Free Republic

Polar Fiction by: Bethany Stotts, January 22, 2008 Chicago, Ill.— Assuming the verifiable truth of global warming, some academics wish to circumvent the climate change debate and start teaching college students about importance of combatting this imminent disaster. Just as some environmentalists have co-opted the polar bear as a symbol for the predicted ecological crisis, Britt Rusert, a doctoral candidate at Duke University, visualizes polar exploration literature as a new outlet for this discourse. “How, I wonder, might such a polar canon help us conceptualize and historicize ecological crises, specifically the master discourse of global warming and their contemporary moments?,”...

Polish phrase cards handed out to firefightersFirefighters in Lancashire are being handed Polish phrase-cards with sentences including 'What is on fire?' and 'Are you hurt?' to help cope with an influx of eastern Europeans. Free Polish classes are also on offer to firefighters, to help make them understood by the 50,000 Polish immigrants who have settled in Lancashire neighbourhoods. Most have arrived since the country was admitted to the European Union. But Polish communities are said to be instinctively suspicious of any uniformed services due to experiences in their homeland. The card has been produced to try and gain their...

A disagreement over a Russian exhibit at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz has emerged as a new irritant in relations between Russia and Poland, where resentment of Cold War domination by Moscow remains strong. The camp museum has delayed the opening of the Russian-designed exhibition because it uses the term "Soviet citizens" to refer to people taken to Auschwitz from former Polish territory seized by the Soviet Union at the start of World War II, said museum head Piotr Cywinski. "Why is Russia still interpreting Stalinist times this way?" Cywinski said during an interview on Radio Tok FM....

The Polish government has announced that it plans to spend up to $6bn (£3.1bn) over the next seven years to support families. According to figures released this week, Poland has the lowest fertility rate in the European Union. Some estimates suggest there will be four million fewer Poles by the year 2030, if the current trend of falling birthrates continues. Poland is perhaps the most Catholic country in Europe. More than a half of the people here go to church every Sunday and 70% say family and children are the most important things in life. Incentives But the profound changes...

CHICAGO -- Anna Hebal says pierogi dumplings don't sell like they used to at her Czerwone Jabluszko Polish eatery in Chicago. She blames a lack of Poles immigrating to the city, the largest Polish community outside Warsaw. "There's no point in coming to the United States now that there's a united Europe," said Hebal, 54, who received refugee status in the United States in 1981 after Poland, then led by a Communist regime, declared martial law while she was visiting Chicago. "Poles have more freedom than ever, so less people are coming. It's kind of hard." As Chicago celebrated Pulaski...

Pristine seascapeA previously unexplored section of Antarctic sea floor lured marine scientists and their vessel Polarstern to the frozen continent for a voyage of exploration over Christmas and New Year.The trip yielded, said researchers, a wealth of useful information and some undiscovered species.(Image: G Chapelle, IPF/ Alfred Wegener Institute) Unexpected giantAmong the new species was this giant amphipod, a type of crustacean, which researchers caught in baited traps. About 10cm (four inches) long, it is one of the biggest amphipods found in the region.(Image: C d'Udekem, Royal Belgium Institute for Natural Sciences) Key creatureAlready well known to science is...

Loyalists make Catholic Poles welcome Wartime debt to Britain's East European allies boosts a battle against racism on estate Henry McDonald, Ireland editor Sunday February 18, 2007 The Observer The contribution made by Polish pilots during the Second World War is being used as a weapon in the fight against racism in Northern Ireland. An estate infamous for the expulsion of Catholics during the Anglo-Irish Agreement protests is welcoming an influx of Catholic residents from eastern Europe. And the Ulster Defence Association is so keen to prevent the new arrivals from leaving, it has leafleted Lisburn urging loyalists to support...

Catholics in England outnumber Anglicans 16.02.2007 Poles in the UK are swelling the congregations and changing the face of British Christianity. Amy Drozdowska reports In the wake of England's biggest wave of immigration in three centuries, a new report finds that the face of Christianity in England is increasingly international. Polish migrant workers in particular are contributing to a huge growth in London's Catholic community - one that's set to overshadow England's own church. Thanks in large part to the huge influx of Polish migrant workers to the United Kingdom since Poland's entry into the European Union, Catholicism is set...

Is eight years old too young for a public school student to hear about homosexuality? Yes No

Polish Immigrants Leave America for Europe Nowy Dziennik, Posted: Jan 26, 2007 NEW YORK – A surprising number of Polish immigrants are packing up, closing their bank accounts, and leaving the United States, reports Polish Daily Nowy Dziennik. Banks such as Pekao U.S. Money Express in New York City are seeing a growing trend of Poles withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings to take with them as they look for opportunity elsewhere. Reasons for the departure include frustrations with the process to become legal immigrants, disillusionment with American materialism and a lack of promising employment or financial prospects....

Poles in Scotland now have their own plaid EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The latest Scottish clan now has its own tartan with colors that include the red and white of the Polish flag and dark blue representing Scotland. "I want to buy a kilt because I am living in Scotland," Sebastian Flasza, owner of Rock and Roll Tattoo and Piercing in Edinburgh, told The Times of London. "But I am a Polish Scot. I feel this represents me. Oh, aye." Poland and Scotland have a long common history. Bonnie Prince Charlie, the ill-fated Stuart heir, was half-Polish, and...

Polish love story in Gujarat Raja Bose [ 17 Sep, 2006 0121hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ] AHMEDABAD: When about 500 children, all Polish refugees from slave labour camps in then USSR, reached the erstwhile Nawanagar state (now Jamnagar) in 1942, shaken and traumatised, it was a maharaja's welcome that awaited them. A recent study has traced a large number of these people, now settled across the world, who still get together and raise a toast to Jamsaheb Digvijaysinhji, the then maharaja of Nawanagar. "Do not consider yourselves orphans. You are now Nawanagaris and I am Bapu, father, to all Nawanagaris,...

Poles and Scots United to Celebrate 50 Years Since Poland's Re-Dedication to Mary Posted on August 21, 2006 By The Universe: Hundreds of Catholics from the Diocese of Aberdeen have gathered to celebrate fifty years since Poland was re-dedicated to Mary the Mother of God and re-declared Queen of Poland. Gathering at the Benedictine Abbey of Pluscarden, large numbers of native Scots and Poles working in the North East of Scotland participated in a Mass led by Bishop Peter Moran. At the beginning of the celebration, a group of 85 Poles, led by Fr Joe Kolasa, walked the six-mile road...

Staying slim as a Pole Shocked by chubby Brits, Dorota Bawolek explains why Polish women don’t get fat One of the first things that strikes people who come to the UK from Poland is how chubby everyone is. On the contrary, what is often noticed about the Polish influx — and there are a lot of us now, 350,000 registered workers since May 2004 — is how fit and healthy we are. My English friends at university in Birmingham often ask me how I stay so slim, but I’m not obsessed with dieting and have never considered myself fit. I...

Ireland – a Polish home from home Even in the most distant parts of Ireland, a country which opened its labour market for new EU citizens only 2 years ago, any Pole will feel at home. Iwona Lajmen reports The streets, shops and offices are full of Polish people passing by, opening their businesses or assisting other Poles to help them order a coffee in Polish. This is how numerous Polish immigrants have made their way into a country on the other end of the European Community. Ireland, one of the few countries which decided to open itself to all...

Yesterday I visited Buchenwald concentration camp, the largest such camp in Germany (the larger ones Germany put outside of Germany.) Since it is my 4th time in Germany I felt kind of an obligation to visit it...a duty to face the truth in this beautiful land. Most of the camp is gone, almost all of the prisoner's barracks are. Outside the fence, about half the SS barracks are there--nicely painted yellow, with red tile roofs, resembling ten thousand other German buildings in other places. I had heard that birds don't roost inside the camp , and I think it may...

German stereotypes of Poles 29.06.2006 They are car thieving, backward and unemployed who can’t play football, apparently. Report by Slawek Szefs Although their image has been changing for the better, Poles are still negatively perceived by most Germans and are not fully accepted in the country of their Western neighbors. Those are the conclusions of a six-year study published in a report by the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw. In the eyes of an average German, Poles are mostly associated with car theft, cultural backwardness and unemployment. What's worse, they can't even play football! The latter opinion is fully...

WARSAW, Poland — Poland could be Europe's first "red state". "New evangelization"It was the late pope's fervent hope that the intense spirituality of his native Poland would spark a "new evangelization" of Western Europe. During most of his papacy, there was scant sign of that happening. But more recently Poland has emerged at the fore of a fledgling movement to restore Christian values to Europe. Beginning in 2003, the Polish government led the push — ultimately unsuccessful — to include some reference to Christianity in the new EU constitution. Aleksander Kwasniewski, the reformed communist who was Poland's president at the...

Chicago Poles out the stops for Constitution Day parade By Lisa Everitt Special to The Denver Post Two weekends ago, I was stuck in traffic in a cab on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. All the stoplights were flashing red, and police wardens were waving crowds through the intersections and into Grant Park for the annual Polish parade. The Lexis SUV in front of us was flying three flags: two Polish flags, one Stars and Stripes. "My grandmother came here from Poland," the cabbie said. "She made history. She went to work for the Bell System, as an operator. "She was...

Poles apart of charity boom JANE BRADLEY SCORES of Polish immigrants in the Capital are giving charities a massive boost - by offering their services for free. With many of the 20,000 Poles who have flocked to Edinburgh since the expansion of the EU working in unskilled jobs such as waitressing or labouring, many are turning to unpaid volunteering to improve skills and their chances of getting better jobs. Agency Volunteer Edinburgh, which matches people with opportunities, has seen around 35 eastern Europeans turn up at their Queensferry Street Lane offices every month to offer their help. While most want...