Come to Poland. Bring Your Teeth.

See, so Poland maybe not that bad, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. You might save hundreds of pounds and avoid long waiting lines if you want to get your teeth fixed! Just hop on Easyjet and come on over. Or maybe just ask your new Polish neighbor if he does teeth.

Of course, I must warn you that not all Polish dentists are top of the line. My mom, who will not be happy I am posting this, had her teeth done last time she was in Poland and that didn't work out too well.

Polish Devil Child

A friend of mine in DC forwarded me an article in Germany's Der Spiegel about a Polish teenager who had the "pleasure" of being an exchange student in the U.S. with a family of fundamentalist Christians. As my friend pointed out, the student seems just a little on the whiny side, and it's a shame we're not getting the other side of the story from the nutty family. But it is interesting to see a clash of cultures, especially on such a spectacular scale. Maybe Michael (assuming that's Michal) should have left a little earlier than after six months, but at least he'll have something to talk about, along with the nightmares of being waken up to go to church at the crack of dawn every day.

I would love to see how an American teenager would survive life with a supporter of the nationalistic League of Polish Families, having to recite the rosary every evening...

Chicago Tribune on Polish Slave Labor in Italy

My friend Chris Spolar of The Chicago Tribune wrote a nice piece on the Polish workers who basically worked as slaves in Italy. This story, of course, broke quite a while ago and was, not surprisingly, huge news in Poland. But it's good to see that it has filtered down to the States, at least to the home paper of the largest conglomeration of Poles outside Poland. (Chris used to be a correpondent based in Warsaw)

This is just another indication that the "Polish migrant" stories will be in the headlines for years, even on this side of the ocean.

Daily Mail Invents "Polish Borat"

Not that the Daily Mail is a fan of Polish immigrants, but the British rag hits a new low with its ridiculous story on "Polish Borat." The paper could have found any idiot who gropes women and makes up ridiculous excuses for it, but for clearly political reasons it chose to write an elaborate story about a Polish one.

You have to be an idiot yourself to believe that in a civilized country, which is now a member of the EU, would allow anybody to grab women's breasts and other body parts because it is simply"cultural naughtiness." The guy is on the verge of being a rapist, people! It's got nothing to do with his nationality.

If you're going to use stereotypes to further some xenophobic agenda, at least stick to real ones. This creep is no Borat. That's an over-the-top satire. Just like this BS article. A satire of a real news story.

Check out these clearly made up quotes:

A neighbour said: "He has been living here for about a year or so. I didn't realise his grasp of the differences between Britain and Poland was so poor. You could say he is the Polish Borat."

Another added: "Truth really is stranger than fiction. Who'd have thought a real-life Borat was living here in Weymouth?"

FedEx Sends Back Airbus Order

More bad news for Airbus and its jumbo problem, the A380. Not only did FedEx become the first company to drop its order for the super jumbo, it also announced it would buy 15 Boeing 777 freighters instead. I wouldn't be surprised if other potential customers followed suit. Lufthansa, ja?

If Emirates drops even a part of its biggest order for 43 planes, then I'm not sure if Airbus would ever be able to recover. Keep an eye on this one. The airline's people will be crawling all over Airbus's facility in Toulouse to see if this thing is flying anywhere soon.

Profile of Vanity

My favorite Polish blogger, beatroot, has a nice piece about PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski banning photographers from taking photos of his profile. Wow, this will definitely improve Kaczynski's image.
No need to do any significant policy changes. No need to try to be less hostile. No need to concentrate on running the country. Just make sure you're photographed from the front. I love how simple it is to improve things in the Duck Republic.

But wait, what will happen next time Kaczynski is shaking the hand of a foreign leader? I guess we'll need an over-the-shoulder shot or something. But then, since the Kaczynski twins are such experts at alienating foreigners (not to mention a large part of the Polish population), maybe this won't be such a problem.

UPDATE:

Now, it seems, Kaczynski and Co. are backing away from the ban on photographers, saying it was just a one time deal. So we'll continue to see the ugly ducking from all sides. Here are a bunch of Kaczynski profile photos on Interia (courtesy of my dad, a Kaczynski supporter).