Co się mówi o Polsce za granicą ?
W nawiązaniu do wątku snowboarder-a "Co się mowi w Polsce ?" chciałbym zapytać kolegów mieszkających, pracujących za granicą o to o się mówi tam o Polsce ?
Czy mówi się cokolwiek, czy też tylko nam się wydaje, że Polska jest tak ważna, że wszyscy muszą o niej rozmawiać ?
W programie "Szkło kontaktowe" na TVN 24 słyszałem dwie skrajne oceny dotyczące wizyty naszego Prezydenta w USA. Obie oceny wygłaszali nasi rodacy mieszkający w USA.
Jak to jest z tym naszym wizerunkiem?
a propos papieza, google news taki artykul znalazl...
Jesli tak wyglada sytuacja aktualnie w Polsce, to jest gorzej niz myslalem...
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Church and faith not shared by all
The battle for the soul of Catholicism is dividing Poland, writes Roger Boyes
May 26, 2006
IN the shadow of a giant, shimmering steel cross in central Warsaw, 17-year-old Alexander Pawlowski has a blunt message for Pope Benedict XVI: "He should tell the Government to stop ramming the Roman Catholic faith down our throats."
The Pope, who has embarked on his first pilgrimage to Poland, is unlikely to heed the schoolboy protester drumming up support against a fervent Catholic Government led by right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
The teenager is, however, one of a growing army of critics who say that Poland is fast becoming the least tolerant EU member.
The Pope is treading in the footsteps of John Paul II and will use his trip to echo his Polish mentor: Stay true to the Catholic faith at a time of Islamic resurgence and shifting global values.
Behind the scenes, though - and explicitly during a planned visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp on Sunday - he will be urging the Polish church to stay out of politics and do more to encourage social tolerance and civic rights.
Critics of the Government - from harassed homosexuals to censored students, from nervous Jewish activists to cowed doctors - want more and are sure to be disappointed by the pontiff.
John Paul made his first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979 and captured a popular mood: it was the first nail in the coffin of communism. Pope Benedict, by contrast, is visiting a country deeply divided and confused.
"It has become 'absurdistan'," said a gynaecologist, speaking in his rooms. He listed recent demands of deputies from the League of Polish Families, a key government coalition partner.
"Some want the Ten Commandments posted on public buildings, another wants cameras put on the entrances of brothels and many want to ban gay schoolteachers."
He is at the sharp end of the new Catholic evangelism. Poland's strict abortion law permits emergency termination in the case of serious fetal deformity or a direct threat to the mother.
"But performing any kind of termination is regarded as a flaw in your career and doctors will do anything to get out of it, however necessary it may be," he said. "We are afraid and have become cowards."
Thomas Baczkowski agrees. He is the chairman of a gay rights group that has been denied public funding. "The noose is tightening," he said.
"Homosexuality was never illegal here but the communist secret police gathered a list of 15,000 gays for their own purposes. Now there are signs that some use could be made of this list by the present rulers."
Politicians have resigned suddenly. "Some of them are people we know to have been secretly gay," Mr Baczkowski said.
Tax inspectors are raiding gay pubs to check their account books. The Prime Minister has denounced homosexuality as abnormal and President Lech Kaczynski, in his previous incarnation as Mayor of Warsaw, banned gay demonstrations and encouraged counter-protests.
Piotr Pazinski, editor of the Jewish magazine Midrasz, has detected what he calls "velvet anti-Semitism" in Poland. Most politicians are wary of openly denouncing the Jews, a very small community. "It's all between the lines, a question of language and atmosphere," he said.
The most forthright manifestation of intolerant Poland is Radio Maryja, which has developed a big following in rural areas and is part of a Catholic media empire.
It broadcasts prayers and hymns interspersed with rough-tongued commentary on freemasons, Jews, homosexuals, Germans and the EU.
The Vatican asked the Polish church to crack down on the station and Father Rydzyk was given the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. This battle for the soul of Catholicism is dividing Poland.
The former Pope effectively steered the Polish church from Rome. Now, it is rudderless.