20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was of course bound to inspire lots of commentaries and op eds. Here’s a quick guide to a few of them:
Jeffrey Simpson of The Globe and Mail writes on Why we celebrate the fall of the Wall
Former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev writes on the parallels between the fall of communism and the fight to stop climate change in The Times Online in a piece entitled Tear down this wall! And save the planet.
On the NY Times op ed page, Slavoj Zizek writes of the enduring phenomenon of anti-communism under the heading of 20 Years of Collapse.
In the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum calls for more attention to Eastern Europe’s successes in After the Wall Fell
In Deutche Welle Mark Koch writes on how November 9th was Germany’s - and the world’s - lucky day, arguing that the day ought to be made into a national holiday.
In addition, I have a piece in The New Republic addressing the stark difference in the fate of democratization across different post-communist countries entitled Building Blocs.
Comments
Mark Koch doesn’t seem to realize the other things that happened in German history on the 9th November. You can find out on Wikipedia, but if you can’t be bothered, put it this way: 9th November would also be the choice of neo-nazis for a German national holiday.
Posted by: Alex | November 9, 2009 08:37 PM