SHOTLIST Prague - 3 October 2008 1. Wide of Prague 2. Former Czech President Vaclav Havel walking into his office 3. Mid of Havel during interview 4. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Vaclav Havel, former President of Czech Republic: "It's a warning against the idea that we understand the world, that we know how everything works. It's a warning against the pride of economists who think they understand everything and have the whole world scientifically mapped out. However, the economy became suddenly a mysterious issue for them." 5. Cutaway 6. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Vaclav Havel, former President of Czech Republic: "The major problem is where modern civilisation is going, I think mankind will face more serious decisions on where to go." 7. Cutaway 8. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Vaclav Havel, former President of Czech Republic: "I see them (Russia) as very suspicion, in defensive position in a kind of frustration that someone doesn't respect them. That sentiment belongs to Russian traditions. Nowadays, that form of behaviour is very aggressive but this Putin model is more sophisticated than the Communist one used to be. Some things in the development of the Russian Federation are very dangerous and we should not turn a blind eye, it's a big test for the West." 9. Cutaway FILE: Prague - 8 July 2008 10. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signing an initial agreement to begin basing part of a US missile shield in Czech Republic 11. Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg shaking hands after signing Prague - 3 October 2008 12. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Vaclav Havel, former President of Czech Republic: "If Russia really wants to, it could blow up the entire planet several times over with its nuclear arsenal, I think they really do not care if we have a missile defence shield. What's at stake is a principle: When they don't want something, we shouldn't want it. They see us as kids who do not care about them, and that makes the Russians very angry." 13. Wide of Havel STORYLINE: The man credited with toppling communism in Czechoslovakia says the global economic crisis is a warning not to abandon basic human values in the scramble to prosper. Unrestrained materialism is not what freedom and democracy are all about, former Czech leader Vaclav Havel said on Friday in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press at his office in Prague. Havel urged society to remember the struggles of ordinary citizens - especially those too poor to invest. "It's a warning against the idea that we understand the world, that we know how everything works," Havel said. "It's a warning against the pride of economists who think they understand everything and have the whole world scientifically mapped out." The ex-dissident and playwright-turned-president, who will turn 72 on Sunday, led the Velvet Revolution that peacefully shook off decades of communist rule in 1989. Havel, who later became the Czech Republic's first democratically elected president after the country split from Slovakia in 1993, advocated a free and open market. Today, his country is a member of the European Union and NATO and a staunch U.S. ally. But Havel was always wary of no-holds-barred capitalism, and he blames corporate greed and a profit-at-any-cost mentality for the crisis now rattling stock markets, banks and private investors worldwide. "The major problem is where modern civilisation is going," he told the AP. "I think humankind will face more serious decisions on where to go." But Havel, who was repeatedly arrested and jailed in his fight to shake off Soviet domination, had stern words for anyone who might suggest that capitalism has failed and communism deserves a second chance. "We should not turn a blind eye ... It's a big test for the West," he said. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/43ac6a2449ca26829b98bfaca76307b4 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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