New EU countries

EU got 10 new members on Saturday. (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta, in case you haven't noticed yet.) Don't know if it's a good thing. On one hand, I don't believe that eight of these are sufficiently civilized countries already (not sure about Cyprus and Malta). On the other hand, maybe joining the EU will help them get civilized faster without reducing the civilization level in the rest of the EU too much. They are poor, too, but they have fairly fast-growing and fairly free-market economies, which ought to be, at least to a degree, a good example to the rest of the EU.

Been to Prague and Budapest 3 years ago. Say what you may, but IMO a country where they try to cheat you in every second restaurant is not a civilized country - it's a banana republic. I hope they got better already, but am not holding my breath.

I don't know what will come out of this, but I am fairly optimistic, at least in the long run. Hey, for all it's worth: welcome to EU and try to be good.