Wave of Care
A ewe goes the extra length to look be-ewe-tiful in this animated short from Alexandra Hetmerova. She created the piece in 2007 while she was a student at FAMU, the famous Czech film school in Prague.
Call Me Stormy
Finding righteous currents in turbulent times
Archive for the tag “Czech Republic”
Europe Must Evolve
In his first interview since leaving office, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus calls for “a paradigm change” in European politics. He also reflects on “the lost years” when the Czech Republic fell under Communist control. H/T Heritage Foundation
Swimming Pool
Forget about the bar scene. The best place to spark up a romance? The neighborhood swimming pool.
Czech animator Alexandra Hetmerova created this sophisticated comic short in 2010 while studying at FAMU, the renowned film and TV school in Prague. Visit her website at http://alexandrahetmerova.wix.com/portfolio H/T Animation Blog
The Next Breakout Nations
Ruchir Sharma, head of the Emerging Markets Equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, says China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa might have reached a plateau in growth, and that India has no more than a 50 percent chance of sustaining its good performance. So which countries will become breakout nations, maintaining high growth or exceeding expectations in the coming years?
Sharma identifies four prospects — Turkey and Indonesia, two Muslim democracies, have strong credentials to become the next breakout nations. And in Europe, he sees the top two candidates as being Poland and the Czech Republic. He projects a mixed outlook for the United States, saying innovation and entrepreneurship could help the nation to beat expectations, but we have pressing current problems that demand attention. H/T CATO Institute
Europe’s Slave Trade
At the culmination of a five-year criminal investigation, this special report from Journeyman Pictures exposes an old scourge that has once again reared its ugly head in Europe — the trafficking in human slaves. The report focuses on Romanian workers lured to the Czech Republic on promises of well-paying jobs. Instead, they have been conscripted as unpaid laborers on asparagus farms, beaten, their IDs confiscated to prevent their escape and forced to live in decrepit hovels. The traffickers have now been convicted, but the Dutch company that hired them has professed ignorance of their actions and so far gone without prosecution.
