Message form the Prague

I am Angelica Morse, a junior psychology major at Gordon College.  I am abroad in Prague, Czech Republic this semester studying Czech and social issues involving communism, dissent, and inequality.  In a way, my traveling here has been a pilgrimage to the country of my heritage where my mother’s family still lives. 

For 3 months now I have been living in a country whose national anthem begins with, “Kde domov muj?” Where is my home?  Jan Urban, a dissident of the communist regime in Czech Republic as well as my professor, was the first to recite this line for me.  Czechs have always been occupied by other ruling powers.  They are a people who share a language, but have struggled to defend their land. Now, after the collapsing of the communist regime, Czechs are finally able to say that they live in the Czech Republic.

2009 marks the 20^th anniversary of the end of the communist regime in Czech Republic.  One would think by now that the country had moved on completely, yet I have found the Czechs still hold on to much of their old mentality. The consequences of fear and silence have paid their dues on the social normalities of the Czech people.  Under communism people would have to stand in line for hours just to buy their daily goods.  A Czech would buy whatever was available because he or she couldn’t guarantee the products would be there on another day.  Now there are options- less options than Americans are bombarded with in stores, but still there are reasonable amounts of brands- but Czechs shop in small quantities and look for sale items. On the metro no one talks unless you’re a foreigner or a teenager.  Sometimes you’ll find a couple making out or flirting, but they’re usually whispering if speaking at all.  Foreigners often perceive Czechs as rude when they interact with them along the street or in restaurants.  These facts might be true observations, but they make more sense in context.  Under communism you would be cautious with what you say in public, never talking against the regime, and keeping to yourself in case the secret police was listening.  The silence still resides in some sense that people remain private people.  In restaurants the servers don’t get paid commission and tipping is only in response to excellent service, so they don’t work towards pleasing the costumers.  No matter how they treat you, they get paid the same amount.  However, when you actually meet Czechs, have a conversation, and get to know them they are wonderful people who want to make sure you’re always full and when you ask “Jak se mas?” (how are you?) they actually respond with lengthy details.

The difference between generations is visible.  Historians call those who lived through communism the “lost generation.”  But the youth bring more modern ideals and embrace westernization.  They learn from their grandparents and even their parents about their country’s past.

My classes thrive on the stories of my professors.  My professors, who grew up under communism, and who are important figures in Czech Republic, weave their own personal experiences in with what we are learning.  I have learned things in my classes that I would never have found out from studying in America.  Jan Urban tells my class about being tortured in interrogation and how he was part of the Velvet Revolution.  Zdenek Kuhn, a Supreme Court judge and professor of law at Charles University, tells us about his case, his deciding whether the communist party should be abolished or not in CZ.  Marketa Rulikova, a sociologist who has lived in the Polish ghettos of Chicago to do research, tells us how her parents told her not to repeat what they said at the dinner table to anyone outside of their home because they didn’t support the regime.  I often leave class in a semi-trance as I am dumfounded and awe struck by the history of communism, global inequalities, and details about the history of law in Eastern Europe versus America and other western countries.  Not only am I learning about history, but also how things are now and how much of an impact the past has on the present.

Millions of people in Eastern Europe and innocents all over the world have endured horrific wars, tragedies of mass killings, inhumane conditions and torture.  I am studying only one situation.  It’s bad enough that this is our past, but I am saddened and am struggling to come to grips with the fact that this is still our present; that this still goes on around the world, and that America still partakes in it (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq).  Haven’t we learned our lesson?  What I have learned in my psychology classes at Gordon, as well as from my classes in Prague, is that all people have the ability to fall to such insane actions.  Yes, Hitler was a bad man and was the leader of a mass genocide.  However, there is left the question of who is guilty.  What about the people who participated in furthering the communist party?  What about the bystanders who didn’t stand up against the regime?  What about the allies, including America, who stood back and watched millions of innocent people die?  I have learned about obedience, compliance to authority, denial, transfer of responsibility, and “duty.”  We are all vulnerable human beings who are easily manipulated, run away from embarrassment, and justify our actions in order to be right.  I have learned about identity: the loss of identity and the search for new identity.  I have learned about brainwashing and the dangers and consequences of the destruction of individualism under a totalitarian regime.  In the documentary of Abu Ghraib a prisoner says, “We heard his soul break.”  I have learned what people are capable of and it is still too heavy for me to really ask questions of why we are this way.  All I can do is pray for mercy and thank God for his grace.

After each lesson, encounters with Czechs, and from walking through the streets of Prague or the countryside, I feel closer and closer to the Czech people and my heart aches in response to their sufferings and their joys.  The end of the Czech national anthem goes as so, 

      And with a strength

      That frustrates all defiance,

That is the glorious race

      Of Czechs, 

Among Czechs is my home,

      Among Czechs, my home. 

Through all the occupations and suffering, the Czechs still remain, a people united by their language.  And I, a descendent of the Czechs have returned to the motherland and day by day am feeling more at home surrounded by my own.