33 posts tagged “east”
Meanwhile, The Prague Post reported on the 28th February
"Court decisions over the years have tossed the ownership of St. Vitus, the architectural center point of Prague Castle, back and forth between the two institutions. But a Feb. 16 Supreme Court ruling reversed a lower court's October decision to hand the cathedral keys to the Catholic Church.
Zderčík said he plans to take the issue back to the Czech courts and, as a last resort, would consider going before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. He added that it's too early to see how the Supreme Court decision will affect the hundreds of other church properties in the Czech Republic for which legal ownership is still unresolved".
Personally I think the Church should control the Cathedral, with the help from the Government when required. However, it's wrong to intervene in eclessastical matters, in some ways this mirrors almost the purging of churches as happened in England hundreds of years ago!
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
According to the BBC the population in eastern europe will drop by a third by 2050 due to a drop in the birth rate. So how will this affect the region, will it slow economic growth for the region? Will it mean an increase in the number of foreigners that populate the region to take up the slack?
According to the BBC the Polish Government has announced a bill that will punish former members of the Secret Police. The new bill will look at baring them from public jobs and will also lead to a cut in any state benefits.
To see more on the story please follow the following link
Many in Poland are unhappy that the Government has tried to focus on people who collaborated with the Secret Police rather than targeting those who were in the secret police. This will go some way to rectify the situation.
According to the BBC, the Archibishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, has resigned just an hour before his installation. Do you think it is right that a man, who among many, spied for the Communist Party is singled out like this to resign? Or like me do you think there needs to be a balanced approach because of the sheer number of Communist Party members that spied on each other, it makes no sense to do this and that they should forgive maybe but not forget. This is a very interesting story, I think it shows that the institutions in the region are still coming to terms with their Communist past and indeed in some respects this mirrors another story in the region this time in Hungary which is carried in HVG entitled Crisis and Emotion by Ferenc Koszeg. The fact he has resigned though does this mean that there is something more sinister in Stanislaw Wielgus closet that warrants the resignation, or is it just down to pressure?
The Unbearable lightness of Being, is one of my favourite books by the Czech Author Milan Kundera, published first in 1984 in France. The books backdrop is the The Prague Spring of 1968.Excellent read.
The Hungarian: Model: Markets and Planning in a Socialist Economy came at what is considered the end of the communist period for many. Xavier Richet's book shows the ups and downs of the Hungarian econnomic model. This books is worth getting if looking at the Economic History of Hungary.
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