NvB: Bored in Brno?

The Final Curtain

2008-05-16T16:04:00.003+02:00

Well, dear readers, my dissertation is almost completed. It will be done by the end of the month. I suspect that this will mean the final completion of this blog (I know that sounds odd, but it's the blog has been in a "semi-completed" state since I left Brno), barring the odd update from time to time when I'm in the CR. I hope that, if there are any regular readers left, you have enjoyed it all. I may publicize it here if I start a new blog. At the moment, I still update my del.icio.us links, which you can find syndicated at the bottom of the right-hand column.

Czech Phil Plays On!

2008-02-22T19:31:00.005+01:00

On the music side of things, on which my comments have been thin recently, there's been a development at the Czech Philharmonic. Rosie Johnston reported on Czech Radio about the new music director:

The Czech Philharmonic has a new conductor. As of 2009, the orchestra which was first conducted by Antonín Dvořák over a century ago will hand the baton over to the Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal. (More)

Tags: music, czech, orchestra

Czechs in Space, and Other Trivia

2008-02-21T21:44:00.002+01:00

Did you know that you can find out what Czechs have in common with other nations by visiting the "official Website" of the CR (czech.cz)?

Learn such valuable information as:

What do Czechs have in common ... with Americans?

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush included Jaromír Vejvoda’s song Škoda lásky
along with a photograph of the composer in his presidential library. In 1995, the Czech song was used to as a wakeup alarm for the astronauts on board the Discovery space shuttle.

I'm so amazed.

The Economists, Stupid!

2008-02-11T19:01:00.001+01:00

The Czech presidential elections roll on into their second week, as Petr discusses.

I'd just like to point out that one is a University of Michigan professor. Go Blue!

From an American p.o.v., one would think that there would be less deadlock when there is not a nationwide election, yes? Then you would be wrong. Even though the Czech parliament has only 281 votes to count, there is still no winner. They're going into the third vote, which will happen later this week.

Both candidates are economists.

Still Here

2008-02-08T17:01:00.001+01:00

Another month, another chapter or two drafted. That's all for now.

Well, not completely "all," since it is probably significant that I have made it past "Paczki Day" (our local southeastern Michigan nod to Polish pre-Lenten customs) without significant artery cloggage (I hope). You may be familiar with these by another name in the Czech Republic, but I guarantee that they were delicious in Michigan, as Kitchen Chick attests. Fortunately for Ann Arborites, there is a wonderful "European" restaurant (it's actually more Polish) called Amadeus that made paczki again this year. The remaining challenge is, "how do we pronounce it?" (Americanized, Czech-like, or in the Polish manner, listen here.)

My goal now is to give up procrastination Lent. :-)

More about paczki at wikipedia.

More on Fieldwork

2008-01-07T21:52:00.000+01:00

Fieldwork must certainly rank with the more disagreeable activities that humanity has fashioned for itself. It is usually inconvenient, . . . sometimes physically uncomfortable, frequently embarrassing, and, to a degree, always tense.

William B. shaffir, Robert A. Stebbins, and Allan Turowetz, eds., Fieldwork Experience: Qualitative Approaches to Social Research (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980), p. 3.

Tags: quotes, anthropology, ethnography, fieldwork, culture

Pensieve pro Presidentials?

2007-12-19T18:35:00.000+01:00

This is a worldview that detests anger as a motivating force, that distrusts easy dichotomies between the parties of good and evil, believing instead that the crucial dichotomy runs between the good and bad within each individual.

David Brooks writing in the NYTimes about Barack Obama's personality.

The Big D

2007-12-10T19:52:00.000+01:00

The dissertation does not make these pages very often. However, once in a while even it has to make an appearance. In fact, it has been somewhat like the gian elephant in the room throughout this entire blog: my most major project, yet rarely directly mentioned. It has not yet come to a standstill. It does need occasional inspirational quotes, however:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Substituting "page" for "day" in the above would not make it less helpful where dissertators are concerned.

Tags: dissertation, quotes

World Aids Day Retrospective

2007-12-04T19:48:00.001+01:00

As usual, I'm behind. But I thought the above video from EUTube might be of interest to all. Plus, I didn't make any post about World Aids Day on 1 December. There is not much attention given to HIV/AIDS in the Czech Republic, and last I heard, condom use was on the decline (the situation in 2003). The video is a good reminder, apart from the slightly misleading depiction of the virus traveling on the bottom of shoes. Other than that, the information is, well, disturbing.

Previously at NvB: Day With(Out) Art
Electing Capitalism, or Pepino and Cold Chicken

Tags: europe, czech, worldaidsday, aids, hiv

See also: aids.gov

The Honor of Czech Music? Fine, I Quit!

2007-12-03T22:49:00.000+01:00

I just noted that Zdeněk Mácal is now the former conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. Macal was credited with bringing the orchestra back to a former prestige for the first time since the Communist era. But apparently he didn't get on well with critics in Prague. He decided to quit the orchestra unexpectedly in response, some have suggested, to a negative review in Lidové noviny.

The critic, Czech Radio Vltava editor Jindřich Bálek, does underrate the performance, but the review headline is one of those damning by faint praise: "To the honor of Czech music without an exceptional performance." Though this may seem a lukewarm criticism, insulting Czech music can be a major offense (see my post on the "Grand Tradition"). The critic lauds the orchestra for performing "little played" pieces—in this case Dvořák's Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major and Josef Suk's symphonic poem Zrání—but suggests that they be played in more impressive fashion. "After all, some works needto be rehearsed more, or they are better off left unplayed," he concludes, pointing out a missed opportunity for the orchestra to attract new audiences to classical music since the concert was broadcast on Czech Television.

Václav Riedlbauch, the Orchestra's executive director, told the CTK news service that Mácal "is a very emotional man, and he just reacted to the latest review on Friday the way he reacted." Riedlbauch apparently denied that there was any larger agreement between the conductor and management. I was incredulous, but the Orchestra's Web page does say that Mácal's tenure ended 8 September.

Tags: czech, classical, music, philharmonic

2007-11-27T17:21:00.000+01:00

Rosslyn Glassman visited Mariánské lázně, a spa town in West Bohemia, and wrote about it in the travel section of the New York Times. The trip was not exactly as expected...

THE doctor looked at me over his steel-rimmed glasses. "And what is your problem?" he asked.

"Well, I’m tired and a bit stressed."

"That is not a problem."

"I have high blood pressure, and cholesterol."

"Yes, but why are you here?"

"I thought I’d try to lose weight."

"You could do that at home. Why are you here to take the cure?"

Oh dear, I’d better come up with something or he’ll refuse to let me stay.

"I damaged my ear drum and have tinnitus and bad balance."

"That is excellent," he said. "For this I will recommend six mineral baths, six gas baths, three gas injections, three inhalations and three manipulations. You will exercise in the pool and walk three miles a day. You will also go three times to the springs and drink three liters a day."

Tags: travel, writing, czech, europe

How to Record Music

2007-11-10T23:26:00.000+01:00

From the essay "Fieldwork: Recording Traditional Music" by George List (1972, U. Chicago Press):

The field expeditions of the Institute for Dialect and Folklore Research at Uppsala, Sweden, consist of a collector and a technician who travel in a small bus equipped with two racked tape recorders. The bus is parked in front of the home of an informant. the collector then goes into the house carrying a microphone attached to a long cord that issues from the bus. The technician remains in the bus, operates the equipment, monitors the recording, and switches the microphone from the input of one recorder to the other before the first tape is exhausted. (pp. 446-447)

...If only I'd had a small bus for my fieldwork!

Tags: quotes, ethnomusicology, ethnography, fieldwork

Happy Oglo Day! or, Blog Day Obsesrved

2007-10-09T16:51:00.000+02:00

You may have noticed that I advertised Blog Day but didn't actually celebrate it. (Or you may have not noticed since regular readers have probably given up on me by this point.) Yet, in an attempt to correct the oversight, I'm observing Blog Day today. I've decided to rename it "Oglo Day" since 09/10 looks more like "oglo" than "blog," but in case that's too confusing we can just call it Blog Day Observed. And after all, given the relatively low blog activity of late, who needs an excuse for some blog linking!

Fortune Cookie Chronicles recently related a search for peanut butter in London. I suspect that the book version will be pretty exciting, after all who could not like a "live-action blog" companion to a book about the Americanness of Chinese food! (And why am I studying ethnomusicology when I could study food?!) Thanks to Hubert (who hasn't updated his blog for a very long time) for the link. Oh, peanut butter happens to be of note for NvB since The Adventure of the Peanut Butter Cookies started it all.

Oleg Klimov's travel and photo blog from Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island, consistently features wonderful and beautiful photos. It helps to read cyrillic, but the photos are captivating with or without the text. There's music of the guitar and military varieties as well as great views of the fishing culture, ocean boats, and it looks like swimming may be as cold as Lake Superior, too! I found the blog from Veronica's link at Global Voices, which partially translated some of the text. The blog may be over, but it's still worth a look.

Dr. Sean's Diary has political commentary on east and central Europe. I haven't really read through much, but it looks good if you want a critical view of politics in the region.

Lee Bidgood is a fellow ethnomusicologist studying bluegrass in Bohemia and living in Prague. He's blogging at Front Porch / Praha.

Another ethnomusicologist, Wayne Marshall, blogs at Wayne and Wax. His site, which I found recently, has obviously been more active of late and is worth a closer look as well.

I don't want to push non-independent blogs too much, but there are also now a few blogs at Transitions Online. I haven't been keeping up much, but Romantic, which posts about Romani culture in Europe (check out the Slovenian poet Lojza Podobnik), is interesting, as is Puzzle, which focuses on culture in central and eastern Europe.

Of course, Joe, Brian, and Karla are still out there, too. And I think I may have neglected ever to highlight a link to Petr Boruvka at The Czech Daily Word, still keeping the blogosphere abreast of events in Brno. (Somebody's got to do it, after all!)

In my academic life of late, I've been trying to figure out how to initiate a scholarly discussion of blogging among ethnomusicological fieldworkers. I was going to link to a few other fieldwork blogs, but I'm not sure how public the writers intend to be. There is, of course, no privacy on the internet, but one does try to maintain integrity.

BTW: As per Blog Day guidelines, one is supposed to email the authors you link to, but I'm afraid I might miss that part. Anyway, please don't be offended. Bobek* the gnome respectfully salutes you!

Previously at NvB: Blog Day 2006
Tags: blogday2007, blogday, blogs, discursions, links

* Not Bob-Bob or Robert.

del.icio.us tag this page

Ahoj!

2007-10-04T01:19:00.000+02:00

Just when you thought I'd fallen off the face of central Europea....

I'm co-hosting a radio program of East European music on Thursdays, from 9-10 p.m. (EST). For Brno and others east, that's 3-4 a.m. (Sorry!) The program is a rotating lineup of rock, ska, folklore, traditional, field recordings, and the like. Anything related to the region is fair game. And if I get my act together, there may even be a few special guests. To listen, you can stream live from WCBN's Web site. Or, if you're close enough to tune in, direct your radio to 88.3 FM.

And after all the hype, I missed Blog Day. But I'll try to get something together still.

Tags: radio, music, blogs

Cue Musicologist Laughter

2007-08-10T00:06:00.000+02:00

Schenkerians are to musicology as flowerpots are to the city of London.

Thanks to Jean-Jacques Nattiez for my musicology quote of the day. Courtesy of Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music, ch. 1.

Don't Miss Blog Day

2007-08-09T22:58:00.001+02:00

I just noticed that Blog Day will happen again this year. I had visited their site a few times in July, but it hadn't yet been updated. :-( Anyway, it was good to see that it hasn't faded away. You can read my Blog Day 2006 post, which did in fact alert me to the (then unconfirmed) rumor that Patrick Stewart would conduct the Michigan Marching Band. And he did. I wasn't there, of course.

In case that you read this and are interested in doing an extended post, Global Voices offered some good ideas last year.

Tags: blogs, blogday

Blogs, Radios, and Stuff

2007-08-09T21:49:00.000+02:00

I thought I'd draw your attention to the Czech Daily Word, a new English-language blog by Petr Boruvka, a Brno newspaper editor. I've had a link on the sidebar for a while, but just in case you hadn't noticed. In a recent post, he mentions the lack of a direct voting system in the CR. I wasn't sure whether people had strong feelings about this—I mean, it didn't seem as though there's a very active Moravian secessionist movement at present, but things can change—anyway, I also made a slightly related comment about the issue.

And hey, in case you've forgotten: send requests (you can put them in comments here) for radio tonight. If I don't get any requests, I may have to play some favorite opera selections, orchestral marhes, and promenades from nineteenth-century operettas. Well, maybe. Definitely something by a tuba ensemble (ooh! Bruckner?) and at least a polka or two. But I'm flexible. :-)

Now for a blog ramble since it's been a while. August seems to have come early this year. If I'm not mistaken, August arrived earlier than ever before. And with less happening in the intervening year since last August. But of course, the real problem is that it has brought with it annoying flocks of incoming students who seem to wander around looking confused with maps. It's worse than tourists in downtown Prague! Seeing as I've spent more consecutive time in Ann Arbor this year than any since 2001, I suppose it's not surprising that I never noticed the buildup to the academic year. No doubt it's exciting for all the new students, but while I've got a certain nostalgia for that time, I can't say I'm that envious this year.

And in weather, just in case you needed something light and fluffy. With all the rain, it seems like we're officially mourning summer. I, for one, will welcome the Ann Arbor winter this year—such a relief after dreary Central European winter. If there's one thing I don't envy the Czechs at all, it's winters—no snow, no light, hardly any cold, just unending bleakness and tepid chill.

Tags: radio, discursions, blogs

Radar Indicates: People Die Every Day

2007-07-18T20:07:00.000+02:00

Is this supposed to pass as compassion? Or perhaps the remark, made by Czech Prime Minister Miroslav Topolánek, was meant to show honesty and realism? It struck most people who heard, I imagine, as rather insensitive and uncaring. And perhaps it's indicative of something else: there's not much uplifting news from the Czech lands this summer. Perhaps I say this now because I only know firsthand what people say on their blogs and what the "mainstream" media reports. Apathy reigns again, and I wonder if it can honestly be explained by the long summer days and trips to the chalupy. As I've noted before, there seems to be shockingly small opposition and consideration of the proposed anti-missile bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. Certainly there is opposition, but my feeling at this point is that it's rather a lost cause: the politicians and military already seem to have made up their minds.

I got thinking about this again today after reading a rather disturbing report from a May press conference with Topolánek. The conference took place in west Bohemia on 4 May 2007. An insightful, and rather scathing, account of the conference was published by Jan Neoral in Britské listy, the online home of the Czech and English newspaper. Neoral is the mayor of Trokavec, a village near the town of Brdy. Brdy is close to the large military installation that will likely host the radar base and near Plzeň, home of the legendary Pilsner Urquell beer. Although the account of the conference was available in both English (slightly abridged) and Czech, I have retranslated some of the excerpts below to restore some detail and specificity.

The report's implication, that little public voice is being heard by politicians, is disturbing. First we learn that the location of the conference was probably chosen because it is in a village that is likely to agree with Topolánek. (Starting to remind you of any other politician?)

Also disturbing is the glib comparison that Topolánek drew between the current situation and the Soviet treatment of the Prague Spring in 1968. This was a reference to the crushing of the Prague Spring and the Soviet force that marched into Prague in August 1968. The invasion, at least that's how the Czechs perceived it, was meant to ensure that the government hewed to the hardline Communist policy then in sway in Moscow. The invasion force stayed for 20 years. After Václav Havel became president in 1989, he promised that the Soviets would be the last foreign power to occupy the Czech Republic. Now it looks like another foreign military presence—the United States—will be welcomed by the Czech government. In the press conference, Topolánek drew a direct comparison between 1968 and 2007:

Prime Minister Topolánek opened the debate by saying that he was glad that we now can freely meet and talk, unlike in 1968 when the Soviet military presence was forced upon the people. He asked the citizens: "Where were you in 1968 when we were being occupied by the Russians? Today, this hall is crowded!" This opening statement did not go down well with the public.

The discussion continued in this spirit: "Be glad that unlike in 1968, someone is even willing to talk to you. Anyway, I am not willing to debate with you whether the radar should be here. I am not interested in the fact that a public referendum would reject the radar. I will only talk to you on my own terms, responding to your questions in the way that suits me. You must accept my views."

Is it not odd that Topolánek essentially blames the citizenry for allowing the invasion? It seems indicative of a strange sentiment of Czech politicos: distrust the people because they should not make the decisions. I've always found it strange that many Czech politicians (or at least enough influential ones) oppose public referendums. They distrust the people at large. Recently (on 13 July), Czech President Václav Klaus warned of "cheap populism" in response to a call for a national referendum. The implication is that public opinion would be manipulated by crafty ideologists. In other words, those who oppose Mr. Klaus's unfettered free-market ideology might have a chance to pull the wool over the eyes of the public given the "well-known pacifist atmosphere in the Czech Republic and across Europe," which might mean that a decision might not go according to the plans of the politicians in power now, the center-right ODS party. (Both Klaus and Topolánek are associated with this party.)

In Czech politics, it is thought best to trust important decisions (that may ultimately have a great impact one everyone) to the educated few who have somehow proven themselves by being elected, honestly or otherwise. This is somewhat logical given the country's recent political history. In the Czech Republic, the majority are regarded as the "gray zone" (a term explicated by sociologist Jiřina Šiklová), the undifferentiated and, most importantly, unthinking (uneducated?) majority. It is suspected that they majority will be swayed more by mob mentality than by actual individual thinking and independent decision-making. Thus, in 1948, the Communists took over the government with the support of "the people" after having been elected in open elections. Distrust is born and has fomented ever since. In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split into two independent nations, not by popular referendum but by a handful of politicians (current Czech president Václav Klaus chief among them) acting on their own economic interests. According to opinion polls of the time, the majority of Czechoslovak citizens did not support the split. The Czechs and Slovaks, after all, have often considered themselves to be cultural "brothers," at least since T. G. Masaryk forged them into a political force in 1918.

Distrust of the people is reflected in the Czech parliamentary system, an "indirect democracy." For example, the president is not chosen by direct popular vote but instead selected from the 81-member Senate, the upper body of the parliament. These are politicians who have already "proven" their trustworthiness by being elected. Mr. Neoral was quick to point out this doctrine of the meek following the leaders,

People asked Topolánek why he does not want to run a national referendum on this issue. He answered that according to the Constitution, the Czech Republic is an indirect democracy. People are represented by their parliamentary deputy (MP) who has time to study the issue and who will bear responsibility for their decision. People asked what responsibility this is? Supposedly, "political responsibility." On account of the next elections.

But MPs and senators do not have greater qualifications, expertise, higher IQs, or even better judgment than citizens. They most likely have less knowledge than us, because the government tells only them its nonsense and lies. So they're not so trustworthy because from the bottom, from us, one hears different information.

None of the Czech political parties has had this important issue in its election program. So, the politicians do not have a popular mandate to make a decision on such an important issue. . . .

The premiere simply did not convince the citizens at the meeting. On the contrary, he convinced them beyond a doubt, that he is arrogant, does not listen to citizens, and only dishonestly carries out what he wants: his own pig-headed and ungrounded promotion of this dangerous monster that could be the source of great human suffering.

The Czech political elite generally believes that decisions should not be left to the majority to decide. Perhaps this was more justified when T.G. Masaryk & Co. were establishing the First Republic, although even then Czechs as a nation were surprisingly well educated as far as "peasants" are concerned. But it's strange that the attitude survives so strongly now despite all the rhetoric of an open society and a free market, politicians do not actually trust their own people. And it's true that not everyone among "the people" have the same opinions and values as the politicians currently in power, so they do face a potentially weakened political position if they abandon their hold. The danger of this situation is that they might (and often do, I suspect from my short time observing Czech politics) make decisions based more on their personal interests rather than what they consider to be objectively or morally right.

So the Senators and other deputees to Parliament "should" take the time to study these issues and work for the greater good of all, but what is to say that do? There do not seem to be any "Czechs and balances" (sorry, couldn't resist that pun). Senators have legal immunity. Where does the idea that politicians are somehow more enlightened than the rest come from? It's not a shepherd and his flock (note the masculine here), it's the blind leading the blind. Being elected is obviously an art of popularity not a guarantee of moral infallibility or intelligence. In the last election I voted in, it was obvious that the victorious candidate was neither smart, nor compassionate, nor a critical thinker, but he still became, arguably, the most powerful person in the world.

Yet another peculiarity of this ideology that only the privileged should make the decisions: the people in power oblige themselves to act autonomously with what they call "mandates." (This probably rings a chord for anyone paying even a little attention to recent American politics: "Let's act unilaterally and without consideration of anyone . . . because I can! . . . I was elected.") According to one questioner at the press conference (presumably the author of the Britské listy piece):

The mayor of Trokavec shared with Mr. Topolánek that he would like to inform him publicly that in all probability [the radar signal] would exceed the health limits set by government directive No. 480/2000 Coll. . . . The Mayor requested Mr. Topolánek to have this information further confirmed by specialists or to introduce clearer evidence.

Mr. Topolánek solved the problem as is his typical habit: He announced that this is simply not true.

That's it. Taken care of. Solved in any fashion. It could have occurred to us—as early as February—"we have nothing to worry about, it's not true, that this arrangement will 'irradiate' everything." The only specialists on the radar are the premiere of the Czech Republic and then [Defense Minister] Parkanová, no matter what statistics from the Americans or perspectives of experts indicate.

And even then the Minister of Foreign Affairs had said, regarding the construction of the radar, "no one will speak to us or influence us."

The quote of the day came when Topolánek justified possible health risks by noting that people die everywhere. No statistics or plans have been publicized, to my knowledge, that indicate the base will conform to legal standards. After all, say Topolánek and his gang, we should be able to trust the Americans, right?

One lady citizen asked: When new insulation was being tested on the space shuttle Columbia, the US crew was told that the shuttle's take-off and landing would be perfectly safe. Yet the shuttle burned and killed all those on board. You are telling us that the radar will be totally safe. What will happen if this is not true and there are harmful effects?

Topolánek answered: People die everywhere. Some of them die in the wars, others during car crashes, some just die.

So the Prime Minister accepts the fact that as a result of the stationing of the radar people will be dying here? Do we need a Prime Minister who is willing to expose his own citizens to health risk?

And the shuttle crew were American citizens. There are enough cases showing that, when non-citizens are concerned, the U.S. military may not be the best steward of local ecological and social issues. As sociologist Benjamin Vail writes in a recent op-ed for the Czech Business Weekly, "It is important also to consider the probable ecological problems that would be caused by the proposed base in Central Bohemia. Just like the Soviet occupiers of Czechoslovakia, the American military has a history of polluting the environment in and around its bases." He supplies more unsettling examples.

It was summed up by another questioner: Why trust a government that has a questionable human rights record? Why trust a nation that was an architect of the largest arms race in human history?

A citizen said to Minister of Defense Parkanová that he had expected her, as a woman, to defend world peace. Mrs. Parkanová explained that he [the questioner] really knew nothing about how difficult it is to fight for peace, that peace must be fought for with weapons, and that she is ready to do anything for it [peace]. . . .

But, minister, you did not answer the basic question. Who is defending the Czech Republic? Who is threatening world peace in Europe? Who is defending American interests?

Do you really think that the American radar will not do anything to us, that we will not become a target? Why don't you promote peace with peaceful methods? Why do you ignore the United Nations, NATO, and the unified defense policies of the European Union?

Why do you want to affiliate with the U.S.A. that withdrew from the treaty on ballistic missiles, abandoned its doctrine of non-aggression in favor of pre-emptive nuclear strike, ignores the UN and has already started one war with fabricated evidence?

Previously at NvB: Arms Race, What do you really think?, No Nukes, No Nukes II, Nukes or Ukes?

Tags: czech, us, military, europe, radar

Administrator Update, or, Obfuscatory Technical Info to Follow

2007-07-17T22:36:00.000+02:00

I am tweaking the NvB feed to make sure it's working right with feedburner and taking advantage of the new feedburner/blogger compatibility. As I signed—for the first time in about six months—I was astounded to see that feedburner was tallying 13 subscribers. Who knew?! I don't quite believe it (after all, I know that I'm at least one of those subscribers), but at the same time, I don't want to disappoint anybody by changing the settings and depriving you of even a single moment of NvB fun, er, boredom. So, stay posted and if you don't hear anything from me for the next month or so, know that perhaps you're just no longer subscribing to the right feed! Cheers and see you on the other side...

**Update: you can subscribe, just as before (and probably with no interruption) by visiting http://feeds.feedburner.com/nudavbrne.

Of course, you can always just click over at your leisure and read the blog any time in the "old fashioned" way.

Sea Hedgehogs!!!

2007-07-16T04:32:00.000+02:00

Awww, they exist in other places and languages, too. This blog's URL comes from the Czech for sea urchin—or "mosk-jeek" as blogger shortened that post's title. We don't see them very often in Brno, but the situation is different in, say, Japan!

It's a whole happy family of little sea hedgehogs, paddling along their merry little ways.

You're a Danger to Society!

2007-07-15T19:45:00.000+02:00

Here's a scenario: you're mentally ill, a murderer, an alcoholic, have a "learning disability," and you've committed a sex crime. You're arrested, placed in a mental institution, and then sentenced. What does society tell you? "You are a danger to society and we don't like you, but we don't give the death penalty; however, there is obviously something wrong with your genes and we don't think that you should be able to reproduce—not just not allowed, but actually unable. So, we will see to it that you can't."

We don't cut off your right hand here, no, that's for heathens and we are civilized and refined Europeans! Don't worry, we have an eminently humane solution, we only cut off . . . well, let's call it "protective treatment."

Apparently, if you are male, fit this description, and in the Czech Republic, this could happen. The solution? chemical castration, but let's just call it libidinal suppressant treatment. And, with your consent (though there are doubts about whether this is freely given or not) you can elect the surgical procedure. At least, is what I took away from a report by Alix Kroeger at the BBC.

I hope that I'm not the only one who finds this slightly disturbing. It sounds to me more like population engineering and thinly veiled eugenics. (Recall, for example, statements of senators about proposed birth-rate quotas back in 2005?) How is it countenanced in Europe—after the horrors of WWII, the treatment of Roma, and no doubt scores of other small but questionable treatment of human rights in central Europe.

At least one group has raised concern about the situation. Kroeger cites the release of a report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) to the Council of Europe dated 12 July 2007. Report authors, who visited a ward of the "Brno Psychiatric Hospital" with eleven sex offenders undergoing "protective treatment," stated (section II.D.5, paragraph 103):

At the outset, the CPT wishes to state clearly that it has serious reservations concerning the specific medical intervention of surgical castration as applied to certain sexual offenders (see paragraph 107). The Committee has grave doubts as to whether such an intervention should be applied in the context of persons deprived of their liberty.

The observers seemed to find the conditions lacking sufficient assessment and oversight by qualified doctors. Moreover, there were no statistics offered on how many patients receive such treatment or any follow-up information, such as how often patients who received such treatment were convicted as repeat offenders, meaning there is no way to tell if such treatment is at all effective. Nor are there standardized procedures followed in advising patients who elect surgical castration, an irreversible procedure. This appears to be in contradiction of a 1996 law on the treatment of individuals' health. Most notably, there appears to be an overlap (if not conflict) of interest by oversight panels, which the CPT noted in comments about what patients who elect the surgical procedure are told (Par. 108):

the patients received information about the potential adverse effects of surgical castration and, in all cases examined, final authorisation for the intervention was given by the panel of experts (often consisting of the medical ethical committee of the hospital that was to carry out the operation). Moreover, patients who had undergone such an operation told the CPT’s delegation that they had had the opportunity to withdraw from the treatment, even after they had made their request. One of the patients interviewed explained that an outside consultancy had been offered to him to help him make his decision, but that he had declined this. However, it would appear that the surgeon carrying out this treatment at Brno Teaching Hospital and at least one of the sexologists are also members of the above-mentioned panel of experts. The CPT considers such dual functions inappropriate.

What I thought most disturbing is that it appears that the CPT observers concluded that there was no way for patients considering these procedures could have any freedom of choice (Par. 109):

Medical interventions, and in particular medical interventions which have irreversible effects on persons deprived of their liberty, should as a rule only be carried out with their free and informed consent. Given the particularly vulnerable position of persons deprived of their liberty in this regard, it should be ensured that the patient’s consent is not directly or indirectly given under duress and that the patient receives all the necessary information when making his decision. Furthermore, the Committee considers that the concept of ‘free and informed’ consent is hardly reconcilable with a situation in which the options open to an individual are extremely limited: surgical castration or possible indefinite confinement in a psychiatric hospital.

There are certainly important and complex ethical questions involved here—but I'm afraid that the Czech position does not seem very stable. Despite the touted laissez-faire attitude toward sex in the Czech Republic, it makes me wonder whether there is not a lot of strangely repressed and rather dark currents in the Czech psyche. I'm reminded of Věra Chytilová's 1998 film Pasti, pasti, pastičky ("Traps, Traps, Little Traps," which was billed as a "feministopessimistic black comedy") in which the main character castrates two men after they rape her when she has flagged them down to ask for help repairing engine trouble. The opening credits roll over shots of pigs squealing and being castrated. Another example: recent statistics from the Child Crisis Centre show that one in four Czech girls were sexually abused and one in seven boys. This seems rather high. And what about the blind eye turned to the sex trade around Brno? And really, are all those straight men in it just for the money?

The full report is posted here. A more humorous view was posted at the Porkchop blog.

Tags: europe, czech, society, ethics

Cultural Recognitions

2007-07-09T00:35:00.000+02:00

A few notable events related to culture and history of central Europe have or will have happened this week. In Prague, the Charles Bridge celebrates its 650th anniversary.* As the curious still from Karel Vachek's documentary A New Hyperion (1992) indicates, the Bridge is viewed as an artifact of culture that, at least in this illustration, not only metaphorically connects them, but actually places New York, Moscow, and London within the Czech lands. It's a wonderfully suggestive image that visually encapsulates the frequent characterization of the Czechs themselves as a cultural "bridge" between Eastern and Western Europe, Slavic and Germanic cultures, and perhaps even History and the Present. Radio Prague also has a special feature on the bridge.

In late June, UNESCO inscribed the "Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathian" (stretching over mountains in Slovakia and Ukraine). UNESCO describes the forest as "a transnational serial natural property of ten separate components and as an outstanding example of undisturbed, complex temperate forests exhibiting the most complete ecological patterns and processes of pure strands of European beech." (More here.)

I haven't experienced the forests much myself, although I was lucky enough to travel through them in June 2005. There is a definite magic to the Ukrainian Carpathians, they have a feeling of incredible ancientness. Villages there seemed highly secluded (in part because most people cannot afford cars to travel long distances, at least not quickly), much more so than similar rural areas in the Czech Republic. Czech fascination for this area is probably most apparent in Ivan Olbracht's novel about Nikola Šuhaj, which has inspired two musicals and a film since the 1970s. Perhaps, to artists and audiences during Communist times, the setting of the Carpathians appealed as a symbol of freedom and independence that was not to be found in Czechoslovakia.

*Of course, that was a long time ago and it seems that there is a bit of dispute. Petr links to a news report that points out a nine-day discrepancy between the Julian calendar in use during Charles IV's reign (fourteenth century) and the current Gregorian reckoning.

Notes:photo and information on the Charles Bridge anniversary is from Patrick Jackson's story at the BBC; Beech forests from UNESCO. I've also discussed the UNESCO recognition of the Moravian verbuňk (recruitment dance) and suggestion to add the Ještěd television tower to UNESCO rosters.

Tags: europe, culture, czech, history, photos, events

Jan Hus - special edition

2007-07-06T00:01:00.000+02:00

Old town square of Prague
Originally uploaded by decafinata.

Yes, it's Jan Hus Day. The Czech Republic celebrates its religious heroes on July 5 and 6. Cyril and Methodius have to share the 5th, but Master Hus has the 6th all to himself. And, since it seemed like a good nationalistic holiday to celebrate with music, I'll be broadcasting a special pastiche of music and words in honor of Jan Hus and Czech legends. It will feature music from Smetana's Má vlast, and text from The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation by Ladislav Holy, Václav Havel, and my favorite eminent musicologist. Tune in for some Czech fun on American radio, broadcast live at wcbn.org at about 9:30 a.m. (CET, Brno time).*

Don't miss it!

*Yes, that's 3:30 a.m. EST.

Independence Day

2007-07-04T21:44:00.000+02:00

For lack of anything better to say on this Fourth of July, I'm reminded of my attempt at an absurdist account of last year's celebrations in Praha.

Unfortunately, I can't help but thinking the quote from Elie Wiesel's I chose last year is perhaps an even more important sentiment now.

None of us is in a position to eliminate war, but it is our obligation to denounce it and expose it in all its hideousness. War leaves no victors, only victims. . . . Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.—Elie Wiesel

What do you really think?

2007-07-02T19:57:00.000+02:00

The sentiments (about the missile base) that I felt in Brno seem to be encapsulated in this picture from Alex in Zlin. I saw similar stickers in Zlin as well as around Brno on trams and billboards last fall.

And of course, don't miss this photo—how perfect for NvB!

Tags: czech, us, politics, europe, military, missile base, photos