October 2008

Breaking news: the Czechs and Slovaks are visa-free! /Dulezite oznameni: Cesi a Slovaci muzou vyhodit viza konecne do kose!

It’s official! Starting in November, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (and also Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,Lithuania and South Korea) will be able to travel to the USA without visas. The exact date will probably fall on the 17th of November, which is also the 19th  anniversary of the Communist regime collapse in former Czechoslovakia. Bush annonced it today at the White House conference where one of the invited participants was also the Czech Ambassador of the US, Petr Kolar. During his speech president Bush explained that Michael Chertoff, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, is scheaduled to travel to Europe – Prague being his first stop – where he will officialy announce the exact date. (so let’s get it going!)

CZ: Tak uz je to tady! Ceska republika, Slovensko ( a take Madarsko, Litva, Lotyssko, Estonsko Jizni Korea) konecne splnili podminky pro vstup do americkeho bezvizoveho systemu a obcane techto zemi tak konecne budou moci cestovat to USA bez viz, a to jiz pristi mesic. Presne datum pravdepodobne padne na 17. listopad, tedy 19. vyroci Sametove Revoluce. Pred chili to tak v tiskove konferenci v Bilem dome zverejnil president Bush. Mezi velvyslanci cizich zemi byl rovnez nas velvyslanec Petr Kolar. Bush ve svem proslovu oznamil, ze presne datum bude oznameno americkym ministrem vnitrni bezpecnosti  Michaelem Chertoffem, a to pri jeho navsteve Prahy planovane zacatkem pristiho mesice.

Source: http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/index_view.php?id=339259

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Tagged as: good news, travel

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Pavel Ivancic, the Czech Designer of the Year, talks about the Czech fashion / Navrhar roku Pavel Ivancic mluvi o ceske mode

If you saw Pavel Ivancic walking in the streets of Prague you would see a normal, nice looking guy. But a little would you know, that he is carefully evaluating your current outfit and probably thinking that you had no style at all. Who is this clean-cut looking guy? Pavel has been actually voted the Czech fashion designer of 2007. He studied in London, worked in Paris, met the most prestigious designers in the world and now he has its own fashion brand called “Muset”. Radio Prague did an interview with him and  I was surprised to find out that Pavel things there is no fashion business in the Czech Republic. Supposedly there is not a single store that would sell Czech designer stuff! [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: culture, Famous Czechs & Slovaks /Czech-Americans, fashion, interview

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Suicides in the Czech Republic are on its all-time low / sebevrazd v Cesku ubyva

This year has been marked with the lowest number of suicides ever since the 19th century (yes!). It is hard to believe but 1,400 Czechs killed themselves last year. The highest increase of this kind of death was marked in the years of 1929 (worldwide economical crisis), 1934 (the total of 4,000 suicides) and in 1970 (the communist normalization period). When you add all those numbers together, in the last 50 years killed themselves about 100,000 Czechs! However, it is known today, that about 90% of these poor souls suffered with a clinical depression. Fortunately, the Czech Republic has currently much more psychiatrists who are (unfortunately??) prescribing antidepressant drugs left and right (in the last 10 years the consumption of antidepressants has increased 3 times). [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: statistics

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Where, oh, where is my homeland now???/ Kde domov muj, kde domov muj???

Do you ever wonder how many people actually managed to escape from communist Czechoslovakia? Was it 10,000 people? Or 100, 000? Or a million???? The first immigration wave came after the unexpected communist coup in February 1948. The borders were partially opened for a couple of years and a lot of desperate (and also smart) people took advantage of it. There are no specific data about how many people actually escaped  but it is guessed that during the period of 1948 to 1968  approximately 60,000 Czechs and Slovaks left. Most of these fugitives targeted those Western countries closest to their former home – countries like Germany (Bavaria) or Austria. What most people don’t know however is that Austria wasn’t as safe as it seemed. It actually had a lot of Russian soldiers on duty who would end up capturing some of these pure souls and deporting them to Russia or back to Czechoslovakia (if they were lucky). Many Czechs also ended up in Western Berlin – the Berlin Wall wasn’t built yet (it was finished in 1961) and the entrance route to the city was quite easy. Of course, there was the last option – the option of the  “Never-ending vacation”. If you were “lucky” enough to to be out of the country during the communist coup, you just stayed where you were, nervously clutching your one toothbrush you had, and you were safe… but neither your wife nor your kids or your parents were.. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Australia, Canada, communism, history

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And I want to dress up for what?? / A proc ze se mam nacancat??

Everyone knows that clothing in the US is VERY cheap. The mega-stores like Target, Marshall’s Wallmarts and Kohl’s offer these things for almost nothing (you do have to be a bargain shopper though). For a mere $20 one can buy a whole outfit! T-shirts for $5, pants for $10 and for the leftover money you can get a nice earrings/necklace set – that’s how it must be in heaven (actually, I don’t think they would charge you in heaven…). Many times I find myself sending stuff home or to my friends since the items are about 3 times less expensive then if you bought them in Europe.
Now that I made this point clear, it only makes sense that most American women  go crazy, become shopoholics and later end up attending the SA meetings (Shopoholic Anonymous). One thing I really don’t get though: what do they need all the clothes for?? Now, correct me if I am wrong but 99% of these women end up wearing matching sweatpant outfits and a pair of sneakers! Of course, they don’t want to look completely vagabondish, so they try to cover it up by buying those “fancy” sweats made out of velvet, with a fancy silver sign saying “I am hot”. There are two explanations to this fashion catastrophe: One being that most of these suburban women just don’t have places to dress up for. I mean soccer fields and grocery stores are not going to do it. Two, since the norm of what to wear has dropped down to pretty much a freezing point, it takes a lot of energy to fight this sickening norm off all the time. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: culture, fashion, humor

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US visa-free status coming soon! / Bezvizovy styk s USA se blizi!

According to the latest prognosis, Czechs should be able to travel to the US visa-free starting November 17th (which is also the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution), which is less than 2 months away! The Czech prime minister is planning on visiting Washington in late October to not only discuss the U.S. missile defense radar base but also to sign the 2 remaining agreements necessary for the visa-free travel status. The first agreement deals with the cooperation with the US center in terrorism threats and the second one concerns the exchange of information about the people who were convicted of serious crimes in the past. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: law, travel

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The story of the Bouncing Czech / Pribeh poskakujiciho Cecha

Hi everyone, I was browsing the net the other day to find anything interesting that would relate to the Czechmate Diary and I found this guy! Bouncing Czech! Karel was born in 1951 in Holesovice (Prague 10, I believe) – that’s when Czech was communist Czechoslovakia – and managed to escape in 1969 when he was only 18. He traveled all over the world and ended up in California. Karel’s website is full of enchanting stories from his life from which I picked one for today’s post. It’s called the “Odors of Communism” and after you are done with reading the story you will be able to smell those odors yourself….(click here to read the story).

CZ: Ahoj! Tak jsem vam nedavno serfovala internet a nasla jsem velmi zajimave stranky! Jmenuji se Bouncing Czech a jsou plne pribehu jednoho pana – Karla. Karel se narodil v roce 1951 v Praze-Holesovicich, kde take vyrost. v roce 1969 se mu podarilo uprchnout a od te doby cestoval po celem svete s konecnym cilem v Kalifornii. Stranky BouncingCzech.com jsou plne zajimavych pribehu z jeho zivota, a ja jsem pro dnesni “hodinu cteni” vybrala Karlovu prihodu s nazvem “Zapachy komunismu” (kliknete zde):

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Tagged as: communism, history

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Czechs – the masters of Dog Dancing / Cesi – mistri psiho tance

Chotebor, a little quaint town in the Czech Republic, recently held the 4th Annual Championship in Dog Dancing. Not sure what “dog dancing” is? Don’t feel bad, I had to look it up myself. It is so far the youngest dog sport, “which mixes obedience, tricks and dance that allows for creative interaction between dogs and their owners”. One of the Dog Dancing Championship participants compares it to ice-skating: “The most important is the elegance and the synchronization of the moves”. Although the Czech Republic has currently only a handful of these dog-dancing enthusiasts, when compared to other countries, many of them have actually become very successful abroad. This year’s winners have become the Australian Sheppard named – now get ready for this – “All That Brandy Gentle Mate” (poor dog) and a chihuahua Anuska Vejvodova Dechristi; both dogs are owned by the same owner (OK, now everything makes sense!), miss Vanda Gregorova from Prague. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: animals, weird stuff

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Should Czech beer give thanks to the Germans ?! / Melo by Ceske pivo dekovat Nemcum?!

Czech beer has had a long history. A first brewery  is known to have existed in as early as 1118. It’s hard to believe but Wikipedia claims that the beer wasn’t really nothing special until 1842, when Josef Groll, a German brewer, was employed by a brewery in Pilsen. He invented the so-called cold fermentation larger method along with the miraculous golden Pilsner beer, which was the first light coloured beer ever brewed! From then on the Czechs – ironically, thanks to a German dude – were the kings of beer. The British newspaper The Times has recently published a list of the 10 best Czech beers/breweries and here is the verdict: [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: beer, history

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Adoption in the Czech Republic is a big mess / Adopce v CR je jeden velky zmatek

Did you know that since the year 2000 only 277 kids have been adopted by foreign parents? Why so little of them? Compared to the parents of other nationalities, the Czech biological parents tend to be very picky as to who gets their child. They require almost a warranty, which guarantees them that their child will be always healthy, extremely talented, get good marks at school and go to the university. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, law

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