LONDON – No sooner had I finished reading an article that eulogized Václav Havel, the playwright turned dissident turned peaceful revolutionary turned president who had just died, than two subsequent news stories set Havel’s extraordinary career in context: the death of Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s pornography-addicted and nuclear-armed supreme leader, and the peaceful protests against land expropriation by the villagers of Wukan in Guandong province, southern China.
伦敦——我刚刚看完两篇颂扬瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔——转型为持异议者，再转型为和平革命家，再转型为总统的刚刚去世的剧作家——的文章，就传来两则凸显哈维尔杰出生涯的消息：沉溺美色和核武器的朝鲜最高领导人金正日死了；中国广东省乌坎村爆发了村民反对土地征用的示威。