boletus: Sorry delph, but that's absolute simplification. The mutual antagonisms are very deep and widely spread, and they have nothing to do with Sikorski. He just added a bit of fuel to the fire by irritating Lithuanian pride and Lithuanian vanity.
But certainly, Sikorski could have gone a long way by engaging in diplomacy with Lithuania (perhaps by signing some sort of "no-sale of Orlen Lietuva without consent" agreement) in exchange for something for the Poles there. Instead, he deliberately chose to over-emphasise some things while almost completely denying that anything was going on with the Lithuanians residing in Poland.
boletus: I am not personally involved in their problems but after reading some stuff here and there I begin to understand how toxic the social and internal political atmosphere in Lithuania is.
It's not as bad as it's made out to be. I have quite a few Lithuanian friends, and none of them have any issues with Poles - although they do express utter annoyance at the way that the Polish minority has been reporting things - often trivial things are blown up to be huge ANTI-POLISH events.
boletus: Polish government is put in a really awkward position: it should stay neutral in order to negotiate some reasonable international relation with Republic of Lithuania, but it just cannot abandon Polish minority in Lithuania when their rights are violated or when they are treated as second class citizens.
The problem is that the Polish minority isn't helping itself - provocative acts, deliberately breaking the law of the Republic of Lithuania and generally acting as if they'd break Lithuania apart tomorrow if they could isn't endearing themselves to Lithuania. The Polish government should ignore them (it's political, and there's nothing to be gained from interfering in domestic Lithuanian politics).
boletus: But since not much help comes from Poland, no wonder that frustrated Lithuanian Poles recently asked Americans to protect them from their own countrymen.
That's exactly the kind of behaviour that I'd expect from right-wing Poles. The same nonsense was seen recently with two PiS members attempting to recruit help from America - which was more-or-less totally ignored. As I keep saying - the problem in Lithuania isn't with ordinary Poles and ordinary Lithuanians - it's with extremists on both sides tormenting the normal majority. Picketing the American embassy does nothing except make them look even more stupid - and causes Lithuanians to get mad that the Poles are trying to get "big brother" to help them.
boletus: With big trepidation I started reading newly discovered portal of Poles in Lithuania, http://www.wilnoteka.lt/ . I must say, I am pleasantly surprised: intelligent and balanced articles, good language, interesting information. But thats only in Polish. But stay tuned - there is much to share.
Alas - any site that happily republishes "Nasz Dziennik" immediately betrays its true political leanings. It's not a newspaper that can be associated with moderate leanings - indeed, if they wish to bring credibility to their cause, they'd steer well clear of such stuff.
Bear one thing in mind - as long as Poland discriminates against the Lithuanian minority, there's nothing Poland can say about the treatment of Poles in Lithuania.
|
