Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yes, and it's unfair. Eastern Europe might be poor and corrupt in comparison to western Europe, but it's a shining beacon of prosperity in comparison to the vast majority of the world.
And do not forget that Eastern Europe is a shield between Europe and Asia. While Europe has evolved, Eastern Europe
fought, reflecting the hordes of Central Asia.
you are just talking something all europeans are well aware of.
It is harm more than good to have some poorer countries having EU membership for the richer EU countries.
There are also some negative associations or stereotypes people have with Eastern Europe from being part of the Eastern bloc, not being as prosperous as the western part, etc.
That's what you "friendly" western media makes you to believe: cold war never stopped, it continues on as informational war.
Eastern Europe especially Russia has always been a threat to the West becase of difference in the view on the World - easterners have diferent lifestyle, they won't sell their mothers for profit unlike westerners.
And the "prosperity" in the West is very subjective - majority of Western people eat junk food, spent most of their life at work because they spend everything they earn to get gadgets of all kinds and to pay off numerous debts.
If West is not going to change it's consumer oriented life style this planet is doomed, West will consume eventually all the earth resources and pollute everything which is not yet polluted.
As being in the unfortunate situation of being a neighboring country of the Big Bear, I consider ourselves experts on Russia. Saying that, we've been Novgorod's/Muscowy's/Russia's/USSR's/Russia's neighbor for a 1000 years, and we still don't really know or understand them.
Russia is the enigmatic thing in the east with weird customs and have frequently oppressed the neighboring countries, so I don't wonder at all that peoples like the Poles, Czech or Hungarians feel the "Eastern European" label as insulting, when they've been a part of the west all the time, not associated with the eastern giant "out there".
And I haven't got anything against Russia or its culture, not saying that, but especially in Russia's border countries the label 'east' has always mostly meant something negative and undesirable.
As an example: when Finland was a part of Sweden and we fought numerous wars against Russia, the free peasants were rallied by propaganda that if Finland is ceded to Russia all freemen will be forced into serfdom as was the situation there. Most other countries neighboring Russia probably have similar stories like this. After hundreds of years of propaganda, west was good and east was bad, and partially that still lives on today, even after the medieval times/ WWII/ Cold War etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
50 billion dollars 
The TV world is small these days... 
