Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Poland looks back in anger
Chicago Tribune ^ | November 28, 2006 | Tom Hundley

Posted on 11/28/2006 1:07:44 PM PST by lizol

Poland looks back in anger

New `lustration' law aims to ferret out the nation's `post-communist monster'; observers say leaders overstate the old regime's influence

By Tom Hundley Tribune foreign correspondent

Published November 28, 2006

WARSAW -- In 1989, when Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a soft-spoken Catholic intellectual, became Poland's first non-communist prime minister in the postwar era, his first promise was to draw "a thick line" separating Poland from its past.

Democratic Poland, he clearly implied, would focus on building its future, not settling scores from the past.

Seventeen years later, Poland's current leaders--Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the identical twins who serve, respectively, as president and prime minister--are determined to erase that line. Their Law and Justice Party came to power in elections last year by pledging to settle accounts with the old regime.

This month President Kaczynski signed a new "lustration" bill that will open millions of volumes of communist-era secret police files in a belated attempt to slay "the post-communist monster" that the brothers claim still haunts Poland.

Lustration is not a word commonly used in English. It means "to purify by a propitiatory offering or other ceremonial method," according to Webster's dictionary. In the former Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe, it came to mean the exposing and banning of communists and their collaborators from participation in the new system.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: communism; lustration; poland; ww2
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

1 posted on 11/28/2006 1:07:46 PM PST by lizol
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: quesney; Brad's Gramma; OriginalChristian; Huber; Think free or die; 4Freedom; norton; ...
Eastern European ping list


FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

2 posted on 11/28/2006 1:08:24 PM PST by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lizol
Not a damn thing wrong with exposing and ferreting out commies.
3 posted on 11/28/2006 1:12:18 PM PST by vpintheak (Yep.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lizol

Make the commie thieves pay.

The former PM, Miller lives in a development that the Commies built on stolen land (on ul. Rosola in Ursynow). Just because the Commies stole it a few years ago, doesn't mean that they should be allowed to keep it.

Clean it up.


4 posted on 11/28/2006 1:13:58 PM PST by Bon mots
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lizol

Sounds like a good read, I'm not registering though. Could you paraphrase a bit more?


5 posted on 11/28/2006 1:19:23 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi
Sounds like a good read, I'm not registering though.

Go to Bugmenot.com and get someone else's registration there.

6 posted on 11/28/2006 1:20:44 PM PST by Tamar1973 (I find your lack of faith disturbing--Darth Vader, Ep. IV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: lizol
Don't look back in anger, by Oasis

Listen for yourself at Oasis' official web site

Slip inside the eye of your mind
Don't you know you might find
A better place to play
You said that you've never been (sounds like "bean" in order to rhyme
w/"seen")
But all the things that you've seen
They slowly fade away
So I'll start a revolution from my bed
'Cuz you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, summertime's in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out
And so, Sally can wait
She knows it's too late as we're walking on by
Her soul slides away
But don't look back in anger
I heard you say
Take me to the place where you go
Where nobody knows
Where nobody knows if it's night or day
Please don't put your life in the hands
Of a rock and roll band
Who'll throw it all away
I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed
'Cuz you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, 'cuz summertime's in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
'Cuz you ain't ever gonna burn my heart out
And so, Sally can wait
She knows it's too late as she's walking on by
My soul slides away
But don't look back in anger
I heard you say
(guitar solo)
So, Sally can wait
She knows it's too late as we're walking on by
Her soul slides away
But don't look back in anger
I heard you say
So, Sally can wait
She knows it's too late as she's walking on by
My soul slides away
But don't look back in anger
Don't look back in anger
I heard you say
At least not today.

7 posted on 11/28/2006 1:20:56 PM PST by Tamar1973 (I find your lack of faith disturbing--Darth Vader, Ep. IV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi

But I have not been registered, and I opened it without any problems.


8 posted on 11/28/2006 1:23:11 PM PST by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: lizol
"Lustration is not a word commonly used in English. It means "to purify by a propitiatory offering or other ceremonial method," according to Webster's dictionary."
Dead wrong meaning. Compare with "Per-lustration" - reading other people's letters without opening them by shining a STRONG LIGHT [cf. "lustrous"] through. It means "bringing to light".
9 posted on 11/28/2006 1:24:44 PM PST by GSlob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tamar1973

If I cared enough to use someone else's registration info I would just sign up myself. Thanks anyway.


10 posted on 11/28/2006 1:25:14 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: lizol
But I have not been registered, and I opened it without any problems.

No idea. The link asks me to register(login).
11 posted on 11/28/2006 1:26:13 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi
Maybe try trough this (find the headline):

http://www.insidepoland.pl/news/
12 posted on 11/28/2006 1:28:19 PM PST by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: lizol

Most interesting.


13 posted on 11/28/2006 1:28:26 PM PST by Ciexyz (Satisfied owner of a 2007 Toyota Corolla.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lizol

That'll do it. Thanks. :)


14 posted on 11/28/2006 1:30:01 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: lizol
Under the new law, all politicians, civil servants and others in positions of public trust, including school principals and journalists, will have to obtain a clean bill of health from the remembrance institute, which is known by the Polish acronym IPN. The files of these people would then be available for public scrutiny on the Internet.

This sounds like a freedom of information issue at first glance which is a good thing. I missed however the selection and oversight for the 'remembrance institute'. How is this done?
15 posted on 11/28/2006 1:36:27 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Bon mots
Do you know where exactly Miller lives on ul. Rosola? Is it one of those nice house next to the park with the palace? I am curious because my parents bought a new apartement On al. KEN, a block north of the Tesco.
16 posted on 11/28/2006 1:36:43 PM PST by fogofbobegabay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: lizol

lustration ought to be tried here. Then the whole dem party would be cut down to 1 or 2.


17 posted on 11/28/2006 1:45:15 PM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fogofbobegabay

Directly across from Belgradzka. The yellow osiedle. When he was PM the locals used to joke "Miller Time" when all the sirens would lead his motorcade home up Rosola.


18 posted on 11/28/2006 2:17:49 PM PST by Bon mots
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi
http://www.ipn.gov.pl/index_eng.html
19 posted on 11/28/2006 2:22:34 PM PST by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: GSlob
"Lustrous" is not related to "perlustrate."

"Lustrous" comes from Old French "lustreux" from Latin "lux" meaning "light" with its verbal form "lucere."

"Perlustrate" comes from Latin "perlustrare" meaning "to journey through, go through, to traverse."

"Lustration" comes from latin "lustrare" meaning to "journey, to travel."

A "lustrum" was an animal or other offering which was carried or led around the altar to dedicate it before sacrificing.

"Lustration" means sacrifice, "perlustration" means a surveying or surveillance.

20 posted on 11/28/2006 2:24:07 PM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson