The Grammys Mean I'm Communist

Last night, I was subjugated to watching the Grammys.  My hippy husband put the show on in the bedroom while I was wanting to read a book about Siberian history.  Loudly.

At one point, the Hall of Fame inductees (I think that's what it was?) came on.  I recognized Diane Ross and The Allman Brothers, naturally.  But I quietly mumbled "I don't even know who these people are."

My husband turned his head and said "You don't know George Jones?!" as if I was saying I had never heard of someone who affected human life as we speak, such as Gandhi.

He then promptly proclaimed me a Communist and said I'm anti-American.

A few minutes before, someone had come on singing "Rhinestone Cowboy".  I had no idea that was a real song.

Apparently, I'm supposed to be familiar with the songs that were popular in Amerika while my family was living under the USSR Communist yoke in Poland, not aware that eventually we would be moving to a country where George Jones should be known.

I don't think I can get back the two hours wasted watching the Grammys.

Welcome to my life.

I'm not cool.

Na razie...

My Husband Thinks I'm a Communist Like the Muppets

Walking around the grocery store yesterday, my husband told me "You're a Communist just like the Muppets." 


In case you haven't seen or heard about this, FOX News recently made a comment that the Muppets are Communists.

While talking to Santa after waking him up last weekend, my older daughter had told Santa Claus, "Cookies and milk aren't really healthy, Santa, so I am going to put out oranges and orange juice for you instead."

Let me explain...

During our stay at Keylime Cove last weekend, one of the activities my older daughter participated in was waking up Santa Claus on Saturday morning.  Santa comes to Keylime Cove every year before Christmas.

He gets a special room made just for him away from all the other hotel rooms because he snores so much.  Saturday morning, an elf and a Keylime Cove employee bring some of the children to the room to call out "Wake up, Santa!" so that they can later have breakfast with him...

According to FOX News logic, I am a Communist because I taught my daughter that eating too many cookies is not healthy and that oranges are a healthy delicious alternative.

According to FOX News logic, I am a Communist because I teach my children to save the rain forest, expect human and animal life to be valued, eat healthy, feed the poor, send hot meals over to our elderly neighbors, donate old clothing to a charity, know that immigrants are people too, and to stand up for what you believe in.

Because, you know, recycling, adding a bit of flax seed to your diet, caring about human slavery and our environment makes you a Dirty No Good Stinkin' Dangnootin' Flamjammin' Red.  OK, according to them, I'm a Red.

According to my husband, I would own the books "The Organic Squirrel Gets a Bike Helmet" and another about saving the Wetlands-books in the film Bedtime Stories which Adam Sandler's character calls "Communist books".  As a confession, I would own them.

I asked my husband, "Wait.  So... I'm a Communist?"

He laughed and said, "Yeah, just like the Muppets."

I looked in my shopping cart: 

• Organic Ginger
• Whole Wheat Pastas
• Whole Wheat Flour
• Greek Honeycomb
• Polish black currant jelly
• Organic Apples and Bananas
• Pickles without yellow food dye or preservatives
• Organic Red Potatoes
• Beets to make homemade soup
• real butter
• Fresh baked bread without preservatives that will go stale in 2 days
• Beef Kidneys
• Flax Seeds
• Wheat Germ
• Cage Free Eggs
• Smoked Pig Hocks to make soup with
• Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms
• Organic plain yogurt
• 7 large jugs of Kefir in various flavors
• Sour Cream without Guar Gum or other thickening agents
• And various other items...

All of which I planned on feeding my children after having lovingly prepared it with their help and which I planned to discuss while we ate. 


On the topic of discussions would be the taste, texture, smells of the foods along with methods of preparation around the globe in various countries and the ways the foods were grown and harvested and transported for consumption.  Also, the environmental, social and economical impact of purchasing different versions of the same product. 


I was planning on teaching them through food.

The only thing I could come back with was, "Huh.  And here I thought I was just being a mother."

How sweet that he still allows me to raise our children.

Note:  My husband loves the Muppets and is not a Communist and does not think I am one.  And in case you were not sure, I am not one.

Nice to Meet You

I think it's about time a face was put to my writing....

I am 2 years old sitting on the stairs of the hotel we had been living in for a few months at this point. 

I am currently a refugee fleeing Communism.  Leaving behind friends and family to go into the wide world with my parents only. 

I am living in Austria in a small village.  We are waiting on possibly moving to either Australia or the USA.  Waiting to hear whether all the legal paperwork is approved.  And praying.

This smile is always on my face to this day...


Related Posts:

Wordless Wednesday:  A Toy Train


Writing Me:  Where I'm From

After Chernobyl

It has been 25 years since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, to the day. 

25 years ago, Ukraine, like Poland and other countries, was part of the USSR for 40 years already.  The details of that, I won't get into.  That is a discussion for another day and could be talked about for an entire lifetime without many changing their perspectives and grasping one another's feelings on the subject.

Instead, I will share with you my personal experiences regarding Chernobyl.

We had been in the USA for almost 4 years at this time.  My little brother was about 3 years old.  He is American born.  At this time, I was almost 6 years old.  Not yet in school.

My parents started saying words over and over which meant nothing to my young mind.  "Chernobyl", "Nuklearny", "Energia jadrowa".  And words I knew.  "Ukraine", "Sovieci", "Murderstwo", "Makabra", "Boga".

My mother was crossing herself and crying.  My father was smoking more cigarettes (outside, never inside around us children and always thinking we never saw it) than usual.  My parents were whispering a lot and glancing at us children playing and walking into another room to talk.

Phone calls to Poland were made.  I would hate to imagine how expensive that phone bill was for them, since I knew they easily paid $100 for a half hour phone call at the time.

The news was on a lot.

It was as though the air was electric.  Something was going on but I didn't know what.  I asked but my parents answered me the way they did when I asked about our leaving Poland.  "One day when you are older and can understand and not be angry or blame anyone, I will tell you."

They never explained it to me.  I was never told by my parents about the Chernobyl disaster.  Instead, I learned about it in passing in school and the subject called to me.  I learned about it on my own.

I learned that the sarcophagus now containing the radiation at Chernobyl has an expected lifetime of 30 years and that a newer, more long term solution should have started being created 25 years ago in order to meet the deadline.  I learned that as of yet, funds are still being raised for it.  I can't blame Ukraine.  But that is another discussion about a country's economic aftereffects from being under the USSR for so many years.

When the Japanese nuclear disaster occurred recently, my Ciocia revealed to me a bit about how my family was affected by Chernobyl.

She said thoughts that truly struck home with me.  "People would go outside and not be able to catch their breathe.  Some people got throat cancer suddenly.  Skin cancer.  Other cancers.  Teeth started suddenly falling out of the mouths of healthy people.  Hair fell out for some.  Old people got sick.  Children got thyroid cancer.  Babies bron a few months later, some weren't lucky.  Maybe it wasn't from Chernobyl but it was a terrible coincidence."

I didn't know what she meant at first, but learned later that there were some cases of elevated levels of Downs Syndrome and Neural Tube Defects, etc. in certain areas of population.  Of course, that made sense to me since fetuses are so vulnerable during pregnancy.

My Ciocia was not the first or the last to say such words.  But to hear a very intelligent woman who I respect highly and who I know is not a sensationalist or prone to hysteria in any way, that is what hits home.

I hope the world does not face such a disaster again.  But while hoping against such an event, the only solution I can ever think of is to say "No" to Nuclear power.  Yet, who am I?  I am no government official, I am not a rich company or investor.  I am nobody who can make a difference. 

So, all I can do is pray to God...

Potato Soup or Zupa Ziemnianczana

Potato Soup is so simple that it's one of the first soups I ever learned how to make.  It's also extremely frugal.

Potato Soup also has played a large role in Polish culture, just as it has in other cultures.  It has been eaten by peasants for centuries.  Because it can be made with a vegetarian broth, it is a popular dish during Lent and other meatless days.

Even in movies such as The Pianist, Potato Soup is mentioned.  It is a soup that has kept people going during lean times.

On talking about living under Communism and why my family left, my Babcia once lamented that "You could stand in long lines behind people to buy your allowed food at the store.  Then, when it was finally your turn to buy, you would see that the shelves in the store were all empty except for one rotten bag of potatoes.  You couldn't even make Potato Soup."

Yesterday while my father joined us for dinner and we ate this dish, my father asked me if I remembered the man with the really big spoons.  I looked at him with surprise.  The flavor of Potato Soup always brings back a faint memory of a man smiling at me while I tried to eat Potato Soup with very large spoons.  The sort of spoons that for my age felt like they were as big as my face. 

I never knew what this memory is of. 

My father explained to me that when we were in Austria as refugees, the man would bring us Potato Soup with very large spoons.  Spoons which were too big even for my father to use.  Spoons like the ones used in The Pianist when the Szpilman family sits around eating what was probably Potato Soup.

Potato Soup is my memory of waiting and being given random acts of kindness from strangers. 

Waiting to be given a direction where we could go. 

Just like Lent is filled with waiting and being given a random act of kindness.


Ingredients:

1 piece of Smoked Polish Bacon with Ribs*
1 Onion, peeled and quartered
2 Carrots, washed, peeled and cut into 3 large pieces
handful of Curly Parsley, chopped
20 Peppercorns, whole in spice ball
10 Potatoes, washed, peeled, and cut into cubes
Salt to taste
Cream or Sour Cream, if you like
Chopped Chives or Curly Parsley to Garnish



In a large pot, place the Bacon, Onion, Carrots, Curly Parsley and Peppercorns and add water.  Bring to Boil and cook on medium heat for 1/2 hour. 

Remove from the liquid the Bacon, Onion, Carrots. 

Add Potatoes

Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are soft.

Season with Salt.

Serve in bowl, garnish with Sour Cream and Chives or Curly Parsley, if you like.  On the side, you can serve the Meat.

Smacznego!

* I made this soup with meat to enjoy of Wednesday since we do not eat meat during Holy Three-Day Period.  To make vegetarian, just remove meat from list of ingredients.

Poland's Decision to Suspend Compensation Plans for WWII Victims

I should be writing a recipe about Polish Creamed Green Peas and another about raising a bi-lingual child in the USA, but...

Right now, there is a controversial decision by the Polish government being discussed around the world.  The decision to suspend compensation plans for real estate seized by Nazi Germany and then by the USSR Communists.

If you haven't heard about it, I asked Poland.gov.pl's facebook fan page administrator about it and she kindly gave me the following links:

http://www.ejpress.org/article/49652

http://thenews.pl/national/artykul151246_polands-chief-rabbi-rails-against-restitution-backdown.html

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-congress-condemns-poland-s-decision-to-halt-property-restitution-1.349366

First, I need to address something I am noticing in the first article, and has been a trend throughout some other articles, is the term "post-war Polish communists".  Whoever wrote this article must not know their history.  Otherwise, I can not fathom how the USSR, the Soviet Communists, can be mistaken for the Polish government, as the term "post-war Polish Communists" (as a side note, I always thought you capitalized the word Communist) implies. 

To me, it smacks of the same lack of understanding and perhaps even purposeful rewriting of history as the "Polish Concentration Camps" issue, which Mr. Alex Storozynski fought against recently with his effective petition.

I acknowledge there were some Poles who were Communists.  But let's get something clear.  There were also Jewish Communists, American Communists, Ukrainian Communists, British Communists, etc.  That doesn't mean that those countries were Communist.  And if I recall correctly, the USSR was in control of Poland, as well as other countries, and was a Communist government.

Back to the point, I wanted to share a conversation I had with a friend once.  He was originally from South Africa and his family were Polish Jews.  He has since moved back to South Africa but he, my husband and myself had the chance to spend some great afternoons together hiking and discussing Nature, History, Cultures, and all sorts of other interesting subjects.

One day, we were discussing his Polish roots.  His father was born in Poland and fled to South Africa from the German Nazis as he was Jewish.  I can't fault him for that, I would have done the same.  In fact, my non-Jewish Babcia on my father's side fled the Nazis as well, first to France, then to the US, then back to Poland once the Nazi madness was over.

The discussion continued to his father deciding to return to Poland for a time.  He wanted his property back.  This was about ten years ago.  Our friend went on to say that the villagers treated his father rudely and refused to give him back the estate.

Here is what I think on that subject.  Now, this is just my opinion.  Not the opinion of all Poles, Polish Americans, or Americans.  Only mine.

WWWII ended in 1945.  Ten years ago, this would have been 56 years ago.  I understand that some time passes before someone extremely traumatized by such events can return.

But I learned something from my father, which has guided me in a lot of my views in life.  Always look at the big picture before deciding which side you sit on.  And religion and fact are just part of that. Human emotion are also a part of that.

So, I listened to what he said, and visualized Poland as I knew her.  Only in 1989 did Poland finally gain her freedom from Communist Russia.  Ten years ago, this would have been 12 years of freedom. 

If you have not been to a former Communist country and not listened to it's people what it was like, you have no idea.  The way my Babcia sums it up is "There was no toilet paper.  No chocolate for the children.  You stood in line for hours only to find out the store had only one bag of potatoes to sell and they were rotten."  That's why my parents fled with me to Austria, and later to the US.  Can you imagine?

And no, this was not Poland's own doing.  This is what every country suffered through under the Communist regime which dictated from Moscow.

Also, when Poland's government fled in exile to Britain in order to keep fighting the Nazis, she placed her entire Treasury in the "trustworthy" care of Switzerland.  All of which was stolen (or handed over to, whichever way your history book states it) by the Nazis.  At the time when I had this conversation with our friend, I had read and heard that when Poland was reimbursed (a lot but not reimbursed all, as I recall) her stolen treasury, the Polish government then handed the money to fund the creation of the Israeli government.  At this time, I cannot find any proof of this anywhere.  But if this is true, that is an amazing gesture.

Now, let's imagine a village in Poland after WWII.  Homes destroyed, the population traumatized by the horrors which were dealt to the local residences at the hands of the German Nazis and the Soviet soldiers.  They are told that the treaty for the ending of this war included handing over Poland to the Soviets.  Life is hard.  Nazi concentration camps in Poland are for a while used by the Soviets.

People are freed from concentration camps and not given a direction or help by their "liberators" and simply wander the countryside, mentally still in the camps.  Slowly, painfully, life goes on.  Poland picks herself up as a people, though once again, no longer a country, removed off the map of Europe.  Again.

Time passes.  There are times when it's not so bad anymore.  When life is full of promise and hope.  Other times, there is oppression and people by the hundreds of thousands again die of starvation, or are sent to Siberia, or just never heard from again.

The little village lost half of it's residences during WWII.  Now, the question is this...

Should the houses have stayed empty all this time?  When people like my grandparents were on a waiting list for about 5 years, waiting to be given a small apartment because so much of Poland had been destroyed.  Buildings, homes, places to live.  When people were thankful to be given an apartment the size of my living room.

Should the houses of the WWII victims stayed empty, waiting in hope that someone, a relative of some kind would return to claim it?  5 years later.  15 years later.  55 years later.

Should the fields have not been worked in the meantime?  Cows, horses, pigs of the victims not eaten by a starving populace in the meantime?

I know what the Bible says.  And that is not stealing.  If you think the person is dead and your children are starving, do you let them starve?  Or tell the Soviet government no when they assign you that house?  Do you think that is what the Bible teaches us to do?

Later on, when the new owners decide to sell the property, as they 20, 30, 55 years later, might want to, do they not have that right?  Do the new owners not have claim to that property when they pay for it with money, as the old owners did?  They pay taxes to the government, care for the property, live and die in that property. Just as the victims of WWII did.

Alright.  Now, let's discuss the government of Poland.  Which is only about 23 years old.  After 6 years of WWII, 44 years of Soviet rule.  Prior to which, was only it's own country for 21 years after WWI, a victim of WWI for 4 years, and off the maps of Europe in the Great Partitions for about 123 years.  I'm not asking for a pity party.  I'm saying, know the facts.  All of them.  Grasp the full situation of a country before deciding who is right about what.

Poland right now is the least impacted country in the EU right now from the recession.  That does not mean they are the richest country in the EU right now.  If country X had 800 dollars and only lost 8 in the recession and country Y had 1,000 and lost 150, then country X is least effected but country Y has more money.  I am also not saying Poland is the poorest.  I am just saying, look at figure before slapping a fun and easy to swallow summary on a country's economy and making your decisions from there.

Also, in order for Poland to be a member of the EU, Poland must maintain a certain economic and budgetary balance.  With the economy being what it is and the recession, as well as the still in progress picking upand fixing of the damage caused by the Soviet government, it's not as simple as you might think.  I have been following the Polish economy and it's not so easy to fix all that.

Poland being a member of the EU also benefits Israeli citizens who can claim Polish citizenship, as they can also use their Polish passport to move freely between EU countries, whereas their Israeli passport does not allow that at this time.

In the end, I told our friend, "I understand how your father felt.  But I have to also see it from the villagers perspective and it wasn't fair to them either that your father expected them to simply hand over the house when he himself admits nobody for 56 years knew anything about what happened to the family except that they had died.  I'm so sorry what happened to your family.  Did your father speak to the local government to see what was able to be done with this?"

He stopped talking during that hike.  And after that day, did not speak to us.  I'm not sure what I did wrong, other than empathize with an entire victimized nation, rather than one particular people.

What would you have done?  How does Poland's decision make you feel?



For other's perspectives in the Polonia (Polish American Community), you can also read here at Jagahost's Polish Culture Forum...

Today in Polish History

Today is December 13 and while I was too young to remember the events of this day, it is imprinted in the minds of many Poles as being a day to remember. Well, one of many, Poles like many people, like to remember their nations history.

December 13th is the anniversary of when the Communist government controlling Poland at the time declared "Martial Law", a term many Americans may not understand. I, myself, did not grow up hearing about Martial Law, but then, my parents and all other Poles called it Stan Wojenny (pronounced "Stahn Vo-Yen-ny" with the "a" sound in Stan sounding like in polska and in Wojenny, the double "n" sound sounding like in many Spanish words and the "Y" sounding like in the name Lynn), which means "State of War", even though there was no war. Well, unless you counted that the Communist regime in control at the time viewed the Solidarity movement as being an attack on the government.

What does Stan Wojenny mean to Polish memories? My father, if I could ever successfully get him to discuss the past, would tell me that there were Russian tanks poised along the Polish border, ready to strike. A curfew was imposed, the people woke up and found thousands of military vehicles and personnel patrolling the streets of every major city, the airports were closed, certain classes in schools and universities were suspended, the national borders were closed, road access to major cities was denied, the mail was censored, telephone lines were disconnected. People affiliated with the Solidary movement and strikes were arrested. People were killed. This was real fear.  This was no movie, no novel, this was real, happening in a real country, to real people, very recently in human history...

And that wasn't all that started. People were forced to work a 6 day working week again (this had previously been imposed and later lifted). Many industries, such as but not limited to the coal mines, mass media, power stations, the ports, health care services, were placed under "military management", and it's workers subjugated to "verification" where their attitudes toward the regime was questioned. Many teachers, journalists, etc. were banned from working, some even arrested. Instead of the typical court system, military courts were used, basically overriding the people's rights.

So, in summary, one can say that today in history was a day of oppression in Poland under the Communist regime, which the US and Britain allowed to have control over Poland after WWII. As such, it is a bitter subject for many.

If you have any memories or information regarding this date, please feel free to share...

Also, this is the first of many posts I plan on writing on historical dates in Polish history. If you have any you are interested in learning about or sharing, please feel free to comment as well...