The Catalan parliament has voted to ban bullfighting. Aficionados fear that decision could mark the beginning of the end for bull fighting throughout the country. An appeal has been launched at Spain's highest court to overturn the Catalan decision.
Topics
The Czech Republic: Vaclav Havel's first movie.
Vaclav Havel is a playwright, politician and a symbolic figure of the democratic revolution in Czechoslovakia. Now he is making his debut as a movie director with a film about Politicians stepping down.
Havel is making a movie of his successful play "Leaving". An aging politician has to step down, he's surrounded by sycophants and traitors. As the former president Havel knows what he is writing about. The dramatization is relevant to the Czech Republic which has had six governments in the past seven years. Havel hits a nerve with many Europeans. The resignation of governments is common in other nations too.
SERIES: Village Scenes - Tales of Rural Life in Europe
Part 2: Möhrenbach in Germany...a village divided by the bell
The village of Möhrenbach in the German state of Thüringen is split over the local church bell. Some love the tradition, the others hate the noise and are threatening consequences.
There are two bells in Möhrenbach. There is a bell tower next to the church. A radio controlled bell rings a few times an hour. Some of the neighbors have started wearing ear protectors. Experts have measured the loudness of the bell...recording levels 10 decibels over permitted norms. One citizen of Möhrenbach has made a legal complaint against the bell. The argument it set to continue.
Spain: The beginning of the end of bullfighting in Catalonia
Every year, thousands of bullfighting aficionados stream into the arenas to see matadors perform. Some call bullfighting an art; others say it's sadistic.
The end of the spectacle is hardly pretty; the bulls die with gaping wounds and twitching muscles. Occasionally matadors or spectators are trampled by the angry animals -- or even panic-stricken crowds. Catalonia is the first place in mainland Spain to ban bullfighting. Animal protection activists gathered 180,000 signatures urging the regional parliament prohibit the practice – and it has done so. Bullfighting fans are now holding their breath to see whether the Catalonian example will influence the rest of Spain.
Russia: Testing the schools
Skola is the name of a successful series which has been topping the quotas in Russian television since the winter. It deals with drugs, sex and violence in schools. The series has provoked a fierce debate.
The Church has called for the series to be taken off air. The communists want to haul those responsible in front of parliament. But the scenes depicted in the series are often a true reflection of events at schools. A lot of Russian parents are desperately looking for alternatives to usual schools. And those who do not have the money for expensive boarding schools are turning to cadet academies or dubious groups who want to revive the pioneers school. Parents do not know who to turn to. Little remains from the one so highly praised Soviet education system.
Switzerland: A different way of growing old
The servant home in Oeschberg in Bern canton is the only retirement home in Switzerland that caters solely to servants and maids.
It might be better to say: the last generation of hired hands and maids, because the professions are dying out. The maids and hired hands who live in Oeschberg still feel as needed as ever. Because their old people’s home has a large farm where they can continue working, if they so desire.
