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

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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