Topic Archive Society
Mailbox
Today in Mailbox: Response to former Prime Minister’s new political
party, your answers to last month’s mystery Czech quiz question.
Listeners quoted: Lynda-Marie Hauptmann, Peter Komrska, Chun-quan Meng,
Jayanta Chakrabarty, Bibi N-Shah, Barbara M. Ziemba, Ian Morrison, Colin
Law, Charles Konecny, David Eldridge. More
Disenchanted Czechs say country not going in the right direction
The results of an October survey carried out by the STEM polling agency
indicate people’s growing pessimism regarding the future. Half of those
polled said the country was not going in the right direction and worried
about what the coming year would bring. Radio Prague asked the agency’s
director Jan Hartl what was behind the growing public dissatisfaction with
the present state of affairs. More
Panorama
In this week’s Panorama: how walled-in windows can be a big attraction,
the Vltava river gets a symbolic lighthouse and, the nation’s fierce
one-eyed commander is back on his horse on Vítkov Hill - facing a new
enemy. More
Stories of Injustice film project tries to shed light on grey “normalization” period
The 2006 film “Swingtime” inspired by a communist-era secret police
operation as well as four documentaries will be screened in November at
primary and secondary schools around the country as part of a month-long
project called Stories of Injustice. Now in its seventh year the project
organized by the NGO People in Need covers a period often neglected in the
curriculum. Through film and subsequent discussions with survivors,
witnesses and victims of communist injustice, students are learning about
post-war Czechoslovak history – this year with a special focus on the
period of normalization and the subjects of emigration and exile. Radio
Prague talked to the project’s spokesman Filip Šebek. More
A day at the races in Velká Chuchle
“What’s a ‘chuchle’” was my first question, a reasonable question
I think, when I first learned I would be going to see a ‘big’ one, many
years ago. In the end it seems, the name of the premier Czech horse racing
flat-track, Velká Chuchle, doesn’t have any literal meaning, but it is a
synonym for a lovely Sunday afternoon.
More
Crossing the great divide on All Souls Day
The Czech Republic may be one of the most secular nations in Europe but All
Souls Day - the day of remembrance for the departed – is a sacred family
tradition handed down from generation to generation. As the holiday
approaches the country’s cemeteries –well-tended throughout the year
– are ablaze with candles and flowers as Czechs pay their respects to the
dead. More
President awards highest state honours
As is customary on the Day of Czechoslovak Independence, the Czech
president awarded the highest honours of the land last week to doctors and
scientists, soldiers and artists, political prisoners and everyday heroes.
Many received the orders of the Czech Republic after tremendous travails,
one after giving his own life. More
Paul Day – owner of Prague’s newly opened and much praised Asian fusion restaurant Sansho
Paul Day was born and raised in Stafford, in the UK’s West Midlands,
where he started working as a butcher, his first food industry job. After
working in two Michelin-starred restaurants in London, the chef came to
Prague and has recently opened a restaurant of his own, Sansho. In its
first weeks of being open, the Asian fusion restaurant quickly became the
one place everyone was talking about – and now, Sansho is fully booked
most days – even at lunch. I met the chef at the restaurant, where he
told me about the flavors that fascinate him, how Prague’s dining scene
differs from London’s, and what first sparked his interest in food and
cooking. More
Panorama
In Panorama this week: mistletoe is associated with Christmas good cheer
–in the Czech lands it is believed to bring good health, good luck and
prosperity –but what happens when it turns into a killer? A Czech
hospital discovers the magical properties of Kiwanis dolls in treating
children and, the country’s new hero Super Václav is unmasked. More
Is the Czech baby boom over and did it ever happen?
In recent years the media, including Radio Prague, repeatedly reported
about the Czech Republic experiencing a baby boom. It seemed obvious:
statisticians reported increasing birth figures, maternity hospitals were
bursting at the seams and mothers had to register months ahead of their
delivery to secure a place. So is the baby boom now over and in fact –
did it ever happen? More
+1
+10
+100
