Mailbox
In this week's edition of Mailbox, we talk about the latest statistics on the population, weddings, divorces, and abortions, the new summer programme, and our competitions. Listeners quoted: Hans Bachman and Kingsley Otteng.
We start with a question from Hans Bachman, who is German but currently lives in Slovakia. He writes:
"In the Economics Report, you wrote that the number of foreign tourists visiting the Czech Republic is on the rise and reached 6.7 million last year. What about the number of foreigners living and working in the Czech Republic?"
Well, according to the Czech Statistics Office, in 2003 a record 60,015 foreigners moved to the Czech Republic. Other interesting facts released by the Czech Statistics Office on Thursday are that the number of people residing in the country has risen by eight thousand to reach 10.211 million - two thousand of them are new born babies. Last year, there were 48,943 weddings - the lowest number since WWI. However, there were more divorces, 32,824. The only year in which there were more was in 1996! Since abortions were legalised in 1958, last year saw the lowest number of abortions - four abortions to every one thousand residents.
Many of you have written in with questions similar to the following from Kingsley Otteng from Nigeria:
"In your broadcasts you often tell us to look on your web site for more details, like you did when you announced that you'll be having a new summer programme and frequencies. I do not have the Internet and I am sure that there are many here in Nigeria or other countries you broadcast to who have no access to it. What about us?"
Well, Mr Otteng, we also say that you can write to us and ask for our new programme. Naturally, those of you who have sent us reception reports or are regular writers are already in our database and will automatically be sent the new programme. As far as the new frequencies are concerned, a three minute recording before the English broadcast begins on short-wave has been informing all listeners of the changes. But here's our contact information in case you have not received our new broadcast schedule - if by e-mail it's
With regards to the individual features and reports, not much has changed. Besides the usual news bulletin and the current affairs section, we have Talking Point and the sport on Mondays, Tuesdays feature One on One and Czech Science, Wednesdays have either Czechs in History, Czechs Today, or Spotlight - Witness a moment recalled has been discontinued, on Thursdays you'll get the latest in business and finance in Economics Report - there will only be a sports round-up if an important match was played, and Fridays have the Arts as well as Stepping Out every two weeks.
The week-end stays the same!
And finally, it's time for our competitions. Yes, you heard well, I said competitions because besides our smaller monthly competition, Radio Prague is pleased to announce that the new summer schedule also brings another bigger annual competition. This one too is inspired by the Year of Czech Music and all you have to do to enter is send us a few lines on what Czech music means to you. The main prize will be a week in Prague. Of course, there'll also be a number of attractive runner-up prizes. So, get your pens and papers ready and begin. Your answers should get to us by June 15. Hope to see you in Prague!
But that should not stop you from taking part in our monthly competition. The question for the month of March is: "How many anniversaries will the Year of Czech Music be celebrating in the month of March? Nine, eleven, or thirteen?"
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 March 31.
