THE TELEGRAPH The other wall that fell communism Nearly nine years before the Berlin Wall fell in Eastern Europe,a man leapt over the outer wall of a shipyard in Gdansk,Poland,to rally the workers inside to stage a series of strikes. That leap in August 1980 was a rebellion,which,10 years later,would bring Polands communist rulers to their knees and force them to hold the first partially free elections in the Eastern Bloc in June 1989. That leap,and the man who made that leap,Lech Walesa,shook the foundations of the communist empire in Eastern Europe. Five months later,Berlin Wall,perhaps the most reviled symbol of the empire,crumbled. Walesa lent his name to wall he had jumped. The surviving stretch of the Walesa Wall is to be found outside the entrance to what is currently one of the citys star attractions: an exhibition entitled The Roads to Freedom.Though most of the drama of 1989 occurred elsewhere (Berlin,Prague,Bucharest),Gdansk is where the groundwork was laid, writes Adrian Bridge. THE INDEPENDENT Wailing for the fallen wall Memories hurt. And when they remind of a certain past in an uncertain present,they more than hurt,they sadden. For many Germans,the collapse of communism is a painful memory,though the capitalist corporate media had the world believe these past few weeks that the fall of Berlin Wall was the best thing that ever happened to mankind. They look back to the countrys communist era with nostalgia. They remember the crime-free neighbourhoods where nobody locked their front doors,full employment,free kindergartens,schools and medical treatment, Tony Paterson wrote of these Germans ahead of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. SYDNEY MORNING HERALD If only there was a wall to break China,the last major citadel of communism (version Deng Xiaoping plus),is as dark,brutal and torturous as Europe east of the Berlin Wall once was. That is what John Garnaut feels. Garnaut narrates the chilling tale of the sufferings of thousands of Chinese petitioners who end up in black jails each year for trying to lodge complaints against officials. They threatened that if I escaped,theyd take me to the male prison and let (the inmates) take turns raping (me), Garnaut quotes a 42-year-old woman in Sichuan province as telling Human Rights Watch. Despite dozens of cases closely documented by reporters and lawyers,in June the Government told the United Nations Human Rights Council there are no black jails in the country,Garnaut writes. THE JERUSALEM POST Saving the world,in Middle East When those East Berliners crossed the wall that November evening in 1989,many thought fears of another World War had been laid to rest. That was until a wall propped up in West Bank. Middle East,experts and surveys agreed,was the new Sarajevo and that WW III would start here. The writer,Larry Derfner,warns Israelafter its navy captured a ship loaded with arms for Hezbollah,allegedly sent by Iranto avoid confrontation and introspect. Im afraid were learning a very wrong and dangerous lesson from these incidentsthat we can attack our enemies with impunity. That we can manufacture,import and export all the arms we want,while forcibly denying our enemies the same freedom., Derfner writes in The Jerusalem Post. This is Israels policy,and its pure recklessness. Were tempting fate. Were playing Russian roulette. JANG We felled the Wall,you ungrateful Wouldnt you be outraged if you were denied credit for as great a feat as saving the world? Or heartbroken? Well,that is how Rouf Kalasra feels about Pakistan being denied due credit for felling communism. .I spent the whole night in front of TV,hoping to get a glimpse of the face of one of our generals,journalists and intellectuals who never tire telling us that the war in Afghanistan (against the Soviets) was Pakistans war,not Americas or Europes, Kalasra writes in Jang about the heartbreak of not seeing one of his countrys leaders sharing stage with world leaders at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
