Former communist party HQs for sale and fictitious Polish fathers in great demand.
Press reviewed by Sławek Szefs
Polish teens today are much more tolerant than those ten years ago, writes RZECZPOSPOLITA quoting results of a survey conducted by the Center For Holocaust Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The study involved 1 thousand young people aged 17 and 18. Survey findings show that a large degree of bias and mistrust towards the Jewish community based on negative stereotypes in the past has given way to an open and candid approach towards reality. For example, asked whether Jews have excessive influence on developments in Poland, which is one of the key arguments behind anti-Semitic rhetoric, only 15 percent of the polled replied in the affirmative. Ten years ago such an opinion had been expressed by every third respondent. This is a natural consequence of abandoning anti-Semitic views by most media and what's equally important, by Polish families, comments a noted sociologist from Warsaw University.
GAZETA WYBORCZA carries a brief, but meaningful frontpage note announcing that the State Treasury intends to put up for sale former headquaters of the defunct communist party. After the fall of the system and its regime in 1989, the legendary building served as the first premises for the Warsaw Stock Exchange. How ironic from the point of view of its previous residents! The location of the complex on a 2 hectare plot right in the most expensive district of the city center makes it a really valuable real estate item. Party house for sale - bargain offer, reads the headline.
Fictitious father badly needed, writes DZIENNIK in an article devoted to the growing number of Poles admitting to being fathers of Vietnamese newborns. Does this testify to a new wave of Polish-Vietnamese associations at personal level, the daily wonders. Well, not really. If anything personal, it is surely ingenuity on the part of Vietnamese women who are desperately looking for ways of obtaining legal resident status in Poland and at the same time, Polish citizenship for their children born here. And the simplest way seems to find a Pole willing to accept responsibility for this wonderful gift of life, as well as accepting a modest 3 thousand zloty compensation. This is an equivalent of an average monthly wage, which has become a customary sum for such favor. The Vietnamese community in Poland numbers some 35 thousand at present. Only half enjoy legal stay.
The tabloid SUPER EXPRESS reports on an unprecedented move by the Justice Minister who has motioned for disciplinary action against a lenient judge. At issue is the latter's decision on releasing from custody a man charged with serial rape, including that on his former wife. The judge decided to let the offender out till trial, despite the man's publicly voiced threats addressed at witnesses in his case, including family members. Immediately after release, he murdered his brother's former wife and her boyfriend for testifying against him.