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Opening address at a conference of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba
By Vaclav Havel

Valdštejn Palace, Prague, September 18th, 2004

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Dear guests,

 

Allow me to begin by thanking all those who have accepted the invitation to join the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, as well as those who have come to this conference or expressed interest in it. I am of course delighted that this initiative has been so positively received.

 

Things are going to change soon in Cuba, some fifteen or more years after the historical changes in central and eastern Europe. We had experienced the communist system for the first time in our history, and therefore post-communism also appeared for the first time, along with all the particularities, problems and tasks which arose in the first few years. Our duty today is not only to express solidarity with free-thinking Cubans, but also – with respect to our post-communist experience – to think about what will follow the changes, to articulate, transmit and offer our experience to our Cuban friends, and to offer them some warnings, so that they avoid the mistakes which we did not know how to avoid. Allow me to say a few words about what will follow.

 

History cannot be planned – that is what the Marxists thought, that they understood the laws of history – and life definitely brings surprises. It is not possible therefore to calculate exactly how things will change in Cuba, though we all believe it will happen peacefully. However, some kinds of task can be foreseen. For instance, soon after the change there will be disappointment; a lot of people subconsciously and unwittingly think that after the removal of the dictator they will immediately find themselves living in paradise. It is not like that. The reconstruction of free relations is a lengthy and arduous task.

 

Let me make a comparison: a piece of beautiful inlaid furniture can be kicked to pieces in a few seconds, but sticking it back together again takes weeks or even months. After decades of communism people will be surprised by freedom, by its weight, which they will suddenly have to bear on their own shoulders, because they are used to the state doing everything for them. Freedom is burdensome and sometimes it can cause headaches. Whoever has been in prison knows how difficult it is when you are released to decide about things from morning to evening, after somebody else has been deciding everything for you. But that is not all. Even now it is necessary to think about how to transform the legal system, about the form of the future constitution, about privatisation. In post-communist countries there is a tremendous wealth of experience. Many economists and political scientists are systematically studying everything and that is something which can be drawn on.

 

There should be no repeat of what happened to us, when we suddenly found ourselves in a world of powerful decision-making and often did not know what to do, because we were not sufficiently prepared. Overnight we established a government, wrote a constitution, created laws and of course we could not predict the multifarious loopholes which can be used to get around quickly created laws. We cannot be completely prepared for history, but if any of my free-thinking Cuban friends asked me what advice I could give him, I would not only think about how to remove the dictator, but would devote most of my time to thinking about what will come next.

 

Thank you.

 

 

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About the author


Vaclav Havel Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel is one of the best known citizens of the Czech Republic. He became famous as Velvet Revolution, and in December 1989 he was elected President of the Czechoslovakia and later on of the Czech Republic. He was awarded numerous international prizes and honorary doctorates. Vaclav Havel was born in Prague on October 5, 1936. In 1951 he completed his compulsory schooling. Being the offspring of a prominent Praguebusinessmen's family, he was barred from pursuing regular studies afterwards. For fouryears, while taking an apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory technician, he was attendingevening classes at a grammar school. It was at the age of nineteen that he started publishing studies and articles in literary and theater magazines. Family tradition hasled him toward embracing the humanist values of Czech culture that were suppressed or destroyedin the 1950s. As he was not allowed, due to his family background, to study humanities,he went on to a Technical University where he spent two years. After completing his military service, he worked as a stagehandat the ABC Theater and later, from 1960, in the Theater on the Balustrade. The lattertheater produced his first plays, most importantly The Garden Party (1963), a piece representing in an outstanding manner the strong regeneration tendencies prevailing in Czech culture and Czech society in the 1960s which culminated in the so-called Prague Spring of 1968. At that time Vaclav Havel was taking part in public and cultural life as one of the standard-bearersof the democratic concepts of Czech culture and society. In thesecond half of the 1960s his next plays, The Memorandum (1965) and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (1968), were performed. After the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops, which put an end to the Prague Spring regeneration process, Vaclav Havel did not abandon his convictions. Consequently, a lasting ban was imposed on publicationof his plays in Czechoslovakia. (In 1974 he even worked as a laborer in a brewery.) It was then that Vaclav Havel began to be known by the international public as a representative of the Czechoslovak intellectual opposition. As a citizen he protested against the extensive oppression marking the years of the so-called normalization.

 

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