April, the Kindest Month

2011 has been a year of mostly Mondays. Maybe something to do with the moon's closest hovering in decades... or simply a convergence of obstacles to test my endurance. Regardless, April promises a new mentor in my life, a second daughter. My little Zoe will be a big sister to.. baby Chloe.

On the poetic front, I'll be reading at the U.S. Embassy's American Center here in Prague, along with legendary Czech underground writer/musician/artist Pavel Zajíček and the notorious American fiction writer Brad Vice, to celebrate the release of a new Czech-English anthology (with a theme akin to 'self-exile') recently compiled and translated by poet-professors Matthew Sweney and Bob Hýsek.

U.S. Occupation of Czech Republic -- Can it Be Stopped?

"Czech Senate ratified today the two radar treaties signed in July [2007] by Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. By doing so it openly positioned itself against the will of the majority of Czechs as polls have been showing for the last two years that most Czechs disagree with the plan.

“From the point of view of democracy in our country this is a major setback. The government-controlled senate clearly showed that it does not care about the will of the Czech people and that’s simply unacceptable,” said Jan Tamas[...] / Read entire article.

_________________

A Few Reasons Why I Am Against a U.S. Radar Station in Czech Republic:

1. The U.S. already spends far more on its military than all of its "enemies" combined. Conversely, its education system is in ruins, the population increasingly illiterate (evident by the number of people who voted for Geezer/Dingbat (McCain/Palin), against their own interests, in the 2007 elections).

2. Czechs were occupied by Russian military for several decades. During this time, they began to love anything "American." Those who actually support the radar (and subsequent U.S. military bases) are still under this spell (caused mostly by Hollywood films - for example, they don't believe there are homeless people in the USA). The powerful minority of radar supporters have not yet realized that they'll be trading Russian occupation for American occupation.

3. It makes the Czech Republic, and especially Prague, a target.

4. It serves no strategic purpose that could not be better placed in already-occupied countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

5. The U.S. went nuts when Russia put similar weapons in Cuba, yet expects Russia not to mind it doing the same thing - putting missiles and radar bases on Russia's doorstep. How would the U.S. react if Russia installed a similar setup in Cancun or Montreal?

6. The majority of Czechs don't want it (apparently, Czech Republic is not a real democracy).

7. Iran, a formidable country, is surrounded by U.S. military (Afghanistan/Iraq)... Russia is being threatened by radar and missile bases on its doorstep... America needs to relax a bit, get its own problems taken care of (education system, economy, unemployment, etc.), and not be so globally self-important.





See the chain of events that have led to this point, or sign an online petition to stop American (U.S.) military occupation of the Czech Republic.

Join the official facebook group "No US military base on Czech Republic territory."

And here's a larger Euro-wide movement called Europe for Peace: Europe free from nuclear weapons.

Central / East European Literary Anthology - Free PDF Download

Slovakia's Centre for Information on Literature (Literárne a informačné centrum) has done a great thing for literature and language: They have placed a downloadable PDF of an anthology of Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Hungarian literature, called Visegrad 4 Countries, on their website. Additionally, and most important for folks like me (linguistically challenged), there's a translation of the anthology text in English.

Pal Bekes (Hungary), the anthology's editor-in-chief, headed the project that received support by the following country editors: Ivory Rodriguez (Czech Republic), Ina Martinova (Slovakia), and Piotr Marciszuk (Poland).

Authors include: Jan Balaban, Stanislav Beran, and Jachym Topol (Czech Republic); Karol D. Horvath, Marius Kopcsay, and Ursula Kovalyk (Slovakia); Pawel Huelle, Olga Tokarczukova, and Daniel Odija (Poland); and Lajos Parti Nagy, Szilard Podmaniczky, Margit Halaszova, and Gyorgy Spiro (Hungary).

*

As I have only read Jachym Topol from the above list of Central/East European writers, I'm looking forward to reading my own downloaded copy over the holidays.