Agree fully. I got livid when traveling in a business class long haul flight with the Lufthansa Group, and was forced to watch ads on the screen in front of me. No option to turn the screen of (which was later enabled, during the flight).
This is every other ATM in Prague (euronet is the name I think), they helpfully convert it for you with like 30% markup. These people (and the lawmarkers that permit this) should be publicly flogged.
To contrast a bit with other comments, he is very much disliked in eastern Europe. He was always pushing his multipolar worldview and not respecting that the Poles, Czechs etc. do not want to live under the Soviet/Russian 'pole'.
My personal opinion is that he 1) hates the US 2) hates eastern Europe because it defeated socialism.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I do not think I will be.
> My personal opinion is that he 1) hates the US 2) hates eastern Europe because it defeated socialism.
He doesn't hate the US. He hates that the US has been captured by warmongering elites and hates its poor. And he'd probably school you on the USSR's state authoritarian capitalism not being a good example of socialism.
I'm not sure it falls under socialism, but I always enjoy reading about the "Miracle of Wörgl" and Wörgl's mayor Unterguggenberger. There is even a movie about it!
I'm unsure as well but either way this is fascinating; I've only ever heard the term 'scrip' used with negative connotations so this seems like a very refreshing change. The way the currency value was kept stable also looks to me like a great benefit.
Welp, now I gotta write a blockchain that tries to match this experiment as closely as possible
East Germany? Why do you call that a good example of socialism? Post-wall coming down it was mostly East Germans coming to West Germany, less of the reverse. Even today the eastern half of Germany is typically socioeconomically lower on most stats, and a lot of that stems from decades of decisions made in DDR.
1. The West of Germany, particularly the Rhine, had large amounts of natural resources and much industrial capacity. This was true long before Germany was split. Take the steel production of Germany in 1944, for example. 59% of Steel production was in the West, 18% was in the East, and 16% was in the areas outside of Germany. This is not only more production, but more production per capita.
2. Like most of the former Easter bloc, the privatization of state companies resulted in economic downturn in that region. Especially since many of these state industries were simply closed and cashed out on. Jörg Steinbach, economy minister of Brandenburg, is quoted as saying "Some 70 per cent of East German industry disappeared".
Given that it's just another -ism, brain farted by some random french aristocrat in the eighteenhundreds-something if I remember correctly, and like all other -isms designed to control the population and steal the profit. All of them?
The core ideas are awesome, but then the same could be said of Democracy; any idea force fed from the top is going to have the same kind of shit sandwich quality, the rainbow madness is just the latest example.
I'm pretty sure he means Slovakia. Not sure about any minister, but the policemen is true and there was the Kovac case -- maybe not minister, but president's son.
Yes I meant Slovakia, which for part of 90s, the wilder part of that decade as we all can probably agree, was part of Czechoslovakia.
Jan Ducky was the minister executed, he was connected via corruption to many many politicians still active today, even former Czech prime minister Babis (who comes from Slovakia), he is actually one of the suspects who ordered it back in 90s.
Dissolving folks in acid was done in both states, before and after we split. Of course we only hear about cases which were discovered, back home many ended up permanently "missing". But anyway I don't think I was clear (or you guys misunderstood me) - its not for the crime rate alone that would make people like Kundera not wanting to come back, but overall state of society and state itself. If you paint yourself 90s as some sort of pinnacle of our history where everybody was happy and people were singing and dancing on the streets, we must have lived in different universes then.
I mean its 2023, I happily live in Switzerland for many years, having lived in both Czech republic and Slovakia long term in the past, and I would not go back for exactly same reasons. What most rich folks back there (CZ and SK too) do is create a bubble around themselves to not be part of rest of society - but that's desperate attempt for quality of life which is a baseline in other places. Kind of South Africa approach although you can see it in other places where middle class evaporated. Definitely not a place I want to raise my kids, or grow old with all that it brings.
No, it is a hidden way of saying that small countries have no choice of their own and they have to belong to some pole. And as luck would have it, the closest pole to central Europe would be Russia! How can someone not want that?
Nonsense. That's an entirely pro-American-centric way of looking at the multipolar proposition. You've gotten too used to the hegemony.
Other nations are sick of American/Western influence in their politics - which is vast and extensive, and: undeniably corrupt.
A Multipolar World is one in which the sovereign rights of nations are respected and not superseded/subjugated by extra-national entities/agencies which do not answer to the democracies or indeed legislature of the nation involved.
A unipolar world is one where a single nation can call up a collective cabal to form an imperial army and invade and destroy countless other nations around the world, and not a single other nation can stand against that cabal and bring its war criminals to justice.
A Multipolar world is one in which small countries do have a choice of their own - and they can thus choose to eschew American hegemony. That is happening across the globe in spite of all attempts by America's hegemonic organs to maintain the iron grip they have had for decades over the worlds poor. Thankfully.
But ok, I'll give you that -- I prefer a unipolar world with US hegemony or whatnot rather than a multipolar world where I have to live in the Russian part (which by the way absolutely never respected the nations that it had subjugated, convince me that I'm wrong).
Absolutely not, boffinAudio, the other way around! It was you who brought US into this discussion, I did not. I am a citizen of a former satelite country of the Soviet Union and I do not want this situation repeated. But some people do not understand that you can hate being a Russian/Soviet subject (as the Polish, Czech...) without having to love the US.
And FYI, part of my family is from South America and I am well aware of the anti US sentiment there and understand its reasons. But it just bears no relevance on what Russia did in Central and Eastern Europe. It's still the same story -- country A attacks country B, but you say. Yes, but country C did this to country D before! So country A has right to do it. Bad luck country B!
> But some people do not understand that you can hate being a Russian/Soviet subject (as the Polish, Czech...) without having to love the US.
Then we are essentially aligned, because I believe that this dialectic is a fallacy, also. You can not want to be ruled by Russia or America - that is a multi-polar perspective (See also: China) - and still believe in peace, freedom and democracy, which are not exclusively American properties, nor are their antipodes exclusively Russian-owned.
The "unipolar world" of American hegemony is over. The poorer nations are defeating it, finally, their own way: by walking away from the petrodollar. And given the sheer statistics of war crimes committed to sustain the petrodollars' hegemony, it can't happen fast enough.
Even if Americans ignore the crimes of their state, the rest of the world doesn't. Its a lot clearer to those with access to the atrocities that America's crimes against humanity far, far exceed those of any other nation - by a wide magnitude.
However, that doesn't mean that the pro-Russian path is the right one to take, either. In the same way that the ultra-wealthy need to start paying their taxes, the American (and Russian) people need to start confronting the crimes of their state with a great deal more honesty. The rest of the world watches.
Indeed. We live in interesting times. BRICS to the rescue!
I think you are stuck in the dialectic of Russia vs. USA - but the rest of the world is not so easily trapped.
If you'd prefer to live in the USA hegemony, its probably because you've been the recipient of its war treasure in some way - perhaps as a citizen or resident. But you would be best served in understanding this situation by actually looking at things from the perspective of the masses who have suffered under American boots for too long - the other side of the polarity of your desired hegemonic wealth: the people from whom it was stolen .. all you have to do is go for a non-tourist-package journey through the Americas .. or talk to a citizen of an African nation about the colonization of their continent by American-backed Western entities for decades...
These lesser nations are not worthy to make their own decisions, eh?
And anyway: What Chinese boots? If China has invaded, destroyed and decimated another sovereign nation and left its people in tatters in the last 40 years, please inform me. Show me China's Syria? Show me its Afghanistan, its Libya, its Yemen? Show me China's West Bank?
It doesn't exist - and that is precisely why your 'lesser' nations are choosing the "Chinese Belt and Road initiatives" over "Western-made Syrian Open Slave Markets" and "American-made Depleted Uranium Deposit States", etc ..
People across the globe don't believe the American lie any more. They've seen the products of American war hegemony, even if American citizens haven't, and they're not impressed. Better to do a deal with China that results in roads and hospitals being built, than to do it with the USA, resulting in roads and hospitals being bombed.
Of course China hasn’t, because it’s a unipolar world. The USSR tried, but was contained and defeated. We will see in the future. And as others have said. I’m not defending the misdeeds of the USA.
China West Bank? Ehrm, Tibet? Hong Kong?
I just think the alternative will be worse, much worse.
Nonsense. Taiwan is a political hostage to two great powers. The USA is only "protecting" it for as long as it takes to get its local fabs booted up ..
While I can definitely believe that China is going to try take Taiwan one day, I don't really believe that they will mount military expeditions to other continents. It goes too much against Chinese civilizational history. The Chinese were mostly interested in themselves only and the barbarians outside were just a good source of tribute (nowadays: resources). Plus, empire building is very expensive, as both the British and the Americans would attest.
Unless some kind of longevity revolution comes soon and Xi stays on the throne forever, I would expect the next Chinese leader to turn inward again.
Most of the hatred piled on China by members of Western nations currently engaged in imperialist endeavours, invasions, destruction of sovereign states, and occupying the wealthy regions of its enemies states', is really just projection.
Americans' don't want anyone else in the world to do to them, what their nation has been doing for 40 years: dropping bombs on mostly innocent people every twenty minutes.
China has managed to lift a billion people out of poverty into a new era of prosperity. It has created a wealthy middle class for millions and millions of people to improve their lives. Keep that in mind when the anti-China agitprop gets triggered by American exceptionalists.
The USA is not capable of doing that for its own people.
The author hates the post-totalitarian system of the Czech Republic ('89-) and has very pro-Russian views. Just be aware before wasting your time with his article.
Describing the intelectual elites that overthrew soviet puppet totalitarian government as a bunch of CIA agents that acted out of pure envy of Kundera's genius who just misstepped a bit when he was ok with soviet invasion haven't gave you a hint? Really?
No it didn’t. In fact I did not get the idea that Kundera was ok with the soviet invasion at all.
And, well, if the idea of CIA agents propping up pro-capitalism opposition figures is “pro-Russian”, then every Hollywood spy movie is pro-Russian. I have no idea how common “CIA meddles, all the way to the top” really is, or was, but it’s a common narrative across western culture so it didn’t strike me as super weird.
I’ll admit that the idea that Havel did little by himself to become the President, that it was all due to support by the CIA people, which wasn’t said so literally but certainly suggested, felt rather unrealistic.
Is your argument based on Hollywood action movies and popular stereotypes based on them? Come on, pal. The only other guys who have always been obsessed with CIA agents in context of central and eastern Europe are Russian propagandists. And Petr Drulák is not a scriptwriter.
Ah yeah I misunderstood, thanks. That said, I really couldn't find much of the Russian whataboutist narrative in the article.
It’s clear the author doesn’t love everything about western capitalism, but that, I think, is a widely held opinion across Europe. It does not imply, to me, a suggestion that Russian style kleptocratic capitalism is a better form by any means so if the author makes that argument elsewhere, I didn’t see it here.
I guess I’m trying to say that I enjoyed the article, and learning that I don’t share the author’s politics hasn’t changed that.
Of course, that is a completely legit view that I also partly hold. However, this author is known for his looking up to a regime that is way worse (or 'not better form' as you say).
In the modern dialectic-materialist-addled mindset of agitprop-spoonfed media consumers, "anti-American == pro-Russian", but a lot of the world isn't stuck in that dialectic and is capable of seeing another path: multi-polarity.
I disagree on the cruise control, especially in Europe where the streets are narrower, it constantly thinks that it will crash and applies brakes. I sold my Tesla because of this
It's several years and I still remember this.