Communism

Meatpie

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I was born in 1983, at the height of communism in Eastern Europe. I went to pre-school at three and I hated it.

We were forced to refer to both men and women teachers as "comrades". We alll wore the same uniform.

Compulsory exercise started at 6.30 in the morning and they inspected our hair, nails and body every day.

Those whose hair was a mess or haven't clipped their nails were punished in front of everybody - you go to the teacher in front of the class and she hits you with a wooden stick over the fingers.

It was the most humiliating experience in my life.

I was also beaten in the kindergarten by the teachers. They made us sleep in the afternoon. One day we pretended we were asleep and the teacher went for a coffe break.

An insane pillow fight followed, we turned everything upside down. The teachers were furious, they undressed us and beat us on the legs so hard almost everyone cried.

:sm (41):

In 1990 communism fell and people had great hopes of the future.... no one was prepared for the mayhem that was about to follow...

I can go on if anyone is interested.
 
During communist rule my country was producing a lot - fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, high-tech industry, electronic calculators, machinery.

But our shops were empty. Everything was immediately exported to the big brother - Soviet Russia.

When you went to the shop there was no milk, no vegetable oil, no fruit.

Sometimes though a truck will arrive with supplies in the neighbourhood and unload a limited number of products.

Word quickly spread that they have "released" vegetable oil, sugar etc to the general population and everyone will quickly get dressed up, ring their friends and neighbours and run for the shop.

Long queues will form and people bickered as there was never enough and some would return home empty-handed.

In 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. For three days tv and radio aired propaganda films, dances and music, no one had any idea that nuclear fallout was covering people's gardens, cars and kids and babies were exposed to radiation, including myself.

When news finally broke there was huge panic, people refused to go out, mom and dad cried at home and I thought that was the end of the world.

We didn't drink tap water, my father sealed off all the windows and we only ate food from our reserves in the basement. No milk or vegetables.

Several months later I became very ill, I had breathing problems and no one had any idea what was causing my symptoms and I kept getting worse and worse.

I got so bad my parents called an ambulance. Docs arrived and a young lady doctor told me, "I have no idea what is wrong, we better take him to hospital".

My parents cried and dad told me, "hold on son, breathe".

I somehow managed to pull through and recovered but I have no idea how I managed to survive.

More and more kids were ending up in hospital, many died.

Later on my father told me that soon after the nuclear explosion pregnant women couldn't hold their babies they died in the womb, and newborns died, esp those several months old died.

But this was only the beginning, no one was prepared for the devastation that was unleashed in the years after 1989, after communism came to an end.

In 1990 our entire economy collapsed because all export and import was with Russia.

Power plants failed and we had no electricity we lit candles.

Imagine huge towerblocks and microdistricts with thousands of inhabitants with no electricity.

The healthcare system collapsed, factories shut down, the whole economy collapsed.

In 1997 it got so bad, there was no bread, no grain people starved.

Shops closed down because inflation was pushing prices up daily. Unemployment was probably 90%.

I would never forget one dreadful day, in mid-winter, no food no nothing in bitter cold granny came to my room at 3 o'clock in the morning and told me, "please get up, we have to go and queue for bread."

"I can't granny, I am sleepy and cold," I told her.

"You have to. Get up." My sister was still small but I was a boy and older brother so I got up and at 4 in dark cold winter night we went to the shop and queued.

The shops open at 7, but there was no bread.

We ran to another shop...nothing there.

Then to another. And another.

In one shop there was bread so granny pushed me forward and I managed to grab one.

People pushed so hard and bickered, granny started crying.

I didn't, I felt nothing.

I had no idea why we were in such a situation, I though it was just the way the whole world was like...
 
The things you described is what we mostly saw in the west as 'Fruits of Communism".

We all heard Communism was bad, and Capitalims (read: THE USA) was good.
No commieshould be trusted, they wanted to destroy freedom and liberty. So, according to the US, the only good commie was a dead commie.

I like a song sung by Sting. It is about Russians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K8u_iI68Z8

I always wondered what people would really think about the people on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

I saw Bugaria, and I felt sad. It is such a nic country, the nature is beautiful, but the infrastrcture and factories are old and are from the time of Russian Communism,
It needs alot of work and money to bring it up to our "western standards", for lack of a better term :)
 
Eastern Europe will remain Europe's ghetto as more and more people flock to the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Italy is very bad too.

A friend visited last year, he showed me pics, it was pretty depressing.

And I've been to Greece, they are no doing very well either.

Europe has a strong centre with great infrastructure, huge population density, centre of finance etc.

And that is the London-Paris area, and parts of Germany...and the Netherlands of course, particularly Amsterdam area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Banana

Plase pay special attention to the "Development" section.
 
i hate comunism, my sister is a comunist though and she has some crazy ideas :S
 
Europe is in pretty bad shape, I live in Berlin, Germany, and its pretty bad, lots of poverty, no jobs, and at the same time, some very rich people. I see not much hope for this place here. Western parts of Germany are in way better state.
 
I had no idea it was that bad in Berlin, I have an ex boyfriend, he went to medical school in Berlin but the rent was so high he had to drop out so that he could work...as a waiter!

The econmy will eventually recover but it will be a slow process, maybe two or three more years of widespread unemployment.
 
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