Outlook Visegrad: Levels of emotion

László Lőrinc in Heti Világgazdaság rips into Hungarian “image-building” films. Kenan Malik and Fero Šebej discuss multiculturalism in Eurozine. In Poland’s Wprost Agnieszka Graff exclaims in exasperation: “Enough of Smolensk already!” And in the Czech Respekt Adam Votruba seeks   unexplored options for a new model of economic thinking.

English version updated on Thursdays

HVG (Hungary), 15.01.2011

Writer and history teacher László Lőrinc takes aim at the so-called image-building films that are being produced in Hungary, concluding that the problem is not so much the genre of „image-building“ film in itself as the country it is meant to promote. While boasting of the (sometimes exaggerated) achievements of „great Hungarians“,  instead of promoting Hungary they actually show a country driven by inferiority complexes and in need of legitimizing itself, wallowing in self-pity because the ungrateful world has not recognized its genius: „I don’t know what message these films will convey to a foreign observer but they certainly convey a message to their own country. What our nation – which emerges from many surveys as devastatingly dispirited and pessimistic – needs more than anything else is a healthy self-confidence based on firm and real foundations.“

Polityka (Poland), 24.01.2011

Jan Stawiski of TVN television chips in on the discussion of Złote żniwa (The Gold Harvest), the new book by Jan Tomasz Gross, which has been making waves in Poland even before publication, and this is what he concludes after reading a preview copy: „It is hard not to be appalled by some passages in the book. For example, the claim that what a Polish peasant and a Swiss banker have in common is a gold tooth pulled out from the skull of a murdered Jew. This statement, a typical example of the author‘s journalistic ardour, is as unfair to the Polish peasantry as it is to Swiss bankers. Was every Polish peasant really intent on grabbing Jewish property? Was every Swiss banker really involved in hoarding the gold the Third Reich stole from the Jews?“ Even though Jan Stawiski lists several similar examples, he believes 

The Gold Harvest is „vital reading for everyone interested in trying to understand the complexity of Polish-Jewish relations during the war and its immediate aftermath. The discussion of Gross‘s previous book, Neighbours, has shown that books like these can teach us that we can condemn the so-called „snatchers“ [people who blackmailed Jews during the war, threatening to report them to the Nazis. Ed.] and participants in pogroms while recognizing the courage of those of our fellow countrymen, who have been proclaimed the Righteous Among the Nations.  Two more publications on the Polish attitude to the Jews are due out in the near future. (...)  The coming months will be crucial but also very difficult for the Polish-Jewish dialogue.“

Michał Książek travelled to the village of Tomtor in Kolyma, the site of the Oymiakon meteorological station where 4 years ago the lowest temperature in the world – minus 71 degrees Celsius – was recorded.  His fascinating report (click here to see a photo gallery) says: „Few people apart from the locals will remember that Oymiakon was one of the islands of the Gulag Archipelago. [...] The best-preserved remnant of the Gulag is the road under which people are buried as in a coffin. ‚Every time we go to Yakutsk or Ust‘-Nera, we walk on corpses‘ , says Maria Polikarpovna Boyarova, a Russian teacher in the local school, who started collecting materials on the camps in the area after graduating from Leningrad University. She has turned her collection into a memorial room, the only museum in Kolyma and Oymiakon dedicated solely to the camps.“

Photo: Polityka

Wprost (Poland), 24.01.2011

„Enough of Smolensk already! There are so many serious issues politics should deal with, yet we are focused excusively on whether the Russians slapped us in the face or whether Tusk should spend three hours less skiing!“ This is the exasperated cry Piotr Najsztub elicited in an interview (the complete text here,  currently only for a fee) from writer and feminist Agnieszka Graff, acclaimed author of several books, most recently Magma (2010). „I call what is going on in the media the Smolensk paralysis. The same thing happened when the Pope died. All the media seemed to be playing the game entitled ’Whoever utters a word on a subject other than the Pope’s death is out‘. In her view, most people couldn’t care less‘. She believes Polish society cares about paying off their mortgage or looking for a nursery school. Thousands of Poles are much more excited about the fluctuations of the Swiss franc. [...] The writer would like to see more vigorous debate on real social issues arousing a level of emotion similar to the Smolensk tragedy. ’On a symbolic level one could say that if society is to win and if a solution to its problems is to be found, we will have to ’kill‘ the nation with its emotions, conspiracies, permanent sense of betrayal and injustice.‘“

Przekroj (Poland), 18.01.2011

Maciej Jarkowiec introduces the Polish Clintons: „A power-yielding team of two, in love with each other. A union of two careers that spur each other on. A power tandem. In a word, the phenomenon known as the power couple. Although the renowned American writer and journalist Anne Applebaum and the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław „Radek” Sikorski can‘t hold a candle to Hillary and Bill Clinton, the most powerful power couple in present-day world, Anne and Radek are unique among local power couples, not just political ones. They rule.“  Jarowiec describes their lifestyle and cooperation (Radek allegedly listens to his wife’s advice; Anne participates in informal meetings with diplomats but never makes use of this information in her columns) and sums up their careers. Initially it was Anne who was ahead: „In spite of his reputation as an excellent war correspondent, his World Press Photo award and several vice-ministerial positions Sikorski was, in fact, for many years more his wife’s husband than the other way around. She helped to open many doors for him in Washington. [..]  Nowadays Radek’s and Anne’s international sigificance is comparable: he has caught up with her. Thanks to his position Sikorski can now open doors to world politics on his own. They are not likely to rule the world but in Poland their growing power will make their stars shine brighter than anyone else‘s.“

Anne Applebaum and Radoslaw Sikorski. Photo: East News

Eurozine (Austria), 15.01.2011

“The very thing that diversity is good for is the very thing that multiculturalism as a political process undermines.“ Continuing the Eurozine debate series "Europe talks to Europe", critic of multiculturalism and free speech advocate Kenan Malik and Slovak Civic Conservative politician František Šebej met in Bratislava to discuss where multiculturalism went wrong and what the alternatives are for Europe. In the debate, moderated by Samual Abrahám, editor of the journal Kritika & Kontext. František Šebej explains why he considers Slovak society multiethnic but not multicultural. Kenan Malik argues that every society is pluralist and is not correctly defined by the one-dimensional term „multicultural“: „There’s a myth that European

societies used to be homogenous and somehow they’ve become plural because of mass immigration, particularly the arrival of Muslim immigrants. But if you go back to the nineteenth century, Europe was probably more plural then than it is today: the cultural difference between a factory owner and a factory worker in Britain or anywhere in Europe was far greater than the cultural difference today between a sixteen-year-old of north African or Pakistani origin and a sixteen-year-old indigenous Slovak or Briton. The difference isn’t that we have become more plural, but that we’ve come to understand pluralism in a very different way. Societies have always been conflictual, riven by class differences, generational differences, gender differences, ideological differences. But today we tend to see social clashes in a very narrow way, in terms of religion, faith and culture, because we have come to see identity in very narrow ways. The debate about multiculturalism is a debate in which certain differences – culture, ethnicity and faith – have come to be regarded as important and others – such as class, say, or generation – as less relevant.  

Kenan Malik a František Šebej. Foto: Ondrej Gajdoš

Respekt (Czech Republic), 24.01.2011

Historian and philosopher Adam Votruba looks forward to the end of the economic crisis, while searching for unexplored options and new ways of thinking: „A change in the pattern of economic thinking has to be based primarily on a critique of the old pattern. The latter does not suddenly collapse, allowing a new pattern to be constructed in its place – things do not work like that. Change occurs in a different way, at a point when the notions that had been taken for granted stop working. Human thinking sometimes gets stuck in a vicious circle when reality clashes with dogma, which the human brain does not yet have the courage to refute.  It is only by refuting a failed dogma that we can open the way towards a new theory. However, there have always been alternative currents in economic thinking and in some cases we may have ignored them to our detriment. As an example of a different way of economic thinking I would like to cite the work of the half-forgotten German economist Silvio Gesell  (1862 – 1930). The essence of Gesell’s work was a critique of the financial system and in particular, of the institution of interest, which he regarded as the essence of capitalism. His proposed solution was to introduce a new currency that would make it possible to abolish interest and would be based on sanctions for supporting the currency. If the currency was not used it devalued. This provision solved the well-known problem that occurs in periods of crisis: people worried about the future start to save more and buy less, which entrenches the crisis situation, since a reduced interest in goods results in further reductions in production and redundancies. Gesell’s model was put to a practical test in 1932 in the Austrian town of Wörgl. Gesell devised the local currency in such a way that the validity of the notes had to be extended each month by attaching a duty stamp amounting to 1% of the note’s nominal value. People tried to get rid of their money before the end of the month, thereby speeding up its circulation. This arrangement virtually eliminated unemployment in the town which, until then, had hovered at around 25% due to the economic crisis.  However, the Austrian Central Bank put a resolute stop to the experiment after a year. What is striking about this is that some economists have reached similar conclusions based on the most recent crisis, albeit from a completely different starting point: the fact that interest rates cannot be lowered below zero triggered discussion about sanctions for supporting the currency. This connection is not accidental, since Gesell’s idea is, in many ways, a precursor of the recent monetarism – particularly in that it highlights the decisive impact the financial sector has on the real economy.“

© Salon, Perlentaucher

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