*** UPDATE: Ubi concordia, ibi victoria!!! ***

As part of the Action Programme announced by Les Fateful Reformistes of January 1968 (more affectionately known as the "Prague Spring/Prazske Jaro") a series of "commandments" was (were?) distributed to the men, women, and mini-Czechoslovaks manning the Prague barricades against the showerless hordes of Warsaw Pact tankistes and grunts. The feuilleton declared the following key do's and don't's:


1: You don't know.
2: You don't care.
3: You don't tell.
4: You don't have.
5: You don't know how to.
6: You don't give.
7: You can't do.
8: You don't sell.
9: You don't show.
10: You do nothing.

Source: Renner, Hans, History of Czechoslovakia Since 1945 (1988).


However, your Loyal non-Czech Czech Servants of the CIP = Czech Immigrants Party have promulgated a new Decalogue for you, Comrades. One that we trust will at first be whispered -- then boldly proclaimed -- by the silent majority of our supporters across the wide breadth of the Czech lands.



"CIPs" (of wisdom) OFF THE OLD BLOC:

1: You better start knowing. Because if you don't, we'll make a right mockery of your bureaucratic institutions and your neo-Communist ways of thwarting the smooth, healthy functioning of our Czech civil society.

2: While you don't care, we sure as hell do! We care about your rampant stealing, your blatant lying, your more insidious and subtle fibbing, and then there's your fork-tongued claptrap, the doubletalk of you, our so-called "elected" representatives, which you believe actually passes for obsequious banter at most official get-togethers. The only true politicians in this country are still at the town level. Believe it...

3: You don't tell, which is why we've established the CIP in the first place. You don't share the Information. You don't communicate properly. You hoard nearly all the important Societal Gains. Boze, you're really in for the Parliamentary surprise of your life.

4: You don't have...or so you claim. But we know what you own. We know the rampant "stuff-acquire" you engage in. We know how you steal. As of this fall, we're following you more closely than trains.

5: You don't know how to, which is why we're at the forefront of the New Movement. The CIP is a political respite for a society fatigued with the same-ole, same-ole rubbish doled out daily by our so-called "elected" honchos. The Greens let us down...and since then, we've stopped reading the newspapers. But no longer...

6: You don't give...a toss. But we (sure as hell!) do. We care about the legions of poor Czech Folk innundating our parks like "Hoovertown" in New York's Central Park during the Depression. You, however, continue to view it as entirely acceptable to prance around Prague in your bling-bling, hurtling across our narrow cobbled roads in your flash cars as you attempt to trample Inner District tourists like bowling pins. SHAME ON YOU!!!

7: You can't do. You're not educated enough. You won the job because of some Secret Society Insider Connection. You're not qualified to run a Ministry. You're the equivalent to a "five-star general" in Stalin's Purged Red Army. But you knew that already...

8: You don't sell, and why should you? You can more more easily steal it instead. You award the much-vaunted "Five Finger Discount" only to yourself and your loved ones. The rest of society -- to the tune of one-third -- has to make do with some lousy shack-like panel apartment in some hole of 'hood in the republic because you choose all of the choice cuts of the cow for yourself. It's like being from Vsetin...Loser-Town Central.

9: You don't show, because you know if you did you'd have a damned Revolution on your hands; albeit not a velveteen one like the last time! You keep your poker hand close, because you're nothing but a cabal of snivelling crooks brandishing police badges. Raus!

10: You do nothing, because your position is secure forever. You don't have to loyally represent your Holy Czech Constituents, because you'll somehow manage to commandeer the general election anyways and succeed in getting "re-elected."

~~~~

For all these reasons, and much, much more...

VOTE CZECH IMMIGRANTS this coming autumn!