The 30 Foot Finger

The 30 Foot Finger

By Jack Nolan

David Cerny is known for his outlandish art. From the babies to the peeing men, it’s pretty much all outside of most people’s realm of normal. Understanding his creative process, and how he thought these things up would be fascinating. His mind must work in really different ways, processing abstract thoughts and observations.

Cerny’s latest piece is titled ‘The Finger’ and is a 30 foot hand on the Vltava River. The only finger present is the middle one, shooting and awkward distance up. It’s longer than it should be in a relative comparison to a persons hand. Maybe most oddly of all it’s traits is that it’s purple-- an unmistakable, and quite unique purple. 

While floating in the middle of the river, it is situated so that it points directly towards the Prague Castle, home of current president Milos Zeman. Cerny himself says that the monument is itself a “scream of alarm’ towards the current state of politics in the Czech Republic. It came at a relevant time too—just one day before the opening of the general election. 

The finger’s enormity really brings in to perspective how large of a statement it is. Just a few feet short of the Charles Bridge, it is one of the tallest objects on the river.  Rich and unique purple stands out against virtually everything else on the river. Purple is also known as the color of good judgment or royalty—which accompanied with the symbolic gesture of the finger could lead to some intriguing insight about the subtle messages. 

Cerny says that, while he’s happy with his work, he knows many aren’t. He was shot down by people on Facebook calling him a ‘capitalist pig’ and other names of the sort. To me, it hasn’t done its job if it doesn’t get some type of angry criticism. 

Czech Elections Opinion Story

     Earlier this week, Czech citizens headed to the polls to choose their newest government leaders. As an American, this is one of our most celebrated processes and it was interesting to view some of the differences as an outsider. One of the biggest differences that I noted between American politics and Czech politics is prior to the election there seemed to less campaigning going on in Prague. You would think that the largest city in the Czech Republic would be the center of campaigning and events. The only campaigning that I saw done around the city were posters of individuals running for office. In America, yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts are frequent campaign tools used to gather attention for a candidate. I was surprised to see the lack of participation and excitement over new elections, especially in such a large city.

     One individual that did make his opinion known was David Cerny, Prague's infamous artist known for making heads turn with his art work. Cerny sculpted a 10 meter high middle finger, aimed at Prague Castle where the seat of president Milos Zeman resides. When I first heard about this artwork I was shocked but also intrigued by Cerny's opinion. I found myself wondering what would happen if an artist in the United States had created something like that and pointed it to the White House. Although we have freedom of speech in America and it is one of our most important values,  I found it hard to imagine such a bold statement being said against our government. It would be interesting to see how the people of America would have reacted if this kind of event had happened in our country. Being here during elections was an experience as an American. While most people just continued there lives like nothing was going on, others went out of their way to make their opinion known. 

Opinion Essay on Eelections- David Cerny's statue

I decided to write my opinion piece on David Cerny’s statue that he used to send a message to the Czech government. David Cerny has been known to be an outspoken artist, and when he installed a giant hand holding up a middle finger in the Prague river to send an obscene gesture I was not surprised. He is a prominent opponent of Communism, and really, no one has to explain what the statue means. It definitely is something that speaks for himself. Although I have not been in Czech Republic for that long, I’ve spoken to many people my age on the subject as well as people of older generations about the matter of politics and the elections, none of whom want the return of Communism. I think that a lot of times, people forget what Communism was like here. From what I’ve heard, it was very oppressive and there was little to no freedom of any kind. I understand why some people would want the return of Communism, but I think that those people want it for the wrong reasons. While yes, everyone has jobs and is getting some money, it completely eliminates all competition for market jobs, businesses, and larger companies. I think that the people of Czech Republic really should take a look back in time on why Communism was overthrown to begin with. I think it’s important to look back on how they felt during that time and remember how they actually felt. David Cerny is known for his controversial art, and I was very interested to have seen this statue last week. I think that as an artist, it’s his job and his life to express his emotions. I think that he did an excellent job of doing this. He’s never been known for understatement or diplomacy. He depicts things as he feels and isn’t afraid of the repercussions. I think that this is hugely important. I think that it not only proves his expression of emotions but the fact that he has the freedom to actually do that. If Communist parties have a say in the elections, that might not be available in the future.

Profile on Erik Best

Erik Best is an American living in Prague who publishes a news bulletin called Fleet Sheet. It runs daily in English and is written about business and political activities in Czech Republic. Best came to Prague in 1991, and the newsletter has been running since 1992. He started out as a sports Journalist, but later on decided that it wasn’t what he wanted to do. Graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1985, Best has been interested in the subjects of politics, journalism, and foreign affairs for a number of years. He got his masters in Russian language at Middlebury College in 1985 and studied in Moscow in 1983 and 1984 and decided on bringing an English language newsletter to Prague by coming here to visit. He did much research on places in Europe and visited a few places before he realized Prague would be the best place to start his business. Best originally targeted his paper towards the foreigners living in Prague, and didn’t have very high hopes for his business making it for longer than a few years. However, the Czech people quickly became his main customer base and the company has been thriving for more than 20 years.

             Best speaks English, as well as Russian, Czech and French. His experience studying Central and Eastern Europe for over a decade interested him in the culture and learning the languages of those cultures. His Fleet Sheet is a one page executive summary of the Czech Press that is made available to subscribers in Czech and English. The newsletter has a readership of about 6,500 people. He also publishes the Final Word, which is a short daily commentary on major business and political issues affecting the Czech Republic. The Final Word is published Monday to Thursday every week. This commentary was founded in 2001 and was made available in Czech in 2010. On Fridays, when the Final Word is not published, they put out the Friday Edition, which is a weekly analysis of what’s going on in the Czech Republic. It is included in a subscription for the Fleet Sheet, which can either be bought as a subscription or in single issues.

            Best is also known as somewhat of a controversial American, seeing as he has a lot of opinion on journalism and politics. He has a lot to say about the role of Facebook and social media in today’s society concerning news and delivery of news. He says that Facebook and Twitter do not have a huge chance of becoming a main source of news because there is no solid delivery device. By this he means that all the big news company have the hardware to deliver news, such as magazines, news articles on websites, newspapers, etc. He makes a very good point and I learned a lot from his guest lecture that day. It definitely made me see the importance of holding onto original news sources and not always listening to what you hear on Facebook.

Legislative Elections Near

The Czech Government has been in the spotlight since the corruption and bribery scandal in June 2013. Prime Minister Petr Necas was forced to resign. The president scheduled the recent legislative elections to reallocate seats in Parliament.

            This election is very different from the elections in the United States from my perspective, as an American College student studying abroad. The parties represent the entire political spectrum. The power is in the hands of the people to elect the right Political Party. Prague under communist-rule seems like a thing of the past, however the threat still lingers as the Communist Party holds seats in Parliament.

Vaclav Havel helped the Czech Republic end communism and promoted liberty after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The country has made great strides since 1989, and this is noticeable on the people’s faces walking on the street. However, the Czech Republic is home to the last Communist Party out of the former countries that once made up the Soviet Bloc. The presence of communism is still around us and is easily remembered by the older generation. In this year’s election, the Communist Party placed third and received 15 percent of the vote. As a Student living abroad, I have no access to television to watch the debates. However, I have noticed that every streetlight hangs a poster that supports a different party in the election. Andrej Babis and his slogan “Ano” certainly occupy the most space, and for a new party he gained an impressive amount of seats in Parliament.

            Many Czechs are still angry about the corruption that has plagued the government in the past years. This disapproval of the government was seen in the voting turnout, and in the giant middle figure that was placed in the Charles River and points directly at the Prague Castle. The Government of the Czech Republic needs to be more transparent, so that it can regain the trust of its people.  

2013 Czech Legislative Elections-Opinion Piece

Jenna Moller

Czech 2013 Elections

Alright. You caught me. I am an awful student and an even worse citizen. I know nothing about American politics, so naturally when I found out we were supposed to write an opinion piece about the 2013 Czech legislative elections, my mind went completely blank. That deer-in-the-headlights kind of thing. So, I went where any person trying to get informed would go: Google.

The 2013 Czech legislative elections were held on October 25 and 26. From the polls, the Social Democrats were in the lead, but they don’t even have enough votes to form a government. Uh, so what will they do now? Apparently, the Social Democrats must team up with another party to form a government (Could it be the Communists? Gasp!). There will be a lot of tough decisions to make in the upcoming weeks for the Czech Republic government, but I think they’ll be able to figure it out. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to a screeching halt like our American government did back home. I mean, who shuts down the government? Really.

Oh, wait. This is an opinion piece, isn’t it? So that means I have to say what I think about this whole Czech election, huh? Sigh. Okay, well, I think they should all come to an agreement! But let’s take a second to talk about David Cerny’s huge floating purple middle finger statue, shall we? Now that’s interesting. Apparently Cerny directed the sculpture at President Milos Zeman, in response to the president’s support of the Social Democrats allowing the Communists to gain indirect power in the government, because of the Social Democrats whole, not-enough-votes-to-form-a-government thing.

So who’s to say what will happen? I really do hope a conclusion can be reached for the Czech Republic’s government. With enough cooperation and patience, I think it can be reached. In the meantime, pivo anyone?

Emily Morrissey:

Recent Czech elections hope to remove corrupt individuals from government

This past week the Czech Republic underwent legislative elections. The previously elected parliament was intended to serve an additional seven months in office, however, due to corruption and bribery they were forced to resign earlier this year. The previous government was led by prime minister Petr Necas. In the elections the two parties receiving the most votes were the Czech Social Democratic Party and Action of Dissatisfied Citizens. As an American citizen living in Prague temporarily the election results do not have a significant effect on my experience here. However, growing up in the United States taught me to always root for a fair and democratic government. I am glad to see that the Czech Republic took the initiative address the corruption and remove those members from office. I understand the Czech Republic has a very different history than the United States and they are only just developing a system of democracy. From my experience I have found that there is large generational gap between what type of government Czech citizens desire. This is likely due to the older generations having lived through a communist regime. Numerous Czechs have expressed to me that younger generations are upset with the current president. 

In the midst of the election a popular Czech artist, David Cerny, expressed his views of the current political situation in the Czech Republic in a very public format. He constructed a large purple hand pointing it’s middle finger at Prague Castle where the president resides. I commend Cerny’s courage to speak out against a government he believes isn’t best serving the people. Cerny stated that statute was directed at the nations Communist party as well. In the United States we are taught early on that communism is a corrupt form of government and I would agree that democratic governments are better suited to serve the people. I do find, however, that there are many issues in the United States government as well and in my opinion not enough is being done to change the situation.