School children demolish colourful wall

A barricade of coloured shoe boxes that cordoned off part of Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta, came tumbling down yesterday morning as school children marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

About 150 primary students from 10 state colleges shouted out in delight as they tore down the "wall" of shoe boxes they had patiently "built" just moments earlier and exchanged the messages inside.

They also released 99 "borderless (but biodegradable) balloons" to the sound of Nena's song 99 Red Balloons, except the balloons were blue. Each one had a message attached to the string encouraging the person who finds it to contact the school in a bid to spark communication with the students.

The symbolic event was re-enacted across primary schools in all the 27 EU member states in order to encourage dialogue between Europeans.

The activity, coordinated by the Directorate for Educational Services, was financed by the French Ministry for European Affairs to ensure youngsters learn all about this historic event.

The 96-mile wall erected in August 1961 had split Germany into east and west. It was a death strip, overlooked by more than 300 watchtowers and guarded by minefields to ensure nobody crossed over. It came down on November 9, 1989, marking a turning point for Europe and the world.

Mario Schiavone, who was a journalist and editor of In-Nazzjon newspaper at the time, shared his experience of covering the event with the students.

Mr Schiavone was in Germany with 13 other journalists when they heard commotion on the east side of the wall: "Checkpoint Charlie was closed but a Thai journalist persuaded an American officer to sneak us into a truck with his soldiers and the two of us crossed over".

They slept on the benches in the streets for two nights but were rewarded with a great story when the people began to breach the wall on the third night.

The director general at the Directorate for Educational Services, Micheline Sciberras said freedom was a fundamental right for all humanity and should be fought for and cherished.

"We are free to roam like these balloons and so should all the people. We should refrain from allowing walls to come up between us in our daily lives and never fight and leave one another out," she said.