Tygodnik Powszechny marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi German occupation forces during World War II with an article discussing an alternative history – what would happen if the uprising ended with a victory.
Weeklies reviewed by Krystyna Kolosowska.
It broke out on August 1, 1944 and ended with the defeat of the insurgents after 63 days of heroic and bloody struggle. The Uprising, even if it were victorious, would not change anything in the geopolitical situation of Poland, says writer Tomasz Łubieński. “The Polish cause”, the cause of Polish independence, was lost already in 1943, if not earlier. Though the alliance between the Soviet Union and the West functioned on the principle of limited trust, it functioned efficiently and successfully. For the western allies a victory of the Warsaw Uprising would be mainly a political problem. It seems that if Nazi Germans withdrew from Warsaw, it would be a military and political nut to crack for the Soviets. Churchill and Roosevelt would not help the insurgents in such a situation. They would not want to die for Warsaw and would not risk breaking the alliance with the Soviet Union. Tomasz Lubienski suggests also that the leaders of the uprising should have perhaps decided to capitulate, when after a few or a dozen days, it became clear that no one would help the insurgents and the battle is doomed.
Gazeta Polska talks to one of a few surviving insurgents, 84 year old Henryk Konczykowski. He recalls that at first Warsaw residents reacted to the outbreak of the Uprising with enthusiasm, but at the end they became unfriendly and even hostile. They argued that the uprising should not have been organized at all, he comments with sadness. He himself is convinced that it had to happen. First battles were phenomenal – victory after victory. Wherever we went, we won, he recalls. After the war Henryk Konczykowski was in hiding for a year. He was on the wanted list of the communist security police, which cracked down on former Home Army soldiers. He was arrested in 1950 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, loss of property and civic rights. He was amnestied after three years.
Torrential rains and floods followed by protracted drought – such anomalies signal climate change, writes Newsweek. When some regions get more than a fair share of rain, other ones suffer from want of rain. Poland’s southern provinces were hit by flooding but let not such temporary abundance of water deceive us. This is nothing extraordinary in July, says Professor Maciej Zalewski, director of the European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of UNESCO in Lodz. October, in turn, is the driest month in the mountains and soon, rain will almost cease to fall there. Western Poland is gradually turning into a steppe. Precipitation and the level of underground water resources have always been low there. Man compounded the situation by felling trees, drying peat bogs, regulating rivers and polluting water. There are many places in Poland where taps are likely to run dry in a not so distant future and the specter of a major crisis seems even more frightening as Poland has very little water per capita– about as much Egypt, Newsweek warns.
The weekly Polityka writes the new strong zloty has become an attribute of a new Pole, who can feel a citizen of the world at last. The strong currency gives concrete benefits, improves the mood and strengthens the sense of national pride. But the benefits are not spread evenly. They are felt mainly by the young generation, which is open to the world, speaks foreign languages and can surf the web. Consumers have discovered that some goods, like electronics, clothes, cosmetics, alcohol and cars, cost a fortune in Poland. So they follow the rule: earn at home, spend abroad. The strong zloty may have an impact on the decision on Poland’s entry into the euro-zone, however. A question will be asked inevitably: why give up such a strong currency. The euro may lose in confrontation with the zloty and this might be the biggest, even if distant, cost of the strong Polish currency, says Polityka.
Waiters working in restaurants in the most popular tourist resorts in Poland earn so much these days that many young Poles stay at home instead of choosing a stint of work abroad. Marta Gutkowska worked for four years in catering in Italy but this year she has chosen Warsaw, writes Wprost. It is not surprising. After three months of work in Poland she can save two times more money than in the UK and three times as much as in the USA. When converted into Polish zlotys, earnings in British pounds, US dollars and euro are smaller by one third and one fourth respectively than in 2007. While the declining job migration from Poland will not cause foreign pubs and restaurants to collapse, it has already hit British farmers painfully. Losses due to failure to harvest strawberries and asparagus this year are estimated at millions of pounds. According to a report compiled by a popular job website, there are some 12 thousand jobs available in the trade industry in Poland alone. A growing number of foreigners are said to be logging on to it to study job offers in Poland, a representative of the portal tells Wprost.
On a similar note, the weekly Solidarnosc says that as of the third quarter of this year, more Poles decide to return home from the UK than to go there in search of a job. The main cause is the weakening of the pound, which has fallen by one fourth in relation to the zloty since Poland joined the EU in May 2004. Last year Poles working abroad sent home over 20 billion zlotys, more than the state budget deficit. But the economy feels the impact of brain drain and shortage of skilled workers attracted by better job prospects abroad. However, good effects of job migration prevail, says the weekly. The migrant workers’ earnings flowing to Poland drive domestic consumption upwards and contribute to improvement of living standards. It is better for the welfare of Poles that they now have the right to choose and work abroad if they want to, says Solidarnosc.