Poland, lying to the east of Germany and the west of Russia, is one of the largest countries in Europe, with a population of 39m people - very similar to that of SA. Its land area, at around 312 000 m˛, is about a quarter of the size of SA.
The country has just elected a new government and a new president - Lech Kaczynski - and it is hoped that this will be the catalyst for a socially conscious but more dedicated approach to a free market economy and a more radical approach to government reform.
Like many other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Poland isn't especially familiar to South Africans. This is particularly so among the older generation, whose images are often those of a bygone era, when the country was subordinated to the Soviet Union.
Poland, along with most other former Eastern bloc countries, has transformed at a rapid pace and, after nearly two decades of liberation from Soviet domination, is not recognisable as the same country.
Poland has a long and fascinating history as a nation, going back over 1 000 years. Five hundred years ago, Poland was described as a country full of graceful and courteous people. "Why don't people use these expressions anymore? We're the same people," says Polish ambassador to SA Romuald Szuniewicz. The country has produced many outstanding scientists, artists and celebrities - Pope John Paul II, Nicolaus Copernicus, Marie Curie-Sklodowska, Roman Polanski and Frédéric Chopin to name but a few - but its history is littered with wars and occupations by foreign powers.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Poland was partitioned among Russia, Prussia and Austria. Though there were a number of popular uprisings against these countries, they were largely unsuccessful and many people (especially the Polish nobility) were deported to Siberia. To this day, it's quite common to find Siberians with Polish surnames, a relic of those times.
Poland enjoyed a brief period of independence between 1918 and September 1939, when German troops invaded. During World War 2, the fourth partition of Poland occurred, when the country was carved up between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. In 1943, the Jewish community in the Warsaw ghetto rose up against the Nazis and in 1944, the underground Home Army with the general population of Warsaw also rose up in an unsuccessful attempt to liberate the capital. After the war was over, Poland was effectively a satellite state of the Soviet Union, part of the Council for Mutual Economic Co-operation (Comecon) and the Warsaw Pact camp of countries. But Poles would say jokingly to each other that theirs was the funniest barrack in the camp.
In common with other Eastern bloc countries, like Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Poland had no natural liking for communism. This was demonstrated in Hungary in 1956, when Imre Nagy, a hugely popular prime minister, attempted to put a human face on communism in that country but was ruthlessly suppressed by Moscow. The same happened in 1968, during the "Prague Spring", when Prime Minister Alexander Dubcek attempted to reform the Czechoslovakian communist state.
Though Poland managed to get rid of the yoke of communism in 1989, leading the way for other Central and Eastern European countries, the roots of Poland's struggle go back much further. There were sporadic workers' and/or students' protests and revolts during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, just as there were in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
But the most meaningful demonstration of challenge to the communist "dictatorship of the proletariat" came from the proletarians themselves, in the Gdansk shipyards in Poland in 1980. This was a year after Pope John Paul II - also a Pole - had told his people, "Have no fear". The trade union Solidarity, under the leadership of Lech Walesa, demonstrated to the rest of the world that the Polish people had had enough. According to Szuniewicz, "We destroyed the Iron Curtain and contributed to demolishing the Berlin Wall."
Though widely perceived at the time to be a union revolt, the events of 1980 had a greater significance. It wasn't just a trade union on strike - it was the impact of millions of people all over Poland showing widespread defiance.
The transformation has been tough but the rewards have been great. A milestone was Poland's accession to membership of the European Union (EU) in May 2004. Six other Central European economies joined the EU at the same time - Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. But Poland is by far the largest of any of these economies. Polish gross domestic product of US$242bn is bigger than that of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia combined.
Polish farmers were concerned about the accession to the EU, as Polish agricultural practices are somewhat backward (but ecologically more friendly) compared with Western Europe's. But their fears were allayed and Polish food producers have been received enthusiastically in the rest of Europe. As a result, food prices have increased sharply in Poland. Foreign foodstuffs, however, have not found as ready a market in Poland.
Polish farmers get subsidies from the EU - many of them just for owning agricultural land - but the amount is lower than old EU members. As Polish farmers become wealthier, as a result of better food prices and subsidies, overall agricultural efficiency should improve.
Generally speaking, EU accession has been a win-win story for Poland and the rest of Europe. Bureaucracy has diminished, both within Poland and between itself and other EU member states. Western European companies have been able to relocate quickly and easily into Poland, taking advantage of cheaper labour and property prices.
Germany is Poland's most important trading partner - 30% of Poland's trade is with Germany - with Russia being the second-biggest partner at 8%-9%.
It's not just the EU that binds Poland to Europe and the West. Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1999. I ts roots in the organisation go back much further - to World War 2 - when Polish forces fought alongside a coalition of Western forces.
The Polish economy has opened up to the rest of the EU, providing great trade and other opportunities both for Poland and other European countries. Poland is now part of a large and powerful economic grouping but its GDP/capita is lower than the countries of Western Europe, as are average salaries.
Bureaucracy has been scaled down significantly - though it's still more prevalent than it should be - and the country has reclaimed its historical status as the fulcrum of Central Europe.
But this transformation has come at a cost. Under the command economy, unemployment was virtually nonexistent, with everyone being dragged down to the lowest common denominator - virtually everyone was poor. A saying developed: "Standing up or lying down, one deserves his money crown" (free translation).
Unemployment in Poland, at around 17% of the eligible workforce, is unacceptably high. However this figure is probably artificially high, as Polish unemployment statistics may include Poles working outside Poland as being unemployed.
Though nowhere near SA's, Poland's joblessness is regarded as being the country's biggest economic malaise. Convergence to Western European wage levels during the next few years will require productivity gains, which may put further pressure on unemployment.
Poles are highly intelligent people with a good education system - according to a recent article in The Economist, the number of university students has risen fivefold to 2m. Never before have Poles been so well-educated. Polish artisans appear to be able to work better and cheaper than their Western European counterparts, an apparent legacy of their broad-based education system.
In 1990, a year after the evident collapse of the old economic system, Polish inflation was close to 600% and the economy was deteriorating rapidly. Drastic action was required to restore economic stability and the country got it in the form of what was referred to as "shock therapy" - a prerequisite for a market economy. The effects were swift and dramatic but one of the consequences was that many peoples' savings were wiped out. The inflation rate between 2001 and 2004 has averaged around 3%, described by Szuniewicz as "manageable".
The new ruling party has promised to provide an extensive housing programme. Apart from an expected upsurge in building activity, this should also lead to significantly increased demand for furniture and appliances.
SA has not, as yet, established a large black middle class and most observers agree that this process will take time. It will take time in Poland, too. Meanwhile, though, an oligarchical elite has materialised, not too dissimilar to the black elite of SA businessmen.
Only many years of robust economic growth will enable both Poland and SA to establish a large middle class - something both countries are eagerly striving to achieve.
"We're relying on the entrepreneurial spirit of the Polish people to grow," says Szuniewicz.
The transformation to a free-market economy from a stagnant command economy in a brief period has allowed Poland to leapfrog certain stages of economic and technological development. For example, during the communist era, the practice of using cheques didn't exist in the Polish banking system. Poles have embraced technology and gone straight to electronic transfers, Internet banking and smart cards.
The next important milestone in Poland's economic transformation will be its entry into the Eurozone. Poland's budget deficit will have to be reduced from its current level before it can enter and that will require further public spending cuts. It is expected that entry will occur by 2009 at the earliest and 2010 by the latest.
Apart from the budget deficit, Poland's economic statistics are reasonably good and there seem few if any factors that should prevent Eurozone entry. Four years before their European Monetary Union (EMU - the forerunner of the Eurozone) membership, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal had far worse economic issues than Poland and yet all managed to enter the EMU and subsequently the Eurozone.
