Nothing left

Spent a few weeks overseas, much of it in Poland. Disappointment. Poland of the time of EU is as anyplace else. Warsaw, Krakow or Gdansk feel like Paris, London or Berlin. Same billboards, same supermarkets, same products in supermarkets, same tasting food, same schlock in movie theaters, and same books in bookstores, only in translation…

People? Rushing, as everywhere else, perhaps even more what with the wild-East economy. I remember time when almost every passerby would find a moment to give direction and chat awhile. Today Marszalkowska Street, or Nowy Swiat are like Fifth Avenue or Champs-Élysées, where they’d sooner push you off the sidewalk than stop to exchange a few words. When you catch someone they talk to you in an incomprehensible language, something of a Polglish, or anglicized polish – very “in” these days, from the Foreign Affairs Minister to a street bully (not that there is much of a difference between them).

What did I expect? Not really sure, but something else. Nothing that hits you over the head. Something more subtle… a smell, or a taste perhaps; nothing overt, but requiring sixth sense…

Why did I expect anything to begin with? I recall a day from a couple of decades ago, when fate made me change continents for an extended period. What struck me then was not the different political system, not the difference in technological advancement, or different culture… No! What hit me then was the food. On the first glance it was the same food from back home, but the taste! Food tasted different. It tasted like food. Twenty years ago one could eat real food in Poland, grown on real manure, not on the carcinogenic fertilizers we all gobble up these days. Whether in a restaurant, or supermarket bought, or home made, everything tastes the same today, this due to strict EU regulations.

In mass-culture and in mass-production everything feels, looks and tastes the same, and everything is plentiful. But, in fact, there is nothing.