The Czech Dead Student

[Peter Lemkin]

There were riots there the other day. Do you know what all that was about Peter?

Monday was the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution [so-called]...25 years from the demonstration the fake 'dead student/StB Agent]' was in the front lines of - and is credited with the beginning of the end of Communism in Czechoslovakia. There were many different gatherings - some in memorial; some in protest. President Zeman [an idiot, at best, IMHO] was pelted with eggs and tomatoes and booed when speaking at the main Science Campus of the University - where the student march 25 years ago began. Other than egg on his face, nothing much happened to him. A peaceful concert and speeches in memorial and reflection was held in the biggest square. I live near the Castle and about 2000 people came at the end of the day protesting against Zeman at his office in the Castle. They all held up red cards, as in a football game, and signs against Zeman and for Havel [now dead]. They mostly just want some moral basis to the political system here. CZE is still considered one of the most corrupt European countries, and with good reason. One regularly reads about corruption and bribes among the political and business classes. I see the corruption all around. There weren't any 'riots'....just mostly peaceful demonstrations and one incident of egg and tomato throwing at the President. One artist a few months ago built a giant hand giving the middle finger to the Castle and Zeman and put it on a barge in the river. Politics here is a joke - a very bad joke, IMO. The country besides being corrupt is a lost puppy now following NATO and the USA, as it once did the Soviet Union. Most people are disillusioned at the political system, and not as happy as they thought they'd be under Capitalism.