♪ >> hello, and welcome to "european journal," coming to you from d.w. studio in brussels. here's what's coming up in this edition. theater of fighting. could hooligans ruin the european downin the you cane? how european songs are dying out and meet the man who's on a mission in slovakia. two weeks until the euro 2012 begins in poland and ukraine. in the run-up you'd expect talk about who's likely to win and

about teams' strengths and weakenses. but there's hardly any of that instead, a debate about whether or not to boycott the event. the reason? the way the ukrainian government deals with its opposition. it's uncertain how the president will deal with the pressure and how the ukrainian public will react to the influx of so many foreign visitors. >> the fans cheer their team on. igor and his friend come to every game. he's in the ukrainian premier league and represents a western town. the fans are said to be nationalist thugs but they say they don't start fights.

>> we're just giving our team some support at games. as far as other fans go, if they don't provoke us, everything will be fine. >> but extremists here they foreigners aren't really welcome at euro 2012. if they had foreign players on their own club they'd send them back home if they could. >> the player has to live where he plays. he has to understand the traditions and history of the country. you can't play for a club if you don't know who you're actually playing for. >> a year and a half ago danilo came from brazil to play for carpati. he hopes it will help him get into one of europe's top teams. the club apparently protects its

players from its nationalist fans. >> no, i never heard this, but i hope that is not true because every game the spectators -- something good for us to help us play good. i don't know. i think that is not true. >> leviv is planning to huge a -- hold a huge party from tens of thousands of fans from germany, denmark, and portugal. the german national team is due to play its tournament opener in a brand-new stadium just outside the city. right now workers are hurrying to finish the venue. inside, police and rescue workers are holding drills to prepare them in the event of violence between fans. the person in charge of security

says he doesn't expect trouble. >> we've analyzed all the different movements within the fan groups and i can tell everyone from the media that the security forces are ready, just as the police in the rest of ukraine are. we can guarantee security during euro 2012 under all circumstances. >> but there have been problems in the past with local violent fans. two years ago, there was a riot in the historic old town when ultranationalist fans clashed with supporters of the german side. [gunfire] it took the police hours to get

the situation under control. both ukrainian and german fans were injured. now, when visiting fans come in from abroad, the police are out in force. more than 40,000 officers will be on hand to prevent rioting. police also have lists of names of foreign fans who are known to be violent. they won't be allowed into the country. the mayor wants to present his town as an open up and coming european city and plays down the problem with you cranian football fans. >> whether it's in england, germany or ukraine, people are passionate about their clubs and respect their foreign guests. i can't remember any major incidents in ukraine. >> now is not a convenient time

for racist ukrainian football fans to come into the limelight. the leaders are already making negative headlines for their treatment of the national leader. it's tarnished the country's image. many foreign guests are refusing to attend the tournament in protest. >> a foot ball tournament like this shouldn't be influenced by politics at all and certainly not in this case. sports and politics have nothing to do with each other. >> but his supporters say fans and long used sporting events to spread ultranationalist sentiment and even the football teams are afraid of the riots. >> many of the teams aren't staying here, which says a great deal about the situation and many of the fans who want to

come are having huge difficulties with finding places to stay. that all indicates there's something wrong in this country. >> many are saying ukraine isn't ready to hold such an event at all. public intolerance that push sport off center stage. >> island is holding a referendum of the european pact on fiscal discipline in late may. it's an agreement that forces european nations to keep their burnlts in order. people in france used the elections earlier this month to punish their governments for economic policies. the government any irish could also fail the refrpbled up. many have lost hope and reminisce about the good old days. >> he left in such a hurry hadn't time to close the gate. don't know if he'll come back

again or we'll see him more, but we're very sorry that the tiger left our shore. >> the stories vincent pierce tells aren't always this melancholy. story telling is an ancient irish tradition and vincent has demonstrated this art on tours in north america. most of all, he enjoys telling his tales in the pub. ♪ i'm going down the old dirt road ♪ >> a few of his musician friends have come by too. an irish pub is more than just a bar. it means home, community and cultural heritage and is often the center of public life in rural areas. but many pubs are closing. the celtic tiger is gone and many are worried about the future. >> i don't know what the future

is going to bring. i wouldn't advise going into the pub life. it's not a good moment at the moment for making a living. >> we'd like to hear more of vincent's tale about the celtic tiger so the next morning we meet him and his wife pat for breakfast. they have four children and a bunch of grandchildren. vincent was a brick layer before he retired and built his house himself. it's a small built of paradise they've created here. many here in ross common also dreamed of paradise during the last economic boom. banks granted chief building loans and a lot of people who really couldn't afford a home believed the banks's promises. the economic crisis has brutally smashed these dreams. >> that would lead a merry

dance. but the bankers and the developers really had no chance. they had to buy a property for their families to rear. now they're left with overdraft and no one seems to care. >> ross common is a typical irish town. 5,000 residents, a few businesses, a local newspaper and a lot of stories. ♪ especially stories about the crisis. shops have closed down everywhere and for sale or to let signs are posted in many windows. it's mostly small businesses that have had to close in the past few years and hardest hit is ross common's construction industry. john is likely to be the next victim. he ran his cabinetry business for 40 years, eventually specializing in building stairs. when times were good he could

barely keep up with orders. today he's left with just a few machines. >> we used to make five or six stairs a week. we also made some furniture. that's all stopped now. it's just -- if you made one stairs a week now you'd be doing well. >> so now he's decided to give up. soon he'll be shutting his doors for the last time. he's already hung up to let sign. for his part, storyteller vincent is fed up with tales of the crisis and how it's worn down the irish. he'd rather tell of opportunity, success, and the bright future. but sometimes a crisis can provide chances. two and a half years ago, derek allen and his brother took over their father's farm. they couldn't get loan so

they've had to build things up step by step. but they have little debt. the farm produces top quality meat and they grow their own feed for the animals. >> thank gold we started when we did rather than back in the good times because i don't think -- you know, we could have lost contracts, people would have stop buying from it -- us. we would have had huge payments and then we couldn't afford it. >> they sell their products online and in their own farm shop. they've moved three times to accommodate the growth of that you are business. sales have doubled each year and they now ploy six people. but then there's the tale of the tying pubs. ross common once had a good two dozen pubs. now there are just halve as many and more are closing every month. john murray's pub is famous throughout ireland.

his father was a famous gailic football player. the ball with which his team won the 1944 all-ireland championship still hangs above the bar. it even survive add fire in 1990. john is determined to hold on to the pub his father ran, but customers now only come on the weekend instead of every day. >> things have gotten very hard up. 15 during the week. and even at the weekend, it's even harder. you have to have something on to bring in the crowd. that would be music or some sort of entertainment. >> everyone here knows that if the celtic tiger doesn't come back, the pubs will keep on dying out. >> so few will miss the tiger will you ask him to come back?

because we have no money and are very slack. you can tell him that we're all depressed and we cannot take much more so we will all be listening to hear the tiger roar. [applause] >> where is the best place for small children up to the age of 3 in home or kinder gart season different countries have different answers. in france it's perfectly normal for very young children to go to a public kindergarten while their parents go to work. kindergartens exist in germany too but the government plans to give parents a financial incentive to look a after their children at home. shade -- childcare subsidy schemes exist in several european countries and they're causing some debate there. such as norway, where after some

initial enthusiasm, not everyone is convinced it is a good idea to give money to those who raise their kids at home. >> financial advisor thomas lake charlesen has a rare day off today and is enjoying some quality time with his wife and children. the twins were born a year ago. from the start the couple knew they didn't want to send them to day care after just 1212 -- 12 months. >> i like being with my children. i think it's best for them. i think it's better for children under 3 to stay at home. >> we'll do the same as we did with our first child. as soon as it was obvious that she wanted to play with other kids we sent her to darrick. we want to do what's best -- day care. we wants to do what's best for the children. the childcare supplements make

that possible. >> nina receives money for looking after the children at home. the 30-year-old also works evenings as a nurse when her husband is at home. norway is an expensive country. >> even though we get the childcare supplement, which is a great help, in the current situation, the fact that nina stays home is unusual, and especially in oslo, where everything is extremely expensive, many couples don't have a choice, both have to work full time. >> most mothers are forced to work all day as well as run the house hotel. i don't know. i think it has something to do we quality. >> fewer and fewer families are drawing the supplements. in 1999 almost 3/4 of women stayed at home with their toddlers. last year, it was just one in five.

annie of norway's mini city, thinks the supplements should be abolished. she said the results of the study and their social consequences were alarming. >> immigrant families draw childcare sup lements much more commonly than nor week -- norwegian families. it means foreign mothers don't learn norwegian, don't enter the work force, don't earn an income and are dependent on their husbands. and their children don't learn any norwegian before they go to school because they don't go to day care. >> elizabeth says abolishing the supplements because of their potential effects on immigrant families would be wrong. >> childcare supplements were never supposed to be an

integration instrument. if we continually claim that day care is the best place for kids and kids who don't go lose out, we stigmatize them. >> nina and thomas's daughter has been going to day care since she was 3. the center's director says demand for places for toddlers is rising with or without the childcare sup lements. >> demand is huge. we don't have enough space for all these small children. some parents put their kids on the waiting list before they've even named them. the quality of day care centers is continually improving and small chldren are benefiting from being together and playing with each other. >> with its high cost of living and government that supports day care, part time jobs and flexible working hours, norway goes to great lengths to bring

mothers back into the work force. it's no wonder childcare supplements in norway are losing their importance. >> i didn't draw any childcare supplement because i wanted to get back to work quickly. if you want to combine children with a career, day care centers are an excellent possibility. i see them as very positive. >> i don't think children do worse in day care centers than at home, even when they're very little. they can learn a lot from the childcare workers here that i can't teach them. i think it's good for the children's development. >> we need all hands on deck inspect work force and we need -- deck in the work force and we need children. we have a higher birthrate hahn in other european countries. 80% of women work. you don't have to stay home just because you have kids.

>> norway regards its -- itself as exemplary when it comes to equality. many people believe that nina and her husband are old-fashioned. >> my mother sent me to day care. but my grandmother looked after her children at home. she thinks it's good that i've decided to stay at home but my mother can't understand it. >> nina wants to return to work full time as soon as the twins are older. they'll have no trouble finding them day care places. the couple certainly can't afford to care for their sons at home until they reach school age. >> every nation has its own heroes, be they dead or alive, fictional or real. that can -- they can be the members of the sports team or a person who made an important discovery. people love their heroes because

they make you dream of winning the sports title yourself one day or of a better world. there was nothing much heroic about zoltan's life but the slovak dreamed of a better word so he decided to step into the shoes of his favorite hero, quite literally. >> some people say he's just plain nuts, but others applaud his efforts and are only just a little bemused. zoltan is batman. he doesn't want to save the entire world or even make it a little safer. he just wants to make his home in slovakia a little more lifpble. he picks up trash in the park, helps pedestrians push the street and will give your car a push if it's conked out. none of this is earth shatterering but he says if everyone does a little bit,

something big can come of it. >> i want things to be more just and more orderly. i want to share that we have to do something for our country. we can't simply have a devil may care attitude. >> zoltan sued his costume himself. -- se, wed his costume himself. he is unemployed so he has a lot of free time. this woman tells batman her electricity and water have been shut off. even though she's paid her bills on time. batman has to report that. but just around the corner he springs into action. nothing has been happening at this work site for a few weeks now. >> i think slovakia needs something more than a batman. he may seem crazy but he's friendly and he means well.

>> during these times of crisis, it seems more than one superhero has emerged in eastern europe. there was a super hero in prague. he discovers a dog owner who hasn't picked up after his pooch so he punishes him right there, smearing dog feces on him. the dog owner tries to defend himself but in vain. the superhero is too fast for him. >> he's great. finally someone who draws attention to those things, though he may be a bit drastic. >> he's a great chap and i'm one of his biggest fans. no one else has the courage to do something like that. smear dog poo on someone's back. >> it's not just dog owners who fear his wrath.

smoking is banned at streetcar stops in prague. he's often rained down punishment and documents his efforts with a small camera and then he strikes. a quick getaway before the next villain, the next victim, is spotted. but here, he injured himself while falling during his getaway. who is this masked man, asked vatslaf, the head of the city's comic center. he knows all the superheroes. >> the interesting thing is that we have here a kind of bohemian superhero who isn't focused on the threat to the planet, the really big problems, but instead the small, local day problems

that we don't know how to deal with. sure, he's not a proper typical superhero. a superhero should save the world or at least a whole city. >> as it turns out the czech superhero was really a publicity stunt by an internet company. zoltan also wants to promote something, a better world, as he says. he may be unemployed by in these days, everyone has to do their part. >> and that report brings us to the end of this week's edition of "european journal." we hope you enjoyed the program. please do join us again next time. until then, for all of us here at d.w. studio in brussels, thanks very much for watching and bye for now. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

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