Sunday 29 June 2014

The German break

As promised, some succinct impressions from the recent holiday trip to Poland’s western neighbour… Then giving way to has been going on in domestic politics.

The Lufthansa
Was my first encounter to the German airline and the impression is very positive. The class of its own, as my friend accurately summarised the operations of the company. I reserved the flights more than three months in advance and, tipped off by another friend that flights between Warsaw and Frankfurt am Main are served interchangeably by PLL LOT and Lufthansa and each flight has a pool of tickets offered by each of the airlines, settle for the German airline. Oddly enough, PLL LOT tickets are sold-out much earlier, Lufthansa tickets are much cheaper (I flew there and back for mere 512 PLN!), on top of that PLL LOT is loss-making, while Lufthansa fetches some, indeed meagre, yet still, profits. And chances of passengers clapping their hands after successful touchdown are marginal. On my way there some folks sitting in a row behind, in economy class as well, were weighing in clapping, but eventually gave up on their plan. Whoever has come up with such custom, has left me bemused. Even if the touchdown is impressively gentle, applause after an ordinary part of a pilot’s job implies lack of trust in pilot’s skills…

The airport
My colleagues who fly frequently tried to frighten me by telling the airport is dreadfully huge and it is easy to get lost. Utter rubbish. The airport is indeed dauntingly spacious, but signage is excellent and losing one’s way is virtually impossible, especially in arrival or transfer zones. The airport follows the trend of letting the passengers serve themselves to the extent which it is possible. Large number of self check-in kiosks and luggage drop-off counters combined with few open check-in desks and huge queues to them encourage passengers to do the check-in themselves. Before my return flight the whole procedure (check-in, shipping luggage and going through security) lasted mere four and a half minutes. Then I could enjoy the sight of bars of chocolates for dirt cheap EUR 8.90 – a snip, in the duty-free. The only drawback of the airport, serving vast number of flights are long times of waiting for the take-off or touch-down… Its other huge advantages are the proximity to the centre of Frankfurt am Main and admirable links to the local and country-wide railway networks.

The country
Once ‘The Economist’ described the German stance in EU politics as “stolid”. This epithet resounded in my mind throughout my journeys. It superbly fits the mark Germany leaves on a foreigner, no matter which visit to the country it is (mine was fourth). This very time I have grown weary of predictability and repeatability of the landscape, architecture, etc. Each town and city having a similar central train station, church, old town, sometimes castle, similar houses and block of flats. 
Little could impress me (such is my general mindset that fewer and fewer things can impress me – a disturbing sign?) and little would take my breath away, as the view from castle hill in Heidelberg (to the right) did. If any more is to be visited in this country, it is definitely Berlin (have ventured there so far, enough for a 3-day weekend and reachable by car or train), Munich and Bavaria land (a trip for a more extended weekend and it is more advisable to get there by plane).

Meanwhile in Poland…
On account of roaming around abroad I have missed out on the eavesdropping scandal unfolding. I have quickly caught up with both recordings of conversations between politicians (and businesspeople) and subsequent commentaries.

Michael in his post pleads he is outraged at the content and mostly form of dialogues between politicians and the nation is shocked by the released materials. I cannot renounce the feeling of indignation upon listening to the recordings, but I have not been taken aback by them. I could actually safely bet similar conversations have been held by politicians of PiS and SLD in times they were in charge of the country. What has been revealed is just the backstage of making politics, the murky underbelly no one would like to see. I would hazard a comparison to the most down-to-earth stuff – each and every one of us has to defecate, but no one would like to see a fellow man defecating. Politics consists of official part which can be witnessed by the public and of several unofficial talks that facilitate pursuing it. The other story is how the private and public spheres mix up, since if meetings and conversations are ‘private’ and the dinner during which they are held is paid from ‘public’ purse, something is amiss.

Michael is also disgusted by the foul language used by statesmen he considered gentlemen. Maybe this is a matter of upbringing, but I, born and bred in Poland, have long taken it for granted folks from all walks of life swear in Poland. Swear words flow from mouths of politicians, businessmen, scholars, doctors, rank-and-files and coarse drunkards. The old and the young, women and men, in the sticks and at the heart of capital, almost everyone swears. The matter of culture is only refraining from being foul-mouth when necessary. I pledge to avoid foul language when women are around, when I talk to a person I know does not swear, in official situations, but my more-or-less official or strictly private conservations with some of my workmates or friends sound similarly abhorrently as those eavesdropped in Warsaw’s posh restaurants. If my conscience is not crystal clear, I may not feel entitled to condemn anyone for using foul language. The prime minister Tusk who has once also pledged to swear like a trooper is not going to hold anyone accountable for the form of language used.

Now dear readers, I will stoop as low, as eavesdropped members of the government did and enjoy the off-the-record part of the posting. Needless to say, minister Sikorski is an ordinary lout (zwyczajny cham) who, no one can deny it to him, just mastered to perfection the art of feigned politeness. Overwhelming majority of my interlocutors with who I have discussed the issue, share my view that impeccable manners of Mr Sikorski are grossly overrated. What matters is how you behave and what you say casually, while what you pretend to do in public just reflects upon how good your acting skills are. Mr Sikorski definitely can skilfully play out a well-brought-up gentleman. Nevertheless, the recorded conversation between him and Mr Rostowski casts favourable light on his shrewdness and political wisdom and actually he scored a point with me for realpolitik-grounded view on Poland’s relations with the United States. The words of “worthless alliance between Poland and the United States” and us doing a blow-job to Americans are home truth. The very situation bears out, again, diplomacy is the art of lying and reaction of the US diplomats who reaffirmed strength of the strategic alliance with Poland also confirms this old adage. I seriously doubt Mr Sikorski’s revealed conservation will noticeably spoil relations between the US and Poland, I would not be even stunned to learn Mr Sikorski would have gained some esteem with his US counterparts for not being a starry-eyed sucker.

If it was not greed but lack of fear which caused the financial crisis, it was not lust for power but lack of humility which was a nail to the coffin of Mr Nowak’s political career which has now come to a bitter and irretrievable end. May his example serve as a forewarning for all young, up-and-coming guys lured to shiny world of politics, tempted by visions of expensive dinners, slick suits and official taxpayer-funded trips to distant places. The temptations to use political connections to pursue one’s own interests and to feather one’s nest are strong, yet we must not forget a politician is a public servant. Growing complacent and losing self-preservation instinct is the first step towards dragging oneself down, no matter if you are a top-rank politician or a rank-and-file worker in a corporation…

The one whose reputation came out probably the most burnt and bruised from the scandal is the governor of the central bank, Marek Belka. In the light of prevalence of the foul language in Poland, I can only draw a veil over frequency of using swear words by him. Deplorably, the substance of some parts of the conversation resembles a chat between tanked-up fifteen-year-old lads. I would never suspect Mr Belka of discussing lengths of several men’s penises…

Whose penis is shorter and whose longer is a matter of minor importance, although some claim those who have small penises tend to drive bigger cars ;-) The pivot of the conversation between the head of central bank and minister of internal affairs, highlighted in the scripts that first leaked to the media, had been the discussion how the central bank could help the government finance the budget deficit before the parliamentary election in 2015 and prevent victory of PiS. Cross my heart, from what I have read I cannot make out what the men meant and how the central bank could help out the government. The discussion, unclear, casual and full of understatements, has turned water to the mill of several journalists and politicians, many of who, as I noticed, not necessarily comprehend the heart of the problem. From my perspective, if we are to assess whether potential violation of law occurred, we have to take into considerations three situations when a central bank can have government bonds on its balance sheet. Here we go with a crash course!

Firstly, budget deficit financing may take place if the central bank buys government bonds on primary market, i.e. the central bank comes in when government bonds are auctioned off and purchases them while they are issued. Such reprehensible moves in all civilised economies are prohibited by law and known as debt monetisation. The central bank, as the only issuer of money, increases supply of money which is not accompanied by rise in output, hence expanded monetary base results in increased inflation and decreases real value of government debt. Upshot: the government is better off, everyone else is worse off and double-crossed by the central bank and the government.

Secondly, the central bank can purchase bonds on secondary market from commercial banks. From the government the operation means a change of creditor and does not directly aid the government. Such actions are kind of controversial, but have been widely undertaken by the Fed, the ECB (to the right, the building, where those bastards who slashed deposit rate below zero have their headquarters, fenced off to prevent bad people from trespassing the decision-making space), the Bank of England. The purpose of such moves is to remove from banks balance sheets securities and convert them into cash in order to enhance liquidity or encourage banks to lend money. The side effect of such operations is that increased demand for treasury securities from the central bank decreases yields and hence brings down borrowing costs for the government. Securities bought up usually have long maturities (more than 10 years) in order to avoid the roll-over (refinancing) risk, as if it materialised, the situation would easily evolve into variant one.
Incidentally, the ECB will soon move to a new, posher skyscraper, top-centre on the photo to the right, seen from the viewing platform at the top of Main Tower… If anyone is to ask where they had the money from to build such huge edifice, the answer is simple – as an exclusive money issuer they have printed it. Printing money is a very serious task, hence it requires appropriate premises…

Thirdly, the central bank may engage in Repo transactions with commercial banks. This manoeuvre is from a borrower’s (commercial bank’s) perspective a purely collateralised loan – i.e. a central bank lends money against government bonds, although technically it buys securities from commercial banks (spot leg) and agrees to sell them back at a later date (forward leg). Repo transactions are aimed at regulating liquidity in the banking sector and have nothing to do with financing government debt.

I gather the first variant is out of question, the second is a contentious measure, while the third does not require any further attention.

The excuse for mentioning the plausible aid of the central bank was the threat of PiS winning the election and subsequent economic disaster… I am far from supporting PiS and also not think their victory would be best for Poland but this is a step too far. We live in democracy and make-up of the parliament lies in the hands of voters. If they decide PiS is to glean the highest number of seats in the parliament, their choice deserves due respect! The very victory of PiS will not be a disaster. It is not the case which party is in power (although perception among investors does matter), what really matters are decisions it takes.

For the very end, let’s dissect the line of defence the prime minister Tusk has taken. He will not dismiss any of the eavesdropped officials nor will hold anyone accountable for use of foul language. All the recorded government members in unison claim the Polish state has been attacked by an “organised criminal group” and it will not succumb to it. The public is thus to be focused on culprits who recorded the dismal talks in restaurants, not on the substance of allegedly private conversations (which by the way show Mr Belka, Mr Sienkiewicz, Mr Sikorski and other ‘victims’ are just regular guys, behaving like ordinary Poles when they get drunk). The timing of releasing the recordings is puzzling. Euro-election is over, local elections are due in half a year, holiday season sets in. Are the recent government’s plan to prop up ailing coal mines in Poland by curbing imports of cheap coal from Russia the real reason? I firmly believe the waiters who admitted to have installed bugs have just grabbed the opportunity to cash in on knowledge they could come into possession thanks to microphones in VIP rooms. They are just cogs in a larger machine and the plan is masterminded by someone much more cunning that people who make the headlines these days. The only problem is that the purpose for which the machine is running, remains unknown…

Sunday 15 June 2014

Road hog wanted!

Woke up last Sunday, turned on the TV and beheld the film below on TVN24 morning broadcast.



Shot three days earlier on the streets of Warsaw and subsequently passed around online, the film showing thoughtless and direly dangerous feats of a young driver has become one of most often watched Polish films in the Internet last week. Media coverage has given the 24-year-old driver of BMW M3 who had showed off his driving skills a lot of publicity, probably something the guy craved for.

During his rally the idiot driver broke traffic rules several times and caused several seriously dangerous situations, putting lives of many innocent road users at peril. Oddly enough, his driving skills proved good enough to avoid accidents many times, however given his style of driving, the fact no one was killed by him could be only put down to luck, rather than to his mastery behind the wheel. I actually cannot deny him skills, as they were essential in not injuring anyone during his lunatic rally, which by no means can be construed as commendation for his misdemeanour.

The road hog is now the most wanted man in the country, however police fails to detain him. The reasons are two: there is no evidence the suspect Robert N., nickname Frog, sat indeed behind the wheel when the crazy rally was shot, moreover the film does not provide grounds there was any situation that could have led to a traffic disaster, hence for over a week the driver has been unpunished and the police could only kindly ask him to report to the nearest police station. He refused to do so, instead he sent in his barrister, who made a statement any attempt to induce her client to come to the police voluntarily is a provocation meant to catch him.

How let’s wonder who the hell this guy is. He is just 24 and already can afford to drive around in expensive sports cars and to hire a lawyer. He does have a job, but people aged 24 usually do not earn that much money and even if they happen to do so, and are not celebrities, they toil away so hard that they lack time to indulge in such dicey sort of entertainment. The boy most probably is a rowdy, spoilt son of a rich daddy. Daddy buys him cars, pays for all his whims and, if necessary, will get him out of troubles. And the boy feels he can go unpunished and derides at the weakness of the Polish legal system, helpless faced with an overt criminal…

Given the records which leaked yesterday and will be in detail described in tomorrow’s edition of one of the reputable weeklies, the helplessness of the Polish state should not surprise us. If the minister of internal affairs claims the Polish state exists only theoretically, jaw drops open immediately. It fails to impress me a representative of the messed up ruling party tries to strike a political deal, but when does the governor of the central bank, theoretically independent entity, eagerly engages in a conservation about essentially breaking the law, I get a little confused. According to article 220, paragraph 2 of the Polish constitution, the central bank is prohibited from financing the budget deficit. The rule that central banks do not engage in fiscal policies nor regulate cost of borrowing for governments is the thing of the past in the most advanced economies – may policies of ECB or Bank of England serve as examples.

The wiretapped conversation casts new light on recent announcements of plausible interest rate cuts in Poland. Lower central bank rates translate into lower cost of debt for the government. However, central banks should target price level, exchange rate and economic growth, not liase with the government. I was kind of shocked professor Belka, current governor of the National Bank of Poland would stoop so low. The proposal to further cut interest rates, bearing in mind the recovery will sooner or later give rise to higher inflation, is at best unwise.

I am looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds. Unfortunately, I will be offline holidaying abroad and keeping track of topical issues will be impossible. Nevertheless, I doubt the eavesdropped dealings in a restaurant would turn the Polish politics upside down. I doubt Mr Belka loses his stool, dismissal of Mr Sienkiewicz, minister of internal affairs, seems conceivable. Then the dust will settle and everyone will live happily ever after, until the next election. Until the next time when there is no one who would deserve your vote.

Next post in two weeks.

Sunday 8 June 2014

After the exam, again

Finish line on the second level crossed yesterday. Several months of preparations; run-up period spent at home poring over practice exams and revising and for the sake of peace of mind, being detached from work. Despite having decided to quit, I refused to let up and still attempted to save the Company from its own destructive forces. Sounds shitty, as it is. I had some time to think things over and examine the direction I am drifting. There are upsides and downsides. The crucial one is while I dive deeper into work, life begins to have one dimension. If I care too much about work-related stuff, all the other issues recede into the background. If the New Factory turns out to be n merciless time-occupier, the call for rethinking the priorities will be even more compelling…

Back to yesterday… Level I was a totally new experience. This time the challenge was not a novelty. Still, it is a men’s world (again, more than eighty percent of candidates were male), I did not feel quite old as in December 2012 (much fewer students) and I met some of my university classmates, most of who ended up in big four (the career path chosen by the biggest percentage of SGH graduates, the one I have shied away from). Besides the feeling is pretty similar. The (first and hopefully the last – I seem to have fared well) attempt to tackle Level II from purely technical point of view was no different than what I went through one and a half years ago. I approached the issue stolidly practically. At some stage of preparations, namely on Thursday, I reached a point of saturation. I could not take in nor digest any more knowledge. I had studied since September 2013 diligently and in the last moment odds to effectively catch up were marginal. I fully realised during the exam I would encounter at least one question that would bring me to my knees (and did not mistake), but on the other hand knew such questions would be few (also right). The practical approach is not to have ambitions to have one of the highest scores on Earth. The goal is to pass; as much and as little. The results are due on 12 August. Now the wisest strategy is to forget about the experience for a while and enjoy the summer while I can.

Back to my mindset. I have noticed as time goes by, it takes more to impress me. If there was something which really moved me in the last weeks, it was the confession by Justyna Kowalczyk who publicly admitted she was struggling depression. Some show her respect for courage to speak about the (shameful) disease publicly, some argue this is an example of washing dirty linen in public and she does not deserve any compassion. When I watched at her, read interviews with her, I realised she has no makings of a celebrity. Without any insight into her psyche, I could hazard a guess personal life (lack of partner, unreciprocated love) had the greatest impact on her problems. I suppose had there been somebody beside her, she could have had more strength to overcome symptoms of depression.

Celebrations of 25th anniversary of partly-free elections – fulsome. Reverent coverage of Mr Obama’s visit – fulsome. US president’s speech – insincere.

On Friday I went to cinema to watch Powstanie Warszawskie. Was not the best choice for putting mind to rest before the exam, but never mind. The film has taken its toll on me, but once I read most of the recovered scenes had been shot in the first days of the Uprising when there was supply of current water and people were not dropping like flies from spreading diseases, it turned out the picture of humanitarian disaster was quite mild compared to what Warsaw actually witnessed in the autumn of 1944. Two hundred thousand residents of Warsaw dead, almost the whole left side of the capital obliterated, survivors driven out of the City and the Stalin’s Army waiting on the east bank of Vistula, waiting for Warsaw to bleed its last. Gruelling…

Sunday 1 June 2014

Resurfaced to the right, departed to the left

A hommie [homosexual] is a natural being. They’ve been around for millennia and haven’t bothered anyone. While the gays are ordinary loots imported from abroad. Most of them aren’t even hommies. They are paid to pretend to be hommies. Those imported from abroad persons pretend to be hommies, for money, money paid to break up society and impute wacky principles.

When a woman has a pimple on her face, she’d rather stay at home. And so should the disabled do.
It’s not about aesthetics; there is one tenet in the society: who keeps company with the wolves, will learn to howl, hence watching, incidentally admirable, efforts of para-olympic sportsmen might bring about disruptions in one’s fitness. If we want mankind to develop, we should watch only beautiful, strong, honest and clever people on TV, not deviants, murderers, weaklings, losers, idiots and, alas, the disabled.
We might be happy the disabled organise championships. But what they do, has little to do with sport. You could stage chess tournament for morons equally well.

I belong to so-called secular right wing. This means I am Catholic and hold high the role of religion in the society, but I am against interference of churches (particularly the Roman-Catholic church) into politics. (…) Nevertheless, the Church not only trades in hope, but also convinces people to live in decency. The price for this is worth paying. The other story is whether we are not paying over the odds. Too fat priest is usually a bad priest!

Each kind of socialism, including euro-socialism, is a system based on slavery. And such system is economically inefficient, as evidence proves. Young people sense it and flee. Poles flee to the UK, the Britons flee to the USA… While politically mature Europeans deal with problem of number of votes Poland will have in EU Council vs. the number allocated to Germany. What’s the difference whether Europe is ruled by a socialist sap from Germany or from Poland? A socialist is a socialist, regardless of his political membership and should be returned to re-education camp. Topic closed.

I’d love to disenfranchise many citizens, not only women.
A woman becomes infested with views of a man with who she sleeps. After all a male was designed a such that thousands of spermatozoons go to waste; they morph into a woman’s body and turn into image and likeness of a man she belongs.
Women must not be too clever. The natural evolution mechanism sees to it. An intelligent being would not withstand keeping company to a babbling child for more than an hour. For such reason (and not only) men prefer not to start relationships with intelligent women. Their instinct tells them their offspring should have proper care.

The gist of democracy is that if sir and lady and I are on deserted island, then by majority of votes we can resolve that the lady will go to bed with sir and with me interchangeably. This is how democracy works. And if we have supermajority, we can sign it into the constitution…
How can a system, in which two drunkards have two votes and a university professor has one vote, last? It takes to be an idiot to feel good in such system.

The outrage about paedophilia is disproportionate. Lewis Carroll (the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) was fond of eight-year-old girls. Not just his neighbours, but also ladies from upper classes would send their daughters to his home, being thoughtful of the fact being touched by a man (moderately, within limits) rises up womanhood and helps rather than harms and makes immune to similar courtship in the future. Of course, coercing anyone, not to mention intercourse, or heaven forbid raping, should be severely punished.
I demanded that prosecutor’s office initiated an inquest into effecting paedophilia at schools. I would personally prefer that my daughter is taken care of by a paedophile (not rapist), who’d spank her buttocks, grope her breast, caress and kiss, than if she was to attend such lesson at school. Encounter with paedophile leaves the precious shame and erotic tension, while such lesson at school would result in irrevocable loss of ability to love.

If you had little notion about women, you’d know man always rapes a woman a bit. Women always pretend to resist. You should know when you can make a step, and when not.

We’ll sell [the European Parliament edifice] and turn it into a brothel. The building would excellently serve such purpose.

Jumping out of a window from sixth floor is definitely more detrimental than taking in heroine, however putting up six-floor high buildings is not prohibited.

You can tell all the quotes are example of a joyful oeuvre of a lunatic. No matter, whether the author of all those statements is indeed out of his senses, beyond all doubt he will be one of Poland’s representatives in the commencing term of the Euro-parliament.

The Congress of the New Right [Wing], under the command of its charismatic leader, scored over 7 percent of total votes in the Euro-parliament election in Poland held last Sunday. Having gone through several plights (totalling to more than twenty) in each consecutive election, out of the blue it rose as phoenix from ashes. Nevertheless, its good result should not come as a total surprise, as in the parliamentary election in 2011 it was not much short of exceeding the 5% threshold necessary to mark presence in the parliament (Polish or European). The party is ultra-conservative in social terms and ultra-liberal in economic matters, hence abjectly euro-sceptical.

The high score of JKM’s party could be attributed to low turnout (less than 24%) and general disgruntlement with current shape of political arena in Poland, monopolised by power-wielding ruling party and ever-lasting as opposition another party.

The Congress earned so many votes thanks to support from the youngest electorate. Voters aged 18 – 25 put a cross mostly against JKM’s grouping. If only their votes had been to decide who would win the election, the Congress would go first, PiS second and PO third. The Congress’ success is somewhat similar to emergence of Palikot’s movement in 2011. The party was riding the wave of anti-clericalism spurred by rows surrounding the cross outside the presidential palace post late Lech Kaczynski’s death. They attracted young, tolerant people by socially liberal agenda. During their presence in the parliament they proved in fact they had little to offer and hence in this election, despite allying with some of leftist politicians who had forsaken SLD, its score was below 5 percent threshold.

Many sociologists claim many people who voted in 2011 for Palikot Movement, this year cast votes for JKM’s party. Given the ultra-leftist agenda of the former and ultra-rightist of the latter, the turnabout is likely to prove the voters’ instability and immaturity. I doubt the Congress of the New Right has a cure for all problems plaguing Poland and the EU. Calling all politicians socialists, thieves, proposing to put them all to prison and establish full economic freedom, based on ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ principle would lead to a huge anarchy, rather than to common happiness and well-being. Nevertheless I recognise there are masses of people so fed up what the state of affairs around that they have reached the point in which they have nothing against current order being torn down and taking the risk of starting everything from scratch.

The prospects for the EU are bleak. If one-fifth of all seats in the European Parliament have been taken over by far-rightist euro-sceptics, it clearly signifies trust and belief in the European Institutions had been undermined. The EU is going through its deepest crisis since inception and it is a crisis of self-focus. The EU has reached the highest stage in an organisation’s development, namely its bureaucratic structure has sprawled so far and wide that it can easily waste all its potential on dealing with its own affairs…

The outlook for Poland is miserable as well. Two major parties are going neck in neck in terms of backing. PiS, for the seventh time in a row, enjoying the status of election runner-up, for the first time has seriously caught up with PO. If no major change takes place, i.e. PO will carry on wallowing in complacency, PiS is bound to win the parliamentary election next year (but unlikely to win the presidential election, as in the run-off voters of all parties are likely to unite against PiS). The other story is that it will be rather unable to find a coalitional partner, so endless squabble will become the daily bread…

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Predictably, the funeral of general Jaruzelski triggered disputes surrounding not only evaluation of his deeds, but also whether he should have been buried on Powązki Military Cemetary. Eventually it had been decided the funeral would have partly-state character. I personally found the setting thoroughly appropriate. Mr Jaruzelski was buried not among statesmen of merits but among his fellow soldiers with who he fought during WW2.

The sermon by the priest and president’s speeches were wise and balanced and suited well the circumstances and tragic biography of the general. State and church officials rose to the occasion on the funeral day, while those who gathered outside church and sparked row on the cemetery, did not. Most of those people are probably ardent Catholics and sometimes should be reminded as the general departed, only the God has the power to judge him. It does not mean we must refrain from mentioning heinous episodes from general’s biography. Anti-Semite purges in Polish army, commandeering fraternal aid to Czechoslovakia, responsibility for December 1970 massacre, ambiguous assessment of martial law as the lesser of two evils (or coup d'etat) are still drawing a divide line in Polish society – all those facts cannot be erased, nor forgotten, but in the name of mercy a Catholic should exhibit, sometimes it is better to shut one’s mouth.