This week’s Nie tells of the predicament of an Armenian small trader in Poland. In brief, he has been refused permission to continue residing in the country because, well yes, he is paying his own way, and yes, he is employing a few Polish people and no he’s no burden on society and he’s not in trouble with the law but you see the thing is he isn’t contributing enough to the Polish state. Sure he pays taxes and his employees’ social insurance and so on but it’s not enough. Again you can see the scorn Polish authorities have for the small deal.

Sometimes Poles grimly talk of the “American free for all” that it unfettered capitalism but I’m not sure the Americans would turn their noses up at someone who is making his own way — however unspectacularly. In this, as in many other cases, the Poles are far more cut throat (though counterproductively so) than their ideological masters and another phrase they use seems more appropriate: “the wild East.” Of course, libellous-minded people might be able to suggest another reason why the officials in question are making life so difficult for this Armenian business man.