Polish soldiers, who have returned from missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, may have problems coping with the more mundane reality back home, writes Gazeta Wyborcza.
Press reviewed by Agnieszka Bielawska
Polish soldiers, who participated in the missions in Iraq or Afghanistan cannot stay home. They need adrenalin and volunteer to take part in more missions. Can war become addictive, asks Gazeta Wyborcza? According to psychologists, it can in a way. Apparently, the soldiers taking part in the operations in Iraq or Afghanistan very painfully missed their families and homes. Upon return, they realised that they are bored, that their lives are incomplete, that something is missing. Counter to family expectations they search for every opportunity to leave for another mission. Psychologists call it the ‘missionary syndrome’, writes Gazeta, soldiers are compelled to take part in some sort of operations not only for financial or career reasons, it is the demand for strong stimuli, they had tasted war and they want more.
‘Painkillers kill’, writes Dziennik. All such medicines are freely accessible in pharmacies and kiosks and Poles consume them in abundance. In effect the number of patients with acute poisoning caused by an overdose of painkillers is growing. Over 1,500 patients had been treated on toxicological wards this year and twice that many in clinics and local hospitals. Several patients died. According to the Polish Pain Study Society every second Pole admits to taking painkillers and this country is the world’s third largest market for painkillers after the United States and France.
The same daily alarms that work for sex is becoming fashion in large corporations in Poland. Statistics point that cases of wage increases, career prospects or lucrative deal offers in exchange for sex happen in almost every company, writes Dziennik. Researchers have asked employees from 37 corporations whether sexual contacts help in achieving success at work. One third of the respondents answered ‘yes’. It is becoming a serious problem, alarm psychologists, the more so that it is no longer a shameful procedure but an overt matter.
Some one hundred years ago it was festive but modest, writes Rzeczpospolita commenting the changes on the Christmas Eve table traditions. Today’s Christmas Eve menu is mouth-watering but has lost much of its identity. Many of the traditional dishes have been pushed aside by modern delicacies. But tuna fish or broccoli salad on the Christmas Eve table, asks Rzeczpospolita appallingly? And what about regional, old Polish dishes ,which had graced the tables of our ancestors and now are cast aside ? Where is the long procedure of making the traditional borsch – the red beetroot soup? Where are the long hours of preparing poppy seed cake? The daily continues nostalgically. Even traditional Christmas cooking has not withheld the invasion of modern technology and instead of homemade borsch we might be sampling one from a packet whilst poppy seed cake will be replaced with cakes that are quicker to prepare but have little in common with Christmas tradition, winds the daily.