Tougher than TRUMP

If you think Trump talks tough... Recently, Beata Mateusiak-Pielucha one of the MPs of PiS (the Law and Justice party), expressed her wish to have all Atheists, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims swear and adhere to the Polish constitution and Polish beliefs. Those who do not fulfill this requirement, she said, should be deported.

Beata Mateusizk - cracking a smile?

Similar deportation techniques have already been used by the Polish government before: when in 1968, after conflict within the PZPR (Polish United Workers’ Party), purging of the party took place. The basis of this purging was the Jewish decent of certain party members. Thousands of people, and families, were sent away with a one-way ticket. It is not surprising that many noticed correlations to Mateusiak-Pielucha’s statement, which once again shows who is a “true Pole” and who isn’t.

Polish Subterranean Winner

The Dialogue Centre Upheavals is part of the National Museum in Szczecin and this unique subterranean building won the title "World Building of the Year 2016" at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin. It was designed by Polish architect Robert Konieczny, principal at KWK studio.

While the vast exhibit area is buried underground, its roof serves as a huge public space much like a village square. 

Roof of the Museum

Inside the Subterranean Museum

The structure is built entirely of pre-cast concrete and its radical sunken form was an intentional response to the nearby Philharmonic Hall, an already-iconic building designed by Barozzi Veiga, that just last year won the Mies van der Rohe Award – the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

The museum addresses a fifty-year time span that is the most tumultuous period of Poland's history. The starting point is the beginning of World War II when Poland lost its independence to the invading German Army. The exhibit continues through concentration camps, Stalinism, protests in the shipyards and concludes with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the breakup of the former Soviet Union.

This is a piece of topography as well as a museum... a design which addresses the past in an optimistic, poetic and imaginative way.

Fork You France

"Forkgate" is the latest in a series of controversies the PiS Party has become embroiled in since taking power last year.

Poland "taught the French how to use a fork", said Polish deputy minister Kownacki, amid a continuing row over a cancelled defense contract.

Frenchman learning to fork?

The Deputy Defense Minister accused the French of lacking "class" after losing a multi-billion dollar contract to build 50 Airbus helicopters for Poland's military. Poland is now leaning towards American built Blackhawks.

Speaking on TV, Mr. Kownacki accused France of responding by withdrawing the offer of free accommodation and a car for the Polish delegation at a defense fair in Paris next week.

"They are a people who learned to eat with a fork from us a few centuries ago. So maybe this is why they are behaving in this way now," he said.