Final Word from Friday, May 16, 2008
If Czech politics were a suspense novel, this is where someone would get run over by a stolen car on a dark street. Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has hired Kroll, a serious set of sleuths, to look into Jiří Čunek's finances. Imagine the disaster if this turned into a movement! An objective, outside analysis of other murky deals - such as the offshore Gripen accounts, the Tatra/Praga 1.3% solution, the 20 deaths in the heating-oil fraud, to name a few - would actually bring some results. Kroll could be kept busy for decades. But, hello!, this is Czech reality. Investigations aren't supposed to resolve anything. So that leaves just two options. First, Kroll miraculously finds nothing suspicious, like so many forensic auditors before it. Or, second, Kroll confirms what everyone already knows about Čunek, but Čunek refuses to leave the cabinet anyway, forcing Schwarzenberg to do so. And then Kroll rides off into the sunset, never to be seen in these parts again.[Czech Republic Associates army defense ministry]
Glossary of difficult words
on the troll - on the hunt, in the process of looking for something;
Kroll - a U.S. investigative agency;
sleuth - detective;
murky - not fully explained or understood;
1.3% solution - an allusion to both the alleged 1.3% commission paid and to "The Seven Percent Solution";
hello! - a rather obnoxious American way of saying, "wake up" or "don't be so stupid."