Arnošt Lustig, R.I.P.

For the original version of this obituary in Czech, click here. It's from Mladá fronta Dnes. For the translation (sorry if it's inaccurate, I was in a hurry to publish it), just keep reading. I'll almost certainly have more thoughts on this later.



After a long fight with a malignant illness, author Lustig has died.

At the age of 84 Arnošt Lustig died the morning of the 26th in Prague; he was a journalist and author of books about the Holocaust, which he survived as a young man. For five years he battled a difficult illness.

When doctors told him that he had blood cancer, he might live to be around 80. But Arnošt Lustig didn't give the fight.

"I know well that cancer's a bitch, [Jiří] Dienstbier died two Saturdays ago, dying more and more, nobody knows what the tumor will do.... But I hope that I'll get better, I've got great doctors, like Dr. Kozák, he's a genius. I've gotten over everything in life so far, now I'll get over cancer too," he said in Magazín MF DNES in January.

That and his words speak for themselves, how the time of illness is hard. "This illness is stupid -- I take four steps and I have to lie down. I'm weak as a fly without wings, who wants to run around."

Arnošt Lustig succumbed to cancer. "He survived the concentration camps, but he didn't survive a malignant illness, which he fought for 5 years...." commented Markéta Mališová, the director of the Franz Kafka Society. Lustig was the honorary chairman of the board of the Society, and the Society's publishing house published many of his books.

The news also struck former President and playwright Václav Havel. "With a heavy heart I received the news of Arnošt's death. However, he is now free of his suffering and pain. I think of him, and of his characteristic smile and bottomless optimism.

"His optimism was beautifully contagious, and his will and vitality was always an encouragement. The Jewish community must hold dear to his spirit," said the head of the Jewish Community of Prague František Bányai.

According to Mališová, the writer had big plans to wire some books, visit Milan Kundera in Paris, go to Washington for a juicy lamb chop, and lead a discussion at a univeristy in Quebec.

Never Believed He Was a Great Writer

Arnošt Lustig was born in Prague on December 21, 1926. As a teenager have was sent to the ghetto in Theresienstadt and the concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

His experiences from those times formed the focus of his work. two collection of narratives, Night and Hope (1957) and Diamonds of the Night (1958) debuted thereafter. Zdeněk Brynych made the film "Transport z ráje" [Transport from Paradise] from the first; Jan Němec's "Tma nemá stín" [Darkness Casts no Shadow] was from a piece in Diamonds of the Night.

Lustig's literary stories demonstrated the internal strength of man; this strength allows man to face humiliation and hold on to human dignity even in situations of horrible threats. Among his most famous works, the books Dita Saxová and Modlitba pro Kateřinu Horowitzovou [A Prayer for Kateřina Horowitzová] deal with this theme.

After the war, he studied journalism and and worked for various dailies and broadcasters; among other things, he covered the Israel-Arab War. Later, he became a reporter and director for Czechoslovak Broadcasting, the editor of the weekly Mladý svět [Young World], and was a scriptwriter at Barrandov Studios in Prague. In 1968 Lustig emigrated. He briefly lived in Israel, then in Yugoslavia, and in 1970 moved to the USA. He regularly returned to Czech Republic in the last 20 years.

"He felt at home everywhere, but in Prague the most," explained Mališová, noting that he loved life and lived it to the fullest to the very end. He never believed that he was a good writer. He was unconvinced by his many prizes, such as the the Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Academy of Art and Fiction, the Franz Kafka Prize, and many others. He said it for 50 years," reminisced Mališová.

Lustig was nominated 14 times for the International Man Booker Prize, the international equivalent of the famed British literary awrd. In 2008 he was also awarded the Franz Kafka International Literary Award.

Second Place!

Now in English.

Second Place

I apologize to my legions of adoring fans about the current lack of blogging. Your correspondent has been traipsing around Popperland and its contested border with Kuhnia. So here is something to whet your appetite about Czech Republic (apropos of nothing).
Turns out Moldova drinks the most alcohol of any nation in the world, followed by the Czechs. Third are the Hungarians, and coming in at a very disappointing fourth place are the Russians. Read about it here.

Good luck!

UPDATE: This post previously indicated that "Moldavia" and NOT Moldova was the world #1. We apologize for any travel plans that may have been affected by this incorrect reading of the original text.

The "Doc Fix" in Czech Republic

According to the helpful and diligent translators at the Prague Daily Monitor and at Česká pozice, doctors in the Czech Republic are starting to resign en masse due to low pay and poor conditions in Czech hospitals. The problem is a complicated one, but it has important lessons for any US health care reform effort.

Health insurance is guaranteed in the Czech Republic, and is considered a basic right. (Actually, they say that health care is a basic right, but can only be obtained if you have an insurance card from an EU-based insurer. It is difficult to pay cash for any treatment at a doctor's office, though possible at hospitals.) The majority of the population, 58%, is enrolled in the state-run All-General Health Insurance Company (and the vast majority of retirees, children and the handicapped), though it is also possible to obtain non-profit insurance similar to Blue Cross-Blue Shield. There is no way to buy private health insurance.

The doctor's Komora (this can be translated as "union" or "chamber," depending on your attitudes towards government employees, general practitioners, professional organizations, etc.) is right to criticize aspects of the Czech health system. Wages are relatively low, treatments do not necessarily correspond to costs, and demand outstrips supply, yet doctors are unable to adjust their rates.

According to the doctors' campaign of "Děkujeme, odcházíme," ("Thank you, we're leaving" -- the name reminds people of a early 2000s movement in Czech politics called "Thank you, please leave" that wanted new blood in politics, rather than the same old parties and same old politicians) the system is has many problems -- the group has identified 13 here.

First off, the system is (according to them) underfinanced: 7% of GDP (paid by the state) goes to health care, compared to an EU average of 10% (to say nothing of the amount the US pays). This results in low wages, poorer negotiations with drug companies, and poorer training. They point out that among OECD countries, only Poland, Mexico, and South Korea spend less.

But doctors are also frustrated with politicians in Czech Republic; the Minister of Health is the most frequently replaced minister in this country's history, precisely because of its controversial nature. This means that there is no reassurance that any reform in policy ever will be actually implemented; moreover, politicians themselves offer promises they cannot deliver on, and the health care sector has become the battlefield for an "ideological war." Additionally, the group complains of corruption in hospital maintenance and expansion by well-connected construction companies, and uncompensated overtime.

So what can we learn from the case of Czech doctors threatening to exit the system, hoping for greener pastures in Germany? First off, they have called for increased competition in the Czech health market, and argue against the once-size-fits-all plan (similar to Medicaid) that currently lowers levels of care, eliminates opportunities for people to pay extra for better care (and at the same time help to finance the system more completely), and instead more effectively tie costs to prices. The movement points out that a "doc fix" is no fix -- the system of government-provided health care itself is rotten, and the occasional reimbursement to doctors only relieves a symptom; it does nothing to cure the disease.

Additionally, they recognize that health care has become a political football and an area where politics is always inflaming the passions. This leads to demagoguery and the constant intervention of the state in people's personal decisions, and renders the concept of limited government unthinkable. It leads to a cycle of broken promises, a skeptical and cynical population, and frustrated doctors who cannot plan in the long term for themselves or for their patients.

Political connections in the health care system, indeed, may drive up costs and increase waste. As hospitals are managed and owned often by the state (or public universities, to be fair), politically connected construction firms will have an advantage in securing contracts for building and maintaining hospitals, and the state has considerably less incentive to make a decision based on fiscal responsibility. Conversely, independent hospitals have great incentive to use their resources wisely. Developing an independent hospital sector in Czech Republic would allow competition to work its price-lowering magic, while also increasing accountability. It would be a mistake to eliminate these sorts of innovations in hospital development in the US, which is also something to worry about.

Some Czech doctors are wary about the pitfalls of the Czech system; we would be wise to look to these pitfalls and avoid them while attempting our own reforms in the US.