Editor’s Word - Feliz Aňo Nuevo

The New Year has arrived! Most people try to look festive on that special day even though they feel sick after their New Year Eve’s celebrations. Mothers heat up the previously prepared roast or the traditional lentils; fathers treat their malady with beer. Teenagers sleep late while the little ones since early morning try to destroy the whole family’s nerves with their liveliness.

I surely know what I’m talking about, as I’ve had to endure it the past many years. However, today things are different. I am sitting on a bench in a park in a large botanical garden called Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, where my daughter lives. I have no idea of what is happening at home, I feel at ease. I enjoy looking at cacti of various shapes, bushes, palms and a multitude of large gorgeous flowers. It is sunny and for January a very pleasant 22 degrees Celsius. Because of large waves, the sea is not appropriate for bathing, but it’s pleasant just to wade near the shore in the black volcanic sand.

In my mind I am going over the past year, thinking of our magazine and the club. It does seem that the situation is pretty good, definitely not worse than in the past years.

1. The monthly had become a bi-monthly, which saves money in production as well as my nerves with constant dead lines.
2. We got a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that had helped us pay our expenses.
3. We were lucky to get an office in the center of Prague in the Klementinum Palace – National Library. The atmosphere there is unique, as we say, Genius Loci.
4. We had organized 12 successful meetings and programs of International Czech Club, a trip to Hungary and other places.
5. We met more wonderful people who work with us, even though there’s no profit, which is almost unheard of, these days. They are Věra Doušová, organizer of the 1st. Compatriotic Festival, Traveler and writer Stanislav Chládek, organizer of the Art Festival Marcela Kotrčová, publicist, photographer and employee of the Czech center in Sweden Jitka Vykopalová, author of articles from Plzen Ludmila Mašková, Éva Molnárová from Budapest, a former politician and current commentator Čestmír Hofhanzl, publicist Libuše Konrádová, cultural attaché at our embassy in Chicago Bořek Lizec, the young author Michal Hužvár, chairman of the popular Jonáš club Ivan Kott, author from La Grange, Texas Cathleen Noska, the prominent film producer Norbert Auerbach, writer Arnošt Lustig, his son filmmaker Josef Lustig, our correspondent from Sweden Ivan Trefný, a wonderful woman and a great fashion designer from Canada Vali Dubská, the artist Lucie Čapková and many others, who contributed with a nice article, story, or poetry.
6. The following authors had also stayed faithful to us: Jana Volfová, Venda Šebrlová, Ludmila Lojdová, Olga Szymanská, Helena Karasová, Ota Ulč, Jana Reichová, Walter a Peggy Albert, Jan Šinágl, Petr Loužecký and Václav Židek, Ota Štorch, Jan Beneš, who had unfortunately passed away in the spring, Bořek Šindler, Vladislav Křepelka, Vladimír Kašák, Jiří Polák, Marina Hužvárová, Bohuslav Hynek, Michaela Swinkels- Nováková, Věra a Karel Pokorný, Olga Bezděková, Jaroslav Veteška and others.

Sincere thanks deserve our volunteer translators Marie Dolanská, Paula Schultz, Vilma Iggers, and Charles Opatrný.

Special thanks to Martina Fialkova, without whose substantial help I would have given up on the magazine a long time ago.

Also thanks to our readers who send us nice encouraging e-mails and especially for reading us.

So I wish you all from the Canary Islands a Feliz Aňo Nuevo. May this whole year be good and happy for all of you!