Forum Post: “What I have in mind is the shift away from the cult of profit at all costs…” Václav Havel

Lessons for the world, (including Europe especially the Czech Republic (UK is beyond learning….), US, BRIC countries....)

Václav Havel 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote more than 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. He was a statesman”

Twenty-five of the European Union's 27 countries have signed up to the new treaty involving tighter fiscal rules, with only Britain and the Czech Republic opposed, EU officials said today. Prime Minister Petr Necas refused to join the European Union's crucial new fiscal discipline deal

Shame on you Prime Minister Petr Necas , you bring shame upon yourself, the Czech Republic and the ideals of Czech statesman Vaclav Havel, who strongly believed in European integration.

Excerpts from his speech given to the European Parliament.

“What I have in mind is the shift away from the cult of profit at all costs and regardless of its long-term and irreversible consequences, a shift away from the cult of quantitative growth and “growth of growth”, a shift away from the primitive ideal of catching up with or outstripping America or China or anyone else, as well as a shift away from the perilously haphazard settlement of the Earth and the mindless plunder of the planet without regard for the environment or the interests of future generations. I’m referring, of course, to the ingenious saving of energy, when the success of a state is not measured by the growth of its consumption but its reduction....

...European integration, thanks to which the greater part of our continent has lived so long at peace, truly is a unique attempt at the democratic union of states. It is not a pure federation, let alone a traditional confederation, nor will it be soon. It is simply something new. Hopefully it is an experiment that will prove instructive for others too!...

...After all, the fact that I feel myself to be a European doesn’t mean that I stop being a Czech. On the contrary: as a Czech I am also a European. I tend to say somewhat poetically that Europe is the “homeland of our homelands....”.

....At the same time I am convinced that European sovereignty will gradually grow stronger in the future. At what tempo I cannot say. Nor do I know what sort of circuitous route it will take. But I do know that the process of integration must continue, because it is in the fundamental, nay existential, interest of everyone, not just the Europeans…..”

Full speech… http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=projevy&val=1290_aj_projevy.html&typ=HTML