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April 28, 2008
Acting
Sunday night and off with me to the theatre for some art. “Art,” as far as I can tell from the Polish theatre, means never saying. Shouting, sobbing, laughing (never for any apparent reason), whispering, moving from table to chair to settee to chair to table – all these are fine and acceptable but merely speaking or talking is not on. The violent and unmotivated mood swings become tiring after half an hour, torture by the end. The worst thing of all, though, is the complete inability to act drunk, a fault shared by many screen actors.
(I looked around during the interval: no one was reading any books.)
Posted by hgrodsk at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2008
Allegories
Adam Hochschild, in his 1994 New York Review of Books review of Ryszard Kapuściński’s Imperium, writes (this is a back-translation from the Polish) “His latest book is less fantasmagorical than the previous ones because he does not have to hide behind allegories” -- as was the case when he was writing under communism. Much has been made of the allegorical nature of Cesarz (The Emperor) and Szachinszach, for instance by his English translators in Podróże z Ryszardem Kapuścińskim – opowieści trzynastu tłumaczy edited by Bożena Dudko: Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand draws the analogy with communist Poland although she stresses the book’s universality and William Brand mentions the role this allegory played in the reception of Kapuściński in the west.
Kapuściński isn’t always so mistily allegorical, though. Here’s a quote from Wojna futbolowa (The Football War):
Because it was an oligarchic government dependent on the United States the decree [concerning agricultural reform] did not provide for the division of the latifundia or for the division of lands belonging to the American United Fruit concern, which had large banana plantations on the territory of Honduras.Kapuściński: the scourge of imperialists but sometimes the wrong ones.
Posted by hgrodsk at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2008
Intelligentsia II
Last year I saw Michael Glawogger’s documentary Workingman’s Death and it occurred to me to wonder what was the toughest of all professions. Mining coal? Looking after the terminally ill? Smelting steel? Sitting at a cash register for ten hours without a break? The answer is none of the above. When it comes to being tough you cannot match the life of the Polish intelligentsia. That’s where the real ball-breaking goes down. Take an article in this week’s Polityka -- if you can take it, that is, you soft-soaped milk-sop. The article concerns one Izabella Cywińska (“Iron Cywa”), who has just taken over some theatre or other in Warsaw. Of herself she says she always had leadership tendencies. In 1970 she took over a theatre in Kalisz (where?) and sacked the entire crew. Tough but fair, I think you’ll agree: she says she found work for them all elsewhere. One Wiesław Komasa says of her that she likes talented young actors who require a heavy investment but give good returns. Of course if they require too heavy an investment you just fire them and get better ones. The journalist (Aneta Kyzioł) informs us ominously and inevitably that Cywińska is not afraid of “mocne teatralne środki” (powerful theatre means – sorry about the poor translation).
For a time Cywińska was even minister for culture. She caused a furore by saying that theatres under construction (for many years) in Lublin and Kielce should be turned into toilet paper factories. Needless to say, she’d do it all again, only this time “…I’d be harder.” What? Even harder then she already is? By my calculations, that would fall under the category of “well” hard, possibly even “well hard with a sarf London accent.” One of her protégés, Hanna Śleszyńska, supplies the obligatory compliment: “She is demanding but actors treated seriously give their all so as not to let her down.” The only question is who is being complimented? Even when Cywińska is wrong she’s tough: For a time she headed some cultural foundation some of whose funds were dodgily invested, mainly by members of the foundation. As a result she was forced to resign because that’s what being the boss means: taking responsibility for things that aren’t even (directly) your fault. That’s how goddam tough it is in the hot seat.
Posted by hgrodsk at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2008
Good News
“Poles can pay less” is the cheering headline in April 4th’s Gazeta Wyborcza. This storyette, tucked away in the boring old business section, is about how a Polish building company operating in Germany has won the right to pay its workers less than the existing, collectively bargained industry rate in Germany. The European Court decided that if collective agreements were actually binding this would conflict with the freedom to provide services in the EU. The company pays its workers 47% of the agreed rate. It would be difficult indeed to find a clearer argument against the Lisbon constitution than this; hard to find more powerful ammunition for those kill-joys who say the purpose of opening up the EU to much more poorly paid workers was to reverse the gains made by workers in the west -- so naturally the story is on page 28, while all the front page attention in Poland has been on inter-party haggling, gay marriages, phantom German repatriation claims and so forth.
Bad and all as it is for unionized workers in Western Europe, things will be much worse for Polish academics – or will be if professor Żylicz, chairman of the Polish Science Foundation, gets his way. He is quoted in Polityka (April 5th), saying that in order to attract heavy weight grants to universities, academic jobs will have to be filled by competition. Fair enough so far but the jobs will have to be “contractual in nature, and limited in time.” So no more permanent jobs for lecturers. One objection seems obvious: what price academic freedom if in three years time your GlaxoSmithklineWelcomePriceWaterhouseCoopersMicroBasf grant runs out and you have to go begging for another “grant.” But what amazes is the casual consignment of a whole group of workers to permanent stress and insecurity. You can bet Żylicz would not so calmly, barefacedly suggest that miners or nurses have their careers destroyed and family lives ruined.
Quoted in the same article is professor Andrzej Jaszczyk of the Mining Academy, who repeats the very modish idea that academics should take part in exchanges with other universities. Again, fair enough but he also says academics should be forbidden from working in the same university they did their PhDs in: “Academics should be on the move.” Goodbye job security, goodbye sweet old hometown…
Posted by hgrodsk at 04:49 PM | Comments (1)
April 04, 2008
Polish Absurd (II)
The Lisbon Constitution was accepted by Poland’s parliament. This comes under the heading of absurd because of the storm in the teacup that preceded it: I’m hazy on the details but half-former primesident Kaczyński was for it when he was not former and agin it when he was. If you follow. It was good when PiS was in power (a triumph of diplomacy back then) but bad when PO was. (Gazeta Wyborcza (April 2) was rapturous about the Sejm’s acceptance. Ignoring their normally scrupulous separation of news and comment and their icy disdain for taking sides, the lead story began: “The three week conflict over the bill to ratify the Lisbon treaty [sic] ended happily yesterday.” Happily for whom?)
The Catholic University of Lublin of John Paul the Second [sic] is in hot water for handing out doctoral degrees when not entitled to do so. It’s a vexed and complex question of staffing and seniority but it can, fortunately, be summed up in one sentence: the boffins can’t count. The university did not have the required number of suitably qualified staff to award doctoral degrees in pedagogy and economics in the years 2005 – 2007. This could be bad news for deputy Joanna Mucha: she was awarded her PhD in economics in October 2007.
Andrzej Matejuk, the new police chief, announced plans to create a special unit to deal with football hooligans. His predecessor set one up six months ago.
Ad on the side of car the regularly parked blocking the fire access road to my block of flats: “Are you looking for Compensation and Damages? Call ….”
The television stations that still keep inviting Jacek Kurski on to their shows. Here’s what Kurski had to say for himself in April 4th’s Gazeta Wyborcza:
“I, Jacek Kurski, apologise to Donald Tusk … for making false allegations … that PZU, using taxpayers’ money, financed billboards of Donald Tusk with the caption ‘a man with principles’ …”Kurski is a liar, in short. Not just in the way all politicians vaguely lie about what they will do if elected but a documented slanderer of a named individual.
Speaking of liars, today’s paper has an ad for a car which is rotten with lies. The ad announces a seven year guarantee. Check the small print and it turns out to be a five year guarantee (only the power transmission is guaranteed for seven years). The advertised price is 23,450 zloties. Again: out with the magnifying glass and you discover that this is only half the price of the car. There’s a financing deal on offer and, as required by law, the real annual percentage rate is dutifully given in the small print: 0% to 11.46%. Some help. Better still, the calculations used in arriving at the figures are based on a car which is not featured in the ad! It’s nearly as bad as the toothpaste that promises “3D” whiteness.
I say: here’s fun! In the Catholic University of Lublin of John Paul the Second on April 9th there’s a trade fair: “targi zakonne.” That’s right: fair’s fair and the trade is holy orders. Among the attractions of the day are a discussion entitled “Holy orders: Avant Garde or Antiquariat.” But it’s not all serious discussions about monks and nuns. Also on the cards is a “Pokaz ‘mody’ zakonnej” (Holy orders ‘fashion’ show).
Posted by hgrodsk at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2008
Polish Absurd
Too make a long story short, a bunch of Polish spies (or Military Counter Intelligence agents) on duty in Afghanistan put photographs of themselves with their full names on a popular website here called “nasza-klasa” (our class). It’s a school reunion site where old boys, schoolmates, Taliban fighters and so on meet up to see how their old buddies have aged, got fat, got married, tried to occupy one’s country and so forth.
Prompted by this, I decided to devote this one to absurdities of Polish life. Like for instance, the requirement that in order to sit a driving test you must have done a course in a driving school. If you fail you have to do a supplemental course in a driving school. Guess where the examiners are recruited from? Well from the driving schools, of course. What matters is not that you can drive but that your driving school papers are in order.
Here’s a direct quote from Jarosław Kaczyński of PiS: “I am against a referendum because it would certainly produce unambiguous [jednoznaczne] results… I think that referendums should be held in those countries where public opinion is against [the Lisbon Constitution]. The people should not be cheated. The decent thing would be to have referendums in England [sic], France and Holland.” (Nasz Dziennik, March 12th, reprinted in Nie). On second thoughts, I’m not sure that is so absurd. He’s only saying what all the Eurocrats think: no referendums because people might vote for the “wrong” thing. When Ireland rejected the Nice referendum, the exercise was simply repeated until the people voted yes.
Nie also tells of the following happy situation in the administration of public health service in Poland: the NFZ (roughly equivalent to the UK’s NHS) draws up reports on abuses in the health services (overcharging the state in various ways) but the organ that is empowered to do anything about the abuses doesn’t get the reports because the NFZ is not obliged to hand them over, which it doesn’t want to do because if it did it (i.e. the NFZ) would get less money from the state to provide health services. Clear? Of course not.
I commented before on Konrad Niklewicz’s bizarre ideas about who should sponsor the debate on GMOs – i.e. the companies that stand to earn most from their introduction, not scientists, the state or, God help us all, opponents. And here a week or two later is the same Niklewicz writing about how lobbyists rule in Brussels. One example is the “Competitivness [sic] in Biotechnology Advisory Group,” of which the dismayed Niklewicz writes: “It does not have a single non-governmental organization representative; it has six scientists and twenty business representatives” (Gazeta Wyborcza March 28th). This article is shoved back to page 30, the business section, unlike the same author’s clarion call for business to lead the debate on GMO, which was on page 2.
Another curiosity of Polish law: it is possible to libel the dead. Roman Giertych has to publish an apology to the family of Jacek Kuroń for remarks he made in 2006. (Kuroń died in 2004.) I’d take Kuroń’s side against Giertych any time, living or dead, but in my innocence I really did think that dead people had no say in the matter.
When Minister for Justice Ziobro left office he had to return some of the gimcracks our rulers are given to help them oppress us. Specifically, something like three mobile phones and a laptop computer. Ziobro, a man of impeccable morals, obviously had nothing to hide and the damage evident in the returned laptop was purely from wear and tear. He was a hard man, Ziobro. The laptop is on the road to recovery of data now, though. The unencrypted data shows that he was writing the scripts for the State TV news service. On second thoughts, I'll put that in the passive voice: scripts for the State TV news service were written on his laptop. The encrypted stuff will be denuded and demasked in the next week or two.
It’s no wonder the present government is doing nothing.
Posted by hgrodsk at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)