgate, Volkswagen, et al  sell there, their shareholders can make even bigger profits that return to the Big White Nations.

So, Swiss bankers and extreme sport tax dodgers, you'll get your money in any case. Why not get it via other people's improved lives rather than through their impoverished lives?

Just curious: what do you do with all that money you've got tucked away in these bank accounts?

Euro MP sends Chilean president "replacement" pen

Edvard Kožušník

Chile's president, Sebastian Pinero, has been sent a ceremonial pen to replace one pocketed by the Czech head-of-state last year. Video of President Vaclav Klaus taking the pen while Mr Pinero was speaking in Chile went viral on the internet and the incident was reported on by many media outlets. The sending of replacement pen was Euro MP Edvard Kozusnik's idea: a humorous gesture by the member of the Civic Democratic Party originally founded by Mr Klaus. The Czech news agency reported that the new pen, manufactured in the Czech Republic, cost 12.000 crowns.
=========
In the same edition of Cesky rozhlas, it is reported that the foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, has presented 12 laureates with the Gratias Agit award for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad.

Can you guess which pen-snatcher wasn't among the 12. Jay Leno presents the original news story here, and a Klaus resistant pen can be seen here.
=========

Yet, what one reads (Wikipedia) about Mr Kozusnik does give one hope. Not just a pretty face. He does speak five language fluently and is married to a Spanish woman. And he rode a bicycle to Strasbourg.  There's more about him and his position as vice president of New Directions (not to be confused with the homophone  nude erections). And don't be alarmed by the picture of Meryl Streep's lookalike should you click on New Directions.

Priscilla Klaus

Just watched Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and a mighty fine bus she is too. I thought it untopable until I read Cesky rozhlas news just now.

The German press has reported that President Vaclav Klaus never received the Konrad Adenauer Prize, which he threatened to return last week. Mr Klaus wrote to the foundation last Thursday saying he would return the prize to protest their cancellation of a appearance by one of his former advisors at an upcoming conference. The president's website also says he received the award in 1993. However, the Frankfurter Algemeine has revealed that Mr Klaus never received the prize, and was only awarded an honorary diploma by the foundation's Prague branch, which it says was seeking good relations with then Prime Minister Klaus.

I think the President's website should read Wikipedia. It clearly states that the last prize was awarded in 2001, and its list of laureates unequivocally includes not one Vaclav.

Time I goed to New York to see Priscilla live on stage. What say you?

There would be a lot less violence in the world if ...

... if all animals were herbivores.

Zebras are herbivores.

Less than two weeks after posting this, the BBC Nature section reports research into why zebras evolved their stripes. The article is here.

From a linguistic point of view and one that represents the real world, it seemed odd to me that [animate creature] evolves [feature]. There are many transitive uses of this verb. The most frequent objects of the verb, according to the BNC, are shown in this screen shot from the Sketch Engine. These items clearly belong to a lexical set we might entitle approaches, thus
[person/organisation] evolves [approach].

Most other transitive uses of evolve have representatives of the animal kingdom as their subject, the implication being that the speakers/writers accept that the
creatures manipulate their environment over a long period to acquire the feature they now have. Another example:

Several groups of them specialise in this diet and each has evolved a long sticky tongue entirely independently...

However, the verb is far more frequently used intransitively and in perfect forms, e.g.,

The character of the British countryside has evolved due to changing agricultural, industrial and recreational pressures ...

 I would say that this is a good example of the verb being used ergatively. See Wikipedia on this topic.

Indebted town's former mayor charged with fraud

The former mayor of the heavily indebted town Chlumec in the north-west of the country, has been charged withfraud, abuse of power and other crimes related to the town's debt.Prosecutors said that Mr Hanusch, who served as the town's mayor between the early 1990s and 2009, oversaw a series of overpriced contracts which brought the town to insolvency; as a result, Chlumec lost some of its property including the town hall building. The damages caused by the former mayor are estimated at nearly 22 million crowns.

Tunnel into my child's education

Education Ministry may see its EU funds suspended

The Education Ministry may see its EU finding suspended over irregularities in public procurement. Auditors from Brussels have advised suspending all further payments from the Education for Competitiveness Operational Programme until the irregularities are investigated and explained. The ministry can draw up to 53 billion crowns from this source. Ministry officials are reportedly working to resolve the problem in the hope of preventing a freeze on funding. The present administration says it is not to blame for the shortcomings which date back to 2008 and 2009 and has promised to heighten control mechanisms without delay.

Once again, this comes from Cesky rozhlas, and on its site, the wording differs. It begins: Education Minister Josef Dobeš is under pressure to resign over irregularities in EU-funded projects.
Do I care? Well, I don't have a child of my own, but I train teachers who have students. A lot of people are missing out on what money can buy, and what the EU is making available to the Czech Republic in the name of European equality, while finances are being diverted into hitherto unaccountable holes. Yep, I really care.

An old Persian saying

If you trip over a pebble, it was an Englishman who put it there.