It’s not always politicians and economists that are the most convinced that privatization or at least commercialization are the answers to everything. Here’s an astounding piece of neo-liberal thinking from a Doctor Talarek that appeared in this week’s Polityka in an otherwise interesting article about the massive numbers of people who die – not just […]
The Eastern Europeans are at it again: getting all coy and mystical about The Meaning of Life and language’s inability to grasp it. Eastern European writers have the Big Questions tapped, you understand, but language can’t cut it. Yes, I’ve been reading Sandor Márai again, this time a collection of short stories called Magic, which […]
Out of the top corner of my eye, while sitting on a bar stool the other night, I saw the strapline on a Polish rolling news channel on the TV. It said “W Brukseli o kryzysie” or “In Brussels the crisis [is being discussed].” It got me wondering, and this is what I wondered: which […]
A few days after I got warned by the government that I had to choose a pension fund or let the randomised computer choose for me (see last post) I got a letter (no stamp, but my name was on it) inviting me to contact a financial adviser. I rang up this guy and demanded […]
This week I received a stern letter from the guvmint telling me I had not yet chosen which Pension Fund to “invest” my pension contributions in. If I had not made up my mind which horse to back within ten days, the missive said, one would be chosen for me. Naturally it was too much […]
Gazeta Wyborcza’s man on Greece is Jacek Pawlicki. He has recovered somewhat from the shock of his interview on Wednesday with a Polish shopkeeper in Greece. Asked whether she feared for the safety of her shop the redoubtable lady said no, the rioters were only targeting the likes of multinational chains and banks. And your […]
Part of the government’s master plan, enthusiastically supported by Gazeta Wyborcza (boring the country where the main serious media agrees with the government), is to put an end to early retirement in Poland. Keep cracking the whip over the backs of aging proles: that’s the ticket. Perhaps, to give the neo-liberals their due, the system […]
I don’t know if yesterday was particularly black but look at the dates in this chart of the worst days on the FTSE 100. It’s like, how much more black could this be? The answer is none – none more black. And only a few years ago the Onion was looking into even more precious […]
In a glowing portrait of Gordon Brown (who appears to be doing something about the crisis other than make soothing noises) in the latest Nie, there is the following quotable quote: “…unemployment in Great Britain is expected to reach a terrifying 6%, which is regarded here [UK] as a catastrophe. In Poland 11% of people […]
Gazeta Wyborcza continues its “Poland is no Country for Old People” series. The Onion was there first.
