Czechmatediary

The  ex-president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, is currently working together with his old-time buddy, director  Milos Forman on a new movie. Havel is editing the actual movie dialogues - a job that comes as a second nature to him, as he has had  a lot of experience from writing numerous succesful plays in the past. What is the movie about? It’s based on a French book called “The Ghost of Munich” written by Gorgesse-Marc Banamoun. The book came out last year and the writer makes it look like an interview of a retired French prime minister Daladier (also one of the participants of the Munich Conference in 1938) questioned  by a young American reporter. “This topic is important for many different reasons. If we don’t want the mistakes of the 20th century democracy to repeat itself in the future, then it is imperial we remember what had happened in the past and we understand the chain of events as well”, explains Vaclav Havel. (more…)

In 2007 114,000 newborns in the Czech Republic (34.5%) were born to single women, which puts the Czechs in the 14th place out of 33 EU countries. While this number (114,000)  is only 1% higher than from the last year it confirms a steady trend. Just look at the “extramarital babies” historical time line (in CR):

• 1920s - 1930s: 12% of children were born outside of marriage
• 1938 - 1990: 4% to 10% …………………………………………………
• 1990s and up: every year the numbers continue to rise (more…)
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Have you ever thought of what would Prague sound like if it were  expressed through music? You will be soon able to buy a CD of those sounds. A British artist Peter Cusack - the master of “soundscapes” from all over the world - is taking on Prague as his new project. How does it work? First, questionnaires are randomly spread through people to get some kind of an information about their background noises. Then the artists go on so-called “sound-walks”, listening to different sounds - looking at Prague from the “sonic point of view”. (more…)

Czech beer is so popular  these days that the EU is most likely going to allow the Czechs Republic to use the “Ceske Pivo/Czech Beer” trademark. The beer is very unique because it is “brewed using  specific technologies in a specific latitude”. I don’t know if you knew this (I certainly did not), but the “Czech” beers like Staropramen or Pilsener Urquell are also made in Poland, Russia and Slovakia (i.e. different brewing technologies and different latitudes), hence the taste may not be exactly the same. (more…)

Yesterday afternoon at the age of 93 years Tomas Bata junior peacefully died in Canada. This world-known Czechoslovak entrepreneur and an owner of the world-known Bata shoe company was the son of Tomas Bata senior - the acutal founder of Bata Shoes. Tomas senior’s nickname used to be the “Henry Ford of Eastern Europe” because he “saw technology as  means of progress, and wanted to make the shoes as cheaply as possible so that the greatest number of people could access them”. The Bata company itself was founded back in 1894 in a Czech town Zlin. After Tomas senior died in a tragic plane accident, his brother Jan took over the business. Under Jan’s leadership the company quickly expanded abroad to Europe, North America, Asia, and North Africa. Along with the continual expansion, the company policy was to set up new villages around the newly build factories so that the workers have places to live. Here are just some examples od those towns (the names are pretty cute): (more…)

The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, had a hip surgery in June. Well, one Czech lawyer (out of all the professions) tried to sell president’s hip bone on Aukro (Czech-style eBay); and guess what? He got caught! But you wouldn’t guess what the Czech president’s response to this hideous act was….read about it right here (click here).

CR: Vaclav Klaus podstoupil v cervnu tohoto roku operaci kycle. Jeden Cech (pravnik!!), ale nelenil cas, a kost z Klausova boku zacal drazit na Aukru (podobne eBayi). Nejen ze si Klausovu kost nikdo nekoupil, ale take mileho pravnika chytli pri cinu. A vite, jak Klaus na cely tento humbuk odpovedel?….Odpoved se dozvite zde (kliknete zde).

On August 19th a brave Czech swimmer managed to swim the Strait of Gibraltar both ways in less than 9 hours. He has become the 5th person in the world and the 1st Czech person to do that. By the way, do you know what his name is? David Cech ( = David Czech)! Read more about this “dude” right here (click here).

CZ: 19. srpna leta Pane 2008 jeden statecny plavec preplaval Gibraltarsky pruliv (ze Spanelska do Maroka a nazpatek) za necelych zazracnych 9 hodin. Stal se tak 5. osobou na svete (a 1. Cechem), ktere se neco takoveho vubec podarilo.Vite jak se tento chlapik jmenuje? David Cech! Vice si o Davidovi prectete zde (kliknete zde).

Thanks to the Warsaw Pact the Soviet army occupied Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic from 1968 until 1991. During those 23 years those troops caused a lot of environmental damage to our lands. They operated in 73 localities from which 60 were left in a very bad shape. What were the main environmental problems?

• contamination of ground water by fuels like petrol or diesel
• dumps with hazardous waste
• unexploded ammunition (!!) (more…)
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Currently the big news in Peking Olympics is that the Czech decathlon star Roman Sebrle did not win a golden medal this year - he ended up on the 6th place. The first place for the next 4 years belongs to a 28-year-old Bryan Clay from Texas. Roman suffered a lot of injuries during the training this year and that retarded his physical abilities during the Olympics; as he summarizes it “It was just a bad season this year, that’s all..”. How are the other memebers of the Czech team doing? The most recent gold medal was won by Barbora Spotakova in women’s javelin throw. Since she beat the Russian athlete on the 21st of August, Barbora says that the victory is extra-special to her because she had won it on the 40th anniversary of the Russian Invasion in 1968. (more…)

Do you remember Prague’s most boring (sometimes the most dangerous) quarter - Pankrac? Well, now it is not only the new Business center of Prague but it will be the changing station for new Metro D line. The city is planning to build 2 postmodern skyscraper buildings in the shape of the letter “V” but the plans had to come to a stop for a while. The UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee did not approve of the buildings because they are supposed to be 104 metres high, which exceeds the UNESCO 70-meter building limit; anything taller than 70 metres goes against the preserved historical city panoramas. What is the final verdict? (more…)