Two cases of death, one topic: Human Rights!

On 17 and 18 December 2011 two prominent people, whose lives could not have been more different, died.

One stood against the human rights abuses of the Communist regime in his home country, went to jail, got his work banned from performance and publication – and yet that could not break him and he eventually became president of his country.
The other was the leader of such a Communist system at the other end of the world.
The one, Vaclav Havel, writer, former president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic, showed any human rights advocate how important it is to have the courage to stand up for these fundamental rights and not to get intimidated. He showed that you can enforce human rights in the face of even a seemingly all-powerful state apparatus by peaceful means. He is being mourned out of genuine respect.
The other, Kim Jong-Il, “leader” of North Korea showed us, however, that there is still a long way to go to the realization of human rights as a global reality. He is being mourned due to governmental arrangement. But the end of any era is a new beginning. Let’s hope for the people of North Korea that it is at least a tiny step towards human rights.