The world has changed
I know I should comment on the Swedish election after being quiet for some time. But alas and quite honestly, the election of 2014 brought no surprises to most of us with one foot still in Sweden.
I am also somewhat speechless when I look at its aftermath. Neither does the new government seem fit to govern nor do any of our established parties seem willing to interpret the results to make policy changes (or let unspoken sensitive areas reach the public arena). It seems to me that the distances between people of different opinions, and between people and politicians, are getting ever wider. Whatever happened to the politicians of yesteryear who were of the people, by the people and for the people?
Be that as it may, there are more important world events to acknowledge this year. November 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and the world rejoices, or is at the very least filled with happy thoughts.
And the Germans themselves are celebrating most of all — that they were finally able to take down the wall of shame that had divided their land. It was a great victory for democracy, even if the victory was not complete.
Some of us remember the amazing images of thousands of East Germans rushing into West Berlin on November 9, 1989, on the same site where over the decades many had been shot dead during escape attempts from the communist East Germany (GDR). But now it was wide open.
The divided city, the symbol of the Cold War, was reunited and the two German states became one Germany — and the leading European power.
Maybe some of you also remember that we (well, some of us) felt "we won."
I mean simply that it was clear the West was better than the East. Democracy proved — despite all kinds of trouble and mishaps — to be not only freer and more humane but also more effective than the dictatorship.
Dictatorship is not working. Dictators like Hitler and Stalin think they know best and kill those who complain or want to have options; but in the long run, it cannot prevail. The communists built the wall, but in the end it did not hold up.
Freedom and democracy won! Let me add that of course the victory was not complete. It will likely never be, but the world has improved — just as it was improved when Hitler was defeated.
People do not want to live as slaves, that much is certain. The modern world with all its great opportunities for communications has made it easier to be free. No one is allowed to stand unchallenged. Options — sometimes phenomenal, and sometimes failed — will always come forward and become available to the masses.
The world has recreated itself and is more open and free. Yes, I dare to actually say that. Although there is obviously a lot left to be done, and hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of people still live in bondage.
No, the fall of the wall and the Soviet Union didn't mark the end of the story, as some thought. There was no definitive victory for freedom and human rights; a new world order of democratic states living in peace with each other did not surface after those events 25 years ago.
China is still a dictatorship that implements a type of communist capitalism and is sailing up as the world's largest economy. The diehard dictatorship North Korea has acquired nuclear weapons and is a definite threat to world peace.
And Russia under Putin is an authoritarian government that seems to be getting tougher — and that has begun to act increasingly aggressively in the neighborhood, apparently even in Swedish waters.
For a few years after the Soviet Union’s collapse the United States was the only superpower, and Americans thought they could do what they wanted after all the years of the balance of power during the Cold War. But a couple failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan showed that U.S. power was not unlimited.
Now Russia is coming back as a military superpower while China is already an economic superpower ... and the world seems less stable than ever.
But despite all the reservations, we should all celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall. Hundreds of millions of people have gotten a better life since that event 25 years ago. It showed it is impossible to suppress freedom forever.
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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