Final Word from Wednesday, December 28, 2005
As King Kong attacks New York, it's the chief zookeeper who is taking Prague by storm. Petr Fejk has worked wonders in the three years since the Prague Zoological Garden was flooded, and he's getting well-deserved praise from the public and media. Visitations to the zoo have doubled since before the flood, to 1.2m per year. Fejk has overseen a Kč 300m reconstruction, opened eight new pavilions, added affordable restaurants, improved the access and parking, created a farm where children can play with domesticated animals, and dedicated a monument to Gaston, the beloved sea lion that died in the flood. Fejk is also a straight-talker who - unlike politicians - isn't afraid to say that his gorilla reality show is more exciting than the subsimian versions on TV. If politicians had as much zeal and sense of duty as Fejk, Parliament would no longer be the CR's biggest zoo. [Czech Republic television Big Brother VyVolení]