Commonwealth War Graves

Commonwealth War Graves at Poznań Old Cemetery

It was, I amid, with some surprise that I noticed a sign to Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery with the subscipt : British Commonwealth Section (1), while driving through Poznan a year or two back. Alas, as with many things in life, my initial intrigue was overtaken by other things and it was only when I noticed a similar sign on the road to Gdansk the other day that I decided to check it out on-line.

(1) Yes I know this is an outdated name and politicly incorrect, but then again most people in Poland are still strugling with the Bombay/Mumbai thing.

When you go on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission webiste you are told this about the Poznan cemetery:

Grave of Lithuanian RAF Pilot

After the First World War, the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died in Poland as prisoners of war were gathered together in this cemetery. There are now 174 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. One of the burials is unidentified. Special memorials commemorate one casualty known to have been buried in Czersk Prisoners of War Cemetery, 29 known to have been buried at Szczypiorno Prisoners of War Cemetery and 18 known to have been buried at Pila (formerly Schneidemuhl) Prisoners of War Cemetery, all of whose graves could not be identified. The majority of the 283 Second World War burials in the cemetery are those of airmen, many of whom died in bombing operations on Stettin (now Szeczin). Also buried here are those involved in the mass escape from Stalag Luft 3, Sagan (now Zagan), in March 1944, and others who died while prisoners of war during the German occupation, at Stalag VIIIC, Sagan, Stalag XXID at Poznan, Oflag XXIB (also known as Oflag 64) and Stalag XXIB, both at Schubin (now Szubin). There are also 19 war graves of other nationalities in the cemetery, most of them Polish. The cemetery also contains the POZNAN MEMORIAL commemorating five RNAS armoured car ratings who died near Brezazany in July 1917 and whose graves were never located.

To be honest, until coming to Poland and in fact living here, I did not know much about Poland's First or Second World War history. Everyone of course knows the big stuff such as the Sept. '39 invasion and Britain and France's declaration of war etc... But beyond that most west European's knowledge of Poland's war is limited to the odd character in an otherwise overly British/American war film.

Perhaps its know different, with more east European influnce on the film indusry. But that was definetly the case for anyone who grew up watching repeats of sixties war films :)

This faliure of west Europeans to understand the wars in east Europe is of course indicative of the post-war devide. It is a cruel irony that the so called 'free' west knew actually far less about their European brethren than their eastern counterparts. Growing up in Communist Poland, often meant a thirst for all things western, while those in the west had little interest in all things eastern.

In many ways this was of course encouraged by official government policy: after the war the government wanted to make sure awkward issues of Polish occupation and betrayal were kept out of the general public's attention. It is only in recent years that this subject has been revisted, as illustrated by the resent visit of Polish Foriegn Minister, Radosław Sikorski to the RAF Museum's new exhibit on foreign fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain.

Return of the wonderer

To be truthful I didn't really go anywhere, I just hibernated in the real world over summer as is often my way. However I am now back online and ready to write ironic witticisms on the basis of what I observe around me.

Now is that quadrinal (is that a word?) affair that is the bane of most countries these days: the national election campaign. As a political scientist by profession perhaps I should be more supportive of the democratic process but I am often reminded of Winston Churchill's comment to Parliment when he described democracy as the worst form of government except all of those others that have gone before it!

Churchill's other famous remark about democracy is perhaps never quite so fitting than during an election campaign: that the best argument against democracy is to have a five minute conversation about politics with the average voter.
The crazy fever that is modern politics brings to the fore many of the manipulative streaks common to the human condition.

Take the Law and Justice party for example; they have based their campain on the percieved injustice suffured by Poland (read them) as a result of the Smolensk aircrash. Rather than dealing with any real issues affecting Polish people they divert attention.

That is not to say that Civic Platform are any better. Rather than explaining why they have failed to solve the pension problem left over from communism they focus attention on GDP growth and infrastructure projects. GDP is all very well but it often provides an inaccurate inducator of real standards of living for the majority of people. Take India or Brazil as cases in point: GDP growth has been phenominal in recent years, yet poverty persists.

On the one hand we have PIS who uses campaign strategies based on a reliance on their voters having a complete ignorance of the issues being discussed. Take their campaign message calling for the slashing of fuel tax for example (where exactly do they plan to get the money from to run the country?) while on the other hand PO are no better in some respects as they focus on non-controversial goals that they can plod on with and show that they 'are doing something'.

This in many ways is indicative of the state of Poland's political scene. A colleague of mine said to me a while back that she would not discuss politics with most people as they would become aggressive and dogmatic. Polish people have lost the ability to debate in many ways. By ability I obviously do not mean Linguistic but rather cultural. Divisions within society have been allowed to be monopolised by political forces to the extent that the normal definition of a pluralist democracy is in fact ironically misplaced as what choice lies in such diametrically opposed positions? There is no to and throw of political ideas; rather people are entrenched and fight a war of attrition.

An atypical look at Polish women

For many intelligent Polish people, there are only so many times you can hear that when asked what the best thing in Poland is, people reply "Polish women". Don't get me wrong, I am married to a beautiful Polish women and would happily describe Polish women to any foreigner as being the most beautiful women in the world. However, there are a few more things to Poland that it's women :)

But lets stay on the topic of women, for many the promotion of beuty tends to relegate brains and achievements to an unspoken of sphere. Therefore it is important to bring to light other aspects of Polish women. A recent report put Polish women as amongst the most business focused un Europe with many having their own firms, proportionatly more than in other EU countries.

Education is also an area where women excell in Poland with women obtaining on average better qualifications than their male counterparts. Further to this more women are involved in science subjects than in many other countries.

However, wages ofcourse do not reflect these facts: Polish women on average are paid between 24-35% less than men. What causes this?

In my humble opinion one of the core reasons is the deeply rooted tacit acceptance of traditional gender roles. This is undlined by institutional factors: the position of male priests withib Poland or the fact that Pokand has never had a female President or Prime Minister.

Will this change? Undoubtedly. When? Slowly and incremenedly. One thing which would be an imense positive factor would be the emergence of a truly strong and inspirational female PM or President.

Presidential Ambitions

Head in the Stars

 It is not often that I get accused of being a PiS supported, but that was my wife's whimsical reaction when I commented on current situation in Poland with regards to the EU Presidency.


On 1st July Poland took over the six month presidency of the EU. In itself this is a hugely historic moment for Poland as it is the culmination of Poland's struggle to free itself from the shadow of World War Two and its communist past. Obviously the Polish government are proud of the achievement; yet, they in them selves have had little to do with this. It was of course Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki who begun the process by voicing the feeling of the Polish government with the formal application for membership being lodged in 1994 under Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak thus Prime Minister Tusk's government have in fact done very little to further the process.

Given that that by 2011 the Polish Presendency of the EU was a given fact, it is perhaps starange that it gets so much media and governemnt attention. It wa upon remarking that it is in fact a distraction from the real 'issues' that my wife asked if I had become a PiS supporter as they had been saying exactly that. PiS (Law and Justice Party) are for those who don't know, the main opposition party in Poland. They are, to put it mildly, a bunch of lunatics led by an even more bizarre figure who invariably uses cheap tricks to gain attention. Does that mean I have become a lunatic? I hope not. However, buy instinctivley stateing the opposite of whatever the government line is, PiS have in fact hit the nail on the head.


The government have filled every available space to promote the presidency, while drawing attention away from more important matters. In doing so they have been aided by a general lack of knowledge of EU internal politics. This is, alas, not by any means a Polish condition; few EU citizens truly understand the nature of the beast that is the EU and thus they are easily swayed by scare politics or in this case overly positive politics. Why overly? Well to be truly honest the rotating presidency amounts to very little indeed.

The Presidency will come and go and little will change. That is perhaps the sad part. The presidency means an excuse for the government to put of vital reforms for another six months.

The inequities of car insurance

Car insurance, like any insurance, is always a pain no matter where you live. Having to pay for a potentiality is to put it mildly: a pain in the but. However, Poland has developed two ways of making this fact of modern life inexplicitly worse.

Firstly, there is a bizarre, but alas still active, law which states that every motor vehicle must be insured at all times. This means that even my 1984 motorbike which has not been outside the garage in over four years must be insured. Ok, fair enough, pointless, but ok!

The second and in my opinion, infinitely worse principle is the automatic roll-over of insurance policies. What? I hear you say. Well in Poland if you do not write a letter to your insurance company cancelling your policy it gets automatically renewed the following year whether you like it or not.

My car insurance run out at the end of March and after receiving a ridiculously high quote from Allianz through in the post I ignored their quote and went with Aviva which was considerably cheaper. At no point did I sign a new policy with Allianz nor agree over the phone to continue my policy.

Today I was thus a little perturbed to discover waiting for me when I got home a bill for 707zł for 3rd party insurance (OC). I instantly rang the company and was told that I must pay for this year. I of course explained that I already have car insurance and that I don't need two policies. The guy on the other end stuck to the company line and told me I must pay it and that if I send a resignation letter I won't have to pay for next year! Hurrah!!!

I confirmed that the conversation was being recorded and told him that I will send the letter but will not pay the bill and that they know where I live if they wish to take me to court.

Perhaps I am optimistic in my ignorance, as I have no legal knowledge per se. However, I feel that firstly, the automatic roll-over is against my human rights as it removes the element of conscious choice; secondly, the policy was for a specific period and was not like a satellite TV contact where the open-ended-ness means you must give notice etc.. Thirdly, insurance is a cover against a hypothetical calamity and thus no actual costs have been incurred.

I would welcome your thoughts (and legal representations pro bono would also be good).

systeMY / systemUS - A Review

As promised earlier I will attempt to give you an over-view of the exhibition opening I attended on Friday evening. Friday was for me and, more importantly the artists and curator, the culmination of a week of on-site preparation and many months of personal work.

The exhibition is at Lodz Dom Kultury (Culture House) and more specifically Galeria Imaginarium on the ground floor of the building.

I am not a professional art critic and have no real idea how to write a review and thus I will attempt to give you a virtual tour of the exhibition and allow you to draw your own conclusions as to its effect.

Entering through the glass doors you can not help but notice the striking logo of the exhibition designed by the exhibition's curator Mariusz Sołtysik (PL). The bar code logo pertains to the automated process found as a central theme of the individual exhibits of SysteMY/stystemUS.

The first thing you will notice is three large flatscreens displaying three videos of Dmitry Strakovsky (USA) entitled "The Mall; The Wheel; The Departure." Filmed in a shopping centre, mountainous area and aircraft; these films have a strikingly spooky similarity from what are essentially three very different realms.

Keyword: communities by Travis Shaffer

 Opposite these films lie the work of Travis Shaffer (USA). The work, "Keyword: communities" the artist uses Google search to map community centres in the UK, USA, Manhattan and Kentucky. Next to these large scale maps are two small books entitled "34 Parking Lots in Los Angeles" and "Real Estate Opportunities/A 2010 International Investment Guide. Both books look at the distribution of resource with the second plotting the ten most indebted countries following the 2008 financial crash.

The next piece you notice as you walk through is a collection of photographs by US artist Talena Sanders. The photos depict the rich Mayan cultural history found in ethnic Guatemalan traditional dress and fabrics. Opposite these are two vidoes and accompanying pieces by Ela Wysakowska-Walters called "Pocket Dictator" which was reviewed by me here.

On the same side of the room is a vidoe by Karolina Głusiec entitled "Perfornance 2011." The work is an animated film bringing to life the structure and sound of a pianola. The video becomes hypnotic in its simple beauty.

Wall 38 by e.w.walters

Opposite this film are two somewhat complimentary pieces. The first by Ela Wysakowska-Walters is an interactive sculpture called "Wall 38". The visitor must plug a headphone jack into one of 38 sockets and then construct their own experience based on the "indefinite references" they hear, continuing onto other sockets as and when they wish. Next to this lies a sculpture by Anna Macleod called "Polar Tension". The piece uses magnets to construct a seemingly impossible arrangement of metal sheets and strings.

Access all Areas by Anna Macleod

Macleod's work has the honour of holding the last position of the room in the form of "Access All Areas. Water Optics" which uses similar optical illusions to bring attention to the disproportionate use of water in the world.

The Erotic life of XAU by Dmitry Strakovsky

 Last but by no means least, Strakovsky's work returns in a second room shield by large black curtains. "The Erotic Life of XAU" looks at the position of aesthetics in the world through an analysis of the artificial position of gold within the world economy.

As promised this was a virtual tour of the exhibition. Intentionally i have not gone into huge detail as I do not wish to spoil the effect. I therefore simply recommend going to the exhibition in Lodz (ul. Traugutta 18) which is open until 2nd July 2011.

Legal and constitutional calamities strike again

Freedom of speech or abusive tripe?

I have, as regular readers will hopefully remember, commented several
times on this blog upon the topic of the Polish constitution; mostly unfortunately in a critical manner. Well, actions conducted by the Polish Internal Security Agency (ABW) on Wednesday morning (18.5.11) at 6 in the morning have alas risen the position of the Polish President once again into controversy.

After a warrant issued by the prosecutor's office ABW agents and police spend three hours searching the flat of 25-year-old student Robert Frycz, leaving with his laptop and various memory sticks/disks. Bizarrely enough Frycz's lawyer Bartosz Kowalski says that Frycz was not a suspect: "(What is) Very important in this case is the fact that Robert is not Frycz a suspect." Kowalski differentiated Frucz from his equipment stating that the prosecutor's order had been to seize the
equipment used to mange and update the website : AntyKomor.pl which has
President Komorowski as its target.

According to article 135 of the criminal code any act of public insult of the President is punishable by unto three years in prison. The constitutionality of this article has already been challenged in the case of the late President Lech Kaczyński sueing ex-President Lech Walesa for calling him a prat in the newspaper "Rzeczpospolita". The constitutional tribunal is due to deliver its verdict shortly and this will hopefully be a final nail in the coffin for this ill conceived law. There are alas many similar laws which journalist Grzegorz Sroczyński lists in Gazzetta Wyborcza which go against the norms of freedom of
speech.Thankfully the president's office has come out against the law with Secretary of State in the President's Office, Sławomir Nowak, stateing to the TVN24 news agency that he did "not accept and did not like the use of security agency to police the internet and that if thus case was legal then there is a problem with the law and that it should be changed."

Regardless of the ins and outs of it, whether Frycz was genuinely insultive or 'satirical' as he claims, the case highlights a major problem with the legal system and has ramifications beyond Poland's boarders. Poland is at the forefront of democratic efforts to help Belarus change its system of government and 'rejoin' Europe. In Belarus, as in any other dictatorial regime, police raids and confiscation of materials are regular tactics used to intimidate opposition members. It therefore does not bode well for Poland's credentials as a critical
observer.

Whether this is a left over from Poland's communist past is hard to say; there are many aspects of Polish day-to-day life that appear strange to myself, an outsider, yet go often unquestioned by most Poles (see posts on Ids etc). However, an unquestioning legal apparatus which protects the 'sacred' status of the political apparatus is a long way from the true idea of a liberal democracy which most Poles envisaged in 1989.

Presdiential Security

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration is currently mulling over a rather interesting idea. In order to ensure security for Poland's presidency of the EU in the second half of the year it is considering banning virtually every type of conceivable weapon.

All very well and good you may thing; yet lets have a look at this list: The Law on arms and ammunition, which is the basis to issue the regulation, includes not only regulation firearms. It is also mentioned in her air-guns, CS GAS, and tools and equipment, whose use could threaten life or health. This last category includes crossbows, stun guns and melee weapons (according to the law: Blades  hidden in objects like guns, brass knuckles and some types of clubs, including baseball bats).

In essense then the following is Public Enemy Number One:

A similar law as put in place in Warsaw during the funeral of President Kaczyński  when Warsaw was placed under such a restriction. Basically it was illegal to enter enter public placed in Warsaw with any of the proscribed instruments. The law as suggested for the presidency will cover certain cities during specific time periods. Once again, all very well and good.

It seems logical to ban guys with guns from being in the same city as visiting dignities. Yet as revealed by various news agencies it will also affect a baseball team travelling to a match.

Commentary?  Well, in my view this is all a tad over the top and a blanket solution to a specific problem. It is akin to the recent ruling in which Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw had to play their games behind closed doors due to football hooliganism. By targeting all possible weapons the government are in fact breaking one of the cardinal rules of security: Security has to make sense.

If the security measures cause more negative effects than the conceivable negative effects that would be apparent through a lack of the measure, then the security measure defeats its self. For example, during the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland shoppers were under a continuous bomb threat; yet security had to allow people to actually move around and shop else the terrorists had to all extents and purposes one.

Returning to Poland, rather than employing intelligence assets to target prospectively specific threats, the government has chosen to employ a draconian method of civil control. In affect it has curtailed the normal rights of its citizens in order to play the 'tough on security card'.

systeMY / systemUS

This is just a short pre-posting in way of a form of advertising. On Friday 20th at 18.00 in Lódź is the grand opening of the much awaited systeMY / systemUS exhibition at Lódź Culture House's 'Galeria Imaginarium' (ul. Traugutta 18).

The exhibition is curated by Mariusz Sołtysik and features four American artists, one Irish artist and one Polish artist. Importantly for me, the Polish one is me wife Ela Wysakowsk-Walters (see Pocket Dictator) hence my pre-posting.

I will of course post a full report after the opening. The exhibition will be open for a further month and so please take the time out to take a look :)

The US constitution & Liberal Fundamentalists

I recently commented on a Facebook post of an old army buddy who had posted the following video:

My first impression of the woman was that she was somewhat rabid and that perhaps I should call a vet and have her humanely dealt with. This may seem harsh but if you take a moment to view the film you will see

how she is so full of anger and venom that she basically spits at the camera. Ok, maybe this is her normal demeanour and she would be just as aggressive ordering a KFC, therefore I will try to ignore her out burst

and deal with her points.

My initial reaction was this:

That is almost comical; her islamaphobic rant displays a major lack ofunderstanding of constitutional law. Since when has freedom of speech meant freedom of incitement and offensiveness. Her claim of the Koran being a book of paper and ink... is laughable; even the stupidest schoolchild knows a religous book of any ilk has more meaning than it's paper value. Also since when has Islam been the sworn enemy of the US? Does that mean that the US bases in Saudi Arabia are now in enemy territory? I think she displayed who the real jackass is.

To which my former colleague replied with:

How is burning a book incitement? She referenced how Christians were offended by matters such as Andres Serrano 'piss Christ' but tell me how many people were killed by Christian mobs when that occurred? What she is saying is that freedom... of speech includes the right to offend, yet Muslims seek to erode this vital right by causing chaos whenever 'their' religion is subject to criticism or mockery. It's also ridiculous to suggest that Americans in AFG are endangered by a Pastor burning a Qur'an in Florida, was it safe before that?

This was alas to big an issue to reply to on Facebook and so I decided to respond here.

Firstly let us look at the First Amendment; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Mainly people refer to the 1st amendment as “freedom of speech” yet this is in fact only a small part of it and must be read in the context of the whole amendment. The amendment also must be understood within a historical context. The bill of rights was a hastily put together document mainly ripped for the English constitution and was aimed at curtailing the powers of the ensuing federal government. As such it was the product of the contemporary culture: a culture built to a large degree on puritan foundations (as remarked upon by Samuel Huntingdon in his book: Who are we?)

 Were Ann Barnhardt to burn a bible (a mere collection of paper and ink – using her argument) at this time she would no doubt have been lynched on the spot and given her behaviour in her video no doubt burnt as a witch to boot.

It does not take the brains of an arch-bishop (forgive the religious pun) to understand that freedom of speech concerns not restricting the topic under discussion and does not mean you can just go around insulting everyone. Were Barnhardt to be correct it would mean that you could conceivably walk into a kindergarten and yell sexual expletives or go up to a policeman and tell him where he can stick his truncheon. As

we all know this is not the case. While freedom of expression should be defended, it should not be stretched to the ridiculous.

Regarding her comparisons with attacks on Christian symbols. This is just a childish argument at best. Saying that people in the west do not respond to attacks on Christian icons actually only points out the level

of evolution of western society. I for one am glad that we no longer respond violently to attacks on our sense of self. To use the difference between east and west as justification for intentionally offensive actions just belittles her argument. If the US constitution and, by Barnhardt's association, the bedrock of western political belief has come down to defending a moron burning Korans then god help us. To burn a Koran is intentionally incitefull. It does not matter if you belief or not, the book is sacred to millions and as such is part of a joint human heritage. All such books, whether they be eastern or western should be

respected.

While she is of course right in regards to her comments concerning WW2 censorship. Her understanding of the situation in Afghanistan is astounding. Following her logic she would have it that all civilians in the country be regarded as targets. This is I think generally regarded as genocide.

Taxi drivers and society

Has anyone else noticed how taxi drivers the world over have an equal disdain for laws and common decency?

Yesterday I took my wife to Konin train station and had a small non verbal argument with a taxi driver.

I circled the rather small carpark looking for a space and saw a couple of likley options. However, while twenty odd taxis were parked around the perimiter of the car park in I suppose the official taxi rank/space, one was parked accross several free spaces for ordinary cars.

I motioned that I wanted to get into the space and perhaps could he reverse a bit; to which he just shrugged. We repeated these actions a few times with my blood getting more and more boiled. I was left with the only options being to either exit my car and approach him whicj would for sure end in Police custody or withdraw to fight another day.

At the behest of my wife, I left and found a space down the road and we walked back. I took a picture of the incident as potential proof; not really sure what I was going to do with my evidence. I later reasoned that no city guard or policeman would give two hoots about it an so am left with putting it on my blog. Therefore this is my nameing and shaming act, although I ofcourse don't know his name.

Review of Radosław Sikorski's Speech to Parliament

The Minister of Foreign Affairs 

on 

Polish Foreign Policy for 2011

 I know I've been a bit slow with this one, and generally several English language articles have been already written on the subject, but I though I'd give my own opinion on Minister Sikorski's ideas.

On 16^th March 2011 Foriegn Minister Radosław Sirkorski addressed the combined houses of the Polish parliament. His speech was significant, as he himself remarked upon, in that he is the first post-communist politician to hold the position for a full term of office. Therefore, the address represents a rare continuity in Polish foreign policy, at least in terms of the politicians directing it. I will therefore analyse the speech in order to see whether the official program for 2011 indeed lives up to such a momentous occasions :)

It is important to note that although technically the minister's address, it was undoubtedly both the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government. Not only is Minister Sikorski the only post-communist politician to hold office throughout a whole term, but Civic Platform (PO) are also the only party who has held government for a whole term. This indeed, as remarked upon by Sikorski, is a unique event for Poland and as such his address bears scrutiny.

It is also worth noting that the speech was given just one day before the UN Security Council vote on intervention in the Libyan conflict and three days before airstrikes began. This was a point highlighted by a journalist on the Economist blog where they remarked how there was:

 Almost nothing on the question of whether to intervene in North Africa--surely the most pressing issue of the day. Does Poland agree with Germany and the non-interventionists? Or with Britain and France and the "no-fly zone"? It would be nice to know. Polish diplomacy has indeed never been more solid or more effective. But those are means, not ends.

During the speech Sikorski was conscious of the importance of representing a continuum in Polish policy and made reference to various predecessors of his. To that end he talked of the fact that Poland has rebuilt its state (since 1989) and “made it part of the global democratic architecture.” This reference to a global democratic architecture echoes sentiments by such people as ex-President Aleksander Kwasniewski when he referred to a European Family after the 2003 referendum on EU membership. 

A large part of Sikorski's speech dealt with Poland's image and position in the world. Sikorski stated how the parliament “wants Poland to become a secure and prosperous country, but also one with influence. A serious country. So that we, like Spain or Turkey before us, will be able to regain our bygone prestige.” This is in fact a recurring theme in Polish politics; as Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek stated in 1999:

We want and we have to gain among the Allied states a position that will enable us to co-define de facto the Allied strategy and policies in a way that corresponds with our interests, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. We have the potential to develop our human and economic resources and our pivotal strategic geographic location over the coming years into a position that will rank Poland among NATO's principal member states.

This has an obvious self-esteem motivation. Sikorski clearly states in the following paragraph that the concept involves a country able to fight for the interests of the region and be in a position to give development and humanitarian aide. This ties in well with the idea of “for their freedom and ours”, an ongoing theme in Polish mentality, and allows for the feeling that Poland is a country that stands up for its ideals. 

Both the concepts of community and security are again touched on with reference to the Middle East, where Sikorski illustrates how the situation there “is a test for the common foreign policy that is currently in the making. The European Union must speak with one voice, and all must be heard throughout its neighbourhood.” Sikorski, although speaking at times from a European perspective, does not fail to show the broader community aspect of his policy when stating how Polish experiences of transitions can help others currently undergoing transition. This sense of a dual community is perhaps a common theme; where both the euro-transatlantic and the wider world are seen in communal terms.

Sikorski concludes his address with reference to three key ideas that have guided him during his term in office; those of: reliability, solidarity, and modernisation. 
 

Beginning with the concept of reliability, Poland has made a conscious effort to ensure that it is a reliable security partner for NATO and the EU. Sikorski mentions how Poland has maintained a 1.95% GDP defence budget and this ties in with the sense of being reliable, and again reinforces a postitve of image of self.

Moving on, solidarity is an obvious synonym for community. Sikorski reffers to that fact that solidarity holds a special place with in the Polish psyche and thus it is important to support especially Belarus in its struggles.

Finally, modernisation is perhaps the simplest and most easily discernible. After the period of communism following World War Two Poland was in a poor state compared to its European neighbours. Modernisation is a practical necessity which affects primarily the core desire of security but also self-esteem. While the argument for why modernisation affects security is perhaps redundant, self-esteem need a little more clarification. As part of Sikorski's image of a 'serious country' the minister defines how this includes the concept of a country “whose youth does not emigrate to find work, and whose opportunities attract at least its own diaspora.” At first this looks like a purely economics-related statement, yet in fact it has more to do with self-esteem. Economically a diaspora can be greatly beneficial to any country, further there is no inherent benefit in attracting the diapsora back per se. Any manpower gaps could just as well be filled by other workers (eastern European etc). However, it is a matter of pride that people do not need to emigrate for financial reasons. Thus modernisation will in turn improve living standards and help to keep the youth of Poland and possibly attract returnees.

Overall, the speech of Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski shows a positive side of Polish politics, so greatly missing from the mainstream press. Sikorski took the opportunity to speak of the fact that the present Poland is the best anyone has ever known and people should not be so quick to criticise it, a point I happen to agree with.

 

The creation of a cultural reservoir by the drainage of culture

This year Poland is to hold the European Presidency for the first time. This prestigious and important role has many facets, however perhaps the most controversial and least widely known is that of culture.

As part of the presidency Poland will host the European Culture Congress 2011 to be held in Wrocław .The Polish government state that as part of the objectives for the presidency:

On culture, the leading subjects of the Polish Presidency will include development of social innovation and intellectual capital (through investment in culture, support for participation in culture and promotion of cultural and artistic education of persons of all ages) and negotiations on further editions of the Culture and Europe for Citizens programs.

There will also be events all around Poland as part of the presidency. All very well and good. What however is not stated in this positive statement is where the money for investment will come from. Inevitably the money has been moved from other cultural projects.

Budgets of Art institutions and universities have been drastically slashed this year. The ministry of culture website states that applications for funds have now closed for 2011, and its only March!

I understand that Poland is a bit short of money and that at the same time it wants to put on a good show. Yet by dealing with the problem in this way the lifeblood of regular artists has been cut.

Young aspiring artists depend on government grants to help them develop their ideas. This involves travelling to festivals and competitions. Does the government's policy meant that all students in 2011 will be left out in the cold?

Teaching styles and little pieces of paper

I don't think I have ever written an article on this blog about teaching English, which is not bad for four years of blogging :)
 So I am writing this blog update with trepidation.... will it unleash a flood of ELT themed pieces? I very much doubt it :)

Today's topic is just a short piece about teaching styles. Several years ago I was like many new teachers, earnestly cutting up pieces of paper and preparing activities for my students. However with time my methods have changed. I guess this has something to do with the humanist in me. I see these pieces of paper getting screwed up or left on the desk at the end of the lesson and think - what's the point? Also of course I'm just bone-ass lazy.

I have developed a cabaret-act routine where gramma points and vocabulary are interlaced with a 90min spiel of bizarre quirky observations and anecdotes. I feel happy if I can give a humorous story to each definition I give: It keeps me entertained and hopefully means they remember it.

Okay, so now you have the picture, you will understand my pride when, during a particularly surreal exchange between myself and one student, another remarked in Polish that this was like Monty Python. The first student was a soldier and I have always found (being an ex-squaddie) that soldiers the world over have the same sense of humour: usually dark and sick. We were therefore having a bizarre exchange about the rules of engagement in the Polish military. He said he was allowed to shoot a rapist. I was surprised how detailed their R-O-E card is (in fact a fat great book) and thought that surely you could just pull the bloke off and cuff him; therefore I said how killing him seemed extreme seeing as there is no capital punishment here. He said that he could not actually kill him. To which I replied "So what? You just shoot him in the testicles?"

The above exchange was accompanied by a story of how a colleague beat-up a mentally disabled guy for running through a military compound. I of course remarked how this was like beating up a child. He retorted that the man was trying to steal the soldier's gun, to which I ridiculed him and his big brave colleague further.

The point of this? Not sure there is really any point. It may be a cruel power need I have, It may be a lack of empathy induced by being dropped as a baby. Yet I can't help being sarcastic and ironical to my students. Is this wrong? ...  Probably. but they seem to like me for it. I accept as good as I get, but take this as a challenge for a duel of wits.

Humanitarian Intervention

Western countries need to redefine their security agenda so as to return to basic core values which were seen in the 1990s. If we forsake such basic tenets, then we risk losing our sense of self; a fact which could have far worse ramifications than any specific terrorist threat or oil shortage.

The above is summary of an article I wrote which is available on the e-ir website. Please take a look.

Constitutional Tribunal Verdict : Marlial law was illegal!

Most of Poland's news organisations are today reporting the fact that the Constitutional Tribunal has declared that the enactment of martial law in 1981 was in fact illegal; see for instance TVN24. This is an important step for the healing of modern Poland whilst being also at the same time at tad surreal.


The Communist State that existed within the geographical location known as Poland between the end of the Second World War and 1989 (although not officially vanquished until the short constitution of 1992) was from the very outset an unconstitutional abhorrence placed on top of the existing democratic Poland by external agents (whist it obviously had many Polish supporter it could not have been created without the USSR). Therefore to declare one of its acts as unconstitutional is strange. Whether martial law agreed with or did not agree with the PRL's constitution does not change one iota the unethical nature of the act.

However, as I sad above, perhaps it is a natural and necessary part of the healing process. What perhaps is the more worrying part of this is the implications that spring up from this judgement. By declaring the act unconstitutional the tribunal recognises the overall validity of the PRL and thus opens the way for compensation claims.

The begs the question as to whether the children of the revolution should pay for the inequities of the forefathers. Simply put, should modern Poland's taxes be used to pay for past wrongs under a system to which it had no part?

Arguments for could start with pointing to the fact that there is a continuity of state structures such as tax offices, army, hospitals etc and thus this is really the same state under a different name. Arguments against would point to the undemocratic nature of the previous system and thus how accountability can not be placed upon the public at large.

A tricky problem with no immediately clear ethical answer.

Happy Fourth Birthday

Tuesday the 15th March is the fourth birthday of The Łódź Wonderer. Looking back over the last four years I have not been the most consistent blogger but at the same time I feel that I have provided my readers (mainly that means my dog Zenek) with some interesting pieces.

Pocket Dictator

Post-Conflict Video

If you have any megalomaniac tendencies, then marriage to an artist will perhaps allow you to fulfil your evil desires. I am in fact married to an artist and thus my delusions of world conquest were more than catered for in my wife's latest project :)

The following exhibition review is by no means an objective and unbiased account of a contemporary Polish artist; in fact its a more than prejudiced review as I was the principle protagonist in the work. Therefore please read on in the light of the fact that I am 100% behind this work and in fact was to some extent a collaborator in its making. 

Pocket Dictator

The work has the title of Pocket Dictator and was created by Elzbieta Wysakowska-Walters, an MA student at Poznan University of Fine Art (Formerly Poznan Fine Art Academy). The work is however two works which share a theme. One is centred around the concept of the modus operandi of dictatorships and how infact many of the discerning features of dictatorships can be seen in pluralists democracies whilst also the close relationship of dictatorships and democracies is high-lighted. Two separate pieces illustrate this point: firstly a video featuring myself referring to the main points in an accompanying essay I wrote showing how the art of spin-doctors and sound-bites can in fact be compared to passages of Hitler's Mein Kampf. The other piece is a mobile phone with a ring tone and SMS message tone which is the voice of a dictator. The ring tone is a roaring political speech akin to the Nuremberg Rally, whilst the text message thanks the external donator for the money given. This dual nature of dictators is referred to in the video ad essay where dictators are often supported by outside forces: often democracies. 

The Meeting Point: Pocket Dictator & The Conflict Book

The second part of the work consists of a conflict book and accompanying video. Both works aim at showing the cyclic nature of conflict and as such the relationship conflict has with people. The video discusses the post-conflict situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the somewhat  bizarre relations the International Community had with the region. 

 

Bio-Rhythm of Conflict

The Conflict Book

The work was displayed at the Kaiser's Palace in Poznan during in the week of the 7th March 2011. This short time will hopefully be more than made up for in a future exhibition; details of which are to follow.

Democracy and Dictators

A full exposé will appear on a work related website created by my wife and so details will follow.

Poland and Humanitarianism

Recently an old university colleague put on Facebook the statement: "Asylum is a human right". I was very temped to put a sarcastic or ironic comment, but luckily stopped myself from doings so as I'm sure it would just be viewed as cruel and unnecessary.  Why unnecessary? Well her intentions were no doubt good and she has always been a humanitarian and in that I admire her. Yet, her comment displayed a naive view of both International Relations and Philosophy (N.B. we studied International Relations together at university).

The problem which she aptly displayed is that asylum involves the crossing of a political border and the shelter within a third party state. These very terms indicate the constructed nature of each and hence their in-congruent relationship with human nature. Not in-congruent in that humans cannot live with such concepts but rather that from a philosophical perspective these terms: state, asylum, etc, do not match the accepted terms of human nature. We understand human nature as something inherent and innate to humans. Therefore how can an obvious construct such as a state be at the same time instrumental in a human right, that is, Asylum? If a human right is to exist it must pre-date any man-made construct.

This inevitably begs the question as to what extent human rights are universal. To understand this we must first discuss what are human rights. Does a right exist prior to it being legislated upon? My instinct and empathy says yes of course it does. I want to believe that regardless of any written law, there is a basic truth that exists separate to society and legal procedures. Yet philosophically speaking this is very difficult to prove. A very good summary of the problem exists here: 

I am interested in any views as to how this effects the UN's Responsibility to Protect resolution. In order to declare war we must be sure in our minds that such a right exists or else we risk being imperialistic in our actions.To bring this all back into some vague relationship with Poland and the main theme of this blog. Poland entered into two wars in the last decade and in many ways got its fingers burnt. In the future it may be temped to stop interacting on a grand scale altogether; yet if it does this it risks slipping back into the international isolation that existed during the communist era. More concretely though, by not being able to define its humanitarian credentials it risks its domestic ethical ideals. Only through a strong and robust demonstration of beliefs can a country affirm its defining concepts.

 Therefore the extent to which Poland is truly an ethical state will be shown by its foreign policy. So far as proven on the Belarus front, all is looking good :)

Consternation and its casues: the 1997 Constitution?

Recently whenever I have switched on either the radio or TV various "experts" seem to be endlessly discussing the dates of the looming elections in Poland. Is it me or is this just an excuse to fill air-time with drivel?

The Warsaw Voice announced on 2nd March that The PM and President would consult the leaders of the main parties. The phrase: too many chefs spoil the broth, springs to mind. I know that the British system is inherently unfair and the Polish Constitution no doubt allows for a pluralist electoral system etc etc, but I for one am in favour of the Prime Ministrial prerogative that exists in the UK. None of this continuous debate: The PM says May 15th (for example) and the country prepares. Is it so difficult?

 Alas, a lot of the problem lies with the 1997 Polish Constitution which has this to say on the matter:

Elections to the Sejm and the Senate shall be ordered by the President of the Republic no later than 90 days before the expiry of the 4 year period beginning with the commencement of the Sejm's and Senate's term of office, and he shall order such elections to be held on a non-working day which shall be within the 30 day period before the expiry of the 4 year period beginning from the commencement of the Sejm's and Senate's term of office.

Such a strict guideline is bound to create unforeseen problems. A lot of the current debate has been centred around the falling of All Saints Day, which is traditionally a long weekend. People are afraid that many voters will simply not bother turning up to vote.

This is not the first time I have blogged on the matter of problems with the constitution (See Constitutional Crisis?). I am not sure what the prestigious leaders were doing between 1992 and 1997 when the current constitution took affect; but to be honest, my dog could probably have come up with a constitution with less chance of confusion and overlapping competencies.

I am of course not the only one who sees problems in the 1997 constitution as I wrote here. Although I am generally reluctant to side with any codified constitution as it tends to lend itself to dogmatism and entrenched beliefs in outdated ideas (see here), I can see the need in a post-revolution period to have a fresh start. Therefore the 1992 and 1997 constitutions were necessary for the rebirth of Poland; shame the constitution makers did not envision the possible points of clash within their "little baby".

Oh well, perhaps the next revolution will bring a brighter future :) .......

Karma and petrol stations

A few weeks ago I moaned on this blog about an Orlen petrol station on the A2 (here) and am happy to report that my insistence on not being ripped off (no matter by only 37gr) has had a positive effect. Well at least that's how I like to see it.

On Saturday I and my wife stopped at a BP petrol station in Łódź. To be honest I didn't really plan to get petrol but we wanted to use the toilets and so I decided to stop at BP as they are always nice and clean (the toilets that is). While my wife went in to use the toilets I started filling up (thankfully no attendants at BP). I noticed that the screen was displaying 48zl and thought that perhaps the pump had not been cleared from the customer before and was not actually giving me petrol. I released my grip on the pump and could feel the pressure difference and then re-squeezed the pump and again felt the difference; therefore I continued filling my car believing that the screen was just broken.

Upon finishing I went into pay and told the women my pump number and that I thought the pump was broken as it had displayed 48zł from start to finish. She told me that the computer showed zero and that pump 3 had not been used. This was odd. For a second I felt that I was a complete idiot and that I had been standing for several minutes next to a car while not actually achieving anything. I said I'd go and check/refill my car. I decided first to check my car's petrol guage and guess what: I had at least three times as much petrol as I had before pulling into BP. This was bizzare.

I returned to the cashdesk and told them that I have petrol and that the machine must be wrong. Here begun the surreal part. For the next ten minutes the cashiers and the manager tried to convince me that I had not taken any petrol and that as far as their systems were concerned everything was fine. I pride my self on being an ethical and honest person and will always alert a waiter if they have undercharged me in a restaurant etc and so told the BP staff several times that I had taken petrol. Alas to no avail. If you have ever watched episodes of Little Britain then the line "the computer says no" will aptly describe this situation.

The manager refused to accept/comprehend the possibility that the computer/pump was broken and just repeated that I/we were wrong/mistaken. In the end I left my card and told her to call me if her accounts do not add up and we left. I estimate that we drove away with around 80-100zł worth of free petrol.

Carry on camping!!!

What do these two pictures have in common?

Answer: One is the box containing the key to the fire escape, the other is the distance to said fire escape.

The Interesting part is that my office is in between these two points.


Scenario: A fire blocks the main everyday door from safley beeing used. Yours truly and three colegues are then trapped in the our offices. We have the uncofortable choice of a) approaching burning area to receive potentially red-hot key and then scarpering back down the coridoor to the fire escape or b) burning in our rooms.

N.B. Although on the ground floor, escape via the windows is not an option as these are barred up.

I'm sure this all looked very good on paper when someone drew up the regulations, but the stupidity of the situation astounds me.

Lets just hope there isn't a fire ..... oh I forgot, the building is still wired with a 1960/70s installation and fuse box and too many kettles switched on at the same time fuses the whole thing. 

It's the little things that matter!

When you are tired even the smallest injustice can be enough to ruin your day. Just such an instance occurred last Sunday at the Orlen petrol station on the A2 between Lodz and Poddebice.

I was returning home after a very long and tiring weekend teaching in Warsaw and had to stop for petrol. I only had 30zl in cash and thought this would be enough to get me home.

Orlen stil has petrol attendants who pump the petrol for you and so I asked for 30zl worth. I am used to people sometimes misshearing my 30 as 40 and so had the money in my hand. The guy did his job and I replaced the cap and went in to pay.

After standing in a long que I finally told the woman at the desk my pump number and said 30zl placeing the money down at the same time. She looked at the money and said "And 37 grosze."

I said ofcourse "er no it was 30zl." To which she showed me her screen an stated again 30.37zl. I protested (calmly I think) that it was not me, it was the tall bloke who works there. She repeated her demand for 37 gr.

Now at this point let me explain, I am inclined to argue over the smallest things for the sake of a principle at the best of times; but in this case I truly didn't have any more money. If I did I would have got more petrol.

I said that it was not my fault and that it was the petrol attendants fault and that if they look at the CCTV they will see this. She ofcourse protested and pointed to the amount again. I repeated that it was not my fault and I'm not interested in her 37gr problem. She eventually gave up and cleared the till, putting the receipt down on the counter. I was a bit unsure as to whether that was the end of it, but took her refusal to talk to me ad a sign that I could go; and so left.

The moral of the story? A guy who can not stop a pump to within 1gr of the amount required should not be employed as a petrol pump attendent! Idiot!!!