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Dear friends,

Under here a letter I wrote to a Polish e-mail friend of mine who lives in Germany. Nowadys my concern is not about Eastern-Europe, but about Western Europa, where the ethnic, cultural and religious devidance is big and the financial-economical future insecure (when you think of the competition with China, India and Northern-America in the near future).
Fortunately I am a logical-postivist of nature, and a real optimist about my personal international environment and future.
I am only worried about my country, compatriots, Europe and the Europeans. Strangly enough I do not know if I will live here in the Future. Where I will be depends on the personal freedom, the amount of beautiful wildlife in my environment and the population density.
Holland lies in a heavily populated, poisoned and built corner of Europe,
and all problems of Europe are focussed here.
The greatness of America, Poland and South-africa is that it stil has empty space, wildlife and ancient woods (with Wolves, bears, Bisons
and deers).

The letter to the Polish-German friend and an exchange of emails with Jaga:

Dear friend,

Poland is in the news again the last time, in Duch newspapers and television.
Knowing your stanpoint from previous posts and e-mails I think your
favorite of the Polish elections must have been Civic Platform's candidate Donald Tusk.
Today I read that the standpoints of Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski's PiS are close to that of Andrzej Lepper, the leader of the radical farmersparty Samoobrona,
although Jaroslaw said that he did not want to cooperate with Lepper (who is internationally unacceptable), because he favours the Civic Platform of Tusk.
Lech also reached out to his "friends of the Civic Platform" after he won the election.
Will he manage to fight corruption and nepotism in the Polish party political, parlaimentary system, and reform the legal system (which is connected to partypolitical developments) and economy (influence of political parties in state companies). In my view the Nepotism of the "old system" was stil present in the New system, and devided over left, center and right parties.
Is this true or false? You ofcourse as a "real" Pole knows more than I,
because you can read the newspapers (Gazetta Wyborcza, Polityka or Rzechpospolita), the Polish tv and Polish internet forums. I follow English language Polish news.
What is for sure is that Lech Kaczynski wil be another president than the Internationalist Aleksander Kwasniewski.
I think that it is able that in the future Kwasniewski wil become a high international function in the EU, NATO or United Nations, because he has a lot international contacts (a network), experiance and goodwill (look at his role in Poland, Ukraine, NATO and Irak (the Polish military presence and Marek Belka, the prime minister of SLD was a high civil administrator in Irak).
Marek wil also have no problem finding a new job in Poland or in the international field, he has a verry good Currucilum Vitea too.
Although Polish politics was stil a "Polish landtag" in the past decade, fact is that there has arisen a new sort of pragmatic generation of Polish political leaders, who are taken seriously internationally.
Poland is big Centre-European country with a large diaspora in other European countries, and so influential, also via its European parlementairnans, administrators and diplomats in Brussels,
Luxemburg and Stasbourg. And Polish diplomats, entrepreneurs and workers are present and influential in many European Capitals and especially agricultural regions, the construction (real estate) world and transport (read my letter under here to Jaga).
Important is to realise how big the market of Poland is (on many consumergoods you can read Polish descriptions or manuals), and that the Industrial (production), financial and Service sectors are growing (foreign investors and banks are interested in Polish assurance companies, banks and industries, a big part of the Polish market is already in foreign hands -and that worries Polish citizens and politicians. But that is the reality of the Capitalist free market
economy and Global fiancial markets.)
I think that Poland has much benifits above the Western-European countries like Germany and Holland. Polish wages are lower, Poles work harder than Germans and Duch, Poland gets new Industries and a new infrastructure (where Holland and Germany have older structures and are handicapped by their heavy Social security systems of their welfarestates, mirgation integration problems and a traditional
underclass of themselves - Neuk�ln in Berlin, and parts of East-germany with 40% unemployment-).
I just see that there were huge riots in Brigton England between asian and black youth (one youngster died). The same problems are visible in Holland and Germany.
A friend of mine (a neigbour of Duch antillian descent, african and native American blood) is also hostile towards Muslim minorities (Turks and Marrocans), because he has been repeatidly being assaulted racist by these people.
He says that Arabs are stil involved in Slave trade of Black africans .
These problems Poland has not, but I think that maybe Poland might have a growing class problem between the working,- Middle and highclass.
In many former Communist countries the gap between rich and poor is evident. Unfortunately this problem is becomming a Pan-European problem, because everywhere you have a poor alienated underclass of illegal immigants and refugees, traditional national minorities, and the old class of the "national minimal wages" (unemployed and low wage Germans, who vote Linkspartei or NPD). Where the foreign underclass is a target for the Islamist recruiters, the poor white ethnic Europeans are targets for left and right populism, which directs itself against Turkey in the EU, Muslim minorities and Polish workers (they take our jobs the Western European Populists, trade Unions, workers and unemployed say).
My fear is that what were in the sixtees the Italian, Spanish and Portugese guestworkers, and in the seventees the Turks and Maroccans, are the Poles nowadays.
The anti-Polish parols are very unpleasant sometimes.
The only ones who like the Poles are the farmers who need motivated workers for their lands (and can't get the unmotivated Duch unemployed), the Transport employers and the people who want to renovate their house (and find the Duch construction company to expensive).

Greetings from Pieter
Arnhem

Jaga,

Nice to hear from you about the presidential debates I could not follow.
You know that actually I come from a liberal country, which has liberalism
in differant flavours. Only last years the society became more conservative,
conservative-liberal I should say (the European version of liberalism).
Tusk looks like an American entrepreneur, and his TV ads looked like
an Democrat or Republican ad.
What can you tell me more about the debates, the two are both rightwingers.
In Poland it sounds not as a benifit if you have been in politics for years,
because they say that every politician works for his/her own goal and
keeps records of his/her oponents.

I keep to my opinion that I hope that there will be a clean, sincere,
more objective kind of politician in Poland, and that the Poles will understand
that they do not have to fear Europe, because in my opinion Europe (Brussels)
has an excellent small bureacracy (if you compare it to the much bigger
bureaucracies of the Nationals states and Metropoles), very good legislation
and a big European inner market is good for all of us.
In the past poorer countries benifitted from the Structural funds from the EU
(EU financial aid), to built their infrastructures (roads, railways, ports),
to create jobs, to boost their education- and healthcare systems.
Spain, Ireland and Portugal are doing well now, Ireland and Spain are
amongst the best economies of Europe now.
Germany, France and the Netherlands, the stabile and growing economies
of the past are having problems with their economies and growing
unemployment and expensive welfarestate (reforming their Social security).
Poland can stil benefit from the low wages compared with Western-Europe,
and a fairly young population.
Skoda-Volkswagen had a factory in Poz�an which was the most modern
factory in the world in the ninetees.
And I remember traveling back to Holland in the bus, that between krakow
and the Polish border in the West I saw a huge factory in the night with the
Opel sign on the roof, a modern production line, and workers standing
outside during a brake (that's how I could look inside, because they opened
the doors from the side, so that I could see it from the highway, passing by).
I understadn that the Poles fear that they might loose some Social security,
because lots of old people had to continue working after their pension,
because their Pensions were not high enough to be able to live from it.
I know that from friends from my mother in Poland, an architect and his wife.
And I saw some -normal- old people begging in Krakow in 2004, and some
of them working as tourist guides or marketsalesmen.

Greetings,
Pieter

Op 24-okt-05 om 5:12 heeft Jagoda het volgende geschreven:

Pieter,

I was also for Tusk but he was consider by some Poles as too much of a liberal. Some Poles were afraid that they would lose some social benefits. I was also a bit dissapointed in the presidential debates. Tusk was too agressive, too confrontational, Kaczynski was actually much more moderate and more calm.

Yes, Tusk is more pro-european but Kaczynski is a guy who sits in politics for years. He is not stupid and he would not try to change the course too much.

Skoda is in Czech republic, opel? I am not sure

come to the forum, we have some discussions about it now:

-- Jagoda Urban-Klaehn
e-mail: jaga@klaehn.myrf.net

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Pieter,

I am glad you posted our e-mail exchange in the forum. It is not a surprise that you were supporting Donald Tusk - a person who is very pro-european in its views. We just have to hope that Kaczynski, who is also an experienced dyplomate - would not do anything which would antagonize Western Europeans. In Polish mass media I heard that Germans are already very afraid of him. I heard Kaczynski saying that... the national agreement and cooperation is MORE important than any political arguments or reckoning with the communistic past.

Jaga,

Thanks for your response.
I supported Tusk without really knowing who he really is,
exept from the handsome man I saw on pictures and tv.
I support him because he looks like a modern businessman,
a entrepreneur, a man of the future, a liberal man from a sympathetic party (the civic platform). Before I even knew who Tusk was I was
interested in that centre-right (European-) liberal party (which unites the best of the American Democratic party and the the Republicans).
Kaczynski however I considered a reactionary conservative meir of Warsaw, and I did'nt like the power of twins.
But I can totally understand that traditional Poles, Catholics, farmers
and the poor and old people (who live under difficult conditions in the many Polish cities and towns, have small pensions) fear that a contimuation of the reforms in Polish society might hurt their intrest,
and that Kaczynski has a more social profile.
Anyway the parties of the two candidates will participate in a Coalition
government. I hope that the Civic Platform can put some pressure on PiS not to follow an Isolationalist and anti-German course, because that will be counter productive. I totally can understand the fear of Germany for Kaczynski, because after Poland, also other (Eastern-)European countries cut put claims on Germany for their war damage.
In my view we must look at the New democatic federal Germany, and recognise that there is a new generation, which has nothing to do with the crimes of their ancesters, but are very aware of the hurt these people put on other Europeans, because they are educated about it
and Germany over and over again appolagised for it, asked for forgivenes, has very strict anti-nazi laws and is another country than
sixty years ago. The anti-german sentiments in Poland are understandable from one side, but from the other side stubborn and rediculous. It is a shame that young Germans feel hostility in Poland,
like a very kind, sympathetic girlfriend of mine (half Duch-half German),
who could not get a cab and was not helped in shops in Warsaw when people recognised her as a German. I advised her to speak English.
I tell this as a Duch citizen, a person from a country which has had strong anti-German emotions among its citizens.
In my opinion wer as young Europeans can get along as long as our countries can coap with eachother, doesn't follow narrow reactionary Nationalist courses, in which hostility towards the other and superiority rules. In the past decades my country benefitted from a duo course with the German economy, a shared monetary (gulden-Mark) policy, a positive German cultural and musical influence, and a huge German tourism to our North sea coasts and cities.
We Duch always complained about the German masses which floaded our highways, roads and beaches. But in fact they were descent, quiet
people who spend a lot of money in our shops, restaurants and culture.
Poland lies between Germany and Russia, two countries who rampaged and devided Poland amongst themselves (together with Austria) for centuries. Polands attitude towards these neighbours is one of natural distrust, historical awareness and sensiblities, and selfdefense.
I think Poland has the right to be worried about Russia, and will be watching the German-Russian bilateral relationship very carefully.
But don't underestimate Polands power as a large European influential country, because it is the gate to the east, a political centre, a trade and industrial nation, an important NATO and EU partner and the leader of the Visgrad (Central/Eastern-European) countries.
I think that Poland can benefit from Germany to in the exchange of knowledge and technology, in the educational field (Polish students studying in Germany, and vice versa), infrastructure (good border connections; better roads and railways for the transport -import and export- and personal traffic between Poland and Western-Europe).
Poland is a prowd, Patriotic, Catholic nation with very pragmatic
and polite (kind) people. I think Poland has the future in Europe if it can stransform itself from a post-Communist country (with corruption, nepotism, and a gap between rich and poor) to a classical European nation, in which "trias politica", checks and ballances, counter-veiling powers in a pluriform democratic culture make a country of freedom and
competition of ideas and goals and a healthy Civil society.
A Democratic civilized Poland recognizes it's hetrogenic rich cultural heritage of Medieval strength (The Polish kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian empire), early "democracy of the nobility" (The chambres of Magnata
and Schlagtsa), the Hanze trade system (from which Polish nobility
and merchants benefited, like the Duch and Germans), the cultural and scientific heritage of Renaissance (Italian cultural influence, Bacciarelli,
Copernicus), Baroc/Roccoco, Enlightenment (Humanism), Habsburg culture (like Prague and Budapest, Krakow is a Habsburg city), Jugenstil (and maybe art neauveau; the French influence on Polish artists and intelligentsia; Chopin, Marie Curie), and the Russian Tsarist rule (Poles studied, worked and lived in St.Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev, my grandfather studied in Kiev, and he was born in Lithuania -like Milos-),
and I forgot the Bohemian influence on early Polish literature and cities
(Wroclaw originally was a bohemian city, became German and ended Polish), and I end with the national minorities, the Eastern-Orthodox Ruthens, Ukranians and Russians, the Lutheranian Germans and the jews. Poland is a rich country rooted is European culture and Slavian roots, and today it's democratic culture, well educated youth and sophisticated literature, art, theatre, cinema and press show that.
20 million Poles and half-Poles follow Poland from a distance, and are amased how Poland is changing and has changed.
Fortunately the good things of the old days stayed, and we hope that
the New president, government and parlaiment will do their job as good as they can for Poland and for Polands neighbours (Europe).

Pieter

Pieter,

***Kaczynski however I considered a reactionary conservative meir of Warsaw, and I did'nt like the power of twins. But I can totally understand that traditional Poles, Catholics, farmers***

there are primary and secondary issues in politics. The right wing in America wants to win the public opinion by showing that "liberals" are for abortion and guy marriages. Maybe these issues are important for some people, but sorry for me - this is not of a main importance in the politics.

On the other hand - the conservatives forget that at least American liberals are for health care for everybody and also for keeping or even expanding social benefits and THESE ISSUES ARE IMPORTANT.

I believe that majority of people, at least these educated who were voting for Kaczynski - were voting for him not because he is "better" catholic than Tusk but becuase they were worried for losing some social protection offered by government, they were worrying for privatization of the health services. Tusk was also for a flat tax, I was suporting Tusk more but I was worried for these issues. Here in America low taxes really help the rich, I can understand if they help businesses but I do not like if they help the businesses to the extend that the business tries to help their CEO millions of dollars in the profit. Does it make any sense that some people earn millions of dollars when the rest barely survives on a daily basis?

by the way - I am curious a bit about the health care in Holland - is it free, is it socialized? Does it operate a bit like German healthcare?

Jaga,

I understand that there are primary and secondary issues in politics.
Primary is good macro-economic policies, financial responsibilitiy and
stablitity (not a to big state debth, fiscal responsibility, just monetary policy), a good infra-structure (Good roads, highways, bridges, street lighting, good irrigation systems for the country and modern electricity
grid and supply), a good Healthcare (Medcicare) system, Social security
and public housing. In Holland there is free abortion, the gay marriage
is instituationalised, softdrugs are free available in Coffeshops, and euthenasia is legal. The devidance between Conservatives and socialists here is about economical matters, about a more controled economy (consensus social-economical policy of the cooperation of the three partners, Government, employers and Unions, the European social Captilist Rhineland model -the Duch version is called Polder model-)
or a more free economy with a small government, low taxes, little social security and a bigger gap between rich and poor; they call it the anglo-saxon British-American stakeholderseconomy overher).
Are these the issues that are of a main importance in your politics too.
I am interested in history and politics, besides culture and I think these things are important for me. I never think about Abortion or Gay marriage, because they do not play a role in my present life.
With Euthenasia and drugs the same thing. It exsists, but does not bother me.
Health care for everybody important in the Duch system, because in our political system solidarity and care for the weak are important (there is a consensus betweenh left and right about that. Only our left is for keeping or even expanding social benefits like the American liberals do while the right wants to reform the system, and put a more sober Social security in the place of the expensive old one -they want more responsable and working citizens, less people who live from social benefits and more working people-). The dominance of the solidarity idea is because to big Social movements dominated Duch politics and so policymaking for decades, the christian-democrats (with a big social-christian wing -evangelical inspired helping the poor- and the christian labourmovement -Union-) and the Social-democratic party and Union. Everybody wanted to pay more taxes for good helathcare, social security, good roads and the less fortunately compatriots who needed support. This Welfarestate has become very expensive and made to many people dependant of the state-structures and city-councils.
Now both left and right see the necessesety of reform, more working people to pay the pensions and healthcare.

I believe your reasoning why the majority of people, who voted for Kaczynski, becuase they are worried about losing some social protection offered by government, and are worrying for privatization of the health services. These privatisation of the healthcare is partly taking place in Holland, where hospitals are forced to compete with eachother to get the patients, and where assurancecompanies are competing to and so are putting pressure on the hospitals and doctors.
Many Duch patients and elderly people go abroad, because they find the healthcare and living conditions in surrounding countries better.
Belgian and German hospitals and docters have Duch patients.
Many Duch people live in the border regions of these countries, and their children go to Belgian (Flemish) schools, because they consider the Duch speaking education better than in their country.
Due to the privatisations (a mixed system of state influence - funds of the ministry of health- and the private sector), many poor people can't afford healthcare, and simply do not go to the dentist or doctor.
The Netheralnds are now in a condition which lays between the Continental European (German) sytem and the British and American systems. There is a shortage of healthcare personel and the government cuts back on many expenses.
Here in Holland the rich and middle class always complained about the huge taxes, but the poor have difficulties to get acces on property, and
a future perspective for their kids. Like in America (and all over the world) people of the underclass stay in their misery for decades.
Holland is a western country with the problems of Western countries. Also in Holland the the CEO's urn millions of dollars as their part of the profit. While there were massive redundancies in companies, factories and institutions, wage restraints, mergings and closures, leaving administrators of state companies and firms get Golden handshakes, and new administrators/CEO's get millions to get them entering the companies. A national debate was started after it became known that hospital directors and heads of an electricity company and Assurance company (Pensionfund) earned more than our prime-minister.
In the beginning of 2006 we get a basic healthcare assurance for everybody, it's something like a flattax.

Pieter
by the way - I am curious a bit about the health care in Holland - is it free, is it socialized? Does it operate a bit like German healthcare?