Czechmatediary

According to the polls, about two thirds of Czechs are opposed to the planned U.S. radar base on the Czech soil. Many people are scared of it thinking that some  of the not-so-friendly countries may “punish” them for it and their friendly connection to the USA. But what does the ex-president of the Czech Republic think about it? Undoubtedly, Havel is one of the greatest personalities of all times so maybe we should think twice about these quotes of his:

CZ: Kolem 2/3 Cechu stale nesouhlasi s proti-raketovou zakladnou, ktera se ma v budoucnosti vybudovat v Brdech. Mnoho Cechu se boji, ze za zakladnu - a take za jejich pratelstvi s US -  budou od mene pratelskych statu “potrestani”. Co si o tomto tematu mysli Vaclav Havel, jeden z nevestich myslitelu vsech dob? (more…)

Today is a big day! I am bringing you an interview with what I call the “Perfect CzechoSlovak Group” because they are just great. They come from New York/New Jersey and the organizer Michaela is always  on top of things (for what she was recently awarded bunch of flowers) - organizing Czech/Slovak Movie nights, going to restaurants, cooking Czech/Slovak food at someone’s house….you name it! They created a true “extended family”, as they like to call it and they are just loving it! I made an interview with them and it is just a joy to read something like that:

CZ: Dnes je velmi vyznamny den! Proc? Protoze vam prinasim rozhovor s mou tzv. “vzorovou Cesko/Slovenskou skupinkou” z New Yorku. Jejich organizator Michaela nikdy neleni (take za to nedavno dostala od svych “zacku” krasnou kytici) a kazdy mesic neco krajanskeho se skupinou naplanuje: bud se divaji na ceske filmy, nebo se sejdou v restauraci na pokec, nebo vari ceska/slovenska jidla…Nejdulezitejsi je ale to, ze dosahli to nejdulezitejsi - citi se totiz jako ze ted nekam patri, a ze tady za tou velkou louzi nasli novou rodinu. Rozhovor s touto skupinou me zahral u srdicka: (more…)

So about 400 hours later I think I am finally done with the Czech calendar for October. We have got so much stuff going on! Not only that the fabulous Czech singer and song-writer Jaromir Nohavica is touring but also the world-known Plastic people of the Universe are going to be performing all over the US! And that’s not all! We have 7 different Czech and Slovak festivals coming up!

1. San Antonio, TX
What – Czech Heritage Day Festival
When – Oct. 26th
Where – KC Hall
http://www.czechs.org/index.php

2. PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE TOUR

Where:
Denver, CO – Oct. 3rd
San Diego, CA – Oct. 7th
Los Angeles, CA – Oct. 8th
San Frencisco, CA – Oct. 9th
http://www.kandl.cz/plasticpeople/default.aspx (more…)

The Oscars are starting in about 4 months (22nd of January, 2009), so what Czech movie will be nominated this time? The Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) picked a movie directed by Petr Zelenka called “The Karamazovs“. It will be competing with other rivals such as the Slovakian movie “Blind loves”, French movie “In between walls”, the Italian ” Gomorra” and others. Ever since 1995 the CFTA recommended 13 movies to the Oscar Academy, from which “Zelary” and “Devided we fall” were partially successful, however only “Kolja” received the real-deal Oscar. (more…)

Although the town of Trebon has only about 8,000 inhabitants it  has been quietly sitting on the map of Europe since the 12th century. Once the famous royal family of Rosenbergs bought the town in 1366 it started to experience its “Golden Age”, mostly thanks to its - now very famous - fish pond farming. Because of the town being geographically located in between vast marshes as well as Trebon’s own fortifications and deep moats, it bravely managed to fight off the Hussite army many, many times. The fish pond building started around the 16th century with its most famous personality being Jakub Krcin from Jelcany. Jakub built 2 major masterpieces: a pond called “Svet” (the World) for which he was criticized quite a bit at first because, from the structural point of view, it disturbed Trebon’s abilitity to defend itself; that’s why Jakub first named the pond the “Ingratitude” (later he probably realized he was overly dramatic and changed it to “Svet”). (more…)

The Czech Republic, one of Europe’s largest fish producers, has one of the lowest rates of fish consumption. Freshwater fish like carp and sander are being exported to all over the world, meanwhile most Czechs eat fish (carp) only once a year during Christmas. The Minister of Agriculture, Petr Gandalovic reveals some possible explanations to this fish mystery:

1. customers have to prepare the fish by themselves, meaning one has to gut the fish - not a pleasant thing to do for most people
2. The stores now do offer filleted fish but it is still not common in the Czech Republic so people are a little intimidated by that (more…)
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Every time I open a can of Coke (gotcha!) these days two very different feelings overwhelm me. The first one is a pleasant feeling - a happy feeling - feeling like I am very rich and well off. Why do I feel rich when am I sipping on a stupid can of soda, you may wonder? The psychologist would tell me that it comes from my “inner child” meaning that it  comes from the memories of my childhood. Back when my brother and I were little the only time we could get a taste of this magical beverage was during Christmas as each of us would get a can of coke as one of our Christmas presents (for the whole story “Christmas at our house: Czech style” click here). The second feeling that comes to me is more complex: it is the one of a terrible fear and anxiety mixed with excitement. Let me explain myself. (more…)

Nationmaster.com tells you about any statistics about the Czech Republic under the sun. For example, did you know that the Czechs rank as the number one nation in:

CZ: Webove stranky Nationmaster.com odhaluje takovy statisticky prehled o Ceske Republice, ze se vam z toho az udela mldo. Vedeli jste napriklad, ze Cesi jsou cislo jedna v:

• number of households with the youngest students (9 years old) owning a calculator; the USA is on the 3rd place
• number of household with the youngest children (9 years old) having more than 25 books; Iceland comes 2nd and the USA is on the 7th place. (more…)
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Hradec Kralove, a Czech town about 50 miles east of Prague, experienced an unusual car accident. A reckless semi-truck driver did not make a full stop at an intersection and hit the car in front of him. The thing is that the semi-truck was carrying  a about 20 pigs who managed to escape and scatter all over the town. The local firefighters had to become humble sheppards for couple of hours while they were chasing the pigs all over the town. (more…)

April of this year “celebrated” the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (1986)  - the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Although we know that the Russians were performing some experiments, till this day no one really knows what the possible causes of the explosion were but everyone would soon found out about the after effects. Since Russia didn’t bother to notify the rest of the world, Europe found out about this “little” accident when the radiation levels set off alarms at the Forsmark nuclear Power Plant in Sweden. As far as  Czechoslovakia goes, the first signs of an approaching radiation cloud were signaled by the power plan in Dukovany. (more…)