Mailbox
In this week's Mailbox: Report on Slovak nationalist politician Andrej Hlinka on Insight Central Europe; village of Horni Benesov considers giving honorary citizenship to US presidential candidate John Kerry; Radio Prague's listeners' contests. Listeners quoted: David Eldridge, Sharon Curtis, Nooreddin Ahmed.
It's time again for Radio Prague's Mailbox programme in which we read from your letters and e-mails. This time we received an email from David Eldridge from Essex in England. He reacts to Radio Prague's co-production programme Insight Central Europe, namely one story produced by Radio Slovakia International about the Slovak nationalist politician Andrej Hlinka, who was born 140 years ago and died just before the start of the Second World War.
"Your programme "Insight Central Europe"suggests that Hlinka's name was incorrectly linked with the Slovak politicians in power at the time of the formation of the first Slovak State in March 1939.
"That is not so. Hlinka himself had Nazi sentiments. On 10th October 1932 in the newspaper "Slovak" Hlinka wrote: "I am more impressed with the German 'kreizler' [swastika] and Hitler, than with our regionalists."
"Among Hlinka's slogans were "First to go are the Czech bosses, to be followed by Jews and Protestants", Hlinka maintaining that Protestants were not Slovaks and that Slovakia can be acknowledged only as a Catholic country.
"Hlinka's Slovak People's Party transformed itself along the lines of Hitler's National Socialist Party at their conference in Piestany in September 1936, when Hlinka was Chairman of that Party and two years before he died."
Thank you, Mr Eldridge, for that insightful comment. Although Andrej Hlinka is part of Czechoslovak history, Slovakia has now been an independent state for 11 years and its historians may be interpreting Hlinka's personality in a different way than historians in communist Czechoslovakia did - that is in a solely negative way.
The history of the Central European region is very complex and the fates of its nations so interwoven - it sometimes reflects even today in the dynamics of the relations between some countries in the region. What Insight Central Europe, a co-production of six radio stations from the region, is striving for is to show Central Europe in its complexity and present the views of all its countries.
You can hear the programme on some of Radio Prague's weekend times and frequencies. It also has its own website, www.incentraleurope.com, where you'll find a roundup of the most important news stories from the region as well as all reports in both text and sound.
"I was disgusted when I learned that Horni Benesov was giving John Kerry honorary citizenship. The town mayor thought Kerry "had achieved great things". Kerry has achieved nothing notable in the over 20 years in the United States Senate. To this day, a majority of people cannot understand what policies he advocates.
"I have never heard him mention his "Horni Benesov" connection, maybe because it wouldn't guarantee him a large number of votes in the upcoming election. Perhaps the mayor might find some more deserving Americans whose parents and grandparents came to America from many small villages in the now Czech Republic.
"These people perpetuate the Czech culture in this country in their homes and publicly by supporting activities with their time and money to, for example, Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Others attend activities at their nearest Embassy or Consulate. Others spend countless hours organizing Czech and Slovak festivals, parades and polka parties throughout the United States. Others promote student exchanges with Czech families. Many of us maintain fond relationships with our relatives living in the Czech Republic. These Americans are the true "honorary citizens" of towns and villages."
Thank you, Mrs Curtis, for that interesting comment. Let me just mention that Horni Benesov is a small quiet village in a rather poor region of North Moravia and I believe it is not difficult to understand why people in the village are so excited. It doesn't happen every day that the ancestors of a US presidential candidate come from your village and it all of a sudden becomes a focus of media attention.
And our new listener from Sweileh in Jordan, Mr Nooreddin Ahmed who only recently tuned in to Radio Prague' broadcasts has sent us the following questions.
"Do you run any contests for listeners? If you do, what is your current quiz question?"
I'm more than happy to answer these questions for all of you who are not Radio Prague's regular listeners. Radio Prague runs an annual essay competition and the main prize is a trip to the Czech Republic. This year's winner was from Germany and the results were announced in June. But every month we have a simple quiz question - this year they have all been related to Czech music in some way, 2004 being the official Year of Czech Music. At the end of each month we draw one winner who gets a CD of Czech music from us. Which brings me smoothly to this month's question:
"The name of one traditional Czech dance is in fact a contradiction. The name suggests that the dance comes from another Central European country. Which dance is it?"
You have another two weeks to send in your answers to Radio Prague, English Section, 12099 Prague, Czech Republic, or by e-mail at [email protected]
