Discrimination and political incorrectness used to be huge in the Czech Republic. I have not lived there for a while so I don’t know the situation from the first hand but from what I have heard from my Czech friends (and family) who still live there the situation has gotten much better; not great, but better. This means that it is still fairly normal if a construction worker whistles at you as you are passing by. The Czech Daily Word points out yet another way of discriminating, this time in the city of Brno (read the whole article here).
CZ: Discriminace a ‘political correctness’ (ted si nemuzu vzpomenout na ten spravny cesky vyraz) byla v Cechach velmi bezna. Jelikoz tam jiz delsi dobu neziji, nevim presne, jak tam tyto dva neduhy ruku v ruce valci, ale co jsem slysela od kamaradu/rodniny, kteri v Cechach ziji, situace se mnohem zlepsila…neni to tak ‘ruzove’ jako napriklad ve Spojenych statech, ale je to lepsi. To znamena, ze je stale celkem v norme, kdyz jdete po chodniku a jeden z delniku na vas zapiska. Czech Daily Word se pozamysli nad dalsim zpusobem diskriminace, tentokrat v Brne (kliknete zde).
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Tanja, mila pani Tanjo,
I enjoy your blog daily, and so, allow me a comment.
This whistling by ruffians at a passing wench is not at all specific to the Czech rednecks. After all, you have even chosen for your pictorial illustration an English-language cartoon by an artist with non-Czech name… He surely is commenting on construction sites somewhere other than in Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia?
The silly behavior was common when I spelled behaviour the British way, admittedly a few years back.
Further: Don’t we recall a certain US commercial where the workers are behaving in this childish manner also?
And from another perspective, political correctness, if you pardon this perspective, is often silly by and of itself. I would have suggested a reference to civilized behavior as opposed to PC (political correctness)… but that’s just me, as the turn of the speech goes…
Depending on the nation, with regard to the whistling “habit” and numerous other things that really are not about PC, some folk sayings might even dismiss or make light of this with “boys will be boys”! (Again, not a Czech wisdom!) Holt, testosterone s nima hazi, let’s face it, and they do not believe in controlling their hormones and consequent animal-like instincts and behaviors – happens everywhere!
Greetings from sunny Colorado, kde nam v posledni dobe taky nejak moc prsej, taky asi nevedi, ze to tady neni politically correct! Tady minim si predstavme smajlik, jak se rika v Cechach…
Hi Vaclav,
I completely agree with you – political correctness is VERY often silly of itself. And I also agree with the fact that the whistling behavior can be seen all over the world. However, it is more common in some countries (like Czech) than others (like the US). That’s all. I have never had it happen here in the US but still see it around the streets of Prague.
PS: Haha, to jsem nevedela, ze dest je taky jiz ‘politically incorrect’!!! 😉
I am sorry but I am not going to talk to man about buying the perfect swimsuit, bra, or anything personal like that if he is a prodavac.
that’s why the political correctness/discrimination issues are very dumb at times..