Education, Education, Education

Recently I was commenting on how things are not always worse in Poland as they are in other EU states (namely the UK). It is true that wages are higher and the relative cost of living is lower however the UK has it's problems (last time I gave the example of street violence). It would now also appear that the Polish education system is in a better condition than it's British equivalent. A report published by the International Student Assessment Programme ranked countries in terms of the educational performance of 15 year olds in reading and maths tests. The UK, perhaps not surprisingly, was among a group of countries ranked as average in both maths and reading. What might surprise some people though was that Poland was in the top 10 countries in the world in terms of reading, putting it above average. In fact the only EU states above Poland were Finland and Ireland. So like I said before, the idea that everything in the UK works better than Poland is far from true.

Polish people

I noticed that one of the comments on my blog asked that I write more about my views of Polish people. This is will inevitably lead to generalisations based on my personal experiences, so if you disagree with anything I write on this subject, feel free to let me know.

Having only lived here for 3 months, I'm not yet in a position to give a detailed analysis of how Polish think on every issue. However on one issue, the future of Poland, I have some initial impressions that are worth highlighting. When it comes to the present state of Poland and the future of Poland, I find Polish people quite pessimistic and disillusioned. This is something I have noticed in all the generations. In very few countries do people love their politicians but in Poland people really don't have faith in them. Not only do people not like the current bunch but no-one (at least no-one I have met) has concrete ideas, that they are desperate to bore you to death with, about how to change the situation. No-one talks passionately about politics, about what Poland must do to change the situation. Most people seem to accept that this is how things work in Poland, like it is some law of nature that can't be altered. It is probably not surprising that many people feel this way, particularly the older generation. After all, Poland has a pretty brutal history. I would however, expect young people to be a little more passionate about the future of their country.

On this very point, I had a conversation class with a business man last week. This guy has a very good job, he is the regional manager of a huge supermarket chain. He is a man I would expect to take an interest in Politics and have opinions on the future of Poland. However when we got onto the topic of Politics he had little positive to say. It ended up with me convincing him that not everything was so bad. The geographical location of Poland (in between Germany and Russia) which has been a curse for Poland for hundreds of years, can now be seen as an opportunity. European Union membership has made Poland a key state in linking Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Poland is in the unique position of being both a Western EU state and an Eastern European state and can surely combine these two sides of itself to become a gateway economically and politically between the business's of the EU and the vast market of Eastern Europe. Poland also has a large, young, educated labour force ,most of whom are currently abroad but many of whom plan to return. Upon returning, this generation will surely bring new ideas and practises back to Poland as well bringing new skills (e.g. language skills) which will be attractive to any business looking to invest in a country.

Like I said, it's impossible not to make generalisations about a whole people but my initial impressions are that I am more enthusiastic about Poland than most Poles. Then again, there might be a whole community of young, politically active Poles with lots of ideas and enthusiasm that I just don't know about.

Update

I have been asked by work to run a conversation/debate class once a week. The debate is of course in English and I chose the topic. This is completely voluntary so all those who attend come of their own accord and usually have something to say. So this is a great opportunity for me to get the views of some more Poles. It's a bit like the BBC show Question Time, with me playing David Dimbleby. The class has only been running for two weeks but already we have spoken and debated the topics of Climate Change and Immigration/emigration.

I chose climate change because it's one of the most talked about topics at the moment. That discussion went well and a good debate started between an older more cynical man and a younger, less cynical girl. Although that was good, the second topic was much more interesting and relevant. The topic of immigration is one which effects Poland in a completely different way than it effects Scotland. So we had an interesting discussion about why young Poles are leaving in their thousands and what impact this is having on Poland. I was surprised to find out that Poland will probably have to start bringing in labourers from China and Vietnam to help them build the stadiums they need for Euro 2012. Most people in the class also admitted that they plan to leave Poland at some point in the future, with a quite a few saying they would like to settle abroad permanently. The most popular destinations, not surprisingly, are the UK and Ireland. The reasons? Money, it's that simple really. There is also a general feeling that life is easier in the UK and Ireland. That you can keep more of your money and things are just better. I suppose this is what my blog is all about, comparing life in Scotland with that in Poland. My gut instinct is that some people have too idealistic an impression of life in the UK. Sure, wages are higher and relatively, the cost of living is cheaper. Many things are also easier and less frustrating, see my article on queueing theory. However, not everything is rosier in the UK or should I say, worse in Poland. One thing which is certainly not rosier and arguably worse in the UK is the level of street violence. Krakow has it's bad parts but it's got nothing on Glasgow when it comes to serious crime. It is slowly beginning to become noticed here the number of Polish people killed or seriously injured in violent assaults in the UK. A feeling of safety is something that you really appreciate when you have it and I certainly have more of it here than I did in Glasgow.

Comments

Thanks to all the people who have posted comments so far. I really appreciate it. To answer one of the questions, I have a few ideas of what I might write about next. Since it has started snowing already, I would like to see how Krakow copes with the change in weather. How do people react, how does the transport system react etc. Coming from a country where the trains stop working when it rains, it will be interesting to see how a country with more extreme weather copes. Also, if anyone has any suggestions or ideas of things I could write about then let me know. If you are Polish and would like to hear the opinion of a foreigner on some aspect of Poland, let me know. If you are non-Polish and would like to know something about Poland, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully I will have something ready soon.

ps. If you know someone who might be interested in reading this blog, please let them know.

thanks/ dzienkuję

Polish Roads!

As I have said before, the best thing about my job is that I get paid to have conversations with people. Now this isn't always thrilling work but sometimes, when you have an interesting student, it can be really interesting. Today was one of those days! My student today was a forensic expert, his specialty being road accident scenes. This being his area of expertise, it seemed only natural to talk about roads with him. Perhaps you are thinking, how can you have an interesting conversation about roads? Well you have obviously never seen Polish roads. If you ask Polish people what the worst thing about Poland is, most of them will reply "the roads", and they are correct. In short, Polish roads are terrible. Most roads are in a terrible condition, sometimes with huge potholes, and there is a serious lack of motorways.

To put the situation in context, it is estimated that to connect all the main cities in Poland requires 18, 036 km of motorways and dual carriageways. Currently Poland has only 673 km of motorways and 230 km of dual carriageways. This means that most of the roads in Poland are small, two lane country roads. On these roads huge lorries transporting goods from Western Europe to Russia must travel along with ordinary cars and buses. The result of all this, is a lot of traffic accidents.

Last weekend was a holiday weekend (for the day of the dead) and the roads were extra busy with people going home for the weekend. The last figures I saw put the number of people killed in traffic accidents last weekend at around 70, with the number of injured much higher and the number of accidents higher still. Poland has a population of around 34 million, much lower than that of the UK. Can you imagine if 70 people were killed in traffic accidents in one weekend in the UK? This phenomenon of increased traffic accidents is not limited to Poland. When I was living in Spain I observed exactly the same problem. At the time I found it really strange, because in fact the Spanish news was predicting before the weekend even began that there would be a high number of deaths. They were resigned to the fact that a lot of people would die and were saying that if the figure remained below 100 then it wouldn't have been that bad!! To me and to many other people from the UK, this is completely bizarre. To have so many fatal accidents on the roads is not common.

When I asked my student today about the problem in Poland he agreed it was a huge problem and, without my prompting or asking him, told me that the UK was actually the safest country in Europe for driving. His reasons for this were threefold. Firstly, he explained that roads in the UK are better designed and structured. Secondly, he said the driving culture in the UK is different from that of Poland. People are not always trying to overtake on small two lane country roads. Off course there are some idiot drivers in the UK who will, however in Poland it is much more common for people to do this. The reason for this, is a lack of motorways. People are frustrated at having to travel everywhere by small, winding roads and to save some time they overtake and speed. I'm not condoning speeding at all but to put it into to context, to travel from Krakow to Gdansk ( a distance of 612 km) by car takes around 12 hours due to the roads. The third and final reason why the UK is safer than Poland, and this will not please liberals or Jeremy Clarkson fans, is because of the high number of surveillance equipment. In Poland, it is not common to see a speed camera, in fact I have never seen one. People speed because they can get away with it. In the UK people are worried because there are speed cameras everywhere and although this may annoy some people ,who would either wish to speed or are convinced of some government conspiracy to monitor them, it actually saves lives and that's according to the expert not me.

So what can be done about the Polish road situation? The record of Polish governments on this issue is not good. Between 1990 and 2001, only 138 km of motorway were built and only 33 km of dual carriageway were built. In the year 2004, only 67 km of motorway and 8.8 km of dual carriageway were built. There are however plans to build a lot more and with Poland hosting Euro 2012 in only 5 years time, this process will probably be sped up. It should certainly be the main priority of any Polish government. If any government can improve the roads, they can be assured of everlasting popularity.

The Day of the Dead

No this post isn't about a horror film I went to see but is in fact about a Polish national holiday! The first of November is the so called day of the dead because on this day Polish people visit the graves of their dead relatives and leave flowers and generally remember the dead. In fact this isn't exclusively a Polish event, it's a catholic event celebrated in other catholic countries, but Poland being a staunchly catholic country it is taken very seriously here.

My day of the dead started in frustrating fashion. Forgetting it was national holiday, I went to the local bakery to find it closed. In fact everything was closed. It was also the first day of a new law passed by the Polish government making it illegal to work on this day, unless you are self-employed.

In the course of the day I visited 3 cemeteries. Outside each cemetery the flower and candle sellers were doing good business as people bought items to leave on the graves of their relatives. Inside each cemetery it was hard to move due to the amount of people moving around and standing by graves. The best way to describe it is that it is like being at 200 funerals at the same time. It also has a funeral atmosphere about it, with many people wearing black and visibly emotional.

Cemetaries can tell you a lot about a town/country and it's people. The first, obvious thing that Polish cemetaries tell you is that Poland is very much a catholic country. Every grave without exception had a catholic cross on it. In one of the cemeteries a mass was being performed and the graves of the dead were being blessed. The second thing that cemeteries can tell you is the wealth and status of a person. There were graves that clearly belonged to wealthy people, with their big marble headstones, and those that clearly belonged to poor people, sometimes with just a wooden cross and some dirt.

For me the day was interesting and a bit of a novelty. I didn't know any of the people buried at any of the graves we visited and therefore had no reason to feel sad but i appreciate that for some people it is an important event and that for anyone wishing to know a little more about Poland it's a worthwhile exercise.

Lie Down Warsaw

So here is an old cliché, my posts are like buses. You wait for ages and then two come along at once. Well I’ll try to make them less like buses in the future.

So after weeks of anticipation I finally attended my first Polish football game, Wisła Krakow vs. Legia Warsaw. Wisla and Legia are the old firm of Polish football and when they play it’s the biggest match in Poland. Getting a ticket is actually very difficult, however I have a friend who is a big Wisła fan and he arranged everything for me, from the location of the pre-match beer to the tickets themselves.

Before the game i was a little apprehensive, I had heard stories of Polish football hooligans. I was told not to worry though because Legia fans had been banned from the stadium because of crowd trouble at previous games and that in fact Legia fans were also refusing to attend as a protest at the killing of a football fan in Kielce by Wisła hooligans. So as you can imagine, that made me feel much better!

The game kicked off at 7.30pm and before it I met with my friend in a flinstones themed bar next door to the Wisła stadium. After enjoying a beer we made the short walk to the stadium. On the way to the stadium I couldn’t help notice a large group of fans wearing green and white colours. Wisła play in red and white, so this confused me. I also knew that no Legia fans were around, so who were they? I was then told that they are hooligans from Gdansk and Wroclaw and that Wisła hooligans have an alliance with them. Apparently this is common in Polish football. Hooligan groups from different cities are allied and will come and cheer each other on against the common enemy, in Wisła’s case against Legia or Cracovia.

Upon entering the staduim I was searched by Robocop style policemen. I made it to my seat a full 10 minutes before kick off. The stadium was already full and the Wisła fans were making a lot of noise. In the stand opposite to us were the Wisła Ultras. In front of them was a man on a step ladder with a microphone, belting out Wisła songs to which they responded in perfect harmony.

As the teams came out, the Ultras turned their stand into a giant picture by turning over cards they had taken in and setting off the vast amount of flares they had smuggled past the robocops. It was a very impressive, perfectly rehearsed scene which would have made Kim-Jong-Il proud.

As the game started, every Legia touch of the ball was met with 25,000 jeers and whistles. The Wisła crowd also managed to keep singing non-stop for the full 90 minutes, led mainly by the Ultra’s stand.

The game itself, like so many derbies, failed to live up to the big build up. In a boring first half, Wisła opened the scoring with the only real effort of the half. In the second half, things improved and Wisła contrived to miss a couple of absolute sitters before nearly being punished at the death by Legia’s only real opportunity of the game. However Wisła held on for a deserved victory which keeps them top of the league.

Although the action on the field wasn’t great, the action off it was impressive. The atmosphere was great and there always something going on somewhere in the stadium. We even had a protest during the match by a group of around 2,000 fans who all left their seats at the same time for around 20 minutes. This protest was about a deduction in the number of tickets given to fan clubs. It was another example of how organised Wisła fans are. It was also a good Polish lesson for me, particularly in swear words. I was however confused at one point, when with five minutes to go, the whole stadium were singing Legła, Legła Warszawa (to the tune of Go West). When I asked my friend why they were singing for their rivals, he informed that they were not singing Legia but were singing Legła which means Lie down. So another great lesson in Polish language.

Update: Elections

I have been busy recently and I haven’t had a chance to write anything new, however since I last posted an election has taken place in Poland. The election was called because the ruling party, Law and Justice Party (PiS), fell out with their coalition partners (the League of Polish Families and the Self Defence Party). So an election was called for the parliament (Poland has presidential and parliamentary elections) only two years after the last election. Going into the election, prime minister Lech Kaczynski was aiming for re-election (Kaczynski’s twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski is the President). The main rival to Kaczynski was the leader of the opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), Donald Tusk. Being an English teacher I basically get paid to have conversations with people. Therefore in the run up to the election I was quizzing anyone who was willing to talk about it on their views on Polish politics and their preferences for the election.

One thing was clear, the ruling party and the Kaczynski’s in particular, were not popular in Krakow. That is not really surprising in itself because Krakow voted for PO at the previous election and PiS get most of their votes from the more conservative, rural and possibly less educated Eastern part of Poland. What was surprising though was not no-one would admit, at least publicly, supporting PiS. At the same time though, no-one could really tell you the difference ideologically between PO and PiS. Both parties are catholic, centre right parties. It seems PO is perhaps more EU friendly that PiS but that wasn’t really bothering most people. It seems then that the main difference was personality, that of Kaczysnki vs Tusk. To be honest I think most Krakowians were embarrassed by Kaczysnki, who is not the most diplomatic nor articulate of politicians.

Another thing was also clear and that is that Polish people are generally apathetic about politics. Many people I spoke to thought that nothing would change, regardless of who won the election. Others said that none of the candidates inspired them and that in fact they would be voting against someone (almost always Kaczynski) as opposed to voting for someone. This apathy was reflected in a relatively low turnout which prompted one of Poland main newspapers to leave half of its front page blank in protest and prompted Lech Walesa to complain that Poles were wasting the opportunity he and others fought to win.

When the election day finally came, a Sunday (Polish elections are always held on Sunday’s), I went along to a polling station with one eager voter, who in fact was not voting for either of the big two but for one of the new smaller parties representing women’s rights. What I can tell you about voting in Poland is basically that it is the same as voting in Scotland. You go along to the local school, receive your paper, make your selection and place into a big box in the middle of the room. Nothing unusual there then. Well accept that they don't loose 100,000 or so ballots by mistake.

When the elections result finally came in, turnout (all be it still relatively low) was higher than expected and PO had won the election and will now form the next government of Poland, all be it in coalition with someone. This raises several interesting points. Who will PO form a coalition with and how long will it last? How will the PO government and the President (Jaroslaw Kaczynski from PiS) get on? And the question most people want to know, how will things change? We will just need to wait and see but at least most Krakowians are happier now that they are one Kaczysnki lighter.

Queueing theory

There exists such a thing as queueing theory. Up until now its something I knew nothing about but clearly took for granted. It is a mathematical theory used to calculate the average time someone will wait in a line at a given time. The theory takes into consideration factors such as the time of the day, the number of people in the queue, the number of available servers etc. It used by business when deciding the appropiate amount of resources needed to provide a service. There are volumes of books and manuals on how to apply queueing theory however it seems someone forgot to translate them into Polish. Nowhere it seems, is queueing theory less used than in Poland. I certainly doubt if the old ladies working at the post office have heard of it. If you want to go to a post office in Poland, I suggest you go on your day off work. Its not necessarily that the queues are long but they take a long time to move. It's not as if Polish people enjoy queueing, they dislike it as much as next person, but they are used to it. In Poland there seems to be a general acceptance that some things are just inefficient. When you talk with people about politics they will tell you that they dislike the corrupt, inefficient politicians but what can they do? That is the way things are in Poland they say. Many people believe its a hangover from the communist era and that only a complete generation change can make a meaningful change. Off course many young Polish people are getting fed up with things and going abroad to earn more money and have less problems. Perhaps when they return to Poland they will bring back new ideas, a new approach and maybe even queueing theory.

Kazimierz

I still have some time on my hands so I decided to do some more exploring today and headed for the Kazimierz district of Krakow. Kazimierz is best known for being the Jewish district of Krakow until the end of the Second World War. Kazimierz is not far from where I live however getting there does involving crossing the occasional road, a sometimes difficult task in Krakow. Crossing the road here can be a daunting experience and even the locals never look 100% comfortable when doing it. Most road crossing work in a kind of zebra crossing style, except the onus is very much on the pedestrian to make the first move and start crossing rather than the driver stopping to allow you to cross. That coupled with the way most people drive here means you can be waiting for quite a while before you get the opportunity to cross. The constant sound of revving engines, screeching breaks and car horns don't encourage most pedestrians to take the iniative. The situation is at its worse when it comes to crossing large roads which can have two lanes going in both directions as well as a tram lane down the middle of the road. If you are lucky enough to come across a crossing that has a red and green man style system, your still better waiting for someone else to cross first as most drivers wont stop until someone has actually started crossing the road, and even then they might not!!
Anyway I’m digressing. Although no longer home to a large Jewish population Kazimierz is full of constant reminders of its Jewish past. The Jewish part of Kazimierz is actually quite small, probably 10 or so streets but within it there are numerous synagogues, museums, Jewish restaurants and monuments. I visited one of the synagogues come museums and actually learned quite a lot about Jewish culture. It’s a strange feeling though walking around the streets of Kazimierz which contain so many Jewish temples, monuments and buildings. You realize your in a Jewish district but something is missing, Jews. The only people you see seem to be tourists or everyday Poles and that is a real shame. It is then that you realize that the effects of World War II are still much more visible and relevant in Poland than they are elsewhere in Europe.

MONUMENT COMMEMORATING THE 65,000 CRACOVIAN JEWS KILLED BY THE NAZIS DURING WORLD WAR II

Wisła or Cracovia?

One thing has been bothering me since i arrived here, which of the local football teams should i support? I had some free time today, so I decided to go for a walk. Being a big football fan, my walk took me to the stadiums of Krakow’s two football teams; Wisła Krakow and Cracovia. You could say that Wisła Krakow and Cracovia are the Dundee and Dundee United of Polish football, the reason being that their football stadiums are separated only by a stretch of grass. In fact the stretch of grass that separates them is a small field where people go jogging, cycling, walk the dog and apparently the site where the pope gave his public mass last time he was in Krakow. However the distance between the stadiums is no more than one hundred meters and were it not for a line of trees in front of the Wisła stadium, you would be able to see one stadium while at the other. The walk to the stadiums from my flat took less than 10 minutes and the first stadium I arrived at was Cracovia’s. I suppose that makes Cracovia my local team. Their stadium, named the Pope John Paul II stadium, is strange looking ground. It is impossible to go right up to the main entrance of the stadium as there is a huge metal perimeter fence the whole way round the stadium. From the street you can see the red and white seats of the stadium, which have clearly just been laid over an existing standing terrace. The stadium looks like it belongs to a club with no money, who when forced to upgrade their stadium in order to join the premier league have just flung seats over a terraced stadium. The strange thing is that the seats don’t go all the way round, they stop behind one goal where terracing remains and then start up again at the other side of the pitch. Every stand in the stadium is a different size and looks like its from a different era of football stadiums, with the most recent era being somewhere in the 1980s. Around the stadium there is broken glass and graffiti of the Cracovian hooligans, however despite all this there is something quite romantic about Cracovia. You are left with the impression that they are the football team of the real football fans in Krakow. You get the impression that their fans have always lived in the shadow of their city rival, enjoying little success, but still supporting their team regardless. In fact it seems to be true, I discovered that Cracovia’s last championship win came in 1948 and the last big thing they had to write home about was the reaching the semi-finals of the Polish cup in 2007. However they did finish an impressive fourth last year, higher than their city rivals Wisła.

THE ENTRANCE TO CRACOVIA STADIUM FROM THE STREET AND THE THREE STANDS WITH THE TERRACING IN THE DISTANCE

The gulf between the two clubs is evident when you cross the field to Wisła’s staduim. Even the Wisła side of the field is nicer to look at than the Cracovia side. On the Wisła side there is line of trees that block your view of the stadium from the field. In between the trees there is a new tram line with fancy new trams moving silently up and down it. The Wisła Stadium, as it is known, looks similar to your average SPL ground. It has the same style of stands that you would find at Rugby Park or Tyncastle. It holds roughly 15,000 but there are plans to upgrade it to 32,000 in order to qualify as a potential host city of Euro 2012. Despite the nicer facilities it lacks the history of Cracovia’s ground. Like Cracovia’s stadium, you cannot get very close to the stadium due to the perimeter fence. So once again I had to look at the stadium through a fence, surrounded by fallen branches from the trees caused by a hurricane which hit Krakow last week.
After seeing both stadiums I decided to try to see both teams play. Both clubs appear completely different. Cracovia seems to be the more traditional Polish team, with its red and white colours, a squad comprising entirely of poles and its Pope John Paul II stadium. Wisła on the other hand seem more cosmopolitan club, with a squad that includes 2 Brazilians, 2 Australians, an Argentinian, a Moldovan, a Czech and a Nigerian and fancy new “western style” stadium. I suppose only after watching both of them play and sampling the atmosphere at both stadiums can I say which one, if any, is my favourite.

THE WISLA STADIUM AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM STILL FEELING THE EFFECTS OF THE HURRICANE

"They’re all coming here and you’re going there"

By far the most common reaction I have received when telling people I am moving to Poland has been "They're all coming here to work and you're going there". There is of course a lot of truth in this statement, I read recently that there are officially 32,135 Eastern European migrants registered to work in Scotland and vast majority of these are Poles. A lot has been written on Eastern European migrants, some of it positive and some of it negative. There has also been a lot written by Eastern European migrants, their thoughts and experiences of living and working in Scotland. However seldom do you read a story about the reverse, about a Scot or Western European living in Poland. I suppose the Daily Mail would classify me as an "ex-pat", which has an altogether more positive sound to it than migrant or immigrant, but essentially I am no different from a Pole moving to live and work in Scotland. I have therefore decided to keep a blog of my experiences as Scot living and working in Poland. I have lived and worked abroad once before, in Catalonia, and one of my biggest regrets was not keeping a record of my thoughts and experiences while there. I have never done anything like this before and so it's all a bit of a mystery as to how well it will work but the sort of things I am hoping to write about are my thoughts on Polish culture, the language, the food, the people and reports on any trips I make around Poland and Eastern Europe in general. So in a nutshell that's about it, here's hoping it works out.