Prague Airport in the post – Covid19 world

Posted on June 27, 2020by Richard Hunt

24th August 2017, was a Thursday. I can’t remember why, but I came home from work straight after lunch. So at least, when the text from my brother came through, I was able to drop everything. The text said that our mother, who had been re-admitted to hospital, had suddenly weakened, and doctors gave her no more than 24 hours left on this earth. I don’t think my brother expected me to be able to get there. However thanks to the efficiency of British Airways, and to living close to Vaclav Havel Airport, by 17.15 I was taking off for London and by 20.00 at my Mum’s hospital bedside with the rest of the family. She died peacefully without seeing the next morning.

Czech politics and life

Confessions of an Accidental Headhunter

Posted on November 27, 2019by Richard Hunt

Chapter 3;

P&G and Unilever developed marketeers; whom will Google develop?

“How do you do it”, people asked? How did we find those people in the ’90s, some of whom are highly respected in the marketing world today? And if I am honest, I didn’t have a clear answer then, and looking back, I cannot clearly recall now, how we did it then.

Czech politics and life

Confessions of an Accidental Headhunter

Posted on November 18, 2019by Richard Hunt

Chapter 2; Winging it…

I didn’t have a plan.

I mean that I didn’t have a business plan. I had no financial plan, cash flow or P&L forecasts. Looking back, I am even more shocked that despite all my training, I had given little thought to the “brand” I was creating, no competitor analysis, no SWOT analysis. Of course for several months I was not even legally trading; yet nobody cared, least of all the clients. They wanted me to find them people. Fast. Like, today. And to my surprise, when I did , they all paid the fees.

Czech politics and life

Confessions of an Accidental Headhunter

Posted on November 13, 2019by Richard Hunt

Chapter 1; Just Do It…

Late November, 1992. Prague had been cold throughout my visit, but at the airport, built on high ground, there was another weather problem: fog. And the airport had no modern fog landing equipment. All flights were suspended, and in the terminal building it was chaos. I had been visiting privately, staying in a rented room near Wenceslas Square. The queue for the phone boxes was huge, and anyway even if I managed to call the owner, we spoke not a word of each other’s language. I passed by the Avis car hire desk, and something about the young lady there made me act on impulse.

British politics and life Czech politics and life Global business and politics

“Europe Talks” – my talk in Vienna with a “conservative libertarian” student

Posted on June 6, 2019by Richard Hunt

The email from the Financial Times wasn’t one of the regular ones. It was headed “Join an exciting new project that connects people who disagree”. It continued “In an era of online finger-pointing and ideological filter bubbles, when was the last time you had a thoughtful face-to-face conversation with someone with whom you disagree?” It described how it would work :

August 1968 Czech politics and life Prague Spring

21 August 1968; the day the tanks invaded my young head

Posted on August 20, 2018by Richard Hunt

The dramatic billboards that went up on Vítězné náměstí last week, reminding us of the events of that day, caused me to stop and stare at them for quite some time. Of course for Czechs of my age, they can invoke some painful memories that may still be hard to bear. Their lives changed for the worse, their opportunities to develop, learn, travel, limited for years, while I enjoyed those opportunities to the full. But those days made a lasting impact on me too, and created such a lasting interest in this part of Europe, that I eventually made it my home.

Czech politics and life Global business and politics

Protest to the Slovak Ambassador, re police intimidation of Czech journalist, Pavla Holcová

Posted on May 17, 2018by Richard Hunt

To: emb.prague@mzv.sk

Dear Ambassador Weiss,

I write to register my deep concern about Slovak police behaviour towards Ms Holcová. I write as a British national permanently resident in Prague; as a volunteer I run a website which enables Freedom of Information requests, and I know Ms Holcová as someone who values our site as an enabler of good investigative journalism. I refer you to this OCCRP news report of what happened to Ms Holcova. If you wish to point to any factual inaccuacies, I am sure I and the rest of the watching world will be ready to hear of them. Otherwise my questions to you are as follows:

1. In what way was this encounter between Ms Holcová and the police compatible with police procedural norms in a mature European democracy?

2. Do you understand that the incident as reported suggests to the world that the Slovak police are not actually seriously seeking the murderer, and that this in turn implies that the Slovak State does not want the murderer to be apprehended?

3. Has Ms Holcová received her phone back yet? What have the police done with the data they will have taken from it? And to what legitimate purpose?

I look forward to your reply. Please note that I have posted the text of my mail to my blog page, and would expect to post your reply there too.

Kind regards

Richard Hunt

Czech politics and life

10 ways in which TV Prima let down Czech citizens

Posted on January 24, 2018by Richard Hunt

Last night’s Czech Presidential debate, presented by TV Prima, was an offence to a mature democratic society. Whether it was down to lack of professionalism, or something more deliberate, is something I cannot judge, although many people have views. And maybe it is easy for me to criticise, having been brought up with the BBC. Maybe thanks to that upbringing, it isn’t difficult for me to identify 10 ways in which TV Prima let themselves, and the country, down:

Brexit British politics and life Czech politics and life Uncategorized

The continuing mess of Brexit; Part 2

Posted on January 17, 2018by Richard Hunt

Before you Czexit, check out Brexit!

Czechs are apparently among the most Eurosceptic peoples in the EU. While the results in the latest Eurobarometer show an improvement in attitudes towards the EU, Czechs still appear to be far more negative than the Poles, the Slovaks or even the Hungarians. The reasons behind this deserve discussion in a separate blogpost, but the upshot is that certain politicians, particularly the far-right politician Tomio Okamura, have encouraged talk of a referendum on EU membership. So for any Czech citizens reading this who feel persuaded that Czexit might be a good thing, I urge you to consider the following insights from the Brexit referendum :

Brexit British politics and life Czech politics and life

The continuing mess of Brexit, and what Czechs can learn from it (part 1)

Posted on January 8, 2018by Richard Hunt

Part One – why it is (probably) happening

Brexit hasn’t happened yet. 18 months on from the referendum, the British are hardly any clearer about what their country and their lives will be like after it leaves the EU; and this despite the fact that every single day, something to do with Brexit dominates the serious news channels.

At the very least, it has become clearer to many who voted for Brexit that the process of leaving the EU is far more complex than their political leaders had claimed. I doubt that on the day of the referendum more than 5% of the population could correctly state what Euratom is, or that the European Court of Human Rights is not an EU institution. Well, now they are finding these things out. Drip, drip, drip…the truth about Brexit comes out in little drips.