Gay pensioners not welcome in town (on posters)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza daily (19 Dec 2007)
Authors: Emilia Iwanciw, Aleksandra Lewińska
Translation: MoPoPressReview
link to the original article

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Posters containg confessions like ‘I’m a pensioner, I’m gay’, ‘I’m a pharmacist, I’m lesbian’ will not be hung in the city of Bydgoszcz. The company managing the advertising pillars did not agree. Therefore Bydgoszcz will not be taking part in the nationwide campaign, aiming to raise the gay people’s self-esteem.

The action called ‘You are not alone’ is an initiative of the Toruń branch of the Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH) Association. 500 posters were placed in Toruń on Monday, previously similar posters appeared in Tricity. The characters featured in the posers admit to having different sexual orientations. Although it is not possible to recognise them, each is signed with a name, we’re told what they do for living, and in which city district they live. –‘Our message is aimed to reach both homosexual and heterosexual people’, says Agnieszka Szpak, KPH coordinator. – ‘The former we want to make aware of the fact they are not alone, and the latter that just next to them live people who although seem different, are very similar.’

We showed the posters to several people passing-by the Gdańska street in Bydgoszcz yesterday afternoon. They didn’t seem outrageous to most people we met. 23-ear-old Karol was surprised: – ‘I didn’t know there are so many gay people in Bydgoszcz.’

75-year-old Zofia was upset at first: – ‘A gay pensioner? When someone is a pensioner does he have to be gay?’ letnia pani Zofia początkowo się obruszyła: – When we explained her what is this action for, her attitude softened: – ‘These posters make no harm to anyone. People are born like that.’

The agency managing the advertising pillars thought the opposite. The action that will run nationwide, was supposed to begin in Bydgoszcz yesteday as well. I didn’t because the ReMedia company denied the advertising space. – At the agency at first I heard that our posters could offend the dignity of onlookers. Then in their official e-mail I read about a “possible disapproval of the passers-by” – says Szpak.

Remedia’s employee admits she didn’t agree to cooperate with the association – ‘The subject of the posters is cntroversial. Although it doesn’t offend my dignity, people are different’ – she says, asking for her name not to be published. – ‘I was worried that the City Council (which owns the pillars) might not like these posters. And if so, we could have been fined.’

– ‘An action like this doesn’t offend anyone’ – says Maciej Grześkowiak, deputy mayor of Bydgoszcz, responsible for the city’s image. – But since it inflicts controversies, I’ll order the content of the posters to be analysed. I would also like ReMedia t o have a meeting with the Public Roads Department and settle what to do in such instances in the future.’

Is there a chance to still have the Campaign Against Homophobia in Bydgoszcz? – I ask the ReMedia co-owner.
– ‘Since there is so much fuss about this, the association can come and hang their posters even today’ – answers Magdalena Florek.

KPH coordinator: – This year we won’t make t to print more posters, but we’ll decide on what we’ll do in the next days. If all of us agree, we might launch this action in Bydgoszcz in January.

COMMENT
Michał Cichoracki, a sociologist for Gazeta Wyborcza- The company which denied posters to be hung, has auto-censored themselves. Probably due to fear from the different. It’s because for many years this subject was being swept under the carpet. Luckily the younger generation homosexuality doesn’t inflict negative emotions. Young people are not affraid of the different. However as long as we’re still discussing this, it means the problem of homophobia still exists in our society.

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If you enjoyed this post why not visit Polandian, a collaborative blog on Poland.

 

Young Israelis in Poland – continuation

Please note: this article is continuation of matters raised HERE (click). It is advised to read the former first.

Source: Przekrój of 31 May 2007
Author: Anna Szulc
Translation: MoPoPressReview

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Recently we have written about hotels and aircrafts being wrecked by young Israelis visiting Poland and the brutal interventions of their bodyguards treating local inhabitants like criminals. Reactions were instant.

We got reactions from diplomats, officials, hospitality workers, and journalists too. First in Israel. The Jewish internet portal ynetnews.com published in mid-May an information on Przekrój’s article together with Israeli politicians’ comments. Including Shmuel Abuav, director general at the Israeli Ministry of Education. David Pelog, Israel’s Ambassador to Polandtold the portal, that articles like this show young Israelis in negative light and threaten the future of trips to Poland programme . (…)

Polish Home Office’s reaction was a bit absurd. After over a month after receiving our questions, the Ministry’s spokesman Michal Rachoń informed that in Krakow both the residents and tourists were able to “almost normally” walk on Szeroka street, which hosted Jewish celebrations in April this year. The spokesman has completely disregarded to the excesses mentioned in our article, which were taking place at that time. According to the ministry, there is absolutely no problem whatsoever. ‘Cooperation with Israeli security, up to date, does not imply that their behaviour could be causing any kind of disturbance of public order’ – wrote the spokesman.

We have also received many e-mails from readers describing their – usually unpleasant – encounters with Israeli bodyguards. Restaurateurs and hoteliers, not only from Krakow but from around the country, describe in their letters (unfortunately usually requesting to remain anonymous) their problems with Israeli teenagers and security.

The owner of Krakow’s Astoria Hotel, whom we have mentioned n the article (young Israeli guests burned his carpet), has informed that there is good will in solving the problems. Teenagers’ guardians settled the matter with him fast and in a proper way – and that is why he decided to keep having Israeli teenagers groups in his hotel.

This, unfortunately, is an exception. Many others resign from having troublemaking guests. Last week some of those entrepreneurs complained to the Krakow City Council. Therefore the council members are persuading the mayor to launch a special action informing tourists from Israel on the Polish law.

Will young Israelis start respecting Polish law? Israel’s ambassador assures yes, and the government of Israel will take a closer look on the bodyguards that accompany children, and the schools that organise the visits.

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Przekrój’s interview with David Peleg, Ambassador of Israel in Poland

What is your opinion on the behaviour of Israeli teenagers and its security officers in Poland?
– The Article in “Przekrój” was a surprise for us, and the incidents described there indeed sound serious. We will investigate each described case carefully, and if the accusations confirm, we will take consequences. You have to remember however, that each year 30 thousand young Israelis come to Poland, and such incidents do not characterise the whole Israeli youth. We are intent for Israelis to see contemporary Poland as it really is, without prejudices and stereotypes. All this demand certain changes in current logistics of the visits. You have to remember, that this is a long-lasting process, that changes will not happen overnight.
But why does it have to take long? Is it so difficult to include several meetings with young Poles in the trips agendas?
– Lets remember, that Poland for Israelis is not the same country as for instance the completely neutral Sweden. Poland is for many Israelis, especially the older generation, emotions, it is the Holocaust, but also the after-war memories, not always good. These people are the grandparents of the teenagers who come to Poland. They are in a way programmed by their families. When during social meetings I tell them that Poles and Jews have lived here for many centuries, that Poles were the victims of war just like Jews, young Israelis look at me surprised. And they add, that until now they have known another story.
The more a dialogue is needed, a living exchange of ideas…
– Yes, but this dialogue is possible only now. Previously about many things both Jews and Poles tried not to talk. I have the impression, that only now we can really look into each other’s eyes, and without beating about the bush talk about the things that are painful to us. About stereotypes Israelis may have, but also about Jedwabne, Kielce Pogrom, about March ’68, but also about anti-Semitic graffiti you can see now in Lódz or about Radio Maryja, about new monuments being raised to Dmowski and Kuraś-Ogień, or about the recent ONR (Polish Nationalists) march in Krakow, witnessed by young Jews. They could leave Poland believing they are not welcome.
Like ordinary residents of Krakow and tourists could have the impression they are not welcome by the same young Jews.
-We are going back to where we started: to the changes that need to happen, because it is about two so closely related nations. I can promise once again: if the accusations described in ‘Przekrój’ confirm, those who are guilty will face consequences.

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Israeli teenagers are a nuisance in Poland

Source: Przekrój weekly of May the 10th 2007
Link to original article in Polish
Author: Anna Szulc
English translation: MoPoPressReview

The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.

Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. – ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.

Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. – ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ – he says – ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.

Kicking instead of answers

Another resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker, is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
– ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ – she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
– ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ – says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. – ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’

All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
– ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ – explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. – ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’

But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.

– ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ – Sobelman admits – ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?

Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.

– ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ – he explains bluntly.

An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.

– ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ – says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. – ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’

A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: – ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.

However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. – ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ – adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.

The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. – ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.

Teenagers behaving badly

However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
– ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ – says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. – ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’

Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.

– ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ – adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.

It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.

6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. – ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ – he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.

Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. – ‘Is this a free country?’ – One of the tourists tried to make sure.

On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.

– ‘There are no official restrictions here’ – they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.

– ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ – Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.

The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.

I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.

– ‘Regulations are imprecise’ – admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.

Airplane like battle field

The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety – they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.

This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.

– ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ – admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. – ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.

Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. – ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ – he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.

Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. – ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’

Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board – in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.

– ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ – admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.

These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.

– ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ – ensures Mike Urbaniak. – ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.

Huge business

Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.

– ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ – adds Urbaniak.

In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.

Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.

– ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ – thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. – ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.

Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.

– ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ – says Lili Haber – ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.

C O M M E N T S

Szewach Weiss, former speaker of Knesseth, former Israel’s ambassador in Poland:
I have a dream: I would like Israeli youth to come to Poland not only to see death camps, but also to see the life of Polish cities and towns. That they would even stay under one roof with Polish young people, so that after some time Poles would visit them back in Israel, that Poles would be invited and welcomed there. Is that one of those dreams that will never come true? I don’t think so, I believe that it will come true in 5 years at worst. In the meanwhile the most important thing is to change the current form of Israeli teenagers’ trips. A perfect solution would be direct contact between Israeli and Polish schools. That would have given a real chance to talk, exchange ideas, or even have an argument. I would however like the Poles to understand our difficult position, how deep is in us that idea that our children could lose their lives, even in a country as peaceful as yours. Of course that does not give anyone right to brutal behaviour towards Poles. Aggression is aggression, regardless of circumstances.

Yuli Amir, Israel’s Education Minister:
I think that Israeli youth doesn’t think good or bad about Poland or Poles. These trips are more about them, their Jewish identity. This is such Jewish feeling, that the whole world was against us, and Poland was on the wrong side too. You have to remember, that for many years Israeli youth has been rejecting Holocaust. For them it was a specimen, of how not to act. “Why did we go like sheep for death?”Holocaust was that weakness, they didn’t want to identify with. By coming to Auschwitz they have started to treat the victims of Shoah differently. This is a moral rehabilitation of Jewish past. of course we are aware of imperfections of the visits programme, we are considering changes. We discuss a lot, we think what influence these trips have on youth, on education. But all changes need time.

Mike Urbaniak, editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland:
I have met many Israelis in my life. Most of them are great, cheerful and exceptionally open people. They don’t have superiority complex. Everyone, who has at least once been in Israel has to admit that. In Poland however their image is getting worse and worse. And this will continue, if those trips will still look like a visit in countryside museum. This is a problem that needs to be solved in Israel as soon as possible.

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See also » Young Israelis in Poland – continued

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Gays and lesbians subject to violence

Source: Metro of March 23rd 2007
Author: Łukasz Antkiewicz

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Lesbians and gays more often come out at school and at work, however aggression towards them is increasing as well – says a report published by LGBT organisations.

According to the estimates, there are 2.5 million homosexual people in Poland. First detailed survey on how they live was being conducted by Lambda and Campaign Against Homophobia associations. We have seen the first results.

Vocal about themselves

Gays are more eager to come out in their environments. 20 percent came out at work, and over 30 percent at school. 80 percent of gays and lesbians come out to their mothers. One in seven would not be afraid to kiss their partner on the street. – ‘Some part of the society has finally realised, that we too have the right to lead normal life, to work and to love. They accept us, and that is why there is more courage to come out’ – says Yga Kostrzewa of Lambda.

And you do need courage to do that. As the authors of the report explain, the agression towards gays and lesbians increases. One in five said that they are affected by physical and verbal/mental violence. Over 70 percent were pushed, hit, kicked, or nudged. A couple from Rzeszów, 27-year-old Łukasz and 24-year-old Marek have felt the violence on their own skin. They were mugged and beaten twice. – ‘We were just leaving a gay bar, and some chavs were waiting for us behind the corner. They kicked us, took our wallet and a mobile phone’ – says Łukasz. Although the aggression, not many victims report to the police. Only 15 percent does that. Why? There were reports that the police officers, who are supposed to provide help, were humiliating gay victims. – We don’t discriminate against anyone. For a policeperson the sexual orientation, faith, or skin colour is not important – says surprised Krzysztof Hajdas of The Police Headquarters.

League of Polish Families: We only stigmatise

For the increase of violence, homosexuals blame the extreme right politicians, like the deputy Minister of Education Mirosław Orzechowski, who threatened to fire gay teachers. – ‘Politicians cause that aggression, by offending and stigmatizing homosexual people’ – says Marta Abramowicz of Campaign Against Homophobia. Marek Szopski, academic from Warsaw University agrees: ‘In current climate, it’s hard to be surprised with the increase of violence targeted at homosexual people. Since the central authorities publicly condemn homosexuals, some groups see it as a consent for fighting with gays’.

Krzysztof Bosak, League of Polish Families MP replies: ‘These accusations are absurd. We are not responsible for violence against gays and lesbians. We only stigmatise their behaviour’.

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Prime-minister: ‘you cannot fire someone because they are homosexual’

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza of March 15, 2007

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The prime-minster, currently on an official visit to Holland, said that a person cannot be fired on the ground of their homosexual orientation. It came as a reply to the statement deputy Minister of Education Miroslaw Orzechowski’s statement. On Thursday, in an interview for TOK FM radio, he said that gay teachers, who come out, will be fired from work. Teachers’ Union ZNP demands the deputy minister to be fired instead.

Mirosław Orzechowski yesterday declared a fight with promotion of homosexual behaviour – and like he said – “other deviations of this kind” in schools and educational facilities. He added that disobedience in that matter will be punished severely. A teacher who will invite agitators, will lose his job, or even face jail. The same would apply to persons promoting homosexualism.

The Ombudsman is “deeply concerned“

The Ombudsman expressed his ‘deep concern” (…). “Particularly inappropriate I find the remarks of Mr Miroslaw Orzechowski, who uses terms like “deviants” when talking about gay people’ – The Ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski wrote in his statement.

Ministry of Education’s spokeswoman Aneta Woźniak assured, that the deputy minister did not use the term “deviant” referring to persons. – ‘Deputy Minister Orzechowski was not talking about people, but actions. When you talk about “deviations” you mean the abnormal behaviour’ – she explained.

ZNP Teachers’ Union: Orzechowski should be dismissed

According to ZNP, Orzechowski should be dismissed for the remarks he made on Thursday. “The deputy minister announced that gay teachers will be fired” – says their statement. Therefore, according to the union, Orzechowski has broken the Constitution, which assures everyone is treated equally by the public authorities.

Aneta Woźniak replies that the deputy prime minister did not announce that gay teachers will be fired. – ‘No one will ask about your sexual preferences. Only those, who promote homosexualism will suffer the consequences’ – said the spokeswoman.

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Respected educator’s open letter to Minister of Education concerning his ideas to ban “homosexual propaganda”

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Warsaw, March 13, 2007

From:
Anna Dzierzgowska, “Monitor Edukacji” magazine

To:
Roman Giertych, Deputy Prime-minister and Minister of Education
and: the general public

Dear Sir,

Having learned about your project of introducing a statutory ban for “homosexual propaganda” in schools, i would like to address you with few questions. The term “homosexual propaganda” is quite unclear, therefore as to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings in the future, I would like to know:
– will we be able to present Saphone’s poetry?
– will it be allowed to teach about Plato? I guess not. Can you give me an advice then, how to talk about the emergence of Christian philosophy, and how to talk about sources of St. Augustine’s thought?
– what about Shakespeare – and especially what is your advice on the treatment of sonnets?
– during pilgrimages to The Vatican, will be allowed to show students The Sistine Chapel? And do you think presenting the works of Michel Angelo and Leonardo Da Vinci appropriate?
– should we erase the portraits of Narcyza Żmichowska? (and what to do with schools that are named after her?)
– will it be allowed to play Tschaikovsky? (and is ballet at all appropriate for youth?)
– what with English literature? I understand Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf will have to vanish from the school libraries.
– Jan Lechoń, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jerzy Andrzejewski and Julian Stryjkowski too,is that right? I have some doubts when Gombrowicz is concerned, but I suppose his time has passes as well.
– I do not even ask about the ‘Death in Venice’, it is absolutely clear that this is story violates the dignity of young people.

I would like to enquire about one other matter: I understand that in educating history, we will keep the tradition of not mentioning the persecution of of people belonging to homosexual minorities? We will not teach about the prisoners of the German concentration camps – the so called prisoners with pink triangle, who were oppressed there and killed only because of their homosexuality? It will be not allowed, as I understand, to mention reports of organisations like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, talking about torture, rapes, murders and other forms of violence, that homosexual people experience around the world?

Sir, not so long ago, you declared that you will reply to all letters that are sent to you. You have also stressed, that you are open to suggestions and comments about your actions. That is why, before you form your reply, I suggest you read and think through, and treat as a comment, Plato’s ‘Symposium’.

Yours sincerely,

Anna Dzierzgowska

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MORE ON THE MATTER >>>

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‘We do not want such deviations in schools’ says The Ministry of Education

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza daily of 14th March
Author: Aleksander Pezda

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Ministry of education to ban homosexual propaganda in schools. And to punish for it with prison or fines.
‘So far this is only a Ministry’s idea, however there are works under way for a project of a statue.’ – said Deputy Minister of Education Miroslaw Orzechowski (League of Polish Families Party – LPR).

‘The act will not affect the rights of homosexual persons, those who suffer from this condition’ – declared the deputy minister. ‘It will only halt the way to promotion of behaviour of this kind in schools and education facilities.’

Who will be subject to criminal investigation? According to Orzechowski ‘every individual, who will promote homosexualism and other deviations in schools’ will face prison or fines. It will also apply to those ‘who promote homosexuality in a way suggesting that it it sanctioned by the educational facility’.

The journalists were asking, if breachers of the proposed act will face prison, and if so for how long. ‘You have the Criminal Bill, look it up, check what is there for other deviations. We are only at the stage of planning now.’

The journalists were also asking, what is ‘homosexal propaganda’ supposed to mean. Would for example inviting a homosexual singer, who would admit, on stage, that he is homosexual fit under that definition? – ‘I don’t see anything wrong with that. Everyone can admit he is a pederast’ – said the deputy minister.

So is information about homosexuality in a biology coursebook allowed? – ‘Yes, because that would belong to the zone of knowledge’.

To give an example of reprehensible homosexual propaganda Orzechowski has shown a leaflet produced in 1998 by the Krakow Group of Lesbians and Gays entitled ‘Live passionately, make love safely’. Leaflets were part of an anti-HIV campaign, promoting the use of condoms and safe sex.

‘It instructs how to make anal homosexual sex’ – the deputy minister was outraged, and said that such leaflets were distributed in schools in Krakow.

The leaflets were indeed distributed to Krakow high school students, not in schools however, but in the Krakow City Hall, where they were brought for a workshop on preventing AIDS.

Asked if homosexual propaganda was a common pracitice in Polish school, deputy minister said ‘No, but we have to stand against it’.

He pointed out to the Council of Europe’s handbook for teachers as another example of pathology. The publication entitled ‘Compass: Educating on Human Rights’ contains proposals for lesson scenarios, also about homosexualism. Minister of Education Roman Giertych has fired the president of Teachers Education Institution Miroslaw Sielatycki, for having published that handbook. The case of his dismissal is waiting for hearing in the Labour Court.

(…) Deputy minister Orzechowski admitted, that it is dufficult for him to talk about homosexuality, at this subject repulses him.

The government has not yet seen the ministry’s project. However on yesterday’s press conference, the prime-minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski asked about it, said ‘agreeing for homosexual propagannda in schools is too much. These restrictions should be applied’.

What does Law and Justice Party (PiS) MPs think about this?

Maria Nowak, PiS MP, deputy chairwoman of Sejm’s Education Commission makes light of the whole matter. ‘This is LPR’s move to win more popularity’

However she admits that she personally finds homosexuality as something ‘not entirely normal’. – ‘And I see no reason for inviting homosexual people to schools. This is their private matter, and you do not need to talk about it too much, and pay so much attention to it’– she says.

‘There are homosexual characters in handbooks for British kindergarten children, in French books they analyse all kinds of families, including homosexual couples. Only the Polish administrative life is behind’ – commented Yga Kostrzewa, spokeswoman for Lambda Warsaw, gay and lesbian association. – ‘We can close our eyes and pretend that there is no problem, but this will not change the fact that homosexualism in Poland exists. Talking about this in schools is not dangerous: talking will not make anyone adapt homosexual orientation’.

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“Women sacrificed on the altar of the Holy Mary”

An interview with Agnieszka Graff, published in Przekrój (no.10/3220, March 8th, 2007), conducted by Piotr Najsztub on March 1st, 2007.

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Agnieszka Graff (37) writer, translator, publicist and feminist studied at Oxford University, Amherst College and School of Social Sciences at The Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In 1999 she received doctoral degree in English literature. In 2001 she published World Without Women, in which she described the absence of women in Polish public life and the patterns upon which the discrimination in Poland has been signed. She has had translated works of Virginia Woolf. She works for Warsaw University’s Institute of Americas and Europe, where she lectures Gender Studies to sociology students. Her essays are being published in Gazeta Wyborcza, Zadra, Literatura na Świecie and Katedra. She is a co-founder of Porozumienie 8 Marca, which organises the annual Women’s Day March. She’s married to a photographer Bernard Osser.

Przekrój: Do Polish women have anything to celebrate during this year’s 8th March Women’s Day?

AgnieszkaGraff: – No. The situation is dramatically bad and the fact that both: the majority of women, and the general public underestimate it is even more dramatic.

So what is dramatic about what is going on?

– The situation is symbolised by the constitution amendment, that is being forced by Deputy Prime Minister Giertych and a part of the Law and Justice Party (PiS). Which de facto leads to total ban for abortion. However this is a part of a bigger thing: the total seizure of Women issues by the extreme right.

Because only they talk about it?

– This subject has been given away to them like they owned it. They became experts for Women issues.

Who has given it away?

– Other parties, and most of the media. This obviously sprung due to the number of scandals the left side were engaged in. However before it collapsed under all the scandals, there was a very clear “non-agression pact” between them and The Catholic Church. For the price of its support for joining The EU, the left has given up the debate on abortion. And the view that this odd, current abortion law, one of the most restrictive in Europe, cannot be changed, has consolidated. That it is better not to touch it, because something terrible may happen.

Some call that law “the wonderful compromise”.

– This is reputed-comprimise. Comprimise of the rightwing with other rightwing. And the thing that is happening now, I think, is seen also by a part of The Church as dreadful, or deeply immoral.

What could be dreadful for them?

– The idea of a total abortion ban, including the cases of rape, adultery, and handicapped foetus.

Why would it be dreadful for them?

– Because The Church is not a ferocious institution. It is, from my point of view, an anti-women institution, deeply traditionalistic, but it is not a criminal institution. However the idea to force a woman to give birth, a woman who can lose her life during the labour, i see as criminal, as threatening the biological existence of women. The newest proposals for constitution amendments are being ignored in Poland, and seen as some kind of folklore, because no one believes the extreme-right will ever execute those regulations.

And will they introduce it?

– I think many people believe they will, but no one believes that they will execute it effectively. To let them for such antics in Polish constitution seems to me like like giving up completely. This is a coup on democracy – closing the debate on a subject that divides the Poles. This is frightening for me, however Poland is not the only country in which such things happen. Nationalists, when let to power, take over the control over women, and the whole rest agrees for that. You cannot let the extreme nationalists govern the foreign policy, you cannot give the extreme populists the power over economy, but since something has to be given to them, women are being sacrificed. And this is happening in Poland.

Do you feel it personally?

– I am not in the position of a woman living for 180 euro a month, who gets unwanted pregnancy. So I do not feel personally threatened -I will be fine. But this is my country, and I do not want to live in a country that despises of women. The situation of most women is similar to the situation of people being hijacked on a plane. Giertych and company are the hijackers – and the rest of ruling class negotiate. On our expense.

But maybe most of these women, having the alternative of being hijacked or not, would have chosen to be hijacked?

– No. The number of people supporting the total ban for abortion is 9 – 10 percent, and these are mostly people who have long passed their reproductive age. This is some kind of an extreme group. I also represent a statistically extreme group, because I believe that abortion should be safe and legal – and with the easy availability of counterception – should be treated as a medical service. This is a cliche in the West. Well, 10 percent of the Polish society shares my view. All others are somewhere in between. They think for example that abortion should be available for economical reasons, or they more or less support the current pseudocompromise. Which is abortion legal in the instance of rape, serious foetus handicap, or a threat to mother’s life. Many women say “I would never have an abortion, but I think women should be allowed the choice”. Or: “Abortion should be banned, but if my younger 15-year-old sister got pregnant, of course I would have helped her to get a surgery”. There are many inconsequent and self-contradictory emotions involved.

Should only women decide on the right for abortion, or men too?

– Many people from my environment think that women should decide. I do not fully agree with that. The right for abortion is a part of a set of women’s rights called ‘reproductive rights’. These are human rights. Rights of a human, who is a woman. And I don’t think, let’s say that only Afroamericans in The USA should support fighting racism – this is an issie importaint for the whole America. Similarly, I believe that it is an issue of all citizens of this country to decide, how will women’s rights be. Reproductive rights are some kind of an emancipation of civilisation level and level of Church interference with the state. So not only women, children also have fathers. And the childless do not have to be keen to live in a country where Marek Jurek and Wojciech Wierzejski are Women issues experts.

You said that the attitude to women’s rights is the gauge of civilisation level. Measured like that, where are we?

– You want me to say that…

No, it is not like I want you to say something.

– … that we live in The Middle Ages or in Africa, but I don’t believe that progress in inevitable.

So is it The Middle Ages all the time?

No. I think all kinds of occurrences – even not related to women issues – have influence on the attitude towards women’s rights. At this moment the issue of women’s rights in Poland is greatly influenced by the increase of nationalist moods. Nationalism debases women. These mechanisms were very beautifully and deeply analised by Professor Maria Janion in her last book Niesamowita Slowianszczyzna (The Incredible Slavs). To make the long story short, nationalism is the ideology praising the manhood. Manhood based on a certain vision of “brotherhood”, a bond between men. But at the same time the fatherland is really the motherland. This universal phenomenon, that the personification, the symbol of the country nationalist loves, the nation he feels part of, is in fact idealised womanhood. In Poland it is the Holy Mother, together with Polonia and the mythical “Polish Mother”. We hear all the time the right wing MPs idealising that womanhood, who is supposed to make sacrifices for them. They show their mentality very clearly. But the same can be said about nationalists in Ireland, Singapore or Sri Lanka. From research and observation we know now, that the more idealised is the symbolic womanhood, the more humiliated, and the more powerless the real women are.

So we should destroy that myth of Polonia-Holy Mother-“Polish Mother”?

– You cannot destroy myths. You can cure yourself from myths, you can mock and ridicule the myth in a creative way. Professor Janion believes that is what the contemporary Polish literature (for example Maslowska, Kuczok) and art (Nieznalska, Zielinska, Baumgart) does. I am more of a pessimist. These works of high culture, very interesting, have no influence over the Polish mentality. Roman Giertych very effectively communicates with that mentality. It is his great symbolical success and should be not depreciated as extremity. I have found an information published by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) in August 2006 describing the beginning of the campaign for changing the constitution. Roman Giertych visited the Jasna Gora shrine and has made a vow to the Holy Mother that he will change the constitution. He added that the abortion can be “analogically compared” to Holocaust. This is the classical example of sacrificing the real women on the altar of the symbolical woman. And the Holy Mother of Jasna Gora, is here basically personification of Poland itself. Giertych’s Holy Mary is some kind of a ferocious goddess, to which women have to be sacrificed. This is incredibly graphical and powerful rhetorics – today it strikes PiS too. They are afraid to be against it, to say: it’s cruel. It would mean they are not patriotic enough, that they signed out of the “brotherhood”.

So maybe Jerzy Urban is right calling the Holy Mother of Czestochowa “an indian woman with cuts on her face”, maybe this is the way to fight it?

– No, disdain and tainting the symbols is not the right way, because it’s basically doing the same thing au rebours. What we need is a strong, alternative, secular discourse. A discourse that neither puts the Holy Mother into the centre of Polishness nor does it offend her or throw objects at her. Some serious feminist force from inside The Church would also be handy…

Maybe there is no alternative to the Holy Mother as the centre of Polishness, and that’s why it’s happening?

– That’s why we will probably end up having the total ban on abortion in our constitution. A terrible thing is happening: women’s rights have been made equal to betrayal of Polishness. What Polishness is about is that our women our different than that bitches in the West, our men are real men not some transvestites or transsexuals from Berlin.

Our real men will introduce the ban on abortion into constitution. Do you think nothing will change and we still will have such widespread underground abortion service? It’s estimated that 80-200 thousand surgeries are carried out every year.

– The question is will the underground abortion service be safe? Now the underground service is very civilised. It is expensive, but abortions are being conducted by doctors. Before the Second World War or in the 50s-60s in the United States, before abortion was legalised, abortion was the cause of death of many women, often already mothers, who died in hands of some freaks. I don’t know if PiS will bend to the next idea of the extreme-right, to the idea of liquidating the underground abortion services. If they start sueing doctors doing those surgeries we may end up again in “women’s hell” as Boy-Zelenski called it. The League Of Polish Families (LPR) party are religious fanatics, they could do that. I hope for the optimistic alternative, that this will cause the women’s rebellion.

How could it look?

– For example forming a women’s party, which in opposition to Manuela Gretkowska’a party will take care of the subject of abortion.

So one more women’s party?

– I don’t know if one more. Manuela Gretkowska’s Manifesto published in Przekrój has pointed to the barbarianism of the idea of a total abortion ban. And it was a Manifesto of justified anger against making women powerless. Since then from what Manuela’s been saying, it seems she’s scared of this subject. Lately she said in an interview for Dziennik, that she can imagine herself voting both for and against the right for abortion. That doesn’t mean anything, only that she pulled out, that she got scared – like the whole Polish political scene – of The Church and that odd idea that Poland equals the Holy Mother, and the Holy Mother equals no abortion. I hope that women is this party will realise, that this matter cannot be postponed until later, because these mad people will eat and digest all of us.

Apart the abortion, do Polish women taking part in this years Women’s Day March have other reasons to worry?

– Job market for the starters: sexual harassment, pay gap, or employers during the job-interview demanding a declaration that a woman will not have children. I can go on like that for long. Poland is the country in Europe in which there is the biggest difference between the level of employment of men and women. 59% of men aged 15-64 are employed, compared to 47% of women. That’s 12 percent. In Denmark or Sweden it’s only 4.

It has been worse, so maybe it’s better now? And I don’t mean the communist era, but the 90s. In the communist era there was full employment.

– It’s not about full employment. It’s what womanhood is. Then women identified themselves as functioning in public life. Now, because of the discrimination, and the attack of the nationalist ideology, many women don’t even attempt going back on the job market after having a child. This is of course related to the problems with kindergarte. If a woman earns 180 euro per month and there is no kindergarten near her, or the kindergarten cost 150 euro, it’s more appealing for her to stay home with the child. From many years there were attempts to push women back on the job arket with other methods. And childbirth-benefit is one of the most scandalous idea. Its main result is, i think, the fact that women who would have given their children for adoption after giving birth, now decide to keep them.

You don’t see any positive outcomes of childbirth-benefit?

– No.

For some women these money mean they can buy something.

– Of course, but this money can be spent in a more reasonable way. Encouraging having children should not have the form of single time financial benefit, but a complex system of supporting the parenting.

And when the state is not able to create such a system, maybe it’s bette for it to give away the child-birth benefits?

– Well yes, but that generates lots of pathologies. Already couple thousand children in dysfunctional families were born. Only to receive the benefit, and go drinking or other things like that. Because of the childbirth-benefit less women leave their children for adoption at the hospitals. After few months they end up in foster care.

Do you see in the Polish parliament anyone thinking similarly?

– I have great sympathy to Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka. What she says always makes sense, however it not always is reflected in what later happens. In relation to the current parliament I have chosen the attitude of something like internal emigration. I no longer listen to every debate.

Before have you?

– Yes, I had the parliamentary debates downloaded from the internet, i knew the names of MPs, I was interested in the actions of the Parliamentarian Group of Women. When I returned to Poland after graduation in 1995, I was in such a naive and enthusiastic way a patriot. I thought to myself that Poland has regained independence, that we’re building a modern democracy, that this my feminism is my input to the common good. When I read now some fragments of my old books, I smile. I was so excited, so patriotic, so optimistic.

PiS needs patiots.

– I never predicted that the word patriotism will be seized by people, who in my books act as weirdos throwing rotten eggs at us. The boys who were throwing object at me in Wladyslawowo couple years ago, are MPs now.

They are in LPR, but PiS… PiS needs patriots.

– No. PiS uses the word patriotism, to describe something, which is nationalism. This patriotism we have now, is not from my world. That’s why I stopped saying “this country”, and I say “my country”. Because I got scared that me and my environment will get pushed on the position of ironists, distancing themselves from Poland.

Why did you get scared of such perspective, if you already are on “internal emigration”?

– Because this is after all my country. I am on my internal emigration in my favourite district of Warsaw. I love this city, I love those landscapes. I returned with full understanding, that after seven years of emigration, this is the place where I want to live, and I don’t want to be offended by some…

Do you want to live in a country in which women will have their rights taken away?

– Where would a feminist live if not in a such country? This is the place, where things need to be done. This is my country, and it has been stolen from me by PiS inc. I’m not shopping, I’m not looking for a cool place, with best options for women.

Do you feel Manifa (the Women’s Day March) has supporters in the media, or not really?

– This year Porozumienie 8 Marca has decided that there shall be no more happenings, no more funny wigs and stuff. Manifa is serious. And this is a serious ideological decision, and also a challange for the media. Because the media got used to that a colourful March of girls and boys walks down the streets of Warsaw, and no one really knows what its about, but there are funny signs like “Sex yes, sexism no” or “Feminism, I’m worth it”. But we are no longer on the stage of celebrating our internal unity, that we’re so emancipated, that we have read those cool feminist books. Our country is now gripped by nationalist plague. And I hope that the media will see what is happening, that there is something importaint going on, which concerns all of us. Not only women in reproductive age.

What would be your dream parliament-act concerning women’s rights?

– Gender Equality Act, like they have in many EU states. And which we still don’t have in Poland. However in the matter of abortion, the best act would be a blank sheet of paper. It’s just not a matter for politicians or lawyers, but doctors and women. Or first – women, and doctors second. It is the women who takes the costs: both economical and emotional – of having a baby. It’s mostly men who make law, but they leave the whole responsibility to women.

So your dream is to cross abortion matters out of law regulations and constitution?

– Yes, maybe except medical regulations defining the moment until which abortion should be available.

You have convined me, I’ll come to the March. What do you expect from men, who don’t share the ideas of nationalist ideology?

– A serious interest in women’s rights, including reproductive rights. Not as one of many issues, but an issue that has become the symbol of fight for Poland. Because everyone in the media thinks it’s the matter of lustration and everyone argues about it constantly. But this will pass, together with the generation concerned. However the women’s rights can be lost for many years. And it’s not only about women, but also about what you tell children in schools, on those lessons that re no longer called “sexual education” but, i don’t know “preparation to life in virtue”. This is the moments that decides about atmosphere in Poland for generations.

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