How Czech Government Delighted Me As a Consumer

"Can you tell me," asked my native-Czech student shyly near the end of a lesson one day, "anything you see here that is better than in your country?"

"Can I? YES!" I answered enthusiastically. "Czech people haven't the faintest idea how FABULOUS their transportation networks are. They are simply amazing."

Hlavni Nadrazi

the Main Prague Train Station

 What I admire:

1) Czech transport makes Czechs more competitive. Here's why: In America, it is suggested that 15% of the average household budget be devoted to paying for transportation. That usually includes cars for both parents and possibly for any teenagers living at home, car insurance, gasoline, and licenses for the car and drivers. That's 15% of American salaries, which run higher than Czech salaries.

Czechs don't need to spend so much of their salaries on transportation because it's possible to survive, indeed thrive, without a car. Not only can companies locate in the Czech Republic and get high-quality, hard-working, highly educated, often multi-lingual employees, it's possible to pay them less because they don't have these household costs that exist in America.

How low are the transport costs in the Czech Republic? Envision living in a city of 1.3 million and paying a mere $300 a year to get around. And if you want to be able to travel through the entire country (similar in size to the U.S. state of South Carolina), an annual train pass is only $100 more! Can you imagine, my fellow Americans, being able to get around your entire state for only $400? As far as I can tell, Czechs spend around 8.8% of their salaries on transportation.  What a competitive advantage in the global fight for jobs!

On the Hlavni Nadrazi

train platform

where you can catch a train to Plzen

or another city or village 

The comfortable seats

on a City Elephant Train

What's missing: stress!

Czechs have the most extensive rail network density in the entire EU.  Railways were built to transport the military in the 19th century.  A CFO for a construction company pointed out to me Communist government also made it easy to create this incredible system of national and metro railways because the apparatchiks just 'appropriated' whatever property was needed from the citizenry. Property owners weren't compensated. If a government such as mine were to develop this today paying retail prices to property owners, the cost would be exorbitant.  Bummer.

Right up this Metro escalator

is one of Prague's newest malls.

Prague kids don't need their parents

to drive them there.

The kids can't get in too much trouble.

See those spiky things?

There will be no sliding down that shiny metal

all the way from the top!

2) Czech parents don't have to be chauffeurs! When children are between the ages of 10-16, American parents spend their "free" time chauffeuring them from one activity to another. Think about this, America.  Imagine your city safe enough that your 10-year-old and his friends could get on the metro and go to hockey practice without you driving them there! Yes, remarkably, Prague is that safe.  Tweens and teens travel on the metro and trams unchaperoned as they pursue their interests.  When Czech children are free to explore the city, Czech parents have a vested interest in making sure that all parts of the city are safe, not just their neighborhood. Surely, that lessens crime.

Czech students on a field trip
using the Prague metro
to get from Point A to Point B

3) Superb public transportation facilitates learning outside of a classroom. It's a giant hassle to take kids on a field trip in America.  The teacher has to coordinate a school bus, discuss it with all the other teachers, get liability release forms from each parent, etc., etc.  Plus securing that bus is all dependent on whether or not there is budget for it that year.  Is it any wonder field trips are dying out? In the Czech Republic, the teacher can just take her class on ever-present public transit that serves everyone! No need to call ahead and order a bus just for her and her kids.  Kids don't need school buses to take them to school either.  They ride the metro like everybody else.

Poetry in the Metro

4) Public transportation creates readers which is good for democracy and good for wealth creation.  One issue poor families face in America is 'a poverty of print.'  No books in the household and no billboards even in their neighborhoods (companies don't bother advertising to folks with no disposable income).  Low-income children don't start kindergarten with the pre-literacy skills developed by observing readers and reading materials on a daily basis.  A sight seen again and again on Czech transport is a variety of people greedily opening their book with such reverence it reinforces the message that reading is fun. At-risk kids in the Czech Republic have other role models beside their parents.  I've even see Czech parents use that transit time to read to their kids!

All those readers create a healthy market for print newspapers and weeklies which is great for democracy.

Good readers grow up to earn 20% more than average readers. Constant reading builds up a skill critical to wealth creation.

5) Public transportation is safer than driving. Americans curtail their activities because they fear driving when drinkers could be on the road.  I went out with full confidence on New Year' Eve in Prague because I knew I didn't have to worry about dangerous people on the road. It's a little crazy, isn't it, to deprive ourselves of activities because we fear driving?

A new, less predictable, driving danger is becoming known: texting while driving. It results in driving so distracted it is the equivalent of twice the impairment of driving while intoxicated.  Why not bring laptops and electronic devices on public transit to use that time to accomplish work undistracted rather than try to work and drive at the same time?

6) Public transportation creates a pedestrian culture that limits obesity.  I offer my own experience.  Twenty pounds lost in the Czech Republic in six months without trying! But think of the money slimmer people save the country's health care budgets with less chronic diseases caused by overeating and inactivity.

Life goes on!

Here a Czech takes home

a Christmas tree on the metro

 7) Public transportation limits human isolation. You know how people who have just broken up with someone have a grudge against the opposite gender?  It would be hard to keep that attitude alive using Czech public transit. You may not be in love, but everyone else is.  My goodness, I've never seen so much public smooching in my life! On the metro, you'll see couples in love, families moving their household furniture, students studying madly for a test, and people on their way to a potluck with a dish balanced on their lap.  I think it's healthy and gets people outside of their own head to see the wonderful parade of humanity that happens on the metro.  It's a conversational banquet too.  I can't count the number of interesting five-minute conversations I had with perfect strangers on the metro!

The futuristic feel

of the Prague Metro

is part of the fun

8) The Czech Republic is already armed with an infrastructure that limits global warming. Every family that uses public transit saves 20 lbs. of carbon emissions annually from entering the atmosphere. Czech people already have it built!

9) Public transit keeps the air cleaner. - the street my language school was on was like a valley of trapped car exhaust.  I'm sure vehicle traffic has made the air in Prague less healthy for the people who live there.

10)Public transit creates a very livable city. In a city of 1.3 million people, I could go home for lunch!  That's what delights me the most.  The incredible, extensive transport network allowed me to move into Prague without a car and get about the city without any anxiety.  An English teacher in Prague gets to know how to use the metro, trams, and buses in combination with each other so extensively it would be normal to get from one side of Prague to another in 20 minutes.  If I was going someplace new I just used a first-class website to help plan the trip.  All included in my $22 a month transit pass.

An elevated Metro tube

headed into Luziny Metro stop

in Prague

The Challenge for Czechs

Czech families with the funds available are purchasing cars.  Because that strata, articulate in their demands, tends to get listened to in a democracy, there's a danger that public transit budgets will begin to favor highways more than public transit.  In America, 80% of the money goes for highways and 20% for transit. Our transit looks like it too. It's not world-class.  How will the Czech Republic maintain it's fabulously competitive transit system if the loudest citizens value something else?  Are you rich enough as a country to afford both? We aren't - or at least haven't prioritized it that way. What would Prague and other cities be like to live in if the car became the dominant vehicle of choice? Would you have additional costs to your society if obesity was higher, carbon emissions, pollution, and foreign oil imports were higher, stress was higher, human isolation was higher, educational costs were higher, and household expenses were higher?

Czechs, do you understand what an infrastructure gem this is? Have you purchased a car? What do you think will be favored more in the next twenty years? Vehicle traffic or transit traffic?

Americans, does this appeal to you at all? Is there any American area that comes close to this level of transit service?  What kind of public transit do you wish you had where you live (I would love high-speed rail from Madison, WI to Milwaukee and Chicago, Illinois. Rockford, Illinois is a city the size of Plzen that would explode if it had any kind of rail service to Chicago, 90 miles away.


You can also read my previous post about what I valued about the United States Government:

The United States Government Saved My Life

Discovering a Prejudice Against Germans I didn't even know I had

The Czechs had a pretty horrific 20th century. First, it was the Austrian-Hungarian empire, then the Nazis came, and the Soviets. You'd think Czechs would harbor a grudge. Not so. While every Czech I met knew their history, Czechs seem not to devote a whit of space in their heads to grudges against Germans or Russians.

Conventional wisdom says the opposite of love is not hatred but apathy; that would describe the Czech attitude toward Russians. The Russians left only 20 years ago but they're just never talked about much. Sometimes it seems the Ruskies were never there, and evidence of their being there can only be found in traces, such as the Czech habit of not smiling on the subway for fear of giving your neighbors something to report.

I was surprised though to discover Czech open hearts toward German people. But "how can you trust them?" I'd ask. "Don't you worry the same thing could happen again, where Germany tries to take over all of Europe and make everyone miserable and/or dead?" "Nah," my Czech friends and students would say. "They're not like that."

I always wondered how the Czechs could say that with such confidence. How could they be so sure? Didn't my country have to come over to Europe twice and bail everyone out because of how the Germans behaved? If it happened not just once, but twice in the last 100 years, didn't that mean that deep in the heart of every German there was a blustering Imperialistic Nazi hibernating inside? Over and over again, I heard Czechs negate that thought.

It wasn't just Czechs who had an open mind and heart. While I was living in Prague, I entertained some friends from Israel. The lady discussed making her first visit to Germany to make her peace with the German people. She was content with moving on. What? A Jewish person has such incredible capacity to forgive and trust? Incredible!

I never understood what people were seeing and feeling about Germans that I wasn't until I went to hear Andrew Bacevich, an American professor of international relations at Boston University and the author of "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism" speak at the Wisconsin Book Festival. He and two other learned professors were describing how countries that pursue empire are doing so rather than look inward and reforming themselves. I don't know if he meant this, but I got the idea while listening to his talk that pursuing empire is a country's version of addiction, a non-conscious expression of pain and harm toward other populations so as not to feel or reform ourselves.

After the talk, I asked all three professors separately, "Okay, if the way we Americans are living now is all about Empire building, who then offers us the model of how we are to live?" Each professor commented on what an interesting question that was and that no one had every asked it (yea me!). Andrew Bacevich then answered without hesitation that "the Germans are our example. They have no interest in empire building whatsoever."

Bacevich made me realize I was operating on 65-year-old information. It wasn't fair to judge the Germans of today against the Germans of yesterday. I needed to update my vision of them as a people and open my heart as countless Europeans and my Jewish friends had already done.

When I went to Berlin, all those monuments documented a dark past from which the nation was recovering. Building monuments and talking about the crimes that had been committed in their name is an acceptance of responsibility. They are choosing to deny denial. One of my friends from Italy told me, "if only my country had learned as much from its mistakes as the Germans have."

It made me think. Is my country accepting responsibility for the things that we've done wrong? Are we ready to discuss them out-loud? Are we able to discuss our past mistakes? One of my U.S. Senators told me if Americans thought the Abu Ghraib photos were bad, the ones not shared in public were much, much worse. If we don't prosecute the alleged abuses and torture done in our name, doesn't that make every American responsible for them? If we choose not to talk about them or acknowledge them, it means we approve, cause we'd rather live in denial. I don't want to live in denial.

I also don't want to operate on 65-year-old information. Heck, if people didn't update their visions of each other, we'd all be worrying about Scandinavians looting and pillaging ala the Vikings!

Look at Iranian leadership. They are operating on a paranoia developed from 55-year-old information when the CIA overthrew their leader and they've been overreacting ever since.

I vow to open my heart to German people and look at them as people completely and wholly new to me. I know nothing about them and my mind is now an open slate.

You may be interested in these other posts:

Understanding Iran: The Power of One Graphic Novel called Persepolis 

Recommended Reading for Thoughtful Americans: "The Limits of Power" by Andrew J. Bacevich

"We Built This for Our Nation"

Yesterday's trip to the Ballet was fabulous. The National Theater was so very beautiful. I want to know everything about it.

Over the stage were the words in Czech, "Národní Sobe!" I asked the usher what it meant and she said she would translate it as "We Built This for Ourselves" or "We Built This For Our Nation." It's a beautiful thought, isn't it? One generation speaking to another.

My main floor seat could not have been better. I was so close I could smell the gunpowder of the gun and hear the squeak of ballet slippers. Next to me sat a proud mother of a ballerina. I realized one of the things I loved about this theatre is that it is human-sized. The last fine art theatre I had frequented in America, the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin, was cavernous.

No pictures were allowed. The gilt, the glamour, could I even capture it with my own photography? It was sooo beautiful. I cried.

Pavel Pišan was terrific in his role as Paris. His job was to be a slimy bad guy and he did seem like a slimy bad guy. I have no idea how he does that when his natural personality is the exact opposite! His features are so sharp he can communicate emotion easily across all those seats. Pavel has a perfect face for stage work.

Whenever I hear Prokofiev's famous big brass lines from this piece in the future I know it will conjure up this very special memory of hearing fantastic music in an exquisite setting showcasing world class ballet. It was a privilege to be there.

"The Onion" can almost make me laugh until I cry

I want to make one last post about Wisconsin culture as I continue my slow tour of the American Midwest before moving to Prague.

As regular readers of the blog have already surmised, I love politics and all things political -- especially political humor. If the news gets too hard to take, leave it to our comedians to help us find the humor in our very human national predicaments. Paraphrasing American humorist Mark Twain, "Nothing can stand up to ridicule."

Every time I go to Wisconsin, I make a point of picking up The Onion, which facetiously calls itself “The Finest News Source Available.” It’s at least one of the funniest American fake news source available, along with John Stewart’s Daily Show, and Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect.

The Onion was founded in Madison, Wisconsin by a couple of college students and has free distribution throughout the city. It somehow must have a national presence though, because The Onion book products are sold nationwide and I’ve heard national pundits refer to the newspaper.

When The Onion misses on humor, it misses badly. Something that was meant to be funny turns out to be merely vulgar. But for the most part, this newspaper gives me the giggles.

Check out a sampling of the most emailed stories from this week that skewer American culture by clicking on this link. Some of this week's article titles:

"Wealthy teen nearly experiences consequences"

"Palin brushing up on foreign policy at Epcot"

"Bush goes Blonde for Remainder of Presidency"

"Report: 60 Million People You'd Never Talk To Voting for the Other Guy"

"John Kerry Actually Pretty Good at Windsurfing Now"

A Magnificent Milwaukee Morning

On a drop-dead gorgeous day it was impossible to go inside
my favorite building in America, the Milwaukee Art Museum.
The weather compelled me to enjoy it from the outside.
This is the original wing of the Museum,
designed by Finnish-American Eero Saarinen in 1957.
Looks completely of the moment to me.

Here's the part of the Museum that I adore,
the Quadracci Pavillion,
by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
Genius!

A view of the lower level cafe which is a perfect place for watching the promenade of people enjoying the lakefront.
At high noon, the bird begins to open her wings.

Fantastic, yes?
Below is another newly developed museum
for children, Discovery World.

The Milwaukee lakefront is perfect for boaters, kayakers, sailors,

kite-flyers, rollerbladers, bicyclists, paddleboaters, strollers,
and tourists just enjoying the day.

It is a terrific city for pedestrians -
always something to see

This is the newest addition to the city: Bronzie Fonzie.
Fonz, was a central character on the sitcom "Happy Days,"

which was set in Milwaukee.

The statue went up along the Milwaukee riverfront in August 2008
and the city had a parade for all the cast members.
The only one who couldn't come was "Ritchie Cunningham"
who was off directing a movie (in real life).
The city wants you to send them your pic with the Fonz!
Clink on the link to see some fun examples.

Behind this hidden, non-descript entrance
in a Milwaukee downtown alley
is a top-secret bar and restaurant that is sure to make you smile

at it's silly creativity and playfulness.

You have to know the password to get in -
after all, only top spies get the highest clearance.
I'd tell you more,
but I've programmed this picture to disappear in five seconds....

you'll have to ask a Milwaukee native to take you...

And today the New York Times published an article
"36 Hours in Milwaukee."
Click on the link to reach it.

A Visit to Hog Heaven

What else would be parked in the parking lot?

I am not a biker.

I have to admit though, when the 100th anniversary of the Harley-Davidson company happened a few years ago, I couldn't help but notice the sheer quantity of people who l-o-v-e-d their bike and the company that made it so much, they came from all over to ride into Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the festivities. Many of these people passed through Illinois on the way there and you could tell they were having a blast.

Were I to buy something motorized and on two wheels, I'm more of a Vespa or Honda Metropolitan kind of gal. Yet the rabid, passionate brand identification of Harley riders made me want to know more about the Harley mystique. There is nothing I love more than exploring yet another one of America's many subcultures.

I had total respect for the success that this company has achieved marketing iconic machines made in America (could you see the manufacture of Harleys outsourced to China? I couldn't. The mystique would not be the same).

The new museum opened in July 2008

I must not be the only one who's interested. This summer the company opened a very cool, very hip museum celebrating all things Harley. And like someone who never wants to give up the memories of the love of their life, this company and the people in it, saved every memento from the very beginning. The long view of a relationship this community of bike lovers has with their beloved product is amazingly rare.

Until I came to see this, I didn't realize that Harleys are a global phenomenon. Ninety percent of the visitors in the museum the day I was there were from Europe or Asia. When I saw the look of appreciation on their faces at the distinctive sound of a Harley starting up, it moved me. People from all over care about this distinctly American cultural institution! Who knew? Is this how you feel when tourists come see your sights in your area? What cultural institution where you live is similarly appreciated?

It makes me happy that people love this because it represents the best of America: freedom and the power of the individual.

In keeping with the industrial feel of Harleys,
the benches outside the museum are I-beams.

Harley admission staff welcome people
from all over the globe

Admission is $16 for adults and an audio tour is available for $5. I highly recommend adding the audio tour because sound is such an important part of the experience and there's lots of commentary from people who've been involved from the beginning.

The very first Harley from 1903

I would think a reintroduction of vintage Harleys
could steal market share from scooters.
I could ride this.

Bikers debating the relative merits
of individual bikes in the
world's largest collection of Harleys

A mother and twenty-something daughter rode this bike and sidecar across country in the early part of the century. When the bike sprang a flat tire, the daughter walked into town from the desert to get a new innertube; her mom needed to survive for two days without food and water armed with a pistol she didn't know how to use. They made it without regrets!

Way cool vintage motorcycle toys

The mom in me thinks there couldn't be a museum better
than this one for showing a teen
the fun of a career in industrial design.
This display lets you listen to the sounds
of Harley engines through the ages.

"Form follow function -
but both report to emotion."
~Harley-Davidson Chief Styling Officer

Remember the movie "Easy Rider"
with Jack Nickleson and Peter Fonda?
Here are reproductions of the bikes.
One of the most fun and campy spots of the museum
is a collection of motorcycle movie clips.

Harley staffer Gary can answer your questions
in one of the motorcycle galleries

Customizing your Harley
is a big part of making a bike your own
This guy obviously did not worry about being over-the-top

Neither did this guy

Harley-Davidson has created the finest example
of corporate archiving I have ever seen.
They have everything: early sales brochures,
board minutes,
individual motorcycles,
and motorcycles of celebrities like Elvis.
On Fridays the museum offers a "back roads tour"
of the archives.

Here an archivist carefully unpacks
numerous items of Harley clothing

I was ready to test drive a bike after that tour!
Bravo to the vision of men and women in Milwaukee
who created a great product and a storied company

Wonderful food eases newly empty nest

This week I took Daughter #1 back to college in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison is a fantastic town for it's natural beauty and intellectual ferment. There are more restaurants here per capita than anywhere else in America. Delightfully, many of the restaurants are ethnic and very affordable.

Within a few blocks of daughter #1's new apartment there is a Japanese, Peruvian, Laotian, Swiss, and Vietnamese restaurant. I especially admire the exuberance of the Vietnamese owners, they called theirs the "I'm Here" restaurant.

The last time I had any exposure to Peruvian culture was my fourth grade shoebox diorama on the Incas, so I voted for the Peruvian restaurant called "Inka Heritage." It was a choice we did not regret.

We were among the first in for the evening

and took a window table.

Andean flute music added to the experience.

As did our terrific waiter Pablo.

Pablo brought us Peruvian corn (very crunchy)
with a tangy cilantro sauce for dipping.

I ordered Lomo Saltado, a dish of very tender beef tenderloin flambed with onion, tomatoes, cilantro, rice and potatoes.

It was fabulous!

Daughter #1 ordered Seco de Cordero, lamb cooked in cilantro sauce, with rice, canary beans, fried yucca, and creole sauce. She enjoyed every bite and said the canary beans tasted sweet.

Almost all of the deserts had a milk-flavored theme.
I chose Tres Leches.
The spongy cake and liquid under whipped creme
was interesting texturally.

Daughter #1 went wild over hers, Mousse de Lucama.

Lucama is a Peruvian fruit that was new to us both.

I enjoyed this Peruvian adventure. Until I get to Machu Picchu, this will be my favorite 'Peruvian' memory. It beats the diorama hands down!