PRAGUE, Czech Republic – After the end of WW II in 1945 Winston Churchill declared that from the Baltic to the Adriatic, the "Iron Curtain has descended across Europe."
The Baltic is a sea in northern Europe bounded by Sweden and the former Soviet republics and the Adriatic is an arm of the Mediterranean bounded by Italy and the Balkan Peninsula.
Iron Curtain nations
Churchill had drawn a line separating the countries of Eastern Europe as belonging to the sphere of influence of Stalin’s Soviet Union.
The Eastern European states included the following: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria.
Early reform
In Czechoslovakia in 1968, a Slovak liberal named Alexander Dubcek was chosen to head a new regime that abolished censorship, decentralized economic decision-making, and granted real power to the National Assembly.
For good measure, Dubcek’s government added a new line: It denounced Stalin, who had died in 1953.
The brief "Prague Spring" ended abruptly in August 1968 when Warsaw Pact troops invaded and restored what Dubcek had just abolished.
Influence of John Paul II
In Poland, the most significant event since 1945 was the election of Karol Wojtyla, bishop of Krakow, as Pope John Paul II in 1978.
The pope’s visit to Poland in 1979 set the stage for the extraordinary events of the 1980s. The government’s austerity program sent meat prices soaring. Strikes for the adjustment of wages, especially at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk, thrust a shipyard electrician, Lech Walesa, into a position of national leadership.
The 1970s brought stagnation to Czechoslovakia and the rise of the Solidarity movement in neighboring Poland in the 1980s caused a backlash of repression.
New reforms
The pro-democracy movement began in earnest in October, 1989. Reform movements throughout Eastern Europe caused the resignation of Communist leaders and culminated in the parliamentary election of Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright and leader of Civic Forum, a loose coalition of opposition factions.
Havel was elected president and the vindicated Alexander Dubcek became chairman of Parliament. In 1990, the Soviet troops left and Civic Forum and its allies won 47 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections, against 14 percent for the Communists and 12 percent for the Christian Democrats.
Ignoring the past
In Prague the people tend to ignore the past and give more focus on the future. In June 2003 they voted a resounding 77.3 percent "yes" for membership in the European Union in May, 2004.
The most significant event to Czech economy in 2002 was the record level of foreign direct investment (FDI) amounting to $9 billion.
Huge foreign investments
The FDI inflow figure in 2003 was $5 billion. The continuous massive inflow of capital helped to keep the Czech currency under constant appreciation. The economy’s current growth has driven inflation to 0 percent.
Among the major investors are Germany, Netherlands, Austria, France, the US, Belgium, and Japan.
Charge of corruption
According to The Prague Post, the ruling coalition, after eight months in power, faces its first political crisis. The cause of the crisis: "A ruling party leader has been unable to explain satisfactorily how he managed to afford a luxury apartment in Prague and the shady business dealings of his wife are damaging the government’s reputation."
Working hours and labor unions
Public and private sector employees here have the same working hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or eight hours with a 30-minute break, which is part of the eight-hour workday.
The one big difference is that civil servants are all members of the labor union. They can declare strikes and negotiate for wage adjustments.
I asked if they can declare a walkout against corrupt officials. The answer: A wide smile and nods indicating a quick "yes." (Comments are welcome at rvp@fastmail.ph.inter.net)
