To sponsor a snake, a monkey or…?

Our Prague zoo is doing just fine. A very rich man left it – at his death-a great deal of money to support the animals. Even before that the zoo had a good idea: It printed posters saying: ”Support, sponsor a snake, a gorilla, an ostrich…,” followed by the names of other lesser known animals. And they also printed the names of the donors who picked a baboon, an owl, a parrot or a hairy spider.

And so I and my colleague Fialka had an idea- while sitting sadly over  our bills. We went over the few trusted businesses who advertise regularly in our journal, and we considered cancelling the phone or closing our small office in the Klementinum, where we meet our guests. We are still hopeful that we might find some good people who would perhaps sponsor a certain column which they are fond of. And we would then be glad to publish their names as sponsors. At the end of last year we published the names of all contributors and we shall of course do so in the future…

Maybe it would look better if  it would say for example: The column “Culture” is sponsored by Mrs. Jana Novakova of San Diego and Frantisek Horak of Nova Paka. What do you think? Would you then add to it some contribution in any amount? It is very unpleasant for us to ask you for money, but rent, telephone and the web pages must be paid for. Our Czech Dialogue is now an internet journal and therefore can be read by anyone for free - except for those few who do contribute.

If this idea of sponsoring your “own” column in the Czech Dialogue appeals to you, we would be glad to send you a kind of a “price list” which would determine the time that your name would appear next to each article in the column.

We welcome your help with our expenses in any amount - it does not have to be sponsoring of any column. For example a check for $10.- $15.- $20- or more  can be mailed to our representative in the USA. It is practical because we save further money conversions and bank fees. Please make out the checks to:

Zelmira Zivny/Czech Dialogue

10815 Breed Ave.

Oakland, CA. 94603

We have our representatives also in other countries because we do not want to be dependent on banks. We would be glad to send you the necessary contact information. You will also find this information on our web pages.

We are looking forward to your response.

Sincerely yours,

Eva Strizovska, Editor-in-Chief

e-mail: strizovska@ seznam.cz