Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz used to be the (quite popular) prime minister of Poland. For reasons not entirely clear to me (“wasn’t in that day, sir”), he stepped aside so that the president’s twin brother could take over. He is now the president of Warsaw, according to his blog. (I was under the impression that he was the acting president, but he should know who he is.)

He has a blog, source of much merriment but also suspicions among doubting Thomas types that it is written by PR people. Well, it does have a lot of short sentences. Punchy. Occasionally coherent. Yes.

It’s normal and natural. I’m not deceiving anyone. I’m saying the same thing only in different words.

On the other hand, it does have some of the K-man’s trademark phrases, like “I am convinced…” (that I can do it) and “I am certain…” (that we can achieve it). The author also throws in the occasional bit of Marcinkiewiczian English, writing “I’m 47. Can I dance? Yes, I can, I need, I love.”

It’s the cucumber season here so I will indulge myself by mocking a misprint. Unfair, I know. Dangerous, too, since my own spell checker long since gave up the ghost and was never able to deal with Polish anyway but here goes:

Miłość rozwija świat. Jakim byłby świat bez miłości? Nie, nie będę nawet o tym myślał. Świata bez miłości by nie było. I jak jaj zabraknie, będzie jego koniec.

Love develops the world. What would the world be like without love? No, I won’t even think about it. There could be no world without love. And if there are no balls, it’s all over.

“Jaj” (balls, cojones) should be “jej” (it, referring to love)….

There’s an anti-blog here (in Polish).

More words of wisdom from Marcinkiewicz here (though I have to take the translation on trust, not knowing the original).