2013-09-21T22:25:36+02:00 Radio Prague http://radio.cz/en/section/letter/bridges-over-troubled-water-1 urn:uuid:7abd42f5-b481-5c8f-a56f-5240b1ac2dcc 2013-09-21T22:25:36+02:00

Jostled between nation states and ideologies for the best part of two centuries, traces of an ever changing Czech identity crisis sit subtly in the foreground of the Prague we know today. Whatever rule Bohemia or Czechoslovakia was under - whether it be the Hapsburg Monarchy in the eighteenth century, National Socialism in the 1940s or Communism until 1989; the bridges over the Vltava have seen and lived through it all. A closer look at two of Pragues busiest bridges unveils a history not so distant in Prague’s past.

urn:uuid:bbd904f5-1ca2-5972-be3f-a89d64dadc27 2013-09-20T02:01:00+02:00

Jostled between nation states and ideologies for the best part of two centuries, traces of an ever changing Czech identity crisis sit subtly in the foreground of the Prague we know today. Whatever rule Bohemia or Czechoslovakia was under - whether it be the Hapsburg Monarchy in the eighteenth century, National Socialism in the 1940s or Communism until 1989; the bridges over the Vltava have seen and lived through it all. A closer look at two of Pragues busiest bridges unveils a history not so distant in Prague’s past.

urn:uuid:3cdf0b24-b3e9-50ce-886f-80d8417b841c 2013-09-07T02:01:00+02:00

Have you ever noticed that half or more road construction or renovation projects always begin in September? The first week when everyone who still has holiday time returns from their summer vacation, their kids go back to school, and every man and his dog or soccer mom or dad seems to be travelling somewhere by car? Early September, just about every major artery in the city centre - from Prague's magistrála throughway to major streets like Evropská and Milada Horáková – are jammed with traffic, routed and re-routed around landfills, tunnels, tram tracks, patches of grass, cranes, trucks, and bulldozers.

urn:uuid:8d73461d-8ff2-5784-b847-38894db1e0b3 2013-08-10T02:01:00+02:00

One time a few years back I went to record vox pops outside Prague’s Nový Smíchov shopping centre. However, a strikingly high percentage of the men and women in the street whose opinions I was attempting to elicit were not what I was looking for. They weren’t Czech but were from Ukraine or other states east of here.

urn:uuid:a6e5986f-e19a-5bdf-a84a-b4c797ab317e 2013-07-13T02:01:00+02:00

Earlier this month, literatis in this country and all over the world marked the 130th anniversary of one of the most famous Prague writers – Franz Kafka. Outside of the Czech Republic this was a chance to take another look at one of the best known writers of the 20th century, but locally the occasion brought to the fore the unresolved relationship that this country, and particularly the capital, has with the German-speaking Jewish author.

urn:uuid:f5e17134-16d3-5e0c-a1e0-267bcd84e8d6 2013-06-29T21:39:04+02:00

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is now in full swing. This year’s KVIFF is, I believe, my 11th. And one thing I’ve realised over the years is that there are so many things happening over its nine days that it’s difficult to think of the festival as some kind of unified event.

urn:uuid:d607f050-1052-5140-b6a5-f4fbd45c5b63 2013-06-15T02:01:00+02:00

As an American student travelling to a foreign country, it is easy to sound like a “wide-eyed” tourist when discussing the abundance of cultural differences that are observed. However, when it comes to the drinking culture in Prague, young Americans are like kids in a candy store.

urn:uuid:dc294337-8f15-56eb-ad42-f20114f448b9 2013-06-01T02:01:00+02:00

I’ve found myself paying increased attention to significant Czech anniversaries recently and was intrigued by one the other week: May 21st was the 132nd anniversary of the installation of the first telephone in Prague.

urn:uuid:8830a759-5b59-5aee-b9da-6ad122f5e45d 2013-05-11T02:01:00+02:00

The Czech Republic today remains Europe’s only nation which does not restrict smoking in pubs, bars, cafés and other establishments. The government is pushing to change this, with the Czech Parliament soon due to vote on a comprehensive smoking ban. But despite strong public support, the initiative may run aground over opposition against the bill among lawmakers.

urn:uuid:4b9dd44a-fcf8-5e65-85de-ea058dae6b85 2013-04-27T02:01:00+02:00

Around a decade ago I had a flat in Vinohrady, near Flora. One day, not long after I’d moved in, a couple of older residents, members of the building committee, knocked on my door to check on something. While we were talking, one of them asked brusquely how much rent I paid.

urn:uuid:eef7f720-2aac-5bb5-9b06-2725da0036eb 2013-04-13T02:01:00+02:00

A friend of my wife’s once said the good thing about the Czech Republic is that wherever you go from here, the food is always better. That’s probably no longer true, if it ever was, but Czechs have certainly had a tough time adapting the often appalling communist-era fare into a modern cuisine. But in some ways, such as in the quality of groceries, Czechs are still stuck in the past.

urn:uuid:a4c43ac9-9bc4-583c-a4d9-717c59083c18 2013-03-30T02:01:00+01:00

Prague welcomed Easter early this year, maybe even earlier than usual. The cold weather and the return of snow almost made me forget a few weeks ago that spring and the Easter holiday are around the corner. But the rows of identical house-like stalls that one morning landed on one of my favorite squares in Prague – Náměstí Míru – served as a somewhat cynical reminder.

urn:uuid:5e0a5725-cfa7-5959-9013-22aa00f568e9 2013-03-16T02:01:00+01:00

There was a story in the news lately about a new mobile phone app to help people avoid paying for public transport in Prague and some other Czech cities. Called FareBandit, it allows users to share information about the whereabouts of inspectors. The app won a local industry award, and the subject received quite of a lot of attention. But it instantly struck me as being one of those ideas that’s only “cute” for the short period it takes you to actually think about it.

urn:uuid:50d3c221-c455-5cf8-881e-18f8c7b526f3 2013-03-02T02:01:00+01:00

With a few notable exceptions, television in the Czech Republic today does not offer much original entertainment. Members of my generation, sometimes referred to as Husák’s children, can only look back with nostalgia to the 1970s and 80s when communist-controlled Czechoslovak TV produced some true gems in the history of television. But digging through the archives can quickly turn into an obsession as it indeed has in my case.

urn:uuid:0b628aee-6266-54e2-8ae1-89dea4711aaa 2013-02-16T02:01:00+01:00

My ears pricked up recently when a guest on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs selected as one of the songs he’d like to be stranded with a track by Louis Armstrong – recorded live in Prague. The LP Louis Armstrong in Prague: Lucerna 1965 was extremely familiar from the racks of the city’s secondhand shops. But I had never picked up a copy.

urn:uuid:9a32c85a-9641-5a58-abd9-8326e5c99627 2013-02-02T02:01:00+01:00

The first ever direct presidential election brought renewed focus on a trauma that continues to haunt Czech society even sixty years after it occurred. The forced deportations of some three million Germans from Czechoslovakia after the end of WWII still divide Czech society, as does the historical role of Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš, who sanctioned the move.

urn:uuid:ea04d38d-d390-5c12-ba41-ba0fc3f58c56 2013-01-19T02:01:00+01:00

Before I actually moved to Prague some seven years ago, it was very much a strange city to me as I only briefly visited here a few times over many years. Since my arrival, I have come to know and like many aspects of life in the capital. But my perspective has again changed radically since my wife and I became proud parents of our twin boys just about a year ago.

urn:uuid:16008ed4-7fb7-5cd4-9523-8f7afad8b8ef 2013-01-05T02:01:00+01:00

Sometimes I walk out in front of moving cars. But not very often, and only at zebra crossings. That’s because, sadly, stepping onto the road – naturally allowing oneself space and time to jump back should the driver be a psycho, not just a jerk – is often the only way of asserting one’s rights as a pedestrian in this city.

urn:uuid:7142d167-7888-5ed4-b0ab-acaae3cee85e 2011-01-30T02:01:00+01:00

In the weekly Letter from Prague, our reporters have been sharing their views on issues of the day. But now, a day before Radio Prague shuts down its shortwave broadcasts, here comes the final edition of our regular rant about all things Czech.

urn:uuid:2441568b-ce44-56ac-8d12-9c4841d77824 2011-01-23T02:01:00+01:00

English speaking foreigners to the Czech Republic who are interested in the language are often befuddled or even annoyed by the feature of formal and informal speech in Czech grammar, called vykání and tykání - that is, the formal, plural “you” and the informal, singular “you”. Nowhere is that characteristic more frowned upon than in multinational companies, where new employees, called “formal you” at the job interview, are renamed “demotic you” on their first day of work, and told to address everyone else accordingly.