The 'Reality' Speech

Yesterday, Germany's Chancellor Merkel gave a speech over the unification business and the Wall having come down (anniversary topic), and there was this great moment of reality in the speech.

She basically came to some point and said that successful unification....won't be observed for twenty more years (we are at the thirty-year point presently).

So around 2039? 

There's been polling slides shown all week, and significant divides between Westies and Easties (the two cultural groups at the heart of unification).

Look, if you drive over into the old DDR land....there's obvious signs of modernization in major urbanized cities (Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Jena, etc).  Autobahns, and significant roads have all been upgraded.  The BER (the new Berlin Airport) will be a modern wonder (when completed).  And you can suggest great things around the region.

But once outside of the urbanized areas.....you can take a turn and find yourself in a village that looks like 1966.  Jobs?  Don't bother looking unless you are in a major urban zone.  Fortune 500-type companies coming out of the east?  None.  Tourism?  Maybe in the urban areas, but you can remove 90-percent of old DDR from your tourist hot-spot listing.

So all this enthusiasm back in 1989?  Faked-up?  More or less.  Kohl couldn't stand there and admit that it'd take 50 years and over 1-trillion Euro. 

Angry eastern Germans?  Why would they not be angry?  So the only thing they have to send a message to Merkel and the Berlin leadership....is their votes.  For the CDU and SPD....it's a long-term problem now. 

Some folks will sit there and ponder over Merkel's comments and wonder if blame should be dished out.  You had to countries that took over different paths after WW II.  One ended up in the 1980s with modern technology....people driving BMWs, Mercedes, and Porsche cars, with products that sold well in the West....all driving cash flow into West Germany.

Those East German folks?  Worthless cars, almost no products being sought by anyone in the East or West (with the exception of cameras, and binoculars).  East Germans were living in a fake reality, given fake value for cash, and just cruising along on fumes. 

As the Wall ceased, the new reality arrived in the East.....they were forty years behind West Germany. 

Here's the thing to wonder about.  Come 2039.....will it be a truly unified country even then?