I hope that all of you have had a great Easter and enjoyed the time off from school.
In Polish news this week, not much has really been happening. I haven't really followed what was going on this weekend as all the Easter preparations took majority of my time away from being online at all, but I did still gather up some information on what was going on in Poland.
Before Easter, Polish news urged drivers to stay off the roads after they had been drinking. In Poland, the rules are much more tightened when it comes to drinking and driving as compared to the United States. In fact, a man that is intoxicated while on his bicycle can end up getting a D.U.I. and even spending some jail time. Sounds pretty ridiculous right? Back in my hometown my uncle told me about a man that was driving his bicycle home after a night at the bar, and ended up serving 6 months in jail, so yeah, I would say ridiculous as well.
However, it seems as the media had a right to warn drivers against getting behind the wheel after consuming alcoholic beverages over this Easter break. Since Friday, there had been 299 alcohol related accidents and 31 deaths. The Police had stopped over 1,400 intoxicated drivers and more than 350 drivers were injured. These numbers are official as of noon Polish time today, and could still go up as tonight was still a big holiday in Poland celebrating the second day of Easter. Unfortunately, the numbers above have gone up since last year's holiday.
Last but not least, Poland has begun to actively strengthen its' currency on the European market. The Zloty looks like this. However, all I know from this article is the fact that while most countries are attempting to weaken their currency, the Polish government is actually intervening to strengthen the Zloty. I'm not able to look at the entire article because I'm not a WSJ member, but I'll try to gain access to it somehow.
Like I said, not much else has really been going on lately, so check back Sunday for more. Have a good week everyone.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Lookin' Ahead
With nothing really going on this week in Polish news, I'm going to allow myself to take a look ahead into the things that might be coming up.
Just on Friday, the Polish Government announced that they will be paid a visit by American President Barack Obama. The trip won't take time until May 27th and 28th, but high expectations have been already put on the meeting. Obama will meet with Polish President Bronislaw Komornicki in the Polish captial. Lee A. Feinstein, a U.S. Ambassador to Poland also announced his high hopes for the outcome of the meeting. He said that it's a big step in the "tightening of bilateral relations" between the two countries. Throughout his interview, Feinstein stressed that Obama's visit is proof that Poland is still a very important strategic partner and ally of the U.S. Obama is coming to Poland following a visit from Komornicki last December. The purpose of those talks was the lifting of Visa's for Polish citizens wanting to come to the United States. Supposedly, progress has been made towards that project, but we have yet to actually see any of those "promises" that both countries are talking about.
In my comparative analysis, I have touched the problem of high unemployment rates in Poland. Part of the reason was the fact that consumers prefer buying foreign products over homemade ones that could actually help boost the economy. Because of the fact that Polish companies are being ousted by the competition, they are having to lay off workers which obviously causes the unemployment rate to skyrocket. The comparison country is Germany, and ironically, it's German products in Poland that are the main competition. In a recent article, a German washing detergent was compared to the Polish detergent of a comparable quality. The Polish detergent is the same brand as the German one, but studies still show that women prefer the German brand unanimously. After several tests, it has been proven that the German chemicals are a little bit more concentrated, and have better effects and long lasting smells that accompany the newly washed clothes. The German product may be a little bit more expensive, but for better proven quality, sometimes it's better to pay a little bit extra. This will continue to be a problem for as long as the Polish market doesn't step up their quality. If companies with just slightly higher prices and better quality will continue to show up on the Polish market, then this trend of rising unemployment rates in Poland will certainly keep rising.
On a much more positive note, there is a lot of promise for the unemployment rates to go down, after a recent survey revealed some positive results for the Polish market. This survey produced results claiming that Poland is the second most popular country in which companies are hoping to invest. The country just above Poland and at the very top of the list is none other than Germany itself. The survey asked some 323 retail chains in 73 countries revealed that over a third of the companies polled said they plan to set up some retail branches in Poland. Another third of those that were polled, had said that they already are invested in Poland or are in the process of setting one up as we speak. The most attractive place for retail companies is Warsaw, but Krakow has already benefited from this with 8 international chains having opened up there in 2010. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, and we can avoid things such as a rising unemployment rate.
Happy Reading, enjoy your Sunday!
Just on Friday, the Polish Government announced that they will be paid a visit by American President Barack Obama. The trip won't take time until May 27th and 28th, but high expectations have been already put on the meeting. Obama will meet with Polish President Bronislaw Komornicki in the Polish captial. Lee A. Feinstein, a U.S. Ambassador to Poland also announced his high hopes for the outcome of the meeting. He said that it's a big step in the "tightening of bilateral relations" between the two countries. Throughout his interview, Feinstein stressed that Obama's visit is proof that Poland is still a very important strategic partner and ally of the U.S. Obama is coming to Poland following a visit from Komornicki last December. The purpose of those talks was the lifting of Visa's for Polish citizens wanting to come to the United States. Supposedly, progress has been made towards that project, but we have yet to actually see any of those "promises" that both countries are talking about.
In my comparative analysis, I have touched the problem of high unemployment rates in Poland. Part of the reason was the fact that consumers prefer buying foreign products over homemade ones that could actually help boost the economy. Because of the fact that Polish companies are being ousted by the competition, they are having to lay off workers which obviously causes the unemployment rate to skyrocket. The comparison country is Germany, and ironically, it's German products in Poland that are the main competition. In a recent article, a German washing detergent was compared to the Polish detergent of a comparable quality. The Polish detergent is the same brand as the German one, but studies still show that women prefer the German brand unanimously. After several tests, it has been proven that the German chemicals are a little bit more concentrated, and have better effects and long lasting smells that accompany the newly washed clothes. The German product may be a little bit more expensive, but for better proven quality, sometimes it's better to pay a little bit extra. This will continue to be a problem for as long as the Polish market doesn't step up their quality. If companies with just slightly higher prices and better quality will continue to show up on the Polish market, then this trend of rising unemployment rates in Poland will certainly keep rising.
On a much more positive note, there is a lot of promise for the unemployment rates to go down, after a recent survey revealed some positive results for the Polish market. This survey produced results claiming that Poland is the second most popular country in which companies are hoping to invest. The country just above Poland and at the very top of the list is none other than Germany itself. The survey asked some 323 retail chains in 73 countries revealed that over a third of the companies polled said they plan to set up some retail branches in Poland. Another third of those that were polled, had said that they already are invested in Poland or are in the process of setting one up as we speak. The most attractive place for retail companies is Warsaw, but Krakow has already benefited from this with 8 international chains having opened up there in 2010. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, and we can avoid things such as a rising unemployment rate.
Happy Reading, enjoy your Sunday!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Day (Night) of Mourning Cont.
As promised earlier, I wanted to go back and look at the day's events in a bit more of an in-depth look. It's already Monday in Poland (they are 7 hours ahead) so obviously everything has already concluded, and tomorrow will probably seem like just another day.
However, today was quite a jam-packed day with a lot of events occurring at a lot of different places, and of course, nothing can ever get completed without controversy. I understand this is in Polish, but just by looking at the pictures you should get a very good idea of the time line of the events that had occurred today. Everything began at 6 A.M. (Polish time, 11 P.M. Saturday U.S. time) and did not end until 11 30 P.M. Polish time or 4:30 P.M. American time.
Some of the events that occurred in Smolensk, actually began on Saturday night. Family members of all the 95 members of the government that died had gathered at the scene of the crash along with another 120 some people to begin the mourning of the one-year anniversary. Also joining the families and others at the scene was current First Lady Anna Komorowska.
In Poland, the crowds in Krakow, and Warsaw had not started gathering till about 6:30 A.M. local time.By 7:30 A.M. local time a much larger crowd was already gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in the nation's capital, Warsaw. In one of Poland's other major cities, Krakow, a large crowd had gathered to not only mourn the tragedy, but also give in some words of protests. One poster even read "Mr. Tusk, (Polish Premier) for your poor investigation skills, one could shoot oneself in the head." Along with that poster was another person with a poster criticizing the President and the fact that he nor the late President's brother had not gone to Smolensk to mourn with the others. The saddest and most shocking part as mentioned earlier was the fact that the President's own brother didn't even go to the scene of the crash! Also, choosing not to go was the former President's political party members.
Plenty of the day was also spent on talking about the switched plaque that you had read in the earlier post. Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Archbishop of Krakow, (and strange enough, my sister in-law's distant uncle) led a mass in honor of the accident in front of tens of thousands people in Krakow. In Warsaw, the President along with Jaroslaw Kaczynski (brother of former President) laid flowers down in front of a memorial placed in Poland.
Here you can find a very quick video in English that summarizes a little bit of what's going on. Mourning and protests went along for the entire day, and it seems that this event will never really quiet down. Poland is having a hard time coping with the tragedy, and even a more difficult time believing that this was just an accident and that the Russian side had no play in any of this.
This is just a small part of an entire square filled with candles and flowers in mourning of the Smolensk Crash.
10.04.2010 We Will Never Forget.
However, today was quite a jam-packed day with a lot of events occurring at a lot of different places, and of course, nothing can ever get completed without controversy. I understand this is in Polish, but just by looking at the pictures you should get a very good idea of the time line of the events that had occurred today. Everything began at 6 A.M. (Polish time, 11 P.M. Saturday U.S. time) and did not end until 11 30 P.M. Polish time or 4:30 P.M. American time.
Some of the events that occurred in Smolensk, actually began on Saturday night. Family members of all the 95 members of the government that died had gathered at the scene of the crash along with another 120 some people to begin the mourning of the one-year anniversary. Also joining the families and others at the scene was current First Lady Anna Komorowska.
In Poland, the crowds in Krakow, and Warsaw had not started gathering till about 6:30 A.M. local time.By 7:30 A.M. local time a much larger crowd was already gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in the nation's capital, Warsaw. In one of Poland's other major cities, Krakow, a large crowd had gathered to not only mourn the tragedy, but also give in some words of protests. One poster even read "Mr. Tusk, (Polish Premier) for your poor investigation skills, one could shoot oneself in the head." Along with that poster was another person with a poster criticizing the President and the fact that he nor the late President's brother had not gone to Smolensk to mourn with the others. The saddest and most shocking part as mentioned earlier was the fact that the President's own brother didn't even go to the scene of the crash! Also, choosing not to go was the former President's political party members.
Plenty of the day was also spent on talking about the switched plaque that you had read in the earlier post. Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Archbishop of Krakow, (and strange enough, my sister in-law's distant uncle) led a mass in honor of the accident in front of tens of thousands people in Krakow. In Warsaw, the President along with Jaroslaw Kaczynski (brother of former President) laid flowers down in front of a memorial placed in Poland.
Here you can find a very quick video in English that summarizes a little bit of what's going on. Mourning and protests went along for the entire day, and it seems that this event will never really quiet down. Poland is having a hard time coping with the tragedy, and even a more difficult time believing that this was just an accident and that the Russian side had no play in any of this.
10.04.2010 We Will Never Forget.
Day of Mourning
For those of you that had been reading all of the earlier blog posts, you may know that today, April 10, is the one-year anniversary of the Presidential plane crash in Smolensk, Russia. Even on a day like today, a day that should be filled with mourning and honoring those who have died in the tragic accident, more speculation continues.
A Polish newspaper released an article about more speculations and possibilities about what actually had happened. Among those truths is the fact that the plane which the President was on did not try to land more than once. Black box evidence has proved that the crash occurred on the very first attempt to land the plane at Smolensk Airport. The most shocking accusation had been made by a Polish politician. Janusz Palikot, had made a very blunt question to the public: Was President Lech Kaczynski sober when he stepped onto the airplane and ordered the pilots to make the landing at Smolenks? This question caused extreme uproar among the Polish public, but among the media speculations arose whether to this could actually be true; after all, the plane did have a 25 minute delay after the scheduled take-off time. The autopsy results prove that the President had been completely sober when on board and at the time of his death. In fact, there was not one trace of alcohol in his system as the results had proven.
Even more suspicious action has occurred throughout this weekend. On Friday night, there had been a Polish plaque made remembering the victims of the plane crash in Smolensk, and also the Katyn massacre which occurred in 1940 when a group of Soviet officials mass murdered a large amount of Polish nationals. Russia has not admitted to the wrong deed until recently, but the events from this weekend have again caused more tension between the countries. After the plaques have been made both in Russian and in Polish, they were both changed overnight by the Russian officials. The following morning the plaques looked nearly identical except for one thing that was missing. What was it? Well, the Russian plaque had absolutely no mention of the Katyn Massacre. Overnight, the Russians have changed the plaque so that only the Smolensk accident would be remembered, which caused Polish officials to attack Russia on their withdrawal of the plaque that included Katyn on them. For those of you who have Netflix, I strongly recommend that you see the movie "Katyn". It's a great movie with very good facts on what actually happened at that scene in 1940.
This issue has really left the country divided. There are some who believe we're just making too big of a deal about this, but there is a pretty valid point made by those that Russia is once again trying to cover up what happened in Katyn. For a picture time line of what happened at Smolensk you can go here.
Check back either later tonight or tomorrow for a summary of today's events and something that the late President's brother did that shocked much of the public in Poland.
A Polish newspaper released an article about more speculations and possibilities about what actually had happened. Among those truths is the fact that the plane which the President was on did not try to land more than once. Black box evidence has proved that the crash occurred on the very first attempt to land the plane at Smolensk Airport. The most shocking accusation had been made by a Polish politician. Janusz Palikot, had made a very blunt question to the public: Was President Lech Kaczynski sober when he stepped onto the airplane and ordered the pilots to make the landing at Smolenks? This question caused extreme uproar among the Polish public, but among the media speculations arose whether to this could actually be true; after all, the plane did have a 25 minute delay after the scheduled take-off time. The autopsy results prove that the President had been completely sober when on board and at the time of his death. In fact, there was not one trace of alcohol in his system as the results had proven.
Even more suspicious action has occurred throughout this weekend. On Friday night, there had been a Polish plaque made remembering the victims of the plane crash in Smolensk, and also the Katyn massacre which occurred in 1940 when a group of Soviet officials mass murdered a large amount of Polish nationals. Russia has not admitted to the wrong deed until recently, but the events from this weekend have again caused more tension between the countries. After the plaques have been made both in Russian and in Polish, they were both changed overnight by the Russian officials. The following morning the plaques looked nearly identical except for one thing that was missing. What was it? Well, the Russian plaque had absolutely no mention of the Katyn Massacre. Overnight, the Russians have changed the plaque so that only the Smolensk accident would be remembered, which caused Polish officials to attack Russia on their withdrawal of the plaque that included Katyn on them. For those of you who have Netflix, I strongly recommend that you see the movie "Katyn". It's a great movie with very good facts on what actually happened at that scene in 1940.
This issue has really left the country divided. There are some who believe we're just making too big of a deal about this, but there is a pretty valid point made by those that Russia is once again trying to cover up what happened in Katyn. For a picture time line of what happened at Smolensk you can go here.
Check back either later tonight or tomorrow for a summary of today's events and something that the late President's brother did that shocked much of the public in Poland.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
A Hool Lot of Concerns?
After a crazy weekend last week of saying goodbye to Adam Malysz, not much has actually happened since.
This week's blog doesn't shift too far away from the world of sports, but it does take on a more serious issue that could prove to be crucial in the next few months leading up to the 2012 European Cup that will be hosted by Poland and neighboring Ukraine.
Tickets are going pretty fast for the finals with more than 12 million requests for tickets. The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) has announced that this is a historical all-time record for requests. This is great news for the economies of both countries. In 2008, when Portugal had hosted the cup, many officials were satisfied with the income that the demands for tickets have brought in. For 2012, the demand for tickets is more than 17% higher than it had been in 2008 (The European Cup is hosted every four years).
Obviously, it's pretty easy to say that Poland and Ukraine will enjoy the benefits of being hosts cities. However, recently UEFA has raised some concerns over the significant problem that Poland has been having with its' hooligans. For all of you Green Street Hooligans fans, this is not quite the same, but the situation isn't too different. Just a few months ago in January, a man was killed during a match in a clash with over a 100 fans of the rival team.
Also, in the spotlight has been the problem with both Polish and Ukrainian racist fans. Over the last few years, over 200 cases have been reported in league and international matches involving racist comments, chants, or posters. UEFA is very concerned with these reports but have repeatedly confirmed that they will not move the Euros to a different location. Poland has perhaps the more severe worries than Ukraine when it comes to Hooligan level. Just recently in a match between Poland and Lithuania (0-2) Polish hooligans threw bottles and flares onto the field as their side was losing a match that they easily should have won.
Polish officials are worried about the level of concern this has brought to UEFA officials. Polish officials are assuring everyone that the level of security will be at the ultimate highest level and that the atmosphere during the tournament are going to be friendly for everyone, including families with little children. Marcin Herra, head of Poland 2012, said there was no possibility of the tournament being moved - "We have no other way," he said - but stressed that there will be severe measures in force to keep the hooligans under control.
The plan that Poland is thinking of going ahead with includes everyone that buys a ticket to register with their name and a picture ID. This will allow the police to easily identify those who are caught on the stadium's cameras causing any kind of havoc or disturbances. I too, am planning on attending the Euros in Poland and hope that this "high level of security" is really put into place, because some of the things these hooligans are capable of is seriously scary. Something that has frequently crossed my mind is how EUFA and the Polish government will be able to stop ticket scalpers from selling tickets to hooligans and preventing them from coming into the stadium. I'm sure that's something that has been talked about by officials, but I wouldn't be so sure that they have a solution to that so they would rather just not talk about it. I'm going to check out this week what else I can find on this issue and report to you as soon as I find something out.
Finally, the only other big news that have revolved around Poland this week is the blooper that Marta Kaczynska, daughter of former President Lech Kaczynski, has made on a mural that was made in memory of her late father. April 10th is going to mark the one year anniversary of the tragic accident that occurred in Smolensk. This weekend, during a mass a sign was unveiled by Marta Kaczynski that would honor not only her father but also all the casualties from the accident. The mistake wasn't that huge, but the word Ziemia (Earth in Polish) had been misspelled "Ziemii" by the author of the artpiece. While this is an embarrassing moment for the people organizing the event, the bloop was quickly fixed and is now spelled correctly.
With more leading up to the formal events that will be occurring next weekend I'll keep you updated throughout the week. Have a good week, and Go Brewers!
This week's blog doesn't shift too far away from the world of sports, but it does take on a more serious issue that could prove to be crucial in the next few months leading up to the 2012 European Cup that will be hosted by Poland and neighboring Ukraine.
Tickets are going pretty fast for the finals with more than 12 million requests for tickets. The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) has announced that this is a historical all-time record for requests. This is great news for the economies of both countries. In 2008, when Portugal had hosted the cup, many officials were satisfied with the income that the demands for tickets have brought in. For 2012, the demand for tickets is more than 17% higher than it had been in 2008 (The European Cup is hosted every four years).
Obviously, it's pretty easy to say that Poland and Ukraine will enjoy the benefits of being hosts cities. However, recently UEFA has raised some concerns over the significant problem that Poland has been having with its' hooligans. For all of you Green Street Hooligans fans, this is not quite the same, but the situation isn't too different. Just a few months ago in January, a man was killed during a match in a clash with over a 100 fans of the rival team.
Also, in the spotlight has been the problem with both Polish and Ukrainian racist fans. Over the last few years, over 200 cases have been reported in league and international matches involving racist comments, chants, or posters. UEFA is very concerned with these reports but have repeatedly confirmed that they will not move the Euros to a different location. Poland has perhaps the more severe worries than Ukraine when it comes to Hooligan level. Just recently in a match between Poland and Lithuania (0-2) Polish hooligans threw bottles and flares onto the field as their side was losing a match that they easily should have won.
Polish officials are worried about the level of concern this has brought to UEFA officials. Polish officials are assuring everyone that the level of security will be at the ultimate highest level and that the atmosphere during the tournament are going to be friendly for everyone, including families with little children. Marcin Herra, head of Poland 2012, said there was no possibility of the tournament being moved - "We have no other way," he said - but stressed that there will be severe measures in force to keep the hooligans under control.
The plan that Poland is thinking of going ahead with includes everyone that buys a ticket to register with their name and a picture ID. This will allow the police to easily identify those who are caught on the stadium's cameras causing any kind of havoc or disturbances. I too, am planning on attending the Euros in Poland and hope that this "high level of security" is really put into place, because some of the things these hooligans are capable of is seriously scary. Something that has frequently crossed my mind is how EUFA and the Polish government will be able to stop ticket scalpers from selling tickets to hooligans and preventing them from coming into the stadium. I'm sure that's something that has been talked about by officials, but I wouldn't be so sure that they have a solution to that so they would rather just not talk about it. I'm going to check out this week what else I can find on this issue and report to you as soon as I find something out.
Finally, the only other big news that have revolved around Poland this week is the blooper that Marta Kaczynska, daughter of former President Lech Kaczynski, has made on a mural that was made in memory of her late father. April 10th is going to mark the one year anniversary of the tragic accident that occurred in Smolensk. This weekend, during a mass a sign was unveiled by Marta Kaczynski that would honor not only her father but also all the casualties from the accident. The mistake wasn't that huge, but the word Ziemia (Earth in Polish) had been misspelled "Ziemii" by the author of the artpiece. While this is an embarrassing moment for the people organizing the event, the bloop was quickly fixed and is now spelled correctly.
With more leading up to the formal events that will be occurring next weekend I'll keep you updated throughout the week. Have a good week, and Go Brewers!
Friday, March 25, 2011
A Big Goodbye, Issues Aside?
Hello Again,
It's a wonderful flu season for all, so I'm hoping that all of you have been able to avoid the flu bug and stay healthy over this period of time we call spring.
In Poland, the weather's been quite warmer than what it has been in Wisconsin, usually averaging mid 50s to low 60s throughout the last few weeks leading up to spring, and now in the first full week spring. Although we can only hope to be seeing weather like this coming anytime soon, there's only 7 weeks of school left so let's make the best of it.
Like I had mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, the great Polish ski-jumper Adam Malysz had planned to retire at the end of this ski-jumping season which has concluded this season. All of Poland, including major politicians, heads of the country, actors, and other popular stars have one last event planned for the "White Eagle." This weekend there will be one last competition that does not count for points, but only to honor Malysz in his hometown Zakopane. In fact, this event is so huge that even some of the biggest VIP's have no chance of getting in. The event will have all of the world's best ski-jumpers and although they are not required to be there, they have all wanted to say good-bye to Malysz. Tomorrow, everything in Poland will pretty much stop functioning, stores will be closed in the morning, bars will be filled, only to have one last goodbye. Malysz has always wanted to end his career while still jumping well and he is certainly doing so by retiring this season after he took third place in this season's championship. Although there will not be a *coughcough* Brett Favre like comeback, Malysz has said that he wants to remain within the sport whether as a coach or an instructor to younger kids and eventually even the national team's jumpers.
On to more "political" things...
The nurses in Polish hospitals have decided to protest in their own way. The nurses are protesting over the new change brought in from the Polish government that allows hospitals to hire nurses on contract. Currently, nurses are allowed to meet with patients outside of the hospitals and receive compensation from those patients privately without having to disclose anything to the hospitals. Under this new law, the nurses would have to register every patient that they see outside of the hospital and be compensated for this through the hospital, and not directly from the patients. For three days, and three nights the nurses camped out on the floor of the Polish Parliament. After refusing to eat anything, they have finally given up and presented their new proposals to the First Lady. Nothing has been released of what the nurses demand exactly, but there is some mention that right now they demand a meeting with the President. The reason the nurses have given for ending the protests is because they "don't want to risk their health for the parliament." I'll be sure to include more as it gets released, perhaps this is something that is a possible topic for my comparison paper.
Have a great weekend, check in next week!
It's a wonderful flu season for all, so I'm hoping that all of you have been able to avoid the flu bug and stay healthy over this period of time we call spring.
In Poland, the weather's been quite warmer than what it has been in Wisconsin, usually averaging mid 50s to low 60s throughout the last few weeks leading up to spring, and now in the first full week spring. Although we can only hope to be seeing weather like this coming anytime soon, there's only 7 weeks of school left so let's make the best of it.
Like I had mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, the great Polish ski-jumper Adam Malysz had planned to retire at the end of this ski-jumping season which has concluded this season. All of Poland, including major politicians, heads of the country, actors, and other popular stars have one last event planned for the "White Eagle." This weekend there will be one last competition that does not count for points, but only to honor Malysz in his hometown Zakopane. In fact, this event is so huge that even some of the biggest VIP's have no chance of getting in. The event will have all of the world's best ski-jumpers and although they are not required to be there, they have all wanted to say good-bye to Malysz. Tomorrow, everything in Poland will pretty much stop functioning, stores will be closed in the morning, bars will be filled, only to have one last goodbye. Malysz has always wanted to end his career while still jumping well and he is certainly doing so by retiring this season after he took third place in this season's championship. Although there will not be a *coughcough* Brett Favre like comeback, Malysz has said that he wants to remain within the sport whether as a coach or an instructor to younger kids and eventually even the national team's jumpers.
On to more "political" things...
The nurses in Polish hospitals have decided to protest in their own way. The nurses are protesting over the new change brought in from the Polish government that allows hospitals to hire nurses on contract. Currently, nurses are allowed to meet with patients outside of the hospitals and receive compensation from those patients privately without having to disclose anything to the hospitals. Under this new law, the nurses would have to register every patient that they see outside of the hospital and be compensated for this through the hospital, and not directly from the patients. For three days, and three nights the nurses camped out on the floor of the Polish Parliament. After refusing to eat anything, they have finally given up and presented their new proposals to the First Lady. Nothing has been released of what the nurses demand exactly, but there is some mention that right now they demand a meeting with the President. The reason the nurses have given for ending the protests is because they "don't want to risk their health for the parliament." I'll be sure to include more as it gets released, perhaps this is something that is a possible topic for my comparison paper.
Have a great weekend, check in next week!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Political Lull
After forgetting to post a blog last week, it's time to update you a little bit on what has happened throughout the last couple of weeks. Rather than just posting twice in one day for the last post that I have missed, I'll send one over spring break to get you caught up more on what's actually going on.
To be completely honest, over the last two weeks not much has actually happened. First and foremost my prayers go out to all the people that have been affected by the tragedies that have struck the people of Japan and their families. It's an incredibly saddening event and hopefully the death toll will not continue to rise like the news and media are predicting. For those of you who have not yet heard, you can get caught up with a nice summary here.
As for Poland, most if not all of the media coverage has just centered around what is going on in Japan. The Polish Premier Donal Tusk issued a statement saying that the Polish firefighters are more than willing to help out those people that are hurt by the tragedy. Poland is just waiting on the official word from the Japanese officials and our people can be there as quickly as this weekend if Japan is quick to respond. I'm assuming that they will want all the help they can possibly get, so I don't see why Japan would not agree to this propossal.
More news regarding the Presidential plane crash has surfaced from Russia. They have now announced that they will ground all airplanes Tu-145M (same model that crashed) because they have recently recorded a very frequent emergency rating and have been deemed unsafe to fly. Whether or not this is just Russia's move to put more blame on the Polish government or not has not been stated by either side. Obviously, Russia would never admit to this but an answer from the Polish side is expected.
To finish off on a good note, there is a very good chance for Poland to boost their economy a little bit more. Greenpeace, the EU's most dependent fossil fuel member, has stated that up to 350,000 new jobs could be generated in Poland by 2020. The article does call this a very "ambitious move from fossil fuels to green energy." If such a project would be implemented this would more than double the amount of workers in the Polish coal sector. Officials are yet to meet and agree to this, but it seems like a very healthy proposition that can not only help out the country, but also the environment.
Once again, stay updated next week as I'll be covering the actual set up and details of how the Polish government functions and looks today.
Thanks for reading!
To be completely honest, over the last two weeks not much has actually happened. First and foremost my prayers go out to all the people that have been affected by the tragedies that have struck the people of Japan and their families. It's an incredibly saddening event and hopefully the death toll will not continue to rise like the news and media are predicting. For those of you who have not yet heard, you can get caught up with a nice summary here.
As for Poland, most if not all of the media coverage has just centered around what is going on in Japan. The Polish Premier Donal Tusk issued a statement saying that the Polish firefighters are more than willing to help out those people that are hurt by the tragedy. Poland is just waiting on the official word from the Japanese officials and our people can be there as quickly as this weekend if Japan is quick to respond. I'm assuming that they will want all the help they can possibly get, so I don't see why Japan would not agree to this propossal.
More news regarding the Presidential plane crash has surfaced from Russia. They have now announced that they will ground all airplanes Tu-145M (same model that crashed) because they have recently recorded a very frequent emergency rating and have been deemed unsafe to fly. Whether or not this is just Russia's move to put more blame on the Polish government or not has not been stated by either side. Obviously, Russia would never admit to this but an answer from the Polish side is expected.
To finish off on a good note, there is a very good chance for Poland to boost their economy a little bit more. Greenpeace, the EU's most dependent fossil fuel member, has stated that up to 350,000 new jobs could be generated in Poland by 2020. The article does call this a very "ambitious move from fossil fuels to green energy." If such a project would be implemented this would more than double the amount of workers in the Polish coal sector. Officials are yet to meet and agree to this, but it seems like a very healthy proposition that can not only help out the country, but also the environment.
Once again, stay updated next week as I'll be covering the actual set up and details of how the Polish government functions and looks today.
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