<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 11 November 2009- Volume 01<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com">lowlands.list@gmail.com</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Jonny</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L "History" 2009.11.10 (02) [EN]<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" id=":6k" class="ii gt">
<div>
<div><span>Dear
Lowlanners,</span></div>
<div><span></span>Â </div>
<div><span>Mark (B.)
wrote:</span></div>
<div><span></span>Â </div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); margin-left: 40px;"><span>Otherwise, the nutshell versions
says that women from the former DDR have surpassed their western sisters in
their occupations in the West. The DDR had 92% of women in the work force before
reuniting with the West, which made them less susceptible to the guilt of trying
to combine children with a career that the westerner
feels.</span></div>
<div><span></span>Â </div>
<div><span>I fear you can't
compare a socialistic system like that of the GDR with a western one - in
reality it often were just "occupations" but not very productive employments.
Which doesn't mean that they hadn't been busy, but just in a different
way.</span></div>
<div><span>This was valid for
men as well as for women.</span></div>
<div>Â </div>
<div align="left">Allerbest!</div>
<div align="left">Â </div><font color="#888888">
<div align="left">Jonny Meibohm</div>
<div align="left">Lower Saxony,
Germany<br></div></font></div></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: History</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Quite so, Jonny-o!</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I can confirm this on the basis of what I observed regarding my East German cousins and their circles. The way I see it, a job that in the West would been held by one person was shared by several persons in the East. So an individual's productivity was low irrespective of his or her motivation. Motivation tended to be low as well because there was little if any incentive to exert oneself. Advancement, such as promotion, was often likely to put you into a more prominent and thus more vulnerable position, and many such promotions had more to do with your political connections and reputation than with your work skills. People earned meager livings, but the vast majority did. Therefore it was the standard. There was little available to amass in the way of material goods, anyway. For those that had no ambitions beyond this, those that did not die to leave the country and did not care about politics it was comfortable in a certain way and less stressful, as long as you kept your thoughts completely to yourself and thus your nose clean. (Even your supposed best friends could work for the secret police and even your own children might inadvertently if not deliberately divulge your private opinions, much like it had been during the Nazi period.)</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As soon as the Wall came down, my early-middle-aged cousins, their spouses and most of their friends lost their jobs. Not only had the system collapsed that had raised, trained and supported them, but they were now considered unemployable because they lacked the attitude, skills and training necessary to survive in a capitalist system and they were considered too old for retraining and "reprogramming." Try and imagine what it was like for them! Talking about the rug being pulled from under you ...! Their children were not considered lost causes and received suitable training and education.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As far as I can tell, all this applied to both men and women.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I observed a similar thing in Mainland China. There were still echoes of the Cultural Revolution when I arrived, where most people shared even the most menial jobs and pretty much sat or stood around all day long. Things started to change rapidly midway through my stay, and suddenly competition for jobs and material goods arose accompanied by an increase in crime (real crime, not political). Where there had been little or no gender bias before women started to complain about employment and advancement discrimination.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Seattle, USA</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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