Poland

tczubernat said:
Anyway, I haven't followed the news stories very closely coming from Poland, but from all appearances, whether it's due to a real threat from its borders or not, we are witnessing a political alignment that is completely based on generational trauma and memory.
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Hi Tczubernat,

I like the idea regarding trauma and memory. I think that Polish people cannot "let it go" and also are not learning based on their/our "experience/history". I am 29, and I know lots of my polish peers which still cannot separate emotions connected to WWII or Communism. They do not like Germans and Russians in general, feel betrayed by Allies etc. . I know the history and understand that these experiences were very bad and unbelievable, but in the other hand we should take these lessons to our hearts and stop feed ourselves with negative emotions from the past. We should not forget, but in the same time we should "let it go".

This is also seen on the political side of that. In the foreign politics Poland is "good friend" of USA, which remembers about Poland only when they need something. Poland is divided and someone wants to continue that. This can be seen in our internal politics. Two sides of the current political scene are doing the same: playing on poor people emotions. In the media there is no real constructive discussion/information about important stuff. There is only discussion about some BS, not meaningful "reforms" which are not helping with anything at all.

So, in my opinion, the worst feature of majority of Poles is "huge difficulty in learning based on experience/history".
 
It's being reported that Mayor Pawel Adamowicz has died from his injuries.

14 Jan, 2019 - Polish mayor stabbed in shocking on-stage attack dies in hospital
Polish mayor stabbed in shocking on-stage attack dies in hospital

5c3c3ef7dda4c865118b459d.jpg

© YouTube / Grzegorz Czeczot

The mayor of Poland’s northern city of Gdansk, who was critically injured by a knifeman during a charity concert performance, has succumbed to his wounds in hospital, a medical official has said.

Mayor Pawel Adamowicz was on Sunday stabbed several times by a man claiming to have been wrongfully accused and jailed. Known only as Stefan W., the attacker ran to the stage at an annual charity event collecting money for Polish medical facilities. The assault took place right in front of a crowd of people. The knifeman then grabbed the microphone, accusing the mayor’s party, The Civil Platform, of his alleged ordeal.

The 53-year-old Adamowicz suffered a serious injury to the heart as well as cuts to his diaphragm and abdominal organs and had to be resuscitated right on stage before being hospitalized. He underwent emergency surgery and was placed on life support “in a very critical condition,” Jerzy Karpinski, a physician with the Gdansk regional health department, told the Polish PAP news agency. Adamowicz succumbed to his injuries on Monday.

Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski has called the knifeman “a repeat offender who has been convicted of armed robberies,” in a Twitter post, denying that there was any political motive behind the incident.

The 27-year-old attacker, himself a resident of Gdansk, was wearing a press badge, police said, explaining how he managed to get to the stage.

Published on Jan 13, 2019 (0:28 min.)
 
Gruchaa said:
Hi Tczubernat,

I like the idea regarding trauma and memory. I think that Polish people cannot "let it go" and also are not learning based on their/our "experience/history". I am 29, and I know lots of my polish peers which still cannot separate emotions connected to WWII or Communism. They do not like Germans and Russians in general, feel betrayed by Allies etc. . I know the history and understand that these experiences were very bad and unbelievable, but in the other hand we should take these lessons to our hearts and stop feed ourselves with negative emotions from the past. We should not forget, but in the same time we should "let it go".

This is also seen on the political side of that. In the foreign politics Poland is "good friend" of USA, which remembers about Poland only when they need something. Poland is divided and someone wants to continue that. This can be seen in our internal politics. Two sides of the current political scene are doing the same: playing on poor people emotions. In the media there is no real constructive discussion/information about important stuff. There is only discussion about some BS, not meaningful "reforms" which are not helping with anything at all.

So, in my opinion, the worst feature of majority of Poles is "huge difficulty in learning based on experience/history".
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Yeah, it's the same thing I see, but make no mistake, this generational trauma is a real thing. My family has been in the US since 1981 and my dad still has dreams about fighting Russians. He was born in '44, so missed the war, but was raised in a brutal atmosphere. People were shooting others in the streets after accusations of "fascist", or "communist" were thrown around. Things were brutally raw, but that's just recent history. This goes back centuries.

I'm the second generation post war and ad recently met someone from Belarus. It was a decent conversation till he mentioned that he served in the Soviet army and was involved in operations in Poland. That was when this generational trauma became real for me. Here was this decent guy and the conversation wasn't bad, but when he mentioned the Soviet thing, I felt something rise up inside me that was close to rage. It passed and I didn't act on it, but it was real.
I don't know what to make of Putin. He's former KGB, which doesn't help his popularity in Poland, but his image as the new Russian bogeyman seems to be overblown. It really should be a time of rebuilding of relationships, but it's like you said; people are easily stoked emotionally and so it goes . . . in Poland and around the world.
 
Carrying flags and candles in cold streets, thousands of Poles walked on Friday beside the coffin of Gdansk’s former mayor Pawel Adamowicz who was stabbed on stage at a charity event.

January 18, 2019 - Thousands walk with coffin of murdered Polish Mayor
Thousands walk with coffin of murdered Polish mayor | Reuters

A car drove Adamowicz’s corpse slowly through the Baltic coast city from the museum of the Solidarity movement that helped to bring down communism in Poland 30 years ago.

From there, it passed schools, monuments and other places significant in 53-year-old Adamowicz’s life, en route to the city’s main church, St Mary’s Basilica, for burial on Saturday.

The streets, in some places covered with thin snow, were blocked, as crowds paid tribute to one of Poland’s longest-serving mayors who ran the city since 1998 and beat the candidate of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party in October.

“We all feel great emptiness after the mayor has gone, mostly because he left in such a way, such a town, such a moment. I think that a certain stage of history, of humanity, is over,” said mourner Ewa Wasinska-Stelter, 46, a teacher.

r
People take part in procession following the coffin of Pawel Adamowicz, Gdansk mayor who died after being stabbed at a charity event, in Gdansk, Poland January 18, 2019. Agencja Gazeta/Renata Dabrowska via REUTERS
 
Murdered Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz’s funeral drew tens of thousands of people in the Polish Baltic coast city on Saturday amid outrage over his murder six days ago.

Sat. January 19, 2019 - Murdered Polish Mayor's Funeral draws crowd of 45,000 in Gdansk
Murdered Polish mayor's funeral draws crowd of 45,000 in Gdansk | Reuters

Banners with black and white pictures of Adamowicz were draped over buildings as Polish politicians including former president Lech Walesa, who helped to overturn communism in Eastern Europe, joined a mass at St Mary’s Basilica.

European Council President Donald Tusk and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also joined mourners who listened to the choir as they awaited the burial of Adamowicz’s ashes.

Adamowicz, one of Poland’s longest-serving mayors, was attacked on stage during one of Poland’s biggest annual charity events and died the following day.

Broadcaster TVN24 said 3,500 mourners gathered inside the 500-year-old Gothic cathedral on Saturday, while others watched Gdansk archbishop Leszek Slawoj Glodz give family members rosaries and gifts sent by Pope Francis on huge screens.

“What happened on Sunday evening ... was perceived as a violent constant sound of a alarming bell, call for saving the conscience and changing the way of our living, political style,” Glodz told mourners during the Mass.

The murder of a liberal critic of Poland’s ruling party’s anti-immigrant policies highlights the charged atmosphere in parts of eastern Europe where populist leaders have fanned nationalist sentiment.

As well as encouraging migrants to seek refuge in Gdansk, Adamowicz was known for backing a campaign to defend the rule of law against what activists consider efforts by the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party to increase political control over the judiciary and other bodies.

SOLIDARITY
On Friday, 53,000 people paid tribute to Adamowicz, who beat the PiS in October, while he lay in state in the museum of the Solidarity movement that helped to usurp communism in Poland.

Police said some 45,000 people had attended the funeral.

Polish authorities have arrested a 27-year-old former convict, named only as Stefan W., over the killing. He was freed last month after serving 5-1/2 years for attempted bank robbery.

The attacker accused the mayor’s former party of putting him in prison, where he said he was tortured, at the event.

Adamowicz was one of 11 Polish mayors targeted with fake death certificates by a far-right group called All-Polish Youth in 2017, after signing a declaration to welcome refugees in opposition to government policy.

Critics blame Poland’s politicians for cranking up hate speech and support for the PiS party fell to 30 percent in the wake of Adamowicz’s death, a poll conducted by Kantar Millward Brown showed, from 33 percent in November. The biggest opposition grouping Koalicja Obywatelska had 25 percent.
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Slideshow (21 Images) of the Funeral in the link below (Reuters mislabeled the link but photos are of the Mayor's Funeral)
Clashes break out in France as 'yellow vests' stage latest protest | Reuters
 
Nine miners are missing after an earth tremor struck KGHM Polska Miedz’s mine near the Polish town of Rudna, 70 miles east of the German border.

January 29, 2019 - Nine Miners missing after tremor hits Polish Copper Mine
A further eight miners rescued from Polish mine after tremor | Reuters

Earlier KGHM spokesperson Anna Osadczuk told Reuters the miners were missing after the tremor hit the mine early this afternoon 770 meters under the earth’s surface.

“A rescue operation is ongoing. Eleven teams of rescuers are taking part in it. It is hard to say now how long it will take,” Osadczuk told Reuters. Seven people have already been taken to hospital.

In 2016, eight miners died after a tremor caused rockfalls deep underground at the mine, which is Europe’s largest copper mine.
 
Polish doctors have discovered that Diaphragm have influence on static balance maintenance :

"The diaphragm is well known for its role as the principal muscle of respiration. However, according to previous studies, its role is multifactorial, from breathing through pain perception, regulation of emotional sphere, collaborating in gastroesophageal functions, facilitating the venous and lymphatic return, to an essential role in the maintenance of lumbar spine stability. The purpose of the study was to examine whether diaphragm function parameters (thickness and range of motion) are associated with static balance maintenance. A total of 142 participants were examined and divided into three groups: G1—patients qualified for lung resection due to cancer; G2 –patients after lobe resection; G3 –healthy subjects. Diaphragm thickness and excursion was measured using ultrasonography. Stabilometric parameters of balance were assessed by Zebris FDM-S platform. Greater diaphragm thickening during active breathing and diaphragm thickness fraction were associated with better static balance parameters. Limitation of diaphragm motion during quiet breathing and deep breathing was linked to balance disorders. There was no correlation between diaphragm muscle excursion during sniff maneuvers and balance parameters. Deterioration of diaphragm function observed after thoracic surgery was closely related with deterioration of balance maintenance. Impairment of diaphragm function manifested by decrease of muscle thickness and movement restriction is strongly associated with balance disorders in a clinical sample and among healthy subjects. "

Impact of diaphragm function parameters on balance maintenance
 
Rescue teams on Wednesday saved the last miner missing after an earth tremor struck a copper mine near the Polish town of Rudna, 70 miles east of the German border, the mine’s owner said.

January 30, 2019 - Last missing miner rescued from Polish mine after tremor
Last missing miner rescued from Polish mine after tremor

KGHM Polska Miedz initially reported 14 miners missing after the tremor hit the mine early on Tuesday afternoon, 770 meters below the earth’s surface. All but one of the miners were found on Tuesday. Some had suffered injuries and one of them was in a serious condition.

“Miner missing in Rudna mine is alive! He came to the rescue team on his own,” KGHM tweeted, giving no further details of the miner’s health. The man was inside the mining machine that saved him from falling rocks, KGHM said.
 
Gruchaa said:
Palestinians reject invitation to attend U.S. Mideast meeting in Poland (http://www.tvn24.pl)

This meeting will be held next week, here in Warsaw.. I do not understand totally Why Poland agreed to organise such circuss... Polish people and government have problems with learning. Who with common sense organise conference regarding middle east w/o mid-east countries (except Israel)? This is crazy...
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It looks like with new government Poland is, even more, buried in the USA's arms. And they use a country like Poland to keep it as a shield for their foreign policy.
 
Poland's President and his administration need to contemplate how they are being manipulated and pressured into being molded into another US/NATO puppet? Soon, any decision Poland makes will be "dictated" by the Pentagon and it's own interests? Poland will lose it's "identity and cultural heritage". Sad - to witness this - in slow motion. Poland still has "a window of opportunity" to stand up for it's self and pull out of any agreements towards a permanent US/NATO Military base.

Washington is preparing to offer Warsaw an increased US military presence in Poland in exchange for a Polish refusal to engage in closer cooperation with China and Iran, Rzeczpospolita reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Tue Feb 12, 2019 - Report: US Wants Poland to Loosen Ties with China, Iran in Exchange for Bases
Farsnews
Report: US Wants Poland to Loosen Ties with China, Iran in Exchange for Bases


The situation is very dynamic. At the moment, the Americans are improving their offer qualitatively. Its essence is that no one in the world should have any doubts about America's unconditional involvement in the defense of Poland," one high-ranking diplomatic source told the newspaper.

According to Rzeczpospolita, the primary goal of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Hungary, Poland and Slovakia this week will be to convince these countries to "resist" growing Chinese influence.

"It's not only about abandoning contracts on the construction of a 5G internet network by Huawei, but also cooperation in the 16+1 format, through which Beijing is trying to strengthen its position in the region," the paper noted.

Poland and China have been negotiating major infrastructure projects under Beijing's One Belt One Road initiative, with China already Warsaw's largest Asian trade partner and trade growing substantially over the last year. Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to the Central European country in 2016, with Warsaw looking to attract substantial Chinese investment for infrastructure construction and modernisation projects.

Speaking in Hungary on Monday, Pompeo warned that the past US policy of disengagement in the region had driven "the Russians and the Chinese" to get "more influence here".

US pressure is also expected to be brought to bear on Warsaw's relations with Tehran, Rzeczpospolita noted.

Poland has done its best to preserve relations with Iran following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal last May, with the deputy chief of Poland's foreign ministry flying to Tehran last month to prevent an open conflict. However, Poland's decision to host a US-led anti-Iran conference in Warsaw later this week will be seen as an unfriendly move by Tehran, the paper added.

US Vice President Mike Pence is expected to make a declaration on strengthening security and energy ties with Poland on the sidelines of the Warsaw conference.

"And while the final decision regarding an increased US troop presence in Poland will be announced by the Pentagon only in March, [Admiral John] Richardson's [recent] declaration" that the US missile defence system deployed in Poland could also 'deter Russia' "is yet another signal that the Americans are preparing to fundamentally strengthen their military involvement on the Vistula", Rzeczpospolita stressed.

Last week, Richardson appeared to challenge the traditional US claim going back several administrations that its missile defence components in Poland and Romania were aimed at Iranian or North Korean missiles, telling the Atlantic Council that the anti-missile systems would help Washington "push back" against Russia, adding that the US should look to "push first".

On Sunday, Poland approved the purchase of US rocket artillery systems as part of an ongoing military modernisation and expansion program. Last year, Polish authorities announced that they would lobby for the creation of a new US military base on Polish territory, informally dubbing the proposed base 'Fort Trump'. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the deployment of US missile bases in Eastern Europe would force Moscow to put these countries in the "crosshairs" of Russia's strategic forces.

* Pompeo says U.S. too often absent from central Europe
The United States should not let Russian President Vladimir Putin "drive a wedge between friends and NATO", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday. Speaking in the Hungarian capital Budapest, Pompeo also said the United States should be more engaged in the region.

* Norway and Poland to expel diplomats in tit-for-tat exchange
Norway will expel a Polish diplomat who had clashed with local officials after Warsaw declined to recall him, the Norwegian foreign ministry said on Monday.
 
angelburst29 said:
Poland still has "a window of opportunity" to stand up for it's self and pull out of any agreements towards a permanent US/NATO Military base.
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Yeah, but will they pull it out? I am afraid that not. The other crazy think in Poland is that ruling party is called right-hand, but What they are doing is totally oposite. They rises taxes, giving some weird „500+” programs.. unfoetunetely there is No liberal party which counts in Poland..

angelburst29 said:
Norway will expel a Polish diplomat who had clashed with local officials after Warsaw declined to recall him, the Norwegian foreign ministry said on Monday.
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Regarding this, I Heard that this diplomat was fighting for polish children in Norway
 
Poland just hosted a Middle East Summit on the US's behalf on Friday with VP Pence, Pompeo and Netanyahu among others attending. Netanyahu, displaying his typical arrogance and upper echelon attitude accused his Host of being complicit in the Nazi Holocaust. If the Polish President fails to stand his ground and address this issue, up front, Poland will be reduced to nothing more than a puppet for Israel/NATO/US? This incident should be "a big red flag" and wake up call to Poland, as to the type of treatment it's in for - if it allows foreign Military to set up on it's land. I don't believe Netanyahu's version - that he was misquoted - he was testing to see how far he could push - before Poland dropped to it's knees and worshiped Israel?

Poland summoned Israel's ambassador on Friday and threatened to scupper a summit in Jerusalem after reported comments in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to accuse the Polish nation of complicity in the Nazi Holocaust.

February 15, 2019 - Poland summons Israeli Ambassador to clarify Netanyahu comments on Poles in Holocaust
Poland summons Israeli ambassador to clarify Netanyahu comments on...
FILE PHOTO: Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look on during the Middle East summit in Warsaw, Poland, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look on during the Middle East summit in Warsaw, Poland, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the prime minister, who was in Warsaw for a U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference, had been misquoted by The Jerusalem Post, which issued a corrected story.

In a later statement, Netanyahu’s office said that in his remarks on the question of Polish collaboration with Nazi occupiers, he had not cast any blanket blame.

Poland, where sensitivities over the issue of its actions during the Holocaust are high, called in Israeli envoy Anna Azari.

The matter of Poland’s conduct during the Holocaust - in which many of the six million Jewish dead were killed in Nazi camps on Polish soil - was at the center of an Israeli-Polish diplomatic dispute last year.

After an outcry in Israel and the United States, Poland’s conservative Law and Justice government backed out of legislation mandating jail terms for anyone suggesting the country had collaborated with the Nazis.

Sensitivities were tested again late on Thursday after Netanyahu answered a question about that law posed by one of the Israeli reporters who had traveled with him to Poland.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted Netanyahu as saying: “The Poles collaborated with the Nazis, and I don’t know anyone who was ever sued for such a statement.”


Yaakov Katz, the Jerusalem Post’s editor, told Reuters the account in his newspaper had used the term “Polish nation”, although not in a direct quote from Netanyahu, and the story was swiftly amended to reflect what he really said.

But Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said Warsaw wanted the matter “to be clarified unequivocally”. Hours later, Netanyahu’s office issued a second statement.

“In a briefing, PM Netanyahu spoke of Poles and not the Polish people or the country of Poland,” the statement said.

Many Poles still refuse to accept research showing thousands participated in the Holocaust in addition to the thousands who risked their lives to help the Jews.

Commenting on Netanyahu’s remarks, Polish President Andrzej Duda raised a question mark over a two-day summit in Jerusalem next week of the four central European nations - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Duda said that if Netanyahu had said what was originally reported, “Israel would not be a good place to meet in spite of the previous arrangements”. Duda offered his own presidential residence as an alternative venue.

Netanyahu has sought to use the so-called Visegrad group as a counterweight to western European Union criticism of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.
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angelburst29 said:
Update: Polish PM cancels trip to Israel in wake of comments on Poles in Holocaust
Poland's Prime Minister has canceled a trip to Israel in the wake of reported remarks made by Israel's prime minister suggesting Polish complicity during the Holocaust, an aide in his office told Polish media on Sunday.
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It's good to see that Poland is standing up for itself and that the Czech PM has come forward and cancelled the meeting in Israel.

Israel says it will host Czech, Slovak, Hungarian leaders after Polish pullout
Israel says on Monday that it would host bilateral meetings with the Czech, Slovak and Hungarian leaders this week after Poland withdrew from a planned five-way summit in Jerusalem in protest at Holocaust rhetoric.

Czech PM Babis says V4 summit in Israel scrapped: CTK agency
A meeting of the central European Visegrad group countries scheduled to start in Israel in Monday has been canceled after Poland pulled out, news agency CTK said, citing Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
 
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