Gazeta Wyborcza‘s motto is “Nam nie jest wszystko jedno,” or “it’s not all the same to us.” The crusading force is strong in this one. There was the schools campaign (motto: the inspired “class with class”), which I am told was a nightmare of added paperwork for the teachers involved — which was nearly all […]
“Everyone knows the key to building wealth is through saving and investing” begins one of those newsoid articles that internet portals use to pad out their pages. Written by God knows who at the behest of God knows what financial institution, the opening line at least has the merit of ditching that ridiculous myth about […]
In their article in Gazeta Wyborcza the three young economists offered up the following statistic: in 1960s Poland for every retired person and invalid in receipt of welfare there were 12 people working and paying taxes. Turning to this week’s Sunday Times I read that in Ireland in the 1960s there was a tiny 1.4 […]
“Nie podnosimy cen bez powodu” says the startling sticker on the door of a kiosk near my house. It means, translating freely, “we won’t raise prices for no reason.” The campaign bears the imprimatur of those noted advocates of centrally planned economies Gazeta Wyborcza and the Polish National Bank. In a free market am I […]
It turns out we’re all going to die in poverty, regardless. The problem is too many nasty old people hogging the social welfare budget and too few young ones contributing to it. In Friday’s Gazeta Wyborcza three young Polish economists make their contribution to the debate. Billed as an “appeal” and complete with exclamation marks […]
Socialist Realist art (or “socrealizm”) was official dogma in Poland in the late 40s and early 50s and elsewhere for longer. Paintings, architecture and sculptures of the period glorify the working class and the achievements of socialism. Kitsch would be a kind word for much of it. Also striking is the resemblance to fascist art: […]
It’s 30 degrees in the shade and you need a cold drink. Into the shop with you so, up to the counter, out with the money and what is there to drink? If it’s to be cold it has to be fizzy. The fridges here are filled with the products of one company and that […]
Congratulations to Witold Gadomski, economics features writer for Gazeta Wyborcza who has just won a prize for fearlessly upholding the general right wing status quo in economics. No, really, I mean it. The prize is funded by the avowedly apolitical Polish National Bank, the assuredly neutral Association of Polish Journalists and the totally objective Reuters […]
Some months back (March 28th — it fell down the back of the couch) Polityka had a promising article on the encroachment of public space by private property (“Wspólnie nie dla wszystkich”). It would be naive to think that the Polish reader would find in such a magazine anything about Reclaim the Streets – they […]
Today’s Gazeta Wyborcza contains an article on Chavez and Morales which is too outrageously partisan to pass up even though I’ve mentioned the subject before. It’s by Maciej Stasiński, which I suspect might be the name of a computer program which shuffles and deals out US-approved cliches about “populism,” “demagoguery” or “the free market.” Here […]
