To talk, let alone write, about genitalia, and, particularly those of horses, is a rather tricky undertaking but since what I have in mind are matters of national – indeed: international – import, as well as matters of literature, I have perpetrated this text in the hope of offending neither human nor equine feelings. 2008, if I remember right, saw the collapse of a highly influential Polish literary magazine. It was called Studium. This journal occupies a place particularly close to the heart of the writer of these lines. It is exactly ten years since I made my literary debut […]

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 […]

At a ceremony in Dunaföldvár, a small town in the middle of the Hungarian puszta, a hundred and thirty new members of the extremist New Hungarian Guard were recently inducted. On the same day hundreds of supporters of the original Hungarian Guard, a militant informal branch of Jobbik, currently the third strongest party in parliament, met in Budapest. The original Hungarian Guard was banned in 2009 by the courts only to re-emerge under a new name. Its members wear black uniforms and carry striped banners reminiscent of the fascist Arrow Cross, the militia responsible for the deaths of thousands of […]

Za posledné roky väčšina občanov Grécka schudobnela, prišla o zamestnanie, prípadne o strechu nad hlavou. Výrazná časť spoločnosti už nemá prostriedky na to, aby mohla v existujúcom systéme prežiť. ďaleko najhoršie to postihlo ľudí, ktorí žijú v mestách a nemôžu si pomôcť vlastným poľnohospodárstvom. Škrty v zdravotníctve zasahujú najmä pacientov s chronickými chorobami. To sú prvé obete politiky zacielenej na čísla a štatistiky, a nie na ľudí. Často teraz počúvam o samovraždách. Mladí ľudia odchádzajú z krajiny hľadať prácu inde a stávajú sa z nich otroci paranoidného systému: kupujú si čas v krajinách, ktoré onedlho budú v podobnej situácii ako […]

Európa má šancu prežiť vzostup nových ekonomických mocností len ak prehĺbi svoju integráciu, radí Timothy Garton Ash. Kto získal najviac medailí na Olympiáde? Európa. Kto má najväčšiu ekonomiku na svete? Zas Európa. A kam sa najviac ľudí túži vybrať na dovolenku? Prirodzene, do Európy. Z hľadiska mnohých mocenských ukazovateľov tvorí Európska Únia spolu so Spojenými štátmi a Čínou svetovú Veľkú Trojku. No ak to dnes poviete vládnym predstaviteľom v Pekingu, Washingtone alebo v inom svetovom hlavnom meste, najskôr sa vám nahlas vysmejú. V týchto dňoch, keď európski predstavitelia rozkrúcajú ďalšie kolo krízových rokovaní na najvyššej úrovni je táto potenciálna veľmoc poväčšine vnímaná […]

The following passage in an interview with a right-wing politician of many years’ standing conducted by [journalist] Jan Schneider recently caught my eye: …in the 1920s Chicago was ruled by the mob. But it wasn’’t the police or the judiciary who sorted them out but a community-based organisation, the Chicago Crime Commission. They released the List of Public Enemies and started gathering information on everyone listed. At the top of the list was Al Capone, followed by his brother Ralph. It was the will of the citizens and their willingness to change things that helped solve the problem. Not even […]