Václav Klaus from the Hillsdale College Cruise: Recent Changes in the World, in Europe, and in the U.S. as Seen from Prague

Let me begin by greeting all of you and by expressing my hope that you’re enjoying the cruise as much as I am. My personal attitude toward being at sea is very simple. I have spent my entire life in the Czech Republic, in a land-locked country located in the very heart of Europe, and because of that, any opportunity to be at sea is something special and extraordinary for me. For the first decades of my life – more than half of it – I lived in the semi-closed communist country. Traveling abroad, let alone to the sea, was a rare privilege. That is why I feel obliged to enjoy the sea whenever there is a chance.