Bassim
VIP Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Bosnian
- Home Country
- Bosnia Herzegovina
- Current Location
- Sweden
Would you please correct the mistakes in the third part of my text?
Before the midday, bathers occupied every centimetre of the beach. Their laughing, shrieks and conversations rang along the shore. Beside our citizens, there were many foreigners. For the people of the Eastern Bloc, Yugoslavia was the only country outside their alliance where they were allowed to travel, and they used the opportunity to come to the Adriatic Sea. Some came in buses and others in private cars. It was on these holidays I saw for the first time cars from the Eastern Bloc: Skoda, Lada, Dacia, Polski Fiat, Moskwitch, Trabant and Wartburg. As there were many tourists from the West on our seaside, these makes mixed with Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Fiat and others. At that time, this was the only place in Europe where people from the East and the West could meet, talk to each other and have fun without the Eastern Bloc citizens having fear of being arrested and accused of all kinds of charges after socialising with the citizens of the enemy states.
The atmosphere was relaxed, and people talked to each other as if they were old acquaintances. This resplendent sea, the sun, the scents of nature and the safety of the country united people of Europe decades before the EU was founded. There, on the hot sand lay Hans, a carpenter from Germany, Jan, a lathe operator from Poland, Maria, a nurse from Czechoslovakia, Rudolf, a bus driver from Hungary, Pietro, a teacher from Italy, Zoran, a crane operator from Yugoslavia, Jantje, a hairdresser from Holland, and other tourists from different countries, who communicated with each other naturally, as humans have always done since their walked the earth. When their vocabulary of a foreign language was not enough to convey what they wanted to say, they used gestures. Their children played and swam together and queued to buy doughnuts and ice cream without bothering about each other’s origin. We Yugoslavs had no difficulty whatsoever communicating with other Slavs. We could understand each other easily because of our Slavic roots. As the majority of the tourists from the Eastern Bloc were ordinary workers, they shared common interests and problems with our workers, and they discussed them with each other in this relaxed atmosphere. Some people exchanged addresses, visited each other and became friends for life.
These details are usually omitted in the history books about socialism because their authors prefer to emphasize differences rather than similarities. Confrontations and animosities of any kinds make the book more interesting to read. It is boring to read that Otto, a factory worker from Germany and Dobroslaw a worker at a state-own factory from Poland has the same problems and worries, while telling the reader that Dobroslaw plots to kill Otto keeps everyone on tenterhooks
The idea of the Cold War was based on the tension between two powers, which were prepared to annihilate each other at short notice. This narrative permeated all parts of society, from politics to the life of ordinary people. Politicians on both sides used fear to control their own citizens. The more humans were afraid of each other, the easier prey they became to the people who used them as pawns in their big game. They could even be persuaded to build nuclear bunkers, which in the case of the nuclear war would be able to protect just a few percent of population, mostly those in power and their families, while they themselves would be obliterated. Showing people from the East and the West lying together on the beach, bathing and enjoying each other’s company would be counterproductive to the goals of their masters who had to maintain the control of people’s minds at any price. They have been doing that for thousands of years, and they have no interest in relinquishing it any time soon.
TO BE CONTINUED
Before the midday, bathers occupied every centimetre of the beach. Their laughing, shrieks and conversations rang along the shore. Beside our citizens, there were many foreigners. For the people of the Eastern Bloc, Yugoslavia was the only country outside their alliance where they were allowed to travel, and they used the opportunity to come to the Adriatic Sea. Some came in buses and others in private cars. It was on these holidays I saw for the first time cars from the Eastern Bloc: Skoda, Lada, Dacia, Polski Fiat, Moskwitch, Trabant and Wartburg. As there were many tourists from the West on our seaside, these makes mixed with Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Fiat and others. At that time, this was the only place in Europe where people from the East and the West could meet, talk to each other and have fun without the Eastern Bloc citizens having fear of being arrested and accused of all kinds of charges after socialising with the citizens of the enemy states.
The atmosphere was relaxed, and people talked to each other as if they were old acquaintances. This resplendent sea, the sun, the scents of nature and the safety of the country united people of Europe decades before the EU was founded. There, on the hot sand lay Hans, a carpenter from Germany, Jan, a lathe operator from Poland, Maria, a nurse from Czechoslovakia, Rudolf, a bus driver from Hungary, Pietro, a teacher from Italy, Zoran, a crane operator from Yugoslavia, Jantje, a hairdresser from Holland, and other tourists from different countries, who communicated with each other naturally, as humans have always done since their walked the earth. When their vocabulary of a foreign language was not enough to convey what they wanted to say, they used gestures. Their children played and swam together and queued to buy doughnuts and ice cream without bothering about each other’s origin. We Yugoslavs had no difficulty whatsoever communicating with other Slavs. We could understand each other easily because of our Slavic roots. As the majority of the tourists from the Eastern Bloc were ordinary workers, they shared common interests and problems with our workers, and they discussed them with each other in this relaxed atmosphere. Some people exchanged addresses, visited each other and became friends for life.
These details are usually omitted in the history books about socialism because their authors prefer to emphasize differences rather than similarities. Confrontations and animosities of any kinds make the book more interesting to read. It is boring to read that Otto, a factory worker from Germany and Dobroslaw a worker at a state-own factory from Poland has the same problems and worries, while telling the reader that Dobroslaw plots to kill Otto keeps everyone on tenterhooks
The idea of the Cold War was based on the tension between two powers, which were prepared to annihilate each other at short notice. This narrative permeated all parts of society, from politics to the life of ordinary people. Politicians on both sides used fear to control their own citizens. The more humans were afraid of each other, the easier prey they became to the people who used them as pawns in their big game. They could even be persuaded to build nuclear bunkers, which in the case of the nuclear war would be able to protect just a few percent of population, mostly those in power and their families, while they themselves would be obliterated. Showing people from the East and the West lying together on the beach, bathing and enjoying each other’s company would be counterproductive to the goals of their masters who had to maintain the control of people’s minds at any price. They have been doing that for thousands of years, and they have no interest in relinquishing it any time soon.
TO BE CONTINUED
