================================================================== P I G U L K I an occasional electronic collection of news analysis, press reviews, and humor from/about Poland and the Polish community abroad __________________________________________________________________ January 10, 1991 No. 4 __________________________________________________________________ In this issue: Networks HISTORY IN THE MAKING by Elisabeth Porteneuve, France PROTOCOL WARS by Marek Zielinski, USA NETWORKING IN POLAND 1 by Krzysiek Heller, Poland NETWORKING IN POLAND 2 by Marek Samoc, Poland CHRONICLE POLAND - ELECTRONIC CONTACTS Polish Affairs DEMOCRACY 101 by Jurek Klimkowski, USA COMMENT by Dave Phillips, USA Notes on Contributors About PIGULKI ===================================================================== HISTORY IN THE MAKING The year has just ended, so let me tell you why 1990 will remain historical year for European Networking: 1. Frode Greisen, EARN President, obtained the US Department of Commerce approval to connect Eastern Europe to EARN. In a short period of time, 3 countries joined the network: Poland (July 18), Hungary (October 12) and Czechoslovakia (October 11). We do hope other Eastern European countries will join EARN soon. 2. European Telecoms released EARN-Europe (Spring 1990) from its duty to migrate to OSI-X25 (and EARN was the only network committed to this duty, from the very beginning of its autonomous existence, i.e. 1984). 3. The bottom line of the EARN/RARE conference in Killarney, Ireland, (May 1990) was "the end of protocol's war OSI-X25 vs OSI-IP in Europe", and the willingness to work together within Europe. 4. The EARN Board of Directors in the last meeting in Cairo (Nov 5-7, 1990), decided to perform a technical study on migration to VMNET (RSCS over IP), as CREN would migrate to BitNet2. In this hypothesis, EARN network will be subdivided into ten regions, each one with one core-site. Each EARN2 core-site will have virtual connection to one core-site of BitNet2. Furthermore, Frode Greisen was reelected as EARN President for the next mandate. Maybe this short note will allow my American colleagues to catch a glimpse of European difficulties. Elisabeth Porteneuve _____________________________________________________________________ 'PROTOCOL WARS', TCP/IP, OSI and VMNET The problems mentioned by Elisabeth Porteneuve stem in part from the constant friction between the two needs: to standardize and to innovate. At the beginning, in the explosively growing field of digital computers, one company could introduce a product to become the de facto standard. The monopoly for parts and software was thus assured. Initially both giants and upstarts could achieve this goal: IBM with its mainframes and PC's or APPLE with Apple II and Macintosh. And to this day, PC's and Mac's do not talk to each other. When it comes to newtworking and communication, however, a common language quickly becomes a necessity. Bitnet was started as a network of IBM mainframes. In his letter dated March 4, 1981, Ira Fuchs, founder of Bitnet, proposed a "network of university computer centers which utilize the IBM networking software (RSCS and eventually PVM), and which would permit file transfers, electronic mail, and resource sharing between faculty and/or administration at participating institutions"[1]. Other academic centers, using different computers - VAXes, CYBERs etc. had to develop software emulating RSCS, which this way became the de facto standard for BITNET networking. In todays multi-vendor computer market, and multitude of operating systems, relying on a system from one company is impractical. It is ironic, as well as instructive to see that the newest IBM workstation, RISC/6000, cannot operate as a Bitnet node since it has no emulation of RSCS (apparently there is an effort to port UREP, UNIX-based network emulation software to AIX on RISC/6000). It also illustrates well the dangers of relying on a monopoly source. To avoid such problems, another set of network protocols has been developed, simultaneously in the US and in Europe. In the United States it was based on the initiative of DARPA, which developed a 4-level protocol suite, TCP/IP. The system, more flexible than RSCS, spread rapidly and is presently in use by a large number of bigger and smaller networks, such as Arpanet or NSFnet. All those networks are interconnected, use a common system of addressing, and are known by their collective name 'internet'. The Internet suite TCP/IP is a 'layered' set of communication protocols. The top level (application) is usually invoked by the user to perform a specific function, such as remote login, sending mail, file transfer, etc. This software performs its function, but does not bother with details of communication. It calls a different set of routines to perform more primitive functions, and this process of calling another program to perform a simpler task is repeated at different levels, traversing the 'layers' of the protocol suite. Using E-mail as an example, the appli- cation ('mail') assembles the text of the message, asks the nearby name server to decode the recipient address, and hands the file to TCP. TCP is responsible for breaking up the file into smaller chunks - datagrams, checking, if everything is transferred, resending lost datagrams if necessary and reassembling them at the other end. Each datagram is then handed to IP, which is concerned ONLY with sending the packet to its destination. There can be another layer if the recipient is on Ethernet network, which has its own addressing scheme, datagram size, etc. so another layer is invoked to send the packet over Ethernet. Of course, all those layers are completely transparent to the top level user, who only has to know the receipient's address. European standard - OSI - is similar in principle, but divided into seven layers. OSI was the first step towards international normalization of differents protocols, which is much more important in diverse Europe with different languages and customs, than within one big country like USA. The X.25 standard (the third layer) is the brainchild of European Telecoms (in the US it is used by such packet-switching networks as Telenet, Tymnet etc., allowing access to a number of commercial services, databases, etc.). The problem is, however, that TCP/IP works now, while OSI-X25 is still in development. It may take another couple of years before it goes into production, and hardware and software will have to be build and debugged. In the US a new system has been developed, OSI-IP (CNLS), which has all the features needed to extend it to Europe, and is similar in functiona- lity to OSI-X25 (CONS). The agreement reached in Killarney to end the "protocol wars" between OSI-IP and OSI-X25 is a good sign for the future of European networking. What is VMNET? In short it is a VM server that implements the NJE protocol "on top" of IP. Quoting from an authoritative source[2], The NJE-IP concept was conceived by Ira Fuchs while at Princeton University and the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided the initial funding for the research. It came as a result of the acknowledgement that networking in Bitnet was being stifled by the lack of features and enhancements found on other research networks such as the Internet. The IBM NJE protocol was seen as a very limiting factor (8 character userids, 8 character nodenames) with a very limited set of tools for the end-user. But since Bitnet users had grown accustomed to NJE, there was no conceivable way to eliminate the services it supplied. (...) VMNET and other implementations (such as HUJI-NJE and Jnet-IP for VMS, UREP-IP for Unix) provide services familiar to Bitnet users, but have other features of the internet protocols, allowing to greatly extend the range of services. Hank Nussbacher, the main mover behind this concept, has succesfully switched some 50 machines to NJE-IP. The concept of Bitnet-2 is based on this protocol; there are presently 11 nodes of the Bitnet-2 backbone in the US. The gradual introduction of those new protocols is a wonderful illustration of the rule of EVOLUTION, which works not only in nature: all intermediate steps between A and B must be working and fully functional, and one has always to build from the elements currently available. This is of course in opposition to the REVOLUTIONARY process, which kills what is, and starts from scratch. Marek Zielinski Glossary: -------- Arpanet - One of the first internet networks. (B)SMTP = (Batch) Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Internet mail protocol. CNLS - Connectionless oriented Service is similar to postal service: each message (letter) is sent trough the network independently of any other letter. Usually letters sent from A to B at the day D arrive before letters sent at the day D+1, however the opposite can happen. This principle is used in OSI-IP. CONS - the Connection Oriented Service is like telephone system: its essential aspect is that messages are sent and received in the same order (similarly to voice conversation). It is the principle of OSI-X25. (D)ARPA = (Defense) Advanced Research Projects Agency ftp = File Transfer Protocol - one of internet application layers. It is used for transferring files between computers on the network. ICMP = Internet Control Message Protocol. Similar to UDP but simpler, used for error messages etc. IP = Internet Protocol, the most primitive level of the internet suite. ISO = International Standards Organization NJE = Network Job Entry. IBM network protocol used by BITNET NSFnet - National Science Foundation network - part of internet. OSI = Open System Interconnection. TCP/IP - The internet protocol suite. It is the general name of the set of multilevel protocols, including TCP, IP, UDP, ICMP etc., and used by a number of interconnected networks, TCP = Transmission Control Protocol telnet - Internet application layer: performs remote login. UDP = User Datagram Protocol. One of the internet suite of protocols, alternative to TCP for short datagrams. Does not split and reassemble files; uses IP. References: ----------- [1] Lee C. Varian, "The BIT In BITNET", Netmonth 37, October 1990 [2] H. Nussbacher, "NJE-IP Policy and Procedures", document: EXEC14 90 EARN-MIN LISTSERV@UKACRL _______________________________________________________________________ NETWORKING IN POLAND 1. A View from Krakow This is an attempt on a short summary of the current state of wide-area networking in Poland. It is by no means objective, I should explicitly warn that it is written from my viewpoint, and it is quite probable that I am not aware of some initiatives and actions taking place. As a matter of fact communication and exchange of information is a serious problem - and I do not mean communicationg VIA networks, rather communicating ABOUT networks. There are probably many initiatives and facts which remain known only to a narrow group of people involved. I understand, of course, that it is rather difficult to spread information without discussion lists, and I hope that something will be done in the future, especially when more Polish nodes start working. The situation at present, as far as international links are concerned, is as follows: 1. HEPnet ========= Since a few weeks a leased line (9.6 kbps) between Cracow and CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) is operational. The link at the moment is configured as a DECnet link, connecting a local DECnet in Cracow to the HEP/SPAN global DECnet. The link is owned by High Energy Physics Lab in Krakow, but they do not exclude other institutions from participating. At the moment there are dial-up connections from Inst. of Physics, Jagellonian University, and Nuclear Physics Institute (Bronowice). As soon as the ordered equipment will be delivered (hopefuly around March), the link will switch to the use of TCP/IP. This will probably also help in spreading the load onto further machines, which will be connected via leased lines (within Cracow). Also, a line between Cracow and Warsaw has been ordered, to extend the connectivity further into Poland. 2. EARN ======= EARN has installed a (9.6 kbps) leased line between Copenhagen and Warsaw. This link is used for the usual EARN type of services. In order to facilitate the delivery of electronic mail through gateways, EARN is using more and more domain style addressing. Therefore a domain .pl had to be registered. There are working EARN nodes in Wroclaw and Katowice, and the EARN line between Cracow and Warsaw is expected real soon. The computer which will serve Cracow node is already in place and prepared for the connection. Typical situation in all Polish EARN nodes is that, for the time being, there is a central machine (IBM mainframe type) which serves the node, and all the users have to log onto it in order to send or read mail. Messages can be prepared off-line, since there are available some IBM- PC's which emulate terminals. Prepared messages can be uploaded from a diskette, and received mail can be downloaded onto a diskette. Some dial- up lines are also available, all working in the terminal emulation mode. This situation is, hopefuly, only temporary, nevertheless Warsaw node is already overloaded (they have about 700 registered users, all trying to log in an equivalent of IBM 370). My favourite plan for redistribution of the load is a city-wide TCP/IP network, based on cheap (386 PC's, workstations) machines. Because of the cost of leased lines uucp dial-up connection can be used in places where the traffic is low. We will try to implement this solution in Cracow. The situation in the field of computer networks in Poland is changing rather fast, and we expect a considerable progress in 1991. Main directions are: extension of intercity connections and construction of 'local' links between different universities located in one academic center. It is quite likely that some 'specialized' networks will appear, e.g. High Energy Physics. There are plans for closer cooperation and better exchange of information among all the groups in Poland. Maybe some kind of TCP/IP initiative will spring into being. Some conferences and meetings are also planned, and 'working groups' of all kinds will meet in order to synchronise activities and exchange information and experience. A discussion list would help a lot, it should be possible after major academic centres achieve EARN connectivity. Main problems are: scarcity of telephone lines of reasonably high quality, lack of expertise and doubling of efforts. At least some of them will be addressed in near future. Polish PTT offers 1200, 2400 and 9600 lines, they are all quite expensive and it takes quite a long time before a 9600 line can be found (1200/2400 lines are easier). In some places it is just impossible to get a line, simple because there's no cable nearby. 64k lines are out of question now - maybe the situation will improve after new international switches are built, what should happen by the end of 1991. Summing up - there are many plans and hopes, some of them with a considerable chance of completion, and there's plenty of good will and enthusiasm around, what is a key ingredient of a success. Krzysiek (Chris) Heller ----------------------------------------------------------------- NETWORKING IN POLAND 2. A view from Wroclaw Quite some time has passed since we have come online with PLWRTU11 and it is time for some reflections. The emergence of Poland as a new member of EARN was an effort of many people and it sure was exciting to watch this process. However, it seems to me that the time of amateur volunteers carrying the ball are over. Now is the time for all the good professionals to strengthen the existing hardware/software solutions and to expand the network and link it to alternate networks. What should be done? Well, the network is still in its infancy. Two mainframes in Warsaw and Wroclaw carry the load of the initial traffic and, thanks to open-mindedness of the directors of the respective computing centres, access to these computers is rather freely given to people from other universities and cities. Do not believe your snail-mail correspondents in Poland when they complain that e-mail is not accessible to them. Anybody with a PC and a cheap modem can access PLEARN or PLWRTU11 from virtually anywhere in Poland. Line noise is a problem, but using Kermit for file transfer helps avoid it. >From the technical point of view, there are several candidates for connection. A VAX in Lodz, an IBM in Katowice, another one in Krakow, several VAX clones in Wroclaw, Gliwice and Poznan await connection. A major delay comes from waiting for completion of leased lines. I do not worry, however, about the technical problems anymore. Watching the installation of the EARN node in Wroclaw I learned that enthusiasm is the most important factor in overcoming technical difficulties. We had a lot of enthusiasm and goodwill here. Also, a very important factor was some kind of network literacy in human rather than technical sense which had been developed from the use of a mailbox in Denmark. I am more worried about two conflicting issues. Both are human factors. There is a danger that network use may remain a domain of nerdy computer gurus who will not want to share this privilege with others. It may sound pessimistic, but I watch with distaste the emergence of a class of computer (usually PC) pseudo-experts who guard with vengeance the knowledge of the tricks of the trade. This is easy in Poland because of the generally low level of computer education among the general public, poor knowledge of English, lack of original manuals or prohibitively high prices of legally bought software. The PC revolution which brought hundreds of thousands of IBM-compatible personal computers to Poland had a side effect of most scientists losing interest in the use of bigger but slow mainframe computers. As a result the knowledge of mainframe computing is minimal in Poland. An opposing point of view is that the emergence of e-mail as a rapid and convenient way of communication may also bring abuse of the networks. In a country in which telephones are either inaccessible to many or international calls too expensive, e-mail is very attractive for business communication. I believe we should watch closely the observance of the BITNET-EARN code and react very strongly to attempts of abusing the academic network. This brings us to the subject of alternate networks. I am rather pessimistic about the possibility of creating an Internet-like network on the basis of KASK, although this is probably what KASK people would like to achieve. There are many problems, one of them being, for example that a non-academic network should be able to provide possibilities of communicating in Polish. This means a lot of work for people trying to implement foreign solutions. Some standards will have to be created. On grasroots level, there has been some talk on creating a UUCP-Poland network. This would be a very good thing, but I doubt if the government may be persuaded to finance at the same time creation of three separate networks: EARN branches, KASK and UUCP. And without a strong financial support one can only dream of a separate system of leased lines for UUCP. A relatively simple thing would be strengthening of the Polish FIDO system since it is already out there and there are quite a few enthusiasts willing to give time and effort to operate FIDO nodes. As always, a major obstacle is the high cost of telephone calls. Well, maybe we should not ask for too much. After all, one cannot expect the same conveniences of everyday life in a country in which a monthly pay is about $100 as in a country where $2000 is considered not enough for a starting salary. Finally, a fully commercial network (like Compuserve, Prodigy etc.) may emerge in near future. This would be great... If only I could afford it... So, for the time being, let's enjoy having what we have. I am really happy watching more and more people around me becoming addicted to computer communications. Of course, I am trying to infect them :-). On an optimistic note, look how different it is from just two years ago! DONOSY now reach some several thousands Poles abroad, including the former advisor of the President of the good old US of A. I just exchanged e-mail with Father Mieczyslaw in a Polish parish in Rochester and with the Consul of Republic of Poland in a major American city! FIDO users in USA linked their polish discussion group with soc.culture. polish on Usenet. I can discuss our joint projects with my coworkers in Buffalo almost every day. I even tried to talk with some Turks (no pun intended) on RELAY! Let's see how it looks in two years from now! Marek Samoc ________________________________________________________________________ CHRONICLE OCT 90 On Oct 11, 1990 Guenther Schmittner posted on LINKFAIL notice that Czechoslovakia's link to EARN was operational. CSEARN links to AEARN through a Bisync 9600 bps line. Contact person: Petr Kral PKL@CSEARN. On Oct 12, 1990 Guenther Schmittner posted a similar message for Hungary's node, HUEARN, connecting to AEARN at 9600 bps, contact person is George Detari IB001DET@HUEARN. The Czechoslovakia and Hungary notices were reposted to PLEARN-L by Elizabeth Porteneuve. NOV 90 Wroclaw Polytechnic (node PLWRTU11) goes live around Nov. 7th. This node hangs off of PLEARN. Following is excerpted with permission from a post on PLEARN-L by Zbigniew Jan Pasek of Ann Arbor (zbigniew%CAEN.ENGIN.UMICH.EDU) on Nov. 10 1990, in which he summarized an article from Zycia Warszawy: Joint venture TESA, cooperating with the Ministry of Communication (Ministerstwo Lacznosci) and Polish Mail (Poczta Polska) is opening the first in Poland electronic mail service. It is estimated that the service will cover approximately up to 200,000 clients. This type of mail...will provide its users with connections with European and world e-mail networks. There will be special cable connection with Dortmund in Germany, which will bypass international phone center in Warsaw. In its first phase the project is planned for a few thousand of users, mainly enterprises. Since October 2nd, TESA is accepting applications for the service - so far they have collected around 15,000 applications. Some of them are from enterpises like Main Statistical Bureau (GUS), Main Directorate of Polish Railways (Generalna Dyrakcja PKP), Universal , etc. The connections of the users with the main computer currently are being established and tests are being performed. In the next few days service should become operational for the first users. DEC 90: Dec. 17 1990 Press Release of CERN: "POLAND JOINS CERN - At the Ninety-first Session of the CERN Council on 14 December, the delegates from the Organization's Member States voted unanimously to admit Poland as CERN's 16th full member. CERN is the first Western European organization which Poland has joined. .... After today's vote the Polish flag will officially join the other 15 European flags at CERN on 1 July 1991. Poland will contribute of the order of one million Swiss francs to the CERN budget each year up to 1995 and then the contribution will gradually increase to an estimated 1% of the total Member States' contributions by the year 2000." ________________________________________________________________________ POLAND - ELECTRONIC CONTACTS Warsaw University and central EARN node for Poland: PLEARN.BITNET plearn.pl Wroclaw Technical University: PLWRTU11.BITNET Wroclaw Technical University, Institute of Technical Cybernetics: amargosa.uucp Jagiellonian University, Krakow: %sand.decnet@uxplgw.cern.ch %chopin.decnet@uxplgw.cern.ch High Energy Physics Laboratory of UJ, group account: tpju%sand.decnet@uxplgw.cern.ch Fidonet: coordinator for Poland Jan.Stozek@f0.n48.z2.fidonet.org For more info try addresses such as MAINT@PLEARN, POCZTA@PLWRTU11, witold@amargosa.uucp ________________________________________________________________________ DEMOCRACY 101 [Disclaimer: Not long ago at one famous Southern Univerisity a group of scientists from around the world discussed formal theories of democratic processes. This now-emerging science will meet its ultimate match in Central and Eastern Europe where the fledgling democracies will become its proving grounds. Let me offer "a view from inside", or an intellectual experiment as my little contribution.-jzk] Faced with so many simplifications always present in any formal theory, a research group composed of Americans and Western Europeans decided to conduct a series of experiments on animals. The aim was to test basic predictions of available theories in the context of the emerging democratic societies of Eastern Europe. After inevitable arguing the group selected lemmings for all experiments. This genera, lemmus, seemed to be a good choice, because the animals were quite cheap and easy to come by. Altogether about 16 thousand were collected. But to the horror of our scientists, the lemmings tended to follow just one leader regardless of consequences and therefore, were found representative of only one specific group of Eastern Europeans. After the lemmings were disposed of, on the suggestion of an Oxford-educated Britton, attention was turned to chimpanzees, pantroglodytes, due to their unquestionable resemblance to the majority of the inhabitants of the former Soviet satellite countries. Consequently, no expense was spared to bring them to the lab. Scientists started all the necessary preparations for the cycle of experiments. Special attention was given to teaching apes the sign language. The British scientist was very active up to the point when he realized that the notion of "kolektiv" was very familiar to apes. He even noticed that chimpanzees developed their own sign for that concept: clasped palms of hands and arms risen high above head. This sad discovery was soon followed by another observation: apes liked backscratching and that was unacceptable. The righteous scientists considered this behavior undemocratic. In their minds, the habit of backscratching was contradictory to the notions of fair play and individual betterment so fundamental to every modern democratic society. New selection of lab animals had to be made and apes were sent back to Africa. There was one more attempt involving bats. This was a complete failure, because these animals upon hearing terms like "economic situation", or the "future of democracy" would emit a series of high pitched sounds. This squealing was perceived as judgemental, therefore all of these flapabouts were sent back to their cave. Using their private contacts the research group asked Dr. Samuel C. for help. He seemed to be uniquely qualified to make the decision, not only because he was a very famous Kremlinologist, but because he was also born in Bratislava to a prominent communist family and later emigrated to the U.S. for fame and fortune. Dr. C. promptly responded to a written inquiry. Here is a quote from the very end of his letter: ... in summary, dear Dr. M., I would like to suggest to you the choice of Paraguayan Parrots. There are two arguments for such a selection. First, these animals, captured in Paraguay, have no experience of democratic societies and therefore will quite naturally emulate the behavior of above-mentioned nations. Second, these are talking parrots fully capable of formulating logical sentences in a language (languages) comprehensible to humans. Finally, let me remind you that the threat of Warsaw Pact aggression still exists and we do not experience the disarmament matching the roderick of Soviet leadership. Therefore, I urge you not to divulge any secrets vital to the defence of the Free World in open publications resulting from the intended study. (signed, Samuel Cymes, PhD) Parrots were brought to a large room and put on scaffoldings. The Chief scientist, in plain English explained to birds the purpose of the experiments. There was no end to cheers for the brave peoples of Eastern Europe. Some parrots sung "Ozo Szep", others-"Kukala Kukacka", also "Marsz, Marsz Polonia" was heard loud and clear. Only one, older bird covered with white-pink plumage, sung something like: "...ya liubliu tiebia zhizn' i khotchu shto by lutshe ty stalo..." Other animals tried to ignore this obvious holdover from the unhappy past. After all, a parrot's life span is about the same as the one of humans living outside of the Bronx, N.Y. If humans can change their attitudes, why not this parrot? Nevertheless, with its bitter facial expression and stubborn sight aimed at the floor, the bird continued: "... ya liubliu tiebia zhizn' i nadieyus' shto eto vzeimno..." In spite of this little snafu, Cymes' Parrots were separated into small groups so that individual researchers could carry their investigations. We will follow the group assigned to Dr. Murielle Q. She was concerned with the electoral processes influenced by a large, officially non-political institution, widely respected by the society. Dr. Q. quickly sketched the situation for the group of birds in her custody. In response, she heard - "Bonjour, Madame !" "Ah, bonjour mes cheres paroquettes. Voulez-vous qu'on parle francais?" responded the surprised researcher. Then, she repeated all the introduction in French. The parrots seemed very interested. They tilted their heads left and right, listening carefully. The birds took their ballots and learned about the function of the voting booth. The only thing that seemed odd about them was that when Dr. Q. switched from English to French, and back, there was no reaction. Her subjects were visibly polyglot. Driven by curiosity, Murielle replaced some of the cards, which were originally written in English, with ones written in French. Some birds, reacted to this change with their usual "Bonjour, Madame!" which sounded quite funny to her. Before the actual voting, and there was a choice of two candidates, say, A and B, the lab animals were given certain facts about the links of both candidates to this non-political institution, say C. The entire voting process was skewed by the fact that, C never expressed its own opinion in public, therefore the "electorate" was to vote anticipating the wishes of C. However, just before the actual voting was to begin, the Chief Scientist entered the room. He was impatient, he really wanted to see the results. Upon spotting him, or so it seemed, parrots shouted "Bonjour, Monsieur!" which sounded quite funny to him. Nevertheless, once the vote was counted, there was no clear winner. There was a slight preference for candidate B, but it was too small to declare his victory. Worried, the Chief Scientist exclaimed, "So what is the C-institution supposed to do? Conduct its own internal voting, or what?" "Bonjour, Madame!" was heard from one corner of the room. "Bonjour, Monsieur !" from the other. Finally, one parrot shouted triumphantly: "Dupa biskupa!!!!" and the card game was over. Murielle and the Chief Scientist were tired. They concluded that parrots were stressed out and needed a good rest. Before their nap, the birds were taken to a fast food place for a proper meal. They enjoyed their hamburgers ... or so it seemed. - Jurek Klimkowski ________________________________________________________________________ COMMENT: AVOID THE ULTIMATE STUPIDITY With the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and COMECON, Poland can now be officially labelled a third world country. A UPI feature on New Years Day citing price hikes for gas, electricity and gasoline estimated that the next stage in Poland's financial reform - switching to settling its trade accounts in dollars - will lead to a trade deficit of US$2 billion and a drop in trade with other Eastern European countries by a third. In the past year, living standards have fallen 40 percent, and unemployment grew to a million (6% of the labor force). The feature cited Zycia Warszawy's publication of official estimates of further deterioration of living standards in 1991: "the prices of goods and services are expected to go up 32 percent in Poland -- half of that amount in the first quarter. Food alone will rise by 24 percent, putting an even greater burden on the elderly and pensioners, while the prices of services are expected to jump by 54 percent." In addition, rents and electricity will double in the first half, and increase a further 50% in June. Lech Walesa inherits an economic shambles, one for which despite his election-time rhetoric he bears much responsibility: he legitimized the Round Table, selected the so-called "Solidarity" candidates of the 1989 elections, and blessed the results. In hindsight, the intellectuals' reinterpretation of a clearly anti-Jaruzelski vote to be a mandate for a radical reform program not discussed in the election campaign should not have surprised anyone, for Poland's intellectuals suffer from the contradictory problems of struggling for democracy but not really wanting it. Demands by popular elements for construction of democratic institutions to animate reform, and demands by groups for an open renegotiation of the social contract were regarded by Poland's non-communist intelligentsia as irrelevant or threatening, while they maintained their end of the Round Table deal to shield PUWP bigwigs from prosecution and confiscation of stolen state assets. Is it any surprise, then, that in 1990 people rejected Mazowiecki (rather, they rejected his crowd) and supported instead a man who complained simultaneously that the reforms were too painful and that they were occurring too slowly? This is not a criticism of Poland's people. After all, I live in a country that routinely elects officials not even on character but on the basis of their coiffure and teeth, and whose press functions as independently as a herd of caribou. The "leaders" elected by voters so poorly informed have not been able to get their act together to save the US budget from disaster, and have resorted to artificial swords of Damocles (Gramm-Rudman) to excuse cuts to the voters, while the largest banking scandal/swindle in US if not world history has occurred right under their noses - and these incumbent, responsible, folks get reelected and reelected and reelected.... Poland is groping, painfully, towards some kind of new social contract and political framework. I'm not happy with the interim results, but then I'm not a Pole, just someone who supported the Solidarity trade union while it was a truly democratic and inclusive workers organization, until the Round Table Annex suspending its right to strike. Perhaps political parties representing the various interests of societies - and not personalities - will solidify before the spring elections to Parliament and issues can then be placed more meaningfully before the public. I can only hope that Poland keeps moving toward this end, and in the meantime avoids the kinds of costly mistakes that have nearly destroyed other third world economies. One big mistake the RP is courting is defense expenditures. I was shocked to read that Poland was actually contemplating buying a dozen US F-16s or Russian MiG-29s or French Mirage 2000s, the higher priced Russian craft costing US$18 million each. Are the Swedes preparing to invade? For what end will the RP sink US$ 150-200 million? This is almost enough money to support Poland's 1 million unemployed workers at minimal living standards, money the RP does *not* have. Worse, Gazeta Wyborca was quoted by UPI in early December: "Kolodziejczyk ... said Poland wanted to buy a dozen fighter-bombers, but no final decision had been made whether to purchase Soviet or American aircraft.... He said he would prefer a U.S. F-16 to a (Soviet) MiG-29 if the market price was comparable, and added Poland would also be interested in purchasing other arms."[emphasis added] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Poles need to challenge the "experts" mentality of the government bureaucracy both pre- and post-Round Table. They can't and don't expect Walesa to be radically different in practice, either. Allowing the military to squander that much of the nation's scarce income, even over a multi-year purchasing horizon, is criminal. If Poles want adequate defense, they can make the country too costly to invade by doing what Poland always did best: prepare local defense units and train local militia units in anti-tank warfare and equip them with state of the art anti-tank weapons, which should be far less costly than 8-digit jets which require a stream of high maintenance, training and upgrade expenditures. To indulge in the nationalist fantasy of being able to field a high-tech air force at a time when Poland is not threatened with invasion and not (yet, at least) threatened with border disputes, would be the ultimate stupidity. - Dave Phillips ___________________________________________________________________________ NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Elisabeth Porteneuve is the former Vice-President of EARN-FRANCE, and has been closely involved in the startup of the EARN-Poland link. Marek Zielinski of Rego Park, NY is a chemist and a contributing editor of Pigulki. He was a founding member of the EARN-Poland link discussion group in 1987, and was co-founder & editor of POGLADY, Solidarity magazine of Lodz (1980-1981). Marek and his wife received an extra present this past Christmas: a 3.23 kg daughter, Alexandra Teresa. Krzysiek (Chris) Heller is a a physicist turned computer specialist, currently at Jagellonian University. Until recently he was at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, where he helped to organize the First International School on Computer Network Analysis and Management. Marek Samoc is a chemist at Wroclaw Polytechnic. He was a founding member of the EARN-Poland link discussion group in 1987 and advanced the EARN-Poland link from both Wroclaw and Buffalo NY. Jurek Klimkowski lives in Glen Allen, VA. His "travelogues" graced the POLAND-L list in 1990. He's a contributing ("travel") editor of Pigulki. Dave Phillips is a doctoral student in geography at SUNY-Buffalo. He helped found the EARN-Poland link discussion group in 1987 and started the PLEARN-L discussion list in 1990. He co-founded the Solidarity and Human Rights Assoc. in 1983 and the Friends of Solidarity Families Project in 1987. He was N.American Secretary of the Conference of Solidarity Support Organizations 1983-88. He's a contributing editor of Pigulki. ========================================================================= ABOUT PIGULKI Editors Jerzy Klimkowski (Glen Allen, VA, VA) email: jzk@vanity.ncat.edu Dave Phillips (Cheektowaga, NY, USA) email: davep@acsu.buffalo.edu Jacek Ulanski (Lodz, Poland) email: julanski@plearn.bitnet Marek Zielinski (Rego Park, NY, USA) email: zielinsk@nyuacf.bitnet Distributors ___Name_______ ___Service Area___ ____Net_Address_______ Dave Phillips - N.America - davep@acsu.buffalo.edu Marek Zielinski - W.Europe/Poland - zielinsk@nyuacf.bitnet Wojtek Chudoba - Sweden/Poland - d87-wch@nada.kth.se Note: PIGULKI is distributed free of charge to masochistic readers who request it (send requests to an authorized distributor above). All signed articles are Copyright (c) 1991 by their authors. PIGULKI may not be copied or retransmitted without prior permission by the editors and notification of your local public health authorities. Your articles, letters, threats, denunciations are welcome; please send them to any editor you can find who'll admit being one. We reserve the right to edit for brevity. ========================================================================== .