Czechmatediary

Today was a big day for the Czech Republic. Prague was chosen to be the place where the US president Barack Obama and  the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed the so-called New START treaty. The treaty is supposed to reduce the 2 countries’ nuclear weapons by about 30% more than the previous deal.

The signing of the treaty was held in the historic Spanish Hall at the Prague Castle, only one year after Obama had his important speech on nuclear disarmament in Prague.

While the relationship between the US and former Russia seems to be improving some critics say the treaty itself is kind of impractical since the biggest nuclear threats are currently Iran and Northern Korea (not Russia).
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All Czechs and Slovaks are acquainted with socialized health care from their birth country. Obama’s bill wants just that, except it is extremely divisive. Strong majority of Americans want health care reform, they want cheaper insurance policies, lower co pays and deductibles. But the majority of them do not want Obama’s reform. It will put this country billions of dollars in debt and it also happens to be unconstitutional.

What do you think?

CZ: Vsichni mame z nasi rodne zeme zkusenosti ze socialnim zravotnim pojistenim. Obama se snazi udelat neco podobneho, akorat ze jeho zakony zadluzi Ameriku nekolika desitkami bilionu dolaru a to, ze bude vlada nutit Americany, aby si poridili zdravotni pojisteni je protikonstitucni.

Co si o tom myslite vy?

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“Save little Jesus!” , the signs declare. A bunch of demonstrators, dressed up as snowmen, were expressing their opinion toward the increasing intrusion of the big-bellied Santa and his reindeer – the all-American images of Christmas. Slogans such as “We survived Grandpa Frost (=Deda Mraz; the former USSR image of Christmas), we are going to survive Santa Claus!” or “The end of big-eyed reindeer in Czech!” made me think of couple of ironies however:

• Irony 1: The Czechs are fighting off Santa Claus as an American spirit of Christmas, meanwhile the image of Santa  in America is becoming politically incorrect. Both of them are connected with the word ‘Christmas’ which has become a forbidden and offensive ‘C’ word within the last few years. So while the Czech Republic is trying to save the their image of Christmas, the Americans are fighting to save Christmas itself. (more…)

Prague is not a very ecology-friendly city. That is what came out of a recent British study which worked out the so-called Green City Index. Among the 30 participating metropolises Copenhagen (Denmark) came out as the most ecological city in Europe. Second place was won by Stockholm and third place belongs to Oslo. Prague, on the other hand, ‘won’ th 24th place (the whole list can be found below).

The cities were rated on 30 various indicators such as the energy consumption, CO2 emissions, trash handling, public transportation usage and the government’s attitude toward the environment. (more…)

With the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution the local research agency conducted a poll on Czech pride. The results are quite uplifting:

• 78% of Czechs are proud of their nationality
• 17% of Czechs are not too proud of their nationality
• 5% of Czechs are not proud of their nationality at all

(Total of 1,270 voters)

More such prideful Czechs can be found among the student population and among the elders. The least prideful Czechs are among the those people who belong to the communist party (KSCM) and among those who did not vote and do not associate themselves with any kind of political party at all.

The STEM research agency have been conducting the same poll ever since the 1990′s.

CZ: Pri prilezitosti 20ti leteho vyroci sametove revoluce se pruzkumni agentura STEM zeptala 1 270 Cechu, jestli jsou hrdi na to, ze jsou Cesi. Vysledy jsou velmi optimisticke:

• 78% dotazanych tuto hrdost pocituje
• 17% spise na sve obcanstvi hrdi nejsou
• 5% na sve obcanstvi hrdi nejsou vubec

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My dad sent me a Czech newspaper essay that falls right into our political discussion about the troubled anti-missile defense shield we have been having. The author, Vaclav Vlk, named it ‘A Total Slap In the Face’ and I found his words quite intriguing. In order to share this article with the non-Czech speakers I translated parts that resonated with me the most (I apologize I could not translate the whole thing but it is really quite long). Here it is:

CZ: Muj tata mi vcera poslal dosti zajimavy clanek na tema protiraketove radarove zakladny, o ktere jsme tu pred par dny diskutovali. Clanek pochazi z Neviditelneho psa (autorem je Vaclav Vlk) a jelikoz kazdy odstavec ma v sobe neco velmi podstatneho, nemela jsem to srdce ho ‘okrohouhat’ (tedy spise zeditovat) a je tu tedy cely, od zacatku az do konce. Jmenuje se vhodne “Facka pesti pres Celou hubu”:

A Total Slap In The Face

‘What Obama did with the anti-missile defense shield is just a softer version of the Munich Agreement where the Czechs end up being the bait for the bigger fish. Or one can compare it to 1945 (5th of May) when the Czechoslovak Socialistic Republic was left out for grabs by the Soviets. In other words, if we give Russians what they want (i.e. no anti-missile defense shield in Czech or Poland) that in turn will keep them quiet for a while. (more…)

US President Barack Obama decided to withdrew from plans to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. He is hoping that this move will encourage Russia to be tougher with sanctions against Iran. Russia has also promised that it will not build its missiles in the planned Kalingrad area. “I hope you understand the logic…if there are no radars and missiles in Czech or Poland, we don’t have to look for some kind of a payback,” said the Russian ambassador Rogozin. (more…)

The Czech elections for the Chamber of Deputies are coming up (Oct. 9) so make sure you vote if you are still pugged into the Czech political scene (and don’t mind traveling to Chicago). Remember, although we live half a globe away our vote still counts! Here is the necessary info:

CZ: Za necele 2 mesice (9. rijna) jsou volby do poslanecke snemovny parlamentu Ceske Republiky  a cesti obcane v USA mohou volit na Generalnim konzulatu CR. Zde jsou blizsi informace: (more…)

How is the Czech Republic dealing with the current economic crisis? Not so hot. Czechs seem to be saving on food a lot. The grocery stores have to stock up on salami since they are cheaper than ham or chicken and restaurants now offer cheap, simple and filling meals for the price of 55 t0 60 crowns (about $2). The restaurants in Prague decreased their profit by one third and it is expected that a fifth of Prague restaurants will be closed down. Even the fancy Prague Culinary Institute is now offering special classes where the clients learn the art of cheap cooking (c’mon, what Czech doesn’t know how to cook cheap?!).

Now that we know that the regular folk is trying to be frugal, guess who else is following their steps? The government! (more…)

“For the first time, the Slovaks are ahead of the Czechs in something- that is well worth whatever sacrifices.” says Roman Guta, a 35-year-old Slovak distributor of a dental equipment. Roman is referring to the fact that the Slovaks are now using Euros, which is something that the Czechs are afraid to do. Who is the wise one here? Thanks to the worldwide economical depression together with their fairly new usage of Euros Slovakia has become a very expensive country. Hence Slovaks are now forced to shop in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic where they take advantage of the relative streng of their newly minted currency. (more…)