Indiana Jones + insulting History Professor= this post

Jana Dvmolvo Hostel
Prague, Czech Republic
Thursday, 22 May 2008
5:58 PM (USA)/ 11:58 PM (CR)



contemplating whether or not to go to the basement where the Designers and the Swedes are hanging out. It's the Swedes' last night here, and beer (pivo) is cheeper than water (about a $1.75 for .75l versus $2.50) I can only imagine, haha.

We just got back from the new Indiana Jones movie and I must say it was really, really cute and SO nice to hear English for a change. I loved all the classic elements, sword fights on moving vehicles, ancient treasure guards, and of course the love interest.

It made me think however, that I hope your movie industry isn't in any danger because if you think about it, this movie was a bit of a desperate move. A hit because of it's predecessors, this new Indiana Jones was more or less a movie made to commemorate the other films, a motion monument to Indiana Jones and all of his adventures.

Is Hollywood that bad off?

Also remember that the Oscar's almost didn't happen due to the writers strike. I guess producers felt it best to bring out some "old money" that would for sure draw a crowd or perhaps make only "safe" movies in the light of so much controversy. In that sense it was perfect timing for the Indiana Jones movie.

Indie saves the day again :)

On to the history lecture that we had today. A Czech professor of history came and talked to us today about years past here in the Republic. We learned of King Charles the IV, Jon Has and more. He was an excellent teacher, animated but not goofy and made his point, one of them being that we Americans are not the brightest crayons in the box. He made lots of little comments like, "alas, you will not understand this joke," or "we founded our first university in 1348...where was America at this time?" The kicker was when he spoke of Hitler, he didn't see enough recognition on our faces and said, "Oh my! You don't know of Hitler! Here in Europe his name is equal to that of..." when we broke in and were like, "we KNOW who Hitler was, as well as Lenin, Stalin, and Mussolini." He then asked us who Hlakdkqkliz (or something similar) was and of course we didn't know, and he said, "You see? Had we asked a Czech pupil who Abraham Lincoln was they would know, but you do not know of ours."

He went on to tell us about Communism and such and when he got to this one part I had to laugh. He told us that the back in the day there was a beetle that terrorized the potato fields. It was called the California beetle and ultimately the American beetle. The Czech blamed us and the government furthered it by using propaganda saying that (note this is a true story, right out of the professors mouth) we the USA, had the beetles parachuted into the Czech Republic to ruin their economy.

Now let's talk about who's stupid. I realize propaganda was strong; however, beetles being parachuted? I will take common sense over book sense any day and clearly to believe bottle fed lies is a bit weak and gullible in my eyes.

Anyway, enough about how he thought us stupid.

Like I said though, his teaching style was impeccable. Other than the dunce hat I felt I was wearing through out the lecture, I really enjoyed it...and I came to a few conclusions.

First of all, like I've already told you of the Czech mentality from the public-- sad, hopeless, gothic-- is constantly reaffirmed as to why when we learn of the history of this place as it has constantly been either occupied by foreign soldiers, pushed around by larger nations or playing stage to horrible governments. The past twenty years have been the first time in recent history that the Czech didn't have foreign soldiers occupying the land.

The problem arises from waaaaaaay back in 300 AD Germanic Tribes settled here and left. The were nomadic and settled, used the land up, and went on to another place. The Czech's came in and settled permanently; however, since the Germanic Tribes were there first, Germany has always tried to lay claim to the Czech Republic lands. For example, even when ever a King was crowned, the German ruler had to approve. They've never been allowed full freedom and like I've said, the oppression shows. The frustration shows. The anger shows.

The point at which they were most powerful was under King Charles the IV; however, they were very wealthy, the people were exploited and unhappy. After King Charles died the people took over, the Hussites (not sure of the spelling here). They went through the land, basically destroying it, they had been unhappy after all, and took the government into their own hands. They became happy. Poor, but happy.

They were wonderful warriors and "invented" they first army tank by using farm wagons filled with stones and when the infantry of a more sophisticated army came, they sent the stone wagons down the hill they were camped upon and stones knocked men off their horses, making it easy for them to use their pitchforks and other instruments of war that were much more crude than the opposing armies; however, with that strategy they won every time.

That was pure ingenuity. They were lacking, and less of an army, but using common sense and materials available they were able to defend themselves and win against all odds. I like that, it was so American and then I realized why...it's the story of an underdog, and naturally we love those stories because it is akin to our own. America roots for the underdog and look where it got us. We are, a world super power.

We do a lot of things wrong, but we do a lot of things right as well.

For example, we use crappy and cheap materials in situations where the Czech's would use a higher quality, such as the soda can versus the glass bottle (more common here. I still haven't seen a can of coke) That is merely craft, and as we are the teenagers of the world we have time to improve that; age matures everything. What we do have is a strong foundation with values that are timeless.

And I may be committing reputation suicide here but also make a note that the Czech's are predominantly agnostic and believe in nothing...that's all I will say.


Sorry for the tangent, back to Czech history:

Finally here, this is what happened. They had a civil war and did not, unlike us, survive it. After that the people were taken over by a King again and yata yata yata.

Moving on, when it came time for WWII the Czech employed the help France if they were ever attacked by the Germans. If France came, then Great Britain promised to come. So basically, this one nation with the population of North Carolina, needed the help of two other nations because they couldn't take care of their selves. This nation with no more people than our ONE state would have put at risk the lives of soldiers from both France and GB all because I feel, they are drama queens and will not join another nation and become bigger. They get constantly shoved and overpowered by their "bigger" neighbors, mainly Germany (granted it would SUCK to have Germany as your neighbor). The professor spoke of how production and legislation had been stopped because the surrounding neighbors had the arms tto man handle and stop the Czech's development. The Czech cause a lot of unnecessary trouble if you ask me. They COULD have joined the the Austrian-Hungary empire and had three-folds the people, land and recourses, but they didn't because the didn't like that the Austrian's spoke German.

The history professor even said that they Czech's were "rebels" always arguing over something. The Czech's are drama queen's causing more trouble than their share. My biggest problem with that is like in WWII when instead of doing something different (I don't know WHAT exactly, so perhaps this is an invalid argument because regardless of population size, they are people, they are humans and that is of the utmost concern and we must ALWAYS help our fellow man no matter the cost) they would have had risked two countries of lives instead of finding an alternative such as joining another nation such as Hungary or Austria (and that wouldn't have been odd for the times because then, borders were changing about every twenty years, with the wars and all). What I'm saying is that they selfishly almost endangered many lives for nothing more than what I see to be pride.

Another problem is that they constantly relate to things in the 1300's. They took a poll last year and their most voted popular Czech was King Charles IV, from the 1300's. It's an understatement to say they live in the past. Their glory years are in the 1300's basically, and the history professor kept referring to it. Their glory days are over and it IS likely they will come back. Empires fall and rise so there's at least hope for them; however, I don't appreciate the superior tone I got when their most recognized citizen lived over 600 years ago.

I realize that I am not even remotely CLOSE to being qualified to analyze this, I do not pretend to know it all. There are so many stipulations and delicate dynamics that I nor anyone else will know about other than the leaders of this nation. What has happened has happened, but don't try to tell me that you are better than us because you founded an university before we were discovered. Don't make excuses either about the German. They are tough but the French survived. Italy survived, we survived. Why not join another country and enjoy the benefits of an army and more stable government? Why leave yourself to be a bulls eye? But again I honestly have no clue what I'm talking about so...

There, I'm sure everyone has tried their hardest to make it better for the Czechs.


ps Im also sure that this blog shows my ignorance. don't hold it against me, I'm still young :)
pss for example of being shoved around: since all the neighboring countries are adopting the Euro, they have no choice but too. In 1968 the Russian's came in and stopped what was called the Prague Spring which was an uprising against Communism. The people HERE, fighting for THEIR independence were stopped by outsiders.That doesn't seem fair...because it's not.