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Sofistica

I'm happy to announce that I'll be DJing a new night at the Tulip Lounge, Opatovická 3, Praha 1. It's called "Sofistica" and it's intended to be a club night for grownups - the idea being that there are lots of people who would like to go out to a club, people who grew up on house music, but are put off by the teen-oriented music on offer in many local clubs. I'll be trading Friday nights with ADM, who is of a similar mind on these things.

I'll be playing some of what I usually play - latin electronica - but with a laid-back, West Coast (read as: Naked Music) vibe. With a lot of Nicola Conte thrown in for good measure.

Hope to see you there this Friday, May 21 at the Tulip Lounge (downstairs at the Tulip Cafe).

Iveta Gets Her Ugly On

What was I thinking? In my eagerness to cover a couple of inconsequential and entirely meaningless stories about corruption, I almost missed the real news of the day, as brought to you by the ever-Iveta-obsessed editors of Blesk: Iveta Bartošová put on some ugly makeup for a taping of the game/talk show Nikdo není dokonalý (Nobody's Perfect).

This is Number 111 in the Blesk Iveta Count.

Police Raid City Halls

Ace investigative reporter Sabina Slonková - yes, that Sabina Slonková, the one who had a contract out on her life due to her aggressive investigation into corruption at the highest levels of the Foreign Ministry - is back with a vengeance.

Slonková left MFDnes last year in disgust over her Bavarian publishers' spiking of an investigation into Karlovy Vary Film Festival finances - the publishers said it would harm MFD's advertising income - but she has come back strong with a lead story in today's Hospodářské noviny on a widening corruption investigation into local governments' handling of public funds.

One of the names being investigated is none other than right-wing nutjob Miroslav Sladek. Sladek, you'll recall, after being run out of parliament on a rail, managed to goon-and-thug his way into a mayorship outside Brno.

Here's the excellent story from today's Hospodářské noviny by Sabina Slonková and Radek Kedroň. The translation is mine:

Football Scandal Threatens Entire League

This stupid visa stuff has kept me away from the growing football corruption scandal for a couple of days, but it shows every sign of deepening.

Here is the latest football story from MFDnes, in my translation:

Football Scandal Threatens Entire League

If police manage to bring every prepared case to a close in the football corruption scandal, it could reach as far as 14 of 16 first league teams, MF Dnes was told by a trustworthy source in police headquarters.

Only two teams are considered to have little to no evidence of corruption, the police source said.

Police have so far charged one manager of [the] Synot [football club], who managed to bribe five first league referees. When and how further charges will come is a closely-guarded secret among both police and state prosecutors. "I will not comment in any way," said Milan Šiška, deputy of the anti-corruption services.

"I need to get acquainted with the evidence materials. But I can't rule out that, after studying the documents, a widening of criminal charges would come. That is something I can't share with you," said Kroměříž state prosecutor Pavel Pukovec, who is supervising the entire case.

Information that the entire league could be corruption could be suspect shocked Czech Football Association Vice Chairman Milan Brabec. "This can't be possible. If it were true, I don't even want to think of what would happen. It would have tragic consequences for football," he said.

According to MF Dnes' trustworthy information police have decided to wait with wider charges, possibly until July, so that Czech representation in the European Championships in Portugal can have a smooth run.

"We have a deadline of July 10 from the state prosecutor for presenting all evaluated evidence. But it isn't true that we would keep our eye on the European Championship," Šiška said. "I give the decision to widen the charges two months," Pukovec admitted.

"If there are charges to come, they will come in the beginning of July. I have this kind of information from the state prosecutor. They already want to avoid doing it piece by piece, pulling them out like rabbits from a hat. If the charges will come down, they will come down at once," Football Association Chairman Jan Obst told MF Dnes.

Česko hledá supernázev

An interesting debate has opened up over the use of the term Česko (Czechia) instead of Česka Republika (Czech Republic). As a front page story in today's MFDnes put it, "the country of Kafka, Jagr and good beer doesn't know what to call itself."

Linguists, politicians and historians discussed the issue yesterday in a special Senate hearing, and the point made was simple: It's OK to use Česko.

"We want to tell people that there's nothing strange or silly about the term," Leoš Janeček, of Charles University's Department of Social Geography, told MF Dnes.

The term isn't widely used, and despite the efforts of various experts, when it is used it seems somehow odd or foreign. The most common usage today is in the title of the wildly popular Pop Idol franchise "Česko hledá superstar" (Czechia Seeks Its Superstar). You hear "Dobrý den Česko," from time to time on TV Nova's breakfast program, but when it's spoken from the relentlessly cheery and well-scrubbed hosts it sounds even more odd.

Some of the speakers in yesterday's Senate hearing tried to argue that the Czechs are the only country in the 25-member European Union with a two-word name, and that a one-word name like Česko would help the country's good reputation and, by extension, increase trade.

One good remark came from the otherwise goosebump-inducing Senator Vladimír Železný, who pointed out that some manufacturers are using "Made in Czech" on their tags. This is taken by foreign colleagues to mean "Made in a Czech," which is either nonsensical or disgusting.

"Czech Republic" has its supporters, though. It is one of the rare things both Václavs, Klaus and Havel, agree on. "When I hear it, I get the sensation of slugs crawling up my back," Havel is quoted as saying.

Many people back home also don't know to say "the Czech Republic." I hear, "so when are you going back to Czech?" That is to say, when I don't hear "Czechoslovakia." What I try to ignore is the unusually large number of people who ask me when I'm leaving, as if I smell bad or something, but I digress. At least they're not saying "Yugoslovakia," as I once heard.

Česko translated into English is "Czechia," which creeps me out. It connotes a fairytale land, maybe next door to Narnia, but definitely in Middle Earth. Maybe because the extension of that would be "Czechians," which is entirely wrong. Besides, for us dumb furriners, "Czechia" sounds dangerously close to "Chechnya."

Will Česko make the big time? Tough to say. It will be an uphill battle, probably like the imposition of the metric system in the UK: by now most people grudgingly accept the metric system because it is more logical, more regular, and makes sense. But that doesn't mean people have to like it.

UPDATED 130504 06:15: Theo gives his opinion here, and the ever-mysterious Nicmoc opines here.

Visa blues

I have two colleagues coming to Prague from West Africa for a five-day training later this month, and we've all been in visa hell.

We had to produce the official Letter of Invitation, which you can only get by going over to the Foreigners' Police and waiting in line. The letters of invitation had to be sent by DHL so that they would get there in time.

My colleague from Sierra Leone has to travel to Accra, Ghana, in order to get his Czech visa, because Accra is where the Czechs handle requests from Sierra Leone.

My Nigerian colleague has to pay a $2,000 cash deposit in order to secure her Czech visa.

But then they have to secure transit visas for their two-hour layovers in European hub airports. My colleague from Sierra Leone has to travel back to Freetown with the Czech visa, so that the British High Commission can issue the transit visa.

My colleague from Nigeria has to travel from Abuja, where she lives, to Lagos, where she can get her German transit visa.

And before any of you start to say idiotic bullshit like "well, just try getting a [fill in the blank, most probably US] visa," just remember that it doesn't make my colleagues' troubles any easier.