The President stated in his speechthat Karski, “served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II… resistance fighters told him thatJews were being murdered on a massive scale and smuggled him into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself….” ( click here to watch video ) On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued a press release that states in part,”We always react in the same wayto ignorance, lack of knowledge and ill will which lead to the distortion of history. Such phrasesare especially painful for Poland -Europe’s most affected country by World War II.”

The Associated Press reports that many Polish people said that Obama should have referred to the concentration camp as a”German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.” The Prime Minister stated in his press release that Poland expects America to engage in efforts aimed at eradicating the phrase “Polish death camps” once and for all.

“I am certain that our American friends are capable of a more explicit reaction than issuing a correction and the spokesperson of the White House expressing regret, and that maybe they will once and for all eliminate such errors.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told the media that Obama “misspoke’and “He was referring to Nazi death camps in Poland.” Vietor spoke on behalf of the President and stated, “We regret this misstatement , which shouldnot detract from the clear intention to honor Mr. Karski andthose brave citizens who stood onthe side of human dignity in the face of tyranny.”

Little ones whose parents are both registered citizens of Poland automatically purchase the ability to have polish citizenship. This however is dependent on the situation that the children remain within the guardianship and support of the proclaimed mother and father. Which means that children born under the stated situations are listed as pure born nationals of Poland. In case the parents are separated, the child can still be born a national if three situations are met. First, each parent should be citizens; second, any of the mother or father will keep custody of the child until he or she attains legalized age; and third, the non-custodian parent consents on giving the kid the citizenship.

There are persons with no nationality. These people are often those abandoned since childhood or have lost their memory. In the case that it proves extremely hard to find out his/her basis, a person can request for polish citizenship. The individual yet needs to first reside in the state for at least five years. His stay should be authorized with any of the three licenses mentioned earlier. The children of someone with no nationality may also turn into Polish citizens under three situations. First, one of the parent must be a nationality of Poland. Second, either the stateless man or the national would’ve guardianship of the kid till it extends to the legal age. And lastly, both couples agree on the approving of citizenship.

There’s also specific ways of receiving polish citizenship even if you don’t possess one of the requisites. This is when you have distinct abilities or knowledge that would make you an asset to the state. This exceptional privilege only functions generally for legendary athletes and even then, may need to revoke their existing nationalities in place of a polish citizenship.

To obtain any legal help including civil, administrative, commercial and company law in Poland, go here

Non-citizens of Poland could also obtain their own Polish passport even if they’ll need to go through way stricter steps and interviews. The easiest method for a non-citizen to be able to have the item would be to get petitioned by a citizen of Poland. Furthermore, the petitioner must be associated with you by blood. The petitioner also needs to be able to give you a high-quality standard of living at least until you become capable to live on your own. A petition is a particular power of attorney that allows a citizen to serve as catalyst in the conversion of a non-Polish person to a Polish citizen.

The Polish passport is a prerequisite when a citizen of Poland desires to travel outside of the country. The item is necessary not just in air-ports but also in most ports in EU. You’ll need it regardless if you are intending to go to abroad via plane, by ship, or by train. You can just use an official Identification as a replacement if you are able to verify that you’ll come back to the nation within 90 days of your leaving. For people who want to go into Poland but don’t have any pass, a tourist visa will suffice but you won’t be allowed to be in the country for a period of time going above ninety days.

Should you be considering to go into or leave Poland over and over again within 10 years, getting yourself a Polish passport is strongly recommended. This will allow you to take pleasure in the benefits as being a Poland citizen and also determine the legality of your citizenship.

To get any legal help including civil, administrative, commercial and company law in Poland, go here

Probably due to period dramas and school history lessons, I think most of us have grown up wearing rose tinted glasses and thinking that the world encompassed a much more disciplined and moral social structure prior to the 1960s “years of enlightenment” so it may be interesting for you to discover that 100 years ago drugs were readily available for common consumption and, on the whole, governments considered alcohol abuse to be the greater evil.

Before the 1912 International Opium Convention narcotics were trafficked across the world with scant intervention by authorities but the 1912 Convention committed countries across the world to stop trading in opium (produced from the dried residue of poppies), morphine and cocaine.  On the whole this drug was supposedly used for its “anaesthetic properties” but needless to say, things had got a little out of hand and use for “recreation” began in earnest.

The US embraced this document wholeheartedly, and the British said they were happy to go along with it and sign it although perhaps not quite as enthusiastically as the US!  In fact, Britain had fought two wars against China back in the 1800s in favour of the importation of opium.

Pre 1912

The opium wars saw us good old stiff upper lipped Brits battling the Chinese as we regularly shipped copious amounts of the drug through India and into China before it finally arrived on the shores of our “Sceptred Isle”.  However, China viewed the drug much as we view it today and were keen to restrict the amount being trafficked through their country.

Joe Public in the UK was able to buy opium, cocaine and poisons such as arsenic readily over the chemist’s counter and it if you’d lived or worked in any of our major ports in the UK, you would have found it amongst ordinary cargo being unloaded, and in 1785 The Times actually listed opium from Symya (now called Izmir) in Turkey in amongst oil from Leghorn (now Livorno) in Italy and peas from Dantzic (now Gdansk) in Poland being unloaded from a ship in London.

I was particularly interested to learn that, come the early part of the 19th century, travellers coming into my sleepy little home county of Norfolk UK were warned not to drink the beers and ales served in taverns as it could well be laced with opium.  At that time, opium was considered to be a great boon to ward off malaria which flourished in our wide expanses of wetland, known as the fens.  I suspect this laced booze was most prevalent in Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, our major ports.  But this drug was not only prescribed for malaria, it was also promoted as a cure for coughs and colds and was often given to “patients” for all manner of ailments in the form of laudanum – a concoction of opium mixed with alcohol.

Balmoral Castle, Scotland

Amongst the great and the good who were believed to have imbibed in this “wonder drug” were, most notably, Queen Victoria who ordered the stuff from the royal apothecary at Balmoral in Scotland and she is understood to have enjoyed a touch of opium gum with a very young Winston Churchill (later to become Prime Minister).

A Young Winston Churchill

And apparently Prime Minister William Gladstone took opium in his tea or coffee before he “took to the stage” when making speeches.  No wonder our British Empire turned to dust!!

In 1868 the Pharmacy Act was passed which restricted the use of opiates but, like so many Acts passed by the government over the years, it really wasn’t very effective.  It stated that any opium user had to provide a name, address and other personal details to the chemist before the drug could be handed over at the counter.

Limehouse, London (early 20th century)

Being an avid fan of Victorian history, it had, I suspect due to period dramas and Victorian based novels, been my belief that hundreds of bored aristocrats who had nothing better to do would lurk amongst the unruly and unwashed members of society in the east end of London doped up to their eyeballs on opiates or contracting sexually transmitted diseases from the vice dens, particularly those in Limehouse where the Chinese sailors settled but, according to recent research, there’s no real evidence that this was the case.  Thinking on it, I’m now considering that some aristocrats could undoubtedly be found there but feel it more likely that these “jolly good chaps” would prefer to mix with their own classes and imbibe in a gallon or two of good wine and have a flutter at the gaming tables, then stumble back to their gentlemen’s clubs to crash out in comfort and be waited on hand and foot following a “binge and a flutter” night.

Oscar Wilde

The belief that the upper crust of our British society spent hours in opium dens was further enhanced in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” where he referred to the fact that you could “buy oblivion” and “horrors and memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new”.  However, around that time, the intake of opium which was considered a drug of misery was fast becoming old fashioned in favour of the more uplifting cocaine and of course, the most famous fictional character who took cocaine to lift his spirits was none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes who injected it to lift him from depression. 

Arthur Conan Doyle

It also became particularly popular with the more Bohemian members of our society – those arty farty intelligentsia and often highly strung artistic people who maintained it was vital to open up their minds when they needed a spot of artistic stimulation.

Fortunately the US didn’t perceive cocaine as a vital artistic stimulant and were more concerned with the association there with street gangs and, ultimately, with the usual (and still prevalent!) propaganda that this drug sent “black men insane” and thereby put poor defenceless little white women at risk.  This obviously had a knock on effect to drive the US to sign up to the 1912 Act.

Post 1912

Although the Act undoubtedly reduced the importation of drugs it didn’t stop individual  users and when the Great War (World War I) broke out in 1914, opium and cocaine were still legal drugs in Great Britain.  During the second year of the war there was concern over the general intake of alcohol in the front-line ranks which it was considered may have a significant detrimental effect on the progress of the war so, in 1915 stricter licensing laws were passed which led to a hive of underground “vice dens” particularly in the more theatrical area of London, through which so many of our gallant troops travelled before being shipped overseas.  Some of our gallant troops it seems were not particularly “gallant” however, and on passing through London headed to the brothels or made good use of the prostitutes within this area and this was a criminal offence.  With the new strict drink licensing laws it soon became apparent that brothels were selling sex alongside the still readily available opium and cocaine.  The government therefore brought in emergency legislation to restrict the use of drugs.

Towards the end of the war in 1918 journalists were keen to find another outlet for “shock factor” articles and began delving more into the seedy side of drug taking, most notably amongst theatrical celebrities.  One of the most famous scandals was based around the death of popular actress Billie Carleton.

Billie Carleton

Billie had attended an opium party the night before her death in 1918 and the inquest revealed that she had died from an overdose of cocaine.  Her friend, one Reginald de Veulle was subsequently charged with manslaughter and conspiracy to supply a prohibited drug.  He had bought the drug from a woman called Ada and her Chinese husband Lau Ping You in Limehouse, London.  However, de Veulle was acquitted of the manslaughter charge but was found guilty of supplying Billie with the cocaine and for this crime he received an eight month prison sentence.  Ada was sentenced to five months hard labour and her husband was fined £10.

Eventually, in 1920, the emergency action which had been put into place during the war, was made permanent in the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920.

Freda Kempton

Another case which caught the public’s attention in the media was that of Freda Kempton, a  young dancer, who was found dead after taking an overdose of cocaine in 1922.  The journalists, who it seemed were targeting the Chinese community in connection with any drug death incidents, had a field day with this case as it involved a “poor young woman” who had obviously been seduced by a Chinaman, an entrepreneur known as Billy “Brilliant” Chang. 

Billy “Brilliant” Chang

Freda had been with Mr Chang on the night she died.  Needless to say, this did nothing to aid inter-racial harmony and it became apparent that the Chinese community as a whole would come under fire from the “native” British people who now considered that every Chinese man was out to ensnare innocent white women with his charismatic manners and force them to use drugs.

However, following the Kempton case this panic amongst the British that cocaine was having a considerable effect on our innocent little women, the fire dwindled and was soon extinguished although drugs were known to be dealt in Limehouse and in the “red light district” of Soho and, once the drug laws came in banning the use of cocaine and opium, the problem was so insignificant it was easily dealt with by the police.

The real drug problem began after World War II during the “baby boom” period which saw the rise of rebellious teenagers throughout the 1950s and 1960s.  These young people, due to the more modern and speedier transport links, were able to travel further afield and those who were getting into drugs at the time travelled to Morocco to smoke hash or find areas where they could get hold of amphetamines.

It was at this time the police found they were beginning to have problems containing the importation and taking of drugs and their efforts weren’t helped by various powerful international cartels.

And as we all know, this problem is still rife today – it seems the governments and law enforcement agencies are fighting an ever losing battle to get this deadly crime under control and I suspect that despite their increased efforts to stamp out illegal drugs, sadly there’ll always be a criminal out there who can find a way of outwitting them.

At 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. Some 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland along its 1,750 mile long border. Soon after the swift invasion the German air force bombed the polish air force destroying most of their planes. Meanwhile German naval ships and U-boats Destroyed Poland’s navy. After wards the Germans invaded Poland cities using a battle technique called blitzkrieg. Which were big panzers tanks that would crush through Poland’s forces and after the tanks were done the German infantry would come through and finish everything off. And to top it all off the German air force came through and bombed the cities. The cities of Katowice, Krakow, Tczew, and Tunel were attacked with incendiary bombs. The Germany army struck from Slovakia, East Prussia and form Pomerania into the Polish Corridor and the port Danzig, which declared itself part of the Reich.

Editorials

Stay out of the war!

I think that we should stay out of the war and let Germany settle its disputes that it has with it outlying countries. If they attack us then and only then should we go to war but for any other reason think that we should try to stay to stay out of the war.

This means war!

I think that we should go to war no matter the costs so we can help our fellow friends to stay away from communism so that they can help us in the future and so we can help them. If you control berlin, you control Germany. If you control Germany you, control Europe.

You will need to also provide copies of your Poland as well as international passports to prove that you’ve got dual citizenship or even other composed documents which aid the application pertaining to some other nationality apart from your own Poland citizenship. The same is true for anybody who is applying for a minor. You need to also provide passport pics, duplicates of your own birth and also marriage records, whenever related. Furthermore, you will need to present translated duplicates of these documents as well as need to be affirmed by the Consul of Poland where you are currently located.

In addition to such official documents, you must give a hand-written, authorized and dated resume and this also need to be interpreted to the Polish language, furthermore validated by your Consul of RP in your area. These are generally several of the forms that you have to get ready for the application associated with authorization to renounce your Poland citizenship. This will certainly then be looked over and you may get a written permission granting your own request on the Poland Leader.

With regard to kids whose dad and mom sent applications for the renunciation with their citizenships, they might essentially consent to this renunciation at the age of sixteen by simply creating a affirmation that relinquishes the Poland citizenship or they can furthermore write a report that will suggests or else, once they have made a decision to keep their Poland citizenship or so that they’ll additionally take pleasure in privileges received by residents in countries which are associates with the Euro.

To receive any legal help including civil, administrative, commercial and company law in Poland, refer to CK legal offices at the following link cidadania polonesa

Official language: Swedish

Land area: 173,732 sq mi/449,964 sq km

Population:  9,446,000

Dominant religion: Christianity

Capital: Stockholm

Current leader: Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt

Sweden is a country in northern Europe. It shares the Scandinavian Peninsula with Norway, which borders the country to the north. Further north on the Peninsula, Sweden is bordered by Finland. A significant portion of northern Sweden lies within the Arctic Circle and at the height of summer the sun never sets in this part of the country. During the height of winter there is continuous dark.

 Ethnic Swedes make up a great majority of the population of Sweden. There is also a significant number of people from Denmark, Finland and Norway. Like the people of Denmark and Norway, Swedes are Scandinavians. Most of Sweden’s population lives in the southern portion of the country while the north, which gets bitterly cold during the winter, is very sparsely-populated. Sweden itself is one of the world’s most sparsely-populated countries. Nevertheless, the people of Sweden enjoy one of the world’s highest standards of living.

 Sweden is highly industrialized and is one of Europe’s most economically wealthiest countries. Its industries produce agricultural machinery, aircraft and ships. It is also one of the leading automobile producers. Volvo is one of the world’s top carmakers.

 Swedish Vikings were among the world’s earliest explorers and even ruled parts of Russia at one time. In 1397 Sweden united with Norway and Denmark but in 1523 Sweden broke away from the union.  Throughout much of the 1500’s the country fought wars with Denmark, Poland and Russia and gained control of Finland in the mid-1600’s. In the 1800’s it joined the fight against Napoleon and lost Finland to Russia but gained Norway from Denmark. In 1905 Norway broke away and declared independence. Sweden remained neutral in World War I and again in World War II although it allowed Germany to use its territory to invade Norway. It took a neutral stance during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

 The Soviet Union suffered brutally at the hands of the invading German armies during World War II. Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania aided Germany in its attack against the Soviet Union. Determined to see to it that the Soviet Union would never again be attacked by a powerful Germany, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin decided that his country needed buffer states that would protect the Soviet Union in the invent that Germany rose from the ashes and tried to attack again. As the Soviet army continued its march across Eastern Europe, pushing the Germans back, it took control of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Although Stalin promised his co-victors – the United States and the United Kingdom – that there would be free and fair elections so that those countries could determine their own paths the elections were mostly rigged so that the communists would come to power. The Soviets also supervised elections in its sphere of influence in Germany, which became East Germany. By the end of the 1940’s, Stalin had his buffer zone.

 Each of the Soviet satellites had a Soviet-inspired communist form of government. The government controlled the economy and nearly every aspect of its citizens’ lives, including the media. Opposing political parties were banned. No one was allowed to speak out against the government. Citizens were not allowed to travel abroad without permission from the government. The governments frequently used propaganda, portraying the western democracies as corrupt and decadent, to keep its citizens in line. Many of them even incorporated the Soviet trademark hammer and sickle into their national flags as sign of their allegiance to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

 Although all of the countries were considered sovereign countries, they were frequently subjected to Soviet interference and the Soviet Union exercised a high degree of authority over political decisions in these countries. On two occasions, in fact, the Soviet Union demonstrated just how far it was willing to go to keep its satellites from leaving orbit. In 1956, Hungary tried to introduce political reform and allow opposing parties to freely operate. Moscow sent troops and tanks into Budapest to retake control of the country and expelled the reformist-minded politicians from the government. In 1968, in what became known as the Prague Spring, Czechoslovakia’s communist premier, Alexander Dubcek, attempted reforms, wanting to create “socialism with a human face”. It drew a similar response from Moscow, which feared that it would lose a communist ally.

 In the late 1980’s, when Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev began relaxing restrictions on Soviet citizens, the Soviet satellites saw the perfect opportunity to break free of Soviet influence and retake control of their own affairs. One by one, in seemingly rapid succession, each country began holding free elections, ejecting communists from power. By the 1991, each of the Soviet satellites had dislodged communist rule, effectively ending the existence of the Soviet Bloc.

Official language: Polish

Land area: 120,728 sq mi/312,685 sq km

Population:  38,128,000

Dominant religion: Christianity

Capital:  Warsaw

Current leader: President Bronislaw Komorowski

Poland is a country in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Baltic Sea and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to the north, Lithuania to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south and Germany to the west.

 Ethnic Poles make up about 95 percent of Poland’s population. The country also has a number of ethnic Belarusians, Germans, Lithuanians and Ukrainians.

 Since the fall of communism, Poland’s economy has grown rapidly. The country has large deposits of copper, lead, salt, silver, sulfur and zinc. It is also one of the world’s leading producers of potatoes and rye and exports items such cars, coal, food products and machinery.

 Poland’s past is wrought with periods of cold relations with its neighbors and frequent conquest by foreign powers. During the 1500’s it had amassed a sizeable empire that included parts of present-day Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine but by the country suffered a downturn and by 1772, the Austria-Hungarian Empire, Prussia and Russia had carved the country amongst themselves. Poland would remain out of existence for nearly 150 years until, following the end of World War I, the three countries that carved it up were forced to give back the land. During the World War II, Poland was the first country to fall to Germany and was once again divided, this time between Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland suffered heavily under the rule of the Nazis, who believed that the Polish and other Slavic peoples were inferior. It is estimated that more than 6 million Poles, more than half of them Polish Jews, lost their lives during German occupation.

 At the end of the war the Soviet Union, which had occupied Poland while pushing back the Germans, installed a communist government and the country became a Soviet satellite state. Its name, under the new communist constitution, was the People’s Republic of Poland. The people of Poland, however, never fully submitted to communist rule and frequently staged strikes and anti-government riots demanding reforms. In 1989, as communism’s grip on Eastern Europe was loosening, Poland held free elections after which the communists finally surrendered power. Later that year the country dropped the sardonic communist moniker “People’s” from it name, becoming the Republic of Poland.

A railway worker in poland, Jan Grzebski, who has waken up from his 19 years coma thinks” the world is prettier now” than it was under communism.

His wife Getruda Grzebski fed him up patiently and carefully everyday in the last 19 years. she also moved his body to prevent bed sores.

Wojciech Pstragowski, a rehabilitation specialist, said Grzebski was shocked at the changes in Poland — especially its stores: “He remembered shelves filled with mustard and vinegar only” under communism. Poland shed communism in 1989 and has developed democracy and a market economy.

Despite doctors’ predictions that he would not live, his wife never gave up hope and took care of him at home.