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 | | From: | StefanDetko | | Subject: | 2005: A Year of Change in Poland | | Date: | Tue, 18 Jan 2005 09:00:52 -0600 |
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 | Author: Mariusz D. Dastych
for now@ on-line Februar 2005
http://nowamedia.w.interia.pl
On the second day of Christmas, the 26th of December 2004, Poland
learned about an earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia. At least
hundreds of Polish tourists were there: in Thailand, in India, on Sri
Lanka and on the Maledives. Some of them perished in the flood, dozens
were missing. Over the year's change, these tragic events in far-away
region of the Indian Ocean became the main topic of national concern
and the subject of discussion in every Polish home.
As the number of victims grew from day to day in that truly
"Biblical" disaster, along with other nations, Poland became deeply
engaged in rescue operations and in rising funds and dispatching
material (mostly medical) help to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia.
The natural catastrophe in Asia had also a psychological and a social
dimension: it demontrated how small and vulnerable was our World, and,
on the contrary, how brave and helpful could be men and women caught
in extreme situations. The response of the Polish people to the
devastating results of the disaster was swift, logical and generous.
At the moment of the trial, we became united, forgetting about the
hardships, the quarrels and the problems dividing us on ordinary days.
For me, an old journalist hand who has seen so much trouble here
and abroad, the events of the last days of December 2004 and the
following weeks of the New Year became a refreshing experience of
human solidarity. Just a few weeks before the erthquake and the
tsunamis, Polish people cheered and supported the "Orange Revolution"
in the neighboring Ukraine. For some, older ones, it was like a
revival of the first "Solidarity" from the early 1980s. For the young,
it was a good chance to show their own solidarity and support to the
Ukrainian people trying to shed the dictatorship of a repressive and
corrupt regime. Fifteen years after our own "peaceful revolution" in
1989, the two surprising events - one near by and the other far away -
stimulated us to look back at our own country and to start a new
change in 2005.
For, even without an outer stimulation, the New Year would bring
about a significant change to Poland. By virtue of the Constitution,
the 2005 will be the year of two national elections: the parliamentary
and the presidential ones. The last years of the rule of the
post-communist Left were marked by positive (though disputable)
foreign policy decisions: Poland's admission to the European Union and
our participation in the anti-terrorist alliance. But on the domestic
ground, the rule of the Left left us with numerous scandals and a
misgovernment. It's only due to the hard-working and ingenuous Polish
private business that a country plagued by scams and poor
administration, showing a 20% official unemployment rate and growing
poverty could have recovered from an economic crisis and could have
achieved an over 6% rate of development.
It took us fifteen years to realize that Poland badly needed
de-communization of the political and economic life. Many scandals and
forced unproper decisions could have been avoided if the former
activists of the Com-party and the former members of the communist
special services and their informers were deprived of their rights to
engage into public life and to hold high offices. Secrecy, blackmail,
mafia-like business, foreign infiltration through secret services
plague Poland until today. But there is also a growing determination
of the Polish people to get rid of these criminal scourges and to
build a public life that could be truly open and free. It is also
necessary to change the bad laws and to encourage a free and
competitive economic life.
Whether the election to the Parliament occurs in June (that could
be the best term) or in September, there is a great chance to end the
post-communist "era" and to open a new chance to the Republic. In
Fall, the Polish people will also choose their new President and will
vote (for or against) the Constitution of the European Union. At the
end of the same year, the Polish military engagement in Iraq could
also be ended. Soi,the 2005 will be really a year of change in Poland,
and the public "wave" bringing about the change won't be a devastating
tsunami but a beneficial "flood" refreshing our life.
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| | From: | Pete | | Subject: | Re: 2005: A Year of Change in Poland | | Date: | Thu, 20 Jan 2005 09:23:47 -0600 |
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| It's great when the fog of history is lifted from a people. Poland has
had a long and glorious history. Its people have contributed much to
the science and culture of the world. Being placed between the anvils
of the European empires has made its existence precarious but the
spirit of Poles have always found ways to overcome. I congratulate the
nation and its people and know that theirs will be an engine that helps
drive the new European power.
Peter
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