"Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance."
Václav Havel, Letter to Alexander Dubček, August 1969
"The impulse to freedom and democracy always seems weak and hopeless when matched against the forces of oppression, because aggressive oppression is always more single-minded, having already crushed internal dissent and perspective, and is generally better organized and equipped.
And yet even the greatest tyrannies have fallen, always. This is because they carry within themselves the seeds of their own renewal and return to balance, or utter destruction.
As in most human things, their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness, and it is their inability to master and evolve that strength, to reform and achieve sustainability, that brings them crashing down, every time. Their strength is their weakness, in its overreach and self-absorption."
Jesse, 8 June 2012
Marta Kubišová's song Prayer for Marta became a symbol of national resistance against the occupation of Warsaw Pact troops in 1968 as well as the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
The name Velvet Revolution refers to the final protests against the communist regime that started in November 1989, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi assault on the students at Prague University in which 1200 were arrested and 9 killed without trial.
Compared to the protests in other former communist states, Czechoslovakian protests were considered much more peaceful and smooth, like velvet.
