November of memory: Poland remembers those who ... - Krakow Post

NO. 26 WWW.KRAKOWPOST.COM NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007 WEEKLY
November of memory: Poland remembers those who passed
EU Blue Card for
skilled workers
The EU’s need for 20 mln
highly qualified employees in
the next two decades has been
widely reported. The proposed
Blue Card may be the answer 2
Ombudsman tackles
WWII compensation
The 1996 provision granting
monetary compensation for those
transported during World War II
is now being questioned by the
Ombudsman 3
Chechen refugees
flee to Europe
Chechen refugees flee Western
Europe in search of a safer life.
Many encounter unexpectedly
tough immigration procedures 6
Polish Germans
few points at polls
Polish Germans have suffered the
worst election result of any minority
in the nation since 1991 7
The beginning of November in Poland is always marked with the lights of candles
burning in graveyards. The lights commemorate deceased relatives and friends.
Polish airports soon
to float their shares
The state-owned airport group
Panstwowe Porty Lotnicze (PPL)
will be restructured as a limited
company. Full commercialization
is expected within a year 8
house of entertainment
the best entertainment in Krakow
piano bar
live-music sessions
bring card – get prize
Urszula Ciolkiewicz
STAFF JOURNALIST
The beginning of November in Poland
is always marked with the lights of candles
burning in graveyards.
The first and second day of this month is
the time when Poles stream to the cemeteries
to decorate the graves with flowers and
to light the flames. The lights commemorate
deceased relatives and friends.
HOTEL NOVOTEL, ul. Armii Krajowej 11
Tel.: +48 (0) 12 636-0807
“I celebrate All Saints’ Day every year,”
says Beata Paradysz, a psychology student
from Warsaw. “I visit the graves of my
family as well as the graves of the great
and famous Poles at the Powazki Cemetery.
This is an unusual time, when you can
pause during the everyday fuss and rush
and think about the sense and direction of
your life. Moreover, I just like the look of
the lighted graveyards in the evening.”
The Festival of All Saints (All Saints’
Day) is a feast celebrated in honor of all the
saints, known and unknown. In the Roman
Catholic Church, Nov. 1 is the day which
recalls those who have attained eternal joy
in heaven, while the next day commemorates
the departed faithful who have not yet
been purified and reached heaven. Nov. 2
is known as All Souls’ Day.
Few Poles remember that this feast has
pre-Christian, pagan roots. This day was
celebrated as early as before the birth of
Christ by Slavs and Celts.
All Souls’ Day in Poland commemorates
the pagan festival called “Dziady,”
described in the famous work of Adam
Mickiewicz, the Polish Romantic poet.
Slavic ancestors prayed for those who
couldn’t find the way to Nawia, mythological
land of the dead. In Tyrol, cakes are left
on the table for the dead and the room kept
warm for their comfort. In Bolivia there is
See MEMORY on Page 9

2
The Krakow Post
P O L A N D
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
R E G I O N A L N E W S
Russian hackers down web
site of Ukrainian president
Russian nationalists claimed early this
week to have hacked into and disabled the
official web site of Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko in a retaliation cyber
attack.
A group called the Eurasian Youth
Union, whose leader is banned from
Ukraine for having vandalized Ukrainian
national symbols, said it had acted because
its own web site had come under attack by
Ukrainian authorities.
Attacks against Yushchenko’s web site
– www.president.gov.ua – began on Sunday
and were continuing on Tuesday, the
president’s press office said, without identifying
the suspected hackers.
The press office said it had registered
18,000 separate cyber attacks against the
web site coming from Britain, Israel, Kazakhstan,
Russia, Ukraine and the U.S.
“Yushchenko’s official web site will not
work unless Kyiv stops its attacks against
the official web site of the Eurasian Youth
Group,” the group said in a statement quoted
by Interfax news agency. Leaders of the
Eurasian Youth Group were banned from
traveling to Ukraine earlier this year after
they claimed to have vandalized Ukrainian
national symbols on a mountain in the west
of the country. (AFP)
Deputy Czech PM to sue
over corruption allegations
Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek
announced early this week that he would
sue the country’s public broadcaster over a
program that accused him of receiving large
sums of money while on state benefit.
“Criminal proceedings will be launched
against this program,” Cunek’s Christian
Democrat Party announced on its Internet
page. Monday night’s edition of Czech Television’s
investigative program “Reporteri
CT” related to money Cunek is alleged to
have received in the late 1990s, before his
time as a politician.
At the time he was receiving state benefit.
The sum quoted in the program related
to 3.5 mln koruna (130,170 euro, $188,300)
deposited in various bank accounts.
In an interview that appeared in Tuesday’s
edition of the left-wing daily, Pravo, Cunek
said he only claimed child support benefit to
which his family was entitled.
It is not the first time that Cunek, the regional
development minister, has faced corruption
allegations.
Police accused him of having accepted a
bribe of half a mln koruna from a building
firm when he was mayor of the eastern town
of Vsetin in 2002.
Although the authorities closed the investigation
in August, the circumstances under
which that decision was taken are still being
examined. During his time as mayor of Vsetin,
Cunek controversially expelled Roma
families from the center of the city. He became
leader of the Christian Democrats at
the end of 2006.
The party is a junior member of the fragile
three-way center-right coalition of Prime
Minister Mirek Topolanek. (AFP)
Turkish sailors presumed
dead after Slovak shipwreck
Seven Turkish sailors were missing and
presumed dead early this week after their
ship, sailing under the Slovak flag, sank
in the Baltic Sea at the weekend, the navy
coastguard said.
“Our divers have completed their second
dive today. They are still trying to get into
the ship, but so far they haven’t found any
sign of life and it seems the hull is full of
water so we think the possibility of finding
them alive is very, very small,” coastguard
duty commander Hans Christian told AFP.
The 80-meter (260-foot) Omer N was
partly submerged and lying on its side after
it ran aground on a sandbank on Sunday in
the Femer Strait between Denmark and Germany.
The cargo ship, which was transporting
ammonium chloride and was en route
from Gdynia, Poland to Nantes, France, had
a crew of 11 on board, all of whom were
Turkish. Three of them were rescued on
Sunday and one was plucked dead from the
sea. One of the seven missing was a woman,
Christian said. He said the coastguard was
considering whether to send its eight divers
down for a third attempt.
“We are also investigating how to try to
salvage the ship,” he said. (AFP)
Blue Card for skilled and
willing to work in the EU
The administrative capital of South Africa, Central Pretoria.
Michal Wojtas
STAFF JOURNALIST
The EU’s need for 20 mln highly qualified
employees in the next two decades has
been widely reported.
The worker shortage in the common
market has prompted the European Parliament
to propose a solution to the European
Commission.
It’s called Blue Card (named after the
color of the EU flag) and is based on a highly
successful American immigration program
for highly educated professionals that
has attracted people around the world to the
U.S. labor market for the last two decades.
According to the Blue Card draft, an
employee from outside of the EU would be
granted a permanent resident’s card automatically
after getting a job offer with pay
at least three times higher than the minimum
wage of the country. He or she could
bring along immediate family and after two
years seek work throughout the EU.
Another condition, however, is that the
job vacancy could not be filled by an EU
citizen.
The new law would harmonize immigration
rules in the 27 countries of the EU and
attract the skilled people from developing
countries who now usually choose jobs in
the U.S. and Canada because of their liberal
immigration plans.
The draft filed by the European Parliament
does not go as far as the North American
programs. And it is highly possible that
some countries – most probably Great Britain,
Ireland and Denmark – will oppose the
Blue Card project.
The Polish job market already has suffered
from what can be called a “brain
drain” to the UK, Germany and Holland,
where salaries are much higher. In the information
technology and engineering sectors,
Polish wages are now close to the European
average as companies fight for workers.
And Polish entrepreneurs, as well as their
colleagues from other EU countries, will
warmly welcome any law that might bring
skilled computer specialists from Eastern
and Southern Asia or Africa.
For those regions, the intensification of
the global fight for employees may have
very bad consequences.
Poland denies
will accept
Russian meat
inspectors
agence france-presse
Poland denied late last week reports
that it had agreed to give access to Russian
meat inspectors, a move that could
have ended a bilateral dispute holding
up a key EU-Russia trade deal.
“The position of Poland concerning
the embargo imposed by the Russian
Federation on Polish food goods has
not changed,” Polish Foreign Minister
Anna Fotyga said in a statement.
“Concerning products affected by
the embargo, we demand an unconditional
and total lifting of this embargo
without delay. Only a lifting will allow
possible checks by Russian veterinary
services in firms affected by the embargo,”
she said.
Earlier in the week Russian news
agencies cited Sergei Yastrzhembsky,
the Kremlin official in charge of EU relations,
as saying at an EU-Russia summit
in Portugal that Poland had agreed
to Russian inspections.
“It’s a positive signal and I think
that we can start this important work,
these inspections, in November,” Yastrzhembsky
had been quoted as saying.
Since November last year, Poland
has blocked the start of talks between
the EU and Russia to renew a 10-yearold
partnership and cooperation agreement
(PCA) in retaliation against Russia’s
decision to ban the import of meat
from Poland in 2005.
Liberal and pro-business opposition
leader Donald Tusk’s victory in Polish
parliamentary elections on Sunday has
raised hopes of a possible breakthrough
in the dispute after he signalled closer
relations with Brussels and Moscow.
A source close to the European Commission
said of Yastrzhembsky’s comments:
“This can be considered as a
first step, a sign of detente,” although
“this does not solve the problem.”
Alexei Alexeyenko, spokesman for
the Russian state veterinary service,
said the decision was “expected” and
that he hoped the issue “will no longer
be political.”
The agreement is seen as particularly
important in the EU because it will include
provisions for energy relations as
the EU increases its reliance on Russian
oil and gas imports.

NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
New premier
off to Britain
to thank expat
voters
agence france-presse
Poland’s premier-in-waiting Donald Tusk
is off to London to thank expatriate Polish
voters who helped him rout Warsaw’s ruling
conservatives in an election a week ago.
“Donald Tusk is going to London to say
a symbolic thank you to all the Polish emigrants
around the world who supported him
massively during the election,” Krzysztof
Lisek, an official from Tusk’s Civic Platform
(PO) party, told AFP.
Tusk will hold a rally on Saturday in Ealing,
a part of London where a long-established
Polish community has mushroomed
since Poland joined the EU more than three
years ago. Tusk is expected to become prime
minister shortly after the first session of the
new parliament next Monday.
Tusk traveled to Britain and Ireland at
the end of September to drum up support for
PO, as he sought to end two years of rule
by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS)
party. During visits to London, Glasgow
and Dublin, Tusk promised to spur Poland’s
economy to lure home some of the more
than one mln Poles who have moved to Britain
and Ireland to find jobs since 2004.
Both countries were among the first west
European states to open their labor markets
to that year’s ex-Communist EU newcomers.
Britain and Ireland provided fertile territory
for PO in the Oct. 21 vote: figures from
Poland’s national electoral commission
show the party obtained almost 75 percent
of the British vote and just over 77 percent
in Ireland, compared with its overall result
of almost 42 percent.
In contrast, PiS, which is steered by
twins President Lech Kaczysnki and defeated
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, won
just over 12 percent of the vote in Britain
and almost 11 percent in Ireland, compared
with some 32 percent nationally.
Just over 48,000 British-based Poles
signed up to vote at the Polish embassy in
London, as well as the country’s consulates
and a string of community centers from
northern Scotland to England’s south coast.
In Ireland, just over 21,000 registered.
Their turnout rate beat that of homebased
Poles: around 75 percent of Britishregistered
voters took part, and 66 percent
in Ireland, compared to almost 54 percent
nationally. Estimates for the British-based
Polish community range from 300,000 in
some government studies, to one mln, half
of whom live in the London area, according
to some Polish sources. Ireland’s Polish
community is currently estimated at
150,000-250,000.
agence france-presse
P O L A N D The Krakow Post 3
Ombudsman tackles WWII deportation
compensation in Constitutional Tribunal
According to the Ombudsman granting compensation
for those who were forced into
Nazi or Soviet labor camps cannot be made
dependent upon whether the transportation
was made out of Poland’s then official
borders (in existence before Sept. 1, 1939),
as the 1996 provision expresses
Justyna Krzywicka
STAFF JOURNALIST
The 1996 provision granting monetary compensation for
those transported during World War II has been questioned by
the Ombudsman. The Polish Press Agency (PAP) reports the
matter has been taken to the Constitutional Tribunal by Janusz
Kochanwoski. According to the Ombudsman granting compensation
for those who were forced into Nazi or Soviet labor
camps cannot be made dependent upon whether the transportation
was made out of Poland’s then official borders (in existence
before Sept. 1, 1939), as the 1996 provision expresses.
The current provision allows for compensation to be given
if the following conditions are met: forced labor had to last for
at least 6 months, those who were transported were taken out
of Poland’s then official borders (in existence before Sept. 1,
1939), forced labor was carried out on Nazi territory between
1939 and 1945, or on Soviet territory or Soviet occupied territory
between Sept. 17, 1939 to Feb. 5, 1945.
If transportations were carried out after this period and until
1948, the transportations had to be made within Poland’s currently
existing borders.
This provision according to Kochanowski is not only discriminatory
for those who have been deported, but it also
breaches fundamental notions of justice. The Ombudsman
claims this provision has led to an “arbitrary differentiation of
persons who were victims of a particular type of repression.”
Many have been refused compensation on the grounds that the
forced labor they carried out was on Polish territory within the
official borders in existence before Sept. 1, 1939.
Kochanowski argues this is an unjust treatment of persons
who were deported and found in the same forced labor situation,
yet deprived of compensation due to the area on which the
forced labor was carried out.
The Ombudsman argues the legislator drafted a provision
that is in effect in breach of constitutional principles of equality
and justice. The result of this provision is a refusal of compensation
for a large part of the deportees.
WWII saw some 2.8 mln persons transported by Nazis out
of Poland to forced labor camps on Nazi occupied territory.
Between 1939 and 1941 around 400,000 Polish citizens were
transported East during the Soviet occupation. Further tens of
thousands of persons were deported to Soviet Russia after the
Red Army entered Poland in 1944.
Election winners reach
agreement on coalition
The leader of Poland’s election-winning
pro-business Civic Platform (PO), Donald
Tusk, said early this week that his party had
reached agreement on forming a coalition
government with a centrist movement.
“During a meeting with Waldemar Pawlak
(the leader of the Polish Peasants’ Party),
we confirmed our will to work together. We
agreed that the two parties will form a coalition
government,” premier-in-waiting Tusk
told reporters.
“Negotiations are almost complete.
Waldemar Pawlak and I are now working on
a joint policy statement,” he said.
Pawlak, 48, who was premier for 17
months in the mid-1990s, could be named
economy minister, party sources say, and
also possibly deputy prime minister.
Tusk, 50, also told Polish TV Tuesday
that it was “highly likely” he would propose
Radoslaw Sikorski for the post of foreign
minister.
Sikorski joined PO after quitting the government
in February following a clash with
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his
identical twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski.
Civic Platform thrashed the Kaczynski’s
right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party in
the Oct. 21 snap election, and it is up to the
president to formally appoint his brother’s
successor when he steps down on Nov. 5.
Tusk said he would be ready “within 24
hours” to give the president the “highly detailed
framework” of his government.
He reiterated his intention to end Poland’s
military mission in Iraq next year “in its current
form” and pledged to “soon” sign the
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – which
the former government rejected.
Tusk’s party missed its target of a majority
in the 460-member parliament, capturing
209 seats to PiS’ 166.
That made it necessary to bring the rural-based
Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL) into
government as a junior coalition member.
PSL, which won 31 seats, already runs several
local governments together with PO.
The two parties have yet to finalize the exact
share-out of ministerial posts, but Tusk indicated
PSL was likely to receive three posts:
the economy and agriculture portfolios, and
either the Environment Ministry, or Labor
Ministry.
Tusk said the coalition talks have demonstrated
that the two parties have “major
similarities in their points of view.”
He said they had agreed to simplify Poland’s
current, complex system of tax bands,
but without cutting taxes “in the next two
years.” He did not give further details.
Tax reform has been seen as a sticking
point in a coalition, because while PSL
has supported a shake up, it has expressed
doubts about Tusk’s pledge to introduce a
single-rate “flat tax,” a system already in
place in much of ex-Communist Europe.
PSL has also raised concerns about
planned social security reforms, which it
says could hit farmers’ pockets.
The 1996 provision granting monetary compensation for those transported
during World War II has been questioned by the Ombudsman.
The leader of Poland’s election-winning pro-business Civic Platform (PO), Donald Tusk,
said his party had reached a coalition agreement.
Russian officer
sentenced to hard
labor for spying
Moscow Kremlin.
agence france-presse
A Russian officer convicted of spying for
Poland was sentenced to seven years hard
labor early this week, the Military Tribunal
in Moscow announced.
“Sergei Yurenia... was found guilty of
high treason for espionage,” tribunal spokesman
Alexandre Minchanovsky told AFP.
“Recruited by Polish special services,
Yurenia transmitted Russian secret classified
information from 2005 to 2006 on the
deployment, hierarchy and the armaments
of numerous military units in Moscow,” he
said. Yurenia also tried to become a member
of the Federal Security Service – the successor
organization to the Soviet-era KGB.
Arrested in March, the officer “pleaded
guilty and expressed remorse,” the spokesman
said, adding that “the tribunal took into
account that Mr. Yurenia had a small child.”
Victims of
Communist regime
commemorated
agence france-presse
Bodies of 1,998 people including 477 Poles,
killed by the Soviet secret service NKVD between
1937 and 1941, were solemnly reburied
near Kyiv late last week.
The relatives of victims and some Ukrainian
and Polish officials gathered for the ceremony of
reinterment, which was held in a forest outside
Kyiv, where tens of thousands of victims of the
Soviet regime were murdered and buried. The
ceremony was accompanied by the Ukrainian
national anthem and music of a military orchestra,
as most of the dead had been professional
soldiers, TV channel 5 showed.
“My grandfather was killed in Kyiv in August
1937. He worked as an engineer in Vinnytsia
[center of Ukraine], he was building a signal office
center. All of the engineers, who worked in
Vinnytsia in the summer of 1937, were brought
to Kyiv. Then, after a trial, all of them were
shot,” said a dole-looking woman on TV 5.
According to various estimates up to 120,000
people, arrested and killed by the NKVD between
1936 and 1941 in Kyiv, were secretly
buried in the forest near the village of Bykivnia
outside the Ukrainian capital.
In 1994, a memorial complex to the victims
of the Stalin regime was created in Bykivnianski
forest, and in 2001 the forest became a state historical
and memorial site.
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4
The Krakow Post
P O L A N D
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
R E G I O N A L N E W S
Czech urges energy giant
CEZ to switch strategy
Czech Deputy Prime Minister Martin
Bursik early this week called on energy giant
CEZ to invest locally rather than pursue
foreign acquisitions, as in Bulgaria or Romania.
Investments in Romania and Bulgaria
make the company attractive for privatization
“but for the Czech customer at this
moment it does nothing at all,” Bursik, who
is Green Party leader, said during a debate
on Czech public television.
“We want to open up a debate with CEZ,”
Bursik said, criticizing the company for not
using the latest technology in a 25-bln-koruna
(932-mln-euro, $1.3-bln) refit of one
of its major coal fired plants, Tusimice.
Bursik’s demand CEZ switch its investment
policy is uncertain to bring any results
though. Energy policy is a sensitive issue
within the three-party governing coalition
made up of the Greens, Christian Democrats
and rightwing Civic Democrats.
The Greens have imposed a ban on new
nuclear power plants and coal mining in new
areas, a move which is opposed by leading
Civic Democrats.
CEZ, which is around two-thirds owned
by the Czech state, is already the biggest
power company in Central and Eastern
Europe. It has aggressively bought up distribution
and electricity production assets in
Bulgaria, neighboring Poland and Romania
in recent years. Last week CEZ bid to take
part in a multi-bln euro tender to build two
blocks of the Cernavoda nuclear reactor in
Romania. The company’s high profits, first
half net income rose 26.8 percent to 21 bln
koruna, combined with higher electricity
prices, with baseload power due to climb
by 14.4 percent from January, have focused
domestic attention on how it is spending its
massive cash reserves and profits. (AFP)
Ukrainian nationalists clash
with police over monument
Police clashed with Ukrainian nationalists
early this week in the southern port city
of Odessa as the protestors tried to stop the
inauguration of a monument to Russian empress
Catherine II.
Officers made several arrests as the protestors
tried to break through a police cordon
to the central square of Odessa and prevent
the unveiling of the monument to the empress,
a controversial figure in Ukrainian
history. It was Catherine who abolished the
last freedoms of the Zaporizhian Cossacks,
who settled along the river of Dnieper in the
16th Century – in what is now Ukraine.
Several hundred members of groups
representing nationalists and Ukrainian
Cossacks gathered in the center of Odessa
chanting “Shame!”
But the opening ceremony went ahead
in front of several thousand people, after
an hour’s delay, the television station TV5
reported.
Catherine II, empress of Russia from
1762 until 1796, ordered the foundation of
the city of Odessa in 1764.
In the same year she abolished Ukrainian
autonomy, deposed the last hetman (chief)
of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, and forced
a unification of the Cossacks into Russian
army. (AFP)
Striker Baros becomes political
football in party cash row
Czech football star Milan Baros was at
the center of a government row over who
promised his football academy a hefty grant
following his help campaigning in elections,
local media reported early this week.
The Lyon-based striker actively supported
the Civic Democrats in the June 2006 elections,
making appearances at party rallies
and allowing his face to appear on campaign
posters across the country.
Following the party’s election win, he
asked for a 10-mln-koruna (370,000-euro,
$540,000) grant for his football acedemy in
the east of the country.
But Baros’s application was not successful.
Who led Baros to believe that the cash
would be forthcoming is now the subject of
a furious row within the rightwing party.
Vlastimil Tlusty, former Civic Democrat
finance minister turned party rebel, told the
daily newspaper Lidovy Noviny that party
leader and current Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek
had led Baros to believe he would
get the cash. Topolanek has refused to comment,
but close aides have denied the allegation,
the paper added. (AFP)
Anniversary of distinguished
Polish philosopher Kolakowski
GDFL 1.2:Mariusz_Kubik
On Oct. 23, Leszek Kolakowski celebrated his 80th birthday.
Urszula Ciolkiewicz
STAFF JOURNALIST
A man who gave Poland’s anti-Communist
movement its philosophical underpinnings
observed his 80th birthday in Britain
last week.
Leszek Kolakowski, considered the most
outstanding living Polish philosopher, left
the krakow post
While the time until 2012’s European
soccer championships in Poland
and Ukraine is running out quickly,
preparations for building the National
Stadium in Warsaw, where the opening
match is to be held, drag on.
It still remains unsure where the
new stadium actually will actually be
built. Last week Mayor of Warsaw
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz objected
to the idea of constructing the stadium
near the site of the now-destroyed
Tenth Anniversary Stadium on the
bank of the Vistula River very close
to the center of the city.
This site had been accepted by the
Ministry of Sports and Tourism. Unlike
stadiums in the other five cities,
the Warsaw project is managed by
state, not local, authorities.
As a new government will be
formed early in November following
parliamentary elections won by the
opposition Civic Platform (PO), construction
may be changed. Gronkiewicz-Waltz,
a prominent member of
the PO, said that the proposed stadium
site in one of the most expensive
parts of the city could be sold for a
great profit.
The stadium could then be built
on the outskirts of Warsaw, she said,
the country 37 years ago when his support
for student demonstrators got him crossedged
with the Communist regime.
Kolakowski, who is also a poplarizer of
the great philosophers’ thoughts, was born
in 1927 in Radom to a family with socialist
and anti-religious traditions.
A firm believer in Marxism as a youth,
he joined the Communist Party after World
but she did not point to any specific
area as her favorite. She underlined
that her suggestions are just ideas to
be considered by the new government.
Its head will almost certainly be
PO leader Donald Tusk, a dedicated
football fan from the coastal city of
Gdansk.
The outgoing government of Jaroslaw
Kaczynski has already requested
stadium designs from about 20 architectural
firms. A selection is to be announced
by the end of November. Michal
Borowski of the Sports Ministry
says any further delays in the project
could cause the stadium’s completion
to be set back until the middle of
2011.
If new problems develop, the
Union of European Football Associations
may even move the Warsaw
matches to some other city.
The Tenth Anniversary Stadium
was built in 1955, 10 years after the
beginning of Communist rule in Poland.
It held up to 100,000 spectators
during sports and political events.
In the 80s the stadium deteriorated
into ruin and it became one of the
biggest markets in Europe, a center
of illegal software, arms and alcohol
traffic.
The stadium was closed at the end
of September.
War II. Later he would become a fervent
anti-Marxist.
Between 1945 and 1950 he studied philosophy
at the University of Lodz and Warsaw
University.
As a student he became an assistant to
Prof. Tadeusz Kotarbinski of Warsaw University,
one of Poland’s foremost philosophers
and an authority on ethics.
In 1953 Kolakowski earned a Ph.D. at
the university with a dissertation on Baruch
Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher who was one
of the great rationalists of the 17th Century.
Between 1953 and 1968 he was a professor
in the Department of Modern Philosophy
at Warsaw University.
He also worked at the Communist Party’s
Institute of Social Sciences and the Polish
Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Philosophy
and Sociology from 1953 to 1955.
In 1968 he lost his job at Warsaw University
for supporting student protesters.
This forced him to emigrate.
Since 1970 he has been a faculty member
at Oxford University in England, but he
has also lectured at other prestigious universities,
including Yale, the University of
Chicago and the University of California at
Berkeley.
Kolakowski’s criticism of Marxism in
his book “Main Currents of Marxism,”
published in 1976, led to the Communist
Party expelling him.
His philosophical thought has often
touched on the link between the mind and
religion.
For example, he has delved into the
question of God’s presence in human life.
That work has included a look at the question
of whether the mind is able to do without
religion.
Some of Kolakowski’s writings have
grown out of his fascination with the religious
thought of Blaise Pascal, the French
mathematician, physicist and religious
philosopher. For example, Kolakowski has
written about human existence when humans
believe in God and human existence
when humans don’t believe in God.
Kolakowski’s 400 works have been
translated into numerous languages. Many
had a significant influence in shaping the
Polish opposition’s attitude toward Communist
rule.
Some of his most important works are
“The Key to Heaven” (1957), “Tales from
the Kingdom of Lailonia” (1963), “The
Presence of Myth” (1972) and “Why Is
There Something Rather Than Nothing?”
(2007). He has received many prestigious
awards, including the Polish Pen Club
Award for outstanding literary achievement
and the John Kluge Prize for lifetime
achievement in the humanistic and social
sciences.
Further delays in preparations for Euro 2012
Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.
GDFL 1.2:Zuska

NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
No prison for murder culprits
www.kprm.gov
P O L A N D The Krakow Post 5
Six F-16 Fighting
Falcons soon to
arrive in Poland
GDFL 1.2-Radomil talk
Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro. His decision allowed the six men to be tried while not in jail.
Michal Wojtas
STAFF JOURNALIST
Six men accused of killing a 60-year-old
former prison inmate in northeastern Poland
have been handed suspended sentences
ranging from six months to two years, a
far lighter punishment than that sought by
prosecutors.
In a case that has been widely discussed
in the Polish media and followed closely
by many, the men from Wlodowo and Boguchwaly
villages were charged with the
murder of “Jozef C.”
Termed “Murder in Wlodowo” by the
media, the incident occurred on July 1,
2005. The victim had been sentenced 23
times for different crimes and spent 34
years of his life behind bars.
Jozef C. lived in Wlodowo with his
common-law wife and daughter. He often
caused disturbances and threatened many
of the locals, who lived in fear for themselves
and their children.
On the day of the murder, the victim
had beaten his common-law wife and had
threatened to kill her.
He then appeared in front of the Winek
brothers’ house and proceeded to scream,
threatening to burn down their home.
In the brawl that ensued, Jozef C. wounded
one of the brothers with a knife and then
fled the scene. Three different people notified
the police from a nearby town, but the
agence france-presse
Poland’s ex-Sports Minister Tomasz Lipiec,
who was appointed to step up the fight
against graft, was charged late this week
after being arrested in a bribery probe, the
Warsaw prosecutor’s office announced.
Lipiec, 36, is accused of “having accepted
a material benefit related to his public office,”
spokeswoman Katarzyna Szeska told
reporters.
He could face a 10-year prison sentence,
Szeska said, without giving further details
of the type of bribe Lipiec had allegedly accepted
or the sum involved.
Sixteen individuals are implicated in the
In a case that
has been widely
discussed in the
Polish media and
followed closely
by many, the men
from Wlodowo
and Boguchwaly
villages, were
charged with the
murder of
“Jozef C.”
police failed to respond to the situation.
According to police testimony, there was
not a free patrol car available at that time.
Two policemen received suspension
sentences of up to one year for their negligence.
A few hours later, when the victim began
to threaten the lives of the villagers, the
Winek brothers and three other men began
to chase him. Jozef C. was then forced to
the ground and beaten to death with shovels
and other objects.
All six attackers were charged in the
case.
Prosecutors charged the Winek brothers
with murder and demanded that they each
receive 10 years in prison.
But the jury decided that no evidence
was exhibited to prove that they intended
to kill the victim.
The three other suspects were charged
with shorter sentences.
The Winek brothers were sentenced to
three years of probation with a mandatory
two years jail sentence if they commit a
crime within that probation period.
The other three who took part in the
beating received six-month to two-year
sentences.
They were found guilty of assault with a
dangerous object.
Wlodowo inhabitants who have supported
their neighbors throughout the trial
are happy that they will not serve any time
in prison.
However, they also believe the six men
should have been acquitted on the grounds
that they only acted in self-defense.
But Andrzej Rzeplinski from the Helsinki
Foundation for Human Rights believes
that the incident was murder and the jury’s
sentence was incorrect.
In addition, police may not feel obligated
to intervene in such cases, even though
they should do so, according to the law.
The trial has lasted 11 months to date.
the krakow post
Six F-16 Fighting Falcons, known
to their pilots as “Vipers,” will come to
Poland in November. They are the result
of a deal signed by Poland on April 18,
2003. According to the document, the
Polish government purchased 48 new
F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft from the
U.S. The deal, reportedly worth nearly
$3.6 bln, included not only the actual
fighter airframes, but also armament and
support equipment and training for Polish
pilots and maintenance crews. The
armament, which Poland will receive
in November, includes the AIM-120 advanced
medium-range air-to-air missile
(AMRAAM) which has an all-weather,
beyond-visual-range capability.
Also arriving are the AIM-9X Sidewinder
air-to-air missile, laser-guided
Paveway bombs and the air-to-ground
tactical Maverick missile (AGM) designed
for close air support.
Earlier, 27 Falcons, which arrived
from the U.S. in 2006, were built only
for unarmed training flights and were
Poland’s ex-sports minister charged in corruption probe
corruption case, which is tied to alleged misuse
of a government sports center in Warsaw,
she said.
Lipiec was arrested earlier Thursday by
Poland’s CBA anti-corruption agency as
part of what CBA official Tomasz Fratczak
said was a probe into a “major scandal.”
Lipiec, a former Olympic-level race
walker who moved into journalism before
entering politics, was fired in July by Prime
Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Kaczynski acted after two of Lipiec’s
aides who ran the COS sports center in Warsaw
were arrested in a probe of fraud in the
rental of the facility.
The prime minister is shortly due to leave
office himself after his conservative Law
and Justice party lost Sunday’s snap election.
Law and Justice came to power two
years ago after campaigning on an anti-graft
platform.
When he appointed Lipiec in October
2005, Kaczynski gave the minister the specific
task of battling corruption in the sports
world, and particularly on the Polish football
scene.
The image of Polish football has been
tarnished over recent years by a match-fixing
scandal which has led to more than 60
arrests – including several referees, a top
official with the Polish Football Association
(PZPN) and a string of club officials.
Ex-Sports Minister Tomasz Lipiec.
CC:2.2:Slawek
not accompanied by support equipment.
The first F-16s in Poland – called
“Hawks“ – arrived in November 2006 at
Krzesiny Airport.
“The decision that we made in 2003
to buy multitask Fighting Falcons was
good,” said Polish President Lech Kaczynski.
“This country with 38 mln people,
which belongs to NATO and the EU,
has to have the equipment to meet potential
dangers. I will do my best to make
sure that the modernization process in
the army will be continued.”
The F16 Falcon is said to be the most
capable fourth-generation multirole
fighter with a legendary combat record
of 72 victories and 0 losses.
The jet aircraft was designed as a
lightweight fighter. Since production
started in 1976, more than 4,000 aircraft
have been built.
They are used in many countries, including
Bahrain, Belgium, Denmark,
Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Netherlands,
Norway, Pakistan, South Korea,
Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand,
Turkey, U.S. and Venezuela.
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6 The Krakow Post
P O L A N D
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
Escaping the war: Chechen refugees on way to Western Europe
Sosomk
Chechen children.
Rafal Blachnio
Mariusz Nieroda
contributing journalists
The recent death of three Chechen girls in
the Bieszczady Mountains of Poland is a reminder
that thousands of Chechens continue
to flee the war in their homeland.
When the girls’ mother got lost in the
mountains, she told them to stay put while
she and her toddler son went for help. When
she returned, the girls were dead of exposure.
As the closest country in the EU to Russia,
Poland has become a magnet for Chechen
refugees. In fact, more than 90 percent of
refugees in Poland are Chechen.
Poland is not where many of them want to
end up, however. It’s better than their homeland
because it’s not embroiled in a war.
But Chechen refugees say Polish officials
are unsympathetic to their plight, are reluctant
to grant them political asylum and do
not offer much resettlement help. In fact,
Poland rejects the political-asylum applications
of most Chechens coming here.
The reason is not a bias against Chechen
refugees, but a simple lack of resources to
help them, government officials say.
Thus, many Chechens try to cross Poland
without immigration authorities catching
them so they can settle in an EU country that
is more welcoming. In Austria, for example,
more than 90 percent of refugees seeking
political asylum are granted it.
If refugees are caught in Poland, they are
stuck with it as their new homeland, however.
That’s because the EU has a rule that
the country where a refugee first arrives is
the one where he must apply for residence.
History
The conflict between Russia and Chechnya
goes back 300 years, when in the 18th
Century tsarist Russia conquered the area to
strengthen its position in the North Caucasus
and gain control of natural resources
Ever since, the Chechens have viewed
Russian rule as occupation and have mounted
intermittent waves of resistance to it.
World War II was one of the worst periods.
Josef Stalin, who distrusted the Chechens,
sent hundreds of thousands of them
to Kazakhstan on board cattles wagons in
1944. Half of the entire population died
from starvation and cold.
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in
1991, the Chechens saw a chance to regain
their freedom.
Chechen leaders declared independence.
Russia reacted by sending military forces to
the area to try to stamp out the independence
movement.
With Russian troops dying by the hundreds,
the first Chechen war quickly became
unpopular in Russia. It ended with an uneasy
truce in 1996.
The second Chechen War began in 1999
after Vladimir Putin became president. He
accused Chechens of unexplained apartment-complex
bombings in Moscow and
Wolgodonsk. Although the Russians never
proved a Chechen connection, it gave Putin
a reason to invade Chechnya again with the
support of the Russian people.
The second war, which still rages, has
been fiercer and more cruel than the first,
with independent observers claiming atrocities
on both sides. Human rights groups have
accused Russian troops of mass executions,
torture, rape, hostage taking for ransom and
the setting up of concentration camps.
Now
The brutality of the second Chechen war
has led to a torrent of refugees. Most simply
hit Poland before continuing to head west,
but some try to settle here.
Polish immigration authorities have been
unsympathetic or even hostile to the refugees’
plight, many Chechens say.
“After arriving in Poland and applying
for refugee status, I was located in one of
18 overcrowded Polish refugee center,” said
Magomed, a refugee in Grozny. He waited
in the camp for a year, he said, before the
government agreed to give him political
asylum.
During the waiting period he was not allowed
to work. Even if he had been allowed
to work, he would have been unable to handle
a job because he doesn’t speak Polish –
and the government has not made language
teachers available to refugees.
In 2006 the Polish government received
3,772 applications for refugee status from
Chechens and others in Russia. It rejected
most of the requests.
In fact, the EU’s refugee organization
says only 5 percent of Chechens who apply
for refugee status in Poland actually get it.
The figure is 23 percent in Germany, 42 percent
in France and 90 percent in Austria.
Jan Wegrzyn, the director of Poland’s immigration
service, says Poland’s low acceptance
rate is a matter of money.
Poland is simply “not wealthy enough to
award more refugee statuses,” he said. “We
simply cannot afford paying welfare for so
many refugees.”
It is doing “all that is in its power” to do,
given its resources, however, Wegrzyn said.
Human rights organizations criticize Poland
for granting refugee status to so few
Chechens. Amnesty International calls it a
“violation of the Geneva Convention” on
dealing with victims of war.
Poland gives most of the Chechens who
do not receive refugee status a “toleratedstay”
status. It doesn’t give them much.
They do not get permanent residency.
They must leave the refugee camps where
they first settled without any government
financial support. And the EU will not allow
Poland to let them go on to another EU
country.
Kamil Rusin of the Committee to Free the
Caucasus says by refusing to allow Chechens
to go on to another EU country, Poland
is playing the role of buffer for other EU
countries. Without that buffer, Chechens
would be pouring in to other EU countries.
A routine
A 45-year-old engineer and carpenter
named Aslambek is one of the Chechens
who is in Poland under tolerated-stay status.
“I arrived in Poland in 2005 with my wife
and three children,” he said. “In my family
village in Chechnya I repaired guerrillas’
damaged cars.”
Russian soldiers caught him one night.
They took him to a prison. “During interrogations
lasting several days, I was bitten,
connected to electric wires and had my teeth
filed,” he said.
Polish immigration officials gave him
tolerated-stay rather than refugee status
because he was unable to supply enough
evidence that he was a victim of political
oppression.
After he received tolerated-stay status,
his family moved “to a small cellar which
we rented thanks to money that our relatives
sent from abroad.”
When one of his daughters developed a
serious viral infection, volunteers helped
him arrange medical care.
Aslambek said that before he met the volunteers,
he was under the impression that his
family would be unable to get medical care
without paying a hefty fee. He was lucky
that the volunteer helped him cut through
the lack of information and the language
barrier.
A more serious problem for those under
tolerated-stay status is lack of resources to
meet basic needs, including housing. That
has prompted some Chechens to make a
risky return to Russia, where at least they
can get help from relatives.
Chechens who appeal the government’s
rejection of their request for refugee status
must wait months for a decision. In the
meantime, they lose their right to stay in a
refugee camp.
Non-governmental organizations have
stepped in to help Chechens whose situations
have become desperate because of
lack of resources. But those organizations
can help only a small fraction of those who
need it. Human rights organizations decry
not only the lack of help that Poland gives
Chechens but also the government’s stance
that it must have documentary evidence of
political oppression in Chechnya before
awarding refugee status to a Chechen.
That hard-nose stance assumes that the
asylum seeker is lying, the critics say. Even
in a criminal court proceeding, they point
out, there is a presumption that the accused
is innocent until proven guilty.
Some Chechens have provided the government
with documentation of oppression
– and the government has rejected their request
for political asylum anyway.
Twenty-five-year Shamil gave Polish immigration
officials a summons that police
who wanted to question him about guerrilla
ties issued to him in Chechnya. Shamil also
gave Polish officials a copy of a hospital forensic
examination proving that he had been
tortured.
“These documents were rejected,” he
said. Polish officials justified the rejection
on grounds that “the documents were issued
in Chechnya, where it is possible to buy any
counterfeit document.”
Polish officials’ rejection of the political-asylum
application of a woman named
Malika has caused outrage in Poland and
abroad.
One of Malika’s children died in her
arms after suffering shrapnel wounds from
a bomb. Polish officials rejected her application
for political asylum, however, on
grounds that “the death of her child was a
side effect of military actions but not a result
of direct persecution” against her.
Polish officials also refuse to recognize
Russian troops’ rape of Chechen women as
political oppression. Most Chechen women
don’t want to relive the ordeal by telling
Polish immigration officials about it. Those
who muster the courage to do so find that
bringing it up does not help them gain refugee
status.
Another case that has brought outrage is
that of Issa, a Chechen who went to Belgium
after the Polish government rejected his application
for refugee status several times.
The Belgians found him and deported him
back to Poland. Before he left Belgium, he
was diagnosed as having tuberculosis and
jaundice.
He wrote in his diary that “after arriving
in Poland, I was placed in a guarded refugee
center in Lesznowola, where my medicines
were taken away and I was denied a medical
examination and treatment.” Not until he
lost consciousness was he transported to a
hospital, where he died in surgery.
He described in his diary the refugee center
guards’ humiliating treatment of him and
his dashed hopes for a better life.
Chechens’ reaction to the way they have
been treated in Poland has ranged from resigned
acceptance to activism and protest.
In August 2004, a group of Chechens
staged a hunger strike at the refugee center
in Lublin. They were protesting the government’s
lack of help to refugees and the EU’s
Dublin Regulation, which says that an immigrant
can apply for refugee status only in
the EU country where he first arrived.
It is really unjust to prevent Chechens
from going on to countries who have the
resources to care for and integrate asylum
seekers, a Chechen named Rusin said.
In July 2005 another group of Chechens
staged a hunger strike in the refugee camp in
Bielany, near Warsaw.
This time the authorities’ reaction was
swift and – some human rights activists
would say – oppressive.
They transferred the protest leaders to
other refugee centers. They included members
of a family whose father had to stay
behind in a hospital. And members of another
family whose children were attending
Warsaw schools.
Those episodes of activism led to authorities
looking for terrorist plots, as opposed
to simple protest movements. A S.W.A.T
team raided the refugee center in Lublin
on Dec. 10, 2005, searching for Chechens
rumoured to be planning an assassination.
Police refused to reveal details.
“Three Chechens were arrested. After
interrogation they were released without
any accusation,” said a volunteer at the
center who did not want to reveal her name
because she wants to continue helping the
refugees there.
She said the sudden appearance of the
uniformed, masked and arms-carrying men
traumatized many of the refugees. Within
a week, some Chechen families had left,
thinking it was better to be on their own
than in an environment that was frightening.
The trauma led to a pregnant woman
having to be taken to a hospital to save her
fetus, the volunteer said.
Chechens continued to protest the government’s
treatment despite the traumas.
Just last month, police stopped a busload
of Chechens going to Warsaw to demonstrate
in front of the national immigration
building.
They kept the Chechens under guard for
12 hours, making it impossible for them to
hold the protest, said Jakub Hylyk, who was
on the bus.
Police said they stopped the bus to search
for illegal immigrants and to ensure the
safety of those who were legal immigrants.
Chechens and volunteers who help them
say the stories of Aslambek, Shamil and
Issa are far too common in Poland, rooted
in what they maintain is an uncaring and
unhelpful government immigration policy.
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NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
Polish Germans suffer
worst election result of
minority since 1991
P O L A N D The Krakow Post 7
Poland demands
answers from Canada
in immigrant’s death
CC:2.5:IDuke
Vancouver International Airport where Robert Dziekanski was waiting for his mother.
Michal Wojtas
staff journalist
Last week’s high voting turnout
was good news for Poland, but a major
disappointment for the German
population in Poland, who managed to
get only one place in Sejm- the lower
house of the Polish parliament.
The leader of the German minority
in Poland, Henryk Kroll, who was
an MP for all five previous terms of
Sejm, failed to secure a seat this year.
Kroll lost by just 297 votes to
Ryszard Galla, a colleague from the
German minority-voting list.
He plans to step down as chairman
next spring, and Galla, who has
already revealed plans to reform the
organization, will almost surely take
over. This year’s result was the poorest
showing in parliamentary elections
since Poland was freed from Communist
dictatorship.
In 1991, Germans had seven seats
in Sejm, and one in the Senate. Two
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years later, they had four MPs in
Sejm, and one in the Senate. The last
three elections brought them two places
in Sejm.
Unlike other voter committees,
ethnic minorities
do not have to meet the
standard of receiving at
least 5 percent of the nationwide
vote totals to get
a place in Sejm.
Unlike other voter committees, ethnic
minorities do not have to meet the
standard of receiving at least 5 percent
of the nationwide vote totals to get a
place in Sejm.
Kroll said the defeat stemmed from
two causes. First, many Germans have
left Poland for better-paying jobs in
other EU countries, including Germany.
Second, the two biggest parties
– Civic Platform (PO) and Law and
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Justice (PiS) – dominated the public
debate before the elections.
Even though the German candidates
aired their spots on local TV,
many voters turned to the Civic Platform.
According to the last nationwide
census of 2002, Germans are
the second-largest ethnic minority in
Poland after Silesians. Silesians are
not, however, recognized as a nation
by the Polish state.
Five years ago 160,000 people living
in Poland declared themselves
as Germans, most of them living in
Opole Voivodeship, where they make
up 10 percent of the population.
Silesians comprise 0.45 percent of
the inhabitants of Poland while Germans
account for 0.4 percent. Other
ethnic minorities are: Belarusians
(0.13), Ukrainians (0.08), Romanians
(0.03), Russians, Lemkos and Lithuanians
(all – 0.01). Some 1.23 percent
of people living in Poland declare
other nationalities while 2.03 percent
don’t specify ethnicity.
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agence france-presse
The death of a Polish emigre after police stunned
him with a taser at an airport in Canada sparked a
diplomatic incident, with Poland demanding full
details of the subsequent investigation.
The Polish government issued a diplomatic
note asking “Canadian authorities to provide us
promptly with full and transparent results of the investigation
of this tragic accident,” Maciej Krych,
Poland’s consul general in this western Canadian
city, told AFP.
Robert Dziekanski, 40, died on Oct. 14 after a
brief struggle with security guards and police, who
were called after he started throwing things and
screaming in the airport’s arrival zone.
A preliminary coroner’s report Friday showed
there were no drugs or alcohol in Dziekanski’s
body, said the lawyer for Zofia Cisowski, the dead
man’s mother.
Dziekanski, a construction worker, had flown
from Frankfurt to live with his mother in Canada.
He spoke only Polish, had never traveled before
and was “scared” and “stressed” by the journey,
said the lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj.
Dziekanski waited for his mother in the airport’s
luggage area, but she was not allowed to enter the
secure zone and could not find anyone to tell her if
her son had arrived, said Kosteckyj. After several
hours, she left.
A few feet away from her, on the other side of
the security zone wall, Dziekanski waited for 10
hours, said the lawyer.
“It’s unbelievable you have a guy sitting in what
is supposed to be a secure area for 10 hours ...
without immigration or airport authorities at least
asking the guy or finding out what the problem is,”
he said.
When Dziekanski finally emerged into the public
arrivals area, there was no one to meet him
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and it had been 25 hours since he left home, said
Kosteckyj.
“He was not a sophisticated traveler... He was
a fellow simply lost in an English-speaking world
unable to communicate.”
Police statements on Oct. 14 said “he was
sweating profusely, behaving irrationally, throwing
chairs, tipping his luggage cart over, pounding on
glass windows ... and screaming in what sounded
like an Eastern European language.”
Documents obtained by CTV news showed that
within two minutes after police arrived, they used
a stun gun on Dziekanski. Ambulance attendants
arrived 12 minutes later and were not able to revive
him.
“Our Polish community (is) in a state of shock,”
said Krych. A public inquest will be carried out,
Jeff Dolan, the province’s assistant deputy chief
coroner, told AFP.
The death has fueled controversy about taser
stun guns, which have been linked to other deaths
in the country, including one in the same week as
Dziekanski’s.

8 The Krakow Post
B U S I N E S S
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
Polish treasury pulls
out of sale of insurer
PZU to Eureko
agence france-presse
The Polish treasury said Friday it had “withdrawn”
from an eight-year-old contract with
Netherlands-based insurer Eureko, under which
the group had bought 30 percent of Polish insurer
PZU.
The treasury said in a statement that Eureko
had breached the contract by asking foreign arbitrators
to try to settle a dispute related to the deal,
rather than turning to the Polish courts first.
The statement said the “withdrawal” could be
followed by the outright cancellation of the contract.
Treasury spokesman Pawel Kozyra declined to
elaborate, or explain why the decision had been
made just over week before Poland’s conservative
Law and Justice party leaves office after losing
last Sunday’s snap election to the pro-business
Civic Platform.
Michal Nastula, head of Eureko Poland, said
that the contract “remained in place.”
“There is no actual or legal basis for the treasury
to pull out,” Nastula was quoted as saying
by Poland’s PAP news agency. Eureko has been
locked in a long-running legal dispute with the
Polish government over the privatization of PZU.
Eureko bought 30 percent of PZU in 1999 for
3.1 bln zloty, which was then worth 694.5 mln
euro.
Its stake has now risen to 33 percent minus one
share. It said that as part of the deal it was entitled
to buy a further 21 percent, which would have
given it a controlling stake in the Polish group.
But the Polish treasury, which controls 55 percent
of PZU, contested Eureko’s claims.
In 2005, an international arbitration court in
London ruled in favour of Eureko, saying the Polish
treasury had not upheld its side of the privatization
deal.
“The arbitration process was launched under an
international accord,” said Nastula. “Eureko will
not abandon the arbitration process. In the coming
weeks we plan to move to its next stage,” related
to potential compensation payments, he said.
“We don’t understand the (treasury’s) statement.
From our point of view, the best way to
settle our differences is to reach a compromise.
We are still hopeful that such a solution will be
possible,” he said.
PZU made 3.28 bln zloty (886 mln euro) in net
profit last year, and 1.12 bln zloty in the first half
of 2007.
The Charter will not threaten
reclaimed land in Poland
Justyna Krzywicka
Staff JOURNALIST
Property ownership will not be under threat should
Poland accept the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
EU. Mark Gray the spokesman for the European Commission
stated on Friday Article 51 of the Charter “clearly
states that the Charter only binds Member States in
those situations, which are regulated by the EU.”
According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Gray
assured that restitution of property in the new Member
States remains outside the EU jurisdiction.
This reassurance comes as a response to the statement
made by Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga, who on
Wednesday stated if Poland was to accept the Charter
it would threaten those living on land reclaimed after
World War II. Fotyga heavily criticized the Civic Platform
(PO) for being pro Charter. PO wants to revoke the
decision of the current government, who with the British
government, signed the restrictive application of the
Charter protocol.
The EC spokesman told PAP that EU law does not
concern itself with property rights, as it is a matter for
each member state. Further the Charter is not retrospective
and cannot deal with matters that occurred just after
WWII.
Article 51(1) states that the provisions of “this Charter
are addressed to institutions and bodies of the EU
with due regard for the principle of subsidiary and to
the Member States only when they are implementing
EU law.” And subsection 2 of the Act assures that “this
Charter does not establish any new power or task for
the Community or the EU, or modify powers and tasks
defined by the Treaties.”
A spokesman for the European Council will assure on
Thursday the Charter will not impede on any reclaimed
land matters in Poland.
Accepted in December 2000 the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the EU contains human rights provisions
“solemnly proclaimed” by the European Parliament, the
Council of the EU and the European Commission.
A version of the Charter was proposed by the European
Constitution in October 2004 that was rejected by
France and The Netherlands. It was intended to enable
the EU to accede the European Convention on Human
Rights. This would allow the European Court of Justice
to make rulings based on the Charter
The Charter gains legally binding force along with
the Reform Treaty of Lisbon on the 12th of December
in Strasburg.
Retirement packages
slowly killing ZUS
Justyna Krzywicka
Staff JOURNALIST
Poland has the highest
number of retirees
in all of the EU.
Within the last seven
years over 360,000
people have entered
the retirement age in
Poland.
Poland has the highest number of
retirees in all of the EU. Within the
last seven years over 360,000 people
have entered the retirement age in
Poland. The Social Security Office
(ZUS) has had to add a further 1.2
mln pensions to its retirement payout
budget within this period.
According to the Gazeta Prawna
it is estimated a further 199 bln zloty
will be needed to pay retirement payments
between the years 2008 and
2012. Experts predict, if amendments
extending the retirement age
in Poland are not implemented and
additional retirement benefits are not
reduced, ZUS will be threatened with
bankruptcy.
Currently the official retirement
age in Poland is 60 for women and
65 for men. Early retirement packages
mean that the actual average is
much lower.
The main problem lies with early
retirement legislation. There is a wide
range of provisions dating back to the
early 80s.
During the post marshal law years
the government was being generous
with offering extended retirement
packages across various professions.
Dancers for example were permitted
to enter early retirement at the age
of 40. Today most of these provisions
are still in existence allowing for
broad rights that impedes the system.
According to Prof. Marek Gora
who is working on retirement legislation
reform, changes are mandatory,
as Poland cannot afford to fund superannuation
for people who are entering
retirement while still at a productive
age.
If early retirement provisions are
to continue, monthly social security
payments will have to increase across
the board. This will also apply to increases
in taxation. This approach
however will solve little as Poland’s
average life expectancy continues
to rise. Since 1990 the average life
expectancy for males has increased
by 5 years and 4 and a half years for
women. Poles are leading healthier
lifestyles and their general health has
also improved.
In the last year women taking advantage
of early retirement were on
average 56 years old, men 57.9 years
old. The average age in the EU is 60.4
for women and 61.4 for men. In the
UK and in Ireland those who enter
retirement are 64 years old.
Early retirement legislation in Poland
means that Poland has the lowest
percent of workers aged between 55
and 64 years in the EU at 28.1 percent.
The average for the EU is 43.5
percent.
Today nearly all women who have
reached 55 years are eligible for early
retirement.
The Constitutional Tribunal ruling
last Tuesday may mean that all men
who have reached 60 years of age and
have 35 years of productive work behind
them may be able to enter early
retirement.
Experts are pushing for quick restructuring
of the existing laws. The
push wants to see an increase in the
retirement age and a termination of
any additional retirement benefits.
Gora emphasizes that the general
belief in Poland that early retirement
opens up job opportunities for the
young is a myth. Poland has the highest
unemployment rate in Europe after
Slovakia and a very large number
of young retirees.
New EU Member States are increasing
their retirement ages systematically.
All except Poland. The
Czech Republic will see its retirement
age raised to 63 years for both men
and women. Slovakia is increasing
the retirement age by 9 months each
year until 2014.
The Civic Platform (PO) has plans
to increase the retirement age to 65
for both men and women by 2020 and
to 67 by 2025.
If such unpopular reform is to be
introduced, it must be done quickly
– before the electorate starts preparing
for the next elections.
Polish airports soon to float their shares
The krakow post
The state-owned airport group Panstwowe
Porty Lotnicze (PPL) will be restructured
as a limited company. The matter
is to reach the Ministry of Transport as
soon as it will be possible. Full commercialization
is expected to take place within
a year to a year and a half, the Gazeta
Prawna reports.
According to the executive director of
PPL Pawel Latacz, the next plan will be
to float the airports’ shares on the Warsaw
Stock Exchange. It is estimated some 30
percent of the shares will be put to offer.
A further 20 percent will be allocated to
PPL’s workers after commercialization
has taken place. According to the Gazeta
Prawna, the majority of the shares will remain
with the State Treasury.
The new departure terminal in Warsaw’s
Okecie is to be completed and opened by
March 2008. This is the final deadline given
if Poland is to abide by the Schengen
Agreement procedures. It is expected PPL
will also commence the development of
Etiuda, the neighboring terminal for budget
airlines around the same time.
Brazilian restaurant
in the Old Town
ul. Sw. Tomasza 28
We invite you every day
from 12:00 p.m.
Reservations: Tel.: (0) 12 422-5323 www.ipanema.pl
It is estimated some 9 mln passengers
will have come through Okecie by the end
of this year. PPL’s investment plans for the
development of Polish airports within the
next 4 years are approximated at 1.6 bln
zloty. PPL is therefore looking to enter the
stock exchange to find capital to develop
its airports further.
The state of Poland’s central airport hub
is in crisis mode. Its expansion was further
stalled two weeks ago when PPL terminated
the contract with the construction company.
No final decision has been undertaken
as to whether Okecie will indeed be
Poland’s central airport or whether a new
site is needed. This has delayed any further
construction work and development.
A second runway would cater for 25
mln passengers, appeasing the influx until
the year 2025. This, according to Latacz, is
a band-aid solution and instead plans need
to be drafted for a duo-airport solution
such as Okecie-Modlin or plans incorporating
other regional airports.
Proposals are being drafted for an airport
in Swidnik near Lublin. Further suggested
areas are Koszalin, Babie Doly near
Gdynia and Kamien Slaski near Opole.
To serve the south of Poland, an airport
near Kielce is also in the cards, as
a satellite airport for Krakow.
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NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007 K R A K O W
The Krakow Post 9
Krakow Book Fair comes to an end
Poet Marcin Swietlicki.
Alicja Natkaniec
STAFF JOURNALIST
The 11th annual Krakow Book Fair
closed its doors on Sunday after four days
of frenzied trading, talks and networking
attended by thousands of dedicated book
lovers and industry connoisseurs.
This informative forum for booksellers,
publishers, librarians, book production services
and above all – lovers of literature,
is one of the biggest of its kind in Poland.
The Krakow Book Fair is held annually
in a huge exhibition hall on Krakow’s ul.
Centralna.
As every year, the event attracted thousands
of people and brought together under
one roof about 500 exhibitors from all
across Poland and hundreds of celebrated
guests. The program included a vast array
of exhibitions, meetings with writers and
professional seminars. It offered access to
the newest books but also business contacts,
cultural meetings and discussions
about trends in the global publishing industry.
The Krakow Book Fair presents emerging,
independent and established authors,
from Poland and abroad. This year the leading
“star” of the fair was Jonathan Carroll
an American writer who achieved fame in
Poland with his renowned book “The Land
of Laughs.” He was in Krakow to present
his latest book titled “Ghost in Love.”
Among the Polish writers signing their
works and meeting with the public were
Wojciech Cejrowski, Katarzyna Grochola,
Roma Ligocka, Malgorzata Musierowicz,
Slawomir Mrozek, Marcin Swietlicki,
Olga Tokarczuk and Janusz L. Wisniewski,
to name but a few. Members of the public
took the opportunity to discuss contemporary
movements in poetry and prose with
established and emerging writers present at
the fair. Publishers presented newly available
publications along with announcing
upcoming titles to be released in time for
winter reading. On offer amongst the many
treats from publishers was Umberto Eco’s
latest work “Storia della bruttezza” (“The
History of Ugliness”), which is currently
premiering in 16 countries.
Among the “greatest hits” there was also
a book by former Polish president and historical
leader of “Solidarity” Lech Walesa
“Moja III RP” (“My 3rd Republic of Poland”).
Other unique offerings included a new
printing of a set of essays and reports by
Ryszard Kapuscinski, the new edition of
famous historical books by Pawel Jasienica
and an interview with one of Poland’s famous
philosophers – Leszek Kolakowski.
Visitors could also buy essays previously
unpublished in Poland by French
writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, books by
José Carlos Somoza, Carlos Fuentes, Etgar
Keret, Caroline Graham, Doris Lessing and
many more.
The highlight of the fair was the presentation
of the prestigious Jan Dlugosz Prize
awarded annually to Polish authors who
excel in the academic field of humanities.
This year’s winner was the esteemed historian
Prof. Jerzy Strzelczyk, in recognition
of his recent work titled “Zapomniane
narody Europy” (“The Forgotten Nations
of Europe”).
Over the last decade, the Krakow Book
Fair has grown to become one of the most
important and prestigious cultural events
promoting the printed word. It has established
a prominent position amongst
literary and publishing communities and
continues to draw increasing interest from
bookshops and publishing houses alike.
In years past it has played host to an
impressive array of important authors including
Stanislaw Lem, Slawomir Mrozek,
Jerzy Pilch, Andrzej Sapkowski, Andrzej
Stasiuk, and Norman Davies, as well as
representatives of culture, politics, science,
art and the media.
They include politicians like Wladyslaw
Bartoszewski, composer Krzysztof Penderecki
and renowned Polish actors – Jerzy
Stuhr, Grazyna Szapolowska and Anna
Dymna.
November of memory: Poland remembers those who passed
From MEMORY on Page 1
a strong belief that the dead eat the food that
is left out for them.
The food is supposed to be consumed in
the morning. In the early church, Christians
would celebrate the anniversary of a martyr’s
death for Christ by serving an all-night vigil,
followed by the Eucharist over their tomb or
place of martyrdom. In the 4th Century the
Christians began to transfer their relics and
celebrate the feast days of specific martyrs
in common. The origin of the Festival of All
Saints as celebrated in the West is related to
Pope Boniface IV, who consecrated the Pantheon
at Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all
the martyrs in 609 or 610.
This feast, dedicated to Saint Mary and the
martyrs, has been celebrated in Rome ever
since. Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics
celebrate All Saints’ Sunday, which is a
commemoration of all saints collectively on
the first Sunday after Pentecost (which is the
50th day after Easter Sunday).
In countries with a Catholic tradition, Nov.
1 is a holiday. Catholics from non-European
countries have distinctive customs related to
this feast.
In Mexico and the Philippines, All Saints’
Day has a very joyful character. In Mexico
there are numerous masquerades, while in
the Philippines the graveyards are thronged
with families. People put up tents and feast
in a picnic-like atmosphere. They also offer
prayers, lay flowers and light candles on the
graves. In Mexico, as well in Portugal and
Spain, offerings are made on this day.
In Spain there is yet another custom. The
play “Don Juan Tenorio” is traditionally performed.
English-speaking countries celebrate the
Festival of All Saints by singing the hymn
“For All The Saints” by William Walshaw
How.
The Feast of All Souls, commemorating
the faithful departed, is celebrated in the
Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church
and also among the Protestants. In the U.S.,
people celebrate Halloween on the night of
Oct. 31. In the streets numerous parades are
held, which sometimes continue until the
morning light. Children disguise themselves
in costumes and wander door-to-door, yelling:
“Trick or treat!” to receive the usual gifts
of candies.
The most prominent Halloween symbol is
a carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside.
All Souls’ Day is also known as the Commemoration
of all the Faithful Departed, Defuncts’
Day (in Mexico and Belgium) or Day
of the Dead (in Italy).
On Nov. 1-2, Polish graveyards are visited
by many people. At the most famous Warsaw
graveyard, Powazki, there is an annual collection
for the renovation of the graves.
Donations are collected by people representing
Polish culture and art, well-known
actors and singers. Powazki Cemetery was
founded in 1790 and now covers 43 hectares.
Fund drives for rescuing cemetery relics are
also conducted at the Old Cemetery in Lodz
and at Rakowicki Cemetery in Krakow
On All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days the
graveyards are the most visited places in Poland.
Despite the amount of people gathered
in one place, nothing disturbs the atmosphere
of silence and reverie.
AGH opens pavilion worth 7mln zloty
Kinga Rodkiewicz
STAFF JOURNALIST
The University of Science and Technology
(AGH) in Krakow – the biggest technical university
in Poland – has a new pavilion worth
7 mln zloty.
The new building belongs to the Department
of Telecommunications and was opened
on Oct. 24 thanks to the financial help of the
Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
“Thanks to money from the ministry,” said
Prof. Antoni Tajdus, the rector of the AGH,
“we can see that our university becomes more
beautiful. The new lecture halls and laboratories
will improve conditions for both students
and staff.”
The number of students who have decided
to study one of the five specializations available
in the department is growing from year
to year. More than 5,000 students are learning
about such things as high-speed networking
and services to the e-world.
The dean of the faculty of electrical, automatic
control, computer and electronic engineering
(Department of Telecommunications
is part of this group), Prof. Tomasz Sznuc, said
during the opening ceremony that “this new
pavilion will solve the problems with the lecture
halls that we had before.”
Students from throughout the AGH agree
that the new facilities bode well for the future.
Student Michal Soltyniak said: “The new
pavilions are always built with high-tech
laboratories, a great value since technology
is changing at a fast rate. We will have welleducated
students, and that will benefit our
futures.”
“Our building isn’t as modern as this new
pavilion,” said Dominik Wojcik, a fifth-year
student in mining and geoengineering. “However,
our building has specific history and
atmosphere thanks to the end-term examinations
when all students are working by the
sweat of their brows. The new pavilion will
have to work to acquire such an extraordinary
atmosphere.”
AGH Pavilion.
LUK Agency

10 The Krakow Post
K R A K O W
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
“Indian Puzzles” pieces together colorful image of India
Adelina Krupski
Photography.
Though having previously exhibited
other works in Warsaw and the Photography
Festival in Lodz, this is her first individual,
public exhibit.
The main space of the Pauza Club, facing
ul. Florianska, holds some of the works, displayed
in a large format. In addition, a separate
room contains the whole twenty-piece
collection lined up, with some of the main
works repeated in a smaller version.
Unfortunately, not all of the photographs
Rzymanek would have liked to share are included
in the exhibit. In fact, it could be said
that there are missing pieces to the puzzle.
Nevertheless, the selection successfully reflects
the vision and approach of the artist,
through astonishing, vivid scenes, conveying
a blend of visual, sensory and spiritual
elements.
For more information, contact or visit:
Pauza
ul. Florianska 18/3 – 1st floor
pauza@pauza.pl
www.pauza.pl
Magdalena Rzymanek, holding the Holga camera, with which she traveled to India and photographed the scenes comprising “Indian Puzzles.”
Adelina Krupski
Staff Journalist
The exhibit titled “Indian Puzzles,” made
up of a series of color photographs taken by
Magdalena Rzymanek during her travels
throughout India last year, is currently on
display at the Pauza Club in Krakow, continuing
until Nov. 30.
Rzymanek, a photographer originating
from the Silesia region in Poland, traveled to
India in December 2006 with the aim of photographing
the country in a way that would
capture its overwhelming sense of variety,
uncertainty, and contrast. She accomplished
this, using a Holga, a cheaply manufactured,
medium-format, 120-film toy camera that
often causes distorting effects, such as light
leaks and blur.
As a result, the photographs come across
as obscure and dreamlike, while also communicating
liveliness through wonderfully
vibrant colors. These effects, states Rzymanek,
“are part of the camera’s charm.”
While the photographer does, for the most
part, retain control over the camera, another
exciting peculiarity of the Holga is the way
in which the final outcome remains unpredictable.
Developed commercially and transferred
onto computer solely for printing purposes,
the photographs are presented in their natural
state, free of any further manipulation.
Rzymanek says that, on her first trip to India
three years ago, she used a digital camera
and found it did not suit the project, as it
failed to meet the desired effect and the photographs
did not have the right impact.
The pieces comprising the collection
are unique, not only for their angle, diversity
and style, but also for the technique by
which they are created. “When taking these
photographs,” says Rzymanek, “I was led
by my emotions.” Consequently, the photographs
depict a variety of subject matters,
such as people, places, architecture, and
animals, encountered in the different areas
of Rzymanek visited, namely the cities of
Delhi, Agra, Goa, Jodhpur, Varanasi, Hyderabad
and Mysore.
According to Rzymanek, “nothing is for
certain in India, either visually or even in the
mentality of the people – everything is there,
tangled together.” She mentions the example
of the gap between wealth and poverty.
“The Taj Mahal, for instance, enormous and
magical, makes an unbelievable impression,
though just outside those walls, it’s filled
with poverty – India is a very contrasting
country.”
Originally having studied biology, Rzymanek
started pursuing photography during
her second year in college, a passion which
led her to enroll in the Warsaw School of
Photos at the exhibit.
“Raz, Dwa, Trzy”
krakowpost.com
Krzysztof Skonieczn
Staff Journalist
This week will be a busy one for the Rotunda Community
Center, which will be hosting two musical performances
by two major Polish bands.
On Sunday, Nov. 4, the club will host the band, Kult.
Wednesday, Nov. 7 will feature a musical performance by
Raz, Dwa, Trzy.
Regardless of the important role Polish lyrics may
play in their songs, both of the groups are, music-wise,
recommendable even for those who are not fluent in the
language.
When, in 1982, vocalist Kazik Staszewski and his
companions changed the name of their band, ‘Novelty
Poland’ to ‘Kult’, they must have done it with a kind of
prophetic vision.
For the past 25 years, the group has become one of
Poland’s “cult bands.”
Deriving from punk rock, the group mixes it’s sounds
with new wave, rock, jazz and traditional Polish balladsall
paired with Staszewski’s charismatic voice and somewhat
controversial personality.
One of the most notorious details about the band is
the unique atmosphere they create during their long and
intense performances: a sense of youthful rebelliousness
that doesn’t seem to grow old, despite the age of the musicians.
Almost ten years junior of ‘Kult’, ‘Raz, Dwa, Trzy’
seems to present a paradoxically higher level of maturity
– if measured by the level of composure.
Their musical style oscillates between rock and smooth
jazz, and the lyrics have the form of contemporary poetry,
to which the soft, pleasing voice of front man Adam
Nowak fits perfectly.
Their interesting and witty songs address subjects of
love and religion. Recently, the band has become increasingly
interested in presenting their own versions of songs
written by famous Polish poets.
In 2002 they recorded an album filled with songs of
Agnieszka Osiecka, for the fifth anniversary of the poet’s
death. Their latest album is called “Młynarski,” the name
of the poet whose songs they are covering.
Even though the pieces are not the group’s original
creations, their renditions offers a fresh look, which is
certainly worth listening to.

NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007 K R A K O W
The Krakow Post 11
Mittal takes the rest of Nowa Huta Steelworks Poland
Michal Wojtas
Staff JOURNALIST
Mittal Steel Co., the world’s largest steel producer,
is now the sole owner of the Nowa Huta steelworks.
The global giant on Oct. 15 bought the remaining
shares owned by the former Polskie Huty Stali government
group, giving it 100 percent control of Poland’s
largest steelworks in Krakow, Czestochowa,
Katowice and Sosnowiec. The consortium, founded
in 1976 in Calcutta, India, by Lakshmi Mittal, has
owned the majority of the Nowa Huta group since
2003, when an agreement on the sale of the government-owned
PHS shares was reached with the Polish
Treasury Ministry.
At that time, Mittal bought the majority of Nowa
Huta shares for 6 mln zloty (1.6 mln euro) and also
agreed to cover 1.6 bln zloty in debts of the four
steelworks and to invest another 2 bln zloty in their
development.
An agreement on the takeover of the remaining
state-owned shares in the PHS was reached in 2004.
However, the price (1 zloty or 3.6 euro per share)
was questioned by the Supreme Chamber of Control
(NIK), an audit body controlling all state institutions.
The NIK decision was proved right.
Now Mittal has agreed to pay 6.5 zloty per share
to become the sole owner of the group. The government
sold its remaining shares for 436 mln zloty.
According to the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza,
the Polish Treasury will earn 2 bln zloty on this
year’s privatization deals, 1 bln less than planned. In
2005, the first year of the government led by the Law
and Justice Party (PiS), the Treasury earned only 600
mln zloty.
Takeovers of public sector industries by private
companies have been one of the most important
changes in the Polish economy since communism
collapsed in 1989. The most impressive year was
2000 when the state recorded 27.1 bln zloty from
privatization.
Nowa Huta steelworks was one of the most important
enterprises in Communist Poland after World
War II.
An entire district of Krakow, initially a separate
city with 200,000 inhabitants, was built to meet the
housing needs of Nowa Huta workers.
At its peak, the steelworks named after Soviet
Communist leader Lenin employed 40,000 people
and produced 7 mln tons of steel a year.
As the steel industry slumped in the 80s, both
numbers went down. Now the steelworks has no
more than 10,000 workers, and this is expected to
continue decreasing.
“Rahim Blak” says Al-Fan Center
of Islamic Culture underway
Monika Stumpo
Staff Journalist
“Rahim Blak” is a group acting as the
driving force behind the proposed building
of the new Al-Fan Center of Islamic Culture
that is hoped to be built in Salwator.
“Rahim Blak” is a pseudonym taken
from the name of Rahim, an emigrant from
Kosovo.
Dozens of local residents of Salwator
voiced their discomfort with the building
of the facility at a conference on Wednesday
night, Oct. 24, at the Auditorium
Maximum. The audience, both Muslim and
Christian, ranged from art students to the
older local residents.
The artist wants it to be a place for intercultural
discussion where average Poles
can learn more about Islamic Culture an
d also serve as a gathering place for the
about 300 Islamic families living in the
Małopolska Province.
Rahim sat in the front, prepared to present
his views to the gathering and hear
theirs.
An old man with his wife stood and complained
that it was “different.” A younger
member of the audience shouted back “By
different do you mean bad?” The conference
organizers stressed that being different
was “the whole point.” It would be a
unique addition to the art and culture scene
in Krakow. “Rahim Blak” is philosophical
about the planned construction. “The location
of Al-Fan is still only a proposal. It’s
like playing ping-pong. We propose a site.
It gets rejected but eventually one will get
through. You can’t assume that you will get
acceptance on the first try.” He adds, “If the
location of the center is the main problem,
then there is really no problem at all.”
The conference began with a recitation
“Rahim Blak” is
a group acting as
the driving force
behind the proposed
building of
the new Al-Fan
Center of Islamic
Culture that is
hoped to be built
in Salwator.
from the Koran by Idris Sajjad. The hope
was that this calming exposure to the Muslim
religion would reassure the dissidents
that the center would be an asset to the
community.
Marta Raczek, an acclaimed art historian,
talked about “art that can really have
an impact.”
This included avant-garde art that made
its way into public acceptance. Raczek added
that “Rahim Blak’s” Islamic Center was
not just another monument or “Duchamp
fountain” but would enrich lives on many
levels. Al-Fan, which means art in Arabic,
would, she continued, appeal to a wider audience
than “shocking modern art.”
Stanislaw Denko, a renowned Krakowian
architect who designed Auditorium
Maximum, is designing Al-Fan.
The proposal calls for space to hold art
exhibitions as well as a lecture hall. This
would be similar to Krakow’s Center of
Japanese Art and Technology, Manggha.
Another feature of Al-Fan would be a
prayer room for the few Muslim’s residing
in Krakow and the surrounding area.
“Rahim Blak” addressed the real concern
of the nearby residents. Can Poles be accepting
of a different religion and culture in
their neighborhood? Muslims from around
Poland agreed with an unidentified Muslim
doctor from Silesia who stated, “We are
Poles.” He stressed that he wanted this as a
center that reflected his religion and did not
want it taken over by fundamentalists.
“Rahim Blak” agreed that there was no
place at the center for the intolerance and
isolationism associated with Islamic Fundamentalism.
When asked by an art student, the artist
admitted that the center is an excellent
venue to promote “Rahim Blak’s” work but
added that the goals extended to benefiting
all of his “brothers.” “Rahim Blak” does
not plan to run Al-Fan Center, just to set
the idea into motion.
krakowpost.com

12 The Krakow Post
K A T O W I C E
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
Ecological town to be built near Siewierz
the krakow post
TUP Company, the owner of a dozen
hectares of attractive ground in Siewierz, in
a green district on Perzycko-Siewierski Bay,
wants to build a new town of about 5,000 inhabitants.
There will be not only apartments
but also places to rest and work.
The concept of the town was worked out
by 12 town planners from various countries.
The town will consist of four parts, each of
which will have its own market. It is planned
to build low-income houses in the market
and terraced houses along the streets. Farther
from city center the apartment houses
will be low-rise. This areas will be small and
pedestrian-friendly. The town is planned to
be self-sufficient. There will be shops, cafes,
various services and a church. The town will
also have ecological solutions, including
biological sewage treatment. The town’s energy
would come from sun-panels and biomass
burning. Rainwater would be used to
wash out the toilets. According to Wojciech
Halicki, a biologist and specialist of ecology,
such ecological solutions will be no more
expensive than standard treatments. .
Halicki is an author of the idea, but the
project was worked out in cooperation with
a group of specialists during “Charrette”
workshops. This modern apartment district
is going to be built according to the American
pattern of ecological town-garden with
its own market, yacht port, church, hotels
and shops. This town of 120 square kilometers
will be open, created according to
the innovative methods of Charrette. The
term “Charrette” arose in France in the 19th
Century in the Paris Academy of Fine Arts.
Originally it signified a trolley used by assistants
to collect drawings during an exam.
Today it is used to describe innovative planning
methods. First stages of the town’s construction
are expected in 2008.
The project is expected to be finished in
20-25 years. It will be realized in four stages.
The first houses will be built in 2009-2010.
A 40-room motel in turn and a 1120-room
hotel and conference center will be built in
2011/2012, before Euro 2012.
“We estimate the value of the whole project
at about 900 mln zloty – 1 bln zloty. In
the first stage we will have to invest about
100 mln zloty, but we hope the project will
be, at least partly, self financed,” Robert
Moritz, the chief of TUP told PAP.
Prices of the new city’s houses and apartments
are unknown but the town is expected
to be a great attraction for tourists, scientists
and planning specialists.
16th Fusion Festival
Justyna Krzywicka
sTAFF JOURNALIST
The 16th Fusion Festival in Silesia will begin
on Nov. 9 lasting until Nov. 27.
It will include various musical, artistic, literary
and theatrical events.
The festival will kick off with a performance
by Denez Prigent from Brittany. The
performer is the first to combine traditional
folk music from Brittany with modern electronics.
Trip-hop, electronics as well as jazz
are fused with traditional Gwerz vocals and
hymns.
The Kronos Quartet will perform on Nov.
10 at the Gornoslaski Centrum Kultury (Silesian
Cultural Center) in Katowice.
The Quartet will include Henryk Mikolaj
Gorecki quartets into their program, which
includes “The Songs Are Sung.”
The Silesian Quartet concert will be completely
devoted to celebrating the works of
the American composer Philip Glass.
In the second week of the concert audiences
will be able to appreciate the Il Giardino
Armonico group in the church of Saint Apostles
Peter and Paul in Katowice. The group
will penetrate the various levels of European
baroque music. The renowned violinist Christophe
Coin will perform the solos.
The closing of the festival will see England’s
alternative Piano Magic performers. In
the Teatr Rozrywki (Entertainment Theatre)
the group will satisfy all those seeking ethereal
independent vibes at the festival.
Other alternative performers will include
France’s Loyola, Troy Von Balthazar, George
Dorn Screams as well as the phenomenal
French group Jack the Ripper.
The newly discovered Parisian group
Caravan Palace is set to entice all with their
electric-swing performance. Performers from
Moldavia, Romania, Turkey and Serbia also
form part of the program.
Graphic art events will be held at the Galeria
Rondo with works displayed by artists
such as Roland Topor. Topor’s translator will
present the works and life of the artist as well
as Marie Binet from Paris.
Other events include photo exhibitions
from the young photographer Andrzej Tobis
who with his “A-Z” exhibition depicts the
stereotypes existing between Poles and Germans.
Literary and poetic evenings with Chin
Zhu Hao and Wang Yin are also part of the
program, as well as various other young Polish
and English poets.
Info about the festival and booking of tickets
can be found at: www.cameralis.art.pl
Silesia faces need for more police officers
Kinga Rodkiewicz
sTAFF JOURNALIST
Silesia needs police officers.
The main police station is struggling to
hire an additional 800 police officers. One
source may be a series of meetings with unemployed
people, which is being organized
by labor exchanges. If this tactic is successful
in hiring officers for the main police station, it
may be tried throughout the country.
According to the daily newspaper Gazeta
Wyborcza, employment agency clerks are
combing lists of 1,700 registered jobless
people in Silesia to find suitable police candidates.
Some of the requirements: at least a secondary
education, Polish citizenship and an
unimpeachable reputation.
In addition, candidates must meet psychological
and physical standards and have no
criminal record.
A police career offers the advantage of
early retirement – as soon as 15 years. However,
interest expressed at the unemployment
meetings has been minimal so far.
In Katowice, only 20 people attended a
meeting and only two expressed interest in a
police career.
In Gliwice, police presented a special recruiting
film, but three meetings attracted
only 90 people. Unemployed Silesians are
reluctant to attend the meetings and be identified
for fear that if they refuse to apply for police
jobs, they will lose their unemployment
benefits and social insurance.
“I know from television and the Internet
that the police are recruiting people,” said
Marcin Tycfrom Wodzislaw Slaski, an unemployed
graduate of Silesian University. “But
I’m not interested in being a policeman. Low
pay and outdated equipment at the police stations
discourage me from taking a job. Politicians
promise modernization of the police,
but they have never kept their word.”
Another skeptic of the police recruitment
campaign is Przemyslaw Koperski, director
of the Employment Agency in Silesia.
“The police have to understand that the labor
market has become a worker’s market,”
Koperski told Gazeta Wyborcza. “Without increasing
wages and improving working conditions,
the recruiting drives won’t mobilize
young people to wear police uniforms.”
Inspector Arkadiusz Pawelczylm, vice
commandant of the police, says salaries are
scheduled to rise.
“New recruits will receive about 2,200
zloty per month, an increase of about 500
zloty,” he told Gazeta Wyborcza.
String of hotels to be
built in Katowice
Joanna Zabierek
STAFF JOURNALIST
Katowice needs more hotels. Katowice
has hosted few big events recently, such as
sport, cultural and trade meetings. The main
problem for people visiting the capital of
Silesia is a lack of hotel rooms.
Katowice aspires to be a metropolis attracting
tourists, investors and artists of
world fame. The region is developing very
quickly, and the city wants to be well prepared
to be an optional site for Euro 2012,
the European football championships.
As the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza
reports, accommodations for average tourists
are the biggest problem. Katowice has
only about 800 sleeping rooms of average
standards.
That is far too few to house visitors for
such events as the concert by the Red Hot
Chili Peppers, not to mention Euro 2012.
So Katowice definitely needs development
in this area. So far it has only Spodek,
a great spectator arena, where all major
events take place.
But that is not enough to keep tourists in
this city or even the region. Having problems
finding a “bed and breakfast,” they flee
from Katowice looking for a more convenient
place.
A good solution for Katowice would be
building a few low-cost hotels for the average
tourist who doesn’t need any extra facilities,
but just wants to sleep in decent and
clean conditions. Such hotels would bring a
great benefit to restaurants, pubs and shops
and also to museums, theaters and galleries.
Does the city have any hotel plans? A few
have been started. Near expressway A4, next
to the shopping center “Threeponds,” the
building of the “System” hotel continues.
There will be more than 200 rooms of
two- and three-star standards. Near Novotel,
the two-star “Etap” hotel has been built.
Plans for the next few years include erecting
two hotels: one next to Silesia Center
and the other near Katowice Business
Center. They will have a total of about 500
rooms, Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
These investments are a good step forward.
But they are not enough. The center of
Katowice needs renovation.
And hotels could be a major element of
the city’s new image. The railway station
area is sleazy. One attractive hotel would
make the area more attractive to tourists.
And it is not only the railway station area
that needs revitalization.
Many other districts, squares and streets
are neglected.
The city authorities have no precise plan
yet. But derelict tenement houses could be
renovated into small hotels and hostels.
Such a development would revive the center
of Katowice and make this place more
hospitable for tourists, businessmen and
particularly for students, who usually look
for cheap accommodations in the center of
the city.
Joanna Zabierek
sTAFF JOURNALIST
Being a freelancer has a lot of advantages:
You’re independent, you can work
flexible hours and there is no supervisor
behind your back.
But not everything is rose-colored.
Without others around, freelancing can be
lonely.
Sharing an office allows freelancers to
be independent while enjoying the benefits
of a traditional office, including the contact
with others.
Office sharing has become popular in
the U.S. Now it’s starting to be seen in
Poland.
Office sharing gives you proper office
equipment, a place to meet clients, phone
services and a mailing address. It also fills
people’s need to socialize.
Before office sharing swept across
America, freelancers who felt isolated
would often work in a coffee shop for a
time each day. Although this gave them a
chance to be around others, the “others”
were usually not people with whom they
could relate to through work.
Office sharing is more than just using
the same workspace. It is also about networking
with others who are involved in
an independent work existence.
For example, it’s often difficult to become
inspired when you’re working alone
at home, having little or no contact with
the outside world. You can feel almost
paralyzed sometimes by the lack of contact
and stimulation.
So far, office sharing in Poland is
available only in Warsaw, Wroclaw and
Poznan.
Kuba Filipowski of Poznan created the
first office-sharing facility in the country.
Some time back, the Web page designer
decided to give up his full-time job for
freelancing. He quickly learned how isolated
he could get working at home.
So he and two colleagues rented an
office together. The sharing arrangement
has worked so well that they are trying to
popularize the idea.
The U.S. has companies that specialize
in arranging office-sharing space.
In Poland one can only dream about it.
Filikipowski and his colleagues had to do
everything on their own. They found the
J O B S
Sharing an office: Solution for freelancers
location. They even bought the furniture
and equipment.
Office sharing can have its problems, including
conflicts among co-workers doing
different jobs. For example, at a time when
one worker needs quiet to concentrate, another
is having to make phone calls.
Filipowski said the answer is to create
a set of rules that all office sharers must
follow.
“If we organize it well, there should be
no problem,” he said.
Filipowski said some jobs that people
do as independent agents don’t lend themselves
to office sharing. “Some jobs require
having to have a quiet representative
office – for example, architect, investment
consultant or financial advisor.”
Because of computers and the Internet,
however, more and more people are able
to work from home.
America’s experience shows that not
long after home-based workers shout with
joy over not having to spend eight hours
in an office, they “start to feel the lack of
a community spirit and inspiration,” Filipowski
said. And that bodes well for his
new business.
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NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
A L T E R N A T I V E C O N S U M E R The Krakow Post 13
Fire in the mouth: Poland’s
bootleg vodka tradition
CC:2.5:Bartosz Senderek
When a Pole asks a foreigner what he associates with Poland, he almost always hears the same answer: strong vodka.
Kinga Rodkiewicz
STAFF JOURNALIST
When a Pole asks a foreigner what he associates
with Poland, he almost always hears the same
answer: strong vodka.
The popularity of Polish alcohols is connected
with a long history of making alcoholic drinks and
with recipes handed down for generations.
For centuries, Polish people have produced
homemade alcoholic drinks. The technology of
producing vodka came to Poland in the 13th and
14th centuries, thanks to Arabian and Italian merchants.
The first written document about vodka
dates to 1405, from a court in Randomizer.
The golden age for the alcohol industry developed
in the 16th Century when Poland became
known as Europe’s granary.
Corn production was so high that surpluses not
used for food and alcohol production were exported
to western Europe. In that era, each noble
family produced its own unique liquor made from
different fruits and herbs.
Almost every male convent also produced alcoholic
drinks. Even the peasants, especially along
the Polish borderland, produced their own alcohols;
the most popular were made from quince and
wild strawberries.
During the 17th Century, Krakow was the center
of vodka production. The alcohol was exported
to Silesia, and then to what is now the Czech Republic,
Germany and Austria.
In 1782 Jan Baczewski opened the first big distillery
in Lviv, which produced vodka and some
liquors. The label stated: “The only vodka which
is as good as Baczewski’s vodka is the Russian alcohol
of Peter Smirnoff from Moscow.”
The Smirnoff label contained the same statement
about Baczewski’s vodka. In Communist
Poland after World War II, it was difficult to buy
a bottle of good vodka because of the limitation
created by alcohol rationing coupons.
In response, many Poles produced homemade
alcohol. However, those who manufactured homemade
vodka were said to be enemies of the state
and were targets of TV and newspaper campaigns.
Posters from that era depicted old, hunched-over
men with eyeglasses and walking sticks in emaciated
hands.
The poster said: “Homemade vodka is the cause
of blindness.” Police raids destroyed the home distilleries,
and the offenders were arrested and jailed.
The most popular drinks in the People’s Republic
of Poland were liquors made from caraway, anise,
barberry, mint, blackberries and ginger. Other
drinks included hunter vodka, peach brandy, pear
brandy, juniper vodka and many others.
Today, the best-known homemade alcohol may
be plum brandy from Lacko in southeast Poland.
First the drinker notices the tempting smell of
the plums. When he drinks a glass, he feels the fire
in his mouth and a great flavor as well. Then the
delightful warmth spreads into his body.
“Plum brandy gives vim and blushes cheeks,”
a label says. But one has to be careful how many
glasses he drinks. The sweet homemade brandy is
75 percent alcohol.
In 1992, the heritage conservator (a person who
is responsible for the preservation and renovation
of monuments) acknowledged the Lacko brandy
as a national cultural landmark.
According to documents dating to 1698, the
brandy story begins with the people of Lacko
growing plum trees.
Serfs picked the plums and delivered them to
the manor, where the fruits were used to produce
alcohol. Lacko’s golden age began in 1882 when
a Jewish family rented a parish ground and built
a distillery.
From 1882 to 1912, Samuel Grossbard owned
the company. In 1912 a record 15,000 liters of
plum brandy was produced.
The brandy was delivered to neighboring shops
with a label certifying it as a high-quality drink.
From 1960 to 1980, Henry Maciuszek and Joseph
Biernacki, headmasters at the local primary school,
created the distinctive labels. They can still be seen
on the web site: www.sliwowica.net.pl
On a nationwide scale, the quality of Lacko
brandy became well known thanks to Inkas Ferber,
who married Grossbard’s daughter. Ferber used
only the best fruits and well-made equipment, including
oak casks in which the brandy matured.
At that time, alcohol was exported mainly to
Palestine.
When WWII broke out and Jews were arrested,
alcohol production collapsed in Poland. But soon
after the war ended, people started to make their
alcohol again.
Since 2004, the process has been celebrated at
the European Fest of the Plum Brandy and Picking
Fruit.
The biggest attraction of this day is a stand
where everyone can see the process of plum brandy
production. According to a 2006 Polish law,
producing plum brandy – as well as other homemade
alcohol drinks – is a crime unless the distillery
is properly registered.
Franciszek Mlynarczyk, mayor of Lacko, has
helped write a law that proposes the production of
homemade alcohols.
“Our fruit growers produce 5,000 liters of plum
brandy a year,” Mlynarczyk told Dziennik. “The
Internal Revenue wants me to denounce the people
who produce the brandy. The police do nothing because
in Lacko everybody knows each other.”
Actually, the Ministry of Agriculture and Finance
organized a commission to prepare the rules
of production and retail trade for the home-made
alcohols.
However, the act to legalize domestic alcohols
hasn’t been enacted yet.
That’s why homemade Lacko brandy cannot be
bought at a shop.
Jacob, a college student from Lacko, said:
“Only trustworthy people who know the right
time and place can obtain a bottle. It costs 45 to
50 zloty.”
Opponents of legalization of homemade alcohols
say they are dangerous to health. In comparison
to national companies in which there are some
quality controls, the lack of standards for homemade
production is the main cause of concern.
Even good bootleg vodka may contain some
alcohols that are said to be carcinogens, or cancer
agents.
There is also a possibility of methanol contamination.
Methanol even in minimal concentrations
can cause blindness and death.
However, plum brandy gourmets hope that the
government, following a Balkans example where
homemade alcohol is legal, will legalize it in Poland.
Then there will be no obstacles to buying it
in the shops and feeling from time to time that fire
in the mouth.
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14 The Krakow Post A L T E R N A T I V E C O N S U M E R
NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
Butoh dance performance pairs
the sublime with the macabre
Cremaster tours Poland
Encounters with Jewish Culture
Monday, November 5th, 2007,
6:00 p.m.
Religion and the Questions of
Boundaries – A meeting with
Prof. Tomasz WĘCŁAWSKI and
Beata POKORSKA of Questions
of Boundaries Research Group,
University of Poznan.
Fear – A meeting with Prof. Jan
T. GROSS and presentation of
the Polish edition of his book;
organized jointly with the ZNAK
Publishing House.
Thursday, November 8th, 2007,
6:00 p.m.
Opening of an exhibition of drawings
and prints by Ryszard BILAN
(France).
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007,
6:00 p.m.
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Philip Palmer
Staff Journalist
Last Tuesday, Swieta Krowa played host to a complex and emotionally
charged but ultimately beguiling performance of Butoh dance by
Seattle-based expert and instructor, Joan Laage. She was joined by regular
collaborator, Tomek Choloniewski, on an unconventional percussion
kit, partially composed of upside-down pots and pans and Krzysztof
Trzewiczek, on electronics. Laage lived in Krakow for a couple of years
before returning recently to the States, and the audience contained many
ex-students and acquaintances, lending the whole event a bizarre homecoming
aura.
Butoh is a hybrid Expressionist dance form that emerged in traumatized
post-war Japan and combines elements of theater, improvisation
and traditional Japanese performance art in an attempt to discover what
it means to be human. Reality is often grotesquely distorted in an attempt
to get to the heart of the matter and anger and pain, and the other raw
primeval emotions that we share with our cousins in the animal world
are unleashed and allowed to roam free or snuffed out as the performer
sees fit. In order to further emphasize humanity’s increasingly tenuous
relationship with nature (and by implication, cast off the twin curses of
modern society, technology and progress), some performers attempt to
“transform” themselves into other beings. Many performers also have
an ambiguous attitude towards their sexuality while performing and this
is probably why the fetal state and old age have an important symbolic
significance in many performances.
A very basic narrative sequence was decided before the performance.
Laage started off nestled inside an alcove above the stage in fetal position,
a spindly finger gesturing mysteriously, and ended up making her
way through the audience to a raised platform behind the seating area,
encouraging participation as she went. Everything that happened in between
was freely improvised. The musicians and dancer had agreed before
the performance to try not to follow each other, so sometimes the
music matched the dancing, sometimes it didn’t, which led both to moments
of glorious serendipity when the music perfectly seemed to mirror
or add something extra to the dance and moments of alienation, where
frenetic stage activity was accompanied by momentous silences or tender
moments by cacophony.
Further distance was created by Laage’s use of reality-distorting contortions
and flickering reptilian movements. She explained to me after
the performance that it is assumed that in a standing position, we are perfectly
balanced, but, in fact, “stillness is an illusion,” and through using
minute movements, she believes it is possible to discover life’s rhythm,
our bodies and our internal state.
As she transformed herself into different states of being, often portraying
various emotions in the process, what had happened before was conveniently
forgotten. At one point she shielded her face in terror from the
lamp that hung above the stage. Later, she playfully dangled it below her
face, which was plastered in the customary white Butoh face paint, giving
it a ghostly aura. She removed her sailor’s cap to reveal a fluffy parrot
that was carefully placed on the pipe that ringed the stage, and sat there
for the rest of the performance, forlorn and unloved. As she removed
her top layer of clothes, her emotions changed. With her pants, went her
prudery and a sensuous interlude followed involving splayed legs and
a red rose. With her jacket, went her cocksureness, to be replaced by a
beseeching childlike wonder.
Laage told me after the performance that she hoped I had discovered
more about my own body. I am not so sure about that, but the performance
certainly challenged staunchly-held assumptions in a very original way
and somehow managed to draw the audience in, despite the numerous
distance-creating effects.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF KRAKÓW
The International Women’s Association of Krakow (IWAK) is a
multicultural, social and family oriented organization providing
friendship, advice and support to its members, either in Krakow
area temporary or permanently.
There is a wide range of interest groups which you are welcome
to participate in: Book Club, Cooking Club, Kids Club, Playgroup,
Bible Studies, Tennis, Aerobics Club, Dance Club, Craft
Club, Charity Group. Any one is welcome to share their talents
with others and start a new group/club.
Throughout the year, there are many social events on either a
monthly basis or specific dates for special occasions. Our monthly
newsletter is published to keep you informed of IWAK activities
and tips about life in Krakow.
Our web site: www.iwak.pl
Soren A. Gauger
STAFF JOURNALIST
A typical problem when faced with contemporary art: half
an hour into the first (of five) installments of Matthew Barney’s
“Cremaster” film series, which is “on tour” in Poland this
month and played at Krakow’s Pod Baranami Cinemas Oct.
29-31, the university professor sitting next to me whispers in
my ear: “Do you think they’re trying to make fools of us?” This
anxiety of the modern art viewer – afraid to be delighted in case
the artist is playing a joke on their lack of sophistication, afraid
to boo in case lurking under all the glitzy nonsense is something
brilliant that they haven’t perceived – this is a situation, I
believe, that is fairly unique to the history of art, and which has
reached pathological proportions of late. The average visitor to
a contemporary art gallery adopts a stony face, and does his/her
best to show no response whatsoever to anything on display.
Matthew Barney is a 40-year-old native of San Francisco
who is already considered part of the canon of American visual
art. He started making video art in 1990, earned a reputation
as an enfant terrible, moved on to film and performance,
and to top it all off married Icelandic pop sensation Bjork. The
Cremaster series is already being touted as his “masterpiece,”
and was made between 1994-2002. On a more provincial note,
I have never seen the Pod Baranami cinemas more clogged
with fashionable young people desperate to get their hands on
tickets. In our first film two blimps fly over a technicolor-blue
(all colors here are highly-saturated) football field, upon which
dance a team of women in odd harlequin costumes. The blimps
are peopled by bored stewardesses, tables filled with grapes
and with centerpieces of a statue that might be disfigured phalli
or the legs of satyrs, and women in lingerie under the tables.
The women under the tables eat grapes, the grapes come out of
their high-heeled shoes, and then they rearrange these grapes
into different patterns, which are then mimicked by the harlequin-women
on the football field. This is repeated many times,
for over half an hour. And that’s it.
Anyone putting forth an interpretation of this film, treating
the content seriously, will indeed probably end up making a
fool of himself. This is not because the film is non-narrative:
Roy Andersen’s Songs from the Seventh Floor and Sokolov’s
Russian Ark are only two examples of non-narrative films
about which there is a great deal to say. The strange feeling of
emptiness one gets in watching Cremaster 1 and 2 must come
from somewhere else.
It partly comes, no doubt, from Barney’s palette. These
films are hyper-stylized, a blend of video art, high-budget commercial,
and music video aesthetics. Every hair-do, manicure,
cosmetics job and piece of furniture is the subject of the most
meticulous detail. As such, these films give the impression of
being “designed” (some might prefer to say “sculpted”), and
for the first five minutes there is a certain intoxicating effect
that comes in watching them.
But ultimately a non-narrative film depends a great deal on
the director’s intuition, and though any judgement of this must
be enormously subjective, the Cremaster films do not impress
here. Cremaster 2, which is more interesting than the first, depends
on a series of cloaked or literal bee metaphors, many of
which are only wrapped up together by a short speech by a man
playing Houdini. Barney may succeed in playing some interesting
tricks with his honeycomb symbols, but the overwhelming
impression is that it adds up to nothing. And many of the
individual scenes (a phallus ejaculating honey, a death-metal
vocalist covered in swarming bees, etc.) reveal an artist with a
fairly second-rate capacity for creating a metaphor.
Somewhere in Barney’s promotional materials, one no
doubt finds a line like: “Barney takes all the refuse and detritus
of modern civilization and spins it into gold.” America is currently
filled to the brim with artists working on this project, of
course, but Barney is rare in his sincerity. He really would like
you to find mythology in a Goodyear advertisement, beauty in
a gas-station uniform. Warhol would never have gone this far:
Barney is painting Campbell’s Soup cans and wants you to find
poetry, not irony.
There is, of course, the possibility that I am guilty of watching
these films the wrong way, and that one need turn off the
critical part of your brain while watching Barney’s films and
simply delight in their candy-colored over-abundance. But if
this is the case, things are very badly off for America’s contemporary
art, indeed.

NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007
C L A S S I F I E D S
The Krakow Post
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