Final Word from Friday, May 20, 2011
Interior Minister Jan Kubice opened a can of worms thismorning when he declared in HN that the mafias in the CRrealized in about 2000 that the big money isn't so much ingarbage, prostitution, drugs, etc., but rather in the governmentbudget. He declined to say whom he had in mind, but it's hardto imagine he meant the cathouse operators off WenceslasSquare and the touts who peddle their wares. His commentinstead seems to aim straight at the little regional "godfathers,"the Five Families, the electrostate, the military-industrial complexand the private security agencies. Think of what Kubice'swords imply about the police, the prosecutors, the courts andthe cabinet itself. Have they all become service organizationsfor the criminal elite? What about Bohuslav Sobotka and MiroslavKalousek, who as the main finance ministers during thisperiod supported the ever-larger budgets that fueled the orgy?With them as the two most powerful politicians on the leftand the right, it's hard to see how anything will get any better.
Glossary of difficult words
to get caught with your fingers/hand in the cookie jar - to be caught doing something wrong;
a can of worms - a complicated matter likely to prove awkward or embarrassing;
cathouse - brothel;
tout - a person who solicits customers or business, typically in an aggressive or bold manner;
to peddle - to try to sell something;
electrostate - (our term) a country in which government and industrial policy is guided by the interests of the electricity industry.