Editor’s Word - New Year’s 2010

Years ending with zero are for me full of interesting events that don’t have to be necessarily bad. In 1960 I graduated from school. This year in May, we shall have a great school reunion that I’m really looking forward to. At the same time, I became involved in theater and dance. In 1970 I became a member of a musical group called “Chrpy”. In 1980 I gave birth to my third child, “Marek”. He now does the graphic work for this magazine. In 1990 I founded, and started publishing and distributing the Czech Dialogue magazine. In 2000 I visited our compatriots in Canada and moved my office to Alexander Tomsky’s Academia publishing house, where I remained for about 6 years.

So what will the year 2010 bring me? There will definitely be some kind of change and I do hope a good one. However, we must work to deserve it. I think it was also in 1990 that I met a wonderful artist Alena, living in New York. She gave me an interview during which she surprised me by saying “ Everything depends on you, how you organize your life and how you plan to reach your goals. I, for example had lost my partner and housing and was left with no money. I had to wake up and start doing something. I had to come up with ideas. It was difficult, but I organized an exposition, sold a few pictures and continued painting”.

We all grumble at the politicians. There’s no question that we have a reason. During the past few years the two strongest political parties manifest themselves mainly by verbally throwing mud at each other. As far as arrogance, tunneling, corruption, and unbelievable political flops, they were both the same. Forward right or left, who cares, as long as we keep going. Was there any result of their work that moved the country forward? On the contrary; last year’s national debt reached such an astronomical figure, that there’s danger of state bankruptcy. The planned deficit was 38 billion, but in reality it was 195 billion. For next year, even after the so-called right wing grumbled, they approved a law making the deficit even higher. Every baby, even those unborn, owes the International bank hundreds of thousands. At the same time, billions disappear nobody knows where. For example, the idea of the Prague municipality under the leadership of mayor Pavel Bem, called Opencard, that promised a lot, fulfilled next to nothing, but devoured almost a billion crowns. That information had surfaced from the corruption cesspool, but who knows what other figure lies under all that mud.

And now comes the logical question: Do we really need the political parties to govern us? Would it not be better to have a government of professionals? It seems that the temporary government of Josef Tosovsky, years ago as well as the present one of Jan Fischer was, and is a lot more efficient and useful compared to those of the constantly- quarelling and greedy parties. During the communist era we had one strong party; now we have two. Saying that there are many others is nothing but a joke. Those two shameless ones have all the power in the media, police, the judicial system, and business and the others don’t have much of a chance to be heard on television or in the radio. As far as the Parliament and Senate are concerned, their members are so weak and have no chance against the gorillas. Allegedly, there’s only 10 % crooks in parliament, but most of the rest are willing to agree and approve anything. The remaining few idealists can’t do much.

I like the movement, restricting the power of political parties. At this time it’s being presented by only several citizen initiatives, but I hope that their numbers grow. Let the political parties exist, but I shall not finance them and I’ll do everything I can to curb their support. Let the parties survive from membership donations just like other clubs or organizations survive or not survive. I feel that this is rather good news for the New Year especially if more citizens wake up and join that initiative.

I wish you all a wonderful and interesting year 2010!