Week 2? Already?

Week one ended on Monday with a visit from the former Head of Defense Intelligence from the Czech Republic, Andy Sandor. Unbelievable experience. Andy served in the Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic Army for 30 years where he worked his way up to eventually becoming the General of the Army. He focused his talk on describing the two largest threats to the Czech Republic which included:

1. Merge between politics and buisness

• Threatens Democracy
• EU changes nothing
• NATO influences nothing
• Politicians have not reached a consensus on the future of foreign relations

2. Privatization of Assets

• Russia, France and the U.S. are interested in buying their Nuclear Power program
• Russia is Interested in buying the Prague Airport (and the Czechs are probably going to sell it to them)

Imagine if Russia owned the Nuclear program AND the Prague Airport - could be their gate into Eastern Europe (or as they call it 'Central Europe' - Eastern Europe has a negative connotation).

Andy says that the Czechs give the U.S. all the credit in the world for liberating Czechoslovakia in the World War but he did mention that Czechs show hostility toward the Russians. Germany apologized for invading the country but Russia blamed their participation on the 'U.S.S.R.' when the largest entity within the Soviet Union happened to be a country that went by the name of 'Russia.' Funny how that works.

I asked Andy two questions:

Q:You [Andy Sandor] talked about a couple of economic issues that serve as threats to the Czech Republic such as privatization and the merge between business and politics. With the current economic crisis within the European Union, do you believe that the Czech Republic might be on the brink of an economic crisis of their own?

A: The Czech Republic owned their banks for 15 years. After those 15 years (and the 'Velvet Revolution') they privatized the banking industry and suffered an overflowing amount of debt. However, the Czech Republic had a 5% deficit last year and has a planned 4.5% deficit this year. If the trends continue, they will be fine.

Q: You [Andy Sandor] mentioned that the War on Terrorism is not a proper name for a war and I understand that the EU members are somewhat united in thought. That being said, what are the Czech Republics thoughts on our War on Terrorism?

A: All countries have different opinions based on their own demographics (furthering my initial opinion that the EU is a load of crap). There are no friendly intelligence organizations only intelligence organizations that are within friendly nations. Nothing is written about terrorism in Europe. No propaganda, no slandering of the Muslim community (granted there are only 10,000 Muslims in the Czech Republic). The Czech Republic could care less about our War on Terrorism.
Andy went on to say that the Czech Republic has 14 aircraft, 30 tanks and 16,000 military personnel. They are selling all 14 aircraft and trying to hire Germany to be the sole means of air defense/patrol. Impressive, huh? Nope.

I wish I had a picture to show you this guy. He was quite the character. It sounds like all of the VT students who are participating in the ACC Research project will get to meet him again. I'll be sure to take a picture that time.

Anyway. Tuesday we went and visited Jama Bar which is an American owned restaurant in a beautiful area of Prague. The owner has a very interesting past. Quick note on this one - Typically restaurants only serve one type of beer (either Pilsner Urquell/Gambrinus or Budweiser Budvar). The beer companies have always monopolized the restaurants and made them promise not to serve their competitors beer. It's weird. So when you go into a typical restaurant, you just order a 'pivo, ' (pivo = beer in Czech) you never have to specify which type. Well, the greedy American didn't like that, so he brought the American culture over to the Czech Republic and opened this bar, Jama, which serves 7 beers on draught alone. Sweet atmosphere. We also went back there tonight (Wednesday) for a free wine tasting class - I'm a seasoned vet now. Here's a picture from tonight.

The other cool thing we saw was Petrin Hill. Petrin Hill is a huuuge park on the top of a hill (go figure) that is right outside of Prague. It has a beautiful view. Here a couple of picture from that visit.




















I'm So Euro,

Luke