Final Word from Thursday, July 25, 2013
As in many countries, businesses in the CR can be divided roughly into honest ones and criminal ones. In the "criminal" category are those that use theft, bribes or other forms of corruption to secure their markets, whether these companies are owned by private individuals, multinationals, the state or municipalities. This form of behavior is most prevalent in regulated fields (energy, water, healthcare) and government procurement (IT, infrastructure). Honest businesspeople, even if right-leaning, often acknowledge that the governments led by ODS were consistently more eager to cultivate corruption than those led by ČSSD. To use the Russian analogy, ODS is the "Party of Crooks and Thieves." This is changing. SPOZ, with Miloš Zeman guiding the way, is taking over the government on multiple levels and setting the stage to become the new ODS. And, as we are now seeing, where goes SPOZ, so goes ČSSD too.[Czech Republic Alexei Navalny ICT]
Glossary of difficult words
multinational - a large corporation operating in multiple countries;
prevalent - widespread in a particular area at a particular time;
procurement - the purchase of services, equipment and supplies;
to cultivate - to care for and encourage the growth or development of;
to set the stage for - to prepare the conditions for.