Jan Šinágl angažovaný občan, nezávislý publicista

Ing. Petr Walter, born 19.10.1961, currently head of the horticultural department of the Jihlava Zoo. StB Ostrava. "Mr. Walter was a good Aesthete, because he worked only in the Economic Intelligence of State Security..."

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Dear former colleagues,

I would like to thank you all very much for the wonderful ten years of cooperation during my tenure at the Jihlava Zoo and at the same time I would like to explain the circumstances and reasons for the termination of my tenure in this organization. But first let me express my gratitude for all the unforgettable and wonderful experiences I had with many of you while gathering material for your reports and articles. I am extremely glad that not only thanks to these experiences I was able to establish with you good working and, I am not afraid to say, in many cases friendly relations, which I continue to value very much. …

… And why am I writing this letter to you on November 17th? Because although I was born in 1987 and thus have little memory of totalitarianism, two of my great-uncles were sentenced to forced labour in Jáchymov, and thanks to my family history I deeply detest Nazi, Communist and any other ideology of unfreedom. Precisely because I hardly experienced communism, I would never have thought that 34 years after the revolution I would be fired for my views, for standing up for the weak and for the ideas of decency and common sense, and on the basis that the management would fully give in to the recommendations and advice of a person who not only plays a key role in decision-making on important matters within the Jihlava Zoo, but also plays a significant role in the external activities of the zoo, namely in terms of relations with authorities, politicians and sponsors. He is a man who was in the past an officially-led lieutenant of the State Security Service, and who came to the zoo as a reward for helping certain people in the selection process. After arriving at the zoo, this man, thanks to his enormous influence on the management, managed to introduce into the functioning of this organisation the aesthetic practices of treatment of employees to which he was accustomed from the past.