When we try to find answers to the most pressing questions of today — why does this country so little resemble the one we dreamed of ten years ago, why is output falling and the majority of people is below the poverty line, why is society more and more engulfed with apathy, and why the level of social security is now even lower than it was in the USSR, — we involuntarily turn our eyes to the neighbors. Most post-Soviet countries still have problems similar to ours. But not Poland...
Ten years ago Poland resembled the present-day Ukraine: most people in fact starved, very long lines were formed at market-places after carboot-sold cheap foodstuffs, and a considerable part of former metal-workers and teachers, librarians and nurses were doing «shuttle» trade. Now our western neighbor more resembles Germany or France than Ukraine. What helped the Poles make a historic breakthrough in a matter of a few years? Can the Ukrainians do so? Why do Kyiv and Warsaw, despite showpiece official relations, still have some unresolved problems? These and other questions became the subject of an interview the Polish ambassador in Ukraine Jerzy Bahr gave to The Day s journalists in the editorial office.
Why do we fail while the Poles have made it?
(Read the interview summary at page Day after Day)
When we try to find answers to the most pressing questions of today — why does this country so little resemble the one we dreamed of ten years ago, why is output falling and the majority of people is below the poverty line, why is society more and more engulfed with apathy, and why the level of social security is now even lower than it was in the USSR, — we involuntarily turn our eyes to the neighbors. Most post-Soviet countries still have problems similar to ours. But not Poland...
Ten years ago Poland resembled the present-day Ukraine: most people in fact starved, very long lines were formed at market-places after carboot-sold cheap foodstuffs, and a considerable part of former metal-workers and teachers, librarians and nurses were doing «shuttle» trade. Now our western neighbor more resembles Germany or France than Ukraine. What helped the Poles make a historic breakthrough in a matter of a few years? Can the Ukrainians do so? Why do Kyiv and Warsaw, despite showpiece official relations, still have some unresolved problems? These and other questions became the subject of an interview the Polish ambassador in Ukraine Jerzy Bahr gave to The Day s journalists in the editorial office.
Why do we fail while the Poles have made it?
(Read the interview summary at page Day after Day)






