Final Word from Thursday, August 20, 2009
During boom times, a Kč 100m bribe for a development project or a remodeling permit might be doable, but in a slump it becomes a deadly weight around a property owner's neck. Prague real-estate developers admit privately that it would be much cheaper - for someone else, of course - to have Roman Janoušek bumped off than to continue to pay his tariff. Janoušek has beefed up his security detail accordingly. Prague Mayor Pavel Bém is one of the few who blindly accepts Janoušek's assurances that he has no hidden foreign bank accounts and no co-signers at city hall. Bém instead hinted to Radio Impuls that he and Janoušek are caught up in an internal ODS political battle. That may be true, but Mirek Topolánek's crew isn't the only one who wants Janoušek to go down for the count. People with business at Prague city hall are hoping this is one political scandal that doesn't fizzle away.[Czech Republic bribery corruption]
Glossary of difficult words
shakedown - a swindle or extortion;
Shakedown Street - (slang) rows of vendors charging extortionate prices at the entrance to a concert or other activity;
to repave - to replace or recover the existing cover of a street, road or other piece of ground;
slump - a prolonged period of abnormally low economic activity;
to bump someone off - (informal) to murder someone;
to beef up - to increase or give more substance to something;
to go down for the count - (boxing) defeated by being knocked to the canvas and unable to rise again;
to fizzle out/away - to wither away, die out.