Foreigners Smell, A Petition Claims

Czech employees of Foxconn IT company in the Czech town of Pardubice are signing a petition against their fellow workers from Eastern Europe (the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, or Belarus), the Pardubicky denik daily informed today.

The authors of the petition claim that the hygiene habits and standards of these foreigners are “terrible”. Among the examples they mention is that the foreigners often throw used toilet paper to wastebaskets, instead to the toilet bowl.

The company now has 6,500 employees, of this number more than 2,000 are foreigners.

The management promises to expand the bathrooms and to teach foreign employees local cultural habits. 

The Twelve O’Clock Question

One of the things that many foreign top managers are surprised about [they mention it when I talk to them] is how Czech offices or firms literally become deserted around noon. It takes a while for a foreigner to find out that the reason is called lunch menu.

So if a Czech colleague asks another co-worker Jdes s nama na menicko? he means Are you gonna join us for a lunch menu?

Lunch menu is a special offer that literally almost all restaurants have between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. It usually includes one kind of soup that the waiter brings without asking. Upon bringing the soup he or she asks “what number” which means what number of a menu the guests will have. Normally restaurants have three to four. The place that is just next door from my office has only two to choose from, usually one for people who are more vegetable lovers and one for people who must consume something that was booing and breathing a while ago…

And yes, let’s not forget that we all have lunch coupons that we like to use to pay for lunch menus. Lunch coupons are a special kind of employee benefit. You get twenty seventy-crown coupons and the employer deducts 50 percent of their value from your paycheck.

The only thing I hate about lunch menu lunches is that people are usually ruder than in a “normal” restaurant and they would join you at your table without asking politely. I once ate lunch with a close friend of mine at a table for four. These two men came asking whether they could join us. I didn’t want to have a private conversation with two total strangers sitting one meter from me so I told them no. One of the guys was pretty rude. Obviously he thought that people are not entitled to privacy between 11 and 2.

But then again, if you want to have a two-course lunch with five-minute waiting time, there is nothing better. Deliveries are usually twice as expensive. And you have to eat while others work. Not the most comfortable thing…

SkyEurope Accident In Kosice!

SkyEurope Boeing 737-800 struck a lamp post shortly after landing at Kosice International Aiport in Kosice, Slovakia. The plane arrived from the Slovak capital Bratislava. The estimated damage is 800,000 Slovak crowns on the plane and 200,000 on the airport lighting. There were no injuries although the passengers were indeed in danger…

According to airport authorities the crew took a wrong turn into a taxiway that was too narrow to handle a 737-800 plane.

Pringles, Sunkist And Jerry Seinfeld

I think everyone who lived outside his or her home country for more than six months has this experience: a frustration relating to the fact that some things just can’t seem to find their way to his or her country, while other things have been there for years- but noone really appreciates them.

Take Pringles, for example. In 1993, in Provo, Utah, I could eat two boxes of Pringles Cheez-Ums a day. First time I saw them on a shelf in a Czech supermarket, it was in 2001. For some strange reason the licensed producer and/or importer had all flavors (regular, sour cream and onion,…) but one. Yes, all but the cheese flavor. Still the case now, since the only place I could buy them is Prague.

It has been both life- and professional experience for me that Czechs who think they will learn something about Americans from action movies and daytime soaps are dead wrong. Whereas it is a generally known idea that Czechs are symbolized by the character named Josef Svejk [The Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek], Americans are best symbolized by comedian characters as well. That is why people in Europe should watch Married With Children, Frasier or Seinfeld. Sure, there are stereotypes there but these stereotypes work better than plain fiction like Walker Texas Ranger, which by the way looks like a parody of itself.

Seinfeld was here for only one season in late 1990’s. I think one of the reasons it was cancelled was that it contained way too many references and meta-references that were hard to translate and hard for stupid TV Nova average viewers to understand. Same thing with Frasier.

One of my relatives’ main business activity is importing a well-known Czech mineral water to the Greater Chicago Area. Why? Well because there are many immigrants and children of immigrants who will drink it just out of patriotism. And because it will make them feel “home”. One might say that all carbonized waters taste roughly the same. Maybe, and maybe not. Why do they make Mirinda, if there is Fanta? And why import Coke, when there is Pepsi? And why the hell can’t you buy Sunkist in the Czech Republic?

Brno To Barcelona In Under Three Hours

Starting today Brno has another direct flight to a European city. After Prague, London, Munich [recently cancelled] and Moscow there comes Barcelona. Or, Girona, to be exact, but the Ryanair flight has been constantly presented as “flight to Barcelona”. It is obvious why – Barcelona sounds better than Girona.

So, if you are interested,

flight FR5132 departs GRO at 7:05 a.m. and arrives at BRQ at 9:40 a.m.

flight FR5133 departs BRQ at 10:05 and arrives at GRO at 12:30

operates on Mondays, Wednesdays,  Fridays and Sundays with Boeing 737-800.

Nationalists Will Form a “National Guard”

The Czech Republic celebrated the 89th anniversary of the independence. In 1918 then-Czechoslovak Republic split from the Austro-Hungarian Empire [to say it in the most simple terms].

These “celebrations” always include quasi-meetings organized by far-right nationalists. And sure enough, they met this year, too. During the meeting they announced their intention to form some sort of a national guard. One of its goals would be helping people during floods, leaders of the party were quoted by iHNED.cz news server as saying…

I am not buying this for a second. Especially since in recent times some of the party members expresses their thoughts on the Czech immigration policies, saying that “too many foreigners are flooding this beautiful country”. Xenophobia and goodwill in one month? From the same people? Yeah, right…

Czech Republic Misplaced, Part I

In a talk show interview with Eliza Dushku and James Belushi, an obvious question was asked: Where is Albania? The host did not know, the third guest did not know.

So they asked a staff member who appeared 70 or older.

His answer: Next to Czechoslovakia!!!!!!!!

This starts my newly introduced Where In The World Count: 1

8 Simple Rules Videos Are Gone

Over the past three weeks I could enjoy watching all episodes of 8 Simple Rules (For Dating My Teenage Daughter) on YouTube. I think this sitcom is the best “family sitcom” ever. The characters have a great chemistry, Amy Davidson is great playing her character and Kayley Cuoco is I-want-to-marry-her gorgeous.

But today, all of a sudden the videos disappeared. The YouTube user/member explains that the videos were deleted by YouTube administrators.

Sure, copyright laws are laws but there is one theory that I have about copying and other intellectual property law violation: those videos, books, CD’s, DVD’s etc. are viewed by people who would NOT get it elsewhere, so we can’t really say that the copyright owners are losing money! I, as a Czech guy, watch 8 Simple Rules in English on YouTube because there is NO chance I would get it here. Sure, it was aired on Czech TV Nova many years ago, but only one season, and it was stuck between two daytime soaps, around 2 p.m. when almost all potential viewers are at school. Where is the logic to that?

And so, I think YouTube SHOULD allow full episodes of TV shows being posted there. If it had an agreement with the TV networks about banner ads, or some kind of barter trades, it would work very well both ways…

Big Car Equals Arrogance

There are many things that are nation-specific about Czechs. One of them is the behavior of a certain group of people who own big cars.

Downtown Brno is one big pedestrian zone that is restricted to general traffic. There are many drivers who ignore this rule and drive through and park there. A quick “research” that I did yesterday showed that out of 15 cars that were parked in the pedestrian zone without permit 10 cost more than 1 million, and two cost even more. One Porsche Cayenne was parked on a bus stop “bay”, while the owner was in the nearby travel agency.

I have never seen a middle-age-average-guy’s car in the historical center of Brno in places it is not supposed to be parked out. Obviously the more average as a citizen you are, the more social control abilities you possess in the Czech Republic.

It is perfectly normal to buy a two million Porsche Cayenne. It does not matter whether the owner works 16 hours a day or whether his business is somewhat illegal. What does matter is what he or she doeswith the car. Eight out of ten Czechs use it to tell the world that having it means having privileges. And they love to test the boundaries.

Idiots In Front of the Hilton Hotel

Over 1,500 people had to be evacuated from the Hilton Hotel and surrounding office buildings because of a big gas leak. According to what I could see, about ten people were spending the time smoking cigarettes!!!

Now, that’s some irony… I think this can fall within the this-could-only-happen-in-the-Czech-Republic category…