Articles on Czech society which have appeared in past issues of CER.
14 May 2001
Sudeten Dialogues
Martin D Brown and Eva Hahn
The histories of the Czechs and Germans are intimately intertwined. CER discusses contemporary historical relations from two differing perspectives.
26 February 2001
Old Values in New Hands
Robin Healey
How Prague's intelligentsia survived 50 years of oppression.
19 February 2001
High Times
Tiffany G Petros
With the opening of the borders, the Czech Republic has joined the region's growing drug trade.
12 February 2001
Counting Czechs
Jan Čulík
Will the data collected in the recent census fall into the wrong hands?
11 December 2000
Mop, Shop and Shut Up
Tiffany G Petros
Czech society seems to have little use for feminism.
27 November 2000
No Problem Here
Katharine Fletcher
The plight of the Roma is all too often ignored by police in the Czech Republic.
13 November 2000
Meter Maid Commandos
Jan Čulík
The municipality of Prague has created a riot squad out of common traffic wardens.
6 November 2000
The Long Wake
Jan Čulík
The aftermath of the anti-IMF demonstrations continues to be felt in Prague. It's a slow sobering-up process.
9 October 2000
Hard Cell Techniques
Jan Čulík
As Czechs go into denial over the inhuman brutality of their policing methods, the evidence is mounting.
2 October 2000
More Pictures of Protest
More unique images from the streets of Prague last week.
2 October 2000
"You fucked-up anarchist bastards are destroying Prague!"
Jan Čulík
The jovial banter heard in Prague's police stations as detainees were beaten...
25 September 2000
Pictures of Protest
Unique images from the streets of Prague last week.
18 September 2000
Notes from the Underground
Jan Čulík
Why are inspectors on the Prague metro so aggressive?
26 June 2000
Dodgy Bankers
Jan Čulík
The recent sale of the Czech bank IPB has raised serious questions about its financial propriety.
12 June 2000
The School Sadists
Jindřich Ginter
The horrors of bullying go largely unacknowledged.
5 June 2000
A Deep Trauma
Jan Čulík
The present frictions in Czech-Roma relations have complex and deep-seated causes.
22 May 2000
Little Czechs, Big Europe
Jiří Brodský
Czechs accept entry into the European Union in the same manner as they accepted democracy ten years ago: messianically.
22 May 2000
Interview: Václav Bělohradský
Philosopher Václav Bělohradský talks to CER about Czech political culture, capitalism, globalisation and Central Europe's place in the post-modern world.
9 May 2000
Anarchist Field Day
Jan Čulík
Prague's anarchist demonstration - in the media and in reality.
25 April 2000
Trying Our Patients
Pavel Pafko
The quality of healthcare in the Czech Republic is comparable to that elsewhere in Europe, but the system itself is still dogged by "pre-revolutionary" attitudes towards financing and by low staff morale.
10 April 2000
Caring for the Goose
Andreas Beckmann
Wealthy Prague is simply choking on Western tourists, but areas outside the capital would benefit a great deal from a few loud Americans of their own.
3 April 2000
Czech Tech:
Technical education and industrial development
Robin Healey
The Czech engineering industry is at a low point, but a reform of technical education could offer a way forward.
27 March 2000
Hitler's Mein Kampf in Czech:
Books are still being banned in Europe
Jan Čulík
Controversy surrounds the recent publication of a Czech language version of Hitler's Mein Kampf, and moves are afoot to have it banned.
20 March 2000
Leaving Too Soon?
Helena Ackermann
Much has been achieved thanks to foreign aid to Czech nonprofits, but these achievements may be threatened by the overhasty departure of Western funders.
10 January 2000
A Glimmer in the Dark
Catherine Miller
AIDS has been greeted in the Czech Republic with a fair amount of hysteria and stigmatisation.
13 December 1999
Rising Discontent
Jan Čulík
With the economy bordering on crisis and politicians incapable of fixing the country's problems, the Czech public became increasingly discontent throughout 1999.
29 November 1999
A Fistful of Impressions
Jan Čulík
Insights from talking to readers.
29 November 1999
A Decade of Change... to Come
Robin Healey
Czech universities have gone through significant changes over the past decade. They will need to go through even more in the next.
22 November 1999
Evaluating a Decade
Jan Čulík
While the majority of Hungarians and Poles are generally pleased with their post-Communist lot, Czechs are divided equally on the issue of transition. Some are now blaming the West for this.
15 November 1999
From Precariousness to Disaffection
Isabelle Le Rouzic
The homeless in Prague.
8 November 1999
Teaching Morality
Robin Healey
In their struggle to adapt to post-1989 reality Czech universities have given very little moral guidance to their students.
1 November 1999
Flogging a Dead Horse?
Vaclav Pinkava
A controversial new statue in Prague speaks volumes about the current situation in the Czech Republic today.
25 October 1999
Race Relations
Jan Čulík
Rather than indulging in hypocritical posturing, we should simply admit that Czech-Romani relations suffer from serious and complex problems, and these should be tackled from both sides.
25 October 1999
Pigeons
Vaclav Pinkava
Are Czechs really a "dove-like nation"? And what is a dove, anyway?
11 October 1999
The Educated Poor
Jan Čulík
The decline in the living standards of university educated people in the Czech Republic has been sharp in the 1990s.
11 October 1999
A Meek Protest
Jan Čulík
The recent Czech doctors strike was very mild, so much so that most patients hardly noticed.
27 September 1999
Czech Intellectuals and
"Post-Communism"
Andrew Stroehlein
Czech intellectuals describe the post-Communist decade by relying
heavily on historical arguments, avoiding the reality of Czech society.
20 September 1999
Mixed Czech Nuts
Jan Čulík
After the news from the Czech Republic over the past few weeks, it
seems hardly surprising that an increasing number of people are turning off
their televisions, hiding their money in mattresses and voting for the
Communists.
20 September 1999
Not Just Prague
Andrew Stroehlein
Mistakenly, the Czech Republic is usually assumed to be simply Prague
and Czechs, an urban people.
13 September 1999
Czech Versus Word-Charm
Tomas Pecina
Some argue that of all the Central and East European nations, Czechs are most prone to be charmed by words.
13 September 1999
The Czech Republic 1992 to
1999:
From unintentional political birth to prolonged political
crisis
Andrew Stroehlein
with Jan Čulík, Steven Saxonberg and Kazi
This is an extensive account of the first years of the young Czech
Republic.
6 September 1999
On Czechs, the Great Myth-makers
Tomas Pecina
Few nations have created so many myths about themselves as the Czechs. As with other national mythologies, Czech myths mostly concern the history and self-perception of the ethnic group.
23 August 1999
Singer in a Minefield
Tomas Pecina
Under Communism, few Czechs would even think of demanding courageous moral and political stances from their hairdressers, but such is not the case with members of the artistic community.
23 August 1999
Thick with Castles
Vaclav Pinkava
Visit some of the pleantiful castles in the Czech Republic might keep the elderly and infirm out of politics.
23 August 1999
White-haired Whiners?
Catherine Miller
Czech newspaper article condemning a recent pension increase has set off a ripple of public debate on the elderly in the Czech Republic.
16 August 1999
From DIY to a Service Economy in the Czech Republic
Vaclav Pinkava
Czechs are losing their inclination toward inventiveness as their DIY economy becomes a service economy.
16 August 1999
Czech Freedom to Consume
Andreas Beckmann
"We have learned the freedom to consume very well." - An interview with Yvonna Gaillyova.
9 August 1999
No Pulse 99
Jan Čulík
Impuls 99 aims to save Czech society but does little more than fulfil
the need of some Czech intellectuals to pompously pontificate in public.
19 July 1999
When Czechs Fight Czechs
Tomas Pecina
Czechs at home and Czechs abroad still cannot find common ground.
12 July 1999
A Touch of Class?
Sean Hanley
Notions of class in Czech society.
5 July 1999
So, You Want to Study Law in Prague?
Jan Čulík
The long-rumoured corruption at the Law School has been exposed.
14 June 1999
Of Sexologists and Strangers in the Steamy Summer Night
Kazi Stastna
Public discourse and violence against women in the Czech Republic.
3 May 1999
Shirkers of the World Unite
Sean Hanley
Finding out whether the Czech Republic is prepared to enter the EU can be hard enough.
30 March 1999
Last Trip
Andrew Stroehlein
It seems our Czech friends are rather depressed of late. And they have some pretty good reasons to be.
30 March 1999
Around the [Czech] World in a 100 Years
Kazi Stastna
The Czech Republic looks back at the last 100 years with an exhibit of unique photographs.
22 March 1999
Bureaucracy Is as Czech as Beer
Sean Hanley
If there's one thing in the Czech Republic that gets foreign residents hot under the collar, it's Czech bureaucracy.
22 February 1999
Concrete Conclusions
Sean Hanley
The panelak will endure as a lasting, quite literally towering, monument to the non-achievements of socialism.
15 February 1999
Spa Snooze-fest
Kazi Stastna
Czech and Slovak intellectuals can't seem to get it right.
15 February 1999
Civil Society: An Idea Whose Time Has Gone?
Sean Hanley
The development of civil society in the Czech Republic, as with all post-communist states, has produced only meagre results.
4 January 1999
Populist, Xenophobic and Useless
Andrew Stroehlein
The Czech Republic tightens its laws for foreigners who wish to obtain residence permits.
4 January 1999
Go to the Museum
Andrew Stroehlein
The dual pricing system practiced in the Czech Republic is not right.
21 December 1998
Across the Great Divide?
Sean Hanley
Most of what Western journalists, academics and politicians have said or written about Eastern Europe since 1989 is nonsense.
16 November 1998
Czech Protest against Telecom Monopoly
Andrew Stroehlein
An update on the Czech protest against the SPT Telecom monopoly.
26 October 1998
The Revolution That Never Was?
Sean Hanley
Among Czechs, the Velvet Revolution is something that should just as soon be forgotten.
Moving on:
