Sleepy mountain village hopes to gain from John Kerry connection

HORNI BENESOV, Czech Republic, Oct 9 (AFP) - Exactly 100 years after his grandfather left central Europe for America, the people of his ancestral village Horni Benesov are hoping US presidential candidate John Kerry can breathe some life into their small sleepy town.
It was here in this little mountain village of 2,400 inhabitants in the east of the Czech Republic that Kerry's Jewish great grandfather Benedikt Kohn ran a local brewery and where his grandfather Fritz was born in 1873.
After Benedikt died, his widow Mathilda and her three children moved to Vienna where the children changed their name and religion from Judaism to Catholicism and from where Fritz, renamed Friedrich, left to seek his fortune in America.
The family house no longer stands but pensioner Jarmila Sindlerova, who owns the garden where it once did, talks excitedly about Kerry visiting a century on to rediscover his roots.
"I would love to invite him in for a coffee if he came. But I doubt I'm up to organising a big ceremony on my 6,000 koruna (191 euros, 237 dollars) monthly pension," she told AFP.
"I have been following his progress and am rooting for him to win although I'm not sure he will. Kerry seems a good person and I don't like George Bush because he's to blame for children's suffering in Iraq," she added.
In his office across the village square in the street named after Czechoslovakia's founding president Tomas G. Masaryk the town's mayor Josef Klech is focusing on the latest presidential election across the Atlantic.
"It is pure chance that we have a connection with John Kerry so we must try to promote that as much as possible," he told AFP.
"Thanks to him Horni Benesov is much better known and that could bring us good things. We don't expect him to send us money but the state may take us more seriously now and help us," he added.
Klech says the town badly needs millions of koruna in funds to repair the town square as well as to improve sports facilities for its inhabitants.
Horni Benesov has vowed to bestow honorary citizenship on Kerry and has contacted his campaign office to invite him to visit. It is also planning a plaque at the site where the house once stood.
There are also plans for a Memorial to Democracy garden on the corner of the square where a garish billboard for the local betting shop now stands.
Still, most villagers have more pressing worries on their mind than Kerry's US presidential candidature.
In the betting shop that doubles as a pub just two doors down from where the Kohn family's house once stood, just two 70 koruna (2.23 euro, 2.77 dollar) bets have been placed on the election, both 2-15 wagers on Kerry's victory. Bush's odds meanwhile are 1-5.5.
"Most people aren't very interested in the US election. The talk in here is more of sport and trying to find a job," said barman-bookie Patrik Kaspar.
With an unemployment rate nudging 17 percent, Ales Zavodny is one of many in the town who are out of work.
"Life is not easy here in Horni Benesov -- so many of us are struggling to find work. Since the end of communism unemployment and corruption has soared in the country and I doubt Kerry can change any of that," said Zavodny.
Fritz's younger brother Otto was first to change his name and religion in 1896 in order to marry a Catholic woman. Fritz and his sister Ida followed five years later.
"They spread out a map, closed their eyes and their finger fell on Kerry in Ireland. The choice of name was pure chance," he said.
Across from Benedikt Kohn's former brewery, a building which now houses a twice-weekly sauna, retired teacher Marie Drobenkova has been collecting newspaper cuttings about Kerry ever since the connection hit the media several months ago.
"I'm fascinated by the connection a US presidential candidate has with our little town. I hope the collection can be used by local schoolchildren or by my own children and grandchildren," she said, a pile of newspapers marked in pen with 'Kerry' and the relevant page numbers spread on the table before her.
Win or lose, mayor Klech insists Kerry has unwittingly helped put his town on the map.
"I'm convinced John Kerry will win. But whether or not he is elected or comes here life goes on -- with or without him. But I would be mad if I did not try to make the most of it for the town," he said with a smile.