Ossis: not really an ethnic group

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 2:20 PM - 1 Comment

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On Oct. 3, 1990, Germany celebrated its official reunification; after the emotional destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West came together as one, blending economies, societies and cultures. But nearly two decades later, differences linger. In a labour court in Stuttgart last week, a judge ruled on a case that cuts to the very core of subtle hostilities that continue to divide the country.

The case, which German media watched closely, concerned Gabriela S., a 48-year-old bookkeeper born in the former East Germany. Arguing that her background made her part of a distinct ethnic group, she claimed that a window manufacturing company’s rejection of her 2009 job application constituted illegal discrimination. For its part, the company, which had scrawled “Ossi”—a sometimes insulting term for East Germans—along with a minus sign on her resumé, denied any ill intent. Insisting that “Ossi” was meant in a positive manner, they said the minus sign referred to her credentials, which were inadequate. But the woman, who has lived in Stuttgart since 1988, remained unconvinced, telling Der Spiegel, “What else can it mean? Even the word ‘Ossi’ is not acceptable in this context.”

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The Commons: ‘I shouldn’t have to be here’

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 4:58 PM - 179 Comments

“If there’s a silver lining to the dark cloud of this political crisis in Ottawa, it’s an amazing, spontaneous degree of citizen engagement,” he said. “In a way, this manufactured crisis has woken Canadians up out of their so-called apathy.”

That was, to be fair, some 13 months ago and Jason Kenney, the immigration minister, had just witnessed 3,000 people gather in downtown Calgary to protest the possibility of a coalition government. “I don’t recall anything on such short notice with such a large crowd in this city,” Mr. Kenney gushed. One assumes the sentiment roughly holds for today’s events too.

Then John Baird was proudly declaring the government’s intent to “go over the heads” of the Members of Parliament and the Governor General, and go “right to the Canadian people.” Then it was Steven Fletcher, minister of state for democratic reform, encouraging all his fellow Manitobans to rally for no less than the nation we all hold dear.

Thirteen months later, a new political crisis. Then, the government side yelled “traitor!” Now, the other side yells “dictator!” Once more, our civic engagement runneth over.

Perhaps we should make political crisis an annual event.

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Awful food, commie cars and the bad old days

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 1:40 PM - 5 Comments

Travelling through Eastern Europe a few years ago, my companion and I took a tour of Nova Huta, the Krakow suburb that had been designed by Stalin as the ideal proletarian city. Our guide was Mike, an excitable 30-year-old in camo pants and a flat-top who had ditched his law career when he realized the old ladies selling potatoes in the market made more than he would.

Mike drove us around Nova Huta in a rickety old Trabant, pointing out various totalitarian sites, then took us to his rented apartment, which he had tricked out with all manner of Soviet-era furnishings, artwork and appliances. It was all very authentic. It was all very crappy.

This was my first experience with Ostalgie, a neologism that is a mash-up of the German words for east and nostalgia, meaning nostalgia for life in the GDR and the other countries of the former Soviet bloc. Ostalgie is a phenomenon driven by the conviction that while socialism was often difficult, life was in many ways better. Fear and suspicion may have been the background radiation of daily life, this view goes, but the old Communist societies were more egalitarian and had a greater sense of solidarity and common purpose.

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Dogs are victims in a scary war

By Barbara Amiel - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 36 Comments

Looking at life from a dog’s point of view can refocus matters great and small. Take the Berlin Wall, which crumbled 20 years ago. Thousands of dogs policed that wall and just like that they were all out of a job—some 7,000 of them, apparently. The guard dog of choice was the Caucasian ovcharka, which coincidentally is a dog I hope to add to my two Hungarian kuvaszok if I am up to it. Some people rescue homeless dogs; I look for native East European breeds who share in an ersatz Jewish identity to this extent: in that part of the world, historically speaking, someone will try and do them in.

The wall fell and West Berliners feared packs of ovcharkas storming into the city. Given the dog’s size (up to 90 kg) and its heritage—tearing the throats out of wolves and escapees alike—I can’t blame them. Just a month earlier, after brutally repressing demonstrations before the October visit of Mikhail Gorbachev to East Berlin and fearing more, the murderous Stasi chief Eric Mielke stated, “I will now . . . show that our authority still has teeth . . . [demonstrators] are cowardly dogs . . . they will run like rabbits as soon as they’ve seen our dogs.” Continue…

Looking to Lech

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 9, 2009 at 1:29 PM - 7 Comments

On the occasion of that little anniversary in Berlin today, former Polish president Lech Walesa is once more front and centre, which is relevant to our narrow interest in that Mr. Walesa is one of Stephen Harper’s personal heroes. The two met last year when the Prime Minister visited Poland. Here, for whatever reason, is a photo of Mr. Walesa impatiently awaiting Mr. Harper’s arrival.

Mr. Walesa is a fascinating character, both historically and personally. And, should you so choose, you could likely derive all sorts of flimsy links to Mr. Harper’s own story. Here is Timothy Garton Ash’s summation for Time’s 100 most important people of the century issue.

Walesa is a phenomenon. Still mustachioed but thickset now, he stands for many values that in the West might be thought conservative. Fierce patriotism (“nationalism,” say his critics), strong Catholic views, the family. He’s a fighter, of course. But he’s also mercurial, unpredictable–and a consummate politician. He is an example of someone who was magnificent in the struggle for freedom but less so in more normal times, when freedom was won and the task was to consolidate a stable, law-abiding democracy. For all his presidential airs, he still retains something of the old Lech, the working-class wag and chancer that his friends remember from the early days. But no one can deny him his place in history.

German civil service chock full of spies

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 1 Comment

Between the Second World War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, scores of East Germans were tortured and intimidated by the Stasi, arguably one of the most repressive secret police agencies in the world. So last week, when it was discovered that roughly 17,000 former Stasi agents are still working as bureaucrats, many Germans were horrified.

The revelation was made by the respected Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, which noted that thousands of Stasi were hired or kept on in Germany’s civil service despite routine background checks. Organizations representing those harmed by the secret police, such as the Victims of Stalinism, are calling for the removal of any former agents from high-ranking positions in the government. Some politicians and civil rights activists also want new background checks and a full investigation of the civil service. Continue…