[log in to unmask] wrote: > My first inclination was to describe this as Communism At Work. Then > it dawned on me that there are plenty of movies of Da Krauts removing > and sorting through bombed heaps of brick. > > In both cases, it seems to me that describing that process as direct > citizen participation in heritage conservation is romanticizing it, > more than a little. Ralph, I can relate to your sentiment in regard to romanticism though my sense is that within a more informed context as to what has gone on and what is currently going on with heritage conservation in Poland that it suddenly becomes a whole lot less romantic to suggest the intensity of voluntary citizen participation as a characteristic that may distinguish the preservation movement in Eastern Europe from that in the USA. I provided one quote that illustrates what I sense, I can provide more fragments that stand out to me at least starkly to represent what I see as a difference in the Polish perspective. I am not Polish, you know that, but I do go there with a curiosity as to just where did all of the Polish workforce that I have been involved with over the last twenty years in NYC come from? Let alone that our mutual friend Mr. Weiss, through his mother, is of Polish ancestry. There have not been quite so many Germans working on cutting out mortar joints in NYC, and I presume with the current workforce demographics that I will get to Peru if I live long enough, though Pakistan is a close second after the Ukraine or St. Petersburg. What I end with is not so much to accept my presumptions but more questions and for me the questions lead to a desire to go find answers that for me add up. Geographic area of Poland in square miles is close to that of Arizona. Population of Poland is close to a combination of New York (including NYC), New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. We won't confuse ourselves with Chicago. Poland has roughly 1/8th the population of the USA. If we combine the population of USA with Canada the population of Poland is 1/10th. I give the above for the reason that the APT Bulletin and the Polish Bulletyn are of near identical technical format (though the Bulletyn is in full color), peer reviewed, and of nearly equal distribution say at 1,500 for rough consideration (we will not get into who sends what to libraries). This breaks down that in Poland one can almost say that 1 in 26,000 people are interested in heritage conservation, whereas if we only look at the USA it is 1 in 200,000. If we add Canada, and as APT is a predominantly US-Canadian organization it makes sense to do that, we are then comparing it to 1 in 225,000. We can go on from there to argue comparisons of the full range of historic conservation related publications and a cursory look at the above data may become much more complicated say if we try to compare Traditional Building or Preservation in relationship of their format, market, and the general population at large. In Poland my perception, having looked at the shelf of periodicals on display in the cultural exchange center in Krakow, that there are something like at least 8 heritage conservation publications in Poland. They all seem to be in full color, some of them with advertising, most without. Regardless, the comparison between the APT Bulletin and the Polish Bulletyn opens to me a consideration of more weight to the thought that the Polish as a percentage of population are much more involved in and concerned over their built heritage than we are in the USA. At this time, with all of the economic stimulation that Poland is going through with their participation in the EU I do not presume that it is Communism at Work. I thank you though for the opportunity to be challenged in my perceptions. ][< -- Orgrease-Crankbait <http://orgrease-crankbait.blogspot.com/> Video, audio, writings, words, spoken word, dialogs, graphic collage and the art of fiction in language and literature. -- To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to: <http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>