Prague Dispatch

2003-02-10T02:07:00.000-08:00

BBC: Czech president bows out quietly. Plus a few more articles and commentaries reviewing Havel's presidency and legacy. Vaclav Havel: A Farewell to Politics Timothy Garton Ash: The King of Bohemia

2002-08-17T02:57:00.001-07:00

Matt, Amy, Ben and Henry resided in Prague in the early 1990s. They are now blogging about their rememberances of the days back then. Special thanks to Michael Kelly for taking note of that.

2002-08-17T02:57:00.000-07:00

Matt Welch blogs about the flood in Prague.

2002-08-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

The Economist: Benes Decrees -- Spectre Over Central Europe. The past is still relevant to the present. The wrongdoings of a few often have impact on many of their innocents fellow country-men.

2002-07-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule.

2002-04-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

Here is another review on the Museum of Communism in Prague from this week's Prague Post. The author comments that "the museum's lack of experiential media and human perspective." "Such an institution has a duty to record the voices and stories of the people who lived in or fled communist Czechoslovakia. It isn't difficult. Every person in this country over the age of 20 has a story to tell."

2002-03-21T01:34:00.000-08:00

Folks doing charity work for the Romas are encouraged to check this out: Interactive language toy for Roma pre-school children

2002-03-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

The Guardian has review on the Museum of Communism which was just opened this year in Prague.

2002-02-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Max Svabinsky's Paradise and Myth is probably one of the very few good art exhibitions I have seen in town. The show will last until March 31. Definitely not to be missed!

2002-02-04T04:55:00.000-08:00

Wang Dan was in town last week.

2002-01-28T04:59:00.000-08:00

Had a nice excursion to Karlovy Vary over the weekend, seeing wonderful architecture, tasting mineral water from the hot spring. The visit to Jan Becher Museum was probably the most interesting. I got to learn more about this Czech health / alcholic drink called Becherovka which is now owned by the French.

2002-01-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Two interesting links today: Czech Donor Forum has a few good articles on the shape of Czech foundations and the NGO sector. Western Aid to Eastern Europe - how successful is western aid? It's time to re-think this question again...

2002-01-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

Well, went through another long list of funders this morning. And so a few other interesting entries. But then, at the end of the day, did I find any page useful? Good question. *** This is the fine print. Do NOT sumbit proposals for funding to any of these organizations until you have ascertained from them that it is appropriate to do so; you will save yourselves much time and effort.

2002-01-15T04:17:00.000-08:00

A few pages that I was looking at this morning: European Union - PHARE and in particular its small projects program. Delegation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic Goodwill Foundation - our society really needs more charity like this one! Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Civil Society Program for Central / Eastern Europe and Russia Democracy Assistance and NGO Strategies in

2002-01-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

Mur Mur "Would you like a tutelage in personality formation?" "Yes, please." "Make me then kindly free of a couple dozen of your characters." "My characters?" "You watched your so-called personality fragment into them. I cannot play without these characters." --Hermann Hesse, STEPPEN WOLF Well, these are the only words I got out from the mime performanance, Mur Mur, which I watched last

2002-01-10T04:25:00.000-08:00

Walking down Narodni last night, I saw an interesting window display of furnitures by Azumi, a Japanese design group based in Britain.

2001-12-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

Notes on Questioning Heaven in Despair which I am sharing with Petr who also happened to be there along with his son and two other Taiwanese friends at the performance this past Friday night. I was very surprised that here in Prague, very far away from China, we have such a fine expert in Chinese opera, who is, I assumed, working hard to make Chinese opera more accessible, to both western and

2001-12-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

Questioning Heaven in Despair by Ales Rolecek, ondrej Hrab and Jana Svobodva. Divadlo Archa at 8 pm "Baroque theater and Chinese opera come together in this performance featuring Feng Jun Song from the Peking Opera" Saw this event in this week's Prague Post. The photos from the performance alone look impressive. I am sure this would be an interesting local production that is worth

2001-12-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

At the Hungarian Cultural Center last night was a Christmas concert featuring Hungarian folk music group, the Kalaka Ensemble. With members in their 40s and 50s, the Kalaka Ensemble, which was formed in the 1970s, has been playing folk music unrelentlessly from the rather restrictive communist years to the present relatively liberal time in the new post-communist era. While in the past Kalaka

2001-12-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

Talk about Prague being the center of Europe where different cultures meet. Here we have the Institute of France, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Austrian Rakouske Kulturni Forum, the Hungarian Cultural Center, the Slovak Cultural Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute. Not to mention various foreign embassies that organize other cultural events on a regular basis.

2001-12-10T03:26:00.000-08:00

"Political activity or inactivity is a question of conscience...We are the state, each of us is therefore responsible for its condition and future. If we tolerate a defective system, it is because we have not yet created anything better; bad people will make bad decisions only until such time as better people have acquired the courage, strength and ability to replace them. A new political

2001-12-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

St. Nicholas Day! It is St. Nicholas Day today and last night was more like Halloween. There were people dressed in devils and angels on the street, giving out candies to kids who had been good throughout the year and potatoes to the naughty ones. Supermarket was unusually busy last night, with many locals loading up food, wine and other festival goodies as if the stores would not re-open the

2001-12-05T00:46:00.000-08:00

Reading Wish List History of the Present: Essays, Sketches, and Dispatches From Europe in the 1990s by Timothy Garton Ash is an in-depth examination of life in post-communist Europe. Also noteworthy is Cafe Europa recommended by a colleague here over dinner the other night. The book, written by a Croatian lady, contains first hand accounts on life in South-eastern Europe such as Yugoslavia,

2001-12-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

More About Czech Christmas So I went to the Old Town Square to see Chirstmas lighting ceremony on Sunday evening. They had a very big Christmas market there attracting a huge crowd of both local families and tourists from abroad. While my understanding of Czech remains very minimal and almost close to none, I still manage to have a good time enjoying the folk songs and dances, and of course,

2001-11-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

Chirstmas is Coming Soon! On the way home at around seven last evening, I passed by Namesti Republiky, probably the heart of the city, where a five minute walk would land you on the baroque style Old Town Square and various nice small cafes. Outside a church, workers were busy setting up a Christmas market which sells Christmas goods ranging from dried fruits and nuts to christmas decorations

2001-11-26T04:51:00.000-08:00

Prague in the Eyes of Another Foreigner Lunching at the Globe Cafe yesterday, I met a Newfie (a person from Newfoundland Canada) who was sitting next to me. He was with his African friend from Mauli, conversing in perfect French, without a trace of Canadian-French accent. An English teacher by trade, he has been in Prague for nine years and apparently has lost all his Newfie accent. When

2001-11-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

After moving into two different accomodations in the past two weeks, I have now finally settled down somewhere in Praha 3.

2001-11-15T09:46:00.000-08:00

With 60% of the population owning a mobile ohones, SMS has become one of the most preferred communications medium. Today, a colleague of mine from Lithuania was showing me how to send a SMS message for free from the internet to a GSM mobile located anywhere in the world. She said she normally uses SMS to communicate with her friends at home while in Prague. This is very cool for a person

2001-10-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

Resources > Tools Road Tools for Palm CurrencyX converts more than four currencies at a time. MetrO computes shortest routes and travel time between any two subway stations in over 150 cities. Avantgo is a mobile internet brower which allows me to stay in touch with news from New York Times to South China Morning Post.

2001-10-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Flat hunting has not been easy. It turned out that Happy House Rentals only offer apartments that required a one-year lease. BookIt.cz has a few listings on the web that meet my needs. But then the dates don't work out well and the price turned out to be a lot more higher than what were listed on the web. Also looked into Prague Cheap Flats. But I am not sure how reliable it is. If you have

2001-10-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Busy flat hunting at the moment. I looked through the listings in Happy House Rentals but didn't quite understand some of the abbreviations. An agent later pointed out that "1+kk" means one room + kittchenet (probably located in the hall or in the room) and "1+1" refers to one room + one kitchen.

2001-10-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

Deke Erh: "Prague gave me a great surprise. Despite the fact that it is a modern city, it has not destroyed its lovely old buildings in its rush to modernize. Prague is truly a golden city. Gazing down on it from the castle walls above I was struck by the effect of sun and shadow on the panoply of ancient buildings below. Every architedtural detail was highlighted in gold by the late afternoon

2001-10-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Useful Information Weekly Travel Bulletin and Advisory Report from DFAIT.

2001-10-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

Trip Preparation Czech Republic Guide. On-line fact book covering basic facts, political system, country & people, history, art and culture, etc. The Czech Site. Non-profit travel guide to Prague and Czech Republic that offers the latest information on art and cultural events in addition to information that appears in any travel guide. Czech Republic FAQ. Lots of tips and commentaries on

2001-10-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Map of the Czech Republic Useful Road Tools: Online Interactive Maps Machine Translation English <--> Czech