
A Western Kid Living in Communist Poland - octopus
http://jacquesmattheij.com/a-western-kid-living-in-communist-poland/?
======
gambiting
As a Polish person myself - I have to say it's fascinating. I know everything
about the communist times from the inside, from the million stories told by my
parents, and I know this exact process in reverse - getting out of Poland, and
then being fascinated that there are no queues,that you can buy anything you
like, that everything is organized and seems like people care about their
surroundings a lot more(which is ironic,if you think that the very foundation
of a communist country is that everything belongs to everyone so everyone
should care about it - well, you couldn't be more wrong. If something belongs
to everyone then no one cares about it).

~~~
the_watcher
>> which is ironic,if you think that the very foundation of a communist
country is that everything belongs to everyone so everyone should care about
it - well, you couldn't be more wrong. If something belongs to everyone then
no one cares about it

So, basically, the tragedy of the commons is painfully accurate.

~~~
mercer
I spent a decade in Albania, starting right after the fall of communism in
1991, and it is (or at least was) true there as well.

People would just throw their trash out of the window of their apartment
building, because why not? Never mind that this created a terrible smell and
there would be trash right where people walked.

They meticulously cleaned the tiny bits of concrete road in front of their
house, but not care about the very dangerous open pothole that would be hidden
in a puddle after a little bit of rain. In fact, someone probably took the
pothole because it was somehow useful to them.

From what I remember, this changed over time, and people became more aware of
the fact that the public space was also their space.

In a way, it's a bit like doing chores because your authoritarian, cold
parents force you to. You'll do the minimum, and never do it because you feel
it's a good thing to do.

Maybe it's not so much that people don't want to work for the common good, but
rather that forcing them too just doesn't work.

Either way, great blog post and it reminded me of my own experiences!

------
eshvk
Loved the story. Reminds me of my own odd immigrant story: In the 1970s, my
dad decides he had enough of living off the family, takes off on a 30-day
tourist visa to Communist Ethiopia. Grabs a cab to the Ministry of Education,
somehow finds convinces that person that he, a non-native speaker of English
(Indian origin), is the best person to teach English to rebels in the south of
the country. He does that for five years. Gets married, lives there for the
next twenty more years. I was born, grew up there. It always amuses me how a
random whim 30 years ago has influenced so much of my life. (And also proves
to be entertaining to sit in the back of a cab with an Ethiopian cab driver
and occasionally startle them by speaking fluent Amharic. ;-)

------
ChuckMcM
Great story Jacques!

"A tent on wheels", that is an excellent description of the 2CV. I saw a
frustrated owner who couldn't get the key working literally pull off the side
door, and put it in the back and drive off.

The descriptions of the forms and questions was also great, and I've concluded
that there is a corollary to the Spiderman "Great Power" quote that goes
something like "With great Bureaucracies comes great ass covering." Basically
everyone in those systems seem to be in fear that a colleague or a supervisor
is going to "get them" if they screwed up something, and the endless forms and
papers and signing is a way of creating defensive evidence that _they_ were
not the ones the screwed up, if what ever it is that is happening turns out to
be a problem. It is really a cancerous organizational dynamic and one that
leads to huge inefficiencies.

~~~
omilu
This is the best summary of the cause and effect of bureaucracy I've ever
seen.

------
arb99
Nowadays Poland seems like any other European country (for me, being a tourist
it does anyway).

And this article is referencing a time only around 25-30 years ago...

~~~
wtbob
I like to think of centrally planned economies (e.g. Warsaw Pact, pre-reform
India or pre-reform China) as helium balloons held under water; all they need
is to be released in order to fly up.

What I find extraordinarily sad is how many people still want to return to
central planning. I think it's very attractive to the sort of Bright Young
Thing who's never held a real job and dealt with real people, and who ends up
living his life mooching off of those who have and do.

~~~
tomp
Your analogy is more accurate than you imagine; they are helium _balloons_ ,
and can easily burst. Just look at what happened to Slovenia (first communist,
then 15 years of GDP growth, and looting and stealing by the former communists
who were now democratically elected, and now the population is paying off the
debts).

------
pling
Slight diversion from the point, but a DS anecdote: A friend of mine at
university had a 1973 Citroen DS. This was in 1997. The hydraulic system
failed violently (rapid depressurisation) whilst we were going up the M1 in
the UK. The steering basically stopped working and thing sunk like a ship over
the space of 30 seconds. I imagine it was sort of like an Apollo 13 moment for
him driving.

The AA guy turned up, shook his head and said "Bloody French crap" and ordered
a flatbed to pick it up. By the time it turned up, all the hydralic fluid was
all over the road. This was 15 miles from Manchester so the poor AA guy
dragged us back to London begrudgingly.

He bought a Mitsibishi Galant VR4 after that which was a wonderful car.

~~~
hcho
Citroen the company was always underfunded and they could never invest in
quality control.

I wonder how a hydraulic suspension would fare if produced by today's
technology and quality standards. DS has a flying carpet ride feel to it and
even the most upmarket cars of today can't reach that.

~~~
gambiting
I've driven the latest Range Rover(the big one,not Sport), and although it has
a pneumatic, rather than hydraulic suspension, the ride was smoother than
anything I have ever experienced. It did feel like a magic carpet, frankly.

~~~
pling
My father has one (early 2014). Very true about the ride.

Unfortunately it's plagued with electrical problems. When you plug in an
iPhone into the USB charger port, the navigation and heating crashes. The ECU
and several CAN bus controllers have been replaced and it still does it. Plus
the alternator exploded. Fortunately all under warranty but for a car that has
been on the road for 4 months, it's spent 6 weeks in a garage.

~~~
gambiting
Wow that's pretty bad. I've owned the Discovery 3 for a few years, but I must
have been very lucky,because despite having a reputation for really faulty
electrical systems, mine never had a single problem with that. I've driven the
new Range for a testdrive and as part of the Land Rover Experience day,and I
was very impressed. Shame about your dad's car,sounds like bad design.

~~~
pling
Yeah disco 3's are pretty good I understand. My boss has one. Never
complained. I think the RR issues are teething issues with a new engineering
line.

I drove a 1992 V8 110 county a few years ago. Best car I ever had. Didn't go
down well with a young family though, all the climbing and stopping for
petrol, so I had to give it up for a people carrier :(

------
higherpurpose
So that's why he was saying he's learning Romanian. Btw, watch out for
Duolingo's Romanian course (should take half a year or so to be finished):

[http://incubator.duolingo.com/courses/ro/en/status](http://incubator.duolingo.com/courses/ro/en/status)

Until then maybe Livemocha will do.

------
scrumper
Wonderful story, nicely told. Thanks.

I had a 2CV as my first car too. Friends nicknamed it the "Can of Death," for
reasons you're very familiar with. My favorite trick was going camping with it
and removing the back seats which made a very comfortable camp chair. It could
also transport a drum kit, two guitars, two 100W amp cabs and heads, (and my
band's sexy drummer) without any hassle. I loved that car, and the drummer,
and every hot summer's day I spent driving with the wind in my hair and a hand
on the window to keep the door shut.

------
drags
If this story piqued your interest in late Communist Poland, give Timothy
Garton Ash a read.

His "The Polish Revolution" is a great in depth account of the 1980/81 Polish
uprising, and "The Magic Lantern" is a romping retelling of the last few
months of Communist rule.

Beautiful books.

------
josephjrobison
So are you still married to her?!

~~~
soperj
Exactly what I wanted to know.

------
brianmcc
Glad it all worked out so well, what a nice story. It's crazy how much of our
lives can be decided by such a small moment - like helping a couple of
hitchhikers on an otherwise boring, routine day!

~~~
mercer
This is the very reason why I still hitchhike and love couchsurfing-style
initiatives, potluck dinners, and such, and why I encourage younger people to
give these things a shot.

It opens you up to so many unique, wonderful (and occasionally scary)
situations, and has a way of 'shaking loose' the structures that one
inevitably builds up over time.

In fact, I caught myself hitchhiking sometimes just because of how much the
people who picked me up seemed to enjoy or need it. I've had people give me
their life story, or share something deeply personal that they really wanted
to share, or simply enjoy my 'youthful' presence on a long, boring drive. Part
of what makes it amazing is that there are so few pre-suppositions in the
whole thing. You are likely to never meet the person who just shared his woes
again, and sometimes that's exactly why they let themselves talk. But it's
also possible that this one connection is the start of a wonderful, lifelong
friendship.

I met one of my current best friends through CouchSurfing on the other side of
the globe. It was quite likely that we'd never meet again, but instead we
ended up spending a few years in the same city, even working together.

(plus, these kinds of thing have way of restoring one's faith in humanity.
They're a great counter to the insulating processes that are especially
present in Western-European society)

------
domador
It's a wonderful story, Jacques! My favorite part (spoiler alert) is how you
found your future wife by the side of a tunnel. Wow!

------
yread
Beautiful story! Thanks for sharing

------
cafard
Sweet story.

