Woodsman-in-chief

Agriculture Minister Petr Bendl will soon appoint a new CEO for Lesy ČR forestry company. The candidates have gone through a grueling interview process, and they needed to have a university degree and five years of management experience just to be considered. Bendl himself is subject to no such minimum requirements. After all, he's a politician. In the presidential election, much was made of Vladimír Franz's academic credentials (he's a composer/playwright with a law degree), but less was said about Tomio Okamura's lack of a university degree. Even fewer words were devoted to the fact that Karel Schwarzenberg is a college dropout. His official résumé says that he had to interrupt his studies to take over the family holdings when his adoptive father died. Young Karel was 28 at the time. Schwarzenberg, who is supposedly the CR's richest woodsman, can be first vice PM, foreign minister and, very nearly, even president and commander-in-chief, but he can't be CEO of Lesy ČR. Such are the quirks of democracy.