Reflections On Poland
In a long article reflecting on the current state of Poland, a leading authority noted that today 'there is a stronger sense than ever of "two Polands": one more liberal, metropolitan, tolerant, and open to the outside world, the other more conservative, religious, provincial, and inward-looking.'
Timothy Garton-Ash, writing in the New York Review of Books, also acknowledged that 'even the most upbeat liberal must ackowledge that the transition to democracy has been high.'
He notes that many amongst those who have lost most in the new Poland are the workers who ushered in the famed Solidarity Revolution itself. Mr Garton-Ash was one of the few Westerners to have actually observed that revolution and he gas remained a keen observer of Polish developments ever since.
'Honesty demands a plain acknowledgment that for millions of Polish men and women,' he continues, 'especially among the workers, the poor, the old, and those living in the south and east, the years since 1989 have been painful and disappointing. For them, the reality of freedom has proved very different from the dream.'
However, the British writer adds emphatically that something has indeed 'been won.' After all those years without freedom, the prospects for so many young Poles are immeasurably brighter. The doors have opened:
'Today, the life chances of an enterprising young Pole are altogether comparable with those of a young Brit, and by no means only for those from a privileged background, as I see every day among the Polish students and student-workers in Oxford.'