"Domains under heaven..."

Many Poles in Scotland were anxious about the results of the Scottish Independence Referendum last night.  Their relatives in Poland focused their attention on the victory of the Polish volleyball team over the Russians. Many of them, however, in private conversations and on Facebook expressed their empathy with the Scottish nationalists seeing in their struggle for independence from the arrogant hegemon in the South a reflection of their own historical efforts against Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary in the 19^th century.

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.", as Blaie Pascal maintained, and the brutal truth is that although our hearts intuitively understand and sympathize with the sentiment for Scotland’s history, tradition, kilts, bagpipe music, Braveheart, Jacobites etc. etc., in politics emotions very often result in disaster rather than success. 

“Domains under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity.” (Luo Guanzhong, Romance of Three Kingdoms). The Chinese have been aware of that for several centuries whereas in Europe we tend to believe that things may be firm and stable for ever. We all realize that everything changes but whenever the changes come we seem surprise. The historic shift we all are facing at the moment is the military activity of President Putin of Russia who aims at reconstructing the Soviet superpower. 

History teaches us that united and integrated powers are stronger than those dispersed and while one region experiences fragmentation another one, where someone decided to unite their neighbours, gains an advantage over those atomized. Well, ancient Greek city-states did manage to defend themselves from the Persian invasion but I don’t think we should tempt fate. 

Autonomy, self-government with its own budget not robbed by any “centre”, regional decision-making process referring to the local issues, yes, these values are dear to me, but the distribution of powers in the present day world does not allow us to feel safe. 

Not only external threats are the matter of importance. Actually the balance of power within the European Union matters considerably too! Without the UK the united Europe stands a good chance of becoming one big German colony, which could turn against the interest of smaller countries. On the other hand, we cannot be sure whether Britain is going to stay in the EU. The British may soon face this dilemma! 

What we should all do is to demand respect for our local interests, our ethnic and cultural identity etc, but for sure it is much better for us all to stick together instead of being divided by national grudge or pride. Internal mutual hostility within the EU may serve only those who build their power on unity resulting from quite undemocratic measures. We should reform the EU and the British should reform their country, but it’s better together.

September 1

September 1 has two basic connotations in Poland. First, it’s the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, which began with an attack of the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein on the Polish Military Transit Deposit (Westerplatte) on the territory of the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk). At the same time German troops crossed the Polish borderline heading from three sides towards Warsaw. Second, it’s the first day of school in Poland. I don’t know how school authorities begin school years nowadays but my generation connects these two events automatically. Our school principles and teachers used to remind us about the tragedy of the Second Republic every first day at school, every year, from the first class of primary school to the last year of secondary school.

I don’t know what school principals are going to tell present day kids on Monday (actually since it’s Saturday today, the school year commences September 3). The fact is that every year fewer and fewer young Poles has this immediate association of September 1 with World War II.

The instilment of the tradition of Polish martyrdom was part of the Communist conscious propaganda policy aiming at us believing that Germans had always been our enemies and still were! Of course, there were “good Germans” in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), and “bad Germans”, actually all crypto-Nazis, in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). We had to be vigilant because “West German revisionists” incessantly plotted against us preparing their perfidious schemes to take back the lands that used to belong to Germany before 1937.

In the 1980s, although General Jaruzelski seemed to have stifled the patriotic and independent movement (“Solidarity”), more and more people went to Germany to work. Many Poles treated that country as a stopover on their way to the US, Canada or even Australia. However there was quite a number of those who went to West Germany ‘on vacation’ and came home for the rest of the year. During those two months they earned more (sometimes much more) than over the remaining ten months in Poland. They brought lots of western goods, hardly available behind the ‘iron curtain’: clothes (including original jeans), cosmetics and electronic equipment, including video players and VHS cassettes. That’s why even today when someone talks with nostalgia about the VHS era (now replaced by DVD) the first thought that comes across my mind is American movies with German dubbing. All the video cassettes were in German! As a result we could not hear the original voices of great American stars, including songs in musicals, because the Germans dubbed every second of spoken/sung text!

What was much more important to me than all those gadgets and symbols of ‘the world of abudance’, was those people’s stories. We were listening with open mouths about easy access to all possible goods, stores full of literally everything, while in our version of socialism we had empty shelves and long lines of those who ‘hunted’ for literally anything. We were devouring stories about high wages and salaries, high quality cars, TV-sets, spacious houses and apartments. And we loved all the accounts on democracy at work. TV debates with politicians not sparing harsh words against their opponents while in Poland the regime TV served us perfect harmony and cooperation on the top level of power. In a word, everything was perfect in West Germany.

One thing was also important in those stories which sometimes sounded in our ears like fairy tales. It was the fact that our friends visiting and working in Germany did not see their hosts as Nazis or even crypto-Nazis. Well, their experience with particular Germans could vary from person to person. Hardly anyone, however, remembered any incidents that would brought to mind situations known from World War II (or movies about WW II). The role of those ‘working visits’ to West Germany is, therefore, hard to overestimate. They really contributed to breaking our attitudes towards Germans. However, if someone asked me if the negative stereotype of the German in Poland is now the matter of past, I’d be far from optimism.

Polish Germanophobia has its roots in history, although it was Hitler and WW II that created a very strong stereotype of the Germans being our ‘eternal’ enemies. It’s not my intention to present an outline of the Polish-German relations throughout history but in fact there were quite long periods when our mutual attitudes were simply good. It was Birsmarck’s policy of germanization of the inhabitants of Great Poland ruled by Prussia (later united Germany) as the result of the partitions of Poland and half a century later Hitler’s atrocities that created the image of Germany as our intransigent foe.

Germanophobia may be a great tool in the hands of the politicians who know how to skillfully play with the crowd’s emotions. At the moment in Poland there are quite a number of those who are scared of German and Russian conspiracy aimed against Poland and the Polish people.

Well, I would be naïve if I believed that German (and Russian as well) politicians or businesspeople are full of exclusively good intentions towards Poland and the Poles. They simply have their particular interests and it’s quite understandable that they stay in conflict with ours. This may quite frequently lead to serious problems (e.g. the Nord Stream pipeline) and suspicions. The media will never reveal the real reasons for closing down Polish shipyards (as some believe, the result of German conspiracy in the EU whose decisions resulted in the end of the Polish shipbuilding industry, while the Germans successfully protected their shipyards being in a similar situation) but we should understand one thing: all these actions have nothing to do with Adolf Hitler, ‘eternal enmity’ between our nations or any other long-term ethnic or cultural conflicts. ‘Business is business’, as they say, and in the world of politics there’s no room for sentiments. Germany as politically and economically stronger seems to be better prepared to protect its interests.

Talking about ‘centuries of enmity’ cuts both ways. On the one hand, instead of analyzing current problems (which may be quite real) some politicians make us focus our attention on the past, which is useless and, on the other hand, we tend to live in a box of paranoia outside of which our enemies are lurking.

However (or, on the third hand, as I’d love to say), uncritical acceptance of all instructions given by ‘more experienced’ and ‘wiser’ neighbors by other Polish politicians does not necessarily result in something good for Poland. A friendly pat on the shoulder from the current German chancellor or a eulogy of a Polish minister in a German newspaper does not mean that this minister does work in the best interest of Poland.

Anyway, the past should not ruin our prospects for the future. I strongly believe that good relations with Germany should remain one of the priorities of our foreign policy. Our relationship shouldn’t be built on the patron-client principle. Both our countries are EU members and if we finally learn how to use the community mechanisms, our position may become stronger.

Do I want to say we should forget September 1, Adolf Hitler and six years of war and occupation (the occupation of West European countries wasn’t nearly as brutal as that of Poland)? By no means. We should always remember that dark period just to realize that such things may happen, that such ‘civilized’ peoples as for example Germans are able to turn into callous murderers ready to eliminate whole nations and ethnic groups in the name of some insane ideologies. This is what we should remember.

Don DeLillo's observations on American political demonstrations

I never believe in American political protests. Americans are mostly nice guys and since the poor outnumber the rich there (well, as anywhere else), those poor seem not to like those rich just like in Europe. However, history teaches that in Europe. when the poor lose their temper and take an action, the effects can be unpredictable. They may either bring about slight changes in political decisions of particular governments, but they may also overthrow whole political systems.

When I see groups of enthusiastic young American guys in their streets yelling at anonymous bankers and less anonymous politicians trying to sound dangerous, I can’t help a sarcastic smile that emerges in spite of myself. American protests and even the most violent demonstrations are so perfectly predictable that I do wonder why there are still people who show so much excitement about what they’re doing in the streets. I am absolutely positive that they also absolutely believe in what they’re exclaiming against the establishment. However, I’m equally certain about the fact that in the evening all those militant if not bloodthirsty American “angry young people” will go home, have a take-away pizza and some booze, after which they’ll go to bed. A few days later they’ll stop going out onto the streets and it’ll be the only consequence of their zeal for changing the world and making it a better place to live. This is because probably beheading some Wall Street tycoons would not really change the world and the protesters are perfectly aware of it.

I’ve been wondering how this system works and you can’t imagine how happy I was when I found a text which confirmed my speculations. I mean I found a book whose author put in one of his characters’ mouth the words, which rendered my thoughts much better than I could:

Protesters were rocking the car. He looked at her and smiled. There were close-ups on TV of faces scorched by pepper gas. The zoom lens caught a man in a parachute dropping from the top of a tower nearby. Chute and man were striped in anarchist red-and-black and his penis wasexposed, likewise logotyped. They were knocking the car back and forth. Projectiles came popping from tear-gas launchers and cops free-lanced in the crowd, wearing masks with twinfiltration chambers out of some lethal cartoon.

"You know what capitalism produces. According to Marx and Engels."

"Its own grave-diggers," he said.

"But these are not the grave-diggers. This is the free market itself. These people are a fantasy generated by the market. They don't exist outside the market. There is nowhere they cango to be on the outside. There is no outside."

The camera tracked a cop chasing a young man through the crowd, an image that seemed to exist at some drifting distance from the moment.

"The market culture is total. It breeds these men and women. They are necessary to the system they despise. They give it energy and definition. They are marketdriven. They are tradedon the markets of the world. This is why they exist, to invigorate and perpetuate the system."

[…]

"The more visionary the idea, the more people it leaves behind. This is what the protest is all about. Visions of technology and wealth. The force of cyber-capital that will send people intothe gutter to retch and die. What is the flaw of human rationality?"

He said, "What?"

"It pretends not to see the horror and death at the end of the schemes it builds. This is a protest against the future. They want to hold off the future. They want to normalize it, keep it from overwhelming the present."

There were cars burning in the street, metal hissing and spitting, and stunned figures in slow motion, in tides of smoke, wandering through the mass of vehicles and bodies, and others everywhere running, and a cop down, genuflected, outside a fast food shop.

"The future is always a wholeness, a sameness. We're all tall and happy there," she said.

"This is why the future fails. It always fails. It can never be the cruel happy place we want to make it."

[…]

"They are working with you, these people. They are acting on your terms," she said. "And if they kill you, it's only because you permit it, in your sweet sufferance, as a way to re-emphasize the idea we all live under."

"What idea?"

The rocking became worse and he watched her follow her glass from side to side before she was able to take a sip.

"Destruction," she said.

On one of the screens he saw figures descending a vertical surface. It took him a moment to understand that they were rappelling down the facade of the building just ahead, where the market tickers were located.

"You know what anarchists have always believed."

"Yes."

"Tell me," she said.

"The urge to destroy is a creative urge."

"This is also the hallmark of capitalist thought. Enforced destruction. Old industries have to be harshly eliminated. New markets have to be forcibly claimed. Old markets have to be re-exploited. Destroy the past, make the future."

Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis

The Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz said that there is no escape from what he called “pupa” (Polish ‘behind’/’bottom’ when addressing a young child), which stands for the system. The more rebellious you believe you are, the stronger you’re attached to the system, because you’re just an integral part of it.

How many hamburger-eaters and cola-drinkers, plasma TV-watchers and big car drivers, even relatively poor (comparing with “those rich bastards” even very poor), really want a change? And what change if any? What is their vision of America and the world? I don’t think anyone would seriously like to experiment with communism again. If not communism, maybe some other forms of populism? Definitely it is possible to find people who do believe in a serious change of the system, but they’re few and far between and… maybe it’s really good. The twentieth century demonstrated clearly that alternatives championed by zealous revolutionists are medicines worse than the disease itself. On the other hand, it’s hard to say that the present system is perfect and should be maintained for ever. Whatever the future, one thing I’m sure about, the guys who swarm from time to time in the streets of New York yelling against the evil of this world won’t do anything serious. They never do.

A French idiom?

If you want somebody to stop talking rubbish and happen to lose your temper, you more often than not say “shut up”, don’t you? It is definitely not very polite since the phrase is offensive by nature but actually who of us has never come out with an expression like this? There are situations where tempers can flare!

I have another question. Have you ever told someone who got on your nerves that he/she lost an opportunity to shut up? I mean not just “shut up” but “you’ve lost the best opportunity to shut up”? I first heard this sentence a few years ago when President Jacques Chirac of France addressed my beloved country with it. “Poland has lost the best opportunity to shut up!” said he and we all squealed with indignation, because it seemed to put an end to the long centuries of the Polish-French friendship (meaning the long history of Poles’ admiration for everything the French made up, including French cuisine, French wine, the French language, French generals and emperors). And all of a sudden, in 2003 we got a slap over the face from the president of our beloved France. His phrase “La Pologne a perdu une bonne occasion de se taire” referred to our support for the American intervention in Iraq, which was followed by our troops actively involved in the war. The public opinion on the war was split but it is us who are entitled to criticize decisions of our Government and the Government itself for its very existence alone, but a foreigner? Like Cyrano de Bergerac we could have said: 

 

You would not have been let to utter one--
Nay, not the half or quarter of such jest!
I take them from myself all in good part,
But not from any other man that breathes! 

Chirac's words sounded all the more harsh in our ears that were uttered by the head of our historic ally.

To many of us the very phrase sounded simply rude! We are not angels and there are plenty of rude expressions in the Polish language. However, when in public hardly any politician would use any of them. Well, journalists love catching politicians at uttering dirty words or abuse off the record which strangely enough suddenly becomes on the record, just to show how ill-mannered our leaders can be. Journalists seem to love showing us the guys renowned for their class and immaculate manners losing their temper and dignity. Nevertheless, no politician would consciously use certain phrases in front of the cameras. So far it has been rather out of the question.

In this respect French politicians, presidents, to be precise, appear to be arrogant boors who feel entitled to neglect some basic principles of diplomacy, not to mention rules of good behaviour. President Nicholas Sarkozy telling Prime Minister David Cameron that the latter “lost a good opportunity to shut up” seems to repeat Jacques Chirac’s words addressed to Poland. I have no intention to assess Sarkozy’s right to his rage and its blunt expression. He may be even right being annoyed by Cameron’s lectures on the euro while Britain remains outside the euro zone. I do not simply know. The fact is that the phrase was used once again by a French president.

In my opinion “losing a good opportunity to shut up” may become a popular saying all over the world because it is very easy to translate into other languages with its internal sarcasm intact. Normally we talk about losing an opportunity to have a say and to gain something. Remaining silent when everybody around discusses important matters raises rather negative connotations which results from exact “losing an opportunity”. Consequently, losing an opportunity to do nothing sounds absurd, which adds some extra pinch of sarcasm to the plain “Shut up!”

All in all, now I will associate  the phrase “to lose a good opportunity to shut up” with France and call it, perhaps not very precisely, a French idiom. Idioms are usually difficult to translate literally into another language. This “presidential” saying is not. We are able to translate the whole phrase word for word and it is still perfectly understandable. However, had you not heard this expression from the president of France, would it ever come across your mind to use such a collocation (“opportunity” and “shut up”)? Not in Polish, I think. What about English? If you have ever heard a native speaker of English saying about losing an opportunity to shut up, please, let me know!

Is it a French contribution into the world’s linguistic heritage?

A message from Salma

Last year when one of Pakistani clans kidnapped and murdered the Polish geologist, Piotr Stańczak, I wrote a very bitter text, in which I gave vent to my helpless fury. I may not be politically correct but I always respect people of any nationality, religion and culture as long as they do not trespass certain norms which I consider universal. I’m not a European cultural supremacist but I do believe a great number of the norms developed over centuries in this part of the world are really better than any others. While talking about universal rules, however, I hardly ever mean cultural norms but pure biology. If someone is being murdered he/she suffers and his/her pain is an element people of different backgrounds can easily understand. If a little girl is given to an old goat for marriage which actually means systematic rape and battering, no cultural arguments appeal to me. I hold a strong position that murdering innocent civilians, especially armless hostages, is a sign of the lowest cultural standards.

Whatever my opinion on the issue, I was nicely surprised by a message from Salma Noreen, who introduced herself as a woman from Pakistan. I allow myself to quote her whole text:

hello.i am from the Pakistan and i know how innocent was piotr and how was he brutally murdered by infighting among Taliban.Baitullah Mehsud (now dead)had no intentions to kill him.they just wanted for sort of bargain but than master of suicide bombers(Qari Hussain,also dead) in pakistan intervened after our government didnot released taliban POW.he did not act on advise of Taliban chief Baitulah,Qari was deputy,and killed him.after the incident Baitullah had almost waged war on Qari had other militant groups not intervened.the irony is he was very nicely treated.the taliban played football and cricket with him and learn him Pashto.the Taliban initial demand was 72 prisoners but than they dropped it to 5.again the government,s apathy damaged his cause.and brought his demise.He was killed in Darra Adam Khel,NWFP,Pakistan.surprisingly they gave him drugs so that he couldnot felt pain and than beheaded him.till today the tribal peoples of that area remebers him.they call him pootr.his killing so alienatid tribal people.after this incident TTP in Darra Adam Khel split into Two groups.the mastermind was isolated .his name is Tariq Afridi,and his fellow member accused him of killing innocent.till today they fight in the area .his case is contrary to Daniel Paerl.i have in memory no body was much sad after Daniel, killings.not bcoz he was Jew but bcoz he was American and was doing investigations about militant groups.i have great respect for him.and i will always remember him.He was innocent.He was with us to help us.i and my fellow tribal member in Pakistan deeply apologize for that shameful act.in one way we feel guilty.May his body rests in Peace.condolonces to his relatives.

I’m still thinking how I should approach these explanations but all I know now is that Salma wanted to show her sympathy to our country and people. I may be wrong, of course, but I want to believe she felt an internal need for saying something nice to Poles. Probably she heard the news about our national disaster and recollected the event that remains a dark stain on their fellow-tribesmen’s collective conscience, if I can say there is such a thing. I am not in a position to receive apologies or all the more to forgive. I simply observe some people’s need to get in touch with someone in Poland and show her good will. I am grateful for this!

A word on the disaster

Disasters like that at Smoleńsk change sensitive people’s approach to reality. Once harshly criticized by political opponents, ridiculed by TV clowns and scolded by common people, who simply thoughtlessly followed their political champions, now the late President Lech Kaczyński, his wife Mrs Maria Kaczyńska and several other politicians, journalists, bishops and the plane crew are symbols of national disaster.

Like after Pope John Paul II’s death five years ago there appear speculations about national concord and reconciliation but I know this won’t last. A few friends of mine have started a bitter argument as if they couldn’t wait at least a week. One of my students, to my surprise, wrote something so inappropriate in the context of what happened that I was taken aback. He explained that he had written what he had on the grounds that he hates the Roman Catholic Church and that Roman Catholic clergymen used to kill people to convert them. I am really helpless facing such pathetic reactions to the human tragedy.

I’m not a religious person myself but the principle I try to follow in my life is to be tolerant and compassionate to those in need and trouble. Moreover, unlike many Poles, in everyday life I’m ‘politically colour-blind’ although I can now and again be very passionate discussing certain political issues. Even though I can criticize those of different opinion, I always respect their quality of being my fellow humans. On the other hand, I don’t want my opponents to reign supreme and impose not only their particular decisions but their views on the others. That’s why I’m afraid we’ll be soon witnesses of new political arguments, especially that a presidential election is inevitable and this must be preceded by a campaign. I have no illusions as for the nature of democratic procedures and political customs of my people. Soon we’ll again be in the middle of political war. My great dream is, however, to see a new type of political debate. We don’t have to, as we used to, call each other traitors working for foreign powers and we don’t have to accuse each other of evil intentions.

Speaker Bronisław Komorowski says now there is no right or left wing. We are all Poles. I can hear similar words after each American presidential elections and I do admire Americans for their class. In Poland it sounds somewhat new. I would love Polish politicians to debate over particular cases rather than their political affiliations, backgrounds and ideologies. There are so many problems to solve in Poland!

History is the factor that shapes our identity. Another important element is the language or the way we understand certain terms. Western media consistently call Law and Justice ‘a conservative and nationalistic’ party while we in Poland never call nationalistic the politicians whose priority is the state. We reserve this adjective for those whose focal point is the nation understood as the people (tribe!). Law and Justice comprise mostly Roman-Catholics, although not those most conservative. On the one hand they gained the ultra-Catholic Radio Maryja’s support but have recently lost it.

The values the Kaczynski brothers wanted all Poles to share are Catholic and traditional. However, in comparison with British Conservatives or American Republicans their attitude towards free market economy is almost socialist and statist. That’s why they are against gay marriages but at the same time they are great welfare state champions.

There is yet another element which is in my opinion important. I didn’t (and still don’t) agree with conservative religion centered concept of Polishness represented by Law and Justice and the late President. On the other hand I do respect those who honestly believe in what they preach. I strongly believe President Kaczyński was one of those old fashioned politicians who treated his position as public service. The Republic of Poland was something he placed above himself and whose humble servant he really was.

Although Civic Platform and parties further to the left like to be seen as more liberal and tolerant, I’m afraid their moral standards are quite dubious. Many of their representatives enter the political arena just to help their private businesses. Moreover, those who call themselves the Left are more libertarian than socialist. Actually, they all are cynical groups whose priority is to grab the largest share of the public cake. I do hope this will slightly change (not totally, I’m not that naive). In this context I should say Lech Kaczynski had some views I didn’t agree with but he was for sure faithful to them. If I had lived in ancient Rome I would probably not have liked Cato the Elder, but would certainly have respected him. Lech Kaczyński, though not a good orator, was a kind of Cato the Elder.

The Smoleńsk disaster looks like the last chapter of a certain era. I realize any allegories are far-fetched but I can’t resist this simile. The presence of the last President in Exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski (NB from Białystok), the woman whose sacking from the Gdansk Shipyard gave rise to the strike and the “Solidarity” movement, Anna Walentynowicz, and President Lech Kaczyński, who was a great admirer of Marshal Józef Piłsudski and the pre-war Poland must lead to thinking in symbolic categories. What’s more the only actor on board the hapless plane, Janusz Zakrzeński, once played Jozef Piłsudski in the film “Polonia Restituta”.

I’m afraid a certain way of understanding Poland and Polishness has lost its vitality. Without these people Poland will probably become just one of many middle-sized European Union members of little importance and little sense of identity. I’d love to be wrong.

On the other hand, if conspiracy theorists are all wrong, the Russians are behaving very decently. Their president and prime minister have to play their parts on the international arena. They appear genuinely sympathetic but I never know what to think about politicians’ gestures. Simultaneously we can see a great number of common people, in Smolensk itself, yet also in Moscow and other Russian cities, who spontaneously show us their sympathy and I believe their nice gestures must be sincere. I find it very optimistic in the context of the mutual relations between our nations.

Many things are happening in our private lives. At such moments we tend to seek for contacts with our relatives and friends (we’re happy to know they're alive). An old friend of mine, Piotr, gave me a Skype call yesterday from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had a nice chat. On the other hand it turned out that among the victims was our school-mate, a year our senior, Joanna Agacka. President Kaczorowski frequently visited Białystok and my friend Benek published his book. I hoped one day Ben would introduce me to this great Pole whom I wanted to ask many questions (Ben said he was an extremely accessible man). This will never happen.

I met once Deputy Speaker Krzysztof Putra at a carnival ball last year. There will be no more such occasions.

It is not easy talking about these things. The time will teach us how to live without these people though it will never return them to us. A new chapter opens in the history of Poland. May it be better!

Independence Day

Professor Davies's contribution to restoring Poland in a mainstream historical discourse both in Europe and America is undeniable. The admiration and warm feelings towards our country is really exceptional among Western scholars. However, his final conclusions seem somewhat far-fetched. It is definitely true that now we live in relatively ethnically homogenous a country, which resulted from the atrocities of WW II, but to say that the situation is 'artificial' or even bad to us, is disputable. I don't mind ethnic or religious minorites but is it better to have a permanent conflict inside the country. I don't analyze who to blame for them but still they were facts.

We are probably not able to live without conflicts, so if there are really few ethnic minorities to blame for our failures, we attack each other, but anyway it seems better than to have a 'ready-to-use' enemy (true or imaginary, that's not a point) next door. This is just thinking aloud. I'm not quite sure about it. I realize that multicultural environment is a good teacher of tolerance and problem-solving.

Businesspeople know it very well that one should avoid competitors as long as possible. On the other hand, they realize that if someone opens a business the appearence of competitors is inevitable. We have to learn how to cope with them in a civilized way. However, longing for them is a kind of perversion.

Today it's the 91st anniversary of our Independence. The situation is somewhat new, however, because our authorities finally approved of the Treaty of Lisbon. How should we interpret the word 'independence' in this context? Are we just independent from Russia and that's all? Benefits from the EU are evident at the moment, but in a long-term perspective the very word 'independence' will have to be revised. We are all facing a serious dilemma.