It was Twenty years ago tonight that the citizens of Berlin tore The Wall down. Communism was collapsing as the iron curtain fell. Many heralded it as the triumph of Liberal, Capitalist Democracy. Oh the irony…The worst global recession since Wall Street crashed, and in countries like Britain we’ve got surveillance the Stazi would be proud of, we had a leader who took the country to war with the West’s i.e. USA and Britain’s new enemy; Terrorism, a smokescreen behind which to bring a new Tesco’s superstore to every Middle Eastern country. He did this by lying to the people. His un-elected successor has presided over a country where politicians, bankers and bosses have made themselves rich while they’ve let the poor get poorer through ‘credit capitalism’ To the citizens of the former Communist countries I ask you how’s it been for you? Well, from what I’ve seen in the media, it seems like it’s been much the same, you tell me! Is the honeymoon over? How much Freedom can you endure? Anyway the photo to yer right is of me posing at Checkpoint Charlie when I visited Berlin for a couple of days in 1987 with my mate Daz. About fifteen minutes later, there was a problem, well I was the problem. An East German border guard pulled me out of the line of people waiting to cross into East Berlin. I did stand out a bit with my long hair and general unkempt appearance. The guard took me into another room to get a closer look at me. I think it might have been the skull buttons on my decedent La Roche cut down denim and leather waistcoat that was the issue with the guard; because he took hold of one, looked at it and uttered the words “You can’t come into our Country dressed like that!” My mate Daz was let through while I was ushered out. I went to the nearest bar on The Western side of The Wall while Daz went to the nearest bar on The Eastern side, we met up outside Checkpoint Charlie a couple of hours later, both well pissed, but I’d run out of money while Daz had come back with change from his East German currency. We also went to visit The Olympic Stadium where Black American athlete Jesse Owens ran the Aryans off the track, In a time when there was a real threat to our freedom. Fascism! Since the collapse of Communism there has been a rise of Fascism in many countries across Europe fuelled by the ‘immigration issue’ that’s the free trade free world for you. Imagine what the world would be like now if the Wall hadn’t come down, what about if it had just been lowered by a few metres? and had the barbed wire removed?
1 comment:
There is still a wall dividing communities in Belfast. You don't hear much of it in the news though.
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