Outlook Hungary and Poland: A new game begins

Warsaw is becoming a city of museums, reports Darius Bartoszewicz in Gazeta Wyborcza while in Polityka Michał Witkowski shares an invaluable  lesson he learned between two flights in Kiev. In Przekrój Jerzy Pilch’s diaries go from strength to strength. And in Élet és Irodalom Iván Lipovecz highlights major cases of corruption.

English version updated on Thursdays.

Travel Files

In her Amsterdam snapshots, Olga Tokarczuk compares Dutch and Polish attitudes to architecture and road traffic and reveals Poland’s role in the invention of dreadlocks.

Czech and Slovak Press Roundup: Ancient Disease

After googling the word ‘corruption’ Martin M. Šimečka writes an excellent essay for Respekt.  Jáchym Topol and Markéta Křížová discuss the wretched history of Haiti in Orientace while Eva Čobejová and Jozef Ryník  in .týždeň try to find out why Slovakia is a country of lousy restaurants. 

English version updated on Tuesdays.

Polish and Hungarian Press Roundup: On thin Ice

Piotr Sikora in Gazeta Świąteczna updates Antigone’s conflict for the open society of today while Olga Woźniak in Przekrój explains why we need to know what Fryderyk Chopin died of. In Népszabadság Vilmos Csányi has found out why the Hungarians are disappointed in democracy while Attila Sausic in ÉS walks on thin ice.

English version updated on Wednesdays.

A Dual World

Post-communist corruption is a new mutation of this ancient disease, says Martin M. Šimečka.

Czech and Slovak Press Roundup: Laughing through Tears

In the Czech Respekt Petr Třešňák and Petra Švehlová exchange views on Avatar while in Orientace Tomáš Němeček discovers an unassuming Anthony Giddens in blue jeans.  František Šebej in Slovakia’s  .týždeň hopes for a better future for Haiti while photographer Andrej Bán covers the Ukrainian presidential election.

English version updated on Tuesdays.

All Quiet on the Western Front

It’s not Poland that needs to become westernized, argues Stefan Chwin, it’s the West that has to acknowledge that Poland is part of it. 

Poland and Hungary Press Roundup: Looking up

Andrzej Stasiuk in the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza describes the contrast between Orthodox Bulgaria and Moslem Turkey while Hungarian poet Ákos Szilágyi in Népszabadság contemplates the stars in search of a pristine sky.

dB, or a Brief History of Noise

In the beginning was silence. These days speakers and amplifiers have become the air that we breathe. Drago Jančar desperately seeks silence in our over-amplified world.

Poland and Hungary Press Roundup: NGOs in the Grip of Newspeak

In Poland’s Gazeta Wyborza Agnieszka Graff accuses NGOs of focusing on effectiveness instead of justice while István Kemény in Hungary’s HVG believes all it takes to divide society is general hatred.