Going against the flow, Krzysztof Kieślowski used to say that the first step toward making the world a better place is to clean one’’s shoes in the morning. How un-Polish! In Poland improvements have to start with a big bang. Then we’’ll see what’s next. Clean shoes are just a metaphor. However, a medical conglomerate in the US took it quite literally. They have launched a reform that made doctors and nurses wash their hands. Everyone entering a ward has to spend a minute by the sink first. If they don’’t, they set off an alarm operated by a computer […]

Photo: Peter Župník Platforma Obywatelska [PO, the Civic Platform] has been in power for 16 months. It has avoided major blunders but also major successes. Perhaps it is for the best: it is terrifying to think what might have happened if the government had managed to push its election promises through Parliament during the months following the election and if the global crisis had hit us at the early, painful stages of reforms, and well before their benefits (if any) had been felt. In the course of these 16 months the PO came up with a number of ideas, decisions […]