Prague's Charm and Venom

Two cities I've always wanted to visit. Every American can say that! The nature of today's blog will be somewhat personal since it reflects two weeks of stored memories and experiences. Also the topic and race will come up in the sense of how social constructions are created in post-Communist Slavic countries.

First, the Czech Republic is a country of ten million, bastardized by generations of fighting, imperialism and usurpation (Hitler's Sudetenland). Czechs are thus, very nationalistic and homogeneous, as would be expected. There exists many minority groups, the largest being the Roma (gypsies), Ukrainians, and Vietnamese. The recession has caused unease among racial tensions. A recent NY Times article states that 66 percent of Czechs did not want to live next to a Vietnamese and the government started a program to repatriate immigrant workers back to their home country, giving then $700 and a one-way airline ticket. About 2000 workers have taken up this offer, but the rest prefer to stay and ride it out.

The Czech Republic was part of the Hapsburg empire then split into former Czechoslovakia after WWI. After Hitler annexed the country after claiming the Sudetenland as an integral part of Germany, it stayed under the control of the Germans until WWII ended. Then it was a free-liberal democracy for a few decades, until it went under Soviet satellite rule until Communism's demise in 1989. To repeat nonetheless, Czechs have a strong national identity through their history.

Now, stepping aside from history, I will get personal. I had an identity crisis for the past three days. A large part of this experience comes from visiting the gay clubs. First since not many Czechs speak English, communication is not an option. Wherever I go, I try not to let my tokenization affect my behavior or attitude, but for the first time, I felt very vulnerable not being able to fit in. My exoticism turned to isolationism! Nonetheless, I met Benjamin, a cute doctor from LA who travels to Europe several times a year to experience the gay scene. A graduate of USC, he practices internal medicine and travels a lot on his free time.

When I got lost, I met Laurance, a Swedish family doctor, to whom I asked directions to Valentino, the oldest gay club in Prague. He was just as lost as I was so we walked together talking about America's crumbling health care system and how taking a Swedish model may help. The Swedes always stay out of trouble!

For two nights straight, I came home and cried. I shed infrequent tears, but those two nights were tears collected through months of pain and loneliness. I think of Mr. X and Y from time to time, but I wasn't ready then. Maybe I'm ready now?