Local Superintendent May Change Face of Educational System

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Published by: Jargon Media Sp. z o.o. Index Number: 236683 ISSN: 1898-4762 NO. 32 WWW.KRAKOWPOST.COM DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 Local superintendent may change face of educational system Poles seek equal retirement age Ombudsman Jan Kochanowski has sued the Constitutional Tribunal over regulations governing the retirement age of women and men 4

Arrest warrant on tycoon Krauze lifted The arrest warrant for business tycoon Ryszard Krauze has unexpectedly been lifted. One of Poland’s richest citizens can now come back to Poland 6

Jerzy Lackowski, a former Malopolska Province school superintendent who now heads the Teachers College at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University, has become a consultant to Arriva PPC opens an old friend, Minister of Education Katarzyna Hall. Together, the two plan to create a voucher system under which students could go to the school of their choice. private railway Iwona Bojarczuk poorer teachers get the same money as much the reform. That’s because voucher-system vouchers in a report to then-Prime Minister STAFF JOURNALIST better ones. The rules almost make it difficult success is based on large enrollments, which Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The British-Polish company to fire a teacher with four years or more of bring in a lot of money, and village-school en- “We are afraid that the educational vouch- Arriva PCC has recently begun Jerzy Lackowski, a former Malopolska experience. rollments are small. er” will bring “racial segregation at schools,” operating the first privately Province school superintendent who now heads Lackowski believes there is an urgent need In fact, if a school budget were linked en- Klosowski said. He said he also worried that owned railway in the country 8 the Teachers College at Krakow’s Jagiellonian in Poland for a student school-choice system tirely to the number of students, village-school “parents, especially in rural areas, will have to University, has become a consultant to an old like the ones in the U.S., New Zealand and vouchers would be unable to cover the schools’ drive their children several kilometers” to get friend, Minister of Education Katarzyna Hall. Sweden. costs, Lackowski said. to the schools the children want to attend. Together, the two may change the face of School choice can come through vouch- Former Deputy Minister of Education Sla- Polnord to build in Polish education. Their plans include creating a ers, by giving schools additional tax money womir Klosowski expressed doubts about See SCHOOL on Page 13 voucher system under which students could go for each student they attract, and by granting St. Petersburg to the school of their choice. autonomy to schools in choosing the curricu- They say bringing a free-market system to lum and profile of teaching. A voucher would Polnord, a subsidiary of Prokom, education would make schools better because be equal to the cost the government pays for is set to commence a massive they would have to compete for students. one student’s education. Each student going to Lackowski and Hall have been calling for a school would have a voucher, so the more stu- construction in St. Petersburg 9 school reform for years. In addition to vouch- dents, the more money the school would have. ers, they want a system that shifts control of “Of course before introducing educational schools from teachers and administrators to vouchers we will need to analyze the cost of Skyscraper to tower parents. They also want a system in place that educating individual students and compare it allows the government to revoke the licenses of with the amount of government revenue as- incompetent superintendents and teachers. signed for education,” Lackowski said. over Poland Teachers have too much power today, they One drawback of a voucher system would Poland’s Palace of Culture and feel. Teachers union rules require equal pay be that unless special arrangements were made for equal length of service – which means that for village schools, they would suffer under Science is set to be overshadowed in four years’ time 10 New low cost route Krakow-Paris The low-cost French-Dutch airline Transavia has recently begun flying daily between Krakow and Paris 12 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 2 The Krakow Post POLAND DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 R E G I O N A L N E W S “New Jews” kindle revival in lost heartland Foreign Ex-Soviet states seek energy ties with Japan: official ministers The GUAM regional bloc of four former So- viet states late last week called for closer ties with Japan over both energy-saving technology and pipeline construction in the Caspian Sea. hail new era Representatives of the group – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – visited Japan, a major energy importer, for talks with Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura. in ties with “Japan is the world leader in energy-saving technologies,” Andriy Veselovskyi, deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, told a news conference Germany with other GUAM delegate members. “We are interested to have this technology. This is beneficial both for us and for you because agence france-presse Japan expands their technologies to other countries,” he said. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter The group at the same time called on Tokyo Steinmeier and his new Polish counterpart to take part in construction of additional pipelines Radoslaw Sikorski said late last week they in the energy-rich region in an effort to diversify hoped to mend bilateral ties that soured un- energy supplies. Polish Jews celebrating Hanukkah. der Poland’s former government. “Diversifying routes of energy would be ben- “We both said that we want to open a eficial for the region and for the world market,” new chapter in German-Polish relations,” agence france-presse Veselovskyi said. ern Europe to escape 11th century pogroms, convert to Judaism, due to both fears of pub- Steinmeier said after talks with Sikorski in Japan, the world’s second largest economy, has and on the eve of World War II, there were lic reaction and his lingering Catholic belief Berlin. virtually no natural energy resources of its own. In Europe’s former Jewish heartland, around 3.5 mln there. that it would be a sin. He thanked Sikorski for coming to Ger- The European-oriented GUAM was formed in flickering Hanukkah candles are a symbol The capital Warsaw alone had a Jewish The spark for Krasniewski and his twin many on his first visit abroad as the top 1997 as an alternative to the Commonwealth of of both the annual religious festival and the community of 400,000, ranging from the en- brother was a recent holiday. diplomat in liberal Prime Minister Donald Independent States, a Kremlin-dominated group- inner light guiding dozens of Poles to their tirely non-religious to traditionally-dressed “We were standing in the middle of Tusk’s government. ing of ex-Soviet countries. (AFP) roots and the culture of their forebears. “We see this as a sign of your interest and Orthodox believers. It was the largest Jew- Prague’s old Jewish district, and we decided willingness to play a role in breathing new The revival of Judaism in Poland is be- U.S. broadcaster denounces ish city in Europe and the second in the to convert,” he said. life into the relationship between Germany ing kindled by “new Jews”: Poles raised world after New York. “At first there was a struggle in our fam- and Poland.” jailing of Azeri correspondent in the shadow of the Nazi Holocaust and After invading Poland in 1939, Nazi Ger- ily, to stop us going back to what they had Sikorski told reporters: “I would like to Communist-era anti-Semitism, who have second every word of that.” A U.S.-funded broadcaster denounced the jail- many transformed Warsaw’s Jewish district escaped from,” he added. Ties between the two neighbors suffered ing of its Azeri correspondent late last week for chosen to leave the mainstream in a country into a Ghetto, to isolate and eventually wipe But the twins’ grandfather eventually under nationalist Prime Minister Jaroslaw slander by the same local court that had cleared that is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. out the population. warmed to the idea, and finally told them Kaczynski, who was soundly defeated by him of the charge two days earlier. After ceremonies marking Hanukkah in Half of the six mln Jews killed by the Na- the story of the brothers and sisters he lost Tusk and his Civic Platform in October Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Warsaw’s Jewish cultural center, recent con- zis were Polish, and most died in Nazi con- during the Holocaust. elections. called in a statement for the immediate release of vert Agnieszka Kwasniewska, 37, recalled centration camps set up in occupied Poland, Krasniewski’s brother chose to become Kaczynski missed few opportunities to 42-year-old correspondent Ilgar Nasibov. her awakening. such as the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau. an Orthodox Jew, and follows a strict kosher reproach Germany over its World War II Nasibov turned up at the court in the western “When I came to the synagogue, it was In 1945, Poland’s surviving Jewish popu- diet. Krasniewski considers himself a con- past. He told fellow EU leaders during a row city of Nakhchivan expecting to be given his dislike I had always belonged,” she told AFP. about voting rights in the bloc this year that missal charges after being cleared of the slander lation numbered just 280,000. servative. had the Nazis not invaded Poland it would charges brought by local police two days earlier. “It was like coming home.” Many emigrated to the U.S. or Israel, He said he is still wary of wearing his yar- today be a nation of 66 mln people instead “Instead, without the presence of legal counsel, Like many of her counterparts, Kwas- either immediately after the war or during mulke in public due to lingering anti-Semi- of 38 mln. the judge reinstated the charges and sentenced Na- niewska’s conversion began as a quest to waves of anti-Semitism in the 1950s and tism, but, borrowing a phrase from the gay But while Steinmeier and Sikorski ex- sibov to 90 days in prison,” the broadcaster, funded understand the things left unsaid by her 1960s. rights movement, says he plans to. changed warm remarks, Tusk’s new advi- by the U.S. Congress, said. family. Many Holocaust survivors who had been “It’s like coming out. We’re here, we sor on relations with Germany, Russia and RFE/RL president, Jeff Gedmin, said the court’s “We never talked about my ancestors. It able to hide their Jewish identity during the won’t go away, get used to it. If you don’t Israel sounded a warning over a simmering action was “a complete mockery of due process was like something had been broken,” she war decided to keep it that way in the post- do it, no one will know there are Jews in Po- row triggered by German plans to honor which violates Azerbaijan’s own lawful, judicial said. As a 12-year-old, her paternal grand- those expelled from their homes in central procedure.” war era to protect the next generation. Oth- land,” he said. Europe at the end of World War II, including Nakhchivan police had subjected Nasibov and mother had told her she had been forced ers came from mixed Catholic and Jewish, Poland’s “new Jews” also want fellow Germans who were forced to flee modern- his wife, who also works for the broadcaster, to to hide during World War II because she or non-religious, families, where identity Jews, notably those from the U.S. and Israel day Poland. harassment by bringing spurious charges against “looked like a Jew.” was not hard and fast. who come to visit the sites of Nazi-era death The project has the support of German them for more than a year, he said. “I knew there was something not quite Another recent convert, Maciej Kras- camps, to wake up to the growth and even Chancellor Angela Merkel, but has been Both journalists had highlighted human rights right in this story. She cried a lot. We never niewski, 20, adjusted his yarmulke skull- the very existence of their community and condemned by Warsaw for failing to make abuses and abuses of power in the former Soviet talked about it again.” cap as he recalled the day he learned he stop seeing Poland only as a vast cemetery. a distinction between the victims and the ag- Republic in the South Caucasus. “Later I asked my father and he said, was Jewish. “Other Jews need to see the reality of gressors in the war. RFE/RL broadcasts 10 hours daily to Azerbai- ‘That’s past history, and there’s no going Wladyslaw Bartoszewski said in an in- jan, producing most programming in its bureau in “I found out when I was 13,” he said. Jewish life in Poland,” said Anna Janot-Szy- terview with Die Zeit weekly published on the capital Baku. (AFP) back. We’re Catholics’,” said Kwasniewska, “I had got interested in my family’s manska, 37, who learned of her roots as a whose conversion to Judaism has caused name. Polish names ending in ‘ski’ can teenager and said she is still a “Jewish be- Thursday that he was saddened by Berlin’s Czech lawmakers approve tension with her family. mean you have origins in the nobility, so I ginner” with a more cultural than religious plans to create a center in memory of those According to various estimates, Poland expelled after the war. foreign military missions was looking up my roots. I asked my father, interest. “It does not suprise me but it saddens counts just 3,500 to 15,000 Jews out of a to- and he said: ‘Our real name is Kirschen- Her 27-year-old sister Malgorzata, who me,” said Bartoszewski, who is a survivor Czech lower house lawmakers late last week tal population of 38 mln people, more than baum.’” runs the Jewish center in Warsaw, wants of the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp. approved government plans for foreign military 90 percent of whom are Catholic. Krasniewski’s paternal grandfather had visitors to come and meet with the growing “We should not create a situation which missions next year, which include a boosted pres- But it is near impossible to say how many forces the new Polish government to react ence in Afghanistan but a reduced one in Iraq. survived the Holocaust, and the family community. Poles have some Jewish ancestry. in the same manner as the old government,” In Iraq, Czech Defense Minister Vlasta Par- picked a Polish name in 1954. “Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, there’s he warned. kanova announced plans in October to cut the Jews first emigrated to Poland from west- Kransiewski said he took five years to a spark,” she said. force from 100 to 20 next year with effect from July 2008. Most of the current Czech contingent is deployed around Basra in southern Iraq, where one of its main tasks is to guard the international base not far from the city. Problems with school religious exam As part of a wider reshuffle, the government also proposed boosting its forces serving in Af- the krakow post When Ryszard Legutko replaced Giertych as such a move would be unconstitutional because ogy departments, he added. Beata Gorka, a spokes- ghanistan from 224 to 415. education minister a few weeks before the end of it would be inserting religion into the educational woman for Catholic University of Lublin agreed The Czech’s largest current foreign contingent, The Ministry of Education has done an about- the Law and Justice party’s two-year reign, he said process. Education experts point out that univer- that the religion-component results would help the around 550-strong peace force in Kosovo, face and begun considering whether to add a sec- he saw no reason for religion to be in the exam. sities use scores on the comprehensive exam to those interested in theology gain admission to uni- should remain at existing levels next year. tion on religion to the comprehensive examination One of the archibishops, Slawoj Leszek Glodz help decide which students to admit. Thus, these versities that offer theology programs. The government proposal has still to be cleared that high school seniors must pass before they can apparently thought it was a Law and Justice dou- experts say, the Education Ministry should draft all What does the public think about the issue? The by the Czech upper house, the Senate. (AFP) graduate. Students would not have to pass the reli- ble-cross. On Aug. 18, he threatened an all-out war questions on the exam. polling group PBS DGA reported that more than gion component to obtain a diploma. They would over the issue, and Legutko relented. If a religious component is included in the 61 percent of Poles it polled for the daily Gazeta Czech gov’t unchanged on simply have the choice of taking it if they wanted The government drew up a plan to include reli- exam, the experts say, the church will be decid- Wyborcza newspaper opposed the idea of a religion missile shield after report to. The ministry’s decision reverses the Prime gion in an exam to be given to 1,000 students at 50 ing the questions, not the Education Ministry. That component in the comprehensive exam. Thirty- Minister Donald Tusk administration’s stance on schools in the spring of 2008. means the ministry will be ceding its authority for two percent supported the idea and seven percent The Czech government vowed late last week the religious-component issue in its earliest days Then the Civic Platform party ousted Law and overseeing the exam to outsiders, these experts were undecided. to press ahead with negotiations with Washington in office. Justice in the national elections of late October. say. Tusk said that although he feels “great esteem Thus public sentiment is running 2 to 1 against about hosting part of an anti-missile shield despite News of the government’s about-face has The victors said they would drop the idea of put- for and sympathy toward Archbishop Kazimierz the idea. Schools do not require students to take re- a U.S. intelligence report downgrading the threat touched off an angry debate on the subject. On one ting a religious component in the comprehensive Nycz,” the decision about a religion component in ligion courses. Students can choose to take religion posed by Iran. side are Catholic Church officials and politicians exam. the final exam will not be made in talks between courses, can choose to take ethics courses or can “The U.S. intelligence report will not influence who support religious values. On the other side are Church officials were apoplectic about the government officials and “people from outside the choose to take neither. the attitude of the Czech government in the face of those who want to keep religion out of schools. government turn-about. Archbishop of Warsaw government.” It will be made solely by govern- Jaroslaw Zielinski, an MP and member of Law further negotiations with the U.S. over the possible Prime Minister Tusk said that although his Kazimierz Nycz demanded, and got, an audience ment officials, he said. and Justice party’s chamber of ethics, said one out installation of a radar station on Czech soil,” the administration is discussing the idea that the pre- with Deputy Minister of Education Krystyna Szu- The arch-Catholic Giertych said the Law and of three students at most schools take neither reli- Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. viously ruling right-wing party Law and Justice milas to discuss the issue. Justice government did so much work on the pro- gion nor ethics courses. Tadeusz Bartos, a journal- The threat of a missile attack from “rogue originally proposed, the government is far from Szumilas said after the meeting that she saw no posal that backing away from it now would amount ist who is also a theology expert, said on TOK FM states” such as Iran is frequently cited by Wash- making a decision on it. Church officials began problem continuing work on the proposal. Tusk’s to breaking a promise to the Catholic Church and radio that government officials should remember ington as the main reason for its missile defense pushing for a religion component in the compre- statement later that no decision has been reached others who championed it. “Any change is impos- that they represent all Poles when they consider shield project. hensive exam in 1999, according to Father Piotr on the issue suggested that the government could sible without consultation with the Conference of proposals to include such a religion component in The Czech Foreign Ministry stressed that the Tomasik, who works on education issues for the back away from it, however. Polish Bishops,” he added. the comprehensive exam. U.S. report, released Monday, concerned Iran’s Conference of Polish Bishops. The plan that church officials worked out with Left-leaning politicians detest the idea of a reli- The notion that a decision about the issue might nuclear program and not the development of mis- The ultra-conservative, pro-Catholic Law and Giertych was to include religion in a list of sub- gion component in the exam. “It is a sign of primi- be made in private talks between an archbishop sile delivery systems, which it said was ongoing. Justice party began working on adding religion to jects in the exam that high school seniors would tive conservatism,” Jerzy Szmajdzinski, the deputy and a deputy minister is unacceptable, he said. “According to the report, Iran will probably be the exam after it won the most seats in the lower not have to pass in order to obtain their diploma. head of parliament, said in a radio interview. He There should be a public debate on the issue, he capable of producing a sufficient quantity of nu- house elections of 2005. The current education minister, Katarzyna Hall, is one of the leaders of the Union for Democratic contended. The debate should include the question clear material for the production of a nuclear bomb The education minister at the time, Roman said that if some students want to show a mastery Left Wing party. of “what is the function of religion as a school sub- between 2010 and 2015. Giertych, put together a plan for the religion com- of religious content by passing a religion section of He maintained that politicians should promote ject,” he said. Is that function instilling knowledge “This corresponds with the previous estimates. ponent in 2006. Representatives of the Catholic the exam, the ministry should make the component tolerance, openness and respect for all religions but or proselytizing, he asked. By this date the European pillar of anti-missile de- Church, 12 other religions and religious associa- available to them. not be involved in forcing into the comprehensive If the main function of teaching religion is in- fense should be in place,” the statement said. tions worked with him on the plan. Other Civic Platform officials oppose the idea. exam a section that basically deals with one de- stilling knowledge, then there is a case for includ- The U.S. plan calls for the installation of a pow- With the help of this religious advisory group, And the Left and Democrats party has threatened nomination – Catholicism. ing it in the comprehensive exam, he said. If it’s to erful targeting radar in the Czech Republic and 10 Giertych produced a sample religion component to sue if the Tusk administration decides to include Introducing religion into the exam also would proselytize, then it is inappropriate to include it in interceptor missiles in Poland by 2012. (AFP) for the exam. a religion component in the exam. They believe favor students wanting to go into university theol- the exam, he suggested. DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 POLAND The Krakow Post 3

Russia, Vancouver to make airport President at Poland end odds with meat dispute new PM on changes after Taser death Iraq: Tusk agence france-presse agence france-presse Russia’s agriculture minister late last week agreed to end a ban on Polish meat imports, removing a bone of contention Poland’s new liberal Prime Minis- between the historic rivals that has strained ter Donald Tusk admitted late last week EU-Russian ties. to holding divergent views from con- “We are in complete agreement on re- servative President Lech Kaczynski suming deliveries of meat products from on Iraq and the proposed U.S. missile Poland,” Agriculture Minister Alexei defense shield. Gordeyev told journalists in Moscow. “Concerning Iraq, the differences Gordeyev was speaking after talks with of opinion are quite serious,” Tusk his Polish counterpart Marek Sawicki, part of the government under Poland’s new liber- told journalists following a one-hour al Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has set meeting with the president aimed at out to improve relations with Russia since ironing out any creases in their poten- taking office last month. tially awkward cohabitation. “An agreement will be signed next week Tusk and his liberal Civic Platform in Kaliningrad between the veterinary ser- dealt a stunning election defeat in vices of the two countries,” Gordeyev said, October to Kaczynski’s twin brother referring to Russia’s westernmost province. Jaroslaw, the previous prime minister “As soon as the memorandum is signed, deliveries will begin again.” and current leader of the right-wing The dispute is behind the Polish gov- opposition Law and Justice party. ernment’s veto on a wide-ranging EU-Rus- In a speech outlining his policies sia partnership and trade agreement meant to parliament on November 23, Tusk to smooth relations between Brussels and promised that Poland would end its Moscow. Despite the apparent resolution current mission in Iraq by the end of to the meat problem, the Polish government 2008. said it would not remove the veto before the Tusk said the president was not embargo was fully lifted. “There is no timetable. We are waiting convinced that this was the correct for the signature of a document on the re- course of action, but expressed confi- sumption of deliveries,” ministry spokes- dence that he could win him round. man Piotr Paszkowski told AFP. Defense Minister Bogdan Klich Vasily Likhachyov, a member of the For- has even indicated that the 900 troops eign Affairs Committee of Russia’s upper Poland has deployed in Iraq could be house of parliament, said Poland must now back home by next summer. respond to the Russian gesture. Tusk also said the two leaders held “After the settlement of the problem agence france-presse To avoid such problems in the future, the week review of “every aspect of our opera- of delivering meat from Poland to Russia, different views about Polish-U.S. there is no basis for the veto,” Interfax quot- airport will open an information center for tions, from customer care to communica- negotiations on the installation of ed Likhachyov as saying. Western Canada’s biggest airport an- travelers in the international baggage area, tion, safety and security, and even building interceptor missiles as part of a U.S. The partnership agreement is seen as nounced changes late last week prompted by Vancouver Airport Authority president design.” missile defense shield. particularly important in the EU because it the death of a Polish traveler lost in the ter- Larry Berg told reporters. He said staff will continue to look at im- “The president is more enthusi- will include provisions for energy relations minal for nearly 10 hours before panicking As well, patrols of secure areas would be provements in the future. In video released astic than me, without there being a as the EU increases its reliance on Russian and dying in a violent police arrest. beefed up and signage would be improved, November 15, four police officers pile onto fundamental difference between us oil and gas imports. Moscow imposed the Robert Dziekanski’s case made world he said. Berg said the airport would set up the Polish man as he writhes and screams on this matter,” said Tusk. meat embargo in November 2005, accus- headlines after an amateur video of his easily identifiable, terminal-wide access to in pain on the floor, then falls still within ing Poland of shoddy food safety standards. “The president is more deter- Warsaw claimed the ban was groundless and death was released last month, showing translation services, 24-hour in-terminal minutes. Dziekanski, 40, had arrived in mined (to find an agreement with the a purely political move. Wednesday’s agree- police repeatedly stunning the distraught medical response, add a messaging service Canada as a new immigrant who planned Americans), independently of what it ment was the latest sign of thawing of his- traveler with a Taser less than 60 seconds from the secure area to the public greeting to join his mother. costs Poland.” torically poor relations between Russia and after they first approached him. area and improve signs with pictograms Multiple inquiries into his death include The U.S. plan calls for the instal- Poland, frozen for the past two years under It was in the secure international bag- and multiple languages. a provincial public inquiry, a police ho- lation of a powerful targeting radar in the conservative, nationalist government of gage zone, the size of two football fields, Staff would also begin doing walk- micide investigation and an independent the Czech Republic and 10 intercep- Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. that Dziekanski apparently became lost af- throughs each hour in the area to try to coroner’s inquest. The federal government tor missiles in Poland by 2012. Last week Russian Foreign Minister Ser- ter he arrived from Frankfurt on Oct. 13, identify lost or confused travelers and as- also ordered a review of the police use of gei Lavrov vowed to turn a new page in bi- Tusk also said the presidency had lateral relations after meeting his new Polish while his mother waited for him on the sist them. Tasers, while Polish prosecutors are also stressed the “good atmosphere” of counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski in Brussels. other side of a wall in the public zone. Berg said the changes follow a seven- looking into the case. the meeting. Germany, Poland seek truce on WWII remembrance the krakow post

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said early last week she was receptive to a Polish proposal to build a World War II museum but defended a disputed war memorial center planned in Berlin. “It is an interesting idea,” Merkel told reporters after her first talks with new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk since he took office last month, when asked about his idea for a museum in the northern Polish city of Gdansk. But she said the museum could not replace German plans to build a memorial center for the mlns of Germans expelled from central and eastern Europe after the war. “Our project is in no way intended to make light of the causes and consequences of World War II,” Merkel said, adding that a Ger- man delegation would travel to Warsaw soon to discuss plans for the center. Warsaw has raised concerns that the German project would fail to distinguish between the war’s victims and aggressors. Despite the differences over the memorial, Tusk said he was pleased that Merkel had underlined her rejection of individual bids by German expellees to seek restitution from Poland. “It is important to restore relations between our two countries to the same level as our own personal relations,” a smiling Tusk told a joint news conference with Merkel. Relations between the neighbors suffered under Tusk’s right-wing predecessor Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who missed few opportunities to reproach Germany over its Nazi past. In an interview with the Frank- furter Allgemeine Zeitung published last week, Tusk questioned plans to establish the Berlin memorial center and proposed the museum in his hometown of Gdansk, which was once the German city of Dan- zig. Some 14 mln Germans fled or were expelled, often brutally, from their homes in eastern Europe from 1944 as the Soviet Red Army advanced and Germany’s Nazi Third Reich crumbled. Around half of them lived in what is now Poland. Merkel and Tusk also discussed the planned “Nord Stream” pipeline from Russia’s Baltic coast to Germany and other European countries via the Baltic Sea. Poland, whose territory will be bypassed by the project, has raised environmental and other objections. Merkel said the German and Polish economy ministers would discuss the issue with a view to addressing Warsaw’s concerns. 4 The Krakow Post POLAND DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007

R E G I O N A L N E W S Suspect in dance master’s Tusk focuses on improving foreign policy death appears before court a symbolic dimension since Tusk, a center- A man accused of murdering well-known right liberal, had promised in the election Russian dance master Dmitri Bryantsev was re- campaign and in his inaugural speech to put manded in custody by a Czech court late last week Poland back in the EU mainstream and to following a brief appearance, commercial broadcaster TV Nova reported. end verbal hostilities with Russia. Police have not identified the man thought to Poland’s relationship with Russia, after a be behind the murder of the artistic director of year of tensions between the two countries, Moscow’s Stanislavsky Ballet but said he was a was also at the top of the agenda in talks foreign citizen. dominated by EU issues during Tusk’s Bryantsev, 57, disappeared on a short trip to meeting with his Italian counterpart, Ro- the Czech Republic in June 2004 and a nation- man Prodi, in Rome on Dec. 7. wide search was launched when he failed to return The Italian prime minister compliment- home. His remains were only discovered in woods near the central Czech town of Jicin in June this ed Tusk on Poland’s efforts to improve re- year. Police said they charged a man with murder lations with Russia. in connection with the case on Friday. This follows a previous Polish govern- They believe an argument erupted over a finan- ment stance to block talks on a new EU- cial deal between the two men as they drove to- Russia agreement after Russia imposed a gether. The younger man then shot his companion ban on imports of Polish meat products. several times and hid the body. Another very important issue of Tusk’s The suspect faces a jail sentence of up to 15 foreign policy is Poland’s second big years if found guilty. (AFP) neighbor, Germany. Officials dismiss idea of As Germany and Poland are looking to repair their bilateral relations, first Sokor- Belarus-Russia union ski and then Tusk visited Berlin. Russian officials dismissed late last week talk Relations between the two countries of an impending deal with Belarus to make Presi- have been strained because of the previ- dent Vladimir Putin head of a “union state” com- ous Polish government’s stance on certain prising the two countries, Echo of Moscow radio EU issues and discussions about a proposal reported. The reports came ahead of a visit by Pu- for a controversial Center for Displaced tin to neighboring Belarus today for talks with his counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Persons in Germany by an association con- “This absolutely doesn’t accord with reality,” cerned with the fate of Germans expelled a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said when from Eastern Europe after World War II. asked if the two sides would sign an act of union. PM Donald Tusk. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Earlier Echo of Moscow cited unnamed sources Steinmeier assured Poland that the German in Lukashenko’s administration as saying the two the krakow post Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso, Tusk “This tough defense, if you will, of your government didn’t support the controver- leaders would sign a “constitutional act on the cre- showed significant differences with his interest in the EU also means the ability sial property claims by some Germans or- ation of a union state of Russia and Belarus” and Poland’s new Prime Minister Donald predecessor, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Tusk em- to cooperate, the ability to show mutual ganized into the Association for Displaced that Putin would head the new entity after his term Tusk is focusing on improving his nation’s as Russian president ends next year. phasized there was no conflict between the respect. As a representative of the Polish Persons against Poland. Under the scenario, Lukashenko would become foreign policy. He says the former gov- interests of Poland and those of the EU. government alongside with others who “I am glad that we are also able to talk speaker of the “united parliament,” the station re- ernment’s policy was damaging Poland’s Barroso and Tusk agreed the mutual re- have fought for the EU, I will stand up and about the difficult subjects, and I can call ported. Lukashenko’s spokesman Pavel Lyogky relations with, for example, Germany and lationships should be based on trust. Nev- defend the European interest as well but them that, in a very open and trustworthy rejected the reports, telling AFP they had prompted Russia. In recent days he has visited Italy, ertheless the new prime minister is not go- always in the spirit of mutual trust and co- atmosphere,” Steinmeier said. “surprise in Belarus.” Belgium and Germany to discuss key is- ing to bow to every EU demand but rather operation.” And indeed the atmosphere seemed “We don’t confirm the information that Alex- sues. Together with his Foreign Minister make the relations based on solid negotia- Foreign Minister Sikorski met his Rus- more friendly. Sikorski and Steinmeier ander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin in the near Radoslaw Sikorski, Tusk says he intends tions and a rapid resolution of any conflict. sian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Brussels were even on first-name terms. future will sign in Minsk a constitutional act and to work hard to make Polish foreign pol- share powers in a union state,” he said. “It’s important to stand up for your na- for the highest level talks between the two The meeting brought forth mutual assur- Speculation is mounting over possible scenari- icy more open for compromise and coop- tion, to defend the crucial interest of your countries in over a year. ances that the political relations between os by which Putin could retain power after the end eration. During his meeting with European nation,” Tusk told the EU commissioner. Diplomats said the meetings would have Germany and Poland would improve. of his second term in May, when he is constitution- ally obliged to stand down. While Belarus and Russia have close ties – Pu- tin regularly refers to the neighboring state as “fra- ternal” Belarus – there are also strains. When Putin was named at a meeting of his United Russia party Poles seek equal retirement age for men, women to stand at recent parliamentary polls, Lukashenko commented that watching the meeting on televi- the krakow post The ombudsman says that the equaliza- sion he had “wanted to vomit.” Lukashenko, who tion of retirement age is a European trend. has been branded a dictator by the West, was on a Ombudsman Jan Kochanowski has sued The equal retirement age is mandatory in visit to Venezuela on Friday. (AFP) the Constitutional Tribunal over regulations Denmark (65 years), Germany (65), Spain Police bust Vietnamese governing the retirement age of women and (65), Ireland (65), Holland (65) and France Kowalski Andrzej men. Currently, retirement age in Poland for (60). prostitution ring men is 65 and for woman 60. A very interesting rule was introduced Czech police broke up a suspected prostitution In the ombudsman’s opinion, it should be in the Czech Republic: The more children ring with raids on houses and brothels Saturday 65 for both sexes. Kochanowski thinks that reared by a woman, the lower the retire- night during which 11 Vietnamese were detained, different retirement ages are unjust and dis- ment age. Jolanta Fedk, minister of labor the news web site Novinky.cz reported late last criminatory, because women’s shorter work and social policy, also approves of equal week. Police from a special squad to combat organized crime carried out searches of the Viet- lives mean lower government pensions. retirement ages, but she says that Poland is namese’s homes in Prague and the western city of “A woman retiring at the age of 60 will not prepared for such a change and should Domazlice, and also swooped on one brothel in the be given a payment of 66 percent of a man’s wait for the Constitutional Tribunal verdict. western Czech border town of Cheb and three oth- pension. If she would work until age 65, the Fedk also is considering a so-called mar- ers in the capital, the news web site said. percentage would be 88.7,” Kochanowski riage pension where the pension would be The raids followed several months of prepara- said at a press conference. In addition to inherited by the surviving spouse when the tions for the operation. Jail sentences of a maxi- this, Kochanowski said, an earlier retire- other spouse died. mum 15 years could be imposed, it added. The ment age for women increases their risk of According to a survey by the newspaper Czech Republic’s Vietnamese community, fos- tered during the Communist era when Vietnamese being fired after they qualify for pensions. Gazeta Wyborcza, 56 percent of those polled were brought over to work in factories in the for- The real drama will start in 2009 when the said they want no retirement changes, and mer Czechoslovkia, represents one of the biggest pension reform act of 1999 takes full effect. 30 percent said they want to equalize the re- groups of foreign migrants in the country. (AFP) Savings will be taken into consideration, tirement age of men and women. and women may be penalized with lower In Kochanowski’s opinion, equalizing Greenpeace members end pensions. In addition, Polish women on the retirement age is not all that should be Czech power plant protest average have five times lower salaries than done. “Raising the retirement age is need- men. If women cannot earn more, perhaps ed” for both sexes, he added. Retirement Greenpeace activists late last week ended a they can work longer. and pensions will become a more urgent is- two-day protest on top of the chimney of the biggest thermal power plant in the Czech Republic, Currently women stop working earlier sue in coming years. In 30 years, up to 45 which they say is the country’s biggest polluter. because it has very little effect on their pen- percent of Poles will be over 50 years old. “We succeeded in attracting attention about sions. Ombudsman Kochanowski believes Currrently, 29 percent of Polish people are the links between the biggest Czech thermal plant that the age of retirement should be flexible, 50 and over. In 2060 it is estimated that each which emits the most carbon dioxide, the company so that women will not be forced to work working person will be supporting three CEZ, carbon extraction and the Czech position on until age 65 if they do not want to. nonworking persons. Retired couple window shopping in Krakow. climate change,” spokesman Jan Pinos said. The Prunerov II plant in the north of the country near the German border is considered to be the country’s biggest polluter, spewing out 8.9 mln tons of carbon dioxide annually. Eleven activists from Britain, Germany, Austria, Polish police seek Santa Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic scaled the 150 meter chimney in the morning. Five agence france-presse white beard, police said. came down that evening. The demonstration coin- The thief gave his best wishes cided with the international climate change confer- Polish police were searching to the saleswoman before bran- ence in Bali, Indonesia, where world leaders will late last week for a suspect who dishing an item resembling a try to chart out the next steps to curb the greenhouse robbed a village grocery dis- handgun and making off in a gases blamed for global warming. The protesters guised as Santa Claus. Witness- getaway car with several thou- are due to meet Czech Green party leader and environmental leader Martin Bursik on Saturday before es of the hold-up Thursday in sand zloty (several hundred he departs for the Bali summit. Bursik has attacked Ploty, northwest Poland, found euro, dollars). CEZ for not investing in the latest clean technology it difficult to describe the robber The robber chose November and spending its profits on an acquisitions spree in who wore a Santa costume with 6 for the heist, celebrated as the other European countries. (AFP) a plastic face mask and long feast of St. Nicholas in Poland. Wanted: Santa. DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 POLAND The Krakow Post 5 Stolen British tractors turn up Poland stands in Poland: police behind capital

agence france-presse police from immediately identifying from where it had been stolen. Two hi-tech tractors stolen in southern Three individuals were arrested, Kacz- England by a suspected vehicle traffick- marek told AFP. ing gang and apparently bound for Ukraine Police later discovered a fourth New have turned up in Poland, police said late Holland tractor without a chassis number at punishment last week . a site related to the suspected thieves. “They are luxury-end John Deere and Such tractors are the farm world’s equiv- New Holland tractors,” said Tadeusz Kac- alent of a luxury car, boasting features such the krakow post Europe decided in September to establish a zmarek, a police spokesman in the central satellite navigation, air conditioning and Europe-wide anti-death penalty day on Oc- The Tusk government has reversed Po- tober 10 as well. Polish city of Radom. even the latest in-vehicle sound systems. land’s refusal to go along with a European In the last few weeks of his administra- The tractors, which were snatched in “We estimate the price of the vehicles Day Against Capital Punishment – a stand tion, Kaczynski refused to go along with the the southern English county of Hampshire, we have recovered at around a mln zloty that had prevented the Council of Europe day. That killed the day for this year. were discovered by Radom police in a (280,000 euro, $400,000),” Kaczmarek from establishing the day throughout Eu- Kaczynski’s refusal prompted European sealed truck which was traveling from Brit- said. rope. leaders to describe Poland as being back- ain to Ukraine. “There are more arrests on the horizon. It Joyful European ministers reacted to ward. A third tractor found in the truck had looks like we’re dealing with a whole theft Tusk’s decision by immediately moving to A leading European socialist, Martin had its chassis number filed off, preventing and trafficking network,” he said. establish the day. Schulz of Germany, asked how long the rest Much of the rest of Europe had resented of Europe would swallow Poland’s effort to Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s re- block the day. fusal to accept such a day. EU leaders should do everything they Poland was the only country out of 47 in could to show how out of touch Poland was Poland busts Romanian gang the Council of Europe to refuse to go along on the issue, Schulz said. with the designation. That refusal was tan- Tusk’s new Minister of Justice Zbigniew tamount to a veto because council rules re- Cwiakalski contends that “there was no rea- quire a unanimous vote of member countries son to object to establishing the European that used fake British cards before a special day can be established. Day Against Capital Punishment. The Kaczynski government’s stand not I am surprised that Poland came out only rankled other Europeans but also con- against it. Poland engaged in capital pun- tradicted Poland’s own position on capital ishment for the last time in 1988, and it has punishment. been eliminated from the penal code for cc:sa: Solipsist The government stopped executing crim- over 10 years.” inals 19 years ago and outlawed the death Klaus Buchman, a well-known German penalty 10 years ago. political scientist and journalist, said offi- Kaczynski had maintained that because cials might be able to justify capital punish- no court with jurisdiction over all of Europe ment in countries with no well-established had outlawed the death penalty, there was legal and penal systems – as was the case in no reason to have a European Day Against America’s Wild West territories. Capital Punishment. Many territories lacked secure prisons, so Tusk’s decision to reverse Poland’s op- there was a real threat of a dangerous crimi- position to an anti-death-penalty day has nal continuing to roam free, he suggested. already improved relations with the rest of Thus territorial governments often imposed Europe, according to Ministry of Internal the death penalty to threaten criminals by Affairs and Administration Grzegorz Sche- severity of punishment. tyna. In Europe, however, legal and penal in- “Everything has changed in Poland,” he stitutions are so strong that the death pen- said. “The government has changed, Poland alty has been abolished on human-rights has changed and the decision has changed.” grounds, Buchman said. Non-governmental organizations op- Nowadays, at least in Europe, capital posed to the death penalty designated Octo- punishment looks like a relic of the past. ber 10 an International Day Against Capital Some compare its abolition, in terms of Punishment some years ago. The Council of moral force, to the abolition of slavery. New bird flu case,

agence france-presse which make it easier to pass off fake cards as the genuine article. Unlike their British Polish police said late last week they had equivalents, few Polish cashpoints require arrested around 20 Romanians who were us- minister reports a card to have a microchip, which provides ing forged British credit cards to withdraw additional protection against fraud. agence france-presse flu, which is fatal to humans, were discov- cash. Criminal gangs around the world often ered earlier this month at chicken and tur- “Five groups of three to four Romanian produce fakes encoded with genuine, stolen Poland was hit by a fourth case of deadly key farms 120 kilometers (72 miles) north- citizens have been arrested in the space of credit card details, in order to make pay- H5N1 bird flu late last week when the disease west of Warsaw. the past five months,” Polish national police ments and cash withdrawals at the expense was discovered at a poultry farm, the Agri- Veterinary authorities ordered a cull of AGENCJA NIERUCHOMOSCI spokesman Zbigniew Urbanski told AFP. of victims of data theft. culture Ministry confirmed. 110,000 chickens in the area on Sunday. www.property-krakow.com The gang created cards with magnetic Encoding data into a magnetic strip is “The new case was discovered in the vil- A 30-kilometer isolation zone was estab- strips thanks to reading devices stashed in cheaper and easier than trying to fake a mi- lage of Saldowo, near to Biezun, (central lished Monday around the farm where the cashpoints in Britain, and used hidden cam- crochip. Poland) close to other recent cases,” Farms newest case was discovered. Smaller zones eras to record personal identification num- In March, Polish police arrested three Minister Marek Sawicki told reporters in were created around the three other con- bers (PINs) typed into the keypad by genu- British citizens who were using 85 separate Warsaw. taminated farms in nearby villages. ine card holder. forged cards to withdraw cash in Warsaw. “Just as in the previous cases all the The cases of H5N1 are the first to be Polish police believe that identity thieves Last month, police in Spain said they had chickens will be culled,” Agriculture Min- recorded in Poland among domestic fowl. try to take advantage of differences between bust a credit card gang largely made up of istry spokeswoman Malgorzata Ksiazyk. Last year the disease was discovered only Britain and Poland’s cashpoint systems, Romanians, arresting 44 people. Three previous cases of H5N1-type bird among wild birds.

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Napoleona Cybulskiego 2 6 The Krakow Post POLAND DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 R E G I O N A L N E W S Arrest Christmas Italian PM Prodi, Pope hail Chechen independence approaches new PM Donald Tusk warrant Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi hailed late last week the prospect of better relations be- with shopping tween Poland and its neighbors as he hosted his leader takes part in new Polish counterpart Donald Tusk. on tycoon madness Tusk took office last month promising to repair damage caused by the previous conservative the krakow post government’s tough line towards Russia and the EU. Polish TV debate Krauze Christmas is coming soon and with it a Improved relations between Warsaw and Mos- fury of shopping. cow and Brussels were in the interest of the whole Shops are trimmed with Christmas of Europe, Prodi said after talks with Tusk. trees, silver chains, reindeer, Santa Claus He said Poland and Italy would work together lifted and snowflakes appear on shop shelves to help formulate an energy policy for Europe, and carols are heard everywhere from which relies on Russia for much of its gas sup- the krakow post dawn to dusk and beyond. plies, and a long-term relationship with Moscow. Prodi said both countries would hold regular All that is to make people feel the The arrest warrant for business tycoon Christmas spirit and to open their wallets top-level meetings, the first of which could be Ryszard Krauze has been lifted. early next year in Poland. and for once in the year to forget about Tusk for his part said there were no points at One of Poland’s richest citizens can now saving money. Merchants have waited issue between himself and Prodi. come back to Poland and will not be au- for this moment all year. Following their talks the Polish leader went on tomatically detained. The opposition Law The average Pole will spend 240 zloty to the Vatican, where Pope Benedict XVI wished and Justice party suggests that this deci- for presents this year (Ipsos). One out of him every success in governing largely-Catholic sion is connected with the taking over of 10 will spend more than 500 zloty. The Poland in a 20-minute meeting. the Ministry of Justice by Zbigniew Cwi- more educated people are the more mon- A Vatican statement said the two discussed akalski. ey they spend. subjects “relating to Europe and Poland’s inter- Krauze, owner of Prokom, one of Po- Men, who often say they’re not going national role.” land’s biggest software companies, and to spend much, end up spending more Tusk said afterwards that he had told the pope than women (on average men 245 zloty he would always be welcome in Poland. (AFP) many other businesses, is charged with false testimony as well as obstruction of women 236 zloty). Belarus opposition party justice in connection with an action of “We will buy even more next year,” the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) said economist Witold Orlowski. “If the economy develops people buy more and elects new leader against Ministry of Agriculture employees, that is right.” Belarus’ main opposition party, the Popu- which failed after an information leak. Internet shopping also is feeling the lar Front, elected a new party leader, Lyavon According to prosecutors, Krauze, for- Barshchevsky, at a party conference in Minsk Christmas crush. Shopping online is be- mer Interior Minister Janusz Kaczmarek, coming more popular because it is easier Sunday. Barshchevsky, the 49-year-old co-found- former Police Chief Konrad Kornatowski er of the party, received 211 votes out of a pos- than traditional shopping. This is espe- sible 236. Former Popular Front leader Vintsouk and Jaromir Netzel, the former chairman cially true of busy big-city dwellers. Vetsherka was elected the party’s senior vice of the country’s biggest insurer, PZU, Online shopping can be done regard- president. were the people responsible for the failure. less of the time of day, which is one Barshchevsky is a translator, teacher, man of The arrest warrant was issued on Aug. 30. reason e-markets will be most popular letters and linguist. Krauze since then has remained abroad, of- just before Christmas, said Jaroslaw He was a member of the Belarus parliament ficially on business. Sobolewski, analyst and e-business ex- from 1990 to 1995. The warrant was lifted on Nov. 15, a day pert working for Interactive Advertising Very strict laws constrain the activities of Be- before the new Donald Tusk government Bureau. larus’ political parties, limiting any challenges to stepped into office. In this cabinet, Cwi- Poles spend huge amounts of money the power of President Alexander Lukashenko. on Christmas, often using credit—as Last month the UN General Assembly’s human akalski replaced Zbigniew Ziobro, who personally appeared at many press confer- merchants rub their hands in delight. rights committee passed a resolution expressing Analysts say some Poles may run up a “deep concern” about the Minsk authorities’ use ences devoted to Krauze’s case. bln zloty in debt this season. of the criminal justice system to “silence political The opposition party responded to the opposition and human rights defenders.” (AFP) Hypermarkets and banks have credit lifting of the warrant with a press confer- to offer. Bank counters are located just ence at which it called this decision scan- Ex-Czechoslovak prosecutor next to cash desks. Consumers can get dalous and pointed to the fact that Cwi- money quickly and easily. At Media Mar- appeals jail sentence akalski was the author of an expert opinion ket and Saturn credit covers as much as which was used by Krauze’s pleaders. 60 percent of sold commodities. A former Communist-era prosecutor will ap- Some Law and Justice politicians called peal her eight-year jail sentence for her role in the Shops try to lengthen the Christmas 1950 show trial and execution of a Czech national on Cwiakalski to resign. But the justice shopping season. Many start with promo- hero and three others, her lawyer said early last minister said the decision on Krauze was tions and sales of Christmas trees even in week. taken before he assumed office and he November. Shopping peaks Dec. 15-17. “We received the (sentence) decision last week didn’t even know about it until last week. “It is a kind of exaggeration. Just yes- and lodged an appeal,” defense lawyer Zdenka He also declared that his expert opinion terday we bought chrysanthemums and Havlikova told the CTK news agency of her cli- was only based on Supreme Court verdicts agence france-presse from the then Soviet-dominated Commu- candles and now we are made to buy ent, 86-year-old Ludmila Brozova-Polednova, and not on Krauze’s situation. nist bloc in 1989. But Moscow has accused Christmas trees. In the past it was pos- who was convicted of murder in early November. According to Cwiakalski, Krauze’s case Poland risked the ire of Russia early this Zakayev of involvement in terrorist acts. sible to buy a Christmas tree just two Brozova-Polednova is the last surviving pros- days before Christmas. Ornaments we will be handled the same as that of any other week after Chechen independence icon Zakayev was once the envoy to Europe ecutor involved in the death sentence of Milada made ourselves. We had enormous joy. citizen and when back in Poland, he should Akhmed Zakayev, who is wanted by Mos- Horakova, a former WWII resistance hero and of former Chechen separatist president Now every part of Christmas is aimed at testify. Even though the arrest warrant was Czechoslovak lawmaker. cow on terrorism charges, appeared on a Aslan Maskhadov, who was slain in 2005. just spending money,” said Jadwiga Do- The three others sentenced and executed a half lifted, the charges against him weren’t. talk show on Polish public television. He currently lives in Britain, where he roszkiewicz, a pensioner. century ago were Jan Buchal, Zavis Kalandra and Cwiakalski’s candidacy for the justice post Zakayev came to Poland to take part in has had political refugee status since 2003. Poland at Christmastime differs from Oldrich Pecl. was strongly opposed by Law and Justice an edition of the popular program “Warto British authorities have sparked Mos- Communist authorities, who seized power in a other countries. In Great Britain, for ex- as well as President Lech Kaczynski. They Rozmawiac” (Worth Talking), which was cow’s anger by refusing to extradite him, ample, the first Christmas decorations coup at the start of 1948, charged Horakova and both pointed out that in the past Cwiakal- a handful of accomplices with plotting to over- broadcast in the evening by the TVP2 chan- citing lack of evidence and concerns about can appear as early as September. In the throw the state. ski was an advocate of people charged with nel to mark World Human Rights Day. the integrity of the Russian judicial system. U.S., Christmas shopping starts on so- Her courageous self-defense and refusal to corruption and that this stands in opposition “I want to thank the Polish people for Russia regularly denounces countries that called Black Friday, the fourth Friday of play the role plotted for her in the show trial with his new role of chief prosecutor – an your help,” Zakayev said on the program. host visits by Zakayev. November, the day after Thanksgiving. resulted in Horakova becoming one of the main office which is automatically held by the “The fate of Poles and Chechens has In June, for example, France found itself “Christmas decorations on display symbols of the anti-Communist resistance. justice minister. much in common,” he said. under fire after Zakayev came to the east- almost everywhere are to make us think Horakova’s sentence was cancelled in 1968 Cwiakalski argued that he is no longer “You have proved through your deter- ern city of Strasbourg to attend a session of about presents and consequently to use but her name was not fully cleared until 1990, an active lawyer and stressed that in the mination and sacrifice that freedom can be the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council credit,” says Tadeusz Poplawski, soci- soon after the fall of the former Czechoslovak past many advocates had become justice ologist and chairman of the faculty of Communist regime. The Communist regime ex- achieved. You are an example to us,” he of Europe, the human rights and democracy ministers. He was also backed by Tusk, added. body. marketing and enterprise at Technical ecuted a total of 243 people for political reasons University of Bialystok. who expressed his full trust in him. Chechnya’s violent struggle for indepen- Zakayev’s latest appearance comes as between 1948 and 1989. (AFP) Such spending is dictated by Christ- dence from Russia broke out after the col- Poland’s new liberal Prime Minister Don- mas “temples of consumption,” the huge lapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. ald Tusk tries to mend fences with Russia. market centers. Such centers make the It attracted support from some Poles, Tusk has to contend with two years of greatest profits with small shops trying to who draw parallels with their own nation’s increasingly chilly Polish-Russian relations keep up. Christmas, a time of reflection, years of resistance, both violent and peace- during the two-year incumbency of his pre- meditation, joy and love, changes into a ful, first to imperial Russian and later to decessor, conservative nationalist Jaroslaw race between shops. Communist rule before Poland broke free Kaczynski. Hungarian Cuisine and More... Stary Kleparz Pharmacy

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cc:sa:Diliff Commission says gov’t Polish steelmaker cancels misused state aid tank agence france-presse debts, which was not part of the restructur- contract ing plan. The European Commission said early this The Commission calculated that the loan week that Polish steel maker Huta Warszawa guarantee gave the company an interest sub- misused state aid for restructuring in 2003, sidy worth two million euro, which it has before it was bought by Arcelor. agreed to pay back. after Under a restructuring of the Polish steel The company was taken over in 2005 by industry, the company received around 50 steel group Arcelor, which itself has since million euros ($73.5 mln) of state aid, most- been bought by Mittal Steel to form the ly in the form of a guarantee for a loan to world’s biggest steelmaker. series of fund investments in 2003 and 2004. Huta Warszawa is one of the bigger pro- However, the Commission found that ducers of steel in Poland and has the capac- around 30 mln euro ($44 mln) of the loan ity to churn out nearly one million tons per was used in 2004 to pay off several old annum. problems

Downtown Prague. agence france-presse

agence france-presse of Czech-Irish descent. EU court The Czech government said late last “I did not realize you would have to go week it had canceled a 798-mln-euro More European borders come down this to Switzerland or some non-EU country. I ($1.17-bln) light tank contract with month and there is panic among Prague’s can hardly afford to stay here because the Austria’s Steyr-Daimler-Puch. large U.S. community with a last minute dollar has dropped so much,” she added, “The contract has not been proper- rush to get visas in order or quit the coun- defends right ly fulfilled and within the timeframe referring to the halving in the dollar-koruna try. Eric Snow, a 32-year-old from San Di- exchange rate since 2000. agreed” and accordingly it was can- ego, California, went through a six-month “To me its a shame I feel I have to go, but celled on Monday, Defense Minister bureaucratic nightmare when he decided to I will not break the rules,” she concluded. Vlasta Parkanova told a news confer- upgrade his visa. Corry O’Brien, a 53-year Snow feared he would face the Schengen for firms to ence. The contract, one of the largest old retired government worker, who came sanctions if he did not get his new visa be- ever in Czech military history, was to Prague with thoughts of a long stay is fore the old one expired. for the supply of 199 Panur tanks. cutting it short rather than risk becoming an At one stage in his personal paper chase The tanks already built had not illegal alien. and trial, Snow witnessed a Czech consul- passed control tests and “there were a Traditionally, U.S. citizens with a 90-day ate and the foreign police squabbling over move abroad whole series of problems,” Parkanova tourist visa took a three hour train ride from who should deal with his papers. said, without giving further details. Prague to the Czech Consulate in Dresden, That followed a trip to the Dresden con- “The terms of the contract are Germany, to get an extension there. Many sulate that he later found he did not need confidential,” she said, while adding used the system to live and work unde- to make. Like most other foreigners trying that the delivery of the first 17 tanks clared as permanent tourists. to unscramble Schengen, Snow tried at first to save costs in November as agreed had not hap- The EU’s so-called Schengen zone has to work out himself what to do by search- pened. changed all that. ing an expats’ web site. “It was completely agence france-presse flag for its Tallinn-Helsinki trips. “Our decision may seem radical at The zone, where passports are not wrong,” Snow mused. The ITF sent a circular to all its affiliates first but we are convinced it is right. checked once a traveler is inside, will be He brought his mediocre knowledge of The European Court of Justice late last asking them not to deal with the Viking Line, Any concession [on the terms] on our extended on Dec. 21 to the Czech Republic, the Czech language to bear on official infor- week upheld the right of EU companies to with the threat of sanctions attached. part would have only led to others,” Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, mation sources, but found them lacking and shift activities to another member state, deal- This had the effect of preventing Estonian the minister said. Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. eventually hired an “agent” to circumvent ing a blow to trade unions seeking to prevent trade unions from entering into negotiations The local office of Steyr-Daimler- But it means that Americans and other the administrative maze. His first agent got so-called social dumping. with Viking. After Estonia joined the EU in Puch declined to comment, wanting expats in Prague will have to go outside the him nowhere but a second one got him to However in the same ruling, regarding 2004, Viking brought the case to the British first to study the statement. zone to get a new visa, and that means go- his grail, albeit around 5,000 koruna (190 a Finnish shipping company’s move to sail courts seeking to force the ITF to withdraw ing to the Ukraine, Switzerland or Romania euro/$279) poorer. “I would never try to do under the Estonian flag, the court also ruled its circular and asking the court to order the as some of the nearest destinations. this on my own. Get an agent is all I can that unions were allowed to take collective Finnish Seamen’s Union, an ITF affiliate, to And tourist visas now only allow resi- say,” he concluded. action to persuade a company not to decamp honour its right to reflag the ferry. dence within Schengen countries for three The U.S. Embassy in Prague estimates to a cheaper location and workforce. Britain’s Court of Appeal referred the months in any six-month period. there are 5,000 Americans in the Czech That right, the court in Luxembourg case to the European Court of Justice which Snow feared he would have to endure a capital but an unknown number of the ruled, only applies where jobs or employ- ruled Tuesday that the union action amount- 90-day exile outside the Czech Republic 400,000-500,000 U.S. tourists each year ment conditions are “jeopardised or under ed to “restrictions on the freedom of estab- “somewhere in the East” as he wrestled stay behind. According to Snow many serious threat.” lishment ... (which) cannot be objectively with getting his new visa. Americans are taking their children out of The general ruling resulted from a partic- justified. “I was afraid I might have to leave the Prague’s English language schools because ular case involving the London-based Inter- “Such a restriction can be accepted only country, or at least go away for a time. I of Schengen. national Transport Workers Federation (ITF) if it pursues a legitimate aim such as the pro- did not want that, I have made a life here,” But visa-enabling agents are enjoying a and the Finnish shipping company. tection of workers,” the court said, throwing exclaimed the English language teacher. boom. The federation was unhappy that the Finn- it back to the British courts to decide wheth- “This Schengen thing came out of the “We have got about half again as much ish shipping company, Viking, in a cost-cut- er the collective action went “beyond what blue,” exclaimed O’Brien. “I thought I interest as we did at this time last year,” ting move, sought in October 2003 to staff was necessary.” could go somewhere for the visa extension said Nora Vinduskova in her small cen- one of its passenger ferries, but I did not know I could not come back tral Prague office, adding that Australians, the loss-making Rosella, NEW with a cheaper Estonian crew for 90 days,” added the grey-haired collect- Canadians, Japanese and Thais as well as EMPLOYMENT er of “cultural experience” whose family is and sail it under the Estonian Americans are her main clients. PORTAL LAUNCHING NOVEMBER CALL TO HOTEL EDEN 2007 ADVERTISE: REGISTER FOR FREE TODAY announces our annual festive BE FIRST! 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R E G I O N A L B I Z Czech unemployment rate Telekomunikacja Polska to falls to nine-year low The Czech unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per- Arriva PPC separate its retail sector by mid-2008 cent in November from 5.8 percent in October to the lowest level for nine years, the Ministry of La- bor and Social Affairs announced early last week. The number of workers seeking and able to take up jobs immediately fell to 312,558, a drop of 8,082 compared with the figure the previous month, the launches office said. Analysts had expected November’s unemployment rate to dip to 5.7 percent. (AFP) Blast hits Russia-EU gas private pipeline: report An explosion late last week in Ukraine knocked out of service one of the main pipelines exporting Russian natural gas to the EU, the Russian Vesti television news channel reported overnight. The explosion, which cut the pipeline carrying Sibe- Polish rian gas through Ukraine to Germany and other EU clients, forced the operators to suspend the flow on the pipeline. However, there would be no interruption in the deliveries to the EU, a source in the Ukrainian government quoted by the channel assured. railway “One of the Ukrainian gas grid’s specifics is in its multiple branches, which allow us to re-route gas around the hit section,” the source said. There were no reports of casualties or injuries. The pipeline had suffered a similar incident earlier this year, when a blast ripped off a section and it took 10 days to repair the damage. (AFP) cc:sa:Solaris8315 the krakow post company. the decision, Telekomunikacja Pol- Slovak industrial production According to Gazeta Prawna most ska will not want to make a decision An announcement was made on experts are of the view the structural that is against the European Com- rises 17.3 percent in October Monday stating that a decision will process should be made separate mission, which has supported the Slovak industrial output rose 17.3 percent in be made concerning the separation of from the operational element. The op- option of separating the operational October on a 12-month comparison following a the Telekomunikacja Polska sectors erational element includes retail and element of the company, according revised 15.3 percent in September, the Slovak Sta- by mid 2008. wholesale, which, according to ana- to Strezynska. tistics Office announced late last week. Anna Strezynska, director of the lysts, should function separately from Although restructuring may be Output from the key auto sector, Slovakia’s Urzad Komunikacji Elektronicznej the structural side of the telecommu- in the cards for the company, it is a three major car plants, Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot (the Electronic Communication Of- nication company. The biggest single decision which will be more time Citroen and South Korea’s Kia Motors, was one of fice – UKE), made the announcement the major factors fueling the rise, with production share holder in Telekomunikacja Pol- consuming and involve a higher level up 59.8 percent on a 12-month comparison. on TVN CNBC early this week. She ska is France Telecom with 47.5 per- of risk. According to the UKE’s di- Over the first 10 months of the year industrial stated that the decision to separate cent of the shares in the company. rector, restructuring could take up to production had climbed 14.4 percent compared Telekomunikacja Polska would be Some 3.87 percent of the shares four years. with the same period last year. (AFP) made by mid-year, while analytical are owned by the state, while the re- A separation in the operational ele- research will be conducted through- maining 48.6 percent are owned by ment in Telekomunikacja Polska will Czech inflation at six-year out the beginning of 2008 to deter- various other private shareholders. mean a separation of the units respon- high of 5.0 percent mine what benefits the separation will Telekomunikacja Polska made a de- sible for the company’s retail sector. bring to the consumer and to the com- but on the Warsaw Stock Exchange Separation would mean Telekomuni- Czech inflation rose to 5.0 percent in Novem- pany. Strezynska also added the cur- in 1998. Strezynska has assured she kacja Polska would have to operate ber on a 12-month comparison from 4.0 percent rent discussions are more concerned in October, the highest level since August 2001, is supporting the separation of the its retail sector by playing the same the Czech Statistical Office reported early this with separating the operational, rather operational element of the company. rules as those played by other opera- week. More expensive food and non-alcoholic than the structural, elements of the After analyzing the pros and cons of tors on the market. drink were the main factor fuelling the price rise with inflation in this category at 10.4 percent on a yearly comparison. “Double digit year on year growth in this divi- sion was last recorded more than 11 years ago,” the krakow post the office added. Prices rose by 0.9 percent in November com- The British-Polish company Arriva PCC has begun oper- pared with October following a 0.6 percent rise in Warsaw to spend 4.5 ating the first privately owned railway in Poland. October compared with the previous month. Until Arriva PCC began carrying passengers in north- Czechs are bracing themselves for a raft of west Poland on Dec. 10, Polish National Railways was the price rises in January as value added tax is in- creased across a range of goods in response to the country’s only rail operation. Passengers hope the new com- center-right government moves to switch the tax pany will be both cheaper than Polish National Railways burden from direct to indirect taxes. (AFP) and have better on-time performance. Arriva PCC is a partnership of Britain’s Arriva and Po- bln zloty for Euro 2012 Latvia continues sharp land’s PCC. The two companies teamed up last year. growth in Q3 A key attraction for Arriva was the fact that the Polish government had already granted PCC a private-railway op- The Latvian economy continued its breakneck erating license, according to Gazeta Prawna. LUK Agency LUK growth in the third quarter, expanding 10.9 per- Arriva PCC won a bidding process in June 2007 to serve cent compared with a year earlier, official data passengers in the Pomeranian and Kujawy districts. To help showed late last week. Arriva PCC start its service, local government officials in In the first and second quarters of this year, those districts gave it 13 passenger cars. the economy grew 11.2 percent and 11.0 percent respectively, giving a marginal slowdown in the The company also bought two new luxury cars at a total three months to September. cost of 15 mln zloty. The maker, Bydgoszcz-based PESA In 2006, the economy boomed with 11.9 per- Bydgoszcz SA, is the only European company providing cent growth, the fastest rate since independence luxury passenger cars to Ukrainian Railways. from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and the To round out its fleet, Arriva PCC is refurbishing 30 cars strongest rate in the then 25-member EU. that had been used on Denmark’s railways. It expects them Growth has been fuelled largely by robust to be ready at the beginning of 2008. domestic consumption, particularly since Latvia Arriva PCC will serve four stations to start with – Bydgo- joined the EU in 2004. szcz, Torun, Chojnice and Czersk. It wants to increase that On the downside, Latvian authorities are strug- gling to stem rising inflation, which has sparked number as time goes by. regular warnings about overheating. The new company employs about 120. In October, 12-month inflation hit 13.2 per- Arriva is a big player in Europe’s rail market. Its 12,000 cent, which was the highest figure since Novem- trains provide more than one bln passenger journeys a year. ber 1996. (AFP) It has 30,000 employees. PCC Rail Holding consists of 12 Polish and foreign com- krakowpost.com panies that specialize in railway transportation logistics. the krakow post Wojciechowski has announced the reported by Gazeta Prawna, the up- capital will experience an investment coming expenditures will be labeled ANNOUNCEMENT The upcoming European Football boom as far as tenders are concerned. as Euro 2012 investments. Championships Euro 2012, which The biggest projects will be an- This is a precautionary measure to International Women’s will be hosted by Poland, will lead to nounced next year, with their comple- prevent projects lapsing beyond man- an investment boom in Warsaw. The tions by 2009-2012. datory deadline for completion and Association of Krakow city will be announcing its major ten- The city is estimating a 4.5 bln zlo- eliminating the possibility of contrac- ders early next year, with one already ty cost associated with the Euro 2012 tors asking for time extensions. set for this December. investments. Seven major projects are The city of Warsaw will be looking According to Gazeta Prawna, the anticipated, including the new metro to the biggest construction compa- city is planning to expand its one line line as well as upgrading the Legia nies for offers. One contractor will be metro to a second line. The estimated Football Club stadium. The remain- held responsible for the overall con- cost of the development would be 3 ing five projects are set to improve struction. That company will in turn bln zloty. the infrastructure around the capital enter into contracts and agreements www.iwak.pl Gazeta Prawna reports Dep- at an estimated cost of 1.25 bln zloty. with subcontractors for the projects’ [email protected] uty Mayor of Warsaw Jacek According to Wojciechowski, as completion. DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 BUSINESS The Krakow Post 9 Consultancy agencies to fight for customers in 2008 when more EU funds become available Krauze’s Polnord

DFL 1.2:M.Minderhoud G DFL to build in St. Petersburg

the krakow post Polnord, a subsidiary of Prokom is owned by Ryszard Krauze, a Polish The Polish-owned construction com- software mogul who made his fortune pany Polnord, a subsidiary of Prokom, in the early nineties. Krauze, originally owned by mogul Ryszard Krauze is set from Sopot, began his software business to commence on a large scale construc- in 1991, beginning with an accountancy tion project in St. Petersburg. program which was bought up by state- Gazeta Prawna reports, Polnord owned mining companies for their book- signed a preliminary contract with the keeping requirements. Moscow-based company OAO Ruskie Prokom later won the tender in 1993 Samocwiety late last week. The St. Pe- for setting up software for the state- tersburg construction project is estimat- owned news agency company Ruch and ed to be worth $800 mln. by 1996 for Telekomunikacja Polska. The Polish-owned company along Prokom was responsible for establishing with its Moscow-based partner will a software program that would manage construct an office complex of approxi- the TP business structure. mately 250 square meters, with offices Later projects included software for later being made available for lease. The ZUS (the state-owned social security land upon which the offices will be con- agency) and PZU (the insurance com- structed is owned by the Russian OAO pany). Krauze has often been labeled as Ruskie Samocwiety. a monopolizer of state tenders. Critics The building plans show the office believe Krauze has been responsible for building construction will be situated in various activities involving corruption the krakow post business plans competing for amounts be- of EU funds. The result was a myriad of the center of St. Petersburg at a major and bribing officials and politicians in tween 200,000 to 300,000 zloty, are better applications that had little or no chance of communication crossroad close to the order to win project tenders. Regional councils responsible for the off preparing their plans themselves rather succeeding, with even the most basic infor- major train station and the metro station. Should a final decision be made as to distribution of EU funds for the period than seek consultancy companies. Prze- mation erroneously entered on forms. The area is also close to the shopping the St. Petersburg project, a new com- 2007-2013 will announce, according to myslaw Sulich, director of a consultancy Currently the Polish market is equipped district hub. pany will be established to manage the Gazeta Prawna, the first lot of competi- agency A1 Europe, points out the agencies with consultants who match the consultan- Both parties to the project have agreed project. tions for the best business plans in the first do not only assist in writing up the applica- cy giants with the experience and skill. Cli- on a three-month period in which archi- quarter of 2008. The application process The co-partners will be the Russian tion documentation. Agencies can also dou- ent care is a priority with consultants being tectural projects will be completed. The will commence earlier. Companies seeking OAO Ruskie Samocwiety and a new ble-check if all relevant information passed able to spend more time with their client time allocated will also be spent on final- to win are looking for help to outside agen- subsidiary of Polnord with 50 percent on to the funding committee is in order, or portfolios individually. izing financial plans for the construction cies that specialize in getting EU funds. of its shares in the umbrella company. they can help in training an employer or The upcoming year will mean a fever- as well as carrying out market research Within the years 2004-2006 the most effi- A final announcement will be made by employees in EU funding matters. ous battle among consultancy agencies for the investment. cient agencies in the field were Faber Con- The risk involved in contracting a con- for a new client base. The end result will June 2008. sulting and Ernst & Young. sultant today is not similar to that of the not be dissimilar to that of Western Europe, The general atmosphere from larger time when Poland entered the EU. Once where only a few agencies survived companies is to pay a specialist agency the Union opened its doors to Poland and the competition. The customer will rather than waste time on procedures usu- its funding possibilities, thousands of in- be seeking the lowest prices on the ally foreign to the business entrepreneur. experienced consultancy firms flooded market and many of the agencies According to Gazeta Prawna, smaller the market with promises of quick gains will be unable to compete.

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Place a job offer here! Place a career resume here! [email protected] [email protected] VACANCY RESUME 10 The Krakow Post WARSAW DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 Digital Skyscraper to tower over Poland headhunter G FDL.1.2:Janusz J.

the krakow post According to the plans, the building will alism in architecture. cost 1 bln zloty (278 bln euro), with con- Today, skyscrapers are also being Security system in Warsaw. The Palace of Culture and Science, the struction to start by the end of 2009 and planned and built in other major cities in tallest building in Warsaw and in all of completion scheduled in 2011. Chmielna Poland. Leszek Czarnecki, the richest Pole the krakow post they can be worth it as they help to make Poland, is set to be overshadowed in four Development, a company owned by Kulc- according to the most recent “Forbes” video monitoring, which also costs a lot of years’ time. A consortium led by Jan Kul- zyk, will cover only 9 percent of the cost. ranking, is investing in a residential build- Criminals – it doesn’t matter if they are money, more useful. czyk, one of Poland’s richest people, plans The rest is to be financed by banks. ing in Wroclaw called Sky Tower. It will from the U.S., France, Germany, Poland or An officer usually is able to watch a to build a 282.4-meter-high skyscraper, The current tallest European building be 258 meters high and should be ready anywhere else – use the newest technology, monitoring screen carefully for 20 to 30 which would be the tallest building in is the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, by 2010.In Gdynia, two 138-meter Sea including Internet and computers. minutes. continental Europe. Germany (258.7 meters not including an- Towers are already at an advanced level To fight them, police must use the same The computer works all day long with the According to the daily newspaper Rzec- tenna on the top). The Warsaw structure of construction and will be opened in Feb- high-tech equipment. same efficiency and precision. If the system zpospolita, the skyscraper will be located will be 260 meters high, topped by a 22.4- ruary 2009. Warsaw authorities have decided to test points out a suspect, it is never 100 percent in the very center of the Polish capital, just meter spire. They will contain luxury apartments and perhaps buy a new system that allows correct. But for the police it is enough to a few steps from the 230 meters-high pal- But it’s already known that by the time and are located close to the coast. In near- the computer to recognize faces of pedestri- check the suspect’s ID to confirm that he is ace built in 1955. the Warsaw skyscraper is complete, the by Gdansk, a 202-meter skyscraper called ans recorded by monitoring cameras. indeed a wanted criminal. The new building will have 68 floors new London Bridge Tower will exceed its Big Boy is to be finished in 2011. Here’s how it works: The digital moni- The police hope Warsaw authorities filled with luxury apartments for sale and height. The 310-meter London building In Krakow, plans for a skyscraper dis- toring photos are reworked by the computer decide to buy this system. “We run many a hotel. The name of the building remains should be finished by the end of 2009. trict are being discussed by architects and system. extradition cases in which the most dif- unknown, but it is likely to include one of Currently, Warsaw has 14 buildings local authorities. The faces of the pedestrians are scanned ficult thing is to pinpoint a wanted man’s the major worldwide hotel chain brands. higher than 100 meters. It would be located close to Czyzyny and compared with faces in the police data location,” said John Bienkowski, the FBI’s The design for the skyscraper hasn’t yet The tallest is still the Palace of Culture in Nowa Huta, far away from the city base. representative in Poland. started, and it‘s unknown who will do it. and Science, which was built between center in order not to disrupt the architec- The computer detects individual, charac- “A system like this would do it faster and Usually, ventures like this hire the world’s 1952 and 1955 as a gift of the Soviet tural balance of the old town. For now, the teristic features like intervals between eyes, cheaper than traditional methods,” he told most famous architects to gain credibility Union to Communist Poland. It became tallest building in Krakow is Blekitek on ears and nose, etc., to make a geometrical the daily newspaper Dziennik. and quality and thus summon investors one of symbols of the city even if many Rondo Grzegorzeckie at 105 meters and map of a face. The digital headhunter already has been and clients. consider it an awful example of social re- 20 floors. Then a computer program compares it working successfully in Great Britain. Air- with pictures of “wanted” criminals, which ports in the U.S. also have started to use it. were also analyzed carefully. Tests of the headhunter will be done in Po- The most difficult challenge for the sci- land next year. entists was to “teach” the computer how to Warsaw authorities have applied for EU recognize those characteristic features of a grants to help finance the system. face in every circumstance, such as a differ- Judges to earn more nationwide It is estimated that it would cost 230 ent haircut, mimicry, beard or make-up. mln zloty to install the digital headhunter Systems like these are expensive, but in Warsaw. the krakow post Among the new positions created, there judges who are at the start of their careers are no plans to increase judiciary posts. are usually in their early 30s at – an age Budget plans for next year suggest an The only increase in additional judges will when they are beginning to have families ANNOUNCEMENT additional one billion zloty will be spent be seen in the 293 law graduates who are and major financial responsibilities. CLASSICAL GUITAR MUSIC on the judiciary. The Minister of Justice completing their judicial exams and prac- And it is this group of judges who are FOR TOP RESTAURANTS has also suggested regulation is needed to tical training. mostly discriminated by the wage alloca- improve the status of judges. The estimated amount spent in next tion directives. From July 1, 2008, a new statute is be- year’s budget on the judiciary is 9.5 bln Dabrowski suggests young judges’ ing enacted which will raise the artificial zloty, a 12 percent increase to this year’s wages should be comparable to the aver- wage basis upon which judges’ salaries budget. The budget for 2007 was one mil- age wage in the private sector. are decided. lion zloty less than the predicted budget Currently judges’ wages are decided on His Honor Slawomir Rozycki from the for next year. an artificial scale, which calculates base Ministry of Justice told Gazeta Prawna, Although the judiciary as a whole is wages. the new budget will also extend to creating pleased with the changes and the addition- To solve this problem and to raise the more positions for support staff required al money, most claim the step is not big earning power of a judge on a market in the running of the judiciary. This will enough to put a stop to the large number that is quickly increasing average wages Our repretoire of Spanish, include 800 judges’ associates’ positions of good judges leaving their posts. across the board is to somehow balance Argentinian and Italian as well as 1,500 court staff and 200 sup- Currently judges receive wage increas- the wages of a judge to that of the average classical music will create the port officers. According to Rozycki, the es every seven years. This period will be earnings on the market. special ambience you need reason behind the creation of additional reduced to five years as of July next year. According to judges, to retain a high to maximize your guests’ job vacancies is to lessen the workload of According to Gazeta Prawna, the prob- level within the judiciary and to solve fine-dining experience. judges, who should only be concentrating lem lies in wages allocated to young judg- the chronic problem of judges leaving Good rates and top quality. on handing down judgments and not other es who are just starting their profession. the bench to enter private practice, wages [email protected] administrative matters. The court process Stanislaw Dabrowski, president of the would have to increase to around 12,000 is to become more efficient. National Judicial Council, reminds that zloty per month. DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 KRAKOW The Krakow Post 11 Plaque commemorates Wladyslaw Szpilman Kinga Rodkiewicz and orchestra, Little Overture (1968) for Ghetto, where he continued to work as a Staff Journalist orchestra. pianist in the restaurants of the Ghetto. In the 1950s, he wrote about 40 chil- When the rest of his family was deport- A plaque to commemorate the great dren’s songs, for which he received an ed to Treblinka, an extermination camp in Polish pianist and composer Wladyslaw award from the Polish Composers Union the east, Szpilman managed to flee from Szpilman was unveiled in Sosnowiec in 1955. the transport loading site with the help Dec. 5. In 1961, he initiated and organized So- of a friend, who grabbed him from the The plaque, made by Stanislaw Woz- pot International Song Festival in Poland crowd and took him away from the wait- niak and Arkadiusz Koniusz, was placed and founded the Polish Union of Authors ing train. in the tenement house in which the Szpil- of Popular Music. None of his family members survived man family lived before World War II. The pianist was born in Sosnowiec in the war. As set out in his memoir, Szpil- “A good thing for us (not for him, as 1911. man found hiding places in Warsaw and one has to admit) that Wladyslaw Szpil- After early piano lessons with his survived with the help of friends from man, our Cole Porter, Gershwin, McCart- mother Esthera, he continued his piano Polish Radio and by a German captain, ney, was born in Poland,” said Wojciech studies in the early 1930s at the Warsaw Wilm Hosenfeld, whose real name Szpil- Kilar, composer of movie music. Conservatory under A. Michalowski and man discovered in the early 1950s, when “Szpilman’s songs evoke the sound of at the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Hosenfeld’s wife wrote him a letter. an era of elegance, of good manners, of Künste) in Berlin under Artur Schnabel Despite the efforts of Szpilman and gracious women and of jazz music.” and Leonid Kreutzer. He also studied other Poles to rescue Hosenfeld, he died Also dedicated to the composer is part composition with Franz Schreker. in Soviet captivity in 1952. of the main square in Sosnowiec, where On April 1, 1935, he joined Polish Outside Poland, Szpilman is widely local authorities have placed a piano that Radio, where he worked as a pianist known as the protagonist of the Roman automatically plays Szpilman composi- performing classical and jazz music. His Polanski film “The Pianist: The Extraor- tions. career was abruptly broken off by Germa- dinary True Story of One Man’s Survival Works by Wladyslaw Szpilman in- ny’s attack on Poland in 1939. in Warsaw, 1939-1945, by Wladyslaw Sz- clude Waltz in the Olden Style (1936) for He and his family, with all people of pilman,” recounting how he survived the orchestra, Concertino (1940) for piano Jewish roots, were forced to move to the Holocaust. Krakow without barriers New Year

сс:sa:Mohylek competition among cities

Urszula Ciolkiewicz Last year’s New Year’s party in Krakow Staff Journalist had the biggest TV audience of all. “It was watched by one out of three Poles,” said The biggest Polish cities are competing Agata Mlynarska of Polsat TV. This year for the title of the best New Year’s party is supposed to be even better. Last year’s organizer. Television stations are partici- TV program lasted for five hours, and this pating in the parties in Krakow and Wro- year’s will be longer. “We hope to promote claw. Thanks to TV support, the budgets Krakow as a modern and beautiful city,” for these parties are as high as 3 mln and said Mlynarska. According to organizers 5 mln zloty. and the Polsat channel, the success of the Last year’s New Year’s parties attracted party is guarantied by both the participants 100,000 participants in Wroclaw and more and the TV program. than 140,000 in Krakow. Warsaw’s party Krakow has invited, among others: costs 5 mln zloty, while Lodzspends only Shakina Stevensa, Lou Bega, Boney M., 250,000 zloty. Bajm, Budka Suflera, Czerwone Gitary, The Warsaw party will be televised on Golecu Orkiestra, grupa Kashmir, Vox, TVN. In front of the Palace of Culture and Urszula and Szymon Wydra. After mid- Science we will have the opportunity to night the audience will hear a classical the krakow post important improvements needed are those are too high, and people with vision defects see, among others: Tatiana Okupnik, Ka- singing concert by Andrzej Lampert and that deal with public transportation and the cannot read them. There are too few traffic sia Kowalska, Lady Pank, T. Love, Bracia, Alicja Wegorzewska-Whiskerd. Krakow may become a friendlier city ability of disabled people to board trams. lights with sound signals. Feel, Jet Set and Zygmunt Kukla Orches- Wroclaw vows not to be outdone. for the disabled. The City Council hopes A few years ago, Krakow introduced The disabled would also like to see in tra. “We decided to show the party on to adapt the city to the needs of disabled low-floor buses and trams to assist children Krakow the Wien system that has been Warsaw’s New Year’s party will be five huge TV screens,” said Malgorzata people through technical improvements. and the elderly in addition to the disabled. used in Lodz, Bydgoszcz and Poznan. The transmitted from 20:00 to 01:00 from what Wojciechowska, a Wroclaw City Council The first discussion will take place dur- Now the City Council is planning to in- system was invented in Wien to give the promises to be a gorgeous stage design. official. “We are preparing a professional ing December’s City Council session. Kra- stall in all trams devices which announce blind remote controllers similar to those for There wasn’t any party in Warsaw the two fireworks show as well,” she added. kow is an old town with old architecture. the next stop; the blind will be equipped cars. They switch them on when they hear previous years because the City Council Partygoers and party watchers should With each step we encounter stairs, gates with personal vehicle identifications, giv- an approaching tram. Near the tram’s door feared the risk of a terrorist attack and be- remember two important conditions for a with high entry portals and steps down to ing signs of approaching cars, and convex is a chip which reacts to the remote control- cause of a lack of regulations governing successful celebration: delightful company many cellars. maps with Braille descriptions. ler signal and announces the tram number mass audience events. and morning headache pills. Museums, offices, schools and other in- The next barrier to fall will be the curb and its direction. stitutions are situated in old buildings not stones that obstruct wheelchairs. There In the budget proposed for 2008, one krakowpost.com easily accessible for wheelchairs. Apart- must be a compromise, however. Com- mln zloty would be spent on removing bar- ments built in the 1970s are equipped with pletely flat surfaces are best for wheel- riers. Some things can be done during new elevators which are situated above ground chairs. But the blind prefer different levels construction, too, such as building ramps level and accessible only by climbing a for sidewalk and street that they can detect when building stairs. And some improve- flight of stairs. with their walking sticks. Jan Otryl, a mem- ments cost nothing, such as hanging a street Pawel Sularz, an author of a new proj- ber of the Blind Union in Malopolska, has name plate a bit lower so that it can be seen ect on removing barriers, says the most other complaints. Timetables at bus stops by people in wheelchairs.

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The low-cost French-Dutch airline Transavia has begun fly-

ing between Krakow and Paris. Agency LUK Transavia’s Vice President Helene Abraham said it is the airline’s only route to Poland. And it will remain that way, the Polish Press Agency said. The reason is that Transavia’s parent, Air France-KLM, does not want the low-cost carrier competing with it on other routes. Air France-KLM already serves the rest of Poland’s major cities. “Thanks to the new connection, French people will be able to discover this beautiful city, and we will take Polish people to the capital of France as well,”Abraham told the Polish Press Agency. The airline’s Boeing 737-800s have 186 seats. They fly to Krakow three times a week – on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Krakow’s French consul, Pascal Vagogne, predicts that the new connection will make Krakow more popular with French tourists. Only 8 percent of the city’s tourists last year were French, the Polish Press Agency said. Transavia is the 21st carrier to serve the Krakow- Balice airport. Last year the facility handled 2.4 mln passengers. Transavia offers 67 flights a week from Paris to a dozen destinations, including cities in Italy , Spain, Greece, Morocco and Tunisia. It has about 164 employees.

AGH makes student Agency LUK hostels comfortable Iwona Bojarczuk viding much of the money for the work. students want better accommodations, said Staff Journalists The university is making the changes Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics partly because good deals in the private- student Caroline. AGH University of Science and Tech- apartment rental market are luring stu- The new rooms will also have better fur- nology plans a renovation of its dormitories dents away from the dorms. Some students nishings, university officials say. The old that will transform the current 10-person would rather pay more than they would pay military-style steel-framed beds will be out, units with one shared bathroom into two- for dorm rooms for newer and more private as will bunk beds – unless students in a unit person units with private bathrooms. accommodations. demand a bunk bed. It will be a huge project because AGH Right now each dorm unit has four The new furniture will be modern and at- has more dorm rooms than any university rooms, some of which accommodate three tractively designed instead of just function- in the city. The dorms accommodate up to students and some two. The four rooms are al, said Chancellor Henryk Ziolo. If some 4,000 students in each of the fall and spring connected to a collective bathroom, which students want to use a bunkbed to free up semesters. contains two sinks, one shower and one more space in their room, they can certain- Cost of the renovation is estimated at toilet. ly do that, he said. Renovating the dorms 7 mln to 8 mln zloty per four-story dorm. In the new setup, each unit in the dor- will not only benefit students, but also sum- With five buildings, the overall cost will be mitories will have two rooms plus a bath- mer tourists on limited budgets. AGH rents about 36 mln zloty. room. Units will accommodate one or two dorm rooms to tourists in summer, becom- The AGH campus has 20 student hos- students. ing the largest “hotel” in Krakow. Half of tels. There are plans to rebuild five hostels, Each of the new units will also have a its guests are foreigners. starting with buildings: 16, 17, 1, 5, 9. The small kitchen. The university will renovate its oldest total number of buildings that will undergo Although the two-person units will end buildings first. Dorms buildings 16 and 17 reconstruction is not known. such traditions as talking with others during should be ready before the holiday break The Ministry of Education will be pro- tooth-brushing and sock-washing sessions, next year. DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 19, 2007 ARTS & IDEAS The Krakow Post 13 Local teacher looks to change Celebrating the year of face of educational system From SCHOOL on Page 1 The need to improve rural schools is so press- of electives a school was offering and the condition ing that Klosowski’s reservations are inane, Lack- of the school facility itself, she said. owski said. “If I can influence the financing of a school, Stanislaw Wyspianski “The deterioration of education in rural areas, why not?” she asked. where year after year more and more students A Krakow teacher who wanted to remain anon- the krakow post do not pass their exams and thus do not continue ymous said it is hard for her to predict what would school, is a huge problem,” Lackowski said. happen under a voucher system because few de- The year 2007 is the hundredth anniver- “With school vouchers, there may be three tails of the system have been made public. sary of the death of Stanislaw Wyspiański, times more money for rural areas,” he said. However, she said, her sense is that “if there is one of the most intriguing and broad-minded “Vouchers improve the equality of education. Bet- a good principal who fights for his school then the Polish artists. ter teachers should go to rural areas and be better level of education (under a voucher system) would The phenomenon of Wyspainski consisted paid.” be raised and that would be good for children.” of his versatile activity, fascinating even to- Krakow already has a voucher system but it is Without an aggressive principal, however, the day because of the variety of concepts em- not the kind that Lackowski and Hall envision. It voucher system could cause such “huge problems” does not give parents the increase in power and re- that a school’s quality could diminish rather than ployed during his short 38 years of life. sponsibility that the Lackowski-Hall system would improve, she said. He studied at Krakow’s School of Arts because it does not allow students to choose their Lackowski has so far offered no timetable for a (1884-1885 and 1887-1895) and at Jagiello- school. They must go to the one to which they are voucher system or other educational reform. nian University (1887-1890 and 1896-1897). assigned. However, he said, “it would be best to intro- As a student he helped Matejko (together “It must be changed,” said Jaroslaw Gowin, duce reforms gradually.” In the case of vouchers, with J. Mehoffer) to create polychromes of a member of the upper house of parliament from that would mean introducing them “in big cities at Mariacki Church (1889-1890). His creative Krakow. a secondary school level and afterwards gradually activity, realized mainly through pastel tech- “Otherwise people will become discouraged extending them.” nique (portraits, landscapes, flowers) was about a really good idea.” “Vouchers should have been introduced in cit- dominated by symbolism and the secession The Krakow voucher system does include one ies a long time ago,” he said. “There is no reason to style. The main means of expression was provision of the system that Lackowski and Hall assign students to schools in specific districts when a twining line along a contour of depicted advocate, however: It bases teachers’ salaries on it is possible for them to travel by public means.” items, which were marked through colored the number of students they teach rather than the Hall said vouchers could show up as early as stains. His polychrome projects and stained number of classes. 2009. glasses characterized the motif of blazing Another key difference between the Krakow “I am sure that any changes should be intro- flame and calligraphically treated plants. voucher system and the system that Lackowski duced very carefully, gradually and after having In literature he is known as one of the best and Hall want is that Krakow principals have been given thorough consideration,” she said. drama writers, especially tragedies. no authority to manage their schools’ finances. Educational reform should be reform and not revo- Referring to ancient tragedy, he showed In other words, they can’t shift money from one lution, she said. category of expense to a category where there is Many teachers are likely to oppose a voucher the role of fate as a main motive of action, a greater need. system, of course, because it threatens the way often localized in national historical reality. National educational officials decide how they do business. Teacher association leaders are In the late period of his artistic activity (from much a school gets – and the categories where it already posturing on the proposed change. 1900), apart from historical and political is spent. Slawomir Broniarz, the chairman of the Pol- polemics against contemporary life (among By being able to send their child to the school ish Teachers Union, contends the voucher system others “The Wedding,” “Liberation”), there of the family’s choice, parents would in effect be- would violate the Constitution in terms of unequal appeared a trend to philosophically interpret come managers of public-education funds. access to education and also laws on how local Polish history (“The Legion,” “Boleslaw “In such a situation parents show their power governments spend their money. Smialy,” “November Night”) and to show in the educational market,” Lackowski said. “And Lackowski answers: mythological stories (“The Odys Return”). the school principal, when talking with parents, is “There is no need to change the constitution Wyspianski was not submissive; he could aware that he is speaking with the co-owners of because education would still be free,” Lackowski be classified as incorrigible and a rude art- the school.” said. “We need to eliminate the teacher’s card” that ist. For almost all his short life (he suffered The Lackowski-Hall system would also im- gives teachers too much power over education, he from syphilis) he fought against parochial prove teaching by pegging teacher salaries to said. “Poland needs the determination to succeed, styles of thinking and middle-class conform- classroom effectiveness. Better teachers would get and the question is if Polish politicians will have ism. Stanislaw Wyspianski died on Nov. 28, more money, poorer ones less. that same determination.” 1907 and his funeral in Deserved Crypt at the Lackowski said vouchers are a tiny part of the Another teachers union objection is that, in Church on the Rock became a huge national educational change Poland needs. abolishing the current school assignment system, demonstration. Creating public support for reform means con- the voucher system would create problems that The 100th anniversary of his death is the vincing Poles to change the way they think about would be difficult to deal with. education, he said. For example, union leaders say, what happens occasion of several artistic events at the Na- “People must see that reform is an opportunity, when many more students want to attend a school tional Museum in Krakow: exhibitions, the- in ul. Szczepanska 11 an exhibition entitled his compatriots. He was frustrated, furious not a danger,” he said. The key is getting the public than it can admit? ater plays, multimedia shows. There also are “You Pile the Stake Yourself…” The idea is and defiant.” to understand that “competition improves the level What would be the criteria for deciding which lectures and books about Wyspianski and his to remind visitors of the ceremonial funeral Another exhibition worth mentioning of education.” students would get into that school and which artistic activity. of the artist and at the same time Krakow’s is “Stanislaw Wyspianski in the Art of the Under a voucher system, the best public schools would not? The main building of Krakow’s National last huge funeral ceremony organized by the Disabled.” It is at Kotlownia, the Gallery of wouldn’t have to beg any more for money for elec- Some student groups dislike the idea of vouch- Museum has an exhibition entitled “Stani- city council. Krakow University of Technology in the ul. tive courses – those the Education Ministry doesn’t ers, too. slaw Wyspianski’s Great Theater.” Laznia Nowa, a theater in the Nowa Huta Warszawska 24. require. Neither would the best schools have to beg Artur Juszczyk, co-leader of the student orga- The multimedia show runs through March District, joined the celebration of the anniver- The exhibition will continue through Dec. for money for facility renovations. nization Initiative Against Paid Studies, contended 2 and features static and motion pictures, sary. A music-theater festival, “Wyspianski 14 from Monday to Friday at 09:00 to 16:00. Private schools also would be likely to embrace that “the educational voucher is the first step to sounds and light, etc. Video screenings in- Liberates,” showed Wyspianski’s other faces There you can find 105 works made in differ- vouchers. That’s because the voucher system privatizing education. We think that education is a clude parts of theater, television and film and ran from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2. ent techniques: painting, drawings, graphics, would allow students to go to either private or pub- right, not a commodity, so it should not be subject adaptations of Wyspianski’s dramas. Exhibi- Also at the festival was a poster display ceramics, weaving. lic schools. With money from vouchers, private to the rules of free market.” tion visitors can stand inside scenery recon- covering more than 30 billboards with such The cultural events connected with the schools could reduce the fees they charge parents. Those who are unsure whether the voucher structing the scene from the premiere of “The slogans as “Krakow is not enough devel- anniversary of Wyspianski’s death are very Henryka Bulat of Krakow, the mother of a ju- system will improve schools can get an idea by Wedding,” built according to the author’s oped!” and “I was beaten and that is why I popular among foreigners living in Krakow. nior high school girl, is one parent who likes the looking at what happened in Koszalin, in northern stage direction. Janusz Walek, creator and won.” The festival also included a play direct- “I am delighted by the talent presented by idea of vouchers. Poland. custodian of the exhibition, says that the un- ed by Paul Passini, “Resting,” and concerts in Wyspianski,” said Inge, a Swedish student In deciding which school her daughter attends, That school system used vouchers to introduce she said, the voucher system will let her “take into a journalism class, a ballet class, speech therapists, usual character of the show casts a spell on which artists challenged Wyspianski’s texts. living in Krakow for two years. “I did not account the schools’ achievements.” psychological counselors and career specialists. visitors, expanding their imagination and al- “We do not want to embalm a mummy; we know him before. Now after participating in They would include the number of students in Although vouchers are an interesting idea, lowing them to see Wyspianski as a whole. will not close Wyspianski in a crypt” said the two projects and visiting some galleries I will a school who had passed their comprehensive ex- many people in and out of education believe that Through March 9, the National Museum artistic director of Laznia Nowa. “He was a probably write my MA on the topic of his ams, the number of students who had won citywide whether they will be a success in Poland will hinge will display at a Szolayski tenement house Pole who tore off the comfortable masks of nonconformist way of living and creating.” or regionwide academic competitions, the number on that old adage “The devil is in the details.”

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the krakow post Many residents have expressed inter- Bishop Jan Wieczorek performing a Christ- est in helping to build the Nativity scene, mas Mass at the Saint Peter and Paul Ca- Gliwice residents can catch some of the including students from the Silesian Poly- thedral on Sunday Dec. 23. real Christmas spirit by helping to build a technic Institute in Gliwice. There is still a Saint Francis of Assisi came up with the manger scene on the main market square. need for carpenters and bricklayers, how- idea of building the first Nativity scene in The community effort, which starts to- ever. the Italian city of Greccio in 1223. The cus- morrow, makes it “something special,” said Each volunteer can propose ideas about tom that he started spread throughout the Dariusz Jezierski, who came up with the the interior of the scene, gifts for the baby world. idea. He is director of Gliwice’s National Jesus and the clothes of the main charac- The Roman Catholic Church’s Fran- Theater. ters, including Mary and Joseph, shepherds ciscans, an order of monks named for A collective effort to create the man- and the three Wise Men. the saint, were a catalyst in spreading the ger scene “will emphasize the community During the nine-day construction period, manger-scene tradition. They built scenes character of Christmas,” Jezierski said. which will end Dec. 23, the main market wherever they established monasteries. A manger, or animal feeding trough, was square will be alive with the sights, sounds The Nativity scene is a deep-rooted tra- where the Bible says Mary placed the baby and feel of Christmas. Each day, for ex- dition in Poland because Franciscans built Jesus after his birth. It has become a sym- ample, youth choirs will give Christmas their first monasteries here in the 13th Cen- bol of Christmas worldwide. concerts. tury. “Right now the best-known manger Soloists and theater groups will also Today, every Roman Catholic church scene is in Krakow,” Jezierski said. “May- perform, Jezierski said. has a manger scene with Jesus, Mary and be that will change.” A culmination of the festivities will be Joseph. MUSIC LIVE Hey hits Krakow the krakow post

Top Polish rock outfit Hey are in Krakow this Saturday Dec. 15 at Klub Studio as part of their fifteenth anniversary national tour. Hey skyrocketed to fame in the early 90s signing with Izabelin Studio label after being noticed by Katarzyna Kan- clerz at the Jarocin Festival – only one month after the group formed in 1992. Their 1993 debut album Fire has been called one of the most important Polish albums of the 90s. The combination of vocalist and lyricist Katarzyna Nosowska with guitarist Piotr Banach, resulted in songs popular across Poland including Moja i Twoja Nadzieja, Teksański, or ZazdroSc. When Fire sold more than a hundred thousand copies in the first five months, probably no one, including the band, dreamt that their second release, the 1994 album Ho!, would achieve even greater success, selling just under a mln copies in 6 months. These were the band’s golden years, and though they never came back, during the next decade Hey have consolidated their position with excellent albums, such as Karma, Hey and Echosystem in 2005. Singles from these releases have hit number one in national charts, and the band continues to attract a large fan base to their performances. As part of the band’s anniversary year, they have released a copy of their live unplugged MTV recording at Roma The- ater in Warsaw this September, with remixes of their most popular songs and covers of P.J. Harvey and Iggy Pop. The album Unplugged went gold on the first day. The national anniversary tour 92-07, is stopping in 12 cities across Poland with over two hours of on stage time and all their favorite songs featured in the sets. Hey will be supported by the indie group Muchy, who have been called the “Discovery of the year” by Machina magazine. Gig info: Klub Studio, ul. Budryka 4 – in the AGH Student Campus from 19:00, tickets 32-37 zloty from www.ticketpro. pl or at the club’s ticket office.

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