Because Poles saved Britain

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."*

When the RAF Museum decided to launch a public vote deciding the greatest Spitfire Mark V pilot in history, they might have presumed the winner would be found somewhere close to home. After all the expected target of the poll hosted on the Telegraph newspaper's website, was the British public, whom the RAF have protected for 99 years.

But after being hijacked by a massive groundswell of public support from the Polish community, Franciszek Kornicki, the last surviving Polish World War Two squadron commander, is leading the poll by a landslide - more than 250,000 votes and counting. 

Kornicki Now & Then

Polish weekly news magazine Newsweek Polska and national newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza have both supported the campaign to have Kornicki voted number one in the poll, which was set up to celebrate 100 years of the RAF in 2018. 

The Eastern Europe campaign has also been waged in the UK, with the Polish Embassy and ˜Polish Radio London" urging the UK's 813,000-strong Polish population to back Kornicki, who turned 100 last year.

Quite possibly the Battle of Britain in 1940 would have been lost without the heroic efforts of Polish pilots flying in the RAF. The planned German invasion was thwarted.

Battle of Britain 303 Squadron - "Repeat please!" 

Dywizjon 303 "Ci cholerni cudzoziemcy" 

 * Winston Churchill

Population Explosion

Over the last couple of decades Poland had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe where only Czech, Lithuanian and Romanian women had a lower fertility rate. With an aging population prospects of continuing growth looked dim especially in the workforce being large enough to fulfill the demands of employers. 

Polish couples got to work making more babies partially due to a government program giving 500 zloty per month to families with children. Nearly PLN 19 billion ($5 billion) has been paid out for nearly four million children under the government's flagship 500+ family benefit program, according to the Polish family minister.  
 
Under the scheme, the government gives parents PLN 500 a month for each child in low-income families, and for second and subsequent children in all other families. About 4 million children under the age of 18 have benefited from the government program since it was implemented last April

Poland had an 11% year to year hike in number of births in July.  Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP) reports 35,000 new born babies citing the latest data by stats office GUS.

January-July year to year births increased 9% to 235,000. By the end of the year births are expected to exceed 400,000 if the trend is maintained .

Factors that seem to improved the birthrate include a better economic situation, shrinking unemployment, rising wages, a high number of women aged 29-34 and the positive impact of the government's family support scheme 500+.

Per-capita disposable income of Polish households rose at a moderate pace in the case of 500+ beneficiaries and wealth gap narrowing. 

Polish beautiful women

I often hear from people in the "know" that the most beautiful women in the world are Polish. It seems like some YouTubers decided to supply proof. So, here are some Polish beauties for your enlightenment. .



And, here's a tribute to the most beautiful female military personnel in the world.



Another person posts this: Sexy and beautiful Women in polish army



Just as beautiful is Poland's new PL-01. Sorry, no video posts of female tank commanders... yet!

Right, right - Left, wrong

When conservative PiS was elected to the first majority since free elections in 1989, most folks on the left side of the political spectrum forecast a sputtering economic climate for Poland. However, quite the opposite is the case.

The rating agency Moody's has recently adjusted upwards the economic forecast for Poland as domestic demand and overall fiscal performance outpace most other EU countries.

The Polish economy grew at 3.9 per cent in the second quarter, which outperformed previous expectations. Now, there is a good chance full year growth may post a 4.3% increase making Poland the envy of other countries around the world.
 

Mo' money, Mo' money, Mo' money

Predictions of economic growth seem to be continually readjusted upward by significant gains even though many economists warned that the right-wing Law and Justice party’s 2015 election victory would damage Poland’s economy.

Unlike debt redden America, Poland is on pace to limit their deficit to 2.5% of GDP down from an earlier forecast of 2.7%.

Poland continues to attract foreign companies to relocate there and there is no signs of a slowdown. 

Old man and the sea - Doba

"Old Man and the Sea" is likely to bring Ernest Hemingway to mind.  But, in the non-fiction section it might be an old Polish man.

The old Pole,  Aleksander Doba, who is 70 years old paddled his way across the Atlantic Ocean in a kayak from New Jersey and came ashore in Le Conquet, Brittany, which is on the coast of north-west France. The 100 day journey was his third trans-Atlantic kayak adventure.

Doba in his kayak

He was the first person to paddle across the Atlantic in a kayak on muscle-power alone in 2010 from Senegal to Brazil.

In 2013 he repeated this feat when he kayaked from Lisbon to Florida at 67 years old.

Old man and the sea Doba

 

Aleksander Doba's voyages were the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made. He was born: September 9, 1946 in Swarzędz, Poland a small town situated in the Poznań metropolitan area. Now Doba lives in Police near Szczecin, Poland. He was named 2014 Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic.

 

Doba has also jumped 14 times with a parachute, piloted gliders and practiced cycling. He also holds a marine yacht steersman license.