"Cześć!"

 

Consul of the Republic of Poland for The West Midlands, Cllr Mike Oborski, in a letter to "The Times" yesterday...

ENGLISH LESSONS

Recently I presented English language certificates to Polish bus drivers in Coventry. The courses at the local college had been organised and paid for by the bus company and designed to meet the specific needs of the drivers. The atmosphere was great. The strong rapport between company and drivers and the enthusiam of the drivers were clearly visible.

The lesson is simple. Good employers invest in their staff and get good results. Others do not.

MIKE OBORSKI
Honorary Polish Consul for the West Midlands
Kidderminster, Worcs

posted by: Oborski at 04:59 | link | comments |

HOMAGE TO POLISH MUSIC

Anyone even vaguely interested in good classical music - either just as relaxing back ground music - or more seriously should rush off now and lay hands on the newly issued:

Andrzej Panufnik "Homage To Polish Music" NAXOS 8.570032
Polish Chamber Orchesta
Conductor : Mariusz Smolij
(World Premiere Recording)

On sale at Amazon.co.uk (exact link at bottom of this posting) for £4.99

This disc contains all of Panufnik's post-war reconstructions of early Polish music originally written between the 14th and 18th centuries. Of these works the composer himself wrote: "My compulsion to restore some of the early Polish music was engendered as I witnessed the superb reconstruction of beautiful 16th and 17th century houses in the old part of Warsaw... My intention was to bring alive the spirit of Poland at that time, and to make use of these precious fragments which otherwise would have remained lifeless on the bookshelves of libraries..." The disc concludes with Hommage a Chopin, in which the composer draws on the folk music of Masovice, the region in central Poland where Chopin was born.

___________________________________________________________

Acadiana Symphony Music Director Mariusz Smolij is releasing his first CD this year with NAXOS, the world's leading classical recording company. Titled "Homage to Polish Music", the new CD was recorded with the Polish Chamber Orchestra in Warsaw. It features
Renaissance, Baroque and Early Classical music of historical and forgotten works from old Polish musical libraries. The disc contains all of Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik's (1914- 1991) post-war reconstruction of early Polish music written between the 14th and 18th centuries. Of these works, the composer himself wrote, "My compulsion to restore some of the early Polish music was engendered as I witnessed the superb reconstruction of beautiful 16th and 17th century houses in the old part of Warsaw...My intention was to bring alive the spirit of Poland at that time, and to make use of these precious fransments which otherwise would have remained lifelss on the bookshelves of libraries..." One of the compositions, "Old Polish Suite", will have its American premiere at the ASO's March concert.

Under extreme pressure to conform to Soviet Socialist Realism after 1949, Panufnik kept authorities at bay with his self-imposed task of restoring musical fragments from Poland's distant past. In 1954, he left Poland resulting in the total censorship of his name and his
music for 23 years. He settled in England, where he received his knighthood in 1991.

Though he has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, Maestro Smolij maintains strong musical ties with his native Poland, where he conducts several times each year. In December of this year, he will record another NAXOS CD with the Poznañ Philharmonic
Orchestra.

Contents:
Old Polish Suite for String Orchestra
Concerto in Modo Antico
Jagiellonian Triptych for String Orchestra
Old Polish Music : Divertimento after Janiewicz
Hommage a Chopoin : Five pieces for Flute and String Orchestra

If you have ever heard any of other Panufnik's work and haven't liked
it please DO NOT BE PUT OFF. His style changed dramatically over the
years. I have never heard anything else by him in this style which is
so easy to get intoi but so rewarding to listen to!

Direct link to this CD om Amazon UK:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panufnik-Homage-Polish-Music-
Andrzej/dp/B000IY067K/sr=1-1/qid=1166046859/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-
1754342-1960424?ie=UTF8&s=music

posted by: Oborski at 00:59 | link | comments |

HEARD IN PASSING...

From Warsaw Voice...

"The man testified that while on duty he helped deliver two babies and each time drank a toast to the new arrivals."

- -A police officer from Kielce on an obstetrician who was detained in the local hospital after a patient called the police. The doctor had a blood alcohol content of 0.2 percent

"It's the loser who's supposed to congratulate the winner."

- -Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński on why he did not congratulate Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz from the Civic Platform (PO) on her victory in the Warsaw mayoral elections

"Getting rid of such a great politician would be like pulling out a healthy tooth."

- -Jacek Kurski, a deputy from Law and Justice (PiS), on a suggestion that his party could ditch former Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, who lost the race for Warsaw mayor

"Ladies and gentlemen, we shouldn't get carried away. Let us not transform the parliament into a fortress. Maybe we should have heavy machine guns around the house too?"

- -Wiesław Woda, a deputy with the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL), in a debate on a proposal to build a fence around the Sejm to protect it from demonstrators

"Railing against reforms aimed at bringing discipline and morals into schools is like applauding Lucifer."

- Waldemar Łysiak, a writer and rightist columnist, defending the zero tolerance program proposed by League of Polish Families (LPR) leader Roman Giertych in his role as deputy prime minister and education minister

"Well, this certainly was not a happy family."-

- Mariusz Sokołowski, press spokesman for the Warsaw police, on a man who shot his former wife and two-year-old daughter in the street and then committed suicide
Compiled from press reports

posted by: Oborski at 21:45 | link | comments |

FROM THE POLISH WEEKLIES...

Radio Polonia reports...

NEWSWEEK POLSKA focuses on All Poland Youth – the demons of public life, or the last bastion of true Polish patriotism, as some claim.

This political prep-school of the government coalition junior member League of Polish Families has been involved in a scandal accusing it of neo-Nazi leaning. A large group of its members have been shown on video raising their hands in a fascist greeting, holding torches and shouting ‘Sieg Heil’. Forming the background had been a huge burning swastika.

Krzysztof Bosak, chairman of All Poland Youth and an MP on a League mandate, denies the allegations and says attributing the organization with promoting Nazi ideology is absurd.

“We’re even the object of ridicule on all kinds of nationalist Internet discussion groups, argues Bosak. We are laughed at as the good boys, unable to stir any serious trouble. We are an organization numbering several thousand members who want to do something useful. They are normal young people, not thugs. The media want to thwart us, treating All Poland Youth like a bunch of half wits, but this only gives us strength. I recall one journalist saying, we are probably the last political group which considers the notion of patriotism in a serious manner,” declares Chairman Bosak.

POLITYKA also looks at young Poles, but in the context of a growing suicidal rate.

Every day of the week sees several of them slashing their wrists, taking an overdose of pills or simply hanging themselves in an attempt to end their trauma. Many are successful in this attempt. Recent research figures show every third Polish child considers suicide at some given phase of their young life.

Since 1991 the number of suicide attempts has been dangerously growing. Specialists sounded the alarm of an approaching wave of child and teenage tragedy. And prophetically, it came. Many people wonder, whether suicidal behavior is a result of mental disorders. Most psychological studies do not find confirmation of such thesis. A suicidal candidate does not really want to die, he or she simply does not want to live and that’s a difference. Such people are characterized by so-called tunnel vision. Their perception of the surrounding world is narrow.

The problem is that their environment often ignores evident signals and unspoken cries for help. The reasons for resorting to such drastic forms of personal protest are innumerable. The point is for society to recognize these signals and display interest in young people’s problems, as the essence of suicide is the death of all hope.

TYGODNIK SOLIDARNOSC, the trade union weekly, devotes attention to crucial questions regarding the future of pension payments by the so-called Open Pension Funds (OFE).

The Labor Ministry has presented the draft of a new law defining payment obligations from capital gathered in the OFE funds. High time, rushes Tygodnik Solidarnosc, as the first pensions from those funds are to be paid out in two years from now and there is still a long battle to be fought for procedures of transferring the huge sums to be divided into individual pensioners accounts.

The draft favors the State Social Insurance Company (ZUS), which ministry experts point to as the best caretaker of the operation. The obligatory procedure has created serious opposition of social and business partners, while the poor economic standing of ZUS does not serve as the best recommendation for the job.

And though the whole argument is still conducted in a philosophical sphere with no solid calculations of potential profit, loss and risk, the State Social Insurance Company has been quick in announcing its superiority in guaranteeing low cost servicing, on time payment security and transparency of operations. But how could these declarations be convincing when confederations of employers view ZUS’s future with considerable doubts.

They warn that in 9 years, when the first groups of the post-war demographic boom reach retirement age, the State Social Insurance Comapany could face a deadly financial catastrophy, because the number of pensioners will abruptly increase by 60%. At the same time, due to successive demographic lows, the figures of gainfully employed will be going down and so shall their monthly contributions to the pension schemes. There will not be enough working people to provide money for pensioners, is the logical and horrific conclusion.

In a sports related story WPROST has an article on The Champions of Champions. What is the peak of impertinence, asks the magazine.

To claim that Polish coaches are among the cream of the crop in European ranks. This lie had been repeatedly stated for years, until reality has verified the growing absence of Polish coaches in foreign clubs and national teams.

The most vivid example is football. Since other countries, with a few exceptions, did not want to sign contracts with the Poles, they put up their ineffective expertise for hire at home. And they used it to the extent of sinking their respective sports disciplines to rock bottom, Polish basketball being a representative case. Only then have foreign specialists been brought to the rescue, amidst loud complaints and emotional outcries of numerous sports experts who accused the impatient of bias and unfounded fascination with everything that’s not Polish.

Luckily, names such as Raul Lozano (Argentinean coach of the men’s national volleyball team, which has just claimed silver at the World Championships in Japan), national football team coach Leo Beenhakker from the Netherlands, Andrei Urlep the Slovenian basketball guru, or Hannu Lepisto, the Finnish ski jump specialist, have effectively stopped all critics with their achievements. And they’re worth every penny they earn, being the authors of a whole civilizational leap in Polish sports, opines WPROST.

PRZEKROJ looks forward to the anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland on December 13th,1981 by the erstwhile Communist regime in a seemingly unconnected story on photographer Chris Niedenthal. ‘I’ve never searched for cheap thrills, I’m looking for something else, something normal,’ says the artist.

Martial law in Poland has two symbolic icons – General Jaruzelski announcing the decision in a televised address to the nation and a picture showing Moscow cinema in Warsaw with a billboard of the ‘Time of Apocalypse’ which had been screened then and a tank standing in front of it.

The author of that famous photograph is Chris Niedenthal, the most merited visual documentary expert of the era of the Soviet dominated Polish Peoples Republic, an Englishman who had chosen Poland as the object of his passion. And this devotion to the peculiarity of Polish affairs continues. Niedenthal is a master of the ‘nothing to it’ category. There is seemingly little action in his shots, but the atmosphere of the times they portray is captured with powerful accuracy. This Polish daily routine of the Communist ‘Seventies and ‘Eighties had first been preserved in an album titled ‘Requisites. The Polish Peoples Republic’ and presently in a just published collection ‘13/12. Poland of Martial Law’.

posted by: Oborski at 21:34 | link | comments |

My Cousin's oldest son - Marcin Konarski - would like to invite you to Poland!

posted by: Oborski at 06:26 | link | comments |

Radio Polonia's Slawek Szefs reports on the...

POLISH WEEKLIES...

NEWSWEEK POLSKA runs its cover story on the perspectives of ending Poland’s military mission in Iraq.

Is Poland’s international prestige still worth the lives of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, asks the magazine. When Polish troops set out in 2004 as part of the anti-terrorist coalition forces, the action had wide social acceptance.

Now, Polish public opinion is repeating with increasing frequency, let’s get out of there while we still can! It has been revealed that the government will announce Poland’s pullout from Iraq in the nearest days. July 2007 is the agreed date. The Polish government has officially till end December for making the decision.

That’s when the UN Security Council is to debate the extension of the multi-national forces’ mandate in Iraq. The Polish MOD has explained its move as resulting from Poland’s increased engagement in other peacekeeping operations and Iraqi declarations of readiness to take over security operations in regions supervised by the Polish military contingent.

WPROST focuses on ‘deadly hunger for coal’. Poland is the most coal dependent country in the world, writes the weekly. It ranks top in the amount of electric energy produced by coal-fueled power plants with a 95% rating. Second is the Republic of South Africa with 92%, then Australia (79%) and China (78%). Countries such as the United States or Germany have reduced this numbers to 50 and 49%, respectively. Poland, doomed to coal extraction, should turn this dependency to the advantage of its people and economy.

But a well prospering coal industry can be achieved only in the wake of a thorough reform of the whole sector. This can and SHOULD be done, especially that coal prices on the world market have risen exorbitantly over the last two years, doubling in 2004 alone.

But chasing profit cannot be a target in itself. The tragedy at the Halemba pit in Ruda Slaska last week, where 23 miners died in a methane gas explosion, had been a painful reminder that without practically enforced safety-on-the-job, envisaged corporate profits and state revenues are not worth much in the face of individual human losses and suffering. One or two nuclear power plants could allow an economically justified closure of some high-risk coalmines.

POLITYKA returns to last weekend’s final round of local elections in Poland. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, the candidate of the liberal Civic Platform had symbolically crowned the victory of her party in the prestigious race for the presidency of Warsaw.

As the feat had been attained with some dose of support from the electorate of her first round rival from the left of the political spectrum, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is also the leader of the ruling Law and Justice conservatives was quick to sound the alarm that the liberals have teamed up with post-Communists against the conservatives.

Have we moved back to old centrally steered war tactics of the past months, wonders Polityka. But what is perceived as absolutely out of line in parliamentary terms has been employed at local level with considerable success. The most vivid example had been in Krakow, where the Law and Justice candidate for city president was given the support of his staunch adversaries from the opposition Civic Platform in his second round encounter with the left supported candidate running for re-election. But even such sacrifice didn’t help in this case.

TYGODNIK SOLIDARNOSC devotes attention to the daily toil of Polish postmen. The trade union weekly looks at the reasons for the current protest of postal service employees. It started with a spontaneous action of postmen in Gdansk, who stopped delivering mail to addressees on November 13th.

Their protest had quickly spread to other cities around Poland. The immediate cause of the strike has been excessive loads of leaflets and brochures with ads. Due to the lack of interest of part time workers, postmen were forced to work overtime with no extra pay for delivering promotional and information materials commissioned under contract by the Polish Post. Twelve hour shifts, frequent lack of even basic transportation means, monthly pay well below national average, all this added to the growing bitterness of the delivery teams. T

he result has been a total stop of operations in most post offices. Union representatives of the protesting employees have met twice with the head of Polish Post, but the efforts of mediators have been fruitless, so far. Postal authorities claim worker demands to be highly excessive, especially with regard to pay increases, while the unionists accuse the company management of ill will and using legal tactics to discredit the protesters. The too heavy bag of the postman, writes Tygodnik Solidarnosc quoting trade union representatives.

PRZEKROJ looks at profiles of the most sought after contemporary Polish painters, sculptors, photographers and graphic artists. ‘The World Buys Poles’ exclaim the magazine quoting names such as Sosnowski, Sasnal, Uklanski, Althamer or Zmijewski.

They capture top places in prestigious international rankings; sweep laurels at reviews and contests. Their works can be found in the best art museums and galleries on every continent. They are Poland’s artistic ‘dream team’. Piotr Uklanski is the latest record-breaking newsmaker. His famous series of 164 photos of actors dressed in uniforms of the Third Reich period titled simply ‘The Nazis’ has been sold last month at London’s Phillips de Pury & Company for 1 million and 50 thousand dollars! When I put the series up for sale for 30 thousand barely a few years ago, it hardly drew any interest, recalls the author. Two weeks ago, UFO, a painting by Wilhelm Sasnal went for 216 thousand dollars at the same auction house, but in New York. Monika Sosnowska made a name for herself with surprising shapes of her architectural installations.

The most talked about has been the Winding Corridor constructed for the 2003 Biennale in Venice. Sosnowska also marked her presence at the prestigious Serpentine Gallery in London. These young Polish artists (all in their thirties) have earned a high status and recognition of both the public and critics. It has come as no surprise, therefore, that the influential ‘Flash Art’ magazine has proclaimed Wilhelm Sasnal as the leading world artist of the young generation with names of his Polish colleagues following close on its ranking list.

posted by: Oborski at 02:38 | link | comments |