Who Was Vaclav Havel?

I recently received a little quiz from one of my friends. It was part of a larger quiz developed by the Pew Research Center, to see how well informed Americans are by gender, education and age. Interestingly, the oldest age category was the best informed. Not so surprising was that men were more informed than women and college graduates were more informed than non graduates. In light of this study, and the fact that many people did not know who the prime minister of England was, or what country was in great economic crisis in Europe right now, I thought I might tell you about someone you might have heard of, but maybe not. He's Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic for 13 years, and a very important figure in 20th century democracy.

Vaclav Havel is the Czech write and dissident and democratically elected president of the Czech Republic for 13 years, yet many informed people have never heard of him. Havel articulated the power of the powerless, through his plays and essays. He served years in Communist prisons due to his nonconformist writing and ideas. Havel came to personify the soul of the C\zech nation. He was a dominant figure during Prague street demonstrations in 1989. He was also a behind the scenes negotiator in helping to end more than 40 years of Communist rule and the peaceful transfer of power known as the Velvet Revolution. (because the revolt was so smooth that it took only two weeks to complete and no bullets were fired).

Havel helped link the Czech Republic firmly to the West. He helped clear the way for the Czech Republic to join NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004. Vaclav Havel will be remembered as one of the giants in ending Communism in his own country and throughout Europe. Anyone who had visited the Czech Republic in the 1980's and revists now, cannot help but be impressed on how dramatically the country has changed. They've come a long way.