Reality Outpost

Family ties, or distant cousins

2008-04-11T10:26:00.002+02:00

Recent issue of The Economist (March 29) presents a very interesting picture of mutual British-American relations, as well as the attitudes of both nations. Apparently, the Atlantic Ocean is much more than the ancient Mare Interior, despite announcements of George W. Bush or Gordon Brown, about shared values.

British society is far more liberal than the cousins. In some cases even Tories are further to the left than Dems. Particularly spectacular differences refer to the issue of religion - that 80% of Yankees believe in God I knew, but that 60% of them take the existence of hell for granted surprised me, and that 40% explain the life on Earth by the Genesis left me in utter astonishment. 40% of Yankees consider homosexuality as a sin, and 35% regard a sinful behaviour also premarital sex... Europeans' views, obviously, could hardly be more different.

Conditions for military action do not divide Anglosaxons, fair enough, with the exception of the orthodox GOP supporters, keen to use army to solve diplomatic stalemates. Britannia does not rule the seas any longer and Brits are aware of that. On the other hand, Americans are more likely to "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to prevent the mullahs from building weapons of mass destruction. 74% of Yankees is convinced that in certain terms waging a war is legitimate to secure justice and order of law. Europeans are traditionally against that attitude - the Munich Agreement (1938) is the best example.

Yankees believe also that globalization has a destructive impact on national economy - obviously, it is difficult to convince otherwise "ordinary people", who are afraid of offshoring. It is similar in Europe, however Britons, leaving in much more open society, are more aware of globalization results.

Growing differences affect Atlantic relations: British enthusiasm for America is gradually abating. Still one Briton in two likes cousins across the Ocean, but just after the 9/11 3/4 of them sympathised with Yankees.

A typical Yankee - that is not an inhabitant of any metropolis on either coast - is still a conservative, religious nationalist, ready to fight for his property with a gun. The old Polish diaspora is not any different. It is not surprising that president Lech Kaczyński feels like at long-gone home in America.

Original text posted at April 9 at polarwombat.wordpress.com. More in The Economist (Anglo-Saxon attitudes).

Taboo of the 21st century

2008-03-31T15:44:00.003+02:00

Carbon dioxide became recently the victim of political correctness. Taking into account the row between Warsaw and Brussels about CO2 emission limits, I am beginning to wonder where the ocean of involved hypocrisy ends.
I started to feel uneasy, when I saw The Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. Later the movie won the Academy Award, and subsequently Al Gore received... the Nobel Peace Prize. I had serious reservations concerning the laureates chosen by Norwegian Nobel Committee, and award for the piece of cinematography.
The assumption that CO2 is a form of pollution is somewhat flawed for me. It is not a toxic gas, but a permanent component of the atmosphere. Carbon content in the air oscillated largely over the long periods of time - the last increase over recent 50 years is correlated with a global warming, that's for sure, but over the recent millennium it is difficult to find a stable relation. Decades of growth preceded years of slump. Yes, we should talk about CO2 caps and taxation to restrict the emission - but we need to discuss that in terms of economy and sustainable growth. We can not allow a bunch of radicals to threaten the socio-economic growth by killing industries, like coal gasification for one example. That is commendable that EC is working on a solution to tax carbon emission induced by automotive industry as long as its aim is to boost innovative technologies, and not to harm customers and therefore also car makers.
Polish CO2 emission in 1989 - the beginning of economic transition - amounts to some 500 MMT. Nine years later it was 330 MMT, and in 2006 - 210 MMT. And still, the Greens attacked the government that the direction is not proper, because in 2005 the total amount of CO2 discharged to the atmosphere was 4 MMT lower... That is ridiculous. The Economist issued on March 15 published interesting data showing that in years 1996-2005 environmental taxes as a share of total tax receipts in Poland increased by 1.52 percentage point, far more than in Germany, Holland or Denmark. The same indicator for UK, USA, Canada Spain and France showed even a negative rate. Why then it is Central Europe blamed for not complying to environmental targets? Is it a sheer hypocrisy or something else?

Posted at polarwombat.wordpress.com on March 30, 2008.

White summit, black economy

2008-03-31T14:47:00.004+02:00

On Wednesday, March 19th, the White Summit of medical professionals and the government finally came to an end after two months of futile discussions. The summit was conceived to elaborate some common resolutions, acceptable by the government, and capable of solving at least a couple of major challenges that Polish healthcare system faces. Some of the recommendations do not raise any objections. Why the summit turned out to be a failure then?
The parties addressed 4 major areas: legal status of the "independent healthcare facilities" (mostly hospitals), finance sources, patient empowerment and human resources. Views at many topics were common for partners: that hospitals should become companies regulated by the commercial law (however, unions raised concerns about prospective privatization), that public and private entities should be equally treated by the public payer, that public hospitals should be allowed to contract medical services privately provided that that would not lengthen waiting lists, that farmers should pay health insurance premiums on general principles and so on. Labour unions raised their doubts about private health insurance.
The Prime Minister ruled out the very idea of patient co-payment, rejected many of the submitted demands on a charge that professional groups are attempting to make their own deals, what caused split among the signatories of the final document. Physicians refused to take part in proceeding with drafts submitted by the government. The agreement fell apart. Donald Tusk announced that the government would increase compulsory health insurance premium by one percentage point. End of the long-announced reform?

Posted at polarwombat.wordpress.com on March 20, 2008.

Party of questionable intelligentsia

2008-03-31T13:55:00.004+02:00

Jarosław Kaczyński set for the Law and Justice (PiS) party a new target: to regain support of intellectuals. Well, not all of them, but these acknowledging the crisis of Polish national identity are welcome. A great challenge, indeed, but I don't expect him to be successful: Mr Kaczyński's political views makes him an epigone of traditional nationalism that had enormous merits in winning independence for Poland in 1918, but is now long obsolete.
On May 1 PiS organized a congress entitled Polish intelligentsia and public life after elections to mark the first stage of recovering from populism, but the event turned out to be a pathetic failure.
The party started to build a new, conservative intelligentsia by not inviting Adam Michnik for the anniversary of civil strife in March 1918. Apparently, Kaczyński&Co decided to re-interpret Polish history, like in 1984 by Orwell. The ceremony held in the Presidential Palace has been obscured by the absence of Mr Michnik, a standard bearer of students' movement then.

Posted at polarwombat.wordpress.com on March 7, 2008.

The Balkan pot, it is boiling again

2008-03-28T16:37:00.010+01:00

On February 17 a new small and poor state appeared on the Balkan map. Since then, this feeble entity managed to stir up international community and ruthlessly exposed EU weakness where common foreign policy is required. One should expect that it is only the beginning of trouble caused by Kosovo, the state capable of becoming a seedbed of separatism and organized crime in Europe.
Albanians compose 90% of Kosovo population - not always it was like that, even after World War II Serbs dominated the province. For them Kosovo is still a unique category for national identity - in 1389 Turks routed allied Serb and Bosnian army during the epic Battle of Kosovo, putting an end to Serbian independence for some 500 years. For Serbs Battle of Kosovo remain the key for self-recognition, like Grunwald for Poles or Gettysburg for Americans.

More at polarwombat.wordpress.com. Posted on March 10, 2008.