After the Wall

Five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, people in the countries of the former Soviet bloc are finding that freedom has brought mixed blessings. A Czech dissident is disappointed by an increase in greediness and selfishness while an old soldier is frustrated by what he sees as the ineffective laws in the new Czech Republic. An unemployed factory worker in Poland leads a miserable existence on pitiful social security hand-outs but another Pole has few regrets about returning to his homeland after 30 years in exile. A headhunter in Hungary and a detective in Poland are both doing well.