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Around Town

Radar in paradise

By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 28th, 2008 issue

While hunger strikers were settling in for the long haul, a different take on the radar base went on display across town last week.

“There’s no message in this exhibition,” American Center Director Miroslav Konvalina insisted at the opening reception May 12. “It’s just what we experienced. The pictures speak for themselves.”
Prior to his current job, Konvalina was a Czech Radio journalist who made a trip to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands to get an up-close look at the radar installation that the United States wants to move to the Czech Republic as part of its European missile-defense system. The photos that Konvalina and two colleagues from TV Nova brought back show a low-key military installation set in a tropical paradise, with the distinctive dome of the radar framed by palm trees, white beaches and bright blue skies. Accompanying text describes daily activities on and around the base, with schoolchildren singing, families picnicking and life generally sweet and safe under the X-band beam.
“We talked to a Marshallese government representative, some woman who did environmental studies, and a physician, and they all told us that the radar has had no negative impact on people’s health or the environment,” said Nova reporter Martin Rusek. “Everyone was very positive.”
No surprise, since the visit was totally stage-managed by U.S. military officials, who planned the itinerary, accompanied the reporters on their rounds and locked up their equipment at 5 p.m. “That was the only disappointment, that we couldn’t film after 5, when you see the real life of the island,” Rusek said.
That’s typical of any media visit to a U.S. government facility, particularly a military base, where equipment and information is often classified. Nor has there been serious concern about potential side-effects of living with the radar, apart from some initial objections voiced by mayors in the Brdy area. In fact, the radar, pointed skyward, has never posed any discernable health problems on the ground — aside from the possibility of getting a bomb dropped on your head. But the Czech reporters never had a chance to discuss that with the locals.  
“Ninety percent of the people we saw and interacted with were Americans,” Rusek admitted. “Most of the Marshallese people live on the other islands. We weren’t able to speak to normal people on the street.”
Would it have mattered? People who live near military bases tend to like the jobs and revenue it brings, so maybe not. And the Marshallese have been living with the U.S. military since 1944, when U.S. troops captured the islands from the Japanese during the Pacific campaign of World War II. Still, it would have been interesting to get a better sampling of the Marshallese mindset than the one provided by a display case filled with a grass skirt, ukulele and handmade trinkets.
The opening attracted about 100 people, sipping wine and munching on tropical nuts and other snacks as they eyeballed the poster-sized photos, watched a video of the singing schoolchildren and kept Konvalina talking nonstop. “I was surprised at the number of academics, and quite a few journalists,” he said in a rare spare moment. “They all said it was good we went public with this. It’s what we want to do with the center, reflect current issues, get people to come here and start a dialogue with the public.”    
Like Konvalina and his colleagues, you can’t do that anytime you please; the exhibition is open only Fridays, 1–4 p.m., through Aug. 29 (Tržiště 13, Prague 1–Malá Strana). But soak in enough tropical splendor and you may find yourself nodding in agreement with the text Konvalina wrote for one of the photos: “We are not afraid at all, here on the equator. We are more afraid of the burning sun than the radar.”

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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