Conference hydra::dejavu

    re: .0 (John)
    
         I don't know about DEJAVU views, but for myself I, too, find
    it fascinating and very, very optimistic.  I was in high school when
    the Berlin Wall went up, and the Cuban Missle Crisis the following year
    had me believing I might not finish high school, that instead I'd
    either be in the military or dead.  That year I also learned a lot
    about fall-out shelters and there were pamplets available everywhere.
    I remember marching with my high school band in the Oklahoma City
    State Fair and seeing the fallout shelters on sale at the fairgrounds.
    We've had two or three decades of doom-and-gloom and negativity 
    everywhere.  Now, perhaps due to the persistance of those who have
    a more positive, favorable view of mankind and humanity, there are
    suddenly apparent changes.  And I am thankful to those who have held
    on to these dreams of a positive future/present for I, using them as
    a source in overcoming my own negatives or weaknesses, have been able
    to siphon that energy and make it my own, too.  It is clear that
    we are in the early stages and that mistakes are being made and will
    be made, but the energy is flowing in a more helpful direction now.
    It takes more willingness by all of us, not to condemn the mistakes
    of the past, but to welcome the potential of the future.  I have
    my own "secret interest"...that is, I made a conscious decision last
    year to "take on the Soviet Union" as the area of the world in which
    to privately take a guiding interest in.  For me the rationale is
    as follows--if the Kremlin will soften, we could become great friends
    and allies, not in the sense of warriors such as occurred during
    the second world war, but rather in the sense of joining in helping
    us shape the remainder of the world into one in which oppression and
    struggle need not continue.  With the Soviets as allies, China would
    ultimately also be forced to change, and with that the remainder
    of the planet could also eventually be transformed.  Anyway, this is
    my own personal dream, and I will keep dreaming it.  Perhaps it
    won't manifest in my lifetime, but maybe that dream will inspire
    others who will realize it, in the same way that those who had
    dreams of bringing the Berlin Wall down where able to inspire me.
    
    Frederick
    

<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

 Edition : 1942            Wednesday 15-Nov-1989            Circulation :  7670 


VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                           [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                           [Nashua, NH, USA               ]

    [This is not a report new technology, but rather an example of
     how technology can change how we learn about what is happening
     around the world. Note the use of personal video cameras to record 
     a moment in history. If only VNS allowed the inclusion of video. 
     -- mjt]


                    A trip to the East/West Germany Border
                             By Tom Gale - Munich

    Hello all,

    I'm sure that you've all heard about the action going on at the
    East/West German border, and in Berlin, since the lifting of travel
    restrictions between the two countries. Well, this weekend Anne and I
    took a drive up to the border crossing at Hof, which is the border
    crossing which connects East Germany with Bavaria (southern Germany). I
    thought some of you might be interested in an account of what we saw...

    We left Munich at about 8:30am Saturday, early for us on a Saturday, in 
    anticipation of traffic towards the border of West Germans going to
    Berlin for the festivities which had been going on there since Thursday
    night when the border was first opened. The drive to the border is
    about 2.5 hours from Munich, up past Nurnburg. Well, the traffic wasn't
    to bad. When we got within about 60 miles of the border we started to
    see the little East German cars streaming past us in the other
    direction. It got thicker and thicker as we approached. We didn't
    really know what to expect, but when we arrived at the border (about
    11:00am) it was a mob-scene. There were East German cars parked along
    the side of the road for about two miles coming up to the border, and a
    solid stream of two lanes of East German cars coming down the autobahn.
    We parked in the rest station about a half mile from the border. As we
    walked toward the border, there was an overpass going over the road
    that came from the border. The overpass was full of West Germans waving
    white handkerchiefs and waving at the incoming stream of East Germans.
    The East Germans were all honking, and waving, and spewing champagne
    out of the car windows. All along the road leading up to the border
    there were West Germans standing along the road cheering and waving. It
    was really incredible...

    We walked all the way down to the customs station at the border.
    Customs had completely broken down under the onslaught of East German
    cars. The normally stern and slow border guards were just waving the
    cars on to keep them moving to avoid a massive traffic jam. The cars
    were a solid two lanes as far back past the border as we could see. The
    border guards and police who were not busy yelling at the cars to keep
    them moving were all along the roads waving and taking pictures with
    their cameras!

    Customs was broken down to the point that people could walk through
    customs in the direction of East Germany without customs reacting. So,
    Anne and I set off into what we thought was East Germany. I didn't even
    have my passport with me! We walked about .5 miles and came to the
    actual bridge over the river that was the physical border between East
    and West Germany. The cars were streaming past in two lanes still.
    There was a border guard there waving people to go faster. In the
    middle of the road was a sign announcing that they were in West
    Germany. As people passed this border guard who was standing on the
    actual white line (there really was a white line painted on the road
    where the border was!) which was the border, they were throwing
    bouquets of flowers at the border guard. The guard would pick up the
    bouquets and put them in the top of the sign, sticking up in the air.
    So there were lots of bouquets of flowers sticking out of this sign. We
    suspected that this came from the German tradition that when you go to
    visit a friend's house for the first time, you are always supposed to
    bring flowers to give to the friend. People were also giving the border
    guard full beer bottles. The actual border was an extremely emotional
    experience. There were West Germans cheering the arrivals on, the media
    was there filming and taking pictures, and the reactions of the East
    Germans as they saw the sign which said "Freistaat Bayern" (free state
    of Bavaria) were amazing. The East Germans were crying and yelling and
    popping bottles of champagne. Absolutely amazing. Almost every German
    that we saw would smile, shake their head, and say "Wahnsinn", which
    means "crazy" or "unbelievable".

    After standing spellbound for 45 minutes or so, just watching the cars
    of exuberant people stream past, we headed back for the other side of
    customs. The German Red Cross had set up tents with food and hot drinks
    for people coming across. They were also giving out road atlases of
    West Germany to all cars coming across. The West German government had
    sent emergency money so that every East German who crossed the border
    was given 100DM (about $60.00) to help them out in West Germany.
    Because the East German currency isn't exchangeable into Western
    currency, this was survival money as a gift from the West German
    government. There was a giant line of people waiting to claim this
    "begrussungsgeld" (welcome money). The Post offices in all of the
    little towns around the border were also open for people to claim their
    welcome money so that everyone didn't have to wait in this one line. 
    Consequently, all of the towns around the border were packed with East
    Germans.

    After watching this activity for a while, we headed up for one last
    stop on the overpass over the road, where all the West Germans were
    waving and welcoming the newcomers, then headed back to the car. The
    trip back was a little hairy for the first hour or so, since most of
    the East German drivers didn't quite seem to get the idea of the
    Autobahn. Their little Russian or East German cars couldn't go very
    fast, and they didn't realize that the Germans (and Americans in this
    case) were probably going twice their speed. They would pull out in the
    fast lane and quickly retreat into the slow lane when they saw someone
    coming up on them at warp-speed. 

    All in all it was an amazing experience. Our video camera paid for
    itself on this one. We also took a lot of still pictures with our zoom
    lens. These should be interesting.

    Just a little background for people who may not know it. West Germany
    has a law which states that anyone who can prove German descent (East
    or West) can automatically have West German citizenship. This is the
    reason that all of the East Germans have been streaming across since
    last summer when Hungary first opened part of their border. East
    Germans can immediately get citizenship (as well as 250DM to get them
    started). People of other nationalities (Czechoslovakians, Hungarians,
    Poles, Rumanians, Bulgarians, etc.) would probably like to come across
    too, but they cannot get citizenship so easily, so there isn't this
    kind of mass exodus.

    Some random statistics:

    East Germany has just over 16 million citizens.

    Since last Thursday, East Germany has issued 4.5 million travel visas
    to West Germany.

    Sunday, 800,000 people crossed the border between East and West Berlin.

    Over the entire weekend, 2.5 million people crossed the border between
    East and West Berlin.

    There were travel alerts issued yesterday for the corridor between the
    East/West German border and Berlin. These bulletins said that the
    normally 3 hour drive was being estimated at taking 12-14 hours due to
    the mass exodus. People were being advised to bring lots of food and
    water and not to travel the corridor unless they absolutely had to.

    It is still unclear as to what percentage of the people who came across
    the border will go back to East Germany. Everyone believes that the
    percentage will be relatively high though.

    That's it for this report from Tom and Anne Gale, reporting from the
    East/West German border station at Hof...

    Tschuss,
             Tom

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<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 1942   Wednesday 15-Nov-1989   <><><><><><><><>

    re: .1
    
    Frederick,  thank you for that!  I agree wholeheartedly.
    
    Mary

RE .0

Oh yeah! The Berlin Wall is definitely a global symbol for me; and the tearing
down of it, too!

I was there five years ago, and I have walked along the west side of the Wall
from the Reichstag building to Checkpoint Charlie. It was a devastating
experience: reading the grafitti on the Wall, in *all* European languages, and
quite a lot of other... as if the whole world was upset about it....

And now: the opening. Not so much the fact of the opening, but the way the world
is reacting to it. The people. The report two replies ago gave a wonderful
description. It's really moving....

Arie

    
    Wanted:  Wall Dismantlers and Bridge Builders.
    
    Cindy

re: .1 (Frederick)

    Well sun-of-a-gun!  For the past two years I've had a number of
    dreams involving Russia or Russian people, I've become very interested
    in the Russian culture, was greatly impacted when the earthquake hit
    Armenia, read some books by Russian writers, been looking at Russian
    art, etc, etc.  I have had some very positive feelings about all that
    has, and is, going on in Russia and Eastern Europe.  There seems to
    be a bunch of energy coming from somewhere - the kind that can help
    transform.  I believe that those countries opening up to freedom are
    going to see it soon and in a way that they won't ever have to re-live
    the oppression they are leaving behind.

    All of this as we head into the 21st century...

    Terry

    There were quite a few reasons why the wall was torn down and it wasn't
    as gracious of an act as most people tend to believe.  I too lived
    in Germany; twice to be exact.  
    
    The unemployment rate in East Germany was skyrocketing.  I listened
    to one West German economist who gave an astronomical figure of
    something like 400,000.  Add to the this the onslaught of refugees
    and the overall feeling of unrest (unemployment?).  
    Adjust the fine tuning and the picture becomes even clearer.
    
    Looks to me like the E. German goverment tore down the wall for
    reasons other than democracy and now they're sitting pretty with 
    the rest of the world singing their praises.  
    
    I've lived in Europe for almost half my life.  When Franco died
    his adopted son, Juan Carlos, took over as king.  He was of royalty
    so he was not permitted to become 'Generalisimo' or a prime minister.
    He became an appointed king and changed the political face of Spain.
    Did he improve Spain?  He opened the country once again for tourism
    and now Madrid is becoming the Cultural heart of Europe (as
    well as for olive oil). Sure, he improved Spain but when he introduced
    his beliefs to the Spanish public they were confused.  They thought
    that they WERE living in a democratic society.  Listen to the
    interviews.  many East Germans feel that THEY had a democratic society
    as well.  The only thing that attracted them to the west was the
    equivalent to $50 that the West German goverment was offering each
    citizen.  
    
    How can you hate something when that's all you know.
    
    
    /gail
    
    So you see, 
    
    
    
    

    Re: .7 Gail...

>    How can you hate something when that's all you know.

    That of course is difficult. However, in most of the cases
    happening today (and *especially* with East Germany), 'they'
    know a whole lot more than nothing. Because of radio, because
    of cross-border television, because of books, because of
    relatives. In short, because of communication.

>    /gail
>    
>    So you see,

    I'm in danger of finding your reply very cynical - perhaps
    you'd like to tell us what your conclusions are because they
    seem to have been lost.

    To go on a little. These changes are part of a path which
    humans took (inadvertently) some while ago. We could have
    remained small tribes but we 'chose' instead to integrate.
    We chose to investigate our world rather than live in
    accepting peace and cooperation with it.

    I believe that we can't go back to small, non-intrusive
    ways of living. We have to go forward to a synthesis of
    our knowledge with responsibility for the earth and its
    inhabitants. It a dangerous and exciting time for the
    human race. Our freedom of choice has grown considerably
    and we can now create a *very* big mess. But, I take the
    changes in Eastern Europe to be signs, and I take them
    to be *hopeful* signs. :-)
    
John D.

    I apologize for the way that appeared.  I never meant for it to sound
    cynical.
    
    I know that because of the media the folks in East Germany 'know'
    more than ever.  As in any country, it's the younger people who
    appear much more aware.  What I was trying point out, unsuccessfully
    I might add, that many of us (Americans) see only *democratic* 
    reasoning behind the destruction of the Berlin Wall.  There were
    other *prime* circumstances that the media, in this country, ignored.
    (example: The Dan Rather interview with George Bush?  Most journalists
    felt that it was President Bush who was at fault and that he purposely
    evaded Mr. Rather's questions ... who came out on top and how well
    did the media cover that?)
    
    
    From what I've read in the newspapers and from TV (how well is the
    media covering this?) there appear to be quite a few East Germans
    who feel that the outcome was simply the lessening of travel
    restrictions.                      
    
    Is this true or are we again *blessed* with bias?
    
    /gail
    
    

    Re: last few
    
    Often times we do the "right" things for the "wrong" reasons... but
    even so, progress is made.  Progress has been made in East Germany
    *regardless* of the East German government's motives.  Time will tell
    how big a step it really was.
    
    Jeff

    re: last few
    
    I agree that probably the main reason the Soviet satellite countries 
    are opening their borders, beginning to privatize industry and the 
    economy and democratize the government is because their economies are 
    failing so badly.  But, as in .10, progress is being made, even if for 
    the wrong reasons.  And it will be very difficult for the communists to 
    turn back now, even if they want to.
    
    Many people predicted long ago that the communist system would fail 
    on its own for the usual reasons, e.g., the inefficience of bureaucracy, 
    lack of motivation, attempted politization of things nonpolitical by 
    nature, etc.  Had more of us had faith in that belief, we could have 
    avoided jeopardizing our own economy (and survival) by focussing so many 
    of our resources on building bombs and other war machines.
    
    Mary

    (Hi Gail, sorry if I came back a shade too strongly.)

    Just to underline what I meant way back in .0. If
    I consider what happened in Beijing/Peking it was
    a very sad event. But as part of (what I hope is)
    some underlying process - it was a 'good' sign.

John.