tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186894432011-07-28T06:28:01.277-05:00Over the last few years I worked as a correspondent in Warsaw and Amsterdam. Then I studied Law in Chicago. Now it's Washington, DC, and then we'll see...Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.comBlogger2061100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-42934586572537804922007-03-23T00:15:00.000-05:002007-03-23T00:34:13.475-05:00

There is nothing better than getting a tape of one of the leaders of Poland's post-communist party (SLD) ripping on pretty much every one of the other top leftists, including former president Aleksander Kwasniewski and former prime minister Leszek Miller. But that's exactly what we got with another former PM and handsome devil, Jozef Oleksy putting out a full load of dirty laundry in a taped

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-17969046917057883062007-03-21T16:03:00.000-05:002007-03-21T18:04:38.155-05:00

A little PR here. Here's an article I wrote on the fundraising by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Last year he got some serious money from Utah, the heart of Mormon country. I calculated that it's about 5o cents for each Utah resident, and that in the year before he has to get big dough to run the official campaign.UPDATE:Interesting set of responses out there. Some positive, and

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-91270951049865381572007-03-13T22:28:00.000-05:002007-03-13T22:52:31.845-05:00

Well, at least you can call Burger King persistent. The company pulled out of Poland a few years ago, selling all its restaurants to KFC. Well, the grill broiled burgers are coming back. And, if I am not mistaken, the new license is held by AmRest Holding, the same company that pulled the plug last time. McDonalds survived in Poland, just recently celebrating 15 years there. Why anybody would

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-88047506490122542622007-03-12T00:04:00.000-05:002008-12-11T12:52:47.614-05:00

Look who's back in the good graces of Andrzej Lepper. On Sunday, the leader of Self Defense brought Stanislaw Lyzwinski to a news conference discussing these bizarre IOU's Lepper forced all party members sign to guarantee they won't leave the party.So what if Lyzwinski is likely to be indicted for sexual assault, intimidation of witnesses and other charges. Lepper had banished his former right

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-38614716621048602942007-03-11T23:15:00.000-05:002007-03-11T23:57:14.588-05:00

"It has to be clearly said that 16 months after PiS's victory, no activist or supporter of our party, who bled himself during our election campaign, suffers from hunger and want."This stark quote was made by one of the leaders of the Kaczynski brothers' PiS party, as quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.Of course all politicians have to reward their supporters and the spoils system has been around for ages.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-58314886657438084702007-03-11T22:45:00.000-05:002007-03-11T23:03:56.358-05:00

Polish Outlook pointed me in the direction of this Bloomberg article. It tries to show that fewer Poles are heading to the U.S., especially Chicago, to get illegal jobs because they can find legal ones in western Europe. Not a far stretch to see the rational for this, although the mostly anecdotal evidence in the article doesn't prove very convincing.One indication: fewer people eat pierogi at

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-17331975727484423192007-03-10T22:26:00.000-05:002007-03-10T22:39:45.220-05:00

Beatroot wrote a nice post on the new law that requires all journalists, possibly even bloggers, to be vetted for communist collaboration. All in all, just another move by the Kaczynski government to hurt the unfriendly journalists. After all, why would the media criticize the Duck Republic unless it was loaded full of communist sympathizers and former agents?The biggest problem here is not the

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-42831717620786322082007-03-08T00:26:00.000-05:002007-03-08T01:31:02.516-05:00

The Wall Street Journal is running a great feature today by Dan Michaels on the way that mainly Polish job seekers have helped no frill airline Wizz Air to become a success. Wizz had targeted these emigrants almost from the start, helping it to develop a foothold in Poland and other East European countries before Ryanair and others figured out the game here.There is one chart in the article I

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-72596852308840513872007-03-07T02:15:00.000-05:002007-03-07T04:48:38.392-05:00

So the geniuses at the neo-socialist Self Defense party have come up with another brilliant idea. They are proposing a new law that would forbid Polish television stations from inserting commercials into movies and other programming without the consent of the author. Sure, nobody's happy that they have to sit through advertising in the middle of another showing of Home Alone (a perennial favorite

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-35353990832009706122007-03-04T01:13:00.000-05:002007-03-04T01:29:42.148-05:00

Just came across this weird item, which says Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is coming to Poland as part of a European trip that will also include Spain. Not many details, but one of the issues to be discussed is the "war on terror." Poland is playing a key role in Afghanistan, so I'm sure that will be another issue on the table. I'm almost worried that this visit will place Poland back on

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-42293554116796080522007-02-26T01:12:00.000-05:002008-12-11T12:52:47.833-05:00

Not surprisingly, the Oscar for the best foreign flick went to Lives of Others, a movie portraying the obsession of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, to spy on its own people.I highly recommend the movie. I especially enjoyed it because I am fascinated by the how the old communist systems tried to control its citizens and how people reacted to the authoritarian state. One of the most

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-64133502225164709542007-02-25T23:47:00.000-05:002007-02-26T00:34:19.646-05:00

So far, I have stayed away from writing about the report on the Polish military intelligence agency (WSI) released last week. Mainly, I thought this was just yet another pile of dirt compiled to discredit the critics of the Kaczynski brothers. This particular tool, dull as it was, seemed to have mainly targeted members of the media. The report was compiled by a Kaczynski henchman, Antoni

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-16172935823501792022007-02-22T21:54:00.000-05:002007-02-22T22:14:39.796-05:00

While you're reading the rest of the blog, take a listen to this song. One of my favorites, in large part because it reminds me of someone special from across the ocean. She's far away, but I think about her always. Of course, it's also dedicated to my two fantastic sisters!What a lovely version. Enjoy Antony and the Johnsons.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-46817482660619088252007-02-22T13:51:00.000-05:002008-12-11T12:52:47.987-05:00

Seems like this little cartoon in the New Yorker is causing quite a stir among the Polish community in Gotham City and elsewhere. The magazine editor's somewhat shaky explanation is that "the heart of the joke is the difficulty in saying the name." In this vain, my parents must have been on drugs when they named me Krzysztof, forgetting to put a few extra vowels in there.So is this a Polish joke?

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-45847595559737494412007-02-21T22:05:00.000-05:002007-02-23T03:07:42.376-05:00

I know, I know. It's not a shocker anymore to read articles by baffled foreign correspondents about the mess in Poland. But this article by Judy Dempsey in the International Herald Tribune goes quite deeply into the Kaczynski purges and vendetta-driven policies. And yes, there's little time for planning future policies in the Duck Republic, and the weak opposition is sidelined. What else is new?

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-82392429205251934622007-02-14T01:19:00.000-05:002007-02-14T01:37:01.529-05:00

"I probably have to do it. I don't think I have another option." That's what former prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is saying about taking a job at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. And, he adds, London is a capital of the world, perhaps along with New York.So, there we have it. Even though he didn't get a job at PKO BP, Marcinkiewicz will work at a bank. I wonder if

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-72025615382371807832007-02-10T21:22:00.000-05:002007-02-10T22:11:06.516-05:00

Former Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has withdrawn his name from consideration for the top post at PKO BP. In his blog, Marcinkiewicz blames the decision on the whole controversy surrounding his candidacy, which would have made his job much more difficult. Marcinkiewicz points a stern finger at the media, as well as the financial and banking circles, from which he"did not received

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-30951886372592326952007-02-05T22:56:00.000-05:002007-02-06T00:15:26.395-05:00

Another great day for mediocrity in Poland. Defense minister Radek Sikorski, one of the more qualified members of the the Kaczynski cabinet, was fired over a dispute with the head of military counterintelligence Antoni Macierewicz, one of the most nationalist politicians loyal to the Kaczynski twins. Sure, there are plenty of other layers behind this latest move that I won't discuss, but it still

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-33632227448761965512007-02-01T21:21:00.000-05:002007-02-01T21:38:18.637-05:00

Four. That's how many women have now come forward accusing the leader of the neo-communist Self-Defense party, Andrzej Lepper, of pressuring them to have sex with him. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the latest witness is hard to dismiss. She's a wife of a prominent member of the party who advised Lepper on relations with Ukraine. Heck, he even got Lepper a doctorate from a Ukrainian university,

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-6251790444346841802007-01-31T23:32:00.000-05:002007-01-31T23:41:43.554-05:00

I especially enjoyed this little quote from an FT article by Jan Cienski about Polish music bands having problems attracting audiences because of the record migration of young Poles to western Europe.The government has woken up to the population drain. A poster campaign compares young people who have decided to stay with veterans of the wartime underground.Yeah, that will do it. Young people

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-25105802102292120212007-01-31T22:46:00.000-05:002007-02-01T21:46:47.325-05:00

"Dear great, extremely smart and all knowing journalists. I sincerely ask you to leave me along and to stop looking for something for me to do." This is how former Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz starts his latest blog entry (in Polish). Frustrated? A little.Looks like his successor and party boss Jaroslaw Kaczynski has come to his senses and decided no to squeeze the supervisory

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-24509666546216309902007-01-25T10:59:00.000-05:002007-01-25T12:12:11.840-05:00

I'm a big movie fan and do my best to stay away from the plethora of crappy movies out there. But sometimes you get caught in the traps set by the evil marketing geniuses out there. Still, here's an interesting article to help avoid falling into their traps. It walks through all those sneaky strategies used to convince you to buy/watch awful movies. Enjoy. And for God's sake, stay away from those

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-75310131709234772922007-01-18T23:00:00.000-05:002008-12-11T12:52:48.203-05:00

Lepper-gate, or Sex-gate, or whatever you call this mess in Poland, looks to be getting even uglier. With "Archbishop Spy" grabbing the headlines in the recent weeks (scandals seem to be coming from all directions in Poland nowadays), Lepper-gate has been mostly pushed into the back pages. But there have been some developments worth mentioning.According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Deputy Prime Minister

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-88695775230093330762007-01-17T00:02:00.000-05:002007-01-17T00:05:19.668-05:00

If you fly a lot (and this blog's name is Traveling Life), then I recommend reading this handy Wall Street Journal article on what happens when your luggage disappears and what you should do in that unfortunate event.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-56817150210578125322007-01-16T22:17:00.000-05:002007-01-16T22:30:02.859-05:00

Polish papers are trumpeting the impending change at the top of PKN Orlen, central Europe's largest oil company. The Kaczynski twins are pushing another less-than-qualified crony to run a leading Polish company thanks to the government's golden share. He will replace a much more qualified manager. When I wrote about this to my friend Piotrek, a keen observer of Polish business, here's how he

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-16856297436695177692007-01-14T22:02:00.000-05:002007-01-15T14:49:25.178-05:00

I'm glad to say this blog has some loyal readers who are nice enough to share their thoughts about Poland and other issues. I bow to all of you and hope you'll continue to write. I'll be happy to post your notes here.Here's one long essay from Mikhail. A lot of his opinions are near opposites of mine, but please take a look.From an American's point of view, the current political situation in

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-22208904019254417662007-01-12T13:04:00.000-05:002007-01-15T00:37:28.452-05:00

Poland has a new central bank governor. His name is Slawomir Skrzypek and is completely unqualified for the job. Here's a quote from the Financial Times: In a parliamentary hearing earlier this week, Mr Skrzypek had some difficulties answering MPs' questions, and confused the deceased Wim Duisenberg with Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the European Central Bank since 2003, when asked for

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-39482345524171985422007-01-04T00:49:00.000-05:002007-01-04T01:11:06.163-05:00

The fictional story of Nikodem Dyzma, a clever nobody who rockets to the top of the Poland's social and political world, has been part of the Polish psyche for decades. There are three movie versions of the book written in 1932, which I'd guess is a record for Polish remakes. I even gave my mom a box set of two of the versions for Christmas.And now thanks to a posting on the clever Polish blog

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-18988852717102802152007-01-03T01:46:00.000-05:002007-01-04T01:24:01.989-05:00

A few years ago, an up-and-coming member of the post-Communist SLD party was asked what his goals are as a politician in Poland. His answer? "I want to become a millionaire within a couple years and a multi-millionaire down the line." Nothing about helping Poland, making things better. Not a snippet of idealism. (Forgive my naivety)And no wonder. SLD, a successor of the repressive communist

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-83840502144301431482007-01-02T23:02:00.000-05:002007-01-05T00:55:24.877-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous posting, I wrote an investigative piece more than a month ago on annual trips to the Caribbean region by Congressional Democrats led by powerful Charles Rangel. In the article, I pointed out that Rangel did not file a required travel disclosure form for his 2005 trip. I also discussed the fact that the trip is sponsored by many big corporations, even though the

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-11374538107579390932007-01-02T21:46:00.000-05:002007-01-02T22:17:17.733-05:00

Former Polish PM Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has started on his short path to get the top job at Poland's (if not Eastern/Central Europe's largest) bank PKO BP. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, he is taking on a job of an adviser to the interim chief executive. This quick "internship" seems to be a charade to soon hand Marcinkiewicz the top job at PKO in an official (and likely rigged) selection process

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-64260902997944870962006-12-21T21:04:00.000-05:002006-12-24T16:35:17.699-05:00

Pretend for a minute you are looking for somebody to run a small bank branch and this impressive resume hits your desk:* physics teacher at elementary school - 7 years* vice principal - 2 years* board of education member - 3 years* experience running a company - none* knowledge of a financial institution - noneWould you hire this person? What if I said he had some political experience???Well,

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-38147161530002875972006-12-13T18:45:00.000-05:002006-12-13T18:59:38.180-05:00

The bully tactics of Uncle Vladimir and his posse have been a recurring theme on this blog. So I was glad to see that the Economist took the subject head on this week, along with a great cover. This is just another signal to European leaders that they better stop appeasing Russia, while looking for energy sources not coming from their increasingly obstinate eastern neighbor.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-54784626188673398592006-12-10T18:53:00.000-05:002006-12-10T19:02:45.950-05:00

Looks like that whole global warming thing is the cow's fault. Those crazy animals create more carbon dioxide than cars. So, if you want to save the environment, eat them steaks and burgers!

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-22466710324542534512006-12-10T06:05:00.000-05:002006-12-10T06:25:33.270-05:00

Self Defence leader Andrzej Lepper with his usual flair for overaggeration and hysterics, has already called it a coup attemp and called for the closure (!) of Gazeta Wyborcza. But is Poland's media at fault here for the sex scandal that has been consuming Lepper's party. Is Lepper right?The answer, mostly, is no. Wyborcza, no lover of Lepper, has perhaps jumped the gun with its sex scandal story

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-37746811434534193642006-12-09T14:42:00.000-05:002006-12-09T15:05:21.311-05:00

All the articles, all the chest beating, all the blogging. Now it turns out that one leaders of Self Defense is not the father of his accuser's child. So, the main accusations against Stanislaw Lyzwinski turn out to be false, casting a shadow on other statements by Aneta Krawczyk.I thought Krawczyk was a credible witness, but it seems I was wrong. As with many others, her accusations played right

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-62723490688974053612006-12-09T09:36:00.000-05:002006-12-09T10:27:28.952-05:00

First, she says she can describe his private parts. Then, there's the photo of the two of them together. Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton? No, this time it's the Polish version: Aneta Krawczyk and Self-Defense leader Andrzej Lepper. Today daily Rzeczpospolita printed a great photo of the two of them together, with Lepper tenderly holding Krawczyk's cheek. If I remember well, Lepper said earlier

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-24923873510042305312006-12-06T19:09:00.000-05:002006-12-06T19:53:25.471-05:00

It says a lot when a female member of the Self-Defense defends her male peers by joking that she has been in the party for years and nobody, unfortunately, has molested her. But the statements, made by parliamentarian Danuta Hojarska, only underline the level of civility of this leftist, backward party.And here's what another Self-Defense member accused of harassing another woman said of the

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-60327546749451333762006-12-06T05:31:00.000-05:002006-12-06T05:40:19.313-05:00

Congressional Democrats, complaining about the Republicans going on private-sponsored trips, have had their share of sponsored travels. I came across one annual trip that takes members of the Black Congressional Caucus, including incoming Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, to exotic destinations like Bermuda, Jamaica, Bahamas. Here's my article.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-48628942200592378712006-12-05T17:48:00.000-05:002006-12-09T10:32:02.770-05:00

Interesting time to be in Poland, especially to see the growing sex scandal that is quickly engulfing the Self Defense party. The flames got much hotter tonight after the woman accusing two Self-Defense politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper, appeared on private broadcaster TVN. The woman looked quite credible and seems to have proof of some nasty things, including another

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-88851443744681391082006-12-01T13:32:00.000-05:002006-12-01T13:35:30.471-05:00

Here's what I'm missing in Chicago: the snow, the cold, the nasty. OK, maybe I'm not missing it thaaat much.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-18756675443791875632006-12-01T00:46:00.000-05:002006-12-01T01:05:34.555-05:00

This story about former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is fascinating. My sister Nicole has been on top of this for days. Among the latest twists is the fact that two British Airways planes have tested positive for radioactive elements and have been grounded.But here's an unexplored angle, at least from what I've seen. Why is it that nobody has detected this before the cops showed up? Doesn't

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-78986899196768050212006-12-01T00:05:00.000-05:002006-12-01T00:12:17.354-05:00

I had to deal with plenty of Polish jokes when I arrived in the U.S. a while back, but sometimes it's so difficult to avoid them. Here's one interesting Polish idea: movies for the blind. I am looking forward to concerts for the deaf.Seriously though, good idea to help the blind enjoy movies. But here's a more revealing comment from one of the participants:'I hope that this big noise which media

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-11687883076176911652006-11-30T23:50:00.000-05:002006-12-01T00:04:36.927-05:00

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

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-54891993769241769522006-11-29T23:44:00.000-05:002006-11-30T17:33:23.663-05:00

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

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-67891379348566944132006-11-13T00:02:00.000-05:002006-11-13T00:11:13.109-05:00

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

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-75538584446780302142006-11-08T14:41:00.000-05:002006-11-08T14:58:30.678-05:00

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

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-38481288623156076402006-11-08T02:12:00.000-05:002006-11-08T02:23:42.132-05:00

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

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-19816937278813572292006-11-05T16:03:00.000-05:002006-11-05T21:58:44.269-05:00

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

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-10393831117896533012006-10-11T19:46:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:12:57.521-05:00

Poland's top court has taken a step towards defending the freedom of speech, saying that one can only be punished for defaming a state official under a current law if the statements are made while he is performing his function (link in Polish). I'm not quite clear on what the court ultimately deems an official function, but it still looks like good news. This should bring back at least some

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-37120460243815685322006-10-11T19:12:00.000-05:002006-10-12T01:35:42.489-05:00

It's almost pathetic the way the Kaczynski Twins misplayed their hand in Poland's political poker. First, they bring in The Self Defense party and it's mercurial leader Andrzej Lepper (in all his glory in the photo), along with the so-rightwing-they're-wrong party, the League of Polish Families. Then they push Lepper to the wall and he bites back, leaving the coalition. Then our favorite brothers

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-23833400682487160002006-10-09T22:46:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:23:15.628-05:00

The bad news at Airbus just keeps coming. Now its new chief executive has resigned only three months on the job. Looks like Mr. Streiff just could not handle the politicians and technocrats who have different goals than ridding the company of stifling bureaucrats. I particularly enjoyed this quote in the Wall Street Journal story by Dan Michaels:The structure of Airbus -- created in 1970 by

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-21707783206883300532006-10-06T23:39:00.000-05:002006-10-06T23:54:18.028-05:00

Uncle Vladimir is at it again. With oil and gas money in hand and the West, especially EU leaders like Germany and France, worried about a key energy supplier, Putin now has a free hand to reign in the former republics. Most of Russia's "near abroad" has gotten in line and the few remaining rebels are getting hit over the head. This is especially true with Georgia, where a pro-U.S. president is

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1159913377564253432006-10-03T16:54:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:13:59.957-05:00

I count myself among the biggest fans of firefox, but was a little disturbed to hear that it may not be as safe as our legions have hoped (my article on The Seattle Times Tech Tracks blog).By the way, if, like me, you would rather smash your head through the computer monitor before using IE 6.0, but can't get it installed on a locked up computer system, check out the 'portable' version.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1159911400845929442006-10-03T16:05:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:23:51.903-05:00

Yet another delay for the superjumbo, super-fiasco Airbus A380. EADS has informed all its potential clients that it would take at least additional 10 months to roll out the first jets to the airlines. That's on top of the earlier delays. Emirates airlines, which placed the biggest order for the two-decker, was originally supposed to receive the first A380 earlier this year. Here's what the

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1157519066999613212006-09-05T23:28:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:14:33.548-05:00

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the congressional watchdog formerly known as the General Accounting Office, released a report on the visa waiver program on Tuesday. The agency comes up with some general recommendations, but in a separate letter to the head of the House Committee on the Judiciary, a GAO official writes something quite interesting about the countries seeking for the U.S.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1157432825080525302006-09-05T00:03:00.000-05:002006-09-05T00:33:16.306-05:00

Well, since I can't seem to find too much lately to write about Poland, maybe my great readers will indulge my ego and watch the final video piece I made for my broadcasting class. Drop me a note to let me know what you think. Be gentle...

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1157175939476647772006-09-02T00:26:00.000-05:002006-09-02T01:07:47.360-05:00

Apologies for the recent silence, but things got a little busy in Chicago before I took off for Washington, DC. And the nation's capital is not welcoming me too warmly. It's being hit by the remains of Hurricane Ernesto. But things will get back to normal and I promise to start being more faithful to the blog.In the meantime -- as I try to settle in, go to visit the parents and pick up a person

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1156389435110607962006-08-23T22:00:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:15:14.493-05:00

This blog tries to keep track of Aleksander Kwasniewski as Poland's former president continues to lobby for some kind of a position on the international stage. Although his chances of getting the top spot at the UN are not very good, he might be angling for something else.Now, it looks like, Kwasniewski wants to sip some Cuba Libre, hoping to organize a round table over the future of that country

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1156222707143055032006-08-21T23:40:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:15:51.061-05:00

Came across this very basic, and basically wrong, article that insinuates that Polish migrant workers are bad for Europe. Reasons given?Well, first, Poland is "exporting its unemployment". What a bizzare way of looking at it. Poles that go to Britain or Ireland are usually not taking the kinds of jobs that local were hopping to take. They usually grab the low-paying manual labor tasks or take on

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1155845204228016432006-08-17T14:49:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:16:16.989-05:00

Poland's former President Aleksander Kwasniewski continues his intellectual journey around the United States, now heading to lecture at the University of Denver in Colorado, according to The Denver Post:The former president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, will spend about a month at the University of Denver this fall as a lecturer at the Graduate School of International Studies and Sturm

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1155691585940807512006-08-15T20:20:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:16:54.099-05:00

You'll all be happy to hear that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has his own blog, even if there's not much there (yet). However, I do recommend answering the survey question: "Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another word war?"Well, as long as it's a "word war" I'm pretty sure we'll at least have the powerful weapon of

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1155450259381908812006-08-13T01:19:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:17:25.251-05:00

I appreciate all the great comments I receive related to the blog. Keep 'em coming. Here's a thoughful and upbeat one from Isobel Brookfield, a reader in the UK, commenting on the previous posting.Yep - some of us have seen that garbage:-(Fortunately - some of us UK - (dare I say us Lancashire folk:-) - we don't believe a word of it:-)Polish people have a very good reputation here - honest,

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1155098838284484322006-08-08T23:31:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:17:57.958-05:00

The new immigrant wave of Poles heading to Britain, Ireland and other EU member states has grown massive enough to be seen, well, in this case heard, across the ocean. Check out this piece on National Public Radio in the U.S.NPR has strong foreign coverage, unlike most main media outlets here, and seems to be ahead of the curve on this story. But I wouldn't be surprised if other news organization

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154760282382948872006-08-05T01:38:00.000-05:002006-08-05T01:44:42.383-05:00

It seems like dozens of Iraqis die every day. I certainly don't want to take away from that tragedy. But I still think we should remember the journalists who give their lives and their health to report what is going on in Iraq and in other dangerous places around the world. And so I encourage you to take a look at this article about Kimberly Dozier, a CBS News correspondent who nearly died there

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154673076440451572006-08-03T23:56:00.000-05:002006-08-04T02:19:51.913-05:00

Several folks mentioned I'm only writing about Poland lately, so let me change gears for a second.Came across an article in the Wall Street Journal that Starbucks is blaming demand for cold Frappuccinos for disappointing sales. People want to beat the heat with some iced coffee, I guess. But Starbucks says those suckers take a long time to make because they require a spin in a blender. So the

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154413204857782142006-08-01T01:12:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:18:37.857-05:00

I enjoyed this cartoon in Super Express that, while a little rough, does present a pretty good picture of how the governing coalition feels about Polish consumers. Pulled by the religious nutties on the right, the government wants to close most stores on Sundays. Yet, according to a recent survey, pretty much every Pole likes to shop on Sundays. And why shouldn't they be able to?I am even more

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154328704802854812006-07-31T01:40:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:19:08.988-05:00

Gazeta Wyborcza is reporting that Polish government will soon hire a PR specialist to take care of Poland's image abroad (link in Polish). It's true, there's been a wave of critical media coverage of the Duck Republic in foreign press lately. But I'm not quite sure just a new PR post will take care of that. And we're not talking just public relations here. The Kaczynski twins are in need of a

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154312886723342942006-07-30T21:16:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:19:42.915-05:00

Time magazine is running a piece on the new Polish law that will look into the past of an estimated 400,000 people in position of trust to check whether they had ever collaborate with the secret police. I agree with former foreign minister Bronislaw Geremek, who's quoted in there as saying: "It gives the state and managers the right of deciding the fate of individuals who are unable to defend

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154226986353674182006-07-29T21:19:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:20:23.156-05:00

Here's something to be proud of. Poland is now regularly featured on the web site of Reporters Without Borders, an organization that monitors abuses against news folks around the world. Now, the group reports, some foreign correspondents in Poland are becoming potential targets. After the scuffle over the Potato comments against President Kaczynski, it looks like the right wing Nasz Dziennik has

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154132531605438972006-07-28T19:17:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:21:01.946-05:00

Well, there's one more positive effect of Poles coming to Britain: They can teach the chubby locals how to stay fit. At least according to this article in The Times.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1154069610096750202006-07-28T01:21:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:21:28.592-05:00

Earlier this week, while doing a little research at the federal court house in Chicago, I came across a case involving Polish television station TVN (my former employer from waaaay back when it was just being launched). Turns out TVN was suing some people in Chicago for putting their television programs on the Internet -- without permission, of course -- and charging people to stream or download

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153980701579864332006-07-27T00:44:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:21:57.811-05:00

For a government that advertises its fight with corruption, I can't figure out how it can explain setting up a unified financial oversight agency that is ripe for political machinations. A new law that has passed one house of the parliament and should easily get a go ahead from the other, will eliminate virtually all the independence from the agency's predecessors. Six of its seven members would

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153900398868951842006-07-26T02:33:00.000-05:002006-10-11T20:22:36.493-05:00

I have seen this theme in several articles about Poland lately. Too many Poles linger in the past, keep looking back, keep searching for vendettas. This is especially true with the current government that seems to do very little other than fighting communist ghosts. They're after Kwasniewski and have politically assasinated its own ministers. Now we have the lustration law, which will only bring

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153813444528216692006-07-25T02:35:00.000-05:002006-07-25T02:44:04.543-05:00

The New York Times is running a quite long, well researched article on the growing strength of the Roman Catholic church and just general small vilage conservatism that has taken hold atop the Polish government. Now, I think it misses some nuances when it comes to religion because Radio Maryja is not exactly main stream, but the general point is quite on.This article is an interesting contrast to

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153795699868539542006-07-24T21:19:00.000-05:002006-07-24T21:50:24.976-05:00

If you weren't sure if Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was off his rocker, well, now you know. During a visit to Belarus, Chavez called one of the poorest countries in Europe, in large part due to its egomanical leader Alexander Lukashenko, "a model social state like the one we are beginning to create." Chavez and Lukashenko come from a similar mold, it's just that the mustached one can't count on high

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153545251572495062006-07-21T23:47:00.000-05:002006-07-22T03:00:27.733-05:00

Here's something from the "I can't believe they're wasting time and money on this" file: Polish Justice Ministry has launched an official probe into whether the potato satire of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski libelled him. Let's look at the many mind-boggling ramifications.First, the ministry that certainly has many, many more important functions is wasting its time on a vendetta-like

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153367252471514182006-07-19T22:31:00.000-05:002006-07-19T22:47:32.486-05:00

So you must forgive me, but to keep my hand on the Poland's pulse, I sneak a peek at the tabloids. And so I came across this interesting quote from a spokeswoman for President Lech Kaczynski in Super Express (in Polish). Asked why he didn't show up for a key speech by his bro Jaroslaw at the Parliament, she said: "I'm sorry, but the President doesn't have to explain his absence from the Sejm."Now

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153237963058017272006-07-18T10:46:00.000-05:002006-07-18T10:54:46.950-05:00

My sister Nicole sent me this video last night. I wouldn't usually post it, but it provides quite a contrast to how things are becoming in Poland. Could you imagine how the Kaczynski twins would react to something like this? Wasn't somebody sued for something similar? Well, enjoy.P.S. The song is by Electric Six. Check out another video: Danger! High Voltage

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153100296662932242006-07-16T20:27:00.000-05:002006-07-16T20:38:25.766-05:00

Lech Walesa crashed and burned as a president of Poland. He should have stayed a symbol of the Solidarity movement instead of playing politics. Lech could have played a key role behind the scenes. But having said that I must say I still like the man. He is a walking quote machine. He will speak his mind in (very) down to earth terms. And so I enjoyed reading his assessment of the Kaczynski twins,

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1153086070909778672006-07-16T16:22:00.000-05:002006-07-16T16:41:10.933-05:00

The negative reaction from foreign press to the Duck Republic continue to flow in. Latest to add its two cents, or two p's, is my favorite weekly, The Economist:IT IS easy to argue that the Law and Justice party has done disappointingly little in the nine months since it won Poland's parliamentary and presidential elections. But in one respect it has done a lot: once a regional heavyweight,

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152893726439688342006-07-14T10:57:00.000-05:002006-07-14T11:18:00.530-05:00

Is it possible that Lech Kaczynski guaranteed himself a loss in the next presidential election by swearing in his brother Jaroslaw as prime minister? According to a Friday poll, Lech has become Poland's least popular president since the fall of communism, according to Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). Of course this only means that people rate Aleksander Kwasniewski and Lech Walesa higher. But it

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152867491353188562006-07-14T03:51:00.000-05:002006-07-17T19:28:23.043-05:00

Well, I never thought it would come to this, on so many levels. Here's a little piece from the Daily Show on the Kaczynski twins. The Duck Republic, or as beatroot puts it, the Burak Republic, conquers the world. John Stewart doing a bit on Poland. Incredible. Will the Kaczynskis now boycott the next meeting with George W. Bush?

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152676763628073562006-07-11T22:17:00.000-05:002006-07-11T22:59:23.680-05:00

A few of my good friends and one person close to my heart have complained to me that I do exactly that: "Chris, you complain too much about Poland." But on one count my opinion is grudgingly shifting a little. Corruption is a huuge problem in my first homeland and I experienced it first hand while living and working in Warsaw. It was so close that it entered my family (at the time).But now that

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152519832050466802006-07-10T03:16:00.000-05:002006-07-10T22:33:34.233-05:00

Not that the reaction of the markets is the only indicator of sentiment, but the main index at the Warsaw stock exchange started sharply down on Monday after the news over the weekend that the Duck Republic will officially commence with the Kaczynski twins as President and Prime Minister. Stocks started down two percent. Currency down, bond yield on government debt up. Not exactly thumbs

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152500661436531962006-07-09T21:33:00.000-05:002006-07-09T22:04:21.476-05:00

The Chicago Tribune is running an interesting, if not quite groundbreaking, story on the controversy over elimination of U.S. visas for Poles. It does a solid job explaining the issues, even including a few local stories about weddings or birthdays that somebody from Poland couldn't make because he/she didn't get the visa.I have mixed feelings on this (maybe this is normal after law school). On

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152408436584831892006-07-08T20:04:00.000-05:002006-07-10T03:32:17.170-05:00

Now this Potato fiasco is growing, with Reporters Without Borders, rightfully, condemning the actions by Polish President Kaczynski and his posse. If this mess wasn't so serious, I would say it's just plain ridiculous. If you can't deal with a joke or two from some foreign newspaper, how do you plan to run a country?The freedom of speech is crucial in a democracy. Unfortunately Polish law has

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152334039213188892006-07-07T23:31:00.000-05:002006-07-07T23:47:19.233-05:00

Some places have banana republics, Poland will now have the Duck Republic. The Kaczynski brothers have already been running the show for months, but with Jaroslaw now taking the PM job, he won't be able to hide behind the scenes. I'm worried and could go on about how this is far from being good news for Poland. But then I can also point out that in the time the news hit, Polish currency dropped

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1152246190640405062006-07-06T22:41:00.000-05:002006-07-07T00:50:23.823-05:00

There's nothing much more scarier for a journalist than this quote from a member of Poland's ruling party, PiS:"This cult of the free word and freedom of speech goes too far."- Law & Justice deputy Tadeusz CymanskiCymanski, that paragon of free speech, was referring to a satire in a German paper that compared Polish President Lech Kaczynski to a potato. Seems like our friends on the Polish Right

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1151081128268309912006-06-23T11:37:00.000-05:002006-06-23T14:48:29.270-05:00

The king of political "comedy" may be spreading his disease. A couple political scientist say that people watching Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" catch his cynicism bug, which is bad news for the political system. People who watch his show, according to the academics, tend to be more critical of politicians and the political system and, not surprisingly, are less likely to vote.That, of course

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1150866161176128102006-06-20T23:42:00.000-05:002006-06-21T00:02:41.193-05:00

In an Interview with The Chicago Tribune, new Polish foreign minister Anna Fotyga tells the expats to lobby a little harder to help with issue such as dropping a visa requirement for Polish travelers. It's an interesting strategy ahead of meetings with Rice and Cheney. So it won't be her fault if the visas stay in place? I just don't see how the House would back anything that could bring in a

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1150861042676988522006-06-20T22:14:00.000-05:002006-06-20T22:55:16.903-05:00

I have been following the misadventures of the Airbus A380 mega jumbo jet over the recent months and years, amazed that the brainiacs on the Old Continent really thought this gigantic mess would ever make much/any money. In the recent months the jumbo problems with production have made me think of the Spruce Goose, the huge wooden aircraft built by Howard Hughes in the 1940's. The plane missed

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1150041563913029852006-06-11T10:47:00.000-05:002006-06-11T14:44:49.770-05:00

The New York Times is running a knee-jerk reaction editorial on Poland today, complaining about its "bigoted" government. It goes through a list of complaints which makes me think that the paper has not looked at Poland for quite a while. It's basic premise is that the government is homophobic, but also suggests is anti-Semitic and just all around awful. Close, but this laundry list of problems

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1149173838926410322006-06-01T09:51:00.000-05:002006-06-01T09:57:18.940-05:00

Poland is still gray. That's the one impression that hits hard as I sit on a train to Warsaw after visiting my family by the Czech and German border (It's soooo damn far from Warsaw). The country, at least outside of the main cities, is still depressed (maybe the unseasonably cold weather is contributing to my mood). I am now passing through the mining region, even more depressed than most parts.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1146781624527128282006-05-04T17:23:00.000-05:002006-05-04T17:27:04.543-05:00

It wasn't that bad, but there were certainly some rough patches. Now the paper for my favorite class is in and I am done. Few weeks of freedom and back to school in mid June. Looking forward to meeting up with some friends I haven't seen for ages and spending time with my family early next month. You know, maybe I'll do this law thing, after all.

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1146558801327479652006-05-02T03:19:00.000-05:002006-05-02T03:44:00.370-05:00

Well, I have finished my exams. Wait, wait, I'm still not done with my second semester at law school. There's still a paper I have to turn in in a couple of days. So, there's some more pain on the horizon before some rest. You'd think I would enjoy writing these things because I am a journalist. But no, papers just don't provide much joy. And on top of it, I don't get paid for them and instead I

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1146544876533330262006-05-01T23:31:00.000-05:002006-12-13T18:57:44.331-05:00

Poland, always a little touchy over deals between Russia and Germany, at least since that 1939 fiasco, is quite upset over the fact that Germany still wants to go ahead with a pipeline that will take Russian gas under the Baltic Sea. This, of course, will leave their neighbor in the middle in the cold and more vulnerable to Russian whims, similarly to Ukraine and Georgia. The previous German

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1146452533330116022006-04-30T21:47:00.000-05:002006-04-30T22:11:46.593-05:00

President Bush's Double Act at the White House Correspondents' Dinner was freakin hilarious. Good to know he can poke fun at himself, even if he barely survived the White House shakeup (as he suggested). The skit was almost as funny as the one with President Clinton wandering around the White House aimlessly as a lame duck a few years.Here's a link to the Bush video. Sorry, couldn't find one

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1146375705926411612006-04-30T00:34:00.000-05:002006-04-30T00:41:45.960-05:00

My friend Len has been ringing the alarm bells on oil supply for quite some time and has been gloating lately about how right he has been about the prices going up. Now some people out there are warning of prices $100/barrel if this whole Iran mess escalates or anything else nasty happens. There's a lot of if'ing in the article, but who knows. It may be just as likely that oil will head towards

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18689443.post-1146197874260003112006-04-27T23:04:00.000-05:002006-04-27T23:18:32.106-05:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get much worse for Poland. Not only is populist (read: I want communism back) politician Andrzej Lepper becoming a deputy prime minister, but the right-left-all-over-the-place government still does not have a majority in the parliament. So what is this coalition all about? Still unstable with a volatile and unpredictable Lepper on the team. PiS had once talked

Chris Borowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15162436876533539408noreply@blogger.com1