My take on the abortion row in Poland.

Polish government apparently wants to toughen abortion law and people are protesting against it.

I would protest too, but for very different reasons.

I'm pro life and think that human life is sacred.  I wish I lived in the world where abortion does not happen and where no mother chooses to kill her baby. But we live in a different world where women and pushed to abort their babies for one reason or another.  And they will continue to do so whether abortion is allowed or not. So the choice is not between the world where abortion happens and the world where it doesn't. The choice is between the world where abortion happens, but we show women clearly that they have a number of choices and when they choose to have abortion at least this is done safely and the world where women need to go to the underground and thus risk serious complications, lack of support and potentially years of guilt.

I don't believe toughening the law is the way to stop abortion happening. We should rather be there for women who are in an extremely vulnerable state, ready to listen and help. I know women invest a lot during the nine months of pregnancy and it's often not easy to go through both physically and emotionally. And yet I believe this is not so much compered with how it can hurt after you kill your baby.

Instead of banging on about what an evil abortion is the Polish Church should really concentrate on what alternatives to abortion is. Fundacja Małych Stópek (literally "Little Feet Foundation) does some excellent work making a real difference to women who choose not to have an abortion. We need more initiatives like that instead of marginalising women in life situations which you wouldn't like to find yourself in. We need more men ready to take responsibility for their babies. I think men can play such a big role in reducing the number of abortions. Not by lobbying to toughen abortion laws: rather by taking responsibility for the life their created. Men are so often left out of the picture in the abortion debate, but pregnancy takes two people. And both of them should behave like adults. Leaving the burden on a woman and a woman only means that the choice she has to make is even more difficult.

Nativity Scenes in Krakow.

The tradition of making nativity scenes (szopki) goes back to 19 century in Krakow, when it has been formalised in 19th century.* Each year people make those really elaborate constructions showing the birth of Jesus and this is quite amazing. It takes dedication to make them, especially the big ones (and those are at least 1.2m high) and the tiniest ones, when you need to use tweezers to get all the parts together. It was actually my first time in years when I went to see the szopki and it was surprisingly enjoyable. I'm not a big fan of museum trips, unless it's an archaeological museum, but it was fun. It's sweet that people cultivate the tradition, chapeau bas, because it does take a lot of thinking, time and effort, people spend the entire year making the szopki, you need to love it to do it.

Below, I share some of the nativity scenes I liked in particular.

Krakow demands access to the sea!

This is not pretty, but there is so much going one in here, all things piled up, all the tin foil and excessive number of figurines! Love it!

This one was absolutely tiny, made on a honey plaster with optical fiber all around.

* Want to know more? See here and here.

Are you going back?

I often get asked whether I plan to go back to Poland and my answers started in the past with 'yes, of course', then changed into 'maybe, I'd like to at some point', and gradually evolved into 'no, thank you.'

During those five years I've lost any sense of guilt about my alleged lack of patriotism. I simply don't want to go back to Poland. Recently I had a conversation that really encapsulated the reason why I, and many Polish expats around the world, don't want to come back. It's not so much about the money. Admittedly, you can earn more in the UK or Germany than in Poland. But what is more important is that in Poland you feel like the government is against you as a citizen all the time. And this is extremely discouraging. Imaging going to any governmental office, knowing for a fact that people sitting behind the desk don't want to help you, but want to make your life as difficult as possible. I'm so worked up now, that when I need to get in touch with any governmental offices, I look up the relevant piece of legislation to make sure my case is dealt with fairly and according to the law. It might seem paranoid, but if you don't know your rights you have none. It's sad, but this is how I see it.

After a right-wing candidate won presidential elections, those who voted for him were called stupid, and those on the losing side instantly declared that they would leave the country. I felt offended as a citizen, because for one thing, the president is supposed to represent the entire nation, and secondly, you shouldn't question somebody's mental abilities according to whether he agrees with you or not. Democracy works as it works, and you need to deal with it.

So I'm not coming back any time soon. Unless things change. And they might, because, as this election showed, people are ready to make unexpected and brave choices. In the mean time, I'll keep voting for people who might do something good for Poland.

Not so Polish an attitude.

"This is so not Polish!" we both said after the man left the room.

He was a waiter and he served us food during scholarship interviews last weekend. As it turned out, he worked for the government, but since the Swiss franc have collapsed (and the man had a debt in Swiss francs), he had to take on extra weekend work to be able to pay off the debt. Time was tough for him, but what surprised us most was how positive the man was. He had a beautiful 'can do'

 attitude: he needed extra money to pay off his debt so he simply went out and found extra work. 'It isn't that bad with jobs in Poland' he said, 'you just need to go out and find it. Some people simply don't want to work.' The waiter talked about people who went crazy for money and kept buying unnecessary things which often led to (more) debt.

We were amazed because what I usually see in Poland is a 'can't do' sort of thinking. Can't find work, can't pay off my debt, can't reconcile with my mother, can't have a healthy relationship with my husband. Can't, can't, can't and everyone is against me, especially the government. And here, this man, who undoubtedly found himself in a difficult financial situation and instead of sitting at home and being crossed with the entire world he tried to sort himself out.

Poland would be a better country to live in if more people had such an attitude. If more people were bothered enough to do something with their lives, even when live gets tough and the future looks dark. I always say that your attitude brings you halfway to success.

Is studying abroad just a whim?

What a fantastic idea has the Polish Ministry of Education come up with! It will finance studies abroad of 100 most talented Polish students. What a grand idea! And it will cover the costs of fees, accommodation, maintenance, travel and insurance. Fantastic, isn't it?

Well, there are two major problems with this. First, a smaller one really, although based on a flawed logic,  is that to be released from an obligation to repay you need to either do your PhD in Poland or make social and health security payments here for 5 years during a 10 year period after finished the sponsored studies. I guess the idea behind it was that only by physically attaching somebody to Poland they can 'give back' hat they got, but this is surely not right, you can still work on things that will benefit Poland living elsewhere, paying your social security contributions elsewhere, doing your PhD elsewhere. Secondly, the grant will only be available to students who finished their undergraduate studies in Poland (or 3 years of a 'uniform Master's studies, which largely comes down to the same thing). However, there is much more funding available to Master's students anyway, it's really the undergrads that need financial help. I've had plenty of young people about to finish school asking me how to pay for undergraduate studies, because money is just unavailable. Before I started my course I also worried a lot, but fortunately was lucky enough to get a bursary directly from Oxford. But not everyone is so lucky.

Someone shared this news and one of  the comments said that studying abroad is just a whim and Polish government should not sponsor it. Again, two things here. To deal with the government sponsoring it, I think that the British system is superior here: you take a loan and repay it after your studies. Repayments are small . Of course EU students don't get maintenance grants, which makes it difficult to gather money for living, but the same loan system could be potentially established.

However, more importantly, how could you say that wanting to receive top quality education is just a whim? Let's be honest: Polish universities are not the top of the world. They lack funding and are overcrowded. Old-fashioned structures still prevail. So I don't blame people who want to study abroad, I did it myself. I had a choice: I could study everywhere I wanted and I've chosen the best university I could get into. I've never considered it as something fanciful: I invested in my future, so that I can do something good after my studies. I don't collect degrees: quite frankly I cannot wait to stop studying and start qualifying. Education is something natural though. And everyone should have an opportunity to get the best of it. Studies abroad broaden your horizons, and this is not just an empty phrase. From my own experience I can say that those, who spent some time abroad, either studying or working, are generally more open-minded, understanding and sensitive. Not to say that people who don't do it are doomed to be closed-minded, but why not seize an opportunity?

Funny that going on an Erasmus doesn't provoke such heated discussions. And yet we pay for this whim of hundreds of young people, because it is funded through EU contributions. And such exchange is rarely for grand study purposes: it's rather for making friends and seeing another country, which is not bad in itself, but I think if we question financing someone's studies abroad by the government, we should first look into programmes like Erasmus: doing a whole degree abroad is a completely different thing.

You can read about the programme on the government site here (all in Polish, but translation plugins are a blessing!).

It's Friday! - Time for Good Polish Music.

This is a bit of a new series I had in mind: each Friday I'll post a video with some good Polish music. We have some true pearls there and I'll let them shine here.

Today: Niejasności by Gaba Kulka. Don't ask me what the song is about. It's rather abstract and, as it happens with languages sometimes, not that easy to translate. Just sit back and enjoy.