The bearded electrician lives on the third floor. Even though he doesn’’t show it, he’s a real rocker, he owns a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and uses it to secretly listen to his rock tracks when he comes home from work. He’’s the only one on our block with a tape recorder, everyone else has just a record player, but you can’’t listen to rock music on a record player because there are no records with rock music. Rock music is banned in our city. My friend Mishi and I once went up to him and asked him to let us […]

Tyres quietly swish on the motorway, gliding on the smooth surface almost untouched by cars right up to the Czech state border. This is one of the few motorways in Europe that has seen the number of cars using it go down. Once it was known for long tailbacks but that was a long time ago, before two nations turned their backs on one another. In 1992, in a touching display of cooperation, these two nations erected two concrete buildings for customs and border officials on the border they shared. It was as if a river had been artificially diverted […]

When he invited me to address you, Mr Marek Svoboda said: We would like you to assess the state of democracy in the world; you have a full fifteen minutes. So keep it short and sweet. Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that over the past year we have witnessed the awakening of grass roots democracy in various parts of the world. Democracy is awakening in many unexpected contexts, such as the Arab Spring or the protests in Russia. The bad news is that, on the other hand, in places where we thought democracy […]

23 March is the Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship. The relevant resolution was adopted by the Hungarian parliament on 12 March 2007 by 324 votes. There were no abstentions. On 16 March of the same year the Sejm of the Polish Republic unanimously adopted a similar resolution. This touching unanimity of the two parliaments begs for a reworking of the well-known Polish adage. Instead of the Hungarian and the Pole, always friendly / jointly riding, jointly drinking. Boisterous and joyous both / may God bless their souls, it should read: the Hungarian and the Pole / always friendly/ jointly voting, jointly […]

It’’s weird being a grown-up. I should have got used to it by now but it still feels a bit weird. It’’s not just that one has to work and earn money and meet deadlines. Being the co-owner a piece of real estate is also quite a strange business. You’’ve got to pay land tax, a piece of paper demanded, visibly unhappy with us being in arrears, suddenly and resolutely demanding payment after two years. Or take a committee. A piece of real estate has to be managed. In the past there used to be special companies that did that […]

Agnieszka Holland nedostala Oscara. V Polsku se tím nikdo moc netrápil, protože nikdo nevěřil, že ho dostane. “Doufáme v zázrak,” řekla dokonce i novinářka, která komentovala televizní přenos. Zázrak se nestal. Filmoví akademici za světový mír Oscara dostal iránský film Rozchod. Musel by být hodně špatný, kdyby ho nedostal zrovna teď, když média už měsíc vytrubují do světa zprávy o zvyšující se pravděpodobnosti izraelského útoku na Írán. Samozřejmě, že žádný útok nebude, ale samotný strach z další války na Blízkém východě – a především z íránského nukleárního programu – způsobil, že se členové Americké filmové akademie rozhodli vložit se do […]

As of today at least half of Russia is worthy of Vladimir Putin and he is worthy of that half. Our presidential election resembles a wedding. Putin has made all the preparations, including lending his face a youthful appearance, writing or having ghostwritten seven articles promising his bride – Russia – to be her defender, protector, commander-in-chief and brother. He has invited his freeloading fans from all around the country for a feast of free food and drink. But there’s a problem: the bride is split into two halves. One part of her – basically the lower half, the workers, […]

Jednoho zimního dne roku 1732 se z hrobě Balkánu dostal na světlo “osvícené” Evropy podivný tvor: upír. Kariéra jednoho z nejpopulárnějších mýtů evropské moderny ale v žádném případě  nezačíná v Transylvánii. Zrodil se totiž v Medvedji, zapadlé vesničce v jižním Srbsku, z níž se v Titových dobách stalo reálsocialistické (malo)město a v 70. letech tu vnikly termální lázně, které trpícím obyvatelům Jugoslávie slibovali zmírnění jejich obtíží. Takový obyčejný úkaz V třicátých letech 18. století byl po válkách s Turky celý západní Balkán obsazen habsburskými vojsky. Panoval tu hlad, epidemie a nejistota, co místním přinese změna vrchnosti. A pak se najednou […]

Dear Prime Minister Radičová, You have taken the words out of my mouth when you told the [Czech Prime Minister] Petr Nečas in Brussels that “‚this is not how an honest and upright man behaves”‘, that is, first rushing into the EU and then beating a retreat as soon as problems arise. And you’’re also quite right to say that back in the days when Czechoslovakia split, our countries competed who would be the first to join the EU. In my country it was actually Václav Klaus himself who led this relay race and for a long time it seemed likely […]

Photo: Peter Župník Svätý Jur, a small town near Bratislava, famous for its wine cellars, is depopulated in the mornings, with its colourful houses and plague column resembling a theatre set. The air is frosty despite the winter sun but the local pub is warm and cosy thanks to the log fire, made of wood from the local Lesser Carpathian mountains that rise right behind the fortifications built in the 17th century to keep out the Turks. As Tom Nicholson enters the pub in his padded jacket, looking as if he has just come down from the hills, the regulars […]