Poland and Australia in the Winter Olympics

I love Poland.  I think that Poland is a fantastic country full of wonderful people.

But then I am Australian and I think similar things about Australians.  Poland and Australia have surprisingly many things in common.  One thing that Poland and Australia have in common at the moment is that they are together on the Vancouver Winter Olympics medal tally (even though it is only day three).

Poland’s medal has come thanks to the efforts of Adam Małysz, who is a bit of a local hero; whereas Australia’s medal came from Dale Begg-Smith, someone I have never heard of before, even though he has won a few medals in the past.  It is amazing how much this small snippet of information can tell us about the two countries.

Poland loves it’s heroes, but they are always the same heroes.  Małysz has been the hero for years; but what about Kamil Stoch, why isn’t he also a hero?  Chopin, Mickewicz, Marie Curie, Pope John Paul 2 are all big heroes in Poland.  But, where are the number two’s?  Where are the people that have been trained up to be heroes?  People in Poland become heroes when they fight AGAINST something and still win despite the difficulties.  And I accept that in the past it was necessary to struggle/strive/contend in order to achieve something great.  But why is it still the case?

In Australia heroes do not make themselves anymore; they are nurtured, coached and encouraged.  People are encouraged to ‘have a go,’ ‘try something new,’ ‘be all you can be.’  Businesses encourage their staff to maintain their work/life balance.  This does not mean that people don’t need to persevere, but they do know that if they work hard then they will be rewarded for their efforts.

Of course I’m not saying that Poles are never trained up.  What I’m saying is that there seems to be a culture where Poles are not encouraged to be better than their teachers.  Nor are Poles encouraged to try new things (unless it is a new product or new medicine).  If you want an example, then take a look at Polish architecture - it is colourful and boring (I mean the new buildings, not the old ones).

One more interesting snippet of information is that Dale Begg-Smith was actually born in Vancouver, Canada; but now that he has won a silver medal for Australia, his ancestry is irrelevant.  I can’t imagine that happening in Poland any time soon…

Remind me again why I am in Poland...

I found this Global liveability report today.

Apparently Melbourne is the second best city in the world to live in.  Congratulations to everyone who lives in Melbourne!

But of course (in my opinion) Hobart is a much better place to live than Melbourne.  Which (logically) means that Hobart is actually the best place to live in the world.

(I couldn't find Jelenia Góra on the list, but apparently Warsaw is about half-way down the list)

Surrealism in Australian politics

Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day.  But here it is:

Liberal party in Tasmania accusing the Labor government of promising ridiculous amounts of money in order to hold onto office:
Liberals target Labor 'Cash Splash'

And on the same day the National Labor party is accusing the Liberal party of planning a "Mega Tax!"
Mega Tax will fund Abbot's climate policy: Rudd

I'm not honestly surprised.  Liberal parties have been funding Labor excesses for generations.  (This statement by Kevin Rudd sounds like pure panic, somewhat akin to his deputy's attack on Mr Abbott last week)  I think the Australian populace has got used to this, and are getting ready for another change in leading political party at the next generation.

Half a Million!

It's seems to be the catch phrase today.  Here are two articles that caught my eye:


Half a million Poles disappear!

'Un-Australian bums' taking long weekends

Both articles mention that reports have found that around 500,000 people are not working where they said they would be.  Of course this is either 'Un-Australian' (whatever that means) or something akin to magic!

Only four seasons?

I came across this article the other day. Apparently (in reality) Australia has six seasons, and the four season approach is based purely on the European model

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8215570.stm

But, is that true? Because here is another interesting blog/article talking about the six Polish seasons...

http://sylwiaofwarsaw.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/polish-six-seasons-a-guide/

Maybe the thought of six seasons is in fact a global phenomenon?

Am I Happy?

I often get asked by people whether or not I am happy living here in Poland, especially when compared to living in Australia. The short answer is: Yes. The long answer follows:

Don't get me wrong though. I love living in Australia. In my opinion, Australia is the best place in the world to live. Everything is well organised, there is a good social security system, it is relatively easy for well educated people to find work, bureacracy and government departments are relatively efficient. Oh, and the weather is quite good also.

But the question is: Am I Happy here?

Although I have a small apartment, it is quite cheap to rent. I don't have a well paying job, but I work for less than 20 hours a week. Plus it is often a joy teaching your own language especially when your students want to learn (which is normally the case at a private school). Plus there is very little stress involved in teaching English, especially when compared to accounting.

My ability to speak Polish is rather poor, but I know enough to get by. My Polish is poor enough for people to be happy that I am trying to communicate with them, and it is not good enough yet for people to think that they can correct my grammar (thank goodness).

In the morning I get to spend time with my kids whilst Jola is working. Sometimes we go to the playground, we often go to the shops to buy bread (I don't know why Polish bread has to go stale in less than two days - I'm not going to even comment on the "fresh milk," except to say that I don't buy it).

Here in Poland I exercise regularly (mainly because we don't have a car), and have lost enough weight to notice the difference. It feels good.

However socialising is a bit difficult because we have two children and I usually work in the afternoons/evenings when other people are free. But I have internet, so I can still keep in touch with my friends from all over the world.

In conclusion: If my goal in life was to be happy, then I have attained it. Of course there are so many things in Poland I would love to change to make life easier, more comfortable and to make more sense. But I am happy to live here, and for the time being, raise my children here.

Is it time for a New World Order?

Recently there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald claiming that our good friend Kevin Rudd believes that now is the time for a New World Order in the financial sector.

Is this merely political posturing, or is it part of a more sinister plan? Who knows?

My current experience suggests that a lot of people are worried mostly because they don't understand what is going on. So I will do my best to give my understanding and views of how this so-called world wide crisis appeared.

Basically most people in the Western world (USA, Europe, Australia) have enjoyed steady growth in their economies for quite a long time now. For example very few people will have clear memories of Keating's 'Recession we had to have,' and the Asian crisis in 1997 didn't affect many people outside of Asia. Some people (not just economists) were so proud of the long spate of steady growth that they claimed that the business cycle was dead.

So, here is my view of things (taken from an Australian perspective). I have tried to make it as simple as possible:

1. Australia's rate of economic growth over the past ten years has come primarily from rising commodity prices, which rose primarily due to the growth of the economy in China. Resource companies, such as mines, made a lot of money which invariably flowed through to the rest of the economy.

2. China's growth has come primarily from exports to the US

3. The US demand for exports was based on the rise of US household debt. People were basically increasing their mortgages in order to buy consumer goods (eg. cars, TV's, computers etc). A similar thing was happening in Australia, but to a lesser extent.

4. Banks in the US lent too much money (because they were greedy) and had rather relaxed lending requirements. This was fine as long as house prices kept rising and peoples wages kept improving in order to cover their interest repayments.

4a. US banks packaged up and sold their high risk loans to other international banks and financial institutions.

5. By the beginning of 2008, some house prices in the US started to fall and there was a rising number of foreclosures where people couldn't pay their mortgages. Foreclosures are very bad for banks, because not only do they lose the interest repayments (income), if they cannot sell the house at market value (which is very often the case) then they lose significantly more as well. This is why banks started posting losses of up to 10 times the profits they were posting a couple of years ago.

6. Because of the extraordinary large losses being made by US Banks (causing a number to go bankrupt in the space of less than a year), other banks (including banks in foreign markets) became scared to lend to each other, making it harder for banks to get money to on-lend to it's customers.

7. Because banks no longer had easy access to finance, they tightened the lending restrictions, making it difficult for businesses and people to borrow money (for example in Italy it became so hard for businesses to borrow money, many have to borrow money from the Mafia). And because businesses no longer had access to finance, they could not expand as easily or they had cash flow problems, causing them to lay-off staff.

8. All of a sudden people have become afraid of their jobs, which means that they are no longer confident enough to buy a new car, buy new electronic items (eg stereos, TV's); and even if they wanted to, they would have difficulties getting finance. This has caused thousands of people to be fired from places such as Panasonic, Sony and has caused a significant amount of problems for car-makers all around the world (especially those in the US).

9. This drop in consumer demand has meant that people are buying less exports. Therefore China (whose growth has largely come from exports) is no longer growing as fast as it did. Therefore they are no longer buying as many resources as they did, causing commodity prices to drop. Causing problems for Australian resource companies who (as mentioned in point 1) were one of the keys to Australia's growth over the last ten years.

Well. That was a bit longer than I hoped, sorry that haven't explained anything in full. I guess it just proves how complicated everything is at the moment. In particular I have not referred to interest rates, oil prices, the food crisis or exchange rates (because these are just another level of complexity).
Nothing that has happened over the past six to twelve months was unforeseeable. People have simply been ignoring the signs. That is: rising debt levels, China's dependence on the US, instability in the share market, etc...

But is it time for a new world order? Probably not, it's just time for everyone (especially those in the West) to reduce their reliance on debt and to stop living beyond their means. (sounds a bit like hedonism, I know)
You'll have to come up with your own conclusions.