Mailbox
In this edition of Mailbox: The Postal Museum, Zelary, CzechInvest and Czech Trade. Listeners quoted: Vincento Pareli, Jim Kernsey, Ben Clanis
Vincento Pareli is Italian but lives in New York and loves to tune into various stations from around the world on his short-wave radio. Radio Prague is one of them. Mr Pareli asks:
It's hard to say. I have not seen it myself and have heard mixed reviews. But you are right in saying that Dark Blue World was made to attract a broader audience. Zelary sticks to a style that is more representative of Czech cinematography. It got a total of eleven nominations in twelve categories for the Cesky Lev, or Czech Lion, film awards. So, if you judge by the number of nominations, then it's clearly popular in the Czech Republic. But I guess we'll have to wait until the award ceremony on March 6th to see how many Czech Lions director Ondrej Trojan gets to take home.
Jim Kernsey from Sydney, Australia sent us an e-mail asking:
"Do you have a Post Ministry? I spent many unsuccessful hours on the internet, trying to find a website of the ministry. It may sound like a crazy thing to do but one of my hobbies is to read about the history of postal services around the world. One of the highlights of my planned trip to Prague this summer will be a visit to the ministry and your post office. Will there be anyone there to give me a tour?"
But do not despair, Mr Kernsey. If you are interested in how the postal service was born and developed over the years, visit the Postal Museum in the Prague 1 district. With the exception of Mondays, it's open every day from nine to five and has a permanent exhibition of postage stamps, an exhibition on how stamps were made (e.g. stamps for Prague Castle), a library, a study room, as well as the original interior of a Prague townhouse from the mid-19th century. It also has a shop with souvenirs.
Moving on to our final question today. Ben Clanis from the UK asks:
"What is the difference between Czech Trade and Czech Invest? I seem to have them confused. Are they one and the same company?"
It is quite easy to get them confused, especially since they are both government agencies, of the Ministry of Trade and Industry to be precise, that aim to increase business relations between the Czech Republic and foreign states or companies. CzechTrade has been active since 1997 with the main task to assist in the development of mutual trade and co-operation. The main role of CzechInvest is to give potential investors a clear picture of what it's like to invest in the Czech Republic by providing all the necessary information and official rules and guidelines.
And we've almost reached the end of this week's edition of Mailbox but before we continue with the ABC of Czech, here's this month's competition question:
What Janacek opera will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its world premiere? Our hint: it was premiered at the Czech National Theatre in Brno on January 21st, 1904.
Send your answers to the Radio Prague English Section, 120 99 Prague 2, the Czech Republic or by e-mail to [email protected] They should get to us by February 29. And our questions are clearly too easy for all of you as there hasn't been a single wrong answer yet. I'm going to have to think of a more difficult question for next month.
