tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70534424536302114002024-03-13T15:50:08.826+01:00Czarny KotWelcome. Here you will find articles from Poland's 'Przegłąd' weekly selected and translated by your host Czarny Kot for your reading pleasure-- some of them will be about Poland, but many will not be. Enjoy....Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-82033853065976763882012-06-11T20:24:00.000+02:002012-06-11T20:24:11.264+02:00OPINION: Piotr Żuk-- A Country For The Rich, A Democracy For The Few<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Due to Euro 2012 the academic year here in Wrocław was shortened, finishing at the end of May. In Poland as a whole, we might soon reach the point where lack of funds for education and research lead not only to shorter academic years but even the closure of colleges and universities. The so-called Kudrycki reforms, long prepared and finally passed last October, were supposed to cure Poland's educational ills. In reality, they have resulted in chaos and extra administrative burdens on educators. As we speak work is underway on reforms of the reforms-- business as usual in other words. The current situation in higher education, however, is the most serious since 1989. The main source of income for further and higher education instiutions, part-time students who attend at weekends, is slowly drying up. All that is left is minimal funding, minimal pay and the self-satisifed PO government.<br />
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The desperate need to attract students is leading to a decline in standards-- entry is open to anyone who can pay for the privilege of an increasingly worthless degree.<br />
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When the state spends more on weapons, surveillance and security than education then it ceases to be a true democracy and starts to evolve into a police state.<br />
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Although official statistics show that the number of people with higher education is rising, the reality is that Poland is becoming a country with more and more secondary illiterates, those who have problems combining reading with understanding. The art of reading is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Working until 67 does not require thinking, quite the opposite. The lower cultural and social capital the citizens posess, the safer the authorities feel. An aware citizen is a problem. Unthinking automatons are much more convenient and they can include even those with higher education.<br />
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It is not only the educational system which is collapsing. The health of the citizens' is also under threat. Not only pyschological health, under strain from daily stress and the government's weird and wonderful ideas, but also physical health. Our poor health system has become even worse-- Poland is now in 27th place out of 34 European health systems according to the annual rankings of the European Health Consumer Index (EHCI). We come in last with regard to availiability of medicines and waiting times for visits and operations. <br />
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In Poland health is becoming a luxury good, available only to a select few, those with fat wallets who can afford to pay for private health care. What, then, are the citizens' taxes spent on? If the state is unable to guarantee a minimum level of public health care then it should free citizens from the obligation to pay taxes towards such a service. The transfer of public funds to private clinics and surgeries does not lead to greater resources for treatment, as the private health care sector still operates in the grey market and does not usually make its accounts public. Patients do not insist of medical receipts and they cannot deduct medical expenses from their taxes anyway.<br />
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Motorways built with taxpayers' money are gradually becoming toll roads. There is no escape from government extortion-- in Poland one has to patriotically pay several times for the same thing in order to fill the hole in the budget. The result is that many stretches of brand new motorway will be empty and unused. Driving on them will be more expensive than in Austria, the Czech Republic and even the rich and expensive Switzerland. It is not even worth mentioning the toll-free motorways in Germany, Holland and Denmark...<br />
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The way things are going, we will soon have to pay to enter city parks, breathe fresh air and walk in the forest. Citizens' Platform (PO) build motorways for the few who can afford them and they allow decent health care only for the wealthy few. They are steadily forming an oligarchical democracy in which the majority do not have a voice, not that anyone would listen to them anyway.<br />
<br />Dogmatic faith in the market should not be a justification for building an market society in which everything becomes a product for sale and in which relations between people become purely commercial interactions. The defence of the public sphere and the right to common spaces is the main calling card of the modern Leftism. A healthy economy does not need to be based on dogmatic privatisation at all costs, just as a good hospital does not need to be a private business operating like a hypermarket. Society is something more than just a chaotic collection of individual interests. The common good counts for something. In the actions and policies of PO one can only see the interests of employers, business and a bureaucracy which only serves ti protect the wealthy minority. <br />
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<i>Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine. </i><br />
<br />Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com334tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-92098370732192109702012-06-06T22:06:00.001+02:002012-06-06T22:07:30.087+02:00EURO 2012: Lviv Prepares (J. Kit)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5XHU5LEFVf4/T8-3rxMgR6I/AAAAAAAAAWE/b47w6X0GkRo/s1600/lviv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5XHU5LEFVf4/T8-3rxMgR6I/AAAAAAAAAWE/b47w6X0GkRo/s400/lviv.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panorama of Lviv's historic centre.</td></tr>
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<b>Background: </b><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv">Lviv </a>(Polish: Lwów) is the principal city of western Ukraine, with a population of around 760,000. Now a Ukrainian city with an almost exclusively Ukrainian population, before the war it was a Polish city with a mixed but predominantly Polish population. Anywhere between 7,000 and 30,000 people who identify themselves as Poles still live in the city. Lviv will host 3 matches during the 2012 European football championships.</i><br />
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<i> </i> When UEFA president Michel Platini announced that Ukraine and Poland would co-host Euro 2012, the inhabitants of Lviv knew at once that thier hometown would be one of the host cities. Lviv's football tradition stretches back to the 1930s. Polish football was born in Lviv and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo%C5%84_Lw%C3%B3w">Pogoń</a> club was one of the giants of pre-war Polish football. Today, the club has been resurrected thanks to the efforts of the city's Polish community. In the 1970s another Lviv club, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpaty_Lviv">FK Karpaty</a>, won the Soviet championship. FK Karpaty currently play in the Ukrainian premier division while the city's second club, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Lviv">FK Lviv</a>, play in the second tier. The Ukrainian national team particulary like playing in Lviv as it is the only stadium where the whole crowd sing the national anthem before international games.<br />
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After the initial pride of being amongst the host cities had worn off, however, the inhabitants of Lviv have begun to wonder if their city can really afford it, and whether they are really capable of competing with Western European cities.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new Lviv Arena</td></tr>
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The main problem was the lack of a stadium, as the city's existing facilities did not meet UEFA's requirements. The city council decided to build a new stadium at the expense of both the city and private sponsors. Private investors, however, were not too keen to invest in a facility whose long-term prospects after the tournament are unclear. The shortfall in funding was paid for by the national government.<br />
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The building of Lviv's stadium started later than all the other stadiums built for the tournament. Construction lasted a year and a half and the stadium was officially opened at the end of October 2011, a few months later than planned. The finishing touches were still be added until April this year.<br />
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"It's the biggest investment in Lviv for 20 years!" says Andrzej, who has worked on the stadium from the very beginning. "There was a lot of work. We worked on Saturdays and sometimes even on Sundays... I am sure that I will be laid off after the tournament, not because of my Polish background but because nobody knows how the stadium will make a profit after Euro 2012."<br />
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The cost of the stadium, which has a capacity of 35,000, is around 85 million euro. "With that money they could have built a few schools, clinics or hospitals which are desperately needed here" say inhabitants who are against the Euros.<br />
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The name of the stadium was another source of controversy. At one stage there was even a plan to name it after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera">Stepan Bandera</a>. <i>(Controversial Ukrainian nationalist-CK)</i> Finally, a safe, neutral name was chosen: The Lviv Arena.<br />
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Lviv, with 800,000 inhabitants, is expected to host 200,000 fans. Apart from Germany and Portugal, Denmark will also play here. No teams, however, will be based in Lviv. ( Only 2 teams-- Sweden and France-- will be based in Ukraine.) Germany will stay in Gdańsk, Denmark have chosen Kołobrzeg and Portugal will be based in Opalenica, near Poznan.<br />
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The teams will arrive in Lviv by plane the day before the matches. In 30 years Lviv's airport did not see any investment. For the Euros there is a new terminal and an extended runway. The teams will therefore have no trouble flying in but fans face an expensive journey as no budget airlines fly to Lviv. Another option is by rail. A new express connection with Kharkiv and Donetsk has been prepared for the tournament.<br />
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Nonetheless, the majority of fans will choose to travel by car. EU citizens do not need entry visas for Ukraine. Border guards are ready for a large influx of people. Things look less positive with regards to the roads. Despite ambitious plans mooted by the regional government, no new roads have been built. The only good roads connected to Lviv are in the direction of Kiev. Roads between Lviv and the Polish border have been hastily, and poorly, renovated. " It is true that after the Euros we will be left with some infrastructure but it is of dubious quality. In a year or so the roads will need repairing." This is the sceptical view of Galina, PR manager with a consultancy firm.<br />
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Accommodation will be provided in the form of hotels, hostels, student residences, campsites and private homes. 5 years ago there was only 1 hostel in Lviv, now there more than a dozen. Some of them do not even bother to advertise in Ukrainian, they are aimed soley at foreigners.<br />
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A month ago there were reports of hotel prices being increased by up to 1000% but after the intervention of Michel Platini and the city council hoteliers have been more reasonable with their prices. In Lviv, where 2 new hotels have been built, prices range from 20 to 400 euros per night. Their could even be vacancies during the tournament.<br />
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Many residents will put up fans in their own homes. Some owners have been keeping properites empty since January so that they can rent them out for 100 euro a day come the tournament.<br />
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Not everyone stands to gain from the tournament. "Most people will have to work longer for the same pay" says Galina "My father is an electrician in a hotel. Before the Euros the employees had to carry out the interior renovations themselves, whilst the documentation says that it was carried out by foreign contractors..." Bakery workers have said that they will have to do extra shifts during the Euros without pay as a 'good deed'.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-soAzg001cdU/T8-3xleapRI/AAAAAAAAAWU/a8kCoAnZpHM/s1600/opera.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-soAzg001cdU/T8-3xleapRI/AAAAAAAAAWU/a8kCoAnZpHM/s400/opera.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lviv's Opera House, backdrop to the central fan zone.</td></tr>
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4 fans zones are to be set up, one of them in the heart of the city centre outside the Opera House. Lviv's theatres will be open in June and several music festivals will take place. Street buskers will also be performing, just as they did before the war.<br />
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Over 1,000 volunteers will be on hand to assist visitors. Fans can also count on the general public of Lviv, who are known for their openness and hospitality. The locals always try to help tourists, especially those who do not speak Ukrainian. Almost all residents of Lviv understand Polish and the volunteers will also be able to speak various Western European languages.<br />
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Problems may arise, however, with understanding the police, who can only speak Ukrainian and Russian. Contact with the police might be the result for anyone who buys the services of the prostitutes, both local and from out of town, who will be keen to cash in on the tournament....<br />
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On a more positive note, fans will not be thirsty in Lviv. Local breweries have promised not to raise the prices of their beers, which cost between 2.50 and 5 zł. in shops, depending on the brand.<br />
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On match days public transport in Lviv will operate until 2.30am. However, everyday transport is a problem. In January the city council introduced a new timetable. The overcrowded buses, trolleybuses and trams run to suit the operators, who enjoy a monopoly, rather than the passengers. Ticket prices have risen as the quality of service has declined.<br />
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At the end of May it came to light that Lviv will not have anywhere to dispose of its rubbish come the Euros. The city's only landfill should have been closed 2 years ago and it has become an environmental hazard. Residents of villages near the site have threatened to block roads if the city does not stop using the landfill.<br />
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In the city itself moods are mixed. "In my opinion Lviv will gain improved infrastructure and will be have the opportunity to present itself as a European city" says Walentyna Bartoszyk, director of the administration and economy department of Lviv city council. "Another important benefit is that people working in the service sector will learn good habits such as hospitality and politeness. Contact with foreigners will be a good experience for local entrepreneurs" she adds.<br />
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Pensioner Nadzieja Chomyn is more sceptical: "In Lviv everything has changed for the worse. For me, and for most pensioners, Euro 2012 does not mean anything. If I have a pension of 1350 hrywa (490 zł) a month, how can I buy a ticket for 50 euro? Food prices here are higher than in Poland, only vodka and cigarettes are cheaper. The only roads which have been upgraded are those which will be used by VIPs and the footballers. The neighbourhood roads will still have 20cm deep potholes in them. Everyone is talking about the good organisation for the Euros but it is all propaganda to distract people from the situation with Julia Tymoschenko and the economic crisis. I only trust the news from TVP Polonia. We cannot get any other Polish TV channels here."<br />
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Nadzieja Chomyn and the rest of Lviv's Polish community-- offically 7,000 strong but unofficially counting 30,000 members-- only regret that their city will not play host to the Polish national team for a match. That would be something special...<br />
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<i>Author: Jarosław Kit Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine </i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com152tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-33549866028825187882012-06-03T22:38:00.000+02:002012-06-03T22:38:09.434+02:00POLAND / HISTORY: Operation Vistula-- Through The Eyes Of A Deportee (B. Czeluśniak)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TMyvqsCDNwM/T8iGYXR5dDI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/YVRzW0uEiG0/s1600/dep.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TMyvqsCDNwM/T8iGYXR5dDI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/YVRzW0uEiG0/s400/dep.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deportees during Operation Vistula, 1947.</td></tr>
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After reading the articles concerned with<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vistula"> Operation Vistula </a>in 'Przegłąd' issue (20/2012) I cannot help but feel that these texts were written on the orders of politicans. I write these words in the knowledge that they will provoke a hostile reaction from many of my compatriots. Nonetheless, I would like to try to explain my controversial point of view.<br />
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My father, Grzegorz, was born into a Polish-Ukrainian family but he considered himself to be a Pole. In those days the goverment officials responsible for matters of nationality maintained a policy in which boys of mixed marriages would inherit their father's nationality whilst girls would inherit the mother's. My father lived near Przemyśl. He was fluent in both Polish and Ukrainian and he was not ashamed to to speak in the latter, even though his neighbours often made fun of him for doing so. In the Przemyśl region there were many mixed marriages. Both nationalities lived together peacefully and nobody gave much attention to the issue of nationality. As well as Poles and Ukrainians, there were Jews, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemko">Lemkos </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Tatars">Tatars</a>. After the war everything changed. Ukrainians began to be seen as second-class people, worthy of disdain. The fate of my father was decided by various factors. Firstly, he had a friendly attitude towards other nationalities (something which he had inherited from his father) and secondly he married a Ukrainian woman, something which in the post-war years was beginning to be seen as treacherous behaviour. I also add that when war broke out my father was mobilised and served in the Polish Army, fighting in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Beskids">Silesian Beskids.</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp at Jaworzno. It started life as a German concentration camp and was then used by the Communist authorities as a labour camp. During Operation Vistula many Ukrainians were detained here.</td></tr>
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I have many memories of the situation in the borderlands. I remember strangers approaching our house at night and shouting at our mother and grandmother, asking to speak to the children, my older sister and I. I recall the fear we felt of the 'night people' and the mix of regret and shame I felt when our neighbour called her son home with the words "Kazik! Don't play with Marysia, she's a Ukrainian" or when she called the adults 'bandits'. I remember how Father Bronisław Marszałek pointed to the east during mass and said "Ukrainians! There is your road to the Ukraine!" The same priest had given me my first communion. That was how the border was after the war. People who committed crimes against the Ukrainians had given themselves the right to take the law into their own hands by 'cleaning the neighbourhood of rebellious scum.'<br />
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For my family May 1947 proved to be worse than anything which had come before during the war. My father was in the custody of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urz%C4%85d_Bezpiecze%C5%84stwa"> UB</a><i> (Secret police-CK)</i> in Przemyśl and was later sent to<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Labour_Camp_Jaworzno"> a camp in Jaworzno</a>. Nobody told us that he had been transferred, my mother only found out on the grapevine. No charges were ever brought against him but he was regulary beaten by the camp guards. After he came home in January 1948 he sometimes told us about his ordeal in the camp, although he had been warned to remain silent. He said that the guards at Jaworzno had pictures of skulls on their caps...Our father came home with a fractured skull.<br />
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While my father was in prison my mother recieved a letter from the authorities ordering us to leave our home immediately. We had a few hours to pack up. Nobody cared that my mother was heavily pregnant at the time. A wagon with all our belongings stood on the communal pasture with other wagons and carts. Bedding, clothing and a few other possessions were guarded by our grandfather during the night. My mother, sister and I were allowed to sleep in the house. In the morning we were due to travel into the unknown with other families. However, during the night my mother gave birth and we were permitted to stay.<br />
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We did not stay for long. 2 years later, on November 1st 1949 we were again ordered to leave our home and were told to go to the Przemyśl Bakończyce railway station. Our parents and the 3 of us (10 year old Natalia, myself aged 9 and 2 year old Marysia) were put into a livestock wagon along with our horse and cow-- our only livelihood. The journey lasted several days. It is hard to say how long exactly but it must have been at least a week. The wagon was at once a stable, a barn and a house. For me at the time it was all one big adventure, I had never been on a train before. I stood at the open door watching the passing houses, trees and fields. My parents, on the other hand, were worried sick.<br />
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Nobody saw to it that we had enough to eat, or that our animals had fodder and water.<br />
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Finally, we arrived in Nidzica <i>(NE Poland-CK)</i>. In the middle of the night they ordered us to get moving, despite the darkness. Every now and then a house would appear, we would stop and one family would start unpacking and the rest would move on. Eventually we arrived at a small village, similar to our own Hermanowic. Our wagon stopped in front of one of the houses and our 'guard' ordered the people living inside to make space for us in one of the rooms. There were 8 of us in one room. My family accounted for 5 people and there was also a young single woman and a young couple without children. In the morning it turned out that in the other 2 rooms there lived 4 people. They were Belarussians who had been deported from the Białystok region. Kind, honest, good people. With their help my parents were able to sort out a room in the attic and that way we managed to create our own little private space. My father was completely broken down. He spent all day lying on the bed and crying. He could not understand why he had been treated with such meanness, why the authorities had decided to treat him like a bandit. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A plaque in Polish and Ukrainian which commemorates the deportation of the Lemko minority.</td></tr>
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In late spring or early summer we managed to take over a small house, thanks to its previous owner Mr. Chojnowski. There was 1 room with a kitchen. The second room was in need of renovation and was uninhabitable. This was far from the 'luxury' which some apologists calim awaited the deportees. Many of the floorboards were so rotted that they would break even under the weight of a child.<br />
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Contrary to what some claim, deportees were not given the chance of a better, more prosperous life. We didn not have our own home, there was no work. Opertion Vistula was carried out in a chaotic, random and disorganised manner. Its only objective was to weed out 'inferior' citizens of Communist Poland and dump them in the north of the country. Thanks to the operation the government aquired the houses necessary to acommodate the 'colonists'-- Poles who had been deported from the USSR. Nobody tried to hide this fact. My parents remembered how a woman showed our house to her sister, explaining that it would soon be vacant and ready for her to move into. They did not care that my mother was present and able to hear every word. They did not care that she would go out of her head with worry about what would happen to us.<br />
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Operation Vistula did not only affect Ukrainians but also Belarussians and, as the case of my father shows, other inhabitants of the border region. One thing is clear: it was an act of revenge for the crimes carried out by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army">UPA </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists">OUN</a>, with whom my family and the majority of deportees did not have any contact. In fact, we condemned their actions. The policies of the Polish government only served to increase the idiotic nationalist chauvinism on both sides. It served nobody.<br />
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<i>Author: Bohdana Czeluśniak with the help of her daughter Kamila Jasiak Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine. </i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com126tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-43324040221649907442012-05-31T11:23:00.003+02:002012-05-31T11:25:34.055+02:00POLAND / HISTORY: Operation Vistula-- A Necessary Evil (P. Dybicz)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a2_o8Y_X50M/T8c1brEmflI/AAAAAAAAAUs/65Z5m-3MZEY/s1600/aw.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a2_o8Y_X50M/T8c1brEmflI/AAAAAAAAAUs/65Z5m-3MZEY/s400/aw.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ethnic Ukrainians being deported from a village in SE Poland during Operation Vistula</td></tr>
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<b>Background:</b><i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vistula">Operation Vistula</a> (Polish: Akcja Wisła) was carried out by Poland's Communist government between April and July 1947 in the south-eastern corner of modern-day Poland. The objectives were twofold: the military supression of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army">Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)</a> and the deportation of ethnic Ukrainian civilians, as well as the related <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyko">Boyko </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemko">Lemko </a>ethnic groups, to resettlement in areas of northern and western Poland which had previously belonged to Germany.</i><br />
<br />
<i>Some argue that the operation was an unfortunate but necessary measure to prevent further inter-communal violence in the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands. It can also be seen as a response to the various massacres of Polish citizens carried out by the UPA during the war. Others argue that Operation Vistula was a shameful act of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing carried out by a totalitarian regime. The following article makes the former argument, whilst a second article to be translated and posted some time soon(ish) makes the latter argument from the point of view of an eyewitness who was deported as a child.</i><br />
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Although 65 years have now passed since Operation Vistula, it does not provoke any less discussion and controversy than it did in the past. One could even say that it creates more debate now than when it was carried out...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z6Y9sqjTkf8/T8c2jHnG2oI/AAAAAAAAAU8/buYgqQcNGa0/s1600/volhy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z6Y9sqjTkf8/T8c2jHnG2oI/AAAAAAAAAU8/buYgqQcNGa0/s400/volhy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polish civilians murdered by Ukrainian nationalists in the Volhynia region.</td></tr>
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In mid-1944, partisan bands of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) started to murder Poles in the south-east of modern-day Poland. The campaign was based on the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Poles_in_Volhynia"> earlier massacres in Volhynia</a>. The UPA were implementing a directive issued by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OUN">Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)</a> who wished to 'cleanse' western Ukraine of Poles. The UPA and OUN did not accept the post-war borders, agreed by the 'Big Three' at Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam. Ukrainian nationalists wanted the region of Eastern Galicia, located on the Polish side of the new border, and so they set up their own underground state in the region-- Zakierzoński Country. At this time, the UPA were engaged in combat with soldiers from the USSR's<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Polish_Army"> 1st Polish Army </a>as well as units of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armia_Krajowa"> Armia Krajowa (AK)</a><i> (Polish resistance-CK)</i> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Armed_Forces">National Armed Forces (NSZ)</a> <i>(Right-wing Polish paramilitaries-CK)</i> When the Eastern Front approached the territory of pre-war Poland and when the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKWN">Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN)</a> <i>(Soviet controlled provisional government-CK) </i>signed an agreement with the Ukrainian S.S.R to exchange populations (September and October 1944) the UPA units operating in Eastern Galicia / Zakierzoński changed their objectives.<br />
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The UPA now wanted to prevent the transfer of Ukrainians to the USSR. Their targets now included railway lines and stations, bridges and telephone lines, as well as villages and towns inhabited by Poles. There were also attacks on army and police posts and the offices of the resettlement commission. The UPA employed a scorched earth policy. Villages which had been vacated by deported Ukrainians, Lemkos and Boykos were burnt to the ground so that they could not be inhabited by Poles arriving from the USSR side of the border.<br />
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Obviously, the Polish authorities could not allow the continued existence of Ukrainian partisan units. The decision to carry out Operation Vistula was taken by the Political Bureau of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Workers%27_Party"> Polish Worker's Party (PPR)</a>. The direct trigger for the operation was the death of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_%C5%9Awierczewski">General Karol Świerczewski</a> in an ambush at Baligród on March 28th 1947. Although the operation began on 28th April 1947 the plan had been created beforehand under the direction of General <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Mossor">Stefan Mossor</a>, a soldier in Piłsudski's legions, one of the planners of Poland's war against Germany and the post-war vice chief of staff (1946-1947). Mossor was also in charge of the unit which would carry out the operation. The aims were twofold: resettlement of civilians and the liquidation of UPA units. Both objectives were interconnected, as the UPA enjoyed the support of a large proportion of the Ukrainian population who aided and supplied the partisans.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kwg2nOYoPnM/T8c3av-eHvI/AAAAAAAAAVE/oVTP4svawwk/s1600/map.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kwg2nOYoPnM/T8c3av-eHvI/AAAAAAAAAVE/oVTP4svawwk/s400/map.jpeg" width="369" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A map of operation Vistula. Yellow shows areas of Ukrainian settlement before deportation and light blue indicates areas of resettlement.</td></tr>
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Operation Vistula was also motivated by international factors. Firstly, the victorious 'Big Three' recognised the transfer of populations as helpful, and even necessary. Secondly, the Polish government could not allow the existence of hostile armed partisans, or a large number of hostile civilians who did not recognise the Polish state and had plans to create their own state, on Polish territory. Of course, Operation Vistula was not a painless action. At times it was cruel and brutal. It caused many tragedies, some of which remain unrecognised to this day. It was, however, necessary. Not only the government of the time believed this. The post-war authorities had to look at the bloody inter-communal violence and predict what would happen if they did not take any action, as well as what would happen further into the future. Even in post-Communist Poland we can find hear echoes of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict-- as with the situation in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przemy%C5%9Bl">Przemyśl</a> 5 years ago-- although thankfully they are of a much less violent strain. The rising power of nationalism in Western Ukraine should not be forgotten either.<br />
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Operation Vistula still creates controversy and various politicians have entered into the debate. In 1990 the Polish Senate condemned the action. In 2002 President Aleksander Kwaśniewski expressed regret and 5 years ago President Lech Kaczyński and Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko condemned Operation Vistula in a joint speech and labelled it a violation of basic human rights. Yuschenko then said on 27th April that the 'perpetrator of the operation was the totalitarian Communist regime'. <br />
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These opinions do not find much support amongst many Poles, including historians. Ewa Siemaszko, co-author of a monumental work on the Volhynia massacres, argues that Operation Vistula was vital to bringing an end to the anti-Polish ideology and actions of the OUN-UPA.<br />
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Ewa Siemaszko's opinion shows that Operation Vistula cannot be viewed in isolation but has to be seen in the wider context of Polish-Ukrainian relations. The decision of the government (regardless of what one thinks of that government's legitimacy) to start the deportation of Ukrainians from the border region was widely supported at the time. Operation Vistula will no doubt contine to stir emotions fro years to come and it will continue to raise the question of whether the interests of the state are more or less important than the rights of the individual. This debate will be carried out not only by historians but also by politicians. What is the future of Polish-Ukrainian relations? Only time will tell, and they say that time is a healer...<br />
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<i>Author: Paweł Dybicz Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine</i><br />
<br />Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-58514946181097820102012-05-28T17:02:00.002+02:002012-05-28T17:03:28.026+02:00OPINION: Piotr Żuk-- On France, Greece and Poland<br />
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The French are the latest electorate to go and let down the Polish media by choosing a leftist President. For Pemier Donald Tusk, who could not find the time to meet the Socialist candidate during his visit to Poland, the French election results must have come as a big disappointment. The same can be said for most of the Polish commentariat. Jacek Pałasiński, host of 'The World According to Jacek' on TVN, said on the eve of the election, "it will be interesting to see if the French re-elect Sarkozy and then breathe a sigh of relief, or if they decide to think short-term and elect Francoise Hollande, who will lead them into further debt." Witold Gadomski, the economic expert for 'Gazeta Wyborcza' and guardian of neo-liberal purity, said "Hollande, like Socialist leaders all over Europe, knows that he does not have the possibility to implement radical reforms in the economic sphere. Socialists criticise modern capitalism but they do not have a real programme for change... They rail against the dictates of the financial markets and the ratings agencies but at the end of the day they are dependent on them. They know that the markets do not mess around. For electoral reasons they play up to the left-wing gallery but they do so without too much conviction, in order to let the markets know that they do not really mean it." <br />
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It is mainly in this spirit that the 'free media' in Poland have analysed the French elections. To their minds, the politcal left should simply not exist but if it does have to exist then it should at least not meddle in socio-economic matters. In the socio-economic sphere the market fundamentalists have a monopoly on absolute truth. What does it matter that blind faith in the power of the invisible hand of the market has led the world into crisis? If anyone attempts to present a serious left-wing economic agenda then the Liberal-Conservative pundits say that they are faking it, or that they are populist, or that they are simply economic illiterates who have not read the sacred texts of Friedman or heard the sermons of Balcerowicz. One way or another, they are a dangerous heretic who should be fought against tooth and nail with no quarter given.<br />
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In Greece, the electorate's refusal to go along with further social spending cuts and good election results for leftist parties are also bad news for those who serve to protect the interests of the rich and powerful. When the Social-Democratic Greek Premier proposed a referendum on further cuts a few months ago the financial markets and their political representatives were outraged. How dare the citizens of a country think about deciding its economic policies? That is the job of financial experts who advise the large banks and corporations. Now, however, the Greeks have shown that people are not like cardboard boxes, to be flattened or thrown away at will. Here in Europe people will not stand for it!<br />
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When it comes to economic matters in the Polish media we usually only hear the opinions of the same people who advise the banks, rather than independent and less dogmatic Economics professors. The few independent academics who do get into the media are invariably free-market and privatisation supporters and loyal followers of Balcerowicz.<br />
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In Poland, as in Greece, the citizens do not have the right to make decisions on the economy. They cannot even make decisions about when they will retire. All these decisions are the domain of an elite caste of free-market priests and ideologues. For Premier Tusk the opinions of the ratings agencies, the employer's association 'Lewiatan', the bankers and the big corporations are all more important than public opinion. The people should simply keep quiet, follow orders, praise the current system and tug their forelocks to their masters. It is Feudalism in modern guise. Soon the people will be given the circus of Euro 2012 which is supposed to make them forget that they are now expected to work almost to death....<br />
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The large May Day demonstration organised by the SLD in Warsaw could not be ignored. The media, nonetheless, tried to confuse the issue by talking about Janusz Palikot and the second anniversary of John Paul II's beatification. This time they were unable to hide the fact that there has been a change in the social mood.<br />
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It would be strange if there was not such a change to be seen when people who are living in a state of complete insecurity have to listen to constant parade of great new ideas from their rulers. President Komorowski's advisors, wishing to fill the empty coffers of local governments, are looking for new streams of income in the pockets of the people. In a country where very few flats are built, and even fewer are bought, the government have decided to increase property taxes by 300%. If they come up with similar ideas then we are sure to solve the problems of Poland's construction industry. In Europe, however, the winds of change are blowing harder every day. Yesterday it was Slovakia, now France. Soon it will be the Czech Republic and Germany. Time for Poland.Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-85712040249913130782012-05-18T23:58:00.003+02:002012-05-18T23:58:50.499+02:00POLAND / HISTORY: Freemasons And Anti-Masonry In Poland-- An Interview With Prof. Tadeusz Cegielski<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qgNsPC-kVHM/T7Z6r8AASfI/AAAAAAAAAT8/Cpqfbj8nuY8/s1600/tad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qgNsPC-kVHM/T7Z6r8AASfI/AAAAAAAAAT8/Cpqfbj8nuY8/s400/tad.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tadeusz Cegielski, Professor of History at Warsaw University, Freemason and Honorary Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Poland.</td></tr>
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<b>Q: </b><i>Archbishop <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zef_Michalik">Józef Michalik</a>-- leader of the Polish Episcopate and doctor of Dogmatic Theology-- has accused Freemasons of attacking the Catholic Church. Where does this fear of Freemasonry, which seems to have been handed down by generations of Polish clergy, stem from?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Fear and suspicion of Freemasonry arise from the need for a symbolic enemy on whom all problems can be blamed. A scapegoat in other words. In Poland we once had 3 types of 'internal enemies': Jews, Freemasons and Bolsheviks. Since the fall of the USSR Bolsheviks are no longer seen as a threat. Anti-Semitism has been formally condemned by the Catholic Church. Even here in Poland it is hard to imagine the Church hierarchy openly pandering to anti-Semitic prejudices. Who is left to use as a scapegoat? Freemasons, of course!<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Where and when did the idea of the 'evil and godless' Freemason first appear?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Anti-Masonry in its current form first appeared in the era of the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars. In 1789 in Rome, then the capital of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States"> Papal States</a>, there appeared an international adventurer, fake count and fraudulent alchemist-- the infamous<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagliostro"> Alessandro di Cagliostro</a>, also known as Giussepe Balsamo. This very talented Sicilian Jew was active in Masonic cirlces and he created Egyptian Rite Freemasonry in 1782. Possessed by messianic ideas, he announced the advent of a 'New Israel'. In Rome he was denounced by his own wife and was arrested and tried by the Inquisition. The trial caused unheard of levels of publicity and reports of it were published all over Europe in many different languages, including Polish. In France the revolution was in full swing and the gullotine was claiming victim after victim. Cagliostro claimed-- somewhat against his will-- that the Masons had killed the French royal family in revenge for the fate which had befallen the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_templar">Knights Templar.</a><br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>The same Knights Templar which have been made so famous by Dan Brown?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> The campaign against Freemasonry uses one of the two founding myths of the brotherhood. The older English myth traces the roots of Freemasonry back to the cathedral and castle builders of the middle-ages. The more modern myth, which gained popularity in the 1740s, traced the origins of the Freemasons back to the order of the Knights Templar who guarded the tomb of Jesus during the crusades. This second myth was a useful tool for Masonic reformers who wanted to attract members of the aristocracy as well as wealthy burgesses. In times of revolution, however, the same myth became a potent weapon of anti-Masonry. In his trial Cagliostro confessed that French Freemasons, specifically the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Orient_de_France">Grand Orient Lodge of France</a>, were taking their revenge on the Bourbon monarchy for the destruction of the Knights Templar in the 14th century and for the execution of the Grand Master<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_Molay"> Jacques de Molay</a>, who was burnt at the stake in 1314 on the orders of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_IV_of_France">Phillip IV</a>. Before his death, the Grand Master supposedly put a curse on all his persecutors, including the Pope as well as the French king. The curse is said to have applied to the whole Capetian dynasty and also to their successors on the French throne, the Houses of Valois and Bourbon.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> Apparently there is a Polish connection to the tale of 'Count' Cagliostro...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b>
Indeed there is. First if all, it is worth pointing out that
Cagliostro was staying in Warsaw in 1780 but he was forced to flee to
Germany and France after being outed as a fraud. Secondly, the 'Polish
connection' is related to his last moments. The Inquisition sentenced
Cagliostro to death but the Pope commuted his sentence to life
imprisonment. He was incarcerated in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_Sant%27Angelo">Castel Sant'Angelo</a> but was
then unexpectedly moved to the fortress of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Leo">San Leo </a>where he died in 1795.
This fort, guarded by Papal troops, was captured by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Legions_in_Italy">Polish Legions</a>
of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Henryk_D%C4%85browski"> General Dąbrowski.</a> The conquerors of San Leo, often called the
'Pope's Bastille', saw Cagliostro's cell and made notes on its
appearance. They even recorded the inscriptions which the prisoner had
made on the walls of the cell.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">General Dąbrowski, whose Polish Legions fought for Napoleon in Italy, was a Freemason.</td></tr>
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<b>Q:</b><i> Dąbrowski's Legions had both a democratic and Masonic nature to them...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b>
The troops carried standards which bore Masonic symbols. Jan Henryk
Dąbrowski, himself a Freemason, ruled his men along Masonic lines-- all
men were brothers, and in both in the Lodge and the army promotion was
dependent solely on merit.<br />
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<b>Q: </b><i>It is little wonder that Rome did not like Freemasons...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b>
Both during and after the Napoleonic Wars the Papacy had to struggle
with many problems of various natures: social, economic, cultural and
spiritual. Freemasons were not the source of these problems but Rome
nevertheless blamed them. An unbelievable number of decrees aimed
against Freemasonry-- several hundred!-- were issued. The death penalty
and confiscation of property awaited not only Freemasons but also those
with knowledge of names and meeting places who failed to inform the
authorities. Those who did inform stood to be rewarded with confiscated
goods and property.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>It seems as if none of the decrees worked. In 1870 Italy was united at the expense of, among others, the Papal States...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b>
The leaders of the unification movement-- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Emmanuel_II_of_Italy">Victor Emmanuel </a>King of
Piedmont, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Benso,_Count_of_Cavour">Premier Cavour</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi">Garibaldi</a>-- were all Freemasons and they
sought to fertilise the Italian middle-class with the seeds of Masonic
thought. The Papacy lost and it had to accept not only the new order but
also the loss of almost all its territory. Pope <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pius_ix">Pius IX</a> claimed to be a
prisoner in the Vatican as he saw the Papal States shrink to the point
where all that was left were the Vatican's palaces and gardens. It was
at this moment that the Papacy recognised anti-Masonry as an element of
Christian doctrine. This idea was formalised during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Vatican_Council">1st Vatican Council of 1869-70</a>. Earlier, in the encyclicals Quanta cura (1864) and
Syllabusie, Pius IX had condemned the main ideas of the period including
liberalism, socialism, rationalism and the seperation of Church and
State.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Were Freemasons considered worse than liberals or socialists?</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b>
Liberals and socialists did not make for convincing diabolical
characters. A liberal could be a respectable olive oil merchant, a
school teacher, a banker or a lawyer. A Freemason, on the other hand,
was unseen and was involved in mysterious ceremonies and treasonable
activities.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>How did this anti-Masonry find its way from Italy to Poland? After
all, many Polish clergymen had Masonic sympathies. The 18th century
Polish Primates were supporters of Freemasonry.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Podoski"> Gabriel Podoski </a>was a
Freemason and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Jerzy_Poniatowski">Michał Poniatowski</a>, the King's brother, at the very
least favoured them...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b> The foundation of anti-Mason
feeling in Italy was partly the activites of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonari"><i>Carbonari</i></a>-- a
conspiratorial society from the first half of the 19th century. Italians
knew that they were a real power. In Poland the substrata of
anti-Masonry was formed by the national uprisings and the associated
conspiracies. In the 18th century Polish politics was divided into 2
camps-- those that favoured armed uprising and those that favoured legal
routes to national liberation. The Church was firmly on the side of the
latter. After the failure of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising">January Uprising</a> the conservative
'Stańczyk' circle in Kraków propagated the idea of<i> liberum conspiro </i>(freedom of conspiracy) which they directly linked to the infamous<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberum_veto"><i> liberum veto</i></a> (freedom of veto) which had been so disastrous for
Poland. According to the Stańczyks, the national uprisings and
conspiracies had resulted in total defeat, countless victims and a
deterioration in all aspects of life. The nationalist conspiracies were
seen as being as harmful as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_freedom">'golden freedom'</a> of the aristocracy had
been in the old Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Under these conditions
the Church did not have to try especially hard to frighten people with
talk of conspiracies. When priests started to warn their congregations
that Freemasons were plotting and sowing the seeds of destruction they
were to some extent pushing at an open door.<br />
<br />
<b>Q:<i> </i></b><i>I
remember an interpellation by MPs from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Polish_Families">League of Polish Families</a>
(LPR) in the days of the 'Fourth Republic' which set out to investigate
whether or not the Presidential decree of 1938 outlawing the Freemasons
was still valid. At the same time they insinuated that some opposition
groups during Communism, eg:<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitet_Obrony_Robotnik%C3%B3w"> KOR</a> (Workers' Defence Commitee) had Masonic
roots. These type of attitiudes are still around, but I still do not
really understand why the Polish clergy turned against Freemasons in the
19th century...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b> Under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitions_of_Poland">partitions</a> the Church could
not develop any state or nationalist ideology, it had to find a cause
which the partitioning powers would accept. By creating alleged enemies
in the form of Jews and Freemasons, the Church could present itself as
the most important institution which could protect Poles from them. At
the end of the 19th century a similar strategy was followed by the
politicans of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democracy">Narodowa Demokracja </a>(National Democracy) movement. It
is no surprise to see the natural heirs of the ND, the LPR, using
similar anti-Masonic rhetoric. Mieczysław Skrudlik, an ND member active
in the latter stages of the partitions and the inter-war years, wrote in
a pamphlet that, "a Freemason is nothing more than a very effective
Jew."<br />
<br />
<b>Q:</b><i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C4%99drzej_Giertych">Jędrzej Giertych</a>, grandfather of former LPR leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Giertych">Roman Giertych</a>, came up with the concept of Judeo-Masonry...</i><br />
<br />
<b>A:</b>
This way of thinking still holds sway amongst many people. In the
ethnic and religious sense, a Freemason is not necessarily a Jew but his
actions are as harmful as they would be if he was a Jew. Anti-Masonry
stems from anti-Semitism and it is has also become a form of hidden,
coded anti-Semitism now that such prejudice can no longer be voiced
openly without attracting fierce criticism.<br />
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<b>Q: </b><i>December will see the 90th anniversary of the assasination of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Narutowicz"> Gabriel Narutowicz</a>, killed by a member of the ND. After the death of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zef_Pi%C5%82sudski">Józef Piłsudski</a> the right-wing nationalist movement attacked Jews and
Freemasons, although only politically. Do you think that anti-Masonic
feelings can be dangerous in the 21st century.</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Yes, I
do because they tap into the Polish tradition, very much alive, of
conspiracy theories. The Third Republic <i>(post-Communist Poland-CK)</i> is seen as one giant conspiracy
theory. Jarosław Kaczyński claims that the Third Republic is as criminal
as the PRL (Polish People's Republic), he compares Tusk to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomulka">Gomułka</a>. Contrary to appearances, this
is not funny. Fortunately, Kaczyński does not talk about Masonic
conspiracies but those who listen to him do. Dr. Stanisław Krajski,
chief 'Mason hunter' of the Third Republic often appears on TV Trwam <i>(nationalist Catholic TV channel-CK)</i>.
One moment he claims that Freemasons are 'raising their heads' and the
next he claims that they have 'gone underground'. This serves to create
fear and suspicion, as do numerous anti-Masonic pamphlets. On TV Trwam
and in 'Nasz Dziennik' we are constantly told that Poland is living
under occupation by liberal groups and that behind it all are Freemasons
and Jews. The followers of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rydzyk">Father Tadeusz Rydzyk</a> treat the Third
Republic as a foreign power. They sing "Lord, give us back our free
fatherland." Father Rydzyk has called on people to refuse to pay taxes
because the authorities will use them against Poles. These people are
hoping for a huge financial crisis to hit Poland because if it does then
people will take to the streets and the 'true Polish patriots' will be
ready to lead them-- and we all know who they will lead them against....<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bwfuST-FeOw/T7bD6cH1Y6I/AAAAAAAAAUU/VRBB4BgucIU/s1600/mas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bwfuST-FeOw/T7bD6cH1Y6I/AAAAAAAAAUU/VRBB4BgucIU/s320/mas.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cover of Stanisław Krajski's book 'Polish Masonry 2009'.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<i>Interviewer: Krzysztof Pilawski Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine</i><br />
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<br />Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-54721200111381309062012-05-09T19:54:00.001+02:002012-05-10T17:51:22.356+02:00POLAND: Bałtów's Jurassic Park-- Community Spirit In Action ( K. Kapiszewski )<div id="leed">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IMxvg0AcYVE/T6qqZDy22WI/AAAAAAAAATo/UdARBIR8E2Y/s1600/dino.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IMxvg0AcYVE/T6qqZDy22WI/AAAAAAAAATo/UdARBIR8E2Y/s400/dino.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bałtów's Jurassic Park attracted 70,000 visitors in its first year and employs 54.</td></tr>
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Not everyone has heard of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%C5%82t%C3%B3w,_%C5%9Awi%C4%99tokrzyskie_Voivodeship">Bałtów</a>, but plenty of people have. The commune, with a population of 4,000 including 600 in the main village, has appeared twice on <i>'Dzień Dobry TVN'</i>. It might be day-time TV but it is also nationwide TV. The media like Bałtów because it is a good example of how to make something from nothing by working together. The commune attracts half a million tourists a year. Despite the name, Bałtów is not a seaside resort. It is located in the north of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Awi%C4%99tokrzyskie_Voivodeship"> Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship</a>, far from the main transport links. How did a small commune, down in the doldrums, transform itself into a place where anything is possible? </div>
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Poland's transition from Communism to capitalism was not kind to Bałtów. Unemployment reached 40%. There was no mobile phone coverage and no internet. Both the library and cultural centre were closed down. In 2001 a campaign against the opening of a new nightclub brought together a group of people, mostly teachers and local business people, who wanted something different for Bałtów. Together they founded <i>'Bałt'</i>, a grassroots organisation aimed at encouraging development. The founders all realised that the only chance for their commune lay with tourism.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UPzvH4dDNe4/T6qrMJCMapI/AAAAAAAAATw/REyBIn5SXPU/s1600/raft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UPzvH4dDNe4/T6qrMJCMapI/AAAAAAAAATw/REyBIn5SXPU/s400/raft.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bałtowa also offers raft trips on the river Kamienna.</td></tr>
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The first idea was to offer rafting trips on the river <a href="http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamienna_%28dop%C5%82yw_Wis%C5%82y%29">Kamienna</a>. Jarosław Kuba, an animator and member of <i>'Bałt'</i>, told 'Przegłąd' in 2007: "It was a completely left-field idea. The river stank, people used it as a tip and the banks were covered with litter. When I explained to people that we could get money from the EU to buy rafts and offer trips to tourists they replied 'we are not beggars and we will not take any money.'"</div>
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Today he says, "In 2002 Bałtów was divided into 3 groups. 10% supported change, 30-40% were against and the rest sat on the fence-- they were not willing to help but would join in if things were successful." Members of <i>'Bałt'</i> therefore started to present their ideas in the language of profite, explaining to people how they stood to gain by cooperating. The success of one of the supporters of change, who set up a profitable agro-tourism business, acted as an example for others. In 2003 14,000 tourists rafted on the Kamienna river and 18 people were employed in the rafting operation. The sceptics and fence-sitters saw that cooperation really did pay.</div>
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Members of <i>'Bałt'</i> understood that if Bałtów was to develop it would have to offer more. That was when someone came across some information about local paleontological discoveries which were made in the 1970s. Scientists found footprints belonging to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allosaurus">Allosaurus</a> and a model of this prehistoric predator was built in front of the local government building. This model had become a landmark of sorts and so the idea came about almost by itself--- <a href="http://www.juraparkbaltow.pl/">Jurassic Park</a>. The park was built with the labour of the local inhabitants and outside help was only used for specialist tasks. When the park opened in 2004 it attracted 70,000 visitors and created 54 permanent jobs..<br />
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Success triggered a change in mentality. In the next local elections, 12 of the 13 seats on the commune council were taken by members of <i>'Bałt'</i>. Business has boomed. There are now 25 agro-tourism establishments in the commune. As well as the dinosaur park and rafting, the commune now offers horse-riding and a safari park. The latest idea is 'questing'-- an outdoor game which involves searching for clues connected to local folklore.<br />
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The inhabitants of Bałtów make full use of the chance to make joint decisions with local government. They have many years' experience of involvement with the national programme<i> <a href="http://www.decydujmyrazem.pl/">'Decydujmy Razem' </a></i>( 'We Decide Together' ) which is co-financed by EU money. The aim of the programme is to involve both local people and local authorities in dialogue, cooperation and joint decision-making. Thinking of the long-term development of the commune, the people of Bałtów are currently carrying out a Youth Support programme.<br />
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What has been the result of this community cooperation? "If someone were to propose building a space centre, the idea would be looked at seriously and if it was thought to be possible it would happen. When we started the rafting venture half the province laughed at us. Now people know that cooperation makes sense," says Jarosław Kuba. <br />
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<i>Author: Kuba Kapiszewski Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine.</i><br />
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Also worth reading: <a href="http://distributistreview.com/mag/2012/02/the-beast-in-his-natural-habitat/">'The Beast in His Natural Habitat'</a> from <a href="http://distributistreview.com/mag/">'The Distributist Review'. </a><i><br /></i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-65349990962861526072012-04-26T22:48:00.001+02:002012-04-26T22:48:29.985+02:00OPINION: Jerzy Domanski-- On The 2nd Anniversary Of The Smoleńsk Disaster<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lHIJ7UAd7go/T5myDqHQVgI/AAAAAAAAATc/EE78Tp9_Q54/s1600/smol.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lHIJ7UAd7go/T5myDqHQVgI/AAAAAAAAATc/EE78Tp9_Q54/s400/smol.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 2nd anniversary of the Smoleńsk disaster was marked by angry protests. The Donald Duck head is a reference to PM Donald Tusk, whilst the placard underneath reads 'Murderers'.</td></tr>
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At the graveside silence should reign. Always. There can therefore be no excuses for those who wish to exploit the dead for their own political ambitions. What type of principles can people have if they decide to mark the deaths of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash">Smoleńsk victims </a>by demonstrating, brandishing pictures of nooses and denouncing thier opponents as traitors and criminals? The anniversary could have been marked in many different ways but the way in which PiS chose to do so, by confusing mourning with rabble-rousing, is worthy of the fiercest criticism and words which I would rather avoid writing. Perhaps I omit these words out of a sense of shame for those who have earned them. Unfortunately, the more one bites one's tongue, the more aggression and vitriol spew from the other side.<br />
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" Solidarity in Mourning"-- that was the headline which we put on the front cover of 'Przegłąd' on 10th April 2010, just a few hours after the catastrophe. That was what we thought at the time, in spite of the deep divisions between us and those on the right. Could we have maintained that mood of unity, the feeling of solidarity? We could have done. I thought we could, because it never occured to me that it would be killed by those who should have cared for it the most. They should have preserved it for political gain alone, even if they lacked the humanity to do so for more noble reasons. The solidarity of mourning elevated their leaders to a status infinitely higher than their achievements merited. Sadly, barely two years later it seems as if the leader of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Justice">PiS</a> is trying to turn the coffins into trampolines, trampolines from which to jump back into power. It is the first time in our history that someone has tried to attain power in this way. An election campaign with coffins as the central argument can only be successful if a large enough portion of society accept PiS's aspirations.<br />
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Those who support the government regard such a scenario as absurd. They might be right today but if one listens to the wider social mood instead of just the hysterical screams then it becomes clear that many of those falling under the sway of the Smoleńsk campaign have every reason to feel bad in today's Poland. People fear for the future. They are unemployed, or they could lose thier jobs at any moment. Low slaries do not allow people to make ends meet. People feel alienated in their own country, they are disappointed and angry. They are overwhelmed by their powerlessness to overcome thier problems. From these fears comes a readiness to seek scapegoats, and from there it is a small step to being manipulated. Looking for a place to stand, they gravitate towards those who claim to understand their problems. Now they have jumped from the frying pan into the fire because they have become a mere stepping-stone in a bid for power. PiS wants to gather all the disillusioned and disappointed and build an alternative state. In the person of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaros%C5%82aw_Kaczy%C5%84ski"> Jarosław Kaczyński </a>we have an alternative president and premier in one, the real president-premier.<br />
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The paranoia of one side does not justify hushing up the negligence of the other side in the organisation of the Smoleńsk flight and earlier.<br />
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Mistakes were made, a lot of them. We know this from the Miller report. If there were mistakes then those who made them must take the responsibility for them. Continually postponing this process will only lead to even more absurd conspiracy theories which in turn only increase the likelihood of political conflict spilling onto the streets.<br />
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<i>Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine </i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-50097649402157472272012-04-23T16:57:00.002+02:002012-04-23T16:57:58.721+02:00POLAND / HISTORY: 'This Is Not The Poland They Fought For' (K. Pilawski)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i0_ikReqrg0/T5VtGbGKwPI/AAAAAAAAATU/Vbqf2EykRJk/s1600/walesa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i0_ikReqrg0/T5VtGbGKwPI/AAAAAAAAATU/Vbqf2EykRJk/s400/walesa.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lech and Danuta Wałęsa with their 8 children. Would such a large family make ends meet in today's Poland?</td></tr>
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What strikes the reader most about Danuta Wałęsa's autobiography? The rapid self-betterment of 2 people who were born into very poor, large families in small, remote villages. 2 people who from childhood did primitive physical labour....<br />
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<b>HOUSING</b><br />
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Danuta Wałęsa-- a girl with only elementary education who had worked for 5 years as a farmhand-- finds herself in Gdańsk. She finds a husband and in 1972, at the age of 23, she is a wife, mother of 2 children and in charge of a flat which, although small, is posessed of all the comforts of which she was deprived during her 19 years growing up in the country. She is able to give back 14,000 złoty which her parents have given her as a stake in the housing cooperative because the Wałęsa's flat has been given to them by the Lenin Shipyard (in 1972 the shipyard granted its employees 591 flats). Nowadays, a 36-metre 2-room flat is nothing out of the ordinary because such properties ( developers call them 'compacts' ) are in demand. One has to pay a price, however. The current market value of the Wałęsa's old flat in the Stogi neighbourhood is 170,000 zł. At today's prices it is out of reach for a family of four with only a single bread-winner, especially a blue-collar bread-winner who, like the Wałęsas, cannot rely on any parental support. Without money, which bank is going to offer them a mortgage?<br />
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Even if they could get a mortgage, would they be able to keep up repayments? Would they decide to have a further 6 children like the Wałęsas? Large families can apply for social housing but it is not easy and social housing also bears a stigma-- the family would find itself in very low-status environment which is full of dangers and which is very difficult to escape from.<br />
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In 1980 the Wałęsas (Danuta was 31, Lech 37) moved to a 136-metre flat in the Zaspa neighbourhood, which was also allocated to them by the shipyard and not bought. ( In the PRL the buying and selling of private property was not forbidden).<br />
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<b>MONEY</b><br />
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Before the birth of her first child, Danuta Wałęsa did casual work but she had no intention of continuing to do so. In her autobiography she states repeatedly that it was her husband's job to support the family financially and her job to look after the children. What would an electrician, a technical school graduate, have to earn today to support such a large family? In December 2011, according to the Institute of Work and Social Affiars, the minimum income needed to sustain a 5-person family was 3,940 (exluding any mortgage or loan repayments. For a 10-person family it would surely be more or less twice this figure. What full-time worker, even with moonlighting, brings home 7-8,000 zł a month? <i>(The average monthly salary is around 3,400 before tax-CK)</i><br />
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In the autobiographies of both Danuta and Lech Wałęsa there is no mention of problems with paying off debts, difficulties with utility bills, lack of money to pay for nursery school, school books or medical fees. Danuta Wałęsa still has a sharp mind and can recall her life with Lech down to the smallest detail yet she makes no mention of financial problems. Shortages of food were not down to lack of money<i> </i>to supply and rationing problems<i>. </i>Despite difficulties with the ration card system, the Wałęsa's never had to endure hunger, cold, lack of clothes or an inability to meet their essential needs.<br />
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It is notable hat Danuta Wałęsa states that her family enjoyed a standard of living equal to that of the rest of the Stogi district. In her book she says that her large family never had to rely on welfare or benefits. In today's Poland such a situation is hard to imagine.<br />
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"Large families are the people most at risk from poverty" states the National Bureau of Statistics in its report on poverty in Poland, published last year. 1 in 4 families with 4 or more children live below the poverty line, which means that they are unable to meet their basic living requirements. Most large families ( which account for a third of all children in Poland ) cannot make ends meet on paid work alone. They therefore rely on welfare, free school meals and the help of private charities. How is it possible in this situation not to give in to a sense of hopelessness? How is it possible to maintain one's dignity, something which the Solidarność strikers constantly talked about?<br />
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<b>WORK</b><br />
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The battered and rubble-strewn post-war Poland inherited many unsolved problems from the 2nd Republic. Amongst them was rural over-population. Migration to the cities before the war was limited my a lack of work. Many people migrating from the country ended up in shanty towns-- in the Warsaw district of Żoliborż a whole city of trailers, tents and shacks sprung up housing some 4,000 unemployed people. the first step to improving the lot of the peasantry was the package of agricultural reforms implemented immediately after the war, which to some extent satisfied the hunger for land. The next step was the 'colonisation' of the western lands, formerly belonging to Germany. The third step was the overseeing of the economy by the state, the nationalisation of key industries and fast-track industrial development. This solved the problem of rural over-populationa dn ensured social progress.<br />
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Thanks to these processes, the technical boarding school in Lipno which Lech Wałęsa attended was founded. The future leader of Solidarność, acting on impulse, one day went to Gdańsk managed to find a job in the shipyards the very same day he arrived in the city. Today, even some of his children find themselves unemployed.<br />
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<b>FAMILY AND CHILDREN</b><br />
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The story of the Wałęsa children in the autobiography is moving. The free-market reforms starting in 1989 were supposed to create an environment of unlimited development for young Poles. At the fall of Communism the eldest of the 8 Wałęsa children was 19, the youngest 4. They reached adulthood one-by-one in the 1990s and the first decade of this century. Danuta and Lech did not have any parental support, they were self-sufficient. All of their children have relied on, and some still rely on, financial support from their parents. None of the children have so far managed to make any capital out of their surname, which is a brand with global recognition. Maria Wiktoria (30) a marketing graduate tried to do so when she opened a fashion boutique in Manhattan, one of Gdańsk's oldest shopping centres. It fell victim to the free market. Thanks to her surname, she appeared on 'Dancing with the Stars' but she has struggled for years with unemployment. Magdalena (33) opened a dance theatre which went bust. She now teaches in a public ballet school. 2 sons, Bogdan (42) and Przemysław (38), chose a more stable route and got jobs in the National Security Department and the Border Security Agency. The youngest child, Brygida (27), also works in the public sector in the Gdynia aquarium. Would they have got these jons if they were not the children of a former president?<br />
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News of unemployed Sławomir has been circulating for more than a decade now. In his mother's memoirs she recounts a humilating scene in the job centre. Anna (32) got married, had 2 children and does not work. Jarosław (36) the best-known of the children started his political career working in his father's office. In his election campaign in 2005 he never left his father's side, in order to be in every photo.<br />
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The Poland which Lech Wałęsa fought for has not created the same opportunities for social advancement as the Poland which Lech Wałęsa fought against.<br />
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<i>Author: Krzysztof Pilawski Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine. </i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-16105871808978320512012-04-17T10:10:00.000+02:002012-04-17T10:10:40.380+02:00SCIENCE: 'We Need Antarctica'-- An Interview With Polar Scientist Stanisław Rakusa-Suszczewski<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m5DIpcJc5j4/T40kX9dqSsI/AAAAAAAAAS0/x0xup1uNqOE/s1600/a3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m5DIpcJc5j4/T40kX9dqSsI/AAAAAAAAAS0/x0xup1uNqOE/s400/a3.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arctowski, Poland's Antarctic research station on King George Island</td></tr>
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<b>Q:</b><i> What are Poles doing in Antarctica? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> The wealthiest more and more often come as tourists but scientific research is still the main reason why people come here. It has been 35 years since the foundation of our <a href="http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/dab/">research station</a>, named after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_Arctowski">Henryk Arctowski</a>, on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George_Island_%28Antarctica%29">King George Island </a>and it has been in operation continously since then. I have had the honour of being its founder, builder and, for almost 20 years, its director. Over 20 people work at the station in summer and between 7 and 10 in winter. A ship sets sail once a year from Gdynia<i> (Polish seaport-CK)</i>, usually in November at the start of the Antarctic summer. It carries supplies and the new personnel, and it brings back the returning scientists. It is a journey of almost 16,000 km. and it lasts more than a month. The summer group work from November to the end of March, and then they travel by ship to Ushaia, and back to Poland by plane. The winter group stay for the whole year, until the ship returns.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>So much time at the end of the world. I suppose it can get boring?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> In Antarctica you do not have even 5 minutes to get bored. Batteries, snow vehicles, boats, scientific equipment-- you have to check everything, re-check it, maintain, refuel, repair.... Everything has to be kept in working order. You are up to your eyes in work. Once a year Arctowski announces job vacancies. The station needs a doctor, a chef, an electrician, a radio technician, a mechanic, a tractor operator amongst other jobs. Scientific research is carried out mainly by employees of the Department of Antarctic Biology of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Academy_of_Sciences"> PAN</a><i> (Polish Academy of Science-CK)</i> ,which is part of the Biochemistry and Biophysics Institute of PAN, and scientists from Polish universities involved in various international projects. Sometimes, however, researchers from other organisations and institutes can work at Arctowski if their projects can be sychronised with the PAN researchers, and if they have adequate funding. We also have an underwater research programme, which is why we have divers at the base. Generally, there are more applicants than there are places. The final decision on who gets to work at Arctowski is made by the recruitment commitee.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stanisław Rakusa-Suszczewski, founder of Arctowski</td></tr>
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Are living conditions at Arctowski spartan? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> I think they are comfortable, although it is all relative. For example, in the American research stations one can live more comfortably than in a luxury apartment. Arctowski is great, we have a varied diet which includes fruit and vegetables (frozen of course, delivered once a year.)<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> And alcohol?</i><br />
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A: It is available in sensible quantities, everyone at the base is an adult, after all. Smoking, on the other hand, is forbidden. Every member of the crew has a seperate, albeit small, room and there are bathrooms with showers. When I chose the location of the base in 1977 I was lucky-- I picked a spot where freshwater flows all year round. In the nearby mountains there is a large basin where the ice melts so even in winter the base has running water and there is no need to melt snow. You can have a shower, everyone smells nice... When I stayed in the Russian stations we could wash once a week and that was all.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Do female researchers also spend long periods at the station?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Yes, and they have done practically from the very beginning, although they are still in the minority. They deal with things perfectly and their presence in a rather male environment does not cause any problems. This has been confirmed by a 3-year American-Polish research project into small, isolated groups organised by NASA (the results are useful for planning long-range spaceflights.) The research looked at polar research stations of various countries, including our Arctowski. The results show that the people involved did not show any signs of abnormal behaviour. There are female researchers working at Arctowski right now, of course. <br />
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<b>Q: </b><i>Can working as a polar researcher be dangerous?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> There are no polar bears in Antarctica, so there is no danger from wildlife. However, unfortunate accidents can happen, as they can everywhere. In 1978 2 scientists who were carrying out research in a cabin away from the base suffered gas poisoning. They were tired and fell asleep. Their camp stove went out, perhaps extinguished by water dripping from the ceiling. Professor Krzysztof Birkenmajer was on the top bunk and survived. Professor Stanisław Baranowsi was on the bottom bunk. He was evacuated to Poland but unfortunately he could not be resucitated.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> What has been your most dangerous moment?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> It happened a year after the gas incident, in summer. I was sitting in the station building wearing slippers. Suddenly, without putting on shoes, I decided to go outside. I got into the jeep and drove to the shoreline, where a large bulldozer was preparing to push a boat off its runners back into the sea. I saw that my colleague Commander Marian Spera was standing facing the boat in the exact spot where the bulldozer was about to hit it. The wind was very strong so Marian couldn't hear the bulldozer and the operator couldn't see him. I jumped out of the jeep, grabbed his arm at the last second and pulled him out of the way. We both fell into the water. We went back to the station, got changed and drank a dram to warm ourselves up. Neither of us so much as even caught a cold. If I had decided to put on shoes or had arrived a few seconds later for whatever reason then... On the same expedition the filmmaker and traveller <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82odzimierz_Puchalski_%28photographer%29">Włodzimierz Puchalski </a>died of a heart attack. His grave has been incsribed on the list of historical monuments in Antarctica.<br />
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The weather conditions can be dangerous. One winter I was at the American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcmurdo_station">McMurdo station </a>and I went out in a storm when it was 52 degrees below zero. I didn't put on my protective suit because I only wanted to run 200m to the laboratory. I didn't make it, in fact I only just managed to get back. The greatest risk, however, is fire. A month ago my colleagues at the Brazilian station <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comandante_Ferraz">Comandante Ferraz </a>unfortunately suffered such an incident. The fire destroyed most of the buildings and killed 2 people, leaving another injured. Our people took the injured man to Arctowski and the Brazilian president sent us his thanks. It will take at least 2 years to rebuild the Brazilian station.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of Arctowski's lighthouse</td></tr>
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<b>Q:</b> <i>When did Poles first become interested in Antarctica? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> The first Polish polar explorers, Arctowski and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Boles%C5%82aw_Dobrowolski">Dobrowolski</a>, took part in a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Antarctic_Expedition"> 2-year expedition in 1897 aboard the wooden frigate 'Belgica'</a> ( barely 2 years later the first people set foot on Antarctica.) A hundred years later I organised a cruise on our hydrographic ship ORP 'Arctowski' to Antwerp, where the 'Belgica' set sail from. Polish and Belgian polar researchers met each other and the event was attended by Gaston de Gerlache, a descendant of the leader of the 'Belgica' expedition. Our interest in the sixth continent was revived at the end of the 1950s. The first Polish researchers took part in Soviet expeditions and stayed in Soviet stations.<br />
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In 1959 the Russians gave us 2 wooden cabins in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunger_Oasis">Bunger Oasis</a>, and we named the new station after Antoni Dobrowolski. The station has been abandoned since 1979 but it has been preserved. From time to time it is visited by Austrailians and Russians. It is hard to get to because it is far inland. You have to fly 350km in a helicopter, and that is one-way. Supplies have to be flown in and logistics very much depend on the Russians, as they have a base just 200m away. <br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> And how did you end up in Antarctica?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> First of all I was in the Arctic, on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitsbergen">Spitsbergen</a>. Professor Stansiław Siedlecki, the leader of our expedition, needed a biologist so I put myself forward and he accepted me. The expedition helped me to write my Master's dissertation and I began to become known in polar research circles. In 1968 professor Romuald Klekowski, co-director of Poland's polar research programme, gave me the opportunity to spend a winter at the Soviet station <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molodyozhnaya_Station_%28Antarctica%29">Molodyozhnaya</a> in Antarctica.<br />
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After 4 trips to Antarctica, with both Soviet and American expeditions, I wrote a report on the need to set up a year-round Polish station which would serve both our scientists and our fishing fleet. The implementation of my recommendations was partly due to the worsening food situation in Poland. The shelves in the food shops were bare but we had a fishing fleet of great potential, more than a dozen high-seas trawlers. The Marine and Fishery Ministry and PAN decided that my arguments for building a station were strong but they first wanted to check what fish we could actually catch there. We knew almost nothing about what type and quantity of fish we could hope to find in Antarctic waters. They therefore put me in charge of an expedition comprising the research ship 'Profesor Siedlecki' and the fishing trawler 'Tazar'. In 1976 we examined and evaluated the fishing grounds and a year later our fishing fleet was in action. We started catching <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackerel_icefish">mackerel icefish</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbled_rockcod">marbled rockcod</a>, probably the most delicious fish I have ever eaten. I was given funds to set up the station and was appointed to lead the expedition to build it. It was a serious logistical undertaking. 2 ships, 'Dalmor' and 'Zabrze', transported all the personnel and building materials. We completed the project in good time-- less than 2 months after landing on King George Island the station was ready.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Was it you who also proposed to improve the food situation in Poland with the aid of krill?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Of course, we looked into the possibilities of catching and processing<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krill"> krill </a>but contrary to subsequent propaganda we never did so on an industrial scale. Our research meant, however, that we did become the world's foremost experts on krill. Our expertise was never utilised. In 2009-2010 our last trawler was catching krill on behalf of the Japanese and Norwegians, who use it to produce a very healthy omega oil. Krill know-how is no longer our domain. The prospect of krill fishing is becoming more and more tempting for other countries. Krill are a huge marine source of protein and oils. Poland has already lost its knowledge, the research has been thrown in the bin, the last research vessel has been scapped. Our last trawler was sold this year so we no longer have a high-seas fishing fleet and we no longer catch anything from Antarctic seas. If Antarctic fish had appeared in our hungry market at the end of the 70s then it would have provided a good argument for scientists asking for money to carry out research and maintain our station. After all, it was the inital fishing expedition which was used to justify the station's founding.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinstrap penguins on King George Island</td></tr>
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Wasn't there always the temptation to save money by closing the station? </i><br />
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<b>A: </b>1977 was the last possible moment for the station's foundation. If we had decided to build it a couple of years later, just after the end of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gierek"> Gierek</a> era, the government wouldn't have been willing to spend a penny on it. The same can be said for all governments since then. Since 1980, funds have almost always been scarce but somehow the station has survived and is still working today. The most difficult period was at the beginning of the 90s when Poland's financial situation threw the station's existence into doubt. That was when I offered to take of Dutch scientists to Arctowski and allow them to use our technical and logistical resources. The Dutch at that time were becoming increasingly interested in Antarctic research and they were planning to become members of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System">Antarctic Treaty System</a> (ATS), which exercises control over Antarctica. The ATS consists of countries which carry out, in the words of the treaty, 'vital scientific research' or those which operate research stations. Holland started its involvment at Arctowski and with our support it became a member of the ATS. In exchange, Poland gained clear financial benefits. To sceptics who ask how much we spend on Arctowksi I reply that the cost of sending an expedition there once a year for 30 years is more or less the same as a single F-16 jet fighter.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Isn't it a valid question to ask why we maintain an Antarctic station when we no longer have a high-seas fishing fleet? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> There are dozens of reasons why. Because we have a research station we are full members of the ATS. In 1977, when we built the station, there were 11 member states. Now there are 28 and more countries are eager to join. Under the treaty Poland governs 2 areas of special environmental protection located on King George Island. Antarctica is international territory and we have an equal say in any decisions affecting it along with the other member states of the ATS. Decisions must be unaminous. Various countries have different claims to parts of Antarctica. Norway bases its claims on the fact that they were the first to reach the pole. British claims are not only based on Scott of the Antarctic, but also on the immense contribuiton they have made to polar exploration and research. Austrailia is one of the nearest countries to Antarctica and they feel that they have inherited Britain's claims. Argentina and Chile base their claims on a papal bull which once granted them territory reaching to the South Pole. Due to the ATS, however, all territorial claims have been out on hold for the time being. In 1991 a 50-year moratorium was declared on the exploration and extraction of mineral resources-- Antarctica is rich in oil, gas, uranium, iron ore and other metals. It is possible that this moratorium will not be extended. In the neighbourhood of Arctowski there are natural gas deposits.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>We should have gas nearer to home,<a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/poland-end-of-shale-gas-dream-dryszel.html"> from shale rock.</a></i><br />
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<b>A:</b> If we are pinning our hopes on shale gas, then exploiting Antarctica's resources is not an attractive proposition. But this could change in the future. The location of our station is also suitable for offshore drilling on the Antarctic shelf. This is extremely costly as the shelf lies at a depth of around 500m. but it cannot be ruled out that oil rigs will eventually exploit it. Because Antarctica has no territorial waters, offshore rigs can be towed anywhere.<br />
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Finally, Arctowski flies the Polish flag and it has contact with a wider world than a hundred scientific institutions in Poland. Thanks to our polar researchers scientific work is achieving world renown. Scientists such as the botanists, professors Ryszard Ochrya and Agata Olech, or the parasitologist Krzysztof Zdzitowiecki ( also once an excellent mountain climber ) are known and respected around the world. I am proud to say that I got them involved in polar research. It was our scientists who were among the first to notice a rise in the average temperature in western Antarctica and to discover that a new, unknown species of grass had started to appear there.<br />
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<b>Q: </b><i>Is global warming real? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> It depends where. In eastern Antarctica and the South Pole the ice is certainly not melting, in fact it is growing. In the western part of Antarctica and around the North Pole, however, the surface area of the ice is gradually shrinking. The Northern Passage is now accessible to smaller ships for 4 months of the year. <br />
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Today in every Polish university one can find a specialist educated at Arctowski. Our knowledge and accomplishments are appreciated by other countries. I myself have colloborated with the chief of the Spanish polar programme and I selected the location for the Spanish base on Livingstone Island. I knew the terrain, thus I knew which location would be the best. Today the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carlos_I_Antarctic_Base"> Juan Carlos I</a> station stands at the spot. The King and Queen of Spain thanked me personally and I received a medal. More importantly, however, was the fact that the consultancy fee I received from the Spanish enabled me to buy a plot of land in Warsaw for the needs of the Department of Antarctic Biology of PAN. I have also acted as advisor to Brazil's polar research programme which led to our current cooperation. Bear in mind also that our station is visited by tourists from all over the world, around 3,000 a year. This is good for the image of Poland abroad. In the 70s and 80s we were almost starving in Arctowski, we barely had anything. Today we can welcome tourists and offer them a cup of tea and a bite to eat. We do not benefit financially from doing so, but if people have a good impression of Poland and our polar research then it only serves to increase the prestige of our country.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Is it an unwritten rule of Antarctic etiquette that you have to offer everyone hospitality?</i><br />
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<b>A: </b>It depends on the culture of the hosts. The Americans often say "get out of here, our time is too precious to be dealing with tourists!" We always welcome visitors, although when we get almost 200 guests a day it can interfere somewhat with our work. To deal with visitors in the peak summer season we have built a tourist centre outside the main station building. One of our naturalists woks there and explains to people how they should behave. For example, you cannot go closer than 20m. to a penguin otherwise they get heart palpitations and can die.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> You are an advocate of our presence in Antarctica but we are much nearer to the North Pole, where there are a lot of fish and natural resources.</i><br />
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<b>A: </b>The Arctic is divided between 5 Arctic countries. Poland is not one of them. We are interested in Arctic research but Spitsbergen, where we operate the Stanisław Siedlecki station and several university research bases, is Norwegian territory. The Norwegians have strictly limited the activities of other countries on Spitsbergen under the pretext of environmental protection, despite the conditions of the Paris Treaty, signed by Poland in the 1920s. Our Arctic facilities mostly train geographers. Geography does not have much of a future as a scientific field as the age of exploration of planet Earth came to a close with the discovery of the last new land, the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severnaya_Zemlya"> Severnaya Zemlya </a>archipegalo, at the beginning of the 20th century. Stations are not required to monitor temperatures, the ice-cap or polar bear numbers. Satellites will suffice. In other words, our presence in the Arctic cannot really be justified.<br />
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<b>Q<i>:</i></b><i> During your time as a polar researcher you have worked and lived with dozens of nationalities. Which have you like the most?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> I have always got on well with the Russians, they are not too different to us in terms of character and I have lots of good friends amongst them. I also have a lot of friends amongst the Americans. They are clever people, although they work differently from the Russians because they give a higher priority to individual careers. I really like the Spanish and Brazilians. They are cheerful people who do not take everything seriously-- which is good because does everything need to be taken seriously? All in all, though, I would say that I have the most admiration for the Dutch as they have made the best impression on me-- highly-educated, solid but not without flair. They have always been good to us and critical of the Germans... <br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>And what type of impression do we Poles give other countries?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Well, we are not a nation of complete idiots. If there is a leader who leads consistently and with an iron rule, and people can see that he has clear, well-defined goals which he truly believes in then Poles can be motivated to work together in the same direction. It is not always easy, however.<br />
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<i>Interviewer: Andrzej Dryszel Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine</i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-6688045332772740902012-04-11T06:57:00.001+02:002012-04-11T15:03:04.880+02:00ECONOMICS: 'Grow or Die'-- A Dangerous Dogma (L. Pawłowski)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RlcnLV5Adpw/T3yF8PU1DoI/AAAAAAAAASc/Q96LFVa84gs/s1600/grow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RlcnLV5Adpw/T3yF8PU1DoI/AAAAAAAAASc/Q96LFVa84gs/s400/grow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Krzysztof Kęciek's article <a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/economics-history-reagans-time-bomb-k.html">'Reagan's Timebomb'</a> from the March 18th edition of 'Przegłąd' magazine has compelled me to write in response. Like many Poles, I was a fervent admirer of Ronald Reagan in my youth. During numerous visits to the USA I was surprised to find that most academics had distanced themselves from the Reagan administration.<br />
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In recent years I have become professionally involved in the problem of sustainable development. Reading academic papers concerned with the challenges facing our civilisation, I am becoming increasingly convinced that modern liberal capitalism poses many grave dangers. One of the principle dogmas of today's capitalism is 'grow or die', which leads to a constant growth of production, demand for which is fuelled by advertising rather than genuine need. This would be harmless if it was not for the fact that massive growth in production inevitably involves increased depletion of the planet's non-renewable resources. At current levels of consumption we have enough oil to last us for a further 40-50 years, gas for 60-70 years and coal for around 140 years. The outlook for other resources such as metals is not any better. Even if these estimates are overly pessimistic, the fact remains that the spectre of resource exhaustion in an economy based on 'grow or die' is a real possibility rather than a theoretical one. It is a problem which could occur within the lifespan of one generation, and it is only the first of several problems...<br />
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The second problem concerns social issues. Predatory 19th century capitalism was gradually tamed under the influence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_social_teaching">Catholic social teaching </a>(especially the famous encyclical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rerum_Novarum"><i>Rerum Novarum </i></a>of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIII">Pope Leo XIII</a>), socialist movements and the growth of trade unions. The result was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state">welfare state</a>. In reality, the USA never developed a full-blown welfare state but the UK did. Britain had well-run state education and universal healthcare free at the point of use. Margaret Thatcher, in her battle against the trade unions and in her quest to privatise everything possible, liquidated many public services, including free school milk.<br />
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Since the days of Reagan and Thatcher social inequality has risen sharply. Income inequality has grown from around 30% to 700%. 40 years ago the richest 20% controlled 70% of wealth and the poorest 20% only 2.3%. In 2000, the share of the richest had grown to 85% and that of the poorest had fallen to 1.1%. In the following years the gap widened even more. It can be said, therefore, that the huge technological progress made in the same period has only benefited a narrow group of people.<br />
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Another trend has been the separation of money and production. Speculating on financial markets has become the main source of large fortunes. If these fortunes are made without producing added value (ie: producing goods) then it means that they are based on money alone, especially other people's money-- financial speculation does not create anything. This creates serious social problems. One of the most serious is unemployment, especially amongst the young, which in my opinion is an integral part of the current socio-political system. Starting with Reagan and Thatcher, the state has consistently reduced its role in the social sphere. The idea of the state acting as a guarantor of a decent standard of living for all its citizens has fallen by the wayside.<br />
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Unfortunately, such an understanding of the role of the state has been heavily promoted here in Poland. Huge inequalities in income are still growing yet we always hear complaints that the minimum wage is too high-- complaints lacking in basic decency. The younger generation are those who are worst affected.<br />
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Some countries look after the rich with tax cuts and labour deregulation and encourage financial speculation through privatised banks. At the same time they announce that they simply cannot afford basic social programmes, this at a time when the efficiency of production is rising, along with the supply of basic goods. I am convinced that if improvements are not made in social policy over the next few years then we might see some type of social catastrophe. The Scandinavian countries bear witness to the fact that a welfare state can exist, and that high taxes for the richest do not necessarily strangle entrepreneurship at birth.<br />
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<i>Author: Lucjan Pawłowski, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Dean of the Environmental Engineering Department and director of the Institute of Environmental Protection Engineering at Lubelski Polytechnic.</i><br />
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<i>Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.14 (640) 09/04/12</i><br />
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From the archives: <a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/economics-history-reagans-time-bomb-k.html">Reagan's Timebomb</a><br />
<a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/economics-book-of-genesis-matrix-and.html">Interview with Czech economist Tomas Sedlacek</a>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-19834991605504737452012-04-07T23:19:00.000+02:002012-04-07T23:19:12.595+02:00INTERNATIONAL: Ucontacted Tribes-- Endangered By Civilisation (J. Piaseczny)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazonian tribesmen aim their bows at a helicopter somewhere near Brazil-Peru border.</td></tr>
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In isolated pockets around the world there still live some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples">100 tribes which shun contact with modern civilisation.</a> These tribes account for roughly 50,000 individuals. About 70 such tribes live in the Brazilian rainforest. In Amazonia they are called <i>isolados</i> (isolated, uncontacted).<i> Isolados</i> know about the existence of the outside world of clothes, aeroplanes and metal tools yet they do not wish to be a part of it. They feel that contact with civilisation can lead them to ruin.<br />
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In 2008 the world was treated to pictures of tribal warriors painted red and black launching spears and arrows at a helicopter flying overhead. On board the helicopter was Jose Carlos Meirelles from the Brazilian government agency<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funda%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Nacional_do_%C3%8Dndio"> FUNAI</a>, which protects the rights of indigenous peoples. "When they saw us the women and children ran into the forest. They thought the helicopter was a giant bird. In such a remote location as this, no-one had ever flown over before. On another day we appeared over the village at a later time, just as the men were returning from a hunt. When I saw that they were painted red I was happy. Red is the colour of war, it means that the Indians are happy, healthy and ready to defend their territory" says Meirelles.<br />
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In the photo of the village one can make out a child with a steel machete and a metal dish. This shows that the tribe, who live somewhere on the Brazil-Peru border, have indirect contact with the outside world through trade with other tribes. However, it is clear that they do not want any direct contact with civilisation.<br />
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Rumours quickly spread that the existence of this tribe had been know about since 1910 and that Meirelles had set out to find them, rather than come across them accidentally. There was also criticism which claimed that use of helicopters was traumatic for the Indians and could interfere with their traditional way of life. FUNAI workers were quick to explain that they had taken the photos to draw the world's attention to the existence of such tribes, many of whom are threatened. The former president of Peru,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garc%C3%ADa"> Alan Perez Garcia</a>, once claimed that uncontacted tribes were merely a figment of the imagination dreamed up by anthropologists and environmentalists. The photos prove otherwise. There is large-scale deforestation taking place in Peru so <i>isolados</i> have been moving across the border into Brazil where things are much more peaceful. However, the newcomers have to fight against the local tribes who are determined to defend their territory, and so the <i>isolados</i> face extinction. Meirelles swears that he would never reveal where exactly the tribe in the photo live, even under torture.<br />
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Meirelles is one of only 5 Brazilian <i>sertanistas</i>-- experienced researchers who search for uncontacted tribes, register them in a secret archive and use satellites to monitor thier territory to ensure that they remain unmolested. It can be a dangerous job. Meirelles was once wounded by an arrow. Nicolas 'Shaco' Flores, an indian from the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsigenka"> Matsigenka</a> tribe, spent 20 years looking after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashco-Piro_people">Mashco-Piro </a>tribe of Peru. On the boundaries of their territory he would leave gifts-- knives, pots, machetes. He created a garden from which the Mashco-Piro could pick edible plants. In November 2011 he died in this garden, killed by a tribesman's arrow.<br />
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The <i>sertanistas</i>, however, are willing to take such risks. They know that modern civilisation represents a grave danger for the <i>isolados</i>. As recently as the 1960s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_tapper">rubber-tappers </a>used automatic weapons to massacre almost the entire <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinta_Larga_people">Cintas Largas</a> tribe. Brazilian newspaper 'O Globo' reported in November 1966 that to destroy the tribe's last remaining village, which was inaccessible, the rubber-tappers dropped sticks of dynamite from a Cessna light aircraft. They did so during the indian's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarup"><i>Quarup</i></a> festival, to ensure the highest possible casualties. The survivors managed to flee and hide but they were tracked down 5 weeks later and a massacre ensued. One of the perpetrators, Ataide Pereira, was so angry that he had not been paid the promised 15 dollars per victim that he confessed all to a Jesuit priest named Edgar Smith. "Our leader, Chico Luis, hung an indian woman upside down from a tree with her legs open and then cut her in half, top to bottom, with his machete. He almost managed to do it with one stroke. The ground in the village was soaked with blood as if it was an abbatoir. We threw the bodies in the river.... Personally, I have nothing against indians but the fact is that they occupy valuable land and they do not know how to exploit it" Pereira told the priest. <br />
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<i>Isolados </i>also die from diseases, as they have no immunity against illnesses introduced by settlers, loggers and <i>garimpeiros</i>, or illegal gold prospectors. Influenza and measles have ravaged Amazonian tribes. On the Brazil-Venezuela border live the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami">Yanomami</a> people. Their territory encompasses an expanse of dense rainforest roughly the size of Switzerland. They first encountered modern civilisation in the middle of the last century. In the 1990s uranium and gold were discovered in the Yanomami's territory. The tribal lands were invaded by up to 65,000 primitive and brutal <i>garimpeiros</i>. The intruders poisoned rivers, carried diseases and their diggings filled with water, creating ideal conditions for malarial mosquitoes. The gold prospectors, armed with modern weapons, also killed indians deliberately. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haximu_massacre">In 1993 16 Yanomami were massacred at Haximu. </a>The Brazil's Federal Supreme Court recognised this massacre as an act of genocide. As a result of the gold rush, 1 in 5 Yanomami perished. The tribe still survives, numbering around 20,000 individuals, but their situation is difficult. Central authority is remote, the police are powerless to protect them. "The <i>garimpeiros</i> have brought alcohol, prostitution and disease. Our people are dying" despairs Dario Yanomami, son of one of the tribal leaders.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sentinelese people on the beach, North Sentinel Island, Andaman archipelago.</td></tr>
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Uncontacted tribes lived, and still live, in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andaman_Islands">Andaman archipegalo</a>, which is administered by India. The native people used to be called <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negrito">negritos</a> </i>or Asian Pygmies. Their ancestors migrated from Africa to Asia about 60,000 years ago. The last remaining descendants living the traditional lifestyle are to be found on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island">North Sentinel</a> island, the most westerly of the Andamans. Access to the island is hindered by coral reefs and no outsider has ever set foot there. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese_people">Sentinelese</a>, numbering 100 to 250 individuals, live as people did in the Stone Age and are considered to be the most isolated society in the world. They still manage to enjoy some benefits of the outside world, however. They scavenge any shipwrecks and debris which washes up on their beaches, often using metal to make arrowheads. Nontheless, they fiercely protect thier freedom and isolation. Anyone attempting to approach the island is met with a hail of arrows. After the 2004 tsunami which devasted much of the region, they fired arrows at search-and-rescue helicopters. In January 2006 they killed 2 Indian fishermen who, under the influence of alcohol, had not realised that they were drifting towards the island. The victims' bodies were not recovered.<br />
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The Sentinelese walk about naked, catch fish and hunt lizards and turtles. They gather coconuts which are washed up onto the shore. It seems that they only have 2 numbers: 1 and 'more than 1'. Thanks to thier hostility they have been left alone to live as they wish. They are lucky that thier island does not have any mineral resources, and that is not suitable for cash-crop plantations. Other native tribes in the Andaman islands have been less fortunate. The<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onge_people"> Onge </a>people from Little Andaman island will almost certainly disappear in the near future. In 1900 there were 672 Onge, in 1931 there were 250 and today there are less than 100. Diseases brought by settlers from continental India and changes in diet and lifestyle are the chief factors contributing to the tribe's decline. In Onge culture there is a legend about a huge wave which kills countless people. During the 2004 tsunami all the Onge-- 94 people-- therefore fled to shelter and managed to survive. However, in 2008 8 Onge men died after drinking poison which they had found in a bottle on the beach. This incident was the last nail in the tribe's coffin. The gene pool of the remaining Onge is too poor to allow long-term survival. 4 out of 10 Onge couples have no children. Infant mortality is around 40%. The Onge work on coconut plantations. The women still wear traditional loin clothes. Indian traders sell items such as buckets, umbrellas and plastic penis covers to the men. This last item has led to hygene problems amongst Onge men.<br />
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarawa_people_%28Andaman_Islands%29">Jarawa </a>tribe of the Andamans avoided contact with civilisation for years. Thanks to this they had maintained their lifestyle and customs. The Jarawa were aware of the fate of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jangil">Jangil</a> people, who they think of as thier ancestors. The last Jangil died in 1907. The tribe was decimated by diseases introduced by British colonisers.<br />
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A road is currently being built through the Jarawa's territory, however. The Indian government has ignored the decision of India's Supreme Court which has ordered construction to be halted. Outsiders are starting to encroach on the Jarawa's land. In 1998 a few Jarawa, probably tempted by the strange sights of civilisation, emerged from the forest. The results have been tragic. The tribe has been ravaged by disease, they started wearing clothes and became addicted to alcohol. Their number currently stands at around 250. Tour agencies organise illegal trips to the Jarawa territory, a human safari. Tourists throw biscuits and bananas from their jeeps to the Jarawa begging on the roadside, as if they were feeding animals. In January 2012 a video appeared in which a policeman forces a Jarawa woman, stripped to the waist, to dance for tourists.<br />
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<i>Author: Jan Piaseczny Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.14 (640) 09/04/12 </i><br />
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From the archives: <a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/apocalypse-then-haiti-circa-1502-ad.html">Apocalypse Then: Haiti circa 150<i>2 </i>AD</a><i><a href="http://./">.</a></i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-71762645737678572382012-04-04T12:39:00.000+02:002012-04-04T12:39:18.934+02:00EUROPE: Spain Struggles As Recession Bites (K. Kęciek)<div id="leed"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MvdVPipIRXo/T3wjBzyNdGI/AAAAAAAAASU/9bi0w3WDwTY/s1600/spain.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MvdVPipIRXo/T3wjBzyNdGI/AAAAAAAAASU/9bi0w3WDwTY/s400/spain.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
23 year-old Abigail Serrano from Cordoba is a coroner's assistant but she has never worked in her profession. After being unemployed for a long time. she eventually started working as a waitress. "It was only possible because of some contacts. I was really lucky." Abigail is right to use the word 'lucky'. In Spain almost 1 in 2 people aged 16-25 are jobless. Young people are eagerly learning foreign languages and are dreaming of emigrating, mostly to Germany. Spain looks set to experience a <i>fuga de cerebros</i>, or 'brain drain'. The most dynamic and best educated are leaving, at great cost to the economy. Luis Oliveros, an aerospace technician from Madrid, is heading for Germany. Since finishing his education he has only worked in casual jobs. Luis has tried numerous times to find a job via the job centre but without success. "They only offer courses, courses and even more courses but no jobs." Last year more people emigrated from Spain than immigrated there, the first time this has happened.</div><div id="leed"><br />
</div>Spain is the Euro zone's 4th largest economy but it is suffering acute unemployment-- the highest in the EU and maybe even in the whole industrialised world. According to government figures, 410,000 jobs have been lost in the last 12 months. Unemployment grew by 112,000 in February alone. 4.7 million citizens are without work, the highest rate since 1996, when a new method of measuring unemployment was introduced (according to other figures the number of unemployed stands at 5.3 million.) The Spanish Employment Ministry does not publish unemployment statisitcs as percentages but the European statistics bureau Eurostat said that in January the unemployment rate was 23.3% overall and 49.9% amongst the young.<br />
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The economic situation is worsening. The conservative government of PM<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariano_Rajoy"> Mariano Rajoy </a>has promised the EU that it will reduce its budget deficit from 8.51% in 2011 to 4.4% this year. It is now clear, however, that this will not be possible. Last year Spain struggled to get out of recession, achieving 0.7% growth. The government predicted minimal growth (0.2%) for this year but even this modest goal is too much.<br />
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People do not have work, they limit their spending, demand plummets and the economy stalls. Even the Prime Minister warns that worse is to come. The IMF estimate that the economy will contract by 0.7% in 2012. The Spanish government has asked the European Commission to allow them a budget deficit of 6% this year. Pessimists say it will be higher.<br />
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Premier Rajoy, whose<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_%28Spain%29"> People's Party </a>(Partido Popular or PP) were victorious in November's elections, claims to have inherited Spain's economic woes from his predecessor,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatero"> Jose Luis Zapatero </a>of the centre-left <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Socialist_Workers%27_Party">PSOE</a> party. However, this is only partially true. The growth of the budget deficit last year was caused mainly by the profligacy of Spain's autonomous regional governments. The centre-left central government had a minimal effect on deficit growth. Most of the regional governments were under the control of Rajoy's colleagues from the PP. <br />
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Unemployment in Spain is traditionally high and its somewhat archaic economy requires reform and investment. Digital infrastructure and computerisation is below the EU average. In Andalucia, which depends on tourism, only around half of the businesses in the tourism sector use computers. When Spain joined the Euro zone in 1999, the government failed to carry out essential changes. The government was cautious about getting into debt with the new currency but was ready and willing to let its citizens borrow freely, especially during the construction boom which became the motor of the Spanish economy. Many people wanted to buy a new home, or a second property. Others bought speculatively, hoping to sell the property at a profit. <br />
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The boom was fuelled by mortgages, which the banks were keen to offer. Between 2004 and 2008 property prices jumped 44%. The construction industry created employment, economic growth and tax revenue. Between 1999 and 2007 the economy grew by an average of 3.7% a year. Politicians, convinced that the good times would last forever, allowed the cost of labur to rise by 36% from 1999 to 2008-- in the same period the cost of labour in Germany rose by barely 3%.<br />
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The construction boom turned out to be a trap, however. Neither the central nor the regioanl governments invested in other sectors of the economy and they neglected to invest in new technology. The construction boom was also rife with corruption. Between 2006-2009 the regional government of Andalucia alone investigated 179 cases of corruption connected to illegal construction on the coast. As construction work does not require many qualifications, many young people dropped out of school looking to make quick money.<br />
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In 2008 the bubble finally burst. The cranes stood still and the workers suddenly found that they had neither a job nor any qualifications. Property prces fell by 17%, even 40% in Madrid. From Castille to Catalonia, Spain was left littered with unfinished buildings and so-called 'ghost towns' such as the El Quinon housing development half an hour's drive south of Madrid. In a development of 5,000 homes there are only 1,000 residents. An 84 square metre flat can be bought for 89,000 euros compared to 165,000 in 2008. Banks are offering a 100% mortgage but still there are no buyers.<br />
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Once the property bubble had burst the rest of the economy started to sink. It turned out to be uncompetitive, partly due to high labour costs. Tens of thousands of small businesses had to close. Finding a permanent job became something akin to a miracle. In Spain there are 2 classes of workers: older employees who have long-term or permanent contracts which make them hard to lay off and the young who have only short-term contracts.<br />
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The young can only hope to find casual work. Jose Maria Navarro, co-founder of Inplasnu, a cable producer, employs 22 people, of whom only 4 are under 25. "I can't hire anyone on a permanent contract because if the company runs into difficulties I won't be able to lay them off", explains Navarro. In Cordoba, 96% of the employment contracts of city council workers are short-term. <br />
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When the Zapatero government started to implement reforms and savings in 2010 it was already too late. Public sector pay was cut by 5% and the retirement age was raised to 67%. These austerity measures were opposed by the so-called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%932012_Spanish_protests"><i>'indignado' </i></a>movement. The protesters also railed against the whole economic system and the duopoly of the 2 main parties, PP and PSOE, which control a system of patronage and favouritism. Protesters set up camps in Madrid and other cities but the demonstrations soon lost momentum. While the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street">parallel movement in New York </a>was still protesting against Wall Street, the Spanish were packing up thier tents and heading home. Nonetheless, anger at the economic situation forced the PSOE into opposition after 8 years in power.<br />
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The conservative government of Mariano Rajoy, which took office in December, has continued the austerity measures. On 10th February the government announced plans to freeze public sector pay and the minimum wage (641 euros a month). It is hoped that these measure will save 8.9 billion euros in 2012. There are also plans to make it easier for employers to lay off workers. This has led trade unions to call for mass protests in defence of workers' rights. During one such demonstration in Madrid the leader of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni%C3%B3n_General_de_Trabajadores">UGT</a> union Candido Mendez claimed that the reforms "have been dictated by a group of financiers working on behalf of the German government." It is hard to see how the stifling austerity measures are going to get the Spanish economy out of recession and decrease unemployment. What is certain is that even if the EU manages to save Greece from bankruptcy-- something which most economists agree is at best doubtful-- in the case of a similar crisis involving Spain there wil not be enough money for a bailout.<br />
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<i>Author: Krzysztof Kęciek Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine.</i><br />
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The original Polish article can be read<a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/hiszpania-bezradna-wobec-kryzysu"> here.</a>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-25824733541297202462012-03-29T23:45:00.000+02:002012-03-29T23:45:38.316+02:00POLAND: The End Of The Shale Gas Dream? (A. Dryszel)<div id="leed"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iicXkxoNJ4U/T3TXpyv6brI/AAAAAAAAASM/SipCRWTqTME/s1600/gas.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iicXkxoNJ4U/T3TXpyv6brI/AAAAAAAAASM/SipCRWTqTME/s400/gas.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Are our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas">shale gas</a> dreams set to end in disappointment? 21st March sees the publication of a report by the Polish Geological Institute which should give us a more accurate and realistic estimate of our potential shale gas reserves. The report might spell the end for the dream of Poland becoming a shale gas giant. According to estimates published in April 2011 by researchers from the US Department of Energy, Poland might have around 5.3 trillion cubic metres of shale gas. This was an estimate of how much gas could probably be found in our shale rock. It was not based on exploratory drilling but was instead based mainly on analysis of Poland's geological structure. There was no indication of how much gas could actually be extracted using current technology. The more exploration wells are drilled, the more it seems that there is little shale gas to be found.<br />
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The sketchy, hypothetical report from 2011 was greeted with great optimism. Most of the media viewed it as a guarantee that not only do we have exploitable deposits, but that we also have enough commercially-viable deposits to ensure our energy independence for the next 300 years. It is important to highlight the role of the media because the surge of optimism was never shared by industry experts-- it was purely a creation of the 'fourth estate'. A good example is the presentation of a report by the firm Deloitte. This report, surely commisioned by the shale gas lobby, claimed that shale gas would lead to a revolution which would change the resource-energy map of the world. These claims are untrue and groundless but at least the report seemed to hedge its bets when it came to Polish shale gas: it said that if Poland really did have as much shale gas as the US Department of Energy estimated, it would have a huge impact on Europe and Russia. Deprived of the Polish market and facing Polish competition, Russia would be forced to lower its gas prices, with all the knock-on effects that would entail.<br />
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Our media, however, left out the phrase 'if Poland really did' and replaced 'would' with 'will'. Poland's elbowing aside of Russia from the gas market was portrayed as a foregone conclusion. Our tendency to exaggerate apparent success led us to feel like a shale gas Kuwait. Such was the bullish confidence that anyone who did not agree with the optimistic consensus was dismissed as being an agent of Russian influence, working on behalf of Gazprom.<br />
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A couple of weeks before the publication of the PGI's report the institute's director, Jerzy Nawrocki, revealed that shale gas deposits in Poland were much smaller than had previously been estimated. Nawrocki did not give exact figures, as he did not want to diminish the impact of the report's publication. He only stated that latest estimates were lower than previous reports, but that there was enough shale gas to have a 'real impact on production'. Such a general statement can be trusted. Poland's chief geologist, Piotr Wożniak, adopted the same tone, saying that there would certainly be a downwards revision of overly optimistic estimates.<br />
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Off the record, it is said that the PGI report estimates deposits at 2.5-2.6 billion cubic metres at most. Many experts suppose that there might be just over 1 billion cubic metres. This view is shared by professor Krzysztof Szamałek of Warsaw University and Andrzej Szcześniak, energy expert, among others. The figures above refer to deposits which can be extracted using current technology. We still have no idea, however, how much shale gas can be extracted at a cost which would make it commercially-viable<br />
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When all is said and done, all of the figures bandied about are educated guesses. Whether or not Poland has shale gas, and whether or not it is worth extracting, can only be answered by drilling a sufficient number of exploration wells. To get a fairly accurate picture of the whole country would require 100-150 wells. To get an idea bordering on certainty would require up to 300. So far, 15 such wells have been drilled. Our shale gas project would appear to be proceeding at the same pace as our motorway construcion project. The result is that PGI report cannot provide a base for any sound measurement of Poland's shale gas deposits. Instead, it will merely give us a vague estimate based on limited data. Environment minister Marcin Korolec has said that it would be unwise to trust any figures in the PGI report as they will almost certinaly be revised at some stage.<br />
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For now, we do not know much about Poland's shale gas potential. What we do know, however, is that the technical and economic conditions of shale gas extraction in the USA do not apply to Poland, because they are 2 different geological environments. Our deposits lie deper underground and it will not always be possible to exploit them with a simple vertical drill shaft, as it often is in the USA. Polish conditions will sometimes require the drilling of horizontal shafts at great depth, reaching 2.5km or even up to 4.5km.<br />
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Above all else, we do not know if all our shale deposits actually contain gas. We will not find out without drilling. Also, even if all the planned drilling sites in the more than 100 Polish concessions are completed, we still might not get a complete picture. According to the conditions of the concession agreements signed between the Polish government and gas fiirms, the firms have the right to keep exploration results secret for 5 years. If results are good, however, you can bet that the forms will be all too eager to talk.<br />
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So far, news of the exploration resluts has been scarce. In February energy giant Exxon expressed disappointment. "The quantity of gas found at our first well in Poland was not enough to warrant a regular commercial extraction operation." 2 other firms have announced that thier wells in Lebieniec and Lębork revealed disappointing quantities of gas. There is some good news, however: a spokesman for Poland's state-run PGNiG has told the press that provisional rsults from the well at Lubocino are more than promising.<br />
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After the initial tub-thumping optimism perhaps it is not necessary to go to the other extreme. However, the worst-case scenario-- that Poland does not have any significant amount of exploitable shale gas-- cannot be ruled out.<br />
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To find out whether or not shale rock might contain gas, analysis of the rock sample must show up a minimum of 4% organic matter. In wells drilled in Poland over the last 2 decades, the results have ranged from 0.8% to 2.4%. Only in 2 cases was the minimum of 4% met. It is unclear whether these positive results come from one of the recent concessions. <br />
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Treasury minister Mikołaj Budzanowski, under pressure from premier Tusk, has said that the extraction of shale gas will commence in 2015. However, the frims carrying out exploration have only 18 wells planned for this year. It is no wonder-- each well costs on average 15 million dollars. At the current rate of exploration, commerical extraction can only begin in 10 years' time at the very earliest. That is, of course, if the exploration reveals anything to extract.<br />
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For the time being, it is worth asking whether the gas flare lit by Donald Tusk last year during his pre-election visit to the Lubocino well is fulled by shale gas or the regular variety.<br />
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<i>Author: Andrzej Dryszel Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr. 12/2012</i><br />
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The original Polish article can be read <a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/juz-nie-bedziemy-drugim-kuwejtem">here.</a><br />
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From the archives: <a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/europe-bulgaria-says-no-to-shale-gas.html">Bulgaria Says No To Shale Gas</a>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-89225060722497572782012-03-27T11:49:00.000+02:002012-03-27T11:49:58.234+02:00INTERNATIONAL: Nowruz-- Persian New Year (B. Dżon)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DCiU0HIclxU/T3Ds37c4NVI/AAAAAAAAASE/SoZjAkbFqTs/s1600/nowruz.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DCiU0HIclxU/T3Ds37c4NVI/AAAAAAAAASE/SoZjAkbFqTs/s400/nowruz.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Washed carpets, clean windows, scrubbed floors, holiday napkins decorated with pictures of wheat, goldfish, eggs and the Koran-- this is how Iranians welcome the Persian New Year, what to us is the first day of spring.<br />
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Iranians wish each other<i> Nowruz mobarak bad!</i> from 6.14 am (CET) on 20th March, the start of the new Persian year 1391. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz"><i>Nowruz</i></a>, or <i>Noruz, Nuruz, Norous, Norooz</i>, literally means 'new day'. The festival is celebrated by 300 million people from north-western China to the Mediterranean, in Iran, many parts of Central Asia, Afghanistan, the Caucasus and amongst the Kurds. It is celebrated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrian">Zoarastrians</a>, Muslims, Christians, Agnostics and Atheists. In the ruins of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis">Persepolis</a>, near the present day city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiraz,_Iran">Shiraz</a>, there are a set of reliefs depicting people ascending the stairs to the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apadana">apadana</a></i>, bearing gifts for the king. According to some experts, these reliefs are an early depiction of the <i>Nowruz </i>ceremony.<br />
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Iranian women have thier hands full at this time of year due to the custom of cleaning, tidying and mending which needs to be completed before the new year. Cleanliness was important in the ancient Iranian religion of Zoarastrianism, which started the <i>Nowruz </i>festival around 3,000 years ago. It is also important in Islam. A clean body and soul means that one is ready for forgiveness, to start afresh in the new year.<br />
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This year, however, the festival has been somewhat overshadowed by smog-- air pollution is a huge problem in Iran. Iranians say that there has never been a new year like it. Almost every large city is suffocating in a beige-coloured cloud hanging over the western, southern and central regions of the country. Tehran has long been drowning in smog which has been worsened by a lack of wind and rain. "The traditional <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C4%81ne-tak%C4%81n%C4%AB">Khaneh Tekani</a>, </i>the new year cleaning, has little effect against the soot and dust. One cannot smell the scent of hyacinths. Worst of all, people have difficulty even breathing. Headaches and a feeling of suffocation are everyday nuisances<i>. </i>The elderly and those suffering from asthma often die. Visibility is terrible. In most Iranian cities pollution is 4-10 times over the legal limit." says a young journalist from the BBC's Iranian section. The most polluted region is Kurdistan.<br />
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In the centre of each home there stands a table festooned with seasonal decorations. "My mother put down a white table-cloth on our best Persian rug in the corner of the dining room, we don't eat at the table. It is important that there is enough room on the table for 7 symbols, all of which start with the Persian letter <i>Seen</i>, or S", explains Maryan. Her cousin Luna places <i>Sabzeh</i> on the table. There are a type of green wheat shoots which symbolise the rebirth of nature. Next to it, in a silver dish, there is <i>Samanu</i>, a sweet pudding symbolising prosperity. Next comes <i>Senjed</i>, the dried fruit of the lotus tree, which symbolises love. "To this we add <i>Seer</i> (garlic), which is good for our health and <i>Sib</i> (apple) which represents beauty and health" explains Setareh, a chemistry graduate from Tehran university. <i>Somaq</i> are powdered berries which are the colour of sunrise. <i>Serkeh </i>(vinegar) represents maturity and patience. <i>Sonbol</i> (hyacinth) is a symbol of the coming spring. There is also a few coins, <i>Sekkeh</i>, for wealth and prosperity. As well as the 7 S's there is also a mirror, a symbol of truth and self-recognition, red eggs and a goldfish in a bowl. The goldfish is the most recent addition to the festive symbols, only being present on the table for the last 20 years. After the festival the fish are released into ponds etc. or are kept in fish tanks, to the delight of children. Iranian environmentalists nevertheless point out that last year <i>Nowruz</i> meant the death of 5 million fish.<br />
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The festive table is finished off with candles, symbolising fire, and a leather-bound tome of the Persian poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez">Hafez</a>. Without him, the Iranian spirit doe not exist. He is quoted on a daily basis. His verses are used to foretell the coming year. "You choose a verse at random and then you all try to interpret its meaning" laughs Shirin, a long-haired architect originally from Azerbaijan. Muslims put the Koran on the table, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Armenians">Armenian Christians</a> the Bible and Zoarastrians the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avesta"> Avesta.</a><br />
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<i>Nowruz</i> is the most important festival of the year. The celebrations are preceded by visits to cemetaries and on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in the week before <i>Nowruz </i>there is a celebration of fire <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaharshanbe_Suri">(Chahar-Shambe-ye-suri)</a> </i>Bonfires are lit in the streets, just as they were in the fields and courtyards of times past. People young and old jump over the bonfires singing "my sickly yellow paleness is yours, your fiery red color is mine". This is to ward off illness and misfortune. Although <i>Nowruz</i> is an offical holiday in Iran, the bonfires and the demonstrations which often gather round them frequently end up in brawls between youths and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Guardians_of_the_Islamic_Revolution">Revolutionary Guard.</a><br />
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On the same evening, family and friends eat a meal of white fish from the Caspian Sea and new members of the family, such as a son or daughter-in-law, are formally accepted. During this time clowns appear on the streets, dressed in red and with faces painted black. They are called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haji_firouz"><i>Haji Pirooz</i> </a>or <i>Hadji Firuz.</i> Only they have the right to say whatever they want in the form of satirical verses, but only on this one day of the year.<br />
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Nowruz lasts for 13 days. Children are off school and markets, shops and public offices are partially closed. Young people pay visits to their older relatives, who later rpay the visits. As a rule, visits last for about 30 minutes as both large families and large distances mean that there would not be enough time to visit everyone otherwise. "We give out <i>Armaghan</i>, especially to children. These are new, unused banknotes which are then carried in the wallet for the whole year. The denomination of the note does not matter, the important thing is that they should be unused" says Mahdi, a poet. People nibble on peanuts mixed with raisins, eat special biscuits and cakes and drink tea whilst chewing sugar cubes.<br />
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Many Iranians make a pilgrimage to the tomb of the poet Hafez in Shiraz. The 13th and final day of <i>Nowruz</i> is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizdah_be_dar"><i>Sizdah be da</i></a>. in Iranian culture the number 13 can be unlucky-- the 12 signs of the zodiac control the 12 months of the year whilst 13 brings chaos. On this day people leave their houses so that evil cannot find them. Families go to parks and forests and eat picnics, dance and play music. Parades of cars clog the streets. At 13.00, girls sing in the streets to bring good fortune and a husband and baby within the year. "In Tehran we actually stay at home that day. the city is quiet and the smog is not as bad" laughs Reza. On the final day of Nowruz, one can see 'green rugs', dishes of green wheat shoots, travel by in car roofs. People give them back to nature by taking them to the nearest river and letting them float away with the current, along with all worry and illness.<br />
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<i>Nowruz mobarak bad!</i><br />
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<i>Author: Beata Dżon Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.13 (639)</i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-82520263211080541582012-03-25T13:40:00.000+02:002012-03-25T13:40:03.267+02:00ECONOMICS / HISTORY: Reagan's Time-Bomb (K. Kęciek)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-HWl7D7EIM/T28D4sMnvsI/AAAAAAAAAR8/GT366Y5TAA0/s1600/Reagan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-HWl7D7EIM/T28D4sMnvsI/AAAAAAAAAR8/GT366Y5TAA0/s400/Reagan.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
President Ronald Reagan cut taxes for the rich and benefits for the poor. He greatly reduced social spending, defeated trade unions and left Americans at the mercy of ruthless market forces. He sent single mothers into low-paid jobs, bringing about the feminisation of poverty. He left behind an enormous budget deficit. He revived a predatory brand of capitalism, free from effective control and focused entirely on profit and the commodification of everything.<br />
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George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, authors of 'America: A Narrative History', pointed out that under the Reagan administration, the construction of affordable housing was stopped whilst at the same time slums were being demolished, thus leaving many homeless. Hospital care for the mentally ill was scrapped, resulting in countless beggars and tramps living in cardboard cities-- scenes more often associated with Calcutta than with the cities of a superpower. 'Reaganomics'-- the moniker used to describe the economic policies of the 40th US president-- were a time-bomb which in the end went off. The effects are to be seen in the current crisis of capitalism and world finance, whose final consequences are hard to predict.<br />
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<a name='more'></a> The former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan, who was elected in 1980 with only 28% of the total vote, adhered to the theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply-side_economics">supply-side economics</a>. This theory states that if taxes are lowered for entrepreneurs, they will invest more capital. As a result, new jobs are created and total tax revenues rise. "Our tax system would appear to have been created by some Communist with the aim of paralysing free entrepreneurship" said Reagan. According to advocates of supply-side economics, economic problems arise mainly due to excesive government interference in the market. They promised that any increase in the wealth of the richest in society would naturally 'trickle down' to those at the bottom of the pile. One of the main arguments in support of this theory was the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve"> Laffer curve </a>(named after Arthur Laffer, an economist from the University of Southern California) which was supposed to show that at some point between 0% and 100% tax there is a point at which tax cuts spur on economic activity. Reaganomics, based on supply, was opposed to the doctrine of John Maynard Keynes, who believed that economic problems were to be tackled first and foremost with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_side_economics">demand-side solutions.</a><br />
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The new doctrine was supposed to have been an effective cure for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation">'stagflation' </a>( inflation combined with economic stagnation ) which had been a problem during the previous decade. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Harvey_%28geographer%29">David Harvey</a>, professor of Anthropology at City University of New York (CUNY) and author of 'A Brief History of Neo-Liberalism', sees things from a wider perspective. He notes that when growth stalled in the 1970s, interest rates fell below zero and low dividends and profits became the norm. The upper-classes around the world felt threatened. In the USA the share of wealth belonging to the richest 1%, which had remained stable for most of the century, suddenly shrank due to the falling value of shares, property and savings. They had to take action to save themselves from economic, and thus political, collapse. In the UK, thier tool was Margaret Thatcher. In the USA it was Reagan. It is hard to say how much the President understood about his role, as he did not enjoy a reputation as an intellectual titan. Before the elections, news weekly 'Time' pondered whether the 69 years old actor was "clever enough to be President....Accounts of his intelligence are at best mixed." When the victorious Reagan moved into the White House, the well-known New York commentator James Reston wrote that everyone like the President but that "only a very few suppose that he can comprehend the changes arising in the world."<br />
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In any case, the Reagan administration went to work with gusto. On 4th August 1981 the President signed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Recovery_Tax_Act_of_1981">Economic Recovery Tax Act </a>which reduced the maximum tax rate from 70% to 50% and lowered capital gains tax from 28% to 20%. In 1985 the highest tax rate was again reduced, from 50% to 28%-- the lowest level since the days of Calvin Coolidge (President 1923-1929) According to professor Harvey, this was a clear sign of intention to 'restore class power'. Chief of the Congress Budget Department, David Stockman, openly admitted that Reaganomics was a Trojan horse, intended to grant huge tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals and the largest corporations. According to the New York firm A. Gary Shilling, the changes in the tax system in 1982 alone gave the rich ( those with an income of over 47,500 dollars a year ) a profit in the region of 9.2 billion dollars, whilst taking almost 19 billion from the poorest, the working-classes and the middle-classes.<br />
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As well as the tax system, radical action was taken in the form of cuts to social spending. Despite opposition from Democrats, there were drastic cuts in education, healthcare, home-building, help for the urban poor, food stamps and subsidies for school meals. The administration decreed that benefits for parents who stopped working to look after children would be withdrawn 4 months after leaving thier job, and that for every dollar they earned, one dollar would be taken from thier benefits. As a result, 400,000 people lost benefits and many of them also Medicaid health cover. After 2 years of the Reagan adminstration the number of people offically living below the poverty line had risen by 2.2 million.<br />
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The government deregulated everything, from airlines to telecommunications and finance. Deregulation served to open up new markets and opportunities for large corporations. In his 1984 book 'The New Politics of Inequality', Pullitzer Prize-winning academic and journalist Thomas B. Edsall wrote that the manouevring of the Reagan administration was focused on "removing federal regulations on areas such as industry, the environment, working conditions, healthcare and the relationship between seller and buyer." These goals were achieved by budget cuts and by "filling key roles in government institutions with individuals who had a dislike of regulation and close contacts with industrial interests." In 1983, 40% of laws passed in the 70s, which were seen by business as too pro-labour, were repealed in less than 6 months.<br />
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In the summer of 1981 Reagan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29#August_1981_strike">broke the long-running strike of the air-traffic controller's union PATCO</a>. In August he dismissed 11, 345 controllers who had ignored the government's order to return to work. The controllers' duties were taken over by the military. PATCO was a symbol of the whole middle-class, not just the working-class trade union movement. Its defeat had dramatic consequences for hundreds of thousands of Americans.<br />
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The federal minimum wage, which in 1980 stood at the poverty treshold, fell over the next decade until it stood at 30% below the official poverty line. There was also a long-term fall in real wages. The fate of the air-traffic controllers was a clear signal that the trade unions were seen as enemies by the government. Tax breaks caused a migration of capital from the highly unionised north-eastern and mid-western states to the southern and western states where both unions and regulations were weak. The result was the deindustrialisation of the trade unions' heartlands, the so-called 'rust belt'. Corporations could dictate conditions under the threat of factory closures. With unemployment standing at 10% in the mid-80s, they did not have to fear strike action. Reagan's election victories in 1980 and 1984 seriously weakend the national trade union federation <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFL-CIO">AFL-CIO</a>, which had close links with the Democratic Party. Trade unions began to lose members. In 1979 24% of workers were union members-- 8 years later only 17% were.<br />
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Reagan also lauched an offensive against feminism. He opposed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Ammendment">Equal Rights Ammendment </a>and the principle of equal pay for equal work. Cuts in social spending led to the feminisation of poverty. The Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights criticised the President for the fact that only 8% of his administration were women, with another 8% comprised of ethnic minorities. (Under his successor Jimmy Carter, the figures were 12 and 17% respectively.) In 1983 an irritated Reagan dismissed 3 members of the Commission, and tried to fire 2 more. Support for his government was for years lower amongst women than amongst men.<br />
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Reagan's policies met with sharp criticism from Western Europe. Hamburg weekly 'Der Spiegel' pointed out that social spending in the US represented 10% of GDP, 3 times less than in West Germany. It wrote, "When Ronald Reagan orders 4 pairs of thousand-dollar cowboy boots (whose price does not include the 14-carat gold monogrammed decorations) there is no talk of extravagance-- rather, he is helping the economy. Only bleeding-heart liberals would point out that in the same week that the President ordered his thousand-dollar boots, the Social Security Department announced new rules for those claiming benefits. The value of all their possessions, excluding TV and kitchen utensils, cannot exceed 1,000 dollars, otherwise they will lose their benefits."<br />
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Deregulation meant that the Reagan years were a boom time for high-risk investors and financial speculators. One famous example was the Vernon Savings and Loan bank-- a bank serving a small Texas town with a population of 12,000 which ended up with 6 private jets and which spent 2.5 million dollars on interior decorating. <br />
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The Reagan administration oversaw a huge increase in defence spending, leading to a large deficit. Apologists for this policy claim that it was responsible for victory in the Cold War. This claim is only partially true. The Soviet system collapsed because it was tired, bankrupt, full of conditions and with no fight left in it. Reagan's arms policy might have sped up the inevitable, but nothing more.<br />
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The budget deficit quickly grew. The administration insisted that high defence spending was necessary and that the only way to reduce the deficit was through cuts in social spending. During Reagan's 2 terms in office the federal deficit grew from 908 billion to 2.6 trillion dollars. Defenders of Reaganomics point out that it led to great advances in technology and 19 million new jobs. Critics reply that average unemployment under Reagan was relatively high, at 7.5%. They also point to the mass of poverty-stricken and marginalised people which appeared under Reagan's administration. In the summer of 1988 the 'New York Times' estimated that over 45% of those over 16 in New York City belonged to the so-called 'underclass'-- people living below the poverty line and long-term unemployed, either due to lack of qualifications or other problems such as drug addiction.<br />
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Prosperity somehow failed to 'trickle down' to the lowest levels of society. According to official figures, in the priod 1977-1987 the real income after tax of the poorest 10% fell by 10.5%, while that of the richest 10% rose by 24.4% and that of the wealthiest 1% grew by 74.2%! The dominance of the rich and powerful was preserved. Since the USA adopted neoliberal economimc policies the share of the wealth of the top 1% has from 8 to 15%. The ricjest 0.1% accounted for 2% of all wealth in 1978 and 6% in 1999. The ratio between the pay of CEOs and the average worker was 30:1 in 1970 and almost 500:1 in 2000.<br />
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The Reagan era paved the way for a predatory, unregulated form of capitalism focused entirely on profit. It created an ideal environment for greedy bankers and reckless speculators. The explosion of Reagan's timebomb was always a question of when, not if. The first warning sign was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_%281987%29">'Black Monday'</a> on 19th October 1987 when the Dow Jones Index fell by 22.6% with the loss of 560 billion dollars. Despite this, the fundamental principles of neoliberalism were embraced by both George Bush in the USA and Tony Blair ion the UK. Not until the financial crisis of 2008 did mainstream opinion become aware of the dangers posed by this system.<br />
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In the USA the gap between the richest 1% and the both the endangered middle-class and the poor is still widening. Politicians concern themselves mainly with the interests of business and finance. A protest movement, claiming to represent the 99%, has appeared and is speaking out against economic injustice.<br />
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<i>Author: Krzysztof Kęciek Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.11 (637) 18/03/12 </i><br />
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The original Polish article can be read <a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/bomba-zegarowa-reagana">here</a>.Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com92tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-22153774855445061622012-03-15T09:20:00.001+01:002012-03-15T09:22:24.335+01:00OPINION: Piotr Żuk-- On Class Discrimination<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_AnV8zeQz2E/T2Gkvh1pcvI/AAAAAAAAAR0/FiNvsSWkzzU/s1600/zuk.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_AnV8zeQz2E/T2Gkvh1pcvI/AAAAAAAAAR0/FiNvsSWkzzU/s400/zuk.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Identical social phenomena are often lablled with different names. It all depends who they are associated with. The language used everyday in the media, government announcements and casual conversation is full of prejudices and stereotypes. Whenever we hear about poor neighbourhoods in the media, the same connotations appear-- dysfunctional communtites inhabited by alcoholics and broken families where one should think twice about venturing into at night. According to capitalist morality and market culture, poverty itself has become a pathology.<br />
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The smiling faces we see in countless adverts are usually middle-class faces. They are the heroes of our time. They act as role models for the rest of society, most of whom aspire to be like them. They display the greatest virtues one can have in our contemporary capitalist society-- flexibility, entrepreneurship, assertiveness, creativity, innovation and other traits from the Newspeak dictionary.<br />
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The same behaviour can carry a completley different label, and can be judged much less positively, depending on its class context. If members of the lower orders are not in a stable marriage then we hear of broken homes and sexual promiscuity. In the case of the middle and upper classes we hear of free and open relationships with 'partners'.<br />
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An educated, urban, middle-class woman without a husband or stable 'partner' is simply 'single'. Her working-class equivalent is likely to be labelled an 'old spinster'.<br />
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A famous actor, journalist or singer who has homosexual tendencies is a cosmopolitan 'gay'. A working class or unemployed homosexual is just a common 'faggot'. The word 'gay' has come to signify not only sexual orientation but also lifestyle and social status. Working-class homoexuals do not spend time in trendy, big-city clubs, nor do they buy designer clothes. They cannot achieve the status of a 'gay' and so they remain lowly 'faggots'.<br />
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When a middle-class teenager smashes a shop window, it is a manifestation of growing pains which needs to be analysed and rationalised-- perhaps he suffers from ADHD? Perhaps he had a bad day at school? When a teenager from a poor family smashes a shop window then it merely illustrates his pathological background and the problematic upbringing which, 'obviously', are omnipresent in his social sphere.<br />
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The full weight of the law comes down on the inhabitants of poor neighbourhoods, who have an almost genetic predispostion to commit crime. However, actions which cause more damage, and are carried out on a much larger scale, are not even considered as crimes. In this way, one person is labelled a thief and criminal whilst another is hailed as a creative entrepreneur who has managed to find a loophole in the law. Large-scale fraud becomes so abstract that there are no laws on the books which can stop them. The perpetrators enjoy thier status as respected businessmen.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek">Slavoj Zizek</a> is right when he says that the stigma of class also means a lot in feminist circles. Watching and listening to a representative of<a href="http://www.kongreskobiet.pl/"> Poland's Women's Congress</a> such as <a href="http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryka_Bochniarz">Henryka Bochniarz</a>, one can agree with Zizek's opinion that politically active feminism "can function as an ideological tool for the upper middle-classes who wish to confirm thier superiority to the 'patriarchal and intolerant' lower orders". On one hand we have educated feminist activists with high status and income and on the other hand we have submissive, feeble-minded women from the working class. In the media it is very hard to find a working-class, non-graduate woman who calls herself a feminist. In Poland the term 'feminist' is reserved for independent, well-educated women from large cities, many of whom schooled in the academic sphere of 'gender studies'.<br />
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For these reasons, class tensions in Poland are often articulated by hostility to different cultural and identity groups, as<a href="http://www.hws.edu/news/experts/displayexpert.asp?expertid=54"> David Ost </a>has written. The enemy is not a capitalist but rather a German, a Jew, a feminist or a middle-class homosexual. Feminists and gays take flak from 2 directions: in a generally conservative society they face hostility due to their beliefs and sexuality but they also face hostility from the poorer sections of society as they are seen as symbols of the rich and powerful classes.<br />
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Although the language of class warfare is no longer to be found in either the Polish media or Polish political debate, our society is full of class prejudice. Classism is a cultural form of racism in which the hostility is not aimed towards those of different races but those of different social class. In Poland we have anti-semitism without Jews, racism without ethnic minorities and hidden classism without the language of class in public debate. This does not mean that we live in a classless society, far from it: class tensions and prejudices affect us all, all day, every day.<br />
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<i>Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.11 (637) 18/03/12</i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-71067258774854940232012-03-08T22:29:00.001+01:002012-03-08T23:35:21.617+01:00OPINION: Bronisław Łagowski-- On Russia's Elections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ESAOIhxW3NA/T1keL6WtghI/AAAAAAAAARs/hdLijZGODK4/s1600/lag.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ESAOIhxW3NA/T1keL6WtghI/AAAAAAAAARs/hdLijZGODK4/s320/lag.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br />
According to reliable polls Vladimir Putin is set to win Russia's presidential election in the first round. By the time you read this he will already have won, much to the dismay of most of the Polish media. Opposition groups in Moscow have said that if Putin dares to win in the first round it will be proof that the vote has been rigged. Massive anti-Putin demonstrations are already planned.<br />
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For there to be democracy, there needs to be a government which does not rig elections and there needs to be a society which respects election results as binding. This sometimes makes it hard to decide which side is behaving undemocratically. In many African countries elections often end up with body counts rather than vote counts. It is not unsual for free elections to lead directly to civil war. After <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Coup_%28Poland%29">Piłsudski's May coup in 1926,</a> Poland did not see free and fair elections until 1989-- all the others, whether under the Sanacja regime or the Communist People's Republic (PRL), were falsified in one way or another.<br />
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The French, who are so keen to promote free elections worldwide, have an electoral regulation which means that a party which for years has achieved around 14% of the votes sometimes gets 1 seat in the National Assembly but more often ends up with none. The National Front's presidential candidate has 20% support and 70% of those polled believe she should be allowed to take part in the presidential election. Nonetheless, the establishment have closed ranks and <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/france/120216/marine-le-pen-far-right-candidate-might-leave-french-race">she is unable to collect the 500 signatures </a>of local government officials which are necessary to join the race for president. When <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16755383">Grigory Yavlinsky was barred</a> from taking part in elections on a formality, it was seen as evidence of a lack of democracy. France, on the other hand, is by definition democratic so every aspect of its electoral system is democratic.<br />
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As far as the US presidential race is concerned, the campaign costs of a serious candidate are so astronomical that it makes little sense to see the elections as a paradigm of democracy. The USA has a mixed Democratic-Oligarchic system which, according to Aristotle and the Founding Fathers, is better than pure democracy.<br />
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Vladimir Putin enjoys such large support that he does not need to falsify election results. The opposition do not recognise this fact and therefore do not recognise the election results. The Russian opposition movement is not the same thing as Russian society but they are the only voices heard in the Western media and they are reacting to the elction results in the African manner-- if we win, the elections are democratic. If we lose, then the elections are fixed. There is one more factor which comes into play: the opposition movement does not have a program or any fixed ideas. Nor does it have a concrete list of demands, which means that the other side do not know how to act in order to reach a compromise. There is only one thing clear about the opposition: they hate Putin. They have tried to adopt a jokey, humorous style of opposition. I do not know if it has convinced anyone. Their jokes are told through gritted teeth. They call Putin a criminal and threaten him with prison should liberty prevail. The slogans they brandish on placards are vulgar and pornographic. When one sees them they do not inspire the hope of a better Russia. Instead they instill a fear of revolution, of an 'unthinking and cruel' Russian revolt, to borrow a phrase from Pushkin.<br />
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What I write here will not convince anybody who does not take into account the fundamental instability of Russian society. America's stability is the result of the complete respect of property rights, which guarantee freedom and all the other rights which come with it. In less than a century, Russia has undergone 2 property revolutions. The first was almost, or completely, insane: the nationalisation of everything. Even selling sunflower seeds from a private stall was forbidden. 3 generations were brought up to believe that private property was a violation of Communism's holiest principles. Then suddenly, as if in a dream, everything became private: a band of dubious individuals got thier hands on mines, steelworks, oil deposits, TV companies and radio stations. None of these events were explained to the people. None of them were ever justified. Because of this, property is not seen as a fundamental guarantee of freedom and rights.<br />
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In Tsarist Russia, private property did not appear until late on and was completely destroyed before reaching maturity. It could only have become seen as a fundamental right if it had been justfied by strict adherence to the law, or at least had been seen to be beneficial for society. Instead, private property returned as though by accident. The social order in Russia is uncertain. The imitation of Western democracy has not solved any problems and has sometimes been a recipe for chaos.<br />
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Who are these 'democrats' and 'liberals' in Moscow? At the moment we can only judge them by what they say. What do they say? Above all, they want to criminalise their political opponents. They openly admit that if they get into power, Putin will go to prison. For what exactly? For <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings">blowing up Moscow apartment blocks,</a> for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis">gassing people in the Dubrovka theatre</a>, for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis">killing children in Beslan</a> and any other crimes which liberal opinion attributes to him. Putin will also face charges of corruption and embezzlement involving billions of roubles. From what I read from time to time in 'Gazeta Wyborcza' <i>(Polish daily newpaper-CK)</i> I get the impression that the hatred Moscow's intelligentsia feel for Putin has driven them to a form of madness. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilia_Shevtsova">Lilia Shevtsova,</a> who often appears in the Polish media, has said that those who cooperate with Putin are '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprichnik">oprichnik</a>-dogs' and that Putin himself is the chief 'oprichnik-dog'. If they tell us that the demonstrations in Moscow are 'merry' it is worth remembering some of the kind of thinking which lies behind the 'merry' exterior.<br />
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I am unable to either defend or criticise Putin for the simple reason that I lack the basic informaion necessary to make an informed opinion about his policies. I am in the same boat as most Polish journalists and 'experts' in Eastern affairs in that respect but with one key difference: their ignorance does not stop them from holding strong and unshakeable convictions.<br />
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<i>Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.10 (636) 11/03/12 </i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-75768617356885904042012-03-05T22:38:00.001+01:002012-03-08T23:34:24.635+01:00ECONOMICS: The Book of Genesis, 'The Matrix' and Magical Glasses of Beer-- an Interview with Czech Economist Tomáš Sedláček (Highly Recommended)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RrZRqQxvz-I/T1UqEu9bT-I/AAAAAAAAAPs/1qkS8H3W_FU/s1600/tomas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RrZRqQxvz-I/T1UqEu9bT-I/AAAAAAAAAPs/1qkS8H3W_FU/s320/tomas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<b>Q:</b> <i>What is wrong with the economy? </i><br />
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<b>A: </b>It has become a tool without a soul. In other words, the question isn't whether or not the economy works but whether or not it works as we would expect it to. That is a difficult question to answer because first we must decide how the economy should work.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>How would we like it to work?</i><br />
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A: First and foremost it should be fair. The problem is that we need to start making value judgements. As I try to show in my book, Economics was always based upon values but we have tried to escape from this in modern time. The title of the book-- <a href="http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryOther/EconomicHistory/?view=usa&ci=9780199767205">'Economics of Good and Evil'</a>-- is provocative because, supposedly, Economics should not concern itself with good and evil. The first rule of 'Fight Club' is not to talk about 'Fight Club'. The first rule of Economics is not to talk about good and evil, but in real life we do talk about them.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>I liked the example in the book of the journalist who asks an economist about inflation: 'How high is it?' '4.2%' 'Is that good or bad? What should it be?'</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Or the example of Milton Friedman. He wrote that Economics <i>should</i> be a pure science. The word 'should' shows that in reality it is no such thing. We have to admit that Economics is influenced by values. Every day in the media we can read that gold is over-valued or under-valued, which shows that we have some opinion about how much gold <i>should </i>cost. This is exactly what the Occupy Wall St. movement are saying: we have created a tool which was meant to serve us but has ended up enslaving us. In the film 'The Matrix' the machines which are designed to serve us enslave us. In 'The Lord of the Rings' it is the ring which possesses Gollum and not vice-versa. Economics needs to rediscover its soul. A body without a soul is a zombie. Does it work? Yes, but not in the way it should. Economics once had a soul, which I am trying to rediscover.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>When did Economics lose its soul? </i><br />
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<b>A: </b>At the beginning of the 20th century, when the world was fascinated by Physics-- a science concerned with inaminate objects. Such was the extent of this fascination that people started to apply the same methods to the field of Economics. Why shouldn't we apply methods from Biology, Philosophy or Psychology? There is an old Czech joke about a policeman who is looking at the ground under a streetlight. A passer-by asks him what he is looking for. The policeman tells him he has lost his keys. "But you've been looking in the same place for 2 hours!" says the passer-by. "Yes, but this is the only place where I can see!" replies the policeman. That's the problem with Economics: we think that we can only come to the truth by following mathematical models.Many believe that mathematical Economics is the foundation for everything and that things like Philosophy are only the tip of the iceberg. I am trying to show that the complete opposite is true.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>Can you do Economics without numbers? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> In our lives there are many values. Some can be measured with numbers, some cannot. Water, clothes, cells-- these can be counted. Love, friendship, beauty, fresh air-- these cannot be counted. If we apply the same model to everything we do not get the full picture. It is no wonder that Economics is hobbled. We seek absolute truth in numbers. In 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' humanity wants to know the meaning of life, the universe and everything. An amazing machine is built to answer this ultimate question and it produces the answer '42'. The author, Douglas Adams, was laughing at the fact that we always want numbers. But '42' does not make sense without context, just as 4.2% inflation does not make sense without context. We therefore have 2 types of truth, one which I call scientific truth and the other poetic truth. If we say that a woman is 'like a flower' it is complete nonsense from the mathematical point of view yet we all instantly understand that it means that she is delicate and beautiful. But we have inherited from the Pythagoreans that numbers are the realest part of reality.<br />
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When I ask my students for an example of a true sentence they always say something like '1+1=2'. It is interesting that we always want the truth to be objective. None of my students have ever said "I love my girlfriend." When we close our eyes and think about the truth we think about some formula which is detached from our own existence. Economics should be much 'softer', it should be aware that it operates in a context, not in a vaccum.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>But perhaps we are trying to get away from numbers. Take the concept of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital">'Social Capital' </a>for example. </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> The fact that we give something the name 'capital' does not mean that we understand it. When asked why a mother breastfeeds her baby, an economist will answer that she gains some<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility"> utility</a> from doing so. Using the word 'utility' does not mean, however, that he really understands. In the Bible, at the very begining, we are presented with the idea that what is hard tends to destroy what is soft. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain#Etymology">Abel is the wind, fog, something light. Cain means 'blacksmith'</a>, just like Agent Smith in 'The Matrix' trying to destroy Neo.He always attacks Neo, never the other way round. We have the same problem in Economics: 'hard' tends to displace 'soft'. One solution is to build protective walls around the 'soft'. A perfect example is Central Park in New York City. In the middle of Manhattan, where every centimetre is exploited with maximum efficiency, there is something which is seemingly useless. Yet we protect it. We say to the invisible hand of the market: your reach does not extend here.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>What is the effect of 'hard' displacing 'soft'? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Once upon a time there were no prices. There are whole areas of our lives in which we function just fine without prices, eg: family life. We perform exchanges, but we do not use prices. Make your wife breakfast and she will make you pancakes in the afternoon. There are no written rules to it but it works. On the other hand, in Greece or Lehman Brothers we had very precise rules, interest rates calculated down to hundreths of a per cent only to find out a few years later that none of it worked. In theory, if I am a banker and I have all these perfect models then I do not need to worry because the models will predict any crashes and I can avoid them. These models, however, are like car airbags which always work except when there is an accident.<br />
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Now we know that we lent to Greece at an interest rate which was too low. Had it been higher, we wouldn't have lent so much. The models failed in their calculations. These models are supposed to minimise uncertainty but they end up giving us an excessive sense of certainty which is not good. Imagine you are in a large hall and the lights suddenly go out. Someone shouts "I know where the doors are, follow me!" Everyone would do so and would run into the walls. That is the drawback of being certain in a fundamentally uncertain situation. If we were not sure how to act, everyone would get on their hands and knees and would feel their way towards the exits. It would be slow,but it would work because we would be recognising that the uncertainty exists.<br />
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Another example: imagine we are driving a car in which the gas and brake pedals randomly switch functions. Such a car should be driven very, very slowly and carefully because we do not understand how it works. At the moment we are driving this car vey fast.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>In your book we do not find many recommendations for rediscovering the soul of Economics.</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Because it is not a book of answers. I am trying to show where we might find ourselves in the future. Above all, I want to show that we do not understand interest rates. I also write about the earliest known economic cycle in human history, something we are all familiar with but which is not usually looked at from an economic point of view. In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miketz#Pharaoh.E2.80.99s_dream">Book of Genesis the Pharaoh dreams of 7 years of feast and 7 years of famine.</a> 7 years of GDP growth, 7 years of falling GDP. The moral of the story: do not eat everything you grow, save some for a rainy day. This advice is 3,000 years old and can be understood by a 7 year-old yet it is still wiser than all our econometric models. It is one of the key elements which is missing from our economy. <br />
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We think that we are in the middle of a depression.Wrong. We are in the middle of a manic depression. We over-estimate the good years, when we spend everything we earn, and we are therefore over-sensitive to the bad years. Patients with manic depression are treated differently from those with depression. First we need to deal with the mania. The mania makes you think you are God, you spend more than you can afford. Manic depressives are given stabilising drugs which bring thier mood down on good days and raise it on bad days. We need to reduce the amplitude of the economic cycle, to make the boom less of a boom and the bust less of a bust. This should be the role of Economics, rather than striving for the impossible goal of permanent GDP growth. GDP may even need to be lowered for the sake of stability.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> In your book growth is compared to a new, secular religion.</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Even our reaction to the crisis has been quasi-religious: why have the gods of growth forsaken us? How can we regain their favour? What type of cuts do we have to make for them to forgive us? The real question is this-- is growth a result of market capitalism or is it a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_qua_non"><i>sine qua non</i></a> condition for market capitalism? I believe that democracy and capitalism can manage just fine without growth but it seems that most people think differently, politicians included. There is this idea that if there is no growth then we cease to be human beings-- we will go to war, we will start stealing. I do not think Europeans have to be like this. Otherwise we will die from debt.<br />
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<b>Q: </b><i>But growth does not just buy us new toys. It is necessary for things which are fundamental to quality of life. Healthcare, for example.</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> I have nothing against growth but what do we do when it does not exist? Imagine there are 2 beers on the table but there are 3 people. We need to have a philosophical, ethical and economic debate about who gets to drink. The richest person? The thirstiest person? Should ladies go first? Should whoever was first in the pub go first? Should we divide the beer? If so, how? Should we give priority to people who have never tasted beer before or should alcoholics have priority? It is a very complicated philosophical problem and until now our solution has been to make a third beer magically appear. This third beer is growth. For a long time we have been buying this third beer and keeping everyone happy. Now, this third beer has failed to appear.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> Doesn't that metaphor show that we are incapable of solving our own problems?</i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Yes. Only recently have we begun to pay attention to the problem of wealth distribution. Only now is the Occupy movement raising this question. Why didn't they do so earlier? They are not out to bring down capitalsim, they only want to highlight its injustices. Had the government not bailed out Wall Street, we would be seeing bankers out on the streets.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> It will not be difficult to change the perception of Economics as a science, perceptions are constantly changing. But how do we persuade politicians? </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> It is a philosophical question and philosophers should play a key role, if not <i>the </i>key role in the debate. It is time to end this schizofrenia in which we always spend significantly more than we earn. It is OK to do so for a few years but not indefinitely. That is where we find ourselves today. We can either raise taxes, which nobody wants to do, or we can cut spending-- which is again something which nobody wants to do. Politicians should not have as much free rein over public debt as they do now. The ability to print money was wisely taken from them so time ago. If they could simply print more money then we wouldn't have debt but we would have hyperinflation. We took away their right to do so and now they cannot do it . As far as public debt is concerned, however, politicians can still do as they please, as they did in Greece. That is why we need to take these powers from them as well.<br />
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<b>Q:</b><i> The US government <a href="http://rt.com/usa/news/fed-trillion-reserve-bailout-401/">printed 8 trillion dollars </a>and they do not have hyperinflation. </i><br />
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<b>A:</b> Yes, because they are in a recession. The problem with inflation is that you never know when it will hit and once it rears its head it is very hard to control. It is the same with deficits: we think that we have them under control, debt is seen as useful-- it buys you a car which you do not have, a home which is not yours etc.. We take on debt to help ourselves and we believe that we can control it but in reality we become its slave. This is what has happened to Greece and Hungary. They are slaves and cannot do as they would wish.<br />
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<b>Q:</b> <i>I know I shouldn't ask for predictions from someone who does not believe in predicting the future but... can Economics transform itself?</i><br />
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<b>A: </b> The best thing we can do is to break our own rules. Some systems work better if you ignore the rules and regulations. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule">Work-to-rule</a> is a good example: if everything is done exactly by the book the system breaks down. In human history more harm has probably been done by sticking to rules than by breaking them. How many times do parents say "if you carry on misbehaving there will be no presents"? How often do parents keep that promise? Whether in Greece, Hungary, Ireland or the US, we broke our own rules because it was the only possible thing to do. If we had grimly stuck to the rules like Calvinists then the world would be lying in ruins. Economics as a science finds itself in a great place, it is being re-thought and reinvented. Only now is there the poltical and social need for new thinking, which was not there a few years ago.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1%C5%A1_Sedl%C3%A1%C4%8Dek_%28economist%29">Tomáš Sedláček</a> – author of the book 'Economics of Good and Evil: A Search for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street'. At the age of 24 he was appointed Economics advisor to Czech president Vaclav Havel. In his book he argues that Economics should not limit itslef solely to Mathematics but instead should seek to incorporate thinking from other fields, above all from Humanistic disciplines-- because the economy is a human creation, existing in a human reality which cannot be fully fathomed by numbers alone. The English edition of the book is published by Oxford University Press. 'Yale Economic Review' has hailed Sedláček as one of the 5 most promising young economists in the world.<br />
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<i>Interviewer: Kuba Kapiszewski Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine.</i><br />
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<i>The original Polish interview can be read <a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/dwa-piwa-na-trzech">here.</a> </i>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-45745858823754660892012-02-29T23:45:00.001+01:002012-03-08T23:31:55.705+01:00POLAND: Does VAT Promote A Poor Diet? (B. Tumiłowicz)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k138RRY-nmk/T0ghoExOmkI/AAAAAAAAAPk/fCIoKBXxyrk/s1600/sklep.jpeg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712853099678177858" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k138RRY-nmk/T0ghoExOmkI/AAAAAAAAAPk/fCIoKBXxyrk/s320/sklep.jpeg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 194px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 259px;" /></a><br />
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'Tell me what you pay VAT on and I will tell you which lobbyists have your government's ear.' This rule can be easily applied to Polish VAT-- the taxes added to the price of goods and services which are the main source of income for the national budget. It is especially true when it comes to VAT on foodstuffs and beverages. With food and drink there are 3 VAT bands- 5%, 8% and the full 23%. Why certain products enjoy the lower levels of taxation is a question which has caused considerable comment and suspicion because many of these products are ones which a healthy diet could really do without. VAT is 5% on corn chips and 8% on crisps, instant noodles and ketchups which include a high level of chemical substances and even some cancer-causing agents. At the same time, healthy products which are recommended by dieticians, such as mineral water, are taxed at 23%. Where is the logic?<br />
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One of the first people to notice this absurd state of affairs was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platforma_Obywatelska">PO</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">(Platforma Obywalteska, Poland's ruling party-CK)</span> MP <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Godson">John Godson</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">(Poland's first black MP-CK)</span><br />
who submitted a formal interpellation to both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health. Mr. Godson's knowledge and experience of food products come from his studies-- he is an engineering graduate of Nigeria's Abia State University, specialising in the fields of agriculture and agronomy. He has also worked in the laboratory of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Institute_of_Tropical_Agriculture">International Institiute for Tropical Agriculture</a> in Ibadan, Nigeria.<br />
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The effects of Mr. Godson's interpellation have been so far minimal. The health minister is still working on a reply. The finance minister has promised to take the matter into consideration but Mr. Godson has found out that the Ministry of Finance will not do anything about VAT on foodstuffs.<br />
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"I have no more ways to intervene" he explains, "The only thing I could do was to submit an interpellation, the power to legislate lies with the government. I believe that healthy food should have less VAT than unhealthy products and that the current situation is bizarre."<br />
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Unfortunately, we all know about the popularity of junk food. There have been attempts to remove fattening crisps and snacks from schools and to encourage children and teenagers to eat more apples and carrots-- both to no avail. The main factor making it difficult to change people's diets, apart from the power of advertising, is the price of junk food.<br />
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Jarma Dubiel, president of the 'Wolność i Pokój' <span style="font-style: italic;"> (Freedom and Peace-CK)</span> movement which campaigns for human rights and the environment says, "Anything which is healthy and does not increase the number of patients in hospital should be VAT free. It especially makes sense with reference to children. Short-termism prevails amongst politicians, so they cannot grasp this argument, and business beguiles them into setting favourable levels of VAT. Corruption in the decision-making process cannot be ruled out because the current VAT situation is so illogical. Children who eat crisps which contain cancer-causing agents can become addicted and this increases the chances of them requiring treatment in the future. It's high time we face a few home truths about what we eat."<br />
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Crisp and snack producers defend low VAT by claiming that their modern production facilities required heavy investment which has still not been repaid. Another entrepreneur from the foodstuffs sector, owner of the Konspol Group (poultry products)and vice-chairman of the <a href="http://www.kig.pl/">Polish Chamber of Commerce</a>, Kazimierz Pazgan is in favour of a uniform level of VAT. "We should use the tried and tested methods of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Germany#Value-added_tax">the German tax system</a>" he says, "Of course VAT is vital for the national budget but making decisions on what to produce or not based on the level of VAT for each product is incomprehensible and illogical. In whose interests are these VAT levels manipulated? If I am willing to invest more, the tax return will increase anyway."<br />
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Witold Modzelewski, former vice-minister of finance and chief of the <a href="http://www.isp-modzelewski.pl/">Institiute of Tax Studies</a>, disagrees with the idea of a uniform VAT level, however. "A tax should be in some way evaluated by taking its social impact into consideration. Gambling should be taxed more than sausages but unfortunately it is the other way round. As regards VAT on crisps, they should not be given preferential treatment just as alcohol and tobacco are not given preferential treatment. In the case of crisps, the main consumers are children and they are dependent on their parents' financial possibilities. We can expect, therefore, that society will be sympathetic to a rise in VAT on this type of product despite the expectations of the lobbysits of the large corporations and industry groups. It would be good if this matter were to come up for public debate."<br />
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A debate we have-- one in which some very different ideas clash. Will the government choose the best solution?<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Author: Bronisław Tumiłowicz Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.8 (634) 26/02/12</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The original Polish article can be read <a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/fiskus-zacheca-do-trucia">here. </a></span>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-67568946075781127032012-02-29T23:44:00.001+01:002012-03-08T23:30:01.568+01:00AFRICA: Somaliland Takes On The Pirates (S. Opryszek)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1iwnfUpUb6g/T0azzazrUqI/AAAAAAAAAPY/snEWmv6zACQ/s1600/hargeisa.jpeg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712450873316823714" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1iwnfUpUb6g/T0azzazrUqI/AAAAAAAAAPY/snEWmv6zACQ/s320/hargeisa.jpeg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 194px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 259px;" /></a><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UIbvTqoqnik/T0aztccSZqI/AAAAAAAAAPM/Xs71izIRPPc/s1600/somalia.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712450770676377250" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UIbvTqoqnik/T0aztccSZqI/AAAAAAAAAPM/Xs71izIRPPc/s320/somalia.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 299px;" /></a><br />
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The walls of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hargeisa">Hargeisa's</a> prison loom over the city, giving shade to the peddlars and bored soldiers who sit and chew hallucinogenic <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat">khat</a></span> leaves. Opposite the prison a barber works like crazy while the mechanic next door tries to fix a bike using a rock.<br />
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"Get outta here! F**k you!", shouts one of the soldiers, brandishing his rifle. In his faded uniform and red flip-flops he cuts a rather comical figure. His colleagues do not react so he takes matters into his own hands and attempts to scare me off by himself.<br />
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He is not fooling around. The fight against pirates, who fill the prison, is a very important matter for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland">Somaliland</a>, which lies on the Gulf of Aden-- a piracy blackspot. Since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland has never had such a good chance to make friends with Western governments.<br />
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Somaliland has still not been officially recognised by any country. 2 decades of stable Islamist government have ensured rapid economic growth-- at least by the Horn of Africa's standards.<br />
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In contrast to Somalia, Somaliland is safe and is, theoretically, a democracy although corruption is blatant and widespread. "Somaliland inherited the rule of law from its British colonial rulers. Somalia inherited the mafia from the Italians-- it is swarming with black mafiosos, an African Naples." So jokes one of the hundreds of currency dealers in Hargeisa.<br />
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The currency dealers sit in the streets with bags, and even sacks, of money. To buy 1 dollar you need a large wad of Somaliland shillings- 6,000 in all. Despite the droughts and famines which have ravaged the Horn of Afria recently, one can still eat several solid dinners with their 1 dollar / 6,000 shillings.<br />
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My 'guide' expects to be paid 600,000 shillings in return for gaining me access to the new 'pirate prison' in Hargeisa- through unoffical channels, of course. "You will have to pay another 600,000 to the prisoners if you want to talk to them." He does not hide the fact that if I do not pay, he will betray me to the authorities.<br />
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Piracy is still a hot topic on the Somali coast. They are no longer small-scale, independent bandits but instead work for 'clients' who equip them with kalashnikovs and better boats, but who also treat them as cannon-fodder. "We risk our lives but we only end up with a quarter of the ransom money" said a former pirate in an interview with the local press. His 'clients' came from Jemen and Kenya.<br />
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On the Somali coast piracy is still good business. Young boys dream of following in the footsteps of famous local pirates who live in relative luxury. Often, relatives of pirates who have been killed or arrested decide to take to the seas. The concept of revenge still plays a large role in the Somali clan society.<br />
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A decade ago, 335 attacks on shipping were reported around the world. Last year there were 895 and more than half took place in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast.<br />
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The tally is still rising: In the first half of January the Somali coast alone saw 8 pirate attacks. The pirates are not only better armed, they are also becoming more and more brutal. They are playing for significant stakes-- 12 billion dollars according to American estimates.<br />
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The government of Somaliland sees the fight against piracy as a golden opportunity. "This could be a step on the road to recognition of our country from the UN and the USA. It is high time that the world took notice of our development and efforts to achieve full sovereignty," says <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Mahamoud_Silanyo">Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo</a>, who occupies the posts of both president and head of government.<br />
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One of his ministers, who refused an official interview, admits that as long as piracy remains a problem, Somaliland has a chance of gaining international recognition. "When the pirates have been defeated everyone will forget about us. Who is going to care about the problems of a desert country in the Horn of Africa?"<br />
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The desire for recognition is the main factor behind Somaliland's war on the pirates. In 2 years over 300 pirates have been imprisoned by the Somaliland authorities. In the long-term, however, Somaliland is not equipped to win the war. There are no laws in place which can punish pirates for attacking ships at sea.<br />
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"In Holland, Somali pirates have been sent to prison for 7 years. In the USA they have been given life sentences and in Jemen they have even been sentenced to death. We can put them in prison for 8, 10 or 20 years for illegally entering our territorial waters, for possessing a firearm or for armed robbery. We can not put them on trial for piracy." says a high-ranking offical from Somaliland's Justice Ministry.<br />
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Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, is a compact city in the central part of the country. The sandy streets are host to a handful of government buildings, a large hotel and numerous street markets and mounds of rotting rubbish. Hargeisa throbs with life and the traffic jams start at the crack of dawn, the din of car horns falling silent only when the imans' calls to prayer issue from the Mosques.<br />
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Here and there someone rides past on a camel. Life flows to the rhythm of the hallucinogenic <span style="font-style: italic;">khat</span> leaves. Drivers chew them behind the wheel, the police chew them and so do the guards at <a href="http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2011/March/unodc-open-somalilands-first-prison-in-50-years-to-further-tackle-piracy-scourge.html">Hargeisa's new prison, opened last April thanks to 1.5 million dollars from the UN and EU.</a> 87 of the most dangerous Somali pirates are incarcerated inside.<br />
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Last September Somaliland set up a dedicated anti-piracy task force. Funds have been ring-fenced for the Coast Guard in order to purchase more boats, guns and GPS systems. It is still not enough. About 600 guards have to patrol over 850 km of coastline. Mission impossible 24 / 7.<br />
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Admiral Ahmed Osman, head of the Coast Guard, recieves visitors in a small dark office in the centre of Hargeisa. "99% of the pirates are from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puntland">Puntland.</a> They are young men who are looking for one big payday to set them up for life. Most of the pirates we catch are just beginners. The ones who give the orders stay well away from trouble but they are the ones causing the trouble," he says.<br />
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Some of the Admiral's men have been trained by US Marines in Texas and Virginia but there is little they can do when the older boats break down, or when jeep patrols have to be cancelled due to petrol shortgaes at the end of each month. Still, they are faster and better-equipped than the pirates.<br />
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"If one looks at all the pirates attacks last year, one will see that not a single attack took place in Somaliland's waters-- that is down to our success. We have a great intelligence network, people inform us whenever the pirates come ashore to buy supplies. Often, when they cannot flee, they throw their weapons overboard and tell us that they are fishermen. That is when I ask them 'What are you fishing with? Your bare hands!'" The Admiral's laugh reverberates off the walls, which are covered in diplomas and maritime maps.<br />
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Somewhere on the asphalt road between Hargeisa and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbera">Berbera</a> there stands the wreck of a tank, a relic of the days of the dictator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siad_Barre">Siad Barre.</a> Under a blazing sun a tired-looking woman hangs up laundry from the gun barrel. This sad picture does not mean war is a thing of the past. A border dispute with neighbouring Puntland (another Somali region which has de facto independence) is still ongoing.<br />
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Undefined borders, which prevent Somaliland being recognised by the African Union, are just one of the country's problems. Another problem is the fact that several key politicians have been accused of channelling funds to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabbab">Al-Shabaab</a>, the Somali terrorist organisation which wields power in Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab is currently under attack from Kenya, which has the support of the Obama administration.<br />
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Somaliland's window to the world has always been Berbera, the prinicpal seaport of the region. For years the city was awash with pirates who came to town to spend their loot-- mostly on cars, electronics and camels. Today, according to the admiral, the pirates only come into port when the Coast Guard tow them in. "Once 2 desperate pirates stole a camel and escaped inland. Idiots! They are only fast at sea" says Mohamad, a fisherman from Berbera. He has not become a pirate himself. Yet. "Who knows? If I start to run out of money, maybe I will risk it. But don't write that!" he laughs.<br />
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For every pirate from Somaliland there are 99 from Puntland, another self-declared republic albeit one which is far less successful in terms of stability, democracy and prosperity. In Berbera one can hear stories of a Coast Guard officer who, frustrated by meagre pay (32 dollars a month), become a pirate himself. His former colleagues now keep him under lock and key in the capital. In an linguistic irony, <span style="font-style: italic;">badaadinta badah</span>-- 'pirate' in the local language-- literally means 'guard of the coast.'<br />
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It is in Berbera, a small city blasted by 40 degree heat, that one finds the second 'pirate prison'. Built in 1884 by the Ottomans, it does not give an impression of impregnability and sports craked walls and terrible sanitary conditions.<br />
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Admiral Ahmed Osman says, "We should catch the pirates and the world should help us incarcerate them. We can catch a hundred but a thousand will take their place. Only a strong and efficient justice system can deter them from piracy."<br />
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On of the Hargeisa prison gaurds, his teeth green from<span style="font-style: italic;"> khat</span>, is prepared to talk about life for the pirates behind bars in exchange for a few dollars. "If someone once lived as free as a fish in the sea then it must be difficult to be cooped up. Some of them never see their families, there is no real procedure for visiting." The he tells me the story of a certain Ahmed who spoke to a foreign journalist during the prison's opening ceremony. "He told the journalist with a smile that he planned to go back to piracy as soon as he got out. Now he'll have to wait for a second life" laughs the guard.<br />
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A few months previously 2 pirates escaped from the prison in Berbera-- Farah Ismail Idle and Abdirashid Ismail Haji who are both known on the coast for their audacity. The prison guards had been bribed with over 100,000 dollars in cash. Government radio and TV did not dwell too much on the story. After this incident, only a miracle can gain one access to the prisons via offical channels. One needs permission from several Ministries-- Information, Foreign, Justice and Interior.. In total, 7 permits, dozens of offices, hundreds of wasted hours, one passport confiscated by a civil servant fishing for a bribe and in the end.... Nothing.<br />
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No Minister wants to talk any more about fighting piracy and full independence. The nervous chewing of <span style="font-style: italic;">khat<span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>, the wind above the desert..."The sand always brings change" smiles the prison guard. The hardest fight, not only against piracy, still awaits Somaliland. For now, all there is to do is chew <span style="font-style: italic;">khat<span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span> and wait.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Author: Szymon Opryszek Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.7 (633) 19/02/12 </span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The original Polish article can be read <a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/piraci-moneta-przetargowa">here. </a></span>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-30734010703028013782012-02-29T23:43:00.001+01:002012-03-08T23:27:41.229+01:00INTERNATIONAL: The World v. Big Tobacco (W. Raczkowski)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CrxJvzfSLeg/Tz5yCBKBjqI/AAAAAAAAAMM/D3PqunELigs/s1600/smoke.jpeg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710126756548152994" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CrxJvzfSLeg/Tz5yCBKBjqI/AAAAAAAAAMM/D3PqunELigs/s400/smoke.jpeg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 180px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 280px;" /></a><br />
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The Uruguayan government, concerned with the health of its citizens, has declared war on cigarettes. It has forced tobacco giant Phillip Morris, owner of the Marlboro Brand, into relocating one its factories across the border to Argentina. This is not an isolated incident-- more and more countries have launched similar anti-tobacco campaigns.<br />
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Uruguay's war aginst tobacco started in 2005 when the oncologist Tabare Vazquez became president. After a year in office he had successfully banned smoking in all enclosed public places-- in restaurants, pubs and government offices. Currently, smoking is only allowed at home or in open spaces. Violating the ban can lead to a fine of up to 1,100 dollars or 3 days in prison. The president justified the new law by pointing to research which states that in Uruguay smoking kills 7 people every day, or 5,000 a year, through lung cancer and emphysema. It is estimated that one third of Uruguay's 3.4 million inhabitants are active smokers. Vazquez has launched an anti-smoking campaign named <a href="http://www.msp.gub.uy/uc_346_1.html">'a million thank-yous'</a>, after the approximate number of smokers in the country. Cigarrete producers have been forced to place health warnings over 80% of thier packaging and have been forbidden from labelling cigarretes as 'light'. The new rules have particulary affected Phillip Morris, whose annual income from tobacco sales of 67.7 billion dollars (2010) is bigger than Uruguay's GDP (50 billion). The government's tough anti-smoking stance is thought to have been behind <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/22/philipmorris-uruguay-idUSN1E79K1YZ20111022">Phillip Morris' decision to close its factory in Montevideo.</a> Angry workers were paid off with a sum equalling 36 salaries each. Angered by the policies of the Uruguayan goverment, the tobacco giant has taken its case to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Centre_for_Settlement_of_Investment_Disputes">International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes</a> (overseen by the World Bank) and is claiming 2 billion dollars in damages.<br />
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Another country which is waging war against tobacco is Austrailia, where federal law prohibits smoking in government buildings, airports and public transport. Other restrictions have been implemented by state authorities. In every state smoking has been banned in enclosed public spaces, especially restaurants and workplaces. The anti-smoking campaign was launched by the previous PM Kevin Rudd who said, "Cigarettes are not cool. They kill. We want to implement the strictest anti-smoking regime in the world."<br />
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His policies have been continued under the new left of centre govermnet of his successor Julia Gillard. In December of this year new rules will come into place affecting how cigarettes are packaged. All packs will be of a brownish-green colour which, according, to the experts, is the least attractive colour possible. Most of the packaging will be taken up by graphic images illustrating the health effects of smoking. The names of the brand and producers will be located at the very bottom of the pack and will be vey small. There will be no logos or any other identificable symbols allowed. This last rule is the one which has really got the tobacco firms up in arms and is the basis for their lawsuit against the Austrailian government. Phillip Morris, which has 37% market share in Austrailia thanks to the Marlboro and Alpine brands, claims that the new laws deprive it of its 'valuable brand and intellectual property', without offering anything in the way of compensation.<br />
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The situation in Austrailia is being closely monitored by other countries which are considering taking similar anti-smoking measures. Among them is Canada, where smoking in enclosed public spaces is already forbidden. In some provinces it is even illegal to smoke in a private vehicle if one is travelling with a child of under 14 years of age. Wide-ranging restrictions are also in the pipeline in the UK and New Zealand. In Norway, the state pension fund announced in October 2011 that it would sell all of its shares in companies which profit from tobacco. Phillip Morris was again badly affected. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/04/iceland-considers-prescription-only-cigarettes">Iceland's goverment has plans to make cigarettes available on a prescription-only basis.</a> Some experts believe that the next few years could be disastrous for tobacoo companies. "The industry is stagnant because every year there are less smokers, especially in developed countries where smoking will have disappeared altogether by 2050." says Adam Spielman, an analyst from Citigroup.<br />
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Tobacco firms are pinning thier hopes on the SE Asian and African markets, where there are virtually no smoking restrictions in place. These 2 regions are where the tobacco companies' profits are growing the fastest. In SE Asia 40-70% of men smoke, so the real growth potential lies with women. In Indonesia and the Phillipines, some brands of cigarettes are sold in packaging which is designed to look like a lipstick tube. Female smoking is also on the rise in Vietnam and Malaysia.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Author: Wiktor Raczkowksi Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.7 (633) 19/02/12</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The original Polish article can be read<a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/tyton-niemile-widziany"> here</a>. </span>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-26321481468811217222012-02-29T23:42:00.002+01:002012-03-08T23:25:39.826+01:00AMERICAS: Deadlier Than Afghanistan-- Mexico's Narco Wars (K. Kęciek)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e5TaSvNAHD8/TzoyPf0hkbI/AAAAAAAAALc/HpC620KEBa0/s1600/F-1-DESCUARTIZADO-ACAPULCO-IRZA-1.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708930719466754482" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e5TaSvNAHD8/TzoyPf0hkbI/AAAAAAAAALc/HpC620KEBa0/s400/F-1-DESCUARTIZADO-ACAPULCO-IRZA-1.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 316px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 375px;" /></a><br />
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Mexico's northern borderlands are a war zone. More people die here than in Afghanistan. Drugs cartels wage war for market share and for control of the smuggling routes north. The gangsters kill police officers, politicians and journalists. They corrupt and intimidate the authorities. They have gained control over entire cities. The chaos is added to by a host of paramilitary organisations and countless guns for hire. The price of a life is around 1000 pesos-- 85 dollars.<br />
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According to official sources the state of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihuahua_%28state%29">Chihuahua</a>, across the border from Texas and New Mexico, saw 2,276 drugs-related killings in the first 9 months of 2011. In the same period, according to the US Congress, 2,177 Afghan civilians died as a result of military action. The state of Chihuahua has a murder rate of 67 per 100,000 inhabitants. In Afghanistan it is 'only' 7 per 100,000. In the period from December 2006, when Mexican president Felipe Calderon sent the federal police and army to combat the cartels, to October 2011, Mexico's de facto civil war killed 47,515 victims. In mid-January 2012, the death toll passed 50,000.<br />
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In Afghanistan, the period from 2007 to October 2011 saw 16,774 violent deaths with over 11,000 accounted for by civilians. That is a considerably smaller death toll than that of Mexico's drug wars.<br />
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Mexican newspaper 'Reforma' reported in January that in 2011 there were 12,539 drug-related murders, a 6.3% increase on the previous year. (In 2007 the figure was 2,275). 1,079 bodies showed visible signs of torture and almost 600 had been beheaded (compared to 389 in 2010.) 900 women were among the dead. The newspaper did not give any details on how many children and teenagers were killed but some sources indicate that the numbers is at least 1,300. At least 27 journalists were killed.<br />
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The media are afraid to report on the drugs war. Only a few fearless bloggers dare to document the crimes of the cartels and even some of them have paid with their lives.<br />
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Mexico's crime capital is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez">Ciudad Juarez</a> (pop. 1.3 million) in the state of Chihuahua. It is located near the US-Mexico border. The skyscrapers of El Paso, Texas are clearly visible. Ciudad Juarez is considered to be one of the most dangerous places on the planet. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinaloa_Cartel">Sinaloa</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju%C3%A1rez_Cartel">Juarez</a> cartels fight over millions of narco-dollars and have both been challenged by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Zetas_Cartel">Zetas</a> gang-- formed by renegade soldiers from Mexico's special forces. The Sinaloa cartel is headed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Guzm%C3%A1n_Loera">Joaquin Guzman Loera</a>, aka <span style="font-style: italic;">El Chapo </span>(Shorty) due to his height of 155 cm. After the death of Osama Bin Laden, Guzman became the FBI's most-wanted fugitive. 'Forbes' magazine has estimated his fortune to be around 1 billion dollars. In Mexico different legends have been told about <span style="font-style: italic;">El Chapo</span>-- he never parts from a loaded AK-47, even when sleeping, and he changes his mobile phone every morning. Guzman dispatched his men to secure key neighbourhoods in Ciudad Juarez and to dig tunnels under the border into Texas. The US authorities have so far discovered over 70 such tunnels. The Juarez cartel have put up a fight. Last year there were 2,000 drugs-related murders in Ciudad Juarez.<br />
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One of the foot soldiers in the war was 17 year old Jose Antonio, aka <span style="font-style: italic;">Frijol</span> (Bean). His parents worked in a factory for 6 dollars a day while their son sat at home alone, watching TV and dreaming of an easier life. Aged 12, he joined the local street gang, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Calaberas </span>(Skulls). The gang counted some 100 members. As a 14 year old Frijol was already taking part in murders and shoot-outs. "Some people came to us from the big fish and checked who was best at handling a gun. Once they had chosen us, they offered us a job. At first it was small errands-- acting as lookouts and looking after the small drug outlets-- but then they gave us important jobs. Killing."<br />
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The <span style="font-style: italic;">Narcos</span> promised the boys that they would get away with murder-- under Mexican law a minor cannot serve more than 5 years in prison, even for murder. They also paid well-- 1,000 pesos for every murder. Frijol became a paid murderer for the Sinaloa cartel and does not feel any remorse. "When I hear the whistle of bullets I get an adrenalin rush but when I see a dead body I don't feel anything. Some days there might be 30 killings, the next day 10. It's all normal for us." The teenage foot soldiers do not live for long, though. When the Juarez cartel found out that the Sinaloa gang were recruiting in the neighbourhood they passed a death sentence on the whole <span style="font-style: italic;">barrio</span>. Most of Frijol's associates have fallen to bullets or machetes. Only a few have escaped.<br />
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Jose Antonio survived because he was arrested. The police caught him with a full arsenal: 2 assault rifles and 2 Uzis. When he leaves prison he will be 19 and will almost certainly go straight back to the cartel. He knows no other life.<br />
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Sometimes the wave of violence overflows into the US. Last October some armed <span style="font-style: italic;">Narcos</span> went across the border to recover a lorry load of marijuana. Hugo Rodriguez, a policeman from Hidalgo County, tried to stop them and was shot. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest and survived. After this incident Republicans accused the Obama administration of allowing the border zone to degenerate into a war zone. The Republican Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has said that if he ever gets into the White House he will send elements of the US army into Mexico to protect the border from criminals. The National Guard already patrol the border and the US have sent unmanned drones across the border in pursuit of drug smugglers.<br />
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There are 7 main cartels in Mexico today but there is also a steady stream of ‘micro-cartels’ and armed gangs constantly fighting to make a profit from the anarchy. When security forces killed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazario_Moreno_Gonz%C3%A1lez">Nazario Moreno</a>, head of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Familia_Michoacana">La Familia</a> cartel, a splinter group of particulary brutal killers appeared under the name of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar_Cartel"> Los Caballeros Templarios </a>(Knights Templars). They model themselves on knightly orders of the Middle Ages and claim to be protecting the nation aginst tyranny. In reality they murder, rob and deal drugs. After a raid on one of their camps, police found knights’ helmets and white capes as well as the usual haul of guns, explosives and ammunition.<br />
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Ciudad Juarez is currently being terrorised by the reorganised New Juarez cartel. They have hung up large banners warning that everyday they will kill one city police officer. In January unknown attackers killed 7 police officers and agents, including 2 high-ranking officials and a woman. It is likely that the killings are part of a campaign to force the resignation of the hated Chief of Police Julian Leyzaola.<br />
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It seems that in Chihuahua it is a war of everyone against everyone. Paramilitary organizations are also responsible for many murders. One of them are the Mata-Zetas (Zeta-Killers) who target members of the notorious Zetas cartel. In a video message the masked leader of the Mata-Zetas said, “We do not steal, we do not extort. We are the armed wing of the nation.” It is not known if the Mata-Zetas enjoy the unofficial support of the Mexican government. It is estimated that there are some 167 paramilitary groups operating in Mexico. Some are secretly hired by the state and local authorities who, with good reason, do not trust the official police. Some are thought to have the support of the Federal government. Their goal is not to eliminate the cartels—they are not strong enough—but rather to help ensure that one cartel enjoys local dominance in a given region. If one gang is dominant then the level of violence decreases. Normally, however, the paramilitaries are simply bands of hired guns in the pay of the cartels. Mexican organised crime expert Edgardo Buscaglia sys, “Mexico has become a bazaar for illegal special forces and a magnet for Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese mercenaries. There could be nothing easier than hiring 20 professionals to do a bit of dirty work.”<br />
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The USA accuses Mexico of not doing enough to control the violent chaos. Mexican politicians point out that the USA is largely responsible for the situation due to its failure to curb the massive demand for narcotics north of the border. (The cartels earn 30 billion dollars a year from USA drug users.) As well as this, the US authorities have failed to stem the huge flow of guns southwards, bought with narco-dollars. Between 2004 and 2008 Mexican authorities confiscated over 20,000 firearms which originated in the USA, 90% of the total number of confiscated weapons. 70% of guns purchased in Texas, Arizona and California end up south of the border. The strong pro-gun lobby ensures that the situation remains unchanged.<br />
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Commentators agree that president Calderon’s policy has failed and has only led to an increase in violence. The army and the federal police will never destroy the cartels. A certain amount of liberalisation in drug laws, enabling people to earn money legally from narcotics, is surely only a matter of time. For now, however, the blood will continue to flow. In July Mexico has parliamentary elections and Calderon’s party will want to have some successes in the fight against the cartels to show to the electorate come polling day.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Author: Krzysztof Kęciek Taken from ‘Przegłąd’ magazine nr.6 (632) 12/02/12 </span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The original Polish article can be read<a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/narcos-nie-znaja-laski"> here.</a> </span><br />
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From the archives: <a href="http://czarnykotblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/mexican-gothic.html">Mexican Gothic</a>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-3484962222801272512012-02-29T23:42:00.000+01:002012-02-29T23:42:05.235+01:00OPINION: Jan Widacki-- The Poets Have Gone, The Philistines Remain<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6A4CU4fMMfs/TzoslKemJGI/AAAAAAAAALQ/3jg_qYjvLR8/s1600/widacki.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708924494624990306" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6A4CU4fMMfs/TzoslKemJGI/AAAAAAAAALQ/3jg_qYjvLR8/s400/widacki.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szymborska">Wisława Szymborska</a> has died. Her last wish was to be buried in a secular ceremony at her family plot in Krakow’s Rakowicki cemetery. The National – Catholic RCight has a problem. Had she asked to be buried in the crypt of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska%C5%82ka">Church on the Rock</a>, like fellow Nobel laureate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Mi%C5%82osz">Czesław Miłosz</a>, there would be a pretext for controversy, protests and to remind everyone that she had once written a poem about Stalin. Hell, who needs a pretext? That poem about Stalin will be dragged up anyway but such a request would have made a scandal much easier to create. Now, there is not much to be angry about. The Nationalist Right know that the greatest living Polish poet is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaros%C5%82aw_Marek_Rymkiewicz">Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz</a>, who has been forgiven for his past membership of the Union of Polish Youth <span style="font-style: italic;">(communist youth movement-CK) </span>because he has become a Kaczyński supporter and has written a poem about the Smolensk disaster. He also has a beautiful name. The name of a true Pole, the truest of Poles..<br />
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For the Right, Miłosz was an anti-Pole because he jeered at Polishness. It could even be said that the was a Lithuanian and, as we all know, the Lithuanians hate Polishness and currently like nothing better than persecuting Lithuania’s Polish minority. Szymborska could be even worse. By asking for a secular burial she has only confirmed the suspicion that she was not a true Pole because everyone knows that to be a Pole, one has to be Catholic. She has excluded herself from Polishness. This is a relief for the Right., they do not have to try and prove it themselves. It is plain for all to see.<br />
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Szymborska’s death was noted worldwide. In the true Polish press it has not yet been noticed, but give them time. They will go to the nearest library, find that poem about Stalin and then start fuming and fulminating.<br />
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I remember Miłosz’s funeral and the protest committee that did not want him to be buried in the Church on the Rock. A competition to see who could outdo all the others in terms of stupidity, boorishness and rabidness! Not even the appeals of John Paul II could convince them to moderate their stance. I also remember a recent debate in parliament in which politicians from PiS protested the decision to name 2011 the year of Miłosz.<br />
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By requesting to be buried in her family plot Szymborska has had the last laugh. How caould anyone object to such a request? People, however, will try and try again to find an appropriate stick with which to beat Szymborska. If they cannot find one they will simply ignore her.<br />
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Szymborska, like Miłosz, raised Poland’s profile abroad and her poetry galvanised our native tongue. To the right, all this means nothing. They have her in their sights. It is a strangely small thing this Polish National-Catholic Right. Not everything can fit into it.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwid">Cyprian Norwid</a> was more critical of Poles than Miłosz ever was. If they ever read him, the Right would strike him from the canon like they have done to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombrowicz">Gombrowicz</a>. Luckily, they are not especially well-read.<br />
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Our foreign minister Radosław Sikorski wants to demolish the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Palace_of_Culture_and_Science">Palace of Culture and Science</a>, as it is a symbol of Russian domination. It is just as well that the does not seem to know the history of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belweder">Belvedere</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Palace,_Warsaw">Namiestnikowski</a> Palaces. Following his logic, both would be knocked down and president Komorowski would be homeless.<br />
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Once upon a time one could bump into Miłosz, Szymborska and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomas_Venclova">Tomas Venclova </a>walking together through Krakow’s Planty <span style="font-style: italic;">(a series of parks encircling Krakow’s Old Town- CK)</span> Venclova, the great Lithuanian poet and great friend of Poland, bought a flat in Krakow just so he could go on such walks with such companions. He even flew over America for no other reason than to walk and talk with his Polish friends.<br />
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Miłosz is no longer. Szymborska has gone. There are no more Nobel laureates in Kraków. Szymborska once wrote ‘The next day—without us.’ That day has come. Without them Krakow is different. Poland is different. They are poorer.<br />
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Only philistines have a good time of it in today’s Poland. They have ignored the warning of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickiewicz">our national bard</a>, ‘cursed are the people who kill their own prophets.’<br />
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However,this same prophet himself said that he came from a ‘foreign mother’, like Miłosz a Lithuanian one. He also wrote <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Tadeusz">‘Lithuania, my fatherland!’</a> What can he teach us, we true Poles!<br />
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Symborska saw it. She wrote about it. ‘We are surrounded by an ever-growing circle of dullness.” Perhaps, thanks to her poetry, that circle of stupidity will become a little bit smaller.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Taken from 'Przegłąd' magazine nr.6 (632) 12/02/12</span>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7053442453630211400.post-62535773904863886262012-02-29T23:40:00.002+01:002012-03-08T23:22:56.928+01:00EUROPE: Bulgaria Says No To Shale Gas (M. Karolkiewicz)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DdV-Awdhv-k/Tyu37T_SjuI/AAAAAAAAAK4/X36N5NrxYps/s1600/Shale.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704855582600761058" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DdV-Awdhv-k/Tyu37T_SjuI/AAAAAAAAAK4/X36N5NrxYps/s400/Shale.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 193px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Bulgaria has unexpectedly pulled out of an agreement to allow the exploration and extraction of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas">shale gas</a> in its territory. On 19th January the parliament in Sofia passed a bill outlawing any exploration or extraction using the controversial method of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing">hydraulic fracturing.</a><br />
The ban applies to the whole country, including Bulgaria’s territorial waters in the Black Sea. Any company which violates the ban will face fines of up to 66 million dollars, as well as confiscation of equipment.<br />
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Hydraulic fracturing is the only known method of extracting gas from shale rock. It involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under ground at high pressure. The mixture acts to free gas trapped in the pores of the shale rock. Environmentalists claim that the chemicals used in the process can contaminate ground water. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-13599161">They also say that earthquakes can arise as a result of the process.</a><br />
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In passing the bill, the Bulgarian government has revoked an exploration and extraction concession granted to US firm Chevron in the north-east of the country. The US ambassador to Bulgaria, John Warlick, had promised that Chevron could guarantee Bulgaria jobs and investment . However, the firm’s interests in Bulgaria are solely connected to shale gas and now the ambassador has warned that Chevron may pull out of the country completely.<br />
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Chevron, based in San Ramon, Califronia, was granted the concession in May 2011 in return for a payment of 30 million euros. The company had predicted to find 25 billion cubic metres of shale gas, almost 6 times the amount of gas that Bulgaria uses in a year. The Bulgarian government hailed the agreement as a success. Energy minister Traicho Kostov last year claimed, while on a visit to Warsaw, that Bulgaria’s shale gas deposits had been estimated at anywhere from 300 billion to 1 trillion cubic metres and could potentially meet the country’s energy needs for the next 100 years. Sofia had been counting on shale gas as a means to increase energy security. Currently, most of Bulgaria’s gas is supplied by Russia.<br />
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Despite all this optimism, the shale gas plans caused unease amongst environmentalists, society at large and farmers from the Dobrich province—considered to be the most beautiful region in Bulgaria. Dobrich was where Chevron had been due to start exploration. Many people were afraid that the hydraulic fracturing process would lead to ground and water pollution. “People always say that we should achieve energy independence, but if we go ahead with shale gas extraction we could end up becoming food dependent. We create a danger to our national security if we destroy agricultural production. Not only will our exports suffer but we might not have anything to eat”, says Milen Stoyanov, a protest organiser. On the 14th January, protests were held in 12 cities including Sofia, Varna, Burgas and Plovdiv. People held up placards carrying slogans such as ‘Don’t gas us!’, ‘We want bread, not gas!’ and ‘Send Traicho and Nona to prison!’ (referring to energy minister Traicho Traikov and environment minister Nona Karadjova) In the end, the ruling centre-right GERB party gave in to the wave of protests. In the parliamentary vote 166 of their MPs voted in favour of the shale gas ban, with only 6 voting against the bill.<br />
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Minister Kostov is obviously unhappy with the outcome of the vote. In a TV interview he said that the protests had been part of a well-organised and well-funded propaganda campaign which had succeeded in whipping up public hysteria. The Minister did not say who he thinks is behind the campaign but he did suggest that it would be possible to find out if one follows the money trail-“ Someone has profited from the decision to pull out of shale gas.” Others speak more openly. Iliyan Vassilev, former ambassador to Moscow, has accused the government of weakness and has claimed that the protest campaign was organised by pro-Russian elements. Russian firm Gazprom wants to sabotage American-led shale gas extraction in Europe, according to Vassilev. If shale gas is not exploited in Euope then German companies will have to continue buying gas from Russia, at a time when German energy demand will rise due to the phasing out of nuclear power. The former ambassador is confident that after a few months the Bulgarian government will return to its original shale gas plans.<br />
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Only time will tell if he is right. It is worth remembering that in June 2011 the French parliament, under pressure from environmentalists, banned shale gas exploration. It looks as if Pooand will be the only country in Europe to go ahead with plans to exploit shale gas deposits. Worldwide it is another story, however. The USA has become a gas giant thanks to shale and both India and China keen to follow suit.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Author: Marek Karolkiewicz Taken form ‘Przegłąd’ magazine nr.5 (631) 5/02/12 </span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The original Polish article can be read <a href="http://www.przeglad-tygodnik.pl/pl/artykul/bulgaria-nie-chce-lupkow">here</a>. </span>Czarny Kothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17163190792839598823noreply@blogger.com6