The Sarmatian Review Index

Source: Donna Cassata, “Political corruption viewed by most as serious probem,” Houston Chronicle, 9 December 2005.

International graduate students in the United States

Number of international graduate students in 2005: about 225,000, a rise of 1 percent over 2004.

Source: AP, as reported by Houston Chronicle, 7 November 2005.

Social perceptions in Poland concerning the importance of public figures

Rankings of the perception of importance of the Polish public figures deemed “the most important:” John Paul II, 66 percent; former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, 9 percent; President Lech Kaczyński, 5 percent.

Source: Opinion poll conducted by Pentor, as reported by Michał Jankowski in Donosy, no. 4106 (20 December 2005).

Social perceptions of future economic security in Germany

Percentage of Germans who believe that in the future, the comprehensiveness of health insurance and security for the elderly will decrease: 71 percent.

Percentage of Germans who believe that [German] society will become more egoistic: 61 percent.

Percentage of Germans who believe in the Darwinian rule that only the strongest will survive: 53 percent.

Percentage of Germans who believe that in the future there will be more solidarity and unity among people: 14 percent.

Source: Opinion poll conducted by the Allensbach-Institut, as reported by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 21 December 2005.

World trade and telephone capacity over the last half century

Increase in world trade between 1950-2004: between twelve and twenty fold, depending on methods of counting.

Increase in concurrent transatlantic telephone conversations between 1956-2004: from 89 to one million, plus faxes and emails.

Source: J. R. Saul, The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World (Overlook Press, 2005), 21.

Pope John Paul II’s family home, the Holocaust, and the legacy of poverty in Poland

Name of owner of the boarding house in Wadowice from whom the impecunious Wojtyła family rented “rooms” in the 1930s: Yechiel Balamuth, a merchant later killed with his wife and daughters in the Bełżec concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Owner of that house in December 2005: New York psychiatrist Ron Balamuth, said to be the grandson of Yechiel Balamuth.

Source:<usajewish.com/scripts/usaj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=761>, as of 9 December 2005; <www.holocaustrestitution.net/hv-grand.htm>, as of 9 December 2005.

Amount of money for which the present owner has been willing to sell the house to the Kraków Catholic community: one million dollars.

Reason why the Kraków Curia has not so far purchased that house: they are too poor.

Source: Michał Jankowski in Donosy, 8 December 2005.

Catholic parishes in Poland

Number of Catholic parishes in Poland headed by a head pastor (who usually has at least one assistant pastor to help him in discharging parish duties and distributing the sacraments): 10,000.

Percentage of Catholics in Poland’s population of 38.6 million: 90 percent.

Hence, the average size of parishes: 3,400 persons.

Source: Rzeczpospolita, 19 December 2005; CIA World Factbook 2005 (cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook).

The follow-up to communism in Belarus

Population of Belarus in 1993: 10.24 million.

Population of Belarus in November 2005, according to the Ministry of Statistics: 9,762,200, a decline of 38,600 since the beginning of the year.

Number of people who continue to live in Chernobyl-contaminated zones: 1.8 million.

The percentage of dwellers in contaminated zones who have excess radioactivity in their body: 60-70 percent.

Number of childless families: 37 percent.

Number of families with one child only: 23.5 percent.

Percentage of Belarusans’ income spent on food: 50 percent.

Source: David Marples, “Belarus facing several demographic problems,” Eurasia Daily Monitor (Jamestown Foundation), vol. 2, no. 231 (13 December 2005).

Russians under President Putin

Number of people killed in racist attacks in Russia in 2004-2005: 59.

Percentage of Russians seeing the fall of the USSR as “a tragic collapse of a great empire, rather than a liberation from communism” (a quote from pollster Yuri Levada): 66 percent.

Percentage of Russians opposed to immigration to their country: 60 percent.

Source: Jonas Bernstein in Russia Reform Monitor, nos. 1335 and 1338 (23 December 2005 and 11 January 2006).

Russia’s pirating of intellectual property in 2005

Estimated amount of money American companies lost in 2005 because of Russian pirating of films, music, and software : 1.8 billion dollars.

Items pirated most often: business software, with losses of 748 million dollars.

Requirements for WTO membership to which Russia aspires: enforcement of intellectual property rights and curbing of software piracy.

Source: Alex Nicholson (AP), “Russia’s pirating still dire,” Houston Chronicle, 15 February 2006.

Polish dentists in the United Kingdom

Number of Polish dentists who took up job offers in the UK in 2005: 120.

Source: Catherine Simon, “L’elite polonaise fait du baby-sitting a Paris,” Le Monde, 16 February 2006.

Perceptions of the Kaczyński-Marcinkiewicz government and party in January 2006 poll

Percentage of people who said that they would vote for the Law and Justice Party (which won a plurality in the 2005 elections) if the elections were held in January: 44 percent.

Percentage of people who thought that Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has been doing a good job: 65 percent.

Percentage of people who supported the new government: over 50 percent.

Source: Opinion poll by Ipsos in January 2006, as reported by Rzeczpospolita, 23 January 2006.