Good for them! Hopefully they'll drop the Euro too and get out of the failed experiment of the European Union (commie lite, as I like to think of it.)
I've known a few people who came from communist countries. None of them have a good thing to say about it and from what they've told me I can only surmise that everywhere communism exists the people who are living under it are all looking for a way out.
One of them, "Charlie" Nguyen was from Viet Nam and had the worst experiences of the three. He and his brother fought in the ARVN for eight years up to the end of the war. After that they had to go underground until the late 70's when they were finally able to get to the Phillipines on a boat with over 100 people on it. They were able to come to the states with refugee status. His experiences with communism started when the Viet Cong came into his village. The first thing they did was roust the entire population into the town square. They grabbed the village elder and lashed him to a post and eviscerated him as a warning to everyone that they were in charge from here on out.
Charlie and his brother, along with all the other able bodied men from teens up to grey beards were then advised that they were now in the Viet Cong and marched away to begin training. Two weeks into this he and his brother were able to escape one night by swimming down a swollen river with swift current. Both almost drowned but it quickly put several miles between them and their captors. From there they joined the ARVN and were in continuous combat operations for the rest of the war. He goes back to Viet Nam every few years but he has to do it on the sly because to this day he remains a wanted man there. He flies to Thailand and walks into Viet Nam "through the back door" to visit his family members.
Carlos was a man I worked with for a few years until he retired. He got out of Cuba with several others by taking a stolen government patrol boat to Florida. According to him life in Castro's Cuba was no picnic. People are starving there at times. It is better for those who are communist party members, markedly better. The haves and the have nots. Carlos worked in construction there, in Havana. He described the areas where foreign tourists are allowed to be, the hotels, etc. Some of them are nice and modern, like what you would see here in the U.S. but it is deceiving.
You see what appears to be a street lined with hotels which one assumes are like the one they're staying in but apart from a few actual hotels the rest are facades. Decrepit old buildings that he worked on building false fronts to give the appearance of a sparkling modern city but it's all a big lie, just a big fake showcase that isn't real.
Foreigners are not allowed to venture far from specific areas and are closely watched.
"Ski" is a guy I was in the marines with. Him and his father got out of Poland on what turned out to be the last flight to the U.S. before the shipyard strike in Gdansk hit the fan. He was from a small city 40 miles south of Warsaw. They had waited a long time, years to obtain permission to leave and emigrate to the U.S. When it was finally allowed it turned out to be only for him and his father. This came shortly after his dad retired from his job as a high school teacher. The authorities had not extended the privilege to his mother or sisters. They would have to stay. They settled in Connecticut where ski finished high school and then joined the marines. His dad went back. Didn't care for it, couldn't adjust or likely just missed his family and in light of the situation back in Poland knew he wouldn't be able to get the rest of his family to come over so after just 6 months he returned to Poland.
They both marveled at the U.S., just overwhelmed by it all. The number of cars everywhere, the material wealth everyone seemed to possess and found it all to be quite astounding compared to Poland. His dad was particularly taken with grocery stores. "No limits, no ration cards, look at it all! Just take what you want and pay for it". Ski says his dad spent endless hours just riding the subways around NYC. He was amazed that you could hop on a subway anywhere at any time and just go. No waiting for the 3:00 o'clock train, etc. Back in Poland very few people had cars. It took more than ten years (Ronald Reagan really wasn't joking) of applying before his family was able to get a car, a used car. A crappy little Russian Lada. Fuel was another story, always rationed. You couldn't get any more than they would let you have, enough for your daily commuting but certainly not enough to travel to another city. For that you had to rely on public transportation, buses and trains, like everyone else.
Travel outside of Poland was possible and going to Russia was fairly easy. Getting into East Germany was more difficult to obtain permission for but possible. Western goods were somewhat available in East Germany, non existent in Poland and Russia. Ski said it was common for those lucky enough to be able to take a holiday in East Germany to take as much money with them as possible, American money. This you got on the black market and payed a premium for. You payed a lot for it and got little in return but you could spend it in East Germany under the table for things like Levi's blue jeans and western rock music on cassette tapes. Jewelry was big too and always swallowed for the return trip to Poland. All of this was like winning the lottery. Bringing that stuff back and selling it could make you a heap of money. All quite illegal of course and the authorities of course knew this was going on but looked the other way if you payed them off. Ski says that if you had a pair of American jeans and an AC/DC tape you were the shizzit. He often described life in Poland as compared to life in the U.S. as being like color and black & white. "life in Poland was like living in black & white, does that make sense?"
