Editor’s Note: FIU will provide simultaneous translation
from Czech to English and Spanish that may be used by broadcast
media. President Havel is expected to meet with the media briefly
after his presentation. Please call Maydel Santana-Bravo at (305)
348-1555 to discuss any concerns and specific needs.
Live
Webcast
MIAMI, Fla. (Sept. 13, 2002) –
Czech Republic President Václav Havel will deliver a major
human rights address as part of a visit to Florida International
University in Miami on Sept. 23, university leaders say. The legendary
leader’s remarks are expected to focus heavily on Cuba.
“It will be a great honor to host President Havel,”
said FIU President Modesto A. Maidique. “His commitment
to human rights make him a model for our time.”
President Havel’s appearance at FIU is the last stop on
a U.S. visit that includes meetings with presidents George Bush,
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in New York and Washington, D.C.
The FIU program will take place in the Graham Center Ballrooms,
located at FIU-University Park, 11200 S.W. 8 St. in Miami starting
at 9:45 a.m. on Mon., Sept. 23. The morning will start with the
screening of a documentary film, Voices from Cuba, produced by
the People in Need Foundation, a Czech human rights organization.
The screening will give way to the presentation by President Havel
titled “From Communism to Democracy: The Power of the Powerless.”
A panel discussion will follow. Panelists include Tomas Pojar,
executive director of People in Need Foundation, Cuban writer
and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner, FIU Sociology Professor
MariFeli Pérez-Stable, University of Miami Professor Jaime
Suchlicki, and Cuban Committee for Human Rights founder Ricardo
Bofill. A message from Cuban dissident leader Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas
will be read as part of the panel discussion, as well.
“We are pleased to be able to provide a forum for President
Havel to address Cuban people everywhere,” said Maidique.
“As a Cuban American myself, I am looking forward to his
words of courage and inspiration.”
An outspoken champion of Czechoslovakian culture who publicly
protested its suppression by the communist government, Havel,
65, rose from the ranks of playwright and essayist to internationally
recognized proponent of social and political change. He came to
prominence with his support of the “Prague Spring”
reform movement of 1968 and subsequent leadership of the growing
anti-communist movement of the late 1970s. For the latter, he
was arrested three times and spent five years behind bars.
Havel gained increasing attention from the international community
during Czechoslovakia’s 1989 struggle for freedom. That
year the occupying government closed the university and other
post-secondary educational institutions, an action that led to
the “Velvet Revolution,” a series of civic uprisings
and general social upheaval from which popular elections emerged.
Havel twice was voted president of Czechoslovakia. After the 1992
reorganization of the country into two independent states, he
resigned his post and the following year was elected president
of the newly formed Czech Republic.
A limited number of free tickets to the event will be made available
to the general public on Sept. 17 through the bookstores Librería
Universal, 3090 S.W. 8 St. in Miami and Books ‘n’
Books, 296 Aragon Ave. in Coral Gables. The public will be able
to see a live webcast of the Havel speech in English by logging
on to www.fiu.edu/havel. Later that day, Czech and Spanish translations
will be available on the web, as well.
In honor of Havel’s visit to FIU, long time friend and donor
of the University, Sanford Ziff, after whom the FIU College of
Education building is named, is displaying a collection of photographs
that documents the exodus from a Soviet Union to Israel of a group
of 200 Jews. Ziff and Havel were among a small group of people
who planned and financed this exodus in the summer of 1991. The
photo collection will be on display in the Graham Center Student
Gallery starting on Sept 19th.
Media Contact:
Maydel Santana-Bravo
305-348-1555 or
santanam@fiu.edu
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