Local Flooding Predicted

Stormy Weather

According to meteorologists, even though today (Friday) may begin sunny, clouds will soon cover most of the country leading to rain. The regions of Pomerania and Subcarpathia can expect heavier rainfall and storms which could lead to flooding in some local areas. Maximum temperatures will be in the region of 21-23 Celsius in the western and southern parts of the country whereas they will be a little higher in th rest of Poland. According to weather forecasters, as much as 25 mm of rain will fall in Pomerania and Subcarpathia. Winds may reach speeds of up to 70 km per hour. Saturday, on the other hand, should be warmer with no rainfall.
Wirtualna Polska

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Promoting Poland Without Drama

Promoting Poland

“The role of victim does not command respect,” believe experts when asked about the battle against anti-Polish feeling. One in two respondents feels that Poles are perceived unfavourably abroad according to a GfK Polonia poll published by Rzeczpospolita. For years now, Rzeczpospolita has been battling the misuse of inaccurate terms which slander Poland’s name. Proving to be a large success in this regard was the campaign against the term “Polish death camps” which had been regularly appearing in foreign newspapers such as the Guardian or New York Times. Over 15,000 people backed the appeal. Also, it met with the endorsement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a result, the number of interventions made in the media by its officials and Polish ambassadors who demanded rectification is in the hundreds. “It is a very good campaign. I am convinced that it has made the foreign media choose their words more carefully,” believes PO MEP and former head of the Polish Foreign Affairs Committee Paweł Zalewski. Thanks to the campaign the frequency with which such alarming expressions surface and are brought to our attention has dropped. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs seconds this opinion. “We are observing a significant drop in the regularity with which these terms are used,”  say Piotr Paszkowski, the ministerial spokesperson in an interview with Rzeczpospolita. He continues, “in recent weeks we noted but one case in which the term ‘Polish death camp’ was used and of course it was met with a swift reaction from our diplomats”. Paszkowski emphasises the fact also that it is always when the debate on concentration camps gains momentum that such terms start surfacing more frequently.

Flying the Flag

The media coverage on the extradition of John Demyanyuk, a presumed war criminal and a former guard at Sobibór death camp, is a good illustration of such a tendency. But the campaigns alone will never solve the problem. Experts say that the government is not promoting Poland properly. “If the authorities focus all their attention solely on admonishing foreign journalists for their use of absurd terms instead of backing it up by conducting campaigns that would promote, for example, publications revealing the historical truths about Poland, then they have only themselves to blame,” says Dr Wojciech Jabłoński, an expert in political marketing from the department of Political Sciences at the University of Warsaw. The authorities are going into hysteria and instead of improving Poland’s image, they are hurting it. Jabłoński stresses the fact that building an image on the past and martyrdom is counter-productive because it casts Poles in the role of victim which instead of being respected is rather pitied. By constantly reprimanding journalists Poland is losing the media’s sympathy. Foreign reporters are often surprised at Polish people’s over-sensitivity when it comes to Polish history. Others say that when they made a mistake they were mistreated to such an extent that despite having previously presenting Poland in a good light from that moment on they decided to stay as far away as possible from anything Polish.
Rzeczpospolita

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Alternatives to PO

Should Tusk Be Worried?

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is the most popular second-choice party among respondents. Trailing after SLD are Civic Platform (PO) and the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL) and Piskorski’s Democratic Party (SD) respectively. 36% of Poles would be prepared to vote for a party different from the one they currently support. According to a survey conducted by GfK Polonia on behalf of Rzeczpospolita, SLD tops the second-choice parties. It was the party of choice for 16% of respondents. Coming next among other second-choice parties was PO with 8%, PSL and SD both had 7%, the Party of Polish Women (PK) claimed 5%. Law and Justice (PiS) was the second-choice party for only 4% of respondents. This is a good prognosis for SLD and SD. “For SD the sole fact of making it into the polls is a bonus,” says Wojciech Jabłoński, from the department of Political Sciences at the University of Warsaw. On the other hand, SLD’s result shows that the plans of the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk who made no secret of the fact that he was aiming to slowly drain support from it, might not work. If SLD’s leaders seize this opportunity it may very well be that it will be PO’s constituents moving over to SLD and not the other way around.

According to the Rzeczpospolita poll, SLD is viewed by 26% of respondents as the second most popular choice. The head of SLD Grzegorz Napieralski believes, “Clearly, the spells cast by Tusk and PO are being broken and a bright future is opening up before the left”. SD is also happy with the results: “This shows that our endeavours are bearing fruit and disproves the theory popularised by some politicians that the Polish political scene is sealed shut and there is no room for another party,” says Jan Artymowski, SD’s Deputy Secretary General. Meanwhile PO is keeping its cool. “I do not believe our voters would leave us for SLD or Piskorski’s party. It is far more likely that these camps will be battling it out with each other,” says Grzegorz Dolniak, deputy chairman of PO’s policy committee. He goes on to point out that his party is acceptable for everyone. Indeed, the 8% for which PO is the second-choice party is made up from PiS, SLD and PSL voters. This illustrates why it is so easy for PO to attract the undecided. “Inexpressiveness is its strength,” says Jacek Kloczkowski, a Political Sciences expert at the Center for Political Thought. In Jabłoński’s opinion it is this inexpressiveness that is working to the disadvantage of PiS which was picked as a second-choice party by so few. “This party has nowhere to turn for new supporters,” he says. Kloczkowski, however, points out that about 60% of voters tend to feel attached to the parties they support. “And this is particularly good news for the biggest players: PO and PiS,” he adds.
Rzeczpospolita

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Horror of 19-year-old Girl

Rape Horror

19-year-old Joanna, from Łódź, has been looking for a job as a beautician for two months. Due to this fact she agreed without hesitation to meet a man who wanted to give her a job. Unfortunately, the man did not own a beauty salon. Dziennik Łódzki reports that the man dragged the girl into a car, took her into the woods where he brutally raped her. However, this was not the end of the girl’s anguish. After the rape she went to a police station immediately, where she was questioned and sent to a hospital for a medical examination. “The doctor looked at me and asked me if I have a bathroom and why my legs are so dirty,” the victim told Dziennik Łódzki. The doctor did not even bother to do a forensic examination and test her for HIV. Two days after the tragedy the girl once again went to the police station to ask whether or not police officers had managed to catch the rapist. She had to wait two hours before someone spoke to her. Although police officers have the rapist’s phone number from which he called the girl, they did not establish his identity which usually takes about two hours. The hospital has its own version of events. “Rape victims should not shower after being raped. The girl should stay unclean, which was noted by the doctor who examined her. We did everything that we could. The examination lasted 15 minutes and we collected the necessary genetic material,” said Beata Bober, head of Rydygier Hospital in Łódź. Krystyna Paszkiewicz-Kęsiak, from Łódź Police Department, said: “We are trying to establish the identity of the rapist.”
Dziennik

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Champions League in Another Lifetime

Just a Dream

What is much worse than Polish clubs losing on the European stage year after year are the consequences felt across Poland. Polish football fans are instantly thrown into a maelstrom of feverish responses: mistakes are pointed out by those who know better and announcements  are made that the team will be purged. After Wisła Kraków was humiliated in Estonia, there are some claiming to have the perfect solution to the problem. The club should sell all its players apart from the younger ones upon which the new team should be built. It should also fire Wisła’s manager Maciej Skorża because he does not have what it takes to play in Europe. The club’s owner Bogusław Cupiał should take a long look at himself. If he wants his team to qualify for the CL he should provide a budget at least as hefty as the funds behind the top Ukrainian and Romanian teams. Wisła has lost on the European stage and the pundits have lost their minds. Franciszek Smuda, possibly Skorża’s replacement at Wisła, is openly calling the defeat the ‘Tallin debacle’ although it was Smuda himself who failed to overcome the Moldavian amateurs FC Sheriff Tiraspol two years ago. It is plain to see the level of football the Polish champion is playing at but, unfortunately, there was no other team in last year’s Polish league that could play better. Skorża, now knocked and battered, seemed like the perfect man to replace Leo Beenhakker, Poland’s manager, not so long ago.

No Polish Abramovich

The Wisła chairman, Cupiał, is the man who pumped PLN 100 million of his own money into Wisła. Now, Poland longs for its own Roman Abramovich but unfortunately he is nowhere to be found. There are no oil or gas moguls because, thank goodness, Poland’s economy is nothing like Russia’s or Ukraine’s and as a result there is no easy money to be made. No sheikhs from the Persian Gulf will visit Poland because in football they seek splendour and splendour Polish football does not have. What it does have, however, is a poor quality league, pompous players and high expectations. Of course, when there is no mogul then good marketing, high-quality scouting and large stadia become a necessity. But in Poland even the top teams have difficulty in finding a sponsor, scouting is still in its infancy, and stadia are under construction. Only when they are finished will Polish football have the right to demand teams in the CL. Polish people are deluded. Otherwise they might find themselves in a situation similar to one in which the Polish Film Institute would take it upon itself to make one Oscar-winning movie per year and the Jagiellonian University to annually educate a Noble Prize winner. Sure, it is always worth aiming high but why invite ridicule?
Rzeczpospolita

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Government Says ‘Yes’ to Pot

Legalise It?

The Minister of Justice Andrzej Czuma is planning to soften drug laws. He proposes to legalise the possession of a small amount of drugs, for so-called personal use. He also suggests that those who sell and deal drugs should be punished more severely. “The regulation according to which the possession of even the smallest amount of  substances is punishable by law, passed nine years ago, has not changed a thing. We propose a legal framework which will exclude punishments for occasional users of, for example, marijuana. However, there will be a chance to diagnose and help addicts,” said Barbara Wilamowska from the Ministry of Justice in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza. Until now there have been cases of people indicted of “possession of drugs in their bodies”, if somebody had smoked marijuana. As a result, occasional users of marijuana and ecstasy have ended up behind bars. “Those smoking marijuana make up 60% of all inmates convicted of the possession of drugs,” says Kajetan Dubiel, a prison officer.
Dziennik

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PO Going Strong, SD Still Weak

Piskorski Worried

The Democratic Party’s (SD) support is comparable to that of the League of Polish Families (LPR) or the Polish Party of Women (PK).  Support for Civic Platform (PO) has not wavered and is still at 56% compared to two weeks ago – such are the results of the most recent survey conducted by GfK Polonia for Rzeczpospolita. “The results are impressive,” says Jacek Kloczkowski, a doctor of Political Sciences at the Center for Political Thought. However, it still remains to be seen how the KDT fracas will affect PO’s standing. Law and Justice (PiS) faced similar problems when it was in power. It stood firmly in a row against nurses and consequently its standing dropped. Kloczkowski points also to another possible source of trouble for PO – the cuts in the budget. Compared to the previous survey, PiS and the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL) have gained 2 and 1 points respectively while the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has lost 1 point. The most recent survey was first to gauge support for the new Democratic Party (SD). SD, led by Paweł Piskorski, got off to a slow start and became the party of choice for only 1% of Poles, an identical result to that of the League of Polish Families (LPR), the Self-Defence Party of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona), the Republic Right Party (PR) and the Polish Party of Women (PK).

Piskorski, however, plays down the survey’s results. “I’m not bothered by them. I would be bothered if SD had the same level of support a year from now,” says the SD head. Piskorski highlights the fact that SD is still to launch its media and program offensive. However, in his opinion, had the survey mentioned the names of the respective parties’ politicians then SD’s result would have been better. “I expect that by the end of this year we will have a party which will have bounced back becoming a political alternative recognisable among voters. And come 2011 SD will be contending for a double-figure result in the parliamentary elections,” Piskorski says. According to Kloczkowski, SD stands a real chance of establishing itself as a solid political party. One of its strongest arguments is that even now, in the midst of the economical crisis, money is not a problem for Piskorski’s party. “Everything depends on how well SD take advantage of this chance. Libertas has proven that it is not enough simply to establish a presence in the media to win over voters,” says Kloczkowski. GfK Polonia conducted the survey between the 17th and 19th of June on a representative sample of 1,000 people.
Rzeczpospolita

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Safer Yet Costly Holidays

More Expensive

The Polish Chamber of Tourism is preparing a revolution on the tourist market because it wants to establish a guarantee fund where insurance premiums paid by tour operators would be deposited. Moreover, if a travel agency goes bust, its customers would receive compensation from this fund. However, this change would result in an increase in prices because travel agencies will offload the costs of the premiums on their customers. On Wednesday, the Polish Chamber of Tourism will submit a draft amendment to the Tourist Services Act. The premium paid on the fund would be obligatory and its amount would depend on how many people go on trips. Furthermore, the Polish Chamber of Tourism would like the financial situation of travel agencies, which has often been confidential, to be subject to supervision. The aim of this change is to prevent unexpected bankruptcies such as the most recent one of Kopernik.

The fund would be entitled to control the financial situation of travel agencies; therefore, if their situation worsens, the fund could forbid agencies from making sales, or creating a financial pyramid, i.e. financing current trips by means of advance payments for future travel. “This would help to obviate an increase in losses to enormous proportions. This is how  the now bankrupt Open Travel, which went bust in 2006, was operating. It was already obvious that the travel agency was on the verge of bankruptcy but it was still taking money from customers and destroying the market over the summer season,” says Jan Korsak, manager of the Polish Chamber of Tourism. According to experts, changes in the regulations are indispensable because in 2009 the situation of travel agencies has deteriorated significantly. The chairman of the Polish Chamber of Tourism Krzysztof Łopaciński believes that even as many as 10 tour operators may go bankrupt. What  do the tour operators think about these alterations? “Certainly, the financial control of tour operators is necessary; however, the idea that honest companies should fund compensations for fraud, is not very good,” says Jacek Dąbrowski, financial manager in Triada. What is more, additional premiums would only deteriorate the already weak condition of the tourist trade. “In a situation when the average margin obtained from a customer is PLN 50, every additional increase in costs will probably affect the prices of trips,” warn the agencies.
Dziennik

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Fighting Eviction

KDT No More

For many citizens of Warsaw, the end of the month will mark the end of an era. Warsaw’s Kupieckie Domy Towarowe (KDT or Trader’s Hall) will close at the end of July. Lying in the shadow of the Palace of Culture, KDT is a large hall with hundreds of stalls run by traders offering Warsaw’s citizens mainly cheap clothes and shoes. The hall is to make way for Warsaw’s new Museum of Modern Art much to the bitterness of the KDT traders. According to these soon-to-be-evicted merchants, over 2,000 people work in the hall bringing in PLN 6 million worth of tax every year. In order to ensure the eviction order is undertaken, Warsaw city authorities have brought in the bailiffs today. The merchants refused to move in demonstration of their forced eviction, which resulted in clashes with the police and even the use of tear gas.
Wirtualna Polska

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Schwarzenegger in Łódź

Arnie in Poland

The Governor of California and former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger will attend the 65th Anniversary of the Liquidation of Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Schwarzenegger learned of the anniversary from the Los Angeles Jewish community whose representatives attended the celebrations five years ago. The visit could also be an opportunity to sign the twinning agreement between Łódź and Los Angeles. Talks about the possible partnership, initiated by the Polish first lady Maria Kaczyńska, have been in progress for three years on the basis that both Łódź and Los Angeles are considered cradles of the cinema industry, respectively in Poland and the US. The Łódź city authorities have invited numerous heads of state and other notable guests, but did not think of inviting the famous actor. Therefore, when Schwarzenegger spoke of visiting the city Łódź city representatives were extremely surprised, however, Łódź’s mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki immediately submitted an official invitation. “I phoned Los Angeles today and was informed that by the end of July we will receive official confirmation of the Governor’s visit to Łódź,” said Agnieszka Ostapowicz, spokesperson for the 65th Anniversary of the Liquidation of Litzmannstadt Ghetto. The anniversary will take place from the 26th to 29th August 2009. Among the guests who have already confirmed their attendance are the Presidents of Israel and the Czech Republic, Shimon Peres and Václav Klaus. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 62 years old and began his international career as a bodybuilder. As an actor he became immensely popular after starring in such movies as “Conan the Barbarian”, “Predator”, “Terminator” and “Kindergarten Cop”. He has been Governor of California since 2003.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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