A Short Note on the Ukrainian Situation

The western world, into which we proudly count ourselves, got already used to armed conflicts in Africa, the Middle East or Asia. These problems are quite far from us and we began to see them as a normal part of everyday world news, but when demonstrations, people in streets and dead among both police officers and the dissenters move just a thousand kilometers from our borders, we start to pay attention.

I went to Ukraine last summer, in August 2013, with a group of friends. Understandably, it was not the top tourist destination – we had to make a lot of preparations, to read quite a lot about the country and still we were not sure what could wait for us there. Of course, we knew about the political situation in Ukraine and the events that happened there in past few years, but we were much more afraid of being robbed, threatened or at the worst kidnapped. Frankly, we did not have to. How surprised we would be if we went six months later!

The Ukrainian-Russian problems are most visible in Crimea, the autonomous region on the peninsula of the same name, which is inhabited mostly by Russian speaking citizens. Above: statue in Stevastopol. Image credit: Jan Jakšič 

Ukraine is a very poor country, but not everywhere. I can perfectly remember what feelings I had about Kiev. It is a completely modern and rich city and it can be seen especially in the heart of the city – along Khreshchatyk Street which leads to the main square in Kiev, Maidan Nezalezhnosti. On the square we could buy cheap beer in small takeaways, people were crowding in front of the McDonald’s situated in its upper part and greedy Ukrainian students were dressed in heavy cartoon-figures costumes and demanded money from foreign passers-by. Now they are the people dying there.

The things happening in Ukraine in these days are sad evidence that one can never be sure of what they can face in any part of the world. Even the least important event can trigger a series of other events that can change many lives and the situation in the whole world, but it does not have to be very far from us, and we do not have to watch it only on TV.

-          Jan Jakšič

Leonard Cohen’s Concert Enchanted Prague for the Third Time

It was Sunday the 21st of July, approximately quarter to eight. I was standing in front of Prague’s O2 Arena among thousands of other fans of folk-Gypsy-Jewish music and great Canadian poetry and I was waiting to get through the ticket control to experience an evening I had been looking forward to a long time. It was the day of the third concert of the Canadian songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen in the Czech capital. Cohen’s first Prague concert took place in 2008 and the second just a year after that, and having been present during the last, it was a promising event for me as a great fan of Mister Leonard. Although I knew the concert would be an outstanding and exceptional experience, I was still given more that I had expected.

The atmosphere in the O2 arena was amazing from the very beginning. Never before have I seen a standing ovation the moment the performer stepped onto the stage for the first time. The audience showed its admiration and appreciation for the musician and applauded him and his great band even when no string was plucked and no voice had begun to please the listeners’ ears yet. The concert opened with the songs “Dance Me to the End of Love” and “The Future” – the same as during the last couples of Cohen’s tours. Also, Mister Leonard forgot the lyrics a few times and the audience could see that it would take the band a while to get into the mood. This made me worry for the first and the last time during the concert, but everything changed with a fabulous bandurria intro to the song "Who by Fire" and it was with a sequence of songs from Cohen's latest album "Old Ideas" that he seemed to have gained confidence. After that, the concert got better with every song and verse.

The concert was divided into two parts; however, the two sets of encores took approximately the same time as one of these halves. In total, Cohen and his band spent more than three hours on the stage and almost all the essential songs were played. It was really pleasant that Cohen’s probably best known song “Hallelujah” which can be heard every day on radio in many different cover versions was included in the concert’s playlist, as by chance, and gave room for other, less well-known songs.

The peak of the concert was an acoustic set during which (the normally only singing) Cohen played the guitar and which ended with a great, but very sad song "The Partisan". Its lyrics are half in English and half in French; it deals with the life of a partisan during war and the leaving of his family and the loss of his friends. After the song, the screen behind the band turned red – that was a very moving moment for everyone.

I have been to a few great concerts in my life - I have experienced Ian Anderson, Mark Knopfler as well as Bob Dylan and all these musicians were really great. Yet in their cases the evening was "just" a great concert; Cohen’s performance was simply a gift to all his listeners. No-one really knows if it was Mister Leonard’s last visit to Prague – but if it was, I was honoured to have been a part of it... And if it was not, then next time I am definitely buying myself first-row tickets!

-         - Jan Jakšič

Trip to Vienna and South Moravia – the Wine Part.

It is a well-known fact that the future of mankind is almost entirely in the hands of science and that scientific progress is the basis on which the world of peace and harmony has to be built on. This progress cannot be achieved without serious and complex research. With all that in mind, a group of audacious students of Phonetics and English-American Studies under the leadership of members of the Phonetics Department set off on a journey towards better tomorrows. It is necessary to mention that each member of the leading team was volunteers and none of them was paid a single pound – they all did it in the name of progress.

The group met on an ordinary Saturday morning in Prague and their first direction was Haus der Musik in Wien. The students should have obtained theoretical knowledge there that was supposed to be used later on in the research.

Members of the Phonetics Department Photo credit: Eliška Černá  In the afternoon, the bold group left Austria and moved to the main destination of their journey. Until May 2013, a little Moravian village of Strachotín was an insignificant place on Earth, known only by few wine experts. But since that time, its name will be known all over the world and children will learn about it at schools because this was the place where the group should have pushed forward the limits of man’s knowledge once again. The aim of the research was to show the world the influence of dissolute drinking of wine on the articulatory abilities of the research participants.

The research began soon after the group’s arrival and lasted for whole evening and till the deep and dark night. Despites the professional approach, academic supervision and enormous struggle of some members of the group to finish the research successfully even when having to stay awake until the first sunbeams showed above the lake horizon, the results were disappointing. It has shown that the failure was caused by the fact that the whole group was strongly over-motivated and wanted to contribute to its final result so much that there remained no one who would organize the process of the research and collect data. The whole effort went in vain.

However, we should learn from our own mistakes and never give up. The group has promised to improve the preparation for the research and try it again next year. Rome was not built in a day, after all. And there is enough wine left in the dark and damp cellars of Strachotín to fuel the Phoneticians for years to come.