Cheap Jack 92 – The City Guide to East and West

by Heinz Gabthuler (Feb 8, 2016)

Belgian French-speakers say souper whereas the French prefer dîner. In Minsk, the capital of "Belorussia", a restaurant called "Jubileinaja" close to the Metro station Nemiga is recommended, however with no comments. A train ticket from Bonn to Köln costs 7.80 DM, whereas a big meal in Rome may easily cost 24,000 Lire. In Budapest, "it is better to ask an agency to help in cheap accommodation as they are overcrowded in summer." Belfast is neither "a natural home of the beer connoisseur" nor "over-endowed with theatres, cinemas or major musical venues". The section on Catalonia is safely separated from the one on Spain by well over 60 pages, reflecting the fact that an SCI branch in Catalonia existed well before the branch in Madrid was established. The Finnish capital Helsinki "has many faces: cold and warm, east and west, and especially in the north," as well as "rich and poor." And "McDonald's" is called "McDonald's" in the otherwise pretty exotic-looking local language.

As I dare to derive from its title, this small booklet unites Lonely-Planet-style advice and, perhaps even unintentionally, ironic clichés. It was issued in 1992, just after the end of the Cold War, and the establishment of plenty of formerly rather unknown nation-states on the territory of the former Soviet Union. But the booklet also has exactly 92 pages. One may call it a modest SCI contribution to enable young people from both parts of a possibly unifying Europe to discover the other part. There is a section on Slovenia, but no section on Croatia, Serbia, or even Bosnia, reflecting the fact that in most of former Yugoslavia armies and militias were fighting over land and hegemony, and beyond the eastern borders of Slovenia was a touristic no-go area into which, among SCI folks, only very dedicated peace activists would set their feet.

On the cover, showing an upside-down copy of a city map of Vienna (the very city in between east and west!), we easily discover the SCI logo without PAX – so we can guess that the brochure had been layouted by SCI Germany, head of the East-West office during and after the Cold War. German-style is also the transcription of the above-mentioned Belarusian restaurant. But there is no imprint whatsoever, no foreword either, and no author, not even a collective one.

One can imagine that the authors, and maybe some of the users, too, must have had quite some fun. Most countries, with very few exceptions, are represented with only one city – typically the capital: Information on food, drinks, accommodation (usually written as "accommodation" with only one m in the middle, denouncing the authors as non-native English writers), cultural life, and in some cases additional intercultural teaching ("Irish people are easygoing and love to talk, drink, and sing") or even a slight portion of political criticism ("people in Slovenia have a strong tendency to forget that they have been part of the former Yugoslavia"). In countries with an SCI branch, a short introduction of the respective branch is not missing either – the Swiss branch, for instance, is reported having "quite a lot of members – a wide range from teenagers up to pensioners of Ceresole’s generation", and "the aims of SCI-Hellas comply with the international SCI ones, i.e. women’s liberation, preservation of peace, support of solidarity, freedom and voluntarism [sic!], prevention of environmental destruction, promotion of international understanding". Also, some of the eastern European partner organizations of the time got the opportunity to present themselves: FIYE Poland (rather the direct successor of the old communist youth organization than the precursor of the future SCI branch OWA!) and Austeja Lithuania, "looking forward to fruitful cooperation, strengthening mutual understanding and fulfilling human aspirations between youth organizations of Lithuanian and other countries".

Heinz Gabathuler, International Archives Coordinator

In the SCI International Archives, an issue of the cheap jack 92 (measuring 205 x 135 x 5 mm) can be found in box 11113.