Third year

One of the great news is that there are more Czech and Slovak freshers. International competition Physics Naboj took place few days ago. Organisers invited president Kiska for the closing ceremony. Unsurprisingly, he was not able to make it. He sent a letter instead. He empathised importance of the competition. And he encouraged young physicists to apply to top universities no matter in which country they are. It is nice to hear something like this from a leader of a country and to see that going to study abroad is not an exception.

It is hard to think and write about anything else than recent attacks in Paris. Everyone is forming an opinion and my certainly no better than other. I am worried that European liberal society will be proved hypocritical. I am afraid that we will hate countries because of few. It is not hard to guess that we are about to see radicalization of society. Extreme political parties will become more popular and semi-legal organisations will be heard more often.

Old hostility of Czechs will move to a whole new level. I discussed this hate, which I don't understand, with few British friends. They believe that it is easier to hate a group of people if you don't know any of them. Conversely, if few of them are your friends, you are not so likely to be affected by a prejudice.

The symbolism of the French flag got two new interpretations. One of them is empathy. The other is the borderline patriotism. The second one seems to contradict solidarity of Muslims around me.

And if you hear that UK is going through a crisis because of Muslims, don't trust it. It is not true.