Like man walking on the moon; most of us have memories of the footage of
the Berlin Wall coming down. It is 30 years this November since the Berlin
Wall came down.
The event commenced on international students day[i] (17th Nov)
and riot police suppressed a student demonstration in Prague. The students
announced a weekly strike, demanded political pluralism, free elections, the
resignation of compromised politicians and a true public information system.
Today we visited an amazingly powerful photo
exhibition of the fall of the Iron Curtain in the Prague Summer Palace.
It included works of some 20-odd photographers from each of these former member
nations. We have included a couple of photos that spoke to us.
It is 30 years since the fall of the iron curtain
across Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Romania and Yugoslavia.
Following the ground-swell and thirst for change in
the other member states along with the demise of the Berlin Wall, between mid-November
and the end of December 1989, Czechoslovakian students and older dissidents
bravely led peaceful protests which resulted in the peaceful transition to
democracy, known as the Velvet Revolution.
The event sparked further demonstrations. On 20th Nov, it was estimated
that 200,000 people assembled in Wenceslas Square. The following day
numbers swelled to 500,000.
On the 27th November there was a two hour general
strike involving all Czechoslovakian citizens.
On the back of the demonstrations and no doubt recognition
that the USSR was no longer in a position to "prop up the regime”;
leadership of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party resigned and general open
elections were called.
Within six weeks a new government was elected.
Within six weeks a new government was elected.
We encourage anyone with an interest who can get
along to this exhibit to do so.
For me, this exhibit is yet another reminder that
sometimes we need to fight for:
· free and fair elections;
· diversity in all its forms, including ideas and thought;
· systems to remove compromised politicians;
· a true public information system (in all forms of media, not just TV).
And if we
allow these to erode, there is a social cost.
[i] International
Students Day 1989 was significant because it marked the 50th anniversary (1939)
of the student demonstration against the Nazi storming of Prague University.
The demonstration was violently suppressed, resulting in the death of nine and
the arrest of 1200 students. Those arrested were deported to concentration
camps as political prisoners.
Comments
Post a Comment