In 1773, a special session of the Sejm (Polish
parliament) was convened in Warsaw, by its three neighbours (Russian Empire, Prussia and Austria) in order to
legalize their First Partition of Poland. That Sejm is known as the Partition Sejm.
Rejtan was one of the deputies that tried to prevent the first partition of Poland. He
was a deputy to that Sejm, and had explicit instructions from his constituency to
defend the Commonwealth. His arguments and protest did not bring results. When there was nothing more to be done to protect Poland
from partitioning he made a dramatic gesture of baring his chest, blocking the
exit with his own body in a dramatic attempt to stop the other members from
leaving the chamber and ending the discussion, leaving Poland to be
partitioned.
This image of the famous Polish painting came to mind
when I heard from my Australian friend about Mr. Tusk’s action at the end of
the Sunday night last chance meeting to solve Greece Greece
I also hope
that Mr. Tusk’s action will be successful in the future and that Greece Union will
really make sense. While my way of writing about the situation may seem flippant,
this is not how it is intended. Mr. Tusk has been my hero for some time and for
the sake of me believing in heroes at all, I hope he continues to be an honest,
dedicated and clever world politician. I am sorry that in Poland
As my ability to write political assessment of the
Greek situation is very limited I would recommend Jim Belshaw's analysis.
Good comparison :)
ReplyDeleteMy simple mind tells me it would have been much better for Greece to leave eurozone when the crisis started, but I do not intend to discuss this issue, I prefer to put forward some fantasy from the world of music.
The partition Sejm mentioned above worked in year 1773 to ratify Poland;s partition which was already agreed by Russia, Austria and Prussia in August 1772. And what happened at his time in the world of music? Austrian prince Esterhazy, employer of Joseph Haydn, did not give summer leave to his orchestra. Poor musicians had to play for prince's guests and wait for him to come and end the musical season. Haydn was so frustrated that he wrote the Farewell Symphony (No 45) , which contains clear hint, that musicians want to say good-bye.
My guess is that prince Esterhazy was too much involved in formalities related to partition of Poland and forgot about his orchestra. This was a very long story for a very simple point - make music, not war!
I love it! Looks that neither of us can stop seeing funny side of politics and make interesting associations. My Rejtan comparison may not be so readable to non-Poles.
ReplyDeleteHow is Aussie land? Very cold? In Poland the weather forecast yesterday was "a warm night , 10-11 degrees". Of course it should be warm, it is summer after all. The central heating was on.
Yes, Jim's take is very good and helped to firm up my own knowledge about Greece. Within our federation, there are a few states that are like Greece and there is now a concentrated effort to get them to mend their ways lest they face similar problems.
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