What are some funny facts about Czech Culture?

Pictured above, the Greatest Czech of all Time, Jara Cimrman

• Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other country on the face of the earth. As the guide books say, it’s cheaper than water.[1]

• Not too long ago, the sexiest female Czech politicians all posed for a calendar. [2]"Women's political influence is growing. Why not show we are women who aren't afraid of being sexy?"

• When I first moved here, during the weather forecast, if the forecast called for was a hot summer’s day the weatherwoman (or weatherman, sometimes) would, while conducting the weather forecast, strip down to a bikini or pair of speedos so viewers would the appropriate mode of dress for the morrow. Sadly, this has become a thing of the past.

• The Czech Republic celebrates the Catholic saints Cyril and Methodius and the Protestant martyr Jan Hus, on two subsequent days in July. Equal time, I guess.

• The hardest-drinking, most macho, toughest, most amply beer-gutted Czech man will spend Christmas Eve watching reenactments of fairy tales on Christmas Eve.

• Czechs buy live carp for Christmas dinner. They let them live in their bathtub for a few days “to clean them out”before hammering their brains out and frying them up. A tradition which is sadly disappearing but still alive.

• On Easter Monday, especially in some villages in Moravia, Czech men visit women in the town and beat them with switches and/or pick them up and throw them in local rivers, lakes and streams — or failing that, in the shower. The men are then rewarded for their strenuous efforts with colored eggs, sweets and slivovice.

• When the Soviet Union invaded in 1968, Czechs in Moravia, unable to resist in any more significant way, changed road signs to Prague, misdirecting the Soviet army; the Soviet tanks travelled for quite a ways before they realized that they were completely lost.

• Czechs love a good pig-slaughter. People get together, slay a pig, then spend the day converting every single molecule of it into food, getting rip-roaring drunk in the process.

• When asked to vote for “The Greatest Czech of all Time”, Czechs overwhelmingly voted for Jára Cimrman — a fictional character. When the TV program conducting the poll disqualified Cimrman on the grounds that he did not, you know, actually exist, an online petition was launched to keep Cimrman eligible for the honor of “Greatest Czech."

• AThe Czech prime minister is a former FSB (something like the old Czechoslovak KGB) agent….and he’s from Slovakia…allied with the Communists. Not exactly funny but plenty absurd, if you think about it.

• The leader of the local far-right nationalist party is half-Japanese.

Footnotes

[1] List of countries by beer consumption per capita - Wikipedia

[2] Female Czech MPs pose for calendar 

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I Am Part of the Resistance...yuk,yuk,yuk

It captured my attention, that letter to the New York Times, in which a anonymous cabinet member told us that they were part of the resistance.

When I first read the letter, the very juiciness of it all got me thinking like very few Op-Ed pieces ever have.

Because it’s not an Op-Ed piece. It is a powerful political lightning bolt that has been thrown, using the New York Times as the rod and conduit that conveys it’s nasty message far and wide.

It is action, not opinion. An explosion.

Yesterday, after the gossipy glee with which I read the letter dissipated, I started worrying about the implications of what is going on.

This is a Constitutional Crisis, screamed the Facebook headlines ! The cowardly letter writer should show himself and remove Trumpo from office!

These are scary times, I told myself. Who knew how Trump would react? Would he fire everyone and declare nuclear war (possibly literally) against his enemies?
Pilot the Good Ship Whitehouse completely on his own, blazing its fiery trail of destruction and mayhem across the Face of the Earth? Who can Trump trust now?

There’s something so…post-modern about the letter.

Something that makes me doubt it’s authenticity. Not the content of it…but the timing of it…the message of it.

Let’s look at the message. Several points were made: here is what I took out of it:

1. Yes, Trump is an unstable buffoon stumbling from crisis to crisis, creating crises every time he flaps his Twitter-jaws.
1. We knew that already. We’ve had TWO books, including one just last week telling us this, as if it were not perfectly obvious anyway.
2. But Trump has an agenda that pleases Republicans, so we’re keeping him in power.
1. This is also kind of obvious….but who does it reassure? Enemies of Trump in general? Democrats? Hell no! It reassures Republicans who are lukewarm or hostile to Trump.
3. There is a Deep State, but we prefer the term Stable state.
1. Ah, so Putin and Trump were right! There is a Deep State preventing Trump from doing what he really wants to do.
1. And this fires up the Trump base. The Deep State bastards must be 
1. stopped!!!! The only way to help Trump is to get out and vote in November!
2. Not only that, but it makes even civic-minded, somewhat moderate Democrats, the ones who really believe in the USA and the principles it was founded on, start talking about how unConstitutional the picture this letter, which signifies a coup d’etat, really paints.
   
   It deflates them. Does it matter who they vote for? Is hatred of Trump really getting them to support a coup of the country? Where do we go from here?
   
   Isn’t it easier to just, you know, fall back into the sweet bliss of apathy and unwokedness that characterized the last, oh, 40 years of politics in America than deal with all this stress?
2. Don’t worry, the adults are in charge.
1. Another message to non-batshit Republicans. ‘Sall good, y’all. The Agenda is being advanced, after all: and that’s all that matters, eh? We know what you all want. We’ll keep him from nuking Kim and Assad.
In the wake of the message it’s been put forward that Pence wrote the letter. Because of a few words that he apparently uses: lodestar. Especially.
Well, that’s pretty damn convenient. Because Pence is the one mothafucka in the White House who Trump can’t fire.
Who does the letter help? It helps Trump. No one else.
I’m not saying Trump wrote the letter: it has obviously been written by someone a little more literate than our Twitter-star. But I’m not convinced, for all his outrage and his screams of TREASON?????, that he wasn’t aware of it from the get-go. But he doesn’t have to be for it to do it’s nefarious work on the nerves of the American people.
It’s got the quality that I expect only from the best post-modern Russian propaganda:it makes me doubt.
It makes me doubt reality.
It makes me doubt popular narratives.
It makes me doubt the integrity of the government.
It makes me doubt myself for feeling relieved that a non-democratic coup d’etat has been pulled off.
It gets me running around in circles: it is legit? Is it a hoax? Who wrote it? How will it affect Trump? Will he do something crazy now? Should I start stockpiling canned food? Should I be grateful that the Deep State is in charge? Does Democracy really amount to a hill of beans anyway? At least the Cabinet is protecting us from Trump, right?
Somewhere someone is laughing his ass off over this and it ain’t me. But I do admire the showmanship.
I’m calling this what I think it is: one more episode in the Wretched Reality Show that Trump has made of the Presidency.
It scares the shit out of me

How do Czech people feel about the Zeman's victory in the presidential election?

Most of the Czech people I know are pretty unhappy about it, but whie I live in a rural area (Zeman has more support in rural areas), I live in a bubble of educated, usually bi-lingual or tri-lingual, white-collar folks — the type of folks who don’t like Zeman.

The ones who support him are actually happy, of course.

About the most positive thing to take from it (for those of us who are unhappy) is that the polls had Zeman winning by a wider margin. The margin was less than two percent, and when the votes of voters overseas are counted, it may be less than one percent.

The truth is, Drahoš was not a particularly strong candidate. Personally, I think that of all the candidates, Fišer came off best, but he didn’t make it to the second round.

Watching the “debate” on TV Nova (I use quotation marks because it seemed like more of a hockey match than a debate, complete with chanting crowds and cheering, jeering spectators) earlier this week was enough to tell me that Zeman was probably going to win. He’s an ugly, sickly old man, but he has an incredibly strong on-screen presence, with a dark, cynical sense of humor; and, though his presence is aprofoundly negative presence, it is still stronger than Drahouš, who, sadly, comes off like a priss, even though I don’t think he really is.

The old TV image game.

---

Going forward, I think this election has grave implications for the future: Zeman seems likely to confirm food-and-media billionaire Babiš’ hold on the country.

While at the moment Babiš is making a lot of pro-EU noises, I think that will change when the EU starts putting pressure on him with regards to his corruption scandals, which involved EU funds.

He will get his legal immunity in the country , but the whole country will pay for the illegality of his dealings. Unfortunately, he owns some of the most popular and mainstream media the Czech Republic has, which means the great majority of people will read and accept his skewed, spun version of the truth.

The Czech Republic, which has always been Euro-sceptic, maybe as much as the UK if not more, seems set to really be a thorn in its side and I can only see the relationship getting worse. This is a tragedy in my honest opinion, even though Zeman, as president does not have much power. It bodes badly for the future in Europe.

It all comes down to anti-immigrant sentiments, something I feel very strongly about as an immigrant myself and as someone who grew up among immigrants and counts some of them as his greatest friends. To be honest, this immigrant issue is tearing the EU apart and while everyone in Western Europe can deny that this is happening, or dismiss it as the unimportant opinion of some marginilized racists, it is that very attitude which helps fuel it further.

There is really only one world figure of respectability who should be rubbing his hands with glee with this outcome in my opinion and that is Putin, but the Chinese seemed to want it, too, as last week it emerged that the Chinese had donated heavily to some NGO’s that supported Zeman’s campaign.

What movies are you watching this Holiday season?

Our favorites are

• It’s a Wonderful Life. The actually incredibly dark (upon reflection) family classic about George Bailey, a man driven to literal insanity by an inhumane and crushing capitalistic system. He sees visions of the world as it really is, minus the warm sentimental delusion he has lived his life under: a cold hard, heartless world of juke joints, bitter alcoholics and washed up probably drug-addicted hookers; of homeless ever-drunken child-killers brutally preyed upon by mean-spirited blue-collar thugs. 
• 
  
• Finally, Bailey decides (SPOILER ALERT) to take advantage of his neighbors’ sentimentality by taking all of their money, thus taking his rightful place at the top of the Bedford Falls semi-feudal foodchain.
  
   One of the darkest and greatest movies every made. Seriously.

• Home Alone 2: A comic romp in which an psychopathic youngster uses his formidable imagination to attempt to murder two down-on-their-luck simpletons just trying to get by in the dog-eat-dog world of early nineties Manhattan. Featuring everyone’s favorite president, Donald Trump and tragic Hollywood icon McCauley Culkin.
  
  My son laughs and laughs and laughs at this, which brings the Christmas spirit to me.

• The Polar Express: A weird-looking fantasy about a cynical kid who has a dream that allows him to buy into a variety of Christmas myths; it ends with his admission that he hears sounds that no one else hears. He literally spends the rest of his life pathetically believing in Santa Claus.
  
  Featuring a Tom Waits-esque Nighthawks in the Diner snow-ghost and a super creepy talking puppet. Also featuring a character called Know-it-all, who sounds like someone attempting to sound Jewish, but who apparently is not. Tom Hanks plays literally everybody in the film except the little black girl.

Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer: An stop-motion animated fantasy about a highly unusual reindeer who learns a valuable lesson: freakishness is tolerable, as long as you can prove you can provide a useful contribution to society. Or as long as the fantastically capricious, narrow-minded red-suited grump who rules your kingdom with an iron fist decrees you are. "Then all the reindeer loved him..."

Otherwise, you are free to go out in the cold wilderness to either freeze to death or get devoured by a terrifying roaring snow-monster. Features really scary “talking toys” and a prospector from the Yukon territory so stupid that he looks for gold on drifting icebergs.

Is the Czech election result a victory for Russia?

Both the New York Times and the BBCOnline seem to sort of be saying it is, lumping it in with recent victories of far-right parties in Austria, Hungary and Poland. 

They are wrong though and plainly do not have a real handle on Czech politics. . While ANO is not a traditionally "left-wing" party, they are not really a right-wing party either. 

Ondrej Babiš,  the Slovak-born ex-STB agent who heads the ANO party and is the probable new prime minster,  for all the MANY things I dislike about him, is not a Putin-puppet, as far as I can see, nor were most of the rest of the parties that got significant votes.

Nor is he even particularly  anti-EU, which a Putin-supported leader would be. He is  anti-Euro (like most people in this country — including myself). 

He may stand for softer sanctions against Russia but that is not necessarily an unpopular stance and doesn’t mean that he is working for Russia.

He is just out for himself, first and foremost as far as I can see.

There are accusations, which I totally believe, that the populist far-right leader Tomio Okamura is supported by Putin, and certainly he is of the same ilk as other far-right neo-nationalist politicians in, for example, Hungary.

Okamura’s party did get a significant showing (for this election, anyway — roughly ten percent of votes, technically fourth place, but there is not much difference between second, third and fourth place in this election) but it is far from clear that he will be part of a ruling coalition.

And even if Freedom and Democracy Party(Okamura’s Party) does become a coalition partner, it is not at all clear that that would be good for Russia in the long run anyway, as junior partners in coalitions tend to get crucified by the major coalition partners in this country.

Now if you ask me, I think Babiš is likely to be unpopular in Brussels in the coming years, and Putin may try to exploit this to his own ends, (which are mainly the weakening of the EU and NATO and a new Yalta-style agreement of non-interference in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, Georgia, etc) but this is not the same as the plainly Putin controlled parties in other parts of Central Europe.

ASOIAF and GOT: Who is Quaithe? What is her role in ASOIAF? And why has the show cut her after Season 2?

Dany met from Qarth in a Clash of Kings. Since then, for some reason, she sends visions to Dany to manipulate her but no one seems to know why. Her messages and visions (which I assume are sent by by glass candle) are couched in fantasy-mystic crypto-speak that seem designed to drive Dany (and the reader) insane.

Some theories about who she really is (since she wears a wooden mask that obscures her face) include:

• Shiera SeaStar (legendary old Targaryen woman, Bloodraven’s lover. Some kind of sorceress, but would be way old by now.)
• Ashara Dayne (no evidence)
• Alleras/Sarella, using Archmaester Marwyn’s glass candle (I guess because she is called the Spinx, who speaks in riddles, as Quaithe does)
• Daenerys from the distant future. (Yes, I have read this.)
• a figment of Daenerys’s mad-Targaryen imagination.

For all I know she is none of these things, but she clearly has an agenda. But it is impossible to say what it is, or even if she is on Dany’s side or not.

As to why the show cut her out after Season 2….well.

• They really cut out a LOT of MUCH MORE IMPORTANT things than that.
• I assume that whatever Quaithe is, and whoever she is, her role in the books dovetails with something they have cut from the show, thus rendering her character and its role meaningless. Back in Season 2 they had not planned so far and didn’t quite know what they were going to cut: I don’t care what they say, that is obvious.
• Also they seem to have some kind of hangup with characters seeing visions, having dreams or flashbacks other than Bran. They’ve had a few, but for the most part they think that kind of storytelling is “lame” even though it is used in most shows and stories.

GOT/ASOIAF: Why has Arya suddenly changed in Season 7? She seems so psychotic and unreasonable

 I think this has always been the hidden dark side to Arya’s arc.

The audience may cheer it when she cuts the eyes out of a pedaphile like show-Meryn Trant and tortures him before killing but when you think about it, it is pretty fucked up. You have to be in a very, very, very dark place to be able to do that. Even to a pedaphile.

Arya is traumatized. This is a little more clear in the books.

She has seen members of her household slain for no reasons: even the Septa who helped bring her up. She has survived on the streets. She has seen her father beheaded. She has starved and eaten insects to survive. She has witnessed atrocities right in front of her face on the road to Harrenhal: rapes, murder, child-killings, dismemberments, baby killings, horrific and unspecified torture for no reason at all; things that made all human existence seem completely meaningless, destitute and utterly bestial. In Harrenhal she was was physically and psychologically abused, and threatened with sexual abuse more than once; she witnessed gang rapes on women who had been put in stocks naked for anybody to have. She got to a point where she hid her personality down deep and became uncharacterisitically “mouse”-like and reticent. All this in the huge, dehumanizing expanse of the gigantic mega-fortress of spooky-ass Harrenhal.

The only thing that gave her a sense of confidence and control over her uncontrollable situation was murder, which she chose to exercise her uncompromising sense of justice.

But then she went to Braavos and was subjected to brainwashing and training that made her a literally supernatural killer, but also warped her way of looking at the world.

Meanwhile, Sansa has been on a different voyage: one less physically brutal, but psychologically tough: but one which has seen her getting a political educaton from Cersei, Joffrey, and Littlefinger.

Sansa also has a sense of justice and good but she thinks like a politician; inherently dishonest, in which compromises are made on the way to a greater goal.

Arya is not equipped to think this way. She is younger, she sees things in black and white.

She is not equipped to understand the kind of compromises that Sansa has made; the kind of compromises that any effective leader has to make. She reacts in an extreme and violent way

(Granted, she is coming off as stupider than in former seasons. Perhaps she is playing a subtle game in order to fully gauge Sansa’s intentions and she is not so stupid. But mostly, I think that the show has done a poor job earlier in letting is in on the dark side of Arya’s psyche, painting her instead as a humorous hero who kills the baddies without much repercussion for her soul or character.)