Loose cannons

Happy memories

"In our subjective memory communism is a land of happiness: we had more money, security, friends, time and even a sense of purpose." — Comment by Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, May 25, on the results of an opinion survey revealing that three-quarters of Poles said they were better off before the restoration of capitalism at the end of the 1980s than they are now.

Best qualifications for the job I

"We thought he would be an excellent prime minister." — An unmanned senior US government official commenting May 25 on the selection of Iraqi neurosurgeon Iyad Allawi for the post of prime minister in Washington's post-June Iraqi puppet government.

Best qualifications for the job II

"[Allawi] once gave medical advice to Saddam Hussein. Later he was a coup plotter and secret ally of the CIA and MI6." — Toronto Globe and Mail, May 29.

Booming economy

"Excluding old-age pensioners and looking only at households with people of working age, research commissioned by the Department of Family and Community Services found that there were 1 million jobless households with 1.5 million adults aged 15 years or over and 670,000 children." — May 29 Australian.

From Green Left Weekly, June 2, 2004.

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From GLW issue 584