Was the TNT reside found inside the crashed Polish presidential plane?

The gloomy waters around the Polish presidential plane crash in Smolensk on April 10, 2010, are getting ever murkier. On Tuesday, October 29th, 2012, Polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita" reported that TNT and nitroglycerin residue was found on 30 plane seats and passenger clothes. Even though, the newspaper retraced the claim today due to the unconfirmed sources, the media firestorm over Poland blew up already.

Although, the Russian investigators deny any such findings, the bigger questions remains: why, in the name of all that is logical, the wreck of the Polish Tu-154 plane is still in Russian hands? Why Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, haven't used any means necessary to transport what is left from the plane back to Poland to conduct an international investigation? Was the late President Lech Kaczynski such an enemy of the ruling Civic Platform, that even after his death he's posing a threat? Next April, Poles will already observe the third anniversary of the this devastating crash. Get moving Tusk!

To add to the insult and the shadow conspiracy, last week, Polish flight engineer, Remigiusz Muś, who landed on Yak-40 in Smolensk just before the crash, committed a "suicide". Warrant Officer Muś was and important witness during the crash investigation. He was vocal about the Russian tower operator asking the Tu-154 pilot to decent the plane to 50 meters. Read more about what Muś said here. 

Even the Russian newspaper "Pravda" reports the key testimony about the crash:

In his testimony, Mus reported that the flight officer on duty gave the Polish liner a permission to descend to the "decision-making height" of 50 meters, despite the thick fog, says RBC. Officially, the air controller did not allow to descend below 100 meters. According to Mus, the Yak-40 was also allowed to go down to 50 meters. The flight engineer also claimed that he had heard two explosions a few seconds before the Tu-154 crashed.

Recently retired from the Polish air force, 42-year-old guy with a decent pension, loving wife, open to new employment possibilities does not hang himself without a warning.  It just doesn't add up.

But wait there's more!  Two weeks ago, a Russian blogger released gruesome pictures of the killed officials.  Read more about it here.

Want more?  Four bodies were already exhumed, DNA-tested, and confirmed as wrongly identified and buried after the crash. The Polish military prosecutors are testing remaining bodies to rule out any mistakes.

What is going on here?  Haven't DNA tests been performed already?  Who runs this operation?  Idiots?

This whole shady cover up is yet another proof of the inability of the current Polish government to handle any emergency situation. Don't get me started about the still unanswered question about the cause of the crash.  Sadly, about half of the population voted for this so-called "new intelligentsia". 

All Saint's Day as a kid in the Roman Catholic Poland

Agree or disagree, Poland's history, culture, and traditions are shaped heavily by the Roman Catholic Church. One would say that Polish religious customs are one of a kind in the world. For centuries, being a nation of many different cultures, Polish tradition is surely a mix of an Eastern and Western world.

Photo by planetka @ stock.xchng

Poland celebrates all of the important Roman Catholic holidays like Easter, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Second Day Christmas Day, Corpus Christi, and Assumption Day. Similarly, All Saint's Day (Wszystkich Świętych) and All Souls' Day (Dzień Zaduszny), celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, respectively, are also very special to the Poles.

Having to live in Poland, in a family house right across from a cemetery, I vividly remember the view and the aroma of the thousands of candles flickering with a rainbow of colors. Hundreds of people walking and praying among the lit, marble tombs, reflecting on passed on relatives and friends. The cemetery was full of life until the very late night hours. Around one or two in the morning, the glow of candles seemed to slowly extinguish. Until the next day, when the candles started to glow again.

For a Polish kid, All Saint's Day was also a chance to explore. Explore with fire and hot wax, of course. On that day, ordinarily forbidden box of matches became a box of flaming and hazardous fire sticks used in every way possible to prolong the fun. Lighting up the candles was just a pre-game to more fun, read: dangerous games.

Flicking the match was one of my favorites. In one hand, you hold the match (zapałka) with your thumb on the strike strip (draska), and using the other hand, you flick the match with your index finger. If you are skilled, the lit match will shoot up in the air like a small rocket. If you could hit your buddy with the match, you have mastered the skill. No, nobody lost an eye.

Another activity was the hot, candle wax (wosk). Making the wax fist was a must. Having so much colorful and moldable material around was a perfect opportunity for an experimentation. Yes, the first layer was painful but after couple of extra layers, our fists were ready for the smash-a-ton. The hardest shell would win. The reward was a pink hand smelling like a candle.

But the most fun, and by far, the most dangerous game played in the cemetery, was the explosive spit cup called patena. You take a small, burnt out, metal candle cylinder, wrap some wire around it for a handle, fill it up with wax, and hold it over a lit candle. When the wax catches on fire, you spit in the cylinder causing the wax to explode up in the air. If you showed up at the school next day with all your eyebrows intact, your patena obviously sucked.

Looking from a perspective, those games were extremely dangerous. One would hope that today, the sentimental parents would at least provide some good tips and supervision. American style Halloween is fun, but All Saint's Day in Poland rules the pants out of trick-o-treating.

Please, share your experience about living in Poland. Our experience and traditions make us what we are today.

Foreign owned media in Poland continue the anti Polish immigrants campaign

The foreign owned mass media in Poland, especially the popular web portals, continue the misinformation campaign directed toward the Polish immigrants.  The issue is not new but the level of the subtle negativity is growing.  

Whoever is controlling the misinformation, is trying to influence the view of the so-called "Polonia" (Polish immigrants) presented to the Poles in the home country.
For the most part, the online articles are shallow and misguiding.  The latest example comes again from the onet.pl portal.  In the photo journal story titled "Jackowo i Polakowo. Zobacz, jak żyją nasi rodacy w USA", a dozen random pictures from New York City Brooklyn's "Little Poland" and Chicago's "Polish Village" summarize the life of Poles.  The commentaries point out what you can expect to find in those Polish enclaves using the term "Polish ghetto".

One must wonder why certain elements in Poland really despise Polish immigrants in the U.S.  Is it because they had a chance for a better life?  Perhaps the negative campaign is design to discredit the well established Polish organizations overseas that disagree with the current Polish political leaders with questionable agenda?

You cannot generalize the life of an immigrant.  Yes, a lot of older Poles don't speak English but that fact doesn't prevent them from working or establishing businesses.  Yes, their own businesses, ran with limited English!  That’s the beauty of the America.  If you want to succeed, the doors are open.  Is that what rubs you the wrong way?  The ability to come to America and become a successful individual?

The traditional inner-city Polish neighborhoods are changing all over U.S.  Slow but constant migration to the suburbs in search of better schools, safer streets, and larger housing is a new reality for all immigrants.  Someone said that America is not a melting pot of cultures but rather a jar of marbles; all different but coexisting and working together.  Poles have a long way to go when learning to coexist with other cultures but surprisingly, they do very well in America.

Is it all pretty and bubbly?  Of course not.  Like with any other social group, Poles have their share of misconduct and black sheep.  But it's not a national failure but rather an individual choice of people that just took a wrong turn in life.  Coexistence and respect is a two-way highway.  Americans don't force their culture on anyone but if you don't diversify your experiences and refuse to discover new ways of interacting with people, you will be stuck in the past.

Polish immigrants and Polish-Americans are a well respected group.  Americans value our cultures and admire the will to push forward.  It's a stubborn handyman "Polack" that will lay your roof, fix your car, and take care of your kids while cleaning your house.  Yes, immigrants must start somewhere but you have no right to put them down with some one-sided articles.  You have no idea how it is to start a new life in a new country leaving all that you knew behind.  No idea.  

And if you think you have an idea because you spent 6 months in Germany or Ireland working some construction jobs, wait about 5 years and then revisit your thoughts.  I guarantee, you will look at your life very differently. 

So, my message to every Pole behind the nasty comments below every anti-American or anti-Polonia article on the who-the-hell-knows-who-controls-and-pays-to-get-us-fighting-with-each-other website is this: Stop being a tool!

Smolensk Polish presidential plane crash victims bodies photos are made public

This horrific and intriguing story about the Polish presidential plane crash on April 10th, 2010, is just keeps getting more gruesome.  The crash took lives of Poland’s president, Lech Kaczyński his wife, and 94 others.  Read the details about the crash here.

Photo by Bessarro/stock.xchng

Two years after the crash, some families voiced their concern about the identity of their buried loved ones.  Sure enough, last month, after couple exhumations, the investigators fund out that some of the bodies were mistakenly switched in Russia.  All the investigators, doctors, army and intelligence officials from Poland and Russia couldn't keep the correct records?  It’s just unreal.

This week, some Russian blogger published classified pictures from the crash showing scattered bodies all over the crash site and in coffins.  Since then, Polish government asked for assistance in removing those pictures.  However, other countries like Germany and USA would not comply due to freedom of speech laws.  You can see some of the pics here.  

Now, word of warning: some the actual pictures of the bodies are very disturbing.  Scroll down to the section with Photo 1 through Photo 7.  See it here.  Or check it here.

Give me one man and and I give you one option, give me a hundred, and I’ll give you, well you know what I mean.  It’s hard to believe that the Russian made and serviced T-154 passenger jetliner would just crash into the ground without anyone surviving.  On the other hand, who’s really to blame?  Pilots?  Tower?  Fog?

For some strange reason, US is not being asked directly by the Polish government to provide some intelligence info about the crash.  Perhaps, a satellite photos or communication transmission would shed some light on the crash.  Why are they holding back?  Strange.

Why are the Russians still in possession of the plane wreck?  It’s been two year already.  Even if they would have to pack all the parts on the rigs, they could be done in a week.  Bizarre.

Is U.S. economic reality misrepresented on Polish onet.pl?

Photo by Fastfood at stock.xchn

Among Polish web portals, the onet.pl is the most popular one.  Poles from all over the world visit the website to check for the latest news, opinions, and entertainment. Free email and blog service is also very popular.

Recently, onet.pl majority 75% stake was sold to the Axel Springer Media AG based in Zürich, Switzerland.  The other 25% stake still belongs with the International Trading and Investments Holdings SA Luxembourg (ITI Group), which owns the TVN Group (TV and media).  Enough with the stats.

I’ve been following the onet.pl news for over 15 years.  Recently, the portal evolved into a cover-all aspects service with a strong emphasis on gossip, smut, and controversial topics.  Whatever sells the advertisements?  Right?

It wouldn’t be a big deal, considering what you can find on the Internet, but the worrying fact is that the portal misrepresents the U.S. social and economic reality.  The portal influence on Poles is yet unknown but judging from the hundreds of comments left under most of the articles, Poles are reading and feeling very strongly about the information provided.

What do you think about the latest article called “Milionom zrujnowanych Amerykanów grozi głód” or “Millions of Americans face hunger”?  Same article was also published on the Polish “The Times” site.  The original article, “This is our nation too, say America’s ‘invisible poor’” by Rhys Blakely, published in British “The Times”, describes hundreds of residents of Crystal City, TX waiting in the food bank line.  Really?  The town with the population of 7,000 residents of mostly Hispanic decent, 97.1%, on the border with Mexico is used as a yard stick to show the economic state of the U.S.?  Apparently so.

None of the reasons leading to this situation in Crystal City, TX are taken into a consideration.  The education level, the job market, the overall situation of the Zavala county.  For an average Pole who has never been to the U.S., this article is just a pure anti-American propaganda.  After reading the comments, I’ve came to the conclusion that the propaganda works.  I haven’t seen that many dumb and idiotic comments for some time.

Get a grip Poles, not everything on the Internet is black and white.  Read between the lines, research, make up your own mind.  Don’t let some owners of the website to dictate your point of view.  Shades of gray people, shades of gray.

73rd anniversary of Russians backstabbing Poland on September 17th, 1939

It's hard to believe that 73 years ago, on September 17th, 1939, Soviet Russia attacked Poland right after Nazi Germany started the World War II on September 1st.  Poland was pretty much erased from the map of Europe since both totalitarian regimes divided Poland in half.  As a first country in the World, Poland resisted Hitler and made possible for France and Great Britain to respond.

The secret pact of Ribbentrop-Molotov singed a month earlier made Hitler and Stalin best pals for about 21 months.  Yes, the same Molotov that forged out plans to invade Finland.  And yes, the same guy after whom Finns named the gasoline bombs - Molotov cocktails - used to fight the Russians aggressors.

Hitler's crimes against humanity are well known and publicized but Stalin's crimes seem to slip through the cracks of history.  Or, the definition of it.

So, for starters, let's get the naming convention straight.  Nazis = Germans.  Soviets = Russians.  Years of watering down the naming to make the mysterious Nazis and Soviets responsible for murdering millions of people worked very well.  Ask some American teenagers about who the Nazis were and they won't be able to pinpoint the nationality of those cruel Nazis you speak of.  Yes, I've ended the sentence with the preposition of the phrase.  Yes, the Soviet Union was a patch of different countries but the Russians were the leading force behind Lenin's bloody revolution and Stalin's mass murders.  Interestingly, Stalin himself was Georgian and his real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.  He combined "stal", a Russian word for steel, with parts of Lenin to create his new name: Stalin.  Since cars were in short supply those days, he had to compensate in some other way.

Right after Russians took over the Eastern part of Poland, with the 13 millions inhabitants, the killings of Polish intelligentsia, Polish police, land owners, and Polish officers began.  Before Hitler's attack in 1941, the historians estimate that Stalin killed between 90-100,000 Poles and 1 million were either sent to slave work camps, factories, or concentration camps of Siberia.

The most hideous Russian murder is the Katyn Forest massacre.  In the spring of 1940, the Russian NKVD systematically killed 22,000 Poles with a single shot in the head.

Of the total killed, about 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, with the rest being Polish intelligentsia arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials and priests".

The 2007 Andrzej Wajda's film "Katyń", tells the horrible story about the massacre.  To this day, Russians are refusing to open the secret Stalin's archives to finally reveal the whole truth about those killings.  Many suspect that most of the high ranking former NKVD officers involved, held many leadership positions in the former Soviet Union.  If any of those monsters are still alive, they must be tried for war crimes.

Why am I so passionate about the WWII history?  Before she passed away, my Polish grandmother told me all kinds of stories from that time.  She lived as a teenager in the Eastern Poland known as "Kresy".  She and her family were finally expelled by the communists to the west part of new Poland after the war ended.  That war touched my family in many ways.  Totalitarian regimes will fail.  People want a true freedom and no government will keep everyone blindfolded forever.

Warsaw rental bicycles thefts and vandalism

Sharing bicycles in the high density urban areas - what a great idea!  If you've recently been to London, perhaps to enjoy the Olympics, you might have noticed Boris Bikes all over the town.  The Barclays Cycle Hire bike rental scheme which began in 2010, with Boris Johnson as London's mayor, was an instant hit.  Short history from Wikipedia:

BCH commenced operations in July 2010 with 5,000 bicycles and 315 docking stations distributed across the City of London and parts of eight London boroughs.^[10] The coverage zone spans approximately 17 square miles (44 km²), roughly matching the Zone 1 Travelcard area. Currently there are some 8,000 'Boris Bikes' and 570 docking stations in the BCH scheme, which has been used for more than 14 million journeys to date.

How does the system work?  You can register to receive a member key or just rent the bike with a plastic.  The best perk: first 30 min is free and the hour after, only £1!  The video explains how it's done.

The bikes had their share of vandalism, like the "F%&k" stickers placed right above the Barclay's logo, reading "F%&k Barclays".  The overall reception by Londoners, though, was favorable.

Similar bike-rental scheme called Veturilo, was launched in Warsaw just a month ago.  There are 1024 bikes and 57 rental stations in the major neighborhoods of Warsaw.  The bikes will operate between March and November.  

Finally, some great green idea for Warsaw and for the people.

However, after notorious thefts and vandalism totaling $15,000 in the first month, many question if Poles are ready for such advanced form of rentals.  Police is catching people riding the bikes after removing the banners and stickers even though the bikes have a very unique design are are easily recognizable.  

The repair crews have to replace parts, wheels, slashed tires, and even reconstruct whole bikes.  

Is this behaviour part of the culture or Poles just feel that any community property can be taken, read: stolen, without any consequences?   But wait, this is not community property.  Three companies shelled out a lot of money to launch this project.

The comments under the article describing the vandalism are merciless.  Those actions are, without a question, condemned.  Hopefully, the perpetrators will grow bored or be caught to stop this senseless acts.  Otherwise, whoever invested the money, will be taken for a ride.