The summit could be for Poland, what the oil crisis was for Denmark in the 1970s, writes Gazeta Wyborcza.
Press reviewed by Alicja Baczyńska
Newspapers discuss at length the recent EU climate talks in Brussels and reflect on the implications of the approved energy package for Poland. Gazeta Wyborcza writes that the summit could prove to be a stimulus for the country to diversify its energy sources, just as the fuel crisis had been for many European countries in the 1970s. The paper points to Denmark, which had back then been almost entirely dependent on imported oil and is now one of the largest exporters of wind-power turbines across the globe. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, in an article for tabloid Fakt, claims that the transitional period granted to Poland in the energy sector, will result in keeping down electricity bills. Funds saved thanks to the adopted regulation would be used for modernizing power plants and altering the entire energy sector. Poland has gained time to build a nuclear plant, writes the Polska daily but adds that the party least satisfied with the summit are the environmentalists. The surplus would not go to investments, claims Andrzej Kassenberg, of the Institute of Sustainable Development quoted by the paper. He believes the arrangements agreed to in Brussels have merely served the energy sector and other industrial branches as a means to buy time.
Rzeczpospolita writes about Poles who have fallen victim to the recession in Britain. An estimated 4,000 of them are living on the streets in London alone. The profile of homeless people has been changing, from the individuals predominantly suffering from alcohol or drug addiction, to those who have slipped into poverty, as they have been cheated on by their employers, have had an accident or had been sending all their earnings back home and had no savings to fall back on while unemployed. Many of them are nonetheless bent on staying in Britain, due to the vast support of charity organisations, which provide food and lodging, clothing, sanitary facilities, various workshops, as well as medical treatment. The newly emerged group of homeless Poles are well-groomed, clean and on the constant lookout for job opportunities. Yet the future looks grim, as the number of homeless is likely to increase to 45,000 soon as a backwash of the country’s financial crisis, and the homeless shelters are already overcrowded. They do not, however, intend to go back to Poland, as they believe to stand a better chance of finding a job in Britain, and refuse to take a free bus ride home provided by one of thr Polish foundations, writes Rzeczpospolita.
US textbooks are full of distorted facts and missing information about Polish history, writes Dziennik. According to these publications the collapse of communism began with the fall of the Berlin wall, Nicolaus Copernicus was German, and Marshal Józef Piłsudski, one of the founders of Polish independence in 1918, was fascist. In order to get rid of such blunders, a group of Polish experts have reviewed the textbooks with the authors and publishers and suggested where to make corrections. Prof. Andrzej S. Kamiñski, director of the Institute of Civic Space and Public Policy, and Professor of History at Georgetown University, was the one who came up with the idea of conferences entitled Recovering Forgotten History, where Polish historians would indicate faults in the American history textbooks. This initiative is already bringing about desired results as three reviewed publications have already been changed, while further 13 are soon to be amended. It is important to root out all the mistakes, because when seeking information about Polish history, the American publications are the first port of call for non-European countries, claims Professor Daria Nałęcz, head of the Lazarski School of Commerce and Law in Warsaw.
Students of the Warsaw University of Technology and members of the Polish chapter of the Mars Society, have joined forces to construct a Mars rover. The machine, named Scarab, could serve as a prototype for rovers which could in the future be used for exploring the planet, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. The team is working at full throttle on the project to have it ready for one of the most prestigious competitions of its kind, the University Rover Challenge to be held in the United States in May 2009. Yet before they can enter the contest they have to find sponsors for their project, as they need 100,000 zlotys, an equivalent of 25,000 euros. The stakes are high as scarab could promote the field and pave the way for more such undertakings in the country, whereas the team could have the chance to take part in real space projects, writes Gazeta Wyborcza.