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By Daniela Lazarova
Wimbledon winner Jana Novotna graces the front page of several
weeklies, and has been picked for Tyden's photo of the week, elbowing
out the Klaus-Zeman duo, whose tolerance pact is hot news.
Cartoonists have had a field day depicting the long-time enemies
making sweet music together. They especially poke fun of the Klaus and
Zeman election slogans in the light of the present . Klaus' "Vote for
Klaus or drift to the left" has been changed to "Drift to the left
with Klaus" while Zeman's message "Klaus' government has ravaged this
land. Give us a chance to save it. " now reads "We'll save this
ravaged land. The culprits have promised to help us" .
Where is a mosque not a mosque? Michelle Legge of the Prague Post
asks. In the Czech Republic, she says, where Islam is not a recognized
religion. Unbelievable -but true - the construction of the first
Islamic house of prayer was OKed by Brno authorities on condition that
it remain well kept public secret. "Just don't call it a Mosque" is
the title of that report. As Michelle Legge explains, the authorities
could not publicly approve the mosque, because Islam is not a
recognized religion. In turn, Islam is not a recognized religion
because not enough Muslims have requested it. According to Czech law
officials can only sanction a religion after receiving 10,000
signatures of residents aligned to the faith. Although, according to
some sources there are as many as 20 thousand Muslims in the Czech
Republic at this time, many of them come and go, not staying long
enough to get involved. As a result, on July 2nd, Muslims congregated
in Brno to celebrate the opening of what is officially being called
"an Islamic cultural centre" -but the joy of having a house of prayer
was not dampened by the need to cover-up. After all what's in a name -
and everybody near and far is calling it a mosque anyway.
By the way two new religions which have been green-lighted since 1992
are reported to be Jehovah's Witnesses and Lutheran Evangelists.......
On a different topic, Tyden magazine had an article entitled "Fossils
or Stars?" referring to the comeback of Czech pop stars of the 70s and
80s who are now successfully selling re-mixes of their old hits.
Back then - theirs were the only records on the market - but why in
heavens name would people would people want to pay money for them
today ? - the author says. Were they so good, is it nostalgia or pure
bad taste? Psychologist Slavomil Hubalek says nostalgia is probably
a key factor. People tend to associate certain songs with moments out
of their own life - having been young, carefree, happy or in love.
What regime it happened under is irrelevant. The singer may not even
have been terribly good, but once a song gets under you skin in this
manner its a fixture - and just humming it or hearing it sung makes
you feel better. This is true in general which is partly why oldies
sell so well around the world, Hubalek points out. Many smart groups
on the make stick their version of one or two popular oldies on their
CDs to boost sales. The middle aged and elderly generation of people
who don't speak foreign languages also prefer songs they can
understand - and as a result, its not unusual for them to hear
Japanese Boy and remark -"Hey they've done an English version of Hanka
Zagorova's Prague-Tokyo hit".
The 70's stars are grabbing the opportunity to make a comeback -
although they will never come close to their former standing. Michal
David -an 80s teen star -says he got back into the limelight over a
family controversy which got into the press. Then he was asked to
write a song for the World Hockey Champions on their return from
Nagano. Since then he's ridden on that wave of popularity - for
however long it lasts, as he puts it. Though he's not giving himself
longer than two years. Responding to accusations that he'd been an
instrument for communist propaganda - David says he has no problem
coming to terms with his past. " I only made the kind of music which
the bolshies could accept" he points out . Only once did I do a song
which was "tailor made" for them - but my excuse is I would have been
in big trouble if I hadn't. And I'm no hero, I was the same as
millions of other people in different walks of life, he concludes.
©
Copyright 1997
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