Final Word from Monday, June 20, 2011
In a moment of candor, labor leader Bohumír Dufek told LN that Czechs don't have ageneral strike in them right now. Maybe in seven years, he said, with slight hyperbole.If the union leaders want to keep the CR from going down the Greek path, they'llhave to work faster than this. The country has been largely spared so far because ithasn't had as much time - only 20 years - to saddle itself with crippling debt and toallow the special interests to steal it blind, but people at the top are working hard to"correct" this. The underlying structure is already very Greek; it's mainly the degreethat's different. Petr Nečas's bright idea of temporarily raising the VAT rate to 19% ifthe eurozone crisis deepened would in fact speed up the Hellenization, not retard it.Opposing any tax increase before the theft from the budget is stemmed is somethingall honest workers and honest companies should be able to agree on immediately.
Glossary of difficult words
candor - the quality of being open and honest in expression;
to have something in one - to have the strength of mind or character to do something;
hyperbole - exaggerated statements or claims not to be taken literally;
to be spared - to be left unharmed;
to saddle oneself with something - to burden oneself with a responsibility or task;
bright idea - a clever thought or new idea (often used ironically);
to retard - to delay or hold back in terms of progress or development;
to stem - to stop or restrict (the flow of something).