Serena Williams of USA earned a straight sets 6-1 6-0 victory over Vera Zvonareva of Russia and reached the quarterfinals.


Serena Williams london 2012
Easily maintaining the tremendous momentum at the 2012 London Olympics, World No. 4 Serena Williams of USA earned a straight sets 6-1 6-0 victory over Vera Zvonareva of Russia and reached the quarterfinals.

Serena Williams marched forward in her quest to win first gold in singles competition with an impressive win over Zvonareva, who was all over the place through the match that lasted for 52 minutes only. It was a thoroughly dominated match, as Serena fired 12 aces in total and earned 72% points on her first serve. The American also converted 6 out of 11 break-points and hammered 32 winners.
In just 25 minutes of play in the first set, American Serena Williams won it - comprehensively. Zvonareva just could not match up with Serena's precision-oriented play in the first set. The American fired 7 aces, hammered 18 winners as compared to Zvonareva's 1 and converted 3 out of 5 break-points to win the first set. Zvonareva did not have a single break-point opportunity in the first set.

Serena continued her surge in the second-set and did not allow the Russian to win a single game – and easily secured her berth in the last eight.

Poznámka: sledoval jsem celý ten zápas Serena Williams versus Vera Zvonarevova, a musím k tomu říci, že takový tenisový zážitek pokud jde o kvalitní tenis, zejména výkon Sereny jsem už dlouho neviděl. Serena je vyrovnaná profesionálka co dobře ví, kam ten míček od soupeřky půjde. Ta neběhá zmateně po hřišti. Ví, kde soupeř hraje.
Tenis je mezinárodní hra, dávám sem proto anglický text už zpracovaný s odkazem na kompletní zdroj.

Tennisearth.com

Artist : Stanisław Witkiewicz (Polish , 1851 - 1915)

Artist : Stanisław Witkiewicz (Polish , 1851 - 1915)
Artist : Stanisław Witkiewicz (Polish , 1851 - 1915)

Title : Wounded insurgent.
Date : 1881
Medium : oil on canvas
Dimensions : 59.5 × 117 cm (23.4 × 46.1 in)
Inscriptions : Signature, date and location: Stanisław Witkiewicz / roku 1881 / Monachium.

Current location : National Museum in Warsaw, Poland.
Stanisław Witkiewicz (8 May 1851 in Pašiaušė - 5 September 1915 in Lovran) was a Polish painter, architect, writer and art theoretician.

Witkiewicz was born in the Lithuanian village of Pašiaušė (Polish: Poszawsze) in Samogitia, at that time, in the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lands ruled by the Russian Empire.
Witkiewicz studied in Saint Petersburg, 1869 - 71, then in Munich, 1872 - 75.
He created the Zakopane Style (styl zakopiański) (also known as Witkiewicz Style (styl witkiewiczowski)) in architecture. He was strongly associated with Zakopane and promoted it in the art community.

His son, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, became a famous painter, playwright, novelist and philosopher, also known (from the conflation of his surname and middle name) by the pseudonym "Witkacy." The son's godmother was the internationally famous actress Helena Modjeska (Helena Modrzejewska), whom the elder Witkiewicz in 1876 had nearly accompanied to California in the United States.

Witkiewicz had strong views against formal education: "school is completely at odds with the psychological make-up of human beings". He applied this principle in his son's upbringing and was disappointed when the 20-year-old Witkacy chose to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

In 1908, suffering from tuberculosis, the elder Witkiewicz left his family in Zakopane and relocated to Lovranno, a fashionable resort in what was then Austria-Hungary, which today is in Croatia. He died there in 1915.

The Britisch Monarchy na Facebooku. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
This photograph of The Queen by the renowned British photographer Mary McCartney has been released to mark the moment Her Majesty becomes the longest reigning British Monarch later today.

The photograph was taken at Buckingham Palace in July in The Queen's private audience room. Her Majesty is seated at her desk, with one of her official red boxes.

It is here that Her Majesty has received her Prime Ministers for their weekly audiences and other guests such as visiting Heads of State and Government, including President Obama and Chancellor Merkel.

In her constitutional role as Head of State, an essential element of Her Majesty's work involves the red boxes that she has received almost every day of her reign, including weekends and holidays, but excluding Christmas Day.

The red box contains important papers from government ministers in the United Kingdom and her Realms and from her representatives across the Commonwealth and beyond. These documents are sent from the Private Secretary's Office to The Queen, wherever she may be in residence, in a locked red despatch box.

While all government boxes bear the Royal cipher, only Her Majesty's box is embossed with the words 'The Queen'. The Queen reads all of the papers and, where necessary, approves and signs relevant papers.

The Queen still receives documents in the boxes that were made for her upon her Coronation. These have been periodically refurbished to keep them in good condition. The company Barrow and Gale Ltd are the manufacturer of the red despatch boxes to The Queen and to Her Majesty's Government.

© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II


Zdroj:  The Britisch Monarchy

The White House

The White House


"What’s best about this organization is the example they set off the field." —President Obama honoring the 2014 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. 

The team just announced the Junior Giants Urban Youth Academy to help mentor local underserved youth in San Francisco: http://go.wh.gov/s6sgKX





Zdroj: Sociální sítě G+

Czech point reached! #DragoonRide has arrived at the "Czech" point! Kavalerie DragoonRide. Dragounská jízda právě dojela do České republiky!

Stryker
"Czech" point reached!
#DragoonRide has arrived at the "Czech" point!

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - #USArmy Soldiers arrive in Prague after a long journey from the Baltic States and Poland on Dragoon Ride, Mar. 30, 2015.

The 16th Sustainment Brigade actively supports Dragoon Ride, the 1,800 km road march for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment home to Vilseck, Germany as a part of their capstone exercise to Atlantic Resolve and to visit #NATO Allies.

(U.S. Army video by 1st Lt. Henry Chan, 16th Sustainment Brigade public affairs, 21st Theater Sustainment Command)

Zdroj: sociální sítě

The Marines´Hymn. The hymn of the United States Marine Corps (From The Halls of Montezuma).

The Marines´Hymn
The hymn of the United States Marine Corps (From The Halls of Montezuma).
Lyrics (Even though there are none in this version):

From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country's battles
in the air on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom,
and to keep our honor clean,
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

(End lyrics)

Played by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band!

 God bless the USA. Let Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea talk all the trash they want.



Jingle Jingle Little Bell | + LOTS of Super Fun Songs for Kids. Učíme se anglicky!

Místo večerníčku anglicky  učit děti
We design songs for children with emerging language skills (toddlers, preschoolers, young English learners around the world, and children with special needs). Let us know who you are watching with and where you are watching from in the comments!

Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) - Allison Crowe live performance


Canadian indie singer-songwriter Allison Crowe's uniquely potent
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) - Allison Crowe live performance
Leonard Cohen, creator of the song, Hallelujah. He says: "I wanted to write something in the tradition of the hallelujah choruses but from a different point of view... It's the notion that there is no perfection ~ that this is a broken world and we live with broken hearts and broken lives but still that is no alibi for anything. On the contrary, you have to stand up and say hallelujah under those circumstances."

Canadian indie singer-songwriter Allison Crowe's uniquely potent interpretation is heard on her album/CD, "Tidings".
(The song enjoys increasingly wide appreciation - even marching into the mainstream in 2008 with a tv performance by American Idol contestant Jason Castro and by UK X Factor winner Alexandra Burke. Leonard Cohen himself has been inspiring audiences on tour this year - he performed Hallelujah as the sun set on Glastonbury 2008.)

"I originally had a different version of 'Hallelujah' on that scene (Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II) - it was the version by Allison Crowe, and it was really beautiful. Too beautiful, as it turned out..." Zack Snyder, Director, The Watchmen movie
"It's not hard to see why Crowe's Hallelujah -- recorded in a single take -- is popular. It's one of Leonard Cohen's most affecting songs, and the 26-year-old, accompanying herself on piano, makes it her own with raw honesty and formidable vocal power. It's simultaneously heart-breaking and redemptive, and it has captured the imaginations of people around the world. 'The song itself is just so emotionally resonant,' Crowe said modestly this week." ~ Adrian Chamberlain, Times Colonist (Canada)

"Bet you thought you heard all the versions you need to hear of this song, right? Think again, because Allison Crowe has a voice to fall in love with. She is from Vancouver Island in Canada, descended from Scottish, Irish, and Manx stock. She's exactly the sort of artist who can make serious headway on her own label and that's just what she's doing." ~ Record of the Day (UK)
"Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen. This song has somehow become Crowe's signature, if a singer who defies description as stubbornly as she does has a signature... Cohen's original version is a spoken poem, all of the meaning contained in the words. Crowe's version is a living thing, a meditation and a celebration and a benediction." ~ anacronym (Canada)
"Crowe's warm, natural, passionate - and need I add lovely? - voice are perhaps shown to best effect on another glorious standard, Leonard Cohen's magnificent and deeply spiritual quest for faith, Hallelujah." ~ Martin Levin, Women's Post (Canada)

"j'ai rarement été bouleversée à ce point par une voix féminine. Pure comme de la glace, puissante et même violente sur la reprise de l'Hallelujah de Leonard Cohen." (en Francais - English translation follows) "I have never been so moved by a woman's voice. Pure as ice, powerful and even violent on the cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah." ~ SplinterMuse (France)

"(Jeff) Buckley especially just blew the song to pieces and every artist after him has tried and failed to put it back together. Until now. Allison Crowe manages to pump 'Hallelujah' full of all the soaring vocals and raw emotion that it requires. And the result is a big beautiful lump in the throat." ~ Muruch (USA) blog praises the Buckley and Crowe versions as very different, each great in its own way
Allison's hometown covers the whole of Canada - from Nanaimo, Vancouver Island to Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It's a land rich with songs of glory, joy and rare, natural, beauty.

Přeloženo strojově pomocí translator google:

Leonard Cohen, autor písní, Hallelujah. Říká: "Já jsem chtěl napsat něco v tradici z hallelujah sbory, ale z jiného úhlu pohledu ... Je to pojem, který není ~ dokonalosti, že je to rozbité svět a žijeme s porušenými srdce a rozbité životů ale přesto, že není alibi pro cokoli. Naopak, musíte vstát a říct hallelujah za těchto okolností. "  Kanadská zpěvačka indie-songwriter Allison Crowe je jedinečně silný výklad je slyšet na jejím album / CD, "zpráva".
(Tato píseň se těší stále větší uznání - i pochodující do hlavního proudu v roce 2008 s tv vystoupení American Idol soutěžící Jason Castro a vítěz UK X Factor Alexandra Burke. Leonard Cohen sám byl inspirující diváky na turné v tomto roce - vystupoval jako Hallelujah Slunce set na Glastonbury 2008.)

"Já měla původně jinou verzi 'Haleluja' na této scéně (Nite Owl II a Hedvábný přízrak II) - to byla verze Allison Crowe, a bylo to opravdu krásné. Příliš krásné, jak to dopadlo ..." Zack Snyder, ředitel hlídka film
"Není těžké si představit, proč to Crowe Hallelujah - zaznamenané v jediném brát - je populární. Je to jeden z Leonard Cohen nejvíce ovlivňují písní, a 26-rok-starý, doprovodné sama na klavír, je její vlastní syrového poctivost a impozantní vokální výkon. Je to současně srdce-rozlámání a vykupitelský a podmanil představy lidí po celém světě. 'Píseň sama o sobě je tak citově rezonujících,' řekl Crowe skromně tento týden. " ~ Adrian Chamberlain, Times kolonista (Kanada)
"Určitě jste slyšeli, že jsi všechny verze musíte slyšet tuto píseň, že jo? Přemýšlejte znovu, protože Allison Crowe má jeden hlas, aby se zamilovat se. Ona je z Vancouver Island v Kanadě, sestoupila z skotský, irský, a Manx zásob. Je to přesně ten typ umělce, který může mít vážné pokroky na vlastní etiketě a to je právě to, co ona dělá. " ~ Record dne (UK)
"Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen. Tato píseň se stala jaksi Crowe podpis, pokud se zpěvák, který vzdoruje popis, jak tvrdohlavě jako ona se má podpis ... Cohen se v původním znění se mluví básně, v němž jsou obsaženy ve smyslu slova. Crowe to verze je živoucí věc, meditaci a oslavy a požehnání. " ~ Anacronym (Kanada)
"Crowe to teplé, přírodní, vášnivá - a je třeba přidat krásné? - Hlas se snad ukázalo, nejlepší vliv na další slavné standard, Leonard Cohen je nádherné a hluboce duchovní hledání víry, haleluja." ~ Martin Levin, ženské Post (Kanada)
"j'ai rarement été bouleversée à ce bod par une Voix ženské. Pure comme de la glace, puissante et même violente sur la reprise de l'Hallelujah de Leonard Cohen." (en Francais - anglický překlad následovně) "Nikdy jsem nebyl tak přemísťována ženského hlasu. Pure jako led, výkonnější a dokonce násilí na obálce Leonard Cohen Hallelujah to." ~ SplinterMuse (Francie)
"(Jeff) Buckley především právě troubíce píseň na kusy a každý umělec má za sebou a pokusili se nepodařilo dát zpátky dohromady. Až do teď. Allison Crowe dokáže čerpadlo 'Haleluja' plný všech stoupající zpěv a syrové emoce, že vyžaduje . A výsledek je krásný velký knedlík v krku. " ~ Muruch (USA) blog chválí Buckley a Crowe verze jsou velmi rozdílné, každý velký svým způsobem
Allison to rodné pokrývá celé Kanadě - od Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, aby Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Je to země s bohatou písně slávu, radost a vzácný přírodní, krása.

Lotrando a Zubejda celá pohádka jako film a česky!

Česká pohádka Lotrando a Zubejda
Česká pohádka z filmu Lotrando a Zubejda 
z roku 1997 natočená v koprodukci s Francií a s Bulharskem (CZ/F/BG).
Režie: Karel Smyczek
Lotrando: Jiří Strach
Lotrando st.: Jiří Pecha
Maceška: Jaroslava Kretschmerová
Vincek: Jiří Lábus
Film je celý - česky. Česky je tu také klikněte si na   TADY!

Do anglicky mluvících zemí se spolu podíváme s fotografiemi I.

Londýn to je foto od Big Ben

Czech republik Olympic games


Ale prvenství máme my

Krádež pera v USA
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) laughs with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (L-R), Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) after signing a proclamation to commemorate the inauguration, entitled a National Day of Hope and Resolve, after swearing-in ceremonies in the U.S Capitol in Washington, January 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS)
-
Prezident USA Barack Obama po podpisu inauguračních protokolů přistihl senátora Harryho Reida při pokusu přivlastnit si jedno z použitých per.
Ale prvenství máme my.

Tornado beauty

Tornado beauty
While deadly and destructive, tornadoes can also be beautiful...

Olympijské momenty London 2012

Češi pochodovali v holinkách s deštníky  #wellies #london2012
Hvězdou zahájení olympiády na Twitteru byl ... Mr. Bean (a také české holínky neboli #wellies)

Na plochu olympijského stánku napochodovala výprava obutá do modrých holínek.
Nadšení sportovci mávali deštníky a usmívali se.
Why are the Czechs wearing wellies? Did they overreact to the news that there would be sheep running around during the opening?
The #Czech official #athletes' outfit includes #wellies. Got the #Brits beat in their own humor game.

Češi se s narážkou na tradičně deštivé britské počasí představili v holínkách a s deštníky v rukou. "To je něco jiného. Česká republika má na sobě modré holínky a slunečníky. Snaží se snad říct něco o našem počasí?!"

Poznámka: Češi jsou Švejci, ale někteří se za to stydí...pokud jsou střízliví.

Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space

Sally Ride - astronaut
Photo released by NASA shows astronaut Sally Ride. Ride, the first American woman in space, will be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, hall officials announced Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. NASA
-
PERSONAL DATA: Born May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Joyce Ride, resides in Pasadena, California. Her father, Dale B. Ride, is deceased. She enjoys tennis (having been an instructor and having achieved national ranking as a junior), running, volleyball, softball & stamp collecting.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Westlake High School, Los Angeles, California, in 1968; received from Stanford University a bachelor of science in Physics and a bachelor of arts in English in 1973, and master of science and doctorate degrees in Physics in 1975 and 1978, respectively.

EXPERIENCE: Dr. Ride was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978. In August 1979, she completed a 1-year training and evaluation period, making her eligible for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews. She subsequently performed as an on-orbit capsule communicator (CAPCOM) on the STS-2 and STS-3 missions.

Dr. Ride was a mission specialist on STS-7, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 18, 1983. She was accompanied by Captain Robert L. Crippen (spacecraft commander), Captain Frederick H. Hauck (pilot), and fellow mission specialists Colonel John M. Fabian and Dr. Norman E. Thagard. This was the second flight for the Orbiter Challenger and the first mission with a 5-person crew. During the mission, the STS-7 crew deployed satellites for Canada (ANIK C-2) and Indonesia (PALAPA B-1); operated the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to perform the first deployment and retrieval exercise with the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS-01); conducted the first formation flying of the orbiter with a free-flying satellite (SPAS-01); carried and operated the first U.S./German cooperative materials science payload (OSTA-2); and operated the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES) and the Monodisperse Latex Reactor (MLR) experiments, in addition to activating seven Getaway Specials. Mission duration was 147 hours before landing on a lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 24, 1983.

Dr. Ride served as a mission specialist on STS 41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 5, 1984. This was the largest crew to fly to date and included Captain Robert L. Crippen (spacecraft commander), Captain Jon A. McBride (pilot), fellow mission specialists, Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan and Commander David C. Leestma, as well as two payloads specialists, Commander Marc Garneau and Mr. Paul Scully-Power. Their 8-day mission deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of the earth with the OSTS-3 pallet and Large Format Camera, as well as demonstrating potential satellite refueling with an EVA and associated hydrazine transfer. Mission duration was 197 hours and concluded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 13, 1984.

Zdroj: Jsc.Nasa.gov.

Radůza - De Nimes dnes francouzsky i česky

Radůza

Očima uhla jsem
a nebylo to studem
peřina pohla se
nějak už bude
Lino je studený
ponožky a pak triko
a kabát přes denim
a nic a ticho

Cette chanson n'a jamais été chantée
[Tuhle písničku nikdo nezpíval]
comme il faut, c'est ça
[jak se patří, je to tak]
Mais si tu veux, nous tous les deux
[Ale jestli chceš, tak my dva]
pouvons le faire, comme ça
[to můžeme takhle udělat
La tranquillité, c'est ce qu'on cherche
[Všichni hledají klid]
on dit: »Puisse-t-elle venir!«
[a říkají: „Kéž by přišel!"]
On dit que tout est dificile
[říkají, že je všechno těžké]
mais, qu' est-ce que ça veut dire
[ale, co to znamená]
Zouvám si pár těžkejch bot
jsi ve vesmíru můj pevnej bod
a sukně kasám, je blízko brod
a pryč je, co kdo zboď
Jen hlesnu od dveří
víš, nelhala jsem dosud
a jestli nevěříš
zkus špičku nosu
Okna jsou zamžen
nádobí škopek plnej
mám hrdlo stažený
hajej a nynej
Očima uhla jsem
a nebylo to studem
poznal jsi po hlase
jak mi teď bude
Lino je studený
pod kafem stůl se kejvá
un souvenir de Nîmes
tak už to bejvá

Původní kraj amazonského kmene Xingu a elektrárna Belo Monte

Náčelník Raomi pláče...
Náčelník Raoni pláče, když se dozvěděl, že brazilská prezidentka definitivně povolila stavu projektu Belo Monte v původním kraji amazonského kmene Xingu. Elektrárna Belo Monte bude větší než Panamský kanál a zaplaví skoro milion akrů půdy pralesa a země Xingů. 40.000 domorodců a místních obyvatel bude nuceno opustit svou rodnou půdu (stejně jako mnoho neznámých druhů zvířat a rostlin) ve jménu "pokroku"...
Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam!
We've already delivered half a million signatures to Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, but we're just getting started. Help us stop the Belo Monte Dam by signing the petition here!
Scenes from a historic indigenous gathering held in the Kayapó village in the Amazonian state of Mato Grosso. This assembly was called to discuss the impending human rights and environmental disaster that is the Belo Monte Dam on the Lower Xingu -- in particular the menace it represents to Brazil's indigenous peoples -- and ways for its opponents to forge a single and unified force to resist its construction.
Zdroj: amazonwatch.org/,youtube.com

Jak se stát globálním How to become global.

Benedikt XVI.
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH: How English went from an obscure Germanic dialect to a global language: Whatever your thoughts on the matter, English, with all its vagaries and annoying inconsistencies, remains the single most important and influential language in today’s world. Throughout history, it has repeatedly found itself in the right place at the right time: English-speaking Britain was the leading colonial nation in the 17th and 18th Century, as well as the leader of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 18th Century; in the late 19th and 20th Century, English-speaking America was the leading economic power, and was also at the forefront of the electronic and digital revolution of the late 20th Century.

But, it has also proved itself the most flexible and resilient of languages, remarkable for its ability to adopt and absorb vocabulary from other cultures. It has survived incursions by invading armies, outfaced potential extinction on more than one occasion, and navigated the changing cultural zeitgeist, growing ever stronger in the process. Its continued vitality is evidenced by the number and diversity of its worldwide variations today.

The main part of this website, the History, can be read as a kind of story, in chapters, following the development of the English language from its Indo-European origins, through Old English and Middle English to Early Modern English and Late Modern English, before a brief look at English Today. But there is also section on Language Issues (including How New Words are Created, Language and Geography and English as a Global Language), a Timeline of important dates in the development of English, a Glossary of some of the technical and historical terms used, and a list of Sources and Links...

Zdroj: sociální sítě G+, thehistoryofenglish.com

Václav Havel was born in Prague on 5 October 1936

Václav  Havel
Václav Havel was born in Prague, on 5 October 1936.
He grew up in a well-known and wealthy entrepreneurial and intellectual family, which was closely linked to the cultural and political events in Czechoslovakia from the 1920s to the 1940s. His father was the owner of the suburb Barrandov which was located on the highest point of Prague and of Barrandov film studios. Havel's mother came from a well known family; her father was an ambassador and well-known journalist.

Because of Havel's bourgeois history, the Communist regime did not allow Havel to study formally after he had completed his required schooling in 1951. In the first part of the 1950s, the young Havel entered into a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant and simultaneously took evening classes; he completed his secondary education in 1954. For political reasons, he was not accepted into any post-secondary school with a humanities program; therefore, he opted to study at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University in Prague but dropped out after two years.
Vaclav Havel led a revolution that overturned four decades of communism in his native Czechoslovakia, languished five years in prison, wrote 19 plays, survived nearly drowning, and served 14 years as president — all the while remaining one of his generation’s most nonconformist writers.

Yet while the west has lionized him, in his native Czech Republic, 19 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he remains a source of ambivalence, if not sometimes downright resentment.

Some have argued that Mr. Havel held onto the presidency too long — 13 years — for his claim of being a reluctant president to ring true. Others, like Erik Tabery, a Czech journalist who is writing a book about the Czech presidency, said some Czechs resented Mr. Havel because he held up an uncomfortable mirror to their own history of chronic passivity.

Born into a wealthy, bourgeois family in 1936, Mr. Havel first rose to prominence as a chain-smoking rebel-intellectual in the 1960s. In 1968, when the Red Army invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress a democratic blossoming known as the Prague Spring, Mr. Havel denounced the invasion, and his plays were censored.

Mr. Havel is credited with overseeing the smooth transition from communism to liberal capitalism after leading a 10-day Velvet Revolution in 1989, so velvety that not a single bullet was fired. Once elected as the president a newly democratized Czechoslovakia — a role he insists was more duty than aspiration — he linked the country firmly to the West, clearing the way for the Czech Republic to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999, and the European Union five years later.

His star status drew world leaders to Prague, from the Dalai Lama, with whom Mr. Havel meditated for hours, to Bill Clinton, who serenaded him on his saxophone. Calling on the former dissident became a politically redemptive act.

Yet his presidency, which ended in 2003, was marked by a jovial eccentricity that endeared as well as repelled. He invited the Rolling Stones to the imposing Prague castle, the office of the president, covered the side of the castle with a large neon-red heart, hired female body guards — and drove along the castle’s endlessly long corridors in a red pedal scooter. Critics called him a reluctant leader who learned to like power too much.

One of his first big political setbacks came shortly after he took office, when he stubbornly resigned to protest the break up of Czechoslovakia in 1992. The country’s dismemberment into two separate states, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, happened anyway — presaging secessionist movements in other parts of Europe.
Zdroj: en.wikipedia.org, the new york times

Vybraný příspěvek

The Britisch Monarchy na Facebooku. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II This photograph of The Queen by the renowned British photographer Mary McCartney has been released to m...