Suspicions and Aspirations

Suspicions and Aspirations:

When I tell people here that I’m doing an internship at WWF Poland – an ‘international environmental organisation’ (I explain), I generally get an interesting and enjoyable response. Predominantly, it is met with suspicion: a sceptical look, a hesitant semi-disbelief, an incomprehensive smile and, once, I even scored a crack about being a communist. When they find out that it is an unpaid internship, scepticism unfailingly turns to complete loss and dismay. It’s my favourite, though not very socially adept, party trick at the moment, to watch people anxiously trying to thumb their way through their mental indexes in order to file me somewhere into their idea of an orderly social ranking – failed student? (enviro)Mentalist? Socialist?! I don’t seem to quite ‘fit’ into any of the drawers of the Polish social filing cabinet that I’m told is very important to the way people interact here. My co-workers at WWF mostly concur with this reaction – their friends, they say, either lack any sense of understanding for what they do or are indifferent – it’s a job that pays the bills. Perhaps this is all because the so-called ‘third sector’, NGOs, volunteering, all these elements of a more ‘advanced’ democracy are still so new and in the developmental stages, whilst any ideas with a remotely ‘social’-ist, community-oriented approach, are most definitely something to be afraid of and run away from very fast in the opposite direction. Is it patronising of me to say that from a historical perspective I can understand this?

Young Poles are ambitious, bold, motivated, confident, hard-working – that’s why so many of them can be found over on our shores trying to make it for themselves. Opportunities are pretty slim here, though that is changing. Is it any wonder, then, that these same young Poles set their sights on living the Corporate Dream? Talking to well-educated young Poles, their aspirations are overwhelmingly set on working for multinationals: Mackenzie, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, these are the Big Three. Corporations offer a stable, fast-paced, well-paid, high-flying, international working environment – opportunities in this booming market for foreign investment are flourishing. Working 14-hour days is worth it. Manifestations of super-success are of course the flashy car, the expensive designer clothes – the usual; but also the exclusive gym membership, the impressive anthology of business cards in your bulging wallet, the company car/laptop/watch/ball. Working in the non-governmental sector, the only things you are guaranteed of are a lesser salary and, I can say from my own experience, lesser prestige. It is not a very well-respected occupation. To put it bluntly, Poles aspire to the consumer lifestyle. Growing up on tales of empty shops, meat coupons, ever-lasting bread queues, and the material Nothingness of the past, why would young Poles not dream the dream we sold, and are selling, to them? (Ooops, am I being patronising again…?)

At the moment there are few or no alternatives being offered. Perhaps this culture will change as new ideas and experiences come back with Poles returning home and as the country responds to new trends and pressures? Now, though, I’m not surprised, neither am I especially critical, of the fact, that young Poles wanting Success, for themselves and for their country, are looking to the skyscrapers that surround them. The physical dominance of foreign big brand names on the Warsaw skyline (which I talked about in my last post….) makes imagining alternative models of success, and of the future, a tough task for the anomalous.


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After I wrote this, I was given an article in my Polish language class directly relevant to my ramblings! A recent sociological study conducted by CBOS across the entire country - the largest sociological study of its kind done in Poland - supported my observations. Discussing the results in a Polish national newspaper, Prof. Czapinski explains that Poles are the 'biggest Euro-enthusiasts' on the continent owing to the sense that joining the EU gave them the feeling that if they want something badly enough, they can get it. Self-confidence, life satisfaction, sense of independence, belief in one's own abilities and potentials all increased decisively amongst Poles after Poland entered the EU in 2004. However, what Prof. Czapinski sees as Poland's downfall, is the apparent inability and lack of desire to work together amongst Poles - a lack of a strong sense of citizenship, community identity and participation, and sense of mutual interest is, he argues, preventing the country from progressing faster, even as individuals are moving rapidly ahead. Prof. Czanpinski goes on to say that it's in the family and at schools where young Poles learn that 'it's every wo/man for himself', where working with others, seeing others as collaborators rather than competitors, is not encouraged, rather discouraged. He gives the example of motorway building - a politically-charged topic in this country - saying that, instead of realising that working together would get the job done faster, competition and conflict over who will get the contract, whose interest will be served etc, frequently ending up in court-battles lasting years, means that Poland still only has the one motorway... To sum it up, he states, that as a result, if things don't change, 'Individual Poles will get richer and develop a lot faster than Poland itself.'

We have to remember though that it's only been 20 years since Poland emerged from behind the iron curtain - is it surprising that after years of repression, pervasive fear, mistrust, individual self-protection, suspicion, and state-reliance, instilled into the people here, that remnants of this mind-set still remain? Perhaps first needs to come a certain level of individual wealth and satisfaction, then the rest will follow as people grow tired of only having one motorway....