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October 17th, 2007 issue

Graffiti city

My husband and I recently bought an apartment in Prague.

We have noticed that the graffiti on buildings and walls seems to have gotten worse, not better, in the last year or so.

Early on, it was understandable. People who had just freed themselves from a restrictive government and ideology were eager to explore that freedom in any and all ways.

But now it is almost two decades later. Prague buildings have been painted and now have almost as many flower boxes on the window sills as you find in Germany.

Why does a city with a very good sense of itself as a flourishing economic center as well as tourist destination see nothing wrong with graffiti??

Why don’t building owners, local police/officials, apartment owners clean it up and try to stop it? Why doesn’t the mayor initiate a city-wide crackdown?

Most of all, why do the people of Prague who have now traveled abroad and seen how lovely other “world” cities are continue to shrug their shoulders?

Back in the ’90s, when the current Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York City, he cracked down on major crime by focusing first on what he called “quality of life” crimes — public urination, homeless people sleeping on doorsteps, even jay walking. Anyone who was caught painting graffiti was required to clean and/or repaint the area. Spray paint can sales were restricted to people over 18.

Please — clean up the graffiti!

Stephani Shelton

Kinnelon, N.J.

Forum 2000

(Editor’s note: Azhar Hussain, vice president of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., responded to The Prague Post question “What do you think is the biggest issue facing us today” Oct. 7 following this year’s Forum 2000 opening ceremony. He clarifies his comment, below.) You wrote: “My focus is going to be on how to engage religion and politics in a substantive way. There seems to be secularism in U.S. politics right now. [But] there is a large cohort of religious leaders. We have to find a way for religion to be included in the political structure as well. There’s always this dilemma — if there’s a religious ideology, what would happen to [issues concerning] gays and lesbians, for example? Our idea is to have resolution of that.” What I meant to say was: “My focus is going to be on how to engage religion and politics in a substantive way. The secular nature of U.S. foreign policy hinders religious engagement in ways that hurt us… [But] there is a large cohort of religious leaders in the United States and elsewhere who offer a great opportunity to make peace with the rest of the world. We have to find a way for religion to be included in the diplomatic structure as well. There’s always this dilemma — if there’s a religious ideology, what would happen to [issues concerning] gays and lesbians, for example? Our idea is to have resolution of that one-sided foreign policy that relies way too much on one approach.”

Azhar Hussain

Washington, D.C.

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