Yo! Yagga Yo from Poland

Thanks to European Voice that someone has written about my poor and bloody country. People mostly forget about it. Here it sucks, my town is a slum, 90 % of people live in slums (social housing, very deteriorated), tha rest have better housing (their private houses). There is some mafia in my town supported by the local corrupted tabloid press, recently we had a weekend of contemporary art, but no one from the city council gave any subsidies so it was all organised in abandoned industrial plants, the whole two-day event with two exhibitions and many performances for only 350 euro. Even we were showing our capoeira show, drumming and singing a lot.

I an angry on my town and my country, because I know I have to loose it, otherwise staying here I will be very poor. It is a place with no perspectives. You HAVE TO move to another country to live a good life. When I see my friends, I am sure that one day they will say goodbye to me and I will stay alone, as it happened in the past. I have lost so many friends. The poverty forcing young to emigrate kills our social relations- at the end You find Yourself alone in some strange British or Irish town where all youngsters speak with some dialect, a lingo, which they are not teaching in our schools. Now my older Polish friends - they all live in other countries, I have lost everyone from my old crew.

Recently my good friend from the new crew escaped to the Netherland. They wanted to put him into the Polish army, and he was rastafarian. He would have to cut his beautiful dreadlocks. Besides, police is really trying to put You to prison for what the rastas are smoetimes doing. There are people closed for 3 years to prisons for smoking joints here and I am not joking.

The only job You can have is the one for 200 -300 euro monthly. I am spending more for my clothes, I have just paid 400 euro for snowboading clothes bought on sales. If not the money earned elsewhere, I would be like my poorer friends that need to be bought drinks and entry if we are going to some club. I am happy that they do not feel ashamed that someone is paying for them.

And now I have read an Internet article about a man who was so hungry that he was eating dogs to survive in Poland. He ate them for several years in a row. Local people were leaving unwanted dogs at his fence. He had to survive for circa 45 pounds from social aid monthly.

I am not reading newspapers, I do not want to know anything about them, it spoils my nerves and I get bad mood. I read only magasines about arts, literature and some skate zines. I am not a good economist, but I see that they do nothing to improve it. Economic differences grow instead of being leveled.

Other such countries are called banana republics. We do not have bananas, so we are potato republic. Our democracy is perfect and everyone has a right to say his point of view especially in the governmental media which perfectly reflects the varying points of view so present in contemporary Polish society.

Cheers,
Ras Fufu from Potato Republic of Bolanda