Final Word from Friday, July 2, 2010
As all Czechs of a certain age know, when they turned off the lights in the film "The Firemen's Ball" ("Hoří, má panenko") and asked that the stolen raffle items be returned, the opposite occurred. All the remaining items disappeared from the table. The same happened when politicians "turned off the lights" in the 1990s - all the CR's assets disappeared. The Nečas coalition is vowing to bring back the rule of law and is putting Radek "lock-em-up" John in control of the interior ministry. The big question is what will happen when he turns off the lights. Will the stolen assets reappear on the table? Or will all the remaining assets disappear? Maybe John will succeed in busting some of the crooks. But what if, after the lights are turned back on, there's no one left because everyone has been locked away? After all, as they said in the film, everyone was there when the assets were stolen, so they're all suspicious.[Czech Republic Petr Nečas VV Věci veřejné]
Glossary of difficult words
of a certain age - young Czechs are more interested in Shrek than early Forman;
raffle - a means of raising money by selling numbered tickets, one or some of which are subsequently drawn at random, with the holders of such tickets receiving a prize;
to lock someone up/away - to arrest someone and put him in prison;
to bust someone - (informal) to arrest someone for a crime.