Czech Art Shocks Brussels

As I walked into the European Council building in Brussels for a pair of meetings yesterday, my eyes were led upward by multiple fingers pointing amidst audible breaths being drawn in to an enormous new art installation. Entropa depicts the EU as a build-it-yourself set of plastic parts, with each country represented by a blunt stereotype.

Italy is a football pitch, Germany a spread of autobahns in which those with the intention to do so might see a swastika, Sweden is wrapped up in a flat-pack Ikea box, and the UK, perceived as more eurosceptic than most, is noted by its complete absence. The Netherlands is under water apart from a few minarets, and in Poland, a Catholic clergy raises the gay rainbow flag.

The group I was with mostly laughed, getting the joke right away: we Europeans have such simplistic prejudices about each other -- and among ourselves within individual countries -- and Europe will not be built until these mental barriers really start coming down.

But many of those gasping at it clearly found it offensive, and it has sparked controversy in the media. Admittedly, Bulgaria, which comes off as a squat toilet, might have a bit more to gripe about than others.

And the Czechs, who currently hold the six-month rotating presidency and commissioned the work, were somewhat embarrassed when it emerged that the artist, David Černý, had apparently scammed them, having initially told them the work was made by 27 EU artists when he created the whole thing himself. But, come on, Prague: you commissioned David Černý -- what did you expect but controversy?

Even still, to me, it's brilliant: great art, provoking some wonderful conversations and hopefully breaking people out of their day-to-day complacency. Once again, I am amazed people just don't get humourous political art.

Let's admit it, here in Brussels we all hear the same kinds of national stereotypes coming from some of those who actually work in the EU institutions. Many people seem to ask almost as a matter of course what member state a person in a particular position in the system comes from, and then they immediately make sweeping judgements about how that person will respond to a request or explanations of behaviour in the style of, "ah, well, he’s from X, so that explains it". Then, a wave of knowing nods around the table. We have yet to make Europeans even among those most likely to feel comfortable with that identity.

Ať žije David Černý!

Made-for-TV Revolution

The Guardian ran this on 11 January 2001, picking up a piece I'd published in Central Europe Review. At issue was how most of the Western media were getting a story very wrong: simply seeing what they wanted to see.

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On 12 December 2000, the Council for Czech Television, the oversight board of governors for Czech public service Television, recalled Executive Director Dušan Chmelícek. Eight days later, on 20 December, Jirí Hodac, formerly head of news at Czech TV and a man with 11 years experience working for the BBC's Czech Service, was chosen to replace him.

It was a hasty move, and many were shocked that the Council had not asked potential candidates to submit project proposals and had not gone through a rigorous selection process. The Council took just eight days to perform its most important function: choosing the head of the most important media outlet in the country.

They had their reasons, of course, but those reasons seem bitterly ironic now. Their intent had been to avoid the outside political pressure that they felt would mount upon them with each passing day a decision was not made. Make a quick decision just before the holiday, and hope the political parties don't notice.

To say it backfired would be the understatement of the year; the snap decision triggered a labour dispute that quickly boiled over into a national political crisis. So much for the holidays.

Wired Service: Online Journalism in Europe

This originally appeared in Central Europe Review on 15 September 2000. It was based on a presentation I made at the Journalists' Working Group of the 12th European Television and Film Forum, organised by the European Institute for the Media in Bologna, Italy, a few days before. I think what I said back then about online journlaism has withstood the test of time.

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The topic of this discussion is meant to be "online journalism in transition countries," but that title is immediately suspicious.

First, there are some unfortunate misconceptions inherent in the phrase "transition countries." Like the term "post-Communist," it is a phrase which replaced the term "Communist" or "Soviet bloc" immediately after 1989. Such labels were useful terms back in the early 1990s, but they have no meaning today.

The Czech Media: Fulfilling Their Role?

This first ran in Central Europe Review on 13 September 1999. This wasn't the first time I wrote about how the Internet was occupying the position in Czech society that samizdat once did, but it's one of the earliest I can now find online. There's some kind of irony in that, I realise...

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Independent media are essential for democracy. Citizens need access to information from the widest possible sources, and journalists must investigate matters and report them intelligently, so that society can make informed decisions. Freedom of information and professional journalists are even more important for a country shaking off the fetters of totalitarian rule.

Unfortunately, the media in the Czech Republic often do not fulfil this lofty role.

The Czech Republic 1992 to 1999: From unintentional political birth to prolonged political crisis

I wrote this long, comprehensive text with the help of Jan Culik, Steven Saxonberg and Kazi Stastna for publication in Central Europe Review on 13 September 1999. It was quite an undertaking, covering a broad sweep of current history up to spring 1999, and I've been asked several times in the years since to update it. No thanks.

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The Czech Republic was born on 1 January 1993. To understand its development since then, this article presents a brief historical survey of the past six years, a time that was dominated by one man: Vaclav Klaus.

The Klaus era: "Communism in reverse"

Vaclav Klaus was Prime Minister from 1992 to 1997. Under his rule, especially in the early years, the atmosphere in Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic could be characterised, with only a little exaggeration, as "Communism in reverse." Klaus presented himself to the Czechs and to the international public as a highly experienced economist with a reliable and competent plan how to privatise state property and how to quickly bring about economic prosperity in the Czech Republic.

Klaus saw himself as a right-wing politician, as a follower of Margaret Thatcher. He persuaded much of the Czech public and almost all of the Czech media that there was no alternative to his economic reform programme. Whoever tried to question this was an enemy--an unreconstructed Communist or a socialist "jeopardising the fragile Czechoslovak democracy and wanting a return to pre-89 days." For much of the time when Klaus was in office, most of the Czech media followed his line slavishly.

There was little unencumbered public debate. The Czech public was happy to have what they saw as a strong, competent and confident leader, who would solve all their problems for them and lead them into Paradise. (see also "The Czech Media: Fulfilling their role?")

This intolerant, post-Communist model started to crumble after the June 1996 general election, when Klaus's government failed to win an outright majority. Serious economic problems were apparent by 1997, and the whole Klausian programme became discredited by lawlessness, banking and financial scandals.

Before we look in detail at the Klaus-dominated early years of the Czech Republic, however, it will be useful to outline the final chapter of Czechoslovakia.

Radical Right Revival

This article originally appeared in The Prague Post on 27 January 1999.

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After a humiliating defeat in last summer's general election, the Czech Republican leader Miroslav Sladek is down and probably out of politics. For the past several months, his party has been splitting along personality lines, and new factions are forming around different leaders with similar ideas. Despite the apparent disarray on the radical Right, the political movement still has strong potential in the Czech Republic due to the current, deteriorating situation in the country. A new radical Right is slowly taking shape, and it will likely find success in being more slick and media-savvy than the crude days of the bumbling Sladek.

A School Unlike Any Other

On 1 September 1998, a new school opened up in the city of Kolín in Bohemia. In marked contrast to other educational institutions in the Czech Republic, this one aimed to be Roma-friendly. In fact, the Romani High School for Social Affairs was the first secondary school in the country established by and for Roma. Local Czechs looked on suspiciously, while others asked if this new school heralded the development of a Roma elite in the Czech Republic or provided a means of self-segregation that simply confirmed the inability of the two groups to live together. This piece first appeared in The New Presence, a Czech/English monthly where I was editor, in October 1998, and then it was republished in a number of places throughout Central Europe.

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"This is a completely normal school," says Doctor Tluchorova.

As the educational director of the new Romani High School for Social Affairs in the Central Bohemian town of Kolín, Tluchorova is trying hard to present the school's best image. We sit in the staff room of the new school, as her office is still a jumble of paint cans and building tools. Everything in the building smells of drying paint and carpet adhesive.

Jizvy po normalizaci se nezhojily

This article, looking at Czech attitudes toward the 30th anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, originally appeared in the Czech daily Slovo on 26 August 1998.

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Tak minulo vzpomínání na třicáté výročí Sověty vedené invaze do Československa. Zde v Praze se výročí připomínalo výstavami, zvláštními pořady v televizi a jedinečnými přílohami novin. Přesto se však zdá, že si lidé nebyli jisti, co si o tom všem mají myslet.

A Tribal State

This originally appeared in both Czech and English in Britské listy on 11 March 1998, and a few days later in the Czech daily Slovo. It's important to note that Germany reformed its nationality law in 1999, making it a bit easier for people to claim citizenship based on birthplace.

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Before his flight to Poland, Czech President Václav Havel made several interesting comments in front of reporters, and his most intriguing words concerned Czech racism and EU entry. The country had to decide, he said, whether it wanted a "tribal state" or if it wanted to choose a democratic path which respected the rights of minorities. According to Havel, only the latter would bring the Czech Republic in line with the EU.

It would be nice if this were true, but in reality, the EU is far from a paradise of racial and ethnic harmony. Leaving aside the more bloody examples of Northern Ireland and the Basque region for the moment, it is clear that many countries in the EU have serious problems with racism not only in society at large but also in their legal systems. Germany is a perfect example.

Ladislav Holý, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation

This is a book review I wrote early in 1997 for what was then the "Britské listy" section of Neviditelný pes, together really the original online news and comment outlet in Czech. (Britské listy parted ways with Neviditelný pes not long after.) I was amazed at the feedback this piece received -- obviously the article had touched a nerve among Czechs, who weren't too keen to examine their nationalism very deeply. Looking back on it, I would say that I was very lucky to meet Ladislav Holý just after this was published and only a short time before he died. He probably taught me more about the nature of Czech identity than anyone, helping me crystalise the muddle of thoughts I had about the place and its people after years of living there.

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Češi mají sami na sebe značně paradoxní názor. Zeptáte-li se jich, co si myslí o jiných Češích, budou je charakterizovat výrazy jako závistivost, konformnost, úzkoprsost a nesnášenlivost (str. 76). Požádejte je však, aby charakterizovali český národ, a uslyšíte slova jako: vysoce kulturní, hluboce demokratický, čistý.

Vysvětlit tento paradox je jedním z hlavních témat nové knihy Ladislava Holého The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation.