There Is No Cat - On the Feast of Stephen

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Sunday, June 16, 2002

On the Feast of Stephen

The New York Times has a nice exploration of the relationship between the two Vaclavs in the Czech Republic, humanist and ex-dissident president Vaclav Havel and corrupt Thatcherite ex-prime minister Vaclav Klaus, whose feud has dominated the political stage there for much of the post-Communist era. The article positions this weekend's elections in the country as the last fight between the two. So it's nice to see that Havel effectively won, with Klaus' party being repudiated at the polls. Havel's term as president ends next February. Klaus once wanted to succeed Havel as president, but this loss pretty much ensures that Klaus will leave the stage slightly before Havel, and certainly won't be the next president.

Havel is, of course, well known in the west as the philosopher-president who did a lot to overthrow totalitarianism in the Soviet bloc through his writings and his advocacy through organizations like Charter 77. Czechs are less impressed with his tenure as president, but it's nice to see that he still has enough political heft to convince the people of his country that Klaus is not deserving of another chance to run the country.

Posted at 8:36 AM

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What do you mean there is no cat?

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

- Albert Einstein, explaining radio