Writer's Block - world events/ random ramblings

[xlcatloveress]

Today, Writer's Block asked:
What's the first major news event that you remember hearing about as a child? Where did you learn about it? How did it impact your world view?Here now my answer (excuse the ramblings, please

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[xlcatloveress]

And then .. less than half a year after Honecker (the ruler of East Germany) had declared that the Wall would stand for another hundred years, the borders crumbled. Slowly, one by one, the East Bloc states loosened their travel restrictions, and eventually, the German-German border fell. There was an .. exuberance, an ecstasy, a jubilation that is hard to describe. Germany seemed to be caught up in a euphoria that swept everyone along. Things moved fast after that, and soon there wasn't only just no border anymore, Germany had also undergone Reunification and was one once more. But .. how do you erase separation from people's minds? How do you teach a generation that has been brought up on division and propaganda (on both sides, I'm sure - I wouldn't say we had an exactly objective opinion on East Germany) that what it was taught before now has become invalid? There are still struggles with that, actually, and I don't think the division will be truly gone until I am in the grandparent generation and my kids who have never lived in a time where Germany was divided will be the adult generation. For me, there still is a 'them and us', '(former) East and (former) West', and even though the 'former' flows easily into the language, the fact that it's STILL there, all these years later, goes to show that there is still an echo of what once was.

Economy-wise, East Germany was at the bottom of the barrel, and to this day, a part of our tax cut 'over here' goes into solidarity payments to help strengthen the infrastructure, clean up left-over environmental messes and generally boost the economy in areas that were formerly East Germany. There are grumblers on both sides of the former fence, people 'there' wishing for the border back as well as people 'here' saying that all we gained with Reunification was a tick that sucks us dry. But those are, luckily, in the minority, here as well as there. More common is the perspective of 'them' being something of our slower li'l brother who gets one's head shook over, eyes rolled about and patted on the head, offered a cookie if he did something right. Condescending, I know .. but that's kinda how it is still. Like I said, it'll be at least another generation until that mindset starts to fully fade away.

My parents made a move very early on to connect us to East Germany. Right after the border had opened, a summer program was offered by .. I think it was a local church organization, but I don't remember. Again with the condescending, but like I said .. that's the tenor of the mindset - West German families were asked to take in an East German child over the summer in 1990, and my parents applied for such a child. The girl who came to live with us for a few weeks that summer is still a fast friend of ours, and her family and my family are very close. It was .. strange, a getting-to-know-each-other that was by far more surreal than getting to know, say, an Italian or a Brit. This girl .. she spoke German, she WAS German, and yet, she was nothing like us. When we went to visit her and her family in return (just me and my 1 year younger brother), it got even MORE surreal - the way they lived, the things they could buy, the look of their town, it all seemed to us as if it had been snatched right from a movie about the 'olden days not long after the war'. Even the SKY seemed to darken the moment our train left what had been West Germany and moved into East Germany territory, I kid you not.

All right .. *chuckles* This will probably need to be split into 2 comment boxes already, so I'll .. just end here. I could keep going, so .. feel free to ask more questions or wait to pick my brain in person when/if we meet. Oh, and I haven't even gotten to Chernobyl (I keep forgetting how to spell it in English *chuckles* glad you recognized my spelling anway ;) - scariest time of my elementary school life, let me tell you. I'm affected by it to this day, not physically, but in what I fear the most. So, it's left .. scars, I guess. Again, feel free to ask, or wait until we meet in person :)

[nix_this]

*grin*

Sorry this took so long to get back to, that's the problem with long interesting conversations, they take time to weigh, consider and respond to (and frankly, my brainspace lately has been more along the lines of "ooooooh! Pretty COLOURS!!" *durr*)

But wow, the West/East German divide is fascinating. I work with a woman who is a Chechnyan refugee (was? is there a time limit on refugee status?) and she came over just as it was all starting to fall apart. They were practicing Christians in a communist regime and she told me that even after the Cold War was over there was still this incredible atmosphere of distrust and fear, where it still seemed as if your neighbours were waiting for their chance to sell you out.

I wonder about that too (and this is just random babble, not really related to what you wrote) Do you think living in that sort of environment is more likely to foster closer ties or alienation? Probably alienation as a whole, but I'd imagine when you find yourself in a position where you do trust, you're probably more likely to trust completely..

/tangent

Anyways, East/West divide- i can imagine how jarring that would be. Part of the interesting thing about Canada being so very large is there is a lot of room (ha ha, no shit *facepalm* Forgive me, I'm still getting over a really nasty bout of strep throat / bronchitis.. brain not... good) ANYWAYS - a lot of room between cultural centers so you'd think there would be more divergence. I mean, when I was in Belgium over the holidays (Ah, sweet, beautiful WONDERFUL Belgium.. how I miss thee)it was interesting to observe the different flavours each city had, and this was in a country less than HALF the length of my home province. Antwerp had a kind of crazy energy to it, young, hip, very urban feeling.. Brussels was a little less sophisticated - more a 'working class' kind of city, though still urban. The differences are there in Canada - though you have to go much further to really see them, and the thought of adding the element of an entirely different political regime/social structure to the mix - diametrically opposed ones at that - and then merging them together? Hello, melting pot.

Guh.

I need to go to Germany. Clearly.

Re: Chernobyl (*grin* sorry, it's how I learned to spell it - seeing Tschernobyl is like trying to read a language you're only partially familiar with, there's some stirrings of recognition but the connection isn't as powerful) - I'm not sure why it's suddenly reemerged in the cultural consciousness, but I've been running into it everywhere lately. I found a website photo chronicling a tour of Pripyat, which was haunting - a completely dead city, with personal belongings still littering the ground; a local radio show made mention of it, and then you posted your account. I vaguely remembering hearing about it, but I was wee at the time - only five, and again, being so far away from the scene definitely lessens the impact - but it definitely makes it's presence felt any time somebody mentions building nuclear reactors in Alberta (which does come up occasionally)

Other things you mention that I AM DYING TO OBSERVE - the restructuring and resettling of borders and countries - I realize Yugoslavia is a bit of a bastard case, since the unification was false and never really took, but was that the same situation in Czechoslovakia? I'd never heard if it was. Even dear sweet Belgium has a relatively short history as a country, the main provinces changed hands between the French, the Germans and the Danes throughout history.. even the Spanish had a toe hold for a while. What is that like? How do you go from being a citizen of one country to another without changing geographic location? What are the big changes, what are the small ones? Do you ever stop thinking of yourself as a citizen of the former blahblah? What's the patriotism level like? Energetic and enthusiastic? Or cynical and jaded? Does it really make a huge difference?

edited for html fail

I CAN BREAK THE LJ COMMENT LIMIT TOO, Y'KNOW! ;)

[nix_this]

At the risk of sounding callous - have you ever thought about using your experiences in your writing? I'm thinking there's a lot of great story fodder there, especially in the living in a war zone feelings you experienced during the Cold War. Fear, uncertainty and a general sense of doom.. Just. Yeah. A thought.

Failing that - I'll just have to interview you more thoroughly so I can use it in my writing! (Oh, speaking of, you'll be pleased (I hope XD) to know the next chapter of Nixaan Theta is done, just waiting to hear back from the beta and possibly polish up some transitions :D )

Also, on a lighter note - your uncles experiencing 'fernweh' (GREAT WORD BTW. I love Germans, you gave me Schadenfreude too) that settled in Canada? Where are they? Are you ever planning to visit them? If they're near Alberta, we can WORK SOMETHING OUT :D Wouldn't that be fun? We could call it a great Cultural Exchange in the Finest of Star Trek traditions :D

Thanks again for the fascinating read and humouring a curious Canuck :)