European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse A Wall within continued from Page 15 fret that they Nodinger have time to keep up their friendships. All these differences so evident when Eastern and Western germans Are compared defy the conventional Wisdom that Eastern europeans had so totally rejected the communist systems swept away by the 1989 revolutions that no emotional legacy was left at All. A nothing disappears without a Trace Quot says author and political commentator Gunter Gaus who served for seven years As West Germany a permanent representative in East Berlin. Quot everyone a those who weren to part of the system those who rejected it and had nothing at All to do with it a they were All shaped by its demands far More than they themselves Gaus says a crucial problem in the German Unity process has been an inability on the part of the Western dominated German government to acknowledge these differences a differences that on a purely personal level make it far More difficult for easterners to find heir Way in a rough and Tumble free Market society. Quot we be had misunderstandings because Western germans have yet to realize that for 40 years they have lived under a false Assumption a namely the Assumption that once the communist system disappeared Eastern germans would be the same As we Are Quot he said. Quot because so Many believed the system had disappeared without a Trace the majority in the West placed their belief in the Power of the Market Quot Gaus added. Quot we have fallen victim to that among the believers was Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Initially convinced that Only Opportunity separated the two German Peoples he repeatedly rejected Calls for special parliamentary committees or a ministry for Eastern affairs during the run up to last october s unification. Recently however Kohl admitted Quot we have drilled much further apart than we one result of Germany s psychological mismatch is that the Eastern Region with 20 percent of the country a population and about 43 percent of its land area is readers action Lin contacts for jobs in Kuwait virtually without voice or influence in Germany s first United government. Of 52 Cabinet ministers and ministerial state secretaries seven Are easterners. In the bundestag s 23 influential permanent committees where key legislation is shaped for presentation to the full parliament Eastern members hold one chairmanship the committee for family and senior citizens affairs. In the country a two largest political parties the Christian democrats and the main opposition social democrats not a single Eastern member of parliament serves As chief party spokesman on a key Issue. Politicians in Bonn still refer to the East As Quot Over there Quot and in informal conversations the personal pronouns Quot we Quot and Quot they Quot Divide a people verbally almost As efficiently As the barbed wire that kept them physically apart for 40 years. Eastern members of parliament share the sense of estrangement. Quot we have a totally different Way of thinking Quot noted Werner Schulz an activist who helped overthrow East German communism in 1989 and serves in the bundestag As a the Alliance �?T90 party a coalition of Eastern organizations. Quot it s still a foreign society to _ 11 me. The divergent experiences in the months since unification a the West booming As the East sinks into a morass of unemployment and Industrial decay a have Only underscored and intensified the differences. For the Westerner Unity has disturbed virtually nothing in daily life. The 30 percent unemployment the dying industries the polluted Rivers the Job retraining programs and agonizing adjustments Are All Quot Over but the easterners different experience affects even what they read and talk about. Magazines and newspapers carry a who to Quot articles on obtaining work on self salesmanship and fighting depression All non issues in the larger mainstream Western Media. Conversation in an Eastern German living room invariably starts with a list of who has work and who does to How to pay the style phone Bill or when the rents will Rise a topics All but irrelevant at Western cocktail parties. Eastern Germany is probably the Only Region in the industrialized world where detergent commercials on television trumpeting How one Brand outperforms another Are the subject of so Many prolonged sometimes intense dinner. Conversations. Suddenly choices Are required for everything from life insurance to body deodorant. Quot there Are 72 different kinds of toilet brushes on the Market Quot noted Ingrid Koppe an Eastern member of parliament who said she counted them. A i m astonished How much time people set aside just to pick one under the communists East germans had just two types a one round one Square. In peacetime few Peoples have experienced a More Complete transformation. Guaranteed jobs and fixed rents Are gone. Crime has mushroomed schools Are being reorganized in size As Well As curricula the banking health and Legal systems have All been transformed income tax rules have changed Utility Bills Are and confusing newspapers carry a real Quot . For some the changes have become too much. Brg Richter a psychologist who helps staff the phone lines at a Small crisis Center called Telephone of Trust in cramped quarters just off Eastern berlins main Alexande Platz said one third of the callers find life Quot so complicated that they can t see their Way through it Quot a generation of Over-45s, too old to retrain too Young to retire often seem incapable of seeing beyond the unemployment line that later this year could contain half of the Eastern German working population. Many political observers believe they Are part of a Quot lost generation Quot who will be permanently jobless or underemployed during the years when they should be most productive. Quot they Are passive they feel helpless Quot Richter said. The Calls represent the tip of an iceberg of anxiety that has begun to show up in statistics. In Eastern Berlin for example marriages Are Down by 40 percent births Are off by a third and divorces and alcohol consumption Are up. The regions suicide rate traditionally twice that in the West remains High but the predominant reasons have changed a from Domestic unhappiness to social uncertainty. The initial euphoria of Germany s National reconciliation has been replaced by a sense of disappointment and disillusionment the hugs the excited Waves and honking of horns that greeted easterners coming West for the first time in november 1989 have dissolved into a Low Grade grumbling among westerners about having to pay higher taxes to lift people whom they increasingly look on As Quot dumb Lazy easterners Quot out of economic squalor. Quot after the honeymoon we have reality again Quot said medical scientist and political activist Jens Reich. Quot its not a hostile relationship but a very alienated frustrating one Quot social observers fear resentment and anger coutd4ollow. A backlash in the East has spawned to shirts emblazoned with the words Quot i want my Wall and the full Brunt of Eastern exposure to the West has generated the very sense of. East German identity that the communists. Failed to instill. Quot i never loved my Cdr identity and acquired it seriously Only after 1989,&Quot Reich said Quot to survive As a person you can to reject All that has happened Over the in the course of an hour Long interview Reich spoke of apolitical benchmarks of life that characterized the German democratic Republic such As a Quality of life in the polluted Southern Industrial towns where thankless conditions welded people together in much the same Way As they have in the Coal mining regions of South Wales or West Virginia. Quot it was polluted and it Wasny to healthy but it was Home and it was their life Quot said Reich. Quot they re frustrated with an invasion of people from the West with Well tied neckties flashy suits and smart Reich expressing an opinion shared by Many said the East West divisions in Europe Are Quot something we have to reckon with for generations to few observers predict any Quick Way to break Down an a dinner Wall Quot that the very Young Are already seeing through their elders eyes. Quot. A pert 6-year-old Western Berliner named Sylvia recently came across an Auto Accident. An Eastern Wartburg had wrapped itself around a signpost at a Busy intersection. Recognizing both the Eastern car and its Eastern License plate she. Thought for a moment before sizing up the situation Quot typical q am a reservist who was activated on dec. 6. I work As a sewage treatment specialist in the civilian world. I have worked in the Oil Fields of Oklahoma and i have been going to school to gel my safety engineering degree. Could you give me some information on How i could come Back Over to Kuwait to help in the rebuilding process of that country in be done my part As a Soldier i would like to help As a civilian. I could help in the Oil Fields if i just knew who to Contact. I could help in the waste treatment area or even medical a i have been a histology tech also sgt. Lee Collier operation desert storm William h. Lewis personnel management directorate office of civilian personnel policy and equal Opportunity office of the assistant Secretary of defense replies thank you for sending along an inquiry irom sgt Collier in which he asked for information on oppor tuites to work in Kuwait. Following the cessation of hostilities we had a Large number of similar inquiries. This is what we found. There May be some employment opportunities in the private sector construction business. The kuwaiti government through its embassy in Washington d Cis actively working contracts with a number of . Corporations. The department of Commerce has Sel up a Center to coordinate contacts Between the kuwaiti government and . Companies. Various . Federal departments and agencies Are also assisting the kuwaitis. Among them is the army corps of eng sneers which is handling munitions disposal and the removal of War damaged iraqi equipment and installations. Information published by the department of Commerce follows counselling and referral services Gulf reconstruction Center department of Commerce Telephone 202 377-5767 companies May want to use this Contact list for assistance tailored to individual Industry sectors . Department of Commerce a International Trade administration offices capital foods and International construction 202 377-5023 services 202 377-5261. Aerospace 202 377-8231 Basic industries 202 3770614 science and electronics 202 377-3548 for other information related to Gulf reconstruction. Please Call army corps of engineers Winchester a general 703 665-3798 architecture engineering Gary Kula 703 665-3798 construction Cecil Hutchinson 703 665-3632 Supply firms Pam Friestad 703 6653683. Department of state economic and business 202 647-1942 travel advisory 202 647-0900. A overseas private investment corp. Opic for finance and insurance Fol . Companies wanting to do business in the Gulf Washington d c. 202 457-7056. Kuwait emergency recovery office 1510 h Street n.w., Washington d c. 20005. Kuwait Petroleum company London 071-491-4000 or fax 071-493-7996.to write us readers action line is the readers Quot court of last resort striving to answer some of the questions about life overseas in a military environment or questions about policies and guidelines when other avenues for answers Are not readily available. If you have a question and done to know where to turn for the answer write to readers action line co the stars and stripes Apo 09211-4211. All letters must be signed and preference will be Given to those seeking information of general interest to our readers. Page 16 a the stars and stripes monday july 29, 1991
