Someone worth mourning

jejv

rjsterry wrote:

A shame that he has 'out-died' Vaclav Havel, someone whose passing really is worth mourning.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easterna ... l-memoriam

I liked the bit: Well, if the Czechs don't want him, we'll make him King of Poland!

If there'd been an election for president of the Earth, he'd have got my vote.

cjcp

IIRC, Thatcher spoke very highly of him in "Statecraft".

rjsterry

cjcp wrote:

IIRC, Thatcher spoke very highly of him in "Statecraft".

Interesting, seeing as their politics were pretty widely separated: his main opponent during his presidency was the Thatcherite prime minister Vaclav Klaus.

I like the story of him using a child's scooter to get around the long corridors of the presidential palace.

cjcp

rjsterry wrote:

cjcp wrote:

IIRC, Thatcher spoke very highly of him in "Statecraft".

Interesting, seeing as their politics were pretty widely separated: his main opponent during his presidency was the Thatcherite prime minister Vaclav Klaus.

I like the story of him using a child's scooter to get around the long corridors of the presidential palace.

Unfortunately, a book I've yet to finish and not picked up in a long time, but I think it focused on what it takes to be a statesperson as opposed to their individual policies. I think.

There's a bit when she's recalling a visit to Havel and she asks why they didn't oppose the invasion, and Havel opens the windows of the palace, points to the architecture and says something like "That's why. They would have destroyed all that."