Polish Events

Communities form when people come together to share or respond to information that affects them personally. Communities form in towns, cities and, with today’s technology, online. There are hundreds of online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, Boston.com and PoloniaToday.com, a Polish news website. Polonia Today offers current events happening across the world concerning anything and everything to do with Poland. Two current events, the Murder of a Polish hostage by Taliban and the passing of American citizenship of Casimir Pulaski by the Senate, are big news issues that many people don’t know about. These two news events relate to current issues in our own country and we need to acknowledge them.

On September 28, 2008, Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak was kidnapped by armed men that murdered the two drivers and bodyguard that were traveling with him. Confirming his murder, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Piotr Stanczak’s death and stated that footage of his death was released by the Taliban. The Taliban originally kidnapped the Polish engineer and would release him in exchange for a ransom as well as the release of six prisoners. The Taliban gave the Polish government until February 4 to pay the ransom before executing Piotr Stanczak, but the date was later extended by two days. Jacek Najder, Deputy Foreign Minister, declares that the Foreign Ministry worked to the best of their ability to save the engineer and to contact the Taliban. However, their efforts were unable to save Polish engineer Stanczak. It is said that the footage of Piotr Stanczak’s death was very disturbing so it was requested that the media not publish or release the documentation. Presently, there are very little Poles working in Pakistan. However, 1,600 Polish soldiers are currently serving in Afghanistan with the NATO mission. Likewise, only two Poles have ever been kidnapped, besides Piotr Stanczak, but they were eventually released.

Casimir Pulaski was a Polish war hero who became the Brigadier General of the American Cavalry during the American Revolution. Pulaski had many great accomplishments such as saving General George Washington’s life and aiding in the American victory at the Battle of Brandywine. Even though he died on September 15, 1777, Casimir Pulaski is still remembered today because Congress declared that October 11 as Pulaski Day in 1929. This special day is observed by Presidential Proclamation while many other memorial days for this Polish patriot occur throughout the year. Just on March 2, 2009, the Senate unanimously passed Pulaski’s posthumous citizenship and is observed as a Pulaski holiday in Illinois. Now, this bill for citizenship must be passed by the House of Representatives and then be signed by President Barak Obama. As a matter of fact, only six people have ever been given honorary citizenship in the United States including Marquis de la Fayette, Raoul Wallenberg, William Callowhill Penn and his wife Hannah, Mother Teresa and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Both of these current issues relating to Poland greatly tie in with events happening in the United States. The murder of Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak relates to the war in Iraq and Casimir Pulaski’s potential citizenship relates to the outcome of the Revolutionary War and our existence as an independent country. The news in Poland greatly affects our nation because of our alliance and relationship with this country. Despite these close relations, I find it very disappointing that very few Americans are educated about Poland and the help they have provided us throughout the ages. Poland has helped the United States beginning with our country’s initial attempt at freedom from Britain yet I have not heard a single reference to Poland in school this year. For example, in United States History class we learned about people from the Revolutionary War such as Marquis de la Fayette and William Penn, who were two of the six people given honorary citizenship in the United States. As a Polish-American I am outraged that we don’t discuss Poland’s key players yet we still talk about Frenchmen and Spaniards. Likewise, we talk about the United States’ alliance with France and Spain in class, but we still don’t mention Poland. Poland played a key role during the American Revolution yet the curriculum in Massachusetts public schools does not even broadly mention what Poland did for us. I feel that since we talk about people like Marquis de la Fayette and William Penn that we should also talk about their colleagues that also contributed to the Revolutionary War.

Communities can be found within almost any setting, and events occur within their corresponding microcosms. There are certain events that essentially link communities together, building upon an essential principle that we are all connected in some way or form, the human network. Events that take place in other parts of the world can have a major affect on what happens right here in our own backyards. For example, when Revolutionary ideas were developing in Poland when Casimir Pulaski was growing up, new ideas arose in England about religious freedom. Consequently, the colonies were formed and eventually the American Revolution came into play. Likewise, events in Poland in the modern world are related to events happening in the United States and in other parts of the world. Events like the murder of a Polish hostage and Casimir Pulaski’s potential posthumous citizenship link two countries that view each other in different ways. Poland and the United States have played great roles in terms of the history of both countries, yet we don’t seem to know all that much about each other. It is so easy to just go online and search for a new website to visit. We can learn so much if we just give a few minutes of our day to learn about some of the biggest people and events that have made us who we are today.Word Count: 970

In Desert And Wilderness

The best movies have the most important and touching themes. The Polish movie W Pustyni I W Puszczy, which translates into In Desert and Wilderness and based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, is a powerful movie that tells the story of two children and their journey across the African grasslands and desserts. In Desert and Wilderness demonstrates the true meaning of courage and friendship through the fight for survival.

“‘Praise Allah,’” yells the leader of a group of blood-thirsty Arabs. After being informed that his wife and children are imprisoned, the Arab leader, Smain, plots to kidnap the children of two engineers that his relative works for. Smain’s relative is instructed to bring the children, Nel and Stas, to the Mahdi rebels so he can get his family back. Smain’s relative, Chamis, betrays the family he works for claiming that, “‘Smain’s blood flows in me.He who betrays his own blood, betrays himself.” Nel and Stas have been kidnapped by a caravan of Arabs while their fathers were busy working on the Suez Canal and are traveling in the center of Africa. By the time they reach a small encampment, Nel and Stas are told that they can convert to Islam in hope that it could spare them. Refusing, Stas risks his and Nel’s life as Nel begins to show early symptoms of malaria. A “friend” in the encampment supplies Stas with quinine, medicine that will help Nel, and instructs the young boy to run away with two slaves as soon as the caravan heads into the desert. When the caravan faces a hungry lion, Stas is handed his rifle so he can kill the beast but quickly decides this is their chance to escape. After killing the lion, Stas turns on the Arabs and fights them off, as Chamis shows his last bit of decency and helps Stas until his death. Scared and lost, Stas and Nel have to continue on into the wilderness with two slaves and battle the desert to survive. Stas, Nel and the slaves face many dangers of the wilderness, including wild animals, disease, Arabs, starvation, dehydration and a wicked African chief. The most important question movie watchers are asking, how will they survive the unforgivable desert?

In Desert and Wilderness presents this story set in the late nineteenth century as a children’s adventure full of obstacles and dangers. In Desert and Wilderness is a Polish film that portrays two children’s struggles to return to their fathers as they journey through the African desert and wilderness. Nel and Stas, no older than twelve and sixteen, face many dangers that most people do not face in a lifetime. When is the last time you heard about two children who were stranded in the African wilds and lived to tell their story? Stas killed men in a skirmish when he received his gun as a Christmas present from his father only days earlier. Young and innocent, Nel never knew death until she witnessed it and barely escaped it herself. Stas and Nel gained much courage throughout the course of their journey. With the help of the slaves, who were familiar with the terrain, the small group played off of one another’s strengths and was able to function like their own microcosm.

Stas and Nel’s companionship with each other and the slaves essentially led to their survival. Stas risked his life wandering into the night-time jungle hoping he could find someone with medicine for Nel. If it were not for his courage and their strong friendship, Nel would not have survived. When the group first ran away from the Arab caravan, one of the slaves said that Stas was a much better master than his old one. Stas replied that he was not his master and they were free. Almost instantly, a sense of friendship formed and the group began to collect food and find shelter. Stas and Nel formed one half of the group while the slaves formed the other. Without Stas’s gun, the group most likely would not have survived the lions. Without the slaves’ familiarity with the terrain, the comradeship would not have survived the first few nights in the wilderness. Each half was equally as important as the other and was essential to everyone’s survival.

Stas, Nel and the slaves survived their time in the wild based upon one another’s talents, their courage and their strong friendship. If the slaves had never come into effect, Stas and Nel would have never survived the first night alone. Likewise, the slaves would not have survived if not for Stas and Nel’s acceptance and understanding. The slaves were a key element in the story’s plot and Stas and Nel’s survival. If things had not played out how they did, Stas and Nel would be dead and the slaves would still bear a life of hardship.
Word Count: 808

Marie Curie

Great achievements come through persistence if not obsession. Commonly known as Madame Curie, Marie Curie is one of the most acclaimed women who dedicated their lives to science. Winning two Nobel Prizes, Marie Curie was a genius who came from the middle class and achieved tremendous things.

One would think that all geniuses, such as Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawkins, Thomas Edison, are born all-knowingly, right? In some cases, they are. However, many of these people far beyond their time worked hard and were transfixed if not obsessed with reason and logic. Just imagine where would we be if there was no Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, or Alexander Gram Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Our world has made drastic changes and discoveries since their time and we will continue to evolve. Being one of these geniuses, Marie Curie greatly contributed to science and changed the way women scientists were viewed by society.

Marie Curie was from Poland and her family really influenced the way her future would play out. Before she was Marie Curie she was Marya “Manya” Salomee Sklodowska. Marie’s father was a scientist who worked out of their home in Poland but lost his power to work in 1863 when Russian influence outlawed professors from their practices. Marie’s family was not wealthy but they were still able to afford private schooling for their daughter. However, the financial crisis began and slow increase and, when Marie was around the age of four, her mother became ill. In 1871 Marie’s mother showed signs of tuberculosis. After Marie’s mother’s death, the young girl was told she was never to ask what happened to her mother.

By the age of four, despite her mother’s death, Marie was able to read flawlessly. Likewise, she was also able to memorize poems and write perfectly. All of the four children, three girls and one boy, in Marie’s family were gifted with brilliance. Talk about lucky. But things began to take a tragic turn for Marie's family when her two sisters became sick with typhus. Sadly, one of her sisters, Zosia, perished at only twelve years of age. The death of her mother and sister cast a sheet of sadness of the Sklodowska family. Despite the tragedies, the family prevailed. It wasn’t a happily ever after, but it was something. The remaining children were very successful in school and all but one graduated at top of their class. Marie was only fifteen when she graduated high school.

Curie, after the demise of her mother, gave up her faith and religion but still studied and learned like there was no tomorrow. Years later, at the age of 23, Marie traveled to Paris with nothing but a mattress, a stool, clothes, food and water. Here Marie continued her education and she enrolled herself in a class of around two thousand, which only had 23 female students. Marie really pushed herself. It is amazing to read these numbers and acknowledge how far women have come in the past one-hundred and fifty years. Regardless, Marie spent her nights often times studying late into the night. Marie was treated with a lot of respect by male students within the school itself but Paris as a whole, as well as Poland, didn’t offer women many rights that are now known as assumed rights. Barbara Goldsmith, author of Obsessive Genius the Inner World of Marie Curie, says that “the rare female scientist was depicted as masculine, coarse, ugly, careworn, and industrious but making no significant contribution.” This was the stereotype at the time but Curie proved many wrong and surprised the world.

Marie is probable most well known for her discovery of radium. Specifically, Marie discovered the radioactive property of radium and explained this through scientific journals. Marie was one of few women at the time that received a degree in science let alone two Nobel Prizes. Before this, in the 1890’s, Marie met her future husband Pierre Curie. They wed in 1895 and essentially became partners in crime. Not literally, of course, but in working to make their mark in this world. The Curies were very dedicated to their work and “bounced” ideas off of one another such as discoveries like the electrometer, the X-ray and the radioactive property of radium.

Like many people too smart for their own good or too ahead of their time, Marie Curie wasn’t acknowledged for her work immediately. The geniuses of our world are always the oddballs of society yet they are the ones who make the biggest impact on our lives. Marie was full of perseverance and never stopped learning. It was her life goal to make her mark in the world and not just have her memory disintegrate like she had never been there. Never did Marie give up or did she let her identity that didn’t fit into society dictate her life.

“For me I am very gay-for often I hide my deep lack of gaiety under laughter. This is something that I learned to do when I found out that creatures who feel as keenly as I do and are unable to change this characteristic of their nature have to dissimulate it at least as much as possible….There were some very hard days and the only thing that softens the memory of them is that in spite of everything I came through it all honestly with my head high.”
Word Count: 898

Work Cited:Obsessive Genius the Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith.