09/11/2004 1:51:17 pm
And the Wall was Torn Down. Walls have been built to protect cities and countries from outside threats, like the one in Israel today. But some walls were built to be prisons for people, to stop people from fleeing from dictatorship. That was the case when the Berlin wall was constructed in 1961; the leaders of the DDR could no longer cope with a situation where ever more of their citizens fled to freedom in the West from the socialist misery of the DDR. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech in front of the Brandenburger Tor and the Wall, forcefully saying: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!". In most of Europe, the speech was denounced as an extreme confrontation and a threat to security. But fifteen years ago today, the Wall was finally torn down, by enthusiastic people longing for freedom. They used whatever means they had - hammers, knives, their hands. The joy was enormous, people cried. Reagan was right and he got to be right. In Sweden, however, the reaction was again the same. Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson warned about too much enthusiasm and the state TV called it all "an international crisis". In a country where neutrality had become the top ideology, many were unable to see what was without doubt right and what was wrong. This has continued; as the new Europe with the EU has emerged, Swedes don?t want to be in. When Europe was finally united again in May of this year, the government saw more threats than opportunities. It is about time that we put the neutrality doctrine on the scrap-heap of history and realise that we are part of Europe - and have to take part in its affairs.


Read in Dagens Nyheter about the Swedish reactions in 1989 - >