Tchibo

Tchibo, pronounced CHEE BO, is one of Germany's largest retail chains.  The stores are interesting.  It's a café where you can get a good cup of coffee and something sweet.  Of course, you can also purchase coffee beans and accessories.  

Then there is everything else that you can buy there such as clothing, household items, electronics, appliances, and sometimes even furniture.  You never know just quite what they will have when you go there because the non-coffee products change weekly.  In Germany, the company's slogan is Jede Woche eine neue Welt, "Every week a new world".  In Czecland, it's každý týden nový svět. 

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Tchibo Coffee Company.  It was founded in 19149 in Hamburg where it still maintains its headquarters.  The company founders were Max Herz and Carl Tchilinghiryan and the name Tchibo came from the abbreviation of Tchilinghiryan and Bohnen (coffee beans),  The company started off as a mail-order service for roasted coffee beans.

In the early 1990's the company started to expand outside of Germany.  There are about 550 stores in Germany and over 300 stores in Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Türkiye.  

The company also operates "depots" in various supermarkets have a Tchibo section of shelves selling its coffee alongside non-food items such as clothing, sporting and household goods.

Tchibo Praha, spol. s.r.o., was established in 1991 and today there are 38 stores in Czechland.  In 2021, the company expanded its distribution facility in Cheb, near the German border.  The new facility is over 102.000 sq.m. (+1 million square feet) and services seven European countries.  

Here are a couple of Czech television commercials from about five years ago that I found out on YouTube.

©Tchibo Česká republika

©Tchibo Česká republika

Here's also a short, three-minute video I found that talks about the history of the company.  It's only in German but it's still pretty easy to follow the story.

©Irgendwas mit ARTE und Kultur

Meetup in Prague

Igor, one of my former colleagues now works for Riganti which is a software development and design firm in Prague.  Late last year he invited me to speak at a Meetup event about agile project management at Microsoft's Prague office. 

I agreed to it provided that I would present in English.  There was no way that I would try to do it in Czech.

Public speaking isn't my favourite thing to do.  I can do it but it's not my idea of a good time.  Most people never believe that I'm an introvert who merely pretends to be an extrovert.

Jakob, me, and Igor

Overall it was a nice experience.  Big thanks to Igor and Riganti for inviting me to participate.  Apparently, my presentation will be online but I don't know when I'll get a chance to look at it.  

My first assistant, Jakob, was in the area so he came by to catch the presentation.  It was great to be able to catch up with the guys.

Datart

Datart is a consumer electronics store with shops across Czechia and Slovakia.  

The company was founded in Prague in 1990 and they opened their first stone in 1992.  In 2019 they opened the 100th store in Czechland.  

This is the place to go for home appliances, computers, cameras, kitchenware, music systems, mobile phones, and accessories.  If there's something that I need though I tend to order online. 

I always had a problem with how to pronounce it.  I first thought it was "Data-Art" but is it actually "Data-rt" or "Dat-art?"

Back in 2017, they were acquired by HP Tronic Group for an undisclosed amount.

Here's a commercial for Datart that I found out on YouTube.  It's at least a couple of years old.

©Datart.cz

Strážnice, Czech Republic

Kája and I spent the weekend in Strážnice which is about a two hour train ride from Brno.  

Strážnice is home to 5.400 people and is 65 km (40 miles) from Brno, close to the Slovak border.  While Neolithic pottery has been found here, the it was first written mention of the town was in 1302.  It was one of the most populated towns in Moravia at the start of the 17th century.

The old city gate bastions date back to the 16th century.  They were used to protect the town from Turkish invasions.

Behind these gates is a chapel that was consecrated in 1917.  The story goes that it was built as thanks to the men who returned in good health from WWI.

The stone cross near the gate dates back to 1769.  The baroque monument is one of the oldest in the town and marks one of the places that city executions used take place.

The nearby city cemetery dates back to 1895.

Inside the cemetery is a tombstone dedicated to the Red Army that liberated the city in April 1945.

February isn't the time of year to see storks but here's a stork nest for when the season comes.  I'm told that nearby is one of the last places in Central Europe where a forest colony of White Storks can still be seen.

The shrine at Radějovská street dates back to the first half of the 19th century.

The town hall is a protected cultural monument that dates back to the 17th century.

The Strážnice Castle, is less castle and more chateau, is from the mid-19th century.  The castle is home to the National Institute of Folk Culture and a library with over 13.000 books.

The castle is in the middle of a large park where there's an amphitheatre.  

The Parish Church of St. Martin was a Gothic church in the 15th century but it burnt down several times.  In the 1720s it was renovated in the Baroque style.  

The Strážnice Museum of the Villages of South-East Moravia is an. open-air folk museum that opened in 1981.  

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was built in 1747.

The synagogue was built in 1804 and renovated in 1879.  It was damaged in 1941 and it was then used as a warehouse.  In 1991 it was returned to the Jewish community.  Today, it is part of the Strážnice Museum.

Next to the synagogue is the Jewish cemetery which was founded in the mid-17th century.  It is 5000m² (1.2 acres) with around 1500 gravestones.

The town is located on the Baťa Canal and it's possible to take boat rides during the summer.

In front of the city museum is a statue of the philosopher and educator Jan Amos Komenský.  He studied here in 1604-1605.

Of course no Czech town is complete without a statue of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia.  Apparently he had studied here.  

Strážnice is also the home of really good potato chips (crisps).  

I hear that the factory is the town's biggest employer.

Here's a short video I found on YouTube showing the factory and how the crisps are made.

©Strážnické brambůrky Hobža

Update:  Every year, Strážnice hosts an international folklore festival.

Excalibur Army

Tomáš the Tank isn't the only tank that Czechland is sending to Ukraine.

Excalibur Army was founded in 1995 and they sell military ordnances, ammunition and vehicles.  Their headquarters are in in Šternberk, about 18 km (11 miles) from Olomouc.

Here's a short video I found on YouTube but it's in Czech.

©Excalibur Army

The company has hired 150 people, including Ukrainian refugees, to modernise old military equipment.  Excalibur Army is updating Soviet-era T-72 tanks that will go to help Ukraine.

Here's a short Voice of America piece about it.

©Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Cooperation With Taiwan

Last week, a memorandum of cooperation was signed in Taipei between Czechland and Taiwan.  This will increase the level of cooperation between the two countries in education, science, and culture.

Czechia wants to see direct flights between Prague airport and Taipei.  Recently, Czechland opened a development centre for research into semiconductors.

The national museum in Prague and the national museum in Taipei will now become sister institutions.

Cooperation between the two countries has been steadily growing.  Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, runs a subsidiary company called Foxconn CZ, runs its largest European operations centre and EU hub, in Pardubice.  It is one of the most profitable companies in Czechia.  

In March 2020, the countries signed an official partnership to fight Covid-19.  During the Covid crisis, Taiwan provided Czechland with medical equipment.  

In 2021, Czechland supported Taiwan's bid to participate in the World Health Assembly.  

After the June 2021 tornado in South Moravia, Taiwan donated 6,5 million Kč (~$304K) to affected villages.

In August 2021, Czechland gave Taiwan 30.000 Moderna vaccines.

Obviously China isn't thrilled with this because it still considers Taiwan as part of China and views the Czech government as supporting Taiwanese independence.  Objections from Beijing aren't something new.

Back in January 2020, Prague mayor Zdeněk Hřib signed a sister city agreement with Taipei, just two months after cancelling the sister city agreement with Beijing.  It probably didn't hurt that Hřib is a doctor and did his medical internship training in Taiwan.

Unrelated to Taiwan, but another reason that I really like MUDr. Hřib is that in February 2020 he re-named the square in front of the Russian embassy to Náměstí Borise Němcova (Boris Nemcov Square) after the outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin who was assassinated in 2015.

In August 2020, RNDr. Miloš Vystrčil, the President of the Czech Senate, made headlines for  making an official trip to Taiwan.  This was a big deal because China's foreign minister Wang Yi, said that he would pay a "heavy price" for visiting Taiwan.  Not only did he not back down to China, he channeled U.S. President John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech and told Taiwanese lawmakers, in Mandarin Chinese, "I am Taiwanese."

©民視英語新聞 Formosa TV English News

I love that the Czech politicians stand up against authoritarian regimes.  Here's a short video I found on YouTube where Czech MEP Markéta Gregorová shares her thoughts on why the ties between the two countries are getting stronger.

©RTI English

Here's a video from May 2021, former Taiwanese Ambassador at Large Maysing Yang met with both Hřib and Vystrčil in Prague.

  

©民視英語新聞 Formosa TV English News

It's clear that Czechland and Taiwan maintain strong unofficial relations.  China won't have diplomatic relations with any country that officially recognises Taiwan as an independent country.  So there aren't any official embassies.  Instead, the Czech Republic is represented in Taipei by the Czech Economic and Cultural Office, 捷克經濟文化辦事處.  In Prague, Taiwan has the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office.

In October, the Prague Philharmonic will travel to Taiwan.

©民視英語新聞 Formosa TV English News

Starobrno

Pivovar Starobrno, the Old Brno Brewery is located in here in Brno.  It was built as a successor to an earlier brewery founded in 1325 as part of a convent.  It didn't take the name of Starobrno Brewery until the second half of the 19th century. 

The date of 1872 is on the beer label which means they are now celebrating their 150th anniversary.

In 2009, Starobrno merged with the Royal Brewery of Krušovice and it is now owned by Heineken.

It's main four beers are:

• Staré Brno - a pale 10° draught beer with 4% alcohol 
• Starobrno Medium - a pale 11° lager with 4,7% alcohol
• Starobrno Drak - a pale 12° lager with 5,3% alcohol
• Starobrno Unfiltered - an unfiltered. 12° lager with 5% alcohol

Most people don't understand the degree thing with beer.  It doesn't indicate the percentage of alcohol.  Brewers use it as a measurement to track the density of certain ingredients.  10 degree beer is around 3,5% alcohol, 12 degree is usually around 4,2% alcohol and 15 degree beers are dark beers.  So the degrees don't indicate the alcohol percentage but the higher the degree the stronger the beer.

Every year for zelený čtvrtek, the brewery produces a batch of green beer.

In March 2020, the brewery released three new craft style beers.

• Indian Pale Lager - IPL - a pale lager with 5% alcohol
• American Pale Ale - APA - a top-fermented beer with 5% alcohol
• RED - a cherry-flavoured beer with 3,6% alcohol

I haven't tried any of the new craft beers.  My favourite Starobrno is the nefiltrovaný.

Here are a couple of commercials that I found out on YouTube.

Here's a commercial that they ran in Hantec, the local Brno dialect, along with Czech subtitles so that the rest of the country could understand.

Electricity in Czechland

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prices have soared across Euroland.  

Looking at the cost of electricity in capital cities across Euroland, Prague comes in as having the 5th most expensive electricity at €0,41 per kilowatt-hour.  The top 4 are London, Copenhagen, Rome, and Amsterdam. 

However, when you account for purchasing power parity then Prague has the most expensive electricity in Europe.  Followed by Rome, Berlin, Dublin, and London.  One of the reasons for electricity being so expensive is that the Czech government taxes it at 24% while the average across Europe is 18%.

© https://www.energypriceindex.com/price-data

What's odd is that Czechland is one of Europe's biggest exporters of electricity.  This year, the country has exported more than 5 million megawatt-hours more than was consumed.  Only Sweden, Germany, France, and Spain have exported more electricity than Czechland.  I wasn't aware than in 2020, Czechland was the 9th-largest exporter of electricity in the world.

In order to cut the country's dependency on gas from Russia by one-third, the government and ČEZ, a Czech energy company, have secured storage capacity for LNG, liquefied natural gas, in the Netherlands.  Construction of the space is underway and it should be complete in September.  This is just for the storage space which should cost tens of millions of Czech Crowns per year.  The Czech government still needs to secure the LNG to be stored there.  

Here's a video I found on YouTube that talks about the high cost of energy right now in Europe, especially in neighbouring Germany.

©NBC

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Update: Here's an interesting Al Jazeera story I found on YouTube that talks about the high cost of electricity and its impact on the Czech glass industry.

©Al Jazeera