Navratilova takes Czech nationality after shame over America

[kskiska]

Source: Times Online

Martina Navratilova, the former world number one tennis star, said yesterday that she had regained Czech nationality more than 30 years after fleeing its communist rule to live in the US.

(snip)

But her announcement, at a Tokyo press conference, raised questions over whether she planned to leave America, after a series of controversial attacks on President Bush and the Republican party.

Born in Prague, Navratilova defected to the United States in 1975 aged 18, angering the communist authorities who stripped her of her nationality. She was granted a green card within a month and US citizenship six years later.

(snip)

In 2002, she told a German newspaper: “The most absurd part of my escape from the unjust system is that I have exchanged one system that suppresses free opinion for another. The Republicans in the US manipulate public opinion and sweep controversial issues under the table. It’s depressing. Decisions in America are based solely on the question of how much money will come out of it and not on the questions of how much health, morals or environment suffer as a result.”

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3528622.ece