Ostalgie and Sustainability
As someone who is from Cyprus and specifically North Cyprus, it was very interesting to hear from someone else born during an era where a country was divided into two. I was not born in North Cyprus but I moved back there when I was 1 and spent most of my childhood there. I can relate to her story as she was born in East Germany which like North Cyprus is the part of the country which suffered more economically due to the split. Just like Germany had the Berlin Wall we still have a border which is a buffer zone and as she mentioned is still occupied by UN forces. Also like Berlin was, Cyprus’s capital is a divided one with parts of Nicosia belonging to both sides. There are many similarities with the two scenarios but a major difference is that the two sides in Cyprus share a different background and religions unlike the Germans. This makes it much harder for a reunification because a lot of people want to stay separate and there is also pressure from both Turkey and Greece.
It was interesting to hear her perspective at how she looked at the West, from someone living in the East. She mentioned how even though her family owned their own business, important aspects were still controlled by the state. They could only produce a certain amount of cheese and were forced to set the same price as everyone else. The phrase “You can’t eat money” speaks volumes to how even if you had the means to purchase food there just were not many options at all in the East. Her family had to make secret deals to get what we now consider basics in society with items like coffee and cheese. Compared to the West, the East side sounded much less developed from what she said. It was such a big deal for her family to get a phone but then she realized that no one else had any phones. She also talked about how she could not talk openly in public and had to be careful in school. However, she did not know about the conditions in the West while growing up so she was mainly happy with their childhood. She also mentioned how there was a sense of community as everyone had the same things and was in the same scenario.
The idea of Ostalgie is interesting because to us with an outsider’s view the West was flourishing much more. However, people in East Germany were told that the West was bad and there was also no such a thing as unemployment in the East. She mentioned “the good old times” because East Germany was a part of her life. When Germany reunified a lot of East Germans faced unemployment and economic hardship. After the reunification they also tried removing every aspect of East German life for example products. When looking at sustainable development the West entered reunification in a much better position than the East. The East for a long time has been trying to catch up economically to the West. When the wall came down a lot of people in the East migrated to the West in search of better opportunities. In terms of sustainability the citizens in the West and East probably have different opinions on sustainability. The East under communist rule had specific policies in terms of the environment with high levels of pollution before reunification. We also have the far right party now, who completely denies climate change, and is seeing support from the East maybe due to the lasting economic effects of reunification.
