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August 31, 2007
Can we Panic Yet?
Yesterday I had a perfectly average day -- the details of which I will not bother you with -- nicely rounded off with a refreshing ten hours kip. Is this "dignity under pressure"? Am I keeping my head while others all around are losing theirs?
I ask because the signs in Polish are particularly -- no, I mean particularly -- grim right now. Michnik writes in today's Gazeta Wyborcza of a "creeping coup" and, reason though he has to dislike the ruling party, he does not sound in the least hysterical. Briefly, Janusz Kaczmarek was arrested. Until August 8th Kaczmarek was the Minister for the Interior and Administration. Before that, he was the "national attorney" (a peculiarity of Poland's constitution is that the state attorney is also the Minister for Justice - that's being your own boss).
Kaczmarek has started telling tales about the politicisation and abuse of the secret services, the procurator's office and the police under the current regime. He has been charged with attempting to obstruct the investigation into the leaking of operational details concerning an unsuccessful attempt by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) to entrap Andrzej Lepper (former coalition partner).
Another person who had to be shut up was one Konrad Kornatowski, a former police chief, who - entirely coincidentally - had been due to testify before a parliamentary commission into all the skulduggery and shenanigans of the regime. So he was arrested. So was Jaromir Netzel, boss of PZU, one of the biggest insurers in Europe. They're also out to get businessman Ryszard Krauze but he is fortunate enough to be abroad - possibly in a democracy, I can't confirm that yet - at the moment.
Meanwhile Primesident Kaczyński appears on television and pretends not to be aware of the details of these perfectly routine police investigations. Ziobro, the boy wonder Minister for Justice, seems to be keeping a low profile, perhaps because he has hopelessly compromised himself time and time again.
On the plus side, the bus timetables in the provincial town where I am holidaying at the moment no longer define summer as lasting till the end of January.
Posted by hgrodsk at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2007
Oh, Those Russians
Tuesday's Gazeta Wyborcza has a review of two books. The subhead reads: "These two books are crying out to be read in tandem -- both were written by Englishmen fascinated by the history of Russia. Can a resident of the British Isles penetrate the darkness of the Russian soul?" Funny how no one ever asks rhetorically if a Russian can understand the Welsh/Scottish/Irish/English soul. Well, what is there to understand? Dull, utilitarian materialists that we are. A child could understand our pathetic civil-engineer-souls. Even a Russian child.
Posted by hgrodsk at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2007
Election
PiS is showing party political broadcasts which boast about, among other things, "improved" security - at this point the TV screen shows some jet fighters, possibly the F16s PiS bought the other year. I'm sure it is entirely coincidental that Lockheed Martin has an advertisement in today's Gazeta Wyborcza for the F16 Fighting Falcon. It's not a terribly informative ad (no price is given) but it does finish with their interesting slogan: "We never forget who we're working for."
Posted by hgrodsk at 02:03 PM | Comments (1)
Reporting the Elections
With a nod to Dean Baker, here's a go at today's Gazeta Wyborcza whose front page sub-head tells us that the cost to the taxpayer of ruling party PiS's pre-election giveaway is 18 billion zloties. In paragraph three, the insignificant detail that this is over 25 years is given. Not quite so terrifyingly expensive after all, though how many readers know offhand what Poland's annual budget is? Is 18/25 billion a lot? The journalists tell us that PiS had planned changes in precisely the areas of the giveaway which would have lead to "gigantic savings - from 15 to 30 billion zloties" - per year? per quarter century?
Posted by hgrodsk at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2007
A Question of Translation
"Zakłócenia w ruchu powodują zmiany w czasów odjazdu" reads the sign pinned immediately below the summer bus timetables in the Polish town where I have been spending the holidays. Now some old sticks in the mud may tell you this means "Traffic disruption will cause changes in departure times" but there are more efficient, informative ways to translate it. For instance:
"Ignore the above timetable"
"Screw you"
"We give up"
In accordance with Skopostheorie I examined the surrounding context and this is what I found: in small print below nearly but not all of the "summer timetables" is written "Valid till January 1st 2008." Either they're expecting a long hot summer or translation #2 (Screw you) is in fact the correct answer.
Also, the coalition government has finally fallen apart.
Posted by hgrodsk at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)