Final Word from Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Michael Moore, a best-selling author and Oscar winner who sometimes makes Vladimír Špidla look like a right-winger, is hugely popular in the U.S. and Germany but is virtually unknown in the CR. None of his books have been translated into Czech, but some of his complaints about capitalism could be applied here too. He speaks, for example, of "economic terrorism" when companies making billions put thousands of people out of work. This could also be said of some of the CR's biggest companies. At the same time, the CR is a beneficiary of this economic terrorism, because companies in Germany, France, etc. are eliminating jobs at home and giving them to Czechs (the equivalent of Mexicans to U.S. companies). With Czech unemployment at 10% and rising, the CR could use its own Michael Moore who is able to find some humor in all of this. Academy Award