Local Elections & Some Issues

Local government election time is here again. Honestly, I haven’t been paying much attention to the candidates. The only one I know is the current Mayor of Warsaw whom I have mixed feelings about.

The current candidates from what I have overheard on the news are all making promises which they probably won’t be able to keep. It’s easy to say ‘we’re going to build new pre-schools’ or ‘vote for us and we’ll fix the crowded public transport problem’ – they’ll say anything to get people to vote for them but when push comes to shove they won’t be putting their money where their mouths are.

I’ve been living in Warsaw for the past three and a half years and there are a number of evident problems facing the city;

*litter – there’s aren’t enough rubbish bins on platforms or on the streets. Recycling bins have been placed in the city center but when the garbage collectors come they place the segregated rubbish into one pile anyway – the same thing happens to the rubbish segregated in many Polish homes. Fining people for littering could be a good option to clean up the city (and keep it clean) and raise some money to fix the budget deficit. The problem is even worse for chucking rubbish in the forest; people get fined for taking rubbish from home and putting it in a public bin but no one seems to notice when they pollute the beautiful forests.

*homelessness – it breaks my heart when I see people who should be enjoying their retirement begging on the streets, trying to make ends meet by handing out brochures or selling flowers to anyone who passes. It is sickening to see drunken men (and occasionally women) sprawled at a bus stop next to Centralna Station. Sure, the Straz Miejska gets them to move but they simply go to another bus stop or public place and the cycle repeats.

*road condition – shocking, shocking and once again shocking. A road gets fixed this week and will need repairs by next year. There are holes everywhere. I’m surprised that people haven’t tried to sue their local councils for the costs of repair due to the disgusting road conditions in some areas. Not surprising, now that election time has started road works are under way in many suburbs.

*customer service – okay it’s improving but at snail’s pace. Local council and many government offices lack in customer service skills. This may seem like a small issue in comparison to the others but when you’re trying to get something done you want to communicate with humans who are kind rather than mean spirited. A smile won’t kill them; it might even improve their day. Oh and I’m so sorry that my urgent need for documentation disturbed the gossip session you were having with your colleague.

*truancy – being a TEFL teacher I have very flexible working hours; it’s not uncommon for me to visit a café in one of the shopping centers in between lessons. I’m amazed at the amount of middle and high school students that are very likely ditching school. Uniforms would help solve this problem especially if police and straz miejska had some control and could transport these pupils back to their schools (and give them some sort of punishment – maybe a bit of community service like helping out at a homeless shelter would do the trick)

Some minor and some major issues, and that’s just a start. I know that it’s impossible to solve all the problems in society. A utopia is impossible where humans are involved, there’s always going to be someone against the system.

So, we’ll see what affects these local elections will bring. I’d like to steer towards optimism and hope that they will leave what works alone, and change what doesn’t so that it does. Simple. Isn’t it?

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail doesn’t seem to be my forte lately. I’ve been making silly mistakes which make me feel & look stupid.

I made a mistake and now I want to curl up in a dark hole somewhere and not come out. It was a serious mistake which I hope can be amended quickly; it made me look stupid and unprofessional. These things happen but they shouldn’t - not for someone who is working towards becoming a freelance writer.

There are plenty of excuses I could use for making some of these mistakes – stress, lack of time, stress again – but none of them are good enough. As a writer it is my job to provide work that is without errors, sure spelling mistakes get overlooked, a comma gets put in the wrong place – that’s forgivable – writing someone’s name inaccurately isn’t. The mistake happened because I wasn’t thorough enough before submitting the assignment. Now I’m kicking myself for being so careless.

The advice I have for myself or anyone who’s reading is not only read what you have written to check for errors but actually go through every part of your writing to ensure that it is error free. Fact check once, and fact check again. One small mistake can be costly and as a writer I or anyone else cannot afford that.

Being slack with my writing

Slack. That’s all I can say about myself and writing on this blog. It just hasn’t been happening. I can’t get motivated or inspired to write anything here. What is wrong? I don’t have any focus. I’m not entirely sure what I want the blog to do if anything at all. It was supposed to be about life in Poland, well, do you really care what goes on here? Do I?

That’s the problem. My motivation to get this blog going has reduced to a few tidbits of nothing. My writing feels fake, dull, and pretentious. I am jeopardizing my own progress by making excuses for not writing what I should be writing.

Recently, there have been days where I feel like stopping completely. That’s right, taking everything I have ever written and throwing it into the fireplace and either giving it up for another activity or starting all over again.

Maybe I’m rushing. I have a tendency to do that with many things in my life. I want results quickly. I want everything to happen right now. At the beginning of the year I set my goals a little bit too high. Okay, I admit. Extremely high. I don’t have the time to achieve them all unless I cut back my sleeping time down to four hours and stop teaching English. That’s not going to happen so I’m going to have to set more realistic goals from now on or stop setting them and actually do something.

So for this week there’s only one goal: Take action by finishing some of the writing projects including queries, outlines, university assignments, novel in progress, that sort of thing. And throwing out anything without future potential to make room for new ideas and projects.

Rising PKP Charges

Nothing should surprise me anymore but once again I couldn’t believe me ears. On my way to work today and listening to the radio I heard another ridiculous idea. It seems that PKP want to start charging people to be able to use the station and its platforms, and pay to catch the train.

„Dworce mogą wyglądać tak jak lotniska. Być bezpieczne, czyste i ładne - przekonuje w swojej najnowszej kampanii informacyjnej spółka PKP i wyciąga rękę do naszej kieszeni. Z błogosławieństwem rządu, podkreśla "Metro"” http://biznes.onet.pl/oplata-dworcowa-juz-za-dwa-lata,18727,3601444,1,prasa-detal

Do the stations have to look like airports? Nope. Should they be safe, clean and pretty. Yes, but that should be a given not something I or any other passenger has to pay extra for.

Personally, I don’t like entering the stations for free so I doubt that I’ll be wanting to use them when I have to pay extra. Most are disgusting, poorly looked after, stink of piss and drunks, have limited public utilities which you have to pay for, and unpleasant staff who don’t understand the concept of customer service.

I’m curious as to where all the money they earn now goes. A normal ticket costs about 2.80zl for the SKM lines. PKP charge a lot more depending on the distance you travel. On top of that there is also the EU funding which Poland received which reaches the tens of billions. What’s happening to that money? Why does the government and all the other organization persist with taking money from the citizens but refuse to give anything in return?

„Według wyliczeń resortu infrastruktury nasi przewoźnicy płaciliby rocznie 134 mln zł opłat dworcowych. Wstępne symulacje wskazują, że koszt podróży jednego pasażera podniósłby się wtedy od 10 do 80 gr.” http://biznes.onet.pl/oplata-dworcowa-juz-za-dwa-lata,18727,3601444,1,prasa-detal

10-80gr extra doesn’t seem like a lot. But what guarantee do passengers have that the PKP are going to keep to their word and provide the region with ‘safe, clean and pretty’ stations everywhere. Whenever there are extra charges, the money seems to disappear into thin air in this country and no one knows exactly where it goes. I’d like to see the promised changes made before I fork out any extra cash otherwise I prefer to cycle.

Computer troubles

As a writer my Internet usage is very high. Unless I’m on holidays I’m constantly doing something on the Internet or on the computer in general. Writing. Researching. Reading. Surfing. When the computer starts playing up my blood pressure rises. The area I live in has a poor Internet connection even though it’s classified as Warsaw. Go figure. The capital city and I can’t get fast Internet just some slow crap. It just stops halfway through uploading something. Or cuts out completely for no apparent reason. Recently it’s begun to shut down all the Internet pages I’m using. To say it’s getting on my nerves is a understatement. Frequently, I change the rooms in which I work to get a better connection.

Last week my lap top started making funny noises. I’ve had it for almost two years and apparently the computer repair guy told me that after one year it has a right to start breaking down. Yikes. So does that mean that I have to have a few thousand ready every year or so to get a new lap top. That’s crazy. And the Internet connection? Do I have to move to the centre of town to be able to get decent Internet speed?

Other than that, I can’t imagine not working on my lap top but it definitely is time for a new one. Maybe I’ll treat myself to a Macbook Pro for Christmas if I behave and get my work done to satisfaction.

A brief update

I haven’t been motivated to write on this blog for a while now. I guess I’m uncertain of the direction I want it to take. At first I considered it to be a blog about life in Poland as well as my writing journey and that’s not a bad idea but I do need to make it a more regular activity. I’d like to promote Poland a little. It’s a beautiful country from an ecological perspective. No venomous snakes and spiders that you have to worry about when you go wandering in the forest. I’m going to try and make an effort to post at least once a week.

Recent updates are that the Polish government needs a lot of work. The fact that Poland is a part of the EU is saving it from an internal battlefield. I feel uncomfortable with what is going on between PO and PIS and their supporters. What happened with the cross outside the Presidential Palace in Krakowskie Przedmiescie was a joke. It got so much media coverage that the nation forgot about more important things like the floods that have jeopardized the livelihood of thousands of Poles. Komorowski won the election and Kaczynski has shown his true personality now that the race for President is over. No surprise since it’s virtually impossible to change your persona over night and do it genuinely. Whether things are going to improve is anyone’s guess. The government and all its Ministers need to start taking responsibility for their actions and actually do something instead of falling asleep, pointing fingers and earning money, well, for pretty much doing nothing. Palikot has been in the news recently. While many people don’t like him, he definitely gets my vote. If he toned down his blatant attitude just a little bit I think that he could really go a long way. A politician like him would take control and slowly but surely solve the many problems that surround Polish politics, society and economy.

On a personal note I have been very busy over the past two month. Writing articles and trying to finish my novel. Enjoying the summer with a bit of traveling. Training for a marathon. Cooking. Relaxing. Forgetting to write on the blog. It’s been a busy few months.

11 Random Monday Acts

1 - Ate half a packet of Tim Tam’s
2 - Cooked Bombay Masala for dinner – note to self: try that new restaurant on ul. Nowy Swiat 23, ‘Buddha Bar & Restaurant’ which has Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisine. Yummy.
3 - Wrote lots, well came up with lots of ideas for articles anyway – that’s still being productive isn’t it? At least now I don’t have any excuses not to write query letters.
4 - Procrastinated about exercise – maybe I’ll do some weights tonight, my planned interval run will have to be put off for tomorrow
5 - Commented on Facebook – twice…weird I don't normally do that. Could social networking be growing on me?
6 - First day of session 2 uni, I’m doing Public Writing and Media Debates and Controversies – I’m wondering if I’m going to be the endless student?
7 - Hold on I did write a chapter of my chick lit work in progress
8 - Tried to think positively though it becomes impossible every time I have contact with Poland’s health care system, in particular their hospitals. They constantly break the European Patient Laws (Prawa Pacjenta –www.bpp.waw.pl) but I suppose I did a lot of that yesterday. I’m working on some ideas for an article regarding this area. The problem is that people are afraid to stand up for themselves in case a doctor will leave a needle inside them after surgery, forget to check their blood pressure, or something much worse. Accidents do happen.
9 - Wasted a lot of time surfing the Internet. It’s research okay. I’m really enjoying going through the Matador site. www.matadortravel.com
10 – Taught a TEFL lesson, just one, it’s so lovely to be finished by 10am, than again it is the holidays so many people are taking a break from learning English.
11 – Looked for jobs in London, thought about working in Spain or Austria or maybe even China. I’d love to spend 3-6 months working in one or two more countries. What is stopping me?