We have graffiti in the United States, some places more than others. In general, however, the graffiti is usually just “C.M. loves B.J.” or an obscenity, basically nothing that means anything to anyone besides the graffitist. These scrawled words and pictures usually just ruin whatever they were written on and are just a general distraction. One of the first things I noticed when we took our first walk around Prague was the copious amount of graffiti, scrawled on everything from lamposts to benches to tram cars. Although the graffiti here is just as unattractive as that in the States, some of that graffiti is actually making a political point.
On an initial walk around the city, one of the most interesting pieces of graffiti was “antifa” spray painted several times in a row along a wall. Antifa is translated as antifascist. Another was “fight state” scrawled across the side wall of an older building. Finally on a jersey barrier on the Charles Bridge, “Kosovo is Serbia” is spray painted in bold letters.
Seeing these examples of popular public protest, even though they were just some words scrawled in spray paint, really made me think about the reality of life in Czechoslovakia under the former Communist regime. Although some are obviously not from before the Velvet Revolution, they all still speak of an underground protest movement, a political activism that people expressed the only way they could. To me, that hits home much harder than just seeing a memorial or reading about the Czechoslovakian Communism.
There’s the view right next to this restaurant Bella Vista (nobody strained any muscles with that one) yesterday. Today, we wrapped up day two of our classes at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), but again, here we will focus on far more critical things:
Czechs reenact U.S. Civil War battles. Legit for real, one of the Collegiate Network fellow’s has a friend putting together a documentary about these groups of Czech men who go out to reenact mostly WWII battles in American gear, but also Civil War, Bull Run style reenactments. Seriously, this has to be the most hilarious thing ever.
“Jaromir Jagr’s our Holy Trinity.” Sunday night, we went to a reception where we all got a chance to speak with some Czech and Slovak students and people who work at PSSI, which led to a sports discussion about Sparta Prague, and then the NHL, which they’re big on over here — the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup was on the front page of the sports section the other day. After we got discussing how everyone and their grandmother is an atheist in the Czech Republic, one of the guys joked that Jagr was the Holy Trinity. You want to know where is not the Holy Trinity? Washington D.C.
“The Lives of Others is so simple even Americans can understand it.” Life Lesson #426: When you marvel at your own cleverness and taste and ask a question about a foreign film you’ve seen because it has a relevant subject matter (i.e. Communist resistance), you will immediately be told that the movie in question kind of blew.
How I Met Your Mother is popular in the Czech Republic. AWESOME. This is probably the best thing anyone has told me in months. (Ever? Haha lol jk?) The girl I was talking to was like “I came back from abroad and my brother kept telling me, do you like HIMYM? HIMYM, what’s that? Then I go to this party and my friends were all like, ‘Oh, you’re such a woo girl.’” This then led to my having to explain the woo girl thing to most of the other people in my group, who did not appreciate the richness of the awesome at hand.
You can buy Redskins dolls and Harry Potter marianettes here.
There’s just nothing like a good piece of pottery for a sports fan.
When I think about the anecdotes we’ve heard in the past several days about life under the Communist regime and about what the Czech Republic has been doing since the Velvet Revolution, I’m amazed at how far they’ve come but also saddened and angry to think about what people here and in so many other places suffered.
Yesterday, after we left Vaclav Havel’s office, we passed the Communism memorial, which was one of the most understated but effective and haunting memorials I’ve seen. There is a statue of a man on a staircase, and as you go up, there is less and less to him until there is nothing left. The plaque states that the memorial is dedicated not only to those who were killed during that time, but to all those whose lives were destroyed. That has stayed with me throughout the past two days, when we’re walking through the city or in a session, hearing from people who lived through it and helped bring down the regime, and seeing that has made all of this that much more powerful and meaningful. A protester recently set the memorial on fire, and there has been talk of the Communist Party gaining some influence in the Czech government after the October elections. It’s difficult to imagine why, after everything they’ve gone through, there would still be even this much support for Communist influence.
It’s also been interesting to hear about other post-Soviet countries, and the dynamics between the Czech Republic and these other nations. Yesterday, we heard from Jan Marian from the Czech Foreign Ministry, who discussed the state of the government and human rights in Belarus and how the Czech Republic is attempting to draw them out from under Russian influence. It’s disturbing to hear about these oppressive regimes and the gross human rights violations that are carried out regularly, but also somewhat inspiring to hear from people who are actively working to do something about it.
As an addendum to Alex’s post about our visit to Vaclav Havel’s office, I thought I’d offer a list of some of the cooler stuff I noticed floating about the room:
- A picture of Havel having an animated discussion with Lou Reed
- A small bust of Gandhi
- A flag mandala given to Havel by the Dalai Lama
- Selections from his bookshelf: The Holy Quran, a collection of Bob Dylan lyrics, a biography of Nelson Mandela, and a multitude of art histories and critiques (e.g. “Art and Humanist Ideals: Contemporary Perspectives”)
- His CD stack was topped off by “The Bill Clinton Collection Volume II,” which, given Havel’s music bona fides, must have been a gift. (I can almost imagine Clinton handing Havel his CD and saying, “I hear you like music. Did you know I play saxophone?” I mean, say what you will about Clinton, but Coltrane he was not.)
On the one hand, today’s visit to former Czech president Vaclav Havel’s office was not at all what I expected. I hardly realized we had reached our destination when we stopped outside the ordinary, unassuming entrance to his office. Located on a quiet side street, the office was hardly what one might expect for a man revered in his country and around the world as one of the most influential intellectual and political personalities in modern times.
After being ushered inside by one of Havel’s three staffers (downsized from the 180 he had during his time in office), we were shown into Havel’s post-presidential suite. Aside from the courtyard with a weird, rather creepy angel statue, the place was rather cramped, consisting of only three small connected rooms. Unique modern art and artsy contemporary décor were the first thing to catch the eye: Abstract painting adorning the low, domed ceilings and walls. A rather odd statue of a figure wearing a brown hat, a flower jacket, and long golden hair. There were numerous photographs of the former president with famous dignitaries and celebrities — one humorous one showed Havel with Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright drinking merrily at a Czech bar.
At the center of the table in the middle “conference” room an engraved plate with the opening sentence of the U.S. Constitution was prominently displayed — a gift from President Obama to Havel during his recent visit to Prague.
Books lined the numerous shelves which formed the “walls” between the three rooms of the office, and the collection was very eclectic — several spines belied the former president’s love for The Velvet Underground. Much of the rest of the shelf space was taken up by numerous copies of Havel’s own prolific writings, both fiction and non-fiction.
This brings me to the other hand I mentioned at the beginning of this post; upon further review, the office we saw meshes perfectly with everything I know about Vaclav Havel. As his staff told us today, the man is unassuming, calm, modest – even shy – and precise. Those qualities, along with his obvious love for pop culture (especially rock music) were evident in his office. As a playwright, intellectual, activist, and reluctant politician, Vaclav Havel’s eccentricities were manifested in the office we saw today.
As I scanned the numerous books in his office, a thought occurred to me, something that kind of sums up the thing I like most about Havel — it must be nice, I sighed to myself, to have a president who has written books about subjects other than himself. We could use a bit more of that spirit in the U.S., if you ask me.
One of the first things I noticed upon arriving in Prague was that young people dress like a bad 80s movie, in which wearing massively strange clothing is to be expected. While I wondered why this strange sense of fashion prevailed in a country for far from the U.S., I began to notice that the only sign of the United States besides KFC and McDonalds were huge posters for a Madonna concert coming this summer. This represents the worst of what American culture has to offer and it makes me wonder how much of America’s negative perception overseas is truly due to primacy and how much can simply be chalked up to our pop stars, for whom we are at least partially responsible for because of our constant financial support (through the buying of CDs, books, magazines).
Today is the first day of the “course” part of the Geo-Strategic Journalism Course. The students and staff have spent the last day and a half orienting themselves to the city. Last night we had a welcome reception at PSSI. Now it’s off to former Czech President Vaclav Havel’s offices and then PSSI for the first lectures. Stay tuned!
In an earlier blog post, Kyle Klavetter wrote, ”There is a good reason why the Dartmouth Review and, among other intellectual conservatives, Mr. Buckley argued against the divestment of South Africa and it is the same reason why most liberal ideas are opposed: such ideas appeal nicely to emotion but, upon evaluation of their real world consequences, are seen to have unintended and regrettable consequences”.
With all due respect (sorry, Kyle): Divestment can and should be an important options for individuals who want their portfolios to reflect their beliefs. This is one issue that the left has right.
Our flight to Prague connected through Heathrow, where we had a four hour layover. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Heathrow is the size of a small town and filled with a Kafka-esque * maze of security checkpoints, escalators and closed-circuit TV cameras.
For example, as you are herded through one of the numerous queues, there are Heathrow employees whose whole job seems to be to yell at the crowd and tell them to dispose of “any liquid of more than 100 milliliters.” This provided endless entertainment as the incoming horde of tourists tried to dispose of all the small bottles of wine they had smuggled from their flights - some by simply chugging them in line. Continue reading this entry »
As you can see from John’s post below the CN staff and students have finally arrived in Prague. Our flight was over night so we’re all running on only a few hours of sleep. But before we rest we’re heading to Cafe Savoy to meet Kristin Deasy for dinner. Kristin is the CN’s fellow at Radio Free Europe and has spent the last year in Prague.
Expect more updates from students and keep an eye on the photostream too.
