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dj1979

Listed below are comments made by dj1979 between Thursday, 6th November 2008 and Friday, 22nd May 2009.

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Big city blues 07:23am on 22 May 2009 MATHIASEN (post #41): thankfully the face of Warsaw is also changing, and there is a chance that the more delayed the changes were for years, the faster they will be now. There are serious plans put forward to completely rearrange the centre of the city - but not to bulldoze it: the historic (both pre-war and Stalinist) architecture will be merged with the new ultramodern urban fabric. That's going to take some time and much money, but in this way Warsaw will very visibly reflect the newest aspect of the Polish history - the one without communism.
Big city blues 7:10pm on 20 May 2009 In some ways, Warsaw reflects the whole of Poland. It was razed to the ground by the Nazis in WWII and rebuilt basically from scratch by communists under Soviet supervision. Today it is a scarred city filled with reconstructed historic buildings, Stalinist architecture, communist housing estates and modern skyscrapers. Its streets are full of people whose ancestors did not hail from Warsaw, but came here from all over the country to fill the void left by the murdered original citizens.
In this way Warsaw reflects the path Poland was forced to take - the path of painful emerging from unthinkable Nazi destruction, of metamorphosis under the thumb of Stalin and his henchmen, in the completely altered political, social, economic and even geographical circumstances. This path finally ended in 1989 when Solidarity prevailed and Poland was finally given a chance to catch up.
BUT under the scars on the face of Poland there are things still untouched. You'll find them in the medieval streets of Krakow, on the craggy tops of the Tatra Mountains, in the eyes of people too young to be burdened with all the horrible things that happened to Poland generations ago. So as much as you can learn about Poland from your Warsaw experience, it won't be all there is to learn. By far.
The right qualifications 4:50pm on 05 May 2009 Message # 3 - zickyyy
"Yes, China is the world's largest carbon emitter but in terms of carbon emission per head, the UK is six times larger than China."
So in terms of pollution China likes to be ranked per head, but when it comes to the economy it prefers total GDP. Maybe because GDP per head puts China at about the 100th place?

Message # 18 - KrSund70

"Temporally speaking, the West has well had her time in the sun to pollute at will during an industrial revolution. An explanation of, well, now we know better, is simply too convenient. China must be allowed an equal opportunity to develop as now is her time to do so."

By your logic: the West acquired a lot of wealth through slave trade, so China must be allowed to do the same now to catch up.
The right qualifications 11:04am on 05 May 2009 Milliband should have said something else: that the job of a politician is not to be an expert on the particular subject s/he is supposed to make decision on, but to analyse all the data from experts and make a right POLITICAL decision about the issue. Health secretary doesn't need to be a doctor - s/he needs to listen to doctors, hospital managers etc. and make right political decisions based on that. Experts don't always have a full picture, they often have a narrow perspective, however valuable it is. Politicians are supposed to make sense of experts' views and translate them into right politics and policy.
Tales from (eastern) Europe: Airports 6:02pm on 29 Mar 2009 It's extremely sad that Slovaks look at themselves from the point of view of the West. If Slovakia (or Czechoslovakia) was a "forgotten country near Russia" it was because Western European ignorance, as other countries in the region, like Poland, Hungary etc. knew of Slovakia all along and very well. Slovaks, Ukrainians, Poles etc. don't need to "become Europeans" - they have always been them and it's only because of the Iron Courtain, put up by both Soviet Union and the West, that the region was obscured from the vision of the people who have assumed the position of opinionmakers. The countries that are today lumped together as Eastern Europe are as varied as any other ones. It's just that for too long the self-proclaimed West was unwilling to spare a serious thought for them. And what is worse, "Eastern Europeans" with time adopted the same inaccurate view of themselves. History is just not fair.
Unhappy New Year? 5:59pm on 02 Jan 2009 MaxSceptic, Britain is indeed a net contributor, but it still enjoys the (in)famous British rebate that needs to be made up for by other EU countries:

"The method of calculating the rebate is complex, but its effect is to increase contributions required from all other member states, to make up the loss from the overall budget. Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria all have their contribution to make up for the rebate capped to 25% of the figure which would otherwise apply, leaving France to make up for the main part of the increase in what Britain would pay without the rebate"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_rebate

I am OK with Britain longing for a different kind of EU; the problem is, many other EU countries want to achieve the "ever closer union" and if Britain stands in their way, good riddance and good luck in trying somewhere else - just don't spoil things for the rest of us.
Unhappy New Year? 10:28am on 02 Jan 2009 #18:
"Err last I checked, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. You might be referring to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 instead...."

Or to the Round Table talks in Poland in February-April 1989, or to the first partially free elections in the Eastern Bloc held in Poland in June 1989 with the landslide Solidarity victory, which started the process of dismantling the communism in Eastern Europe and paved the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall later the same year.
Unhappy New Year? 10:27am on 02 Jan 2009 Post #18:
"Err last I checked, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. You might be referring to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 instead...."

Or to the Round Table talks in Poland in February-April 1989, or to the first partially free elections in the Eastern Bloc held in Poland in June 1989 with the landslide Solidarity victory, which started the process of dismantling the communism in Eastern Europe and paved the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall later the same year.
A European Obama? 11:26am on 13 Nov 2008 #1, V40man, Poland had a woman prime minister in 1992-1993 - Hanna Suchocka.

The current Polish prime minister Donald Tusk is ethnically Kashubian (it's a white minority, but still it's a step in the right direction).

Sooner or later there will be a European Obama, and most probably that'll happen also thanks to the American Obama - his presidency is likely to change perceptions of race in many positive ways. The only question remains, who will be the first to follow suit.

Interestingly, in Poland, with its very small black community (a result of not participating in colonialism and being isolated by the Iron Curtain) at least three black public officials have been elected by popular vote to regional and municipal assemblies in recent years - Eric Alira (originally from Burkina Faso) in Lower Silesia, Godson Onyekwere (Nigerian) in Lodz and Killion Munyama (Zambian) in Greater Poland. It seems only a matter of time before there'll be a black Polish MP. The Polish parliament sets no electoral threshold for registered ethnic minority parties (for other parties it's minimum 5%).

I don't think Poland will be the first European country to shatter the glass ceiling, but who knows - if Poland had a woman prime minister only two years after regaining sovereignty from the Soviet Union, why shouldn't there be a black high-ranking Polish politician sooner than anybody expects?
A dark horizon: or a boost for the eurozone ? 07:55am on 06 Nov 2008 Polish liberal government announced plans to adopt the Euro in four years a couple of months before this whole economic mess burst out (our conservative President is changing his tune all the time). But it's an open question whether Euro is really helpful in this regard. Poland is one of those European countries that are least affected by the crisis, so one could argue that not being in the Eurozone actually helps (some pundints do make that case). One way or the other, there's a will both in Polish government and Polish people to join the Eurozone.

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