-- WOJCIECH MUCHA ON HIS BOOK: “In my novel, I quote analyses from the most pompous elitist publications of the Third Polish Republic about housing blocks and football fans. The conclusion of one of them was that the author is most afraid of parking his car in the wrong place and having it damaged. That was their social sensitivity. The elites of the Third Republic had no idea what world they were living in. I couldn't find a novel on this topic. That's why I wrote ‘Miasto noży’ (City of Knives).” https://niezalezna.pl/301281-mucha-o-elitach-iii-rp-i-polakach-z-blokow-znikaja-to-dobrze-miasto-oczyszcza-sie-z-patologii -- 300POLITYKA PUBLISHES EXCERPTS FROM MUCH'S "CITY OF KNIVES": Transport yourself to a Poland that many would prefer to forget – an excerpt from Wojciech Mucha's book 'Miasto Noży' (City of Knives). A story about what shaped the people entering adulthood in the first decade after the systemic transformation. https://300polityka.pl/news/2019/12/14/przenies-sie-do-polski-o-ktorej-istnieniu-wielu-wolaloby-nie-pamietac-fragment-ksiazki-wojciecha-muchy-miasto-nozy-opowiesc-o-tym-co-ksztaltowalo-ludzi-wchodzacych-w-dorosle-zycie-w-pierwszej/ -- NO NEED TO RENOUNCE FEMININITY – AN INTERESTING CONVERSATION BETWEEN JUSTYNA SUCHECKA AND ANNA KOWALCZYK – AUTHOR OF THE BOOK “THE MISSING HALF OF HISTORY”: “Girls who dress up as a Nobel laureate also see how different she is from the women who have achieved success and whom they watch on television. Because female politicians or businesswomen are mostly, visually speaking, simply the female version of men in their professions. They also wear suits and uniforms, only with skirts instead of trousers. Because the surest path to success for a woman is still to question her gender, step into men's shoes, and start living and working like a man. Tokarczuk shows that you don't have to renounce femininity, in any sense, to reach the top. She wears her dreadlocks and doesn't care if someone says it's unfeminine or unserious. She practically doesn't wear makeup, doesn't pretend she doesn't have pores in her skin, doesn't age or get tired. She is not distant or haughty, and this does not detract from her seriousness or diminish her role. This can be very inspiring for young women.” https://www.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/nosi-te-suknie-a-do-niej-te-dredy-ma-gdzies-czy-ktos-powie-ze-to-niekobiece-czy-niepowazne,248,4297 -- I AM SURPRISED BY THE COMPLETE LACK OF CURIOSITY ABOUT THE WORLD DEMONSTRATED BY SOME CONSERVATIVES – PIOTR ZAREMBA IN POLSKA THE TIMES: “Tokarczuk is a great writer” – the verdict is passed. Whoever doesn't shout in the chorus gets a failing grade or a reprimand. One could partially justify this tone by the reaction of some right-wing circles to Tokarczuk's award. Declarations such as “I don't read her” multiplied on the internet. Public television oscillated between claiming that the Nobel Prize had lost prestige and become the domain of left-wing circles, and suggestions that this was another success for Poland under PiS rule. It was all irritating and foolish. While not forcing anyone to read anything, I am somewhat surprised by the complete lack of curiosity about the world demonstrated by some conservatives.” -- SHE AGREED TO A ROLE THAT REDUCES – ZAREMBA FURTHER IN PTT: “I do not deny that foolish and shameful voices appeared. But demanding that someone be loved on command is an absurd demand. Besides, if declarations of love were made, they would be considered a perfidious game. That's the charm of our social life. However, Tokarczuk herself seems to have no objection to the role she has been assigned. The role of a banner in an ideological, and partly political, brawl. This is a role that reduces.” -- AN ARTIST SHOULD SEEK WAYS TO UNDERSTAND THOSE WHO THINK DIFFERENTLY – ZAREMBA FURTHER: “Although every artist has the right to be a citizen, to speak out, to call for action, it is worth for them to also be curious about the world, to seek ways to at least understand those who think differently. Moreover, great literature is sometimes great precisely because it bypasses or breaks schemata. Doesn't a disciplined soldier of an ideological fight give up the race for something more than the momentary applause of their close circles, or even something more than a Nobel Prize?” -- EVERYTHING IN POLAND HARDENS THE HEADS – ZAREMBA'S CONCLUSION: “And so it goes. Someone should turn out to be wiser. Literature, in itself often very subtle, not only does not sublimate human minds. It hardens heads. Like everything in Poland, but that's no consolation.” https://polskatimes.pl/piotr-zaremba-w-sporze-o-nagrode-nobla-dla-olgi-tokarczuk-ktos-powinien-okazac-sie-madrzejszy/ar/c15-14652539 -- SATURDAY'S POLITICAL AGENDA: Saturday's political agenda: Civic Platform's presidential candidate, presentation of WKK's campaign manager, conventions of the SLD and Wiosna, PMM at the Museum of the Cursed Soldiers and Political Prisoners of the PRL https://300polityka.pl/live/2019/12/14/polityczny-plan-soboty-kandydat-po-na-prezydenta-prezentacja-szefa-sztabu-wkk-konwencje-sld-i-wiosny-pmm-w-muzeum-zolnierzy-wykletych-i-wiezniow-politycznych-prl/ -- SZCZEPAN TWARDOCH ON JAN ŚPIEWAK: I know all sorts of people. I know polar explorers, I know people who climb eight-thousanders, I know girls and boys who beat each other up and will get into the ring with anyone, I know people who took out franc mortgages with installments eating up three-quarters of their salary, I know serious hooligans, I know gamblers, I know people who decided that working in a corporation is crap and moved to the sticks to grow something, I know serious political players, meaning not the ones you vote for, I know veterans, and God knows who else, but for a long time now, I think I haven't known anyone braver than Jan Śpiewak. https://www.facebook.com/szczepan.twardoch?__tn__=%2CdCH-R-R&eid=ARB13Htu8GD1c9CJZunGt0T2chriprG8bREl_mXqiWvH-l-i2iWZc-6d5YCAbN9H0O38IfqHSLsBUr3H&hc_ref=ARSns-bP5WyFNv8VdvEwbaGvVTEoXJRASgBe1Y6TlCQ14JnwDi03HpM-6gQfCGsn9CQ&fref=nf -- FIVE WOMEN LEAD THE GOVERNMENT, ONLY ONE OF THEM IS OVER 35 – JAKUB MAJMUREK: “Finland's 34-year-old Prime Minister Sanna Marin comes from a working-class background. She is the first person in her immediate family to finish high school and then obtain higher education. Her biological parents divorced, and Marin was raised by two mothers. Her cabinet comprises as many as five parties, led without exception by women. Only one of them has exceeded the age of 35.” -- WHICH PATH IS CLOSER TO POLISH POLITICS – MAJMUREK FURTHER: “It has not yet been decided whether the politics of the future will be closer to Sanna Marin, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, or Sebastian Kurz or Patryk Jaki. This is certainly one of the key questions today.” https://www.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/marin-pierwsza-poszla-do-szkoly-dziewczyna-z-ludu-co-zostala-premierka,248,4287 -- THE TEST OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH WITHIN A MEDIUM – RAFAŁ WOŚ ON INTERNAL EDITORIAL CENSORSHIP – WRITES IN SE: “The existence of a space for such otherness is ultimately a test of freedom of speech within a medium. If it is lacking, then – let's be frank – censorship begins. And censorship is illegal in Poland (Article 54 of the Constitution). Polish media censors like to explain, 'We do this because our reader won't understand it.' However, I am increasingly certain that this is not about any reader at all. If someone cannot confront otherness, it is our media decision-makers! Not readers or viewers!” -- WOŚ ON THE KATARZYNA CASE AND DO RZECZY – THEY WROTE ABOUT CENSORSHIP IN POLITYKA AND WART PAC PAŁACA: “I am deliberately not writing what the halted text by Katarzyna was about, as you can read it on her blog. In practice, however, it doesn't matter whether it violated the 'editorial line' from one side or another. It must also be clearly stated that censorship is not exclusively the domain of right-wing, left-wing, or liberal media, but rather their common problem. I myself fell victim to an 'editorial line' a year ago and had to part ways with the weekly 'Polityka'. On that occasion, 'Do Rzeczy' wrote extensively about the lack of freedom in liberal media. And they were absolutely right. Today, however, the decision-makers there are doing the same themselves – showing, unfortunately, that wart Pac pałaca.” -- DOWN WITH THE EDITORIAL LINE – WOŚ FURTHER: “And I dream of the campaign 'Down with censorship! Down with the editorial line!'. I would like to believe that there are enough sovereign people in the Polish media who are disgusted by media produced according to the principle 'we publish everything as long as it aligns with our point of view'. Because there is no doubt that readers and viewers are waiting for truly free media.” https://www.se.pl/wiadomosci/polityka/rafal-wos-precz-z-cenzura-aa-5vrd-RZtx-W1oT.html -- KATARZYNA SADŁO - KATARYNA - IN HER FIRST COLUMN FOR RZ (ALONGSIDE MAZUREK): “Wanda Nowicka marks the moment of acquiring personhood as the day of birth, but this is a boundary as arbitrary as any other. If we consider personhood itself as relative, why limit ourselves to age as the sole criterion by which we grant it?” https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/191219778-Czlowieczenstwo-wedlug-Wandy-Nowickiej.html -- GOWIN'S PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED – AGATA KONDZIŃSKA ON THE BILL CONCERNING JUDGES – WRITES IN GW: “Not a single MP from Porozumienie, which is a coalition partner of PiS, signed the draft bill targeting the independence of judges. 'This is not our bill, we were surprised by it, we were not consulted on this matter,' one of Jarosław Gowin's party's MPs told 'Wyborcza'.” -- SOME FORM OF DISCIPLINE IS NECESSARY – ACCORDING TO GOWIN'S PEOPLE: “Gowin's party has submitted the proposals of PiS and Solidarna Polska for consultation to lawyers with whom the party collaborates. Only then will Gowin's people make a decision. However, it is already heard within Porozumienie that some form of 'disciplining judges would be useful, because even MPs are subject to such discipline.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,25510247,gowinowcy-zaskoczeni-projektem-pacyfikujacym-sedziow-kiedy.html -- WOJCIECH CZUCHNOWSKI ON THE BACKGROUND OF PIS AND BANAS – WRITES IN GW: “A high-ranking official from the Ministry of Finance: – He was under the Prime Minister's protection. They built the legend of uncompromising oppositionists from the communist era. Morawiecki personally intervened when we dismissed Banaś's son from a directorial position in Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa. There was a fierce row about it. PiS MP No. 1: – We explained all doubts, complaints about Banaś, media attacks as attacks on 'good change'. It fit the besieged fortress syndrome. Only the film on TVN shook the party leader. PiS MP No. 2: – Maybe it's foolish what I'm about to say, but President Kaczyński also liked Banaś for his height. He is shorter and the President joked that he is one of the few people he feels comfortable with. A friend of Banaś from the opposition days: – In the 1970s, we called him 'little'. Not a tank... A local government official from Krakow: – Through his contacts with the Church, Banaś played an important role at the funeral of the presidential couple. His people organize 'monthly anniversaries' of the funeral in Krakow. PiS delegations stayed at this famous hotel of Banaś.” https://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,25511570,marian-terminator-kaczynski-lubil-banasia-bo-ten.html -- THE SLD WILL NO LONGER BE THE SLD – AGATA SZCZĘŚNIAK ON THE FUSION WITH WIOSNA – WRITES IN OKO: “'I'm not worried that from now on I'll have an SLD ID, because the party won't be called that anymore,' a Wiosna MP, who will soon become a Lewica MP, tells OKO.press. On Saturday, Wiosna and SLD will decide on unification. This marks the end of the short life of Robert Biedroń's Wiosna on the Polish political scene and the end of 20 years of the Alliance's history.” -- THE BLOOM OF THE PRESIDENT'S STALINIST SENSE OF HUMOR – MICHAŁ SUTOWSKI in Krytyka: “Why is he doing this headlong dive? Has the president forgotten that he doesn't have a majority in the Senate? Is he joking in the hospital? It's hard to escape the impression that a PRL-era law submitted to the Sejm on the eve of the anniversary of martial law is nothing other than the bloom of the president's Stalinist sense of humor. Yet, this move holds together. In an instrumental sense, it is – as prof. Łętowska writes – an idea to ensure that the Supreme Court and others do not try to apply the Constitution or rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union directly. So that judges simply fear not just disciplinary proceedings, but outright removal from office for dissent.” -- IT'S A SHAME TOKARCZUK DIDN'T QUOTE DUKAJ – MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI in RZ: “So, if anyone was interested in what Tokarczuk was saying, they should definitely reach for Dukaj's essay on post-literacy, in which he analyzes the consequences of communication transformation. (...) Although Dukaj – somewhat like a pioneer who creates an original idea that goes out into the world – is inspiring, he himself remains in the shadows. Perhaps it is a shame that Tokarczuk did not mention him by name in her lecture. But she was speaking as a representative of Polish literature, Polish culture, of which Dukaj's writing is also a part. Although in geography, politics, or economics, we are condemned to be a province of the West, in thinking, art, and literature, we can be original, we can feel like a kind of center.” https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/312139990-Tokarczuk-Dukaj-i-centrum-cywilizacji.html -- ANTONI MĘŻYDŁO ON LECH WAŁĘSA – HE TELLS ELIZA OLCZYK IN RZ – I DIDN'T LIKE HIM: “Because I was aligned with that environment. I supported Jan Olszewski's government and what it was doing, including lustration. I didn't like how Lech Wałęsa participated in the dismissal of the Olszewski government. As I said, I didn't like Wałęsa since my colleagues from the Free Trade Unions told me about certain stories from his life.” -- MĘŻYDŁO TO OLCZYK'S QUESTION, WHETHER THE CULT OF LECH WAŁĘSA IN PLATFORMA DIDN'T BOTHER HIM: “It did bother me. I'll tell you, when I had to go to Gdańsk on behalf of the Civic Platform to lay flowers, and usually these wreaths were laid together with Wałęsa, I didn't approach him and positioned myself so as not to be in the frame with him.” -- MĘŻYDŁO TELLS OLCZYK HOW JAROSŁAW KACZYŃSKI CONVINCED HIM NOT TO VOTE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF LIFE: “Jarosław could be very persuasive. He convinced me of many things. When we were voting on the bill to include anti-abortion provisions in the constitution, I was convinced that as a Catholic, I had to vote for it. Adam Lipiński and Wojciech Jasiński knew how I would vote and took it to Jarosław. Kaczyński then asked me for a conversation and said: 'Do you want the state to be oppressive towards women?' He started explaining to me what the consequences would be, and he convinced me. I voted against the amendment.” https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/312139999-Antoni-Mezydlo-Druga-kadencja-zaszkodzi-PiS.html -- BIRTHDAYS: Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Beata Lubecka, Adam Kądziela, Michał Szczerba, Natalia Czartoryska, SUNDAY: Krzysztof Dołowy, Adam Pieczyński, Agnieszka Odorowicz, Jagna Marczułajtis-Walczak, Łukasz Bajbak, Jerzy Dziewulski.