What do Poles think of themselves?

Can you be Super Polish?

Family, work, and health are the most important values ​​for Polish people, according to a study conducted by the Homo Homini Institute. Polish dreams are realistic and their expectations are adapted to the conditions in which they live. The average Pole believes that PLN 2,000-3,000 per month is enough money to live a decent life. The average Pole has confidence in the army and the police, and believes what he hears on the radio and what he reads on the internet. However, he does not trust the government, the courts and television. “This is a reflection of the current state of the country and its institutions. The worse we feel, the less trust we have in institutions, in particular national ones,” says Marcin Duma, head of Homo Homini. The average Polish person does not rely on the authorities, however, he believes that they should be blamed for the inability to accomplish one’s goals. Opinions expressed by  those polled are mainly tinged with frustration mainly concerning Polish politicians, especially those in power, but people also talked about problems like bringing up children when money is tight, emigration, a lack of culture as well the law. “I am a single mother of three. Their father couldn’t cope so he went abroad and never came back. Perfect! Just  leave all your problems behind and run. I struggle with poverty and I barely manage to make ends meet. I once asked for benefit and I got it. PLN 200. I have never felt so humiliated in my whole life,’’ says an anonymous mother. “Life in Poland is most difficult for those who are honest, those who have no ‘connections’ and do not pretend to be Catholic”, writes another person.

Can you be clean and Polish?

For the majority of people taking part in the study the indicators of success in life are: starting a family (58%) and having a good job (56%). “It is interesting that having a family is seen as being successful in life. On the other hand, the older you become, the more difficult it is to get married and have a family. Having a family is a test of human values. Unhappy relationships, lack of loyalty and betrayal are perceived as defeat and failure,” according to sociologist Professor Henryk Domanski. In his opinion people see a good job as inseparably bound to social status, which gives evidence of a good education, professional prestige and a decent salary. “Family and work are the most important values ​​in the lives of Polish people and this is reflected in the study,” says Domanski. In light of these results, it is not surprising that we are more afraid of losing our job than being ill or having a low pension. This hierarchy of values ​​can also be seen in the response to the question “Which social group in Poland is in the most difficult situation?” Those polled believe that it is young people who have just graduated. “The results express social concern for young people. They have invested their time and money in studying, improving their skills and obtain a diploma, but sometimes no effect can be seen and not job offers materialise,” says Marcin Duma. Another polled person wrote, “I am embarrassed about the litter you find in forests and along roads, septic tanks being emptied into groundwater, the destruction of our environment and the burning of garage; the unreliability, dishonesty of Polish people, how we treat our country as something that can be robbed limitlessly as well as lack of responsibility for our actions. It’s embarrassing that people avoid paying taxes, but demand everything, look for excuses for our own failures, but pay no attention to other people”. Krystyna Janda, the famous Polish actress adds, “Polish people are conservative, intolerant, under-educated, backward, lazy, frustrated and provincial”.
Interia.pl

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Polish Police have a Plan

Police Facelift

Soon, all police headquarters in Poland will have to look the same. “The idea is to have some common elements. For example the colour of the building or the reception. The idea behind this is to have the point of first contact to look the same from the perspective of the citizen,” explained Police spokesman Mariusz Sokołowski on TVN24. The purpose of the Program of Standardisation of Police Headquarters and Police Stations launched by the National Police Headquarters (KGP) and the Ministry of the Interior (MSW) “is to create a uniform standard for police headquarters and police stations throughout the country, particularly in parts frequented by citizens”. It is to be implemented in 2013-2015. “We want all police headquarters to look similar from the outside. The police logo, the word POLICJA, is to be characteristic of a police facility so that every citizen can see from afar that this is a police building,” said Sokołowski on TVN24. Part of the program was an architectural competition organised together with the Warsaw Branch Office of the Polish Architects Association. On mojakomenda.pl we read that “Its goal is to achieve the model architectural concept of police headquarters and police stations”. In addition, a competition will be held to “systematize the visual identification of buildings and create a uniform standard with regards to logos, as well as the development of a visual information system inside buildings”. Sokołowski adds, “We know that it will not be possible everywhere, because sometimes police departments are located in historic buildings”. Particular emphasis is to be placed on stations that requires renovation. “About half of police stations in our country need renovation. Later on, we are going to make only appropriate changes to already renovated buildings and only if required,” stressed the Police spokesman.
tvn24.pl

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Łódź to Sue The Sun?

Promised Land or Not?

The Mayor of Łódź Hanna Zdanowska announced at a press conference that the city authorities intend to take legal action against The Sun for their Sunday article about the city. “As a citizen of Łódź and the city leader I feel both hurt and greatly offended by the way our city has been portrayed in The Sun article, which portrays Łódź as a place of no hope, dead streets, pawn brokers and drunks.” The Mayor of Łódź has already sent a letter to the editor of The Sun inviting him to come and visit the city and see how wrong his reporters are. Zdanowska also stated that she has been in touch with her legal team to see how fast the city authorities can take legal action against the newspaper which ‘manipulated’ the words of the city’s Director of Strategy Tomasz Jakubiec. Zdanowska has also asked Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene. According to the Mayor of Łódź the author of the article “does not have a clue what he’s talking about”. During the press conference Zdanowska asked Łódź citizens to post ‘I love Łódź’ messages of on The Sun’s Facebook page. She also added that The New York Times declared Łódź to be one of the 45 most interesting cities to visit in 2012.
Wirtualna Polska | PAP

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Reading Without Understanding

Understand?

According to the European Union, “over 15% of Polish fifteen-year-olds cannot read with a complete understanding of the text.” Polish people should not console themselves that this is a good result compared to the whole EU, as this will certainly lead to a backward approach to education. According to EU experts, almost 75,000,000 people and every fifth fifteen-year-old in Europe has gaps in his/her reading and writing skills, which makes it more difficult for him or her to find a job. This, of course, increases the risk of poverty and social exclusion in the future. When it comes to reading and writing among Polish pupils, the figures are extremely poor: 15% read without understanding a great deal. Statistically speaking, Polish fifteen-year-olds are somewhat better than their European counterparts due to the fact that the percentage of fifteen-year-olds (across the whole of the EU) with poor results in reading comprehension is 19.6%. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, conducted in 2009 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found that these results were better than those of 2006, when 23.1% European fifteen-year-olds had problems with reading and writing. Interestingly, the skills of reading and writing differ depending on gender. In Poland, the percentage of fifteen-year-olds with poor results in reading is three times higher among boys (22.6%) than among girls (7.4%).
Gazeta Wyborcza

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E-books for Pupils

Time for the Classroom?

“Every September 1, when the school year begins, Polish parents become understandably irritated because of having to spend considerable amounts of money on textbooks. This is why I am convinced that by 2015, basic e-textbooks will be available for free, and will be available for all pupils on laptops and iPads. We predict that in 2015, all children will be able to use this technology at school,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He reminded parents that the government is currently implementing its digitalization in education programme. “I will not suggest radical changes. For centuries, here in Kashubia [the region where Tusk was born] we have been aware of how important industriousness, self-restraint, moderation, and common sense are. However, we also see that in this school [the Prime Minister was visiting a school in Sulęczyn, Kashubia], modernity presents us with the need to sometimes make a breakthrough and the computerization of the education process will surely allow us to do this.” Donald Tusk discussed the government’s Digital School programme and also work on preparing at least eighteen e-textbooks devoted to fourteen subjects and over 12,500 educational multimedia documents which have been made available thanks to so-called ‘open licenses’. Krystyna Szumilas, the Minister of Education, says that “the content of e-textbooks will not be monopolised, as it will be possible to freely copy, change, and pass them on. She stated that everybody, including publishers, will be able to take advantage of these new, broad possibilities in e-publishing.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Polish President Wants Shield

“The Shield Needs to be THIS big”

President Komorowski has suggested that the building of a Missile Shield Defence Facility would be capable of protecting the country against air attacks. Today, two years has passed since Bronisław Komorowski’s was sworn into office. On his second anniversary, he suggested the building of a Polish Missile Shield, which would be a part of a shared shield of countries belonging to NATO. When Barack Obama assumed the presidency of the USA in 2009, the concept of building the shield changed. The USA decided against building a shield that would use long-range anti-missiles stationed in Poland, which before was suggested by George W. Bush. Komorowski convinces the Polish public that they have to have a Polish Missile Shield because spending large amounts of money on military technology is nonsense if it is not protected against the most typical and dangerous missile and air attacks.

The Polish president said that at present Poland has systems that are becoming old and less suitable for defending the country. Stanisław Koziej, the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), explained that this system would be complementary to the elements of a system which, according to future plans, Americans would station in Poland in 2018. Parliamentary representatives are positive about the idea. According to Stefan Niesiołowski (Civic Platform), the head of the Parliamentary Defence Committee, Poland has the technical know-how to create such a system. The creation of a system of anti-missile defence in Europe is a bone of contention between Poland and Russia as well as between both the USA, NATO and Russia. Moscow considers the project to be a threat to its security. It demands that Washington give legal guarantees that the American system will not be targeted against it. The USA refuses to give such a guarantee, but NATO assures Russia that the shield will not be targeted at Russia.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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ACTA Strikes Back?

Free the Net

The government suggests that there is a risk that the ACTA situation may repeat itself. This time, however, the government is not waiting for demonstrations. It has created a coalition of countries against the blocking of freedom on the internet. The demonstrations against ACTA, which took place in January, taught the government a lesson. It had to change its opinion regarding the regulations restricting the freedom on the internet, when despite the cold weather, crowds of people gathered on the streets. The Polish movement against ACTA influenced the European Parliament, which rejected the ACTA agreement. On Thursday, Michał Boni, the Minister of Administration and Digitization, began consultations regarding the international treaty, which is to be accepted in December by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). According to Boni, “The Polish government is against excessive regulations of the internet, the blocking of websites, and the tracking of web users.”

The treaty covers changes in International Telecommunications Regulations, a supranational agreement. The current document was accepted in 1998 and is outdated. When it comes to telecommunications, a dozen or so years is a whole era. This explains why the idea of an update has come up. Some countries represent the view that  internet regulations should be increased. However, according to the Polish government, regulations such as IP address assignment that would identify computers, may restrict freedom of use. It is believed that it will be a difficult task for Poland to convince other countries to vote against regulations that go too far. The ITU consists of over 190 countries, and each of them has its own voice. According to Boni, “We have a choice to accept these regulations either partially or fully, yet after making reservations regarding certain points. And we will not abide by these points.”
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Portuguese View of Euro

Nani Attacked

According to Portuguese and other international media, and despite negative publicity, the atmosphere accompanying Euro 2102 seems to be extremely friendly. Despite yesterday’s ugly scenes in Warsaw, foreign hooligans (rather than home-grown ones) seem to be causing the main problems. Record, Portugal’s most famous sports magazine, noted that Sunday’s scuffles between Croatian and Irish football fans ruined the whole event for many who made the journey to Poznań. It appeared that hooligans from both countries decided to confront each other even before the match started. Unfortunately, this had absolutely nothing to do with real sport. When summing up the first several days of Euro 2012, SIC Noticias mentioned the aggressive attitude of Russian fans toward security guards who were attacked in the Wrocław stadium, and as a result had to be taken to hospital. However, this incident was not the only one which drew international media attention. Other than the fighting in Warsaw, the Lisbon media reported, long before the start of the game between Russia and the Czech Republic, that  Russian supporters had decided to stir up trouble in one of Wrocław’s local bars. They were stopped by the police. However, as well as Russian fans, a small section of German fans caused embarrassment to themselves, when in Lvov, they were caught singing racist songs, setting fire to stadium seats, as well as making monkey chants every time Nani, the Portuguese football player born in Africa, had the ball.
wp.pl

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Broken Promises?

Polish Embarrassment

Russian football fans did in fact submit a motion for permission to hold a march on 12 June, which coincided with the Poland-Russia game and Russian Independence Day. Russian fans declared that no political slogans would be used, however, this was not the case. Prior to the game and the scuffles, the Mayor Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, said that if this happened then she will have been lied to (by the Russian fans). The Mayor did not mention any potential consequences that now might arise from the breaking of this promise. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz also emphasised before the game that the consequences of breaking the law by the participants of the march should be taken into consideration. The Russian fans marched over Poniatowski Bridge towards the National Stadium and it was on the bridge that fighting broke out. There was heightened police security before the game due to the fact that there were several incidents in Poznań and Wrocław where stewards and security guards were attacked by Russian hooligans. Before the game, she highlighted how proud we should be to host Euro 2012, however, it would seem that the incidents before the Poland-Russian game have now brought embarrassment to the city.
tvn24.pl

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Work Available, No Candidates

Many Opportunities

As many as 75% of businesses in Poland experience problems in finding appropriate employees. A diploma or degree cannot guarantee a job. Despite an unemployment rate of 13%, increasingly more businesses are complaining about the fact that they cannot find suitable candidates for the jobs on are offer due to a lack of experience, interpersonal skills or motivation. However, employers are found to be too demanding and are giving not enough in return. These and other conclusions have been formulated following one of the most detailed surveys of the job market carried out by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP). The survey shows that the greatest demand is for graduates of the sciences and technology, as well as qualified manual workers. Among the unemployed, we can also find graduates of the humanities, economics or law. Interestingly, the greatest problems in recruiting candidates were reported by employers in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie region, where the highest unemployment rate (over 20%) was observed in February.

In all probability,  the reason is that qualified workers have emigrated to Warsaw and abroad and those who stayed lack the knowledge and skills that are required by businesses, according to Marcin Kocór, one of the Jagiellonian University experts working on the survey. Even though a lack of professional experience seems to be the greatest problem, a number of employers also mentioned a lack of soft skills, i.e. the inability to work in a team, make decisions independently, problems with self-motivation and a lack of initiative. Another issue is communication. According to Monika Zakrzewska (PKPP Lewiatan), most candidates are ‘cyber-children’: they learn how to deal with new technologies almost naturally, but they find it difficult to speak to people face to face or to understand instructions. On the other hand, many employers cannot find good candidates, because they establish exaggerated requirements while not offering a great deal, claims Beata Dutkalska, an HR expert at Manpower. Employers need to realise that if they cannot afford to provide full time employment, Dutkalska contniues, they should have something more to offer, instead.
Rzeczpospolita

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