ZHR — The Scouting Association of the Republic (of Poland) was founded in 1989.
The association is divided into sections for boys and girls, and has over 15,000 members.
ZHR — The Scouting Association of the Republic (of Poland) was founded in 1989.
The association is divided into sections for boys and girls, and has over 15,000 members.
“If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” Words attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius, which may or may not have been in the mind of Poland’s prime minister as he spoke about the future of Poland on Sunday.
Mateusz Morawiecki, and Elżbieta Rafalska, the labour and social policy minister, were visiting Puławy and attending an event to promote the government’s 500+ programme, which gives families with two or more children a payment of PLN 500 (EUR 116, USD 130) a month per child. According to the prime minister, the child benefit programme is an investment in the nation’s future. “Not only does the programme help parents across the country, but it also benefits the state as a whole. “With this programme, Poland is changing beyond recognition,” Morawiecki said.
The prime minister said that the payments “have created a new space for the development” of Polish children and young people and for the entire country. Morawiecki said that the government would not abandon or reduce the programme in the years ahead. For her part, Rafalska said the “Family 500+” initiative was benefiting more than 3.6 million children nationwide, adding that payments to parents have totalled PLN 67 billion (EUR 15.5 billion, USD 17.5 billion) since the programme was launched on April 1, 2016.
Indeed, far from reducing the programme, the plan is to be extended to include all single-child families regardless of income, rather than being restricted to poorer families as at present. This extension is part of a package of measures dubbed the “Kaczyński Five” after Law and Justice party leader Jarosław Kaczyński who announced the package at a party convention last month.
Of course, for children to be the future they need to be properly educated, which is why the government resumed talks on Monday with teachers in an attempt to avert a teachers’ strike over pay which is scheduled to begin on 8th April, just before pupils at various levels face important examinations.
After the meeting, the deputy prime minister, Beata Szydło said that four out of the five points offered by the government had been agreed upon by both sides. However, the chairman of the teacher’s union, Sławomir Broniarz, said it was too early discuss suspending the strike decision. Talks were to be continued on Tuesday.
The Polish Teachers’ Union (ZNP) wants the government to increase teachers’ wages by PLN 1,000 (EUR 230, USD 265) a month. In response, the education ministry has said that last year it began carrying out a government plan to raise pay and that spending on teachers’ salaries is set to increase by 16.1 per cent by September compared with March last year.
The Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper last week quoted a survey according to which more than six in ten Poles are against teachers striking at a time of important school exams, although respondents to the survey by pollster IBRiS said they were convinced teachers would eventually secure the pay rise they are demanding from the government.
Certainly, teachers’ salaries, like many in the public sector in Poland, are very low, with minimum gross monthly salaries ranging from PLN 2538 to PLN 3483 depending on qualifications. Over ninety per cent of teachers fall within this category. The average gross monthly salary in Poland in February was PLN 4,949.42 (EUR 1,153). Hardly the best way to invest in the future of the nation, to attract and retain the quality of teachers needed to produce the educated citizens needed, one might think.
Of course, all public employees are equal, but some are more equal than others; not everyone has friends in high places. Be that as it may, it is a great shame, and not only in Poland, that those who do essential work – teachers, nurses and so on – are often taken for granted and undervalued. The problem seems especially acute in Poland where salaries in general, and public sector salaries in particular, are far below comparable salaries in the more westerly EU member states.
And therein lies the danger. With free movement folk increasingly have a choice – a choice which Poles have not been slow to exercise – to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Rome might not have been built in a day, but it was built on solid foundations. The challenge for the Polish government is choosing those policies that build the best home for the children, Poland’s future, and in which they are happy to dwell.
Polish folk dances — with their colorful regional costumes and enchanting music — are both a beautiful and entertaining experience to behold. Their traditions are rooted many centuries in the past, when every region of Poland had its own dance and local style of dress. The most famous of the traditional Polish dances are:
The Kujawiak — a 19th century dance from the Kujawy region near the coast of the Baltic Sea;
The Mazurka — a dance from the Mazovian area surrounding the capital, Warsaw. An interesting fact is that the rhythm of the Mazurka dance is based on the rhythm of the work of peasants who used to tend the fields;
The Polonaise — The most elegant amongst the folk dances, the Polonaise was traditionally the dance of the Polish nobility.
When it comes to dresses, these were also unique in every part of Poland. They were normally worn with accessories such as hats, necklaces and capes. Tradition called for a married woman to wear a headscarf, while an unmarried one would wear flowers in her hair.
The Polish folk songs that underlie the traditional dances are usually about love or religion.
Poland Daily Travel takes you on another adventurous trip in Warsaw. This time on a special day – Fat Thursday. And how many “pączki” did you eat?
Speaking in London earlier this month, Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymański announced that Poland was determined to rescue British Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU Withdrawal Agreement. In a speech at the Polish Economic Forum conference in England’s capital city, Szymański said:
“Lack of an agreement would mean that we would find ourselves in an unprecedented situation…A return to World Trade Organisation rules from March 30 would be a tragedy for the British economy but also for the EU economy. There is an important message from Warsaw: it is not exclusively Great Britain’s problem”.
Speaking to TVN24 this week, Szymański reconfirmed his position and said that the Poland will continue to help Brexit take place on the basis of a deal with the EU.
The idea that the UK would suffer tremendously by leaving the European Union on WTO terms is hotly contested. Proponents of staying in the European Union suggest that UK would run out of sandwiches, not be able to supply diabetics with insulin medication, and quickly descend into chaos. Brexiteers, however, have suggested the UK would thrive when operating on WTO terms.
As with most things in life, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The UK would by no means descend into total chaos should we leave the EU on the renegotiated date of April 12th, but it wouldn’t exactly be simple either. Operating on WTO terms would allow the UK to drop tariffs and begin operating outside of the EU’s restrictive common market, but it would see UK trade ministers scrambling to negotiate better deals with big trading partners. The UK would also be able to end its budgetary payments to the EU, and the cutting of EU tariffs under WTO rules could slash consumer prices by up to 1.2%.
The UK government would have its work cut out, but there would also be opportunities for the UK with third countries – nations outside the EU who are looking to strike trade deals. The United States has already made it clear they are ready and willing to strike an ambitious trade deal with the UK once Brexit has been delivered.
This is where Szymański is wrong. But, he is right to suggest that the UK leaving the EU without a deal could damage the EU economy.
Washington-based International Monetary Fund said in 2018 that growth across the remaining EU member states could fall by as much as 1.5%, and the European Union would be hit by the loss of the £39 billion fee agreed as part of the Withdrawal Agreement. The EU would also find itself having to renegotiate new deals with the City of London and spend time negotiating new deals with the UK. It would not be easy, and it could hurt the EU’s most fragile national economies.
As a Brexiteer from Britain, this is difficult for me to say – but I believe it is in my own nation’s best interests at this point to leave without a deal.
Konrad Szymański is right and wrong, but I believe he is well intentioned. At this point I hope the UK can leave the EU while maintaining positive relations with Poland, but I do not expect the eventual departure to be easy. The last three years has shown us that this process is not going to get any easier, any time soon.
Count Marek Potocki talking to Benjamin Lee about his family and Polish aristocracy, What has happened to the Potocki family before and after the wars? How did the position of Polish nobility change?
It came as a bit of a shock to my friend living in Poland that a box of eggs is not really a dozen. Why is that?
Some claim that eggs were sold in England in twelves so that each could cost a penny and the whole box would make for a shilling (12 pennies). That This might be true, but the system of counting in twelves can be traced back to as early as ancient Mesopotamia and it was also present in Poland. Phraseology, which is a great vehicle and preservative for culture, still retains phrases like “tuzin jaj” (a dozen eggs) or “kopa jaj” (five dozen eggs), yet now they are sold in packs holding 6, 10 or 30 pieces.
It might have changed during the time of partitions, which coincided with adoption of the metric system throughout Europe. In Russia, as well as in Germany and Austria, eggs are sold in packs of 10, so it might have been one of the numerous ways these countries influenced our culture. One way or another, be sure you stock up as Easter is just around the corner, and if you are going to spend it in Poland, you may need to get a box more.
Prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, speaking after a cabinet meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday, said that Poland’s general government deficit would increase as a result of new spending pledges. “It is obvious that the budget is not a bottomless pit; it is not rubber,” he conceded, as quoted by Poland’s PAP news agency.
Morawiecki did say, however, that the government would try to keep the deficit “in line with the Maastricht convergence criteria, which means the 3 per cent” target, the news agency reported. For her part, finance minister Teresa Czerwińska said on Monday she would do her best to make sure the deficit stays within the 3 per cent threshold required of European Union members.
Poland’s 2019 budget assumes GDP growth of 3.8 per cent, with a target for the general government deficit of 1.7 per cent of GDP. But last month the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party announced an expansion of its flagship 500+ child benefit programme, in addition to a number of other promises, including a lower personal income tax rate, additional benefits for pensioners, and improved rural bus services. These promises, dubbed the “Kaczyński Five” are estimated to cost the government some PLN 40 billion (EUR 9.3 billion, USD 10.5 billion).
The prime minister’s remarks came after a group of economists and finance experts, among them former finance ministers and deputy finance ministers, have warned that there is a “very serious risk” that this extra spending will cause Poland’s general government deficit to exceed 3 per cent of GDP next year and “then increase significantly further after 2020,” as reported daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza which is generally critical of the government. The experts, most of whom are also outspoken critics of the government, called on the PiS government to “respect the principles of public finance stabilisation.”
Governments govern, and oppositions oppose. It is hardly surprising that in an election year PiS seeks to appeal both to its electorate and to continue to help those it considers have benefitted the least from Poland’s transformation. While there is not much room for manoeuvre, the prime minister is aware of this and keen that the government stays within the 3 per cent limit. This is not the irresponsible action the opposition would have us believe.
The PRL museum was founded by Rafał Patla and Marta Patla who are also the owners of the Adventure Warsaw company. The initial idea was to collect a items and some of the family memorabilia to create a flat modeled on communist times in the garage in the Praga district in Warsaw.
The notorious Article 13 has been passed today in EU Parliament, despite numerous protests against it throughout many member countries.
ACTA2, as it is often referred to by the people opposing it, is supposed to regulate the copyright laws of the creators of linked content in the European part of the internet. Some people say that it will finally put an end to massive theft of intellectual property on the web, while others fear that it will hamper or outright ban production of materials that cite other materials, which is basically how most of the internet works. Polish MPs were also divided on this issue with a strong skew towards voting against the directive (all of Law and Justice, a few members of Civic Platform and several others), with just a few members from Civic Platform voting for it. Here is the list of how Polish EU MPs voted on Article 13:
For:
Tadeusz Zwiefka (Civic Platform)
Bogdan Zdrojewski (Civic Platform)
Marek Plura (Civic Platform)
Julia Pitera (Civic Platform)
Barbara Kudrycka (Civic Platform)
Agnieszka Kozłowska-Rajewicz (Civic Platform)
Danuta Huebner (Civic Platform)
Kazimierz M. Ujazdowski (unaffiliated but with bonds to Civic Platform)
Against:
Ryszard Czarnecki (Law and Justice)
Edward Czesak (Law and Justice)
Anna Fotyga (Law and Justice)
Beata Gosiewska (Law and Justice)
Czesław Hoc (Law and Justice)
Marek Jurek (Right Wing of the Republic of Poland)
Karol Karski (Law and Justice)
Sławomir Kłosowski (Law and Justice)
Zdzisław Krasnodębski (Law and Justice)
Urszula Krupa (Law and Justice)
Zbigniew Kuźmiuk (Law and Justice)
Ryszard Legutko (Law and Justice)
Stanisław Ożóg (Law and Justice)
Bolesław Piecha (Law and Justice)
Ryszard Piotrowski (Law and Justice)
Tomasz Poręba (Law and Justice)
Jadwiga Wiśniewska (Law and Justice)
Kosma Złotowski (Law and Justice)
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (unaffiliated but with bonds to Law and Justice)
Andrzej Grzyb (Polish People’s Party)
Krzysztof Hetman (Polish People’s Party)
Jarosław Kalinowski (Polish People’s Party)
Czesław Siekierski (Polish People’s Party)
Michał Boni (Civic Platform)
Danuta Jazłowiecka (Civic Platform)
Adam Szejnfeld (Civic Platform)
Róża Thun (Civic Platform)
Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg (Democratic Left Alliance)
Adam Gierek (Democratic Left Alliance)
Marek Marusik (New Right)
Stanisław Żółtek (New Right)
Robert Iwaszkiewicz (Freedom)
Dobromir Sośnierz (KORWiN)
Abstained:
Janusz Zemke (Democratic Left Alliance)
Bogusław Liberadzki (Democratic Left Alliance)
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