>>> UPDATE: Ms. T. would like to point out that the so-called "financial assistance" to certain legal and judicial representatives is merely rumoured and speculative in nature, not confirmed. <<<


Watch this space friends, because a new expatriate-lead project's coming to town. In incubation for the past three months as I'd come to learn from its founders, the sneak preview has it that it's got a catchy little title -- WAHOOA.COM -- and it's public advocacy-cum-citizen-journalism, writ large.

A propos to the social activism front, I had a full weekend of "story intake." I had a very disturbing Sunday meeting which was the impetus for my morning post.

I sat with a Czech lady -- Ms. T. -- undergoing a rather acrimonious divorce at present with her Czech husband, the both of them former exiles from Canada.

Story goes that after Wall Fall, Mr. and Ms. T returned from Toronto to launch a new business initiative in the former Czechoslovakia, in the construction industry. Mr. T., who was first into the market especially in rural Czech towns and villages, swiftly made a name for himself. Meanwhile, Ms. T. was back in Toronto wrapping up their family business affairs, preparing for the move back to Europe. In addition, Ms. T. attended to the needs of her two adolescent children, who at the time were just entering university.

The nightmare thickens...

While the cat was away, the mouse played.

Mr. T. found himself a new Czech wife -- younger, unilingual, a gold-digger, you know the story, who herself was already married to another hapless nesikovny Czech blunderbuss -- as he proceeded the careful manipulative campaign of transferring all of Mr. and Ms. T.'s joint property from their names to both the names of his newly-formed Czech company and that of said younger wife.

Mr. T. proceeds to knock up said younger Czech wife, files for an illegal divorce with Ms. T., and alienated himself from his existing children.

Although Ms. T. doesn't consent to this divorce, the zadost -- the request -- is nevertheless filed with the relevant Czech marriage authority. When Ms. T. contests said divorce, the relevant authority informs her that "it's too late...even though it was us that originally made the error." Meanwhile, with the apparent legal authority as sole custodian of the joint family property, Mr. T. continues salting away his and Ms. T.'s collective property and earnings, the fruit of over two decades of concerted work together as newcomers to Canada during the '70s and '80s, in hidden places, planning for the upcoming war.

Long story short, Ms. T. has been fighting a 3-year court battle in regional courts outside of Prague -- where her ex-husband, um, holds court. Mr. T. has greased the palms of the local authorities through local construction handouts, if not overt cash exchanges, while the judges hearing Ms. T.'s strident protestations are caricatures of the former communist era. Rather than acting as impartial adjudicators, they -- for the most part older and female -- sit atop their podiums in the sway of Ms. T.'s former husband.

A journalist who recently interviewed Ms. T. for Czech Radio told her in no uncertain terms: "You think 50% of the common marriage property is your due? Where do you think you're living? You've been in Canada for far too long, Ms. T. It doesn't work that way here."

Yes, here in the Czech Republic, our women are door mats, must remain for the most part subservient to their men, and should keep their place. And in the case of a certain rotund, mole-faced Leader of the Czech Opposition, with his Splendid Slovakian gold-digger, allow their husband's mistresses to trample dead bodies in their relentless attempts to get at the, ahem...booty.

Listening to Ms. T.'s story -- which for me was the second time -- you've got to wonder what other Czech women in her situation are forced to undergo.

Here are some discussion questions for you, friends:

** Is a Czech woman involved in a 20-year+ marriage, with two grown children, obligated to start her work life anew, or is she entitled to 50% of the common property which at present is not codified into Czech law?

** Does "emotional support" throughout the course of a marriage have monetary value? In other words, wWere it not for the emotional backing, support, and due care a wife -- whether working outside the home or non-working -- provides her husband, would such a husband even have been as successful?

** The judge in the T.'s case is set to decide Ms. T.'s ultimate financial settlement without relying upon the available evidence (aka "the books"), but this is totally contrary to more enlightened ways of settling irreconcilable divorces in Western Europe and Canada, for example. Why does this arcane practice persist in the Czech Republic?

WAHOOA will be featuring Ms. T.'s case soon in their feature section. I'll let you know where to find it as soon as it goes live.

Wishing you many good things,
ADM