Twenty years after the wall

[Hosakawa Tito]

It's hard to believe that the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall is this month. A symbol of all that divided East & West, seemingly impregnable and permanent. And then the wall & barbed wire, and the barriers it stood for, was destroyed. It was certainly the most momentous event to occur in Europe since the collapse of the Nazi Empire.

By the end of May 1989 the Goddess of Democracy statue was unveiled a continent away in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan after a nine year occupation.

The Communist Party of Poland voted to legalize Solidarity, the independent trade union that spawned a huge social movement.

In 1989 it was possible to speak of a "peace dividend", when, according to the tenets of the New World Order, all the money that had gone into military spending could suddenly be invested in social spending or reducing the budget deficit. So much for that theory, eh?

Now, in a different era, we face the challenge of remembering and commemorating the demise of one of the great symbols of tyranny.

1989, freedom's spring.

[Vuk]

Let me beat my Hungarian friends to it and mention that Hungary played a leadership role in making this possible for the rest of the world. Their shed blood earned them freedoms and loosened the power of the government enough that it made a decision to let thousands of East Germans out of the bloc, thus making the wall effectively useless as it could easily be circumvented. This led to the East German boss eventually having to resign and move to Chile.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Yes, the wall's demise began with the removal of miles of barbed wire separating Hungary from Austria.

[Vuk]

Yes, the wall's demise began with the removal of miles of barbed wire separating Hungary from Austria.

But after that at a 'PanEuropean picnic' several EGs escaped. When EGs still in East Germany heard about this they flocked to the West German embassy in Budapest and eventually camped out in Buda being fed by charity. The Hungarian government ended up opening the border for them and letting them leave without exit visas or any proper documentation. When EGs still in EG heard about this, even more came and there was a mass exodus.

EDIT: oh yeah, and not just barbed wire, but mines as well.

[CountArach]

This is yet another example of the triumph of the people over their governments who would wish to keep them in their place. We should not forget those in the East who risked everything to fight for their right to free movement and simple, basic human rights.

[Incongruous]

This is yet another example of the triumph of the people over their governments who would wish to keep them in their place. We should not forget those in the East who risked everything to fight for their right to free movement and simple, basic human rights.

Well, perhaps, but simple people power does not work, as those who were brave enough to pick up a gun in '56 know...

The entire world watched as the Hungarian people rose up against communism, did nothing and let them get crushed by the furious Russian response. People power can not ever do anything alone, people power had to wait decades before the idiocy of soviet communism became hard reality and the entire joke came tumbling down.

I had quote in my sig sometime time ago, went something like

"the first crack in the Berlin wall, began with a hole in a flag in Hungary"

Much good the end of communism has done, well there is no more torture I think, but the country is still nothing but a sink hole, pathetic how improvement seems to have left Hungary behind.