WHY UNIVERSITY GRADUATES FROM UKRAINE RAISE THE CZECH NATIONAL PRODUCT

by Jana Patsch

For three years the Czech government has been trying to fill the holes in its balance of payments with income from tourism.  The number of souvenirs and attractions for foreigners grows from year to year.  Shops are opened on holidays, too.

In Prague alone there were 360 concerts around Christmas and New Year.  There was almost no church, no chapel or palace, where there was no music � in most places even twice a day.

According to Czech statistics the number visitors from the former Soviet union is in fourth place, directly after Germans, French and Italians.

Czechs know these facts about the Eastern Invasion only from newspapers.

Because the Slavic brothers, who could be identified from afar in former times, don't catch people's eyes today.  They have fashionable clothes and don't appear in groups.  Only their accent in German or English betrays their origin.

Asked why she doesn't order in Russian, which would be understood, a young woman from Moscow answered: I like it more if they think we are rich people.  Furthermore they don't like us very much here.

If she talks to her countrymen, which she meets at many historic sites, in her native language, she isn't answered.

There's almost no monument or street which isn't being restored in the Czech Republic these days and almost no building site without foreign workers.  From Ukraine alone there are 43,000 workers officially.  The estimated number is said to be several times higher.  Most come illegally, pay a high price to their Schlepper (sorry couldn't find it in the dictionary, it means the person who brought them across the border).  Others don't return home after their visa expires.

Most of them are young men who are willing to accept any work for little money at any time.  A short time ago the Prague institute for public opinion studied those sewer-diggers and push-cart drivers and found out that among the Ukrainians were many skilled workers � 60% having graduated from high school and 15% from university.

The professors, engineers and veterinarian said that they believed that the Czech Republic was their Land of Promise, in which they could get along and earn a lot of money without knowing languages.

With their 3000 ATS (approx 300 USD) they are believed to be well off at home.  They don't tell their relatives that they save the money from their mouths and live in substandard flats.  Half of the people asked said that they don't have a day off and 83% said that they have never been in a cinema or theater although they have lived in the Czech Republic for several years.