Prague Journal

Thursday, January 06, 2005.

Today is Three Kings’ Day. According to Czech lore: On the day of Three Kings, the day becomes longer by a step. On this day, according to the St. Mathew’s gospel, the Three Wise Men followed the Star of Bethlehem to find the Infant Jesus and bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The big Christmas tree at Old Town Square will be taken down today, as will the stages at Old Town and Můstek (Wenceslas Square) and the Christmas market kiosks. The tramline at Revolucni will be diverted today and tomorrow to take down Christmas decorations.
The Czech Republic’s annual Three King’s Day charity collection, now in its fourth year, comes at an appropriate time for disaster relief this year. Over thirteen thousand volunteers started to collect donations last weekend. In addition to aiding Asian tsunami victims, the proceeds will be used to support a number of humanitarian projects in several regions around the Czech Republic as well as in Kosovo, Chechnya and earthquake-hit Iran. Last year, 42.7 million Czech crowns (over 1.5 million US dollars) were collected. In addition to the charity collections, the Czech government has pledged 200 million crowns (nearly $10 million) to help rebuild the tsunami-stricken area, and has already sent 15 million crowns ($750,000) for humanitarian aid, including drinking water, food, medicines and medical supplies to Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. Next in line is the reconstruction of hospitals and schools as well as housing for the millions who have been left homeless. Non-governmental (NGO) charities have also been fundraising for the tsunami victims. Within the first week following the disaster, Czech charities collected more than 22 million crowns. According to the latest press we’ve seen, individuals reportedly have donated more than 40 million crowns (nearly $2 million) so far. Local charities have had no problem collecting money; the difficulty is in getting information about where the aid is most needed. The pictures we’ve seen of the devastation are truly unbelievable.
I’ve had Dvorak’s New World Symphony in my head all day from last night’s concert. Maybe it’s positive energy from getting some projects near completion. Eva has finished the translation (to Czech) of the first case study to send to the owner of the company in Kladno. We’re hoping to submit a case and a paper for a conference in Brno this summer that has a January 15th submission deadline. Two more company interviews have been scheduled, one in Prague and one in Český Raj, so my January calendar is getting full. The flyer announcing the workshop that I’ll give to the VŠE faculty on January 18th went out today. It looks dazzling in Czech, much more grand than my copy in English!
Rick’s graduate student Aditya Nagrath arrived at the Prague airport as scheduled this evening. We took him to dinner at one of our regular (familiar and convenient) Czech restaurants and laid some plans for showing him around tomorrow. He’s got a flat lined up not far from Old Town, so he should have no trouble seeing the city on foot on his own. Just as we were settling in and getting Aditya’s computer hooked up to our broadband, Matt called and we were able to confirm his airline tickets for his visit here in March. So, the academic son is here and the biological son on his way in only two months. Just when I think Prague time is slow, I realize that we’re going at warp speed, faster than any internet connection.

posted by JWinn @ 9:19 PM