The financial crisis in the United States will not hamper Poland’s economic growth, claims Deputy PM Waldemar Pawlak.

Press reviewed by Alicja Baczyńska

The Wall Street crisis will have no detrimental effect on the Polish economy, says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Waldemar Pawlak in an interview for Rzeczpospolita. He adds that Poland is in a fairly safe position as it has no links with the United States that would determine negative phenomena in the country.” Mr. Pawlak also claims that the crisis is unlikely to slow the domestic economic growth, since it is dependant solely on internal factors.”

“Will a muezzin chant in Ochota?” asks Gazeta Wyborcza in the headlines of its Warsaw supplement. The planned location of the temple has been considered for over 100 years. The plot once belonged to Polish, yet their land was taken away from them shortly after World War II. The Muslims are now struggling to retrieve the site, which is now a park. The mosque would not be a monumental edifice, but a modest building embedded in its surroundings, with minarets no higher than 25 meters and the capacity of the muezzin’s sound system of about 102 dB. There are up to 7,000 Muslims in the capital and its environs, and not enough gathering places, while the local house of prayer is full to the brim, says local mufti Tomasz Miśkiewicz. “It is the last major religion with no temple in Warsaw,” he adds. If built, the temple would be the fourth mosque in Poland, writes Gazeta Wyborcza.

It is highly unlikely that John Paul II will be beatified jointly with Pius XII and Paul VI, writes a columnist with Rzeczpospolita. In any case, such a ceremony would be a bad idea due to a number of reasons. Two popes would undeniably be overshadowed by John Paul II, as his long pontificate ran parallel with the lives of many people. It would therefore be difficult to deliver the papal message of the remaining popes. Moreover, doubts would arise whether the joint beatification would serve to divert attention from controversial wartime pontiff, Pius XII. Also, this could slow things down as the beatification proceedings of the three popes are in progress at different stages. If we were to believe all the information given by the media, we would have two beatification ceremonies of John Paul II this year, writes the columnist.

Polish author Olga Tokarczuk has won one of the most prestigious literary awards in Poland, the Nike Award, for her book Bieguni (roughly translated as Wanderers). Poet and essayist Julia Hartwig has said in an interview for Gazeta Wyborcza that the verdict was no surprise, as the writer had previously been singled out three times by the readers. “It’s a miracle that the literary critics and readers have finally unanimously granted the award to Tokarczuk,” writes a journalist with the Polska daily. The book is centered on people who travel, the modern-day nomads that traverse the globe in search of adventure and the meaning of life. The author has said that the book, which crowns all her pursuits, is about longing for a whole in a fragmented world.