Edward Slavsquat and Cec\u00edlie J\u00edlkov\u00e1<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe opinion of the people is of no interest to the current government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today we will turn our gaze to a different Slavic nation, the wonderful but troubled Czech Republic. What\u2019s been going on over there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked Czech writer and activist Cec\u00edlie J\u00edlkov\u00e1 if she would be willing to answer a few questions about current events in her homeland. She graciously agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n J\u00edlkov\u00e1 (born in Prague in 1981) is the daughter of writers and dissidents Ludv\u00edk Vacul\u00edk<\/a> and Lenka Proch\u00e1zkov\u00e1<\/a>, and granddaughter of writer (and one of the main participants of the Prague Spring<\/a>) Jan Proch\u00e1zka<\/a>. After her first novel, The Journey to Drromm<\/em> (2010), she channeled her energies into promoting healthy eating, and has published four books on this topic. Her most recent literary work (not yet published) is the autobiographical novel Father God and Mother Love<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cec\u00edlie also runs an independent news site, Reporters Online<\/a>, a platform that aims to combat censorship and provide deeper context to the news cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wanted to start by asking you about Covid\u2019s \u201clegacy\u201d in Czechia. Are there still signs of the \u201cnew normal\u201d in your country? Are people still wearing masks\/getting vaxxed\/etc.? Did \u201cpublic health\u201d measures have socioeconomic consequences that are still felt today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank God, masks have completely fallen out of vogue. Only tourists wear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I should say that I live in Prague, where masks have been worn the most and the longest. In the countryside, masks were worn less. (Passengers on trains and buses in the countryside often took their masks off during the journey, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest numbers on vaccination uptake are very low. By February, only 7.4% of the Czech population had received four doses. And only 551,000<\/a> people received the new bivalent vaccine, which was made available in September 2022. That\u2019s less than 8% of those eligible\u2014i.e., of those who received doses of the \u201coriginal\u201d vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Covid measures had a hugely devastating impact on small and medium-sized businesses, not all of whom were entitled to state compensation for lost profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Children who had studied online for a few months not only suffered academically, but worse, they became accustomed to online entertainment and some never fully returned to reality from the virtual world. Of course, the physical condition of children also deteriorated, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And above all, brutal censorship began, which continues to this day. I even remember the exact day I realized there was censorship. It was the day when a major Czech news site banned a writer from publishing a link to the European Parliament\u2019s website, which detailed an initiative by MEPs to compensate victims of vaccination. The document contained cases of suspected adverse reactions reported in the EMA database<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was when I realized we were back in the totalitarianism we had before 1989. Except now that totalitarianism was digital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are efforts to accelerate digital transformation in the EU noticeable in the Czech Republic? Are Czechs concerned about CBDCs and other forms of digital control being introduced worldwide?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh yes, a campaign for digital ID cards on mobile phones already started during Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The initiative is being pushed primarily by Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the Pirates, a liberal progressive party that has only four MPs in the Chamber of Deputies, our country\u2019s lower house of parliament. Somehow, this party still has the ear of the European Commission-subsidized mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be noted that Covid passports have not been very popular in the Czech Republic, because 35% of Czechs are unvaccinated, and many Czechs still remember the totalitarian communist regime and are sensitive to restrictions on freedoms and state surveillance. Promoting digital identity is therefore not easy for the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, the government\u2019s digitalization efforts have focused on Bank ID and data boxes, which are like email inboxes through which you can send tax returns or communicate with authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Czechs are accustomed to using data boxes, but now they have become mandatory for all businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, a lot of people don\u2019t like this, and I personally know a few senior citizens who refused the service, saying they would remain \u201coffline\u201d, even if it meant being arrested. I doubt it will come to that, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first reports of the planned European Digital Identity Wallet appeared<\/a> in 2021, but its development is being kept rather quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the moment, the Pirates are trying to sell people on IDs that would replace birth certificates, and would be required for the \u201cwallet\u2019s\u201d functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering its huge price tag, the proposal is not popular\u2014even journalists are against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for CBDCs: In 2018, a prominent Czech economist<\/a> commented that we should expect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was period of relative silence on the topic, but now people are starting to talk<\/a> openly about the introduction of a digital euro. And there are still a lot of questions and uncertainty. Political scientist Petr Drul\u00e1k, for example, expressed<\/a> doubts that Czechs would want to switch to the euro right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be noted that the Czech banking system is surprisingly robust, the collapse of Western banks has not yet affected us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a strong bitcoin community that adheres to the Austrian school of economics, and would therefore prefer to see the separation of finance from the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, even in this community, some defectors are timidly lobbying for the CBDC. But bitcoiners are not stupid. Moreover, Bitcoin and Ethereum have some support in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, CBDCs are not here yet, but the implementation of the European Digital Wallet is being worked on in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m interested in the Czech media landscape and its coverage of Russia. Do you think Czechs who see through the bias of mainstream outlets are able to get more nuanced perspectives from alternative sources?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Czech mainstream only picks up information from pro-Western agencies, and there was even a period of heavy censorship applied to alternative media, where the government had these domains completely shut down for a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be remembered that the Czech government is fully under the control of Brussels, and therefore Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro-Russian views are criminalized, people lose their jobs and face prosecution for so-called genocide denial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what actually happened<\/a>, for example, to one Czech teacher, because she said in front of her pupils that nothing was really happening in Kiev. She was basing this on webcam footage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A number of authors and politicians, including former President V\u00e1clav Klaus, have spoken out against<\/a> the prosecution of this teacher. People have also started to send monetary donations to the teacher because she was fired from her job and cannot afford rent or lawyers. During the first few days, almost 200,000 crowns ($9,000 USD) were collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the coverage of what is going on in Russia is poor because it is only covered by alternative (and therefore unprofessional) media, which completely avoid the issues of digitalization, vaccination, and the digital ruble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8811452f-753c-4595-9217-7d85d47d083c_1000x667.png\")
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