Szlachetna Paczka – back as a volunteer

Last year I seriously got involved in Szlachetna Paczka as a donor. Having seen the misery of families, I resolved to sacrifice more than money and some time, I have decided to spend even more time helping those in need and join the initiative as a volunteer.

In June and July I went through recruitment process and have been enrolled as a volunteer in the region of Ursynów. Yesterday I had an all-day onboarding workshop, run on-line. The biggest challenges lie still ahead. In October I will visit families reported to the initiative, then pick those which deserve to be helped, recognise and structure their needs, then co-ordinate with donors the delivery of gift packages to the families.

The description above puts very briefly what I am in for. I promise to write a separate post about each stage (picking families, working with donors, delivery of gifts to selected families) as the time goes by.

Next months are bound to be a period of facing constant time shortages. Szlachetna Paczka is a time-consuming occupation, fourth quarter is customarily the busiest season at work (and this year pandemic-driven slowdown will bear the additional brunt on my workload) and finally my private life has shaped up and I need to foster it, therefore long notes on the blog are not in the offing.

Next Sunday I set off to Bieszczady (first time in my life), for a long-awaited holiday trip (before the number of new infections soars), first since June 2019. Do not expect me to post before mid-September.

Czarni - book review

Having read Chciwość and Bogowie (about doctors), magnificent books by Paweł Reszka which I hold on my bookshelf, I did not hesitate much when I spotted the most recent piece, Czarni, published early this year and being a bunch of odd talks with… priests.

The convention of the book remains the same as in two previous ones – the author interviews anonymous representatives of a specific profession and then brings their stories together (in a fairly chaotic way) and paints a picture what they are like. The sample of priests who agreed to be Mr Reszka’s interlocutors might not be entirely demonstrative, yet their confessions appear as straightforward and trustworthy sources of inside knowledge on how the oldest corporation in the world functions.

The way the book is structured into chapters lacks an easily recognisable order, however main sins of the clergy emerge from the entire work.

Firstly, hubris which gives rise to conviction that priests are selected ones and superior to other people, a conviction which according to humble priests is totally unfounded.

Secondly, greed, one word which does not necessitate further comments.

Thirdly, disdain for people, which is inevitably linked to hubris, but manifests itself in little respect for humans priests deal with on everyday basis and (more often) to one another.

Fourthly, career pursuit, not a very common sin, yet there is a group of priests for who end justifies the means if a step up in the hierarchy is at stake.

Fifthly, the life of ease they pursue. Priests usually hire ladies to clean their dwellings, cook meals, iron clothes, know little about running the house and everyday duties (some have never cleaned a toilet bowl, to quote the most vivid example). They do not even know what costs of living are.

Sixthly, the Church as an institution is obsessed with ordinary people’s sexuality and attempts to instruct them how to get on with it, while representatives of the Church are officially not allowed to have a little notion what real life looks like.

The spate of interviews is also an account of solitude. Once a man decides to become a priest, he decides to forsake a family life forever. It is also a poignant reminder being surrounded by people does not guarantee salvation from loneliness. Priests seem to be poor at filling it and generally cannot boast about reasonable ways of filling the void such as sport, hobbies, passions, highbrow culture. They spend evenings watching TV, eating, sipping alcohol.

A gap between how people perceive life of a priest and reality is the most astonishing conclusion from the book I have drawn. Bear then in mind your priest’s life is far from being divine.

With few young lads eager to sign up for seminars these days, the Church in Poland will be facing a shortage of priests in years to come. Until early 1990s the Church was a backbone of freedom, one of the strongest institutions in the opposition to the communist governors. Today the freshmen are not as open-minded as their predecessors, therefore the Polish clergy is bound to evolve towards conservatism, drifting away from vision of the world espoused by the current Pope who does a lot to move with the times.

Belarus, where are you heading?

A short note today, as since yesterday I have been struggling a mini-heat stroke which hit me after cycling 70 kilometres with a 5-kilogram rucksack on my back in +28C heat on Friday. I was intent to swim in a lake, but the trip could have been done with some more convenient means of transport.

It goes without saying that the presidential election held in Belarus last Sunday has been rigged.

Needless to say, the opposition’s candidate has been blackmailed and forced to flee the country and seek asylum in bordering Lithuania (interestingly that it was not Poland that has given shelter to Mrs Tsikhanouskaya (mind spelling difference between Polish and English)).

Sadly, does not take aback the European Union has proven its weakness again. Gone are the times of Ukrainian orange revolution in November 2004 or Maidan protests in the same country in February 2014 when Western leaders acted up to the mark in aiding Ukraine break away from the dictatorship (for the latter attempt Ukraine has paid a price of the Russian invasion).

Democrats are facing a difficult question whether to interfere into internal affairs of a sovereign country and bring in democracy (attempts to install it in Middle-East Arab societies have turned out to plunge those countries into chaos, despite setting them free from dictators) or to let things drift and wait until suppressed nations stand up. For me the situation is akin to a dilemma of someone who hears that next door a neighbour beats up his wife. I believe domestic violence is not just a fellow men’s business and a decent man has an obligation to intervene.

Lukashenko regime remains powerful as long as it has police and army officers on its side. A few days ago armed forces appeared to stalwartly defend the status quo and hopes for winning the battle began to fade. Towards the end of the week one could hear of more and more instances of desertion and joining the protesters by OMON functionaries and soldiers. I believe if we are to pin hopes in anybody, those are the armed forces without which the dictator is powerless.

On moments like this I hark back to December 1989 when Romania’s communist dictator, Ceausescu was sentenced to death. I generally am against the bloodshed and capital punishment, yet somebody guilty of quelling a country’s potential and subduing a civic society deserves a war-time rather than peace-time condemnation. Such ending should remind a dictator how they may end up. On the other hand, fear of being killed would prompt them to take the cruellest measures to shield their regime.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Poland’s eastern neighbours. I realise the change will not happen overnight, this will quite likely be a long process of devolving power, yet I hope the change moves Belarus forward.

The epidemic in overdrive

If you thought the coronavirus would retreat in high summer, recent infection statistics have proven you wrong. Last week we crossed the barrier of 600 new infections a day in Poland, in recent days the 700 and 800 thresholds have been crossed. In terms of cases per 1 million inhabitants Poland keeps doing far better than countries most severely afflicted by the pandemic four months ago, yet the trend does not fill with optimism.

As Michael rightly points out, our collective complacency is to blame. We have got fed up with constant sanitising, social distancing and abiding by all rules which made our lives less convenient. On top, unlike in Italy or Spain, very few people have been known somebody infected, therefore the peril has not appeared too close for comfort.

In late March we exhibited exemplary discipline, out of fear of the unknown. The spurt of anxiety was short-lasting. Psychologists claim human being are capable of large, yet short-lasting sacrifices. Besides, human memory is surprisingly short. On top, humans naturally want to rejoice to make up for time of sacrifices. The recipe for relaxation of virus prevention rules (partly written up by the government) might soon turn out to be a recipe for disaster.

The vaccine for COVID-19, if effective, is months away from us. We know somewhat better how to cure the infected, our health service is better prepared, but specialists estimate if the number of new infections exceeds 1,000 per day, we might run out of hospital capacity. The second lockdown is ruled out for economic reasons. For some time, the virus will need to be targeted with local lockdowns are sets of restrictions that might give people a hard time, but will not push towards austerity.

I personally try to live possibly normally, yet I strictly obey face-covering principles, keep my distance from people, avoid restaurants and cafes, except for open-air ones and shun crowded places. Much enough to minimise the risk of infection without risking my mental health.

Scientists have taken back their assertions that the virus is seasonal. In terms of transmission, the risk in open air on a sunny and dry day is perhaps lower, yet people get infected in interiors where conditions do not depend on the weather outside. Though the transmission might not speed up in the colder season, the incidences of flu and COVID-19 with similar symptoms will mix up, making it hard for doctors to diagnose which patient is down with which disease and possibly clogging up the health service.

Even those young and healthy who are likely to be asymptomatic, should not shrug off the virus. The disease is said to leave a mark of destruction in lungs, heart and brain, which is horrifying. I still pin some hopes in wisdom of people who should not deliberately do themselves harm. As a born pessimist, I still fear the worst is ahead.

Finally, not an extremely warm summer (in Poland)

After a streak of six autumnal and wintery months in a row with anomalously high average temperatures (from October 2019 to March 2020 each with mean temperature no less than 2 Celsius degrees higher than 1981-2010 average) spring and summer months of 2020 bring temperatures closer to long-term averages.

April 2020 was merely 0.7C degrees warmer than long-term average, while May 2020 went down in history as the coldest since 1992. This pertains to measurements in Warsaw, since in most parts of the world the month was the hottest since records began.

June 2020 was over 2C degrees hotter than 1981-2010 average, but only 1.3C degrees warmer than 1991-2020 average which will become a benchmark in 2021. The month did not seem hot to me, as I still had in mind how scorching it was last year. Indeed, June in 2020 was 3.5C degrees colder than in 2019. In 2020, only once over the entire month the temperature exceeded +30C. In terms of rainfall, the precipitation of 166 millimetres (vs. long-term average of 70 millimetres) has brought short-term relief from the drought.

July 2020 was 0.1C degrees warmer than 1981-2010 average and 0.5C degrees colder than the 1991-2020 average, which meant the weather was clement. Sadly, it could have done with more rainfall, as only 48 millimetres have fallen on the ground, which accounts for 65% of monthly average precipitation.

Fortunately, so far we have had only 2 days with temperatures topping above +30C (12 June and 28 July), yet on both less than +31C. This, along with pleasantly cool nights and early mornings has made working from home (no aircon here) quite comfortable.

August looms as the hottest month of the year, with conceivable incidences of inflows of air masses from Sahara, those which these days bring +40C temperatures in Spain or France. I hope in Poland the onslaught of heat will be short-lasting, as sweating in front of the computer in my living room is not what I would wish on my worst enemy.

I recommend you read Michael’s post on the epidemic. Next week I will attempt to write my own note, hoping the story does not unfold tragically quickly (since in some time a tragic time is inevitable).