Sociál

Is Prague a City of Sin?

„Prague is a beautiful and decent city but it is really embarrassing to have all these cabarets so near to Wenceslas Square, you would not find this near Champs Ellysee for example,“ says Nathan Henceforth who is studying political science and economics at the Faculty of Social Science.

Prague is considered to be the second nicest city in Europe, just after Paris. That is a great success for the Czech Republic. Whatever guide book you open, the only thing you will read would be something like “Prague is the cradle of Czech culture, and one of the most fascinating cities in Europe.” That is of course true. Many foreign students decided to study in Prague after hearing of her beauty. But nothing is ideal and Prague has like all other cities in the world problems that should be fixed.

Your wife can watch if she pays

One of Prague’s biggest problems is prostitution which is not regulated by some kind of a law. When you go to the city centre after dark, you will find in some areas strange looking ladies (and men of course) offering their bodies for money. Sometimes you could even say to yourself that no one would go out with this human being who is in most cases a drug addict and could have HIS, AIDS, gonorrhea, pox, jaundice etc. Prostitutes annoy everyone. When you go through their areas it does not matter that you have your wife or girlfriend next to you, they offer you sex and sometimes it goes so far that they even say that “your wife can watch if she pays”. This does not give Prague a good reputation.

Controlling brothels, maybe next year

It is a little different with the cabarets. In June 2005 the Municipal Council of Prague has prohibited sex-advertisements in the city so you should not meet people distributing leaflets offering sex-services. But if it really works that is a question. In any case the Metropolitan Police have to control it.

Controls in houses of ill fame are not so often though. And here again we meet the problem that the legislation is not ideal. The current Czech government has had enough time to handle the problem, but the political parties could not agree on a solution. They do not have time to do something now so people have to wait and see what will happen after the elections held in June. The Municipal Council of Prague has some competence as well but its public relations office did not give us any stand-point although contacted a couple of times.

Visit Prague, sure!

Prague is the nicest place I have been to, you can see very old buildings on the one hand and very new on the other. I love the city. Every country in the world has problems with prostitution and I do not think the Dutch solution is the best either,” says Thomas Ash who has visited Prague for four times. The truth is that you will find prostitution everywhere, in Paris the same as in London, in Berlin the same as in Warsaw. Prostitution has been here ever since. The problem of Prague is that you can see it in the very historical centre.