Week one reflection

A picture of Great Wall of china, it reads simply, "Greetings from Berlin"-- Berlin being the place with the wall. --Brian Ladd (20)

When we open up the history book in past century, Germany is the country that being most found in warfare related history. As stated in the book Ghost of Berlin, “Berlin such a contested landscape, and creates a charged atmosphere that foreigners find hard to grasp”(Ladd 11). The feeling of being forced separated can be only truly understood by Berliners. Berlin Wall being physically a 27 miles long concrete wall did much more than a normal wall could ever do. The east side of Berlin finished building this wall in only a day. The East Berliners were forbidden to even speak out the word “wall”; While West Berliners were “free to heap scorn upon the Wall”(Ladd 4). After the wall, the two sides of Berlin became even more differently. The west got more free and capitalistic, and the west seems that it has be abandoned for years. Ladd argues that: “Only the ability to forget makes creative actions possible”(Ladd 11). Most Berliners did even want to remain pieces of the wall in the original site. Vendors were selling pieces from Berlin Wall to visitors after the Wall was being knock down entirely. The wall was becoming a symbol that everyone had a different story behind it. The question I have raised in my head is that what has this separation changed to Berliners towards warfare problems now?

The word “globalization” became increasingly popular these years. There are many truly supporters who really use this word for what they mean. However, there are also many people use “Globalization” as a buzzword. As a person who barely knows anything about globalization before, I felt this concept must be the trend for next decades immediately after I heard this word. However, the author of this book introducing Globalization, Matt Sparke also offered the idea of other options beside this fancy idea. There are also many downsides of this idea such as, developing unevenly and its effectiveness in real life versus ideology. My question after this reading is that what is the role for Germany now in a globalization world? Does the things happened in past century helped or disadvantaged Germany in today’s role?