After a month in Africa I realise far more intensely than before how our gatherings, meetings or briefings reflect an artificial world, built on the vast abundance and opulence of our culture. Together we play games of importance, detached from the present day. All these – I must do this, I can’t or won’t make that … We create our very own hell by constantly dwelling in the future or the past. We negotiate the present day blindfolded.

I travel to learn more about myself. Through studying cultural stereotypes of other nations I am able to see our stereotypes. The way we talk to each other, the way we eat, colours that we wear, how we sell and buy, how we express ourselves … and how it is all connected with the landscape and climate we live in.

Do you know that in Bohemia there is blue light all year round? Most of the year we look at the world through a grey-blue filter. In our light things look differently than in the south of Europe and differently than in Africa. In our climate things which one brought from holiday – colourful dresses and scarves – look kitsch. If we accept that kitsch is an item taken out of its context, we’ll come to realise that globalisation is the mass production of kitsch. I look in the mirror at my grey-blue eyes and I can see these eyes are from here, I belong here, they give away my European origin. I look into the same coloured eyes of our son and I have to laugh.

So this time as before I got out of the mess of cultural bridging by songs. I sang them all – from folk songs to those of Jarek Nohavica and even Dvořák and Janáček. Songs have the magical power to tidy up our souls. So I call on you – during the spring cleaning let’s sing and really clean up our souls.