the cosmopolitan review

The United States is the only developed country in the world in which workers are not guaranteed the right to a paid vacation under the law. In fact, our epidemic of overwork is so widespread that many people don't see the need for initiative. "One more government mandate," they mutter. One need only look at other countries around the world to see that the US is out of step. In the European Union, workers are guaranteed a minimum of 20 paid vacation days yearly. Canada and Japan are the misers in the lot, but each mandates ten paid vacation days, and Canada mandates eight additional paid holiday days. It's a national embarrassment that 28 million Americans don’t get any paid vacation or paid holidays. The US has become the "No-Vacation Nation" according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the cumulative effects of this reality are showing up on our vital statistics. In 1980, Americans  ranked 11th in the world in life expectancy. We have now slipped to 42nd.

by Kasia Szyndel

In June 2009, the people of Europe elected their deputies to the European Parliament. On July 14^th the Members of the European Parliament elected as their leader, for a two-and-a-half year term, Jerzy Buzek, a Polish member of the European Parliament who had served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001.

In recent years, many ground-breaking events in European history have been marked, especially from the perspective of Poland. This year Poles celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Communism in Poland: the roundtable talks and the first democratic parliamentary elections, bringing about almost unbelievable changes to Europe. With the election of Jerzy Buzek as the President of the European Parliament, the last remaining symbols of the old divisions are dropping.

Introduction by Irene Tomaszewski

OTTAWA & NEW YORK -- Poland has been a member of  NATO since 1999, and of the European Union since May 2004. Despite these strong links to the West, and the Poles' freedom of movement throughout Europe, Canada and the United States maintained their visa requirements for Polish citizens.  Polish Canadians and Polish Americans, for their part, maintained pressure on their politicians. In Canada, the government responded, and on March 1, 2008, the Minister of Immigration, Diane Finley, announced the end of the visa requirement at a special press conference in Mississauga. In the United States, things turned out quite differently. In a ceremony on the White House Lawn, Poland's neighbours and fellow EU members were informed that the US is granting their citizens visa-free travel. But Poland, a solid democracy and devoted ally, was left out. CR asked Dominic Roszak to comment on Canada's policy, and Andrew Nagorski for some insights into the American policy.