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Month: January 2005

Numa Numa

Monday 31 January 2005

Last week we had a small party. It was typical in most every way — lots of chatting, laughing, eating, a bit of drinking, some dancing. Nothing crazy.

It was actually an unplanned birthday party for Johnny. We decided to have as a theme a multicultural culinary war: Johnny fixed kwaśnica; I cooked chili -- the guests refused to pick a winner. It was confirmed once again, however, that due to the mildness of Polish cuisine, things which are not even remotely spicy for someone like me simply set the average Pole's mouth ablaze.

Naturally there was a cake -- Kinga's contribution. Damn, can that woman bake!

The surprising hit of the party was a little Flash video that a friend in Warsaw showed me. It was an amateur video for a pop song that was a sensation this summer throughout Europe: “Dragostea Din Tei" (meaning "Love Among the Linden Trees” in Romanian).

Read the Wikipedia article about the song.

The song is by O-zone, a group of three Romanians who'd grown up in the Republic of Moldova, and it is perhaps the worst song I've ever heard. Plastic, false, and simplistic, it's everything I hate in contemporary European pop music.

It was bad enough that this summer you could hear it everywhere. Perhaps the worst thing about it is how devilishly catchy the melody is. I've even caught myself humming the damn thing in the shower.

But the video -- devastatingly funny.

Elections

Sunday 30 January 2005

Relatively high voter turn-out; deaths held to double digits; dancing Iraqis.

Do they read this blog?

I stand humbly corrected.

All W’s Horses

Saturday 29 January 2005

So the Iraqi people are going to be voting in their first election. Many have pointed out the absurdity of the elections in which:

no one knows the candidates;
no one knows what the parties stand for;
insurgent violence will keep many away;
voter safety is an issue, and cannot be assured;
a significant portion of eligible voters has already declared, “We won't vote”;
many Iraqis are arguing shouldn't even take place.

Bush is ramming this election down their throats in an attempt to legitimate his decision to invade Iraq.

No one in Baghdad is calling the shots in Iraq's surreal experiment with electoral politics.

The marching orders are coming from Washington. And after all the tragedies that Iraq has so far experienced, this continued direction from a distance promises even more tragedy and farce in the days to come (The Capital Times)

The elections don't seem to differ that much from Saddam's elections. Then, Iraqis went to the polling station to avoid retaliation from Saddam; now, Iraqis avoid the polling stations to avoid execution by the insurgents. Sunday's election will be only slightly more legitimate than those during Saddam's reign only in so far as the candidates don't all represent the same agenda. In theory. But since no one really knows who the candidates are or what the parties represent (except there's probably not any who express the _slightest_ amount of anti-US sentiment), for all the Iraqis know, they could all be voting for the same agenda, no matter whom they vote for.

Well, those that do get out and vote.

Was Bush really so blinded by his own idiocy? Did none of his advisers say, "Hey, maybe it's not such a straightforward thing as going into the country and receiving the warm thanks of the newly-liberated Iraqis." Did he really expect the Iraqis to start jumping up and down, clapping their hands like little girls, all saying in a unified voice, "We want elections!! We want elections!!"?

If Iraq were a chess game (and oh, that it were), Bush would play in the following method:

Make an attack plan (He'd probably try the old worn out Scholar's Mate), without giving thought to the opponent's defense.
Execute the attack plan.
Ignore what the opponent is doing throughout the game and go ahead with the attack plan.
When clear mistakes are made, continue with the attack plan.

The Bush administration seems to be incapable of such analytical thinking required by chess, much less required by war. Unfortunately, the pieces Bush is shuffling around live and breathe, as in Vonnegut's short story "All the King's Horses."

Bush doesn't seem to know he's gotten the US in a no-win situation:

Postpone the election = cries of plans for on-going occupation
Let the elections continue = the mess we currently see

And the post-election reality doesn't seem so bright either:

Withdraw troops = civil war in a matter of -weeks- days
Postpone the election = cries of plans for on-going occupation and increased "resistance"

Of course, it's not as if people weren't foreseeing this before the invasion. But Bush already had his mind up about

finding and destroying weapons of mass distruction;
bringing freedom and liberty to the oppressed Iraqi people;
shutting down Saddam's terrorist support infastructure;
avenging the assination attempt on Daddy;
getting business for his buddies at Halliburton

and so no amount of reason could talk him out of it.

But you can't reason with someone who has the mental ability of a turnip.

Winter Walk

Friday 28 January 2005

U Adama

Thursday 27 January 2005

Nagging, er, Encouraging Kinga to Blog

Wednesday 26 January 2005

The original motivation behind this whole blog was the joke domain name, "matchingtracksuits.com." The "matching" part implies not one author, but two.

That was the idea.

But my wife has been reticent to join me on this blogging adventure, and instead reads what I write behind my back.

The original motivation behind this post was to get readers to direct some encouraging words Kinga's way. That was the idea.

I've been encouraging her to write a bit, if only to practice her written English. She seems hesitant to put her thoughts out for all to see (as if the Vast Hordes visit MTS).

Perhaps there's a blogging gene and she's missing it?

I have to admit -- I do like this whole blogging thing. It's a natural extension of my journal, which I've been keeping for years and years now. It just includes the added element of "audience."

Yet, while I like it, it is getting a bit tiresome. The initial thrill must be wearing off. Unlike with various other addictions, I don't foresee this resulting in heavier doses.

Perhaps some help would, well, help.

Perhaps that's the real motivation behind nagging my wife about this. But maybe, perhaps, conceivably ... there are those out there curious about the other tracksuit.

Classification

Tuesday 25 January 2005

At the end of each semester, all teachers meet in order to "discuss" the students' results. Grades, in other words. After opening business, each homeroom teacher reads a summary of his/her students' results.

All students names are read last name first. I get the feeling I'm in the military.

A model, using English names, would look something like this:

Number of students: 24. Number of students classified: 22. Two students, Jones Samuel and Nab Susan were not classified in mathematics due to [somewhat in-depth explanation]. Three students have been excused from participation in P.E., for medical reasons.

There were twenty students with no failing marks. There were three students with one failing mark. There was one student failing two subjets, and no students with three or more failing marks.

The students with the best results were Baker Joshua, with an average of 4.87; Anderson Tabitha, with an average of 4.68; Jackson Samuel, with an average of 4.66; Cole Brenda and Jones David, both with 4.45.

Grades in Polish are from 5 points, not 4.

Students with failing marks and/or the lowest average: Woolsey Katherine, 2.21, failing Polish and mathematics; Smith John, 2.33, failing mathematics; Kline Gregory, 2.35, failing mathematics; and Williams Derek, 2.44, failing German.

The class average with all obligatory courses is 3.24, and without the optional courses, 3.31.

Behavior grades are as follows: Three students received a grade of "model beahvior": Baker Joshua, Anderson Tabitha, and Cole Brenda. There are five students with behavior graded "very good." Fifteen students received a grade of "good." One student received a mark of "correct," Williams Derek.

And there you have it. For each of the thirteen classes, all this information was rattled off. Of the thirteen classes, I teach seven of them, but I was required to sit and listen about the six that I don't teach. Nonsense.

Most amazing is the behavior grade. Each student gets a mark between "model" and "rebuked" (literal translation). All the other possibilities are mentioned above, with the exception of the next-to-worst grade, "inappropriate." This behavior grade is put on students transcripts, to what ends, who knows?

Johnny

Sunday 23 January 2005

Johnny is only his latest alias. When I met him, he went by Abdul. For a while, our mutual friend insisted on calling him Albert. But Johnny is Janusz's choice now.

My best friend in Poland, Johnny's fate represents to me all that's wrong with Poland today. Armed with a Master's Degree in political science from Poland's oldest and most respected university, he should have no problem getting a job in Poland's EU-transitional reality.

He's currently a concrete finisher in Liverpool. "The pay's better than anything here," he says with a smile, "And I sleep well at night." With the opening of job market in Ireland and England (among a handful of other EU countries), Poles have been virtually stampeding out of the country. Ireland is an especially attrative country for Poles today, as an employment source and a model for how to integerate successfully into the EU. Literally whole families are picking up and moving to Ireland, running from 19+% unemployment and a political system so filled with corruption that it ranks first among EU countries in that regard.

Johnny's returning to England in a few weeks. His plans are uncertain, other than squirreling a bit a way and working on his English.

It's a shame, though, for Poland needs smart and honest young people now. During the small party after my and Kinga's civil wedding, Kinga's aunt was talking to Johnny and by the end of the evening was convinced that Johnny had to stay in Poland, get active in politics, and save the country.

Still, despite it all, Johnny's optimistic about his country's future. He recently bet a mutual friend a one-liter bottle of Jack Daniel's that in four years, everything would have normalized noticeably. "Normalized" was not really defined, but who cares -- as I told Johnny, "If I happen to be in Poland then, I'll be drinking with somebody!"