Mailbox

In today's Mailbox: joint issue stamps, the Czechoslovak legions, Václav Havel, and what happens to reception reports after we have read them. Listeners quoted: Alex Torbeni, Steven Bell, Howard Barnett, Grant Skinner.

Czech Republic's joint stamp with Slovakia featuring the Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius

Thanks for tuning in to Mailbox, Radio Prague’s weekly slot for your views, questions and comments. Let’s begin with this question from our regular listener Alex Torbeni from Bali who is a keen stamp collector:

“Has the Czech postal bureau ever published a joint issue stamp with another country? I have never seen a joint issue stamp from the Czech Republic, so I assume that the Czech postal bureau never published that special stamp. I like stamp collecting and I have some joint issue stamps from other countries.”

There have been quite a few of them, the first one as early as 1993, the year the independent Czech Republic was established. In that year the Czech Republic launched a joint stamp with its former federal partner Slovakia, featuring the Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Another joint stamp with Slovakia was issued in 1996 featuring the painter Endre Nemes. A year later there was a joint issue of as many as five countries: the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Germany and the Vatican – the countries honouring the legacy of Saint Adalbert. In the same year there was a joint stamp with Israel featuring Jewish monuments in the Czech Republic.

Czech Republic's joint stamp with Luxembourg marking the 700th anniversary of the accession of the Luxembourgian dynasty to the Czech throne

In 2004 there was a large joint issue when the Czech Republic joined the European Union along with nine other countries, following two other extensive issues in 2000 and 2001, titled “Europe” and “Civilization”, respectively. Other individual countries that have issued joint stamps with the Czech Republic include Croatia, France, Belgium and most recently Luxembourg with this year’s stamp marking the 700th anniversary of the accession of the Luxembourgian dynasty to the Czech throne.

Steven Bell from Canada responds to a recent programme by Chris Johnstone titled “The Czechoslovak legions: myth, reality, gold and glory”:

“I learned something I did not know but suspected in Czech history. That it has a military history that stretched out beyond the country’s borders in the last 200 years. And to learn that the Czech forces served in Siberia for three years was an interesting fact for me. Quite the trek beyond the comforts of home, indeed. Nice to see the call of duty back then was as strong as the feeling I get from reading other military articles on Radio Prague of today.”

Václav Havel

Howard Barnett from England has this question:

“Please can you tell me what the position of the playwright Václav Havel is, as regards government? Or is he just a playwright now?”

As Václav Havel’s CV on his official website says his occupation since 2003 has been that of a “citizen”. His last term of office expired on February 2nd 2003 and since then he has not held any political post. According to his website, Mr Havel is involved in a number of human rights and charitable projects, for instance within the Vize 97 and Forum 2000 foundations. He also devotes some of his time to writing and most recently film directing.

Grant Skinner also from England would like to know:

“What do you do with the reception reports after you have read them? Do you keep them and file them or do you shred them and recycle them? If you recycle them, how much do you think you recycle in a year?”

I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you precise figures but I will at least try to illustrate the situation. Both in 2008 and 2009 the whole of Radio Prague received close to 21,000 letters and e-mails – most of which were e-mails. Most of those e-mails were just read on screen and never printed out. I don’t have the figures for reception reports as such but in case of the English section it is usually a third of the overall amount. But letters and those e-mails that get printed out are recycled along with other paper used in Radio Prague. All documents containing personal data are always shredded before recycling.

Thank you very much indeed for those questions and comments and please keep them coming. Finally, let me repeat this month’s quiz question for one last time:

Regular listeners may remember that our mystery lady more than two years ago was Sophie Chotek, the wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who along with her husband perished in the Sarajevo assassination in 1914. They were shot while sitting in a car. There was another person of Czech origin in the car and he is our mystery man for this month.

You have until Tuesday to send us his name to [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague. Next week on this programme we’ll read some of your correct answers and we’ll select the lucky winner. Until then, thanks for listening.