Czech Update
The latest updates from news and events for all interested in Czech language and culture.
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Czech crooners (dead and alive) on YouTube
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: July 7th, 2008
Karel Hála, a star of Czech big band pop music since the 1950s just died as reported by Lidové Noviny. Here's a cliop of him and another stallwart of Czech pop Karel Gott.
read more »
Czech president sulky over same sex unions
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 27th, 2008
For an atheist and reasonably liberal country, same-sex unions are having a tough time in the Czech Republic. Finally, a new laws gives some rights to same-sex couples but it sent the president Václav Klaus into a tizzy. The president, as always happy to bolster his typical opportunistic populism with inherent homophobia, decided to signal his opposition by not signing the bill. read more »
Czech Worldmusic via Čankišou on YouTube
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 23rd, 2008
Categories: Music
• You Tube Pick
Czech folklore music often counts as World Music but this is Czech musicians having fun with what they perceive to be the music of the world. I found out about this video via an American friend who saw it on a World Music channel. read more »
Škoda again heads list of top Czech companies
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 20th, 2008
Categories: Economy
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
With almost 10 billion Czech crowns (roughly 649 million USD), the Škoda car manufacturer heads the Czech Top 100 (worth 42 billion EUR) in size and value followed by the energy giant ČEZ and computer manufacturer Foxconn CZ. The only other tech company and the top one dealing in bits only was the former Czech Telecom. No internet companies made the top 10. read more »
Irglová: Czech singer and actress reaps fame rewards after Oscar win
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 14th, 2008
Categories: Culture
• Film
• Idioms
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Music
• National identity
• You Tube Pick
"Co Čech to muzikant" (Scratch a Czech, find a musician) goes an old Czech saying (going back to 1800s at least) that used to be known around the musical world. And now it is again! read more »
People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 8th, 2008
Sometime ago I started a theme of Czech music on YouTube but never followed up on it. Here's an extension of it: People speaking Czech on YouTube. There are lots of people speaking Czech on YouYube, sometimes the clips are funny, sometimes interesting and informative, and sometimes obscene. The first example is a run down of top 10 phrases from travellinguist.
How and where Czechs travel on holiday?
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 4th, 2008
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• Food and drink
• Habits and customs
• Holidays
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Tourism
How Czechs travel seems to be impacting on where. The most popular destination for vacationing Czechs has been and still is Croatia. However, a recent Croat ban on importing certain kinds of foods has caused almost 10% of the 900 thosand Czechs planning a trip to cancel their holiday there (in favor of Italy or some other place). Why? read more »
Amnesty finds little improvement in Roma discrimination
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: May 31st, 2008
Categories: Race and ethnic relations
Unfortunately, a new report from Amnesty International found the situation of the Roma minority as dire as in the past from unequal treatment by the police, through limited access to social services, to negative attitudes by non-Roma Czechs. read more »
Czech Healthcare Update
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: May 26th, 2008
An interesting write up of the Czech health system in the NY Times. read more »
Veselé Velikonoce - Happy Easter (2008)
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: March 22nd, 2008
Veselé Velikonoce roku 2008. You can read a bit more about Czech Easter in this post from last year or in one of the two comprehensive articles below.
The Czech Republic’s Easter traditions are colourful both in appearance and name. The journeys of Captain Oddsocks: Czech Easter traditions
Easter Monday practices, involving boys pouring water over girls and lightly whipping them with braided branches, are the most controversial of Easter traditions. Global Voices Online » Czech Republic, Slovakia: Whipping Girls and Other Easter Traditions
Record car pile up on Czech motorway
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: March 22nd, 2008
Categories: Environment
• Curiosities
The main Czech motorway (dálnice) witnessed a record car pile up when 116 cars ran into each other (reminiscent of Blues Brothers) with no fatalities. This was due to unseasonably late snow storm.
30 people injured in 116-car collision in Czech_English_Xinhua read more »
Ostrava: Former coal-mining town sees boom in IT
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: March 18th, 2008
Categories: Regional Differences
Prague has been such a dominant presence in Czech life so it's nice to see the regions pick up pace. read more »
Can you teach an old president new tricks?
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 16th, 2008
"Starého psa novým kouskům nenaučíš" goes the saying. But the freshly re-elected right-wing nationalistic populist Václav Klaus isn't particularly interested in anything new: “I will fight to retain the Czech koruna for as long as it is advantageous for Czechs,” he boasted. read more »
Czech animation reviving rich history
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 27th, 2008
Czechs have always been on the cutting edge of animation (even helping with some of the Tom and Jerry cartoons in the 1950s and 1960s) and now it seems, things are looking up again, as this short article in Variety suggests. The name from the past to take note of is Jan Švankmajer who's cited as an influence on Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. read more »
First Czech gay pride parade to take place in Brno
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 22nd, 2008
Categories: Gender relations
Another step towards greater prominence of gay rights in the Czech Republic that also highlights the latent homophobia still present in some Czech circles. read more »
Masaryk's name not for sale
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 20th, 2008
Here's an interesting example of how history can be important to the present.
To have a glass of Masaryk? In ČR not possible - Czechnews - Aktuálně.cz Czechs are so proud of their first democratic president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk that they will not let anyone use his surname as a trade mark.
read more »
PĚT "P" (Pohromadě)
Author: Aczua Posted: June 13th, 2008
Australians win award for Czech beer
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 5th, 2008
At least if the judges of the Beer World Cup are to be believed. Czechs aren't always best at making Czech style beer. But it's not just the beer. It's the Czech pub atmosphere that makes the beverage so much fun. read more »
Mašín brothers, history, present
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 2nd, 2008
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• History
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• National identity
• Politics
The International Herald Tribune offers a very good write up of a rather small event in the history of early communist rule in Czechoslovakia that has caused much controversy in more recent times. read more »
Police respond to Prague tourists's needs
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: May 31st, 2008
A new unit of Prague police will focus on the needs of tourists, particularly in crime prevention but also in helping them get around. read more »
Google Translate now does Czech, makes for a useful phrasebook
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: May 20th, 2008
Google Translate is mainly a source of merriment when funny mistranslations occur as they do on almost any text. But if it's all you have to get the gist of a page, it is (marginally better than nothing). And now, you can get Google translate for Czech (and many other related languages). read more »
Over a third of Czechs consider themselves poor
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: March 22nd, 2008
Categories: Economy
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
Although two thirds of Czechs have a problem making ends meet on their monthly earnings, only a third consider themselves poor. read more »
Czech Republic experiencing biggest Baby Boom in 25 years
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: March 20th, 2008
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• Families
• Health
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
More than 10,000 more people were born in the Czech Republic than died which is the most since 1983. The 114 thousand newly borns take the total number of inhabitants to 10 million 381 thouthsand. This upward trend has been going on for the last 5 years. read more »
Czechs no longer shrink shy
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 18th, 2008
According to new stats, the number of Czechs seeking the services of a shrink has grown by almost a third since 2000. Experts claim that one of the reasons for that is more information about psych treatments. Supposedly almost half a million Czechs ended up on the couch in 2006 including 17500 hospitalisations due to mental illness. read more »
Fables and Understories: Čapek on the Web
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 28th, 2008
Andrew Malcovsky, the self-described 'Slavicist on spec' (I wonder if this is a conscious bilingual pun for špek) found a great new way to exploit the medium of the blog. For translating Karel Čapek's famous whimsical short pieces Bajky a podpovídky (as Fables and understories). It's certainly a great services to the student of Czech culture. read more »
