Eastern Europe

AlejandroI said:
A few more from Romania:

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whole series if fantastic, but this one is my favourite. Like there realy is a different world there with their customs and different way of life, I feel we lost so much of national identity over last 10-20 years, trying to catch the west.
 
jbielikowski said:
whole series if fantastic, but this one is my favourite. Like there realy is a different world there with their customs and different way of life, I feel we lost so much of national identity over last 10-20 years, trying to catch the west.
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Great photos. I just disagree with the statement about the lost identity. I am not so sure about other parts of Eastern Europe, but in Baltics we lost most of our national identity during Soviet occupation and “trying to catch west” was in fact becoming free and able to regain this lost identity. Even Christmas celebration was forbidden, religion marginalized, language demoted to second best etc. Now we can choose the identity we want. But times they are changing. Things are different everywhere. So for me, if we stop milking cows manually, it’s not about “lost identity”, it’s about embracing the change and being able to do it without somebody’s interference.
 
valdas said:
Great photos. I just disagree with the statement about the lost identity. I am not so sure about other parts of Eastern Europe, but in Baltics we lost most of our national identity during Soviet occupation and “trying to catch west” was in fact becoming free and able to regain this lost identity. Even Christmas celebration was forbidden, religion marginalized, language demoted to second best etc. Now we can choose the identity we want. But times they are changing. Things are different everywhere. So for me, if we stop milking cows manually, it’s not about “lost identity”, it’s about embracing the change and being able to do it without somebody’s interference.
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And I disagree with your statement (at least when it comes to Poland). There is certainly a loss of cultural Identity when no matter where you travel to everything starts to look alike, local products disappear, english words make it into the language even if domestic equivalents already exist, at Christmas a red dressed santa kicks in etc.
Globalization, like it or not, brings unification.

And btw in Poland nobody was forbidden to celebrate Christmas…
 
santino said:
And I disagree with your statement (at least when it comes to Poland). There is certainly a loss of cultural Identity when no matter where you travel to everything starts to look alike, local products disappear, english words make it into the language even if domestic equivalents already exist, at Christmas a red dressed santa kicks in etc.
Globalization, like it or not, brings unification.

And btw in Poland nobody was forbidden to celebrate Christmas…
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Globalization - yes, we all feel it. But it’s not because we “try to catch the west”. In the “western world” cultures also become more uniform and less unique. And yes, Poland was less affected by soviet control, but nevertheless…
 
I m not a sociologist but I would venture that this very thing we are using here and now has a lot to do with the similarity spreading across the globe. The computer has pretty much eliminated the isolated pockets of culture. We are in "The Global Village." I bemoan the lost regional dialects and accents here in the US. What we have here now, or are approaching, is what they have in Oz. Everybody pretty much speaks the same. OK These are not big problems, at least not for me.
 
jbielikowski said:
whole series if fantastic, but this one is my favourite. Like there realy is a different world there with their customs and different way of life, I feel we lost so much of national identity over last 10-20 years, trying to catch the west.
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Trying to catch up to the West has in no way made people lose their identity. On the contrary, the relative levels of freedom acquired via so called western governments, have actually made people look into their history and reconnect with their culture.

Dictatorial governments and Russian influence are what actually lingered over this cultural heritage.

This is just my pov, i can be wrong of course... it's easier just to focus on the photos :)
 
ok, let me rephrase it- we lost a ton of our visual language because of modernisation that started around 2004 when Poland entered UE. Indeed "The Global Village" is more accurate term than "the west", but the effect is the same- homogenization.

my observations referred to the pictures and how distinct people and their surroundings look, less spoiled by the globalisation.
 
boojum said:
I m not a sociologist but I would venture that this very thing we are using here and now has a lot to do with the similarity spreading across the globe. The computer has pretty much eliminated the isolated pockets of culture. We are in "The Global Village." I bemoan the lost regional dialects and accents here in the US. What we have here now, or are approaching, is what they have in Oz. Everybody pretty much speaks the same. OK These are not big problems, at least not for me.
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I have spent several months total over about 15 years in Belarus and a few days in Lithuania and Latvia. (My wife is from the area.) Yes, I could see the changes there over the years.

But, I have lived in the South of the USA, all of my life. And at 81 years old, the changes are also staggering here. There is a truism - everything changes - everywhere. But people stay the same.
 
AlejandroI said:
Trying to catch up to the West has in no way made people lose their identity. On the contrary, the relative levels of freedom acquired via so called western governments, have actually made people look into their history and reconnect with their culture.

Dictatorial governments and Russian influence are what actually lingered over this cultural heritage.

This is just my pov, i can be wrong of course... it's easier just to focus on the photos :)
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I think the problem with Western democratic society has more to do with abandoning tradition, and replacing it with consumerism. In places where democracy and capitalism can coexist with tradition, which gives life so much of its meaning, things can be much healthier. Just my little viewpoint.

In the United States, we've embraced Enlightenment values to an extreme, and are always dispensing with whatever is old, or traditional. It's conducive to materialism.
 
agentlossing said:
I think the problem with Western democratic society has more to do with abandoning tradition, and replacing it with consumerism. In places where democracy and capitalism can coexist with tradition, which gives life so much of its meaning, things can be much healthier. Just my little viewpoint.

In the United States, we've embraced Enlightenment values to an extreme, and are always dispensing with whatever is old, or traditional. It's conducive to materialism.
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All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned
 
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