Welcome to 2010
2010 comes with all sorts of promises. Unfortunately one of those promises is not reliable news coverage.
Examples that have caught my eye recently:
Thirty two percent live in poverty in Poland Apparently "One-in-three live in absolute poverty in Poland. One-in-five can’t afford to adequately heat their homes, finds a new report launching a fight against economic and social exclusion throughout the European Union."
This is a classic case of either misread statistics or absurd statements. How can one-in-three live in absolute poverty while only one in five can't afford to adequately heat their own homes? Maybe my definition of 'absolute' is different to that of the journalist who wrote this article?
A closer look at the actual report will show that the actual poverty rate in Poland is is closer to 17%. The 32% figure quoted as 'absolute poverty' is heavily skewed by people who cannot afford an annual one week holiday. This is still a significant problem. But certainly not as bad as the newspaper article seems to suggest.
But 2010 is promising to be a good year for Poland financially. Let's just hope that the result is higher wages for the average Pole and not higher rent.
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