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One on OneLady Luisa Abrahams - a truly remarkable life
Lady Luisa Abrahams is a truly remarkable woman. Born Luisa Raudnitzerova
in 1910 she grew up in the Prague district of Bubenec, where her father
ran a hospital. A golf champion in pre-war Czechoslovakia, Lady Luisa
stayed in the UK, where she had gone to play a tournament, when war broke
out and has been there to this day. However, she has always maintained
close contacts with her home country and has done great work raising money
for Czech charities over the years. On the eve of her 93rd birthday, I
asked Lady Luisa Abrahams what life was really like in the pre-war
Czechoslovakia, in the era commonly referred to as the First Republic.
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Current AffairsLondon community centre helping Czech Romanies in UK
In recent years thousands of Czech Romanies have left this country to seek
asylum abroad, with many of them attempting to start a new life in Great
Britain. Four years ago, Czech Romany Ladislav Balaz set up a Roma
community centre in the London suburb of Tottenham in order to help his
people communicate with the British authorities. I recently spoke to Mr
Balaz, who left for the UK after a Roma friend of his was killed in the
north Moravian town of Orlova, and began by asking him what services the
centre provided to Romanies.
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SpotlightEnjoying a Czech beer in London
The TV in the corner at the Czech and Slovak Club in the north London
suburb of West Hampstead carries a Czech TV broadcast of an Extraliga ice
hockey game. A few young men, Czechs and Slovaks, keep one eye on the
early evening hockey game, have a chat and enjoy a pint of quality Czech
beer.
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Current AffairsCzech student enjoying experience of working at UK's Houses of Parliament
London's Houses of Parliament are home to 659 MPs, 678 lords and - at the moment - one Czech student. Zuzana
Smidova is currently serving as an assistant to Labour MP Chris Pond, as
part of a Hansard study programme at the London School of Economics. When
I spoke to Zuzana on a terrace in the Houses of Parliament - just metres
away from the Thames - I asked her how she felt the first time she entered
the world's most famous parliament building.
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One on OneBejamin Kuras - broadcaster, writer, commentator, eurosceptic
My guest today is Benjamin Kuras, who himself worked at Radio Prague for a
couple of months in mid-1968. Not long afterwards Mr Kuras - who is now a
well-known author, playwright and conservative political commentator -
left Czechoslovakia for the United Kingdom, where he lives to this day.
When I spoke to Mr Kuras at his quiet north London home, he told me he was
extremely close to graduating from university when he emigrated.
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Current AffairsLondon Czech Centre uses arts to present modern image of Czech Republic
The London Czech Centre is located on the busy Great Portland Street,
around five minutes walk from Oxford Circus. To escape from the noise at
street level, I spoke to the centre's young director Tomas Zykan in the
building's basement, and asked him just what it is that the Czech Centre
does.
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Business NewsCzechInvest in London attracts British and Irish capital to the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has attracted record volumes of foreign direct
investment over the past few years. One of the reasons why the Czech
Republic has been so successful in attracting foreign investors is the
generous investment incentives and an all-inclusive assistance the Czech
government provides to investors through its agency CzechInvest whose nine
offices are scattered around the world. Ian Willoughby recently spoke to
CzechInvest's director of operations in the UK and Ireland, Rene Samek, at
his office on London's busy Harley St. Mr Samek started by outlining
CzechInvest's raison d'etre.
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Current AffairsVelehrad: a "spiritual refuge" for Czechs in London
Every day, Father Jan Lang leads a Czech mass in an upstairs room at the
Velehrad religious, cultural and social centre on London's leafy Ladbroke
Square. Velehrad has been a welcoming meeting place for young Czechs - and
Slovaks - for many years and also serves as a hostel. Father Lang is in
his 80s, and I asked him how long he'd been in London.
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