Reaffirming the East
Australian world history education misses a lot of the world; Latin America, the middle east and Central and Eastern Europe. The view of CEE that is educated on seems to be governed by a few absolute and contradictory opinions.
Between 1949-1989 in the countries "behind the Iron Curtain",
1- Nothing happened.
2- Everything that happened was bad.
3- Everything was the same; across countries and years.
At the end of high school (1998) I was left with an impression that central and eastern Europe was largely covered in shades of grey, tight 80's jeans and generally devoid of humor. Luckily enough I visited Bosnia, Croatia and Slovakia in early 2002 and everything changed. I was opened to learning and experiencing volumes of history, culture, people and perspectives. I have recently returned from a few weeks in Romania and would like to reaffirm one thing.
- Central and Eastern Europe kicks ass.
I will swap London for Budapest any day, the French Mediterranean for the Dalmatian coast, and partying in Bucharest over Rotterdam in any season. Yah yah, there's the whole "cost effectiveness thing"- but that misses the whole point. Adventures can be had. There are less hard and fast rules, more is possible, and the people are part of it. There is a wave breaking east in our lifetimes and the countries, societies and people will never be the same. Much of the change will be positive in increasing quality of life and opportunities available, but I fear that much of the uniqueness will evaporate without ceremony.
Much has gone already I'm sure, but something remains and we can either experience it now, or wait until 2015 for the package deals and themed restaurants. Ride the wave and tell your kids about it... They wont believe you.
posted by Arthur Josephson @ 2:00 PM
8 Comments:
Damn skippy! I'll also vouch for Central and Eastern Europe... it's a totally different experience, one I very much prefer over their western neighbors. If only it wasn't so cold in winter. :)
Life is beautiful around the world; for some reason to me it's always more beautiful in "developing" countries... the people have something about them that is different, something that isn't lost yet, and this is very refreshing.
This post really reminds of me of walking around Bratislava circa 2002..you, Prashant, Brandon, and I..I think Alfy was there, too.."riding the wave"...haha adventures were def. had...
Yeah man it was huge. We truly lived to the full. I think I will be heading back that side around August-Sept, thinking of getting a place in Budapest to chill for a while.
See you there man....
Arty,
One of the best chats we had during our MC year, was on the drive back from NatConf, when we compared history education from Ireland, Oz, Germany and Kenya. It really raised my awareness of how culturally bound our world view is.
Welcome to blogging, I knew that you would be converted eventually!
Love Unaxxx
interesting post. Out of three options you are giving:
1- Nothing happened.
2- Everything that happened was bad.
3- Everything was the same; across countries and years.
None of this options is right.
I was born in 1977 and I remember pretty well reality and it's absurdity behind the iron curtain.
Czechoslovakia before WWII and after WWII in early 50 was one of the best performing economies in the world. With growth rates and economic indicators surpassing Scandinavian countries or Japan.
So our starting point was pretty good. In 1948 the Communist "Revolution" started reverse processes but which turned upside down economic laws.
Of course you can't say "It is bad to build roads, infrastructure, huge power plants and heavy industry" especially if it's done after the war.
So you will see serious signs of problems only after 20 years. And this was interrupted by period of openness in Czechoslovakia ended up in 1968 by Soviet Army + other brothers from around.
Then the communist "terror" started again in the period of time called "normalisation".
In general people were not starving during this period. Not at all. In fact people could afford a lot of things. The only problem was that it was not always possible to get goods in shops.
The bottom line is that during this period people and economy could not breathe freely. It’s like with child which is not getting enough food and has difficult childhood. When situation changes child grows and in last years gets enough food and looks good. Then somebody comes and says: “People say weird things about this guys childhood but looks cool and healthy. There are three options:
1. Nothing happened (well it did, child was starving)
2. Everything that happened was bad. (well child survived, it’s healthy somebody was giving him food)
3. Everything was the same; across countries and years. (not really)"
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My point was that the three statements are each brutally wrong, simplistic AND contradictory.
However absurd, these three statements unfortunately describe the worldview that is being communicated in some parts of the world (like oz)- a worldview enabled only by ignorance, and one that can be broken with real experience and study of the complex histories of these unique countries. Thanks for giving real examples that further confirm this.
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