On storytelling - "Relative Stranger: A Life After Death"

I find it really difficult to title this post, but ultimately I think it's mainly about the importance of storytelling. I have recently read "Relative Stranger: A Life After Death"by Mary Loudon. The book is a personal account of a woman's journey to re-discover her relationship with one of her sisters...just after receiving the news that her sister passed away. It's a well written, very moving story which on many pages makes you stop and read a sentence over and over again. It's one of those books you could read with a pencil in your hand to mark your favourite quotes. It's a story of a journey that many of us at certain point in our lives might have to take too. It touches upon few problems I myself feel very strongly about: family relationships, mental problems of people close to you, systems we live in and society we rely on...and finally the core problem: how do we handle death of our relatives and how to we fill out the gap and all the unanswered questions?

All those notions were really important to me. You can say that the book has changed me a little, made me more sensitive to some issues, crystallised attitudes I had already. But what really is important about this particular book is the context of the story. You see, Mary Loudon is my son's best friend's mother. She lives down the road and we meet quite often. I did not connect that she writes books and only about two weeks ago Mary gave me this book to read - it happened to be on her desk when I was around. Reading such a personal account from someone you already "know" is pretty powerful. Mary's father used to work together with my landlord (both doctors) in the main house of our current property, so when in the book, Mary quoted his diary I felt something I have felt few times in my life: a touch of reality. 

Since I was a kid I used to argue the value of fiction and reality with my parents, friends, later teachers. The two are so insanely connected that very often one cannot tell them apart! So as a student I used to rage against all the categorisation of authors and books (which obviously did not help my studies!;)). I used to hate boxes we would put past and contemporary writers. Those I met off-line at the time would most definitely hate the boxes they belonged to and prefer to have a drink or a coffee with me. So...when does it leave me now? I know that linguistically speaking we need to categorise things and name them to be able to talk about things but ultimately it is the effect the stories have on us that matters!

Mary's book combined with few conversations we had in the past (and few very personal events from the last few days) have inspired me to open up and plan writing about topics I have left for my Moleskine so far. It reminded me of the value of storytelling for public consumption. If you tell your story right it can actually shift the boxes in our heads so much that the changes will come. Hopefully for better. It also made me realise that if you want to use the power of storytelling you need to do it right! 

BIGOS - another new project you will hear more about

 

I would like to introduce you to my new baby - BIGOS. Do you know bigos, the Polsih cabbage stew? No? Well, you must try it once! Here I am talking about Association of Polish Bloggers living in the UK. Below I will add the history of the idea and where you can find more so please pass it on to your friends - maybe they would be interested in working with us;) THANK YOU! 

BIGOS was born out of many ideas and attempts to create an on-line space and off-line community of bloggers who share similar values (check out our Manifesto), have something to do with Polish heritage and culture and happen to live in the UK. Combining all those factors results in a very interesting mixture: each and every person relating themselves to Poland yet living in the UK has their own approach to their national heritage and the multiculturalism of the Islands. There are many generations of Polish citizens moving, travelling or temporarily working here. Small elements of Polish cuisine, culture or customs can be found all around us but very often due to the language barrier or simply lack of time, might be overseen. And vice versa – many Polish residents in the UK become so busy with their daily life that their process of integration is simply not a priority. On-line however all those worlds combine into a brilliant mixture of blogs and social conversations which we think is a good place to start!

Initially two bloggers, Magda Na Wyspie and Sylwia Presley (with Bernie as a honorary member for the idea for the blog’s name) created a blog called “Bar Mleczny” to bring together all Polish bloggers living in the United Kingdom in virtual activities – collaboration on topics, blog carnivals and the like. The thought of something more structured and let’s face it – rather official – was always exciting but it took many months of various events, meetings and informal creative sessions to crystallise and finalise the Association itself. Magda is still involved as an advisor, though really busy in her private life so Sylwia has teamed up with Bernie and Gocha (all founders here) to develop the core of the organisation. We hope that this virtual space will become only a beginning of a longer path towards achieving the goals of the organisation’s Manifesto and make the most of all the worlds and identities we live in our daily lives.

We also hope that you will enjoy reading us, working with us and meeting us off-line!

Join us on-line on our blog, Facebook fan page, Google Plus page or follow us on Twitter.

Voter Power Index

Voter Power Index is a site launched by the New Economics Foundation to help us decide on our referendum vote on the 5th of May. According to the site (I looked at my area and Oxford) the new suggestion of Alternative Vote would increase my influence in UK voting process, but the nef report still flags up huge inequalities in the entire voting system:

The Voter Power Index finds that moving to AV would mean:

• An increase in the average power of UK voters from 0.285 of a vote to 0.352 of a vote (where a score of 1 is a fair vote). A rise of 23.5 per cent.


• An increase in the number of very marginal seats from 81 to 125, an increase of 44 seats.


• A small reduction of inequality in the power of votes with the most powerful fifth of electors going from having 21 times the power of the least powerful fifth down to 18 times.

I marvel the idea of the site, feeding from mySociety's TheyWorkForYou database. It's amazing that due to the access to this data set and pretty good search engine I am able to see the consequences of my vote on the 5th, but also flags up a deeper issue. Saying that someone should update the lists and stop sending my son invites to elections and referendums, please?;)

 

UKGOVCAMP - hub for fans of governmental transparency in the UK moving!

Those of you who are interested in networking around transparency issues in the UK probably know UKGovWeb very well and welcome the alternative of Ning network here, in its new form.

Moving communities on-line is not so difficult so I hope to see more and more of you joining us there. After GV Summit's discussion related to challenges in this field I feel even stronger about the need for all of us to connect and share ideas, experiences and good practices. So if you have anything to say, or simply want to join the community to learn - navigate over to the site prepared for you by @davebriggs. Really great site!

Polish Action - not sure about the idea...

I have  just learned today about new portal, Polish Action, dedicated to promotion of a positive image of Poles abroad. The idea is to ensure that in all countries where Poles are present the image of our nation is positive. I have big reservations already now, at the beginning of the idea.

Let's just look at the content: posts and forum topics are related to all acts of violence, injustice at work, legal actions against Poles. One mentions a rape on a Polish woman who was so drunk she could not point our the abuser! First thread on the forum (no posts, so must be suggested by the admin) is 'theory of anti-polonism: what is this and does it exist at all? And then all regional threads start with topic: attacks on Poles and acts of anti-polonism in UK, Ireland, US...Someone completely missed the point here! Out of four posts on the hope page only one talks about positive promotion of Polish culture! The authors are asking for submissions, but based on this content I cannot really foresee anything positive...

Secondly- the audience. Site is written mainly in Polish. It has links to site in English, German and Russian - but if you click on those you are redirected to articles written in Polish related to abuse Poles face in countries speaking the language you wanted to read the content in. So basically the site is aimed at POLISH audience, really. How is that supposed to encourage positive image about Poles in other countries?

And finally design - ok, neat blog-like design, with forum and tags to find content easily. Once again the largest tag is 'attacks on Poles'.  The authors bio's are not finished, and lack pictures. Interesting links section is sending us to...guess;)..anti-polonism blogs, sites like this one.  And the title section graphics uses image of a football fan with two ladies - neat and positive version of it, but personally I can think of a more friendly association - a Polish-British family with kids eating sunday roast and borscht or a Polish doctor helping an old lady in a London hospital maybe?

There are so many hard working, serious, inspiring Polish people in the UK. There is so many scientists, doctors, factory workers,  waiters, cleaners we should be proud of ! I think every job needs to be respected and it would be great to see a site where let's say a waitress and her boss are interviewed to talk about what they like about working in the UK and employing a Pole. There are art galleries, cultural institutions, radio station, scouting supporting charities...so much to talk about to shape a nice image! The site does not even mention the fact we have just recently lost great Polish philosopher who happened to live in Oxford and contribute to the local community, just as much as to the Polish or global one.

This site will increase the speed of victimising trends in Polish communities abroad and it will only flag up reasons for hatred towards local communities and authorities. Sites like this one only reflect the bad habits of our nation - priding ourselves in pointing out how others mistreat us  without actually trying to change anything. Sites like this one can actually do a lot of harm.

I am worried about this portal, and I have written to them. And what pisses me off the most is the usage of word 'DONACJE' for donations. (and daring to ask for donations too). Word 'donacje', according to the Dictionary of Polish Language DOES NOT exist! Grrr...

UPDATE: I have been contacted by the portal - I really appreciate their views but I still do not agree with them and I think I have the right to my opinion, even if it's perceived as exaggeration. Until portal has prominently negative content I will not join it - I do not want my name associated with it. It's up to the organisers, not readers to ensure the right balance.

As for not mentioning prof. Kołakowski due to his views, not really appreciated by the organisers of the portal  - I do not want to comment on it:(

I do apologize however, there is a dictionary which includes 'donacje' word.