Our Past and Future in Europe
Author: Elzbieta Krüger
School: Gimnazjum nr. 9/Warszaw/Poland
Teacher: Anna Horon
My name is Elzbieta Krüger, I am 13 years old and I come from Poland, which lies in Central Europe at the seaside of the Baltic Sea. I am a person, who perhaps does not know much about politics, but who tries to observe the world objectively. I believe that I and my generation live in difficult times, but sometimes we understand some matters better than the adults do.
Unfortunately, my grandparents were not able to tell me anything about life in socialism, because both my mum's and my dad's parents are dead. Life without grandparents is sad, because I know that they could have told me so much. Life in socialism was much harder for my Dad's parents than for my Mum's parents. It was because my Dad's mum, who was a very good doctor - gynecologist, had a husband - a dentist, who was executed by a firing squad in a POW's camp in Starobielsk in 1940 by Soviets, who attacked Poland from the east. He was there since September 1939 till April 1940, when he was killed. The worst thing was that my grandfather, when he was in the camp, knew that my grandma was pregnant and he could not see my dad, because he got killed, when my dad was two months old. Unfortunately, almost all intelligentsia were taken away from Poland at that time, just like my grandfather, and most of them never returned.
I sometimes envy my friends, who have got grandparents, I cannot believe that my friends are bored with their grandparents. What they are saying is horrible, because grandparents are the wisest family members. They are the ones we spend holidays and vacations with. They are the ones we tell things we are afraid to tell our parents. They, just like my grandfather, used to fight and die for independence of our Homeland. Unfortunately, we notice how much we need them only when they are gone.
My parents told me about the transformation period, which took place in the eighties and the nineties and I have to admit that it was a difficult period, even for me. When I was born in year 1988, as a premature baby, the Polish market lacked baby care products. Among these was powdered milk, which I needed. Unluckily, this was not the end of my struggles with the transformation period. Unfortunately, when I was only eleven months old, I got apnoea, which was noticed in time by my mum. I had to stay at the hospital, which did not change the fact that the hospital, during that difficult time, did not have equipment for detecting apnoea. All depended upon luck, and I had some, since I can write this essay. At that time, in our Polish homes we often lacked something, for instance, toilet paper. One had to toil over getting the sought-after toilet paper. Not all members of my family lived in Poland, which often made it easier to get some products abroad. However, we often held it against our aunt, who lived in Portugal, when she would not bring oranges, which were available in Poland only once a year, before Christmas. One could often hear on the radio that "Ships with citrus fruit have set sail to Poland". It was still difficult to get anything. A specificity of the Polish market was that a used car cost twice as much as a new one.
At that time, in order to get anything for ration-cards, one had to get up very early in the morning to buy anything, but everyone always had enough money for basic products, while today sometimes people do not have enough money for bread. For me, the most important things in life are: health, safety, good hope, friendship... and somewhere at the tail end is money. Of course, it is important to have enough to make a living, but to me spiritual values are more important than material goods.
Therefore, when Poland becomes a member of the European Union, I would like to get security and easy access to health care in all member states for me and my family.
My country is characterized by a high level of unemployment, which is still increasing, therefore to me it is also important that we have opportunities of employment and education (especially for the young generation).
I believe that financial problems of the Poles would be smaller, if taxes were decreased, at least at the beginning, when we become a member state, and subsidies for health care, education and culture were increased.
I am worried by the religious conflict in Belfast/Ireland. I think that as a tolerant person, both with regard to skin color and religion of other people, I can demand the same for myself.
If I decided to move permanently to a member state, I would expect that this country would provide me with easy access to all state institutions, both at a local and at a federal level. It is also important that my homeland Poland maintains its cultural values, shaped for so many years, and that foreign companies do not "flood" our Polish market totally, because otherwise ordinary Poles are going to forget about our Polish products.