The aftermath of the murder of a Pole in Pakistan, the zloty under attack, beautiful volunteers make the world ariound them look better, and 100 years old and learning a foreign language.
Wekly press reviewed by Krystyna Kolosowska
The murder of a Polish engineer, kidnapped and killed by the Taliban in Pakistan, takes a good deal of editorial space. Polityka writes that the Pakistani authorities proved helpless in this case. The Polish government could only ask and press for efficient actions to release the Pole. All this proved insufficient. Polityka explains that the border land between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Polish geologist was held hostage, is inhabited by nomadic tribes, which dictate and enforce the law in the area. Neither Pakistani nor Afghan state authorities have control there. The Taliban demanded ransom and the release of their comrades from prison. They do not value their life, and even less the life of their hostages. Seeing the impotence of the authorities they act with growing impunity, says Polityka.
Tygodnik Powszechny says Poland entered a new stage of the war on terrorism after the murder of the Polish engineer by the Taliban. Perhaps it is time to stop looking at this war as a remote allied venture and begin to revamp the procedures of conduct in crisis situations. Perhaps a full-fledged institute, dealing with Afghanistan and the Pashtun tribes should be established at a Polish university, and forms of cooperation developed with Pakistan, the main supply route for NATO missions in Afghanistan. This will not bring the murdered Pole back to life, nor does it guarantee success in the future. But it is time to act. Poland has long lost the luxury of standing at a distance and looking with hope or fear at Washington, Brussels, Berlin or Moscow, says the weekly.
The dramatic plunge taken by the Polish zloty has prompted alarming reports in the leading weeklies. ‘The zloty under attack’ – writes Wprost, claiming that the recent spectacular fall of the zloty was largely a result of a speculators’ attack on the Polish currency. The global financial crisis and passive stance taken by Polish politicians created room for currency speculators to step in. What’s more – the threat of more such attacks is real. The attack will succeed if its authors manage to provoke a herd reaction – that is convince most investors to get rid of their zlotys, which will fast weaken the Polish currency. This game will fail, if the country is efficiently managed, and the government and the opposition will cooperate. Then, investors will not be encouraged to withdraw from this market, writes Wprost.
Newsweek seems to share this view, writing that the specter of a collapse is hovering over the Polish financial market. Foreign currency speculators are to blame, but the Polish authorities, banks and firms have done a lot to provoke them. Newsweek says that a firm march to the euro zone would open a protective umbrella over the Polish currency. It criticizes the government for not showing the much needed determination in this respect. Polityka, too, regards adoption of the euro as crucial in efforts to protect the zloty. Otherwise, given a shallow currency market, the zloty will always be threatened by turbulences, instability and speculators’’ attacks , it warns.
And a gloomy forecast from Gazeta Polska, which says it is almost certain that, if the financial and economic crisis continues to spill into the Polish economy at the present pace, some 15-16 percent of Poles, capable to work, will lose their jobs.
On a more positive note, Newsweek writes about growing ranks of people driven by a civic commitment spirit and bent on making their cities a better place to live. Lodz. It is the middle of the night. Five athletic men, wearing hoods, get out of a car. They open the boot, take out a black plastic bag and grab for spades. They take out soil from the bag, spread it and sow grass. Such happenings are a way to call attention to the world around us. It is enough to pick up a discarded cigarette butt, wipe off graffiti from the wall or plant a tree, says Hubert, member of an informal group, one of a number active in the biggest cities of Poland.
He is 100 years old and is learning English – Solidarnosc weekly turns the spotlight on very old Poles, saying there are people here who are over 100 but have never been in hospital or complained of any chronic diseases. Some have never seen a doctor. Scientists and doctors, involved in a project studying Poland’s 100-year-olds, examined almost 300 women and 50 men. Though past their prime, they turned out to be very active people. One in ten lived on his own. Only ten percent were bedridden. The Polish 100-year-olds are mainly slim and active people. Having retired, they did not rest on their laurels. Among them was a medical doctor, who started to learn a new foreign language when she turned 100. She said she learned 200 words in a few months. They prove the popular conviction that old age is a time of a dramatic weakening of mental and physical powers to be wrong.