20 years of Falling Down

Nasser Asghary

9 November this year marked the 20th anniversary and celebration of a democratic free market atop the destroyed walls of Berlin. 20 years of people living in two east and west sides and the middle is destroyed. Up to this day, we still see effects of this collapse in our everyday lives. An increase in racism and theocracy are two major aspects of the effect of this collapse. We will discuss other aspects of this collapse elsewhere another time. During the celebration of the “winner” party, I see it necessary to point out few facts.

Heads of USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia etc gave their speeches at the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin wall – a “symbol of oppression” and “the communists, who built the wall to keep the eastern citizen from freedom”. It has been at least 20 years of them feeding us with such lies. It has been 20 years of displaying history inverted before the open and surprised eyes of its witnesses. For the few who don’t know the purpose of the Berlin wall, I will add that after Hitler’s army was overthrown, Berlin the capital of Germany was placed in the middle of eastern Germany and other parts of Germany were divided into four parts between the forces of the US, UK, France and Soviet Union, to prevent the possible rise of Nazism.

East and West not getting along; the US, UK, and France against the united East and therefore three US, UK, and French parts of Germany became West Germany standing against East Germany. They spied and threatened one other, started a physiological war against one another, and the Berlin wall was the result of this same game.

Now that the Berlin wall is gone, the world operates as one with America as its leader. Those who led the revolution against are now wearing Democratic Party, liberal, conservative and social democrat clothing and by democratic and parliamentary elections are ruling over the same revolutionists. They make contracts and are members of European Union, NATO and the common market. They even feed the rulers with democracy!

Human beings are entitled to both, new world order and the orderly world after the collapse of the east block. It is a bloody order which is stained with communities’ hunger and poverty. Millions of people are unemployed overnight. The stock market celebrates the unemployment and hunger of humans and they become hundreds of pounds wealthier overnight. In countries such as Canada, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands where absolute poverty was abolished, poverty has now returned worse than ever.

The year after the eastern block’s fall, unemployment which was about to be abolished in the country of Poland reached above 20 percent. However, the democratic people would eat and the democratic leaders were happy with this victory. Some simple-minded people, astonished by Hollywood movies were disappointed since no dollar bills were grown from the democratic tree. Many years back I had heard the story of Victor Andreevich Kravchenko, recently coming across it again in the New York Times. An interesting story for this column’s readers...Kravchenko was one of the high officials of the Soviet Union who gained asylum in the United States during a mission in 1944. He wrote a controversial book about the situation in the Soviet Union and the force labour camps with the title “I choose freedom” which gave him a name and also caused attack by the opposition. After a few years of living in this “free world” a disillusioned Kravchenko wrote another book, this time criticizing capitalism and the false propaganda around it with the title of “I choose justice”.

In 1966, while depressed by both these worlds, he committed suicide. You will easily find his first book at any local library, but it isn’t so easy to find his second book. Human beings entitlement to freedom in Kravchenko’s view is both freedom of speech and social justice. Social justice in eastern and freedom of speech in western democracy are nothing but lies. The 20 year celebration of the Berlin wall’s collapse would make a fair human to think whether this is worthy of human beings? Is this what a human is entitled to from this world and life?