Kwaśniewska a Chef?

Not the President

According to the latest polls Jolanta Kwaśniewska (wife of the former President) would beat Donald Tusk in a Presidential election. However, Kwaśniewska will not change her mind and will not be running in the 2010 elections. The former President’s wife adds that she prefers making soup to being a politician. “It is only a poll,” said Jolanta Kwaśniewska in an interview for TVN24. She explained that she “can surprise her husband in many ways and I have made some soup which I am sure he will love,” she added. However, she also made an interesting remark about Donald Tusk. “I think that the PM is too preoccupied with the Presidential elections and is neglecting our economy and this worries me,” she said. According to a PBS DGA poll for Gazeta Wyborcza, Jolanta Kwaśniewska would beat Donald Tusk 57% to 43%. Despite her advantage over Tusk she will not be changing her mind. “My wife is not a politician and she has never wanted to be one,” said Aleksander Kwaśniewski.
Dziennik

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Boruc for Sale

Down and Out

Marc-Antoine Fortune will join Celtic for £3.8 million. Where will the Scottish football team find such money? The answer is simple: they will sell Boruc. The Polish goalkeeper has not been in top form recently. Moreover, his position at Celtic is now threatened by new signing, goalkeeper, Łukasz Załuska. What is more,  Tony Mowbray is not Gordon Strachan. Mowbray, the new manager of Celtic, has announced that he will not tolerate Boruc’s behaviour. During Celtic’s first training session, it came to light that Boruc did not pay too much attention to his health while away on holiday. He has put on weight significantly and even the manger made biting remarks about the Polish goalkeeper. It is not the first time people have been talking about Boruc leaving Celtic. After Euro 2008 such football giants as AC Milan, Arsenal and Chelsea wanted to buy Boruc but a transfer fee of £10 million for the Polish goalkeeper was simply too much. Last season was not a good one for Boruc and consequently his price has halved. The question is whether or not any team would like to have the Polish goalkeeper in their team. Celtic will replace Boruc with Załuska but what will happen to ‘Barubar’? He may as well forget about Arsenal or Chelsea. So far no one wants to buy him. In the meantime, Artur has sold his house in Glasgow and is preparing to leave Scotland. Marc-Antoine Fortune is a French striker who has been playing well for West Bromwich Albion, the team Mowbray left to join Celtic. Although Hull City has made a better offer for Fortune, the footballer has decided to choose Celtic.
Dziennik

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Crusade Against Madonna

As Innocent as a Virgin?

In order to block Madonna from playing a concert in Warsaw, public prayers and field masses will be held each day for two consecutive weeks between 31st July and 15th August. This ‘crusade’ is being led by Mazovian regional councillor Marian Brudzyński who is a former prominent member of the League of Polish Families (LPR). Together with his own Committee of Defending Faith and National Heritage Pro Polonia and supported by parish activists, councillor Brudzyński wants to “veto” Madonna’s concert. According to Brudzyński, “the obscene artist”, as he calls Madonna, is at odds with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church festival and the anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, also known as the so-called Vistula Miracle. Both of these celebrations will take place on 15th August, the very same day Madonna appears live in Warsaw.

The Pro Polonia committee has already petitioned Allegro.pl to withdraw from sponsoring the concert, but Allegro.pl has declined. After the fiasco of warning letters and petitions submitted to local and government authorities, Pro Polonia decided to actively demonstrate its opposition. It is preparing a “public praying crusade”, which is to take place in front of Warsaw’s City Hall. The slogan for this protest is “If victory comes, it will come through the Virgin Mary!”. In a manifesto signed by Brudzyński and entitled “Is Warsaw a trash bin?” we can read: “We start with a small gathering of  maybe several hundred people and I believe it will end with the whole square filled with ordinary Poles praying.” Brudzyński also adds that: “We have approached church authorities for permission to hold a field mass and received the necessary approval. The former chaplain of Solidarity Reverend Stanisław Małkowski will lead the mass”. The script for the first day is as follows: public prayers will begin with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy; then “on the image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa we will place a sign with a question to the authorities ‘Will you not be afraid to look into the eyes of the Queen?’” states the councillor. After mass, there is going to be a rosary procession under the banner of the Virgin Mary,” he adds. Pro Polonia also requested help from catholic priests, Law and Justice (PiS) and the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński. In a letter submitted to priests we can read that: “For their thousand-year-old service to Rome Poles do not deserve to be abandoned by their own priests. Let us act together – the victory of the Virgin Mary will be spectacular!”. The councillor says that he is uplifted by the reaction of the clergy and disappointed by PiS and President Kaczyński.

Causing a Stir

Brudzyński’s pledge for aid has fallen on deaf ears and no local PiS politicians have answered it. The Chancellery of the Polish President said that this matter falls outside its jurisdiction. “Lech Kaczyński is a declared patriot and Piłsudski-ite. I am greatly disappointed that the concert of such an obscene artist, which will take place on the same day as a Polish army holiday and the anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, is not outrageous to the head of the armed forces and a person who adheres to national traditions,” says Brudzyński. Also, despite an explanation given by the city authorities that it is not City Hall that organises the concert, representatives of the protesting committee are considering asking the Archbishop of Warsaw Kazimierz Nycz to suspend Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz’s membership of the catholic community, i.e. to excommunicate her. “This is a temporary exclusion from the Church for the Mayor of Warsaw. It is to be used when Catholics work to the disadvantage of the faith. An excommunicated person can enter the vestibule, but cannot receive the sacraments,” explains the leader of the committee.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Too Many Arabs in Egypt

Arabs Go Home?

Too many Arabs in Egypt, plants in the swimming pool and too much sand in the desert are just some of the complaints of Polish holiday-goers. Egypt is apparently most complained about with the most ridiculous complaints after a trip to Egypt being grievances that there are too many Arabs there, and that in July and August it was too hot. There are also complaints concerning “wailing” from neighbouring mosques. There was one customer who after returning from Egypt complained about the fact that there was too much sand and dust in the desert. Some tourists also grumble about algae and dead fish swimming in the sea.  After travelling to Arabic countries, many people complain about stomach problems, vomiting and fever.

One woman said that she went for her holidays to Egypt to meet her soul mate, but she spent the entire time on her own because there were no other Poles in the hotel. As a result, she demanded that the travel agency gives her compensation for a “ruined holiday”. There were also complaints about foreigners, for example, Poles do not want to live in the same hotel with English or German people. Customers also complain that there were too many people of a given nationality, for example Russians. What is more, some Polish tourists do not even want to stay in hotels with other Poles. The ridiculousness of some of the complaints is so unbelievable that it is hard to believe that these situations actually happened. For example, a doctor who went for a trip to China complained that there was too much mildew in the air of the room in which he stayed. As proof he brought back a jar of air from China to show the travel agency employees. Representatives of the travel agency in question assure us that this is true.
Wirtualna Polska

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National Health Faces Crisis

Health Problems

The National Heath Fund (NFZ) is in dire financial straits because not only is income from health care premiums lower than assumed, but also some branches have already spent the money they had for refunded medicine. Therefore, hospitals will receive less money from the NFZ and as a result they may not have enough to treat sick people. Due to the dramatic financial situation of the NFZ, hospitals will not only get less money than they should, but the NFZ also wants to save some money on the refund of medicine. Some NFZ branches have exceeded the money intended for refunded medicine. Most of it is spent on extra funding for drugs for asthma, diabetes and heart disease. “We would like to spend more money on treating sick people; however, all the available funds are allocated for the refunding of drugs. We appeal to doctors to be more prudent when writing out prescriptions and offer patients cheaper options. Patients, on the other hand, should not extort medicine from their doctors they do not really need,” says Mariusz Szymański, spokesperson of the NFZ Pomerania regional branch.
Dziennik

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Dutch Report on Beenhakker

On His Way Out?

The manager of the Polish football team, Leo Beenhakker, gets nervous whenever the Polish media write about his cooperation with Feyenoord. He denies everything and says that it is nonsense. However, it seems that it is Leo who is telling lies. According to Dutch journalists Beenhakker plays a significant role when it comes to transfer dealing at Feyenoord. In every article Leo is called “technisch adviseour” which means ‘technical advisor’. Feneynoord has just announced that they have bought a new footballer, Sekou Cisse, from Roda JC. One Dutch newspaper, NRC Handekblad, wrote that Leo Beenhakker played a significant role in buying the player and called him “technische topadviseur”. Leo has proved that he still treats his job very seriously, but unfortunately he does not pay equal attention to the Polish football team as he does to Feyenoord. Moreover, Leo does not waste a minute and after signing Cisse, he wants to see how Kamil Contofalski, a goalkeeper from Slovakia and the FC Zenit St. Petersburg reserve goalkeeper, plays. Leo also tried to buy Boukhari, but the footballer did not agree.
Dziennik

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Swine Flu in Poland

New Threat

So far it has been the most serious case of swine flu in Poland. An 8-year-old girl infected with A/H1N1 is being treated in one Warsaw’s hospitals. However, the situation is especially difficult as the illness from which the girl has suffered from for years has made her condition worse. “It has been the first case of such severity in Poland,” said Jan Bondar, spokesman for the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate. The girl infected with A/H1N1 is at the Niekłańska Street Hospital in Warsaw. However, before she got there several hospitals refused to take her in. “The girl’s condition is made worse by other illnesses from which she suffers. I cannot reveal what these illnesses are, but the girl certainly does not only suffer from swine flu. Due to all these factors the girl’s infection is the most serious case of swine flu in Poland,” said Magdalena Tęczyńska, who works at the Niekłańska Street Hospital, in an interview for RMF FM. The girl is an American citizen of Polish descent. She came to Poland with her brother and grandmother on 26^th June.  They came from Atlanta with a change in London.
Dziennik

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Polish Blog One of the Best

Translation Blog Honoured

Great news for the Polish blogosphere. An English-Polish blog, which is now in its third year, has been nominated for the prestigious, international Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs competition. The blog in question, Transubstantiation, highlights the trials and tribulations of translators and various problems in translation, focusing particularly on the Polish and English languages. This could be the first such honour for a Polish-English blog of this kind on the international blogging arena. With the nomination already in the bag, Transubstantiation has the chance to be inducted into the language blog hall of fame if it makes the Top 100. If you are interested in supporting Transubstantiation and helping it become one of the Top 100 language blogs  on the internet (or help it win the competition), voting begins on the 8th July 2009 on Lexiophiles.
Raf Uzar

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Poles Say No to Euro

No Euro

The number of people supporting Poland quickly joining the Euro zone is dropping significantly. According to GfK Polonia only 17% of Poles want Euro to be Poland’s currency. It appears that due to the financial crisis, Polish people are sceptical about the Euro. Donald Tusk’s government had been planning to join the Euro zone in 2012. However, when it became clear that Poland will not avoid the financial crisis, the date was postponed to 2014. Most Poles will not blame Civic Platform (PO) for this delay. According to a report conducted by GfK Polonia for Rzeczpospolita 17% of Poles support joining the Euro zone but the rest do not want a common currency or they suggest waiting a little longer before making the change. This demonstrates a significant drop in support for the Euro. At the beginning of the year 26% of Polish people were in favour of introducing the Euro while 39% was hesitant. According to this most recent of polls people under 39, clerks and white-collar workers are the strongest supporters of introducing the European currency. Managers are the largest group who believe we should wait a little longer before making the decision, according to Rzeczpospolita.
Dziennik

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The World is Falling

World Bank Predictions

The World Bank predicts that the world economy will fall by 2.9 percent whereas at the end of March the prognosis pointed to a 1.7 percent fall. As far as Poland is concerned, the prognosis for 2009 has not changed, which means that our economy may grow by 0.5 percent. At the end of the first quarter of 2009 the World Bank was convinced that this year all developing countries can count on 2.1 percent GDP growth and on 4.4 percent next year. Now they predict only 1.2 percent growth.

However, if China and India are not taken into consideration, the economies of the other developing countries will fall by 1.6 percent. According to economists from the World Bank, the slump in world trade together with a smaller influx of private capital which is predicted to reach 363 billion dollars, has an influence on the slowdown in developing countries. In comparison, in 2008 as much as 700 billion dollars went to markets in developing countries and the year before it was a record 1.2 trillion dollars. According to the World bank, problems in developing countries may lead to social dissatisfaction and growth in poverty. In order to prevent a wave of instability, reforms in the financial sector as well as help for the poorest countries are necessary. Poland, on the other hand, will bottom out of the crisis slowly. World Bank analysts predict 0.9 percent GDP growth for Poland while the world economy is supposed to grow by 2 percent. Not until 2011 will Poland’s economy flourish as this is when the predicted growth will reach 3.5 percent. At this time the world economy is supposed to develop at a rate of 3.2 percent.
Gazeta Bankowa

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