Dernieres Nouvelles
d'Alsacé, France
Lesson of the Wall's Fall: Freedom Isn’t All that Counts
"Consolidating
democracy in west and east will be impossible without a solution to our
economic difficulties. Impossible too, as long as Europeans copy American
'models.'
By Jean-Claude Kiefer
Translated By Lisa Cabral
November 10, 2009
France - Les
Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace - Home Page (French)
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With its fanfare and symbolism,
yesterday's festivities, above all, were a celebration of freedom that was won
by the people. Because the Wall didn’t fall down on its own: it was torn down
by tens of thousands of women and men, ordinary human beings, the vast majority
without political convictions. The crowd had only one legitimate urge: to go to
the other side of the divided city and, for many, to see their parents again
after 28 years of being kept caged in the name of communist ideology.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
In that sense, freedom, an
obscene and criminal word in any dictatorship, has triumphed. It's true that
the circumstances were favorable. What was possible with Gorbachev in power in
Moscow would never have been possible ten years earlier under Brezhnev … But if
freedom is indispensable to democracy, it isn’t the only pillar. Without
economic and social wellbeing, freedom doesn't benefit everyone.
The end of the Cold War was
followed in Europe and the United States by an incredible political laxity.
Because in 1989, “capitalism” emerged as the vanquisher in the great
ideological joust; so much so that it became completely unbridled! … With the collapse
of the traditional industrial sectors and with an outsourcing that took
everything.
Was all this because of
globalization, which accelerated after the fall of the Wall? Rather, it was
because of a globalization that nobody wanted to control. Today, the politics
that for so long walked hand-in-hand with the economy has given way to fiscal
reality. Ruling circles didn't see the summer crisis of 2008 coming. Even the
timid “remedies” of the G20 haven't been applied - and with renewed vigor, speculation
has again been set off, and finance has inflated a new “bubble.”
Celebrations
at the Brandenburg Gate for the 20th anniversary of
the
fall of the Berlin Wall, Nov. 9.
CLICK HERE OR CLICK PHOTO FOR BERLINER
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SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Le Figaro, France: Absent from Berlin, Obama Misses Grand Opportunity
Kayhan, Iran: Triumphalism Over Fall of the Berlin Wall 'Just a Diversion'
Rossijskaya Gazeta, Russia Gorby: West Must Come to Terms With Stronger Russia
Izvestia, Russia: Truman and Churchill No Better Than Stalin
Consolidating democracy in west
and east will be impossible without a solution to our economic difficulties.
Impossible too, as long as Europeans copy American “models.” In addition to the
E.U., the “Common European Home” to be constructed between the Atlantic and
Asia, which is so dear to Mikhail Gorbachev, remains to be built. This involves
an entente with Russia. The fact that President Medvedev, whose country lost so
much after 1989, took part in the festivities in Berlin, shows that Moscow
hasn't lost interest in the Old Continent. It's just as essential that European
capitals agree, especially the former satellite states of the USSR [Eastern
Europe].
As to the United States, they
have been asked by Chancellor Merkel to be less self-centered. This is language
unimaginable 20 years ago. It is also a consequence of the fall of the Wall: In
the name of Europe, Germany asserted itself. So much the better. For too long, France
has been the only country to hold that sort of discourse.
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US November 12, 11:29pm]