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The internet pages of the iDnes magazine re-created the communist shopping mall and it is AWESOME! Talking about reminiscing, this will definitely bring back some weird memories (I mean who didn’t have Krasohled!!!! - see picture above)…… (more…)

The communist era in the Czech Republic ended almost 20 years ago, yet the country seems still quite unsettled about this issue. Many political groups keep “acting out” for the public to pay more attention to this unresolved issue. A lot of people are angry because the individuals who went over to the “dark side” and joined the party during communism had much easier life back then: they could travel, had better jobs, their kids were allowed to attend universities….. (more…)

When I was a little girl I loved dolls (what a surprise, right?). I loved them so much that every time my dad was leaving for work I would ask him to bring me one. Well, one of those days has become a memory for the rest of my life.

It was summertime and I was vacationing with my family at our cottage. Since our parents didn’t have as much time off as us, kids, my dear grandma Kaja would baby-sit us during that time. This grandma became one of my most influential people in my life. She survived both wars, raised 2 kids during W.W.II and feverishly taught French for most of her life. She also believed in a true and pure communism (nowadays we call it Utopia). Anyhow, since grandma Kaja endured through the war times she has always had the survival-of-the-fittest attitude and therefore learned to be VERY frugal and VERY resourceful. Let me just give you an example (and I am sure some of you may relate as their grandmas did similar things):

1. She would never throw away milk bags (during communism milk was sold in plastic bags) to use them later for other purposes such as a storage for her rubber bands. (more…)

Many of the Czech immigrants who came to Canada between 1948 - 1951 could find no work. That is why various Czech-owned businesses such as the Bata Shoe, Hamilton Carhart, the Czechoslovak National Alliance, Opal Manufacturing , Staruba Industrial Corporation, Hesky Flax Products and others offered these “brothers” a new employment opportunities.

Immigrants who came after the Prague Spring in 1968 faced similar problems. This time, however, the government was ready for them: it offered language classes free of charge as well as the already existing large Czech community to make the whole transition process easier. That year Canada welcomed about 21, 000 Czechs and Slovaks. (more…)

He had taught for over 30 years at the UCLA where he had molded the minds of over 13,000 students. In 2001 he received the Nusle prize for his life works…. Miroslav Plavec was one of the front astronomers of the 20th century. His early works dealt with meteor showers, but he is also widely known for his studies of close binaries, especially of mass transfer in binary systems. Plavec was born in Sedlcany in 1925. During the Nazi occupation Miroslav’s father was arrested and taken to the concentration camp where he had died 6 months later. Being the oldest sibling, Miroslav became the head of the family and decided to move with his mother and a younger brother to Ondrejov, a home of the Ondrejov’s observatory. (more…)

Do you miss communism? Do you miss Lednacek (ice-cream bar), Cecka (plastic chain pieces shaped in “C” shape; toy for kids), Tuzex (fancy store with Western goodies; had its special currency) or those grocery stores with the always-empty shelves (see the picture)? Well, save your tears because the Czech TV is coming up with a new TV series called Retro which will bring back those memories - the good and the bad ones…Find out more about the show here.

CZ: Styska se vam po komunismu? Po lednaccich, ceckach, po Tuzexu nebo prazdnych obchodech? No, uz nemusite plakat, ponevadz ceska televize prichazi na televizni obrazovky s novou show zvanou Retro a slzy vam tak ususi…prectete si vice zde.
Source: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/100467

As I was surfing the Czech web the other day looking for something attractive to write about, I came across this interesting article called “What are we like?“. I was interested enough to finish the whole article and I decided to share some of the stuff with you. Not only is the content intriguing but the author is well over 70 years old (and runs a blog!!) so you know that he has earned the authority and respect to talk about pretty much anything he wants and people will listen.

(Pro ceskou verzi clanku “Jaci jsme?” kliknete zde)

Mr. Krejci divides Czechs into 9 categories:

1. The defendants of the “good old times”: they long for the communist times to come back when the government was in charge of the economy…. as well as their own lives. That way they didn’t have to worry about anything. Now they feel like everyone is doing whatever they feel like without following any kind of order.
2. The never-happy, beer-belly hicks: they know that nothing is the way they wanted it to be. They can’t change it nor can they change themselves. The only place where their opinions have any kind of weight are in their own homes with their families. (more…)
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Up until recently I have always thought that the Czech Republic allows you to have a dual citizenship. WRONG (with a few exeptions) !!. And here is why…..

Az do nedavna jsem si myslela, ze Ceska republika dovoluje dvoji obcanstvi. Chyba lavky (az na par vyjimek)…

WHAT IS A DEFINITION OF CZECH CITIZENSHIP?

According to the Jus sanguinis (”right of blood” in Latin) principles the Czech citizen at birth is a descendant of a Czech parent.

• it does not matter if that person is born in the Czech Republic or abroad
• if the parents are not married and only the father is Czech, a proof of paternity is required
• babies born in the Czech Republic to foreign parents do not get Czech citizenship unless the parents are stateless or have a permanent resident card (more…)
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I LOVE THIS! Do you remember Ivan Mladek’s song called “Jozin z Bazin” (the Swampland Jozin) (see the words to the song by clicking here) ? Well, if you don’t, it is a 30-year old, folk song that became a huge hit at the time. The song is about this monster Jozin who lives in the swamps somewhere in Moravia and eats only people from Prague - the city snobs. Although he doesn’t eat the locals they are tired of him. That is why the town mayor makes an offer to give away his daughter and a half or the “JZD” (the communist word for the town farm) to anyone who destroys this monster. The Czechs still play it on the radio from time-to-time. Every time I hear this song it brings me back to my childhood: I am 7 years old, hanging out with my friends at my parent’s cottage during the summer and lazily munching on Nanuk (an awesome communist ice cream bar). Anyway - it’s crazy - but this song ( and the video) has just now become a HUGE hit in Poland! It’s been the number one song on most of the Polish Top Song list (in Polish it is Jozek z bagien). The teenagers have the disco version uploaded in their MP3’s and are dancing away, trying to copy the dancing style of Ivo Pesak. (more…)

When the W.W.I ended the Czech immigration became less attractive because the new Czechoslovak Republic had a stable and industrialized economy. Job offers become widely available and the standard of living improved drastically. However the agricultural field remained attractive. Lot of Czech farmers came to Canada to develop the Sugar Beet industry and that is how new Czech communities in southern Alberta were formed (especially in Lethbridge and Chatham).

The inner-war immigration changed the distribution of Czechs in Canada, where more of them settled in urban communities instead of the country. The biggest communities were created in Ontario and Quebec, where Montreal (3,700 Czechs in 1920′) and Toronto (2,500 in 1920′) became primary Czech centres. Other new Czech “homes” became cities like Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa and Calgary). In the year 1931 the census counted around 30,000 Czechoslovakians in Canada. (more…)