On October 13, Yves Montand, Margaret Thatcher, Nana Mouskouri, Alexandru Andrieş, GM Zamfirescu were born.
In the Orthodox Christian calendar is the Bringing of the relics of St. Andrew to Iasi. Saints: Carp, Papil, Agatodor, Agatonica and Florentie. Nothing in the “Calendar”!
Today we mention the Frenchman Yves Montand. I met him, alone, in Paris, in the 70’s. A tall and charming guy, with a big French nose and one hundred percent gal gestures. The most French of the French, the one who seduced Marilyn Monroe (bad mouths say it wasn’t too hard) was, but… Italian!
But Yves Montand was involved in the great discreet politics. Jacobin, a high-ranking Mason in the Great East, did and dismantled much. He supported General De Gaulle and then Mitterrand. Evil mouths say that just as Frank Sinatra was “The Godfather” in Hollywood, nothing moved in art, French acting, without the blessing of Yves Montand, “Le Parrain”!
For me, he remains the winning actor in “Le salaire de la peur”, an art film, black and white, from 1953, and then the big “Z” from 1969 under the direction of the illustrious Costa Gavras. And the charming songwriter, “Sous le ciel de Paris”!
Now, by your will, I’m going to see one, two, European art films, maybe a black-and-white film with Jean Gabin, maybe a Russian film by Andrei Arsenevich Tarkovsky, or Nikita Sergheevich Mihalkov, or why no, a film signed by Antonioni or to watch a play with Laurence Olivier, in full of the famous British. Or, better, to see again the film of my father’s friends, Liviu Ciulei and Lazăr Vrabie, who were not absent from our home, the film “Danube Waves”.
Then I will study Oriana Falaci’s book “Anger and Pride” once again. I prepared colored, well-sharpened pencils to emphasize the lines that interest me.
Here, in the sub-mountainous Prahova it rains like in Bacovia, the pampered puppies climbed into bed, in the house and sleep sighing after the hot and sunny days. I opened the bridge door and I could hear, from above, the flight of the cats that had taken refuge there, in the rain. I also fed them birds and hedgehogs and squirrels. But I still have a tight heart: will they have the hundreds of children in the village they need? Do they have enough food, is it warm, do they have wood, do they have toys?
I was telling you in the old days that I was interested in the information from the former socialist European countries. For example and comparison. Especially Poland and the Czech Republic, but also Hungary. Today something about Poland.
Poland’s defense minister said on Tuesday that the government would table a bill to build a permanent wall on the country’s border with Belarus amid a growing number of illegal migrants.
In an interview with the Polish public broadcaster Radio Mariusz Błaszczak, he said that the legislation would be drafted by the interior ministry and “it is not so easy to draft due to various legal issues”.
He added that Poland will build on Hungary’s experiences during a migrant crisis in 2015, when Budapest “built a permanent wall on the border with Serbia.”
Błaszczak said the barbed wire fence on Poland’s border with Belarus, as well as the presence of 3,000 soldiers, were helping to minimize the flow of migrants, “who are being exploited by the Lukashenko regime” to produce a migration crisis.
Błaszczak added that, “depending on the situation”, his defense ministry is ready to double the number of troops deployed at the border “without delay”.
He said he had already decided “to increase the number of soldiers helping the Border Guard” (border guards) to patrol the border “because” the pressure of migrants remains very acute “.
Błaszczak also told Polish Radio that he discussed the issue of migration with foreign ministers from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as Egypt, at a meeting in Budapest on Monday.
On Tuesday, the leaders of these five countries were expected to discuss the subject at a V4 summit in the Hungarian capital, Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
According to the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the bill for the construction of a permanent wall on the Polish-Belarusian border could be submitted for approval, no later than this week, with PLN 500 million (€ 109 million) allocated for this purpose.
Poland and its EU counterparts, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, have accused Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of premeditatedly organizing a wave of illegal migrants seeking to join the EU bloc in what officials have called a “war hybrid”.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson visited Poland in late September, agreeing with Warsaw’s arguments that “firm steps” were needed against Belarus, officials said.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last Wednesday that his country had full support within the European Union as it acted to defend itself against the flow of migrants and a “hybrid war” waged by Belarus.
At the end of last month, Polish parliamentarians voted, by an overwhelming majority, to extend the state of emergency in some parts of the two regions along the country’s eastern border with Belarus.
The state of emergency gives the authorities wider powers to monitor and control the movement of people at the Polish-Belarusian border, which is also the eastern border of the European Union.
And, to have a term of comparison, here is the situation with the concealment in Poland:
Poland reported 2,118 new coronavirus infections and another 49 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the country during the pandemic to 2,925,425 and deaths to 75,918.
Of the number of new cases confirmed on Tuesday, the most – 493 – were in the eastern province of Lubelskie, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.
The latest deaths from the coronavirus outbreak in Poland are 35 people with pre-existing medical conditions and another 14 people who died directly from COVID-19, the health ministry said.
On Monday, Poland confirmed no deaths, but there are 903 new coronavirus infections nationwide.
On April 6, the country reported the darkest day with 954 deaths in one day, related to coronavirus.
The 1 April, the Polish Ministry of Health confirmed 35,251 new cases in one day, the largest number since the pandemic hit the country early last year.
The first case of coronavirus infection in Poland was reported on March 4, 2020.
2,615 in hospitals, 104,753 in quarantine
The Polish Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday morning that 2,615 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized nationwide, 239 of them on ventilators, with another 104,753 people in quarantine for possible coronavirus exposure.
Meanwhile, 2,670,180 people have recovered from COVID-19 across the country, the health minister said.
Jokingly, referring to the ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court which stated that EU laws are subordinate to the Polish Constitution and have no priority as to the wall under construction, a senior Hungarian official told his Polish counterpart at the V4 summit: “Now I understand why you have been abolished as a state so many times in history, spoil any party! ” to which the Polish counterpart looked a little to one side and replied: “Now I understand why you only have half a country, because you are weak and with your nose up!”
Jokes between friends… but in international politics there are no friends, only interests.
Let me tell you that tomorrow is another day or will you ask me what interest I have?
