Section Archive Special
Laureates of Gratias Agit award on the significance of their Czech heritage
Every year in October the Czech Republic honours those who have contributed
significantly to promoting the country’s good name abroad. This year,
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg bestowed the annual Gratias Agit
awards on thirteen personalities from around the world to thank them for
their work. On occasion of the country’s national holiday we bring you
the thoughts and experiences of three Czechs who live abroad, but who never
severed ties with their homeland and are proud of their Czech roots and
national heritage. More
Using classical music to help children out of poverty
In this special programme, David Vaughan looks at a unique project to
encourage children with musical talent who come from some of the poorest
families in the Czech Republic. The project enables primary school children
to learn to play with some of the country’s foremost classical musicians.
Its success is a reminder of the power of music to cross boundaries of
language, class and culture. More
A tale of two brothers, and the building of a nation
For the occasion of September 28, I’m here at a place that some people
actually call the real centre of the Czech Republic. Not the geographic
centre to be sure, but certainly the focal point for much of the Czech
Republic’s rocky modern-day history. It’s a statue of a man on a horse
(which people call ‘the horse’ when they arrange one of the hundreds of
meetings that take place here each day). But it’s of course the man on
the horse that has overseen everything over the last hundred years from the
declaration of Czechoslovak independence to the various political
demonstrations that gravitate here today. Above me is of course Saint
Václav, or Wenceslas, from which the surrounding square takes its name,
and his likeness has adorned this place for at least three hundred years,
in different incarnations. Legend has it that when worse comes to worst for
the Czech lands he will come un-petrified, and ride away to quash their
enemies – a disconcerting prophesy when one considers the parades of
Nazis and Communists that the statue saw come and go. But even in that,
there is a good point to be made: this symbol of Czech statehood is
indomitable; the legacy of St. Václav rides on through the ages, now for
about the 1,076th year. More
Ethnic tensions rack north Bohemian town of Varnsdorf
The Czech Republic is experiencing something unseen in its modern history.
After two decades of neglecting the problems of the country’s Romany
minority, ethnic and social tensions erupted last month in a remote
northern Bohemian district of Šluknov where thousands of people take to
the streets every weekend to protest against the Romanies and their
lifestyle. More
US Ambassador to Prague Norman Eisen discusses 9/11 & the War on Terror
Ahead of the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11 on Sunday, Czech Radio’s
Martina Mašková interviewed the US Ambassador to Prague Norman Eisen. In
the interview the ambassador is asked about Czech cooperation in the War on
Terror, CIA renditions at Czech airports, and al Qaeda. Mr Eisen begins
first though by discussing the attacks on that fateful September day,
including where he was when the first plane hit. More
Radio Prague marks 75 years on air
Set up in 1936 primarily as a tool to counter propaganda from Nazi Germany
and the Soviet Union, Radio Prague itself long served as a mouthpiece for
communist propaganda. Since the 1990s however, the station is the only
Czech public news service, providing information about the Czech Republic
in six languages to audiences around the world. Marking Radio Prague’s
75th anniversary, the Czech-born, UK-based writer, and former Radio Prague
reporter Benjamin Kuras and Radio Prague’s own David Vaughan discuss the
most interesting moments in the station’s history. More
Pavel Bobek – Part 2
For a lot of Czechs, Pavel Bobek is THE voice of country pop, thanks to his
hugely popular Czech-language versions of hits by U.S. singers like John
Denver and Kris Kristofferson. He is also a trained architect, and was a
close friend of Jan Kaplický, who died in 2009 after a long and fruitless
struggle to have one of his plans realised in Prague. In this, the second
part of a two-part interview, Pavel Bobek speaks about Kaplický and
aspects of his own career. But first he discusses his love of Johnny Cash,
whose songs he recorded on his most recent LP. More
Pavel Bobek – Part 1
Pavel Bobek is one of the greats of Czech popular music, best known for his
Czech versions of songs by American artists like Kris Kristofferson, Bob
Dylan, and his long-time hero Johnny Cash. A trained architect, he started
out in the Czechoslovak bigbít (rock’n’roll) scene of the late 1950s
and early 1960s, singing with an early version of the band Olympic before
becoming a member of the Semafor theatre, one of the country’s most
vibrant cultural institutions in the Communist era. More
US ambassador Norman Eisen looks back at his first five months in Prague
Czech-American relations are going “from good to great”, according to
the US ambassador to Prague Norman L. Eisen who will soon complete his
first five months in the Czech Republic. Mr Eisen has been working to shift
the focus from missile defence, a top priority during the era of President
George W. Bush, towards cooperation in nuclear energy, commerce and the
fight against corruption. In an interview for Radio Prague, Ambassador
Eisen looks back at some of the developments of the past five months. More
Unique WWII recordings found in an attic
Every year in May, ceremonies take place on town and village squares across
the Czech Republic to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II.
Since the fall of communism, a particular effort has been made to remember
the Czechs and Slovaks who fought in the British armed forces, whose role
was long neglected by the communist regime. Recently rediscovered
recordings offer a unique and highly atmospheric insight into the life of
the Czechoslovak RAF pilots. David Vaughan has more. More
+1
+10
