Does Czech Government care about patriots? / Zajima se ceska vlada o krajany?

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. Vera Kohoutova thinks one of the reasons for that is that once a senator starts to deal with some of these issues the elections come and one has to start over again. She goes on further saying that any senator cannot really understand the complex issues well enough if he/she spends only one year in the office: ” The issues are so complex and widespread that even the Czech diplomats who do have the day-to-day contact with the Czech communities sometimes feel like fainting”. She also asks herself a bold question, why did the Czech senators even bother to visit the Czech communities? They didn’t even meet the most important Czech patriotic organizations such as Sokol or the CSSK in Canada! Well, let’s hope that they feel at least well-rested from their “vacation”…

V zari navstivila krajany ve Spojenych Statech a Kanade skupinka ceskych senatoru z tzv. krajanskeho odboru horni komory Parlamentu CR. Zaparili si pri prilezitosti oslav Moravskeho dne a pak o par dnu pozdeji “schuzovali” s torontskymi krajany na mistnim Masaryktown. Bohuzel, navsteva pry nic noveho pod sluncem neprinesla. Jak popisuje reporterka Vera Kohoutova, “pravdu ma ten, kdo tvrdi, ze pokud toho moc neocekaval, zklaman byt nemohl. Jaky sarkasmus.” Nejvice krajanskych dotazu se pry tykalo problemu okolo korespondencni volby, dvojiho obcanstvi a bezvizovych styku s Kanadou. Jeden z pritomnych krajanu mel take otazku z okruhu restituce, ale kdyz slysel senatorovu odpoved neudrzel se vykrikl: ” chtel bych vedet, jestli cekate, az restituenti vymrou, anebo cekate az vymrou jejich deti..?” Mnoho krajanu si stezuje, ze se jejich problemu nikdo z ceske vlady nevenuje. Vera Kohoutova to zduvodnuje tim, ze jakmile se teto problematice nekdo zacne venovat, prijdou volby a muze se zacit od zacatku. Take si klade otazku, jak muze nove zvoleny predseda za rok vubec pochopit “niterne potreby krajanu v zahranici? Ta problematika je tak široká, že i pánum velvyslancum a konzulum , kterí mají takríkajíc každodenní kontakt s komunitou, z toho jde nekdy hlava kolem.” Dale si klade otazku, jaky byl vlastne cil jejich cesty, kdyz se ani nesetkali s nejdulezitesimi krajanskymi organizacemi jako je Sokol nebo CSSK v Kanade. Tak doufejme, ze si tady alespon odpocinuli….

http://krajane.radio.cz/cs/article_detail/1096