FROM MELBOURNE TO PRAGUE AND BACK
Melbourne's shiny streets full of aimless, happy go around lucky, careless people looking for the best bargain. Melbourne is the Australian most cultural destination.
Twenty years ago, demonstrators in Prague staged the Velvet Revolution, a series of peaceful protests that helped bring down the communist regime. Since emerging from the somber shadows of one-party rule, the City of a Thousands Spire has become one
Melbourne's working day. People are locked in their offices to earn money for another shopping spree and a night out in many theatres, cinemas, famous restaraunts, bars, cafes.
Prague's ancient cultural statues which survived under uniformal grey Communist rule. The Vltava River flows under the Charles Bridge.
Evening in Melbourne. People are getting ready for a busy nightlife in the liveliest city in Australia. The main square with the SBS TV station in the distance.
Gothic, Baroque and romanesque buildings flank Prague's Old Town Square. After the fall of Communism the grey old buildings got some new colours.
The traditional Australian wedding in one of many city parks. There is a variety of many religious and cultural wedding every weekend in this multicultural free spirited metropolitan city.
Some of the Communist grey buildings still stand in the middle of Prague and remind the Czech people about the past
The copy of the James Cook cottage from the England is the oldest building in the history of white Australia and a big reminder for the Aboiriginal people of the violent past
Despite a number of foreign invaders, Prague's Old Town Square has remained virtually untouched since the 10th century. Standing there you feel the walls of the Rococo Kinsky Palace, the Gothic Tyn Cathedral and the Baroque St. Nicholas Church fall o
Melbourne's shiny and greedy corporate world where money rules
When the sun sets, avoid to venture east of Zizkov, a former industrial suburb and the epicenter of Prague's rough-and-tumble nightlife. More than 300 bars dot the neighborhood's two square miles which almost certainly represents the highest per capi
The ANZAC Day Cellebration in the middle of the Melbourne. The memories of the heroic Australian soldiers in World Wars are part of the nation cultural identity.
Roughly the size of seven footbal fields, Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world. Built and renovated over 13 centuries, the complex includes churches, gardens, alleyways and royal residences that would take days to appreciate.
Melbourne's wild ocean foreshore, you set a foot on this wild, empty cove and you forget that you live in the capital city of Victoria. Where else on the world you can feel the spatious loneliness and the familiar crowdiness of the metropolitan megac
Under communist rule, authorities arrested more than 250,000 Czechs and shot 327 others dead as they tried to flee across the border. The religious beliefs have been harshly prosecuted. The simple but stirring Memorial to the victims of Communism cap
The Melbourne's Flinders Station is busy but Australian people like to rely on their own cars for transport or on taxis at nights. Public transport is not something Australians are proud or rely too much on. However Melbourne is the one of only few c
Prague's public transport system is excellent. You can use a cheap travel card covering all bus, metro and tram services. However pickpockets operate throughout the day, particularly in crowded areas like public transport, the Charles Bridge and the
Melbourners are like to wander around their many tropical parks and enjoy the free lunch hours during the busy working days.
An ever-changing cast of musicians, protesters, dance troupes, punks and vendors make the square as colorful as the buildings that surround it. In addition somewhere close by is the hidden entry to the quirky nightclub housed underground in what was
Resting on the Yarra River which flows through the middle of Melbourne.
Enjoying the warm sunshine in the central Melbourne's park
Enjoying the natural peaceful surrounding and suddenly feeling very grateful to be living in this carefree city and to be free and alive
I am happy to live in a country where there is not a public offence to sit on a lawn in a central city park
I am happy to be living in a country where you can smell flowers in the middle of a megacity in a casual dress and no one thinks less of you because of that. You are allowed to be who you are. Just takes time to smell a flower and enjoy your life, so
Scattered images in my mind 2
Who is Rebiya Kadeer?
I asked myself
watching 'The 10 Conditions of Love'
My Czech friend invited me: " You have to see
this controversial documentary about her life."
So I attended the Melbourne Premiere
one boring Sunday night
with a big popcorn and a coke in hand
I expected some excitement
at least an 'on screen fight'.
Black and white images
of ancient Sunni Uighurs
in their golden embroidened caps
singing in Turkic about their oil-rich empire
swirled in their long dresses
in front of my eyes
With colourful images came fifties
and the People's Republic of China
reclaimed the rich land
and took their golden caps
leaving the robbed Uighurs in a swirl of dust
" Look Rebyia is coming," my Czech friend laughed
in an excitment: " We call her 'fearless Grandmum'
in my homeland, in Prague."
An tiny women with smooth silver hair under
her embroidened cap
appeared on a screen
shouting at a Chinese official
that her homeland is called
the ' East Turkestan'.
I forgot all about popcorn
seeing her rising from dust
to the richest in the China
and back to the dust.
Leaving the Chinese Parliament
to join her countrymen in a rotten jail
Being exciled to Washington
feeling as an outcast
but nominated for a Nobel Prize.
We left cinema in a hurry
feeling confused
passing through joyful Melbourne streets
full of aimless
careless people
we felt a stinch of guilt.
" They hacked into and shut down
the Film Festival's website,
because of her,
the Chinese."
My Czech friend exclaimed in a surprise.
" I think you forgot all about growing up
in Communist Czechoslovakia,"
I smiled at him
" And all those accusations and lies."
" And then came the Velvet revolution
and the fall of the Berlin Wall."
Nodded my Czech friend:
" Which divided us even more."
" Before we have been countrymen,
brothers in arms..." I laughed.
" Now we are foreigners,
I stayed back home,
listening to old folks
praising the Communist past
and young people chasing
the Western ideals
of hard cash and greed
which will not last."
My Czech friend smiled at me:
" And you my poor Slovak cousin,
left for easy life,
here,
are you satisfied?"
I looked at the Melbourne shiny sky:
" Let's talk about the Rebiya's
10 Coniditions of Love,
the first one
is Independence,
because everyone has
right to decide and find their own path."
"Then the second one
is Connecting with others,"
my friend added:
" Rebiya travelled far and wide
to find her soulmate for her life
and fight."
" The third one
is Continuity,"
I quickly said:
" Do you remember,
she had six children
to pass her knowledge on,
although two are rotting in jail."
" Then the fourth one
is a strenght of mind,"
my friend nodded:
" How otherwise would a mother
manage to sacrifice
her own children
for her countrymen."
" The fifth one
is a strenght of body,"
I managed to say:
" There were
at least
two attempts
on her life."
"The sixth one
must be Culture,"
my friend said thinking
about his 'thousands spirals Prague'.
" She is fighting for the 1,500 years
of Uighur knowledge,
tramped on and destroyed by thugs."
" The seventh one
is then homeland,"
I exclaimed:
" Everyone needs to belong
and feel home somewhere,
and 20-million of Uighurs
lost their rights."
" The eight one
is non-violent fight,"
my friend laughed:
" The Chinese fears her,
she does not need a gun."
" The ninth one
is her fearlessnes,"
I tried to sound wise:
" Who would like to be
an international symbol
while paying such a terrible price."
"The last one
must be her patriotism."
My friend ended cleverly:
" One has to admire her
relentless campaign
at last,
when the most of us
would choose
to disapear in Washington
and forget about past."
" Are you pointing at me?"
I laughed pushing my Czech friend aside.
" Come on, my lost countryman,"
he took my arm:
" At least you understand why I can not nominate you for a Nobel Price."
We skipped along the noisy street
full of neons and cheerful smiles
and felt less guilty and more happy
to be just ordinary people
grateful to be FREE AND ALIVE.
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