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bne December 2019 30 Years of transition I 35
bne IntelliNews celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall with a series of articles written by our correspondents who all live in the countries of New Europe. Read the rest of the series online.
Corruption, racism and intolerance in Bulgaria
November 10, 1989. It’s late afternoon and a 13-year old girl is travelling home by bus. It’s as crowded as usual, but unlike on any other day, the passengers seem a bit restless. “Do you know that Tato was removed,” one of them whispers to his companion. He’s referring to Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria’s long-ruling communist leader, nicknamed “Tato” by the population. I was that girl on the bus.
→ https://tinyurl.com/w3287ao
“I was 30” commercial stirs controversy in Romania
A commercial for Romania’s largest online retailer eMag has been running on most TV stations in Romania since October 2, stirring up
a wide range of sentiments and a controversy that goes well beyond the chief purpose of the video — raising awareness about the services provided by eMag. “I was 30,” the commercial begins — the age of the speaker in the autobiographic video clip, but also the time that has elapsed since the communist regime was overthrown in Romania.
→ https://tinyurl.com/uzm32joz
The Czech Republic divided by freedom since 1989
Six distinct social classes have emerged in the Czech Republic in the three decades since the Velvet Revolution of 1989, according to the large- scale Czech Radio sociological survey “Divided by Freedom” conducted in June and published in September. The picture revealed by the survey is a complex one. It shows that everyone has different types of resources, which means that society is not so divided as some election results may show, however, it has increasingly been splitting. The Czech education system is freezing this situation rather than helping social mobility, said co-author of the study and STEM agency sociologist Martin Buchtik. → https://tinyurl.com/wlohdfs
“We need to shift from pursuing GDP growth and affluence toward sustaining ecosystems, improving human well-being and reducing inequality,” tweeted Guardian journalist
Jason Hickel, commenting on the conclusion of a scientific conference of 11,000 academics warning of
a imminent climatic emergency.
The same phenomena can be seen in many of the countries of Central Europe that followed East Germany into the European Union (EU) in 2004 but didn't have the benefit of being totally amalgamated into a highly efficient and wealthy sister country. Although the Central European accession countries benefited from Brussels' largess in
the form of structural transformation grants that ran into the billions
of euros, they were largely left to manage the transition on their own.
The increasingly obvious problems with the capitalist model are now manifesting themselves across Europe in the former communist states,
which are suffering from a profound crisis of trust in democracy and a rejection of liberal values that replaced communism. That spurred rising populism, as bne IntelliNews’ Denitsa Koseva in Bulgaria reported this week.
The need for a more inclusive economic model that goes beyond measuring the increase in GDP per capita is becoming increasingly obvious and is driving change. The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has brought the spotlight to the issue, but even in Russia the leading bluechip raw material producers have suddenly put environmental,
social and governance (ESG) as a core part of their development and are beginning to make sustainability
a core part of their business model.
But a political equivalent is still missing. Even Germany’s pioneering Green party, which in parallel to the AfD has risen
to become the most popular party in Germany in a poll for the first time ever this autumn, has found its role usurped by the Climate Revolutionaries.
The resentments go both ways. Amongst my West German friends there are
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