We have Marcy – Poland has Marzi

If you take time to talk to old people who experienced inter-war Poland (1919-1939) or Soviet dominated Poland (1946-1989) you usually come away with a story framed in the context of their life’s sculpted worldview.
However, wisdom is not the sole providence of the old. The colloquial idiom “Out of the mouths of babes (oft times come gems)” reminds us children occasionally say remarkable or insightful things.

A brand new book just translated into English titled Marzi is based on recollections of a little girl growing up in communist controlled Poland. Memoirs pertaining to quality of life, economic turmoil and government oppression seem less tainted when it is expressed through the eyes of a child rather than the opinions held by mature adults.

Chronicling her experiences by processing the meaning of everyday life and the events that unfold are presented as a series of vignettes using cartoon panels. It’s not a kid’s comic book, but rather intended for grown up readers.

From an interview with Cafébabel (a European magazine) the author Marzena Sowa explains, “Sometimes readers find it surprising that besides strikes, usually associated with ‘Solidarity’, people also had a regular life. I mean, going to school and to work, children playing in the courtyards, holidays. My comics won’t age. Even twenty years on you will find something new, something for yourself. We were all children, and we all had some wishes that never came true; I was always dreaming about getting a Barbie doll from Pewex (communist-era stores which sold Western goods in exchange for Western currencies).”

She also dreamed about living in France, free from communist rule.

The purity of a child’s unadulterated innocence is perfectly captured in drawings and words as Marzi struggles to understand what is going on in her country and what her parents are talking about. The little girl is illustrated with huge eyes, which reflects her innocent perspective and is much more engaging than could ever be expected from a plain text book.

From birth through fifth grade Marzi is a witness to Solidarność and the revolutionary reawakening of freedom that made it successfully through a terrible period of martial law.

Aside from what was happening politically, there is a private peek into Marzi's demanding relationship with her mom, and what was expected of children in Poland during the 80s.

Kids at a young age are not equipped to understand the consequences of or make conclusions on the human condition. Prior to defeating socialism fruit, candy and sugar were so rare that when a store took delivery of such items, she and her family would wait hours in line hoping by the time they got served there was still some left for them to buy.

Marzi doesn't really understand why things are the way they are. She can tell the adults are unhappy, but no one will bother to explain what's really going on.

As a sensitive only child, she tried to make a pet of the carp her father bought and kept in the bathtub of her crowded apartment until it was time to kill it so the family could feast on it for days.

It was poles apart from the world that we as Americans experienced as children. Wishing for a color TV, working in farm fields with her grandparents and chewing on window putty because she couldn’t get gum makes you stop and think how incredibly different it really was.

The shortages, brute force of government and frightened parents crowding the hospital with their children as radioactive contamination spread to Poland from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster are just part of Marzi’s memories.

Though her childhood is filled with adversity, other recollections are happier. There was joy in tagging along with her father at demonstrations and the hope raised by a state visit from native son Pope John Paul II.

Marzi observes that adults really don’t talk about the fall of Communism even though it was Poland that first broke the grip of Soviet tyranny. It was accomplished without a single windowpane being broke. Maybe that’s because in Poland it was done with finesse, quietly and nonviolently unlike the dramatic breaking down of the Berlin Wall in neighboring Germany.

Marzi was born at a time when Poland was undergoing some big changes. She watched it rebel. She watched it dream. And she saw its dreams come true.

Given the current climate of turmoil in our country, I can’t help but wonder if 20 years from now there will be another Marzi painting a picture of how thing were in 2012 - Trying to make sense out of how adults could have screwed everything up.

A quick way to buy this book is to click on Marzi at PolishToledo.com.

Poles: No Appitite for Debt

nieprzyjemny smak

Throughout the economic crisis plaguing the world for nearly three years, Poland appears to be an island paradise surrounded by a sea of red ink flooding the world. As others found out the hard way, unwarranted risk and the bundling of financial derivatives are dangerous to all aspects regarding quality of life. The wheeling and dealing that caused the bubble to burst caused immense damage across the globe causing hardship, pain and in some countries - riots, with more to come.


Could nations have escaped the intensity of economic damage and the protests that are getting more hostile across the globe?

The unique circumstances in Poland imply the whole bloody mess was easy to avoid.

Readers of this column over the last few months will remember Poland was the only EU country to post Gross Domestic Product growth in 2009 when every other member of the 27-nation bloc declined by an average of more than 4.5 percent. Continued growth in 2010 made Poland the only back-to-back year winner of an expanding economy.

The reason Poland stands head and shoulders above its neighbors and the United States for that matter is due to three basic things: Disciplined banking principles, a sound government fiscal policy and perhaps most importantly a way more cautious approach to personal debt. Essentially, Poland’s economy profited from risk moderation on every level including how individual households conducted their financial affairs.

When the bubble burst in 2008 Poland’s household debt averaged only 16 percent of GDP. Contrast that figure with 109% for Great Britain, 70% in Germany, 80% in Japan and 95% right here in America.

While property prices continue to be at the heart of the world’s economic catastrophe, the Polish real estate market did fairly well to protect wealth instead of destroying it.



With out a doubt Polish housing stock and quality of life accelerated at break neck speed after the fall of Communism and state controlled economy. One thing that lagged behind during the transition to free markets was the mortgage industry. Consequently, most homes were purchased with cash from savings or what could be raised from relatives. Mortgages in most other EU countries constituted more than half of GDP, while in Poland it was scarcely 10 percent

The individual fiscal discipline demonstrated by Poles was matched by Polish banks, which maintained firm lending standards and rejected subprime loans. And, what a unique situation: Politicians kept their noses out of the lending arena.



Double digit increases in industrial output, along with vigorous job creation, increased exports and solid wages provided secure levels of Polish household income. That led to brisk consumption of goods and services creating a good economy. These are the factors that kept real estate values stable. Property values in Poland declined only a miniscule amount.



Happy Polish super star
Ewa Sonnet shows off  her assets

While families even in the USA were struggling with household finances, Poles actually increased their bank savings accounts by double digits. Those increased deposits kept the Polish banks strong on their own merits while bailouts were as common as perch in Lake Erie in other countries.

Foreclosures and nonperforming loans even through the worst part of the economic meltdown were significantly lower than 5 percent while other nations saw defaults of up to 30 percent or more.

If you remember back to the day of busia and dzia-dzia, you might remember they were more likely to plop down cash than to buy on credit. They were credit worthy, but they tended to avoid debt because they didn’t trust it. Given the fate of Poland during the 20th century one could never predict what tomorrow might bring except the comfort in knowing there was no debt hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles.

Easy credit makes us fat and lazy expecting things to come easy. But, as they say: easy come, easy go. Poles comprise a lean, mean economic machine. Taking a lesson from Poland and trimming the taste for debt is a good thing for all nations to consider.

Smacznego certainly should not apply to a plate full of debt.

Babies cost money

EU birthrates have hovered near zero. Poland itself had a post-communist low birth rate on top of thousands going to the U.K. to find high paying jobs. The government in Poland started programs to encourage population growth. It worked!





From thenews.pl:

More and more children are being born in Poland, which means that next year the government will spend around 10 million zlotys more than in 2006 on one time payments to families with new borns. In the first half of this year, 227.000 children were born. Throughout the whole of 2006 only 374.000 of them were born – a demographic record in Poland. The government introduced the payments to families, around 350 dollars, as part of its `pro-family' policies to encourage Poles to have more children.

Previous posts on the subject:

http://polishtoledo.blogspot.com/2007/03/go-forth-and-multiply-damn-it.html#links

http://polishtoledo.blogspot.com/2007/06/polish-baby-boom-strains-hospitals.html#links

http://polishtoledo.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-children-coming-soon.html#links

Get Outta Dodge, nie

A majority of Poles oppose government plans to relocate Soviet-era monuments, according to an opinion poll published Friday by conservative daily Rzeczpospolita.

Just 30 per cent of those polled back the removal of memorials to the Red Army from the Polish streetscape, with 60 per cent expressing the opinion that they should stay in place.

Older respondents in particular belonging to wartime or immediate post-war generations were insistent that the monuments to Soviet soldiers should stay as they are, the newspaper said.

'They were simple people, not political commissioners,' one Warsaw resident was quoted as saying. Opposition lawmaker Tadeusz Iwinski of the Democratic Left (SLD) party meanwhile said the poll results proved that the Polish people were set against the 'instrumentalization' of history.

The national-conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is preparing a draft law on national monuments, which would see the removal of any symbols from the Nazi or Soviet eras and the renaming of certain streets.