ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by BugzDaMick

I’m surprised it’s taken you so long to show up, Buss, since you rarely miss an opportunity to loose off one of your infantile cheap shots. Anything else you want to get off your pigeon chest, mucker?

There were around 17 million folks in the GDR. Of those, a certain percentage took active measures to leave the place and some of them tragically lost their lives in the attempt. The main reason for that was because the GDR wasn‘t a genuinely Socialist country, but rather an authoritarian, repressive, one-party, State Capitalist regime. What potential escapees and the majority of the population wanted more than anything else was true Socialism and the corresponding democratic freedom. They never got it because the GDR gobment wasn’t interested. That’s only storing up trouble for the future.

That trouble came to a head in November 1989 and the gobment was toppled. But all through the preceding months of protest, what the demonstrators wanted more than anything else was a different GDR! They wanted free elections, freedom to travel and a much higher level of democracy. Most of all, they wanted shot of the fuckin’ Stasi and all the repression the organisation represented. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the borders, something like nine million East Germans travelled to West Berlin, West Germany and further afield, but they all returned. Then they were thoroughly fucked over by the West Germans, their economy was comprehensively destroyed and they had little choice but to move to West and South Germany in search of work. The GDR is still being destroyed and now has the second-lowest birth-rate in Europe, with the lowest birth-rate position being occupied by the Vatican.

Like folks everywhere, the East Germans adjusted to their circumstances. However, in contrast to conditions in Capitalist economies, the East Germans had no existential worries. They lived contented and secure lives and were not constantly plagued by doubts about the precariousness of their existence. All of them were very closely integrated into society and very much enjoyed the feeling of solidarity and togetherness such integration engendered. Yes, there were many things wrong with the politics of the GDR, and no-one was more conscious of that than the GDR citizens themselves with their astonishing political, cultural and social awareness, but on balance, the population derived an enormous amount of satisfaction from the system.

MsG

Thank you for that overly complex chunk of cut and paste drivel.

Unfortunatley for you your shit cunty-ness it's not possible to change the suicide rate figures for the GDR which remained uniformly high as people were driven to it quite deliberately by the state and by the overwhelmingly bleak nature of life in the GDR.

Now take your childish moral equivalence and your contrived apologist agenda and please please do fuck off.

Originally Posted by Buzz

Thank you for that ovely complex chunk of cut and paste drivel.

Unfortunatley for you your shit cunty-ness it's not possible to change the suicide rate figures for the GDR which remained uniformly high as people were driven to it quite deliberately by the state and by the overwhelmingly bleak nature of life in the GDR.

Now take your childish moral equivalence and your contrived apologist agenda and please please do fuck off.

Ah, Buzz-fella, you just couldn't resist having another cheap dig, could you? If you don't want to discuss the subject on a serious basis, why not just ignore me?

So life in the GDR was "overwhelmingly bleak". And you know that how? From your mucker who knew a woman who once posted a letter to Berlin?

If you read through what I've written on this and previous threads, you'll see that I've no "apologist agenda". There are positive and negative aspects in every nation and the deaths on the border in the GDR were definitely negative and can in no way be excused. However, you seem to accept the fact that hundreds of folks in the UK have died in Old Bill custody in the past twenty years, and that the UK Old Bill have shot to death a couple of dozen but never suffered any repercussions. But what's a comparison when you've the chance of bigging yourself up with your non-existent but intimate knowledge of life in the GDR, eh?

MsG

Originally Posted by BugzDaMick

Ah, Buzz-fella, you just couldn't resist having another cheap dig, could you? If you don't want to discuss the subject on a serious basis, why not just ignore me?

So life in the GDR was "overwhelmingly bleak". And you know that how? From your mucker who knew a woman who once posted a letter to Berlin?

If you read through what I've written on this and previous threads, you'll see that I've no "apologist agenda". There are positive and negative aspects in every nation and the deaths on the border in the GDR were definitely negative and can in no way be excused. However, you seem to accept the fact that hundreds of folks in the UK have died in Old Bill custody in the past twenty years, and that the UK Old Bill have shot to death a couple of dozen but never suffered any repercussions. But what's a comparison when you've the chance of bigging yourself up with your non-existent but intimate knowledge of life in the GDR, eh?

MsG

My grandfather worked for the control comission.

Now take your thinly veiled attempts to piggy back anti capatilist campaigning onto every thread you get involved in and fuck off.

Buzz,

You will find this interesting:

Experts puzzled by Bavaria's suicide rate - The Local

and yet another excellent film:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGf0qoOxALI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=...ture=endscreen

Originally Posted by Brotherton Lad

Buzz,

You will find this interesting:

Experts puzzled by Bavaria's suicide rate - The Local

They have detected a similar blip in Seattle in the states which is also a centre of big business and prosperity, the theory being that of disaffected youth and a generational disconnect at work.

A sense of social isolation can crop up for many reason, it's not an issue directly linked with the scenario that unfolded in the GDR though, that was a very deliberately constructed social prison and all the more evil for it.

You missed the line that the suicide rate in the eastern part of Germany has been above average since records began in the 19th century. (Not defending the regime, any more than Bugsy is.)

I've yet to see a post where he supported the regime. If there is one, I'll alter my position. As far as I'm concerned, he can espouse utopian socialist views to his heart's content. I tend to be rather sympathetic; though I don't expect it to become reality any time soon, because we're not up to the task.

Originally Posted by Brotherton Lad

As is your right. I feel I've stepped into a Balkan blood feud. In what way do you believe he was pampered?

Well, it is theoretically possible the Bugsy was the sole turncoat that was left 100% to his devices by the Party.

However, in a system based on power, privilege and patronage, for an outsider to move in without let or hindrance, obtain a good job and do very well thank you suggests either he was indeed furnished with .'support' as was the norm with all the rest of his trophy socialist ilk, or, rather more unlikly, he was so stellarly brilliant, he swept aside all the apparatus of the State with his awesomeness and uniquely found a way to proper inside a Communist society without playing the game.

Originally Posted by Buzz

They have detected a similar blip in Seattle in the states which is also a centre of big business and prosperity, the theory being that of disaffected youth and a generational disconnect at work.

A sense of social isolation can crop up for many reason, it's not an issue directly linked with the scenario that unfolded in the GDR though, that was a very deliberately constructed social prison and all the more evil for it.

Highest Suicide Rates in the World
view as: list / map
▲ Country Annual suicide rate per 100,000
1.
Lithuania
42.0
2.
Russia
37.4
3.
Belarus
35.0
4.
Latvia
34.3
5.
Estonia
33.2
6.
Hungary
32.1
7.
Slovenia
30.9
8.
Ukraine
29.4
9.
Kazakhstan
28.7
10.
Finland
24.3


i think I see a trend