Transition is a Special Stage in History
It has been almost 13 years since President Bill Clinton played the saxophone given to him by then President of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel, at the stage of the Reduta Jazz Club in Prague. The two presidents shared the stage once again last Wednesday, this time at the Alfred Lerner Hall of Columbia University in New York, where they had an hour long public discussion titled Challenges of New Democracies.
“It is a special historical phase that nobody really counted on”, said Havel. “We all expect the changes to happen a lot faster. We have democratic institutions and they function well but the fact remains that having democratic institutions is much more complicated that anyone could have expected.” One of the problems shared, according to Havel, by many post-communist countries is the “invasion of the economic sector by organized crime.” “Our immediate task after the revolution was the privatization, but we didn’t have any experience in it,” said President Havel, adding that only now, 17 years after the revolution, the country is emerging from this transitory phase. Inevitably though, the focus of the discussion shifted towards democratization of Iraq. “We will have to have some change of policy there”, said President Clinton, but he added that it should not be forgotten that Iraq essentially has a democratically elected government. He also pointed out the irrationality of comparisons between the U.S. interventions in Bosnia and in Iraq because, in his words, “...we went in Bosnia by the end of the war, and we had by far more troops there per capita then in Iraq.” President Clinton then said that the U.S. foreign interests can be served equally well if not better if funds would be directed towards helping underprivileged. He took Pakistan as an example, saying that “We gave them a lot of money to buy airplanes but we didn’t give them any money to put their kids to schools. Since poor people couldn’t afford to put their kids to school, they are in madrassas and the rest is history.” He concluded by saying that increase of the U.S. foreign assistance would do more good to the country then almost anything else that the country could do to increase the number of friends in the world. President Havel commented on the Iraq war in the spirit of a writer. ”When we see a big, strong and muscular guy beating a defenseless old woman we obviously must protect that woman and this is the act of basic solidarity. It seemed inappropriate to me that intervention in Iraq was not presented as an act of this type of solidarity but through the dubious construction of treat of weapons of mass destruction,” said Havel. Answering to the question posed by the moderator Lee C. Bollinger the President of Columbia University about the feeling of being a former president, Clinton said that he previously underestimated the extent in which a private citizen can do a public good through NGOs. Helping those in need is the role in which Clinton said he enjoys now, channeling his efforts primarily through his foundation. Clinton also emphasized the fact that people should be aware of mutual interdependence. “All our problems flow out from negative interdependence and all our solutions can be found in positive interdependence,” said Clinton. “Facts that half of world’s people still earn less then 2 dollars a day or that 25 percent of all the deaths are from AIDS, TB, Malaria or infections related to dirty water affects us all, as well as the fact that there is declining arable soil, usable water, regenerating forests or even oil. We have to develop level of conciseness that takes all that into account in every decision that we make,” said Clinton. He concluded by finding the proof for his words in modern science, and at the same time by asking for a change of attitude. “99.9% of our genetic makeup is shared by everybody else.” said Clinton. “Every single difference that we have can be found only in one percent of our genetic makeup. At yet we are spending all our time working on that one percent difference. We need a little more humility. Unless we understand that we share the common fate with each other and with the world we will be in trouble,” said Clinton. Speaking about his own experience as a former president, Havel said that sometimes it seems to him that the U.S. is “full of ex presidents.” “In my country,” explained Havel “we really don’t have any ex-president. Every former president was either chased from office in some kind of disgrace or he died in office. So I’d say that for me this is an interesting experience. For instance, people don’t know how they should address me. Some people say mister President, some mister former President, some say mister Havel and I am waiting for someone to call me mister former Havel.” The discussion was sponsored by Kraft Program on Interfaith and Intercultural Awareness, which fosters open debate and civil discourse on a wide range of subjects, including race, religion and culture, and is one of a series of events surrounding President Havel's Columbia University Residency. |
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