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One on OneMichael Hugo Rosak - organiser, and beneficiary, of student exchange programme
At only 25, Michael Hugo Rosak may seem rather young to run the Czech
branch of an international NGO. But Michael is well-qualified to head the
Prague office of AFS, having himself taken part in its international
student exchange programme while still at school. AFS stands for American
Field Service, and was started during the First World War by Americans who
preferred to provide back-up services rather than fight; their experiences
in Europe convinced them of the value of spending time abroad. But when did
AFS first come to this country? That was my opening question to Michael
Hugo Rosak, in this edition of One on One.
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Current AffairsJan Palach's suicide remembered 38 years on
Tuesday marks the 38th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach,
the young student whose suicide transformed him into a symbol of
Czechoslovak resistance following the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Jan Palach
would have turned 59 this year he not taken his own life. His legacy,
however, lives on.
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SpecialThe importance of UNESCO: a last interview with Jaroslava Moserova
Jaroslava Moserova, who died from cancer on 24th March at 76, was one of
the most widely respected Czech public figures. Following the fall of
communism, she became well known for her work as a diplomat and then as a
prominent Czech politician. With her perfect English, learned as a
teenager in the United States just after the Second World War, she was
often interviewed by Radio Prague. One little known aspect of her work in
recent years was in UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, where she was appointed president of the General
Conference in 1999. She was convinced of the useful role that UNESCO could
play in the post-Cold War world, especially in education, and just two
weeks before she died she talked to David Vaughan about her work for the
organization.
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Letter from PragueRadio Prague remembers a good friend
Radio Prague has lost a good friend. A renaissance woman with hugely
diverse talents, Jaroslava Moserova was not just a doctor - one of the
country's top burns specialists - but also a highly respected literary
translator and writer, and an accomplished diplomat and politician. Since
the fall of communism she had been ambassador to Australia, a prominent
member of the Czech Senate and president of the UNESCO General Conference.
Her translations of English literature, most famously the novels of Dick
Francis, are highly acclaimed. Last week she lost her battle against
cancer.
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Current AffairsJaroslava Moserova - politician, doctor, writer and translator - dies aged 76
The veteran politician, doctor and literary translator Jaroslava Moserova
passed away in the early hours of Friday morning after a long illness. She
was 76. Jaroslava Moserova was best known in recent years as a senator, but
she also served as an ambassador to Australia, and was also a leading burns
specialist - she was the first doctor to treat Jan Palach, the Czech
student who set himself alight on Wenceslas Square. Rob Cameron has this
look back on a life lived very much to the full.
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SpecialMemories of Jan Palach
It was just at this time of year, 37 years ago, that an unknown 20-year-old
Czech student overnight became a focus and symbol of the nation. His name
was Jan Palach, and at the top of Prague's Wenceslas Square, just below
the National Museum, you can find a small memorial to him. On 16th January
1969, Jan Palach dowsed himself in petrol and set himself alight on the
square. It was a desperate attempt to reverse the gradual process of
demoralization that set in when Soviet-led troops crushed the reforms of
the Prague Spring, five months earlier. Three days later Jan Palach died
in a Prague burns clinic; tens of thousands attended his funeral and his
name became a symbol around the world of the Czechoslovak tragedy.
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Current AffairsThe tree of knowledge: a tribute to Otto Wichterle /1913 -1998/
Millions of people around the world could not imagine their life without
modern contact lenses. But few of them know that the man who invented them
was professor Otto Wichterle, an outstanding Czech chemist who had many
notable achievements to his name, and died in 1998. This week academics
and scientists from around the Czech Republic gathered outside the Prague
Institute of Macro-Molecular Chemistry for the unveiling of a monument to
one of the great minds of the last century.
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Czech BooksJaroslava Moserova: from Dick Francis to Wollongong
Jaroslava Moserova's biography is quite extraordinary. She is one of those
people who manage to have three or four careers at once. On the one hand
she is a leading Czech burns specialist. She is also one of the country's
bestknown literary translators, and a writer in her own right. Many know
her
as a diplomat, or as a member of the Czech Senate, and at one point she
was a
serious candidate for the Czech Presidency. So she is known both at home
and abroad in many different capacities. In this edition of Czech Books
she talks to
David Vaughan. More
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