Following 20 years of socialist rule, Venezuela has gone from being one of the world’s richest countries to one of the very poorest. The political and social project created by Hugo Chavez collapsed and today Venezuela is a state beset by problems: an utterly devastated economy, rampant crime, food queues and medicine shortages. It is a country where sheer survival is a major concern. In the book Venezuela: Rozklad ráje (Venezuela: Paradise in Decay), Eduard Freisler, a journalist, Czech Radio editor and freelancer for Deníku N, has captured the country’s crisis through gripping, often horrific, human stories. However, he also discovered triumphs and resistance to the mafia regime of Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, nicknamed the “Tropical Stalin.”

With the psychologist, social pedagogue and respected director of the Czech Street Work Association on 25 years spent on the streets, effective social services work and the advantages of having street workers in a district. How do non-profits work on state commissions, and why is state support crucial to social services? Is it worth promoting social work? What kind of people become street workers? And what was Martina Zikmundová looking for in Ukraine some years back?

Presentation of a book by Olga Fečová, a woman with indomitable energy who was a magnetic authority for a whole generation of Romanies.

The name of Hugo Vavrečka (1880–1952), journalist, diplomat, Baťa director, propaganda minister and grandfather of the Havel brothers, is marginal in Czech historiography. He has received only sporadic attention, while his final years have been entirely overlooked. The new book Soukromá válka Huga Vavrečky (Hugo Vavrečka’s Private War) by Jana Wohlmuth Markupová, who has long been focused on the Havel family circle, addresses just that period.

On 8 September 1522, after an exhausting three-year journey, Seville saw the arrival of the “last wretched boat of the Magalhães fleet / overloaded with cloves / eighteen men / and a report / that the Earth has no edges and thus no rest.” Exactly 500 years later, on 8 September 2022, Spatřil jsem tvou tvář (I Spied Your Face), a new book of poetry by Petr Hruska, is released. It captures a fictitious, tragicomic journey – the boat created by the poet is as much exploratory as conquering, both wandering and mercenary, both a grand sailing ship and an incipient wreck, also evoking the famous medieval ship of fools, bereft of either direction or sense…

Though we hear every day about the impacts of climate change, which affect all of us negatively, it is a subject that divides society. During Václav Havel’s lifetime it was not yet clear to what extent mankind was influencing climate and whether it was not a natural cycle. Nevertheless Václav Havel posed the question: “Doesn’t waiting for confirmation of this, for irrefutable certainty, rob us of the time needed for measures that are relatively painless compared to those we would have to undergo in the case of further delays?” He turned out to be right. Science has progressed since then and today there is no doubt as to man’s complete influence on the current global warming.

Within the rich programme of the event Zažít město jinak (Experience the City Differently) you can visit a VHL stand with books, posters and other items throughout the day in the V Jirchářích garden on Opatovická St. – entrance opposite Café Jericho.

Up close in a war zone

Discussion with editors from the weekly Respekt and their hosts, chaired by Ondřej Kundra. For more information and the names of guests visit www.vaclavhavel.cz prior to the event.

Interest in cooperative building projects is rising. Young people in particular cannot afford mortgages and are searching for the housing alternative offered by cooperative projects. Cities and municipalities, working on their own ways of helping people find housing, are also beginning to take an interest. Their aim is to hang on to important professions, such as fire officers, medics and teachers, and to ensure that young families do not move away. What form such this assistance take? And what can municipalities, developers and banks do to make housing accessible? Does the system need to change, or would increased cooperation suffice? Is there a lack of legislation to help people find affordable housing, or are politicians holding everything up?

“In one state that neighbours Czechoslovakia I know certain people who are battle-hardened insurgents. You would have to illegally cross the border, join up with them and help them create an insurgent network…”

“You’re some mate. You’ll do an interview with Havel but you forget about me, who you’ve known far longer and who introduced you to him.” After this benign challenge Karel Hvížďala got organising. In 1987 Pavel Landovský visited him for a week in Bonn, giving rise to the book Soukromá vzpoura (A Private Revolt). In it Hvížďala recalls how the actor arrived in Bonn, occupied the entire house, wouldn’t let anyone in the kitchen, did everything his own way and sharpened on a step not just their knives but those of the whole street. He told stories for hours, acted, jumped on chairs, rolled on the ground, pulled faces, changed his clothes and pulled on his braces…

Debate series with editors from the weekly Echo and their guests, in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library. Moderated by Lenka Zlámalová. For more information and the names of guests visit www.vaclavhavel.cz prior to the event.

Rudo Prekop worked for eight years on portraits and short biographies of figures from the unofficial arts scene, i.e., the underground, and their confrontation with the older and younger family line. He has managed to record conceptually and in pictures a community that is now unfortunately departing, creating an impressive “image gene pool” of the underground.