Poland                                                                                                                                 

   
EUROPIAN UNION    

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                     Polandian  The Pontiff Plague
October 13, 2008
Krakow got a new statue of John Paul II yesterday. Forgive me if I’m not overly excited. Effigies of the Polish Pope are now so common that its hard to pop down to the shops these days without stubbing your toe on one. There are now 228 known public statues of Jan Pawel in Poland (this guy keeps a record). The Pope only died three years ago. According to a calculation I just pretended to do, if the production of Pope statues continues at this rate there will be more marble John Pauls than actual Polish people by about 2025. If that many pontifical figurines were laid end to end they would reach from here to the Vatican, not to mention forming a major tripping hazard. The Global Climate Thingy will almost certainly be worsened in some way I can’t be bothered to invent. Clearly, something must be done.

The only image of the new John Paul II statue I could find

In classic Polish fashion the erection of the latest graven Pope was not without administrative difficulties. According to my, undoubtedly poor, understanding of last night’s news the church wanted to erect a John Paul outside the cathedral on Wawel hill, but ran into endless bureaucratic difficulties with the city authorities trying to secure permission. In the end they put it up anyway, but on a temporary wooden plinth so that it isn’t technically ‘built.’ They should have put it on wheels. I think there’s a great future in mobile papal statues. The devout could tow them behind their cars and underground Pope-installing guerillas could wheel them into prominent locations under the cover of darkness. It’s a potential growth area in these hard economic times. I’d mention my idea for giant inflatable popes if I didn’t fear straying even further into potentially disrespectful waters.

John Paul II colossus bestriding the land

I have nothing against John Paul II, the Polish Pope was a great guy, seriously. According to every source I haven’t bothered to read he was a genuinely good person who had a genuinely positive effect on the lives of millions of individuals. That’s pretty much the definition of a good guy in my book.

Imagine that on wheels; heathens would stand little to no chance

The Poles love the Polish Pope, and not without good reason. If I was Polish I’d love him too. Even as a benighted non-Pole I have a large soft spot for him. I saw him once in Warsaw and he struck me as the kind of guy I wouldn’t mind delegating a whole lot of moral baggage onto, if I’d had the luck to be born catholic

 

I’m not convinced this looks anything like him

Kitsch is the word that springs, unfortunately, to mind. You have to wonder what John Paul would have thought of all this idolatry, and you have to conclude that it wouldn’t have been positive.

Now that’s just scary…

 

The next stop is HELL… You’re all going to HELL!!

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Sunday, July 08, 2007
 beatroot
  Living it up at Polish nurses' 'Hilton Hotel' - politicians welcome!


Close to three weeks on strike and camped opposite the main government offices, the nurses refuse to give up.

The strike, for more pay (well, you couldn’t get much less than they get) has been supported by the general public. Thousands of trade unionists joined the protest Friday to show solidarity.

Nurses on hunger strike called off that particular type of protest this weekend, after a not too sympathetic response from the Polish government.

The government – or at least the health minister, Zbigniew Religa, has offered pay rises of up to 30 percent next year, but PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski has repeated, many times, that there is no money in the budget for substantial pay rises in 2007.

 

 

Conditions in what they are calling the ‘White City’ on Ujazdowski Av. opposite the prime minister’s office have deteriated over the weeks since the protest began. (They also call the place ‘Hotel Hilton’). Rain has bucketed down on the nurses from the beginning, turning, when we were their on Saturday, much of the ground around the tents to mud.

 

There are some portable toilets on the site and I saw nurses lining up for soup and bread rolls.
But sanitation is not good. We signed a book giving assistance to nurses who wanted a bath – our flat is only about half a kilometer down the road.
Strange, then, when the telephone went about 8 O’clock at night: it was a journalist from Gazeta Wyborcza wanting to know, ‘when we would be coming down to the ‘white city’? Apparently, someone at the union tent had shown journalists our names, telephone number etc.

 

I was slightly annoyed at that: we did not give our phone number so journalists from Gazeta Wyborcza could come and have a bath.
But if you are a nurse and you need a shower, then you are always welcome at Beatroot Mansions.
Next round of negotiations between unions and government is scheduled for this Tuesday. So nurses have at least two more nights to camp out under the stars.


 beatroot
  Photos by traczka/beatroot productions

I wouldn't mind a bunch of nurses showering at my place either.

 

                                               Poland           beatroot     

 Koniakow laces are handmade of cotton threads, using motives brought from fields and forest. Nobody knew better than Koniakow women that if they will be only able to make a poor copies of Mother Nature creations, that will be seen as an art in eyes of those, to whom a privilege to admire them will be given.

                          Is it a sin to make Polish lacy underwear?    beatroot

Whereas once they had Pope John Paul as one of their customers, the famous lace makers of Koniakow are now making G-strings!

The ladies of Koniakow have been spinning and weaving lace for centuries – tablecloths, and the like. They also have produced gowns for Church ceremonies, including ceremonial clothing for John Paul II.
 

But recently the lacemakers of the small southern village in the mountans have rebranded their world famous lace and spend more time these days making lacy underwear for ladies than table cloths.

 the move to sexy underwear has not met approval with everyone in the village.


"The priest told me that a woman came to confession and asked him if it was a sin to make G-strings," said Anna Barska, a 47-year-old lace maker.

The Koniakowian acknowledges the tension in the village, but seems to have retained a sense of humour about it:

‘Amazingly laces itself became a subject to anger, raised emotions, disapproval and divided small Koniakow society in half.
Lingerie handmade of Koniakow lace: sexy, making women proud and men excited is seen by some elders in Koniakow as sin and disgrace of an ancient respectful profession.
Well, if after Judgment Day I’ll be sentenced to spent eternity in Hell, I would feel much better to see a Devil (female one) wearing G-Strings.’

Ooo, you naughty devil!

                                                              the Church fights back

      beatroot  1/07/2007

‘Red Priest’ resigns, but the Church fights back

Appointed by Pope Benedict on December 6 as Archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus resigns just before special ‘ingress’ ceremony this morning.
Watching on TV now it looks like a wedding where all the guests turn up only to discover it’s a funeral. President Lech Kaczynski is sitting in his pew with the wife. The whole of Poland’s political and religious establishment is there.
It’s like some sick reality TV show. Big Brother at prayer.
Archbishop Wielgus, thought proven to have been spying for the communist authorities over a period of 20 years, is there, humiliated. After all, only on Friday he made a statement saying: "I damaged the church. I denied the facts of this collaberation."
This contradicts previous statements he has made before denying any collaberation with the Communists.
Case closed then, surly?
But when the resignation was read out in the Cathedral this morning most of the congregation started shouting and chanting in protest. I have never seen anger in a Church before.
Then top Polish Catholic, Cardinal Glemp stands up to say a few words. But if the government – which will be defined in the history books for its relentless, ruthless vetting of public officials for collaboration with the communist regime – thought Glemp would be making some kind of apologetic statement on behalf of Wielgus, were in for a bit of a shock.
Cardinal Glemp said that ‘Today we have seen a ‘court’ where the evidence against amounts to Xerox copies of copies of copies of old documents. The case for the defense has not been put. We do not want this type of court.’
When he said these words applause rang throughout the cathedral. It seems that the Polish Church thinks that Wielgus – who admitted lying on Friday after a month long hounding by the media, by historians, by the government – thinks that he has been the victim of a witch hunt. Glemp seems to think that the government’s vetting process in this case has not been fair. Much of his flock appears to agree with him.
Someone in the Church shouts out ‘Stay with us…’
What looked to be the end of the matter seems to be only the start. Some in the Church now have joined a growing number who think that the 'vetting culture' here has turned into a frenzy of recrimination, of revenge, where innocent victims get caught up in the craziness (though as has been pointed out in the comments below, the irony is that Radio Maryja listeners - who have done as much to create this culture of revenge as anyone - are complaining the loudest. They are saying that the incriminating documents were leaked by someone who was in the communist secret services trying to screw the catholic Church..).
Revenge is the motive for much of what is happening today - not justice. I have seen at close hand a completely innocent person get caught up in this, accused of collaboration, of being ‘a Red’. It’s not pretty, it’s not fair, it’s not civilized, it’s not justice.
Sick, old Cardinal Glemp himself will now stay on in the role of Archbishop of Warsaw until they can find someone else who has no skeletons – real or imagined – in his closet.
Crowds are standing in the rain outside the Cathedral, chanting, protesting. Strange times in Poland get stranger still.

 beatroot