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The best ambassadors of our country have often been those who were not appointed as such.
I read the slim little book by diplomat Bohuslav Hynek "Diplomat in African Switzerland" (2021) in one breath. We know each other personally from his time at the Czech Embassy in Switzerland. With the author's permission, I am making it available to the public and recommend it especially to young people and schools at all levels. One cannot but bow before Jan Pivečka (p. 86) for his life's work as a Bata worker. The story of Alžběta Pezoldová (page 63), sister of Karel Schwarzenberg, is a shocking example of the continuing failure of the Czech justice system. The rule of law and justice is determined by the relationship to existing political and power structures. As a side note, I would like to remind you that the Czech Republic has nominated as the new ambassador to the USA the former State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Miroslav Stašek, a demonstrably unprincipled person. If his diplomatic 'mission' is accepted by the US President, it will be another failure of Czech diplomacy and another disgrace for our country. J.Š.
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From Bohuslav Hynek's book Diplomat in African Switzerland.
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During a brief farewell - Alison Smale of the Associated Press was waiting for me behind my back - before my departure to Harare, the journalist, then a resistance fighter, currently Minister Dienstbier, whom I have admired all my adult life, praised me for having visited Archbishop Tomášek and the Slovak Matrix as part of my pre-departure preparations, but was not happy about missing the meeting with the directors of Omnipol and Desty Děčín.
In the former Rhodesia, Czech hunting guns are in vogue. I myself had one rifle sent to Ladislav Kropacek. They didn't have the one he wanted, so they sent another one. Lad'a told me it was only good for an elephant. He registered it quickly so he could resell it. Hunters called Czech rifles and shotguns Brno rifles. True, I don't know what kind of gun he used to shoot at game on weekends, but for a bottle of whiskey, or just for fun, the immunity-protected U.S. ambassador, I was never there; it may also have come from our gun factory when he picked up his second wife in the American Czech community.
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Speaking the truth in a time of universal deception is a revolutionary act!
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One of the concomitant phenomena of Russian aggression is the brazen lying of Russian officials. It is common for people to lie, just as it is common for politicians to lie. But there is some evidence to convict the liars. For example, when the person is caught on camera, when many witnesses see him commit the act, when he is caught in the act, etc. I know anything can be challenged, but we still live in a world where the truth is assumed to be discoverable.
The Russians are showing us that objectively nothing may be true at all and that there is still a kind of reality to them. When they first invaded Ukraine, they were not Russian soldiers, but some unmarked soldiers on leave. If they are now committing demonstrable crimes, then they are not committing them, but the Ukrainian Nazis are. When we see corpses lying in the streets, they are hired extras. When Ukrainians are being taken to Russia against their will, it is not against their will. When they carry out genocide, it is denazification. When they drop bombs on human dwellings, it is a cleansing of the enemies hiding in those dwellings.
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At a press conference for the Global COVID Summit, attended by a group of more than 17,000 of the world's leading doctors and scientists, a number of scientists spoke about their experiences during the recent "coronavirus crisis". Summit participants stressed that there is now a need to "restore scientific integrity", which was significantly "damaged" during the declared pandemic.
"We, physicians and medical scientists around the world, united by our allegiance to the Hippocratic Oath, recognize that the disastrous public health policy regarding Covid-19 that is being imposed on physicians and our patients is the culmination of a corrupt medical alliance of pharmaceutical, insurance, and medical institutions and financial trusts, that control them," the declaration said, adding that these groups "have infiltrated our health care system at every level and are protected and supported by a parallel alliance of major technology companies, media, academics and government agencies that have profited from this staged disaster." Full Article>
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The war in Ukraine is rethinking the modern world. It is not only an international political change, but also one that affects the foundations of our culture and self-perception.
First, the world has seen the light and suddenly grasped the truth about Russia. Until now, for years, it did not want to see it. Poland and the Poles, who have had tragic experiences of partition, enslavement, Siberia, Katyn, the Gulag and Russian domination of the People's Republic of Poland, have been called Russophobes. Although the Czech experience has been shorter, the Czech position in this respect is equally resolute. For several weeks now, under the pressure of events, the scales have been falling from the eyes of the world public - from some more quickly, from others somewhat hesitantly.
The world has finally woken up - at least for a while. But the world still does not understand the implications of this truth, does not understand that Russia will not stop until we stop it. It only understands arguments based on force. I remember Angela Merkel saying that we must talk to Russia. Yes, we must talk, but we must also be strong. And all of us in Europe today have a responsibility to build that strength. Unfortunately, a large part of the world does not quite want to come to terms with the consequences of Russian aggression, still hoping that maybe things will work out. Preferably on the cheap (i.e. at the expense of the Ukrainians, or the Poles and the Baltic states).
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