Sadness at the death of Tadeusz Mosz

I rose this morning to several SMSs informing me of the death of Tadeusz Mosz, the Polish radio and TV journalist, economic commentator and presenter. He was a great populariser of economics; his daily show Ekonomia, Kapitał, Gospodarka (EKG - also the Polish initials for 'electrocardiogram') on Radio TokFM had a large following.

Tadeusz Mosz, 1954-2014

Mr Mosz campaigned against all forms of economic populism, lambasting politicians promoting uncosted ideas or ones with unintended negative consequences for the economy. He was also strongly in favour of the rule of law across the economy; against all manifestations of the grey sector. He supported the introduction of kasy fiskalne ('fiscal cash registers') in taxis and kiosks to ensure that VAT was paid in full by consumers and passed on to the state.

Above all, through his continual work of explaining how the economy functions in simple-to-understand terms, he helped his listeners appreciate the challenges facing business, the state and the consumer as Poland transformed itself from central planning to a free market.

Mr Mosz's programme would always include two questions: "Czy jesteśmy biedniejsi czy bogatsi?" ('are we richer or poorer') and "Co mnie dziwi" ('what surprises me'); the first would give studio guests the chance to explain the major macroeconomic movements of the day in terms of the average listener's wallet, the second a chance for guests to point out some absurdity in Poland's economic functioning. And given the number of online interventions from ministers and administrators, one knew his programme was listened to by highly influential people too.

Over the past five years, I have appeared over 40 times on his radio show and another seven times on his (long-since axed) TV programme, Plus Minus on TVP. He was a jovial, intelligent character, into skiing and the country life. The off-air warm-ups to his programmes would involve good-natured alpha-male bantering with this guests.

His voice will be missed by many Poles; it would be fitting for him to be commemorated in some way - not least with streets named after him.

This time last year:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time four years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time six years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Hotel room with a railway view

Imagine staying in a hotel overlooking the platforms at Warszawa Centralna station - the continual racket of muffled announcements of train departures and delayed arrivals penetrating your room. Can't imagine it? The Grand Central Hotel, overlooking Glasgow Central station gives you just this experience.

I've stayed here before, back in the early 1980s, staying here for a conference. If not the same room, then one with the same general view. There is a charm associated with the place; one can imagine it during the era of steam trains.

Below: looking at the hotel rooms from the station concourse. My room is on the top row, second from left. The double glazing and thick roller blinds do little to cut out the sound of the station's loudspeakers.

Below: view from my room, looking down on to the concourse. One for the connoisseur - I for one can appreciate the ambience, but would prefer total sound-proofing. As I write, around half-past eight in the evening, the announcements are no longer constant as they were in the late afternoon, but even between 21:00 and 22:00 this evening, there will be 35 departures from this station.

Below: it's a very special station, architecturally. Look at the girders, and the wooden fronted shops. This is a Grade I listed building, as is the hotel (notable for the fact that the very first long-distance television signal was received here in 1927).

I hope I'll be able to get to sleep and have an undisturbed night.

Postscript, Wednesday morning: the station announcements begin at 07:00; until then, the station operates in silence.

Weatherwise, it's such a lovely day!

The perfect day for taking off from Warsaw's Okęcie airport and looking at Mazowsze from the air. I'm off to Glasgow for three days. Everything goes smoothly - buses arrive on time to get me from home to the airport, I get through security without a pat-down, I get a good seat (3A), the plane departs on time - and here's a bonus - WizzAir no longer flies to "Glasgow" Prestwick, but to actual Glasgow Glasgow Airport, a mere 20 minutes by bus from the city centre.

So a perfect day for some aerial photography - good weather, good seat. Cloudless skies over a snow-covered Poland.

Below: Kabaty, the southern-most part of Warsaw's Ursynów district. In the bottom right, the Las Kabacki forest; in the top left, the houses and apartment blocks of Kabaty, and in between the Metro depot. In the distance, the Vistula escarpment and the floodplains beyond.

The plane swings around Warsaw, making a 270-degree loop before taking a bearing for Glasgow. Below: the Vistula, looking pretty frozen, with Zawady in the foreground, the Siekierki power station's chimneys in the middle-left of the photo. Trasa Siekierkowska, with the Siekierki bridge run east-west, with the district of Gocław lying on beyond the river.

Below: having taken off at midday, seven minutes later, we're back over the airport. The oval in the left foreground is the smaller of the two horse tracks at Wyścigi. Beyond the S2 expressway lies Raszyn ("fools Raszyn where angels fear to tread") - home of the legendary Fashion from Raszyn website. The town is to Warsaw what Slough is to London.

Below: Węzeł Salomea, the most recently opened junction on the S2. As is the case with Węzeł Warszawa Południe, the southern arm of the junction goes nowhere and stops dead in a field, awaiting the cash needed to extend it to join the S7 expressway running south out of Warsaw.

Left: cruising altitude reached. The plane's heading in a north-westerly direction, rather than flying due west for London. The darkish band crossing the photo from left to right in the middle distance is the Vistula river valley. Ground temperature is -3C. A dazzlingly beautiful day to be flying at 30,000 feet over Poland. As you can see, Mazowsze is as flat as a steamrollered pancake.


This time two years ago:
Temporary home of the National Film Library

This time three years ago:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time four years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time six years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Sorry, takie mamy koleje

My train to work today arrived on time - all was going smoothly until the train approached W-wa Zachodnia station. The train stood still at the signals (as often happens), then the guard ventured out of the driver's cab and announced that the train was going nowhere as there was no electricity and that he had no idea how long this state of affairs would continue. He made his announcement in a good humoured way, with the passengers laughing out loud at the continuation of the Sorry, taki mamy klimat winter on the rails saga.

The guard could see the train was not far from Zachodnia, so he took the decision to release the passengers so that those who wanted could walk alongside the tracks to the station. Checking the two WKD tracks were clear, he opened the first set of double doors manually and helped people down. Many passengers decided to take a stroll rather than wait for electrical traction to be restored.

Below: other trains were affected too. Here's an SKM service from west of Warsaw beginning to disgorge its passengers.

Below: the SOKists have failed to prevent vandals from despoiling rolling stock. If these guys want to earn the respect of the travelling public, they should take more stringent measures to ensure that vandals cannot get into sidings where trains are stabled overnight. I'd like to see corporal punishment brought back for this destruction.

All ended well; the passengers were soon making their way through the PKS bus terminal and through there to catch the many buses that run up and down Al. Jerozolimskie. I got to work some 25 later than I would have had there been no breakdown.

This time last year:
Visit to Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery

This time two years ago:
Under Rondo Dmowskiego

This time three years ago:
My Most favourite bridge

This time four years ago:
Street lighting under the snow

This time five years ago:
Ul. Poloneza - archival video before the S2 was built

This time six years ago:
Aerial juxtaposition over Jeziorki

Snowdrifts and trains in winter

I have written before (here and here) about the danger of snowdrifts on railway lines and how PKP's answer has been to erect wooden fences along tracksides threatened with drifting.

This year, they've not been put up - cutbacks at PKP PLK? Below: a bank of snow visibly encroaching upon the tracks, a pile of snow fences stand undeployed by the trackside (to the right of the trees), between W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Okęcie stations, on the unelectrified line serving the coal trains to Siekierki power station. Click to expand photo.

Below: The trains must get through - though fitted with a small snow-plough under its nose, and with the weight of 40 fully laden coal wagons behind it, it's entirely feasible that a huge overnight snowfall, piled up by high winds, could halt the train taking feedstock to the power station. Smoking away, Gagar ST44-1081 in PKP Cargo livery hauls up the light incline towards W-wa Jeziorki.

The coal train has a locomotive at both ends, with an SM42 shunter bringing up the rear (below). To the right, a Koleje Mazowieckie passenger service to Radom stops at W-wa Jeziorki.

This will be the winter of "Sorry, taki mamy klimat", infrastructure minister Elżbieta Bienkowska's poorly chosen words reflecting a sorry fatalism that belie the fact that Poland's railwaymen can do more to ensure smooth running of trains throughout the season - such as putting out the drift fences.

May I suggest that PKP sets up the equivalent of Warsaw's 19115 'fix-my-street' service?

This time two years ago:
Back to the blackboard
(on the superiority of Polish schools to British ones)

This time four years ago: This time two years ago:
Greed, fear, fight-and-flight - and the weather

This time five years ago:
Where the new motorways will meet

This time six years ago:
Crocuses blooming in London

If you can't measure it, you can't manage it

And January 2014 rolls round to a close, Lent is still a long way off (starting 5 March). But I kicked off the New Year with healthy resolutions; adhering to them until Lent should be easy. And logging them all as we go. If one has targets (or 'ambitions' as one has to learn to call them in these politically correct times), they become easier to reach if you enter them daily into a spreadsheet.

So then. This January, my average number of paces walked was 7,647 a day, just over three-quarters of the recommended daily average of 10,000. Still, for the first four days of this year I was thick with a cold and did not venture out. The pedometers (one in my pocket, one in my smartphone - the NoomWalk app) gave accurate readings, and logging each day motivates the beat the record. I bet February's average will be in excess of January's.

Sit-ups - average here is 67 a day across the month, though now I'm up to over 110 a day, so this number should improve into February.

I've stopped drinking coffee on 5 January, though will return to it at the start of Lent - for medicinal reasons - the clear link between coffee drinking and reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease in old age. But no more than one cup a day, in the morning. So I'm doing the 'denial of pleasure' bit now. Alcohol I will quit for the whole of Lent, as I've done every Lent for the past 22 years. This month, my alcohol intake has averaged at 2.1 units a day/15.1 units per week, with 16 days without any alcoholic drink. Entirely within safe drinking limits by a huge margin.

Sugar - this is an interesting one. This week's New Scientist leads with some shocking truths about the sweet stuff. Read the whole article (for the public good, it's not behind a paywall) here.

Here are some excerpts:

"Because hunger is no longer an important factor in most developed countries, what can make people eat more?" asks Serge Ahmed, a neuroscientist at the University of Bordeaux, France. "Food pleasure. And what creates food pleasure? Sugar." 

Unfortunately, it is a guilty pleasure. Not all scientists see eye to eye on the health effects of sugar but there is one point on which most agree: we don't actually need it. Luc Tappy, a physiologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, sums it up: "You cannot live without essential fats. You cannot live without protein. It's going to be difficult to have enough energy if you don't have some carbohydrate. But without sugar, there is no problem. It's an entirely dispensable food." 

"But some researchers see something more sinister going on. To them, sugar isn't just a source of excess calories: it is a poison. ... Another sinister claim against sugar is that it warps eating habits by altering brain chemistry to make us want more. For several years neuroscientists have found it useful to compare energy-dense foods to addictive substances such as cocaine... Foods high in fat and sugar – called "hyperpalatable" foods – are known to trigger our reward systems by boosting dopamine levels much as addictive drugs do." 

"Fructose is converted into energy, but ... unlike glucose breakdown, this produces lots of oxygen radicals, dangerously reactive chemicals that attack our bodies and cause ageing... eating lots of fructose has been shown in both animal and human studies to boost levels of triglycerides in the blood, which increase the risk of hardened arteries and heart disease." 

So there we are - a damning indictment of sugar - in particular High Fructose Corn Syrop (HFCS), which the food industry insists on putting into everything from ready meals to fruit drinks

What to do? Avoid it. Fresh fruit is OK, as it is a natural source. But cakes, biscuits, confectionery - we don't need it, it is bad for you, end of story. If you want to live long, don't touch that. If you don't want Nanny State to boss you around, help save the health service money in looking after you in old age by taking responsibility for your own diet and lifestyle. Drive less and walk more.

This time last year:
Sten guns in Knightsbridge (well, Śródmieście Południowe, actually)

This time three years ago:
To The Catch - a short story (Part II)

This time four years ago:
Greed, fear, fight and flight - and the economy

This time five years ago:
Is there an economic crisis going on in Poland?

Protecting Poland's railways - or not

Regular travellers on Poland's railway network will have observed the railway guard - Straż Ochrony Kolei - a strange institution - neither police force nor military formation, and you may have wondered - what are these guys doing? Are they protecting the travelling public? Making the railways feel more secure?

I don't really know. To me, it's another Polish institution long overdue for reform, in need of real purpose, a jobs-for-the-boys machine. Trains should feel safe - in general they do (with one exception I'll return to). But I posit that they feel safe because of a general improvement in social trust since communist days, rather than because 3,100 SOKists hang around the network.

Are these guys here to prevent graffiti being sprayed on trains stabled overnight in depots? Or to prevent overhead power lines from being stolen? Or to prevent terrorist attacks on Polish railways? I don't rightly know. From SOK's website, it's hard to fathom what this body is all about.

Below: reminds me of the communist-era joke: why do milicjanci hang around in threes? One who can read, one who can write, and one to keep an eye on the dangerous intellectuals. Back in Cold War days, this force existed to protect the Red Army's railway supply routes safe from NATO paratroopers - and Polish saboteurs. Today, this threat has disappeared, yet these guys still act as though it were 1952. But in hi-vis vests.

Below: why is it that drinking and smoking is tolerated on Polish suburban lines? Each three-carriage unit has a guard's compartment at the front and rear. A six-carriage set will have four such compartments, three of which (not occupied by the guard) form mobile drinking dens for Pan Heniek and Pan Ziutek returning home from work in Warsaw to Radom, Żyrardów or some other distant dormitory at the edge of Warsaw's gravitational pull. In these compartments, smoking and drinking are de rigeur, despite clear notices to the contrary. Smoke wafts into ordinary passenger carriages, the atmosphere is often boisterously aggressive, kurwa this, kurwa that, kurwa. Guards and ticket collectors rarely venture in. This is an everyday occurrence. Where are the SOKists?

The Polish parliament was all set to reform this outdated institution, reducing the number of its ranks and making it fit for purpose for today's needs. That was five years ago - since then - no change. I suspect another PSL sinecure. What's needed is a professional body that will genuinely assess risks to the network and to the traveller and act accordingly. Until the smokers and drinkers are removed from the no-smoking, no-drinking suburban trains (or else the law is amended to permit smoking and drinking in designated compartments), I will not take SOK seriously.

UPDATE FROM 2022: The behaviour above has all but disappeared, mainly due to the introduction of new rolling stock without enclosed compartments at the ends of the multiple units.

This time last year:
The end of winter? So early?

This time two years ago:
How much education for the nation?

This time three years ago:
To the Catch - short story

This time four years ago:
Eternal Warsaw

This time six years ago:
From the family archives

Plac Zbawiciela, lunchtime, winter

Plac Zbawiciela lies near the southern end of Śródmieście Południowe, Warsaw's city centre south. Here lies the Church of the Holiest Saviour (Kościół Najświętszego Zbawiciela). Below: I've long been fascinated by this view - the juxtaposition of tram wires and neo-Baroque - the church itself being consecrated just 28 years before the opening of Disneyland.

A short walk from Trasa Łazienkowska which runs under ul. Marszałkowska and you're here - a convenient interchange if heading into town by tram. Pl. Zbawiciela is served by no fewer than five different lines. Be careful which you board - some go north up Marszałkowska, others swing west here, like the number 10 tram seen below.

Left: the steps of the Church of the Holiest Saviour are popular with beggars; whether it's the passing footfall, generous worshippers or a tolerant clergy within, I can't tell.

Below: Pl. Zbawiciela is more of a circus than a square; here's the south-west section. Click on 'Pl. Zbawiciela' label at the bottom of the post for more photos from here.

Pl. Zbawiciela is a busy tram junction, with the socialist-realist MDM (Marszałkowska Dzielnica Mieszkaniowa - 'Marszałkowska Housing District') in the background.

Weatherwise, it's been tolerably cold (around -7C) with light dustings of snow to give the city a cleaner look. Road-salt ensures that snow on the roads turns to slush, which sprays out from under the tyres of passing cars.

This time last year:
Waiting for the thaw

This time two years ago:

At last - some winter gorgeousness

This time three years ago:
New winter wear - my M65 Parka

This time four years ago:
Winter and broken-down trains

This time five years ago:
A pavement for ul. Karczunkowska?
[Hopes dashed. No, after five years - we're still waiting]

This time six years ago:
Just when I thought winter was over...