Mailbox
Today's Mailbox includes: Topics: Public transport in Prague, increase in assault connected robbing, Christmas markets and shopping, Cerny Most housing site Quotes from: Debdatta Roy, Sheila Hughes, Jill Davies, Maria Rosso, John Billstone, Mauro Bertini.
Hello, this is Dita Asiedu
And Alena Skodova welcoming you to this week's edition of Mailbox, the program based on listeners' letters and questions, the program we couldn't possibly broadcast if you didn't show such interest in Radio Prague and the Czech Republic in general.
And I must say that interest is constant and very deep, and comes from all parts of the world. Just one example: Debdatta Roy from Calcutta India writes:
"I'd like to tell you that I know about the Czech Republic from the broadcasts of Radio Prague's English program. But I would like to know even more and would like to get some literature about your country, and am even thinking of looking into the Czech language. Thank you for everything."
Then, of course, there are our regular listeners who have been listening to our programs for many, many years, Sheila Hughes from Morden, Surrey, England is one of them:
"I am sorry I have not written to you for a long time, but I would like to assure you that I do not forget you. My association with your radio station goes back a long time. I have an old Radio Praha Monitor Club certificate, a large calendar from your station for the year 1990, many old QSL cards, etc. They are all treasured by me and nice memories of my association with your station."
And many listeners come to visit, to see the Czech Republic for themselves. Jill Davies e-mails
"My husband and I are very excited about our visit to Prague next Wednesday. I visited the city in 1965 and am sure I will see many changes there now. Do you have any advice on travelling from the airport? We should prefer to use public transport, unless that is too complicated or time consuming."
No, Jill, public transport from the airport, or anywhere else in Prague, is really no problem. Actually, the Czech capital has an extremely well organised public transport system. In fact Prague is unique not only in Europe, but world-wide in the high percentage of inhabitants who travel by trams, busses, and above all, the Metro. Over 60 percent of Pragueites prefer using public transport to using their own cars. In London, for example, the ratio is opposite - two thirds of the people there prefer driving in the city.
Of course, one of the reasons is that the old city streets are too narrow to enable people getting anywhere fast by car. But the fact still remains that public transport is a very well functioning alternative.
Especially the metro lines, which are being constantly expanding and the authorities say that will continue in spite of the financial set-back caused by the floods this summer.
Public transport is also quite cheap, and the newly elected city council has promised there would be no drastic increase in the cost of tickets in the near future, just to cover the rate of inflation.
The cost of tickets covers only 25 percent of the general cost of the transport system, that's 5 percent less than recommended by the European Union for its member states. Which is another unique aspect of Prague transport which, as many foreign visitors keep saying, is extremely reliable and well organised.
Not that all experience in this respect has been favourable. For example there are more and more cases of thefts, stolen purses in the crowded trams, and things like that.
Not only in trams, for that matter. Maria Rosso, from Rome, Italy writes
"One of my best friends was recently robbed during his nap on the train from Prague to Bucharest, it happened right BEFORE THE CZECH BORDER WITH SLOVAKIA. I persuade him not to go ahead with his initial reaction of trying to go on an Anti-Czech-Tourism campaign, as I explained to him that things like that happen everywhere."
Yes, things like that do happen everywhere, but it is a sad fact that the crime rate in the Czech Republic has been increasing, I mean the number of thefts and especially robberies connected with various forms of assault - their number has actually increased by a third over the past year.
Thieves seem to be getting more and more aggressive, more brutal in attacking small shop keepers, bar personnel and in other places, frequently in the very centre of Prague, not only in some out of the way outskirts.
In some cases the thieves are fresh enough to come back to the same shop, which they robbed before. One such case is a small jewellery shop in Prague 5. The owners are an elderly couple and the three thieves who came back for the second time within a week beat them quite brutally, even though they wouldn't have had any problem just taking the goods.
And the thieves have not been caught!
That's the problem - and it happens often, not always, of course. The police just don't seem to able to cope with all the cases - there's not enough local policemen patrolling the streets, which is one of the main problems and it is being seriously dealt with.
Meanwhile many people, especially small shop keepers and the like are arming themselves, the number of legally held firearms has increased dramatically. More than 72 000 people in Prague own firearms for their personal protection and the protection of their property. But not everybody is really prepared to use a gun. The only real solution is more policemen in the streets.
Now, with the Christmas shopping season at its highest, it's very much in the public interest. But, still, there are many nicer and more joyful aspects to the Christmas shopping season. The Christmas markets on the squares in many parts of central Prague are very beautiful this year. Have you noticed?
I have. I never liked going there, because the stalls set up had all sorts of junk souvenirs that had nothing to do with the holidays. But this year it's really different as it's a real Christmas atmosphere, with traditional folk decorations made of straw, individually blown glass figures, ginger bread decorations, hand cut wood, all the traditional folk art that goes with a traditional Czech Christmas.
My personal favourites are the crocheted Christmas tree decorations - small bells, mostly, or little angels and dolls with huge full skirts, all starched hard, so they keep their shape when they hang on the tree. I don't think they make those anywhere else.
Anyway, the Christmas markets give Prague a wonderful Christmas atmosphere, much nicer, I'd say, than the crowded shops, where people do the bulk of their Christmas shopping.
Which actually answers a question from John Billstone, who listens to Radio Prague in Vancouver, Canada.
"Are Czechs as mad crowding the stores and doing their Christmas shopping as we seem to be? It's just crazy."
Yes, John, it's just as bad here as it is anywhere else in the world. And the bulk of the crowds are concentrating in the huge super markets in the outskirts of town, with all the parking space and easy access.
But, since you mention it, many people go there by public transport, too - you know, we talked about that Prague habit a while ago. For example, there's the shopping mall at Cerny Most, The Black Bridge, which is right on the end of one of the metro lines and the trains there are full of shoppers. I saw it on Wednesday - not that I went shopping, but I went visiting a friend in the Cerny Most housing estate.
That's one of the nicer ones, it's newer than most of the pre-fab housing estates and not so drab as they used to be built.
The site was completed as late as 1991, and it really does show. It's a friendlier place, even though it is huge, with more than 3 500 apartments. But then, all those sites are enormous, they were all built on empty spaces outside town. Actually, in Cerny Most there had been a village for centuries. And the architects managed to keep the old Romanesque church which dates back to 1227 in the modern site, which gives it a very nice touch.
But still, to come back to John Billstone's letter - Christmas shopping in the Cerny Most mall is a nightmare. It just doesn't seem to have anything in common with the Christmas spirit.
