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Poland's Leap to Democracy
| Article
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20197 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1992 |
2,616 Words |
| Author
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Brian A. Brown
Brian A. Brown, recently returned from Poland, is special
adviser to the executive director of Freedom House, the New
York-based human rights organization |
"The government is incompetent," the taxi driver gripes, between puffs on his Marlboro cigarette, as he roughly drives me away from the Okecie Airport in Warsaw.
"The factories are closing," he complains, apparently unappreciative of his recently acquired right of free speech. Like most Poles, he is concerned more with the economic benefits of democracy than the political rights it bestows.
The taximeter--not calibrated to reflect the recent inflation--clicks on. I had heard of the "taxi mafia," which charges as much as $50-100 for a ride from the airport to downtown Warsaw. Those insisting on paying the usual $6 are physically threatened or worse. My driver, like most, is honest.
The Shops Are Full
The changes, since my last visit in the summer of 1988, are immediately apparent even from the backseat of the exhaust-spewing Polski Fiat. The Poles opened their borders and got at least a piece of what they always wanted: America.
Rumbling and rocking down the tracks alongside the taxi was a beat-up, state-run trolley car covered with a massive painting of the American flag advertising tours to the center of capitalist decadence.
Te cowboys have arrived, too, and they're larger than life. A billboard of a walrus-mustached cowboy squatting in his Lee jeans stares down at the chaos left by the communists. Another fingers his Marlboro cigarette as he looks past an expansive Western landscape onto smoggy Warsaw-two unconquered frontiers merge.
Western businessmen, the modern-day pioneers, scurry about in a frantic attempt to capture consumer loyalty. Their first concern is to lock up the market, their second worry is whether anyone can afford their products. The faded red signs touting the glories of communism are obscured by neon lit shop signs proclaiming the grandeur of ownership
In the shops, the gray shelves that until recently offered only a few dingy items are now full of colorful new products. From cars to condoms, Western and Japanese goods have flooded the market. But the average monthly salary of $163 is so low that few Poles can afford the comforts of capitalism. "The political changes are good, but I can't afford anything" is the most
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