Revolutions

While listening to the news this morning, I heard about the current crisis going on in Hungary. There's a scandal over comments the Hungarian prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, made in a private address to his party. Here's the excerpt:

They can understand that it is worth being a politician here at the beginning of the 21st Century because we can create a different world. Only for this. Livelihood can be found in many other ways.

I know that this is easy for me to say. I know. Do not keep bringing it up against me. But this is the only reason it is worth doing it. I almost perished because I had to pretend for 18 months that we were governing.

Instead, we lied morning, noon and night. I do not want to carry on with this. Either we do it and have the personnel for it, or others will do it. I will never give an interview at the end of which we part with each other in argument. Never. I will never hurt the Hungarian left. Never.

I shouldn't pretend to understand anything about the situation there, but when the BBC broadcaster mentioned that it is the most significant event in Hungary since the end of communism, it made me think about revolutions.

I prefer my revolutions to be non-violent and brightly colored, otherwise I like them to have a nice soft feel and a pleasant aroma:

• The Rose Revolution of Georgia in 2003 to depose their corrupt government.*
• The Orange Revolution in the Ukraine in 2004 over election fraud.
• The Tulip Revolution of 2005 in Kyrgyzstan which deposed Askar Akayev. (Interesting note: In the early stages of the revolution, the media variously referred to the unrest as the "Pink," "Lemon", "Silk", "Daffodil", or "Sandpaper" Revolution. But it was "Tulip Revolution," a term that Akayev himself used in a speech warning that no such Color Revolution should happen in Kyrgyzstan, which stuck in the end. )
• The Cedar Revolution of 2005 in Lebanon to get rid of Syrian troops from that country.
• The Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia in 1989 to get rid of communism.
• The Singing Revolution of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of 1988-1990 which led to those countries becoming independant from the Soviet Union.
• I think all of these can be personified in Prince.

*Many of the European revolutions were due to the efforts of George Soros.