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Polish Buffet at BVMC, Latham, NY

BVMC kitchen is serving a Polish/American Buffet on Friday, February 5th from 4 – 7:30 PM. The buffet is $15 all you can eat, children 6-12 $6; under 5 free. The buffet includes:

Gołąbki, bigos, potato pancakes w/applesauce or sour cream, kluski, kielbasa w/sauerkraut, potato & cheese or kraut pierogi. Also available are baked ziti w/meatballs, eggplant parmesan, tossed salad, Italian and Rye bread. Desserts: chocolate cake, bread pudding, tapioca pudding. Hot Coffee and Tea. BVMC will also be selling frozen Polish food.

Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa, 250 Maxwell Rd., Latham, NY. Call 518-453-2258 for more information.

Art, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Poland’s Got Talent – and the most popular dance in Poland

Yes, he’s an accordionist, but neither the music nor dance are Polka. The winner of Poland’s Got Talent, Marcin Wyrostek and his group, Tango Corazon Quintet, have just released an album, “Magia del tango” (loosely: The Magic of Tango). Here’s a sample:

Poles have a great affinity for the Tango and it is hard to find a Pole who can’t bust a few great Tango moves.

The Polka, at least in the style found in Polish-American circles, is generally unheard of in Poland. Traditional Polka like dances such as the Mazur in addition to four other dances, the Polonez, Krakowiak, Kujawiak, and Oberek, are the five “National Dances” of Poland. Franz Xaver Scharwenka wrote 5 Polish Dances for piano, Op. 3 which walks through the five. Here is Op.3, No.2

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

U.S. Embassy in Poland accepting applications

United States Institutes 2010 (program szkoleniowy w USA dla nauczycieli i wykładowców z całego świata)

USA Ambasada USA w Warszawie zaprasza do składania podań na program Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI), który odbędzie się w lecie 2010 roku.

Applications Accepted until January 25, 2010 (Podania można składać do 25 stycznia 2010).

The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is pleased to invite candidate nominations for the Summer 2010 Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) for University Faculty and Secondary School Educators. University-Level and Faculty members participate in intensive post-graduate level academic programs with integrated study tours. The programs provide foreign university faculty and other scholars the opportunity to deepen their understanding of American society, culture and institutions. The ultimate goal is to strengthen curricula and to improve the quality of teaching about the United States in academic institutions abroad. Secondary School Educators attend a six-week post-graduate seminar in the United States. All of the institute programs will be held this summer at different U.S. universities and colleges beginning in mid-June 2010. Space in the institutes is very limited. To be competitive, candidates must have excellent proficiency in English and outstanding qualifications. Application Deadline: January 25, 2010.

The SUSI programs in six institutes for University-Level and Faculty members:

  • Study of the U.S. Institute on U.S. Culture and Society
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on American Politics and Political Thought
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Contemporary American Literature
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Foreign Policy
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Journalism and Media
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism

SUSI Programs for Secondary School Educators:

The institute programs are an opportunity for secondary school teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum developers, textbook writers, and other educational professionals to attend a six-week post-graduate seminar in the United States.

All of the institute programs will be held this summer at different U.S. universities and colleges over the course of six weeks beginning in mid June 2010.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Yo! Polish dog

From the BBC: English lessons for ‘Polish’ dog

A dog caused confusion in an animal home when he failed to respond to basic commands – until staff realised he could only understand Polish.

Staff at the RSPCA centre in Oldham, Greater Manchester, originally thought Cent the collie was deaf.

But when they looked into his history they realised he came from a Polish family and so did not “speak” English.

So staff brushed up on Polish commands and, four months on, they say Cent is now bilingual and ready for a new home.

“When he came in he wasn’t responding to the basic commands,” said care assistant Karen Heath.

“We couldn’t understand why at first but when we’ve looked at his records and his history he has come from a Polish family.

“So obviously we’ve gathered from that he doesn’t understand the English language, so therefore he won’t understand our basic commands.”

Staff turned to the internet for phrases Cent could recognise – although they are unsure of the pronunciation…

A consequence of the massive Polish emigration to England which is now returning to Poland due to better economic conditions back home.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , ,

What is Eastern Europe

From The Economist: Wrongly labelled: The economic downturn has made it harder to speak sensibly of a region called —eastern Europe—

IT WAS never a very coherent idea and it is becoming a damaging one. —Eastern Europe— is a geographical oddity that includes the Czech Republic (in the middle of the continent) but not Greece or Cyprus (supposedly —western— Europe but in the far south-east). It makes little sense historically either: it includes countries (like Ukraine) that were under the heel of the Soviet empire for decades and those (Albania, say) that only brushed it. Some of those countries had harsh planned economies; others had their own version of —goulash communism— (Hungary) or —self-managed socialism— (Yugoslavia).

Already unreliable in 1989, the label has stretched to meaninglessness as those countries’ fortunes have diverged since the collapse of communism. The nearly 30 states that once, either under their own names or as part of somewhere else, bore the label —communist— now have more differences than similarities. Yet calling them —eastern Europe— suggests not only a common fate under totalitarian rule, but a host of ills that go with it: a troubled history then; bad government and economic misery now.

The economic downturn has shown how misleading this is. Worries about —contagion— from the banking crisis in Latvia raised risk premiums in otherwise solid economies such as Poland and the Czech Republic—”a nonsense based on outsiders’ perceptions of other outsiders’ fears. In fact, the continent’s biggest financial upheaval is in Iceland (see article, article), and the biggest forecast budget deficits in the European Union next year will not be in some basket-cases from the ex-communist —east— but in Britain and in Greece. The new government in Athens is grappling with a budget deficit of at least 12.7% of GDP and possibly as much as 14.5%. European Commission officials are discussing that in Greece this week…

Of course Eastern Europe was always a political construct arising from a natavist world view coupled with anti-communist politics of the Cold War. Geographically, the center of Europe is in Lithuania, and Poland is resolutely in the middle of Central Europe.

It is also interesting to note that several Cold War constructs still prevail. Poles are the last “Eastern Europeans” who need a visa to travel to the United States, and at a prohibitive cost at that. Also, there is still a lack of degree equivalency so that Poles coming to the U.S., as doctors, dentists, and in other professions, must finance a whole second education. All of this is what’s left of an unfortunate history, one, as the article suggests, that we must get beyond.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Traditional Opłatek at the Albany PCC

The Albany Polish Community Center will be holding a traditional Polish Opłatek on Saturday January 16, 2010 at 6 pm. The PCC is located at 225 Washington Ave Ext, Albany NY 12205.

Tickets are $12 per person/kids 12 and under are free and includes dinner, singing of Polish carols and a Polish Holiday atmosphere!

For reservations please call 518-272-5727 or 518-456-3995

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Respecting the silence, telling the stories

Dr. John Z. Guzlowski recently posted a short blog about journalist Justine Jablonska’s series of online articles about four Poles who survived the Nazi and Soviet invasions of Poland. In The Stories of Four Poles he notes:

The population of Poland was about 36,000,000 when the Nazis decided to destroy the country and its people. Six million of them died. The ones who didn’t die lived unimaginable lives for decades and decades to come, first under the hammer of the Nazis and then under the hammer and sickle of the Communists.

Not all of them want to talk about what happened. Some Poles don’t want to remember the killings, brutality, deportation, enslavement, deprivation, and suffering that many of them felt would never end. My mother was one of these Poles. If I asked her about what those years under the Nazis were like, she would wave me away and tell me simply, “If they give you bread, you eat it. If they beat you, you run away.”

I respect the silence of those like my mother who wouldn’t talk about those years. I’m sure she felt that she was protecting my sister Donna and me from the kind of sorrow few can bear.

Other Poles, however, were like my dad. He was a man who felt that it was his duty to let people know about the terrible things that were done. He didn’t want people to forget the evil that came down upon the Poles.

Justine Jablonska, a graduate student in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, recently published a series of reports about four Poles who, like my father, feel that they must keep the memories of what happened alive.

These reports are gathered together under the title “Four stories: The nurse, the child, the Resistance fighter and the Home Army soldier.”…

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