Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall falls, sending shockwaves across Europe; how Poles helped German refugees in the autumn of 1989. Also in the weeklies: 170,000 Christians die annually for their faith and a clever web surfer escapes police hunt.
Weeklies reviewed by Krystyna Kolosowska
Tygodnik Powszechny marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a special feature looking back at what is also called the Autumn of Nations. The weekly interviews Professor Andrzej Paczkowski, who says that if the Berlin Wall did not fall, the pace of change in central and eastern Europe would grind to a halt. That pace was different depending on the country because their readiness for transformations differed. Poland and Hungary stood somewhat apart from the rest, because the process started earlier than elsewhere and was more gradual. Other East European countries joined later, as if under the impact of what was happening in Poland and Hungary. In East Germany and former Czechoslovakia, the pressure for change came from grassroots movements.
In autumn of 1989, anti-communist demonstrations began in East Germany and the Czech Republic. This was triggered also by developments in Hungary, which opened the border with Austria, and the escape of thousands of East Germans to the West, not only via Hungary. Many sought asylum in West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw, says Professor Paczkowski.
Tygodnik Powszechny also reviews a documentary Good-bye GDR! To freedom through Warsaw and describes some of the most moving scenes, when Poles, who helped refugees, talk about these times: a woman, who met an East German family with three children in the street and took them home, recalls how she fried pancakes for them; a man, who saw a couple with a baby wade across ice cold Nysa border river, remembers how he dried their clothes with a hot iron.
Poles are a fairly happy nation, writes the weekly Wprost, quoting a survey conducted by the CBOS research centre in 2008. Only one in ten Poles consider themselves is a loser – they are mainly people with a primary school education, over 45 and who it hard to make ends meet. The happiest are single men and women, the most unhappy – widows and widowers.
About 70 percent of Poles are satisfied with life. Less than five percent believe that they are victims of misfortune. Almost 90 percent regard marriage as a source of happiness. Poles cherish and value their family life, perhaps because work does not bring them so much satisfaction. Almost fifty percent of respondents are unhappy at work. Only one quarter of the working population finds their work satisfying. In 2008, Poles were happier than before, but sociologists warn that, by the end of this year, this may change because of the economic downturn and its impact on the life of ordinary people, reports Wprost.
The Catholic weekly Gosc Niedzielny publishes shocking figures that 170,000 Christians die annually for their faith and 200 million are brutally persecuted. Religious freedom is violated in more than 70 countries in the world, according to a report released by the international Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need. Gosc Niedzielny says that it is not surprised that major news agencies do not devote too much attention to the ‘martyrdom’ of Christians but it is surprising that Christians themselves seem not to care much about this. The newly established International Day of Prayer for the Perscuted Church, on 15 November, will hopefully spur Polish Catholics into action. Though, it may just fall into oblivion in a few years from now, like many other special days did, writes Gosc Niedzielny bitterly.
Newsweek writes that last week’s reports that the alleged Eucharistic miracle in eastern Poland was caused by some kind of bacteria rather than by God’s intervention – dubbed the ‘Miracle of Sokolka’ – did not impress Poles much. A survey commissioned by the weekly shows that 62 percent of Polish people did not hear about the miracle at all.
According to sociologist Professor Edward Ciupak, miracles attract hardly any public attention because the term has been devaluated. ‘It started to be abused, especially by politicians,’ the sociologist says. Even those who heard about the purported miracle and believed it was true, were not much shaken. The percentage of those who wanted to pray, go on a pilgrimage or to confession on this occasion was negligible. ‘The majority of Poles are occasional Catholics. They explode into activity on the occasion of traditional Church holidays,’ Professor Ciupak tells Newsweek.
Two prosecutors’s offices and a computer expert have been trying hard for several months now to track down a web surfer nicknamed ‘italiano’ who offended a local police chief, writes Przekroj. ‘italiano’ suggested that patrol cars in Chrzanow, western Poland, have become private taxis for the police chief and his friends. The chief promptly notified prosecutors, who started to surf the web to nail down the culprit. But, clever ‘italiano’ hid himself well in the depths of cyberspace. Eventually a computer expert was summoned for help but even this professional has failed so far. The exciting hunt continues. Former Justice Minister Zbigniew Cwiakalski was the only one to point out that the offended policeman can just as well file a private libel suit. There is hardly any public interest in spending public money on tracking down a minor offender, Przekroj comments.