Panorama | All stories

You may know the feeling – you return to your native village after a long absence and come across an eyesore – a building that screams “money, power and influence” and sticks out like a sore thumb from its surroundings. That is the kind of building that architect and photographer Jan Kruml likens to a flashing gold tooth.

Getting youngsters to play outside on a sunny day is an increasingly difficult task. Most parents now find it near impossible to pry their children away from their computers and compared to the wonders of virtual reality kids no longer find outdoor activities as attractive. Czech designer Pavel Tuma and his team have now unveiled a revolutionary 5-D playground that aims to change that.

A black and white photograph of a smiling Jewish girl unearthed in a photographer’s studio some years ago has led a young Czech journalist to piece together the dramatic story of a large group of Jewish children who were smuggled to Denmark to escape the Holocaust. While the story of the Nicolas Winton children is well known, this one is only just coming to light and will hopefully reunite long-lost friends scattered around the globe. The freelance journalist who is singlehandedly tackling the task is Judita Matyasova whom I invited to the studio.

Computers and the internet have become an integral part of our lives to such an extent that it is hard to imagine how we ever managed without them. However a recent survey conducted by the Czech Statistical Office shows that Czechs are still lagging behind many EU states when it comes to computer literacy and internet access.

Aggressive behavior in young children and adolescents is on the rise and there are indications that parents are increasingly unable to deal with it. Schoolteachers are ringing alarm bells and therapists are warning of the dire consequences of failing to deal with the problem in time.

A centuries old tradition –the pig-slaughtering feast – will soon be a thing of the past. Those who consider the gory ritual an act of barbarism are cheering, others for whom it is an important part of village folklore are determined to maintain it at any price.

It is the country’s most smelly specialty – Olomoucké tvarůžky – dubbed by foreign visitors as “the stinky cheese of Olomouc” is not something you can easily overlook. Its pungent odor hits you the minute you open the fridge and will render you a social outcast several hours after consuming it. However many consider it to be one of the country’s biggest delicacies and the Czech Republic fought and won a six-year war with Germany and Austria over a protected geographical status trademark.

Hard Rock Café is celebrating its 40th birthday this year with a travelling exhibition of memorabilia relating to the greats of the music world who frequented its many outlets the world over. Entitled The Art of Hard Rock the exhibition, which opens to the Prague public on January 12th at the Dvorak sec contemporary art gallery in Dlouha street, is a collection of musical instruments, paintings and drawings donated by the likes of Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa, Pete Towshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Paul Stanley,

Panorama : thousands of people undertake a traditional New Year’s pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin Mary in Hostýn, over a dozen enthusiasts strap on wooden skis to mark the centenary of the first downhill ski race in Central Europe and -home is where the heart is – a stray dog keeps returning to the dog shelter where a vet saved his life.

‘English is attacking Czech from all sides’ one newspaper columnist recently despaired, while others talk of Czech’s ‘battle for survival’ in a world in which ever more English is spoken. From terms like ‘setobox’, ‘vygooglovat’ and ‘mobil’ on the one hand to words like ‘sorry’, ‘byzy’ and ‘lůzr’ on the other, English does seem to be making an impact on today’s Czech. But are these English borrowings really a threat to the Czech language, or do they enrich it instead? I asked some Czechs for their opinion: