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Christian Witness, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

The faith divide and a giant Jesus in Poland

From The Guardian: Poland’s faith divide: Ignited by the Smolensk crash, bitter tensions have emerged between Poland’s Catholics and liberal secularists

When 96 Polish dignitaries, including President Lech Kaczyński, were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk in April, the world briefly turned its gaze to Poland and its often tragic history. The victims were travelling to a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre – the murder of some 20,000 Poles by the Soviet secret police in 1940. The two tragedies became fused in the public imagination, reviving old anti-Russian prejudices and seeing the memorials to Katyn across Poland become the focus of fresh mourning. But the events that followed, and their consequences for Poland’s religious culture, have been little-covered in western Europe. The last six months have seen a bitter controversy emerge, raising serious questions about the place of religion in Polish public life.

Despite its image as one of the most homogeneously Catholic countries in Europe, Poland’s early history was one of religious diversity, with large Jewish and Orthodox populations, and the later founding of the Uniate church, making for a variety of traditions. The Warsaw Confederation of 1573 formalised a religious tolerance that had long been in existence and which had seen the country become a refuge for Protestants. The violence and extremism of the Reformation was hardly seen in Poland, and the country gained a reputation as an intellectual powerhouse in eastern Europe. With the arrival of the Jesuits in the late 16th century, however, the country experienced increasing Catholic dominance. The 1724 Tumult of Toruń, when Protestants ransacked a Jesuit collegium and were horribly executed for defiling Catholic images, marked a waning of religious tolerance. Finally, when Poland was carved up by competing empires in the late 18th century, Catholicism became a surrogate for nationalism in a fragmented country. It is the legacy of this that the country still deals with today.

The “cross controversy” that followed the Smolensk crash and dominated Polish headlines this summer was evidence of the intimate intertwining of Polish national identity and Catholic devotion. Threats to remove the large cross set up in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw as a memorial to the pro-church Kaczyński brought out conservative Catholic protestors in force. Styling themselves as “cross-defenders” and “true Poles”, they staged a round-the-clock vigil at a makeshift shrine. For a full month they could be found there kneeling in prayer, or blasting patriotic songs from a tinny stereo, holding their hands aloft in the victory sign that came to symbolise the Solidarność-led freedom movement in communist-era Poland.

The shrine provided a snapshot of the essence of contemporary Polish Catholic culture. Images of Pope John Paul II, Saint Faustina’s Christ of the Divine Mercy, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko and Our Lady of Czestochowa appeared alongside photos of Kaczyński, indicating his rapid transformation into a quasi-religious hero of the Catholic right. Popiełuszko, a political dissident murdered by the communist regime, and the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, mutilated by a Hussite heretic and later the miraculous defeater of invading Swedes, both carry strong messages about heroic Polish resistance to foreign foes and the threats posed to Catholics by unbelievers. Like in the equating of Katyn and Smolensk, historical specificity is erased to make universal symbols of Polish suffering, and at this shrine Catholicism was articulated as the essence of Poland’s history and nationhood.

But the cross controversy’s reaffirmation of conservative Catholic identity was met by an opposing force. Objecting to this overtly religious symbol at the seat of government, secularists and atheists were galvanised into action, staging a rally to call for the removal of the cross. Organised via the Akcja Krzyz (Cross Action) group on Facebook, this protest was dominated by a younger generation who were looking back to Poland’s history of liberalism and the prizing of enlightenment values. With the founding of the Polish Association of Rationalists in 2005, as well as the staging of an atheist “coming out” march in Kraków in October 2009 (repeated to great success just two weeks ago), another strand of Polish identity is emerging.

In mid-September, the Smolensk cross was finally removed. The shrine was cleared away, but the passions that built it are far from diffused and other controversies threaten to reawaken the conflict between conservative Catholics and secularist liberals. The atheist movement continues to grow, and there are also signs of greater religious diversity in the country, with an Islamic cultural centre planned for Warsaw, and more mosques being built across Poland. But hardline Catholic views also remain strong … Meanwhile, in a bold statement of Poland’s Catholic identity, the town of Świebodzin in the west of the country is building the biggest statue of Jesus in the world…

This article covers a lot of territory and hits the highlights of Polish religious and ethnic diversity very well. What Poland had been, for most of its history, was a welcoming and diverse country where the right to freedom of thought and conscience were protected. Much of that changed with the 18th century divisions of Poland. Poles were faced with rabid anti-Polish policies enacted in the German and Russian controlled sections of Poland (nationalism as well as religious and linguistic unity were the protective backlash), policies that pitted one ethnic group against the next in the Austrio-Hungarian controlled territories (which shored up the Empire’s control since the natives were too busy fighting each other to fight against the Empire), the murder of 6 million Catholic and Jewish Poles by Nazi Germany, and the subsequent shifting of borders leading to a more homogenous state. The result of the last 196 years is exactly the national mythos that exists today. Those who understand the longer and wider 1,044 year history of Poland know that it citizens achieve the greatest in human endeavor from diversity.

On the giant Jesus… what upsets me is not the fact of the statue, but the motivations behind it. The great buildings, cathedrals, monuments and such were always constructed to the glory of God and the memory of others. Not so much in this case! Underpaid and cheated workers building a statute to attract tourist money on a shaky foundation; not exactly a tribute to our God and King. Local newspaper editor Waldemar Roszczuk gets it right: “It’s a monster of a statue which has nothing to do with Christian teaching.” Amen!

Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

S+P Henryk Górecki

From the Irish Times: Composer of haunting ‘Symphony of Sorrows’

Henryk Górecki, who has died aged 76, was a Polish composer of classical music whose haunting Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrows, drew inspiration from an inscription scrawled on a Nazi prison wall during the second World War.

With its themes of war and separation in a slow, stark style, it became a surprise best-seller following a recording released in 1992 and given much airtime by the UK radio station, Classic FM.

The piece uses simple, spare settings of Polish materials – the late 15th-century Holy Cross Lament, the wartime graffiti and a folksong, and melody and words from the Opole region on Poland’s south-west border. This led some to identify in it a new spirituality filling a God-shaped space in an era bereft of previous certainties.

The 1992 recording by the London Sinfonietta under David Zinman, with the soprano Dawn Upshaw, that achieved international acceptance was written more than 15 years earlier in 1976.

Henryk Górecki was born at Czernica, near Rybnik, in Upper Silesia, near Poland’s coalmining area west of Katowice. His father worked in the goods office at a railway station. His mother died on her son’s second birthday, and the subsequent second World War years were made yet bleaker for Górecki by tubercular complications after a fall.

He worked as a teacher for two years after leaving school in 1951 before taking up regular music studies in Rybnik. After composition lessons in Katowice, he spent the last three months of 1961 in Paris, his first sustained release from the isolation of Katowice. But after his return from Paris, he remained mostly in Katowice, dogged by ill health, though he was in West Berlin for nine months in 1973-74 on a scholarship. From 1975 to 1979 he was rector of Katowice’s music school. Polish folksongs became a much more integral source of inspiration for him and were just as important as his attachment to Polish medieval and Renaissance music.

In the 1960s, he continued to write works that developed the frantic activity, percussive attack and new string techniques of Scontri: first in the Genesis cycle of works (1962-63), then in Refren (Refrain, 1965) for orchestra.

The composer’s First Symphony , subtitled 1959 , had deployed with a vengeance the sonic blocks typical of “texture music”. His Second Symphony was commissioned for the 500th anniversary in 1973 of the birth of the Polish astronomer Copernicus. It sets – in Latin, for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra – texts drawn from Psalms 136 and 146 and from the introduction of Copernicus’s treatise De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium.

Górecki’s embrace of modal materials redolent of their national and religious origins continued with Beatus Vir – psalm settings for baritone, chorus and orchestra…

This personal triumph to some degree offset his treatment at the hands of the communist Party, when he had been airbrushed out of all the records of the Katowice music school for a significant anniversary earlier that year.

…

Not everything that Górecki wrote during the last 30 years of his life was directly inspired by his Catholic faith and meditative style. References to a wide range of other musics – from Beethoven to 20th-century popular idioms – became a notable feature of the composer’s later output.

…

He once described himself as a recluse. He avoided the limelight yet still upset the authorities in other ways from time to time. In using modernist ideas Górecki demonstrated that it was possible for a late 20th-century composer to write music of individuality and substance while simultaneously achieving unusual success.

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Chicago area commemoration honors Poland

President Kaczynski Way Opened in Chicago
By Raymond Rolak

Chicago– Lech Aleksander Kaczyński, the former Polish President killed in the recent Smolensk, Russia plane crash, had a street named in his memory in Chicago. It will be on the the Avenue of Honor. The street will be run at the crossing of Belmont – Central avenues in a very popular and historic area of Portage Park.

At the first intersection near Belmont – Central, a ceremonial unveiling of a plaque with the name of the street Lech Kaczynski Way was unveiled. During the ceremony, a special letter from Jaroslaw Kaczynski was read by the cousin of the president, Jan Tomaszewski.

Daniel Pogorzelski of the Historical Society North-West Chicago got the campaign started for the street naming. Two councilmen, Ariel Reboyras and Thomas Allen helped. The greatest support was from the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley.

The district around the streets of Belmont and Central Park was known colloquially as Wladyslawowo. One of the central points of the area was the Catholic parish church of St. Ladislaus. Another reminder of those old, romantic days is nearby Frederic Chopin Park. For those families that come from the old Polish neighborhood, everything there has been preserved from the times of their fathers and grandfathers. It is a reminder of the old-city in Chicago. A time of past American-Polonia, busia and dzia-dzia fond memories.

The intersection of Belmont Avenue and Central Park is more than a hundred years old and the neighborhood was made up of mostly Polish immigrants.

Representatives of Polish-American organizations, with Alderman Ariel Reboyras from the 30th Ward, celebrated the naming and dedication of Lech Kaczynski Way in Chicago. The street signs are in the historic Portage Park Polish neighborhood. Photo by: Teresa B. Buckner
Art, Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Writing of interest

Articles on Polish and Polish-American history by Martin S. Nowak from the Polish Culture Newsletter, No. 121:

Poles Developed Early Television:

It has recently become fashionable to credit the invention of television to the American Philo T. Farnsworth. But the truth is, modern television was not so much a single invention by a single person, but a long process of interdependent discoveries. Many scientists from different countries and backgrounds contributed to its development. Among them were Poles…

John Quincy Adams, future US President, visiting Silesia:

In the year 1800, John Quincy Adams, the U.S. Minister to Prussia, undertook a two month tour of Silesia, then part of Prussia. He detailed his experiences in a series of letters to his brother. It was a thoroughly German area in that time (Western Silesia) that Adams visited, yet it is interesting to note the observations of a distinguished American, later President of the United States, of this region. Silesia, during its complicated history, was in centuries past a part of Poland and is currently a part of that nation, comprising its southwestern region.

Starting by horse-drawn coach from his residence in Berlin, Adams’ first stop in what is now Polish territory was at Gruenberg, today the city of Zielona Gora. Noting its cloth mills and vineyards, Adams and his party, which included his wife and two servants, continued on their carriage ride deeper to Silesia. Their first stop in the province was at Bunzlau. There, Adams observed the main industry of the town. Even today it is famous, for the Polish name of this place is Boleslawiec, home of the world renowned Boleslawiec pottery…

Littlepage: American Citizen, Polish Statesman:

Lewis Littlepage was a young American who was a figure in the final years of the Kingdom of Poland. He was born in Virginia in 1762 into a well-connected family and at seventeen was sent to Madrid to live in the household of John Jay, U.S. Minister to Spain. There, he furthered his education in politics and foreign diplomacy in a hands-on manner.

In 1781 he joined the Spanish army and served with distinction against the British in Gibraltar. Two years later the French General Lafayette accompanied him to Paris, and Littlepage was introduced to the French royal court where he made a favorable impression.

In 1784, Littlepage traveled across Europe with a French prince who was married to a Polish woman. In Poland, he became acquainted with the leading social and political families and was personally introduced to King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Littlepage made an immediate impression upon the king, for he was charming, witty and intelligent bordering on genius. They shared an interest in books and liberal ideas. King Stanisław admired all things American, and Littlepage’s friendship with Lafayette and knowledge of France and Spain appealed to him. The king offered Littlepage a position in his court…

Poetry and Memory from Dr. John Guzlowski:

The website Editions Bibliotekos features a short personal essay Dr. Guzlowski wrote about his changing attitudes toward his parents and their experiences as Polish slave laborers in Nazi Germany in Truth Teller – John Guzlowski.

For the last thirty years, I’ve been writing about my parents and their experiences during World War II. I’ve written about how my dad spent four years in Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Germany, and how my mother survived the day the Nazis raped and killed her mother and her sister but was taken to a slave labor camp in Germany. I’ve written about this and so many other things that happened to my mother and father first in Poland when the Nazis invaded, then in Germany where my parents were imprisoned, and finally in America after the war.

But growing up, I never thought I would…

…and a piece about the importance of patience in writing in Writing is an Incremental Art:

When you’re a writer, there are bad days and good days. Some days, you sit and write, and the words feel like they’re in someone else’s head; and some days, you write and the writing is fast and right, and you think that each word is a gift from some muse that really and completely loves and cares for you and what you have to say.

That’s the way it is for all of us, I think, but one of the things that I’ve come to feel about writing on bad days as well as good ones is that the progress, the movement forward, the work, is…

Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Some events

Spaghetti Dinner: Good Shepherd Polish National Catholic Church, 269 E. Main St., Plymouth, PA. on Saturday, November 15th from 4-7pm. Spaghetti with meat sauce, breadsticks, salad bar, dessert and beverage served. Adults pay $8; $4 for children younger than 10 years old. Takeouts available! A gift card raffle is included. Call 570-690-5411 for more information.

Cirque du Soleil’s WINTUK: The Polish Community Center is sponsoring a bus trip to see Cirque du Soleil’s WINTUK at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, November 20th. Tickets are $85 and include a show ticket plus round trip charter bus transportation. A regular ticket alone costs $150!!! The bus leaves the University at Albany from the Collins Circle bus stop at 7am. The show begins at 11am. There will be free time in afternoon to see NYC. The bus departs NYC at 6pm arriving back in Albany around 9pm. For more information, please contact Susan or Cathleen.

Thanksgiving Service: St. Mary’s Polish National Catholic Church will host Duryea’s annual ecumenical Thanksgiving service Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. at the church, 200 Stephenson St., Duryea, PA. The members of the Duryea Police Department, the Duryea Ambulance and Rescue Association, the Excelsior Hose Company No. 2, and Germania Hose Company will be honored at this time. Clergy from other Duryea area churches will participate in the service. Following the service, refreshments will be served in the church hall. Lori Biscontini is the chairwoman for this event. The Rev. Carmen Bolock is the pastor of St. Mary’s PNCC, and Byron Wescott is the church chairman.

St. Andrew’s Ball: The Polish Community Center of Albany cordially invites everyone for our annual Fall Dance on Saturday, November 27th, beginning at 7pm. Food from our Polish-American kitchen will be served and there will be a cash bar. Tickets are $15 per person. Entertainment by the Galicja Band. The Center is located at 225 Washington Ave Ext., Albany NY. For reservations and information please call Dariusz Figiel at 518-235-6001 or Marian Wiercioch at 518-235-5549.

Andrzejki 2010: Zapraszamy na wspólną zabawę Andrzejkową która odbędzie się w Polskim Klubie, 225 Washington Ave Ext, Albany, NY na 27-go listopada o godzinie 7-ej wieczorem. Wstep $15 od osoby. Polsko–Amerykańska kuchnia! i “cash bar!” Gra zespół “Galicja” z Connecticut. Po bilety prosimy dzwonić do: Dariusza Figiel 518-235-6001 albo Mariana Wiercioch 518- 235-5549.

Everything Else, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Children of the rich

After reading the story I will point to below, my sarcasm meter went off the scale. I’ve long held that the rich, those who made their own wealth through enterprise are occasionally faced with a child or children who, if left to run the business would destroy it in a matter of minutes. As such, the rich are faced with a challenge in determining some future for their less than adequate (in a business sense) children. Where do these children end up? Typically politics. George W. Bush was a prime example – failed in every business he touched from oil wells to baseball, soft landing in politics. Looking at the pedigree of certain politicians, well, you know why they are there – let them screw up the government, just keep ’em away from the family business.

It appears that another alternative for these children is the arts.

If you have some modicum of common sense, looking at the pictures below might give a clue as to who one might consider trusting:

Trustworthy business people with insight into international intrigue?
Polish Priests and members of Opus Dei seeking to rule the world?

…but, a scion of the rich?

Hi, I'm Roger. Which did I choose? -- Photo via Roger Davidson Music

From the Gothamist and Interia: Laptop Repair Leads To $6 Million Scam Involving Opus Dei, More

If a 58-year-old pianist, whose family founded a huge oilfield services company, is worried about his laptop being infected with a computer virus, why not grift him for $6 million by telling him that not only was the laptop infected, but that he needed physical protection from the worm’s creators based in Honduras and that ” Polish priests affiliated with Opus Dei were attempting to possibly harm” him? That’s what computer repairman Vickram Bedi and Helga Invarsdottir are accused of doing to victim Roger Davidson.

Back in 2004, Davidson went to Bedi’s Mount Kisco, NY repair shop, Datalink, because he was worried music composition on the laptop would be lost. The Westchester DA’s press release about the alleged crime is kind of amazing, so here it is:

The scheme commenced in August 2004, when the victim’s computer developed a virus. Concerned that documents, photos and more importantly the music he had written and had stored on the computer could be lost, the victim took the computer to the defendant’s premises to have it repaired. Bedi confirmed that victim’s computer had a virus and indicated that the virus was extremely virulent and had also damaged Datalink’s computers.

Bedi told the victim that he had the facility, the contacts, and the means of tracking down the source of this virus that specifically targeted the victim’s computer and that he and his family were in grave danger. As a result, Bedi convinced the victim to not only begin paying for computer data retrieval and security, but also to begin paying for necessary personal physical protection.

Bedi subsequently advised the victim that he successfully tracked the source of the computer virus to a remote village in Honduras. Bedi informed him that the hard drive was the source of the worm that had invaded the computer and advised the victim that Bedi’s uncle, who Bedi contended is an officer in the Indian military, flew to Honduras in an Indian military aircraft during a reconnaissance mission and obtained the hard drive.

Bedi further related that his uncle obtained information that Polish priests affiliated with Opus Dei were attempting to possibly harm the victim.

Bedi also advised the victim that the Central Intelligence Agency had subcontracted with Bedi to perform work which would prevent any attempts by the Polish priests associated with Opus Dei to infiltrate the U.S. government.

Over this period Datalink charged the victim’s American Express card accounts on a continuing and monthly basis, resulting of a larceny of more than six million dollars.

It’s possible that the pair may have scammed Davidson, whose great-grandfather and great-grand uncle founded Schlumberger Ltd., for $20 million. Harrison police uncovered the scam when investigating a separate complaint against Bedi. Bedi and Invarsdottir were charged with grand larceny and their bail was set at $5 million bond over $3 million cash each. The pair also had to give up their passports.

Westchester DA Janet DiFiore said, “As is charged in the complaint, these two defendants preyed upon, duped and exploited the fears of this victim with cold calculation and callousness. The systematic method with which they continued the larceny over a period of more than six years is nothing short of heartless.”

I think they could have told him that an invading Martian army had infected his computer, or perhaps it was the Jews. The sorry fact is that people are indeed dumb enough to read Dan Brown and other fiction and draw real life conclusions from it. They believe in every conspiracy flight of fancy from Nostradamus, to Masonic, Bilderberg, and Trilateral Commission plots. There is a scary cleric around every corner just waiting for a piano player with some “very important world shattering sheet music.” Why isn’t he running for office?

Of course there is the unsaid: Where did Mr. Davidson learn (from mom, dad, grandpa?) that Polacks and Catholics can never be trusted. Does he have a load of bigotry that feeds his fears?

By the way, the Star Trek tie is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Maybe the Vulcans will beam him up to save him from the Polacks?

More info from Pressan – the Icelandic Press:

Helga Invarsdottir’s father claims that Mr. Davidson was having an affair with her, even though he is/was married. Ms. Invarsdottir and Mr. Bedi sat on the “board” of Mr. Davidson’s Society for Universal Sacred Music, Inc. It appears that she was its Treasurer.

Art, Events, Media, Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Xpost to PGF, , , , , , , , ,

Catching up with the Cosmopolitan Review

The Cosmopolitan Review is published by the alumni of Poland in the Rockies, a biennial symposium in Polish studies held at Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Here is a video from last summer’s sessions:

Each Review is a wealth of information on everything from books to politics, history to poetry. The following are links to articles from the Summer 2010 and Fall 2010 editions I thought you might find interesting and enlightening:

Summer 2010, Vol. 2, No. 2

Poland

… And beyond

Art

Essays

Books & Docs

Poetry

From the Past Into the Present

Fall 2010 Vol. 2, No. 3

Poles & Poland

… And beyond

Books, language, poetry…

Christian Witness, Everything Else, Saints and Martyrs, ,

Scare them all

I have always found the Young Fogey’s posts that refer to “scarring Protestants” enjoyable (ok, downright funny – see here and here for examples). In tribute, I found a couple that will scare both Roman Catholics and Protestants:

From Fr. Calvo at Holy Name Parish in Deerfield, MA for those fearful of “schismatics” who promote old guys in apronsA hallmark of Masonic tradition is the investment of its members with an apron. The orginal link which was posted here pointed to an artist who creates beautiful and very traditional Masonic aprons. The link has been removed at the website owner’s request, citing that the link itself was a copyright violation. While I disagree with that premise, I have complied with the owner’s request out of courtesy. For more on the right to link see Buzz Machine, the Guardian, and Rite2Link. and “sorcery:”

From the Buffalo News in Where relics of saints abound for those fearful of Catholic devotion and the bones and clothes of the saints:

In the evenings, when the Seneca Niagara Casino’s neon sign seems to pour like a waterfall and cars line up by the front-door valet, the stone church next door attracts its own admirers with its lighted spires and large, sparkling display of bone chips from old saints.

One night last week — before today’s Catholic All Saints Day — a parishioner sat in the pew near the relics to explain why he comes alone to pray when he feels aggravated by people in his life. Here in the quiet it is nice to feel close to St. Francis of Assisi, the saint known for relationship struggles with his father.

“It’s an outlet,” said Chuck Vacanti, with matter-of-fact cheer.

The cache of 1,144 religious relics — mostly mounted and framed bone fragments the size of pencil tips, or threads from saints’ clothes — is one of the largest in the United States, according to the Rev. Michael Burzynski, who has collected them since he was a young man in graduate school. In the decade he has led St. Mary of the Cataract, they have added intrigue — and maybe luck to the 1847 church with its unusual juxtaposition to the nearby casino…

Media, Perspective, , , ,

The business cycle – what happens to the entrenched

From the New Yorker: Blockbuster, Netflix, and the future of rentals in The Next Level by James Surowiecki

An interesting read. In a few paragraphs he captures how companies can become entrenched and beholden to a model whose day has passed. Will Netflix be next?

In the nineteen-eighties, a new kind of chain store came to dominate American shopping: the “category killer.” These stores killed off all competition in a category by stocking a near-endless variety of products at prices that small retailers couldn’t match. Across America, independent stores went out of business, and the suburban landscape became freckled with Toys R Us, CompUSA, and Home Depot superstores. But the category killers’ reign turned out to be more fragile than expected. In the past decade, CompUSA and Circuit City have disappeared. Toys R Us has struggled to stay afloat, and Barnes & Noble is in the midst of a boardroom battle prompted by financial woes. And, last month, Blockbuster finally admitted the inevitable and declared Chapter 11.

The obvious reason for all this is the Internet; Blockbuster’s demise, for one, was inextricably linked to the success of Netflix. But this raises a deeper question: why didn’t the category killers colonize the Web the way they colonized suburbia? That was what pundits expected. Companies like Blockbuster, the argument went, had customer expertise, sophisticated inventory management, and strong brands. And, unlike the new Internet companies, they’d be able to offer customers both e-commerce and physical stores—“clicks and mortar.” It seemed like the perfect combination.

The problem—in Blockbuster’s case, at least—was that the very features that people thought were strengths turned out to be weaknesses…

Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Xpost to PGF, , , , , , ,

Upcoming events – activism, authors, food, and more

At Good Shepherd PNCC in Plymouth, PA: Potato-Cheese Pierogi Sale on Sunday, October 31st from 3-5 p.m. at the Parish, 269 E. Main St., Plymouth, PA. To place pre-orders, please call 570-690-5411.

At All Saints PNCC in Rome, NY: Parish Dinner and Food Sale: All Saints will be holding a fund raiser to raise money for a new heating system for the Parish on Sunday, November 7th from 12 noon to 3pm, or until sold out. A choice of Chicken Riggies or Pork Chops will be served with tomato basil soup, and salad. Appropriate side dishes will be served. Homemade desserts will be included. Orders for Thanksgiving pierogi and galumbki will also be taken. Cost for the dinner is is $10.00 per person. For more information, please call 315-337-2382 or send an E-mail.

From IWJ: National Day of Action Against Wage Theft: A National Day of Action Against Wage Theft is being scheduled for Thursday, November 18th. November 18 is one week before Thanksgiving, a time when we celebrate our plenty at feasts throughout the nation. But workers who have had their legal wages stolen will be struggling to provide for their families this season. IWJ and workers across the country whose wages have been stolen need your help.

A Conference Call discussing the event will take place next Thursday, November 4th where you can learn what you can do in your community on that critical day. Please join in at 2pm EST. The call-in number is (760) 569-0111 and the Participant Access Code is: 1085004#. Groups across the country are organizing rallies, bus tours, prayer vigils, educational forums and legislative visits to highlight the ongoing crisis of wage theft and the many ways that workers and communities are fighting it.

From Duke University: An evening with Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk: One of Poland’s best contemporary writers, Olga Tokarczuk, will be reading from her work at The Perkins Library, Duke University on Thursday, November 11th at 7:30pm. This is a great opportunity to learn more about contemporary Polish culture, the literary scene, and to meet the author of Primeval and Other Times. Please E-mail Beth Holmgren for more information.

Olga Tokarczuk was born in 1962 in Sulechów near Zielona Góra, Poland. A recipient of all of Poland’s top literary awards, she is one of the most critically acclaimed authors of her generation. After finishing her psychology degree at the University of Warsaw, she initially practiced as a therapist. Since the publication of her first book in 1989, a collection of poems, Tokarczuk has published nine volumes of stories, novellas, and novels. In English her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, as has her novel House of Day, House of Night. In 1998 Tokarczuk moved to a small village near the Czech border and now divides her time between there and Wroclaw. For her latest novel, Bieguni [The Runners], she received Poland’s top book award, the Nike Prize, in 2008.

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