Mailbox

This week in Mailbox: winter broadcast schedule starts next week, Radio Prague on Facebook, population growth in the Czech Republic, response to Letter from Prague. Listeners quoted: David Fraley, Peter Csakvari, Sanusi Isah Dankaba, Matthew Pittman.

Hello and welcome to Mailbox, Radio Prague’s weekly programme for your views, questions and comments.

First of all, I would like to remind you that the clocks go back next weekend which means our winter broadcast schedule will start on October 31st. You will find the list of times and frequencies on our website if you click on “Broadcast Schedule” in the menu on the right hand side of our homepage www.radio.cz/english. Printed leaflets are also available. If you’d like to have one, please let us know here at [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague and we will mail one to you.

Many thanks for your letters and e-mails that have arrived over the past week. Regular listeners will know that you can also comment on Radio Prague’s features on our Facebook page. Radio Prague has its own profile on the social networking site and has close to 900 fans, myself included. So if you’d like to be reminded of Radio Prague’s programmes on Facebook every day, please join us there.

For example, David Fraley commented on the article “Brno’s new clock provokes colourful reactions” posted on Facebook:

Brno’s new clock, photo: CTK

“I like it, but it looks like a miniature version of 30 St Mary Ax in London.”

And Peter Csakvari simply said: “I like it.”

Now onto your e-mails. Our regular listener Sanusi Isah Dankaba from Nigeria has this question:

“When and how did the Czech Republic start implementing the family planning policy to check excessive population growth?”

The Czech Republic, as many other Western countries, has quite the opposite problem. The birth rate is relatively low and the country faces severe population ageing. Demographers were alarmed to see the number of births fall to just 91,000 in the year 2000 – compared to the baby boom of 1975 when 193,000 children were born following a set of government measures to increase population growth. In recent years the curve has started rising again, with 102,000 babies born in 2005 and 115,000 this year according to data collected by the Czech Statistical Office.

Matthew Pittman from Texas responded to a recent Letter from Prague titled “One Nation over with God” by Christian Falvey:

“I found the article very interesting, if a little disappointing in its subject matter, that the author is of the belief that Czechs have matured to the point of not needing God. In a country with such a long history of worship, I think it odd that Christian Falvey omits the great Czech preacher Jan Hus, leading the way for the Protestant Reformation (not to mention the irony of the author's own name and his ‘coming out’ as post-religious). And as much as he might wish for the Czech Republic to lead the way as a post-Christian nation, there are still many others who will come in to fill that void of hunger in the soul, whether the author wants to be left alone or not. My own family history is of Czechs who embraced their spirituality when they came to America, founding many Unity of the Brethren churches across Texas (one of my uncles is a retired Minister and Missionary). It saddens me a bit to think that my cousins in the old country survived the darkness of communism to only ‘grow out of’ needing God in their lives.”

Thank you very much for your thoughts. Don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you feel strongly about any of our stories and features. The address is [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague – which are also the addresses for your reception reports and competition answers.

In October we are looking for the name of a Czech-American jazz guitarist who was born in 1960 in Prague and since the 1980s has been living in the West, performing and also teaching.

You have one more week to send us your answers. One lucky listener will be picked out of the hat and sent a Radio Prague goodie back. Mailbox will be back again next week, same time, same frequency. Until then, happy listening.