Sorry for the lack of content. I’ve been MIA over the past month because I got ✨married✨ and went on honeymoon. I was in Poland. It was pret-tay good. I had no phone service, read zero news, and slept until 10 every day while millions of refugees fled a neighboring war. But don’t worry, I donated to a local charity organization and liked Instagram photos displaying blue and yellow solidarity.
Now I don’t know what to do with myself. In Poland Covid is over now that there is a war to broadcast. The over 2 million Ukrainian refugees who’ve crossed the border have been given social security numbers and put on the government’s 500+ childcare program. They are most easily spotted in parks and schools. But who are they? You might picture a haggard looking family sitting on the side of the street with open suitcases begging for change. But when I was talking with one woman I was taken back when she told me she was from Ukraine. She looked like a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills. Being relatively wealthy is a big reason why people like her are able to escape war. The refugees have nice clothes, like you and me. The poor ones have been left behind to fight and die. It’s led to some weird situations. Poor countries like Moldova have been taking in refugees who roll up in luxury European cars and get free meals from local cafes.
In Warsaw my wife and I passed two people talking on the street. A woman gestured broadly at an unhoused acquaintance and said, “the government is giving refugees everything, and you nothing.” The underlying vibe from a lot of people I talked to is that while Poland is showing up for Ukrainian refugees like no other country, spurred by its deep distain of Russian imperialism, the government isn’t really helping its own citizens. Inflation is high. After 30 years of liberalized markets, it’s almost as expensive to live in Poland as it is in America. The idea of a former soviet satellite state, held up by the West as the ultimate symbol of an emerging liberal democracy, where the opening of just one McDonald’s instantly made it the most luxurious restaurant in the country, is gone. Poland, for the most part, is the West, exploding in technicolor. You gotta go out to the countryside to get away from that. But even then, one scroll on Polish Instagram and all you see is American branding. People use English hashtags and English graphics.
Poland even did the thing Trump couldn’t do: build a wall (it’s on the border with Belarus). I went to go see it. It’s deep in the ancient Białowieża Forest, only a few miles from where my family lives. Weaponized immigrants and refugees from countries like Syria and Afghanistan have been diverted to the Polish border by Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, in order to cause problems for EU countries like Poland. So people have been trying to cross over, burrowing tunnels underground, but Poland has been cracking down because it does not see the migrants as refugees, even though they are leaving war torn countries, although non-Christian, non-white ones. 🤔
I could keep going on about the changes and whether life really is better in Poland. I think overall it is, but part of me selfishly yearns for the days when consumerism wasn’t a thing. Look at life expectancy in the following graphic. Look at who Poland is about to surpass. This is something the beltway rulers in the suburbs of Washington D.C. will never acknowledge:
One big thing that, for me, highlighted Poland’s transformation over the past three decades has been the disappearance of kiosks, even in just the last four years since I’ve visited. Kiosks are these little huts that sell essentials like newspapers and toilet paper. They used to be everywhere. Now, they have been displaced by 7-11-style Zabkas, little chain convenience stores. This says everything about the transfer of wealth that’s occurred in Poland.
But there are things that are still uniquely Poland. Talking on cellphones is popular. So is Disco Polo. Going to church is fashionable. And everyone looks really sad and cool, which LA hipsters could never.
The only piece of American news that did reach me was the overturning of Roe, and being in a country like Poland gave me a snapshot of where things could be going stateside. Poland has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. A women can only get an abortion if she is raped, or if her life is in danger. It was legal to abort a baby with fetal abnormalities until it was recently outlawed. Even then, there have been cases of women who have been forced to give birth and died. The government has also created a creepy registry to record pregnancies. Most of the country overwhelmingly wants less restrictive abortion laws, but overall just 30 percent of the country believes abortion should be accessible upon demand.
One of the weird things about liberal democracy coming to Poland is that is has become much harder to get an abortion. Under communism, abortion was legal, and women traveled to Poland to get them. If you want a sense of the authoritarian mindset under communist Poland, especially as a woman, check out this film called Interrogation, a really subversive movie which was banned for years in Poland. It’s on Youtube with English subtitles.
Poland is in an interesting, controversial spot. It’s been ascendant on the world stage since the fall of communism, but just as it had its up and coming moment over the last 10 years, nationalist right wingers seized power. And here we are. For instance, the country is just now having its LGBTQ civil rights moment. And it is blowing people’s minds.
Anyway, I missed some news in DWP land while I was away. Mostly: a former DWP security executive got four years in jail, and a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the city of LA by the defrauded plaintiff in the billing lawsuit.
Thanks for sticking by me and checking out my posts.