The external channels§
It is evening at Marginal, several days after the letter was sent. The set on the shelf supports external channels with subtitles, and he leaves it on CT after browsing while he eats standing up at the counter.
TELEVISION
the studio graphic changing behind the presenter Dobrý večer. Začneme na pobřeží Fluidské republiky. Plovoucí datové centrum britského provozovatele se v tamních vodách pohybuje od začátku léta a soud v Corcině o něm vede řízení, které je od registrace veřejné. Ze spisu vyplývá, že inspekční lodě byly od plošiny opakovaně odkloněny a že na drony vyslané změřit teplotu vody posádka střílela. Provozovatel je označil za ruské. V příloze spisu je doloženo, že stroje nebyly ozbrojené ani samostatně řízené.
Postup firmy dnes kritizovala řada států Evropské unie, které s Fluidem udržují dobré vztahy. České ministerstvo zahraničí ho v písemném stanovisku označilo za nezodpovědný a vyzvalo britskou stranu, aby provozovateli nařídila kontrolu na palubu vpustit. Fluid v unii není a podle vlastní ústavy do ní vstoupit nemůže, protože zakládající smlouva vyžaduje trh s výrobními prostředky. Diplomatické styky s Prahou trvají od roku 1993.
Good evening. We begin on the coast of the Republic of Fluid. A floating data centre run by a British operator has been moving in those waters since the beginning of the summer, and the court at Corcina is hearing a case about it that has been public since registration. The file states that inspection vessels were repeatedly turned away from the platform and that the crew fired on drones sent to measure the temperature of the water. The operator called them Russian. An appendix to the file shows the machines were neither armed nor automated.
Several European Union states that keep good relations with Fluid criticised the company's conduct today. The Czech foreign ministry called it irresponsible in a written statement and asked the British side to order the operator to let an inspection aboard. Fluid is outside the union and cannot join it under its own constitution, because the founding treaty requires a market in the means of production. Diplomatic relations with Prague date from 1993.
The cooperative at Ostrava§
TELEVISION
Druhá zpráva se týká i nás. Fluidské družstvo UBNC, které doma pěstuje zeleninu ve vertikálních farmách uvnitř potravinářských závodů, otevřelo první provozy mimo republiku, mezi nimi halu na okraji Ostravy s pěstební plochou přes tři tisíce metrů čtverečních. Financuje je ze svého podílu na vývozním účtu republiky, tedy z deviz utržených za vývoz potravin.
Vertikální farmy u nás dosud zůstávaly u desítek až stovek metrů čtverečních a většina evropských firem v oboru za posledních pět let skončila. Družstvo uvádí, že jeho provoz nemusí vydělávat na návratnost investice, protože ta je kryta z vývozu, a že proto může prodávat za ceny obchodních řetězců. Ministerstvo zemědělství si vyžádalo podklady k tomu, jak je taková cena tvořena.
The second story concerns us as well. The Fluidian cooperative UBNC, which grows vegetables at home in vertical farms inside its food plants, has opened its first operations outside the republic, among them a hall on the edge of Ostrava with more than three thousand square metres under cultivation. It funds them from its share of the republic's export account, from the foreign currency earned on food exports.
Vertical farms here have stayed at tens or hundreds of square metres, and most European firms in the sector have gone under in the last five years. The cooperative says its operation does not have to earn back the investment, since that is covered from exports, and that it can therefore sell at supermarket prices. The agriculture ministry has asked for documentation on how such a price is arrived at.
A record number of silies§
TELEVISION
Na závěr čísla z fluidského statistického úřadu. Republika má rekordní počet sídlišť, fluidsky silies, a v panelových bytech bydlí přibližně polovina obyvatel měst. Sídlišť je tam víc než ve většině evropských zemí a jejich zastavěná plocha je čtyřikrát větší než střed Lindomy a pětkrát větší než střed Leridusonu. V Česku bydlí v panelových domech asi sedmadvacet procent lidí.
Většina těch bloků byla navržena za direktorátu, tedy mezi lety 1954 a 1974. Stavební normy platí na obou stranách města, ve starých jádrech na jednotlivé domy, na sídlištích na celé skupiny bloků.
To close, figures from the Fluidian statistical office. The republic has a record number of housing estates, silies in Fluidian, and about half the urban population lives in panel flats. There are more estates there than in most European countries, and their built area is four times the centre of Lindoma and five times the centre of Leriduson. In the Czech Republic about twenty-seven percent of people live in panel blocks.
Most of those blocks were designed under the Directorate, between 1954 and 1974. Building standards apply on both sides of the city, in the old cores to individual houses, on the estates to whole groups of blocks.
The standby button§
He reaches for the remote before the second story is finished and presses the standby button. The screen goes dark for a few seconds, then the box comes back on the same channel, the subtitle track reloading a few words behind the speech. He presses it twice more, gets the same thing, and leaves the remote on the counter.
TELEVISION
a table of figures coming up beside the presenter Ve dvaadvaceti pojmenovaných městech republiky je registrováno 352 sídlišť. Bydlí v nich 2 061 400 lidí, tedy 49,6 procenta ze 4 156 000 obyvatel těch měst. Bytů je v nich 918 000.
Ve Fluidu se byt nekupuje a pronájem za úplatu zakazuje článek 65 ústavy. Byty přiděluje obec podle zapsané potřeby, a když se domácnost zmenší, musí jí do třiceti šesti měsíců nabídnout menší byt ve stejné obci, pokaždé jiný, dokud jednu z nabídek nepřijme. Aby na to obce měly z čeho brát, drží podle organického zákona volných 4,2 procenta bytového fondu, což je 38 500 bytů. Je to hlavní důvod, proč republika staví víc bytů na obyvatele než kterákoli země unie.
Across the twenty-two named towns of the republic there are 352 registered estates. They house 2,061,400 people, 49.6 percent of the 4,156,000 residents of those towns. They contain 918,000 flats.
In Fluid a flat is not bought, and letting for gain is prohibited by Article 65 of the constitution. Flats are allocated by the commune according to registered need, and when a household shrinks the commune has thirty-six months to offer it a smaller flat in the same commune, a different one each time, until one of the offers is accepted. To have something to draw on, communes keep 4.2 percent of the housing stock vacant under organic law, which is 38,500 flats. It is the main reason the republic builds more dwellings per head than any country in the union.
Still building§
TELEVISION
Sídliště se tam pořád staví. Poslední bylo dokončeno loni v Durorilaqui, dalších dvanáct se staví teď, a v jednom souboru stojí byty všech velikostí vedle sebe, protože bez toho by výměna ve stejné čtvrti nefungovala. U nás panelová výstavba skončila v roce 1995.
Staré jádro Lindomy má 9,7 kilometru čtverečního, sídliště kolem něj 38,8, tedy čtyřnásobek. V Leridusonu je to 1,8 proti 9,0, pětinásobek. Norma platí na obou stranách, v jádrech na jednotlivý dům, na sídlišti na celou skupinu bloků, a hustota vychází skoro stejně, kolem patnácti tisíc lidí na kilometr čtvereční.
Pro srovnání, počet sídlišť u nás se odhaduje na něco přes dvě stě, panelových domů je 65 641 a bytů v nich 1 218 788. Fluidský úřad zveřejňuje i seznam jednotlivých sídlišť s rokem dokončení a jménem projektanta.
Estates are still being built there. The last one was completed in Durorilaqui a year ago, twelve more are under construction now, and flats of every size stand side by side inside a single estate, because an exchange within the same neighbourhood would not work otherwise. Here panel construction ended in 1995.
The old core of Lindoma covers 9.7 square kilometres, the estates around it 38.8, four times as much. In Leriduson it is 1.8 against 9.0, five times. The standard applies on both sides, to the individual house in the cores and to the whole group of blocks on an estate, and the density comes out about the same, around fifteen thousand people per square kilometre.
For comparison, the number of estates here is estimated at somewhat over two hundred, with 65,641 panel buildings holding 1,218,788 flats. The Fluidian office also publishes a list of the individual estates with the year of completion and the name of the designer.
The edge of the town§
TELEVISION
Sídliště zároveň tlačí města do krajiny. Zastavěná plocha pojmenovaných měst roste o 1,4 procenta ročně, počet jejich obyvatel o 0,3 procenta, takže okraj se posouvá rychleji, než přibývají lidé. Nové soubory se staví na rovině za posledním blokem, protože stará jádra jsou hotová a nic se do nich nepřistavuje.
Fluidský Úřad pro bydlení zveřejnil v dubnu šetření, podle kterého chce 78 procent obyvatel panelových domů zůstat tam, kde bydlí. Byty se přidělují podle velikosti domácnosti, takže přelidněné bydlení se tam ve statistice skoro nevyskytuje. U nás podle zprávy ministerstva pro místní rozvoj bydlelo v roce 2023 přelidněně asi 16 procent lidí, v Praze 25 procent. Fluidský standard je 52 metrů čtverečních na dvoupokojový byt, 68 na třípokojový a 86 na čtyřpokojový, ke každému balkon o šesti metrech a komora u vstupu. Plochou to českým bytům odpovídá a v tom, kolik lidí v bytě bydlí a co k němu patří, vychází srovnání ve prospěch fluidských bytů.
The estates are also pushing the towns out into the countryside. The built-up area of the named towns is growing by 1.4 percent a year and their population by 0.3 percent, so the edge moves faster than people arrive. New estates go up on the flat ground beyond the last block, because the old cores are finished and nothing is being added to them.
The Fluidian Housing Office published a survey in April in which 78 percent of panel-block residents say they want to stay where they live. Flats are allocated by household size, so overcrowded housing barely registers in their statistics. Here, according to the regional development ministry's report, about 16 percent of people were living in overcrowded housing in 2023, and 25 percent in Prague. The Fluidian standard is 52 square metres for a two-room flat, 68 for a three-room and 86 for a four-room, each with a six-metre balcony and a store by the entrance. That matches Czech flats on floor area, and on occupancy and what comes with the flat the comparison favours the Fluidian ones.
Balconies first§
TELEVISION
Ze 41 200 panelových domů postavených mezi lety 1958 a 1989 jich letos 6 800 překročilo prodlouženou životnost. Inspekce v roce 2024 našla u 4 100 domů ze série z let 1962 až 1971 krátkou výztuž a tenké krytí betonu, takže se voda dostává k oceli. Porucha začíná na balkonech: nejdřív spadne deska, pak praská strop u kotvení a jde to patro po patru dolů. Loni bylo v republice zbouráno devatenáct bloků a u všech to začalo takhle.
Jestli se má stavět dál takhle, je předmětem sporu. V Sederně a v Durorilaqui lidé protestovali proti schválení nových souborů a odvolávají se na ekologický rozpočet a na podmínku, že územní plán musí zachovat propojení biotopů. Obecní shromáždění zároveň schválila jinou soustavu, monolitický skelet s nenosnými stěnami, u kterého se dá vyměnit balkon i opláštění bez zásahu do stropu. Doprava je na sídlištích vyřešená dobře, 97 procent bytů je do čtyř set metrů od zastávky. V Lindomě se mají příští rok schvalovat dva nové soubory.
Of the 41,200 panel buildings put up between 1958 and 1989, 6,800 have passed their extended service life this year. The 2024 inspection found short reinforcement and thin concrete cover in 4,100 buildings from the 1962 to 1971 series, so water reaches the steel. The failure starts at the balconies: the slab goes first, then the floor cracks at the anchorage and it works down floor by floor. Nineteen blocks were demolished in the republic last year and every one of them started this way.
Whether to keep building this way is disputed. People in Sederna and Durorilaqui have protested against approval of new estates, citing the ecological budget and the requirement that a spatial plan preserve habitat connectivity. At the same time the communal assemblies have approved a different system, a cast frame with non-loadbearing walls, in which a balcony or the cladding can be replaced without touching a floor. Transport on the estates is handled well, 97 percent of flats are within four hundred metres of a stop. Two new estates are due for approval in Lindoma next year.
The bulletin moves on to a fire in a warehouse somewhere and he manages to turn the set off at the second attempt, holding the button on the box itself until the light behind the grille goes out. The subtitles stay on the screen for another half second after the picture.
How are you doing§
The flat is quiet again and the courtyard lights are on below the window. The phone goes on the counter beside the plate.
Vlad's phone, at Marginal
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How are you doing
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I am doing just fine
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I have been watching the new television set. It has support for international channels but it's hard to turn off
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Hard to turn off how
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Initially I pressed the button and it turned off only for a few seconds. I had to hold the physical button on the TV
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I was stuck in Czech television
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Do you even speak Czech
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No, I just landed on CT and listened about Fluid
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They've talked a bit about the floating data center being condemned internationally, then about UBNC settling in Ostrava and then about housing estates
Condemned by who§
Vlad's phone, at Marginal
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Condemned by who, exactly
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By the Czech foreign ministry and EU states
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That sounds like a statement, not an order. London can read it and do nothing
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Did they say anything about the inspection getting on board
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They said that the Czech foreign ministry asked the British side to order the company to allow inspections
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The company will answer that the platform is outside any state's water on the day they check, and that will be the end of the transmission
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That is the problem. You can't trust political statements much
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No, but it goes in the file
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The court can put a state's statement in front of the operator and ask what it says to it
The cable at Cortius§
Vlad's phone, at Marginal
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It can, but our primary concern is if they will move out of Fluid or not
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They will move when the water will be too hot, or when the cable gets cut
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Ah, the cable, I remember now. We need the cable cut on Fluid's side
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I wonder how they did not cut the cable all this time
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The cable is not theirs to cut. It lands at Cortius in a yard run under a Fluidian licence, and that yard is not part of the case
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If the court orders the landing closed, it closes. Until then someone would have to walk in and cut a live cable, which is a crime here like anywhere else
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Right. I am not sure what anything else to say then
If she comes§
Vlad's phone, at Marginal
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What did you do today besides sit in front of a television in a language you don't speak
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I have very much been sleeping and thinking about Nozaki
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Thinking what about her
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If she will come, because she said in a short reply that she managed to sign the papers and make her mother agree to leave for Fluid
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Did she say when
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Yes, in a week or two she should be here, in Lindoma
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A week ago you told me she could not leave right now
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Where will the two of them sleep
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I am not sure. There are six empty flats in Marginal they could register for
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CT said that some flats are kept legally vacant for people to be able to move
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When I came ashore the cooperative put me in a flat at Cortius and I was never asked which one
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I read that registration is by need, so six empty doors in your block might not mean one of them is hers
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I know that. They will be arriving at Lindoma, at Marginal, saying they need the need the housing, and they will be granted two units
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It might be two units, or one with two rooms. I don't know how it works for a mother and a daughter arriving together
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Allocation is done by household, so if Nozaki and her mother register as separate households, they get two separate units. If they register as the same household, they get the same unit
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Then it is theirs to decide
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I would guess the mother would not want her own door in a country she has never seen
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We'll see. She hasn't told me she landed at Zecina, she is probably still preparing
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I guess that's between you and her
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Tell me when she lands
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I'll tell you when she does
The A file§
Vlad's phone, at Marginal
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Good
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I am going to eat something and then read the file again
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You have always been up checking that file
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The A file was the inspections
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I hope there will be a B one when the submarines go out, and I want to see what they would write in it
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If the B does goes it, tell me
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I will
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Okay, I'll leave you to it
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Eat something as well
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Of course I eat, it's not all about sleep
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But yeah, thank you for your concern
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Adio then