Perhaps some of you have heard about WOŚP (Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy), which is the biggest charity event taking place annually, raising money for medical equipment. There is literally no hospital around here that would not have equipment with WOŚP heart on it. It’s been growing bigger and bigger, the results were always enormous and heart warming. And - it is always an opportunity to have fun wth other people, as there are many events, displays and atractions prepared for people to join, share some money, that’s true, but also to simply have fun.
It was so until this year. Paweł Adamowicz, the Mayor of Gdańsk, was attacked and stabbed during the culmiation part of yesterday’s events, “the light to the sky”. He died today. Hate pushed someone as far as to KILL. This is something new around here, at least since we regained freedom from communists. Yes, there is a lot of hate on current political scene, but so far it was just words. I’m not sure I want to know where this is heading.
Something just happened in my home country - Poland. Mayor of the city Gdańsk was stabbed to death
during biggest charity event in the nation. He was a great man, an ally
to LGBTQ, to refugees, to women’s rights, true progressive in far-right
country. He died because of hate, nurtured by our government with
meticulous care.
This breaks my heart…
This is the one day a truly divided nation somehow comes together for a greater purpose. When I say it’s the biggest charity event I mean - there is not a single person in Poland who haven’t heard of it. 1 in every 10 people volunteered at some point, myself included. EVERY hospital in the country received medical resources from this charity. It’s been around for 27 years, in total gathering over 1 billion PLN. It’s CEO is an icon, a humanitarian and he gets no money from it, nothing. Just a joy of helping millions of people.
And during this one magical day some… irrelevant trash decided to hurt and eventually kill another person. On live television. During a charity for children.
Before this waste of space was captured he grabbed a microphone and announced some bullshit that I won’t even repeat. But one thing was clear: his choice of victim was politically motivated.
One would think, that tragedy is exactly what would unite people. At least for one day. Instead members of our government decided once again to attack the CEO and founder of the charity - Jurek Owsiak.
it’s nothing new for him. They’ve been attacking, insulting and derogating him for years. But evidently accusing him of being guilty of death of his colleague, as he alone would stab him was too hard pill to swallow. He broke, decided to step down. A truly good man. Doing whatever he can to help people… And they broke him.
The mayor who got murdered was named Paweł Adamowicz. Whole country is in mourning. There are silent demonstrations all over to honour his memory, but also against hate spreading through Poland like a cancer.
We can barely process this happened. Not only we lost a great politician and great person, we lost a great voice calling for justice and equality, for decency. And we in some ways lost Jurek. His indomitable drive for better was finally crushed by hate.
I have nothing good to say. The world is truly dark tonight.
I might just add. Please remember - hate kills. And kills good people. And it killed Paweł Adamowicz. Remember him. He was a good one.
Paweł Adamowicz has been mayor of Gdansk for 20 years, and it shows that people really loved and appreciated him. Up to few days ago I thought that the concern of the rising facism in Poland was exaggerated - sure, there were few far right idiots, like in any other country, but I thought that the vast majority of Poles are normal and moral, and sensible. But for the last few days there has been a lot of issues to which part of the public response was shocking for me. There was a media action of protecting wild boars from mass shootings ordered by the government and part of the public supported the government’s idea despite scientists’ and enviromentalists’ rational objections. Celebrities which took part in ‘protect wild boars’ action have been attacked and riddiculed by some people on social media (but to be honest most of the public were supportive, eg there were a lot of protest in various cities, a lot of oeople signed the petitions). There was a ‘comedy’ sketch with antisemitic undertones, in PUBLIC television, targeted at the WOŚP charity organisation and it’s CEO Jurek Owsiak, suggesting theft of charity money. The government didn’t let the Police to protect WOŚP - and for those who don’t know, it’s a huge event in Poland, and it takes part in all the big cities. WOŚP charity and Jerzy Owsiak have been attacked by far right citcles for years and years, probably because he can bring people together, his foundation has saved many lives and he’s very admired and respected. And then this horrible assasination happened, where a madman went on stage and killed the president, shouting some shitty propaganda lines. And now some people claim it is not political. Of course it is political. More and more people accept hate speach and political propaganda as the truth. More and more people don’t really care what the government does as long as they get their benefits. More and more people accept simple answers for complicated problems, as long as they get an external 'enemy’ that they can hate and fight with. More and more people believe accusations without any proof. And that’s exactly how the facism was born. How many crazy or stupid and aggresive people will believe in the hate speech? Everyone has a choice in their conscience if they want to support it or not. We can fight it every day, in every conversation. Because when such beliefs become the norm for most people it will be too late. We have to show them that it is not acceptable.
you know how theres an official government office of preserving the french language? my life mission is to found a counter-organization to that, formally devoted to degrading and destroying the french language by any available means of psychological and cultural warfare
So I was doing some research on common medications for a pharmacology class at school, and realized that Wikipedia is calling out the outrageous practices of pharmacological sales in the US. Right up there in the main intro to the medication they’re showing how much the drug costs to produce, versus how much a typical course of treatment costs in the USA.
Also, just so you’re aware, as of late Mat 2018, 1.80 GBP is 2.40 USD. For a three month supply of the pill. The same amount could cost you 150 USD in the United States.
