Author: m.markowicz

Hello!

For my last assignment, I decided to put together a photo essay exploring the traces of the Polish community in Greenpoint. Because there is not a lot of space on the class blog, I decided to put it together on Imgur.

There’s still a few edits I am going to make, but here’s a link that will allow everyone to access it: http://imgur.com/a/9VIue

You will be able to see live updates of my changes.

Here’s the description of the photo essay, taken from Imgur:

“This photo essay documents the disappearing traces of the Polish community leaving in Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s northernmost neighborhood. Once known for its vibrant Polish community, Greenpoint is slowing giving in to gentrification. Still, Polish businesses and some Polish immigrants remain in the area.”

Katarzyna Garstecka is a wife and a mother of a 2-year- old daughter who currently resides in Torun, Poland.

On Oct. 24, 2016, Garstecka took a day off work, left her daughter at her parents’ house and traveled to the Old Town section of Torun. There, she joined other women who, just like her, were dressed in black. Some of them carried black umbrellas while others carried signs and hangers.

That day, thousands of Polish women took a day off school and work to protest the government’s attempt to curb the country’s already limited abortion rights. Although the protests stopped the bill from getting approved by the legislative branch, people have mixed feelings as to whether the protests had a lasting result. As a result, a smaller series of protests took place on International Women’s Day.

TK quote from Garstecka.

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. According to data collected by Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia, the Polish alternative to the National Health Service, abortion is only legal when the woman’s life is in danger, when there is a risk of serious or irreversible danger to the fetus or when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

In 2014, the latest statistics released by the NFZ, 1,812 legal abortions were conducted. The NFZ estimates that another 100,000 to 200,000 illegal abortions were also conducted. Furthermore, there is no estimate as to how many abortions were conducted outside of Poland, in countries like Germany, Holland or the United Kingdom, which are the most common destinations for Polish women to get abortions.

The proposed law would have completely outlawed abortion in the country. Women who were suspected of conducting illegal abortion or going outside of the country to get an abortion would have faced prosecution. Doctors who conducted abortion will be faced with five years of prison.

Medical experts expressed concern that the threat of a prison sentence would stop them from conducting C-section too early in the pregnancy or conducing prenatal tests that are too invasive in fear that they would be charged for the fetus’s death. It may also force mothers to carry their child despite knowing that the child will die before he or she is born.

As a result of the proposal, women across the country decided to organize protests in their respective cities. Despite a lack of central leadership, the protests grabbed the attention of the global community and women posted selfies with signs supporting the protest. However, there is estimate as to how many women participated.

 

Transcribing all my interviews from Polish is taking me a lot longer than I expected. I’m relying on my interview with Garstecka and Nika Ksiazek, who was so far not mentioned, for descriptions of the protests that took place. I also wanted to mention a Newsweek survey which provides insight as to whether the protests did anything good for the women, aside from preventing the anti-abortion bill from passing.

Agata Poniatowski is a Bushwick resident whose parents emigrated from Poland to escape communism before she and her brother were born. Though her brother was sent to Polish school when he was a child, her parents decided not to send her to one.

Now, Poniatowski is taking small steps to learn it. She asks her parents to text her in Polish and tries her best to respond to them in Polish. In her free time, she watches children’s shows with subtitles on, including a remastered version of Baba Jaga.

Poniatowski thinks that this could have been avoided if her parents had sent her to one of the Polish schools located in New York City.

“I was really—I guess you could say a rowdy kid. I would always be crying and be upset. I didn’t like that ballet class was 40 minutes long,” Poniatowski said.

“My parents probably were like ‘maybe not’ for me, but my brother had more patience, so they sent him and he learned how to read and write in Polish. Although he quit pretty shortly … but he did have the opportunity to read and write, whereas I’m trying to do that at 20 years old and it’s really difficult.”

Poniatowski, now 21, was born and raised in Ronkonkoma, Suffolk County, with her parents and an older brother. Growing up, she became fascinated with photographs of nature and rare animals. She is currently an urban sustainability major at Baruch College and aspires to have one of her photographs published in National Geographic.

In an interview, Poniatowski recalled a moment when her cousin decided to test her writing skills by asking her to write down the word “Łóżko,” which means “bed.”

“I gave her a piece of paper with my idea of how to spell it and she just started laughing hysterically. I didn’t want for that to happen. I didn’t want to lose my communication with my family when I’m not in Poland, so I want to be able to text them, to talk to them,” Poniatowski said.

Krystian Surdel is currently 19 years old. His parents brought him to the United States when he was only 3 years old and he attended Polish school from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. He is currently enrolled in John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in global history.

In an interview, Surdel explained that the first five years of Polish school are generally concentrated on teaching students how to read and write. Once students moved on to middle school and high school, they are introduced to Polish geography, history and literature. Eight grade is generally reserved for preparing for Confirmation, as some schools require students to memorize over 100 texts from the Bible in order to receive the sacrament.

Paulina Ekstowicz emigrated from Poland after she finished fourth grade. Her father was the first to move to the United States and her mother decided to rejoin him in order to earn more money and ensure that Ekstowicz could get a good university education.

When they moved, Ekstowicz was 11 years old. Her parents never sent her to Polish school, but she was able to remember the language by speaking Polish at home and watching Polish TV with her parents. In her free time, she also reads Polish books and listens to Polish music.

“I think they [Polish schools] are [helpful] to a certain extent, because you do get to make more polish friends and learn more about your own history and traditions,” Ekstowicz said. “But I also think it’s very stressful, because it is like Saturday school majority of the time and it’s just another level of stress.”

On the other hand, Poniatowski believes that attending Polish school helps build a person’s sense of cultural identity and connect them to their country of origin.

“I’m Polish because of the culture that I have at my house, but I think that I would feel more connected to being Polish if I also had the ability to communicate with that side of my family, or read the newspaper or something like that. Actually know what’s going on in Poland. Not from The New York Times, but from a Polish magazine or Polish news. … Understanding politics or big words, that would be cool,” Poniatowski said.

In the past year and a half, Poland has been ruled by the Law and Justice Party, which proposed several right-wing laws, including a total ban on abortion and reforms that were meant to align the justice system with the party’s beliefs. While the black protests helped prevent the abortion ban, the justice system is under total control of the ruling party.

Surdel said that attending Polish school helped him stay in touch with current events in Poland and understand their historical significance.

“This used to be a democracy,” Surdel said. “That’s what they’ve been fighting for hundreds of years, we haven’t existed for several years as well. Now we have a chance to be democratic and we’re just trying to go back to older roots. They’re trying to rewrite our history and what it means to be Polish. It’s just sad.”

Agata Poniatowski is a 21-year-old whose parents emigrated from Poland to escape communism before she and her brother were born. Though her brother was sent to Polish school when he was a child, she felt as if her parents “gave up” on teaching her the language.

Now, Poniatowski is taking small steps to learn the language. She asks her parents to text her in Polish and tries her best to respond to them in Polish. In her free time, she watches children’s shows with subtitles on, including a remastered version of Baba Jaga.

Poniatowski thinks that this could have been avoided if her parents sent her to one of the Polish schools located in New York City.

“I was really—I guess you could say a rowdy kid. I would always be crying and be upset. I didn’t like that ballet class was 40 minutes long.” Poniatowski said. “My parents probably were like ‘maybe not’ for me, but my brother had more patience, so they sent him and he learned how to read and write in Polish. Although he quit pretty shortly … but he did have the opportunity to read and write, whereas I’m trying to do that at 20 years old and it’s really difficult.”

Poniatowski recalled a moment when her cousin decided to test her writing skills by asking her to write down the word “lozko,” which means “bed.”

“I gave her a piece of paper with my idea of how to spell it and she just started laughing hysterically. I didn’t want for that to happen. I didn’t want to lose my communication with my family when I’m not in Poland, so I want to be able to text them, to talk to them,” Poniatowski said.

Polish schools are organizations that are often organized by Polish churches. Students who attend them usually take classes in four subjects—geography, history, literature and religion—for four hours every Saturday. In high school, the religion class gets switched to an ethics class.

TKTK Interview with Krystian Surdel, who goes in-depth on how the classes look like. The interview is scheduled for March 8.

For people like Poniatowski, Polish schools also help build one’s sense of cultural identity and connect to one’s country of origin.

“I’m Polish because of the culture that I have at my house, but I think that I would feel more connected to being Polish if I also had the ability to communicate with that side of my family, or read the newspaper or something like that. Actually know what’s going on in Poland. Not from The New York Times, but from a Polish magazine or Polish news. … Understanding politics or big words, that would be cool,” Poniatowski said.

Paulina Ekstowicz emigrated from Poland after she finished fourth grade. In an interview, she explained that her dad was the first to move to the United States and her mother decided to rejoin her father in order to earn more money and ensure that Eksowicz gets a good university education.

When they moved, Eksowicz was 11 years old. Her parents never sent her to Polish school, but she was able to remember the language by speaking Polish at home and watching Polish TV with her parents. In her free time, she also reads Polish books and listens to Polish music.

“I think they [Polish schools] are [helpful] to a certain extent, because you do get to make more polish friends and learn more about your own history and traditions,” Eksowicz said. “But I also think it’s very stressful, because it is like Saturday school majority of the time and it’s just another level of stress.”

TK some something

“If I had went to Polish school, I think that … maybe I would know what exactly is Polish culture rather than things I’m assuming are Polish culture,” Poniatowski said.

Agata Poniatowski is a 20-year-old whose parents emigrated from Poland before she was born. Though her brother was old enough to learn Polish and was sent to Polish school, she felt that her parents “gave up” on teaching her the language.

It took years for it to bother her. When it did, however, she felt that she was out of touch with her heritage.

One weekend, Poniatowski found a remastered version of Baba Jaga, a Polish cartoon about an evil witch, on YouTube. Her excitement with finding it was soon clouded with the realization that she could only understand five words out of the entire episode.

“My brother knew Polish and then my parents sent him to Polish school, so he has no problem with reading and speaking it.” Poniatowski said. “With me, they kind of said, ‘whatever’ and decided not to send me to one. I kind of wish they did now.”

Polish schools, as they are often called, are generally started by Polish churches to preserve the Polish culture within first- and second-generation immigrants from Poland. Although some children and teenagers see it as a hassle, others see the classes as means to learn and understand their culture and heritage.

Classes generally take place on Saturday morning, though some schools choose to also organize classes on Friday night. Classes are often taught in four subjects: geography, history, Polish and religion. Students who attend the school until eight grade often do so to receive Confirmation at the church that the school is run by.

 

For this story, I have several people in mind that I would like to interview.

I already spoke with Agata Poniatowski, who is mentioned in my pitch. I am going to interview her once again and she offered to let me interview her brother, whom she mentioned in our conversation.

I also want to interview more people who have attended Polish schools to see what they took out of it, as this article needs more than two perspectives.

Lastly, I want to interview people who are currently in charge of running a Polish school, preferably a principal or a vice-principal. If that does not work, I will try to speak to someone who is currently teaching in a Polish school.

Country of Choice: Poland.

Language Spoken: Polish.

Religions Practiced: According to the 2011 census, 87.5 percent of Poland’s population is Catholic. Other religious minorities comprise less than 1 percent of the population. The only significant minority that the census notes is the group that does not associate itself with any religion, which amounts to 2.4 percent of the population.

History: Poland’s history dates as far back as the 10th century, but, for the purpose of this assignment, only the 20th century is worth mentioning. World War II began by Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. In the six years when the country was under Nazi control, Poland’s Jewish population was nearly eradicated, families were broken apart and many cities, including Warsaw, were reduced to rubble. When Poland was finally liberated by the Soviet army in 1945, another period of intense repression began. Soviet Soldiers were actively fighting a campaign against the Polish underground soldiers. While some tried to survive, others actively fought to undermine the Soviet rule. Two historical figures from this time period are worth mentioning—Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa, who led the anti-communist movement and led to the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. As a result of his actions, Walesa became the country’s first democratically elected president since the war ended. During the next 15 years, the country improved its economy, foreign relations and the well-being of its people. Western goods became widely available and the population began catching up with Western trends. In 2004, the country joined the European Union, which helped the country integrate.

Most-read and most-viewed local news outlets: Gazeta Wyborcza is one of the most popular daily newspapers, with circulation of roughly 600,000, according to pressreference.com. As for the weekly news magazines, some of the most popular titles include POLITYKA, Newsweek and Wprost.

Current events: There are several major events or debates that are currently taking place in the country. All of the problems that Poland is currently facing are tied to the election of PiS, or the Law and Justice Party. In 2015, PiS won the elections, winning both the legislative and the executive branch of the government. The government did not wait to bring the justice system to its knees. Among the current government’s most controversial moves was the placement of pro-government into the Constitutional Tribunal, which is the country’s highest court. The government also tried to push some of Europe’s toughest anti-abortion laws, but the so-called Black Protests convinced politicians to reconsider. Since then, a lot of pro-democratic protests have been taking place, including a student-run protest organized through Facebook. KOD, or the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, has been organizing and funding all major pro-democratic protests. However, a recent conflict involving the organization’s leadership has caused a lot of uproar in the media.

Demographics: According to the 2011, Census, 96.4 percent of Poland’s population is Polish. Approximately 309,000 Ukrainians, or 0.8 percent of the population, live in Poland. The number has since increased due to conflicts in Ukraine.

Popular neighborhoods for immigrant communities in New York: There are two areas in New York City that are known for their Polish communities. One of them is Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The other area is in Ridgewood, Queens.

Contact info for sources: I want to reach out to the people who organized the student protests in Poland. When I find their contact information, I will add them to this post. There is also a lot of Polish organizations based in New York, so I may receive help from them if I need it.

The Christian Science Monitor is an online and print news organization that aims to provide a global perspective without the “sensational” factor of other news sources. According to its “About” page, the Monitor strives to “inspire people to think about what they’ve read long after they’ve left the page. To share what they’ve learned with others. And do something that makes a difference.” As a result of what the Monitor calls its “independent voice, devoid of the corporate allegiances and pressure that critics say too often skew today’s media,” the Monitor won seven Pulitzer Prizes and over a dozen Overseas Press Club awards.

Despite its name, the Monitor is not a Christian newspaper. The name is meant to symbolize honesty and a loving and caring character, which the founder described as some of the basic principles of Christianity. The Monitor also does not hide the fact that it has been supported by the Christian Science church.

According to AllSides, a news website that rates bias of other news sources and aims to provide information on multiple sides to each issue, The Christian Science Monitor is a fairly unbiased news source that falls on the center of the political spectrum. According to AllSides, “The Christian Science Monitor has maintained its reputation within the news industry as a well-run, high quality news organization with minimal bias. Rather than narrowing its focus like much of current mainstream media, its primary aim is to provide fair and in-depth analyses from multiple perspectives, seeking to provide meaningful instead of sensational news.” It has also not been a source of any major controversies.

The Monitor does not endorse political candidates, as its editors believe that readers should make a decision about a candidate on their own, with the “About” page stating that “we [the Monitor] strive to provide all the information necessary for voters to make a political decisions most appropriate for them, their communities, and the nation.” During the 2016 presidential election, the Monitor’s coverage of politics was much calmer, giving fair coverage to Trump’s executive orders, nominees, religious support and Supreme Court nominee, along with plenty of articles of anti-Trump protests.

As for its global coverage, the Monitor divides its World section into six sub-sections: Africa, Americas, Asia Pacific, Asia: South & Central, Europe and the Middle East.

As an example of its world coverage, and article titled “In Niger, Christian and Muslim leaders push harder to counter creeping radicalism” discusses the relationship between Christians and Islam in Niger following the attack on Charlie Hebdo that took place in 2015. The article mostly covers the attacks that took place on the country’s Christian and French communities, and how Christians and Muslims strived to promote tolerance.

Another article, titled “Following protests, Romania will repeal corruption decree,” talks about the country’s intent to repeal a decree that would decriminalize some types of political corruption. Instead of taking a clear-cut side in the argument about corruption, the Monitor’s journalist interviewed people from both sides of the argument, providing arguments for and against the decree. It also spoke about other groups that the decree affected.

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/About

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2017/0205/In-Niger-Christian-and-Muslim-leaders-push-harder-to-counter-creeping-radicalism

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2017/0203/As-countries-eye-the-new-US-president-many-see-good-moment-to-test-him

http://www.allsides.com/news-source/christian-science-monitor

As I’ve mentioned in class, I would like to spend the semester reporting on anti-government protests in Poland and the shrinking Polish community in Greenpoint.

The first idea, the anti-government protests, came to me when I was reading one of the Polish political magazines available in the United States. One of the articles spoke about protests that a duo of Polish college students was organizing. The protests were to take place in several big cities across the country and they were fully organized through Facebook. Surprisingly, the organizers refused to take funding from the biggest pro-democratic committee in the country, commonly known by its Polish initials–KOD. Several printers proposed to print protest signs for free. Now that the protest took place, it might be a good idea to try to reach out to the organizers via Facebook and interview them about the protests, why they organized them, how they think they proceeded and what they intend to do in the future. Since this article is likely to take some time, it will likely not be the first assignment I hand in.

In the meantime, I would like to interview a Polish business owner to see how they are dealing with the gentrification of northwestern Brooklyn and the shrinking Polish community in Greenpoint. In particular, I would like to interview the owner of a Polish bookstore. How has the business changed since the bookstore opened? How many Polish businesses in the area were closed? Has the bookstore been dealing with a lot of hardships to keep it afloat? Was it able to attract new audiences?