Syntext

20 years later

2009-06-04T17:27:00.003+01:00

Exactly 20 years ago, 4th June 1989, Poles took part in their first free elections since WWII. This day is celebrated all over the country and among the Poles abroad as a birth of democracy.
It is amazing how far we have come during this 20 years. From a repressed nation we have grown to the nation that feels proud for their country, is adventurous and ready to conquer the world.

UK vs. DK

2009-04-29T17:22:00.007+01:00

One of many differences between United Kingdom and Denmark: the Police. Have a look.

UK Police

DK Police

Beware of the motocycle

2009-04-20T20:32:00.006+01:00

Police in Poland came up with this new campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of reckless motorcycle riding. The poster on the left reads:The spring is coming, there will be vegetables. Vegetables, meaning of course the young men paralyzed after motorbike accident. The campaign has raised a debate and was called by many insensitive and/or cruel. However, if even one kid is spared the life on the wheelchair because this poster made him slow down, it's absolutely worth it.

Strongly recommended: Życie jest Sceną

2009-04-09T20:25:00.006+01:00

Sabat Theatre on Foksal Street in Warsaw is the only musical revue theatre in Poland and, I dare say, one of a kind. Luxurious décor in the style of French cabaret with sumptuous red velvet on the floors and furniture with golden elements introduce you to the mood of the show. Additional welcome champagne and scantly dressed (common theme) hostess only add to the feel. Soon enough you find yourself sitting at the table and sipping the drink of your choice (not included in the price of the ticket) and enjoying piano music from the scene.

Finally, the show starts. And it is enchanting. Yes, of course, there are several minor drawbacks but the pretty and gracious girls from Sabat Balet in beautiful outfits make up for any faults.

The stars of the show however are the 3 young men: Mariusz Jaśko, Dariusz Ryniec and Rafał Sadowski. Their voices are heavenly and they act so gentlemanly that any women’s heart will melt in sweet desire. Warm and tender voice of Mariusz Jaśko, when he sings Belle from Notre Dame de Paris, will lull you to sleep for the next few weeks to come.

In short: art-lovers, come and enjoy great performance; men, get ready for gorgeous, half-necked dancers in tempting, feathered costumes; and ladies…well, you’ve dreamt about these men all your lives.

For more information have a look at: http://www.teatr-sabat.pl/

Education? Bring it on!

2009-01-17T12:52:00.008Z

According to UNESCO stats when it comes to education Poland finds itself on average in the middle of the tables. The state spends 5.6% GDP on education - 41st place out of 132 countries. The enrollment ratio on secondary level reaches 90.9% (11th of 135) and on tertiary level it is as high as 55.5% (18th of 151 before the Netherlands, France or Italy).

This however doesn't seem to satisfy the Ministry of Education who has recently released new program expectations for pre-school kids. Wyborcza.pl quotes MEN irrational ideas. The pre-schools (aged around 5) will from now on have to be able to safely organize their spare time, to take rational decisions and contemplate in silence and concentration art and classical music. They should also show interest in the...interior design and architecture of greenery.I sure as hell hope that this means that they will build doll houses and water the plants...

My sentiments exactly

2008-11-25T13:21:00.003Z

And once again Seth Godin put in words what I had tried to and failed:

Just doing my job

My feminism

2008-11-19T16:11:00.004Z

One of my lectures this week was about the theory of feminism in International Relations. It is a broad topic and I won't even try to summarize it here. For those of you who are interested in having a deeper insight I strongly recommend reading Cynthia Enloe's books. This time Wikipedia does not seem to provide any reliable articles...
But to the point. This post is not about the theory of feminism but about my feminism in its most practical aspects.

Let me propose a sort of manifesto here, that will summarize my views on how to be a practical feminist:

1. Do not struggle against men (or women). That is sad, exhausting and unnecessary. It takes your mind of yourself and your loved ones.
2. Do not let any men humiliate you. In fact do not let anyone humiliate you. Invest in yourself and the ones you love. Respect yourself and earn respect of others.
3. Teach your children to respect others, men and women alike.

It may seem simple or even simplistic but it will make your life much happier than the feminist prescriptions and it will eventually solve any problems that may still exist.

Bottom-up my friends, that's what I always say!

Government’s mentality – Big Brother

2008-09-28T14:40:00.002+01:00

The general public in the UK oppose introduction of personal IDs, main argument being that with IDs the authorities will be able to track everyone down. And while this might be a valid argument in any other state, it definitely isn’t one in this case. The life of UK citizens is closely supervised by several agencies. And I am not talking conspiracy theory.

The suspicion and spying starts with NINo and obligatory election registration and ends with 14 CCTV cameras per person and random police searches throughout London tube. The paternalistic state is restless. Citizen! Register your oyster card and make sure that your state knows your daily routs.

The cause of opposing state control is already lost for the UK. National ID will not further the government’s invigilation of personal space, because there is no more personal space left in this country. It will however immensely simplify a regular Englishman’s life, reduce excessive bureaucracy and cut insane official procedures short.

The powerful consumer?

2008-08-31T13:10:00.003+01:00

Seth Godin has this blog that I have started to read regularly. And recently he posted an entry that I find very true.

Godin writes, and I agree, that you get what you pay for. If you agree to keep paying for a service that is crappy, you will keep getting a crappy service. If you keep taking the imbecile, commercial laden, free newspapers, they will keep handing them out. If you keep your frustration with bad service to yourself, the service will stay that way.

You are the consumer and, no matter how big the company you are dealing with, you matter. You have the voice, because the marketers care for you and you only.
If the service was bad, call, write an email, don’t use it in the future. If the bank charges too much or looses your money, change the bank. If the courier lost your package, or delayed the delivery, express your frustration to the courier, on your blog or to your friends.

Old saying goes: evil can only thrive when good people do nothing. Well, guess what? Bad service can only thrive when consumers stay passive!

The Discontent Consumer

2008-07-19T15:54:00.002+01:00

I have recently fallen prey to a spell of very bad customer service. And unfortunately any person living in the UK will tell you that there is nothing surprising in it. In this country people get screwed over and over again and they are so used to it, they will not complain. But to the point:

The Royal Mail

For months now we have been receiving mail that was not for us. The address sounded similar to ours but was not the same. I mentioned it to our postman a number of times and was reassured that it would not happen again. Obviously it did. I was considering filing a complaint with Royal Mail but my assumptions about institutions of this kind are rather negative so I didn’t feel there was any point. But what happened next was too bitter to swallow, as they say. Namely a 2nd REMAINDER was left at my door about a package that was waiting for me at the post. There was no notice of any kind in the first place, but I did get a reminder. What a pity that I had by the time received reimbursement from Amazon for the package that had been ordered but never arrived.

NHS System or Plan Your Illness in Advance

I fall ill. Nothing serious but because it was a reoccurring event and I needed a sick note for my employer I decided to register with my local GP and book a visit with the good doctor. However NHS has devised a system that would only treat you for illnesses that you had planned in advance. Upon arrival at the surgery I was told that I can register but I will not be seen by any doctor for at least a week because a new patient health check has to be performed. I invited them to do just that but was told that the check does not involve me seeing a doctor. I was also advised to visit a walk-in center if I need to see a doctor urgently.

Once I reached the walk-in center it turned out that it was a nurse-led unit so no sick notes could be issued. Nevertheless I waited patiently to be seen by someone and advised as to my health problems. The nurse, who eventually called my name, was not interested in what I had to say. She was clearly annoyed with me wasting her valuable time for a simple cold and her advise was : register with the GP, drink a lot of fluids, take ibuprofen. That’s a health care for you!

Amtrak

And last but not least is my adventure with Amtrak, not yet concluded. I ordered a package (an expensive one) from BT shop and BT sent it with Amtrak. Two days into the process I decided to check the smart tracking system that Amtrak is providing for its customers. To my surprise the package has evidently been delivered and signed for by some SORAYA. I don't think I need to explain to anyone that I have not seen the package so far, that I am not Soraya and that I don't know anyone with this name. To make the matters worse I spent approximately two and a half hours (150 minutes) in total on hold, trying to reach Amtrak and solve the problem. Sadly, to no avail. I will continue calling on Monday...

Polish Sacred Cows’ Illness

2008-06-22T18:49:00.001+01:00

Recently Poland has been badly shaken by yet another socio-political scandal, a scandal that managed to divide Polish intellectual elites and destroy the good name of Polish National Memory Institute, a state-founded historic research institution. The problem revolved around the existence of sacred cows in the nation’s common memory.

IPN is a body of historians who work to uncover the historical truths of the pre-’89 period. Their work involves reading through tones of documents left by the Soviet administration and assessing which ones are true and which were falsified. The difficulty of the task lies in the fact that Soviet administration destroyed many real papers and fabricated quite a few in their place.

And so a few days ago 2 historians from IPN announced that they were going to publish a booklet containing information of ex-president Wałęsa’s cooperation with SB, Soviet security services. Now, in any normal country this information would be discussed, it is after all rather shocking, and people would wait for the publication itself. They would than read the book and, if it contains proofs, judge Wałęsa in their own consciousness or, if the proofs happen to be unconvincing, forget the whole fuss. In any normal country, any other Wałęsa would either be scared of some documents that someone may have against him or would get ready to take the lier to court as soon as the book is published.

In Poland, the country of sacred cows, even before the book was published half of the intellectualls sent open letters and fervant appeals not to drug Wałęsa’s good name through the mud, not to profane the sacrecy of his authority. Meanwhile the other half devised open letters and fervant appeals to protect the democracy and freedom of speach. And Wałęsa himself, in his devine outrage, accussed IPN of corruption, dark interests and cooperation with evil forces.

It pisses him off

2008-05-28T12:02:00.003+01:00

“It pisses me off that the super of my country is an idiot” said recently Polish musician and songwriter, Kazik. He did not specify neither who he meant nor what he meant exactly but one can assume that he referred to the Prime Minister Tusk. It is hard to discuss this statement as Kazik didn’t see fit to give any examples or arguments supporting his opinion. Nevertheless let’s try to assess how Poland has changed in the first half a year of Tusk’s rule.

Admittedly, internally not much has changed. The teachers and nurses are on strike every now and then demanding more money that is nowhere to be seen. Historians accuse this or that one of cooperating with soviet special services before ’89. Politicians find pleasure in throwing mud at each other. The opposition accuses the coalition of controlling the media and the coalition accuses the opposition of controlling the police or the business or yet something else. And everyone accuses everyone of corruption. And the lady in the international ticket window at Warsaw Central Train Station still speaks only Polish and Russian.

And the society? The society is bored, disillusioned, and disgusted with the political games and once again will not go voting in the next elections. Luckily, the society also lives its own life. It prospers enjoying the economic growth, it travels and it looks for new chances to develop. Rather independently from the politicians. To quote Polish saying: dogs are barking but the caravan goes forward.

There is however one thing that has to be counted to the advantage of Tusk and his crew. And that is the new Polish foreign policy. During the period of Kaczyński’s government Poland was treated as a patient of special care, a hooligan and a bother. Nowadays Sarkozy comes to Warsaw to talk with an important partner for common agriculture policy and to assure the support of this partner during French presidency in EU. German foreign ministry accepts and supports Polish project of „Eastern Union” i.e. broader cooperation between EU and its eastern partners. And the Poland-US missile shield negotiations are progressing despite occassional nervous outcrys of senior officials from the White House.

So do I agree with Kazik? No I don’t. Even if Tusk is failing in the internal affairs he is heavily helpped in this by all the ridiculous ‘affairs’ that are brought about by politicians from all around the political spectrum. And yet he menages to stir among those problems and come out with good ideas that improve Polish standing internationally. Now I would say this is an achievement.

"Minister X and his fiance Y abducted by the UFO!"

2008-04-27T09:06:00.004+01:00

Frankly, I don't know if this post is more about political or press culture in Poland. There are two options. It is either the political life that has nothing better to offer to the press than scandals, romances, very-often-absurd-accusation, and kindergarten level insults, or it is the press that is unwilling to write about bills, taxes and policies and chooses all the dirt instead. Either which way it is pathetic. How can one of the leading press titles use the fact that the Prime Minister called the President a "Monster? No, rather a Cookiemoster" in their news feeds? How can the Prime Minister even say something like this? Furthermore what kind of press culture is it when two big newspapers throw insults at each other instead of conveying facts and allowing the reader to choose his/her option? That is below any level.
Now, it is not to say that nothing like this happens elsewhere. Of course one can find ridiculous articles in the US or UK. Of course one knows now that a London mayor candidate smoked pot as a youngster and another has a child out of wedlock. But one knows it from free newspapers distributed on the tube rather from the Independent or the Guardian. It doesn't make first pages of the main titles and it does not happen everyday.
I wish I could read Wyborcza or Rzeczpospolita and not feel board to death by meaningless content.

In Britain you're guilty until proved innocent...

2008-03-16T08:40:00.009Z

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), made a statement in which he advises to put primary school children on DNA database if their behavior indicates that they may become criminals in the future. According to him, such a database would help preventing crimes.
The idea seems however illogical and against any democratic values that Britain has followed until now.
First of all, how is the database going to help preventing crimes? If you have a DNA sample that you can compare with the DNA sample found on the crime scene you can catch a criminal, you cannot prevent this crime.
Second of all, it is against democratic values to stigmatize a child of 5 (or any other age really) as a future criminal and keep his/her record in the database no matter what this young person will do with his/hers life in the future.
Third of all, what if someone looses the data (happened in this country before) or sells them? Than a person who has possibly never committed a crime will be treated as a criminal by possible employers, police, insurance company etc.
And lastly, if you want to target 5 years old kids who may become criminals, why not doing this. And than, instead of branding them as criminals and spending thousands of pounds to update your database, spend this money for a well-design program preventing those youngsters from becoming criminals.
In one word: why building up a system of punishment when we can work to prevent the crime?

See more on Guardian

Get yourself a spin doctor

2008-03-14T12:09:00.005Z

In an interview for his party official web page, the ex-prime minister of Poland and leader of the opposition party (PiS-Law and Justice), Jarosław Kaczyński said recently that he was against Internet voting. His opinion, he stated, stemed from the fact that, as we all know, Internet users are easily manipulated, lazy creatures, who drink their beer while watching their porn. Now, people like this should not vote, should they?
My only question is: where were his spin doctors? His PR team? Anyone really? It is bad enough that he would say something like this in an interview for a web page, for HIS web page. But the fact that only a few weeks ago his party decided on winning "hearts and souls" of young and educated voter gives this statement a whole new dimension. How miserable must the party's state be if the leader doesn't follow the party's policy?

Avenue Q

2008-03-07T17:36:00.004Z

This week, celebrating my very good friend's birthday, I bought 2 tickets to Avenue Q musical (check the web here) and it turned out to be a hit. The show itself is funny and gives you a chance to laugh out loud more than once during those 2h15min. And the actors, with their body language and face mimics give life to the furry puppets à la Sesame Street. This combined with very good texts, pointing out the irony of life, amounts to comic feast.
The only criticism is that the plot line itself may not be deep and complex, but after all, that is not why we go to see a musical.
To sum up: solid fun and worth the £20 per ticket.
After the musical ended, me and my friend, thirsty of adventures, we decided to hit the bars of Covent Garden. And let me tell you : middle of the week is the time to go out in London - no crowds, happy hours and half-prizes and, above all, relaxed bartenders who have time to flirt with you! Much more enjoyable than any weekend evening in this city.

news choice - the comparison

2008-02-28T20:25:00.005Z

Just a choice of news titles in few world newspapers on 29.02:

1. The Guardian
-Israel bombs Gaza after Hamas blast
-Deportation of terror suspect banned
-Prince Harry secretly serving in Afghanistan
-Writer to get EU protection - Somali-born Dutch activist facing death threats for her criticism of Islam to get police protection anywhere in EU, says top justice official.
-Islamophonic podcast
2. BBC world
-US warship deployed to Lebanon
-Cameroon children held hostage
-Fears grow for Farc sick hostage
3. Wyborcza
- Muslims against terrorism - an article on a new book by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed based on their poll among several tens of thousands of Muslims which showed that 93% of them is against terrorism and 90% would like democracy.

Isn't it interesting that no English speaking newspaper commented on that? Isn't it an important news? Or is it more important to keep the image of the 'enemy'?

On personal data protection in England

2008-02-26T09:06:00.004Z

The summer is coming and I decided it would be a good idea to shape up a bit and buy a bike. But first I wanted to make sure that London provides enough bikers paths and that I won't be killed straight away. I spent some time asking in shops and bookstores for biker's map to London and finally someone mentioned that there should be something on tfl (Transport for London) website. Intrigued, I checked and to my big surprise there it was!
Tfl provides free biker's maps for London. I ordered 7 (as they should serve me and my boyfriend) and only after 4 days I received the package. So far, so good. The maps are of good quality and very helpful for anyone who wants to bike around London. I was just about to devour my new maps, when I looked at the envelope and froze. On top of it there was, proud and shiny, the order sheet. And on the order sheet there was my name, my address, my email address and my mobile number. Just like this, for each and every person to read and enjoy.
So even though the maps are great, I would never advertise this service to anyone. Stupidity prevails!

Long live Kosovo?

2008-02-21T11:09:00.006Z

On the 17th of February the Parliament of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. And, even though the move was planned for several months and experts from EU and UN had worked with Albanian officials to create a stable state, the proclamation itself provoked quite a bit of stir in the international community.
Surely enough Serbia and Serbian minority in Kosovo protested loudly and bitterly about the newly created country. The head of Orthodox Church in Serbia called for military actions and appealed to Russia (who is surprisingly mute this time) for help. Luckily enough no real actions followed. And according to many experts nothing will follow, seeing as Kosovo is an important market for Serbian trade and, economically speaking, it is not worth the fuss.
As mentioned before, the USA and UN generally supported the independence aspirations of Kosovo but with small exceptions. Spain, for instance, refused to recognize the new state in fear of encouraging Basque separatist movement at home and creating problems for themselves.
The question that comes to mind when reading about Kosovo and the overwhelming joy of its citizens is : is it even worth it?
Sure, Kosovo is now a country with its own government and policies and the people have the independence, they dreamed of - at least the nominal one.
Because in fact Kosovo is dependent from Serbia and Russia, not much less than it was before, in terms of energy supplies and trade. It is a small country, situated next to the angry and much bigger neighbor, who will not accept its existence for a long, long time.
In addition to its international situation, Kosovo will also suffer from the typically Balkan disease : minority rush. Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Romani people, Goranis and Bosniaks...that's a lot to take even for a strong and well constituted state.
One way or another I keep my fingers crossed for the new member of international community and I hope Kosovians will feel that their independence was worth all the troubles.

Newsweek vs. The Economist

2008-02-19T22:17:00.004Z

Being a typical member of my generation, I read my news online. Guardian, BBC, Wyborcza, Der Spiegel online, Le Monde - there is enough choice. Morning means tea, cereals and igoogle webpage with all the news I may need.
Nevertheless I have recently decided that, apart from the news, I could use some good analysis of current events. Surprisingly enough, British press does not offer to wide selection in this respect but after getting some recommendations and spending some time in front of the press shelf I decided to buy two magazines, Newsweek and The Economist.
Here is what I found after reading through them:
The first and obvious difference is in scope and interest of both magazines. While Newsweek is printed in the US and concentrates mostly on this part of the world, The Economist is published in London (in both cases we are talking about the edition that is available to buy in London) and it scope is much broader. It is not to say that Newsweek does not mention other countries and parts of the world, but this is definitely limited.
The second thing worth mentioning is the style and the language of both titles. It was somewhat a surprise for me to read in this weeks Newsweek that "My boss liked the story - but his boss, a 43-year old former Washington bureau chief, was skeptical." (Andrew Romano in "He's one of us now" on Feb. 18th p.24). I was also not very much impressed by the use of words such as catchy or antsy. I can't help myself but think that once again Americans, trying to break conventions, loose an important idea behind them. And while, on the whole, Newsweek can make for a good read with reasonably good analysis of current events, it just seems as if it was too simplistic and familiar to really bring about certain values of good journalism.
In the same time The Economist, being much more professional in style, allows the reader to gain insight in political and social events from around the world. And, thanks to the location of its offices in different parts of the globe, it escapes the danger of looking at everything from one perspective only.

On US Missile-Defense Shield in Poland

2008-02-03T19:36:00.000Z

For quite some time now Poland and US government officials were discussing the possibility of placing missile-defense shield on our territory. And, although there was some trouble with agreeing on conditions and remunerations, it seems that we are finally getting there.
Last week our Foreign Affairs Minister Radek Sikorski (and not, as some US newspapers would have it, Sikorsky) met with Condoleezza Rice and they agreed on agreeing. However funny it may sound this is exactly what happened. They agreed that they will agree to each others conditions and the agreeing will take place when, in March, Polish prime minister Tusk will meet with Bush. The only thing they haven't decided yet, is whether Poland should get the Patriot missiles, as Sikorski wants it.
Now, as to whether the missile-defense system is a good development for Poland, is not so clear to me.
On the positive side :
- we gain new ally
- our military system gets boosted
- there will be some additional job for people living in the area
- we will get to build some infrastructure for uncle Sam's dollars
On the negative side:
- we supposedly already gained this same ally while the whole Iraq adventure, yet we still need visas to enter US
- we possibly become a much more interesting target for terrorists (?)
- we risk being seen as US-puppets in the eyes of other EU states
- and last but not least there is the whole Russia problem
It seems that Russia, that for a while now did not have a very 'warm' relations with Poland, perceives the installation of US anti-missile system on Polish territory as a threat to its own security. On the 3rd February 2008 we were officially warned by Dimitry Rogozin (Russian representative to NATO) not to put ourselves on the line of conflict. Poland should remember the 2nd WW, says Rogozin, and the fact that 1/3 of its population was killed. Now, one has to agree that this is not a very diplomatic way of formulating statement. Especially not one that carries that much weight.
While I see how having US military installation under its big nose may annoy Russia and how it is probably not so smart for Poland to necessary have an enemy in such a powerful neighbor, the Russian way of pronouncing this opinions is simply not acceptable. This is not a state official talking, it is a simple political hooligan and crook.
One way or another, I haven't decided yet if I am for or against the shield but I must say that, for the first time in my life, I trust my politicians. I trust the competence of prime minister Tusk and I trust the expertise of Foreign Affairs Minister Sikorski.

Read more about it on:
in Polish
BBC (in English)
Guardian (in English)
Sikorski's biography in English

You're in the army now...

2008-01-07T09:32:00.000Z

Some time ago, it was brought to my attention how American and British army recruit their soldiers. And I must say I was amazed at how biased this process was. It is enough to check www.armyjobs.mod.uk for Britain or www.goarmy.com for the US to see one huge commercial. According to both webpages the army is no longer about fighting. It isn't even about protecting your country (well, maybe a tiny bit about that). It is about huge career opportunity, holidays in exotic places, safe future, handsome guys and cute girls in tailored uniforms hugging kids. That is what the army is about. Neither of the websites talk about commitment, following orders, responsibility and finally the possibility of dying or being wounded.
The websites are modern and shiny and quite obviously aimed at teenagers. 16 years old kids who know nothing about life and who are so easy to manipulate. Now, I would probably let it go because I was expecting the Army to behave more responsibly once the kid comes for the first meeting. Turns out I was wrong. Here is what I found in todays BBC NEWS ONLINE for UK:
'The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust says recruits are unable to make informed choices about enlisting and children are being targeted.
...
They can't know what they'll want at age 20 when they're 16. At the moment there is no effort to introduce the downside of Armed Forces life.
I'm not saying their recruitment literature needs to show the full horrors of war. But I think they need to reflect a more balanced picture."
The report - Informed Choice? Armed Forces and Recruitment Practice in the UK - makes a number of claims.
These include how for every two 16-to-22 year olds joining the army, one is leaving.
It also states that in 2007, a survey found 48% of all soldiers found army life to be worse than expected, with only 20% thinking it was better.
The report also says many recruits enlist without fully understanding their legal obligations and that literature fails to mention how unless they leave within six months of enlisting, minors have no legal right to leave for four years.'
(Full text at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7174431.stm)

The Army, of course, denies the accusations, saying that since the media coverage of different wars is so wide, they have no way (and no need?) to hide the truth. But that is not the point. The point is that the army, selling something different than Next or H&M, should make dame bloody sure that everyone knows what they are getting into.

Gillian Gibson in Sudan

2007-12-01T15:31:00.001Z

A British teacher, Gillian Gibson, has been recently arrested in Sudan after she had had her students call a teddy bear Mohammed. According to Shariah, law she insulted the prophet and was facing up to a year in jail or 40 lashes. In the end she was sentenced 15 days in jail and expulsion from the country.
The interesting background of the story is the press coverage it got. Not only every single newspaper in England wrote day in and day out about it, but also many newspapers around the world took it up.
Now the part really worth noticing is the fact that all the popular free papers were boiling with the rage over such an injustice and quoting fanatic Muslims who called for the teacher to be killed. It turns out now that the fanatics were quiet possibly paid for their shouts and the rest of the Sudanese society didn't feel that strongly about the situation.
It is funny how the job that is done in Sudan by paid mob can, quiet easily, be done in England by uninformed tabloids looking for scandals. Both are agents of anger, hatred and intolerance.

The Polish mess

2007-07-30T12:58:00.000+01:00

For almost 2 years now Polish politics is a real mess. Hardly any Polish person can understand what is really going on, so I won't even mention other nations. I decided to go briefly through the situation in order to organise it for myself and maybe make some readers interested.

Main actors:

--------------coalition - or what is still now coalition-----------------
PiS - Prawo i Sprawiedliwość - Law and Justice - right wing, conservative, Christian democratic party compared by many to German CSU.
- Jarosław Kaczyński - current party president and prime minister of Poland
- Lech Kaczyński - current president of Poland
LPR - Liga Polskich Rodzin - The League of Polish Families - national conservative party
- Roman Giertych - leader of the party, he was the minister of education and deputy prime minietser until recently - not sure how this will end up.
Samoobrona - Selfdefence - agrarian political party, left-wing populism and social conservatism is where they stand
- Andrzej Lepper - leader of the party and, until 9th of July, deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture

--------------------sleeping beauty, i.e. opposition--------------------
PO - Platforma Obywatelska - Civic Platform - they are liberal conservatists but in fact they stand pretty much in the centre + liberalism in economy
- Donald Tusk - party leader, he lost to Kaczyński during 2005 elections

Background:
In autumn 2005, against all expectations, PiS wins parlamentary and presidential elections, beating up PO and Tusk.
The two parties (PO was still pretty well represented in Parliament) try to create a coalition but they fail spectacularly for which both, Kaczynski and Tusk are to be blamed.
PiS decides to enter into coalition with extreme-right LPR and Samoobrona, leader of which is a convicted hooligan and criminal. LPR and Samoobrona agree to pretty much all the conditions they got in exchange for which Lepper becomes the minister of agriculture and Giertych the minister of education + they both get the deputy prime minister titles.
The happy gang makes as much mess as they can including:
sex-affair in Samoobrona
Lepper saying : well, one can't rape a prostitute, can one?
Giertych introducing "zero tolerance for school violence" programme - which seems smart enough except that, according to the programme, any person wearing black, any person having own ideas and any person being at all individual = criminal and Satanist.
Girtych trying to remove a few very important books from the list of compulsory reading at school on the ground that they don't support Polish identity and patriotism.
Throwing insults direction opposition and back.
And finally the whole gang producing not very logical idea concerning EU voting system. And please do not misunderstand me, the fact that they have an idea and want to introduce it doesn't make them ridiculous in my eyes, even if I disagree with the idea itself. The fact that one of their arguments was "cause if not the IIWW we would have had much bigger population and therefore more votes" does make them ridiculous.

Recent Action (the culmination of mess):
In short : LPR and Samoobrona decides that PiS just wants to give them orders so it is time to disagree (for the sake of disagreeing - or so it seems).
PiS threatens them with early elections (still this year and not in 2 years). Early elections are a serious threat because LPR and Samoobrona are rather unpopular at the moment and there is a good chance they wouldn't even enter the Parliament this time.
LPR and Samoobrona get quiet for a moment but soon they start to play childish games again.
There is a serious investigation in Lepper's department (possibly influenced by Kaczyński brothers) and Lepper looses his post. He makes a lot of noise about it but can't really do anything.
Giertych threatens he would quit as well if there is no commission checking if the investigation was lawful.
The brothers send letter to coalition parties setting rules "of good governing" to which the parties have to agree if they want to stay in the coalition.
The parties refuse to agree but the next Parliament session is on the 22 of August and until than all of them can only shout a lot.

Now, if there is no more coalition, PiS faces minority government and has no chance of introducing any law or in fact any constructive action. The only other solution is earlier Parliamentary elections which will most probably give the most votes to PO, than PiS and few other, much smaller parties. Samoobrona and LPR most probably won't enter the Parliament at all.

A bit more personal

2007-07-29T12:21:00.000+01:00

Since a while now I am looking for a job. It is quite a chellange when you are "just" a student and need a part time position.
At first I was ambitious looking for office junior, office assistant or at least data entry clerck. I could do all of those jobs, moreover I could do them better than quite a few graduates from this country, but it seems that the word "student" stands for "irresponsible, lazy, immature". Employers are scared. In fact I do hope it is about the word "student" rather than the word "Polish" in my CV.

Now I am going for holidays, but when I come back I'll be done with ambition and will start looking for barista, weitress or shop assistant instead. Well, that's what you get when you decided to study a bit longer.

Multiculturalism

2007-07-20T12:23:00.000+01:00

Throughout human history peoples influenced each other and mixed to create new societies and new cultures. This situation used to take place both in peaceful and violent ways. Already in the Roman Empire we find examples of both destruction and persecution of cultures that seemed threatening to the mainstream roman society, as well as accommodation of needs of various religions and sects. Jewish culture, for example, was accepted and supported by roman authorities whereas certain tribal communities of Gaul were practically eradicated.

Until the development of European Christendom decisions of destroying other cultures were based on purely practical grounds and only with the appearance of so called universal European culture did people start to perceive other, different ways of life as morally inferior and often evil.

Nowadays however the situation is different. We encourage the mixing of cultures by opening our borders (UK, France), creating bigger entities such as European Union or creating so called immigrant states (USA, Canada, Australia). We appreciate the value of diversity and feel the need to preserve dying cultures. This situation however creates a lot of problems and poses questions which we are at present forced to answer.

What is the meaning of this for us? The citizens of Europe?
Well, look around. London, Paris, Berlin, even Warsaw. Everywhere you look, you see more and more complex mosaic of colours, styles, religions and ways of life. Even if you live in some smaller city where the society seems more or less homogeneous, it is enough for you to switch on the TV or open the newspaper to enter the global civil society and listen about the earthquake in Japan, new charity action in Africa or refugees from Cuba reaching the shores of USA.
As Parekh writes in "Rethinking Multiculturalism" : “Thanks to globalization and the changing nature of modern technology, no society today can insulate itself against external influences. Capital, technology, people, ideas and so on move freely across territorial boundaries and introduce new forms of thought and life. … Since cultural diversity characterizes almost all societies albeit in different degrees, they must find ways of coming to terms with and even profiting from it” (Parekh, 2006, p.171).
That's what we started by sending Vasco de Gama, Amerigo Vespucci, Christopher Columbus and all the others to sail and discover.

Surely we can all sit down and complain about how difficult it is to peacefully coexist, how "they" take our jobs or how strange "they" are. Letting other culture to develop next to our own, or better even in tight relations wih our own can be a real danger especially if we remember that a culture can be destroyed easily but takes years to be created and therefore we can at certain point of time be left with the cultural void without any kind of guidelines showing us how to live and create social bonds. Those are understandable problems and fears.
And maybe it is even truth what the conservatives claim. Maybe "a homogenous society has its strengths. It facilitates a sense of community and solidarity, makes interpersonal communication easier, sustains a thick culture, is held together with relative ease, is psychologically and politically economical, and can count on and easily mobilize its members’ loyalties” (Parekh, 2006, p.170). But we are left with no choice! The world is far more interconected than we would even think and we are living in a multicultural society.
The only real choice we have is between wars, riots, terrorists and heathred on one side and dialogue, peaceful coexistance and enriching experience. I think the choice is obvious.

Through dialogue and willingness to compromise on both sides we, the global civil society, stand the chance to create a peaceful and happy existance for us and the future generations.

------------to be continued------------

some time later

2007-07-08T18:43:00.000+01:00

So, I came back from Poland/Germany trip, we went with Peter to Denmark to visit his parents, my sister and her friend visited us in London, than some bad bad people tried to explode some cars which they totally failed to do and in the end Apple released iPhones.
That's in short the world and my privet life for the last month.

I would however like to analyse one thing i.e. "bombing" in London.

Paragraph I: the "bombing" in London
As you might have noticed I insist on puting "bombing" into quotation mark. And there is a very good reason for this. Not only the bombing didn't really happen, nothing exploded and noone got hurt (except one of the "terrorists" - they get their quotation mark too) but also it was the most amateur terrorist attempt ever. The cars didn't explode, the bombs inside were poorely made, so they couldn't have made too much troubles, the "terrorists" were using their own mobile phones to set off the bombs, which made it scary easy for the police and, to top it all, the second car was only discovered because the "terrorists" didn't pay the parking ticket and police wanted to tow it away. How lame is that? Any RPG player could have prepared a better plan. Seriously!
The only people who actually cared for the whole affair were:
- Gordon Brown, who felt that he has to behave like a man and introduce first level of terrorist attac.
- Media of all sorts, who claimed that bombs could have killed 1700 people (numbers taken out of thin air, knowing, from Iraq example, that car bombs can kill up to 50 people), and that London froze in terror and the streets were empty for the whole weekend (German TV, aparently not counting gay pride parade as enough traffic).
Last interesting fact : all the people who took part in the farce were doctors working legaly in UK. Maybe they didn't earn enough...in the end Polish doctors are also on the edge of storming the Parliament.

The time has come...

2007-06-10T15:21:00.000+01:00

And so I created a blog. And it was good. Now the time has come to fill it with content.

I'll start with current events in Polish and American politics. I don't know if this topic is as popular in the rest of Europe as it is in Poland, but here you can hardly watch anything that is not mentioning THE MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM!
Bush and his administration offered Poland and Czech Republic to place anti-missiles silos in their countries. The system is supposed to be defence against Iranian missiles that they have directed at "us".
I am not sure what exactly to think but there seem to be more disadventages than advenatages in this situation.
It may be truth that the system would work in case of missile attack but is there a real risk of any act of aggresion against Europe? Moreover, it seems that the system itself might provoke an attack that wouldn't happen otherwise, as it was the case with attacks in England after the British army joined the Iraq war.
Secondly, we should consider who is "us" and "we" in Bush's declarations. I can't help but think that we=me, Bush and my ass' future in politics. He didn't do well in Iraq so he wants to accomplish at least one thing, that can be classified as protection against terrorism.
Thirdly, in Poland, there are those who argue that an alliance like this can be very profitable for our country...Well, they said the same before Iraq and no, we didn't get more contracts and we still need visas in order to travel to the USA. The question is : do our politicians still believe or are they so cynical to bullshit to the society? Sure it could be different but for God's sake give ma a proof!
And lastly, building such a system is an act of war. As Chomsky (not my idol, but still) argues : if any country (for instance Russia) would place an instalation of this kind in Cuba or Mexico, USA would instantly treat it as a declaration of war. Why than doing the same? Why declaring war? We saw already so many times that armament race doesn't lead anywhere and this action can very well start it.

And at the end a comment that my father made and that I think is brilliant.
It makes no sense to create anti-missiles system in Europe when in the USA itself they can't sort out their terrorist spies problem. Look at this, the whole USA is so into miss Paris Hilton tragedy (3 days or 23 days in prison) that they wouldn't even notice a 100 of missiles shot at them!

First post

2007-06-09T10:13:00.000+01:00

That's my frist post just to see how it works.