Katyń is where the Soviets murdered between 15,000 and 25,000 Polish soldiers and other citizens during the second world war. Andrzej Wajda has made a film called “Katyń,” to which hordes of schoolchildren are trooping off to every day. Here’s Tomasz Sakiewicz of Gazeta Polska on the subject: “The elites of the Second Republic [inter-war […]
Poland has told the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, of which it is a member, that it does not want monitors at its forthcoming general elections. One of the lamer arguments in favour of the general oppression (bugging, lustracja) in PiS-dominated Poland is that “if you are honest you have nothing to fear […]
“Kraków is my home and I learned Polish in about a week.” Impressed? These are the words of Argentine soccer player Mauro Cantoro, as quoted on page 8 of last weekend’s scrupulously accurate Dziennik. Cantoro must be either extraordinarily gifted or extraordinarily deluded. I turned at once to page 29 and the full interview. In […]
Pokaz prozy (Prose Display) is, as reviewers have pointed out, a curious book. It aims to showcase good modern Polish prose (12 writers born more or less in the period 1945 to 1960, all of whom have already achieved success). What it displays is, in fact, the weakness of modern Polish prose. To begin with […]
Or should we sit chewing our crud in bovine placidity as the police and state prosecution service finally disappears into PiS’s back pocket, soles of their boots and loafers visible to all? Vaclav Havel suggested international observers be sent to monitor elections in Poland when PiS – err, the police – arrested people who were […]
The best thing by far on Polish TV right now – better even than the not-bad-for-Poland Szymon Majewski Show – is PiS’s childishly crude and hilariously inept party political broadcast. The theme is corruption, of course, the only tune PiS knows, and it contrasts two Polands – that of “not long ago” and the Poland […]
I mentioned before how the names change but the faces remain in Polish politics. Here is the concrete example of Jacek Kurski, sometimes known as the “Bull Terrier” though “Liar” would be both less complimentary and more truthful. Mr. Kurski, deeply principled politican that he is, in his infinite care for the people of Poland, […]
On a bus stop I saw an ad for Telekomunikacja Polska* and Orange and Dell computers. It’s accompanied by a lavish (read: finger-down-the throat) TV ad campaign. It’s a great offer: you can go to a shop (Orange’s I think) and – wait for it – buy not only a computer but also connection to […]
The ins and outs of Polish politics are a bit too sleazy and trivial for most so there follows a comparison of Polish politics and normal, Irish politics. My fellow monkey, Shane Barry, will doubtless bristle at the description of Irish politics as “normal” but there you are… Phone Tapping Yes, it happens in Ireland […]
Blaming the opinion pollsters (see earlier entry) is usually the resort of the washed-up but sometimes you have to wonder. In this weekend’s Gazeta Wyborcza there are two articles concerning, among other things, mobile phones. Side by side they sit, contradicting each other. Polling agaency CBOS tells us that in a random sample of 903 […]
