On the death of Vaclav Havel

The dissident president

18/12/2011 · Václav Havel united in his person many roles, one of whom was the president of its largest. Man came to the politics of theater in an attempt to dignity and self respect to stand up to a regime that invited them to life in a lie.
Karl-Peter Schwarz

Vaclav Havel as a presidential candidate during an interview in Prague on 19 December 1989

ince November 1996, when he a malignant tumor and half of the right lung had to be removed, led by Václav Havel, a constant battle against his illness. Any inflammation of the airways it could take days or weeks of the stage on which the man of the theater since December 1989 as president of the ideal successor of the first Czech president Tomas Masaryk played a large role in his life.

Havel was born on 5 October 1936, grew up in Prague as a child of upper-class parents, united in his person many different roles - the writers and playwrights, dissidents and political prisoners, the president and visionary of another, "better world".

The gymnasium was him because of his "bourgeois origins" was forbidden, he worked as a laboratory and put the Abitur at a night school. His first public appearance was as a twenty-year-old at a meeting of young writers in Dobris. In politics led him to the test, dignity and self respect to stand up to a regime that invited them to life in a lie. In 1968 he joined the "club of dedicated non-party", which fought against the Communist monopoly on power.

Vaclav Havel, then speaker of the Czechoslovak dissident group Charter 77, 26 May 1978 in his home in Hragecek

After the invasion of the Warsaw Pact, Havel repeatedly publicly turned against the so-called "normalization", including in 1975 in an open letter to President Gustav Husak. He was one of the founders of the "Charter 77", in 1977, 1978 and 1979 sentenced to prison last four and a half years in prison in 1983 he was released early for health reasons. He was last arrested in January 1989 after a rally in memory of Jan Palach self-immolation in Prague.

The "velvet revolution" of November 1989 brought Havel at the forefront of the anti-communist movement. At the turn he was already in the circle of his friends at Prague Castle. The sudden transition from dissident to president zeitigte adjustment problems, which he subsequently reduce it, but could never quite overcome. Two measures of the first days of his presidency, a general amnesty and an apology for the displaced illustrated the difference between ethical standards and political reality.
2003 drew his biggest opponents of the Prague Castle

Painful learning made the block opponents and pacifists to a supporter of NATO, were the convinced Tschechoslowakisten destroying experience of the Federation, on whose existence he had first linked his political fate - appear to be in 1993 as president to the forefront of the Czech Republic.

A broad interpretation of its powers Havel led to an ongoing conflict with the government and parliament, he again appealed to the Constitutional Court appeal against laws. The fight against the normality of a parliamentary democracy has lost Havel. 2003 ended his last term. At the Prague Castle Václav Klaus moved his greatest political opponents. On 18 December Havel died at the age of 75 years in the vicinity of Prague.

Hundreds of Wall Street's critics arrested

Protest against bank power and poverty in New York

Anti-Wall Street in New York, protesters have paralyzed the famous
Brooklyn Bridge for hours. This led to several clashes with the police
who finally arrested about 700 protesters by its own account. The
multi-lane suspension bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn was
blocked for hours. Only in the evening (local time) rolled back the
traffic.

Cause of action was a demonstration of "Occupy Wall Street" movement
("Busy Wall Street") against foreclosures, high unemployment and the
billion cash injections for banks during the financial crisis.
Approximately 1,500 people participated. Most of those arrested were
set free again, after they received subpoenas. You must now reckon
with a minimum penalties for disturbing the peace.

A selective action of the police?
The police arrested about 700 people according to their own specifications.
Demonstrators, the foot of the famous bridge over the East River would
be used, remained undisturbed. "Those who have taken the road towards
Brooklyn and have blocked the traffic, were arrested," said a police
spokesman for the "New York Times". Protesters threw the other hand,
from the police to have them lured into a trap. "The police looked on
and did nothing, but it looked like when they served us on the road,"
said Jesse Myerson, a spokesman for "Occupy Wall Street." Only when
there were already hundreds of protesters on the bridge, they were
surrounded by police officers and was arrested.
Protests against Wall Street - about 700 police officers arrest protesters

Further protests are to follow

The protesters have pitched in a park near the former World Trade
Center, a camp where some want to hold out for the whole winter. You
want to protest their actions according to their own statements to the
effect of the financial and economic crisis and the growing gap
between rich and poor in the U.S..

Their anger is directed towards the sometimes brutal actions of the
police in the U.S. metropolis, after about a week before a police
officer had used pepper spray against four protesters who were already
in police custody.

Under the slogan "Occupy Wall Street" protest against the New York
among other greedy companies and social imbalance.
Demonstrations in other cities

The protest movement organized over the Internet is also active in
other cities. In Boston, protesters on Friday gathered in front of
offices of Bank of America. Their protest was directed against, among
others of real estate foreclosures. According to the organizers,
around 3,000 people participated in the demonstrations, the police did
not give an estimate.

Occupy Wall Street Spring in America

The anti-Wall Street protest attack the financial capitalism.

Demonstrators dressed as zombies to protest against the New York Stock
Exchange against the power of the financial industry.

When it has been in the U.S. recently? For three weeks New Yorkers
protest against the power of hedge funds and speculators, it is mainly
young people who look as if they were directly stumbled from the heart
of postmodern coolness, from the trendy cafés and retro club, on the
road . But amazingly this is not rebellion, it's there, but that he
breaks out only now. For a long time since the American dream has
faded, and the U.S. have the highest poverty rate of all
industrialized countries, almost one in six Americans - and there are
46 million people - live below the poverty line, every seventh applies
for food stamps. Some poking around in the garbage, get the other
nine-figure compensation when they have put their company in the sand.

Amazingly, however, that not philosophers or social scientists are the
mentors of the new protest movement, but economists - those guilds
that are reliable from the soixante was as "lackeys of capital,"
booed. Paul Krugman is also one of the Zitierzeugen the anti-Wall
Street's movement, such as Simon Johnson, former chief economist of
the International Monetary Fund. Johnson does not mince his words. For
him, the financial oligarchy, the true power in the state, and
therefore one must "break" the influence of Wall Street. The
protesters say there is hardly different: "Occupy the Wall Street"!
Display

The hero of the movement is of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. On
Sunday, the famous economist, calculated from the protesters that the
top one percent of the population owns forty percent of total assets.
"America operates world-class inequality." However, money is power,
political power at the same time. "Almost all the decision makers for
trade and economic policies are from the top one percent." Now,
Stiglitz may feel vindicated by the protests. Recently, yet he had
asked himself in Vanity Fair, why the rebellious spark was not long
ago by the Arab world have jumped onto his land.

Yet even an abysmal historical disillusionment lies in the fact that
economists take on the role of leftist intellectuals. Back in the
sixties, dreamed the mastermind of the student revolt of post-material
happiness, the "end of unnecessary self-denial" (Herbert Marcuse) and
from the other side of the market logic. The revolutionaries wanted
the "wholly other" and at best like a new system. Today, however, the
hope has become small and humble. The courageous New York protesters
call for "more justice", some want to raise taxes to undo, others are
in a good mood at a loss. A program is not yet in sight. The utopian
desire is limited to the claim that capitalist excesses would finally
stop and eat all the citizens have enough. Poor Little Rich America.

Bloomberg criticizes Occupy Wall Street protests

The anti-Wall Street protesters want to destroy jobs and keep away
tourists. At least, says New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has accused the anti-Wall Street
movement, want to destroy jobs in the city. If financial jobs from New
York to disappear admit there is no money left to pay the city
employees to clean the parks or to perform other tasks, Bloomberg said
on Friday in his weekly radio program.

The financial center of Wall Street is a mainstay of the New York
economy and represents 13 percent of tax revenues. Moreover, the
protests were bad for tourism, said Bloomberg. He admitted, however,
that among the protesters give some who have legitimate complaints.
display

The movement was formed in mid-September and has since gathered
regularly in New York in demonstrations under the slogan "Occupy Wall
Street." She denounces the continuing high unemployment and unequal
distribution of wealth. The protests have so far been largely
peaceful, but sometimes there were clashes with police. President
Barack Obama on Friday had expressed understanding for the concerns of
the demonstrators.

Occupy wall street udates

Updates on Occupy wall street protests. We are the 99 percent.