*************************************************************************** P I G U L K I an occasional electronic collection of news analysis, press reviews, and humor from/about Poland and the Polish community abroad ****** Sep. 1 1990 ******************************** No. 2 ***************** In this issue: Joyce Neu: back from Poland A. Nonymous: how we won Kuwait in 1997 ====================================================================== POLAND: A RETURNING VISITOR'S VIEWS Among the more visible changes in Poland today is the change in the symbol of Poland, the white eagle. Since World War II and the Communist-backed government, the eagle had been pictured sans crown. With the Communist party dismantled, the eagle regained his crown six months ago. In a private shop in Warsaw, I found and bought a t-shirt with the newly re-crowned eagle on it and the words "Poland Free" under it. When I wore the shirt down to lunch in the university dormitory cafeteria, students in the elevator with me applauded and wanted to know if I'd gotten this in the U.S. They were surprised and pleased to discover I'd found this in Warsaw. One of the servers behind the counter in the cafeteria jabbed his co-workers to look at my shirt and when they caught my eye we all grinned. All afternoon, I had students approaching me to tell me this was the best t-shirt they'd ever seen. Independence symbols are now everywhere--Solidarity buttons and t-shirts are for sale in public squares, announcements for Solidarity meetings are plastered on buildings, and the picture of Lech Walesa graced the summer cover of LOT Airlines' Kaleidoscope magazine. Aside from the changes in symbolism, there are also some major organizational changes. When I told the taxi driver who was taking me from the airport to my hotel in downtown Warsaw that I had not been in Poland for 3 years, he pointed out a police car to me and noted that these cars now had "Policja" painted on their sides and not "Milicja" as they had had 3 years ago. That is, the military had been replaced by a regular police force. Later on during my stay, my students said that the Policja had a somewhat laissez-faire attitude and did very little to enforce most minor infractions--that this was their way of mitigating the severity of the past milicja. Believing this, my students and I felt free to jaywalk at one particular intersection, jumping across the chains barring pedestrians from crossing the street instead of taking the underpass. Three years ago, jaywalking across this very intersection, I had received my only ticket from a member of the-then milicja. This time, dozens of us jaywalked twice daily for 3 weeks and none of us received a ticket. Another organizational change that will affect academics and students throughout Poland is the decentralization of the educational system. Before, the Ministry of Education dictated policy for all educational institutions in the country. Now, there are a growing number of private schools and even universities may soon have a degree of independence not known for generations. This decentralization may impact many current programs. The program that I was involved in, the Poznan Summer School in English, is a program that exists for all third year university English majors in Poland. All English majors must either attend this institute or provide evidence that they have spent time in an Anglophone country. This summer school is funded by the Polish Ministry of Education, The British Council, and the United States Information Agency. This past summer we had just under 250 students enrolled. It is possible that now, individual universities will choose not to send their students at all or to develop their own such programs. But they will have the choice. They may also have the chore of finding funding from private sources since it is difficult to believe that The British Council and the USIA would fund several such programs within one country. The change that was perhaps the most stunning was the availability of news. When I lived in Poland three years ago, I sometimes had the feeling that I was living under a shell with little access to the outside world. No Western newspapers were available, except at Embassies and Consulates (and these were often not the latest issues), and the only TV we received was Polish television. Calling the United States involved placing the call, and then waiting 3 to 12 hours for the call to be put through. Calling within Poland frequently took longer. Most often, the call, once successfully connected, was cut off early. On this trip, even though it was only for a month, I had the sense that no such feeling of isolation could exist today. One of the reasons for this is that Poland is now very much in touch with the outside world and very much interested in being more in touch. Staying at a hotel in Warsaw upon my arrival this summer, I found The International Herald Tribune, USA Today, and various other Western newspapers and magazines on sale in the hotel lobby. On the TV in my room, I got 2 Polish channels, 2 German channels, one American movie channel, and an international version of MTV. Satellite TV has come to Poland and many people now get CNN as well as MTV and British, French, and German channels. The Polish Tourist Board publishes a map of Warsaw for business and industry. What has not changed is the telephone service. I placed a call to the United States at 9:30 one evening and was connected at 7 the next morning. I was told by computer experts at the university that they cannot get linked by computer to the international university and research network (Bitnet) until they can get their telephone system straightened out. My students informed me that just as it was three years ago, one can wait a good ten years before having a phone installed. One 22-year old student reported finding a copy of a request for telephone installation that her mother had completed when she was still a baby. They have no phone yet today. Aside from the chronic problems with telephone service, other services have improved. The change to a market economy seems to be engendering better customer service and an increase in the number of goods available. Three years ago, bananas, oranges, and other "exotic" fruits were not available. I saw oranges for sale in a private store only once during my four months in Poland in 1987. And there were long lines for everything. Today, there are oranges and bananas everywhere--even peaches and nectarines. Street vendors have proliferated and sell all sorts of imported goods. There are few lines anywhere, perhaps because few can afford to buy much, and those who buy at all frequently will buy just enough for their children. A pound of bananas costs about $.70, a pound of peaches about $.80. If the average worker makes $75 a month, then $.70 represents well over an hour's wage (a pound of bananas at $3.50?). When I asked Polish friends how they felt about the current situation, and about the lack of affordability of many products, they were optimistic and felt that having things available, even at exorbitant prices, was better than not having things available at all. The taxi drivers I spoke with, however, were not so optimistic. Whereas my friends and the university students and faculty I was working with felt that Mazowiecki was doing all that he could to bring about a change in the economy, the few taxi drivers I spoke with called him "The Sleeping Prince" and seemed to want Walesa to take control. This split within Solidarity was one much talked about by my friends--they seemed fearful that Polish workers would not allow Mazowiecki sufficient time to make the changes needed. One change that is urgently needed is a balance between prices and salaries. While I'd heard a great deal of talk about the economic situation in Poland, it is another thing to come face-to-face with the fact that the currency is now worth 38 times less than it was 3 years ago. In December 1987, when I left Poland, the zloty was officially at 250 to the dollar. The unofficial rate ranged from 800 to 1200 per dollar. Today there is no unofficial rate: the government has legalized the black market and one dollar will now buy approximately 9,500 zloty. And 9,500 zloty will not buy a great deal. My monthly income as a university professor 3 years ago was 55,000 zloty--a sum considered healthy by most Polish living standards. Today that amount is less than a tenth of what the average worker makes. However, even with a tenfold increase in salary, a 38 fold decrease in the value of the zloty does not balance. The average Pole is still faced with economic hardships. It was difficult to understand how expensive life is in Poland today since it is still cheap by our standards. One can have a wonderfully extravagant buffet brunch or dinner at the new Marriott in Warsaw for under $10. Try this at a Marriott in New York, Paris, or Rome. Some friends hired two taxis to drive them from Warsaw to Krakow (a good 5-6 hour drive) and then to drive them all over Southern Poland for 2 days at a cost of $150 per taxi. Keeping in mind that $150 is equivalent to 2 months' salary for most Poles, this is an expense that would be impossible for Poles (I don't think many Americans would spend 2 months' salary on a 2 day car trip). Even a $10 meal is out of the question--who spends over 10% of their monthly income on a meal for one? While these changes meant that this visit was a more pleasant one for me, they have not made significant differences in the day-to-day lives of most Poles. When I asked my students if they felt they were living in exciting times in Poland, their response to a person was "no." One student explained this--she said that while the changes might seem dramatic to someone coming to Poland once a year or, in my case, once every three years, to the Pole living and working daily in Poland, the changes seemed small and gradual. Most saw no drama in the changes. The one effect that most of the students saw was that when they had chosen to major in English at the university three years ago, they had thought that this field would be of use only in teaching high school and in doing literary translation. Now many feel that English will be their key to economic opportunity through jobs in the multinational companies coming to Poland. I think it may be easier for an outsider to be optimistic about Poland than it is for a Pole. They still complain about how lazy most Poles are, about the lack of any work ethic, about the shoddy quality of goods produced in Poland for sale in Poland. What I saw as a foreigner was a growing tourist industry with people making an attempt to be pleasant to foreigners--three years ago it was difficult to get a room in a hotel simply because the person behind the counter might not, at that moment, have felt like filling out the forms for a room for you. Since everything was state-owned and supported, it made little difference if the hotel was full or empty. Now there are tourists everywhere and my hotel reservation was honored without question. Three years ago, hotel restaurants would put up signs saying they were full when it was obvious there were almost no customers in the place. I also have a clear recollection of salespeople in stores walking away from me or getting clearly upset when my Polish was not immediately understandable. This time, I had quite the contrary experience. People in stores seemed to get a kick out of my bad Polish, and they seemed to understand me quite well. Money seems to be talking in Polish these days. Whereas three years ago people had money and nothing to buy, it seems that now there are things to buy and not enough money. But for a one-month visitor, these changes made my visit far more agreeable. But they do not address the fundamental questions that Poles themselves need to answer. How will salaries be increased to compensate for rising prices of goods and services? Will workers take more pride in producing quality goods? Will goods be available on a continuous basis so that people don't have to take time off work to chase down needed items? After this visit to Poland, I can only hope that the Polish people will be patient and allow Mazowiecki the time needed to implement his planned economic reforms. With the split in Solidarity between supporters of Walesa and Mazowiecki, it is not clear that they will. Joyce Neu [Joyce Neu is an Assistant Professor in the Center for ESL and the Department of Speech Communication at Penn State University. She spent a semester at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan in 1987 as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer. She returned to Poznan this past summer (1990) as a USIA Academic Specialist.] ===================================================================== THE POLISH-IRAQI WAR, 1997 - A MEMOIR I remember it just like yesterday. Well, perhaps just like last week, or last month. Anyway, there we were, the second paratroop brigade, readying ourselves for a drop over the desert to help the UN forces push Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait a final time. I was a lowly private, but I had a good view of the action on the air strip. We checked our helmet radios, and chemical protection gear. Last time we lost Kuwait the frequencies got all fouled up and our guys couldn't call in air strikes in time. We lost the entire Glemp Brigade, they found nothing but ears on the sand. This time the check worked. Our only worry was that the jets were being flown by French pilots vectored in by a Saudi-crewed AWACS while us Poles were being scattered all over the sand while American tanks were busy clogging up their air intakes trying to cover ground. Communicating via Japanese-brand radios, "MADE IN USA" but really in Malaysia or Bulgaria. Ah, if the one-worlders could see us now. "So, pal, ready for the drop?" Kowalski always asked me the same stupid question. It was his way of bumming a smoke. I lit his. "Yep, why the delay, when do we go?" "They're bringing in our 'secret weapon.'" "Hmmmm." I'd heard rumors of a secret weapon to be deployed if the Iraqis finally used chemical weapons. But I had no idea what it could be. After all, most countries had signed off on nonproliferation of nukes and biological weapons. What did that leave us, Poland, still of modest means even under Prime Minister Najder? "You assholes clear the area! This zone is restricted for two more hours!" Neither of us saw the MPs who'd run up behind us on the tarmac. They had machine pistols ready, and Kowalski suggested we honor their advice. "C'mere," he waved, and we ducked into a hangar once the MPs were running off to another clump of idle soldiers. We crouched down, eyes just peering over the glass in the hangar door, smoke burning our eyes as we squinted over the dunes to spot the transports. "THERE!" Kowalski's sight was better than mine, that's for sure. The dot became three, then the bigger dot became a transport with two escorts, who peeled off as the cargo jet lumbered down onto the runway. The strip was deserted except for MPs in jeeps, a small ground crew, and a bus. The jet transport taxied over to the bus and its engines whined terribly. Then the beast disgorged its cargo. Small black figures climbed down the fuselage stairs and walked over to the bus. "No, I don't believe it." I really didn't. Couldn't. "Hell, why not?" Kowalski the realist. "What else would they be doing here, after all?" I had to nod, as I watched the last of our secret weapons pull on his white collar in the hot sun as he boarded the bus. - A. Nonymous ========================================================================= PIGULKI - Editors Jerzy Klimkowski (Incommunicado, USA) email: jzk@vanity.ncat.edu Dave Phillips (Cheektowaga, USA) email: davep@acsu.buffalo.edu Jacek Ulanski (Lodz, Poland) (email: pending, really, pending!) Marek Zielinski (NYC, USA) email: zielinsk@nyuacf.bitnet Note: PIGULKI is distributed free of charge to masochistic readers who request it. All signed articles are Copyright (c) 1990 by their authors. PIGULKI may not be copied or retransmitted without prior permission by the editors and notification of your local public health authorities. Your articles, letters, threats, denunciations are welcome; please send them to any editor you can find who'll admit being one. We reserve the right to edit for brevity. ======================================================================== .