The 16th century town of Kazimierz Dolny in Poland – by Gustav (Warsaw Station)

The Polish Farmer and the Dell? From bovinechips to microchips, Polish Matters reports on the largest single US investment in Poland from computer-maker Dell. The plant is slated for construction next year in Lodz and will employ 2,000 people. That's very good news for an economy already suffering from a serious brain drain pointed West.

While microchips are very small and shiny, and cowchips, well, are not, the Real Warsaw waxes on about the sizeable chips on Polish clerk shoulders. Why is it that there are more scowls than smiles in the shops? An answer:

The mainstream theory is it goes back to the communist days when shop assistants did not need to be polite. There were less goods than customers and the shop assistant was god, allocating the goods at a whim to the pour souls in the queue.

Makes sense, if you assume that being kind is counter to human nature (barring Mondays)…however, an alternative theory is forwarded by Camoloami. It follows the inverse proportion theory – the number of Polish dollars earned each month by clerks is inversely proportional to the number of scowls they don at work.

Average pole working in the shop earns the lowest rate! It's usually around 800zl to 1000zl/month !!! Would you be happy and nice to everyone working 8 hours for such money ???

Moving from Polish clerk scowls to Taliban head-towels, the Beatroot reports on the political infighting over the decision to send troops to Afghanistan next year.

…opposition parties have come out against the deployment. SLD leader Wojciech Olejniczak said Friday that Poland already had troops in Iraq and Lebanon and could not afford to “dispose of its forces with such ease. Poland is not a military power. We can’t afford this.”

Perhaps the Poles should re-consider and send troops to Italy where, according to P3, over 120 Poles have vanished:

…123 men and women…vanished over the past six years after saying they were going to Italy to work, usually as farm labourers or carers. The site also includes advice for those considering working in Italy. Among other things, they are advised to take with them enough cash for an escape.

Academic integrity is also vanishing… Enklawa Dziennnikarza laments (POL): statistics show that 10 in every 100 thesis papers submitted at Polish universities (whether it is for a final degree or just for a term grade) are at least partially plagiarised, mainly from internet resources. Is it just the “sheer laziness of the students” or maybe

blame lays with the system itself. […] Poland has a great number of students, combined with a small number of didactic cadres. Each “promotor” copes with a couple dozen papers a year, and seldom can be thorough enough. They often lack time to browse other papers written on the subject to rule out plagiarism.

That’s the Poland blogopshere update! Until next time – Do widzenia i powodzenia!