Complete lack of appreciation...

As I pass through another Famous European Metropole on my way to Somewhere Else, I had some time to think about how special our capital city of Prague is, and how little Czechs appreciate their Golden Jewel.

The list of things Czechs (and aliens to the Czech Republic, formerly known as "foreigners") should be more grateful for:

** our young men and women who continue to master the tricks of the service trade, and how they get better and better all the time! Walk into any 5-star establishment housed in completely new digs (read: not housed in an antiquated communist-era building or in the South Part of Prague) and prepare to be amazed!

** Prague city to Prague airport connections within precisely 25 minutes. There is no other city I've been in where this is true. I dare you to test it out -- it used to be Tempelhof in Berlin -- but ever since the Allies stopped flying in food supplies to former Nazis during the '50s, that title has reverted to Prague.

** our airport personnel are some of the most talented linguistically anywhere in the post-communist region. Look back in the archives (note to all my player haters: try Google Blogs, I'll give you a little tip) for some of my old posts as part of my airport interactions in g.oddamn "Slovakia" (and that's an understatement!) over in Kaszavarosz (aka "Kosice")...you'll readily see the difference. Czechs speak mellifluous English, many times quite a nice German, and they do so with class because they aim to do well. If you don't believe me, you've got your head up your backdoor.

** I've been around the world, folks, and hands down, Czech girls are so hot they make me want to bite my fingers off (and the "ADM"'s attracted people of the darker persuasion [amen to South Africa and its wonderful Sotho peoples], loves Japanese and Korean girls to bits, has had raucous sexual encounters with Syrian Arabs whose brothers were poised to beat the living crap out of him (possibly murder him) if they discovered what she and I were doing in her Koran-surah festooned home and for sullying the family honour. Yet again today I noticed another wonderful buxom one in a red top this morning whom I'd have gone up to, save for the man she was kanoodling with on the bench. Hot damn! What a set she had!

** our airport is one of the more modern edifices around -- and it's no surprise that Ruzyne Airport won the CEE Airports Prize in 2006. The cynical jackals out there might contend this is because the poobahs in Mala Strana are looking to parcel it off as part of a privatization manoevre, but that would be senseless bickering and bitching, and we know that we're not about that.

** we aren't always polite, but Czechs have dignity. That means, they won't leave a mother hanging on the bus by herself, leaving her to own devices and not helping her to raise her pram/carriage into the bus or help her up the stairs.

** realizing how utterly revolting our national food dishes are, Czechs have opened up to the world of international cuisine, and are changing the face of what the Czech food scene looks like forever. No longer will knedliky (dumplings) be served without a side-helping of miso soup and udon noodles. And thank the Creator for that.

~~~~

More observations coming soon.

Lovingly,
ADM

ps why aren't more people reading the material?! Could it possibly be that I'm too insulting, not talented enough, and perhaps a wee bit of a jackass? Hrm...maybe it's because I'm from Canada? I know plenty of people are RSSing the feed, but still -- I should be receiving Fat Man's numbers, shouldn't I? Who's your daddy?

Czech Immigrants Party -- Weekly Minutes

With the Czech election right around the corner (to be announced soon), I wrangled our party hacks down for our weekly meeting to lay out several policy initiatives for the coming quarter (April -- June 2008, inclusive).

A theme we couldn't stop yammering about was the so-called "youth agenda" in the Czech Republic and the short shrift it's been receiving from our current Civic Democrat -- ODS -- Administration.

Rather than filibuster and cause a general Parliamentary ruckus in the Press Gallery over on the touristy Lesser Side -- making a mockery of the Czech "democracy" and turning off a host of would-be return tourists who finance the hefty incomes of many a business-owner on that side of the Vltava -- we laid out some of our own novel ideas for how to address the youth conundrum in the Land of the Crater.

So, in short:

** young Czechs are inspired by the concept of change, but to actually get them to invoke any of the lofty changes they kvetch about, or to engage in some sort of serious societal asskickery, is something they're patently unprepared for. The kind of change they're demanding is the pub equivalent of complaining about anything and everything you can get your hands on, albeit with a more intellectual edge. We even gave a name to this futility: "Hockey Goons with Two College Degrees."

** there are a host of Czech NGOs who pay lipservice to youth change, but they're too locally-focussed, they bleat out the usual stream of local stereotypes, and they're generally lead by docents or moderators who reinforce old habits.

** while the present Czech Administration continues to get its US White House-asskissing mojo on, a whole generation of Czech and Slovak young people are being forsaken. The time for tending to these various young peoples' needs is in the here and now. The CIP wishes to fill in that gap. Two projects were introduced as possibilities, to be announced soon, with a tekkie flair. Watch this space, Citizens!

** the CIP has recently fielded several disgruntled emails from members of Czech civil society that went along the lines of: "Who gave CIP the right to call our society idiotic?" Well, our answer to that salvo is as follows: Here in Cesko -- despite appearances to the contrary -- we live in a globalized context. That means, to all the splendid isolationists out there, that we Czechs are connected to the global grid -- ALL of us. It also means the planet's inhabitants are permitted at any time to come here, legally and safely cross our frontiers, interact with us, live here, run businesses, raise their children here, have homosexual relations with any of our homosexual citizens (read: gays and lesbians of the Czech persuasion), speak Farsi in the streets, speak English at work, complain from the unacceptable lack of customer service, complain and swear like a sailor when a waitress thinks she's in the right and the customer is in the wrong, et cetera. They can even call us Czechs all manner of vile disgusting names, if they so desire, and if they wish to risk getting bitchslapped by Igor and his buds.

All in all, this is part and parcel of life in a free country.

If the Czech Immigrants Party's detractors don't like that, we have a simple two word formula for y'all: FUDDLE-DUDDLE!

~~~~

Next week's meeting's set to be a beaut!

(For meeting minutes, please email me off the blog or contact me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gtowna).

As always,
I love you,
and wish for you many good things,
ADM

Introducing @sarahcuda to the Czech Republic

Sarah Lacy was completely shellacked by the Twittersphere at the SxSW Conference in Austin, Texas last month during her so-called "interview" with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Watch the following clip as French blogging dynamo Loic LeMeur interviews her prior to her arrival in Cannes for the MIPtv Digital Media Market.

3 Czech Social Networking Tools

In the continuing series of articles about Czech social networking tools, here's a stash of three more handy ones I use as part of my day to day.

So, shortly...

Socialmarker:

One of the more useful "link seeding" sites I use out there, SocialMarker is a social marketer's wet dream when it comes to URLs that really need link popularity when you've only got about 20 minutes or less to spare. Click on over to the site and notice how simple its interface is. Pump in a single web address with a short description and related tags, click on "Submit" 46 times -- which submits to all forty-six sites hosted at SocialMarker -- and just wait until the cows come home. Keep a close eye on your analytics software (Google Analytics is a good one) and observe how it changes the dynamics of your traffic. ADVANTAGE: Of the 46 sites they have on offer, you might already be member of some of them. DRAWBACK: Still, the time-consuming work comes when registering for those sites you're not yet a member of. Once that's over and done with, coming back to SocialMarker is a Web2.0-ist's pleasure. I use SM about a couple of times per week when I'm asked by clients to get the "word out there," when they don't have the time to kill.

Drop.io:

Now, mind you, I've only been using Drop.io for a short time, but I've since become totally hooked. Here's how it works: you have content. You want to make several files available to one of your co-workers or colleagues, but don't want to send cumbersome file attachments -- that's so Web1.0! -- coupled with the potential risk some of them might not even make it there. So instead what you now do is create what's known as a "drop." The website generates a unique URL for each and every batch, or drop, of files you create which you can control at will. There are a slew of options and you can basically name the drop whatever you wish. I've found that Drop.io works best with large clunky video clips you couldn't send via any other way. The service was a lifesaver for me the other day when a colleague of mine asked me to promote a local Prague event taking place at the end of April. The person fired off a whole batch of PDFs my way and it didn't take me more than a few moments to realize how best to make these available to his contact list. Consider the event well-promoted, I told her!

FastCompany.tv:

FastCompany magazine -- a must-read mag and website for those on the entrepreneurial cutting-edge -- hosts a compelling series of streaming clips called "Global Neighbourhoods," hosted by prominent social networker Shel Israel, author of Naked Conversations. I recently had a chance to catch a few of these, and while you might not enjoy sitting through ten whole minutes of conversation between Shel and his various guests smack in the middle of your workday or when tending the kids, I do guarantee you'll pick up a several useful nuggets from his exchanges, aspects to certainly contribute to your improvement of the social networking craft.

~~~~

I'll make a point of coming back here with three new tools every week, things which you can instantly deploy at your site or in your business that will improve your customer retention or boost your online presence.

And lastly, one of the advantages for Czech websites, more generally is the rather obvious fact that nearly all of them are in Czech, something which delivers a measure of exclusivity in its own right. It doesn't take much for such URLs to top placement in a Google or "Yahoo! Search" search listing (if Yahoo is still around as a going-concern by Q3 2008) -- yet it still doesn't hurt to use SocialMarker now and again if your site is a more generic one, with more common Czech keywords.

Let me know how these tools are working for you, and if you're twittering, go ahead and "follow" me at @gtowna, and I'll add you back.

Mejte se,
Wising you the very best of things,
ADM

The Czech Immigrants Party -- Latest Moves & Shakes

As Chairman and Lead Shaker of the Czech Immigrants Party (the CIP, which we pronounce as "chip," btw), it's my fiduciary and solemn duty to submit to the Czech Republic's electorate a regular series of updates on our latest moves and shakes.

Kindly permit me to take up a few moments of your afternoon as I share with you some of the newest developments over at the organization:

** This past Monday marked our second official meeting: Two new positions were created around the Becherovka-glass, smoke-infested table; that of Deputy Chair (actually a wonderful woman from Arab Palestine) and Treasurer (a young Vietnamese bloke who spent his salad days at Brno's Technical University building Vietnamese People's Republic A-bombs as part of the Communist "Friendship" of yesteryear). I duly signed the Ratification Draft, and we then e-filed them away in a laptop we've recently purchased exclusively for this purpose. Well, not exactly...I just bought a new C: drive for the clunking beast, but it's the same difference, actually.

** During Saturday night last, I did a swing through the Vaclavak: I attempted to canvass as much support for the CIP from the various sex club workers hailing from Africa as I could. Many of them thought I was a total wildman; when I shoved my microphone and CIP's petition under their noses, most of 'em ran away (talk about viral marketing, baby!). Though I couldn't understand why...I'm hot as hell and I use aftershave, and I made sure to hit the streets with a hot Czech female specimen with large (likely fake) breasts to bait them, so what gives?

** I'm presently closely collaborating with a geek from Prague 4 -- also a CIP member, and please don't tell him I said so -- to design our website: During Monday's meeting, we had a randy debate about whether to refer to the CIP by its English moniker on all official correspondence, or in Czech translation. It was decided by the membership that since most of our members aren't Czech native speakers -- save for CIP's dozen Vietnamese Comrades -- we'll be using English as our primary means of intra-party communication and for all interviews with the Czech and EU press corps. While our sites and collateral will be for the most part bilingual (or quadralingual, by having Ukrainian and Vietnamese links off our homepage), we'll stick to the International Language of Business as part of our day-to-day activities. We've adapted to the SMK's (Strana Madarskej Koalicie) model over in Fascist Slovakia, and that of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, who's attempting to wrest Harghita and Covasna away from the Romanian Republic in a rightful claim of ethnic autonomy, like in Kosova. Our aim is exclusively agitation-propaganda at the outset. First, we must disturb, upset, and unsettle the Czech fatcats lolling their lazy, pacifist, passive-aggressive, and unsympathetic behinds over in Mala Strana, thanks to our hard-earned tax crowns.

** We've recently purchased various production equipment -- a hi-definition video camera, two more recording devices: That's right, the same ones I use to record my Amazing Splendid Thought of the Day -- plus some editing software that we'll use as part of our Web2.0 effort to get word out about the CIP. Not only do we have an agenda to put across, but we'll also innovate the political space as we show -- especially to younger Czechs -- that citizens' destinies aren't cursed, that young Czechs' parents aren't those dictating the overall score, and that a work and life future in the Czech Republic isn't a doppelganger for taking a straight razor to your virgin wrists and swiftly dispatching yourself in a bloody pool of human refuse.

** And lastly, in the 21st-century, charisma and looks play a very strong role in influencing the electorate: Taking a page out of Joerg Haider's, Hugo Chavez's, Ernesto "El Che" Guevarra's, and Vladimir Putin's political playbook, the gang and I have been workshopping various "new looks" for Yours Truly as we carry on with the media campaign rollout. We've been using some wicked-ass profiling software -- the kind of stuff they use for ID-ing "perps'" mugshots at police stations (yes, unlike most wage-earning, bitching types, I've got inside connections at the Czech Police Praesidium) -- to see how I "look" with different facial hair growths and hairstyles. I want to find the best one which arouses the most anger on the part of the locals, the one which highlights my "otherness." It's high time this infectious prejudicial pathology for anything other than long-nosed, unsmiling, blue-eyed, peroxided blonde hair, rude, drunk, dope-smoking, English-ignorant, shark-tailed do'ed looks comes to a swift end. We shall provoke Czechs into rendering their honest opinions about our presence in the wannabe democracy, thereby proving to Brussels and the rest of the CR's EU confreres that Cesko does not deserve the right to be entirely sovereign, at least in terms of its foreign policy interests.

~~~~

Thank you for your time today.

And don't forget, VOTE CZECH IMMIGRANTS!

--ADM

ps please don't forget to Czech out my Amazing Splendid Thoughts, every single day! Don't miss a single episode, only 2.5 minutes long! You can even RSS it.

Would You Have Invested in 1978?

Guest Blogger: Jennifer Fry, Greatest Czech Theft of the Century // Host: Jennifer Fry, Největší loupež století v Čechách

I am a product of the US public education system and a believer that the building blocks it provided for me were never enough to prepare me for the challenges I faced in my early adulthood. It was not altogether lacking and I do find the spirit, as opposed to the letter of its law to be superior to that of other countries, not least, the Czech Republic. It did instill in me a drive and spirit which I find to be best described only as “American”: that fearless attitude that allows us to give permission to ourselves go out and do any and everything we put our hearts, minds, and muscle to. Although I did not receive the “top-notch” education vis-à-vis my boarding school and Ivy League counterparts, it was this very drive and competitiveness to forge my own way that I believe set me apart. I was the first generation of my family to graduate from college (from one of the top 10 US public colleges nonetheless!) and strike out over international waters to a land I knew hardly anything about before arriving here (could be considered a failing of my public education?). I have never had at my disposal neither the financial backing (save that of hard-working, loving parents) nor the elitist social networks that tend to be the main indicators of a highly successful path through American life. What I did have is chutzpa and an unrelenting curiosity in understanding the world around me – this globalized world which is now quickly shrinking in upon us.

Entrepreneurship was an acquired skill for me for sure, and not in the traditional sense of starting a business from the ground up. I’m talking about “life entrepreneurism” – making one’s self “sticky” in the world and finding one’s way through the most resistant path. I came here as a foreigner to these Czech lands, nearly one year ago, after only brief travel stints in other parts of Europe, and had never had the first-hand experience of being an American transplant. It has been an enlightening year in Czech for sure, and I have seen the full spectrum from good, to bad, to horrifying here. All clichéd cultural adjustments aside – there is one quality (and forgive me in advance for generalizing here) of which I do not forgive you Czechs for nor will ever fully “adjust’ to – your inability to go the extra mile.

As compared to my American upbringing and experience, this trait of yours is at odds with my whole paradigm of the world and the foundation of what I was brought up to believe in, even through a less-than-stellar public school system. This lack of will to innovate on your part, is apparent to me in everything from how you treat your women both publically and privately (and who, incidentally, are practically non-existent in positions of major power), to your customer service (or almost lack thereof), to your impossible-to-navigate, antiquated (i.e. Kafkaesque) bureaucracies. Why do you think this is, my dear Czechs? Perhaps you enjoy keeping the world, or your neighbor for that matter, at a distance through all of these mediums. Perhaps though, you prefer the status quo and like a serotonin-depleted depressive, cling only to the comfort of sadness and dismay with which you are familiar. Or at least that is what your frigid “metro-glare” conveys to my American sensibilities.

Even so, you seem permanently transfixed between a rock and a hard place; comfortable dwelling here in the false protection and confines of this hardened exterior.

I’m here only as an outside observer admitting that, yes, I do not have the experience, first-hand knowledge, or intellectual understanding of your history to rightfully “bash” your current state of affairs, but I feel compelled to do so.

I see you emerging steadfastly through the political throes of this post-communist consumer-driven new world, but your old tried and true, bare-minimum ways are unbecoming of you. Shame, shame! You have been some of the most intelligent, resourceful, and multi-faceted individuals throughout history, and which I’ve encountered in the world. But you let your self-loathing and lack of confidence tarnish your inner pearl. Your national pride alone should force you to rise up above the rest of your fellow post-communist brothers. China, India, Russia, all the next powerhouses of the 21st century which will leave even the US in the dust if we don’t get our act together, will pillage through your lands and claim that which is not already asserted for by you, its rightful owners. Their children already learned what you all are still lacking. The outer limits of your cities are mired in disrepair and sated with indications of your lack of determination to rise above that agrarian past to the globalized world now infiltrating your city centers. I am not saying to rescind your roots, but to use them in conjunction with the future you are trying to forge. You can strike a balance here by doing right for your community and doing right for the next Czech generations.

The answer though is clear – as I’m sure it is to so many of you who are admitting it and trusting in the existing system – e.d.u.c.a.t.i.o.n - formal, yet more importantly, informal in variety.

Not every child has to be born and bred to become an American-style Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, or Larry Page. These individuals are merely prototypes for the qualities your children can and should be given the opportunity to develop and possess. How they manifest them in their everyday lives, can and should be up to them. They should be afforded every opportunity and every angle to explore, which must include mastery of internationally-used languages and skills of empathy, teamwork, and leadership. Above all, these skills must be applied from an early age: taken out of the textbooks and classrooms and put into action in real life situations. Youth Venture (http://genv.net.) is one such example of this effective, working model.

You can cling to your dear identity, my Czechs, but do not compromise that of your children’s for the sake of nostalgia or a life that is far gone from here and now. Or worse yet, for a life you were never able to attain. Give them the opportunities that are streaming in through the web pages they surf, the books they read, the cizinci they come into contact with on the street.

These broad comparisons have probably been made against you hundreds of times before in harsher, more critically acute words than I am using now, but I am here to ask you (individually) once again in a more elaborate string of pointed questions: What are YOU going to do about your current _______ (fill in the blanks: political, economical, social, cultural) situation? How will YOU inspire your children to become better and more self-confident as individuals in our globalized world? How do YOU, through each action of your day, set about to change your community and world for the better?

The answers to these very same questions led me to where I am now – in this foreign land, away from everything I know, testing the boundaries of my cultural limits and personal inclinations. I challenge you to begin the same journey – for you, or your children.

~~~~

Jennifer Fry can be reached at siciliana@gmail.com or at the good offices of www.ashoka.org in the Czech Republic.

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Jsem produkt amerického veřejného vzdělávacího systému a věřím, že základy, kterými mne vybavil, mne nikdy dostatečně nepřipravily na úskalí, která mne v mé ranné dospělosti potkala. Ale nebylo úplně špatné, a já věřím, že tento způsob výuky, kdy význam a smysl látky jsou upřednostňovány před její doslovnou interpretací je lepším oproti těm aplikovaným v jiných zemích, v neposlední řadě také v České republice. Vštípil mi průbojnost a povahu, která se dá nejlépe popsat jako "americká": nebojácný přístup, který nám dovoluje vstát a jít dělat cokoliv nám říká naše srdce a mysl a vše, na co nám síly stačí. I přesto, že se mi nedostalo toho nejlepšího vzdělání těch nejlepších soukromých škol, věřím, že díky téhle průbojnosti a soutěživosti jít si vlastní cestou jsem se odlišila od průměru. Byla jsem první, kdo z naší rodiny získal vysokoškolský diplom (a to na jedné z 10 nejlepších státních vysokých škol ve Státech!) a vydala jsem se přes velkou louži do země, o které jsem nevěděla před příjezdem skoro nic (možná díky nedostatkům tohoto vzdělání?). Nikdy jsem neměla k dispozici žádný balík peněz (krom toho, co si těžkou prací vydělali mí rodiče), ani nebyla součástí žádné elitní společnosti, což je většinou v Americe předzvěstí úspěšné budoucnosti. Ale co mi nechybělo, byla zdravá dravost a nekonečná touha po poznání světa kolem mne – toho globalizovaného světa, který se nám tak rychle scvrkává před očima.

Co jsem se určitě naučila, je podnikavost. Tím nemám na mysli žádné podnikání, ale myslím tím "podnikavost v životě" – schopnost "uchytit" se ve světě a poprat se s všelijakými nástrahami. Přijela jsem do Čech jako cizinka před rokem, po krátkém cestování po několika místech v Evropě, tudíž jsem nikdy předtím nezažila pocit "přistěhovalce" z Ameriky. Rok v Čechách pro mne byl nesmírně poučný, zažila jsem tu všechno možné od věcí dobrých přes horší, až k těm děsivým. Ale když pominu všechna klišé o kulturním "přizpůsobování se" – je tu jedna věc (a předem se omlouvám za zvšeobecňování), kterou vám, Čechům nemůžu odpustit a které se nikdy úplně nepřizpůsobím – a to je vaše neschopnost překonat sama sebe.

Když porovnám svou americkou výchovu a zkušenosti, je tato vaše vlastnost v rozporu s mým vnímáním světa a se zásadami, ve kterých jsem byla vychována, i když ne přímo hvězdným vzdělávacím systémem. Tenhle nedostatek ochoty na sobě pracovat je pro mne do očí bijící úplně ve všem od způsobu, jakým se chováte ke svým ženám, jak na veřejnosti, tak i v soukromí (a které, shodou okolností, nezastávají skoro žádné vysoké pozice), přes zákaznický servis (skoro neexistuje), až přes váš naprosto chaotický, zastaralý, dokonce přímo kafkovský, byrokratický aparát. Proč si, milí Češi, myslíte, že to tak je? Možná se vám líbí udržovat si svět, nebo vaše sousedy, v jisté vzdálenosti všemi těmito prostředky. Ale možná se vám líbí udržovat si určitý status quo a udržovat si pohodlí vaší zasmušilosti a strachu, které tak dobře znáte, jako depresivní člověk s nízkou hladinou serotoninu. Alespoň takhle na mé americké smysly působí ten váš mrazivý pohled, který vídám v metru.

Dokonce mi připadá, jako byste byli permanentně zaklíněni mezi kamenem a něčím ještě tvrdším; v pohodlí falešného bezpeční schovaní uvnitř tohoto nepřístupného zevnějšku.

Jsem zde jen jako vnější pozorovatel a přiznám se, že nemám dostatek zkušeností, ani porozumění vaším dějinám abych tady "rozsekla" vaší situaci, ale přesto cítím, že musím.

Pozoruji, jak vytrvale postupujete v politické agónii tímto post-komunistickým konzumeristickým novým světem, ale vaše staré, osvědčené, minimalistické způsoby se vás pořád drží. Že se nestydíte! Ve vašich dějinách jste vždy byli jedni z těch nejinteligentnějších, nejvynalézavějších, a nejvšestrannějších lidí, se kterými jsem se kdy setkala. Ale necháváte tu svou vnitřní nenávist a nedostatek sebevědomí ubírat na svém vnitřním světle. Už sama vaše národní hrdost by vás měla donutit pozvednout se nad vaše post-komunistické bratrance. Čína, Indie, Rusko, a zbytek velmocí 21. století, které zanechají dokonce i Spojené státy válet se v prachu, jestli nebudeme jednotní, vyplení vaši zem a vezme si vše, co si nedokážete uhájit, jako svoje vlastnictví. Jejich děti se už naučili to, co vy ne. Sídliště vašich měst zoufale zaostávají a vyzařuje z nich nedostatek odhodlání se vymanit z venkovských manýrů a čelit globalizovanému světu, který pulzuje v jejich centrech. Neříkám, abyste zapomněli na vaše kořeny, ale abyste je použili v souladu s budoucností, kterou se snažíte vytvořit. Můžete dosáhnout rovnováhy tím, že budete dělat to, co je správné pro vaši společnost a příští generace.

Odpověd se sama nabízí – a jistě mnoho z vás uznává a věří v tento existující systém – v.z.d.ě.l.á.n.í – formální, ale ještě důležitěji, to neformální, ve své různorodosti.

Ne každé dítě musí být od narození vychovávané tak, aby se stalo příštím Billem Gatesem, Sergey Brinem, nebo Larry Pagem. Tito lidé jsou jen prototypy kvalit, které by vaše děti měly dostat možnost si osvojit a rozvíjet. Jak je v každodenním životě uplatní, to mělo zůstat na nich. Mělo by jim být dovoleno vyzkoušet si všechny příležitosti a různé úhly pohledu, které by určitě měly zahrnovat brilanci v mezinárodně používaných cizích jazycích a umění empatie, týmové práce, a vedení lidí. Krom toho, tyto dovednosti by jim měli být vštěpovány od útlého věku: nejen obsaženy v učebnicích a třídách, ale demonstrovány v běžnén životě. Youth Venture (http://genv.net.) je příkladem toho, jak tenhle model funguje v praxi.

Můžete se držet zuby nehty své identity, milí Češi, ale nebraňte identitě vašich dětí jen kvůli své nostalgii, nebo životu, který je od toho současného tak vzdálen. A ještě hůř, kvůli životu, který se už nikdy nevrátí. Dejte jim vyzkoušet si věci, které na ně čiší z webových stránek, na kterých surfují, knih, které čtou, nebo od "cizinců", se kterými se setkávají denně na ulici.

Pravděpodobně už jste mnohokrát slyšeli tato obšírná porovnání sebe sama dokonce i daleko hrubším, kritičtějším způsobem, ale já se vás chci zeptat (a to každého z vás) znovu zeptala na několik otázek: Co VY konkrétně děláte ohledně své _________ (doplňte si sami: polické, ekonomické, sociální, kulturní) situace? Jak budete VY inspirovat své děti, aby se stali lepšími, sebevědomějšími lidmi v tomto globalizovaném světě? Jak se VY chováte každý den, abyste změnili společnost a svět k lepšímu?

Odpovědi na ty samé otázky mne přivedly tam, kde jsem teď – v této cizí zemi, daleko od všeho, co je mi známé, zkoušející hranice mých kulturních zvyklostí a osobních návyků. Chtěla bych vás vybídnout, abyste se touto cestou vydali – pro sebe sami a pro své děti.

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Jennifer Fry můžete zastihnout na emailu siciliana@gmail.com, nebo v kanceláři www.ashoka.org v České republice.

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Translation by:

Hana Gomolakova
translator, interpreter
hanagomolakova@gmail.com
http://bohemove.blogspot.com