Czech Update

Veselé Velikonoce - Happy Easter (2008)

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:07:23 +0000

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

Over a third of Czechs consider themselves poor

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:02:28 +0000

Although two thirds of Czechs have a problem making ends meet on their monthly earnings, only a third consider themselves poor. read more »

Record car pile up on Czech motorway

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:57:03 +0000

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 »

Czech Republic experiencing biggest Baby Boom in 25 years

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:10:10 +0000

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 »

Ostrava: Former coal-mining town sees boom in IT

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:32:14 +0000

Prague has been such a dominant presence in Czech life so it's nice to see the regions pick up pace. read more »

Czechs no longer shrink shy

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:41:51 +0000

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 »

Can you teach an old president new tricks?

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:56:21 +0000

"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 »

Fables and Understories: Čapek on the Web

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:46:17 +0000

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 »

Czechs under stress

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:28:13 +0000

Turns out Czechs are just as susceptible to stress at work as people in other industrialized nations. What a surprise! read more »

Czech real estate more popular with foreigners

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:40:18 +0000

More and more properties are being snapped up by foreigners residing in the Czech Republic. What exactly that means for the economy and culture is not clear yet. More readers for this blog perhaps.

More foreigners now keen on buying Czech real estate - Czechnews - Aktuálně.cz read more »

Translating Prime Minister's profanity

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:28:22 +0000

Now, the prime minister Topolánek is getting sued for saying this: "Češi obvykle ale vidí všechno negativně a když k něčemu dojde, podělají se". read more »

Karel Gott, the never-aging pop star, marries in Las Vegas

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:08:39 +0000

He's been a fixture on the Czech, German and general East European music scene since at least he mid-1960s. Started off with Rock'n'Roll and descended into broad pop in the 70s. Sold millions and millions of records and is the subject of adoration and derision in equal measure. Most Czechs and their parents have grown up listening to him and watching him win music contests. read more »

New resource for Czech exile literature online

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:08:47 +0000

A complete text (all in Czech) of a book survey of Czech exile literature between 1971 and 1989 was made available by the author on the University of Glasgow's Slavonic Studies Department website. read more »

Czech film boom predicted for 2008

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:49:06 +0000

Perhaps not the "new" Czech New Wave but certainly a hopeful sign for the Czech film industry.

Czech film boom - Prague Daily Monitor read more »

Half of Czechs are proud to be Czechs

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:45:26 +0000

One of those glass half-full half-empty surveys.

Proud to be Czech, but leave the politics aside - Czechnews - Aktuálně.cz read more »

Czechs end 2007 with EU freedom of movement

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:38:48 +0000

Finally, Czechs can leave their passports or IDs at home when travelling to any of their neighbouring countries. The Schengen zone has embraced a bunch of new countries including all those that share a border with Czech Republic. read more »

Šťastný Nový rok 2008 na Bohemica.com

admin — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:22:34 +0000

Bohemica.com a Dominik Lukeš vám spolu přejí Veselý nový rok 2008. PFko najdete na DominikLukes.net/2008. read more »

Czech inventor of the 'drunk tank' dies aged 91

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:07:26 +0000

Záchytka is a wonderful Czech word that stands for the institution for the collection of drunken (and possibly disorderly) individual wondering city streets occasionally referred to in English as 'drunk tank' or ' read more »

Czech taxes 113th in the world

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:15:01 +0000

In a strange imaginary league table of worldwide taxation, Czech Republic came in the 113th place. That is not good! read more »

Velvet Revolution in video (YouTube weekly)

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:01:27 +0000

YouTube is a great source of video to illustrate historical events and the Velvet Revolution is no exception. Here are a few clips.

Montage of moments from the days of and after 17 November: read more »

Talking about the Velvet Revolution

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:55:26 +0000

Listen to what it was like to be a Velvet Revolutionary in this discussion between Bohemica's Dominik Lukeš and Eamonn Burgess on Future Radio 96.9FM. This discussion was part of the Community Chest programme guest-hosted by Dominik on 16 November 2007.

read more »

Play Czech geography game on Facebook and win PDF of Czech grammar

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:43:31 +0000

read more »

18 years since Velvet Revolution on 17 November

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:57:39 +0000

For the 18th time since 1989, Czechs are celebrating the end of "communism" and the beginning of "democracy". The country has seen many changes since that time but many feel nostalgia for the 'bad' old times and the communist party still has 15% representation in parliament. But the chances of going back to what it was are very small. read more »

Příkopy - Prague street in Top 20 most expensive in the world

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:20:39 +0000

The Prague street that joins into the bottom of Wenceslas square came 20th in the world ranking of the most expensive streets in the world (down from 18th a year ago). Rents there reach 2000 EUR per square meter a year. Paradoxically, the Czech name translates literally as "on the ditches". read more »

Czechs bought 350 000 bicycles in 2006 for Sport not Commute

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:43:00 +0000

Lots of cycling stories in the Czech press this last week. Czechs seem to be buying lots of cycles but don't like to think of them as a commuting device but rather one for getting some exercise in. Prague is becoming a bit more cycle-commute friendly but it's still more the exception than the rule. read more »