Czechmatediary

Today is the 19th anniversary of the fall of communism in former Czechoslovakia. Nineteen years ago the communist police attacked an unarmed  student demonstration of about 15,000 people, which sparkled nationwide solidarity and started a series of mass protests which led to the return of democracy. What may surprise you however is the fact that according to the latest polls 34% of Czechs are dissatisfied with the current state of the country.  Most people today  believe that the the most important slogan of the Velvet revolution, “Love and Truth will conquer all hatred and lies“, is not being acted out by their country. Yet another poll taken by the Ceske Noviny is even more disheartening: 1/4 of the Czech citizens doesn’t mind having communists in their government! Only 20% of Czechs think that the Communist party should be forbidden and about 30% of young people don’t care either way. (more…)

Are you curious to what foreigners think of our Czech drivers? Are they willing to rent a car or would they rather just stay “safe” and take a bus? Gary is one of those foreigners living in Brno and here are his observations…

CZ: Premyslite nekdy nad tim, co si cizinci mysli o ceskych ridicich? Boji se pronajmout si auto, nebo by radeji zustali “v bezpeci” a pockali si na autobus? Gary je jeden z techto cizincu, ktery zije jiz nejaky cas v Brne. Jeho postrehy na toto tema si muzete precist zde..

I stumbled upon this article the other day and I thought it was worth for me to share it with you. It is called “What Europeans think of each other“, written by an American who have lived there for 4 years. It is a very raw, blunt humor but that’s why it’s so funny. Just to give you a taste, this is what the Dailycandor writes about the Polish:

The Poles — Not much seems to register about Poland and the Poles except that they’re quiet. They are a relatively big country (40 million people) so the supposed scare of being overrun by Eastern Europeans when a bunch of Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2005 focused in on the Poles. The Germans really don’t like Poles, and among Germany’s 9 neighbors, are disliked the most. Poland is considered a country of car thieves by the Germans. Really, the relationship between Germany and Poland is similar to that of the United States and Mexico, and often for many of the same reasons (differences in income, history of war, different languages, etc.).Poles really shore up their hatred for their eastern & southern neighbors, primarily Russia and Ukraine, although they don’t like Czechs, Slovaks or Lithuanians either. Oddly, they don’t really mind the Germans, and probably still fear them a bit — you never, ever hear jokes about Germans in Poland. (more…)

No matter what way you slice it women all over the world go by the same equation: they like to shop, they like to talk and explode if handled without care. The e-mail I received the other day just confirms it - see for yourself:

CZ: Zeny na celem svete “funguji” podle stejnych pravidel: radi nakupuji, jsou ukecane, a kdyz se s nimi nejedna opatrne, muzou take vybouchnout. A e-mail, ktery jsem nedavno obdrzela to jen potvrzuje:

(more…)

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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In her article “The secrets of the Czech complexion” Rosie Johnson expresses her perplexion over the beauty of Czech girls’ skin during the winter times and calls them the “Sun-kissed goddesses”. I don’t mean to brag or anything but being Czech myself, I have to say I have gotten some positive comments on my skin complexion as well. Needless to say, that I have just recently discovered that there is actually a specific kind of soap for your face! I is kind of embarrassing that up till recently I have just been using water (or a regular bar of soap) to wash my face down. But my friend decided to educate me one day and made me buy one of those fancy face soaps (for about $20,000 a bottle) and the result??? (more…)

A recent poll released by the Ceske Noviny newspaper released statistical numbers which suggest that the Czechs are one of the biggest pessimists in the European Union. Over 30,000 of participants were asked two questions:

1/ Do you think your lifestyle is going to improve in the next year?

• only 22% of Czechs said “yes”
• among the lowest five nations ranked also Hungary, Portugal and surprisingly also Austria and Germany

2/ Do you think that your lifestyle is going to get worse in the next year?

• Czechs took a second place in this one; 27% of Czechs actually believe their style of living will worsen. (more…)
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A recently published study called The Facts About the Czech Health Care uncovers a disturbing statistics about the Czech lifestyle. First of all, the alcohol consumption is higher only in Hungary, France and Luxembourg. You are probably thinking, “well, a little bit of beer here and there is not going to kill anybody..”. Sure, but if you add the second sad statistics of this study, which is the fact that every fourth Czech is a habitual smoker, then situation becomes a little more serious. Maybe if the eating habits were more promising yet the study points out that “the fruit and vegetable consumption in the Czech Republic is almost the lowest in all of Europe”. The scientist go further on, predicting if this trend continues into the future by the year of 2010 every fifth Czech will end up being obese. What is the most common cause of death in the Czech Republic?

• more than 50% of deaths are caused by heart diseases
• 2nd most common death cause is cancer (more…)
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• All-you-can-eat buffets (I still can’t believe it!!)
• cheap clothing (love Target)
• People’s positive attitude
• Bridal/baby showers
• Option of going to school until you are 100 years old
• Free water and bread in restaurants
• Food to go
• Free soda refills
• Widespread use of deodorants
• Teachers at school actually build you up rather than tear you down

What do you think??