Prague Journal

Monday, April 4, 2005.

I was finally able to get a tour of the Anglo American College in Prague, at its new campus at the site of the medieval convent of the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta in the Maltese Square off the Lesser Town square. Everything is now at one campus site, including the library and computer lab, both of which have been upgraded. Anna Vitaskova, who also teaches at the Sociology Institute, has been working to design a new master’s program, and I was interested to hear about her ideas. The school is doing well, with several foreign partners and sponsorships, and, as of this week, has hired a new President. Anna teaches research methods and is interested in writing a case study on AAC, perhaps with some of her students.
I met Michele for lunch at the Opera Garden next to the Radio Free Europe building. Michele has been the Director of Broadcasting here for six years, having previously worked for NPR in Washington, D.C. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty began broadcasting uncensored news and features from Munich to countries behind the Iron Curtain in 1950. Until 1995, Radio Free Europe had been based in Munich until Vaclav Havel proposed its move to Prague, where they now broadcast in the building of the former communist parliament (rent free) just off Wenceslas Square. Corporate headquarters remain in Washington, D.C. Since 1996, RFE/RL has built a network of more than 210 affiliate partner organizations and 590 transmitter sites that relay programs on the AM and FM bands in 12 time zones. Currently, Radio Free Europe broadcasts to 18 countries in 27 languages, mainly in the Balkans, southwestern Asia and the Middle East; there are no radio broadcasts in Europe now. Political circumstances do not currently permit local re-broadcasting in Belarus, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The WIB group was small this evening, so four of us had a rather intimate conversation, mostly about women’s issues in the Czech Republic, but also about business conditions and some of the new tax legislation. I met Marketa, who is the “Relationship Manager” for Bawag Bank, and Mirka, who has an aerobics business and has just started a silk-scarf business. She is designing and manufacturing scarves for distribution to the US with a partner in Dallas, Texas!

posted by JWinn @ 9:49 PM