Sacrificing the Qualified in the Duck Republic

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 points to one of the foundations of this government: political ties win over expertise and performance.

There are so many examples of this happening since the Kaczynski twins took power. For a government so intent on rooting out former communists, it's amazing that they are taking the same exact approach to filling out posts that the communists did: loyalty to the cause above all else.

To this we can add living in the past instead of taking care of the future.

I did enjoy this Zbigniew Brzezinski quote in Gazeta Wyborcza:

The dismissal of Radoslaw Sikorski is a serious weakening for Poland, at a time when serious negotiations are taking place with America about the positioning of American defense rocket shield and further isolation of Poland on the international arena. It eliminates from the government the only person who is well versed in strategic and geopolitical issues.

My dad, still a Kaczynski supporter, points to an article in Nasz Dziennik, which says that under Sikorski the Defense Ministry has become a mess, especially when it comes to military contracts. I felt I should point that out, along with the fact that Nasz Dziennik is not exactly a middle-of-the-road daily, but rather a mouthpiece for the extreme right.

Caribbean Travel - Other Media Outlets On the Case

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 Congress members who attended have not listed them on their disclosure forms.

Now other media outlets have also gotten on the case. USA Today published an article on Rangel along the lines discussed in my article, but discussing last year's trip. And House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct told at least one of the Congressional participants of the 2006 trip to list all of the corporate sponsors on the disclosure form. Here's a note from PoliticalMoneyLine.com:

Confusion Still Exists in November 2006 Travel Reports 12/19/2006

Rep. David Scott and spouse, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and her sister, Rep. Gregory Meeks and spouse, Rep. Sanford Bishop and spouse, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, and Rep. Donald Payne took a free trip to Panama City, Panama, compliments of the Carib News Foundation. Their reports were just filed and one included a letter from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct indicating that all the sponsors of the trip, not just the Carib News Foundation, should be listed on the Members travel forms. This would include Macy’s, Pfizer, AT&T, Citibank, IBM, American Airlines, Golden Krust Franchises, Jerk Qzine, Panama City, and the Republic of Panama. These were not included on the Members’ travel reports.

An October 6, 2006 working copy of the agenda lists AT&T /Macy’s sponsoring the sessions on “Unlocking New Regional Opportunities and Expanding Business Horizons.” AT&T was also listed for a session on “Technology – The Engine of Invention”. Pfizer was listed for sessions on “Health Care – a strong investment and growth center for the economy,” and “Health Care Regional Initiatives.” Citibank was listed for the session on “Regional Economic Collaboration,” and the session on Entrepreneurship – The Next Level.”

I filed my article before the 30-day filing window was over, so I had seen none of the disclosure forms nor the note from the committee.

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...

US Agency: Don't Expect Visa-Free Travel for Poland Too Soon

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. to drop visa requirements for their citizens:

It does not appear there will be any expansion of the Visa Waiver Program in the short term, because despite ongoing progress, these countries will still fall short of the program'’s statutory requirements.

Not that this is the last word, but it certainly shows that neither Poland nor the other 12 countries, mainly the new EU members, can expect visa-free travel any time soon. Not sure what the definition of "short term" is, but I bet it's not months, but rather years.

What requirements are we talking about? Well, it's things like:

• issues related to meeting biometric and other technical and security criteria
• reporting lost and stolen passport information
• and public affairs campaigns regarding the implications of violating the terms of visas.

Keep in mind Poland is still not part of the Schengen passport-free zone in Europe. That has to happen before U.S. drops visa requirements.

American Media on Polish Immigrants in Europe

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 do their own pieces on Polish migration. I'm sure they will be more subdued than some of the garbage running in UK papers.

I don't imagine this will help in the drive to get rid of U.S. visas for Poles. But then again Poles seem to be doing quite well finding jobs in Europe, so perhaps fewer would head all the way here.

Discovering Polish TV Pirates in Chicago

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 them. I found one more case like that involving TVN and then located two more cases against the same people brought by TVN's competitor, Polsat. All four cases involving two web sites, Telewizja Plus and Polska Wizja, were filed on the same day in May. Both sites are pretty much dead now.

So I forwarded the complaints and related documents to my pal Vadim Makarenko at Gazeta Wyborcza, still Poland's largest daily. Vadim, in my humble opinion the best media reporter in Poland, decided to look further into the matter. And today Wyborcza is running a nice long story entitled: How Polsat and TVN are battling Internet pirates (in Polish). Pretty cool intercontinental cooperation, I must say.