The following comes in its entirety from Roman Daszczyński’s article in Tuesday’s Gazeta Wyborcza (April 7th). The penalties for drunk-cycling in Poland are extremely harsh. You lose your driving license for one (yes – your car driving licence). There are currently 1,931 cyclists in Polish prisons for drunk-cycling. The maximum prison sentence is twelve months [...]
Our Man in Gdańsk
Our Man in Gdańsk is a blog on Polish politics, culture and society, written by one H.Grodsk
Cykliści
Thursday, April 9th, 2009The Solution
Thursday, April 9th, 2009I’ve solved the economic crisis. After months of study and intensive thought I’ve finally cracked it. To be fair, I arrived at my earth-righting conclusion by standing on the shoulders of giants. I’ve been reading the newspapers, turning over in my mind the pronouncements of the experts, sifting through the policy initiatives of the finest [...]
Local News
Friday, April 3rd, 2009They say all news is local so here’s a taste of Poland from the pages of a typical urban local paper, a weekly freshet. There are three headlines on the front page and each of them is an order: “Close this alley,” “Talk to the president” and “Fight the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner.” Poles are [...]
Investing in Yourself
Friday, April 3rd, 2009Alain Bihr‘s contempt for the term “human capital” is almost tangible: “As if capital, that cold monster, that accumulation of dead work, which lives only because it constantly preys on living work and exploits the labour of billions of people whose lives mean nothing to it, condemning more billions to poverty, insecurity, unemployment and socio-economic [...]
Sticking it to the man
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Poland took delivery of its first Hercules transport plane last week. The aeroplane is nearly 40 years old and attracted much derision from the ever-independent Polish media. For instance, TVN, the fearless private sector news broadcaster, detailed the history of the aeroplane in a lengthy news piece. As long ago as 1983, they said, it [...]
Interlinear Translation (English to English)
Saturday, March 28th, 2009Here’s a report from the Irish national broadcaster’s news site which may be beyond parody but by jingo that isn’t going to stop me. For those unfamiliar with the subject, two pieces of background information: (1) the Irish economy has hit a brick wall (2) “Tánaiste” is the Irish name for the post of deputy [...]
Jacek Dehnel
Friday, March 27th, 2009What with Sylwia Chutnik, Michał Witkowski and Dorota Masłowska’s Między nami dobrze jest, I’ve had quite a run of luck with books and plays by young writers lately. It’s not all good news on the young writing scene, though. Take novelist Jacek Dehnel (b. 1980), who wrote an article for Polityka a couple of weeks [...]
Lubiewo
Thursday, March 26th, 2009Michal Witkowski’s Lubiewo (2005) – though much concerned with the passage of time, especially from communist Poland to the present, glorious, third republic – probably fits the description of “queer literature.” The Lubiewo of the title is a beach he goes to where he meets, among many others, a group of complex-free, open, right-on, emancipated [...]
Begging Cap
Saturday, March 21st, 2009A great deal between employers and unions is being trumpeted around about now in Poland. In return for an end to “temporary” work contracts with durations of up to twenty years, the unions have agreed to increased elasticity of working hours. Many people will be familiar with the abuse of temporary work contracts; the three [...]
Verheugen on the ball
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009One of our glorious leaders, Gunter Verheugen, has had a jolly good idea. He thinks it would be good if business executives were not so obscenely well paid. It’s never too late to start learning in the Third Age University of Life. Welcome aboard, son!
