Thursday, 29th July 2010

Was The Look Alike An Accident?

Posted on 09. Nov, 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in Politics, Women

Was The Look Alike An Accident?

In the world of high fashion, there is no great blooper than when two people arrive at a function dressed in the same outfits. This is never more important than when the two people happen to also be high profile and powerful women.

Just such a blooper happened when Secretary of State, Hilary Rodham Clinton and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, arguably two of the most influential women in the world, met for bilateral talks. Clinton was in Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall.

For both women to turn up dressed in blue jackets, black pants and black kitten heels, could hardly have been a coincidence, or was it? Add to that the fact that both women sport short blond bobs. You have to ask if it was a repeat of the very ‘incident’ that initially brought the Berlin wall (Iron Curtain) down in the first place.

In September 1989, the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, had pleaded with Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, not to let the Berlin Wall fall. She wanted the Russian leader to do all he could to stop its demise. “We do not want a united Germany. This would lead to a change to postwar borders and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our society.”

Under increasing pressure the politburo, led by Krenz, had decided to permit refugees to exit through crossing points between East and West Germany. This was modified to include private travel. The new regulations were to take place on Nov 17th, with an official announcement was to be made the following day.

However, on November 9th an overzealous politician decided to give a private (misinformed) press conference. A television station picked up on the news conference and announced the border crossings were open to anyone. Surprised and overwhelmed border guards allowed people to pour to the west, as a state of total confusion reigned.

Soon people were attacking the wall with sledge hammers, or anything else they could get their hands on, in order to collect pieces of the wall as souvenirs.

The end result was a unified Germany.

The Berlin Wall was originally built to stem the critical flow of youth and brain drain from the east to the west.

Have Clinton and Merkel reached a mutual agreement, or are they two women fighting for position and even more power from different sides? What kind of message were the women trying to send to the world? A clash of power, or a unification?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Could The Same Outfits Have Been Accidental? - 10. Nov, 2009

    [...] Learn how an accident also brought the wall down… [...]

Leave a Reply

Please fill the required box or you can’t comment at all. Please use kind words. Your e-mail address will not be published.

Gravatar is supported.

You can use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>