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The Canadian Embassy in Prague is busy making plans for a possible visit by the country’s governor general. Michaëlle Jean is due to visit the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia in early November, although officials stress the trip has yet to be confirmed. One stop on her proposed Czech itinerary is the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno, incidentally at a time when increasing numbers of Romanies are once again applying for asylum in Canada. Radio Prague spoke to Canadian Ambassador Michael Calcott:

“Eat Czech fish, it’s healthy” – that’s a new slogan being promoted by the Czech Agriculture Ministry as of September 1st. It’s part of a new campaign to promote local fish consumption. As it stands now, Czech consumption of fish remains among the lowest in the European Union: just 4.5 kilos of sea food and 1.5 kilos of fresh water fish per head per year.

The current Czech government has set itself the task of reforming the healthcare system. One key issue in this sphere is continued high levels of absenteeism, with the number of sick days taken among the highest in Europe. The government believes that absenteeism is in part encouraged by state insured sick pay, and has committed to lowering the amounts people receive. But is this a wise choice and what are the potential pitfalls?

Wednesday is the 60th anniversary of the death of the second president of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš. Beneš remains a controversial figure: he was one of the architects of the modern Czechoslovak state, but he was also in power during the Munich agreement of 1938 and ten years later he allowed the Communist Party to take over. Probably his most controversial decision was issuing decrees that led to the expulsion of 2.5 million ethnic Germans after the Second World War. What was Edvard Beneš like as a politician, and what is his legacy today?

In July, the paper Mladá fronta Dnes exposed neglect and abuse in a care home for the elderly in Prague. This Tuesday, the minister for human rights Džamila Stehlíková met some of the Czech Republic’s leading gerontologists to discuss the problem and unveil a template for seniors’ rights. Iva Holmerová is the head of the Czech Society of Gerontology, and one of Minister Stehlíková’s leading advisors on the issue. When I met Doctor Holmerová earlier today, she said that the care scandal was only part of a wider picture:

The high court in the North Moravian city of Olomouc will hear an appeal on Tuesday in the long-running dispute over the fictional Kingdom of Wallachia. Moravian Wallachia (as opposed to the former principality of Wallachia in what is now Romania) is a historical region, but for the last decade it’s been marketed as a “kingdom” with a king, its own currency and even passports. But the ‘king’ has been dethroned in an ugly spat with his ‘foreign minister’ over intellectual property rights.

The famous Czech-born industrialist Thomas J. Baťa has died in Toronto, Canada, just a few weeks short of his 94th birthday. Mr Baťa was the former head of one of the world’s biggest footwear companies, first founded by his father in Zlín in Moravia in 1894. News of his death brought immediate reaction from around the world including in his native Czech Republic, which Mr Baťa visited often – the last time just this summer.

Under the post-war Beneš decrees, Czechoslovakia’s ethnic Germans lost both their citizenship and their property. Among them were the Walderodes, an aristocratic family who lived in north Bohemia. Now, in a verdict that surprised many, the heiress to the family’s fortune has won back rights to a forest in the area. It measures only a quarter of a hectare, which may not seem like a big deal. However, Monday’s ruling could affect other restitution cases.

The Vietnamese make up one of the largest ethnic minorities in this country, many of them running clothes markets and more recently grocery stores in Czech towns and cities. According to the statistics there are just over 55,000 Vietnamese living in the Czech Republic, and by all accounts it’s a very harmonious relationship – Vietnamese are regarded by Czechs as hard-working, law-abiding and possessing a high regard for education, even if it’s a community that keeps very much to itself.

Two very different predictions have come to light about the Czech Republic’s long-term demographic future. One version predicts a growing population, the other predicts population decline. Who is right? A headline in one major Czech newspaper says it loudly enough “By 2060: Czech a land of foreigners,” adding that up to a third of the Czech population will consist of foreigners in a matter of decades. The undertones may seem xenophobic to some, but is this really true?