Czechmatediary

He was born in Prague, studied at the Charles University of Medicine, worked in the mental hospital Bohnice and the Prague Research Institute of Psychiatry. He studied the effects of LSD on the human psyche as well as on the various mental disorders. After immigrating to the USA he became famous for inventing the method of so called Holotropic Breathwork (you can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holotropic_Breathwork) . Who am I talking about? I am reciting the brief biography of Stanislav Grof, yet another famous living Czech-American. He immigrated to the United States in 1967 and thanks to his very good English he immediately received a post as the professor of psychiatry at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore. There he was further exploring the wonders of LSD until the “unfortunate” year of 1968 when its usage became forbidden. That pushed Stanislav and his wife Christina into exploring other fields of psychotherapy and the subconscious mind and eventually came up with the so-called holotropic breathwork method. (more…)

I seriously think that the Czechs - not the Irish - are the biggest potato fans. Who else would start the tradition of Potato Days? The biggest attraction of the festival for already 17 years has been the Bramborak food-eating competition. Bramboraks (or Potato Pancakes) are a traditional Czech main course and although it has a very simple recipe it is delicious! This year’s winner became Stanislav Hamersky who in 8 minutes managed to consume 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) of them!!! Stanislav explains: “Bramboraks is something I really like to eat. We make them at home at least once a week..”. The proof that the apple doesn’t fall far away from the tree is the fact that Stanislav’s son Kamil and his brother are also into the food-eating games. Just a week ago Kamil won the Poppy seed Potato Dumpling competition, consuming 2. 444 kilograms (5.4 lbs) of these sweet potato dumplings in 20 minutes. That way he managed to beat the record from the last year - also done by Kamil. (more…)

Here is an article that I found which will update you on the swapped baby story. The Czech couples are preparing to exchange their babies before December 9th…..I can’t even imagine how hard it’s going to be for them….

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/96303

Co se deje s vymenenymi miminky?? Kliknete si na toto webove spojeni. “Vraceni” miminek se pry planuje pred 9. prosincem….sila:

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/96303 

The main prize of the Czech Press Photo 20007 competition was won by a photo called the Execution of the Child by Dan Materna. The voting was almost unanimous - 11 out of 11 committee members chose exactly this picture out of 3000 others. They liked the fact that the picture uncovers the biggest secret drama in ones life - the family war. The winning photo captures the Czech mother and the Portuguese father who are on the sidewalk playing the tug-of-war with their 7-year old daughter. The parents got divorced couple of years ago and the child was given to the care of her father who is taking her back to his homeland - Portugal. It is a painful scene, indeed. (more…)

In September a group of Czech senators flew to the USA and Canada to visit the Czech patriots (patriot = a person with a Czech heritage who is currently living abroad, yet still interested/involved in the Czech happenings). They partied during the celebrations of the Moravian Day then left for Toronto to have a “discussion” with the locals about some current hot topics. The talk, however, didn’t lead anywhere - no questions from the audience seemed to be answered. As the Radio Prague Reporter, Vera Kohoutova states, ” anyone who was expecting no results ended up being correct.” Most questions from the fellow Czechs were regarding the issues of overseas voting, dual citizenship or the no-visa relationship with Canada. One of the Czechs also had a question regarding the restitution problems. When the answer from one of the hosting senators wasn’t going anywhere, the fellow got mad and yelled out:” I would like to know if you are waiting for all of the resistuents to die out or if you are waiting for their children to die too!”Many of the patriots here in America are complaining about the fact that no one in the Czech government really cares about their issues. (more…)

Hi Everyone / Cau vsichni,

So the Czech activities are slowing down a bit for this coming month…but just wait for December!!

1.New York, NY (Czech Center)

http://www.czechcentres.cz/newyork/program.podrobnosti.asp?ID=24279

• What: Art exhibition of Ladislv Sutnar
• When: now until Jan.8th 08′

2.Washington, DC ( The Embassy of the Czech Republic, Avalon Theatre)

http://www.mzv.cz/wwwo/?zu=washington

(202)966-3464

• What: Christmas Ornaments
• When: Nov. 7th, 7-9pm

• What: EU Film Screening: I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglickeho krale); a special guest - director Jiri Menzel (!!)
• When: Nov. 12th

• What: Lions of Czech Film Series
• When: Nov 14th, 8pm

• What: Concert of Marta Topferova, the Czech-born singer and song-writer
• When: Nov.15th, 7 pm (more…)
  
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The swapped babies story (see the post from October 10th) made such a ripple even throughout the United States that one of the biggest radio talk show hosts in the country, Denis Prager, decided to dedicate nearly a whole show to it. He raises interesting questions about the ethics of it all such as -at what point does it become wrong to return the child back to it’s ‘biological’ mother? Or at what point in time does the bond with the child you raised become stronger than the ties of blood? 1 year old? 3 years old? The two Czech couples (who both raised the ‘wrong’ child for 10 months) had to make some difficult decisions….

Anyhow, here is the podcast of Prager’s show. Please, fast forward to the 14th minute - that’s where he starts talking about this topic!

(more…)

A Czech couple from town Trebic has been blindly raising someone else’s child! Because of constant teasing and comments about their child’s blond hair - even though the “parents” both have dark hair - the couple decided to take the DNA test to prove their drinking buddies wrong. However they were quite surprised when the child’s DNA did not match either one of theirs! The CTK news agency suggests a “little” mix-up in the hospital. Oh well, so you are raising someone else’s kid for 20 years…what’s the big deal??? As long as they take care of you when you are old, right??

CZ: Cesky par z Trebice zaslepene vychovava cizi dite! Diky tomu, ze se jim v hospode neustale vysmivali jejich blondatemu ditku (i kdyz oba rodice jsou tmavovlasi), tak se parecek rozhodl otestovat jejich DNA. Vysledky bohuzel ukazali, ze ani jeden z “rodicu” vlastne neni biologickym rodicem. CTK uvedla, ze pry v porodnici pravdepodovne doslo k “nedorozumneni” a ditka byla jaksi prohozena. No, vzdyt to zase takove drama neni…no, tak vychovavate dite nekoho jineho,no….kdyz se o vas na stara kolena postara, tak proc by vam to melo vadit???

http://www.wastednews.com/2007/10/05/bar-gossip-leads-to-nasty-surprise-for-couple/

Lot of Czech stuff is going on in October, especially at the Washington DC Embassy of the Czech Republic (and what is the best is that most of the activities are free of charge) !

1.New York, NY (the Czech Center)

• http://www.czechcentres.cz/newyork/novinky.asp

• What: Czech Street Festival(celebration commemorating the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918)
• When: Oct. 6th
• Festival will be followed by andafter-party concert featuring popular Czech band such as Support Lesbians, the Bengas and Lenka Dusilova

2. St. Paul, Minnesota

• What: Harvest Dance (hosted by Czech & Slovak Sokol Minnesota)
• When: Oct. 13th (6pm to 10:30pm)
• Where: 383 Michigan St., Saint Paul

3. Astonia, NY (Bohemian Beer Garden)

• http://www.bohemianhall.com

• What: Halloween Dance
• When: Oct. 27th

• What: Jazz Nighs Every Thursday!

4. San Diego, CA

More info at: (619)275-5483

• What: Concert of Lenka Dusilova (2006 singer of the year)
• When: Oct. 14th at 8pm
• Where: Brick by Brick, SD (more…)
  
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What I really appreciate about the American culture are the words “I love you”. Yet I myself still have problems with saying those words out loud. Why is that? The Czech culture is different. Back where I came from people express love to their child by hugging them, kissing them, calling them cute names but they don’t say “I love you”; it would just sound cheesy, right? Yet, that sentence is so essential to that little kid’s healthy mental development. The psychologists Moorman and Haller agree, claiming that “…those ( “I love you”) are the three essential words that all children need to hear often from their parents“. It’s not like we don’t love out children because we do! So why don’t we express those feelings out loud? What is there to stop us? (more…)