Right place, wrong time

"If you're going to New Orleans," sang Professor Longhair, "you ought to go see the Mardi Gras." If you want to see how New Orleans pulls itself back together after Katrina, says HBO, you ought to see "Treme." It's a superb 10-episode series that finished its first season in the U.S. in June. Czechs who thought they had it bad after the floods, or who are fed up with corruption, political hypocrisy, judicial injustices or slow construction contractors, might be surprised at how much their life resembles that of post-Katrina New Orleanians. Czechs might get a kick out of D.J. Davis, who campaigns for the city council on a platform calling for Palm Sunday, when bribe sessions would be aired on TV for all to see. In true the-shirt- is-closer-than-the-coat style, Davis later drops out of the race when a politician offers him a quid pro quo. Hypocrisy abounds, even among those complaining the most about it. Davis, in the end, "just wants his city back." As Dr. John would say, he was in the right place at the wrong time. [Czech Republic television United States of America Louisiana]