Mailbox
Today's Mailbox includes: Topics: Texans originally from Moravia. Noise pollution. Sokol organisation. Quotes from: George Thomson, Hemant Sahay, Steve (no family name given).
Hello and thanks for listening to another edition of Mailbox. I'm Martin Hrobsky and I am standing in for Olga Szantova as she is still at home sick.
Olga will be back to host Mailbox soon and has asked me to say hello to all of you who are listening.
We are still getting a lot of mail from listeners asking for the new winter schedule. Those of you who have access to the Internet, please note that you can get a copy from our website - www.radio.cz/english.
And if you have already requested the schedule to be sent to you, it should be on its way as I have forwarded all of your requests to the person responsible.
Okay, since we have less time available for the programme in this new schedule, let's begin with a question from George Thomson, from Virginia, USA who asks:
"I visited your website recently and I must thank you for all the information that you have on the Czech Republic. I lived in Prague for a couple of months two years ago. I taught Czechs English and so I have gotten to know a lot about their culture and likes and dislikes. I also worked with a man from Texas who claimed that he had ties to North Moravia - to Wallachia. I was therefore very surprised to read about the programme that you are planning to do on the region. Will you be reporting on its strong ties to the USA?"
The programme, Spotlight was broadcast this week and it was about the Skansen, or Wooden Hamlet that's part of the Open-Air Museum in the town of Roznov pod Radhostem. The museum's tour guide, Alena Divinova, did say a few words, though, on the ties that the town has to Texas:
"Well, around the 1990's, many Czech Texans started to travel to this area, to this region of Wallachia because their ancestors left our country over one hundred years ago to find new jobs because they were poor here and Wallachia was said to be the 'end of bread to eat and the beginning of rocks'. Many of them left towns and villages, not only Roznov but also the Frenstat area, the Vsetin area and they now live in Texas, around Houston and now they travel here to study their family trees. Some of them stayed in Roznov to study this area. They want to learn Czech, to know our culture, customs, and habits. Even in Texas, some wear our Wallachian costumes. Many of them speak the special Wallachian Czech because their grandparents brought their language to Texas and they learned it from them. And so I like it very much when they speak in this old way."
It's always a pleasure to hear about Czechs abroad or those with Czech roots trying to learn about the Czech Republic. The Moravian Texans, apparently have a festival called the 'Kolac Festival' where they get together and bake the traditional Czech cake or pastry called kolac. It is held in Caldwell, Texas.
So if you happen to be a Moravian Texan or a listener with Czech roots living abroad and celebrating his/her origins, please let us know more about you and the community you live in.
Moving on to a question from Hemant Sahay, Bihar, INDIA, who writes:
"Loud noise causes a temporary dampening of the hair cells in the ear that are responsible for hearing. When this happens again and again the hearing gets permanently damaged. Noise is also known to cause sleep disturbances, which lead to other problems like mood change. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended levels of noise. But what we are exposed to is much higher. When will these levels of noise be applied harshly? Perhaps, after becoming deaf. What do you think about this problem in your country?"
Noise pollution, unfortunately, does not enjoy priority within the Czech government, despite the fact that there is a large number of activists who have been pointing to the problem, saying that the situation is becoming worse and worse. Some are even campaigning for the city centre to be off limits to vehicles. The public transport system here is one of the best in the world and it really is not necessary for people to drive into the centre.
Naturally, it is the large cities that suffer the most from noise pollution. In Prague, though, the levels of noise have decreased significantly after the floods, as there are now less cars in the city centre. As far as sleep disturbances are concerned, most Czechs are not bothered by the noise as they are used to it. I'm actually one of them. I used to live in a noisy area, alongside a main road. When I moved to a more quiet area, I had trouble falling asleep as it was too quiet, so I had to let the TV run for a few days until I got used to my new surroundings.
Moving on to another question from Steve, who is somewhere in cyberspace - please let us know your full name and where you are writing from. Steve asks:
"In one of your arts programmes, you mention the Sokol organisation. I always thought it was a Communist organization but from the content of your programme, it seems that it is still active."
Yes, it still is active and it celebrated its 140th anniversary at the beginning of the year. Alena Skodova did a report on the organisation, so I asked her to give you a brief explanation of what they do:
"Well, Sokol was by no chance a Communist organisation. It came into being 140 years ago in 1862. It was actually established as a patriotic organisation that aimed at education people in morale and physical activities and for the defence of the nation. This was under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The founder was Mr Miroslav Tyrs who was a professor of philosophy at Charles University and the other supporter and founder was Jindrich Fugner who was also what we would today call its sponsor. Sokol had been flourishing and more members kept coming but quite understandably, its patriotic ideas and well-known ideal of freedom were thorn in flesh of all dictatorial regimes so that is why Sokol was banned three times. First it was during WWI, the second time it was by the Nazis when Germany occupied the Czech lands between 1939 and 1945, and the third time was in 1948 when the Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. But Sokol did not die out. In 1990, after the Velvet Revolution it was revived and nowadays, Sokol's most visible activities are traditional 'slets', which are smaller versions of the gigantic Spartakiada exercise displays, which took place every five years and Sokol also organises many other events and activities for both the young and the elderly."
Thank you Alena. And that was the last question we had time to answer. Please continue to send us mail with questions, comments, and even suggestions. We really do appreciate our listeners' feedback as it helps us improve our programmes.
We have already given you our website at the start of the show but here's our contact information. You can e-mail us at [email protected] or send a letter to the Radio Prague English Section, 120 99 Prague 2, Czech Republic.
