Czech Update
The latest updates from news and events for all interested in Czech language and culture.
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How have Czech values changed?
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: September 13th, 2007
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• Culture
• Education
• Families
• Gender relations
• Habits and customs
• Health
• National identity
• Race and ethnic relations
• Religion
• Science and scholarship
If you're wondering about what Czech views on this or that are, you could do worse than going to the excellent World Values Survey and use their read more »
Czech population highest in 10 years, foreigners help
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: June 21st, 2007
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
• Race and ethnic relations
Čechů je nejvíce za posledních deset let - www.lidovky.cz
Česko mělo na konci letošního prvního čtvrtletí nejvíc obyvatel za posledních deset let. V zemi žilo 10,306.700 lidí. Za první čtvrtletí se jejich počet zvedl o 19.500, a to hlavně díky příchodu cizinců.
The commonly bemoaned decrease in population growth has been, at least termporarily, halted. There seem to more newly-borns than the sadly-departed and the minor influx of foreigners is also a positive factor. read more »
Still debating Romany holocaust
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 24th, 2007
Categories: History
• Race and ethnic relations
Committee wants Czech govt to work for Lety pig farm's removal
Prague- The Czech committee for compensation of the Romany Holocaust victims today gave CTK a copy of an open letter it has sent to the government asking it to take steps to remove the pig farm in Lety, south Bohemia, that stands on the site of a World War Two camp in which Romanies were gathered.
The extermination attempts of the Roma in the Czech protectorate by the Nazis is one of the underreported features of WWII. One of the reasons given for that is that the Roma concentration camp near Pilsen was mostly staffed by Czechs. read more »
Czechs most like Slovaks, least Romanies
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 9th, 2007
Categories: Culture
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
• Race and ethnic relations
Czechs most like Slovaks, least Romanies-poll - Prague Daily Monitor
Prague, Jan 8 (CTK) - Czechs consider themselves the most likeable of all ethnic groups living in the Czech Republic, according to a poll by the CVVM centre carried out last December and released today.Out of foreigners, Czech most like Slovaks and they also like Poles and Germans very much, while they harbour the least sympathy to Romanies and people from the Balkan countries are not very popular among Czechs, according to the poll. read more »
Czech Romanies face discrimination at work, school
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: December 22nd, 2006
Czech Romanies face discrimination at work, school -- report
According to the report by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), there is both latent and open discrimination in the Czech Republic and it is most often Romanies who are its victims. But the report says that racism is not dramatic in the country.
...
The Raxen report states that Romanies are discriminated against on the labour market mainly not because of their ethnicity, but because employers in general believe that they do not work well and do not attend work regularly. read more »
Czech Jewish community experiences rebirth after fall of communism
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 27th, 2006
Czech Jewish community experiences rebirth after fall of communism - 27-01-2006 - Radio Prague
The Czech Republic marks Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, January 27th, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. Some 80,000 Bohemian and Moravian Jews perished in the Holocaust, and before the community could even start recovering from the war, the communist regime practically froze its activities. It was not until the fall of communism in 1989 that the Czech Jewish community could start to rebuild. read more »
Unfortunate end to recruitment of the Roma to Czech police force
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 14th, 2007
Categories: Education
• Race and ethnic relations
Romano Vodi - Romany applicants fail to meet Czech police criteria-press - News
None of 7 Romanies who applied for jobs in the municipal police of the town of Most has met the required criteria and the police will therefore not have any Romanies in its ranks, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes writes in its north Bohemian edition today.The Romany candidates who would have been sent for a six-month re-qualification course funded from European Union funds if admitted, did not even pass through the initial introductory interview, the paper says. read more »
European Jews satisfied with situation of Czech Jewish community
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 11th, 2007
European Jews satisfied with situation of Czech Jewish community - Prague Daily Monitor Prague, Jan 10 (CTK) - The president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) Pierre Besnainou is satisfied with the situation of the local Jewish community and attitudes of other citizens, especially politicians, towards it, he said during a meeting with Czech President Vaclav Klaus today, Tomas Kraus told CTK.
After mostly negative stories o read more »
Czech nationalism and the president
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: December 29th, 2006
Klaus fears Schwarzenberg would not defend Czech interests -press
The foreign minister must "defend the interests of the Czech Republic clearly, sharply and out of his own conviction," Klaus writes.He says that Schwarzenberg is linked with the Czech Republic only by a smaller part of his life and property, and that he has come in contact with the normal life of Czech people only marginally.
This is a good example of some of the national prejudices that the president is exploiting here (no different, though, from the recent concerns in the US about Senators swearing on the Quoran). read more »
Czech racist joke at election rally
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 2nd, 2006
United Press International - NewsTrack - Czech racist joke at election rally
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek is trying to downplay a racist joke made by a comedian at a campaign stop ahead of June elections.The joke targeted the country's minority Gypsy population, whom polls show are commonly stereotyped by Czechs.
The BBC reports television comedian Jiří Krampol has been touring with Paroubek and called Gypsies thieves.
Paroubek allegedly smiled at the jokes. read more »
Czech traditions and German influence
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: December 16th, 2005
Categories: Culture
• Habits and customs
• History
• Holidays
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Language
• Myths and tales
• National identity
• Race and ethnic relations
• Regional Differences
The Prague Post Online
Experts agree that proper Olomouc cheese, or Olomoucké tvarůžky, should be moist and slightly sticky, with a lustrous, translucent layer on the outside. The inside, by contrast, should be firm but not tough, its color somewhere between light beige and creamy white. And then there is the characteristic smell.
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But is it authentically Czech? On that point hangs a debate stirring up the EP [European Parliament]. Tvarůžky and another of the country's favorite products — thin, sweet wafers from Karlovy Vary known as oplatky — are at the center of an argument between Czech, German and Austrian members of the EP. read more »
