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Thread: Farewell to eastern Europe

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    Default Farewell to eastern Europe

    Farewell to eastern Europe

    Mud, vodka, chaos and crime? Not any more



    Fold up those old stereotypes and put them in the cupboard: two decades after the dust settled on communism, “eastern Europe” has come of age—and is ready to junk its out-of-date label. In 2011 what was once the ex-communist part of Europe will no longer look any worse than or different from the luckier lands to the west of the old Iron Curtain.

    Take politics. The old stereotype was that “east” European governments were unstable and chaotic. Not any more. Almost the longest-serving prime minister in the European Union next year will be Andrus Ansip of Estonia, in office since April 2005 (he’s beaten only by the eternal Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg and the embattled José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain). Poland’s Donald Tusk, likely to win re-election in late 2011, will be that country’s longest-serving prime minister since 1989 and another of the new breed of quietly impressive leaders.

    Dump too the old stereo-type about corruption: it will be increasingly clear that the dividing line is north-south, not east-west. Estonia and Slovenia already do better than Spain, Italy or Portugal in anti-corruption rankings (and almost all the “east Europeans” do better than “west” European Greece, which is actually in the continent’s far south-east). The coming year will bring a crop of pleasing upgrades in league tables ranging from competitiveness to creditworthiness.
    The coming year will bring a crop of pleasing upgrades

    Having been scared by the phantom danger of default and devaluation during the downturn, investors are now reassessing their prejudices: there will be booming investment and rising living standards in places like Poland. Estonia will join the euro zone at the start of 2011, bringing investors piling in, whereas countries like Greece will languish in the danger zone.

    The generous sowing of EU money will start bearing real fruit in 2011. New highways and faster railways will erode painful memories of squalid trains and bumpy roads. A new bridge over the Danube between Romania and Bulgaria will open in late 2011, ending one of the most scandalous bottlenecks in Europe.

    Introducing the ACES in Europe’s pack

    Nor will it be fair to see the ex-communist countries as marginal in diplomatic terms. Poland, newly friendly with France, Germany and Russia, will have its chair firmly pulled up to the big boys’ table in 2011, just as Spain’s place looks increasingly precarious. The Obama administration will hold the biggest military exercise so far in the Baltic region in 2011, underlining its commitment to the security of Poland and the always-jumpy Baltic states.

    Finally, forget the old notion of a region living in fear of Russian energy cut-offs. Latvia and Lithuania are building a “power bridge” to Sweden. Other countries will be well on their way to building terminals to import liquefied natural gas or to developing their own gas reserves. Spurred by Poland and Hungary, the European Union will finance interconnecting pipelines from north to south, breaking Russia’s old east-to-west gas monopoly.

    So, by the end of 2011, life in most of the newish eastern members of the EU will be a lot better, and their prospects a lot brighter, than ever before in their history. It will be time to find them a new name. How about the ACES—the “advancing countries of Europe”?


    ...

    This is a rather interesting article, which mentions the north-south differences also. Like Northern-European Estonia having a considerably lower corruption level than all the Southern-European countries.

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    No comment.
    Antes de subir al cadalso, Juan de Padilla se dirigió a su camarada Juan Bravo con unas célebres palabras: "Señor Bravo: ayer era día de pelear como caballero...hoy es día de morir como cristiano". Ante esto, Juan Bravo pidió ser ejecutado antes que Padilla, "…para no ver la muerte de tan buen caballero". Horas más tarde, también fue ejecutado y decapitado el salmantino Francisco Maldonado.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Karl View Post
    ...

    So, by the end of 2011, life in most of the newish eastern members of the EU will be a lot better, and their prospects a lot brighter, than ever before in their history. It will be time to find them a new name.

    How about the ACES—the “advancing countries of Europe”?
    No, thanks. That's actually much worse than what they want to replace. It's not because I want to deny that these countries in fact are advancing, but because sticking new labels on anything seems, well, tacky, artificial and unnecessary.
    Last edited by Eldritch; 11-26-2010 at 09:51 PM.

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    The reason why stereotypes about Eastern-Europe/ex-communist part of Europe aren't true is because ethnoculturally Central-European countries like the Czech Republic or Northern-European Estonia have been labeled Eastern-European. Thus it's logical that the stereotypes do not apply. The capitalist and ex-communist divide doesn't work and is illogical from the start.

    For instance, a capitalist/"Western" country like Greece is ethnoculturally Eastern when compared to culturally western countries like Estonia or Slovakia. When one could say that Slovakians are Eastern-European because they're Slavic, then no cultural nor ethnic definition would make Estonians, Eastern-European.

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    Mhmm, there is still pretty big difference between ex-communist and old "capitalist" countries.Different mentalities, at least in everyday life, IMO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by esäimä View Post
    Mhmm, there is still pretty big difference between ex-communist and old "capitalist" countries.Different mentalities, at least in everyday life, IMO.
    There are definitely two completely different mentalities when comparing a country like Russia and the United Kingdom.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Karl View Post
    There are definitely two completely different mentalities when comparing a country like Russia and the United Kingdom.
    I can assure you, from what I've seen on these boards, there is also a huge gulf in the mentalities between countries like Estonia and the United Kingdom.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karl View Post
    There are definitely two completely different mentalities when comparing a country like Russia and the United Kingdom.
    Indeed, Russians and Britons are very different, they are even, I´d say, antipodes.British culture is considered to be the most individualistic in the world.

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    [insert pithy comment about the clean, pure peoples of Northern Europe running their countries better than the swarthy, criminal Mediterraneans]

    Actually, it seems to me that despite a major cultural divide between North and South that pre-dates even the martyrdom of Jan Hus, the real deciding factor is "new EU" countries versus "old EU" countries, and given long enough, these so-called "ACES" will be in the same shape in which Greece and Spain now find themselves.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Karl View Post
    For instance, a capitalist/"Western" country like Greece is ethnoculturally Eastern when compared to culturally western countries like Estonia or Slovakia.
    What does "ethnoculturally Eastern" mean, and how can you apply that to Greece, and not Estonia? Estonia is an Eastern European country, albeit one of the most developed and that shares some similarities with Scandinavia and Finland. But Poland is probably more "Western" than Estonia. If there is such a thing.

    When one could say that Slovakians are Eastern-European because they're Slavic, then no cultural nor ethnic definition would make Estonians, Eastern-European.
    Why not? It's not only Slavs who live in Eastern Europe.
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