Tusk wins confidence vote, sets record with longest

Transcription

WEEKLY
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Index Number: 236683
ISSN: 1898-4762
NO. 30
WWW.KRAKOWPOST.COM
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 5, 2007
Tusk wins confidence vote, sets record with longest inaugural speech
Krzesiny needs one
more jet plane
Another four F-16 fighters have
arrived at the Polish Air Forces’
Krzesiny base in Poznan.
Poland now has 31 of 48 such
planes commissioned in 2002 2
Media Council of
Ethics tackles TV
The Media Council of Ethics,
an organ of the Polish National
Broadcasting Council, will deal
with a vulgar conversation that
took place on public TV
2
Culture clash
in Dutch waters
Dutch anglers are crying foul
over the scores of Polish workers
who fish in the country’s lakes
and actually eat their catch
3
President against
last draft in 2009
President Lech Kaczynski will
not accept an end to conscription
for military service before 2012 4
Google relocates
offices to Krakow
An insightful take into Google’s
national plans with Google
Poland Head Wojciech Burkot 7
The new Polish government led by Donald Tusk won a vote of confidence in Sejm, the Polish parliament, on Nov. 24. The voting in Sejm was preceded a day earlier by Tusk’s
185-minute inaugural speech, by far the longest in the history of post-Communist Poland.
Michal Wojtas
STAFF JOURNALIST
The new Polish government led by Donald Tusk won a vote of confidence in Sejm,
the Polish parliament, on Nov. 24. The leader of Civic Platform (PO), which won parliamentary elections a month ago, received
238 votes while 204 deputies voted against.
Tusk’s government was backed by PO
and the coalition People’s Party (PSL) led
by Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak, while Law and Justice (PiS) and Left
and Democrats (LiD) voted against.
The voting in Sejm was preceded a day
earlier by Tusk’s 185-minute inaugural
speech, by far the longest in the history of
post-Communist Poland. Then MPs issued
more than 500 questions to the new prime
minister, which caused the voting itself to be
rescheduled for the next day.
On Nov. 24, Tusk took another 100 minutes to continue answering questions.
Then the confidence vote followed. In
Tusk’s inaugural speech, the leader of PO
put stress on economic development of Poland which was, according to PO, slowed
down by two years of PiS rule. He also
promised to cut the 2008 budget deficit from
28.6 bln to 27 bln zloty.
But he also announced increases in public
spending (for teachers’ and doctors’ wages,
among others), which according to Polish
media should cost 4 bln zloty. The opposition described such changes as inconsistent.
Tusk replied that the policies of his government should result in revenue increases for
the budget.
The 50-year-old leader plans to lower
income taxes as well as liquidate dozens of
administrative fees paid by companies. He
also aims to make contacts between entrepreneurs and the state administration as easy
as possible and less time-consuming.
All this would contribute to the “economic miracle” promised by PO in its election
campaign. Another source of money for the
budget would be the sale and privatization
Raiffeisen hits
WSE running
The bank’s newly structured
certificates made their debut as
a supplement to the offer of
Raiffeisen Bank Polska S.A 8
house of entertainment
the best entertainment in Krakow
piano bar
live-music sessions
bring card – get prize
HOTEL NOVOTEL, ul. Armii Krajowej 11
Tel.: +48 (0) 12 636-0807
of state-owned companies.
Tusk wants to accelerate the process
which had been previously slowed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s government.
In addition to increasing state revenue,
privatization could lessen the influence of
politicians on the economy. Tusk also addressed several other issues considered
important for his government. He promised
reform of the state-financed health care
system, which in his words is in a terrible
condition. He stressed, however, that the
government will not sell hospitals to private
companies.
The new government also aims to reform
the pension system, which must cope with
See TUSK on Page 13
The Krakow Post
R E G I O N A L
N E W S
UN panel slams bid to silence
opposition in Belarus
A UN General Assembly committee late last
week approved a resolution expressing “deep
concern” about the continued use of the criminal
justice in Belarus to “silence political opposition
and human rights defenders.” The assembly’s
human rights committee passed the non-binding
resolution, sponsored by European countries, the
U.S., Canada and Israel by a vote of 68 in favor, 32
against and 76 abstentions. The text also slammed
what it called “the continued harassment and detention of Belarusian journalists and ... independent media covering demonstrations.”
It urged the Minsk government to “release immediately and unconditionally all individuals detained for politically motivated reasons and other
individuals detained for exercising or promoting
human rights.” Belarus authorities were also urged
to stop “politically motivated prosecution, harassment and intimidation of political opponents, prodemocracy activists and human rights defenders.”
They were also urged to cooperate fully with
the UN’s Human Rights Council.
The resolution is virtually certain to be endorsed
by the entire 192-member General Assembly in the
next few weeks. (AFP)
P O L A N D
Krzesiny base needs
just one more plane
Artur Weber
2
the krakow post
Slovaks back Kazakh bid for
rotating OSCE presidency
Ukraine commemorates 75th
anniversary of Great Famine
Ukraine mourned late last week the millions
who died in the Soviet-era famine of 1932-1933,
which remains a bone of contention between
Kyiv and Moscow, with flags at half-mast and a
solemn religious service.
“It was a genocide, an attempt to subjugate the
nation, deliberately planned and put into effect,”
charged pro-Western President Viktor Yuschenko
in a speech to thousands gathered in the center of
the capital. “Its organizer and executor was the
Communist totalitarian regime,” he said, adding
that “the crimes of bolshevism and communism
are identical to those of Nazism.”
Some four to 10 mln people are estimated to
have starved to death as a result of a Soviet program of forced collectivization launched by dictator Josef Stalin in 1932.
Ukrainian farmers had their produce confiscated and the Soviet authorities also blocked food
supplies into Ukraine, in what some historians
have argued was a deliberate attempt by Stalin to crush a drive for independence. For years
Kyiv has been trying to get the United Nations
to recognise the famine as “an act of genocide”
committed against the Ukrainian people, though
pro-Russian Ukrainians say it resulted from ideological error. A law officially calling the famine
genocide was passed only last year by the Ukrainian parliament, and by a slim majority.
Saturday’s commemorations began in the 11th
century St Sophia’s cathedral in central Kyiv in a
service televised live and attended by Yushchenko and his family. They were flanked by interim
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, a pro-Russian, and ministers representing the gamut of the
country’s political parties.
“We pray for the peace of God’s servants
killed by the famine in Ukraine,” a priest wearing
a gold chasuble chanted, and a choir responded,
“Eternal memory.” The president then led several
thousand people bearing flags adorned with black
ribbons to a monument to the victims of the famine, followed by a minute of silence across the
country. The gathering, including Yushchenko,
then began lighting thousands of candles on
central Saint Michael’s Square. In his speech the
president called the famine the “greatest catastrophe” to have struck Ukraine, and urged “world
condemnation of Communist terror” that had
killed innocent people, including Russians, Belarusians and Tatars as well as Ukrainians.
Ukraine finally gained its independence with
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. (AFP)
Polish F-16s.
Joanna Zabierek
STAFF JOURNALIST
Another four F-16 fighters arrived at
the Polish Air Forces’ Krzesiny base in
Poznan last Thursday. Poland now has 31
of 48 planes of this type, which were commissioned in 2002 in what was described
by the Polish press as “The Contract of the
Century.”
The four planes left the United States
two weeks ago, but their arrival at Krzesiny
was delayed because of bad weather over
Europe.
The jets eventually reached the base in
western Poland after stops in Portugal and
Germany. The commander of the base,
Gen. Wlodzimierz Usarek, emphasized
that both the planes and pilots are ready to
fly during bad weather, but such a risk is
not wise in peacetime.
One of the fighters was piloted by Maj.
Cezary Wisniewski, who usually is stationed at Krzesiny. He thus became the first
Polish pilot to fly the F-16 from America to
Europe. Wisniewski has already spent 403
hours in the F-16 cockpit during his training in the U.S.
The base in Poznan currently houses 31
F-16 planes and needs one more to reach
full occupancy. The last jet probably will
arrive by the end of the year.
Currently only 18 airmen in Poland are
certified to pilot these planes. By 2012 this
number should rise to 72. Polish Air Forces
will also need people for a second base,
which is being prepared to accommodate
18 F-16 fighters.
The base is in Lask, near Lodz, in central Poland and is due to be opened in the
summer of 2008. The Polish Ministry of
Defense chose the bid of the American
Lockheed Martin Co. in December 2002 to
provide the 48 multirole jet fighters.
Other contenders were French Dassault
Aviation’s Mirage 2000 and British Aerospace’s Jas 39 Gripen.
Poland agreed to pay $3.48 billion for
the 48 planes. Lockheed Martin committed itself to invest at least this amount of
money in the Polish aircraft industry – both
civilian and military. The first four F-16
planes arrived in November 2006; the last
are due to come in 2008.
President Lech Kaczynski was not in the
country when the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk was giving his inaugural address
late last week in parliament. The president
had left for Georgia to meet with President
Mikhail Saakashvili in Tbilisi.
Lech Kaczynski arrived in Tbilisi despite the lower house of Parliament (Sejm)
taking the vote of confidence on Nov. 23
with regards to the new government. Kaczynski joined by Lithuania’s President Valdas Adamkus showed “a gesture of huge
support towards the Georgian people,”
according to Saakashvili, in the light of
“difficult times” Georgia has been having
in the recent weeks.
The necessity for the sudden departure
remained unclear. President Kaczynski’s
time in Georgia was spent on various ceremonious events. He took part in unveiling
of a Prometheus monument in Georgia’s
capital and also received the St. George
Order from President Saakashvili, said to
be the highest order given in Georgia.
Kaczynski also met with opposition
leaders convincing of the importance of
holding early presidential elections. He
pointed out that Georgia may face some
problems in holding democratic elections,
but that they could be overcome as Georgia
was on the right track.
Nov. 23 is a national public holiday for
Georgia, as it is St. George’s Day, who is
the patron for the country.
It is also the fourth anniversary of the
“Rose Revolution,” which resulted in the
stepping down of President Eduard Shevardnadze, whose post was taken over by
the current President Saakashvili.
After mass protests on Nov. 7 by the
opposition, Georgia will be facing early
elections on Jan. 5 next year. After protests
commenced Saakashvili announced a state
of emergency which lasted for a week. Protesters demanded the President step down.
According to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in the Presidential Chambers, Lech
Kaczynski departed to Georgia to show
his support for the people but also for the
Georgian president.
The two presidents are great friends.
Kaczynski admires Saakashvili for carrying through reforms within his country.
Last year the latter asked Kaczynski to become godfather to his son. At the last moment Kaczynski called off his trip due to
the Halemba mining disaster. Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president fulfilled
the honor instead.
Media Council of Ethics to tackle TV vulgarity
Alicja Natkaniec
STAFF JOURNALIST
The Media Council of Ethics, an official
organ of the Polish National Broadcasting
Council, will deal with a vulgar conversation that took place during the public TV
show “Stars Dancing on Ice.”
The exchange occurred between one of
the judges – pop diva Doda “Elektroda”
– and one of the competing stars – boxer
Przemyslaw Saleta.
The outspoken Doda criticized Saleta’s
dancing achievements in a way far from refined standards. And he reciprocated in the
same way, making comments about her “artistic” achievements.
Doda offered Saleta a pink flute and proposed that he “get someone to blow on his
(flute).”
“Saleta, ciagnijfleta,” as it sounded in
Polish, is not only considered a vulgar designation of oral sex, but also rhymes with
the surname of the boxer. Saleta thanked her
politely for the gift and then replied in the
same style, using a small “poem.”
“Doda, Doda zrob mi loda,” he said,
which was a proposal to “suck his cock.”
This remark was a little bit surprising, as
Saleta is not only a boxer, but also editor-inchief of the Polish magazine “Gentleman.”
The audience in the TV studio reacted
with enthusiasm to the verbal scuffles. And
the show hosts didn’t say anything. But after
the show many viewers expressed disgust
and registered negative opinions about the
quality of public TV offerings.
What differentiates Polish public television from commercial TV?
First of all, the ideology. The main goals
of public television are to realize its educational “mission” and to satisfy the more sophisticated tastes of viewers.
The pursuit of profits should not be the
most important objective. But more and
more often it is hard to notice any difference
between private and public TV.
This is especially true since public TV
has started to imitate the commercial stations in creating shows in which celebrities
dance, cook, sing, raise wild and naughty
kids, travel, etc.
“Stars Dancing on Ice” was public TV’s
answer to commercial TVN’s smash hit
“Dancing with the Stars,” which has an
audience of 7 mln. The public TV show is
watched by more than 4 mln people, including a considerable number of children and
teenagers.
The show is a competition of 11 singers,
actors, television personalities, sports stars
and other celebrities. Each has a professional skating partner.
Half of a celebrity’s score each week
comes from the marks of judges and the other half comes from viewer voting. The star
with the lowest score must leave the competition until, finally, there is a winner.
cc:sa:Jakub Kocoj Kubakocoj
Slovakia backs Kakakhstan’s bid to take over
the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009,
President Ivan Gasparovic said late last week.
Slovakia “sees no reason not to support Kazakhstan for this post” during the next meeting of
OSCE foreign ministers in Madrid at the end of
November, Gasparovic added during a joint press
conference with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan
Nazarbayev, in Bratislava.
The Kazakh candidacy at the head of the 56member organization, one of whose key tasks is
to uphold their democratic credentials, failed to
win sufficient support last year with the OSCE
postponing a decision for 12 months to evaluate
the former Soviet republic’s progress towards democracy. International human rights organizations
frequently attack the Kazakh government’s record
over press freedom. OSCE observers “regretted the
shortcomings with regard to international norms
for democratic elections” in their preliminary report following legislative elections in August.
With this in mind, some countries, in particular
the United States, are very hesitant about Astana’s
bid to take the helm of the OSCE, according to
several sources within the organization.
Gasparovic pointed out Wednesday that Kazakhstan plays a “major role” in Central Asia with
the energy rich country “important for the diversification of energy resources, not just for Slovakia
but for the whole of the EU.” (AFP)
Kaczynski
shows support
for Georgian
democracy
Dorota Rabczewska.
P O L A N D
The Krakow Post
Canada customs details plight of
Polish migrant killed at airport
Culture clash
as Poles fish
in Dutch
waters
Poland seeks talks
with Russia on U.S.
missile plan: Tusk
agence france-presse
Poland will consult Russia on planned
U.S. missile defenses in eastern Europe,
new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk
hinted late last week as he pressed for better
relations between the two neighbors.
“We are going to pursue our negotiations
with our American partners on this question once we have reviewed the matter with
NATO and some of our neighbors,” he told
parliament. He did not mention Russia specifically in this context, but then added: “We
want dialogue with Russia; the absence of
dialogue helps neither side.”
On Thursday, Tusk’s foreign minister
Radoslaw Sikorski said he intended to have
talks with Moscow on the siting of U.S. missiles in Poland. The U.S. plan calls for setting
up a powerful early-warning radar station in
the Czech Republic to assist in guidance of
interceptor missiles, 10 of which would be
based in Poland. The U.S. says the system
would be designed to protect itself and allies
in Europe from growing missile threats from
“rogue states,” particularly Iran. Russia says
the system would threaten its own security,
and has warned that it will be forced to take
“adequate” steps to protect itself, if Washington goes ahead with the plan.
Tusk was giving a policy speech in parliament ahead of a vote of confidence in
his new government formed after the election victory of his Civic Platform party last
month. The previous right-wing government
of Jaroslaw Kaczynski had poor relations
with Poland’s eastern neighbor and was
blocking a new partnership accord between
Russia and the EU.
“The absence of dialogue between Poland and Russia harms the interest and reputation of both countries on the international
scene,” Tusk said. “I am convinced that the
time for positive change has come.”
Tusk also said he was pleased at the “first
signs” reaching him from Russia, confirming a new mood for dialogue.
“Even if we have our own opinion on the
situation in Russia, we want a dialogue with
Russia as it is,” he added.
The new centrist Polish government is
not averse to the principle of a missile shield
in eastern Europe, the prime minister indicated, saying “we are aware of the political
and military importance of this project.”
He said that Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his
twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski,
had not sought enough compensation from
Washington for hosting the missiles.
“Poland will seek to convince its American partners that our alliance must result
in a greater American presence in Poland,”
Tusk said.
Canada’s customs officials admitted early
this week they lost track of a Polish migrant
at the Vancouver airport for several hours
last month before he apparently panicked,
was shocked by a police stun gun, and died.
Robert Dziekanski, 40, died Oct. 14, just
minutes after being repeatedly zapped with
a Taser device and subdued by four policemen.
Until now, the Canada Border Services
Agency (CBSA) remained silent about the
case, which raised a national outcry and led
Warsaw to formally request an explanation
from Ottawa. Monday, CBSA president
Alain Jolicoeur began a press conference
with condolences: “On behalf of the CBSA
and its employees, I would like to extend
our sincere and deepest sympathies to the
family of Mr. Dziekanski. Our thoughts are
with Mr. Dziekanski’s family and friends at
this difficult time.”
But the CBSA had few answers about
how a new immigrant’s arrival at the largest airport in Western Canada could turn so
terribly wrong.
The coroner, the federal police homicide
team, and Canada’s national police complaint’s commissioner have since launched
independent probes of his death, and the
British Columbia government announced a
public inquiry.
Dziekanski had moved to Canada to live
there with his mother. The family’s lawyer
has said he spoke only Polish, and had never
before traveled far from his home town of
Pieszyce, Poland.
But due to a mix-up, he waited for his
mother inside the airport for more than 20
hours.
His mother meanwhile waited for hours
outside; eventually she was told by officials
he was not there, and left.
Later, police were called after a seemingly frustrated Dziekanski blocked a security door with chairs and a table, and threw
a computer off a counter onto the floor. Not
long afterwards, he was dead.
A timeline released by the CBSA showed
that at 04:09 local time, almost 50 minutes after Dziekanski’s arrival, he passed
through the first checkpoint and was told to
go through to a secondary line for immigration processing.
He did not show up, and instead vanished
in a large area thronging with some 4,000
other travelers.
“The whereabouts of Mr. Dziekanski are
unaccounted for,” said the CBSA, noting
that construction had blocked some of its
cameras in the secure area.
At 19:00, a CBSA officer in the secondary area logged a call from a man waiting
for “a Polish male seeking entry as a new
immigrant.” But the officer told the caller no
one there fit the description.
Blake Delgaty, CBSA regional director,
said the officer had not searched the entire
CBSA area, only the immediate zone. “It
would be impossible ... to search the entire
area, the size of a couple of football fields,
with travelers coming and going all the
time,” he said.
At 21:25 and 21:31, security cameras
spotted Dziekanski walking near a baggage
carousel.
At 22:35, he appeared at the main exit,
but was directed back to the secondary customs and immigration area, where officers
tracked down two pieces of luggage containing his immigration documents.
Over the next 45 minutes, CBSA officials
twice paged the public area for his mother,
but she had already left.
Dziekanski was finally released at 00:15
on Oct. 14, but instead of leaving the secure
area, he sat down for another 24 minutes.
At 00:39, a CBSA officer escorted him to
the exit, where the video and police statements show he became agitated, was arrested and died.
A bystander’s video of the arrest showed
Dziekanski being shocked less than 60 seconds after federal police first approached
the distraught traveler. Four policemen piled
onto him as he writhed, screaming in pain,
on the floor.
While he was in their secure zone, the
CBSA said, “Mr. Dziekanski did not ask
any of the (officers) for assistance ... Mr.
Dziekanski was given several glasses of water while he was in the secondary processing
area. No officers who interacted with the
traveler observed, in their opinion, behavior
which would raise any concerns.”
Even so, the CBSA said it would now act
to add more cameras at the airport, increase
patrols of secure areas, update its interpreter
lists, and follow travelers between checkpoints to avoid another mishap.
3
Dutch anglers associations are crying
foul over the scores of Polish workers who
fish in the country’s lakes and actually eat
their catch. Although not strictly forbidden,
eating your catch is simply not done in the
Netherlands, Juul Steyn, a spokesman for
the Dutch Sport Fishing Association told
AFP late last week.
“The Poles have a different ethical and
gastronomic culture and are not abiding by
the rules,” Steyn said. He admitted that the
legal restrictions, which were recently translated into Polish on the associations web
site, don’t actually forbid eating what you
catch, but it is understood by Dutch anglers
that you don’t do that.
“Most Dutch anglers have a catch and release attitude with only the occasional pike,
perch or eel ending up in the pan at home,”
he said. Poles have a healthy appetite for
a lot of fresh water fish that the Dutch just
don’t eat, like the bream and the rock-bass,
he explained.
“It’s not good for the Dutch anglers image, when people see anglers catching and
killing breams and eating them over a camp
fire,” Steyn added.
Poles settle in former East Germany
As a consequence of entering the EU, many Poles were afraid that our
western neighbors would buy our land and houses and settle down in Poland, so that soon there would be more Germans than Poles in our country.
However, we are observing an opposite process.
As the daily newspaper Metro reports, Poles are settling down in east
German towns near the border, where they are buying apartments and
opening shops and restaurants.
Thanks to the new settlers, formerly abandoned towns and city districts
have started to pulsate with a new life.
Houses and apartments in blocks of flats built during the existence of
Communist East Germany are finding new owners, as buying real estate
doesn’t require any special procedures.
One needs only an ID and passport, which must be shown at the notary
when signing the purchase agreement.
Areas along the Oder River are being settled not by Germans, who are
surprisingly not so interested in buying real estate there, but by Poles.
Of course, the main reason for this is money as prices in eastern Germany – for example in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Brandenburg – are
much lower than in Poland.
Nobody knows exactly how many Poles have taken advantage of the
situation.
The Polish consulate estimates that about 2,000 people may have moved
to eastern Germany, with the number continuing to increase.
Many of the emigrants buy estates near Szczecin in such towns as Locknitz, Penkun, and Gartz, Metro reports.
For example, several dozen Polish families live in Locknitz.
Houses of 150 square meters situated about 30 kilometers from the border can be bought for 200,000-250,000 zloty.
One real bargain was a house with 110,000 square meters of space, costing 88,000 zloty.
In Szczecin, the same place would cost half a million zloty.
Also attractive to many Poles are the beautiful landscapes, which are
peaceful and safe. Settlers are coming from Szczecin, Torun and even Warsaw and Olsztyn.
Local authorities in Germany are happy to have the immigrants.
If the Poles hadn’t populated this area, the towns might be completely
desolated soon. Thanks to the new inhabitants, they will live again.
GDFL-1.2:Noir
the krakow post
P O L A N D
The Krakow Post
R E G I O N A L
N E W S
Slovak PM warns coalition’s
future hangs on key vote
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico warned
late last week that the three-way governing coalition will collapse, if its lawmakers fail to back his
Smer party in a key parliamentary vote this week.
The Smer party’s Pavol Paska faces an opposition bid to unseat him as parliament chairman.
Disgruntled coalition partner the People’s
Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LSHZDS) has kept quiet on its intentions ahead of
the Monday vote.
“If Pavol Paska falls, then the whole coalition falls,” Fico said on Slovak public radio on
Saturday.
Fico’s warning came after LS-HZDS party
leaders decided late Friday not to quit the coalition in the wake of Fico’s dismissal of the party’s
nominee for agriculture minister following a land
sale scandal. Party leader and former Slovak premier Vladimir Meciar had threatened to leave the
coalition if Fico sacked the minister.
The coalition would have lost its overall majority in the 150-seat parliament without the 15
seats that Meciar’s party commands. Fico cautioned Meciar’s party not reopen issues that have
split the three-way coalition in recent months,
such as a contentious reform of the health insurance system and the state budget.
“If the HZDS wants to continue in this government coalition, it must continue by consistently
fulfilling the government’s declared program. No
other path exists,” he added in the radio interview. Despite Friday’s decision by the LS-HZDS
not to quit the government, scars remain from the
most serious coalition clash since it took power in
July 2006. Paska faces the vote of confidence following accusations that he flouted parliamentary
rules. (AFP)
President against last draft in 2009
www.
4
Czech government announces
series of judicial reforms
Slovak police charge teen
after racist attack
Police in the eastern Slovak city of Kosice said
they charged two teenagers in connection with a
racist attack on a 16-year-old girl of half-Cuban
origin late last week. The two, aged 17 and 18,
were charged with assault and support of movements which lead to the suppression of basic human rights, Kosice police Jana Demjanovicova
said in a news release. Tuesday night’s attack, in
which the girl was pushed to the ground and then
kicked in her head and back, was clearly motivated
by her skin color, the police statement added.
The attackers shouted “Sieg Heil” and “Get
out of Slovakia, you filthy individual” during the
attack, the police said.
The girl suffered injuries to the head, spine
and right hand and is expected to undergo medical treatment for at least 10 days.
The teenagers could face jail sentences of up
to 12 years if found guilty of the attack.
The latest attack is the fifth with a racist motive this year in Kosice, Slovakia’s second city,
police said. (AFP)
Kazakh abused by police
says demo was for country
An exiled Kazakh journalist allegedly abused
by Slovak police after protesting the Kazakhstan
president’s visit to Bratislava said late last week she
demonstrated “for all the people of my country.”
“I came to Bratislava not to protest against the
Kazakh regime for myself but for all the people
of my country,” Balli Marzecova told Slovak local
radio, Radio Expres. Slovakia’s journalists union
denounced authorities’ alleged treatment of Marzecova, who now lives in Poland, as “baseless and
rough.” Marzecova said she was detained for 13
hours by police, adding that they kicked her in the
abdomen and punched her in the face after arresting her while she protested in front of the Slovak
presidential palace.
She alleged Slovak police were acting on orders
from security officers for Kazakhstan President
Nursultan Nazarbayev. Slovakia’s interior minister, Robert Kalinak, said he regretted the incident.
He said she may not have understood when told to
stop protesting during the playing of the national
anthems. Kalinek, who has called for an investigation into the police action, said he had no information that Slovak police were prompted to act by
Nazarbayev’s bodyguards.
Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic on Wednesday backed Kazakhstan’s bid to take over the rotating presidency of the 56-member Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
in 2009. Its bid has been opposed by human rights
groups and members of the organization.
International human rights organizations frequently critize the former Soviet republic’s record
on democracy and press freedom. (AFP)
Polish officers march in Warsaw.
the krakow post
President Lech Kaczynski opposes Prime
Minister Donald Tusk’s plan to end the
military draft in 2009, saying conscription
should continue through 2012.
Members of Kaczynski’s Law and Justice
party say Kaczynski and others object to
Tusk’s plan for two reasons: It will be much
costlier to field an all-volunteer military.
And it will lead to a short-term drop in the
strength of the military.
Tusk and his party argue that tasks for the
Polish Army have changed over the past decade and a full “professionalization” is now
the most important challenge, which cannot
be put off until some future time. According to them, the number of soldiers is not as
important nowadays as the level of training
and modern equipment. A little more than
half of today’s armed forces are professionals – 77,000 out of the over-all strength of
140,000. The other 63,000 are 19-year-old
conscripts who serve for 9 months.
Tusk said in his inaugural speech that the
government plans to reduce the number of
Poles who are drafted in 2008 and end the
Poland will lift block on Russia’s OECD talks
Poland will drop its opposition to
Moscow’s bid to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) in a drive
to improve ties with Russia, Prime
Minister Donald Tusk announced
Tuesday.
“I informed the Russian side that
Poland abandoned its block on these
talks,” imposed because of longstanding political grievances, Tusk
told reporters.
“The goal of this step is to have
an impact on the improvement of
Polish-Russian relations,” said Tusk,
who has pledged to mend fences with
Poland’s eastern and western neighbors alike since winning office last
month. Tusk’s liberal Civic Platform
defeated the conservative Law and
Justice party in a snap election on
Oct. 21.
Relations between Warsaw and
Moscow have been at their lowest
ebb since Poland broke free from
the Communist bloc in 1989, notably because the Kremlin was riled
by strong Polish support for the proWestern “Orange Revolution” in
Ukraine in 2004.
The 30-member OECD, which
tries to coordinate policies among
industrialized countries, has acknowledged that it must adapt to a
changing global economy, and in
May invited Russia, Estonia, Chile,
Israel and Slovenia to begin membership talks.
Tusk’s predecessor as premier,
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had consistently kept up Poland’s opposition to
Russia’s OECD membership moves
because of bitter political and trade
spats between Warsaw and Moscow.
Russia imposed an embargo on
meat imports from Poland in 2005
over food safety concerns, but Poland countered that the ban was
groundless and accused Russia of
playing politics.
Poland has also sought to hamper
Russia’s efforts to join the 151-nation
World Trade Organization (WTO),
which lays down the rules for much
of global commerce.
Tusk also said that Poland’s new
stance on the OECD would help
spur Russia’s WTO entry bid, but
his spokeswoman Agnieszka Liszka
later said this was a “slip” by the
premier.
Poland has also vetoed talks between its fellow members of the
27-nation EU and Russia on a new
partnership accord because of the
meat ban.
Poland moves to improve ties with Russia by dropping its opposition to Moscow’s OECD bid.
Tusk makes slip-up, announces
support for Russia joining the
WTO, not the OECD
GDFL:PR state house_1.2-J23-007
The Czech government will implement wideranging reforms to make the judicial system more
efficient and transparent, Justice Minister Jiri
Pospisil announced late last week. Creating electronic files for the justice system would accelerate the legal process, which is currently operating
under a backlog, Pospisil told reporters during a
press conference in Prague. Changes to a number
of laws are also included in the reform, he said.
“An amendment to the civil code is scheduled,
but the changes to the law will take a little more
time,” he added. (AFP)
draft in 2009. This decision was already mentioned by Minister of Defense Bogdan Klich.
As president, Kaczynski can veto legislation.
Overriding his veto would require the votes
of three-fourths of the lower house.
The coalition that Tusk cobbled together
between his Civic Platform party (PO), the
largest in the lower house, and the Polish
People’s Party (PSL) doesn’t have the threefourths majority needed.
To get the legislation enacted would require Tusk getting the support of the thirdlargest party in the lower house, the Left and
Democrats (LiD). The Law and Justice party
(PiS) is the second-largest.
Former Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, a Law and Justice member, contends
that it would be impossible to maintain high
standards in the military, if the draft were
abolished in just two years.
He also noted that the switch to an allvolunteer force will be costly, with the government having to raise military pay substantially to attract recruits.
And he said the military would have the
difficult job of recruiting 40,000 volunteers
over the two years.
Wladyslaw Stasiak, who heads the team
that gives Kaczynski advice on defense, said
Tusk’s plan would mean such a rapid fall in
the number of military personnel that it is
unacceptable.
Aleksander Szczyglo, the defense minister in former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s cabinet, said the idea of ending the
draft in 2009 is unrealistic.
Szczyglo’s plan was to decrease the number of conscripts each year while increasing
the number of professionals, so that by 2012
the ranks of the professionals would be at
110,000.
Klich insists that his government has
chosen the most adequate solution for the
Polish Army – while the one proposed by
Szczyglo is unacceptable due to its length.
He said that it will take several months to
prepare the drafts of the bills necсessary for
the operation.
The Polish prime minister’s spokeswoman said Tusk misspoke and was referring to
the OECD and not the WTO.
“It was a slip by Prime Minister Donald
Tusk,” spokeswoman Agnieszka Liszka
told AFP.
Poland’s vow to lift block on Russia’s bid to enter WTO called “slip.”
SKorean city beats
Moroccan, Polish bids
to host Expo 2012
P O L A N D
staff journalist
Wroclaw once again failed to secure the
bid for hosting the Expo in 2012. Only 13
out of the possible 140 countries voted for
the city early this week. The South Korean
town of Yeosu won the bid.
The International Exhibitions Bureau
voted in Paris. The South Korean port city
won with 77 votes, beating Morocco’s
Tangiers with its 63 votes in the second
round. Wroclaw did not make it into the
second round as it only scored 13 in the first
round of voting.
The World Expo is considered to be on
of the three largest global events along with
the World Cup and the Olympics.
Had Wroclaw one the bid some 40,000
jobs would have been created and the city
would have seen a fast development of its
infrastructure.
Yeosu convinced the voters with its emphasis on the universal values of the global
environment. The multi-media presentation
emphasized Korea’s ocean and its coast
and its stable development and variable
resources.
The Moroccan city of Tangiers presented
an “African dream” perspective, uniting
cultures and the world. Wroclaw concentrated on the idea of being the “centre of
Europe,” with an appearance from Poland’s
famous film director Roman Polanski, who
promoted the city on stage.
Wroclaw could do little to convince
the voters of its ability to host the World
Expo. With Korea’s previous experience in
hosting the Olympics and the World Cup,
Wroclaw’s measly presentation of flag
waving could not match Yeosu’s hundreds
of dancers performing to the rhythm of Korean drums.
The World Expo is expected to create
some 90,000 jobs and generate $10.7 bln
in Korea.
The strong South Korean economy has
hosted the World Expo previously in 1993
and along with Japan it is the only other
Asian country to have opened such an
event. The international event however will
be hosted in China’s Shanghai in 2010.
The Polish presenters at the voting on
Monday urged to vote according to rules of
fair play. Two years ago the number of IEB
voting countries stood at 98.
The three cities allegedly made a gentleman’s pact the previous year not to invite
any more new countries to vote.
According to Wroclaw’s mayor Rafal
Dudkiewicz, the pact was broken when
South Korea began a campaign of inviting
new member countries in the last months of
the Expo campaign.
There were 140 countries voting on
Monday in Paris. Wroclaw stood little
chance in succeeding.
5
Polish government
welcomes another Sikorski
Karolina Nowak
the krakow post
The Krakow Post
Polish history remembers the man,
who in World War II was commanderin-chief of the armed forces and prime
minister in exile: Wladyslaw Sikorski.
Today another Sikorski (no relation) is
a major figure in Poland’s government.
On Nov. 16, Radoslaw Sikorski was
appointed foreign minister in the Donald
Tusk government.
Sikorski left Poland during the Communist era and, from 1981 until 1989,
was a political refugee in Great Britain,
where he studied at Oxford University.
He obtained British citizenship which,
at the request of President Kaczynski, he
later renounced to avoid the appearance
of double loyalty.
Sikorski has already been a vice minister of foreign affairs in the Jerzy Buzek
government from 1998-2001, where he
developed contacts with Polish people
in other nations and also developed relations in Asia and South America.
At the same time, he was president
of the Aid to Poles Foundation in the
East. He was also defense secretary in
the Jaroslaw Kaczynski government, resigning because of a conflict with Antoni
Macierewicz, chief of the counterintelligence military service (SKW).
Sikorski was a vice defense secretary
in 1992 in the Jan Olszewski government, where he opted for fast integration
with NATO. Sikorski was also an advisor on investments in Poland for media
tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
Later on, he was a member of the
American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, and a
director of the New Atlantic Initiative.
He’s known in journalistic circles as
well.
During the Afghan-Soviet war, Sikorski was a correspondent for the “Spectator” and the “Observer,” and he also reported on the Angolan and Yugoslavian
wars.
Once asked which is more dangerous,
being a politician or war correspondent,
he said: “Definitely a politician, because
at war you know who the enemy is,
while in politics you never know who
will stab you in the back. Paradoxically,
even a guerrilla war is more predictable
than politics.”
If politics is indeed a harder task
to manage, Sikorski can be proud of
himself for having received a “Wictor”
award as most popular politician. Sikorski’s wife is Anne Applebaum, a wellknown American author and journalist
and the winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize
for nonfiction for “Gulag: A History.”
How will Polish foreign policy look
under Sikorski’s “reign”?
He’ll face decisions concerning the
proposed U.S. anti-missile shield on Polish territory and the withdrawal of Polish
troops from Iraq.
It’s certainly not possible for Poland
to satisfy the desires of every country at
the same time, as the nation pursues its
national interests while maintaining desired alliances. Now it’s time for Radoslaw Sikorski to blend theory with reality,
however painful. He seemingly has all the
tools needed to bring his plans to life.
Ex-Czech Prime Minister
Milos Zeman calls U.S.
anti-missile plan provocation
A former Czech prime minister condemned early this week U.S. plans to place
anti-missile radars in the Czech Republic
as a “useless provocation” of Russia, according to media reports.
“The true objective of this radar base is
to aim at Russia” and notably to monitor
their ballistic missile tests, Milos Zeman
said, cited by CTK agency.
Russia has vehemently opposed the
whole idea, also claiming that the U.S. system is aimed at them.
Washington wants to use the Czech radar
and interceptor missiles in Poland to guard
against possible missile attacks from rogue
states, such as Iran. Zeman, known for being outspoken while in office from 1998 to
2002, described these arguments as idiotic.
The Czech Republic has already given
the green light in principle to the U.S.
project in spite of public opposition and
Russia’s protests.
Newly-elected Polish Prime Minister
Donald Tusk, however, indicated on Friday
that Warsaw would consult with Russia on
this delicate matter.
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R E G I O N A L
N E W S
CoE head calls for ethical
health recruitment rules
Europe’s stretched health services should develop ethical policies for recruiting workers in
developing countries, the head of the 47-nation
Council of Europe said late last week.
Governments addressing strained healthcare
systems and aging populations by enticing workers from developing countries should adopt “an
ethical approach,” said council secretary general
Terry Davis.
They should come up with “a code of good
practice for international recruitment,” he said,
speaking at a conference of European health ministers in Bratislava.
“The exodus of health professionals from countries which have invested in their training calls for
concerted international cooperation and action,”
he said.
A declaration to be issued at the end of the twoday conference was also expected to call on governments to step up efforts to offer proper healthcare to migrants no matter their legal status.
“Proper healthcare for people on the move is an
ethical, but also a social and economical imperative,” Davis said.
In addition to officials from Council of Europe
countries, representatives from the United States,
Japan and Canada also attended the conference.
The conference was the first of Slovakia’s
Council of Europe chairmanship. (AFP)
Remains of Napoleon’s 223
soldiers buried in Belarus
The remains of 223 soldiers of Napoleon’s army
were buried late last week in the village cemetery
at Studenka, east of the capital Minsk, the French
embassy said.
The soldiers, whose remains were unearthed
some 100 kilometers away from the village, in the
Vileiko region, apparently died in their sleep, possibly of cold. The village where they were buried
is close to a battlefield which saw a showdown
between the Russian army and the withdrawing
Napoleonic troops, which managed to cross the
Berezina river in November 1812.
“May the Berezina, whose name even now
echoes so painfully in the French people’s memory and hearts, become the site of reconciliation,”
France’s Ambassador Mireille Musso said. (AFP)
Three miners missing in
Ukraine after rock fall
Three miners were missing after a rock fall
at a private coal mine in Ukraine’s eastern Lugansk region, an emergency services official told
AFP late last week. Mykolay Martsynkevych, 54,
Igor Volokhov, 34, and Andriy Prymak, 25, were
working at the Abris mine in the city of Antratsit
when the rock fall occurred, he said.
“We are making our way to them, through 10
metres of rock,” the official said. Ukraine’s coal
mines are considered among the most perilous in
the world, with many using outdated Soviet-era
equipment.
One hundred people died in the worst mining accident in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history last
week. (AFP)
Top Czech footballer fined
for contract breach
Czech football authorities have fined top footballer David Limbersky for breaking a contract
with his agent and signing on with a rival team,
Sparta Prague, AFP learned on late last week.
The Czech football federation (CMFS) ruled
in favour of agent Zdenek Nehoda who took the
midfielder before its arbitration committee for
reneging on the contract with Czech league club
Viktoria Pilsen. Limbersky was ordered to pay 1
mln koruna (37,519 euro/$54,900) in damages
to Nehoda, the spokesman for the agent’s sports
management company, Tomas Klecka, told AFP.
Limbersky, a former Czech under 21 international, was in the past loaned to English club Tottenham Hotspur for six months before returning
to Pilsen. (AFP)
Polish
fisherman
protest
against
cod
fishing
freeze
Xmas decorations
production soars in Poland
Train of
Commemoration from
Germany to Poland
GFDL 1.2:Piotr Brichacek
6
Around 100 Polish fishermen rallied in
Brussels early this week to protest against
a freeze imposed by the European Commission on cod catches in the Baltic Sea.
Chanting “we want to work not starve!”
and waving Polish flags, the protesters, organized by a Polish fishing union, held their
protest outside the building where EU fisheries ministers were holding their monthly
meeting.
The assembled fisheries workers called
for EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg to
resign.
“We Poles are idling in our ports” to respect the cod fishing ban, “but what are the
Swedes and the Danes doing? Everything
we are protecting they are catching,” said
protest organizer Jerzy Wysoczanski.
Former Polish prime minister Jaroslaw
Kaczynski and his then government, losers
in a general election in October, were at loggerheads with the EU’s executive arm for
months over the issue of cod fishing in the
Baltic. Warsaw had contested the European
Commission’s decision in July to close down
cod fishing for the year after fishermen there
exhausted their annual quota.
Warsaw accuses Borg of overstating the
fishing stocks problem.
A compromise was reached on Oct. 23
when Poland agreed to respect the fisheries
closure in return for smaller than planned
Baltic cod quota cuts next year.
The cod catch quota in the eastern Baltic, the main Polish fishing zone, will only
be reduced by five percent in 2008 whereas
the Commission had sought a 22.65 percent
reduction in order to allow the threatened
stocks to replenish.
In the western Baltic, where Germany
and Denmark are the main operators, the
quota cut will be much more pronounced at
28 percent, compared with the 32.84 percent
Brussels had called for.
Poland has a fleet of 430 trawlers fishing for cod in the Baltic, employing 5,000
people on board and in the onshore processing industry.
the krakow post
Joanna Zabierek
staff journalist
The sellout of the U.S. dollar raised the
EUR/USD rate to the record level of 1.4730
two weeks ago.
Since then, American currency has been
the focus of concern in the financial markets.
Having hit record lows against the euro, the
dollar has caused worries about the state of the
U.S. economy.
And for now it is hard to point out a factor
that would end the decline and bring about a
reinforcement of the dollar. Nevertheless, despite anxiety in the financial markets over the
dollar, for most European consumers, including Poles, it is an ideal situation.
The cheap dollar seems to be the best
Christmas present they could imagine.
The low rate of American currency encourages shopping in the U.S. (some things in Poland cost twice as much as in the U.S.), and
lots of people have chosen to buy Christmas
presents there.
The best thing is that it is not necessary to
go fly to America now that we have the Internet and on-line shopping.
However, not everybody in Poland shares
the excitement about the cheap dollar. Exporters to the U.S. have a problem because their
products become more expensive for American buyers.
Poland’s bulb producers usually count on
big sales during the Christmas season; One
can say that Christmas never ends in the ornament industry.
Its workers are busy the year around blowing glass, decorating and painting millions of
tree ornaments for sale to more than a dozen
countries throughout the world.
A month before Christmas, they already are
at work on next season’s designs. Their cal-
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endar begins and ends in November, but the
real ornament season in shops starts after All
Saints Day.
Christmas is the magic time for sales. Merchants know that during that time people are
more willing to spend a lot of money on such
things like unique hand-decorated ornaments
and other adornments.
People from western Europe, the U.S. and
Canada appreciate the high quality and unique
designs of Polish ornaments.
Thanks to Westerners’ love for Polish
handicrafts, Poland has become the world’s
leader in Christmas tree ornament production.
Some producers export up to 95 percent of
their ornaments. Last year the export of Polish
ornaments brought in about $38 mln.
Two years ago, the newspaper Gazeta
Wyborcza told the story of Tomasz Lis, who
became a millionaire producing ornaments
and selling them to the U.S.
Li says that if an ornament bears the inscription “made in Poland,” for Americans
that guarantees great quality.
“Customers in various countries have
various tastes,” Lis told Gazeta Wyborcza.
“Americans like very colorful and richly
decorated ornaments. Britons prefer simple
and subtle designs. In Europe people buy ornaments before Christmas mostly. In the U.S.
it is quite different, as Americans sometimes
buy them, for example, for birthday presents.
Big companies use ornaments as a form of
advertising. They order them with the logo of
their company and give them to their business
customers.”
This year, the lowest dollar rate since 1996
means hardly any profit in the U.S. for ornament exporters.
The only solution for producers is to produce ornaments for European markets. Europeans, however, are unlikely to be willing
to spend as much for Polish handicrafts as
people in the U.S. do.
So ornament manufacturers must hope
that the decline in American currency will
change soon.
A Train of Commemoration to
honor children who were killed in
Nazi concentration camps has begun
crossing Germany and Poland.
The train began its journey in
Frankfurt. It will stop at 20 stations in
Germany and 10 in Poland before its
final stop at the site of the Auschwitz
concentration camp. That stop will
come on May 8, 2008, the anniversary of the end of World War II.
The train consists of a World War
II-era steam engine and cars.
The cars contain a remarkable
exhibition – documents, maps and
objects connected with the Nazis’
crimes against humanity.
The most touching elements of the
exhibition are letters, drawings and
belongings of children destined for
death.
The train will travel 3,000 kilometers, staying at each city where it
stops for some time.
At each stop train-project organizers will ask residents for photos,
written material and oral testimonies
about child victims of the Nazis. They
plan to offer them to the Auschwitz
Memorial and Museum at the end of
the journey.
It is estimated that German trains
transported over one million children
and youths from across Europe to extermination camps. Only 12,089 of
them have been identified. Train organizers hope relatives of the victims,
or witnesses, can help identify some
children.
They were mainly Jewish. Their
countries of origin include Norway,
Belgium, The Netherlands, France,
Italy, Greece, Poland and the Soviet
Union.
The Train of Commemoration is
a citizens’ project. Local groups and
private donors are sharing the considerable cost. Unions, foundations and
memorial organizations also are taking part.
In addition to commemorating
the youngest victims of Hitlerism,
organizers want to make a statement
against racial hatred, xenophobia and
extremism.
More information about the train is
available at the web site:
www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu
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7
An interview with Wojciech Burkot, head of the recently opened Google Research and Development Center
Google R&D relocated to Krakow
Wojciech Burkot, head of the recently opened Google Research and Development Center.
Philip Palmer
staff journalist
Wojciech Burkot, head
of the recently opened
Google Research and
Development Center, talks
with The Krakow Post.
Q: I understand that Polish engineers
have done extremely well in international competitions. Are there any other factors which determined your decision to
locate the R&D Department in Krakow?
A: That was one of the key issues that
led to the setting up of the centre in Poland, but it’s not the only one. It’s not
only the programming skills set. We do
indeed need these kinds of skills, but in
time, we need something more. There’s a
lot of talent here, and that was definitely
one of the biggest reasons for us coming
here.
Q: I understand that the Polish engineers have contributed the most significant innovations in this region of your
operation. Is that right?
A: Polish engineers contribute significantly to our innovation and product development and are among the best minds
we have; our engineering centers in Poland will clearly help to drive our innovation power
Q: The recruitment process at Google
is quite different to some of your more
traditional competitors. It’s almost standard practice to consider referrals from
staff, but the fact that you actually encourage your engineers to give phone
interviews to potential candidates, suggests to me that
you place a huge amount of
trust in your workforce.
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A: We definitely do. I believe that one
of the founding principles here was that
A-Class players attract other A-Class
players, so, yes, there is internal referral, but even those who are referred have
to undergo exactly the same recruitment
process and there is no benefit to them
from being referred. They have to answer
the same kinds of questions as the outsiders and we are very, very picky. We tend
to select the best of the best. There is this
rule that B-Class players attract C-Class
players, but you don’t have this with AClass players. They know their value, and
they want, given the amount of work we
have ahead of us, someone who can help
them, and the best person to do that is another A-Class player. Yes, indeed, there
is a tremendous amount of trust placed
in the workforce. It’s not only related to
recruitment, but the sharing of sensitive
information. This company is very, very
open and every one has a part to play in
the decision making process here.
Q: Google claim to seek “creative, innovative people, for whom work is a passion”. The second part of the interview
process measures creativity. How do you
do this?
A: We have a lot of algorithmic puzzles and mathematical problems that we
pose to our candidates and watching them
solve them gives us a lot of information
about their creativity. We are so happy
when we see a new solution to an old
problem that it gets disputed all over the
place for quite a long time after the candidate presents the new solution (laughs).
Q: The favorable work conditions at
Google are well-publicized. Your kitchen
seems extraordinarily well-stocked and I
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understand that one day the management
decided to give all the staff a bicycle. Why
do you invest so much in what some other
companies might regard as luxuries?
A: We want our engineers, especially
in R&D Centers like this to be as happy
as we can make them, so it started that
way back at Mountain View and this culture continues in every new center that is
opened, and we share the same benefits
and privileges as other people in the company, so there’s no way given the growth
of the organization that this could be different. Our people travel and meet their
counterparts around the world and they
are just accustomed to this treatment.
This is normal life for them.
Q: Google is well known for grouping
engineers into small product development
teams. How do you decide the make up of
the teams?
It depends on the project at hand. There
are bigger groups focusing on wider areas
and smaller projects within these areas.
The smallest projects here involve two or
three people and the largest is six, which
is a strong force. Six engineers at Google,
six geniuses working together is really a
lot (laughs). We don’t go after specialists.
We hire very bright general engineers.
Most specialists specialize in something
obscure and that’s not good. The kind
of people we hire can work in a number
of different areas and if they don’t know
about some of these, they can learn really
fast. The right mix of youthful enthusiasm and experience is the key to balancing our teams, but this is very flexible.
People can come and say, “I now longer
want to work on this project,” and they
can transfer to something else. That’s perfectly ok.
Q: It’s also noticeable that at Google
a fifth of engineer’s work time is given
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over to personal product development.
How do you ensure that this time isn’t
wasted?
They are creative people. We like
their ideas and actually, if you consider
the typical top-down scheme of invention, where there’s this team of architects
who’ve been in the industry for 20 years.
They come up with ideas that go down
to the senior designers, who prepare the
design and then down to coders who just
implement what was invented. Usually
this top-down model doesn’t work for invention, so our model is just the opposite.
We start with very many ideas and people
are bright enough to recognize that some
of those ideas are better than their own.
Our engineers could easily give up their
20%, but what we would lose would be
the effort of a single person with a limited
amount of time, as opposed to the whole
hierarchical organization working for two
years to produce something which just
doesn’t make any impact on the market.
So, some of the few ideas that survive
the vetting process become company
projects or else, they are good enough in
themselves to be worked on as 20% projects. Some of our Google features started
as 20% projects, like, for example, gmail,
quite a hit I would say. I can see how
this strategy works. Very little time and
money invested by the organization, yet
the project can grow to the stage, where
someone says, “it looks interesting, can I
join forces with you.”, and then it grows
in a very natural, organic way, bottom
up.
Q: In the old days, a product would
sometimes take a number of years to
reach the market from conception, but
these days companies need to work a lot
faster to launch a product. How do you
ensure that quality is maintained?
A: When you operate on our scale, it
is definitely the quality that matters. We
have too many users and can’t risk them
having something bad pushed on them,
so we make sure that the products are
thoroughly tested by the time they reach
the launch stage. At the same time, we
can expect that people will find areas for
improvement in the released products.
You will see if you use gmail or a similar
product, that you can wake up at 4 in the
morning and find out that the product is
slightly different from what it was. We
know why we introduce those changes
and we are pretty sure that the new version is better. Constant improvement is
our recipe for maintaining the quality
while still being fast to the market.
Q: I noticed that Google is involved in
the Open Handset Alliance Project, which
involves a number of IT and telecommunications companies working together to
produce a universal platform which will
connect mobile phones to the internet.
This can help to drive growth, especially
in new markets like Africa, where mobile
communication is absolutely essential for
business development. How important is
this desire in Google to drive growth for
the mutual benefit of all?
A: Fighting exclusion is the driving
force behind these kind of projects. You
mentioned Africa, and indeed the mobile phone essential to communication
capabilities there and Google wants to
be part of that, , but, eventually, in the
Hungarian Cuisine and More...
long term, more people will be included
and this will result in the growth of the
whole world economy. My background is
in the telecommunications industry and
the struggle to develop the killer application has been going on for years and one
of the problems was the segmentation,
the strong competition in the sector, and
opening the resource of a very good software platform to users will give someone
out there, in the wide world, a chance to
develop something that is really useful.
This is very difficult to achieve, even for
an organization of our size. We’ve had
tons of ideas about how to use the Android platform, but if you take hundreds
more engineers from around the world,
some of them will come up with solutions
we never could have dreamed of.
Q: Google are involved in giving users the autonomy to make their own decisions and choices, but personalizing
searches can potentially lead to invasion
of privacy. How do you balance these two
factors?
A: Privacy is very important and I at
this moment we are one of the companies
that makes data intentionally obscure after some time, so that personal information can’t be extracted any more for you
as a user, there’s about as much invasion
into your life as using a spell checker or
a spam filter. It’s done automatically and
we never have any intention of going into
the private details of any of our users.
Q: There seems to be a great deal of
loyalty amongst Google users. I read that
there was a recent research program, in
which the advertisements were removed
from the search engine to test user reaction and people actually got a little upset,
because they were so used to seeing them.
How can you account for this loyalty?
A: I think the biggest factor is quality.
We try to target searches, so that people
find truly useful information themselves
and we believe this enhances user experience. Our users are just one click away
from other competing search engines
and we actually deliberately point them
to the websites of yahoo and Microsoft if
they have useful information, so we try
to get that loyalty by the quality of the
service we provide. People don’t usually
consider the fact that we are a very small
company compared to some of the others in the IT market, and there’s just not
enough people to manipulate the results
manually. We can improve the algorithm,
that’s true, but it takes time and the current results are what they are. People
consider certain sites valuable and get the
pointers to them.
B U S I N E S S
The Krakow Post
B I Z
Faurecia opens 50 mln euro
Czech car components plant
Faurecia, Europe’s second biggest car components producer, late last week launched its new
Czech plant which will employ 1,000 workers near
the central town of Pisek by the end of the year.
The 45,000 metre squared plant will mainly
produce doors, seats and exhausts for the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda), Renault,
Mercedes-Benz, PSA Peugeot Citroen, General
Motors Europe (Opel, Saab) and Ford.
Faurecia, which invested 50 mln euro ($74.2
mln) in the new plant, wants to “reinforce its industrial presence in Central Europe,” company
president Yann Delabriere said during the opening
ceremony. Last year the group employed 60,000
people at 190 sites worldwide with sales of 11.6
bln euro, of which 11.0 percent is in Central Europe. Since 2004, Faurecia has opened 12 new
sites in Slovakia, Romania, Poland and the Czech
Republic. Sales in the Czech Republic, whose
car industry is the biggest in Central Europe and
has undergone a boom since the collapse of communism in 1989, totalled 350 mln euro last year.
(AFP)
Property prices stop
A hope for cheaper
flats in Poland
Raiffeisen structured
certificates hit WSE
GDFL-1.2:O more
R E G I O N A L
GFDL-1.2:Ausir
8
Polish unemployment falls to
11.3 percent in October
Poland’s unemployment rate has continued its
steady decline, falling to 11.3 percent in October
from 11.6 percent in September, the national statistics office said early this week. The rate compared
with 14.9 percent in October 2006, according to
the data. Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, has
one of the highest percentages of joblessness in the
27-nation bloc.
In the EU as a whole, the unemployment rate
was 7.0 percent in September, the most recent
month for which complete figures were available,
down from 7.1 percent in August and 8.0 percent
in September 2006. (AFP)
the krakow post
Czech Finance Ministry
selects airport consultants
The Czech Finance Ministry announced late
last week that it had selected Credit Suisse Securities as its consultant for the first phase of the
privatization of state-controlled international airport Prague-Ruzyne.
“The price and references were the principle
criteria (for the choice),” ministry spokesman Ondrej Jakob said.
The first phase of the airport’s privatization
should fix how big a chunk of the busiest airport in
Central Europe to sell off and how the sale should
proceed, he added. Another consultant responsible
for selecting a strategic investor for the airport,
expected to take place during the second half of
2008, will be chosen later, he added. A series of
major construction and airport companies are interested in the sale, which could raise up to 100
bln koruna (3.6 bln euro, $5.34 mln) for the state,
according to local media reports.
These include German construction company
Hochtief, the operator of Frankfurt airport, Fraport,
Australian banking group Macquarie, as well as
Czech investment group PPF and its Slovak
peers Penta and J&T. Deloitte Advisory was chosen as the consultant to pilot the sale of state-controlled airline CSA (Czech Airlines), the ministry
added on Friday. (AFP)
CSA to cut Canada flights
following poor figures
Czech state-controlled airline CSA announced
late last week that it will dramatically cut its flights
to Canada because of low passenger numbers.
The airline will end flights between Prague and
Montreal from the start of 2008 and three weekly
flights only will be scheduled between the Czech
capital and Toronto between June and October, the
period of peak demand, it said in a news release.
During the winter months, flights to Canada
have only been around 55 percent full, the biggest
airline in Central Europe added.
CSA announced in November that it made a net
profit of 563 mln koruna (20.9 mln euro, $835.9
mln) during the first nine months of the year, turning round a series of losses during the previous
three years. (AFP)
Bank of Cyprus agrees to
purchase of Ukraine bank
Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest financial
institution, announced early this week it will expand to the Ukraine by acquiring AvtoZAZBank
for 52 mln euro ($76 mln). (AFP)
THE KRAKOW POST
Real estate prices throughout Poland stopped rising or
even fell slightly in September and October.
According to reports by the REAS consulting company
and the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, the four-year
trend of price growth has stopped.
That’s a consequence of higher supply on the property
market.
While demand remains very high (many young couples
from the baby-boom generation want to buy a flat), the
supply has increased thanks to more property development
companies and more investment in the real estate market.
Another factor which might have helped put the brakes
on real estate prices is higher interest rates.
The rate increases have affected people’s willingness to
take out a loan to finance a purchase of a property.
Currently many development companies are delaying
construction decisions until the market trend becomes apparent. Real estate prices are still very high compared to
wages in Poland.
While the average Polish citizen earns pre-tax 2,950
zloty per year, an apartment or flat in Warsaw costs 9,370
zloty per square meter, in Krakow 8,000 per square meter
and in Wroclaw 7,290.
These are the most expensive cities in Poland. In Katowice, the average price per square meter is 4,080 zloty.
The unprecedented rise in apartment prices in recent
years was also a consequence of the popularity of the Polish market among foreign real estate investors.
For them the prices are still not very high and they may
still buy property even if most Poles cannot afford it. But
real estate customers may have good news soon.
According to experts at BRE Bank, developers will have
to cut prices in order to encourage potential buyers and to
meet increased competition.
The bank predicts that prices should start to grow again
in 2010.
Building a house on the outskirts of a big city has become more and more attractive thanks to the high prices of
flats. Higher demand for property in such areas contributed
to a rapid growth of prices. Statistics published by the daily
newspaper Polska show that, since January, land for building sites on city outskirts has become two or even three
times more expensive.
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Our web site: www.iwak.pl
On Sept. 13. new structured certificates of Raiffeisen Centrobank
made their debut as a supplement to
the offer of Raiffeisen Bank Polska
S.A. Raiffeisen Centrobank AG, Vienna (RCB), is one of the biggest issuers of certified securities in Austria
and the investment bank of Austrian
Raiffeisen Banking Group.
The certificates are state-of-the-art
products, allowing private investors
to invest in different stock exchange
indices, which cannot be purchased
directly. RCB assures the liquidity of
assets through their permanent quotation on a secondary market.
“It wasn’t easily possible for private investors to go to commodities
market before,” said Stefan Neubauer, Senior Sales CEE. “With certificates it is possible to have a globally
diversified portfolio.”
Thanks to the certificates the investor can invest directly on international stock exchanges or commodities markets (such as crude oil and
gold).
The benefits of such an investment
are: the possibility to invest in various stock exchange indices, a reliable
reflection of indices’ value on a certificate value, open-end quality, no
management fee (the income of the
RCB is the value of the spread between buying and selling, which is at
the most 1%), large transparency, and
the fact that the investment is being
denominated in zloty (PLN).
One inconvenience is the exchange
rate difference, which is an inevitable
one when it comes to international
investments.
Currently available on the Warsaw Stock Exchange are eight index
structured certificates: CECE (EUR),
CECExt, DAX, DJ EuroTOXX50,
RDX, BrentCrude Oil, Gold and Ostbasket UK (Ukraine, Kazakhstan),
and many more to come in the next
months. They work on a basis of indices and baskets of stocks, among
others, Ukrainian, Kazak, German,
Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian and Russian stock exchanges and reflect price changes of
commodities, or commodity baskets.
Later, RCB is planning to introduce even guarantee certificates,
which would secure the investment’s
value and have defined incidence
dates, e.g. Bull & Bear (commodity
basket). Altogether, RCB plans to issue more than 100 certificates in the
near future. Structured products are
available in RCB since April 2001.
“In Austria and Germany, the
certificate market is booming,” Neubauer said. “We wanted to invest in
Poland, because this market has a big
potential.”
the relatively low labor costs for qualified workers. The Lodz plant should
become a regional center of the world’s
biggest computer supplier in a couple of
years. Excavation work for plant expansion followed on Nov. 21.
The American company also started
recruitment of its new employees, who
then were trained at its Irish plant in
Limerick.
For now, 500 people are working in
Lodz for the Round Rock, Texas-based
company. Crockery said the work force
will increase to 1,100 by the end of January 2008.
The Lodz plant will try to meet the
demand for Dell products not only in Poland but also in other central and eastern
European countries.
According to Dell, production should
grow by 14 per cent annually, so that
further expansion of the factory seems
assured. Lodz Mayor Kropiwnicki and
the city council are very pleased with the
investment.
According to independent reports, the
Dell plant should create 5,000 to 7,000
jobs in related business. This should help
ease unemployment, which has been
high in the area during the last decade,
and also attract further foreign investment. For now, individual people cannot
buy the Lodz laptops. The Polish factory
offers its products only to other companies and institutions.
Many Poles order the computers via
the Internet from other countries, travel
abroad to buy them in Germany or in the
UK, or even ask their relatives living in
America to bring them to Poland.
Dell plant in Lodz opens
Michal Wojtas
staff journalist
The Dell plant in Lodz has produced
its first computer just 12 months after the
American giant began construction of its
building. The first Polish Dell laptop
was presented by the plant director, Sean
Crockery, to the mayor of the city, Jerzy
Kropiwnicki, on Nov. 20.
Dell started its search three years ago
for a location for a plant to supply laptops for central Europe.
In September 2006, company representatives and the former minister of
the economy, Piotr Wozniak, signed an
agreement to build the factory in Lodz.
The decision to locate the $200 million investment there was based on the
city’s rich academic resources and also
B U S I N E S S
Poland wants talks with
Eureko over PZU fracas
The Polish treasury said early this week it
wants to open talks with Dutch-based financial
group Eureko aimed at resolving a long-running legal dispute over Poland’s PZU insurance giant.
“We’ll open talks with Eureko and we’ll see
what they will propose and what their attitude
is,” senior treasury official Michal Chyczewski told Poland’s commercial TVN CNBC
news channel.
“If Eureko will present a concrete proposal,
we will respond to it,” he said.
Chyczewski emphasized that Poland’s new
business-friendly liberal government, which
took office Saturday, would “certainly demonstrate a willingness to reach an understanding”
while continuing to pursue court arbitration.
The comments come on the heels of a decision Monday by a Brussels-based appellate
court favouring Eureko’s bid to proceed with
PZU’s privatization, a move long disputed by
Poland’s treasury which holds a 55 percent
controlling stake in the vast company.
Chyczewski did not rule out a possible future fusion of PZU with leading Polish bank
PKO BP, but stressed that the government had
The Polish treasury said
Tuesday it wants to open
talks with Dutch-based
financial group Eureko
aimed at resolving a
long-running legal
dispute over Poland’s
PZU insurance giant.
no immediate plan to pursue that path.
The liberals intend to push ahead with
the privatization of PKO BP and the Warsaw
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Stock Exchange, Chyczewski said, adding that
the bourse sale could come as soon as 2009.
For years, the Polish authorities and Eureko
have been locked in a pitched legal battle over
whether the Dutch company is entitled to acquire a majority stake in PZU and so control
central Europe’s largest insurer.
In 1999, Eureko bought a 30 percent stake
in PZU for 3.1 bln zloty, then worth some
694.5 mln euro. Its stake has since risen to 33
percent minus one share.
Eureko insists it is entitled to a further 21
percent of PZU under the terms of a 1999
privatization contract. Faced with losing control of PZU, a string of Polish governments from both the left and right
have fought Eureko’s bid over the last
decade.
However, in 2005 a London-based
international arbitration court ruled in
favour of Eureko, saying the Polish
treasury had failed to uphold its side of
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The Krakow Post
China’s Lenovo to open
Polish computer plant
The Chinese information technology
group Lenovo announced early this week
it would build an assembly plant in Poland
that would turn out five mln personal computers a year.
Lenovo said the new plant in the southwestern Polish city of Legnica would be up
and running by September 2008 and would
cost around $20 mln.
It said the plant would eventually employ 1,000 people and that its output would
be destined for the European, Middle Eastern and African markets.
Lenovo officials said that while the
plant would initially produce desktop PCs,
it could eventually be adapted to assemble
laptop computers.
Last week the U.S. IT giant Dell inaugurated a computer assembly plant in Lodz,
in central Poland.
9
10
W A R S A W
The Krakow Post
GFDL-1.2:Hiuppo
GFDL-1.2:DocentX
Hyde Park in the Warsaw’s population decreases
center of Warsaw
the krakow post
Not long ago, Warsaw used to be one of
the fastest-growing cities in Poland.
It seems the trend is about to reverse,
with some growth shifting from the city
itself to the suburbs.
The number of Warsaw residents is decreasing as many people treat the capital
as a step in their careers or a workplace
rather than a place to live. Some of those
working in the city are now choosing to
live in the suburbs.
Although the city’s population continues to rise, reaching 1.7 mln by the end
of last year, the Central Statistics Office
predicts it will begin falling soon.
The office estimates that at the end of
2010 the population will have decreased
by 24,000. By the end of 2025, it will
have dropped by as many as 110,000 from
today, putting it at 1.59 mln, the office
said.
Some other population experts dispute
those figures, saying depopulation will
occur more slowly.
The statistics office says the age picture
of the population also will have altered by
2030. There will be fewer city dwellers
under 18, and more in other age groups,
it expects.
Children under 4 are expected to be
the smallest group in 2030 – accounting for about 40,500 people. The biggest
group will be 50- to 54-year-olds – about
151,000.
These statistics indicate that the population of Warsaw is slowly growing old,
although the analysis did not take into
consideration the still significant influence of migration.
Professor Kazimierz Krzysztofek, a sociologist at Warsaw State University, said
there is a direct correlation between the
increasing wealth of Poles and the depopulation of the city. “Many people prefer to
have a house outside Warsaw than a flat in
a block in the center of the city,” he said.
Adam Brzozowski, a 39-year-old doctor who moved from the city several years
ago to a detached house in Lomianki,
agrees. “Warsaw is not a good place to
live,” he said. “It is fine for working and
evenings out, but no more. It works best
for single people.”
“Life revolves around work here,” said
Rafal Sus, a journalist in Wroclaw who
lived and worked in the capital for four
years. To him, Warsaw was just a stage
in his career. He made his move a month
ago.
Dr. Przemyslaw Sleszynski of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization in Warsaw doubts Warsaw’s population will fall as much as the statistics
office predicts. He notes that its population is growing, although at a slower rate
than a few years ago. That is a national
trend, he pointed out.
prize by the jury of the Student Architecture Competition “Murator” in 2004.
According to the authors of the project,
the value of the architectural heritage of
the Polish capital, most of which was built
or rebuilt after World War II, depends
specifically on its industrial modernity.
Neon lights should be treated as part of
this heritage. As advertisements, bound to
their products, neon signs should not outlive the goods they advertise.
Yet, in the Communist times of the
People’s Republic of Poland, there was no
free market, therefore, this rule did not apply. Instead, neon lights were created for
their own sake, as a form of art embellishing the public space.
They created an inimitable atmosphere
in the streets, the way sculptures, paintings or greenery did. Just like them, therefore, they deserve preservation.
The open-air museum is a way to keep
neon lights in our memory. But why did
they choose to feature such an exhibition
in an open-air environment?
According to Piwowar and Piatek, neon
signs could never be confined to a room;
they belong to the streets. Gathered in one
place in the center of the city, they would
constitute a monument of neon lights as a
form of art.
The project received approving opinions from the city council and may soon
materialize. The exhibition in the Palace
of Culture and Science is available until
Nov. 25, admission free.
Neon lights museum opens
Urszula Ciolkiewicz
Staff Journalist
After eight months of debate and in their
longest single session ever, Warsaw aldermen have approved a spot for citizens to
say loudly and without governmental permission whatever’s on their minds.
Hyde Park will be in Defilady Square,
near a fountain in Warsaw’s Swietokrzyski
Park.
The Warsaw City Council has been discussing the project for eight months.
They opposed creating Hyde Park in
front of the Presidential Palace, but in the
end agreed on Swietokrdzyski Park as the
most appropriate place for organizing public debates or demonstrations without special permission from the mayor of Warsaw.
сс:sa:Anton
Warsaw.
Hyde Park will be much like others of its
type but with some differences.
In May, a monitoring system organizers
say will be for the safety of those gathered
in the park will be installed.
Council members say Hyde Park should
be a place where everyone can safely and
freely exclaim their opinions.
Warsaw Alderman Andrzej Golimont opposed placing Hyde Park in Swietokrzyski
Park, preferring instead a site near the Krakowskie Przedmiescie after street repairs in
the vicinity.
Hyde Park will be reviewed in December 2008.
Warsaw representatives will determine
if the park fulfilled a need for Warsowians and will examine how they conducted
themselves there.
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The recently opened Polish Neon Light
Exhibition in the Palace of Culture and
Science brings back the beauty of Warsaw light advertisements of the 1960s and
1970s. Ilona Karwinska’s photographs
capture the unique splendor of Warsaw
neon lights, many of which are now being
treated as useless garbage and removed
from the streets.
To prevent their disappearance, two
young architects, Magdalena Piwowar
and Grzegorz Piatek, put forward an idea
of creating a museum of neon lights.
Their project of a metal structure to
which old neon signs could be attached
was much admired and granted the first
K R A K O W
The Krakow Post
11
Shopping center more attractive than Wawel
Staff Journalist
Nearly a quarter of Krakow
schoolboys and schoolgirls
spend time every day in shopping centers.
From a first study of children
in shopping and recreation centers it is apparent that for half
of them, the centers are much
more interesting than Rynek
Glowny (Main Market Square),
Wawel Castle or Mariacki (St.
Mary’s) Church.
The report was produced by
students from the Institute of Sociology at Jagiellonian University. The students spent a month
talking daily to young people in
Krakow shopping areas. They
examined the children’s backgrounds and the material status
of their families. They inquired
about youngsters’ interests and
what attracted them to the shopping and recreation centers.
The university students
asked about safety concerns in
the centers and whether it was
possible to get drunk or to buy
drugs.
“Fortunately, the report isn’t
terrible,” said Andrzej Augustynski, the Krakow mayor’s
representative for youth issues.
“It doesn’t reveal, for example,
sex in the toilets in return for
perfumes or expensive clothes.
However, the report isn’t
good.”
According to Augustynski,
there is a real need for creating
clubrooms or special places for
young people in the shopping
and amusement centers.
More than 80 percent of the
young people said that they
go to the centers to meet their
friends. Seventy-three percent
of them go to the movies, 67
percent visit clothing shops
and 65 percent enjoy a meal.
Sixty-six percent like shopping
centers because they are attractive and clean, while 47 percent
couldn’t cite a specific reason
for visiting the shopping centers. Forty-four percent of the
young people said they have
nothing better to do with their
after-school time.
And they said the shopping
center has all they need within
the reach of a hand. The world
outside the shopping center
does not even exist for them.
“This is an extremely dangerous phenomenon,” said Dr.
Marta Smugacz of Jagiellonian
University, who supervised the
report.
“The public space for those
children is shrunk to the minimum. They don’t need the real
market square, the real streets,
the real sun. What is worse,
they also don’t need the real and
strong bonds between people.
In the gallery, most people are
anonymous.”
GFDL-1.2:Sharx
Urszula Ciolkiewicz
Vivid oldies come back
Barbara Bajak
Staff Journalist
store Miejsce (Place) two years ago. They
search for furniture from the 60s and 70s
and fish out those more attractive or unusual
pieces. Their hunts take them to flea markets
and private apartments.
“It happens even when we’re on holiday,”
Przemek said. “A few times we came back
home loaded with new furniture. We just
cannot resist it. You can call it a professional
perversion.”
In Poland, the market for innovative pieces is still in its infancy, and in many cases
people don’t know what they have and fail
to properly take care of their potential jewels. Whether “left in a junk shop or thrown
out, our mission is to find and save these furnishings,” Przemek said.
Having the items in stock, Przemek and
Bartek brainstorm what they can invent from
the old furniture. In some cases it can be a
real challenge. The things that have been in
use for 40 years or more frequently are in
terrible condition. They undergo a complete
metamorphosis, with their color and texture
changing over time.
But the artists’ converted armchairs
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delight with vivid upholstery and lamps
take on invitingly juicy looks. Przemek and
Bartak do not perform the handiwork themselves though.
The last phase of the renewal process takes place in proper workshops.
Their ideas come straight from their passion
and creativity.
It was no particular academic background
that prompted them to create Place. Bartek
has a degree in ethnology and Przemek in
cultural studies, although the latter has dabbled in art before.
“I always wanted to have an antique
shop,” Przemek explained. “Design and furniture interested me especially and I discovered with Bartek that the 60s and 70s style
has that ‘something.’ All we needed to do
was to free it from the bleary cover.”
The concept was born while the two were
decorating their apartment. Friends commented on the decor they created with their
updated design and furniture, repeatedly
asking, “Why not sell it?”
Since the idea materialized, its inventors
want to broaden their scope by organizing
cultural events.
As the shop has very limited space, that
part of their activity came down to the new
Miejsce Bar. Among the latest fads in Krakow since then: fashion swap parties.
Miejsce is situated at ul. Zagadlowicza 2,
Miejsce Bar at ul. Estery 1
krakowpost.com
Now you can be proud of having decadesold furniture in your fashionable interior.
Especially if the piece is, for example, one
sexily curved and swanky armchair from the
1970s. The latest trend is to mix old with
new: styles and materials, history and innovative upgrades.
The vintage fashion could be defined as
freshness framed in the worth of years. The
trend came to Europe from the U.S. and at
the very beginning comprised products of
the 50s and 60s. These were represented
by so-called organic forms–squishy, oval,
and asymmetrical. It could be accomplished
thanks to newly invented, highly flexible
materials such as plywood. With time the
trend included processes from the best of
today’s designs.
Age-old furniture is in that way renewed
and redecorated to appeal to modern consumers who find fancy design intriguing.
The fusion style in modern interior design
leaves room for individuality and freedom,
so cherished by the young. It seems that surrounded by goods of mass production we
tend to look for the human qualities of imperfection and tradition.
Of course, it is also society’s prosperity
that allows for the choice. In the U.S. and
Western Europe, the move has long since
enjoyed broad popularity, whereas in Poland
it is still developing. Some types of the reborn furnishings that so appeal to the young
consumer have recently graced the interior
of common Polish households and can be
found used in their original form even today.
Many Poles may still associate the 60s and
70s design with the bleakness of the Communistic period. That is why the whole process of rejuvenating is so important.
Nevertheless, it needs to be stressed that
primarily the original designers did their
best to go beyond material limits. Experimenting with cheap fabrics usually led to the
items’ creation. The resulting products are
innovative shapes and clever patterns that
appeal both for their in-vogue novelty and
the nostalgia they evokes.
Artists Przemek and Bartek launched the
12
K R A K O W
The Krakow Post
“Vive” imports London lifestyle
Agata Antonowicz
STAFF JOURNALIST
A touch of England has surfaced on Felicjanek Street in the Zwierzyniec district.
It’s British native Phoebe Ryrko’s Vive
interior design store.
Ryrko said she and her Polish-born husband Ryszard had been wanting to leave
England to live abroad.
Poland had just joined the European
Union, “so we thought: Why not come
here, to the place where Richard’s parents
came from?”
She came up with the notion of the
store after realizing she would miss the
trappings of England. “I hit on the idea of
bringing some ideas of London lifestyle to
Krakow,” she said.
Ryrko is not only an interior decorator
but also a painter and designer. In fact, she
plans to come out with a jewelry collection
in spring.
She brings her love of art to her busi-
ness. “We all need some basics in life -- a
chair or a table.” But in addition to being
functional, “these things can make you feel
happy and express your individuality.”
“It doesn’t have to be a big thing, either,” she added. “A small candle or a
beautifully scented bath could really make
you feel nurtured across a whole day at
work.”
The store has two basic labels right
now: Osborne & Little and Innermost.
Peter Osborne and Antony Little’s company is one of the world’s leading names
in fabric and wallpaper design. Its offerings range from the paint-effect wallpapers of the 1980s to the celestial star, sun
and moon motifs of the 1990s, to today’s
metallic looks.
Krakow and Warsaw are the only places
where you can purchase these lines. “Osborne & Little is the strongest product
line here,” Ryrko said. “Its vibrant colors,
playfulness and quality express my personality as well as being quintessentially
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Concert weekend
in Loch Ness
English.”
Designers Steve Jones and Russell
Cameron founded Innermost in 1999 in
London. Its original focus was lighting,
and that is still a mainstay, but it offers
other products now.
Designers from 12 countries work with
the founders. Yee-Ling Wan’s Jewel Floor
Lamp is the epitome of an Innermost product. It offers innovative technology, innovative materials and a new way of interpreting what a lamp is.
Pascal Anson’s Flowermiser is a stainless-steel mirror in a square vase that
reflects the images of the flowers placed
within, doubling the effect.
Vive’s offerings include a “Living” line
of products dealing with activities in the
home that are both utilitarian and decorative.
These products include jewelry handmade from silk by the Swedish company
Silk, silver and pearls, candles by Bolsius
in a range of colors, Ortigia bath acces-
Unsound Festival continues to challenge assumptions
Philip Palmer
Soren Gauger
Staff Journalists
This year’s Unsound Festival, well
known for its promotion of the bizarre
and the outlandish, began Nov. 21 in low
key fashion this year with the opening
of a thoughtfully presented exhibition of
“sound postcards” at Klub Pauza. These
old relics of the post-war Communist
era contain a picture on the front and a
crudely recorded sound recording on the
back, often composed of a greeting to the
recipient followed by a song. Rather than
being mailed, they were usually given as
gifts. They reached the pinnacle of their
popularity during the 1960s and 1970s
when vinyl recordings were very hard to
come by, so, as we would be expected,
The Beatles, Glam Rock and Disco hits
are commonly featured. These days, they
can be picked up for throwaway prices
at the Hala Targowa Market on Sundays.
So presenting them as art objects in an
exhibition is a novel concept, but justified in this case as many of them were
recorded, in a sense “created,” by the
sender in the special recording centers
that used to exist in Krakow for the
purpose. The exhibition was organized
on the basis of correlations between the
front cover designs, so adjacent sound recordings (painstakingly transferred in all
their scratchy glory onto MP3 format for
the gallery visitors) were often in stark
contrast to each other. But the most fascinating aspect was the frequent lack of
correlation between the covers, featuring
anything from family snaps to sophisticated graphic design, and the recordings
on the reverse. There were, however, occasional more or less oblique attempts to
link the two, the most notable being the
postcard containing the song “Chce miec
dziecko” (I Want to Have a Baby), whose
cover features two dragonflies pinned to
a tree in an amorous pose.
The exhibition opening was followed
Krzystof Skonieczny
Staff Journalist
Heavy metal outfit Hunter kicks-off this weekend’s entertainment at Loch Ness pub on Dec. 1,
followed up with a softer vibe from alternative rock
sories from Sicily, ceramics, tableware,
mirrors, antique renovated furniture, and
books about design and music.
The shop also includes art. “Art is a
sensory pleasure, an affirmation of individuality and self-expression, and I think
that people need the joyfulness that art
gives,” Ryrko said.
Vive said she wants to work with Polish
artists and designers on products. “I am
not a business woman -- I am a creative
person,” she said.
“Felicjanek Street has a great potential
and a great atmosphere with other unique
places like Cafe Szafe, Miejsce and Massolit,” she said.
She wants to promote Felicjanek as an
interior-decor quarter, a place that would
“make shopping for your home a pleasure,” where you can “find something a
little different.”
The Vive shop is at ul. Felicjanek 14.
The company has an online store at:
www.vivedesign.com.
diva Renata Przemyk on Dec. 2.
Lifting their name from Def Leppard’s “Die hard
the hunter,” Hunter’s Pawel “Drak” Grzegorczyk
and Grzegorz “Brooz” Slawinski had no idea of
their moniker’s meaning back in the mid-80s when
the band formed “Later, when we found out the
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by a rather depressing presentation on
the tiny but thriving underground music
and art scene in Minsk, given by festival organizer, Mat Schulz, Polish artist,
Wojtek Kosma and Minsk resident, Vlad
Buben. There is no official censorship in
the Belarusian capital but Baben, who
runs his own web site devoted to experimental music, made it clear that the authorities can and do close any clubs that
they consider to be encouraging acts that
don’t fit in with the party line. It would
have been useful to have a tracklisting,
but, anyway, the presentation kicked off
with a frighteningly tacky video by Bacchus, representatives of the industrial
Gothic scene of the 1990s. The garishly
lit singer nonchalantly grunts his way
through the song accompanied by a tinny
keyboard bagpipe sound, while fending off a swooping computer-generated
dragon. Other videos in the presentation
included a performance artist making a
mess of the table and his clothes while
forcing down a meal of something black
and indescribable, and a close up of
nerve cells accompanied by a reverberating drone reminiscent of 1970s German
innovators, Tangerine Dream. Kosma expressed his amazement that he was able
to conduct a video performance in the
centre of Minsk without being disturbed
by anybody. Buben was unimpressed.
Apparently people don’t look to the left
and right in the Belarusian capital, just
“at the ground.”
The final part of the evening was given over to “Unpredictable Encounters,”
an international project where artists
from two different countries, in this case
Denmark and Poland form “couples” to
familiarize themselves with each other’s
work with a view to collaborating on joint
projects of their own. The first couple,
Roberto Derteano and Wojtek Cosmos,
came across like a mutual appreciation
society. Despite the undoubted interest of
their individual projects (Derteano’s recording of city sounds as he walked in a
preset algorithm - two steps forward, one
to the right - was particularly intriguing),
it was difficult to see what would come
of their collaboration. Performance artists, Niklas Roy and Wojtek Kucharczyk
got to know each other in a more direct
way by mucking around with toilet rolls
and hairdryers while firing bizarre questions at each other like “Have you ever
been to The Sahara ?.” The most successful and controversial collaboration was a
thinly veiled attack on Father Rydzyk’s
notorious evangelical radio station, Radio Maryja. A flashing hilltop representation of Jesus on the cross was digitally
“warped,” “rippled” and “stroked” to a
soundtrack created by Robert Piotrowicz
and Anna Zaradny. It was difficult for the
audience to know whether to laugh or remain silent out of respect for those with
religious beliefs, so the room was filled
with nervous titters and emphatic grunts.
The following night at Klub Re began
with a showcase for the local Audiotong
label that promotes experimental acts
from around the world. The first set by
Lawrence English, standing motionless
at his laptop in the corner of the stage
was a little patchy.
He deftly changed the speed of a
sample, so that it in turn sounded like the
chug of a steam train or a buzz saw, but
his decision to mix a booming rumble
over delicate Robert Fripp-style ambient
guitar backfired as the rattling speakers
detracted from the overall impression
he was trying to create. Franz Pomassl
bounded onto the stage like a reject from
the Freakshow that started later in the
evening.
After infuriating the sound engineer
by licking live contacts and letting off
steam by going to remonstrate with the
poor man American Wrestling Federation style, he put his back into a lively set
that embraced broken beats from sampled fireworks (I think) and impressive
dynamic and rhythmic variation. Isaac
Newton apparently once thrust a needle
meaning, we were a bit disappointed” said Grzegorczyk.
Since their first record in 1995, when their power
metal style earned them the nickname of “Polish
Metallica” up to their latest releases, T.E.L.I. 2005
and their 2006 DVD HolyWood, Hunter have developed a more complex, mature and heavier style
acclaimed by critics and fans alike.
Hunter is not afraid to experiment with new
sounds. One of their featured instruments is a violin, and recently they recorded a cover of the classic
Polish rock’n’roll song “Easy Rider” with satirist
Krzysztof Daukrzewicz contributing to the vocals.
The song topped Polish Radio 3’s charts.
Hunter will be supported by the metalcore band
Frontside on the night.
Renata Przemyk’s Sunday night gig will give
your ears a break from the previous nights bleeding.
The singer is closely linked to Krakow where she
achieved acclaim at the 1989 “Studencki Festiwal
Piosenki” (“The Student Song Festival”). Currently
she lives and creates in one of the villages close to
the city.
in his eye socket to see what would happen and Xavier van Wersch’s stage image
seemed like a throwback to the days when
men of science lacked guinea pigs to test
out their theories. His manic laboratory,
which included a hi-fi that screeched like
a siren, barely squeezed onto the stage
and watching him bound around in a lab
coat and goggles between his numerous
homemade instruments was nothing
short of enthralling. It’s striking how
objects with unpleasant associations, like
dentist drills, can be amazingly musical
when sampled and used creatively out of
their normal context.
Concluding the Unsound Festival’s
November schedule was a monster of
a concert on Sunday at Klub Re, where
the Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim
Black ensemble created sound that
skipped schizophrenically through musical genres on saxophone/(electric) accordion/electronics/percussion.
To give only the slightest idea, their
second piece began with some infectious
Afro drumming over which Andrea Parkins seemed to be playing the chord progression from “Gangsta’s Paradise” and
the sax skipped overtop with a line reminiscent of free jazz, until suddenly the
listener became aware that the ensemble
was playing something that resembled
heavy metal – except that, of course, it’s
impossible to play metal on accordion,
sax and drums.
Elsewhere, the group used a playful
stop-start structure reminiscent of funk,
but within the structure played free jazz.
Eventually the listener stops gathering
and noting down associations and takes
the music as a whole, and surprisingly,
the music stands as coherent and even
quite beautiful. By the time the group
was playing something that sounded like
a straight-ahead gospel-rock anthem for
one of two encores, objections that it
didn’t make sense no longer held any significance – in the face of music so good,
one merely submits. Przemyk is hailed as one of the most creative and
original artists in the Polish music industry. Among
her many prizes, the most important are those for
“musical individuality.” Being original has not hindered Przemyk’s success with most of her nine record releases to date going gold.
Her musical style is difficult to situate with a particular genre. Przemyk links alternative rock music
with cold wave and poetic songwriting.
This eclectic nature of her music has seen her
perform at a diverse range of festivals from Jarocin,
usually associated with punk rock music, to poetic
song events.
A central element in her musical compositions
is the accordion, an instrument she is particularly
fond of.
This concert is part of Przemyk’s “The Best of
Tour.”
Gig info: Loch Ness Club, ul. Warszawska 15
(entrance from ul. Pawia, across from Galeria Krakowska), tickets 25-30 zloty via www.ticketpro.pl
(also at selected stores and the club), performances
start at 19:00 on Dec. 1-2.
O D D L Y
E N O U G H
Tusk wins confidence
vote, sets record with
longest inaugural speech
STAFF JOURNALIST
the aging of the Polish population.
Another challenge mentioned in Tusk’s
inaugural speech was the development of
transport infrastructure.
He promised better management of
highway construction and the elimination
of legal obstacles for partnership between
the state and private companies. He also
announced reform of the state-owned rail
company PKP and pointed at development
of the Internet as one of the most important
issues for his government.
A deadline for infrastructure improvements should be 2012, when Poland is set
to conduct the European soccer championships together with Ukraine. Tusk guaranteed that Polish people will be proud of the
event. The PO leader also set foreign policy
goals. He wants to improve relations with
Germany and Russia as well as further integrate with the EU.
In the inaugural speech, he accepted the
EU Reform Treaty in the form negotiated by
the former government.
That means Tusk will sign the treaty on
Dec.13, but without the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was not accepted by
Kaczynski or by Great Britain.
According to Tusk, changing Polish currency from the zloty to the euro should follow as soon as possible without any harm
(due to rapid price increases) to the citizens.
He had earlier pointed at 2012 as a feasible
year for currency change. In his speech,
Tusk also addressed the war in Iraq, in
which Poland has participated since 2003.
He said Poland had fulfilled its assignment
in Iraq and would pull its troops out of the
Middle Eastern country by the end of 2008.
The PO leader said the process will be negotiated with the United States and other
NATO allies.
Opposition MPs criticized Tusk for the
length of his inaugural speech and for a lack
of detailed solutions for the problems men-
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tioned.
After Tusk finished, Jaroslaw Kaczynski
took 45 minutes to rebut Tusk. He said the
new government will try to “punish” PiS
members who have fought against corruption and unjust privileges in Polish society.
After winning the confidence vote in the
Sejm, Tusk said that his coalition “can really turn Poland and the life of Polish people
for the better.” He also stated that quarrels
on the political scene should be replaced by
cooperation and dialogue.
The first major test for the new government will be pushing the budget draft
through the parliament. Tusk’s cabinet accepted the draft prepared by Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s government, but PO deputies will
surely make major changes until the budget
goes to a vote in the Sejm on Jan. 21.
According to the schedule, the budget
will be handed to President Lech Kaczynski
four days later. If the work in the Sejm continues through Jan. 27, he will have a right
to dissolve the parliament.
13
Fox TV has
to apologize
Joanna Zabierek
From TUSK on Page 1
The Krakow Post
Fox Television owner Rupert Murdoch
has apologized for a line in a comedy show
that offended Poles in the U.S., Poland and
elsewhere.
Murdoch, chairman of News Corp.,
apologized for the phrase: “Bowling is in
your Polish blood, like kielbasa (sausage)
and collaborating with the Nazis.” A character on the “Back to You” show uttered
the phrase on the episode that aired Nov.
14 on Fox Television, which is a subsidiary
of News Corp.
Murdoch pointed out that the show’s
writers deliberately created a character who
is a bigot. He does things and says things in
each episode that reflect that bigotry.
Still, Murdoch said, he was sorry if the
Nov. 14 line offended Poles.
His apology came in a statement that Fox
Television issued and in a phone conversation between Murdoch and Polish Foreign
Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. In addition to
issuing the apology, Murdoch ordered the
line stricken from re-runs of the show.
Sikorski said he noted during the telephone call with Murdoch that the line not
only offended Poles but also those who
oppose efforts to revise history. Americans
unfamiliar with Polish history might believe that many Poles collaborated with the
Nazis, he said.
Polish-Americans began organizing a
letter-writing campaign a week ago to obtain an apology from Murdoch.
The letter demanded:
1. A public apology to be aired on the
Fox News channel and before or immediately after the next “Back to You” episode.
2. Disclosure of the names and titles
of those responsible for this line. The letter said it was “hard to believe that in the
country that fired Don Imus (a radio talk
show host) for an inflammatory phrase a
few months ago, no one is being held personally responsible for equating a whole
nation with Nazi murderers.”
3. Airing of an educational program
on FOX Television about Poland’s role in
World War II. It could be a mini-series, a
television movie or a discussion, the letter
said. It should include the views of Polish
historians and other experts and be aired
during prime evening hours. It could use
existing materials, including excerpts from
“Warsaw Uprising” and other documentaries, the letter said.
4. A meeting between the president or
executive vice president of Fox and Polish
veterans of WWII.
The letter went to say that unless the demands were met, Polish-Americans would
consider organizing a worldwide boycott of
the products of the show’s sponsors.
The letter added that Fox Television
management should look closer at the way
Poles are portrayed, or the situations they
are put in, in its productions. It noted that
the Nov. 21 “Back to You” episode included a scene in which a policeman used a
Taser gun against an actor playing a Polish
character, Mr. Crezyzewski.
The letter said the scene conjured up the
Taser death of a 40-year-old Polish immigrant at the airport in Vancouver, Canada,
recently.
The death has caused outrage in the Polish-Canadian community and in Poland
because the man was not attacking police
officers when he was Tasered. Police are
investigating the incident to determine
whether the officers involved should be
prosecuted.
“It is quite distasteful that your writers
are trying to make jokes based on a recent
human tragedy,” the letter said.
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14
K A T O W I C E
The Krakow Post
Silesia commemorates Halemba mine blast
the krakow post
Families of Halemba mine-blast victims have commemorated the one-year
anniversary of Poland’s worst mining accident in 30 years.
Eighteen people are facing prosecution
for violations of safety regulations in the
methane explosion, which killed 23 miners ranging in age from 21 to 59.
Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak took part in the commemoration on
Nov. 21.
Several dozen miners were working at
a depth of more than 1,000 meters when
the methane ignited on Nov. 21, 2006.
The rescue team, families and friends
clung to hopes the miners were alive.
They remembered Zbigniew Nowak, who
survived an earlier blast, staying alive un-
til rescuers found him 111 hours later.
But three days later, on Nov. 24, the
body of the 23rd victim of the Halemba
blast was brought to the surface.
Nobody had survived.
The rescue effort took 38 hours, and
almost every hour brought devastating
information.
Rescuers said they would never forget
what they saw in the mine after the explosion nor the weeping relatives waiting for
news outside the mine headquarters.
Prosecutors have charged some of the
18 people arrested in the blast with sending miners below when they knew there
were dangerous levels of methane and
coal dust in the mine.
Others have been charged with not
obeying safety rules, signing off on documents stating that the rules had been fol-
lowed. The bottom line, bitter friends and
relatives say, is that people’s lives were
endangered for money.
An explosion at a Ukrainian coal mine
this month reminded Poles of how dangerous this work is.
The blast in the Donetsk area killed 33.
Sixty-seven are missing, and part of the
mine is still on fire weeks after the explosion. A total of 457 miners were underground when the explosion occurred at a
depth of more than 1,000 meters.
The good news was that the 40 rescue
teams saved 350 of the miners.
Accidents happen frequently in Poland’s and Ukraine’s coal mines, many
of which date to the mid-19th Century.
Experts say the kind of deep mining done
in the two countries increases the risk of
explosions.
Hospital refuses prenatal exam
LUK Agency
Joanna Zabierek
sTAFF JOURNALIST
Will a hospital that declined to make a
prenatal survey examination be required
to pay additional compensation?
A family has sued a hospital for a second time because the doctors declined to
make a prenatal examination.
Their child was born with the same genetic illness as its elder brother.
The first trial gave the mother, Mrs.
Wojnarowski, damages of 60,000 zloty,
but that did not cover the entire expense
of bringing up a disabled child.
So the court permitted an additional
suit. The complainants said the decision
of carrying the pregnancy to birth or having an abortion had depended on that prenatal examination.
Because the exam was refused and the
baby was born with the genetic disease,
the Wojnarowskis want the hospital to
pay the ongoing costs of rearing a disabled child.
At the video court, where the sides
don’t have to appear personally, the judge
has heard testimony from doctors.
They answered the judge’s and attorneys’ questions for three hours and also
volunteered their own opinions.
The case should conclude in December. Compensation cases are not as common in Poland as in the U.S.
But people are getting more and more
aggressive with their claims.
The compensations in medical cases
also are growing slowly but steadily.
It is a sign that people in Poland don’t
have to feel either helpless or hopeless.
A few months ago, the court granted a
record compensation of 700,000 zloty and
a rent of 3,280 zloty a month for maltreatment which left a boy partly paralyzed.
The case took more than three years to
decide. A material compensation usually
doesn’t bring hope for recovery and can’t
turn back the time, but it does give the
sufferer an opportunity for a better life.
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skills and grammar through reading, analyzing and discussing interesting articles.
Decent rates. [email protected]
Learn Russian from native speaker in Krakow. [email protected]
NETWORKING
A Dutch businessman is looking to meet
fellow countrymen based in Krakow and
the region for networking, chatting and
generally being cheap together. Write:
[email protected]
The Krakow Post
BOOKS
Looking for books of Betrand Russell in
English. [email protected]
Hostels
I want to find any and all books printed by
Soviet and pre-Soviet Russian publishing
houses, or even old samizdat. I am also
looking for Soviet newspapers and magazines of sorts and genres. Please send me
an email with a list of what you have to my
box: [email protected]
Momotown Hostel
ul. Miodowa 28
Tel.: (0) 12 429-6929
[email protected]
www.momotownhostel.com
VACANCIES
Looking for an in-house web site developer. Fluent English, PhP 4 and 5, Mysql,
CMS. Experienced in web design, joomla
experience preferred. Send your CV to us
at: [email protected]
INVESTORS
Looking for individuals interested in investing in a growing and successful business in
Poland. Please write: [email protected]
CATERING
Hostel Hocus Pocus Krakow
ul. Florianska 28
Tel.: (0) 12 421-0844
[email protected]
www.hostelhocuspocus.pl
Interested in trying homemade Russian
pelmeni or Armenian pierogi? Top Russian
chef offers great quality for low prices.
Write: [email protected]
Taxis
PERSONALS
Barbakan
ul. Ks. St. Truszkowskiego 52
(0) 12 683-3599
eMail:
[email protected]
www.taxi.barbakan.krakow.pl
Looking for a HOT time in the middle of
winter?? We’re organizing a New Year’s
Eve party with a climate for swingers.
Krakow area in a modern restaurant/club
with food and drinks and a hot show to
begin with then the party will get started!!
[email protected], [email protected]
Tele-Taxi
ul. Dzielskiego 2
Toll Free!
(0) 800 500-500
Tel.: (0) 12 413-9696
(0) 501-449-626
[email protected]
Looking for Russian speakers to hang out,
talk, have a good time. Please write me at:
[email protected]
Advertise in
The Krakow
Post!
Searching for lonely depressed people
who are questioning the meaning of life.
[email protected]
web sites of
all shapes
and sizes.
Contact us:
jargonmedia@
gmail.com
web sites of
all shapes
and sizes.
Contact us:
jargonmedia@
gmail.com
Night Club 37
37 Mogilska St.
Tel.: (0) 12 411-7441
Cell: (0) 506-698-745
Krakow’s top
night club offers the most
beautiful escorts in town.
In-house and outcall.
Professionalism and
safety guaranteed.
Open:
Mon-Sat: 11:00-06:00
Sun: 20:00-06:00
Discounts on drinks with this ad. Credit
cards accepted.
Looking for
individuals
interested in
investing in
a growing
successful
media
business
in Poland.
Write:
alec_news@
mail.ru
Contact:
Andrzej
Kowalski,
Marketing
Manager
+48 (0)
798-683-160
Nicolaas Hoff, Publisher
Marshall Comins, Publisher
Wojciech Zaluski, Editor-In-Chief
In cooperation with:
Hal Foster, Editor
Don Summerside, Editor
Jim Patten, Editor
Randy Renegar, Editor
Aaron Wise, Editor
Nicole R. Miller, Editor
Soren A. Gauger, Journalist
Danuta Filipowicz, Journalist
Grazyna Zawada, Journalist
Anna Biernat, Journalist
Adelina Krupski, Journalist
Alicja Natkaniec, Journalist
Justyna Krzywicka, Journalist
Krzysztof Skonieczny, Journalist
Michal Wojtas, Journalist
T O
O U R
CALL TO
ADVERTISE:
Andrzej Kowalski,
Marketing Manager
+48 (0) 798-683-160
R E A D E R S
The Krakow Post welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and
bear the signatory’s address and telephone number. Letters should be sent by eMail to: [email protected], or by post. The Krakow Post reserves the right to edit letters.
Jargon Media Spolka z Ograniczoną Odpowiedzialnoscią, KRS 0000 267205, ul.
Retoryka 17 Lokal 31, 31-108 Krakow (Adres redakcji) Telefon: Mechnice 077-4640492, Krakow 012-429-3090, Telefax: Mechnice 077-464-0492, eMail: jargonmedia@
gmail.com, Redaktor naczelny Wojciech Zaluski, Krakow 29.11.2007 Drukarnia: Grupa wydawnicza Polska Presse, Czasopismo dostępne w cyklu tygodniowym/bezplatne,
Wydawnictwo nie ponosi odpowiedzialnosci za materialy prasowe nie zamowione oraz
tresć reklam i ogloszen umieszczonych odplatnie. www.krakowpost.com

Tusk wins confidence vote, sets record with longest

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