A Czech Living in the New York Recalls 9/11

• Jiri Boudnik is a Czech architect who has been living in the United States for the last 20 years. On September 11th 2001, he witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers from his office in Brooklyn, and rushed to the scene to help. In the days following on from the September 11th attacks, he continued to assist the emergency services in their hunt for survivors. How? By designing a computer model of the World Trade Center as was, to help the rescuers find their way through the rubble. To mark the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Jiri Boudnik spoke to us earlier from his home in New York. I started by asking him what the mood was like in the metropolis this morning:
  Jiri Boudnik, photo: www.bbc.co.uk"Well, right now we have heavy rain in New York, it looks like it's going to be like this all morning. So everyone is probably going to have to use an umbrella. And for the first time, the ceremony is not going to be down on the site of World Trade Center, but in an adjacent park, on Liberty Plaza. And so that is one difference from the previous years."
  

For the rest of the story in Radio Prague...

Child Porn and Castration in the Czech Republic

Having a Czech ancestry and being curious about Czech history and modern culture I signed up to get email updates from Radio Praha. A couple news items I got a few days ago seemed to be of enough significance to share with y'all.

Czech senate decides against criminalising possession of child porn

• The Czech Senate has decided against making the possession of child pornography a criminal offence. Discussing an amendment to the law on pornography passed by the lower house, senators agreed that only people who produce or sell child porn or who make it available should be punished, but not those who just own it, as such a measure could be easily misused by third parties to get others into trouble.
  One senator expressed concern that even an unsolicited email could result in a person being prosecuted under the proposed new child porn legislation. One of the authors of the amendment, Communist MP Milan Bicik has criticised the senators' reservations, saying that they were unfounded and that the legislation only targeted those who knowingly possessed pornographic images of children. The bill has now been sent back to the lower house of parliament for another reading.

Ya know what, I hate to admit it, but I am going to have to agree with the Commies on this. What is going on in the minds of those who posses it is just the same as those who produce, sell or make it available. Maybe even more so. Perhaps the people making it available are not all pedophiles, they could just be marketing to pedophiles. Obviously if someone purchases or downloads it they are definitely pedophiles. I am not making excuses for those making it, whether or not they are pedophiles they are just as disgusting as those possessing it. I think they should all be punished equally.

As for unsolicited email, I may not be all the technology savvy, but I do know not to open up suspicious email. So if a person open up suspicious email they must be interested in the child porn.

Now for the next article of interest.

Czech sexologists defend castration practises

• The Czech government and sexologists have rejected criticism from the Council of Europe regarding the practise of castrating some sex offenders in this country. The Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture has criticised the policy of allowing some sex offenders to choose between surgical castration or confinement for life in a psychiatric facility. Leading Czech sexologists have defended the practise, saying that castration is only carried out with the prisoner's consent and that it has drastically reduced re-offending. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture maintains that consent to castration can hardly be considered free if the alternative for the prisoner is indefinite confinement in a psychiatric hospital.

Again, I don't see anything wrong with this. I have been saying for years that we need similar laws here. While I know we have the same 2 above problems here in US and we should focus mostly on the US I think these things are important issues. Whether it be in the U.S., Europe or anywhere else. I think both these things are a good turn from the stereotypes some Americans have about sex in Central and Eastern Europe. Probably it is more important to know how the Czech people and officials feel about Missile Defense Shields in their area feel. I will get to that in later posts.

Czechs are Most Superstitious Europeans

Just for a little fun today. I came across this article in Radio Praha today. The article talks about how Czechs are the most superstitious nation in Europe. If your interested in reading more click the link above. It's written in English.