There is a pattern: the United States is having problems imposing democracy on religious zealots in Iraq, the Netherlands is being legally and democratically overrun by Muslims and their undemocratic laws and customs, the European Community is failing and falling apart because of the unwise decision to include undeveloped East European countries. Now Turkey wants in as well? Who will be next claimant to "Europeanism"? Kazakhstan with Borat? It is truly an imperfect fit. The book "An Imperfect Fit" by Vit Klemes is the most important book since Francis Fukuyama published his "The End of History and the Last Man" and along with Mark Steyn's "America Alone" is required reading for any thinking man today.
The deeply philosophic book ponders principles of democracy and its future and the future isn’t so bright, so put away your shades. Dr. Klemes writes: "The defining characteristic of modern liberal democrats has been their belief that man is 'fundamentally good' and that the goodness of his nature will come to the surface once he is freed from oppression and want and his actions are guided by 'free choice". This belief can now be put to the test in the advanced democracies of the West which have essentially satisfied these conditions thus providing man with an unprecented opportunity to demonstrate the fundamental goodness of human nature in practice."
This writer believes that the level of civilization is determined by the level of respect towards human life - not by the length of the existence of that particular brand of "civilization". Therefore is quite irrelevant if the Chinese or Indian civilization are 6000 or 4000 years old - their killing of unborn female fetuses or throwing of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands puts them into an awkward position. They are not fully compatible with the great democracy of the West. They are truly an imperfect fit.
Author Vit Klemes writes at length about all three dimensions of democracy - liberty, equality, and fraternity and worries about the greatest danger facing democracy today - 'outdemocratizing' itself into self-destruction. It is quite ironic that we can use a former countryman of Vit Klemes (who was born in Czechoslovakia) the president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus, as a shining example of this dilemma about outdemocratizing democracies into self-destruction and about the incompatibility of seemingly democratic countries of the East - here comes the pun about "wicked" countries of the East ("wicked" being a term used throughout the book).
The president of the Czech republic, Vaclav Klaus is a quite despicable character, "Ahmadinejad of Eastern Europe with Papa Doc Duvalier attitude", the man who put "r" into arrogant, a person of questionable loyalties, a man with a shady past, a statesman with better relations to Mongolia and Russia than to any country in the West, "persona non grata" in Washington, D.C. and yet he is loved, admired and democratically elected by his own people! Yet leaders of other "wicked countries of the East" are sometimes even worse than poor Klaus - look at Belarus' Lukashenko or Russia's Putin. The chasm in their respective societies is widening and their countries are well on course towards Balkanization. What then? Total incompatibility! An imperfect fit! The collapse of democracy!
Some (like me) believe that with the rise of islamo-fascism and the death of communism being more wishful thinking than fact that we would be much better off with the Iron Curtain still standing. Vit Klemes believes that there is something better coming. Allow me to quote again from his book: "Herein lie the seeds of democracy's self-destruction. However, such a prospect need not necessarily be viewed with alarm and apprehension since it would be a consequence of the system's departure from the realities of life and its unviability. And there would be no reason to mourn the collapse of an unviable system - even if it bears the cherished noble name of democracy - for there is always a possibility that a more viable one may rise from its ashes: after all, it is the substance that counts, not the name."
After reading Vit Klemes' book An Imperfect Fit and watching the daily news, I concluded that his summary of the state of things in not-so-civilized countries is still sort of an understatement. It should not be An Imperfect Fit. It should be Unfit.
---
Vit Klemes - An Imperfect Fit - Advanced democracy and human nature - ISBN 1-4120-1789-0
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
The Greatest Cold War Story Ever Told
The Naval Institute Press in Annapolis, Maryland published a dazzling, accomplished book by Barbara Masin called Gauntlet. I was surprised by the title, as I had previously read the older, differently named, version of the manuscript supplied to me by the author. When I hear the word Gauntlet, the Clint Eastwood movie of the same name always pops into my mind specifically the final scene of an old and rugged Clint running the gauntlet (or driving in his case) through the streets of Phoenix, being shot at from all sides, with high hopes and sense of duty, only to arrive on the steps of city hall to find a conclusion that he did not really like. Then it struck me - the finely crafted story told to us by Barbara Masin is in many facets and angles very similar, but very real and with an added epic weight.
It is a story of five young men, brothers Ctirad and Josef Masin (who is to become Barbara Masin's own father), Milan Paumer, Vaclav Sveda and Zbynek Janata, who in October 1953 fled communist Czechoslovakia on foot and shot their way through equally communist East Germany to West Berlin. It was the culmination and grand finale of their anti-Communist resistance activities, going in the footsteps of their legendary father and their families - and that it where the "gauntlet" comes into play. East German StaSi and VoPo mobilized over twenty thousand soldiers and policemen to capture the five young men.
They eventually captured two out of the five and promptly gave them to Czech commies to be executed, with many other relatives - but the Masin brothers and Milan Paumer (with a gunshot wound in the stomach) finished their run of the gauntlet to West Berlin. The book is a gripping thriller that would make Robert Ludlum proud - with one big distinction: this was not fantasy, this was a real life story and even those unfamiliar with the harsh realities of Eastern Europe in the dark ages of the Cold war will be sucked into the action. The realism of the story is chilling and makes it next to impossible to put the book down.
The Masin family was far from ordinary and the book follows the story of several generations in the family. Josef Masin, the father (1896-1942), was a soldier, hero of both world wars, member of Czechoslovak Legions in WWI, which fought their way across Russia and Siberia to the Pacific Ocean and was a member of the underground resistance against the Nazis. His sons, Ctirad (b. 1930), Josef (b. 1932) and daughter Zdena (b. 1933) were the next generation. Their mother, Zdena Masinova, although she did not know about her sons activites and escape plans, was sentenced to 25 years of prison and died in prison soon afterwards in horrific conditions. Their uncle Ctibor Novak was executed together with Vaclav Sveda and Zbynek Janata. Multiple friends and relatives were also executed or imprisoned - even if they knew nothing about the Masin brothers’ group’s anti-Communist activities.
The Masin brothers still have not set foot back in their native land. Today the Czech Republic is still only marginally free and allegedly democratic, but the majority of its population, after more than fifty years of constant brainwashing, has quite a ridiculous attitude about their own history and the role they themselves played in it. The Masin brothers and Milan Paumer are repeatedly nominated for the highest of Czech awards, only to be rejected by the communist-dominated Czech government. Yet other Czech politicians are afraid to take a clear stance in this case. Poorly educated, brainwashed for multiple generations and generally fearful, the population of today’s Czech Republic seems to lack the guts needed to push the issue through.
Nevertheless, the Masins and Paumer are held in high regard by the community of Czechs and former-Czechs living abroad, who in contrast to the inhabitants of the Czech and Slovak Republics, are familiar with the experience of fleeing to the West at the risk of one's life, and seem to be Masin's admirers: in 2005, the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada gave the Thomas Masaryk Award to the Masin brothers and Milan Paumer.
The Masin brothers and Milan Paumer were heroes. In this context heroes are individuals, who by example of their own bravery are able to inspire the masses. And inspire they did. Close to 1 million former Czechs and Slovaks now happily live abroad.
Czechoslovakia is from the historic point of view quite an unfortunate country - it was a truly free country for only twenty years (1918-1938) of their 1500 or so year history. By becoming Americans, the Masins and Paumer found - not that they planned it that way - the end of their rainbow. Czechoslovakia probably was not destined to be free, then or now - so those of us - inspired by the Masins - those of us who had freedom embedded in our DNA just had to go and become Americans. Which isn’t bad at all, considering where we came from and what most of us have been through.
The Czech translation of the original manuscript was published in the Czech Republic about a year ago under the name "Odkaz". Since then, an additional seven months of research was added to the book for its English edition. It is a fast read and sure to delight anybody from history buffs and thriller aficionados right down to elderly cancelled Czechs who want their English-speaking children and grandchildren to read about their ancestors old country which never came to be free. It serves as a fine introduction for those unfamiliar with the history of that sad part of the world. A must for every library. This intense and amazing story is, without doubt, the greatest Cold war story ever told.
Thank you, Joe, Ray and Milan. And thank you all, who died on the way here. You all were and are our heroes and inspiration.
---------------
Gauntlet. (Five Friends, 20,000 Enemy Troops, and the Secret That Could Have Changed the Course of the Cold War) - by Barbara Masin, Published by Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 21402, ISBN 1-59114-515-5 384 pages, Printed in the U.S.A.
http://www.gauntletinfo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masin
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2006/Art/0810/tempo1.php
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/52502/limit
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/1027/news1.php
It is a story of five young men, brothers Ctirad and Josef Masin (who is to become Barbara Masin's own father), Milan Paumer, Vaclav Sveda and Zbynek Janata, who in October 1953 fled communist Czechoslovakia on foot and shot their way through equally communist East Germany to West Berlin. It was the culmination and grand finale of their anti-Communist resistance activities, going in the footsteps of their legendary father and their families - and that it where the "gauntlet" comes into play. East German StaSi and VoPo mobilized over twenty thousand soldiers and policemen to capture the five young men.
They eventually captured two out of the five and promptly gave them to Czech commies to be executed, with many other relatives - but the Masin brothers and Milan Paumer (with a gunshot wound in the stomach) finished their run of the gauntlet to West Berlin. The book is a gripping thriller that would make Robert Ludlum proud - with one big distinction: this was not fantasy, this was a real life story and even those unfamiliar with the harsh realities of Eastern Europe in the dark ages of the Cold war will be sucked into the action. The realism of the story is chilling and makes it next to impossible to put the book down.
The Masin family was far from ordinary and the book follows the story of several generations in the family. Josef Masin, the father (1896-1942), was a soldier, hero of both world wars, member of Czechoslovak Legions in WWI, which fought their way across Russia and Siberia to the Pacific Ocean and was a member of the underground resistance against the Nazis. His sons, Ctirad (b. 1930), Josef (b. 1932) and daughter Zdena (b. 1933) were the next generation. Their mother, Zdena Masinova, although she did not know about her sons activites and escape plans, was sentenced to 25 years of prison and died in prison soon afterwards in horrific conditions. Their uncle Ctibor Novak was executed together with Vaclav Sveda and Zbynek Janata. Multiple friends and relatives were also executed or imprisoned - even if they knew nothing about the Masin brothers’ group’s anti-Communist activities.
The Masin brothers still have not set foot back in their native land. Today the Czech Republic is still only marginally free and allegedly democratic, but the majority of its population, after more than fifty years of constant brainwashing, has quite a ridiculous attitude about their own history and the role they themselves played in it. The Masin brothers and Milan Paumer are repeatedly nominated for the highest of Czech awards, only to be rejected by the communist-dominated Czech government. Yet other Czech politicians are afraid to take a clear stance in this case. Poorly educated, brainwashed for multiple generations and generally fearful, the population of today’s Czech Republic seems to lack the guts needed to push the issue through.
Nevertheless, the Masins and Paumer are held in high regard by the community of Czechs and former-Czechs living abroad, who in contrast to the inhabitants of the Czech and Slovak Republics, are familiar with the experience of fleeing to the West at the risk of one's life, and seem to be Masin's admirers: in 2005, the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada gave the Thomas Masaryk Award to the Masin brothers and Milan Paumer.
The Masin brothers and Milan Paumer were heroes. In this context heroes are individuals, who by example of their own bravery are able to inspire the masses. And inspire they did. Close to 1 million former Czechs and Slovaks now happily live abroad.
Czechoslovakia is from the historic point of view quite an unfortunate country - it was a truly free country for only twenty years (1918-1938) of their 1500 or so year history. By becoming Americans, the Masins and Paumer found - not that they planned it that way - the end of their rainbow. Czechoslovakia probably was not destined to be free, then or now - so those of us - inspired by the Masins - those of us who had freedom embedded in our DNA just had to go and become Americans. Which isn’t bad at all, considering where we came from and what most of us have been through.
The Czech translation of the original manuscript was published in the Czech Republic about a year ago under the name "Odkaz". Since then, an additional seven months of research was added to the book for its English edition. It is a fast read and sure to delight anybody from history buffs and thriller aficionados right down to elderly cancelled Czechs who want their English-speaking children and grandchildren to read about their ancestors old country which never came to be free. It serves as a fine introduction for those unfamiliar with the history of that sad part of the world. A must for every library. This intense and amazing story is, without doubt, the greatest Cold war story ever told.
Thank you, Joe, Ray and Milan. And thank you all, who died on the way here. You all were and are our heroes and inspiration.
---------------
Gauntlet. (Five Friends, 20,000 Enemy Troops, and the Secret That Could Have Changed the Course of the Cold War) - by Barbara Masin, Published by Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 21402, ISBN 1-59114-515-5 384 pages, Printed in the U.S.A.
http://www.gauntletinfo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masin
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2006/Art/0810/tempo1.php
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/52502/limit
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/1027/news1.php
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
How the West Was Lost...
You know what NATO is otherwise you would not be reading this article. What is intriguing is its membership. The founding members (as of April 4, 1949) were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and the United States. It made perfect logical sense. More countries were later added to the roster: Greece and Turkey on February 18, 1952 and Germany on May 9, 1955. Germany expanded to include the territory of Saarland, when it was returned in 1957 and then again to include the former East Germany after the German re-unification of October 3, 1990. Eventually Spain joined on May 30, 1982. So far so good.
On March 12, 1999 logic and common sense were unceremoniously thrown out the window when the allegedly democratic and former Warsaw Pact countries of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. A few years later on March 29, 2004 seven additional more-or-less communist countries joined NATO: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Liberals and communists of the world rejoiced everyone else went slack jawed with shock. It made almost as much sense as the Ku Klux Klan joining the NAACP or Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition. NATO was an international organization for collective security - meant for the west’s defense against the Soviet Union and its vassals - and now it’s being joined by the very countries against which it was supposed to fight?
All those new East European members of NATO have made only marginal steps towards democratization of their countries. Their membership in NATO renders this once powerful organization factually powerless and useless which was probably the intention of the authors of the idea of admitting them into NATO in the first place.
Only very superficial changes were made in governmental make up of all former countries of the Warsaw Pact. I will use the Czech Republic as an example to illustrate.
Czechoslovakia switched from being communist into being "democratic" under very suspicious and never fully explained circumstances on November 17, 1989, when the StB (the Czech secret police) organized "student demonstrations" in Prague. One youthful-looking StB officer, Ludvik Zifcak, even pretended to be "dead student Ruzicka" so the news flashes about the "tragedy" could be sent out to the world by Marxist journalist (no accident here) Petr Uhl to drum up sympathy and get things moving. Today Ludvik Zifcak is the chairman of one of the many Communist parties in the Czech Republic and no longer hides his true colors.
Next came the moment for the future darling of western leftist media and western Marxist university professors, writer Vaclav Havel. It was not so obvious then, but with twenty-plus years of hindsight, it is obvious that Vaclav Havel, a protégé from a prominent family, was groomed by the communist government for a big position in the future. That future started later with the so-called Velvet Revolution. The prominence of Vaclav Havel under the communist regime was obvious not only from his uninhibited traveling to the West at a time when ordinary Czechs had to stay put for decades (does nobody remember the Iron Curtain anymore?), but also from his driving around in expensive western cars when his compatriots could hardly afford a bicycle to pedal. This was a little too well known and therefore the communist planners decided to manufacture a plausibly deniable cover story for the future - for when the need would arise to present Havel as a martyr and opponent of the communist regime. So they imprisoned Vaclav Havel (well, it was more like a spa) to create an aura of a "prisoner of conscience". The world and the Czechs themselves took the bait. Vaclav Havel later put a big dent into his manufactured “poor tortured prisoner” cover story when his "Letters to Olga" were published. Letters to Olga were letters to his wife from prison and in which he describes his prison life. For example "smoking cigars" (page 5), "eating caviar" (page 16), "ordering cartons of different brand of cigarettes, the old one is not good enough" (page 61), "watching movies and TV" (page 85), "eating chocolates" (page 98), and "getting shipments of foreign vitamins" (page 107). He led the life of comfortable vacationer in every sense of the word. On a page 7 he writes about "getting massages". Poor prisoner Vaclav Havel how could he have endured the suffering of that hellish prison existence for so long?
On Dec. 29, 1989 the exclusively communist Czechoslovak parliament unanimously "elected" Vaclav Havel, an alleged enemy of the state until the day before, to the presidency of Czechoslovakia. Who says pigs can’t fly?
Then the events took a faster pace and started making even less sense. President Havel immediately pronounced a new policy of "Peace and Love" and ordered that there will be no prosecution or persecution of communists. Some of them, like the hard-line commie and then Prime Minister Marian Calfa, became "close friends" with Havel. During Havel’s 14 year presidency (which ended in February 2003) he never failed to protect his communist buddies, while at the same moment preaching to the West about human rights. Vaclav Havel gave lifetime tenure to old-time communist judges and presided over establishing "legal continuity" with the former communist regime and thus forever protected all communist criminals in justice, army, police and all branches of the government from ever being punished for their past crimes.
After the Czech Republic became a member of NATO on March 12, 1999, Havel sent former Warsaw Pact “ex-communist” officers as emissaries to Brussels - no other "senior officers" were apparently available! My guess is that all NATO military secrets reached KGB headquarters in Lubyanka Square about 15 minutes after they were entrusted to "NATO-Czech" officers. The same is true for all other "senior officers" from former Warsaw Pact countries that were sent to Brussels in similar fashion. By allowing those snakes into the house, NATO rendered itself ineffective and useless and can no longer be taken seriously as a military protective force and alliance. Whoever in NATO had the "bright idea" to allow Czechs, Poles and Hungarians into NATO to create a "buffer zone" between Western Europe did not realize that the Czechs, Poles and Hungarians are the proverbial Trojan horse. The enemy is no longer at the gates - with this stupid decision the enemy is now inside the gates.
And this is how the United States lost NATO without even knowing it.
What’s the current situation? Vaclav Havel, a key player in the elimination of NATO, has since "retired" and has become the world’s most successful collector of Honoris Causa doctoral titles from universities world-wide. If your school will plop another ridiculous title on him, yes, he is always willing to come and soliloquize a little. The power of communists and the influence of the Soviet Union (now Russia, whatever) on the countries of Eastern Europe never waned and the KGB’s grip on events remained firm. Communists switched the official names of their parties into something more acceptable to gullible Westerners and continue to rule.
Their formerly political power was smoothly transferred into economic power in one amazing trick - company bosses, which had always been a political appointment, simply became company owners in a very smooth transition to capitalism. In the most recent Czech and Slovak elections, the renamed political parties of ex-communists won the elections. They promised the moon and stars and the populace believed them.
And you thought that Islamofascism was a problem? Have you forgotten about the Evil Empire? They knocked NATO out cold without a single shot being fired. Just wait and see what they come up with next...
On March 12, 1999 logic and common sense were unceremoniously thrown out the window when the allegedly democratic and former Warsaw Pact countries of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. A few years later on March 29, 2004 seven additional more-or-less communist countries joined NATO: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Liberals and communists of the world rejoiced everyone else went slack jawed with shock. It made almost as much sense as the Ku Klux Klan joining the NAACP or Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition. NATO was an international organization for collective security - meant for the west’s defense against the Soviet Union and its vassals - and now it’s being joined by the very countries against which it was supposed to fight?
All those new East European members of NATO have made only marginal steps towards democratization of their countries. Their membership in NATO renders this once powerful organization factually powerless and useless which was probably the intention of the authors of the idea of admitting them into NATO in the first place.
Only very superficial changes were made in governmental make up of all former countries of the Warsaw Pact. I will use the Czech Republic as an example to illustrate.
Czechoslovakia switched from being communist into being "democratic" under very suspicious and never fully explained circumstances on November 17, 1989, when the StB (the Czech secret police) organized "student demonstrations" in Prague. One youthful-looking StB officer, Ludvik Zifcak, even pretended to be "dead student Ruzicka" so the news flashes about the "tragedy" could be sent out to the world by Marxist journalist (no accident here) Petr Uhl to drum up sympathy and get things moving. Today Ludvik Zifcak is the chairman of one of the many Communist parties in the Czech Republic and no longer hides his true colors.
Next came the moment for the future darling of western leftist media and western Marxist university professors, writer Vaclav Havel. It was not so obvious then, but with twenty-plus years of hindsight, it is obvious that Vaclav Havel, a protégé from a prominent family, was groomed by the communist government for a big position in the future. That future started later with the so-called Velvet Revolution. The prominence of Vaclav Havel under the communist regime was obvious not only from his uninhibited traveling to the West at a time when ordinary Czechs had to stay put for decades (does nobody remember the Iron Curtain anymore?), but also from his driving around in expensive western cars when his compatriots could hardly afford a bicycle to pedal. This was a little too well known and therefore the communist planners decided to manufacture a plausibly deniable cover story for the future - for when the need would arise to present Havel as a martyr and opponent of the communist regime. So they imprisoned Vaclav Havel (well, it was more like a spa) to create an aura of a "prisoner of conscience". The world and the Czechs themselves took the bait. Vaclav Havel later put a big dent into his manufactured “poor tortured prisoner” cover story when his "Letters to Olga" were published. Letters to Olga were letters to his wife from prison and in which he describes his prison life. For example "smoking cigars" (page 5), "eating caviar" (page 16), "ordering cartons of different brand of cigarettes, the old one is not good enough" (page 61), "watching movies and TV" (page 85), "eating chocolates" (page 98), and "getting shipments of foreign vitamins" (page 107). He led the life of comfortable vacationer in every sense of the word. On a page 7 he writes about "getting massages". Poor prisoner Vaclav Havel how could he have endured the suffering of that hellish prison existence for so long?
On Dec. 29, 1989 the exclusively communist Czechoslovak parliament unanimously "elected" Vaclav Havel, an alleged enemy of the state until the day before, to the presidency of Czechoslovakia. Who says pigs can’t fly?
Then the events took a faster pace and started making even less sense. President Havel immediately pronounced a new policy of "Peace and Love" and ordered that there will be no prosecution or persecution of communists. Some of them, like the hard-line commie and then Prime Minister Marian Calfa, became "close friends" with Havel. During Havel’s 14 year presidency (which ended in February 2003) he never failed to protect his communist buddies, while at the same moment preaching to the West about human rights. Vaclav Havel gave lifetime tenure to old-time communist judges and presided over establishing "legal continuity" with the former communist regime and thus forever protected all communist criminals in justice, army, police and all branches of the government from ever being punished for their past crimes.
After the Czech Republic became a member of NATO on March 12, 1999, Havel sent former Warsaw Pact “ex-communist” officers as emissaries to Brussels - no other "senior officers" were apparently available! My guess is that all NATO military secrets reached KGB headquarters in Lubyanka Square about 15 minutes after they were entrusted to "NATO-Czech" officers. The same is true for all other "senior officers" from former Warsaw Pact countries that were sent to Brussels in similar fashion. By allowing those snakes into the house, NATO rendered itself ineffective and useless and can no longer be taken seriously as a military protective force and alliance. Whoever in NATO had the "bright idea" to allow Czechs, Poles and Hungarians into NATO to create a "buffer zone" between Western Europe did not realize that the Czechs, Poles and Hungarians are the proverbial Trojan horse. The enemy is no longer at the gates - with this stupid decision the enemy is now inside the gates.
And this is how the United States lost NATO without even knowing it.
What’s the current situation? Vaclav Havel, a key player in the elimination of NATO, has since "retired" and has become the world’s most successful collector of Honoris Causa doctoral titles from universities world-wide. If your school will plop another ridiculous title on him, yes, he is always willing to come and soliloquize a little. The power of communists and the influence of the Soviet Union (now Russia, whatever) on the countries of Eastern Europe never waned and the KGB’s grip on events remained firm. Communists switched the official names of their parties into something more acceptable to gullible Westerners and continue to rule.
Their formerly political power was smoothly transferred into economic power in one amazing trick - company bosses, which had always been a political appointment, simply became company owners in a very smooth transition to capitalism. In the most recent Czech and Slovak elections, the renamed political parties of ex-communists won the elections. They promised the moon and stars and the populace believed them.
And you thought that Islamofascism was a problem? Have you forgotten about the Evil Empire? They knocked NATO out cold without a single shot being fired. Just wait and see what they come up with next...
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Slovakia. Tide is turning...
The political tide is turning in Slovakia - for the worse. During the recent elections the communists (under whatever new name they are hiding now) won. Slovak president Ivan Gasparovic named Robert Fico to be the new Slovak Prime Minister.
Sharing power in Fico's new government will be former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and the darling of Slovak nationalists Jan Slota. Vladimir Meciar (an ex-communist), the Prime Minister of Slovakia in the nineties, was and still is a nightmare of Slovak politics. In ruthlessness he could compete with Noriega (with whom he shares more than just some facial features) or any dictator up to Idi Amin Dada. During Meciar's rule, luxury cars turned car bombs were exploding in the streets on an almost daily basis (he blamed that on local mafiosi), his political opponents were persecuted or murdered (he blamed that on local mafiosi), the lucky ones hid abroad (he blamed that on local mafiosi I guess), some the not-so-lucky ones were blown up in their cars (he blamed that on local mafiosi), the son of the then-president was kidnapped (he blamed that on local mafiosi), and his mistress hanged herself (I do not recall, but I think he blamed that on local mafiosi too). During Meciar's government, Slovakia was on the brink of becoming a pariah of the civilized world. Now he is back in a position of power. Why? Has something changed?
Jan Slota is a national level politician, whose every third or fourth word in any given sentence in an earthy Slovak expletive, which can be translated as "whore." People just love it. He is a heavy-duty drinker. In his circles it is considered "standard." In the past, he has issued a call for everybody to get into tanks and to attack Budapest, which happens to be the capital city of neighboring Hungary.
And Robert Fico himself? A young spineless lawyer, populist and an ex-communist, a ladder-climber even during the communist regime, a member of the communist nomenklatura, who after the so-called Velvet Revolution founded a political party so extremely left of center that he was disliked even in the Socialist International organization - and they love any communist nut. It is not known if he has drawn any likable pictures of the streets of old Vienna.
And the above-mentioned three nuts were just put back into a position of power in Slovakia. By democratic elections no less.
They say that some birds are not meant to be caged, because their feathers are too bright. In the same fashion we can state, that some countries were not meant to be democratic, because ... well, whatdayathink? Maybe the Iron curtain came down far too soon. And do not tell me that Eastern Europeans have the right to democratically elect commies if they want to. They don't. There are a lot of historical precedents. If you will go to the library and look it up (or Google it!) you will find that even Adolf Hitler did not get to power in a violent way. Hitler, meine Liebsten, was democratically elected.
Sharing power in Fico's new government will be former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and the darling of Slovak nationalists Jan Slota. Vladimir Meciar (an ex-communist), the Prime Minister of Slovakia in the nineties, was and still is a nightmare of Slovak politics. In ruthlessness he could compete with Noriega (with whom he shares more than just some facial features) or any dictator up to Idi Amin Dada. During Meciar's rule, luxury cars turned car bombs were exploding in the streets on an almost daily basis (he blamed that on local mafiosi), his political opponents were persecuted or murdered (he blamed that on local mafiosi), the lucky ones hid abroad (he blamed that on local mafiosi I guess), some the not-so-lucky ones were blown up in their cars (he blamed that on local mafiosi), the son of the then-president was kidnapped (he blamed that on local mafiosi), and his mistress hanged herself (I do not recall, but I think he blamed that on local mafiosi too). During Meciar's government, Slovakia was on the brink of becoming a pariah of the civilized world. Now he is back in a position of power. Why? Has something changed?
Jan Slota is a national level politician, whose every third or fourth word in any given sentence in an earthy Slovak expletive, which can be translated as "whore." People just love it. He is a heavy-duty drinker. In his circles it is considered "standard." In the past, he has issued a call for everybody to get into tanks and to attack Budapest, which happens to be the capital city of neighboring Hungary.
And Robert Fico himself? A young spineless lawyer, populist and an ex-communist, a ladder-climber even during the communist regime, a member of the communist nomenklatura, who after the so-called Velvet Revolution founded a political party so extremely left of center that he was disliked even in the Socialist International organization - and they love any communist nut. It is not known if he has drawn any likable pictures of the streets of old Vienna.
And the above-mentioned three nuts were just put back into a position of power in Slovakia. By democratic elections no less.
They say that some birds are not meant to be caged, because their feathers are too bright. In the same fashion we can state, that some countries were not meant to be democratic, because ... well, whatdayathink? Maybe the Iron curtain came down far too soon. And do not tell me that Eastern Europeans have the right to democratically elect commies if they want to. They don't. There are a lot of historical precedents. If you will go to the library and look it up (or Google it!) you will find that even Adolf Hitler did not get to power in a violent way. Hitler, meine Liebsten, was democratically elected.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Czechs in EU - was it a mistake?
I remember about thirty years ago I read Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Vonnegut, with his well-known fondness for Germans, was explaining with the aid of his child-like drawings how it was with Germans and WWII. There was a doodle of the German flag with a swastika in the middle and a caption that dryly noted: "This was the German flag, when the Germans were sick." A few lines beneath that was a similar drawing, but without the swastika and a caption saying: "This was the German flag, after the Germans got well." A genius in simplicity.
I wish somebody would figure out a similarly simple explanation of what was the reasoning to accept the Czech Republic (or any other East European countries for that matter) into NATO and subsequently into the EU as well. At the time it sounded like a good idea to have them in NATO and the EU and have them act as a buffer between Western Europe and Russia, because for sure they did not qualify militarily, economically or as a sufficiently civilized society.
If it was a suspicion then, time proved the correctness of that suspicion now. The Germans went through "denazification" and to a large extent they cleansed their society of an element of evil - the Nazis. Look it up in any encyclopedia and you will find that communism has killed about ten times as many people as nazism did. All those Hitlers, Eichmanns and Heydrichs were just bumbling amateurs compared to their communist counterparts. In spite of all that, communism and communists were never punished for their crimes against humanity. Exactly the opposite - former communists are back in power in most countries of Eastern Europe and they are being freely elected to plush offices representing their countries at EU headquarters in Brussels. They say they are not communists anymore. Well, would you elect Heinrich Himmler to EU office just because he wore a different kind of uniform?
The same countries are also members of NATO - formerly a defense alliance against the Empire of Evil. When countries of the Empire of Evil joined NATO without bothering to change to true democracy the purpose of NATO became very unclear. New NATO members are represented in Brussels by their "experienced" and "senior" military officers: essentially the same people who swore allegiance to the Soviet Union as members of the Warsaw Pact a few years back. I doubt that NATO has or can have any military secrets that the Russians do not know within 15 minutes.
Countries of Eastern Europe did not fulfill the expectations we had of them 16 years ago. They choose not to pursue Dostoyevsky's advice on Crime and Punishment. They choose unwisely - they choose not to punish the worst ever crimes in human history. I believe that history will treat those responsible for non-punishment as equally guilty as those who committed the crimes. Vaclav Havel, Vaclav Klaus, Alexander Lukashenko and Slobodan Milosevic will get their places in the halls of infamy right next to Hitler and Goring. No lecturing or doctoral titles honoris causa there.
What I was trying to say is that if Vonnegut were to comment on the Czech Republic or other countries of Eastern Europe today, almost 17 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there would be no need for his doodles. It would suffice to say that their colors never changed.
I wish somebody would figure out a similarly simple explanation of what was the reasoning to accept the Czech Republic (or any other East European countries for that matter) into NATO and subsequently into the EU as well. At the time it sounded like a good idea to have them in NATO and the EU and have them act as a buffer between Western Europe and Russia, because for sure they did not qualify militarily, economically or as a sufficiently civilized society.
If it was a suspicion then, time proved the correctness of that suspicion now. The Germans went through "denazification" and to a large extent they cleansed their society of an element of evil - the Nazis. Look it up in any encyclopedia and you will find that communism has killed about ten times as many people as nazism did. All those Hitlers, Eichmanns and Heydrichs were just bumbling amateurs compared to their communist counterparts. In spite of all that, communism and communists were never punished for their crimes against humanity. Exactly the opposite - former communists are back in power in most countries of Eastern Europe and they are being freely elected to plush offices representing their countries at EU headquarters in Brussels. They say they are not communists anymore. Well, would you elect Heinrich Himmler to EU office just because he wore a different kind of uniform?
The same countries are also members of NATO - formerly a defense alliance against the Empire of Evil. When countries of the Empire of Evil joined NATO without bothering to change to true democracy the purpose of NATO became very unclear. New NATO members are represented in Brussels by their "experienced" and "senior" military officers: essentially the same people who swore allegiance to the Soviet Union as members of the Warsaw Pact a few years back. I doubt that NATO has or can have any military secrets that the Russians do not know within 15 minutes.
Countries of Eastern Europe did not fulfill the expectations we had of them 16 years ago. They choose not to pursue Dostoyevsky's advice on Crime and Punishment. They choose unwisely - they choose not to punish the worst ever crimes in human history. I believe that history will treat those responsible for non-punishment as equally guilty as those who committed the crimes. Vaclav Havel, Vaclav Klaus, Alexander Lukashenko and Slobodan Milosevic will get their places in the halls of infamy right next to Hitler and Goring. No lecturing or doctoral titles honoris causa there.
What I was trying to say is that if Vonnegut were to comment on the Czech Republic or other countries of Eastern Europe today, almost 17 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there would be no need for his doodles. It would suffice to say that their colors never changed.
Czech Republic and the new Europe...
We all know what pathological liars do: they embellish their stories in ways that they believe will impress people or make the liars look better than they actually are. But what about entities larger than a single individual? In a debate I participated in recently, I suggested that we have historical data to prove a pattern of pathological lying at the level of tens of millions of people at once: the case of the Czech Republic, formerly known as the left side (no pun intended) of Czechoslovakia.
Lying as part of the Czech national culture started with the communist takeover right after WWII and established its roots so deeply that it reached a state of confabulation. Confabulation is "the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the confusion of true memories with false memories." Basically it is when you start believing your own lies. The Czech Republic is in a state of confabulation.
A few examples to ponder: the decrees of President Benes in 1945, which caused irreparable harm to millions were lies - and millions knew they were lies, but the Czechs believed it then and believe it now. They even honored those lies recently by passing the new "Lex Benes" law. Then there were the political trials in Czechoslovakia in the early fifties everyone knew they were lies, but they believed it then and they believe it now. Can you imagine that the Czech Republic adheres to "legal continuity" with laws from the early fifties? Laws of the brutal terror of communism?
They lied (and knew about it) about the non-existent successes of socialism in the sixties, they lied about the Prague Spring in 1968 and their own confabulation made them believe that "reformed" communists like Dubcek, who tyrannized them a few months earlier, were now to make their lives better. Is it possible that 15 million people simultaneously suffer from Korsakoff's syndrome and (to quote Wikipedia) "confabulate by guessing an answer or imagining an event and then mistaking their guess or imagination as an actual memory?" It happened!
Russian tanks ended that psyched-out happening with the Prague Spring, but mass lying, confabulating and brainwashing continued. They lied on (and believed it) about their love for the Soviet Union and their inhumane system; they lied (and believed it) about "normalization" in the seventies and eighties.
Everybody with half a brain knew that the Velvet Revolution was just a KGB/StB prepared "changing of the guards" but nobody thought about stopping the lies. So they continued. Vaclav Havel, the darling of western liberals, made the whole Velvet revolution a lie by ensuring that not a single communist murderer or tyrant was punished. Nobody said a word. Vaclav Klaus, Havel’s successor, is lying about his imaginary successes in the West as an "economic lecturer" and ten millions of Czechs eat it up.
Senior officers of the Czech Army who just a few years ago were hard-line communist officers of the Czechoslovak Army (a Warsaw Pact member) now reside in NATO offices in Brussels - which rendered NATO effectively useless. Very large portions of Czech Republic representatives in EU posts are ex-communists. It is no secret that Czech representatives at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg busy themselves by lying about the number of complaints coming from the Czech Republic and hiding them from non-Czech speaking judges. A cartoon I saw recently, deriding the European Union as a "new socialist super state," was probably depicting things the way ex-commies from Eastern Europe would love to have them.
So, do we have historical data to prove a pattern of pathological lying at a national level or not?
Lying as part of the Czech national culture started with the communist takeover right after WWII and established its roots so deeply that it reached a state of confabulation. Confabulation is "the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the confusion of true memories with false memories." Basically it is when you start believing your own lies. The Czech Republic is in a state of confabulation.
A few examples to ponder: the decrees of President Benes in 1945, which caused irreparable harm to millions were lies - and millions knew they were lies, but the Czechs believed it then and believe it now. They even honored those lies recently by passing the new "Lex Benes" law. Then there were the political trials in Czechoslovakia in the early fifties everyone knew they were lies, but they believed it then and they believe it now. Can you imagine that the Czech Republic adheres to "legal continuity" with laws from the early fifties? Laws of the brutal terror of communism?
They lied (and knew about it) about the non-existent successes of socialism in the sixties, they lied about the Prague Spring in 1968 and their own confabulation made them believe that "reformed" communists like Dubcek, who tyrannized them a few months earlier, were now to make their lives better. Is it possible that 15 million people simultaneously suffer from Korsakoff's syndrome and (to quote Wikipedia) "confabulate by guessing an answer or imagining an event and then mistaking their guess or imagination as an actual memory?" It happened!
Russian tanks ended that psyched-out happening with the Prague Spring, but mass lying, confabulating and brainwashing continued. They lied on (and believed it) about their love for the Soviet Union and their inhumane system; they lied (and believed it) about "normalization" in the seventies and eighties.
Everybody with half a brain knew that the Velvet Revolution was just a KGB/StB prepared "changing of the guards" but nobody thought about stopping the lies. So they continued. Vaclav Havel, the darling of western liberals, made the whole Velvet revolution a lie by ensuring that not a single communist murderer or tyrant was punished. Nobody said a word. Vaclav Klaus, Havel’s successor, is lying about his imaginary successes in the West as an "economic lecturer" and ten millions of Czechs eat it up.
Senior officers of the Czech Army who just a few years ago were hard-line communist officers of the Czechoslovak Army (a Warsaw Pact member) now reside in NATO offices in Brussels - which rendered NATO effectively useless. Very large portions of Czech Republic representatives in EU posts are ex-communists. It is no secret that Czech representatives at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg busy themselves by lying about the number of complaints coming from the Czech Republic and hiding them from non-Czech speaking judges. A cartoon I saw recently, deriding the European Union as a "new socialist super state," was probably depicting things the way ex-commies from Eastern Europe would love to have them.
So, do we have historical data to prove a pattern of pathological lying at a national level or not?
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Stop financially supporting Wikipedia!
I have certainly found it ironic that the English Wikipedia includes an article about the expression "useful idiots" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_Idiots) because it is essentially the status which the founders and management of Wikipedia (located mostly in Tampa, Florida) now have in the eyes of users of most East European language versions of their very own website. Please note that this is not name-calling, but merely a technically accurate description. After all, I am a polite guy.
The Wikipedia, in its English form, was founded under the naive impression that other language versions will be managed under the same civilized rules as the original one. Wrong assumption...
According to my research and various sources (who prefer to remain anonymous) only the English version of the Wikipedia can be described as relatively civilized and unbiased. Unfortunately this is not the case in most local language versions in countries with little or no history of democracy or western civilization. I am unable to read Chinese to verify it, but I am getting second-hand reports that Chinese Wikipedia does not include any historical information about atrocities commited by communists and that all articles must be from the official "Beijing point of view" - thus not NPOV (Neutral Point of View). I can't stop wondering why such a travesty of human decency is being tolerated by and supported with American resources. Seems to me that Google with its "Marxist version of the Google search engine" is not alone in its kissing up to Chinese communists. Well well well...
The situation is very similar in all East European language versions - where I do not need any translators and I can personally confirm it. It is bad on Slovak, Polish and Russian Wikipedias but the situation on the Czech Wikipedia is far and away the worst. In case you are not aware of it, the Czech Republic (a democracy in name only) is ruled by neo-communists - though they offically call themselves "socialists". Czech students, who are the main fodder-contributors to the Czech Wikipedia are saturated to their eyeballs with Marxism. They could not be any redder.
Thus it is only logical that the contents and daily life of the Czech Wikipedia looks and behaves accordingly. The sysops and admins of the Czech Wiki rule with an iron fist and they've created the very first Wiki-tyranny. Dissent or any democratic expression of a different (while still NEUTRAL) opinion is impossible and is immediately punished by extreme blocking (ranging from a few days to nine months) to prevent editing of said or any article. This is only for Wikipedians who do not goose step with the official party line - everybody agrees that vandalism is not to be tolerated anywhere and should be punished accordingly. Wiki-stalking of suspected wiki-dissidents is the rule not the exception and is a part of a Czech Wikipedia sysops basic duties. The Czech Wikipedia has been virtually hijacked by marxist Wiki-terrorists. Best of all, they have nothing to worry about because nobody in Tampa speaks Czech and they can always lie their way out - they have many willing accomplices among Czech students studying in the United States that will cover their backs.
As a result, thousands of articles on Czech history and society are severely biased and twisted to comply with the current political propaganda and prevailing sentiments in society. For example Czechs generally dislike Czech expatriates of the Cold-war era, and so articles about them reflect only one point of view. There are hundreds of examples like this. Discussion of these issues is not allowed and those who object are immediately accused by sysops of "disrupting" and repeatedly blocked until they leave the Wikipedia altogether. Basically, unless the article is about stones or flowers or other scientific things, only the communist and marxist point of view is allowed and only it is considered to be "neutral". All opposing viewpoints are thus banned.
The admins are also using technical means to further their goals: automatically blocking thousands of IP addresses, which are allegedly "proxies" (and they are not) and refusing to install software which would allow transparent reading of Czech words with or without Czech diacritics. That last trick effectively blocks thousands of potential Wiki visitors from abroad, who do not have diacritics on their keyboards - aka those hated Czech expatriates.
If somebody from the Czech Wikipedia attempts to seek remedy or justice at the English Wikipedia or META Wikipedia (there is such a guy, a Czech lawyer named Vit Zvanovec), he is quickly located and a "death squad" of Czech (but English-speaking) sysops from the Czech Wikipedia moves to discredit, dismiss him as a crackpot and neutralize him. In that effort they are getting very effective help from local American "useful idiots" (again, no name-calling, just a technical description) who would patronize, discourage and generally put down the "complainer" - like for example a Wikipedian named Dan, who wrote to Zvanovec as follows at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_permissions#Desysopping_of_cs:Wikipedista:Egg
"To request the removal of sysop access from another user, please gain consensus on this on your own wiki first. All discussion must be kept on your local wiki." This is not the place to propose a user's desysopping. Please make a request here only after you have obtained consensus among the cs.wikipedia community. Dan"
Seems that "Dan" can not wrap his mind around the fact that any such action on the Czech Wikipedia is not possible, because such person would be immediately blocked (and Zvanovec in fact was) and a Czech "death squad" would quickly show up (as they did) and proclaim Zvanovec a known troublemaker with a history of "disrupting", who should not be taken seriously. Case closed.
It seems that there is no way to get a message through up the chain of command. Tampa is turning a deaf ear. Any such attempt ends up either being ignored or with the really illogical recommendation of placing a complaint with the very people against who you are complaining. Not even Joe Stalin could set up a smarter system.
But maybe there is a way and one which always gets attention and results. Wikipedia depends on donations. Simply stop sending any money to the Wikipedia Foundation, stop your contributions, stop your PayPal accounts - it will get noticed sooner or later. It will also force all the distinguished thinkers at Wikipedia Offices in Tampa, Florida to climb down out of their ivory towers and start dealing with real problems. I have no doubts that the absolute majority of donations to Wikipedia Foundation comes from the U.S., I do not think that contributions from the People's Republic of China or the Czech Republic matter too much. Therefore I believe that American money should not support intellectual brainwashing anywhere (be it in China or Eastern Europe) and that the founders and managers of this great idea - a free Internet encyclopedia - should decisively step in and use all means at their disposal to stop abuse of their own project by some marxist intellectual vermin of world. Situation is bad. And nothing short of immediate, resolute action to make it better is acceptable.
The Wikipedia, in its English form, was founded under the naive impression that other language versions will be managed under the same civilized rules as the original one. Wrong assumption...
According to my research and various sources (who prefer to remain anonymous) only the English version of the Wikipedia can be described as relatively civilized and unbiased. Unfortunately this is not the case in most local language versions in countries with little or no history of democracy or western civilization. I am unable to read Chinese to verify it, but I am getting second-hand reports that Chinese Wikipedia does not include any historical information about atrocities commited by communists and that all articles must be from the official "Beijing point of view" - thus not NPOV (Neutral Point of View). I can't stop wondering why such a travesty of human decency is being tolerated by and supported with American resources. Seems to me that Google with its "Marxist version of the Google search engine" is not alone in its kissing up to Chinese communists. Well well well...
The situation is very similar in all East European language versions - where I do not need any translators and I can personally confirm it. It is bad on Slovak, Polish and Russian Wikipedias but the situation on the Czech Wikipedia is far and away the worst. In case you are not aware of it, the Czech Republic (a democracy in name only) is ruled by neo-communists - though they offically call themselves "socialists". Czech students, who are the main fodder-contributors to the Czech Wikipedia are saturated to their eyeballs with Marxism. They could not be any redder.
Thus it is only logical that the contents and daily life of the Czech Wikipedia looks and behaves accordingly. The sysops and admins of the Czech Wiki rule with an iron fist and they've created the very first Wiki-tyranny. Dissent or any democratic expression of a different (while still NEUTRAL) opinion is impossible and is immediately punished by extreme blocking (ranging from a few days to nine months) to prevent editing of said or any article. This is only for Wikipedians who do not goose step with the official party line - everybody agrees that vandalism is not to be tolerated anywhere and should be punished accordingly. Wiki-stalking of suspected wiki-dissidents is the rule not the exception and is a part of a Czech Wikipedia sysops basic duties. The Czech Wikipedia has been virtually hijacked by marxist Wiki-terrorists. Best of all, they have nothing to worry about because nobody in Tampa speaks Czech and they can always lie their way out - they have many willing accomplices among Czech students studying in the United States that will cover their backs.
As a result, thousands of articles on Czech history and society are severely biased and twisted to comply with the current political propaganda and prevailing sentiments in society. For example Czechs generally dislike Czech expatriates of the Cold-war era, and so articles about them reflect only one point of view. There are hundreds of examples like this. Discussion of these issues is not allowed and those who object are immediately accused by sysops of "disrupting" and repeatedly blocked until they leave the Wikipedia altogether. Basically, unless the article is about stones or flowers or other scientific things, only the communist and marxist point of view is allowed and only it is considered to be "neutral". All opposing viewpoints are thus banned.
The admins are also using technical means to further their goals: automatically blocking thousands of IP addresses, which are allegedly "proxies" (and they are not) and refusing to install software which would allow transparent reading of Czech words with or without Czech diacritics. That last trick effectively blocks thousands of potential Wiki visitors from abroad, who do not have diacritics on their keyboards - aka those hated Czech expatriates.
If somebody from the Czech Wikipedia attempts to seek remedy or justice at the English Wikipedia or META Wikipedia (there is such a guy, a Czech lawyer named Vit Zvanovec), he is quickly located and a "death squad" of Czech (but English-speaking) sysops from the Czech Wikipedia moves to discredit, dismiss him as a crackpot and neutralize him. In that effort they are getting very effective help from local American "useful idiots" (again, no name-calling, just a technical description) who would patronize, discourage and generally put down the "complainer" - like for example a Wikipedian named Dan, who wrote to Zvanovec as follows at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_permissions#Desysopping_of_cs:Wikipedista:Egg
"To request the removal of sysop access from another user, please gain consensus on this on your own wiki first. All discussion must be kept on your local wiki." This is not the place to propose a user's desysopping. Please make a request here only after you have obtained consensus among the cs.wikipedia community. Dan"
Seems that "Dan" can not wrap his mind around the fact that any such action on the Czech Wikipedia is not possible, because such person would be immediately blocked (and Zvanovec in fact was) and a Czech "death squad" would quickly show up (as they did) and proclaim Zvanovec a known troublemaker with a history of "disrupting", who should not be taken seriously. Case closed.
It seems that there is no way to get a message through up the chain of command. Tampa is turning a deaf ear. Any such attempt ends up either being ignored or with the really illogical recommendation of placing a complaint with the very people against who you are complaining. Not even Joe Stalin could set up a smarter system.
But maybe there is a way and one which always gets attention and results. Wikipedia depends on donations. Simply stop sending any money to the Wikipedia Foundation, stop your contributions, stop your PayPal accounts - it will get noticed sooner or later. It will also force all the distinguished thinkers at Wikipedia Offices in Tampa, Florida to climb down out of their ivory towers and start dealing with real problems. I have no doubts that the absolute majority of donations to Wikipedia Foundation comes from the U.S., I do not think that contributions from the People's Republic of China or the Czech Republic matter too much. Therefore I believe that American money should not support intellectual brainwashing anywhere (be it in China or Eastern Europe) and that the founders and managers of this great idea - a free Internet encyclopedia - should decisively step in and use all means at their disposal to stop abuse of their own project by some marxist intellectual vermin of world. Situation is bad. And nothing short of immediate, resolute action to make it better is acceptable.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Judgment by numbers – Czech this out.
I resent being unjustifiably, erroneously not to mention libelously called a spammer by my Czech communist enemies. Oh, they claim to not be full-fledged raging Stalinist communists? Well isn’t that special! I guess they take umbrage to their own actions and tactics when they’re used against them. Tough luck – they continue to do it to me so I will make a concerted effort to do it to them.
Let’s look at it from a statistics point of view. According to the Lenin-saluting communist Czech vendetta squad on this board, I am a spammer because several (3-6) people from the Czech Republic think so and called me that. Never mind the fact that they are no longer on my list! Based on the size of my mailing list (which numbers in the thousands) they are just a tiny fraction of a fraction of one percent. However, to some brainwashed Marx-idolizing Czechs it does justify this accusation and they insist on including this derogatory label in my articles.
I claim, here and now, that I and a number of other people hold with utmost conviction that Wikimol, Miraceti and Radouch (together with several of their friends on the Czech Wikipedia) are full-fledged communist Marxists and I respectfully request the right to call them as a such. If such permission is not given, I will call them that anyway – just like they have done to me. I reserve the right (and will exercise it) to include a note about their communist and Marxist allegiances in any articles written about them – even though I doubt any will be written about such impotent and completely irrelevant figures.
Justice for all. After all – we are not living behind the Iron Curtain. They may wish the Iron Curtain still remained and that the glorious Union of Soviet Social Republics was still a formidable power, however, they live a life of delusion. I, as an American citizen, have certain unalienable rights, one of them being the right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech. However, they live in the People’s Republic of China, err, sorry, the Czech Republic, and not in the United States and as such know nothing of personal freedoms, but that does not give them the right to publicly defame me with their libelous tripe.
Let’s look at it from a statistics point of view. According to the Lenin-saluting communist Czech vendetta squad on this board, I am a spammer because several (3-6) people from the Czech Republic think so and called me that. Never mind the fact that they are no longer on my list! Based on the size of my mailing list (which numbers in the thousands) they are just a tiny fraction of a fraction of one percent. However, to some brainwashed Marx-idolizing Czechs it does justify this accusation and they insist on including this derogatory label in my articles.
I claim, here and now, that I and a number of other people hold with utmost conviction that Wikimol, Miraceti and Radouch (together with several of their friends on the Czech Wikipedia) are full-fledged communist Marxists and I respectfully request the right to call them as a such. If such permission is not given, I will call them that anyway – just like they have done to me. I reserve the right (and will exercise it) to include a note about their communist and Marxist allegiances in any articles written about them – even though I doubt any will be written about such impotent and completely irrelevant figures.
Justice for all. After all – we are not living behind the Iron Curtain. They may wish the Iron Curtain still remained and that the glorious Union of Soviet Social Republics was still a formidable power, however, they live a life of delusion. I, as an American citizen, have certain unalienable rights, one of them being the right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech. However, they live in the People’s Republic of China, err, sorry, the Czech Republic, and not in the United States and as such know nothing of personal freedoms, but that does not give them the right to publicly defame me with their libelous tripe.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Czech Wikipedia in disarray
I was wandering around the Internet recently and happened upon the Czech version of Wikipedia. What I found puzzled me. I was fully aware of the basic principles of Wikipedia, that Wikipedia is not a democracy and that you can’t demand the right to freedom of speech as we understand it in America, but still - it was a shock.
The Czech version of the Wikipedia (at http://cs.wikipedia.org/ ) is mostly populated by citizens of the Czech Republic - a country which only recently emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. More than 60 years (officially only 42) of living under the Stalinist boot certainly made an impression on all of them: they are still brainwashed beyond recognition.
The Czech Wikipedia is an encyclopedia about flowers, animals and many other non-controversial items. However, there are virtually no articles about their recent history of communist rule because they are considered not only "controversial” but “taboo” as well. If anybody is bold enough to submit such an article (not opinionated or harshly critical pieces, just historically and factually accurate ones), administrators immediately delete it and the submitting user is permanently banned. The reason for this self-censorship is simple: fear. In 1989, communists in the Czech Republic changed their coats - they are not "communist" anymore, but they remain in positions of power. This has the administrators of the Czech Wikipedia quaking in their boots. Until recently the main "sysop" nicknamed "-jkb-" quite innocently admitted on his personal Wiki-page that he was essentially a collaborator with the StB (the Czech version of the KGB) 25 years ago. He did not think much about it because he considered it commonplace. He has since resigned. At least he had the decency to do that.
The situation with the rest of the Czech Wikipedia administrators is not much better. All of them are fervent nationalists (at par with Muslim fanatics offended by a simple cartoon) and simply will not allow any articles related to their country’s recent history to be on their site. It is as if the German version of Wikipedia made no mention of the Holocaust and was allowed to deny the existence of that part of German history. At the same time the Czech encyclopedia sports pathetically subservient, overblown and exaggerated biographies of their current leaders and politicians (Havel, Klaus, Svoboda, etc) that would be comparable only to the official biography of Kim Il-sung in the North Korean Wikipedia (if there was one). When you consider that the Czech (then Czechoslovak) government voted for "legal continuity with a previous communist regime" in 1990 then it’s no real surprise.
To use an old Yogi Berra maxim "You can observe a lot by watching." I am watching them a lot. The most amazing (and deeply disturbing) thing in the Czech Wikipedia is the currently running trial (they call it arbitrage) of their former colleague and fellow-administrator Vit Zvanovec, who had a falling-out of favor in a fashion not dissimilar to the 1950’s political trials in Czechoslovakia (Slansky et al.). That sentiment is still running in their veins - trying somebody, bombastic talk about imaginary crimes and real punishment. The only thing missing there are the bewildered crowds of proletariat demanding death for the accused in the "Psovi psi smrt!" (Dogs deserve to die like dogs!) manner of late Czech writer Marie Pujmanova. Everything else is eerily similar - judges, accused, non-existing crimes, and the oh-so-Czech mannerisms. The judges in the proceedings insist on using and being addressed by their infantile nicknames, but accused is using his real name - Vit Zvanovec. Every time the accused uses the real names of the judges, he is "called to order", immediately reprimanded and also immediately punished by being temporarily banned from posting - it is a Kafkaesque absurdity bordering on sheer ridiculousness. All of the involved are, at least according to Czech standards, educated people: Accused Zvanovec is a 31-year old lawyer and his tyrants are all university-trained people, one of them is even a Catholic priest (no idea if he was ever a member of Pacem in Terris).
I myself had a few skirmishes with that bunch of dictatorial stooges as well - but comparatively miniscule ones, especially compared to Zvanovec. The Czech Wikipedia had no information whatsoever on anything related to the recent history of the country while under communist rule - I have no doubt that this "omission" was quite intentional. So I showed up and started making a fuss about the lack of articles about heroes of the communist resistance - namely Radek and Josef Masin, recent political prisoner Vladimir Hucin, dissident Petr Cibulka, and a number of exiled writers and artists. Such an ‘oversight’ was in my view unimaginable and simply unforgivable. So I did the right thing and started articles about each of them. Yes, I was the first.
As expected, the leftist clique of administrators did not like it one bit. They screamed in ways that would make a horror movie director proud. I was threatened, harassed and eventually repeatedly blocked – an action that would probably instill fear in any ordinary Wikipedista with a permanent residence in the Czech Republic. Well, not my case - so I pressed the matter and after some time the articles about the Masin brothers, Hucin, Cibulka and others were included in the Czech Wikipedia. However, they are not in my original wording: they are mangled and distorted by Czech newspeak, but at least they are there.
My latest exercise in futility on the Czech Wikipedia was my attempt to insert new articles with definitions of the terms Neo-communism and Anti-Americanism. Everything on the internet is very fast as you may know: I inserted the original article at 21:31 on 9.2.2006 with about 500 words explaining the terms in relation to the current Czech Republic. By 23:19 on 9.2.2006 the article had been completely reworded by the Marxist goon squad of administrators, reduced to few sentences (none of the mine) with completely opposite meanings than originally explained and twisted into the position that the term is not valid anymore and is applicable only to some commie relics far to the east - not in the Czech Republic.
The elimination of my article on anti-Americanism was even faster - it took a mere 4 minutes and was completely deleted by an administrator with the telling pseudonym “CHE”. Is it possible to pick more Marxist nickname, with the exception of calling yourself "Stalin?" A note was attached explaining that there is an existing article about anti-Americanism, explaining that it was something about a protest during the Vietnam War. Surely there is nothing even resembling anti-Americanism anywhere in today’s world!
For my sins (and perseverance) against this Marxist bunch of sandbox dictators that run the Czech Wikipedia I was of course due for some kind of sophisticated punishment (as sophisticated as the feebly pre-pubescent leftist Czech mind can understand it): they created an article about me and filled that with all manner of lies, false accusations, libel and outright hateful information and prevented me from deleting any of it. I guess they never heard that something like this had happened before – the case of John Seigenthaler Sr. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy) where patently false statements were also inserted into an article about him by some irresponsible punk. Legal action followed, libelous statements were corrected and some arrogant behinds were subjected to a well-deserved kicking.
Unfortunately the current administrators of the Czech Wikipedia cannot clean up this mess because they are the creators and producers of it. They will not resign voluntarily (being the communists that they are, they will attempt to sit there forever just like Brezhnev-era apparatchiks) and Wikipedia's central command in Florida is about as willing to act as Kofi Annan's United Nations. As we know from Russia, "perestroika" never worked - because it was expected that the communists would make themselves into honest and productive people - instead of liars and thieves. I am predicting that the decline of the Czech Wikipedia (on which many critics surprisingly agree) will continue until the point, where current administrators will have to be forcibly removed and replaced. There is no other way in the post-communist Czech Republic. They will accept it well - after all they are used to it. That’s how the things work over there.
Since the ultimate solution to this problem in nowhere to be seen, the only temporary band-aid for the time being is simply to ignore the Czech version of Wikipedia, because at its current level it is nothing more and nothing less than another mouthpiece of communist and leftist propaganda from Eastern Europe.
--------
Ross Hedvicek, author of several books and hundreds of articles, lives in the U.S., and can be reached at ross@scanlon.im1.net
The Czech version of the Wikipedia (at http://cs.wikipedia.org/ ) is mostly populated by citizens of the Czech Republic - a country which only recently emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. More than 60 years (officially only 42) of living under the Stalinist boot certainly made an impression on all of them: they are still brainwashed beyond recognition.
The Czech Wikipedia is an encyclopedia about flowers, animals and many other non-controversial items. However, there are virtually no articles about their recent history of communist rule because they are considered not only "controversial” but “taboo” as well. If anybody is bold enough to submit such an article (not opinionated or harshly critical pieces, just historically and factually accurate ones), administrators immediately delete it and the submitting user is permanently banned. The reason for this self-censorship is simple: fear. In 1989, communists in the Czech Republic changed their coats - they are not "communist" anymore, but they remain in positions of power. This has the administrators of the Czech Wikipedia quaking in their boots. Until recently the main "sysop" nicknamed "-jkb-" quite innocently admitted on his personal Wiki-page that he was essentially a collaborator with the StB (the Czech version of the KGB) 25 years ago. He did not think much about it because he considered it commonplace. He has since resigned. At least he had the decency to do that.
The situation with the rest of the Czech Wikipedia administrators is not much better. All of them are fervent nationalists (at par with Muslim fanatics offended by a simple cartoon) and simply will not allow any articles related to their country’s recent history to be on their site. It is as if the German version of Wikipedia made no mention of the Holocaust and was allowed to deny the existence of that part of German history. At the same time the Czech encyclopedia sports pathetically subservient, overblown and exaggerated biographies of their current leaders and politicians (Havel, Klaus, Svoboda, etc) that would be comparable only to the official biography of Kim Il-sung in the North Korean Wikipedia (if there was one). When you consider that the Czech (then Czechoslovak) government voted for "legal continuity with a previous communist regime" in 1990 then it’s no real surprise.
To use an old Yogi Berra maxim "You can observe a lot by watching." I am watching them a lot. The most amazing (and deeply disturbing) thing in the Czech Wikipedia is the currently running trial (they call it arbitrage) of their former colleague and fellow-administrator Vit Zvanovec, who had a falling-out of favor in a fashion not dissimilar to the 1950’s political trials in Czechoslovakia (Slansky et al.). That sentiment is still running in their veins - trying somebody, bombastic talk about imaginary crimes and real punishment. The only thing missing there are the bewildered crowds of proletariat demanding death for the accused in the "Psovi psi smrt!" (Dogs deserve to die like dogs!) manner of late Czech writer Marie Pujmanova. Everything else is eerily similar - judges, accused, non-existing crimes, and the oh-so-Czech mannerisms. The judges in the proceedings insist on using and being addressed by their infantile nicknames, but accused is using his real name - Vit Zvanovec. Every time the accused uses the real names of the judges, he is "called to order", immediately reprimanded and also immediately punished by being temporarily banned from posting - it is a Kafkaesque absurdity bordering on sheer ridiculousness. All of the involved are, at least according to Czech standards, educated people: Accused Zvanovec is a 31-year old lawyer and his tyrants are all university-trained people, one of them is even a Catholic priest (no idea if he was ever a member of Pacem in Terris).
I myself had a few skirmishes with that bunch of dictatorial stooges as well - but comparatively miniscule ones, especially compared to Zvanovec. The Czech Wikipedia had no information whatsoever on anything related to the recent history of the country while under communist rule - I have no doubt that this "omission" was quite intentional. So I showed up and started making a fuss about the lack of articles about heroes of the communist resistance - namely Radek and Josef Masin, recent political prisoner Vladimir Hucin, dissident Petr Cibulka, and a number of exiled writers and artists. Such an ‘oversight’ was in my view unimaginable and simply unforgivable. So I did the right thing and started articles about each of them. Yes, I was the first.
As expected, the leftist clique of administrators did not like it one bit. They screamed in ways that would make a horror movie director proud. I was threatened, harassed and eventually repeatedly blocked – an action that would probably instill fear in any ordinary Wikipedista with a permanent residence in the Czech Republic. Well, not my case - so I pressed the matter and after some time the articles about the Masin brothers, Hucin, Cibulka and others were included in the Czech Wikipedia. However, they are not in my original wording: they are mangled and distorted by Czech newspeak, but at least they are there.
My latest exercise in futility on the Czech Wikipedia was my attempt to insert new articles with definitions of the terms Neo-communism and Anti-Americanism. Everything on the internet is very fast as you may know: I inserted the original article at 21:31 on 9.2.2006 with about 500 words explaining the terms in relation to the current Czech Republic. By 23:19 on 9.2.2006 the article had been completely reworded by the Marxist goon squad of administrators, reduced to few sentences (none of the mine) with completely opposite meanings than originally explained and twisted into the position that the term is not valid anymore and is applicable only to some commie relics far to the east - not in the Czech Republic.
The elimination of my article on anti-Americanism was even faster - it took a mere 4 minutes and was completely deleted by an administrator with the telling pseudonym “CHE”. Is it possible to pick more Marxist nickname, with the exception of calling yourself "Stalin?" A note was attached explaining that there is an existing article about anti-Americanism, explaining that it was something about a protest during the Vietnam War. Surely there is nothing even resembling anti-Americanism anywhere in today’s world!
For my sins (and perseverance) against this Marxist bunch of sandbox dictators that run the Czech Wikipedia I was of course due for some kind of sophisticated punishment (as sophisticated as the feebly pre-pubescent leftist Czech mind can understand it): they created an article about me and filled that with all manner of lies, false accusations, libel and outright hateful information and prevented me from deleting any of it. I guess they never heard that something like this had happened before – the case of John Seigenthaler Sr. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy) where patently false statements were also inserted into an article about him by some irresponsible punk. Legal action followed, libelous statements were corrected and some arrogant behinds were subjected to a well-deserved kicking.
Unfortunately the current administrators of the Czech Wikipedia cannot clean up this mess because they are the creators and producers of it. They will not resign voluntarily (being the communists that they are, they will attempt to sit there forever just like Brezhnev-era apparatchiks) and Wikipedia's central command in Florida is about as willing to act as Kofi Annan's United Nations. As we know from Russia, "perestroika" never worked - because it was expected that the communists would make themselves into honest and productive people - instead of liars and thieves. I am predicting that the decline of the Czech Wikipedia (on which many critics surprisingly agree) will continue until the point, where current administrators will have to be forcibly removed and replaced. There is no other way in the post-communist Czech Republic. They will accept it well - after all they are used to it. That’s how the things work over there.
Since the ultimate solution to this problem in nowhere to be seen, the only temporary band-aid for the time being is simply to ignore the Czech version of Wikipedia, because at its current level it is nothing more and nothing less than another mouthpiece of communist and leftist propaganda from Eastern Europe.
--------
Ross Hedvicek, author of several books and hundreds of articles, lives in the U.S., and can be reached at ross@scanlon.im1.net
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
In case you are wondering what a quote from an Indiana Jones movie has to do with my article about the former Czechoslovakia - it is a parallel! Indy's puzzlement over snakes is obvious - I on the other hand am wondering why 15 years after the alleged switch to democracy and subsequent split into two countries, neither the Czech Republic or Slovakia can produce decent, uncorrupted people with a clean record to represent their respective countries in top government jobs or abroad in diplomatic positions.
To put it into perspective - imagine the governments of Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, Saddam Hussein or the memorable Idi Amin Dada Oumee. All these governments are clean as a whistle compared to the current governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Over 90% of government officials in the aforementioned two countries are in one way or another stained by their membership in the communist party, its clones and variations or by collaboration with the oppressive communist regime. And the most ridiculously corrupt and incompetent characters are always at the top.
Take, for example, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic: Stanislav Gross, a 34 year old former government railroad employee with the nickname "Kolotuk" (the railman who checks the integrity of wheels on railroad cars and engines by gently knocking on them with a long-handled hammer). He made the meteoric rise from zero to hero when he went from a nobody to the Prime Minister in less than 10 years. During that time he managed to get a doctorate in law by copying 25 pages of a government report he had access to. When nosy reporters found out, his "doctoral thesis" miraculously disappeared in Prague's flood two years ago and was never found. The reporters should consider themselves lucky to not have vanished along with Kolotuk's thesis since the honorable Prime Minister has a passion for surrounding himself with the most unsavory characters from the country's past - former communist prison guards, former communist secret policemen and so on.
Kolotuk's wife, thus wife of the Prime Minister, is an even more amusing specimen. The young lady started her career in a Prague bordello owned by her girlfriend. But don't get any ideas! She was allegedly employed only as a cleaning lady! Nothing more! Mmmhmm. Then she mysteriously received a security clearance to work in the food service lounge of the Czech parliament, where she met Kolotuk, fell in love and got married. A truly heartwarming and Cinderella-esque story.
After they married, the newlyweds acquired a luxurious home in an exclusive apartment development in Prague's Barrandov area. Minor hiccup - the luxurious apartment was worth several millions of Czech crowns and inquiring reporters calculated that neither of the pair had the means or ever made a sufficient amount of money to cover the purchase. The Prime Minister issued numerous excuses - all of them lame - about how he came to be in possession of such a gross (no pun intended) amount of money. The funniest one was that he borrowed it from his uncle, a retired (and penniless) Army officer living for the last 25 years on a government pension. The uncle confirmed the story, but he could not explain where he acquired the money. Eventually the uncle claimed that he himself borrowed it from a local businessman, to whom he wrote an IOU. This IOU was promptly "purchased" by the leader of local "conservative" party, who then allegedly burned it. His "purchase" was supposed to be financed by a government grant, which his miniscule party would get if they were ever elected to parliament - so it was in fact, never paid for. Are you still with me?
The leader of the main opposition party, Miroslav Kalousek, did not say too much, because his own living quarters (which he could not afford on his own as well) were allegedly paid for by his brother in law, who was subsequently murdered by his partner. Not even the scheming Lucretia Borgia could come up with a more masterful plan!
Remember the wife of the Czech Prime Minister? I'm not finished with her yet. She is a very enterprising lady and recently came up with the idea of rebuilding and remodelling a whole block of older buildings in Prague to make them into luxurious apartments and offices. All this remodelling would cost an obscene amount in any currency and would be paid for by money provided by her girlfriend from the past - the owner of Prague's bordello. Where the Prime Minister's wife used to work. As a cleaning lady. The Czech Republic has no laws or regulation against money laundering ("that would be too uncivilized!") so no investigation commenced - but the Prime Minister's wife is allegedly backing off the idea due to pressure from the media. I want to cry! Oh the injustice! Call Johnny Cochran! Why is she is not on Oprah yet???
And the Prime Minister did not resign, nor did he even apologize - because situations like this are not the exception in today's Czech Republic - they are the rule.
So it goes in the Czech Republic...
Ross Hedvicek
March 11, 2005
To put it into perspective - imagine the governments of Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, Saddam Hussein or the memorable Idi Amin Dada Oumee. All these governments are clean as a whistle compared to the current governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Over 90% of government officials in the aforementioned two countries are in one way or another stained by their membership in the communist party, its clones and variations or by collaboration with the oppressive communist regime. And the most ridiculously corrupt and incompetent characters are always at the top.
Take, for example, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic: Stanislav Gross, a 34 year old former government railroad employee with the nickname "Kolotuk" (the railman who checks the integrity of wheels on railroad cars and engines by gently knocking on them with a long-handled hammer). He made the meteoric rise from zero to hero when he went from a nobody to the Prime Minister in less than 10 years. During that time he managed to get a doctorate in law by copying 25 pages of a government report he had access to. When nosy reporters found out, his "doctoral thesis" miraculously disappeared in Prague's flood two years ago and was never found. The reporters should consider themselves lucky to not have vanished along with Kolotuk's thesis since the honorable Prime Minister has a passion for surrounding himself with the most unsavory characters from the country's past - former communist prison guards, former communist secret policemen and so on.
Kolotuk's wife, thus wife of the Prime Minister, is an even more amusing specimen. The young lady started her career in a Prague bordello owned by her girlfriend. But don't get any ideas! She was allegedly employed only as a cleaning lady! Nothing more! Mmmhmm. Then she mysteriously received a security clearance to work in the food service lounge of the Czech parliament, where she met Kolotuk, fell in love and got married. A truly heartwarming and Cinderella-esque story.
After they married, the newlyweds acquired a luxurious home in an exclusive apartment development in Prague's Barrandov area. Minor hiccup - the luxurious apartment was worth several millions of Czech crowns and inquiring reporters calculated that neither of the pair had the means or ever made a sufficient amount of money to cover the purchase. The Prime Minister issued numerous excuses - all of them lame - about how he came to be in possession of such a gross (no pun intended) amount of money. The funniest one was that he borrowed it from his uncle, a retired (and penniless) Army officer living for the last 25 years on a government pension. The uncle confirmed the story, but he could not explain where he acquired the money. Eventually the uncle claimed that he himself borrowed it from a local businessman, to whom he wrote an IOU. This IOU was promptly "purchased" by the leader of local "conservative" party, who then allegedly burned it. His "purchase" was supposed to be financed by a government grant, which his miniscule party would get if they were ever elected to parliament - so it was in fact, never paid for. Are you still with me?
The leader of the main opposition party, Miroslav Kalousek, did not say too much, because his own living quarters (which he could not afford on his own as well) were allegedly paid for by his brother in law, who was subsequently murdered by his partner. Not even the scheming Lucretia Borgia could come up with a more masterful plan!
Remember the wife of the Czech Prime Minister? I'm not finished with her yet. She is a very enterprising lady and recently came up with the idea of rebuilding and remodelling a whole block of older buildings in Prague to make them into luxurious apartments and offices. All this remodelling would cost an obscene amount in any currency and would be paid for by money provided by her girlfriend from the past - the owner of Prague's bordello. Where the Prime Minister's wife used to work. As a cleaning lady. The Czech Republic has no laws or regulation against money laundering ("that would be too uncivilized!") so no investigation commenced - but the Prime Minister's wife is allegedly backing off the idea due to pressure from the media. I want to cry! Oh the injustice! Call Johnny Cochran! Why is she is not on Oprah yet???
And the Prime Minister did not resign, nor did he even apologize - because situations like this are not the exception in today's Czech Republic - they are the rule.
So it goes in the Czech Republic...
Ross Hedvicek
March 11, 2005
Bamboozling the Americans...
I love America and Americans - I have no reason not to - I am one of them. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I have a history, knowledge and experience far beyond the shores of this continent. And that is why it always irritates me, when I see well-meaning, kind-hearted Americans being taken advantage of by wily, deceitful, greasy and underhanded so-called "Europeans". Let me tell you about two examples - one local and one really high-level.
There is no secret about the fact that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are unable, 15 years after the alleged switch to democracy, to put into leading positions of their country people without a disreputable and dark past, without a communist resume, or with clean character. This goes for their diplomats and ambassadors as well. Let's just recall ambassador Rudolf Schuster, formerly a communist aparatchik of the highest calibre, first named by the infamous president Vaclav Havel as Ambassador to Canada, and after division of Czechoslovakia becoming the president of Slovakia. Seems like a pre-requisite to become an ambassador or diplomat was to have a communist past - names like Rita Klimova, Anton Hykisch, Jan Kavan and Eduard Kukan come to mind immediately.
They have an American Czech-Slovak Cultural Club here in Miami. I happen to know a number of people from there. They are nice, kind people, treasuring their Czech-Slovak heritage - even if it is often several generations removed. Now I am being told that they are preparing a Czech-Slovak festival - or officially "the First Czech-Slovak Heritage Days in Florida - 2005" - you can see the details at http://www.acscc.org/festival_121404.html
When I was browsing through the list of speakers I found the following "dignitaries":
Doc. PhDr. Boris Banary, CSc., Rector, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Ruzomberok, Slovakia
Dr. Jiri Barta, Executive Director, VIA Foundation, Prague, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Ivo Bartecek, CSc., Dean, Philosophical Faculty, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Doc. PaedDr. Michal Bauer, Ph.D., University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Vaclav Buzek, CSc., Rector of the University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice
Margita Fuchsova, Consul General of the Czech Republic, Los Angeles, CA
H.E. Rastislav Kácer, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the United States, Washington, DC
PhDr. Karel Konecny, CSc., Dept. of History, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Jaromir Marek, M.A., Correspondent & Chief of Czech Broadcasting, Radio Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
PhDr. Slavomir Michalek, CSc., Historian, Historical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
PhDr. Dalibor Mikulas, CSc., Vice Rector for Foreign Relations, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Ruzomberok, Slovakia
The Honorable Senator Doc. MUDr. Jaroslava Moserova, DrSc., President, Czech Commission for UNESCO, Prague, Czech Republic
H.E. RNDr. Martin Palous, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States, Washington, DC
Prof. PaedDr. Vladimir Papousek, CSc, Vice-Rector, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Ales Pospisil, M.A., Consul General of the Czech Republic, New York, NY
Doc. Ing. Josef Prusa, CSc., Rector, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Milos Trapl, CSc., Dept. of History, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Jan Vicar, CSc., Dept. Of Musicology, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Linda Vlasak, B.A., former Program Director, Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore, MD
Prof. Ing. Zdenek Vostracky, DrSc., Past Rector, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
Prof. RNDr. Zdenek Weiss, DrSc., Director, Materials Chemistry Center, Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Mgr. Miroslav Wlachovsky, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Slovak Republic, Washington, DC
(A short note for those readers not well-versed in the Czech reality - if any of those people above are over the age of 40, they simply HAD to be a communists in order to receive all those titles in then-Czechoslovakia)
I, of course, do not know what the above mentioned well-titled speakers will be talking about, but I am sure it will not be about their lifetime collaborations with communists in then-Czechoslovakia, about their past membership in the communist party or about how much they had to bend over to achieve all those titles and positions. I am sure that all of them will welcome the free trip and free meal in Florida, no doubt about it.
I have nothing but love and respect for the well-meaning third and fourth generation Czech-Americans and Slovak-Americans in the Miami club, but their naivete got the better of them this time. It is a shame to invite this roster of characters to their American heritage festival. It would be a shame at any heritage festival or celebration - Czech, Slovak or otherwise. It is akin to a Jewish community from Miami inviting Adolf Eichmann's children plus a few former SS concentration camp guards to Miami to celebrate Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur with them. That's simply not right.
The second example of Americans being bamboozled by East Europeans is really high-level. It about how Czech president Vaclav Klaus crashed a party and got himself invited to the White House.
Czech president Vaclav Klaus is a really despicable character. While he allegedly never was a member of the communist party, he mysteriously always enjoyed privileges reserved only for communists in totalitarian Czechoslovakia. Nobody can explain why - not even Vaclav Klaus himself. He was privileged enough to be allowed to study economy at university at a time when innocent people were jailed for decades in uranium mines, and he was allowed to travel to the West and even to study in the U.S. at a time when normal Czechs were dreaming (often futilely) about going on a vacation to communist Hungary's Balaton Lake.
Klaus had put the "rrrr" into arrogance and in spite of his anti-Americanism he would love to get some face time with an American president. Dubya never met him and after Klaus' derogatory comments about the war in Iraq his prospective visit to Washington was indefinitely put on the back burner and he was coldly ignored by everyone from the former U.S. Ambassador in Prague Craig Stapleton to the lowest level staffer that addresses the janitor at Foggy Bottom as 'sir'. It is no secret that Klaus was so verbally abusive towards the U.S. and it's ex-ambassador in Prague during their meeting before the start of the Iraq war that Stapleton simply up and left the meeting with the Czech president and slammed the door on him. Not a good omen, I would say...
This was no problem for a political snake the likes of Klaus. You can always count on American naivete. During the last meeting of EU heads of state Klaus could not get close to Bush, but in the closing moments of the photo session he simply forced his way onto the podium and stood next to a completely shocked and puzzled Bush. My sources tell me that Dubya had not the slightest idea who Klaus was and being a sociable and polite gentleman he shook Klaus' proffered hand. Klaus wasted no time and started talking to him in his famously broken English, about that he will be in Washington next week and that he would like to stop at the White House. At that time, Bush was under the impression that he was talking to Ivan Gasparovic, another ex-communist, but the president of Slovakia - to where Bush was leaving immediately for a summit with Putin. Therefore Klaus got a jovial Texas answer in line with "anytime you are in D.C. - just stop in to see me". He was not alone in his mistake. This is confirmed by the official White House web page, which identified Klaus talking to Bush as "Slovak president Ivan Gasparovic". Bush learned the true identity of this sneaky rat only after everything was over. Klaus on other hand let everybody know that U.S. president George W. Bush had just invited him to come on an official visit to Washington.
The week after that Klaus went on a "private visit" of the U.S. still unsure of if he will be able to pull the stunt off or not. Eventually, he was successful. He just crashed a party at the White House and got a 30-minutes visit with Dubya with pictures of them shaking hands and all that jazz... The media in the Czech Republic presented this shameful trick visit as a great feat of Czech diplomacy (oh, by the way, the Czech Ambassador is speaking in Miami next week as well) and ordinary Czechs were made to believe that Klaus was in America to give that yokel Bush some sound advice on how to properly run things...
So that's how not only ordinary Americans from Miami, but our president as well were bamboozled. What should have happened is that those annoying arrogant bastards from Prague should have gotten sorry asses kicked down Pennsylvania Avenue by the Secret Service and U.S. Marines - and not been allowed entry into the White House. That would happened if there was justice in the world.
But there is not - and we, as Americans, are just far too nice of a people to even imagine to what length some of those Easterners would go to take advantage of us...
So it goes...
Ross Hedvicek
March 11, 2005
Related:
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/0303/news6.php
There is no secret about the fact that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are unable, 15 years after the alleged switch to democracy, to put into leading positions of their country people without a disreputable and dark past, without a communist resume, or with clean character. This goes for their diplomats and ambassadors as well. Let's just recall ambassador Rudolf Schuster, formerly a communist aparatchik of the highest calibre, first named by the infamous president Vaclav Havel as Ambassador to Canada, and after division of Czechoslovakia becoming the president of Slovakia. Seems like a pre-requisite to become an ambassador or diplomat was to have a communist past - names like Rita Klimova, Anton Hykisch, Jan Kavan and Eduard Kukan come to mind immediately.
They have an American Czech-Slovak Cultural Club here in Miami. I happen to know a number of people from there. They are nice, kind people, treasuring their Czech-Slovak heritage - even if it is often several generations removed. Now I am being told that they are preparing a Czech-Slovak festival - or officially "the First Czech-Slovak Heritage Days in Florida - 2005" - you can see the details at http://www.acscc.org/festival_121404.html
When I was browsing through the list of speakers I found the following "dignitaries":
Doc. PhDr. Boris Banary, CSc., Rector, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Ruzomberok, Slovakia
Dr. Jiri Barta, Executive Director, VIA Foundation, Prague, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Ivo Bartecek, CSc., Dean, Philosophical Faculty, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Doc. PaedDr. Michal Bauer, Ph.D., University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Vaclav Buzek, CSc., Rector of the University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice
Margita Fuchsova, Consul General of the Czech Republic, Los Angeles, CA
H.E. Rastislav Kácer, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the United States, Washington, DC
PhDr. Karel Konecny, CSc., Dept. of History, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Jaromir Marek, M.A., Correspondent & Chief of Czech Broadcasting, Radio Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
PhDr. Slavomir Michalek, CSc., Historian, Historical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
PhDr. Dalibor Mikulas, CSc., Vice Rector for Foreign Relations, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Ruzomberok, Slovakia
The Honorable Senator Doc. MUDr. Jaroslava Moserova, DrSc., President, Czech Commission for UNESCO, Prague, Czech Republic
H.E. RNDr. Martin Palous, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States, Washington, DC
Prof. PaedDr. Vladimir Papousek, CSc, Vice-Rector, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Ales Pospisil, M.A., Consul General of the Czech Republic, New York, NY
Doc. Ing. Josef Prusa, CSc., Rector, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Milos Trapl, CSc., Dept. of History, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Prof. PhDr. Jan Vicar, CSc., Dept. Of Musicology, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Linda Vlasak, B.A., former Program Director, Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore, MD
Prof. Ing. Zdenek Vostracky, DrSc., Past Rector, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
Prof. RNDr. Zdenek Weiss, DrSc., Director, Materials Chemistry Center, Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Mgr. Miroslav Wlachovsky, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Slovak Republic, Washington, DC
(A short note for those readers not well-versed in the Czech reality - if any of those people above are over the age of 40, they simply HAD to be a communists in order to receive all those titles in then-Czechoslovakia)
I, of course, do not know what the above mentioned well-titled speakers will be talking about, but I am sure it will not be about their lifetime collaborations with communists in then-Czechoslovakia, about their past membership in the communist party or about how much they had to bend over to achieve all those titles and positions. I am sure that all of them will welcome the free trip and free meal in Florida, no doubt about it.
I have nothing but love and respect for the well-meaning third and fourth generation Czech-Americans and Slovak-Americans in the Miami club, but their naivete got the better of them this time. It is a shame to invite this roster of characters to their American heritage festival. It would be a shame at any heritage festival or celebration - Czech, Slovak or otherwise. It is akin to a Jewish community from Miami inviting Adolf Eichmann's children plus a few former SS concentration camp guards to Miami to celebrate Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur with them. That's simply not right.
The second example of Americans being bamboozled by East Europeans is really high-level. It about how Czech president Vaclav Klaus crashed a party and got himself invited to the White House.
Czech president Vaclav Klaus is a really despicable character. While he allegedly never was a member of the communist party, he mysteriously always enjoyed privileges reserved only for communists in totalitarian Czechoslovakia. Nobody can explain why - not even Vaclav Klaus himself. He was privileged enough to be allowed to study economy at university at a time when innocent people were jailed for decades in uranium mines, and he was allowed to travel to the West and even to study in the U.S. at a time when normal Czechs were dreaming (often futilely) about going on a vacation to communist Hungary's Balaton Lake.
Klaus had put the "rrrr" into arrogance and in spite of his anti-Americanism he would love to get some face time with an American president. Dubya never met him and after Klaus' derogatory comments about the war in Iraq his prospective visit to Washington was indefinitely put on the back burner and he was coldly ignored by everyone from the former U.S. Ambassador in Prague Craig Stapleton to the lowest level staffer that addresses the janitor at Foggy Bottom as 'sir'. It is no secret that Klaus was so verbally abusive towards the U.S. and it's ex-ambassador in Prague during their meeting before the start of the Iraq war that Stapleton simply up and left the meeting with the Czech president and slammed the door on him. Not a good omen, I would say...
This was no problem for a political snake the likes of Klaus. You can always count on American naivete. During the last meeting of EU heads of state Klaus could not get close to Bush, but in the closing moments of the photo session he simply forced his way onto the podium and stood next to a completely shocked and puzzled Bush. My sources tell me that Dubya had not the slightest idea who Klaus was and being a sociable and polite gentleman he shook Klaus' proffered hand. Klaus wasted no time and started talking to him in his famously broken English, about that he will be in Washington next week and that he would like to stop at the White House. At that time, Bush was under the impression that he was talking to Ivan Gasparovic, another ex-communist, but the president of Slovakia - to where Bush was leaving immediately for a summit with Putin. Therefore Klaus got a jovial Texas answer in line with "anytime you are in D.C. - just stop in to see me". He was not alone in his mistake. This is confirmed by the official White House web page, which identified Klaus talking to Bush as "Slovak president Ivan Gasparovic". Bush learned the true identity of this sneaky rat only after everything was over. Klaus on other hand let everybody know that U.S. president George W. Bush had just invited him to come on an official visit to Washington.
The week after that Klaus went on a "private visit" of the U.S. still unsure of if he will be able to pull the stunt off or not. Eventually, he was successful. He just crashed a party at the White House and got a 30-minutes visit with Dubya with pictures of them shaking hands and all that jazz... The media in the Czech Republic presented this shameful trick visit as a great feat of Czech diplomacy (oh, by the way, the Czech Ambassador is speaking in Miami next week as well) and ordinary Czechs were made to believe that Klaus was in America to give that yokel Bush some sound advice on how to properly run things...
So that's how not only ordinary Americans from Miami, but our president as well were bamboozled. What should have happened is that those annoying arrogant bastards from Prague should have gotten sorry asses kicked down Pennsylvania Avenue by the Secret Service and U.S. Marines - and not been allowed entry into the White House. That would happened if there was justice in the world.
But there is not - and we, as Americans, are just far too nice of a people to even imagine to what length some of those Easterners would go to take advantage of us...
So it goes...
Ross Hedvicek
March 11, 2005
Related:
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/0303/news6.php
Vaclav Havel : He Could Be A Hero!
While I was listening to the radio in my car this morning, I could not avoid catching the remake of "We Could Be Heroes" from that Godzilla movie. But the association it brought to me was not of any pre-historic dinosaur, but another historical anomaly in the Czech Republic - president and playwright Vaclav Havel - a dear dear darling of Western media and university professors.
Contrary to the opinion of left-leaning media and even more leftist university professors at American universities, Havel proved to be a huge disappointment while undoubtedly, he could be a hero.
Havel was "elected" to his presidential chair quite a few times - maybe not as often as Suharto was, but almost.
When he was elected for the first time, he was "elected" by proclamation by the very same communist government he was supposedly about to overthrow. Well, he did not! He actually guaranteed that none of the communist tyrants of Stalinist era in Czechoslovakia were ever punished. Over the years Havel grew more "experienced" (among other things he presided over the fall-out of the country into two separate states), and even after such a failure he ran for president again in the Czech republic - and won! All of the people can be fooled all of time - that's the Czech way. And during the last presidential "re-election" there was a great danger that he could lose by ONE VOTE! His cronies did not waste any time and had one parliamentarian (expected to vote against Havel) promptly arrested a few hours before election. What do you think happened? The media kept quiet and Havel won the re-election BY ONE VOTE! Isn't that amazing? Gee, what a democratic process! And when one of the colleagues of the arrested parliamentarian protested, Havel's wife - the First Lady loudly whistled on her fingers in the parliament. Well, Hillary is in a class of her own, but have you heard her whistling and disrupting Congress during some official proceedings?
Yes, Havel could be a hero - but he is not.
A few years after the Velvet revolution transcripts of tapes were published in Prague. Transcripts of talks Havel held with representatives of the communist government in November 1989, talks about transfer of power. Incredible scenes of primitivism and unheard of bluntness and horse haggling as to who will get what position in the next government in exchange for communists going unpunished. And Havel kept his word to the people responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, communist concentration camps, and hundreds of thousands lives destroyed. Not only did they all go unpunished, but also they were all involved in "privatization" of the state-owned properties and eventually they all became rich. They went from nomeklatura communists directly to hard-core capitalists in a few short steps. All in the name of Havel's Velvet Revolution. Unreal!
He could be a hero - but he is not.
Another of Havel's memorable things is his "use" of presidential clemency. Not only did he not hesitate to interfere with valid judgements and give clemency to true hardened criminals, he gave clemency to someone who beat his own father to death (the victim was Jozef Odlozil, silver medalist in the long distance running, from the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City) just because the mother of the criminal (former Odlozil's wife, also multiple gold Olympic winner from 1968 Mexico, Vera Caslavska) was one of the Havel's close friends, but he brings his misuse of clemency to new level these days, when he pardoned two gypsies (long criminal records for thefts and robberies) who physically attacked a parliamentarian during his pre-election speech. Havel pardoned them so fast that the local police did not have time to officially charge the two culprits with the attack! Can you believe that? And another interesting bit is that the parliamentary who was attacked is the same guy, who was locked up in prison, so he could not attend and vote in last Havel's re-election. Funny, isn't it? Life is not so complicated, afterall...
Well, yes, Havel could be a hero - if he were not just another neo-communist criminal.
Ross Hedvicek
(June 1998)
Contrary to the opinion of left-leaning media and even more leftist university professors at American universities, Havel proved to be a huge disappointment while undoubtedly, he could be a hero.
Havel was "elected" to his presidential chair quite a few times - maybe not as often as Suharto was, but almost.
When he was elected for the first time, he was "elected" by proclamation by the very same communist government he was supposedly about to overthrow. Well, he did not! He actually guaranteed that none of the communist tyrants of Stalinist era in Czechoslovakia were ever punished. Over the years Havel grew more "experienced" (among other things he presided over the fall-out of the country into two separate states), and even after such a failure he ran for president again in the Czech republic - and won! All of the people can be fooled all of time - that's the Czech way. And during the last presidential "re-election" there was a great danger that he could lose by ONE VOTE! His cronies did not waste any time and had one parliamentarian (expected to vote against Havel) promptly arrested a few hours before election. What do you think happened? The media kept quiet and Havel won the re-election BY ONE VOTE! Isn't that amazing? Gee, what a democratic process! And when one of the colleagues of the arrested parliamentarian protested, Havel's wife - the First Lady loudly whistled on her fingers in the parliament. Well, Hillary is in a class of her own, but have you heard her whistling and disrupting Congress during some official proceedings?
Yes, Havel could be a hero - but he is not.
A few years after the Velvet revolution transcripts of tapes were published in Prague. Transcripts of talks Havel held with representatives of the communist government in November 1989, talks about transfer of power. Incredible scenes of primitivism and unheard of bluntness and horse haggling as to who will get what position in the next government in exchange for communists going unpunished. And Havel kept his word to the people responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, communist concentration camps, and hundreds of thousands lives destroyed. Not only did they all go unpunished, but also they were all involved in "privatization" of the state-owned properties and eventually they all became rich. They went from nomeklatura communists directly to hard-core capitalists in a few short steps. All in the name of Havel's Velvet Revolution. Unreal!
He could be a hero - but he is not.
Another of Havel's memorable things is his "use" of presidential clemency. Not only did he not hesitate to interfere with valid judgements and give clemency to true hardened criminals, he gave clemency to someone who beat his own father to death (the victim was Jozef Odlozil, silver medalist in the long distance running, from the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City) just because the mother of the criminal (former Odlozil's wife, also multiple gold Olympic winner from 1968 Mexico, Vera Caslavska) was one of the Havel's close friends, but he brings his misuse of clemency to new level these days, when he pardoned two gypsies (long criminal records for thefts and robberies) who physically attacked a parliamentarian during his pre-election speech. Havel pardoned them so fast that the local police did not have time to officially charge the two culprits with the attack! Can you believe that? And another interesting bit is that the parliamentary who was attacked is the same guy, who was locked up in prison, so he could not attend and vote in last Havel's re-election. Funny, isn't it? Life is not so complicated, afterall...
Well, yes, Havel could be a hero - if he were not just another neo-communist criminal.
Ross Hedvicek
(June 1998)
Czech Republic: Friend or foe?
A Presidential commission, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, informed president Bush on Thursday March 31, 2005 that the United States still knows "disturbingly little" about the intentions of many of its "most dangerous adversaries." Isn't that interesting?
Certainly, the commission was talking mainly about Iraq, Iran, North Korea and so on - the obvious enemies. The less obvious (but no less dangerous) enemies were not acknowledged - at least not publicly, for CNN to report about.
I of course do not know what Bill Clinton was thinking (well, take a wild guess...), when he pushed for including the former Czechoslovakia into the western world and accepting them into NATO and so on.
Take a look at the Czechoslovak/Czech Prime Ministers of the past 15 years - when the country was allegedly "democratic": Milan Cic, Marian Calfa, Petr Pithart, Josef Tosovsky, Vaclav Klaus, Milos Zeman, Vladimir Spidla, and Stanislav Gross. Out of those eight people, five were communists and the remaining three were politically so far left, that they would qualify for the communist label without any difficulty. And now, with the latest leftie Prime Minister Stanislav Gross having to resign because of corruption, we already know that the next Czech Prime Minister will be another ex-communist, Jan Kohout. It never ends..
The two main Czech political parties, CSSD and ODS, are heavily populated by ex-communists, who (after the fake Velvet Revolution) simply left their original Stalinist Communist Party and joined these two. The KSCM (non-apologetic Stalinist communists) is the third strongest party in the country. And that in spite of the fact that the country has a currently standing law (198/93 Sb), proclaiming communist ideology, parties and regimes ILLEGAL!
In the current armed forces of the Czech republic (army and air force) all senior officers (I am not talking about some junior lieutenants) are ex-communists and as senior officers they represent their country at NATO headquarters in Brussels. I doubt it would be too big of a stretch of the imagination to assume that they forward all NATO military secrets to their old buddies and schoolmates (since they all have Soviet schooling) in Moscow as soon as any such secrets reach their desks.
Very similar is the situation with the Czech justice system. Alleged humanist and former president Vaclav Havel gave lifetime tenure to communist judges from pre-revolution Czechoslovakia (to be a communist was a pre-requisite for the job), so they feel quite secure. Before they were judging according to the Stalinist rule book, now the same people are supposed to uphold democratic laws and justice. Havel's successor, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus recently refused to name approximately 36 new judges. Why? Because they were too young and lacked a communist past! The abuse of power in the Czech justice system is rampant - a perfect example would be the judicial persecution of Vladimir Hucin (www.hucin.com) who was imprisoned without charge or trial during Havel's presidency and is still being dragged through the courts just for his opposition to communism.
The situation is no better with Czech representation at the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe at Strasbourg, France. Czech citizens who can not get any justice in their home country turn in droves to the authorities in Strassbourg. There are literally thousands of complaints about injustices caused by currently sitting ex-communist judges mostly in the areas of human and property rights. The most frequent complaint is that the Czech government is via the Czech justice system refusing to return property confiscated by previous Czech regimes. So what is the Czech governmental solution to these complaints? They sent their own people to the European Court to act as their representatives. These 'representatives' would be more aptly called obstructors of justice - they intercept their fellow countrymen's complaints and send them back with fake documentation that their complaint was denied - while in fact it never reached the court. Neat, isn't it?
When it comes to representation at the European Parliament in Brussels, it always seems that only ex-communists are either most qualified or are elected to be representatives of their nations. Czech embassies and consulates abroad are almost exclusively populated by cronies of the last two presidents - with no regard to their diplomatic capabilities or their ability to stay sober.
It is a mystery to me why, 15 years after the country's alleged switch to democracy, the Czech Republic cannot - or does not want to - produce quality people with a clean past to represent them abroad and fill the top positions of their government. Why are only ex-communists available? Is it accidental? A freak of nature? Or worse - intentional?
I opened a Czech newspaper recently and was only mildly surprised to find what is happening this weekend in the Czech Republic. There will be a world gathering of Stalinist communist parties (including Cuba, China, Belarus, etc. - a total of 35 communist parties) in Prague's hotel Olympik starting on April 23, 2005. Communists from all over the world know very well that in the Czech Republic they are among friends and that they will be warmly welcomed. So - not in Beijing, Pyongyang or Havana - but in Prague, Czech Republic. Seems that the civilized West would be much better off if Czechs were still behind the barbed wire on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
As I see things right now, the Czech Republic is not just an enemy at the gates, it is more like a Trojan horse already inside the gates. If you paid attention during your history class, then you know what happened when the naive Trojans fell asleep...
Think about it... and do not fall asleep.
April 19, 2005
Certainly, the commission was talking mainly about Iraq, Iran, North Korea and so on - the obvious enemies. The less obvious (but no less dangerous) enemies were not acknowledged - at least not publicly, for CNN to report about.
I of course do not know what Bill Clinton was thinking (well, take a wild guess...), when he pushed for including the former Czechoslovakia into the western world and accepting them into NATO and so on.
Take a look at the Czechoslovak/Czech Prime Ministers of the past 15 years - when the country was allegedly "democratic": Milan Cic, Marian Calfa, Petr Pithart, Josef Tosovsky, Vaclav Klaus, Milos Zeman, Vladimir Spidla, and Stanislav Gross. Out of those eight people, five were communists and the remaining three were politically so far left, that they would qualify for the communist label without any difficulty. And now, with the latest leftie Prime Minister Stanislav Gross having to resign because of corruption, we already know that the next Czech Prime Minister will be another ex-communist, Jan Kohout. It never ends..
The two main Czech political parties, CSSD and ODS, are heavily populated by ex-communists, who (after the fake Velvet Revolution) simply left their original Stalinist Communist Party and joined these two. The KSCM (non-apologetic Stalinist communists) is the third strongest party in the country. And that in spite of the fact that the country has a currently standing law (198/93 Sb), proclaiming communist ideology, parties and regimes ILLEGAL!
In the current armed forces of the Czech republic (army and air force) all senior officers (I am not talking about some junior lieutenants) are ex-communists and as senior officers they represent their country at NATO headquarters in Brussels. I doubt it would be too big of a stretch of the imagination to assume that they forward all NATO military secrets to their old buddies and schoolmates (since they all have Soviet schooling) in Moscow as soon as any such secrets reach their desks.
Very similar is the situation with the Czech justice system. Alleged humanist and former president Vaclav Havel gave lifetime tenure to communist judges from pre-revolution Czechoslovakia (to be a communist was a pre-requisite for the job), so they feel quite secure. Before they were judging according to the Stalinist rule book, now the same people are supposed to uphold democratic laws and justice. Havel's successor, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus recently refused to name approximately 36 new judges. Why? Because they were too young and lacked a communist past! The abuse of power in the Czech justice system is rampant - a perfect example would be the judicial persecution of Vladimir Hucin (www.hucin.com) who was imprisoned without charge or trial during Havel's presidency and is still being dragged through the courts just for his opposition to communism.
The situation is no better with Czech representation at the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe at Strasbourg, France. Czech citizens who can not get any justice in their home country turn in droves to the authorities in Strassbourg. There are literally thousands of complaints about injustices caused by currently sitting ex-communist judges mostly in the areas of human and property rights. The most frequent complaint is that the Czech government is via the Czech justice system refusing to return property confiscated by previous Czech regimes. So what is the Czech governmental solution to these complaints? They sent their own people to the European Court to act as their representatives. These 'representatives' would be more aptly called obstructors of justice - they intercept their fellow countrymen's complaints and send them back with fake documentation that their complaint was denied - while in fact it never reached the court. Neat, isn't it?
When it comes to representation at the European Parliament in Brussels, it always seems that only ex-communists are either most qualified or are elected to be representatives of their nations. Czech embassies and consulates abroad are almost exclusively populated by cronies of the last two presidents - with no regard to their diplomatic capabilities or their ability to stay sober.
It is a mystery to me why, 15 years after the country's alleged switch to democracy, the Czech Republic cannot - or does not want to - produce quality people with a clean past to represent them abroad and fill the top positions of their government. Why are only ex-communists available? Is it accidental? A freak of nature? Or worse - intentional?
I opened a Czech newspaper recently and was only mildly surprised to find what is happening this weekend in the Czech Republic. There will be a world gathering of Stalinist communist parties (including Cuba, China, Belarus, etc. - a total of 35 communist parties) in Prague's hotel Olympik starting on April 23, 2005. Communists from all over the world know very well that in the Czech Republic they are among friends and that they will be warmly welcomed. So - not in Beijing, Pyongyang or Havana - but in Prague, Czech Republic. Seems that the civilized West would be much better off if Czechs were still behind the barbed wire on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
As I see things right now, the Czech Republic is not just an enemy at the gates, it is more like a Trojan horse already inside the gates. If you paid attention during your history class, then you know what happened when the naive Trojans fell asleep...
Think about it... and do not fall asleep.
April 19, 2005
Monday, February 20, 2006
No more unheeded warnings...
(older article, yes, but not outdated)
Yesterday, October 9, 2001, I was watching Bill O'Reilly ask Newt Gingrich a question on his show that CNN and other mainstream left-leaning media pundits wouldn't dare ask: "How much blame for events of Sept.11 can be put on Bill Clinton and his administration?"
Newt, given his rich personal history with Clinton and being a patriot, just smiled and side-stepped the question: "While this a valid point, the primary blame still lays with terrorists".
One can only feel sorry for president Bush, when we realize that he now has to undo all the damage caused by Bill Clinton in the area of international relations or matters of national security. Before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington nobody paid much attention to the fact that Bill Clinton allowed the Chinese communist army to create a beachhead in San Diego (by leasing a decommissioned military base to a Chinese company named COSCO - China Ocean Shipping Company), and that he allowed the same company to take control of the Panama Canal after the U.S. very unwisely (and on Clinton's orders) pulled out of the area. Or how Bill Clinton compromised the integrity (and security) of NATO by single-handedly forcing the admission of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary into NATO without them really qualifying for something of that magnitude.
After the events of September 11 everybody is paying attention to warning signs that used to be ignored - that is, to all warnings related to the more obvious terrorist possibilities. But there is still a few not so obvious areas. Let's take for example the above mentioned Czech Republic...
The Czech Republic - consisting of the western-part of the former Czechoslovakia - switched from being a member of the communist Warsaw Pact to becoming a member of anti-communist NATO without any major internal political or social changes. It is a trick that even the great Houdini would not be hard pressed to pull off - but Clinton did. It is akin to Hitler's Germany (after causing WWII and killing over 6 million Jews) becoming "a democratic country" overnight with no punishment for the guilty and with the same people in government.
Czechoslovakia was always a "big-league" supporter of world terrorism. There were four major terrorist training camps in Czechoslovakia (the biggest one in Zastavka u Brna), where Czechoslovak government experts trained terrorists not only from Palestine and Libya, but from most Arab countries, one of the most notable being Carlos "The Jackal." According to Jan Frolik, the director of the Czech government archives, this terrorist school was officially called the "Institute for foreign studies" and had the code name "Pristav" (The Port). None of the camp's organizers and instructors were ever brought to justice or even remotely pursued - just the opposite. One of the instructors at the "Pristav," Richard Falbr, is now the head of the Czech trade unions and a "senator"!
The most infamous Czech product was (and still is) of course the plastic explosive Semtex (made in a factory in Semtin near Pardubice). To blow a Boeing out of the sky over Lockerbie Scotland, the Libyans needed less than a pound (0.30 kg) of Semtex. According to Frolik, Czechoslovakia sold over 900 metric tons (that's almost two MILLION pounds!) to the Libyans, 14 metric tons (30,000 lbs) to Vietnam and even at the time of the "Velvet Revolution" they were sending 200 kg (440 lbs) of Semtex and 1000 kg (2200 lbs) of "classic" TNT to Guinea. Frolik mentioned, among other things, shipments of 110 Scorpion mini-machine guns, hundreds of pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition and eavesdropping equipment to Yasser Arafat. The Western world can hardly consider the Czech Republic an ally: they never cooperated and habitually hid everything they could - and continue to do so until today.
Support of and connection to terrorism is not a thing of the past: the Czech Republic is unable to come clean even today. Muhammad Atta, who piloted one of the jets into the World Trade Center towers was in Prague just before he left for the USA for the final time aboard a Czechoslovak Airlines flight. He met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence agent, probably got his orders and left. The Czech intelligence knew about it and did nothing.
According to Czech media reports, a Czech instructor who trained terrorists in Osama bin Laden's organization in Afghanistan (and who has since left the area) was in fact a member of the Czech military intelligence. The Czech minister of defense claims he knew nothing about it. Well, let's hope that if not him, then the Americans did know - according to another suppressed report, the government of the Czech republic was given (by their American counterparts) a list of about 1000 Czech citizens suspected of having ties to terrorists. What a surprise!
An even more chilling angle; according to British Islamic terrorism expert Simon Reeve and his sources, associates of Osama bin Laden were purchasing biological weapons in the Czech Republic as recently as 1995. The institute working on biological weapons still exists in Techonin near Hradec Kralove and according to Reeve's sources, the price the biological weapons went for was $7500 for one glass capsule. Not so unexpectedly, Czech minister of defense Tvrdik and minister of the interior Gross are, of course, claiming total and utmost ignorance of the matter.
Of the 18 cabinet members of the current Czech government, 17 of them were members of the communist party (including prime minister Zeman). While the alleged membership of President Havel in the communist party is still being disputed, in neighboring Slovakia (not in NATO - yet) even the current president was a communist and a Politburo member. No big deal!
Something should be done about it. The U.S. government has stated repeatedly that it will pursue all countries which "harbor, train or finance" any terrorist activities. In the light of the information above I believe that the Czech Republic is qualified with these specific boundaries. Even if the current situation may only be a fraction of the dirty sins of the past, the Czech Republic's top offices are still manned by the same people who were in charge when they were happening, there was no distancing from that past, no investigations, no punishment for the guilty. What's worse is that those very same communists are now sitting in NATO headquarters in Brussels, listening intently to secrets they should not have any access to in the first place, just waiting for the right opportunity to stab the free world in the back and squeal their secrets to the KGB, for which they all worked all those years ago. What are we waiting for? Until we will find that, for example, they forwarded all available information on Bush's Missile Defense Plan they got as NATO members directly to Moscow, Beijing or North Korea? It'll be too late then. Who's paying attention to the warning signs now?
Given the current tense situation, I think that president Bush has the right to ask for at least a temporary suspension of the Czech Republic from NATO, as well as demand and receive removal and/or resignation of the current communist-stained Czech government officials from their posts and request a full investigation of any terrorist-related activities sponsored and financed by the previous or current governments of Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia.
If they ignore it, or are difficult - let's give them a warning. Just like we did to the Taliban. Either comply or face the consequences. Support for terrorism must not be a subject for negotiations. Give them fourteen days to think about it and then use all necessary force. Everybody's equal. I don't see a reason why the terrorism-supporting government of the Czech Republic should be treated any different than the Taliban.
Ross Hedvicek
Thu, 11 Oct 2001
Yesterday, October 9, 2001, I was watching Bill O'Reilly ask Newt Gingrich a question on his show that CNN and other mainstream left-leaning media pundits wouldn't dare ask: "How much blame for events of Sept.11 can be put on Bill Clinton and his administration?"
Newt, given his rich personal history with Clinton and being a patriot, just smiled and side-stepped the question: "While this a valid point, the primary blame still lays with terrorists".
One can only feel sorry for president Bush, when we realize that he now has to undo all the damage caused by Bill Clinton in the area of international relations or matters of national security. Before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington nobody paid much attention to the fact that Bill Clinton allowed the Chinese communist army to create a beachhead in San Diego (by leasing a decommissioned military base to a Chinese company named COSCO - China Ocean Shipping Company), and that he allowed the same company to take control of the Panama Canal after the U.S. very unwisely (and on Clinton's orders) pulled out of the area. Or how Bill Clinton compromised the integrity (and security) of NATO by single-handedly forcing the admission of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary into NATO without them really qualifying for something of that magnitude.
After the events of September 11 everybody is paying attention to warning signs that used to be ignored - that is, to all warnings related to the more obvious terrorist possibilities. But there is still a few not so obvious areas. Let's take for example the above mentioned Czech Republic...
The Czech Republic - consisting of the western-part of the former Czechoslovakia - switched from being a member of the communist Warsaw Pact to becoming a member of anti-communist NATO without any major internal political or social changes. It is a trick that even the great Houdini would not be hard pressed to pull off - but Clinton did. It is akin to Hitler's Germany (after causing WWII and killing over 6 million Jews) becoming "a democratic country" overnight with no punishment for the guilty and with the same people in government.
Czechoslovakia was always a "big-league" supporter of world terrorism. There were four major terrorist training camps in Czechoslovakia (the biggest one in Zastavka u Brna), where Czechoslovak government experts trained terrorists not only from Palestine and Libya, but from most Arab countries, one of the most notable being Carlos "The Jackal." According to Jan Frolik, the director of the Czech government archives, this terrorist school was officially called the "Institute for foreign studies" and had the code name "Pristav" (The Port). None of the camp's organizers and instructors were ever brought to justice or even remotely pursued - just the opposite. One of the instructors at the "Pristav," Richard Falbr, is now the head of the Czech trade unions and a "senator"!
The most infamous Czech product was (and still is) of course the plastic explosive Semtex (made in a factory in Semtin near Pardubice). To blow a Boeing out of the sky over Lockerbie Scotland, the Libyans needed less than a pound (0.30 kg) of Semtex. According to Frolik, Czechoslovakia sold over 900 metric tons (that's almost two MILLION pounds!) to the Libyans, 14 metric tons (30,000 lbs) to Vietnam and even at the time of the "Velvet Revolution" they were sending 200 kg (440 lbs) of Semtex and 1000 kg (2200 lbs) of "classic" TNT to Guinea. Frolik mentioned, among other things, shipments of 110 Scorpion mini-machine guns, hundreds of pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition and eavesdropping equipment to Yasser Arafat. The Western world can hardly consider the Czech Republic an ally: they never cooperated and habitually hid everything they could - and continue to do so until today.
Support of and connection to terrorism is not a thing of the past: the Czech Republic is unable to come clean even today. Muhammad Atta, who piloted one of the jets into the World Trade Center towers was in Prague just before he left for the USA for the final time aboard a Czechoslovak Airlines flight. He met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence agent, probably got his orders and left. The Czech intelligence knew about it and did nothing.
According to Czech media reports, a Czech instructor who trained terrorists in Osama bin Laden's organization in Afghanistan (and who has since left the area) was in fact a member of the Czech military intelligence. The Czech minister of defense claims he knew nothing about it. Well, let's hope that if not him, then the Americans did know - according to another suppressed report, the government of the Czech republic was given (by their American counterparts) a list of about 1000 Czech citizens suspected of having ties to terrorists. What a surprise!
An even more chilling angle; according to British Islamic terrorism expert Simon Reeve and his sources, associates of Osama bin Laden were purchasing biological weapons in the Czech Republic as recently as 1995. The institute working on biological weapons still exists in Techonin near Hradec Kralove and according to Reeve's sources, the price the biological weapons went for was $7500 for one glass capsule. Not so unexpectedly, Czech minister of defense Tvrdik and minister of the interior Gross are, of course, claiming total and utmost ignorance of the matter.
Of the 18 cabinet members of the current Czech government, 17 of them were members of the communist party (including prime minister Zeman). While the alleged membership of President Havel in the communist party is still being disputed, in neighboring Slovakia (not in NATO - yet) even the current president was a communist and a Politburo member. No big deal!
Something should be done about it. The U.S. government has stated repeatedly that it will pursue all countries which "harbor, train or finance" any terrorist activities. In the light of the information above I believe that the Czech Republic is qualified with these specific boundaries. Even if the current situation may only be a fraction of the dirty sins of the past, the Czech Republic's top offices are still manned by the same people who were in charge when they were happening, there was no distancing from that past, no investigations, no punishment for the guilty. What's worse is that those very same communists are now sitting in NATO headquarters in Brussels, listening intently to secrets they should not have any access to in the first place, just waiting for the right opportunity to stab the free world in the back and squeal their secrets to the KGB, for which they all worked all those years ago. What are we waiting for? Until we will find that, for example, they forwarded all available information on Bush's Missile Defense Plan they got as NATO members directly to Moscow, Beijing or North Korea? It'll be too late then. Who's paying attention to the warning signs now?
Given the current tense situation, I think that president Bush has the right to ask for at least a temporary suspension of the Czech Republic from NATO, as well as demand and receive removal and/or resignation of the current communist-stained Czech government officials from their posts and request a full investigation of any terrorist-related activities sponsored and financed by the previous or current governments of Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia.
If they ignore it, or are difficult - let's give them a warning. Just like we did to the Taliban. Either comply or face the consequences. Support for terrorism must not be a subject for negotiations. Give them fourteen days to think about it and then use all necessary force. Everybody's equal. I don't see a reason why the terrorism-supporting government of the Czech Republic should be treated any different than the Taliban.
Ross Hedvicek
Thu, 11 Oct 2001
Communists Still Run Eastern Europe
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/6/132542.shtml
Reprinted with permission.
Communists Still Run Eastern Europe
John LeBoutillier
Saturday, May 7, 2005
Often things look differently years after the fact. The perspective of time
gives us a better, clearer view.
As President Bush flies around Europe this week - including a controversial
visit to Moscow - we need to take a look back at the supposed revolution(s)
that swept Eastern Europe 15 years ago.
At that time, we all hailed the peaceful events that seemingly brought down
the communist regimes behind the Iron Curtain as 'miracles.' The ending of
these murderous regimes - without riots, mass killings and violence - was too
good to be true!
Well, guess what?
It indeed was too good to be true!
Because all those Communist leaders and subordinates not only went
unpunished for their crimes, most of them remained - and still remain - in power!
In Russia, the 'former' KGB operative, Vladimir Putin, has seen to it that
his KGB cronies exert enormous 'backroom' power while he steadily undoes
democratic reforms and re-consolidates power in his presidential office.
All the previously state-owned enterprises that were sold off were grabbed
by Communist or KGB insiders, who then made billions of dollars off these
transactions. (You know the old saying: Who are the world's biggest capitalists?
The Communists!)
And the apparatchiks - the bureaucrats, the people who run everything in a
government-dominated society - from the Soviet days are the very same people
in the very same jobs!
Clearly, when 1989 saw the 'crumbling' of the Soviet Empire, the Communists
in all the Eastern European nations all adopted the same standard playbook:
"Just say you are a former Communist and stay in power."
And in all these nations - Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Romania - the same pattern followed: With the 'ending' of Communism,
the West - armed with tons of cash - came calling.
Billions of dollars of American aid poured into these countries - and thus
into the pockets of the very same Communists who built their careers on hating
America.
NATO began admitting these nations. Why not? They seemed as if they had
renounced their Soviet patrons and were now free to follow their hearts and join
the good guys.
Yes, the people of these nations wanted - and still want desperately - to be
on our side. But their leaders and their military officials are all
Communist leftovers who are now inside our henhouse living off our eggs.
And these 'renounced' Communists are everywhere. Just this week, it was
revealed that Polish President Kwasnieski - himself a lifetime Communist - is now
being considered by the Bush White House to be the next secretary-general of
the United Nations!
Kwasnieski is so reviled in Poland that Lech Walesa hasn't talked to him in
years and only reluctantly shook hands with him at Pope John Paul II's
funeral in Rome last month. But Kwasnieski has ingratiated himself with GW Bush by
dispatching Polish troops to Iraq - over the protests of the majority of the
Polish people. Now it is payback time.
A 'former' Communist running the U.N.? Why not? He'll feel right at home
there.
Next: The Truth About the Czech Republic
Reprinted with permission.
Communists Still Run Eastern Europe
John LeBoutillier
Saturday, May 7, 2005
Often things look differently years after the fact. The perspective of time
gives us a better, clearer view.
As President Bush flies around Europe this week - including a controversial
visit to Moscow - we need to take a look back at the supposed revolution(s)
that swept Eastern Europe 15 years ago.
At that time, we all hailed the peaceful events that seemingly brought down
the communist regimes behind the Iron Curtain as 'miracles.' The ending of
these murderous regimes - without riots, mass killings and violence - was too
good to be true!
Well, guess what?
It indeed was too good to be true!
Because all those Communist leaders and subordinates not only went
unpunished for their crimes, most of them remained - and still remain - in power!
In Russia, the 'former' KGB operative, Vladimir Putin, has seen to it that
his KGB cronies exert enormous 'backroom' power while he steadily undoes
democratic reforms and re-consolidates power in his presidential office.
All the previously state-owned enterprises that were sold off were grabbed
by Communist or KGB insiders, who then made billions of dollars off these
transactions. (You know the old saying: Who are the world's biggest capitalists?
The Communists!)
And the apparatchiks - the bureaucrats, the people who run everything in a
government-dominated society - from the Soviet days are the very same people
in the very same jobs!
Clearly, when 1989 saw the 'crumbling' of the Soviet Empire, the Communists
in all the Eastern European nations all adopted the same standard playbook:
"Just say you are a former Communist and stay in power."
And in all these nations - Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Romania - the same pattern followed: With the 'ending' of Communism,
the West - armed with tons of cash - came calling.
Billions of dollars of American aid poured into these countries - and thus
into the pockets of the very same Communists who built their careers on hating
America.
NATO began admitting these nations. Why not? They seemed as if they had
renounced their Soviet patrons and were now free to follow their hearts and join
the good guys.
Yes, the people of these nations wanted - and still want desperately - to be
on our side. But their leaders and their military officials are all
Communist leftovers who are now inside our henhouse living off our eggs.
And these 'renounced' Communists are everywhere. Just this week, it was
revealed that Polish President Kwasnieski - himself a lifetime Communist - is now
being considered by the Bush White House to be the next secretary-general of
the United Nations!
Kwasnieski is so reviled in Poland that Lech Walesa hasn't talked to him in
years and only reluctantly shook hands with him at Pope John Paul II's
funeral in Rome last month. But Kwasnieski has ingratiated himself with GW Bush by
dispatching Polish troops to Iraq - over the protests of the majority of the
Polish people. Now it is payback time.
A 'former' Communist running the U.N.? Why not? He'll feel right at home
there.
Next: The Truth About the Czech Republic
Communists Still Run Eastern Europe, Part II Czech Republic
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/10/190148.shtml
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Communists Still Run Eastern Europe, Part II Czech Republic
John LeBoutillier
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Read Part I: Communists Still Run Eastern Europe
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/6/132542.shtml
"Things are not what they seem to be" is totally applicable to the so-called demise of Communism in Eastern Europe. While we all cheered the apparent end of the Soviet Empire, it has been replaced by a hybrid form of continued Communist control by evil, clever and totally corrupt life-long Communists who will never relinquish power.
The best example of this has been detailed by an excellent Miami writer, Ross Hedvicek, himself a former Czech citizen. Mr. Hedvicek is alarmed by what has happened to his former country - and how we Americans have been duped into thinking all is peaches and cream now in Eastern Europe.
He writes: "The two main Czech political parties, CSSD and ODS, are heavily populated by ex-communists, who (after the fake Velvet Revolution) simply left their original Stalinist Communist Party and joined these two. The KSCM (non-apologetic Stalinist communists) is the third-strongest party in the country. And that in spite of the fact that the country has a currently standing law (198/93 Sb), proclaiming communist ideology, parties and regimes ILLEGAL!"
"Take a look at the Czechoslovak/Czech Prime Ministers of the past 15 years - when the country was allegedly "democratic": Milan Cic, Marian Calfa, Petr Pithart, Josef Tosovsky, Vaclav Klaus, Milos Zeman, Vladimir Spidla, and Stanislav Gross. Out of those eight people, five were communists and the remaining three were politically so far left, that they would qualify for the communist label without any difficulty. And now, with the latest leftie Prime Minister Sanislav Gross having to resign because of corruption, we already know that the next Czech Prime Minister will be another ex-communist."
"In the current armed forces of the Czech republic (army and air force) all senior officers (I am not talking about some junior lieutenants) are ex-communists and as senior officers they represent their country at NATO headquarters in Brussels. I doubt it would be too big of a stretch of the imagination to assume that they forward all NATO military secrets to their old buddies and schoolmates (since they all have Soviet schooling) in Moscow as soon as any such secrets reach their desks."
Mr. Hedvicek then writes about the Czech judiciary. If you think we have a problem here with our liberal federal judges, just read about what has happened in the Czech Republic:
"Former president Vaclav Havel gave lifetime tenure to communist judges from pre-revolution Czechoslovakia (to be a communist was a prerequisite for the job), so they feel quite secure. Before they were judging according to the Stalinist rule book, now the same people are supposed to uphold democratic laws and justice. Havel's successor, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus, recently refused to name approximately 36 new judges. Why? Because they were too young and lacked a communist past! The abuse of power in the Czech justice system is rampant - a perfect example would be the judicial persecution of Vladimir Hucin (www.hucin.com), who was imprisoned without charge or trial during Havel's presidency and is still being dragged through the courts just for his opposition to communism."
Clearly, "the fix is in" in Prague. Just listen to what this Czech patriot, Mr. Hedvicek, writes: "It is a mystery to me why, 15 years after the country's alleged switch to democracy, the Czech Republic cannot - or does not want to - produce quality people with a clean past to represent them abroad and fill the top positions of their government. Why are only ex-communists available? Is it accidental? A freak of nature? Or worse - intentional?"
Indeed, it is totally intentional. The bad guys ain't giving up power. Period.
We were all naive to think that once the Berlin Wall crumbled, all these Communists would just go away. They didn't. They stayed. They merely took off their ‘Proud to Be a Communist' buttons and put on new "Proud to Be a Pro-Western Capitalist" buttons.
You can imagine Mr. Hedvicek's shock just two weeks ago to read in a Czech newspaper about a conference to be held that week in Prague. There was a "gathering of Stalinist communist parties (including Cuba, China, Belarus, etc. - a total of 35 communist parties) in Prague's hotel Olympik starting on April 23, 2005.
Communists from all over the world know very well that in the Czech Republic they are among friends and that they will be warmly welcomed. So - not in Beijing, Pyongyang or Havana - but in Prague, Czech Republic. Seems that the civilized West would be much better off if Czechs were still behind the barbed wire on the other side of the Iron Curtain."
As. Mr. Hedvicek points out, this remaining Communist control of the Czech Republic also applies to Slovakia. "Over 90% of government officials in the aforementioned two countries are in one way or another stained by their membership in the communist party, its clones and variations or by collaboration with the oppressive communist regime. And the most ridiculously corrupt and incompetent characters are always at the top."
This all goes back to the supposed ‘end' of Communism in Czechloslovakia - to the heady days of what was then known as the Velvet Revolution, which saw the famous poet Vaclav Havel ascend to the presidency. Havel was, in those, days seen as an equal to Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa for having stood up to the Communists.
But the truth is another matter. As Mr. Hedvicek writes, "A few years after the Velvet Revolution, transcripts of tapes were published in Prague. Transcripts of talks Havel held with representatives of the communist government in November 1989, talks about transfer of power. Incredible scenes of primitivism and unheard-of bluntness and horse haggling as to who will get what position in the next government in exchange for communists going unpunished. And Havel kept his word to the people responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, communist concentration camps, and hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed. Not only did they all go unpunished, but also they were all involved in "privatization" of the state-owned properties and eventually they all became rich. They went from nomenklatura communists directly to hard-core capitalists in a few short steps. All in the name of Havel's Velvet Revolution. Unreal!"
Unfortunately, it was - and still is - too real for the Czech people.
And we Americans have deluded ourselves into thinking that New Europe is free.
Ross Hedvicek is a true patriot - an American and a Czech patriot. Thank goodness he is alerting us to what is happening in Eastern Europe.
Why aren't the American media reporting this?
Why are the American people kept in the dark about the truth?
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Communists Still Run Eastern Europe, Part II Czech Republic
John LeBoutillier
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Read Part I: Communists Still Run Eastern Europe
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/6/132542.shtml
"Things are not what they seem to be" is totally applicable to the so-called demise of Communism in Eastern Europe. While we all cheered the apparent end of the Soviet Empire, it has been replaced by a hybrid form of continued Communist control by evil, clever and totally corrupt life-long Communists who will never relinquish power.
The best example of this has been detailed by an excellent Miami writer, Ross Hedvicek, himself a former Czech citizen. Mr. Hedvicek is alarmed by what has happened to his former country - and how we Americans have been duped into thinking all is peaches and cream now in Eastern Europe.
He writes: "The two main Czech political parties, CSSD and ODS, are heavily populated by ex-communists, who (after the fake Velvet Revolution) simply left their original Stalinist Communist Party and joined these two. The KSCM (non-apologetic Stalinist communists) is the third-strongest party in the country. And that in spite of the fact that the country has a currently standing law (198/93 Sb), proclaiming communist ideology, parties and regimes ILLEGAL!"
"Take a look at the Czechoslovak/Czech Prime Ministers of the past 15 years - when the country was allegedly "democratic": Milan Cic, Marian Calfa, Petr Pithart, Josef Tosovsky, Vaclav Klaus, Milos Zeman, Vladimir Spidla, and Stanislav Gross. Out of those eight people, five were communists and the remaining three were politically so far left, that they would qualify for the communist label without any difficulty. And now, with the latest leftie Prime Minister Sanislav Gross having to resign because of corruption, we already know that the next Czech Prime Minister will be another ex-communist."
"In the current armed forces of the Czech republic (army and air force) all senior officers (I am not talking about some junior lieutenants) are ex-communists and as senior officers they represent their country at NATO headquarters in Brussels. I doubt it would be too big of a stretch of the imagination to assume that they forward all NATO military secrets to their old buddies and schoolmates (since they all have Soviet schooling) in Moscow as soon as any such secrets reach their desks."
Mr. Hedvicek then writes about the Czech judiciary. If you think we have a problem here with our liberal federal judges, just read about what has happened in the Czech Republic:
"Former president Vaclav Havel gave lifetime tenure to communist judges from pre-revolution Czechoslovakia (to be a communist was a prerequisite for the job), so they feel quite secure. Before they were judging according to the Stalinist rule book, now the same people are supposed to uphold democratic laws and justice. Havel's successor, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus, recently refused to name approximately 36 new judges. Why? Because they were too young and lacked a communist past! The abuse of power in the Czech justice system is rampant - a perfect example would be the judicial persecution of Vladimir Hucin (www.hucin.com), who was imprisoned without charge or trial during Havel's presidency and is still being dragged through the courts just for his opposition to communism."
Clearly, "the fix is in" in Prague. Just listen to what this Czech patriot, Mr. Hedvicek, writes: "It is a mystery to me why, 15 years after the country's alleged switch to democracy, the Czech Republic cannot - or does not want to - produce quality people with a clean past to represent them abroad and fill the top positions of their government. Why are only ex-communists available? Is it accidental? A freak of nature? Or worse - intentional?"
Indeed, it is totally intentional. The bad guys ain't giving up power. Period.
We were all naive to think that once the Berlin Wall crumbled, all these Communists would just go away. They didn't. They stayed. They merely took off their ‘Proud to Be a Communist' buttons and put on new "Proud to Be a Pro-Western Capitalist" buttons.
You can imagine Mr. Hedvicek's shock just two weeks ago to read in a Czech newspaper about a conference to be held that week in Prague. There was a "gathering of Stalinist communist parties (including Cuba, China, Belarus, etc. - a total of 35 communist parties) in Prague's hotel Olympik starting on April 23, 2005.
Communists from all over the world know very well that in the Czech Republic they are among friends and that they will be warmly welcomed. So - not in Beijing, Pyongyang or Havana - but in Prague, Czech Republic. Seems that the civilized West would be much better off if Czechs were still behind the barbed wire on the other side of the Iron Curtain."
As. Mr. Hedvicek points out, this remaining Communist control of the Czech Republic also applies to Slovakia. "Over 90% of government officials in the aforementioned two countries are in one way or another stained by their membership in the communist party, its clones and variations or by collaboration with the oppressive communist regime. And the most ridiculously corrupt and incompetent characters are always at the top."
This all goes back to the supposed ‘end' of Communism in Czechloslovakia - to the heady days of what was then known as the Velvet Revolution, which saw the famous poet Vaclav Havel ascend to the presidency. Havel was, in those, days seen as an equal to Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa for having stood up to the Communists.
But the truth is another matter. As Mr. Hedvicek writes, "A few years after the Velvet Revolution, transcripts of tapes were published in Prague. Transcripts of talks Havel held with representatives of the communist government in November 1989, talks about transfer of power. Incredible scenes of primitivism and unheard-of bluntness and horse haggling as to who will get what position in the next government in exchange for communists going unpunished. And Havel kept his word to the people responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, communist concentration camps, and hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed. Not only did they all go unpunished, but also they were all involved in "privatization" of the state-owned properties and eventually they all became rich. They went from nomenklatura communists directly to hard-core capitalists in a few short steps. All in the name of Havel's Velvet Revolution. Unreal!"
Unfortunately, it was - and still is - too real for the Czech people.
And we Americans have deluded ourselves into thinking that New Europe is free.
Ross Hedvicek is a true patriot - an American and a Czech patriot. Thank goodness he is alerting us to what is happening in Eastern Europe.
Why aren't the American media reporting this?
Why are the American people kept in the dark about the truth?
Won't Get Fooled Again? Oh, really?
I suspect that the opinion expressed in the Who song by the same name is mistaken. Americans have been lied to repeatedly - especially by people and nations pretending to be their newfound friends. Just open the newspaper and read...
The headline "Havel takes up studies in US" definitely got my attention. Seems that alleged humanist and former Czech president Vaclav Havel just arrived for a two month stay in the US capital - mainly to study and possibly to prepare to resume his literary career. According to aide Jakub Hladik, Havel plans to spend most of his time at the US Library of Congress in Washington. Havel postponed the trip twice last year due to poor health.
Well, well, well... Whoever issued the invitation to Havel (and approved the funds covering his expenses) probably did not know (or did not care) that Havel's command of the English language is very close to non-existent and therefore sending Havel to study English language documents is an akin to sending famously-fat opera singer Luciano Pavarotti to figure-skating classes.
And who is Vaclav Havel, after all? During the first months after the Czech Velvet Revolution he undoubtedly looked like a hero of his time, a humanist and a positive kind of guy.
Only with the hindsight of the last fifteen years we can tell that... well, we were fooled again. Nowadays we know that Havel and Havel alone can be credited with protecting communists and communist power in the former Czechoslovakia. Not one hair fell from a single communist head: communists transformed (under Havel's presidency) political power into economic power without actually giving up any of their political power - they just changed their party cards and melted into other political parties. No one was prosecuted. No one was punished.
Today's Czech Republic is a country still ruled by virtually the same people who ruled it during communist times - thanks to Vaclav Havel, the person receiving study grants from the U.S. Congress. According to Transparency International http://www.transparency.org , corruption in the Czech Republic during Havel's extended presidency rose to a level surpassed only by Nigeria.
When it comes to Havel's alleged humanitarianism, well, he certainly talked about it (especially if he received an honorary degree and a free lunch in return) but back home, in the Czech Republic, he refused to intervene in multiple cases of human rights abuse. One example is the case of Vladimir Hucin, a man who was imprisoned for more than a year without being charged or tried of any crime, and after being released is still being dragged through the court system on obviously trumped up charges. What is Havel's link to all this? Then-president Havel gave lifetime tenure to all ex-communist judges and these very same judges now legally torture Vladimir Hucin just because he is a known anti-communist. Havel could have put a stop to it anytime he wanted - but he did not. Why? Because he did not want to. In unrelated news: Havel's successor, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus recently refused to name 36 or so new judges, because they were too young and lacked a certain something ... a communist past! So it goes in the Czech Republic.
The question is, now that it is clear that studying documents in a language that he understands only slightly better than Swahili, how will Vaclav Havel spend his U.S. taxpayer paid vacation in the United States? I am sure that he will meet with a lot of fellow humanitarians (who love public funding very much as well, thank you) like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe he will write an article for the New York Times (not to worry, somebody will translate it for him), get a few free lunches, get a few more honorary degrees from some left-wing university. He'll probably even attempt to crash a party at the White House - just like the current Czech president Vaclav Klaus did a few weeks ago, when he showed up uninvited at Dubya's door. (Attention Secret Service! Have your Mace and expandable batons ready!) One thing is for certain: he will definitely enjoy himself in the company of our local leftist and radicals.
And that's simply wrong, I say. Not on my dime.
The headline "Havel takes up studies in US" definitely got my attention. Seems that alleged humanist and former Czech president Vaclav Havel just arrived for a two month stay in the US capital - mainly to study and possibly to prepare to resume his literary career. According to aide Jakub Hladik, Havel plans to spend most of his time at the US Library of Congress in Washington. Havel postponed the trip twice last year due to poor health.
Well, well, well... Whoever issued the invitation to Havel (and approved the funds covering his expenses) probably did not know (or did not care) that Havel's command of the English language is very close to non-existent and therefore sending Havel to study English language documents is an akin to sending famously-fat opera singer Luciano Pavarotti to figure-skating classes.
And who is Vaclav Havel, after all? During the first months after the Czech Velvet Revolution he undoubtedly looked like a hero of his time, a humanist and a positive kind of guy.
Only with the hindsight of the last fifteen years we can tell that... well, we were fooled again. Nowadays we know that Havel and Havel alone can be credited with protecting communists and communist power in the former Czechoslovakia. Not one hair fell from a single communist head: communists transformed (under Havel's presidency) political power into economic power without actually giving up any of their political power - they just changed their party cards and melted into other political parties. No one was prosecuted. No one was punished.
Today's Czech Republic is a country still ruled by virtually the same people who ruled it during communist times - thanks to Vaclav Havel, the person receiving study grants from the U.S. Congress. According to Transparency International http://www.transparency.org , corruption in the Czech Republic during Havel's extended presidency rose to a level surpassed only by Nigeria.
When it comes to Havel's alleged humanitarianism, well, he certainly talked about it (especially if he received an honorary degree and a free lunch in return) but back home, in the Czech Republic, he refused to intervene in multiple cases of human rights abuse. One example is the case of Vladimir Hucin, a man who was imprisoned for more than a year without being charged or tried of any crime, and after being released is still being dragged through the court system on obviously trumped up charges. What is Havel's link to all this? Then-president Havel gave lifetime tenure to all ex-communist judges and these very same judges now legally torture Vladimir Hucin just because he is a known anti-communist. Havel could have put a stop to it anytime he wanted - but he did not. Why? Because he did not want to. In unrelated news: Havel's successor, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus recently refused to name 36 or so new judges, because they were too young and lacked a certain something ... a communist past! So it goes in the Czech Republic.
The question is, now that it is clear that studying documents in a language that he understands only slightly better than Swahili, how will Vaclav Havel spend his U.S. taxpayer paid vacation in the United States? I am sure that he will meet with a lot of fellow humanitarians (who love public funding very much as well, thank you) like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe he will write an article for the New York Times (not to worry, somebody will translate it for him), get a few free lunches, get a few more honorary degrees from some left-wing university. He'll probably even attempt to crash a party at the White House - just like the current Czech president Vaclav Klaus did a few weeks ago, when he showed up uninvited at Dubya's door. (Attention Secret Service! Have your Mace and expandable batons ready!) One thing is for certain: he will definitely enjoy himself in the company of our local leftist and radicals.
And that's simply wrong, I say. Not on my dime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)