As the two candidates entered the grounds of Poland’s public television, Sunday, ready for the first head-to-head presidential TV face off, a new anthropological, ethnographic sub-culture could be spotted waiting for them just outside the entrance to the TVP building.
They wore flowers in their hair, they banged their tambourines, resplendent in orange kaftans, like Polish Maharishi chanting happy slogans.
They resembled hippies but they were not. For these were supporters of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, candidate of the Law and Justice party, or PiS in the Polish acronym. They were not your usual, common and garden, peace loving hippy, high on herb and an overdose of patchouli oil.
No. These were the HiPiS. And they want to you to join them.
There were some high profile names in amongst the gaggle of hiPiS - Marek Migalski, Elżbieta Jakubiak, Paweł Poncyliusz - part of the PiS new-wave - singing John Lennon’s Give PiS a Chance. Yeah - they really were singing that.
At one point, as they descended, slowly, on the public television building, I thought they were going to repeat a stunt by one of their forbearers, 1960s Timothy Leary, who gathered a few thousand hippies - whose brains had been deep fried in too much acid - and surrounded the Whitehouse in the sincere belief that they could levitate it into the sky.
I imagined Jaroslaw Kaczynski, guru-like, wearing swirling white robes, emerge from his limo and commanding TVP to rise up into the sky, like a balloon.
LSD King Timothy Leary told us to “Turn on, tune in and drop out. ” But as Law and Justice control TVP at the moment, maybe Kaczynski would come riding into the television studios on a magic carpet, advising all who would listen to “Turn on, tune in, to TVP”.
The hiPiS are a result of Law and Justice’s lengthy internal debate on how to change their image, attract a few more younger people to vote for them. It’s also part of Jarsolaw Kaczynski’s personality make-over. It was planned that Kaczynski was going to get a new softer image some months ago - make him more cuddly, less aggressive, less conflict-inclined. And then Smolensk happened, and maybe - maybe - he actually started to believe the PR. Maybe.
So in the last few weeks Jaroslaw has turned into the Polish Ghandi. Where once he was the commie-baiting attack dog, straining at the leash for conflict, now he wants to end the fighting, he says, to unite Poland in a hiPiS paradise.
20 comments:
and geez...Us were great against Albania, or someone, but dismal against Ghana.
and England...I could slit my wrists...but I told you so...
Sounds like the call me dave compassionate tory party.
Total twaddle
todays election joke:
what's the difference between Komorowski and Kaczynski?
Like between a chair and ... electric chair!
I was really excited about the new wave of hippiedom beginning in Poland, beautiful colourful clothes, happy faces etc - alas it seems they've taken the style and lost the substance... nuff said!
No not hairy krishnas?
"Give PiS a chance" & "hiPiS": too funny.
Soccer-wise: England was dismal against everyone they played. The only guys who showed up, it seemed to me, were Terry and Lampard. Which goalie was worse?
The US defenders sucked (although DeMerit, a third tier player in England, played the game of his life in guarding Rooney). Onweju, who is pretty good on defense, was hurt and not ready and couldn't even finish the first game. Bradley, the coach is gone, I think, soon enough to be replaced by Jurgen Klinsmann, from what I'm reading. But the young Bradley, the son, at middie was the sparkplug of the team. The old man started Clark who gave up the first goal to England instead of Edu who played great whenever he was in there. And then Clark gave up the first goal to Ghana. And then the coach pulled him. And he subbed the other two replacements too early so there was nothing left energywise going into overtime. Those first few minutes of overtime when Ghana scored looked like the guys were on elephant tranquilizers.
I don't think the coach should have kept starting Altidore or Findley. I wouldn't have played Findley at all and I would have only subbed Altidore in at the end when the opposing defense was tired. Then his brawn could have paid off despite his clumsiness.
I don''t know who to root for on Saturday. Germany with Podolski and Klose or Argentina with Maradona (Che tatoo and rosary beads) with Messi, Higuain,and Tevez.
Firstly, do not confuse kaczynski's Law and Justice with the Uk’s Conservative party. These are very different beats. The Tories, traditionally, were the party of choice for the posh and middle class in Britain. That has changed some over the years, but so has the Conservatives (pro gay civic partnerships, for instance).
Law and Justice have support in rural areas, among some sections of the poor, the religious.
The only thing they have in common is an anti-federalism in the EU.
As for HiPis - I wonder what their…position is on free love and that?
Geez - The Us did OK, they got out of the group stage. Well done. You punched above your weight.
England are crap and have been since 1970. A second rate international team with top, world class aspirations. But England have not been a good team for decades. It’s as simple as that.
6:50 PM
Well here we go again, more fall out from our imperfect little revolution. The voters have choice a between Jarsolaw Kaczynski and Bronislaw Komorowski, too unfit nobodies; within a corporate structure neither of these men could aspire to anything more than toilet cleaner.
Jarsolaw Kaczynski
-supported by backward Poland, uneducated Poland and the church
-not an economic reformer but close to an actual socialist
-completely incompetent in matters of foreign affairs
-very possibly a closet homosexual
Bronislaw Komorowski
-less charisma than drying paint
-doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut
-Tusk’s bum boy, in the pocket of PO regardless of the nations interests
-supported by the former communist apparatus
-unwilling to defend Polish interests when it comes to our relationship with Russia.
These two fuck wads are not the stuff of which national history is written, roll over in your grave Pilsudski, look what Poland has come to. I take that back if you roll over in your grave you may land on a Kaczynski.
Bronislaw Komorowski will likely be more compliant when it comes to meeting the needs of business such as removing some portions of the social safety net. It is bizarre that in Poland the business community at its top and most affluent levels are mostly made up of former communist functionaries. What irony for these men, to have been indoctrinated that they are the vanguard of the workers struggle but now sit in their boardrooms gazing at a work force to be exploited for maximum return. In real terms not an actual change of roles.
The Polish mainstream press has been singularly most responsible for promoting the interests of Poland new business elite, with nearly all the press in the hands of former communists there has been an intensive campaign to vilify the Kaczynskis without even the pretense of objectivity. What we have in Poland when it comes to press is not a pillar or guarantor of the democratic order but rather a sophisticated propaganda machine designed to maintain a status quo, which favours the elites.
The voters have choice a between Jarsolaw Kaczynski and Bronislaw Komorowski, too unfit nobodies; within a corporate structure neither of these men could aspire to anything more than toilet cleaner.
Jan - I think you are being a little unfair...to toilet cleaners.
The business class likes Civic Platform. It's a no brainer. They are right wing, pro free market, pro-EU (for the markets)and represent capitalist's. And yeah the irony of the business elite being popularised by ex-commies was one of the first things that amazed me here. But then, it could be worse. Poland could be Russia.
And yeah - both candidates are of very poor quality...but the job is in essence meaningless. It has no power. That's why Tusk didn't want it.
Perhaps political dwarfs would be better than toilet cleaner, the job is not altogether meaningless as the president represents Poland to the international community and neither even speaks English. It would have been better to have Sikorski who would be very qualified but perhaps less compliant than Komorowski.
“Poland could be Russia” – are you a Russophob? Given that the US has walked away from eastern and central Europe, its fashionable in Warsaw to be embrace our new friends because as you know when Donald got his hug form Putin, they were there for us when we were in emotional turmoil.
So who tf do you support, 57?
Are you just disillusioned?
A 21st century man but you don't want to be there?
And why is it so bizarre that former commies have shown themselves to be complete brown nosers to whomever it takes to line their pockets? SOP.
BR: The US team showed it can play competitively against Spain (they won 2-0) and Brazil (they lost 3-2 after leading 2-0) in recent international competition (Conclaef or whatever the initials are or stand for).
I wonder, too, if Sikorski's wife Anne Applebaum had anything to do with refashioning Kaczynski's personna?
See:
http://www.anneapplebaum.com/2010/03/24/nasty-parties-dont-win-elections/
@jannowak57:
I do agree with your candidates review. None of them is a real leader.
Let's say: you're left with these two names to vote. You're a person who always DOES vote as an obvious thing to do, and finds no voting as something unimmaginable and shame. You complain and you moan "OMG, I have none to vote for!". But who the heck are you gonna vote for? Komorowski or Kaczynski? It is not easy, but complaining and moaning is not an option either. Who would you choose out of these two?
With my fingers pinching my nose to subdue the ever-present stench of the Polish political elites, and under the heading of selecting the one who is going to fuck it up less, then, I would vote for Bronislaw Komorowski.
Poland needs economic progress above all else at this time and with Komorowski in place, Tusk maybe a little more embolden to carry some of the badly need economic reforms.
Completely off track but Polishy:
From an AP report about the 4th of July hot dog eating competition at Nathan's today: The first hot dog was sold here (Coney Island in NYC) around 1870 by German butcher Charles Feltman. His competitive, Polish-born employee, Nathan Handwerker, opened his own business in 1916 – Nathan's Famous, still the backdrop to the hot dog contest started here that year.
Did parufki (sp?) come even earlier?
Um. I am a young person and I support PiS. Of course, I did not come from one of the many Polish families that did raised their children on MTV ;)
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