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SIR – The cautiously optimistic outlook for the Polish economy presented in your survey on Poland is debatable (May 13th). To ensure long-term growth, structural reform is called for. Alas, the current government, distrustful of markets, is steeped in dirigisme and unlikely to take on vested interests (trade unions) that thwart reformist efforts. Instead of liberalising the economy, it plans, for instance, to ban shops from opening on Sundays, which is bound to result in an increase in already high unemployment. The administration's electoral slogan, “cheap state”, is just a paper pledge as it is currently expanding: new ministries, replete with cars and secretaries, have been created for coalition partners.
SIR – I disagree with your characterisation of the Kaczynski brothers as weird but benign. Their appetite for power has prevented a coalition with Civic Platform, which would have given Poland a government with a strong mandate and the necessary competencies to implement meaningful and overdue economic reforms. The Kaczynski brothers missed an historic opportunity and have harmed Poland.
SIR – While it may be true that the worst bits of Poland are “egregiously bad”, it certainly does not apply to public transport, at least not in Warsaw. The example you gave of the bus from the airport to the city centre is misleading; in fact, most airport buses are modern and relatively clean (although I can't argue with “pickpocket-infested”). If they are slow it is because traffic in Warsaw can be a disaster, making public transport all the more appealing. It is easier for me to get from A to B in Warsaw than in my native San Francisco and much cheaper, even after accounting for the difference in spending power. If you need an example of the worst bits, you'd do better to look at pollution, corruption of all sorts, and the fact that no one will give you change for a 100 zloty bill.
4 comments:
1) I don't choose the letters. The letters editor does. I have gone to enormous lengths to try to get pricklypole and Kagan to write publishable letters (of the right length, on time, etc). But sadly no luck
2) The previous discussion is archived because that's the way the software works. I'm a novice blogger. Don't be so paranoid
3) The Kaczynski twins are weird. They have a weird outlook and background. It's my charaterisation. Sorry if you don't like it.
4) Before you get excited about the libel action, I suggest you ask yourself why public figures very seldom sue the news media for libel. So long as the person concerned has had a chance to reply to criticism, courts take a very dim view of their complaining.
The letters editor obviously has a sense of humour. Bearing in mind the debate over Kagan and PricklyPole's letters and the libel treats, the editor goes and prints after the Polish letters an accusation of defamation from Glaswegian Neil Ferguson!! Your editor must have libel on his mind. This is then followed by Polish style letters from chippy Scots complaing about the Economist's treatment of that divided land.
I hope all the Poles noted that Scotland received exactly the same treatment and criticism from the Economist as Poland.
Still, nemo me impune lacessit, as all Scottish schoolchildren used to learn.
I am really baffled by this. Prickly Pole seems to be threatening me, but I can't work out with what.
I am sorry if I have offended PP by lumping him together with Kagan, who is very cross too. My point is this: I don't choose the letters. I tried to do what I could to have my critics' views reflected in the letters column. I'm sorry it didn't work out. I hope that I allow the most abusive posts about me to stay on this website shows that I am not thin-skinned (or, God forbid, p-r-i-c-k-l-y)
I still don't understand what was so bad about the survey in PP's view. He thinks that I am pro-Balcerowicz and anti-Kaczynski. Even if I was, that would not be an eccentric or unjustified view. And as it happens, I don't think Balcerowicz is hero, and I don't share all the common criticisms of the Kaczynskis.
So what's the big deal? And as Lith points out, Scotland has just had roughly the same treatment that Poland got, of friendly but robust criticism, and no doubt some other country will be next.
I suggest that shows not that the Economist is particularly biassed against Poland, or that I am exceptionally ignorant or sloppy, but that this sort of brisk tone is the one that we generally adopt, not least when covering Britain.
I am sorry that your trust in The Economist has been destroyed by my survey. I wonder, what do you think my motive was? Do you think I am an enemy of Poland who delights in painting a distorted picture? Or do you think that I am just extremely careless? Or maybe I am mad? Or a congenital liar?
And do you think it is Poland that suffers uniquely because of this? In everything I have ever written about the country (there is plenty on this website, and even more on yahoogroups.com/edwardlucas if you want to look at it)?
Or maybe I am unfair to all CEE countries. Or to everybody?
I would be most interested to know whether you can detect a consistent pattern of bias or carelessness. Believe it or not, I am never satisfied with what I write, and am always glad to have concrete suggestions about how to do better in future.
Could I ask you the following: please suggest three or four stories which you think the Economist should cover from Poland in the coming months. And suggest whom you think, given the constraints (trips no longer than two or three days) that I should talk to.
Could you also suggest, for my benefit, any foreign newspaper (English German French Russian or Lithuanian-language) which you think covers Poland well, where I could see the kind of reporting and analysis that you think is really on the button.
And for that matter, please also send me links to any articles in the Polish press that you think I should be reading.
I think this would be a more constructive way of proceeding than the cycle we seem to have got into, in which you repeat your accusations of monstrous mistakes, which I, rightly or wrongly, fail to recognise as such.
Many thanks
Edward Lucas
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