Czechs Beat ROC and U.S. Embassy Reaction

On Saturday, 12 February, the Czech Olympic Hockey team beat the Russian Olympic Committee team in overtime.  The final score was 6-5.  The Czechs love hockey and it's even better every time they beat the Russians. 

Due to widespread doping, the World Anti-Doping Agency has suspended Russia.  The 212 Russian athletes competing in China at the Beijing Olympics right now have to compete as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).  The Russian flag is replaced by the flag of the ROC and the Russian anthem isn't played during medal ceremonies.

The U.S. Embassy in Prague decided to have a little fun when they congratulated the Czechs on their victory over the ROC.

The text of their Facebook post says "Even a small country can do great things! But what is the ROC?  We couldn't find their flag..."

Brno Olympic Festival

China is currently hosting the 2022 Olympic Games and Beijing is now the first city to have hosted both the summer and winter Olympics.  During the same period, from 4-22 February, the Brno Olympic Festival is running.  This is the third year that Brno has hosted the Olympic Festival.

The goal is for kids to try out new sports by making them more accessible and for Brno to experience the Olympic atmosphere.

There are 15 winter sports plus winter versions of volleyball, speed orienteering, athletics, and even chess.

About 3.000 students from 60 primary and secondary schools in South Moravia will get the opportunity to try up to five different sports free of charge.

Century of 8's

Století osmiček translates to the "century of 8's."  Apparently most of the major events of the country's history happened in a year with an "8".  Starting in 1918, it would have made sense for me to write about this back in 2018 but I didn't make the connection of the 8's back then.  Today is the 8th of February so this will have to do.

1918 - 1938 - 1948 - 1968 - 1989

1918 - The establishment of Czechoslovakia following the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WW1.  Bohemia, Moravia, part of Silesia, and Slovakia made up the First Republic which lasted until 1938.

1938 - In 1938 there was a four-power conference in Munich between Germany, Italy, France, and the UK.  Czechoslovakia wasn't invited.  The Munich Agreement is where the West sold out Czechoslovakia and Hitler took the Sudetenland.  Poland and Hungary also took parts of Czechoslovak land.

1948 - Following WWII, Czechoslovakia was the last democracy in Eastern Europe.  On 25 February 1948, the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KŠC) staged a bloodless coup and ruled the country for the next 41 years.

1968 - The 1968 Prague Spring is when Alexander Dubček tried to reform the communist government with what he called "socialism with a human face."  His liberal reforms did not go over well with the Soviet Union who didn't want a more westernised Czechoslovakia.  On 20-21 August, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact members invaded the country in the largest military operation since WWII.  The country was left with hard-line communist party rule which was referred to as "normalisation."  

1989 - The Velvet Revolution began on 17 November and lasted until 29 December 1989.  The demonstrations brought down the communist regime.

Here's a short video I found out on YouTube about the Czech and Slovak century.

©Visit Czech Republic

Aleš' 4Oth Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Aleš' 40th birthday out at the chata.  It's hard to believe that this chap is 40.  It was a lot of fun hanging out and talking with everyone.  

And of course, there was karaoke.  I swear that I haven't done this much karaoke since I was last in Japan back in 1999.  I guess at some point I'll have to post some videos of the chata karaoke.  Eventually...not yet.  I usually sing in either English or German but maybe with some practice I'll post video singing in Czech.  Something to look forward to I guess. 

Squash After 9 Years

Today I got a message that some folks were going to play squash after work and did I want to join in.  It's been a good nine years since I last played squash at a team building event. 

It was so much fun!!  I still miss racquetball but it felt good to be out on a court, even if the racket and ball still seems odd to me.  

I went non-stop.  I'll for sure sleep well tonight but I know that I'll feel it tomorrow.  

A Night Out

Aleš has a karaoke party planned next week at the chata but we kind of had an early celebration last night.  A few of us got together last night at Tomáš and Betty's place for a few drinks and hors d'oeuvres before we all headed out to Lemon, which is the one gay nightclub here in Brno.

Jose brought a couple of friends from medical school to join in on the festivities.  It was fun to hang out with everyone and to do some dancing.  

I can't remember the last time that I went out dancing.  Unless you count me and Tünde jumping around like fools listening to German pop songs.  After Lemon, we tried to hit the local karaoke bar but it was packed so ended up calling it a night.

Down 24 kg

Well I'm still on my diet and exercise kick.  As of this morning I'm now down 24 kg (53 lbs).  My goal of losing 25 kg is now within sight.  

That's just 1 kg more to go.  It doesn't sound like much except then I remember that 1 kg is 2,2 lbs.  Ugh, this damn metric system!  

The other frustrating thing is while I hit -24 kg this morning, who knows what I'll weigh in at tomorrow morning?  

I just need to remember to not get frustrated and to keep going.  

Update:  I hit my goal weight.

2021 Social Risk Index

Euler Hermes is an insurance company that in 2020 created the Social Risk Index.  This was to measure business climates across the globe, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, during one of the worst recessions since WWII. 

There are 12 factors and each country gets a score from 1-100 for each of the 12, the scores are combined for an overall score.  The 12 factors that are evaluated include trends in real GDP per capita growth, labour force participation, income inequality, public social spending on education, health and social protection, political stability, government effectiveness, corruption perception, trust in government levels of vulnerable employment, imports as a percentage of GDP, currency depreciation, and fiscal revenue as a percentage of GDP.  

All of this boils down to ranking countries according to potential economic and political instability during rapid change.

Last year, the USA came in at #23 and Czechland ranked #28. This year, Czechia came in at #19, while the USA is at #35.  The reason that Czechia jumped up nine places was the countries response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the stability of the labour market here despite Covid. 

Scandinavia topped the rankings as the countries usually do when it comes to any type of social score.  Europe did well with 16 countries in the top 20, and 13 of them are EU member countries.  New Zealand was the top placed country outside of Europe.  Most advanced economies saw improvements from last year but the USA, France, Portugal, and Greece all saw large declines.

Here are the 2021 rankings...

1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4. Switzerland
5. Finland
6. New Zealand
7. Germany
8. Austria
9. Luxembourg
10. Iceland
11. Canada
12. Ireland
13. Japan
14. Australia
15. Netherlands
16. Estonia
17. France
18. Portugal
19. Czechia
20. Slovenia

26. Slovakia

35. USA

The five lowest rankings belong to #181 Zimbabwe, #182 Nigeria, #183 Afghanistan, #184 Sudan, and #185 Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Security Information Service (BIS)

Bezpečnostní informační služba (BIS), is the Czech Security Information Service. 

The BIS has its headquarters in Prague and, with about 1.000 employees, it reports directly to the Prime Minister and the President and it is overseen by a permanent commission of the Chamber of Deputies.

It is the country's domestic intelligence agency and is responsible for Czech Republic's national security both here and abroad.  The primary focus is on terrorism, counter-intelligence, cybersecurity, organised crime and proliferation.

Its motto is Audi, Vide, Tace, which means "Hear, See, Be silent."

The BIS is not the direct successor of the StB, the Czechoslovak secret police, which was dissolved in 1990.  The service has no police powers so it can't detain, arrest or interrogate suspects.

Here's a short video I found out on YouTube about the BIS.  It's in Czech so at least you'll get to hear what Czech sounds like. 

The Long Road to Ukrainian Independence

There is always something going on at náměstí Svobody.  Today there was an exhibition about the long road to freedom and Ukrainian history in the 20th century.

Ukraine was an independent country for a couple of years following WWI, but in 1992 it became a founding member of the USSR as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Under Stalin, Ukrainian nationalism was put down.  Due to Stalin, millions of Ukrainians starved to death during Holodomor, the Great Famine and another 7-8 million more people died during WWII.

Ukraine declared independence on 24 August 1991.  When the USSR broke up, the country was a nuclear power.  It surrendered all of its nuclear weapons to Russia in 1996 on condition that Ukrainian territory would be respected.  That hasn't exactly worked out so well for Ukraine.

While Ukraine wants to eventually join the EU and NATO, Russia wants the country to stay aligned to Moscow.  In 2014, Russia illegally annexed Crimea.  This is popular here because many Czechs see the resemblance of Russia annexing Crimea to Hitler annexing the Sudetenland in 1938 from Czechoslovakia.  Russia is also supporting separatists in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.  

Brno, like Czech Republic, has a large Ukrainian population.  There are more Ukrainians here then there are Slovaks.  Signs of support for Ukraine are not uncommon here.  

Here's a short 5-minute video I found out on YouTube talking about Ukraine's history up to 2014.

©TDC