Den 13 oktober är det parlamentsval här i Polen och allt lutar åt att regeringspartiet Lag och Rättvisa (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość – PiS) kommer att vinna och sitta kvar i regeringsställning med egen majoritet i Sejmen. Det har huvudsakligen två anledningar: att PiS budskap är både populärt, populistiskt och att […]
I was in Katowice over the weekend to attend a concert by Bobby McFerrin. I’ve seen him a couple of times before when he visited Poland and his concerts are always an amazing display of the versatility of the human voice. This time he was accompanied by the group Gimme […]
Kom på mig själv att komma och tänka på det där med könsöverträndade handslag. Det var ett tag sedan nu Yasri Khan hamnade i blåsväder för att vägrat att ta kvinnor i hand. Handskakning är ju en gammal hälsningsritual i stora delar av världen och en symbol för tillit och […]
Went for a cycle trip on the levee along Vistula today. It was a bit chilly, but a nice day anyway. The last couple of weeks rain combined with snow-melting in the mountains has really made the river grow.
As anyone who has been following the situation in Poland over the last year knows, the government has centralised control over media (now the head of state media is appointed by the minister of culture), the constitutional court (well, they basically castrated it), the prosecutors (the minister of justice was […]
Vad är det som gör folk så arga på PiS? Är vi helt enkelt bara dåliga förlorare? Eller ligger det något annat, djupare bakom? Det var en lång twitter-tråd (läs hela!) av Ben Stanley som hjälpte mig att sätta tummen på det som gnagt länge: This is a classic example […]
Every year when EF, a company specialising in private English instruction, publishes its “English Proficiency Index” we get a host of press reports enthusing about how high Poland (or Sweden) is ranked. This year, Poland is on tenth place in the world, and Sweden on third. But is it true? […]
The results of the latest yearly bicycling measurements (Warszawski Pomiar Ruchu Rowerowego 2016) were just presented. During several days in the beginning of June the number of bicyclists passing by some 50-odd places in Warsaw were counted and catalogued. Since this is a set of measurements that have been repeated […]
Our local cemetary on All saints evening 2009. In Poland they like putting out grave lights on All saints. It makes for nice pictures. This year it was raining the whole evening, so I post this photo from a few years back instead.
A few days ago a friend asked me to take some pictures of her garden. It’s a typical, if unusually well-kept Polish działka; a small garden where families in the town and cities are supposed to relax, socialise, grow fruits and veggies. In Warsaw, large areas are cordoned off as […]
