Gazeta Wyborcza has launched a series called “fifteen themes” of the third (i.e. post 1989) Republic of Poland. Part one deals with censorship. There is a photo of a page from the GW of July 10th 1989 in which two cuts have been forced by the censor. In place of the censored information is [—-], […]
South America, of course. Here is the first sentence of a news (not comment) article reporting Daniel Ortega’s victory in Nicaragua’s presidential elections: “The former revolutionary and friend of communist dictator Fidel Castro and Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez won Sunday’s presidential elections.” As I mentioned before, no such discussion of politics in this newspaper can […]
Unilever’s public-spirited campaign to make women feel the need to purchase their beauty products continues. The latest manoeuvre is an interview on the subject of beauty and self-esteem with a sociologist in Wysokie Obcasy, the teeth-grindingly awful ladies’ weekend supplement to the crusading Gazeta Wyborcza. This colour magazine specialises in finding women who are (or […]
Gazeta Wyborcza‘s motto is “Nam nie jest wszystko jedno,” or “it’s not all the same to us.” The crusading force is strong in this one. There was the schools campaign (motto: the inspired “class with class”), which I am told was a nightmare of added paperwork for the teachers involved — which was nearly all […]
“This essay was commissioned by the guest editors of a special issue of the academic journal Social Text but rejected by the journal’s editorial collective on the grounds it was theoretically unsophisticated that included a ‘cheap shot’ at professors.” This message precedes an article by Robert Jensen, who is always worth reading, on academic freedom […]
From the BBC news website today on Sony’s decision to prosecute people who import certain goods into Europe: “Critics of Sony’s approach feel that the electronics giant is preventing gamers in Europe from getting their hands on Play Station 3s early, even if they have to pay a hefty premium.” Critics of Sony don’t think. […]
A soap maker named Unilever is trying to start a debate about beauty in Poland. The back page of this weekend’s Gazeta Wyborcza is entirely given over to an advertis– sorry, a manifesto about “real beauty.” (Fair play to GW: it is clearly marked advertisement.) Straight away there is something suspiciously close to a tautology: […]
If we are to believe today’s super serious and responsible Dziennik the European Union is soon to forbid drinking at night. That’s what the headline on page one says anyway but if you read on it turns out that you will be allowed to drink at night. It’s just they plan to make it harder […]
This weekend’s Gazeta Wyborcza has a story headlined “Bush agrees to the Geneva Convention.” How good of him to agree to something his legislature signed into law half a century ago. Who would have thought the day would come when the agreement of the US not to torture prisoners would be news? The US! The […]
In their article in Gazeta Wyborcza the three young economists offered up the following statistic: in 1960s Poland for every retired person and invalid in receipt of welfare there were 12 people working and paying taxes. Turning to this week’s Sunday Times I read that in Ireland in the 1960s there was a tiny 1.4 […]
