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Today I Farewell My Teenage Hero: Vaclav Havel
Monday, February 03, 2003 2:50:00 AM
by Jozef Imrich
| Action/Thriller |
| It was a bitterly cold winter in November of 1989, but it felt like a Sydney’s summer of love in the Czech capital of Prague and the Slovak capital of Bratislava. |
There will never be another Czechoslovak President, Philosopher King, like Vaclav Havel. No other leader will become teenage idol and write about the theatre of the absurd. And it is most unlikely that any Czech or Slovak presidents will design a document like the Charter 77.
I admit to being a long time fan of Vaclav Havel and Alexander Dubcek. But, even my Australian wife who cares little about politics seemed to get caught by the magic events of the Velvet Revolution of 1989. After her scary experience on Czechoslovak border in 1984, Lauren too could not wait for the Revolution to usher the end of the evil empire. We identify rather well with the title of the Australian movie ‘the Children of the Revolution,’ as our true family fairy-tale began when our oldest daughter, Alexandra, was born nine months after the euphoric period. It was a great honor to meet Alexander Dubcek and Vaclav Havel at Parliament House in Sydney in the early 1990s and share this intimate story with them (grin).
Dubcek and Havel had one thing in common they both realised as young teenagers that the fight for democracy was a dangerous business. When they were given a choice between hard labour at home or exile they chose the lesser of the two evils. Dubcek chose to work in the Slovak forests and Havel tasted the bitter life of a Czech convict.
Havel’s departure marks the end of an extraordinary era. The end of an extraordinary career as a stagehand, dramatist, convict, poet, brewery worker, revolutionary, and president.
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Blog In the City (Jozef Imrich)
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