Friday, May 11, 2007
Polish ews in English
http://www.pulsbiznesu.pl/News.aspx?theme=fe8dc57c-26a8-4791-8e1c-d01aa9a439f0
Interesting. Michnik on Lustration law.
The other Poland
The second phase of the Polish revolution must not be permitted to consume either the will to freedom, or the democratic state.
Adam Michnik
The EU parliamentarians called the Polish government's actions a witch-hunt, and Geremek declared Poland's "lustration" law a threat to civil liberties. In response, Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused Geremek of "damaging his fatherland" and "provoking an anti-Polish affair." The same phrases were used by Communists when Geremek criticised their misrule.
What is happening in Poland, the country where communism's downfall began? Every revolution has two phases. First comes a struggle for freedom, then a struggle for power. The first makes the human spirit soar and brings out the best in people. The second unleashes the worst: envy, intrigue, greed, suspicion, and the urge for revenge.
The Polish Solidarity revolution followed an unusual course. Solidarity, pushed underground when martial law was declared in December 1981, survived seven years of repression and then returned in 1989 on the wave of Gorbachov's "perestroika." During the round table negotiations that brought about the end of communist rule, a compromise was reached between the reform wing of the communist government and Solidarity. This cleared a path to the peaceful dismantling of communist dictatorship throughout the entire Soviet bloc.
Solidarity adopted a philosophy of compromise rather than revenge, and embraced the idea of a Poland for everyone rather than a state divided between omnipotent winners and oppressed losers. Since 1989, governments changed, but the state remained stable; even the post-communists approved the rules of parliamentary democracy and a market economy.
But not everyone accepted this path. Today, Poland is ruled by a coalition of post-Solidarity revanchists, post-communist provincial trouble-makers, the heirs of pre-second world war chauvinists, xenophobic, and anti-semitic groups, and the milieu of Radio Maryja, the spokesmen for ethno-clerical fundamentalism.
Worrying signs are everywhere: the authority of the courts is undermined, the independence of the constitutional tribunal is attacked, the civil service corrupted, and prosecutors are politicised. Everyday social life is being repressively regulated.
Why is this happening? Every successful revolution creates winners and losers. Poland's revolution brought civil rights along with increased criminality, a market economy along with failed enterprises and high unemployment, and the formation of a dynamic middle class along with increased income inequality. It opened Poland to Europe but also brought a fear of foreigners and an invasion of western mass culture.
For the losers of Poland's revolution of 1989, freedom is a great uncertainty. The Solidarity workers at giant enterprises have become victims of the freedoms they won. In the prison world of communism, a person was the property of the state, but the state took care of one's existence. In the world of freedom, nobody provides care. It is in this anxious atmosphere that the current coalition rules, combining George Bush's conservative nostrums with the centralising practices of Vladimir Putin.
Solidarity veterans believed that the dictatorship's demise would be followed by their own reign. But guilty communists were not punished, and virtuous Solidarity activists were not rewarded. So feelings of injustice gave rise to resentment, envy, and a destructive energy focused on revenge against former enemies and old friends who seemed successful.
The losers refused to admit that the achievement of freedom was Poland's greatest success in 300 years. For them, Poland remained a country ruled by the communist security apparatus. Such a Poland required a moral revolution in which crimes would be punished, virtue rewarded, and injustice redeemed.
The means chosen by these losers' parties after they won the general election in 2005 was a great purge. Lustration, according to early estimates, is expected to affect 700,000 people and take 17 years to complete. A list of names found in the reports of the security services is to be prepared and made public. Moreover, it is now the duty of every one of the 700,000 people subjected to lustration to declare that he or she did not collaborate with the security services. Those who refuse or file a false declaration are to be fired and banned from working in their profession for 10 years.
Cardinal Dziwisz of Cracow reminds us that there can be no place "for retribution, revenge, lack of respect for human dignity, and reckless accusations." Never since the fall of communism has a Catholic cardinal used such strong words of condemnation.
Should lustration have taken place at the beginning of Poland's transformation?
The goal of the peaceful revolution was freedom, sovereignty, and economic reform, not a hunt for suspected or real secret police agents. If a hunt for agents had been organised in 1990, neither Leszek Balcerowicz's economic reforms nor the establishment of a state governed by law would have been possible. Poland would not be in Nato or the European Union.
Today, two Polands confront each other. A Poland of suspicion, fear, and revenge is fighting a Poland of hope, courage, and dialogue. This second Poland - of openness and tolerance, of John Paul II and Czeslaw Milosz, of my friends from the underground and from prison - must prevail. I believe that Poles will once again defend their right to be treated with dignity. The second phase of the Polish revolution must not be permitted to consume either its father, the will to freedom, or its child, the democratic state.
In cooperation with Project Syndicate, 2007.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Removal of communist era monuments
Tomado de http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/4603
______________________________________________________________________________Poland drawing up law to allow removal of communist-era monuments
MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press Writer
Monday May 7th, 2007
Comment on this Story | Read CommentsWARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland said Monday that it was preparing a law that would give local authorities free hand to remove monuments of "praise for the communist dictatorship" but allow for preservation of those that honor Soviet soldiers.
In a controversy over a similar issue, neighboring Estonia remains locked in a bitter dispute with Russia and with its own ethic Russian minority over the relocation of a memorial to Red Army troops. The move led to rioting and angry words from Russian officials.
But Polish Culture Minister Kazimierz Michal Ujazdowski said the Polish legislation was not inspired by the dispute and was conceived months before it began. He said the legislation would bring order to existing regulations.
"The point of the law is to give the right to local governors to remove those objects that in a drastic manner commemorate the communist dictatorship," Ujazdowski said on TVN24 television.
"Wherever our national pride is hurt with praise for the communist dictatorship, the local governor should act," Ujazdowski said, adding that he knew of places where memorials with Russian-language inscriptions remain chief city monuments.
He said, however, the law would not target monuments honoring the bravery of Red Army soldiers.
"Under no circumstance can we be accused of a lack of respect for the ordinary soldiers," he said.
The government was expected to discuss a draft of the bill by early June, he said.
Poland broke away from communism and Soviet domination in 1989. During the four decades of communist rule after Soviet troops overran Poland at the end of World War II, thousands of monuments were put up and streets named to honor Red Army soldiers who liberated Poland from the Nazi occupation, but many were built to honor the communist authorities.
Some monuments remain, including a Brotherhood-in-Arms monument in Warsaw, popularly called "The Four Sleeping Men," because it features four standing soldiers, Polish and Soviet, with their heads down.
The minister indicated that in this sort of situation, the local authority would be allowed to decide whether it praised the communist regime or simply the soldiers.
"We should be doing this in peace, without excessive emotions and without trying to aggravate Polish-Russian relations," Ujazdowski said in separate comments on Radio RMF FM. "We absolutely don't want a war."
Poland's relations with Russia have become increasingly edgy in recent years as Moscow has become more assertive toward its neighbors and Poland has aligned with the United States and Western Europe by joining NATO and the European Union.
Recently, relations have been further strained by Poland's willingness to consider a U.S. request to permit a missile defense site on Polish soil.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the European Union and NATO of conniving with nations that disrespect the memory of Soviet soldiers and seek to rewrite history.
Russians regard the monuments as a tribute to the millions of Soviet soldiers who died fighting the Nazis.
Farmers commit suicide
An estimated 90% of Poland's fruit crop has been destroyed by late season frosts prompting some Polish farmers to commit suicide. Temperatures dropped to as low as minus 7 Degrees Centigrade in Poland on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. The frost killed the budding fruits on trees all over Poland. Only some fruits on high ground survived. It is estimated that 90% of Poland's fruit crop has been destroyed.
Oak and nut trees that were budding out were also affected with the new leaves being killed by the frost. Strawberry crops have been severely damaged. Some farmers were so distraught at being wiped out that they committed suicide.
The impact on Poland's economy is likely to be huge first from the point of the loss of over 300 million tons of fruit sales this year and secondly from the point of the financial aid that will have to be provided to the farmers. Poland's loss will also affect the prices of fruit in Western Europe as Poland is a major exporter of fruits.
Source: masterpage.com.pl
Poland and outer space
Poland becomes the fourth ESA European Cooperating State
PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Sunday, May 6, 2007
Source: European Space Agency
On 27 April 2007, Pawel Poncyljusz, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Economy, and René Oosterlinck, ESA Director of Legal Affairs and External Relations, signed the European Cooperating State Agreement in Warsaw.
Poland is the fourth European Cooperating State (ECS) following Hungary (April 2003), Czech Republic (November 2003) and Romania (February 2006). Poland was one of the first Eastern European countries to conclude a Cooperation Agreement with ESA in the field of the peaceful use of outer space, signed in 1994, followed by another one in January 2002.
Poland has a long-standing tradition in space activities. Polish institutions have participated as Co-investigators in almost all the ESA Science projects: Ulysses; ISO (archive data); SOHO; XMM (observing time; sarchive); Cluster; Double Star; Huygens; Mars Express; Herschel (hardware for the HIFI instrument); Planck; XEUS; Integral; Rosetta and BepiColombo. Polish researchers have also had some activities related to the ExoMars rover instruments. Polish Principal Investigators are very active with the utilisation of Envisat data. Training and several fellowships at ESA and Members States establishments have been granted to Polish students. Several students are currently involved in the ESA educational project known as the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI).
This signing of the ECS Agreement and the upcoming PECS (Plan for European Cooperating State) Charter represents a new milestone in the relations between Poland and ESA, as Poland will now be able to participate in almost all ESA programmes and activities.
During the coming months Poland will define, together with ESA, the specific areas and projects for cooperation. The PECS Charter will have to be subscribed within one year.
For any further information please contact:
Anabelle Fonseca Colomb
ESA International Relations Department
Tel. +33.1.53.69.72.38
Fax. +33.1.53.69.76.27
Bernard Zufferey
ESA PECS Manager
Tel. +31.71.565.3498
Politica Agraria Comun se concentra en pocas manos.
| Tomado de diariodigitalagrario.net _____________________________________________________________________________________ En los nuevos estados miembro, la PAC se concentra en las grandes explotaciones | |
| Según publica la última edición de EUROPA AGRARIA, las ayudas de la PAC se concentran en pocas manos en los países recientemente incorporados a la Unión Europea. | |
| Redacción• 07/05/2007 15:31:42 | |
| La Comisión Europea ha publicado un informe en el que se ha puesto de manifiesto la concentración de las ayudas de la Política Agraria Común en pocas manos. Si la situación ya era conocida en la UE-15, el documento ha desvelado que, en los nuevos países miembro también se está produciendo este fenómeno, ya que, en la actualidad, sólo el siete por ciento de las explotaciones está recibiendo el 51 por ciento de las ayudas. El 80 por ciento de los recursos de la Política Agraria Común, PAC, se concentra en el 20 por ciento de los agricultores, según un informe recientemente publicado por la Comisión Europea sobre la situación de las ayudas al sector agrario, en el que se recoge, por primera vez, cómo está funcionando la PAC en los nuevos estados miembro. Según informa el Boletín de Noticias del Exterior del Ministerio de Agricultura español, MAPA, en estos países, el siete por ciento de las explotaciones disfruta del 51 por ciento de las ayudas. La situación es preocupante en el país que mayor extensión agrícola cuenta, Polonia, donde sólo el seis por ciento de los agricultores obtiene casi el 40 por ciento de los pagos comunitarios, porcentaje similar al del resto de los países de la Unión Europea, mientras que el resto de ayudas (en torno a los 900 millones de euros) se reparten entre los agricultores restantes. Los responsables de la Delegación del MAPA en Varsovia, explican que ''en opinión de determinados grupos empresariales polacos, con el modelo de PAC actual, la concentración territorial de las mismas irá aumentando sistemáticamente''. Concentración en Polonia De los datos publicados por la Comisión se desprende que el 85 por ciento de los pagos directos va al 18 por ciento de las explotaciones, que son las de mayor tamaño. Se constata un aumento del número de explotaciones que obtienen más de 300.000 euros anuales. En Polonia, los latifundios proceden, en su mayoría, de las antiguas explotaciones agrarias estatales. Aunque la superficie es grande, su productividad no lo es tanto. ''A este hecho también contribuye el que la percepción de las ayudas esté desvinculada de la producción, lo que fomenta el incremento de la superficie de la explotación al margen de su productividad'', señalan desde la Delegación del MAPA. Entre otras ayudas, en Polonia los agricultores perciben 80 euros de subvención por hectárea, tanto para cultivos como para la cría de animales. Sin embargo, los resultados referidos a la percepción global de ayudas son muy diferentes entre explotaciones. Mientras que el 94 por ciento de los agricultores recibe menos de 2.630 euros, las grandes explotaciones perciben cuantiosas ayudas, como es el caso, por ejemplo, de la de mayor tamaño en Polonia, Polandor, de 15.000 hectáreas, que recibió, en 2005, 1,6 millones de euros. Hasta la fecha la Agencia de Reestructuración y Modernización de Agricultura de Polonia (ARMA) no ha publicado los nombres de los beneficiarios que más ayudas están recibiendo. Pero, ante la presión social, este año se van publicar las relaciones de los perceptores de las ayudas comunitarias. | |