I lived in Prague off and on in the mid-90s - an interesting time post-revolution.
The picture above shows a 35-foot statue of Michael Jackson that was erected in the weeks leading up to his concert there as part of the HIStory Tour back in 1996. What may not have been obvious to foreigners or perhaps MJ himself, was that the spot he put it had previously been home to a giant statue of Stalin. The statue of Uncle Jo was unveiled in 1955 and destroyed in 62, during the period leading up to the Prague Spring, when it looked like The Communists were going soft on the Totalitarian ways.
As you can imagine, for Czechs who have even a vague memory of that period it would be impossible to look at Jackson’s perch there on Letna Hill, next to the Castle and not remember the ghost of Stalin. At least in this case, MJ was either painfully ignorant or bizarrely meglomaniacal or just plain old crazy.
