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 […]
“This essay was commissioned by the guest editors of a special issue of the academic journal Social Text but rejected by the journal’s editorial collective on the grounds it was theoretically unsophisticated that included a ‘cheap shot’ at professors.” This message precedes an article by Robert Jensen, who is always worth reading, on academic freedom […]
Local elections are approaching and all over Poland (presumably — I haven’t been all over it myself) teams of workers are energetically engaged in infrastructural work. Roads are being resurfaced, roundabouts rationalised and parks prettified. It’s not fooling anyone: “kie?basa wyborcza” (election sausage) is what Poles call this transparent bribery of the general public. My […]
From the BBC news website today on Sony’s decision to prosecute people who import certain goods into Europe: “Critics of Sony’s approach feel that the electronics giant is preventing gamers in Europe from getting their hands on Play Station 3s early, even if they have to pay a hefty premium.” Critics of Sony don’t think. […]
Traktat o ?uskaniu fasoli (Treatise on shelling beans) is the title of Wies?aw My?liwski’s latest book. It takes that most self-indulgence-prone form of a monologue (delivered to a stranger). In one passage from the essay — errr, novel — the narrator describes an incident from his childhood. Children can be so cruel some times, and […]
A soap maker named Unilever is trying to start a debate about beauty in Poland. The back page of this weekend’s Gazeta Wyborcza is entirely given over to an advertis– sorry, a manifesto about “real beauty.” (Fair play to GW: it is clearly marked advertisement.) Straight away there is something suspiciously close to a tautology: […]
I suppose it is only fitting in this, the centenary year of Samuel Beckett’s birth, that Poland take the last (?) few decisive steps to total absurdity. A Polish friend asked me last night if I had heard that Giertych wanted to stop the teaching of Darwinism in schools. Huh? Then I remembered: no that’s […]
It’s a good thing I’m not a proper book reviewer, editor, or proof reader or anything. I would be unbearable. Reading Reisefieber by Miko?aj ?ozi?ski, for instance, I keep running into annoying lapses. Who the hell cares if the narrator (when working as a journalist) takes his lunch break at two in the afternoon? I […]
“It’s War,” says today’s Dziennik, referring to further political revelations, machinations and deteriorations of relations in parliamentary politics which I won’t go into here. But there is one intriguing item in the article: once, many years ago, Donald Tusk made fun of Jaros?aw Kaczy?ski’s voice. Kaczy?ski repsonded by pulling a (legally held) gun on Tusk! […]
