Talking Point | All stories

Since the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech Republic has become a second home for many foreigners. Among them - a sizeable community of 7,500 people from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Why did they decide to leave their homes and come here? What do they do now? Do they see Prague as their new home? Maida Agovic reports about their experiences and impressions in the Czech capital.

Better known abroad by its German name, Saaz, the region of Zatec north of Prague is world famous as the home of wonderfully aromatic hops, which are used to add flavor to Czech beer but also to European, American and even Japanese brews. This month Zatec celebrated one thousand years of recorded history -- much of it turbulent.

On August 21, 1968, Warsaw Pact tank rolled into Czechoslovakia. As Soviet troops shot at the radio building, Czechoslovak radio appealed for calm. The invasion had come on direct order from Moscow to put an end to the Prague Spring - the attempt by the Czechoslovak Communist Party, led by Alexander Dubcek, to introduce "Communism with a human face", to become more independent and loosen the tight grip of the Soviet Union. Protests in the streets of Prague and other towns and cities, left dozens of people dead and hundreds injured at the hands

It's been a couple of weeks since the new Czech government with prime minister Stanislav Gross survived a vote of confidence in the Czech Parliament. But the result was not a foregone conclusion. The slim majority of 101 votes out of 200, which the coalition enjoys in parliament, was endangered by several dissident voices within the ruling parties themselves. Apart from the criticism of the government's economic program, some also denounced its foreign policy. What was it that they disapproved of, and where is Czech foreign policy heading 15 years

"A Slovak woman would like to talk to you." I have heard this kind of sentence many times - when I've tried to set up an interview on the phone, and have spoken in my native Slovak, which is similar enough to Czech to be fully understandable. To be a Slovak in Prague is to be labeled as different. There are occasions when Czechs mind their "Slovak brothers", on the other hand they still love and miss the Slovak language and think of Slovaks as their "closest foreigners".

Dogs are undoubtedly the most popular household animal in this country and are considered by many to part of the fabric of Czech life. Nevertheless, despite the fact that so many people here are utterly devoted to their dogs, there is growing disquiet in some quarters about the level of control Czechs exercise over their pets. A number of well-publicised attacks by dogs on humans has prompted some MPs to table a bill before parliament, which seeks to introduce some tough new laws aimed at ensuring greater discipline among dog owners.

Contrary to the Olympic ideal, politics and economics always come into play well before the games begin in the city that is chosen. With the Olympic Games under way in Athens, the work of a Prague-based pressure-group called Olympic Watch came to my attention. In response to the International Olympic Committee's decision to hold the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, "Olympic Watch" was created by three former Czech dissidents in 2001. Their mission is to monitor the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China. With each Olympiad in the

Exactly two years ago, the Czech Republic was hit by devastating floods. With 17 deaths and thousands of people evacuated from their homes, one third of the country experienced floods that in some places were the worst in 500 years. But while life has returned back to normal in most of the affected areas, one area - Prague's Karlin district still looks more like a big construction site. Seven buildings had to be torn down and many of the 1,100 houses that were flooded are still damp and experts only recently began applying special microscopic fungi

Take a walk down most streets in the centre of Prague, and you'll notice one very curious thing. The universal, almost over-riding presence of the English language; be it on shop signs, advertising posters, restaurant menus, or indeed wherever one finds the written word. For an English speaker, a trip to Prague need never really feel like a trip to a foreign country at all. Feel like a meal? Look out for the signs that promise 'Classic Czech cuisine' or 'Fast Food'. Fancy a shopping trip? Just follow the signs to the 'sale'.

A report published last week by the Working Group on Arms Trade Control — a non-governmental team of experts led by the Czech branch of the global corruption watchdog Transparency International — points to a number of "risk factors" in Czech legislation and oversight which leave this country's arms trade open to corruption.