Being up to date thanks to think tanks

A think tank, other called policy institute or research institute, is an organization that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture.

There are a lot of think tanks in every democratic country. A very important think tank in Poland is Centre for Eastern Studies (Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia). It’s an independent public research institution monitoring the events and analysing the socio-political and economic processes taking place in Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, the Visegrad Group states, the Balkan states and Turkey. Continue reading „Being up to date thanks to think tanks”

New historical sources – a meeting

Community archives are archival initiatives, which are independent from the state activities. They are a new place, where you can look for unknown historical sources. You can find there e.g. family photos, private documents and diaries. Polish scientists consider sources of community archives to be very important for researches with new approaches, e.g. every day life, cultural life and social life.

On October, 24 they met in Warsaw (Museum of History of Polish Jews – Polin) at the 1st Meeting of Community Archives (www.archiwa.org). Continue reading „New historical sources – a meeting”

I am looking for a good catchword [Marta Gałązka]

At the weekend parliamentary election takes place in Poland. It is a good moment for the analysis of political campaigns.

„Citizens decide” („Obywatele decydują”), „I love Poland” („Kocham Polskę”) and „We can do it” („Damy radę”) are new catchwords of political parties. It could not be antything wrong, but these slogans are slogans of ngo’s projects or other organizastions. Are there conscious actions or spin doctors’s inattention during electoral campaigns? Continue reading „I am looking for a good catchword [Marta Gałązka]”

Pozegnanie Joy w Parku, 2001

The 90s: American Peace Corps in Poland

Did you know that the volunteers of the American Peace Corps were working also in Poland? I worked on a one-year documentary project about their work. Effects of the project are a bilingual publication and a bilingual Web-presentation: www.korpus.karta.org.pl (pl) and http://korpus.karta.org.pl/?lang=en (en). Some collected photos you can see here. Continue reading „The 90s: American Peace Corps in Poland”

Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec

Commemoration of an expulsion can help to overcome the trauma of expelled. This is the case with the Museum of the Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec, which I visited. The history of the Museum you can read and see here. It’s of course a very emotional and not professional museum, but it’s interesting to see and to listen what the whole equipment, documents and photos mean for the museum’s founder Alfred Janicki. Continue reading „Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec”