A Pathetic Dwarfish Clown

I find it fascinating that the Polish government has laws preventing the public from expressing "negative" opinions about politicians. For example, the title of this blog, associated to the picture above, could potentially land me in jail for up to three years, if I was in Poland right now. I often wonder where such a law had its beginnings. Is it a vestigial remains of the psychological scarring that the PRL generation suffered behind the Iron Curtain, and which manifests itself in them lacking any sense of humor, while suffering inhuman insecurity of self-worth and self-respect? Take the Head Duck as a case in point. The man is small, dumpy, clearly not a prime specimen of humanity. Not only that, but he's the dumber twin, which is actually quite an achievement, considering the family is generally not too endowed in that department. On top of that, he's afraid. He doesn't know how to operate in today's reality, and knows it. He lacks the training, the knowledge, and exposure to the pace of 21st century life which would allow him to succeed. Some examples? Well, there's his statement (or was it his brother's? Same diff, actually) that Internet users are all beer-swilling porn addicts (this was in response to questions on whether voting via Internet would be a good idea). Then there's the classic state of the union address he had recently, in which, in a moment of lucidity, he decided that in order to fight the "evil" media's skewing of his presidential achievements, he will turn the tables and use the same methods. What resulted was the most laughable and disturbing display of propaganda I have seen in years. (Actually, since Bush made the aircraft carrier speech below the "Mission Accomplished" banner.) There was the use of film showing a gay marriage from New York (something that has now caused a bit of an international incident, since there was no permission given to use that image, and in fact, the image had nothing to do with Europe to begin with), there was the picture of Nazi-era central Europe, with the evil Germans in black encroaching on a poor, defenseless Poland in white. There were some other choice visuals, all of which were meant to strike fear into the hearts of innocent Poles so they would reject the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. After all, those Europeans are godless euthanizing baby-killers in gay marriages. All of them. The holy Catholic nation of Poland must, according to the Head Duck, protect its virtue and values, and must stand stalwart against the dilution of values and ideals that Europe is peddling. I seem to recall that Poland tried to stand apart that way once or twice already in history. I believe the immediate consequence was the cessation of a Polish state altogether, but I may be remembering that incorrectly.

But, back to the issue at hand. How does someone with such limited awareness of the world today hope to convince an entire populace of his right? How can he use such media as he did in that speech, and not understand that he will be ridiculed? And then, when he IS ridiculed (Lech Walesa called him a dunce soon after), he raises a stink and instigates a legal inquiry. Well, let me be the next person to publicly say something that people are saying in private on a regular basis all over Poland: Lech Kaczynski is a hopeless idiot completely out of his depth as the President of Poland. He is deluded, lacks any clue as to how to govern, and is doing a great job of alienating Poland from the rest of Europe without any awareness of the consequences, while trying to pander to populist ideas and using fear to guide political opinion. 

One thing I'm glad of. It so far looks as if the general Polish populace is starting to be sophisticated enough to see through Kaczynski's bullshit. Except for the likes of Rydzyk and his Mohair Coalition, but thankfully that contingent is getting older with every day, and they're dying in droves. I can only hope that the continued extensive travel of the rest of the population will ensure that no dwarfish clown-like idiots ever again gain so much power in Poland. Of course my even-handedness reminds me immediately that the United States elected a much bigger idiot (hear that Head Duck? You're not even the biggest idiot, you've failed at that as well) to be the "Most Powerful Man on Earth". So, I guess shit can happen anywhere, it's just a matter of not stepping in it.

Poland: A theocracy for the 21st century

I find it fascinating that in an age when so much is being said about Islamist groups vying for control of various countries, and of Islam becoming a factor in government, that nothing is being said about the same thing happening in the Christian Nation of Poland.

For the last three weeks I've been reading news from Poland about various obnoxious indiscretions by priests and others in Poland. Whether it be the involuntary designation of some teachers to put together an altar for a holiday, or the blaring of church hymns at 6:30 in the morning over church loudspeakers, or the mandate that Religious Instruction in schools will now count towards overall grade, all these things are coming in a sort of Medieval Resurgence, as if the Polish church is determined to obliterate itself by pissing everyone off beyond their limits.

The problem is, people aren't reacting to all this the way I was expecting. Yes, people are getting angry, but there is a latent fearful respect for the church that the priests are keen to capitalize on. Even those speaking against these events always add the disclaimer that they are believers, that they are churchgoers, and that fundamentally, they don't really have a problem with this, just that... And any reference to non-believers is dismissed outright as practically impossible. If you live in Poland, it seems, you're automatically a Catholic Believer, no other options are available. And it's not just the priests who profess such twisted views, there are plenty of little old ladies all over the country who are more intolerant than any other group I have seen, including neo-nazis. The only thing that prevents these folks from causing more physical harm is the fact that they're usually over 60 and frail.

One thought I had a while back was that Pope John Paul's death may be a boon for Poland, as there will be less restraint by the common person to criticize the church, and the church itself would be more exposed, and so more wary of overstepping its bounds. The thing I didn't count on was that maybe the previous Pope was actually the source of the Polish church's restraint in some areas, and that now that he is gone, the church feels it has a free hand to impose itself more directly on Polish every day life. Just goes to show, you can never predict the future.

So then, how will this unfold? It seems so long as the better-educated, more motivated Polish individuals keep leaving the country to work abroad, the gray masses left behind will continue to support the priests in their efforts. Only when people start coming back, understanding the concepts of diversity, tolerance, and separation of church and state, that things will change. An influx of immigrants, in the meantime, would only make things worse here, as those immigrants would just provide a convenient target for the priests to strengthen their hold on the populace.

I lament what is happening in my country. It has such potential, and that keeps getting undercut by such ridiculous, primitive problems. We may be living in the 21st century, but many people in the country have not gotten past the Middle Ages just yet. And why should they? After all, the Middle Ages were a golden time for the Polish kingdom. *sigh*

Cold Drink = DEATH

A conversation with a friend reminded me of a Polish phenomenon that affects the entire nation. If you drink something cold, you will die. If you apply a cold compress, you will die a painful death. If you so much as open a window when it's breezy, you will suffer severe health consequences. All these things are as if law here. In a restaurant, getting a glass of water with ice is akin to witnessing a miracle. One has to ask, and endure the quizzical looks and quirky smiles of the waiters.
There is a deeply entrenched opinion, probably passed down by generations of grandmothers, that all cold drinks cause instant pneumonia. I laughed at this, until I personally witnessed to what extent this psychological conviction affects everyone. My uncle once drank a cold soda that I had put in the fridge, because there was nothing else to drink. Within minutes he was coughing, and clearing his throat, and complaining that he just "caught" something. He proceeded to be sick for a few hours, and narrowly avoided a full-blown cold. No one in the country seems to want to accept that viruses cause colds, not cold drinks, and that those cold drinks don't directly cause infection. Even doctors here will say the same, and seem to come from a medical background completely different from what one encounters in the States.

Run-offs

So the Polish elections ended in the expected run-offs. No surprise there, since there was little hope of any one Presidential Candidate getting more than 50% of the vote. Now there are two, the leaders of the "liberal" and "conservative" parties, though the "conservative" reads better as the "status quo, with lots of small talk and diversionary policies avoiding the real issues" party. Its solution to the country's problems involve radical centralization of government, renationalization of industry, regaining government control over healthcare, and focusing people's attention on abortion, hand-outs to the poor (from funds that the country doesn't have), etc. There is a moderate movement in the country to mobilize the young, so that they go and vote, so that Kaczyński doesn't make it into office. If he does, he and his twin brother (leader of the party that won the most votes in congress) would basically lead the entire country. We might as well go back to a monarchy system, or straight to a Belorussian style dictatorship for what it would be worth.
What I have trouble understanding is why people would consider him, when it's clear from just looking at the man that he's a bastard. Beady little eyes in a fat, gluttonous face, a fake smile, and dishonesty in his look. And yet, the church, the elderly, and various other "less educated" as the media indicate based on polls, all are drawn to him, and think he'll be the best choice for the country. All I see is a return to the fat bastards who ran the country during the Commie era. Enough of that! We need to progress, not regress. These last 15 years have been very tough for Poland, but it's showing signs of progress, even significant ones, and a misstep now by the population will cause years of additional pain and some regression. Poland is one of the biggest nations in the EU, and as such can be a significant addition to the Union. It's hampered by its history, but that is changing, and this may later be seen as the biggest mistake the country made, if the "conservative" wins. The vote is this coming Sunday. I've already sent mail to everyone I know to go out and vote. I hope the current margin of victory that Tusk has remains. It's somewhere around 14%. Not ultra comfortable, but even 1% will be enough to win. Hell, even one vote will be enough to win. Keeping the fingers crossed!

Polish Government

I was amazed to find that there are no capitalist parties in Polish government. There are only various flavors of socialist, with the main difference being the extent of moral conservatism they represent. I spoke of Polish conservatism in an earlier post, so will omit those details here.
What's interesting is the manner in which government is elected, and how it works, or doesn't, in some cases.
For one thing, there is no electoral college concept, but there's no true democracy either. What happens is that each district creates a list of candidates, and places those candidates in order of importance for the party. When the population of the district votes, they vote for individual candidates, but in reality only vote for the party. The party then receives a number of seats in parliament corresponding to the percentage of the vote it received in the district. The seats are then allocated to the candidates on the list in list order. So, if you're canidate 24 on a list, and your party only gets 23 seats from the district, you're out of luck, and don't make it into parliament.
In theory this system has its merits, but it also leads to "list fixing", where the party allocates its most powerful members on various lists across the country, in order to ensure that they make it into Parliament. For example, Roman Giertych, the leader of the League of Polish Families party, placed himself as the number one entry on the Warsaw list of candidates from his party. This would ensure that he made it into parliament, as chances were that the party would receive at least one seat from the region (it turned out that Warsaw gave LPR barely one seat, and even that was in question until all the votes were counted, so Giertych almost didn't make it into government). What this leads to is a system where the candidates for a region don't really have anything to do with the region they're listed in, and often the voters know nothing about these candidates.
The Parliament is the most powerful entity in Polish government. It suggests and approves Laws, and carries out the bulk of government work. As a throw-back to times past, every member of Parliament automatically gets "diplomatic immunity" and cannot be prosecuted in any way, nor stopped and ticketed, etc. There is an ongoing debate to get rid of this archaism, but of course those who stand to be most affected are those who enjoy the benefits of such protection.
The party that wins the elections, or has the highest percentage of the vote, even if it's under the 50% clear majority, gets to decide who the Premier will be. The Premier is the individual who actually carries out the job of country head, and forms a cabinet, and takes care of day-to-day government affairs. There is also a President, elected in a separate public vote, but he is pretty much a figurehead, and can at most veto a law that is being pushed by the Parliament. (Even then, the law can get pushed through with a repeat vote, but I'm not sure if there is a percentage for vote required, or just a simple majority).
If a Party does not get a 50% majority of the vote, it has to form a coalition with other parties, in order to form a government. This leads to lots of wheeling and dealing after elections, as winning parties try to win over the fringe parties, in order to form a majority government. There are usually two big winners, and then a whole list of smaller players. (A party needs to get at least 5% of the public vote to get into government at all.)
What happens after elections is the source of frustration for everyone in the country. The government forms, then starts meeting, and then proceeds to waste time and energy on issues that don't fundamentally move the country forward, instead dealing with things that are either beneficial to a small percentage of the population, the government members among them, or get stuck on issues with an impasse, due to opposing views and lack of ability to compromise.
In the end, the government ends up doing very little, as many of the government members see it as their source of income and wealth, and as such will do what it takes to get there, even without the proper qualifications and preparation. You often hear these people speak publicly, and have to laugh, because they sound like complete morons.

The Death of the Pope

The death of Pope John Paul II was a great loss for the world. This was a man who did a lot of great things in his time as Pope, and was probably the single biggest factor in humanizing the Catholic Church.

The death of Pope John Paul II was probably one of the best things that could have happened to Poland.

Poland is a land of Catholic Church dominance. Priests hold sway in society, enjoying great respect and abusing that respect freely. Everyone knows that the Church in Poland is corrupted, and no longer deals exclusively with the health of human souls. It gets into politics, economics, and business. Even though everyone knows this, one will not find a single person in the country who will speak of this in any other way but with hushed voice, and furtively looking around. When I clearly and loudly speak my mind on the subject, people get nervous.

Where does this dominance come from? Poland has a long history of Catholicism, dating all the way back to the foundations of the country in 966 AD. Throughout history, through all the wars, the strife, and the divisions of the country by surrounding empires, the Church has persevered. It has always been a solid foundation to which Poles could turn in times of their greatest need. This was also the case throughout the post-WWII era. Pope John Paul II fought the communist occupation, spoke out against it, and supported the Polish Church throughout the period. Poland was one of the few countries behind the Iron Curtain that had no restrictions on religious activity. The Russians knew that this would spell open rebellion, and desisted.

So why is this a bad thing? It's not. The consequences are what's bad. The Church has had such a good run in this country without any competition that it has gotten fat and bloated. As with any monopoly, effort to improve and provide an attractive product declines with lack of competition. The result here is widespread corruption and the taking for granted of the Church's position. Having a Polish Pope didn't help matters. It excused the priests, because they had full support from the Vatican. They could do no wrong, because the Pope was Polish, and was great.

An entire generation of Poles grew up knowing only the Polish Pope. They identified the Church with the Pope. Now, that is no longer possible. They will have to evaluate the Polish Church on the basis of its own merits and actions. The Church itself will no longer have a free hand, and will start getting questioned when its decisions are too suspect.

The death of the Pope is the first step to a recovery of Poland's identity. The country where the Church pays no taxes, gets government donations, and rips off the poor and gullible, will finally have a chance to stand on its own two feet and put the Church back into perspective. This will be a long process, and not always a clearly improving one, but it has begun. The local priest driving a Mercedes S class to mass will hopefully disappear, an unfortunate side effect of events in the past.

Conservatism

The deep American Fundamentalist South would feel right at home in the Polish countryside. Except for one thing. The Americans would be considered liberal and radical, because they aren't Catholics. The term "Christian" and "Catholic" are completely interchangeable in Poland, with Protestants a different breed. When one mentions that Protestants are Christians too, the response is a reluctant "Well, yes, I suppose so". No conviction, no trust, no understanding of the principles which the two splinters of one religion share. But, that's another story.

There are two radical parties in Poland. The "Self-Defense" party (Samoobrona), which is a populist, shit-stirring sort of group, and the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin). This last is equivalent to the Fundamentalists in the States. It has highly sexist, ultra-religious views of the world, and feels that it is their duty to guide the rest of the population to salvation. They support more children in families, non-working mothers, mandatory religious education, and if given the chance, they'd probably require church attendance on Sundays. They are also actively anti-EU, since the EU is not a Christian institution, but one that emphasizes its secular foundations.

Every nation needs its radicals, and an opportunity for the fringe to have a voice. Unfortunately, in Poland's last election, the "Self-Defense" party got 11% of the vote, and third place behind the primary parties, who had 27% and 24% of the vote respectively. The League of Polish Families got 8% of the vote. These are percentages that stir worry in the hearts of normal people. It means that these parties will be able to influence decisions in Congress, and guide the country in a direction that may very well end up being self-destructive. The populist party has no idea how an economy works. They don't want to guide themselves with examples from successful economies, like those of England or the United States. They have left overs of the old pro-Communist regime, and harken back to those days when everyone had the same, nothing. The League guides itself by the morality of the Polish Catholic Church, and rejects any individual rights that do not conform with this morality.

So, which is more dangerous? Definitely the LPR. They are well educated. The Self-Defense party is populated by a bunch of what one would call red-necks, barely educated, and easily outmaneouvered. The LPR consists of lawyers, professors, and other highly educated individuals, who happen to have an unfortunate ultra-conservative streak in their view of the world.

This last fact makes me wonder, how long it will be possible to last in a country like this. Besides Warsaw, the rest of the country is stuck in the dark ages of morality. The difference between attitudes today, and those of six hundred years ago is minimal.

Thankfully, this is a country where free speech is alive and fairly well off, so you do get to see debate on sensitive topics and it does get televised. The liberal side usually has the harder task, and much less public support, but it can speak it's mind. You get to see things like a talk show where a Nazi-looking conservative discusses gay rights with two gay guests, but presents a point of view that's just silly when heard, like grouping gays and pedofiles in the same sentence.

You also have such things as the Freedom Parade that was supposed to take place in Warsaw. The Mayor of the city, who is now a candidate for president in next month's elections, stalled, and finally rejected the organizers' request for permission and approval of a route. The parade took place anyway, ending in a peaceful picnic in the park, which was disrupted by a youth organization created by LPR, which started throwing stones and getting into fights with the paraders. Thankfully, in this instance, the Police stood on the side of peace, and beat back and arrested many of the attackers, a fact that caused them to be chastised by the Mayor, for supporting an illegal demonstration. Two weeks later, the youth organization received permission to have a Morality Parade by the same Mayor. His name: Lech Kaczyński.

What was the reason for all this? Kaczyński stated that the Freedom Parade offends the public morality, and as such cannot be allowed to take place.

The media didn't help matters much initially, presenting the youth organization as the ones who were the victims in the altercations (some police officers had to rough up a few of the hooligans), and simultaneously airing footage from a gay rights group's misguided distribution of condoms at Notre Dame in Paris, something that had happened a few weeks earlier, and was not reported on at the time. Eventually cooler heads won through, and the misrepresentation was publicly corrected, but not before it did its damage.

Poland is in a time of turmoil. Western Europe had fifty years to move on after the War. Here, the Communist occupation just strengthened the Catholic hold on a country that has traditionally been holier than the Vatican, since there was no one else to turn to. Now, after fifty years of progress in civil rights and tolerance, Poland finds itself far behind, and deeply entrenched in views which can lead only to further strife. If the LPR had its way, Poland would become a Christian version of Saudi Arabia, or Yemen. I'm not sure anyone here truly comprehends that.

Elections

There is so much talk everywhere about the right of people to choose their own government, the need for democracy, and how wonderful it is to be "free". Then comes the true test. Elections. And, more often than not, the truth comes out.

Those in the "free" world do not care, or respect their right. They are more interested in their own daily grinds, their interests and personal problems, and not whether the government is controlled by one party or another. There are a couple of possible explanations of this. One is ambivalence towards who rules, because as long as things are stable, people don't care. Stable economies, stable political systems, both tend to enhance this attitude. But the reason that drove such low frequency in Poland is different.

There, the reality is that people are sick of the same old thing, and over the last decade have lost all hope that the government can make a difference. Every year a series of scandals comes out, regardless of which party is in power, and nothing gets done, nothing seems to improve overall. Yes, there is progress, but as with all emerging economies, the progress affects first those at the very top, and only slowly trickles down, especially in the eyes of those who have nothing. People expect improvements overnight, and are highly disappointed when those do not materialize. Opportunists capitalize on a weak system as well, making things worse.

Poland just had parliamentary elections on Sunday. There was a 39% turnout. Horrible. Just over one third of the country decided it was worth it to go to the ballot box. The rest made a very loud and clear statement. They're sick of the bull, sick of having to deal with a bunch of stuffed shirts making money for themselves, while helplessly poking at the state of the country, with a complete lack of knowledge of how to deal with things. And this after fifteen years since true independence.

I voted. Not with confidence that I will make a difference, but with the feeling of responsibility to my country, and to myself. If the results of the election are not to my liking, at least I can say I tried. If I didn't vote, I would have wondered, how much would be different if those like me had voted... Instead I wonder, how many more years until we have a skilled and experienced government?