- Cafe Europa
"Cafe Europa: Life After Communism" is a
1996 book bySlavenka Drakulić , the noted Croatian writer. It talks about the experiences of the peoples ofEastern Europe after the retreat ofCommunism and the fall of theIron Curtain . While Drakulić notes the liberation of the formerly oppressed, her hard hitting social commentary points out the repercussions and lack of progress since the end ofSoviet domination.Themes
Yugoslavia
Writing about her life in native communist
Yugoslavia , Drakulić compares her life with those of people living within theWarsaw Pact countries. She notes that she always felt superior to them, asTito 's regime permmitted both a higher standard of living and greater freedom of movement. Despite these amenities, to Drakulić Yugoslavia was still just a bigger cage.Poverty and Deprivation
While visiting Eastern European countries like
Romania andBulgaria Drakulić sees the degradation of national infrastructure, such assewage systems. This decline, she concludes, is due in part to a post-communist mentality.Aspirations to a European Identity
According to Drakulić, the newly liberated states of Eastern Europe aspire to rejoin Western European society, which they were cut off from for more than 50 years after the Soviet occupation. However, the
NATO andEU countries do not feel the same way, and "Europe" can be seen as merely a construction in the mind of Eastern Europe. However, Drakulić warns, "We are allAlbanians ", and cannot disregard a common heritage.Authoritarianism in post-independence CroatiaDespite the removal of communist governments throughout Europe, Drakulić is dismayed to find that in her homeland of
Croatia the vacuum has not been filled by a completely democratic government. PresidentTudjman rules with an authoritarian grip, and much of thebureaucracy is full of formerapparatchik s. Despite the more recent communist past, in Drakulić's view Croatia's leaders call upon the memory of thefascist Croatian state ofWorld War II .
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