Final Word from Tuesday, February 21, 2006
It happens before every election. Someone pulls out the foreigner card and stirs up nationalist fervor. Health Minister David Rath stoked the fire yesterday by picking a Czech firm (Pharmos) to corner the drug market. A few lawyers are also riding the bandwagon. Radek Pokorný said in HN that slick English-speaking advisers used the myth of a free market in the West to plow fertile soil for themselves in the East. Radan Kubr said in Euro that the days of foreign lawyers authoritatively interpreting local laws after reading a translation are fortunately gone. Plenty of political capital can be had from such comments. In the case of the lawyers, though, it's more an effort to take what their foreign colleagues have taught them and piggyback on their fee structure. Come to think of it, given Rath's history at the Medical Chamber, his move yesterday also seems more commercial than political.[Czech Republic attorney Pokorný & Wagner Procházka Randl Kubr nationalism Hospodářské noviny distribution medicine pharmaceutical wholesale AVEL]