Egyptian Revolution Jan 25th 2011

Morozov is right: no revolution is the same, yet tonight watching citizen videos from Egypt I cannot help but go back to the times when Poland lived the times of change, change felt in the air.

My thoughts are with all my friends from Egypt tonight!

It's very, very subjective, in my context, but this is how it feels:

GV Post: Poland - More Reactions to IAC Report - on Microblogs and via Cartoons

The Interstate Aviation Committee's report on the crash of TU-154M near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, has provoked many insightful posts from bloggers, but we have also found that microblogging platforms - Twitter and Blip.pl - have become good spaces for Poles to express their opinions, and that quite a few visuals criticising the report have appeared online.

On Twitter, users generally criticise the report and the Polish government's reactions.

@janpoplawski states [PL]:

Why is the government preparing an answer to the Russian government if the report was written by IAC - an international organisation

@tuskwatch refers [PL] to the fact that the Prime Minister was absent on the day of the report's publication:

It seems that Prime Minister Tusk considered his reaction to the report a success and went back to skiing. Shall we wish him happy holidays?

@gregorius74 speaks as if stating the obvious [PL]:

A discovery! This government does not seem to think. Klich: IAC report was supposed to discredit us http://bit.ly/gRTd3g

@radiomaryja, the Twitter account of a Catholic radio station, has this [PL]:

IAC report disappointed us http://bit.ly/eiS7lx

@brulion invites Twitter users to join a new Facebook page [PL]:

http://www.facebook.com/raportMAK group “I think the IAC report is outrageous”

Polish microblogging engine, Blip.pl, contains reactions of similar sentiment.

@jezykwkosmosie writes [PL]:

IAC was as delicate to Tupolew's crew in its report as possible. When we have the Polish report heads will roll, that's all.

@aimrumru also disagrees with the claim that the report is objective [PL]:

mistake after mistake of the Polish crew, plus mistake after mistake of the Russian controllers. so the IAC report is partial.

@wikploc is interested in the reactions of the public [PL]:

Here we go. The experts of airplane crashes from Nowogrodzka street prove how IAC twisted the report. I wonder if the “dark folk” will buy it.

@bukowskip states with cynicism [PL]:

IAC report did not surprise me at all. Even if they'd shot down the plane, it would turn out that the pilot collided with a rocket.

@jakubkowalski adds [PL]:

I hope that the Polish authorities will maintain the current approach, that the IAC report in unacceptable. […]

@bukol87 mentions this [PL]:

IAC report cannot be a common agreement. It has no responsibility to accept corrections. Game Over

Andrzej Krauze posts the following cartoon [PL]:

"Please inform comrade Stalin in kettle 17 that the IAC report was published in accordance with his instructions"

Krzętowski drew this one for Newsweek.pl [PL]:

"First of all, get it translated from Soviet into Polish"

The newly established Facebook page - “I think the IAC report is outrageous” - contains a few of these visuals, too.

Achmaja posts [PL] a pretty strong criticism of the Russian side:

"from russia with love, iac report"

TVN48 posts an old visual in a new context [PL]:

"Putin: Lick my shoes. /Tusk: "Let's talk compromise"

Tusk knew from the very beginning how one should relate to Russia. Not fighting with a sword, but with “the language of compromise.” That's what I call good foreign policy. And the results we've seen recently, for instance.
[graphics by Lach from 2 years ago]

This post has been originally written for and posted at Global Voices Online.

TransparencyCamp w Warszawie

Podróż do Polski to po części wizyta u rodziny, o której może opowiem w osobnym poście, jednak tutaj pragnę opisać wyjątkowe wydarzenie, na które zaproszona zostałam przez Anię Kuliberdę z organizacji Watchdog. Pojechałam tam opisać projekt Global Voices dotyczący przejżystości rządowej Technology for transparency (poniżej prezentacja, w której starałam się zastosować porady jednego ze sponsorów;)).

Cieszę się niezmiernie, iż Alexey Sidorenko, który zapewnił nam dach nad głową, również prezentował ten projekt skupiając się na rejonie Rosji, gdyż w ten sposób mogliśmy pokazać, czym się ta międzynarodowa sięć ludzi zajmuje.

Jednak dla mnie osobiście dzień ten był bardzo znaczący, gdyż mogłam się spotkać osobiście z ludźmi, których znam z sieci - jak Vaglą, Alkiem Tarkowskim z Creative Commons czy przedstawicielami Mam Prawo Wiedziec. Bardzo podobały mi się nowe informacje na temat Sejmometru oraz dyskusja o węgierskim projekcie K-Monitor. I tak na prawdę spotkanie to było dla mnie początkiem dyskusji oraz kolejnych badań sieci w poszukiwaniu rozwiązań dotyczących przejżystości rządowej.

I tak w efekcie tego spotkania dowiedziałam się o dwóch słowackich projektach: Vestnik oraz Open Local Government 2010.

A zaraz po powrocie znalazłam w skrzynce pocztowej link do tej strony - http://proracunskikalkulator.com/ - małego narzędzia do wypracowywania zmian w wydatkach publicznych i ich wpływu na podatnika! Genialne. Ech, tyle pracy z opisaniem tego wszystkiego!:)

Bardzo podaobała mi się organizacja imprezy, miejsce, tłumaczenie oraz grupa organizatorów/wolontariuszy - zrobiliście świetną imprezę i mam nadzieję, że powtórzycie ją jeszcze nie raz!

Raz jeszcze bardzo, bardzo serdecznie dziękuję za zaproszenie, a Alexowi i Dawidowi za nocleg i wsparcie! Czytelnikom natomiast polecam filmy z barcampu poniżej i na tej stronie. Moje fotki powolutku lądują na Flickerze.

Daniela Silva - Esfera, Brasil from Eventio on Vimeo.

Transparency Projects in Poland

As we are experiencing the autumn in the UK I start to think about Barcamp Transparency UK planned for the 4th of December. The Technology for Transparency research is slowly finishing and I have two interviews I would like to share with you.

First one is short, concise update of Sejmometr.pl - polish portal dedicated to presentation of legislative work of our government in a accessible, digestible way. It lives its most interesting days, as in 10 days the new version of the portal is about to launch. Jakub Górnicki, my GV fellow, happens to work for the project as their spokesman, so here is what I have learned from him:

Earlier this month I have talked to Anna Czyżewska from Art91.pl - NGO behind MamPrawoWiedziec.pl [I have the right to know.pl], another portal 'translating' the publicly available information to the public and promoting civic engagement. This interview is in Polish, so if you do not speak the language, please be patient - in few days time I will link to the translated interview published on Technology for Transparency network.

I am really happy to see both projects now, before I attend TransparencyCamp in Poland in November. Great stuff!

TH!NK3 post - My Story #2 - How do we re-build governance in Poland now?

Poland lives difficult times this week, week of national mourning. We have lost our President, his wife and 94 other officials in Saturday plane crash over Smolensk. We have lost our church leaders, army leaders, major politicians as well as leaders of organizations related to Katyn tragedy. The complexity of the current situation is indescribable.

First of all, we are all in the state of shock and deep, deep sadness. Imagine when a celebrity passes away - how does the entire country react? Now multiply that 96 times adding the fact, that most of those 'celebrities' had immediate impact on the governance, safety, spiritual leadership of majority of your nation. The entire Polish web is in colors of grief!

Secondly, we live the question: why? With the basic understanding of the fact that the crash was avoidable (pilots were instructed not to land, fly to alternative airport instead) and perfectly understandable in this moment need to understand the pain of many families, we start to speculate to calm our senses, even though we know, we have to wait for official statements.

There is also a question of Polish - Russian relationships. Putin is clearly over-delivering, Russians based in the area of accident are so supportive that they make Polish families cry and entire web is full of Russian citizens posting their condolences - even in leading Polish on-line forums.

But the major challenge is the governance we are left with. Last night Bronisław Komorowski, who stepped into the role of country leader temporarily, made a list of first assignments that need to happen int he government which seen in one press article made me shiver and placed entirely irrational thought in my head: 'we have no one left!'. Irrational, because we do have many talented people here who will be able to fulfill newly assigned functions with dignity, however the situation is extremely sensitive and requires gentle acts, decisions, even wording.

As Komorowski said, when referring to new presidential elections:

"I am doing my best as much as I can, as much as I am capable of making decisions, which do not offend anyone, do not hurt anyone, and at the same time quarantee any functionality of the areas of Polish state where Polish Constitution states I have my duties."

We are left with so many questions and so much pain! Who will take it from here? How are we going to manage? Are we mature enough to see our politicians approach this with dignity?

Gazeta.pl is posting a horrible speech made in Cathedral of Przemysl (actual recording here, if you speak Polish) full of political statements, hate, racism, intolerance and infuriating agenda of Catholic church to refer to completely unrelated topic, like abortion. It's just a drop in the sea of potential misconducts against the current state of our country, but also our nation.

This is why today I stay convinced that while people like Komorowski fulfill their duties promptly, it becomes our story and our task to grieve for the lost souls, but also to watch the national arena carefully: read, comments and discuss each and single step of new governance with honesty, kindness and hope that the new discourse will lead to the new type of recovery - one led by the nation and for the nation. It is the nation who can overcome tragical twists of history and I believe it aplies to all nations.


As Roger Cohen put it nicely:

"It is this Poland that is now at peace with its neighbors and stable. It is this Poland that has joined Germany in the European Union. It is this Poland that has just seen the very symbols of its tumultuous history (including the Gdansk dock worker Anna Walentynowicz and former president-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski) go down in a Soviet-made jet and responded with dignity, according to the rule of law.

So do not tell me that cruel history cannot be overcome. Do not tell me that Israelis and Palestinians can never make peace. Do not tell me that the people in the streets of Bangkok and Bishkek and Tehran dream in vain of freedom and democracy. Do not tell me that lies can stand forever.

Ask the Poles. They know."

I place it here not to shock or sadden you, but to inspire you and most of all ask one more question of you, people from all around the world (yes, at the back of my head hoping for some kind of reassurance): in the new world of globalization, translation tools and new channels of communication; in the world of democracies learning to question their governors and in the world of more and more open dialogue - is it possible to do it together? Is it possible in your region?

This post is a part of TH!NK 3 European Blogging Competition. You will find the original post here. Enjoy!