Czech Update

Ex-premier has some apologizing to God to do, says church

Erik Piper — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:38:21 +0100

The divorces and planned re-marriages (to their respective mistresses) of premier Mirek Topolánek and ex-premier Jiří Paroubek have been in and out of the news for quite a few months now; below is one report among many from Paroubek's saga. Overall the Czechs' attitude towards the sex lives of their politicians is quite "European," that is, much more forgiving than the Americans'. There is the occasional columnist who thinks otherwise, though. I'm undecided, myself.
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How have Czech values changed?

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:55:17 +0100

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 »

The Masopust season: Pork killing and eating time

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:30:39 +0000

MF DNES Praha - Pravé zabijačkové hody, ale hlavně karnevalové masky a spousta zábavy. Tak vypadal čtvrtý ročník Karlínského masopustu, který odstartoval v sobotu v jednu hodinu po poledni.

The time of Masopust, or the pre-lent carnival, (literally, the meat fast, a translation of the carni-val) has come upon us which means a lot of pig slaughtering festivities (zabijačky [lit. killing times]). Of course, the atheist Czechs will go on eating meat all the way through Lent. The Czech Wikipedia lists some of the foods you might take away (výslužka) from a killing time: read more »

Sex scandal and gender equality for Czech third church

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:58:16 +0000

Czech Hussites rocked by sexual scandal - press "New patriarch Tomas Butta, Bishop Stepan Klasek, Petr Sandera and I have asked Bican to consider his resignation," Bishop Jana Šilerová from Olomouc, North Moravia, told the paper. ... MfD writes that the Hussite church is the third most populous church in the Czech Republic and now it is celebrating 87 years since its establishment.

What can we learn form this story? Gay priests having affairs? Nothing new or surprising here. However, a female bishop? Certainly a point of interest. The Czechoslovak Hussite Church not only allows women priests, they number almost half of the total 300 clergy. It should also be noted that the most populous church by far is the Catholic from which the Hussites split during the early years of the Czech Republic over ordination of women and other issues. The Hussites are not really a protestant denomination of the Lutheran tradition (they're closer to Anglicans) and having Jan Hus in their title is more a matter of national pride than ideology. They're one of the more tolerant churches out there but they were also one of the more willing to do the communist regime's bidding (although that has to be taken in the context of its time). read more »

Prague's story: Center of learning as well as backwater

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:58:51 +0000

In May 1911, after arriving in Prague to take up his appointment to the physics department of the German University, Albert Einstein wrote to his friend Michele Besso: "Incidentally, the city of Prague is wonderful, so beautiful, that it alone would be worth a journey." (Einstein and Besso 1972: 20). from Toman, J. (1995). The magic of a common language: Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy, and the Prague Linguistic Circle. Cambridge, Mass; London: The MIT Press.

I came across this quote recently in a book by a Czech linguist on the Prague Linguistic Circle which celebrated its 80th anniversary this year. It should also be added that Einstein who only spent three semesters teaching at the university, found it to be an "intellectual desert without conviction". This certainly wasn't the case 15 years later when Prague became one of the centers of world linguistics known today as the Prague school. read more »

Czech Jewish community experiences rebirth after fall of communism

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 21:51:17 +0000

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.