What should you do, if you needed money to support your election campaign? Well, apparently, if you are from PiS, you could use the fact that some of your people work for Polish Red Cross, and make a side-business, selling donated second hand clothing and pocketing the money. This scandal has been a public secret for a long time and apparently could not be ignored any more by the prosecutors. Strangely enough, it’s really hard to find one who would like to go ahead with the investigation: already a second prosecutor assigned to the case, after complaining about being pressured, gave up and asked to be relieved from her duties and sent back to her previous job. That means, she was rather willing to be demoted, and had her salary cut significantly, than to continue investigation in that matter…
Click HERE to read previous part of the series.
Click HERE to see all chapters of the series so far.
But of course only
the cases when PiS is accused for the crime are so hard to bring to
the courts. Otherwise the system works better than ever. For example
a thief, who stole a luxury Audi, just a few hours later discreetly
parked it outside one of the police stations. He checked the glovebox
and found the documents, showing that it
belonged to Marta Kaczyńska, Jarosław Kaczyński’s niece.
Someone said once “In the efficiently functioning police state
there is no need for the police”. Does it mean, that we are there
already?
But PiS are not like some ordinary criminals.
They never back down, even if they are caught red-handed. In last
week’s piece we informed that the opposition sued prime minister
Morawiecki for lying about them not building any roads and lost. But
they appealed, and the final
verdict forced him to apologize for at least some of the things
he said. He observed the ruling and published the apologies on
national TV in the form of a board with a text read by female voice
actor, which sounded a bit weird, when she said “I, Mateusz
Morawiecki…”. What PiS does? They
lie even more, trying to convince everyone, that he in fact won
that case. They are faithful to the teachings of their leader,
Jarosław Kaczyński, who once famously said that nothing will
convince them, that “white
is white, and black is black”. Adam Bielan says, that there
were three rulings, and only the final one was in favour of the
accusatory, two lower courts ruled in favour of Morawiecki, and
therefore he is a winner, as 2>1. God have mercy for us, this guy
is a deputy speaker of the Senate, and he does not understands how
law works… And of course an attack of Donald Tusk never gets old –
Ryszard Czarnecki, PiS MEP said that Morawiecki is most trustworthy
person, unlike Donald Tusk, who should have a long nose like
Pinocchio already.
If life was like a fairly tale, then
PiS politicians would need to be really careful to do not peak each
other eyes with their long noses during party conferences. It has
emerged recently, that election committee of Andrzej
Duda paid to a company called “El Chupacabra” to run an
internet campaign for them. While Andrzej Duda ensures, that this was
only about moderating comments on his website, it is pretty clear to
everyone, that they were simply paying their army of internet trolls,
and were stupid enough to put it on the official financial report.
Which caused a stir, as according to the Polish law, every sponsored
content related to the elections has to be marked as paid for by the
electoral committee… I wonder how big percentage of the Polish
Twitter would have to display information “sponsored by this or
that election committee”…
In other news: have you noticed, that for some time we haven’t reported any new crashes caused by the government drivers? You could think, that they got wiser and started to drive with some common sense. But no, apparently it’s only that other drivers got more careful, as the government drivers are still trying very hard to kill someone, as you can see on that dash-cam movie captured by some random road user forced off the road by another government limo driven by a maniac:
Apparently, the
government drivers are not taught to show some respect to the other
road users. But don’t worry, there are some groups who are taught to
respect others. A school girls in Poland are prepared for the
challenges of their adult lives, and even the potential situation in
which their boss is trying to take advantage of them is covered. This
is the advice they are given:
“First
of all, treat him with respect. Let him know, that his interest in
you is flattering, but it would be even nicer, if he respects you.
Never be rude, don’t show him that you are disgusted: he might feel
humiliated and hurt, he might seek revenge. Respect that, he might
feel offended by your refusal. Be nice!”.
And what
if that won’t be enough? Well…
“You
ask the Almighty, who makes miracles in the situations like that. He
can “shake” the heart of your abuser, who will finally let you
alone and even start to respect and value you. Purity is always worth
it”.
This is an excerpt from the book entitled
“Life to the max: the handbook on romantic and sexual life” given
to the children during the school workshops. The author is
Jean-Benoit Casterman. Or rather “father Jean-Benoit Casterman”…
Because, of course, the best experts in the matter of sexual and
romantic matters are Catholic priests, right?
But should you
really know anything about something you want to spread your opinion
of? In Poland, apparently not. There was a discussion in one of the
talking
heads program in Polsat TV, in which six politicians discussed
the new movie from Wojtek Smarzowski in which he shows the darker
side of the Polish clergy. Near the end of the program, the host
asked, who saw the movie. It turned out that none of the men, who had
so strong opinions about it, have seen it yet…
Which
seems to be quite unusual. As I predicted in last week’s article,
“The Clergy” is to become one of the biggest hits in history.
During the first weekend, it
has been seen by 930 000 Poles – this is the best opening in 30
years. Some Multiplexes screen it up to 20 times per day, and I
personally experienced it’s popularity when I wanted to book tickets
to see it in Scotland, where I live. It turned out despite it being
played in two biggest cinema networks, two weeks before it hits the
screens I was unable to find a single screening in Glasgow when me
and four of my friends would be able to sit together – all of them
had been fully booked, or at best had a few single seats somewhere in
the corners remaining. Finally, I managed to find one screening
booked only in half – in the town 20 miles from Glasgow… This is
definitely not normal for foreign subtitled movie in the UK. But good
for Smarzowski – for once someone will be able to make some money
on the Polish clergy, as usually it is the other way round…
In
Kraków, for example, the city council pressured by the clergy just
amended the local zoning plan, making it possible to build a complex
of high rise building inside one of the city’s ventilation corridors,
thus blocking the air exchange in one of the most smog-ridden cities
in Europe. But who cares about public health, the important thing is
that the
land belongs to the Dominican Order, and is now worth much more,
than it would be if only low rise buildings were allowed there…
This
is not the only case in which local government changes its plans in
such a way that a few chosen ones benefit at the expense of the
locals. A course of planned express way near Radom has been amended
as well. In the old project, the road was to run through some barren
lands, passing the villages in some distance. In the new project, the
road will go by a strange loop finished with the sharp bend, cutting
the village in half (which would require for several houses to be
demolished). The locals points out that the new plan makes the road
going through the plots belonging to the local oligarchs,
including some PiS MP’s, so they can get some money from the
compensation payments…
Some changes are taking place in
Rzeszów as well. Recently there was a grand opening of the newly
built bus station there. There were speeches from the V.I.Ps, cutting
the ribbon, brass orchestra and generally it was a great celebration.
Except that it was premature –
the bus station is nowhere near from being finished, the first
passengers are expected to be able to use it in January. But the
local elections draw close, and the president (surprisingly not from
PiS) was desperate to show some success…
Not everyone
is proud of their achievements though. Adam Adamczyk, minister of
infrastructure, was the only government minister without higher
education. But he no longer is, as two years ago he graduated from
University of Social Sciences in Olkusz. Strangely I did not managed
to find his Alma Mater in Shanghai University ranking, it does not
even has it’s Wikipedia page, but I am pretty sure that to swiftly
obtain a master’s degree from even a lesser known university would be
an achievement for someone, who at the same time works full time as a
government minister. Many people share that view and would like to
read his dissertation, as surely it has to be an exceptional work,
but the university refused to disclose it. One of the journalist sued
it on the grounds that this is a public information, and the case
is now in the Highest Court of Administration. The minister
himself is unable to help, as allegedly he
does not remember not only the topic of his dissertation, but
even in what field of study he obtained his qualifications…
But who knows,
maybe he just really, really wanted to get this master’s degree? Some
would think that to get the degree you should study hard, pass exams
and write a good dissertation. Then if you wanted to become, say, a
professor, you would have to continue your work, have a lot of
academic achievements, publish books and so on. But some say that to
get something, it’s enough to just want it really, really bad, and it
will become true. And it can indeed become true in Poland, if you are
from PiS. Or at least an advisory to president Duda.
Dr
hab Andrzej Zybertowicz for example really wanted to be a professor.
Such decisions are made after seeking opinion of fellow academics
from the field. And what
they think about his academic achievements?
Prof
Marcin Król points out, that since 1995, Andrzej Zybertowicz haven’t
really published anything really significant or even of good quality.
“His academic works are few, and their conclusions are so
underdeveloped, that it’s hard to discuss with them. But they exist.
Andrzej Zybertowicz puts his candidacy to become a professor and it’s
hard to refuse him that right” – he wrote. And so he supports his
candidacy.
Even better is an opinion of prof. Szymon
Wróbel, who wrote “I condemn his academic work” but then added
that “once unleashed, the will to become a professor is
unstoppable. If Andrzej Zybertowicz thinks, that there are reasons
for him to be awarded a tenure, then I suppose there are some”. And
he also supports his candidacy.
What if I really, really
wanted something? Is my will also unstoppable, and the state
institution should accommodate me despite lack of merit? Could I also
become a professor? Or a Champion of Poland in motorbike racing? Or
at least a princess?
This piece was published in Britske Listy
Collage designed using public domain pictures (Pixabay and Wikipedia).
