MaksZycinskiBlog

 In the forest near the Polish-Belarussian border, a network of Polish volunteers gives support, food and medical help to the people who achieved to cross the border. Michal, who is one of them, every night puts a green light in his house in the woods to sign that refugees can try to ask for help. Many of the refugees are in the bad condition, some of them claimed that they were beaten by Belarussian soldiers. At least 8 people have died in the woods in recent days.  No matter of opinion about the Polish-Belarussian conflict saving life is always good. What is even more admirable about volunteers is that they help regardless of the consequences. It is also very heart-warming to read something positive about Poland in the respected foreign media. link:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59289999

 Recently I have read that minister of education Przemysław Czarnek "will take a look" at Squid Game TV series, because he thinks that such content is harmful and shouldn't take place. He also admitted that he hasn't watched the series. Squid Game is the latest Netflix hit and it is the most popular show in this platform history. It is very brutal but it deals with important aspects of human nature and our society.  Reaction of our minister is really shocking especially that he hasn't watched it. This show has an age restriction for people 16+, but of course, a lot of children don't respect it. I am very curious what the ministry is going to do about that. I doubt that they will ban the show from polish Netflix. All they can do is educate parents about what kind of content they are showing to their kids, but it is probably the last thing they will do. 

 My reflection this week is about procrastination. My last blog post was published a long time ago and I was willing to do this for two weeks, but I didn't. First excuse was the school trip and rest after it. Then a week full of important tests and training.  Almost every day I told myself that I will write my post today but then I procrastinated it and here I am two weeks later.  This situation reminded me of the TedTalk we watched last year. Procrastination in a student's life is a very common feature. Our brains got tricked by new excuses every day and learning projects have to compete with them. It is extremely difficult to fight with this, especially when there is no exact deadline and you have to mobilize yourself. It takes an incredible amount of perseverance, that I am trying to learn. Of course, this is only my fault(although some of the reasons were pretty good).

 This year when we came to school I noticed that there is fewer old-looking students and more of them that look straight from primary school. We are supposed to be one of the oldest classes but I certainly do not feel like one of them. Of course, it is a normal process but I just realized how fast everything passed. Because of online school for almost 1.5 years, time passed so fast that I can not acknowledge that we are in the third grade. Time in isolation and repeatability of every day made the time fly. Now I woke up in the hard reality when I have to wake up at 6.30 and spent over half of the day at school and another few hours learning and doing homework. Being one of the oldest classes should bring some responsibility to us and in some way take care of this school. It also brings back memories of when two years ago we were the youngest and lost kids in a new environment.

 Ursula von der Leyen, a president of the European Commission, suggested that fully vaccinated Americans would be able to visit the EU. Last year EU introduced tough restrictions on travel to all the 27 members with some small exceptions. To qualify for the list of countries allowed to be travelled, it must record no more than 25 new Covid cases per 100 000 people over the last 14 days and no more than 4% of tests carried out in the previous week can be positive. However, Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU rules on not necessary travel may change in the summertime. In my opinion, this is very good news. Considering that the vaccination process goes pretty well in Europe and America, allowing people to travel would be a great relief and a dose of normality from before the pandemic. Of course, we should obey restrictions and take care of ourselves, but I think we can say that pandemic is slowly coming to an end in Europe and the US.  I know it is going to be a long process bu...

 After a publication of footage that shows animals being smacked, tossed around and cut into with no or inadequate anesthesia regional officials in Spain decided to temporarily close this animal testing facility.  The footage, published by CFI (Cruelty Free International), shows what the organization calls "gratuitous cruelty and abuse". After an inspection, the facility was closed because of the signs of animal mistreatment. Animals found there are now under the care and supervision of the regional government and are looked after by a vet. Spanish authorities are going to investigate this matter and clarify how this situation was allowed to happen. It is very good that this facility was closed and an investigation into this case ought to take place as soon as possible. Using animals in lab experiments is very important to the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industry and the UE directive determines that the number of animals and experiments must be kept to a minimum and the...

Syrian authorities said that they have begun rationing fuel as a result of the blockage of the Suez canal, delaying crucial shipments and worsening the country's oil shortages. Syria is suffering from civil war since 2011 and faces a serious economic crisis. It already announced a more than 50% rise in the price of petrol. Minister said that they are rationing distribution of the available oil to ensure that essential services such as bakeries and hospitals will function continuously. Global supply chain has been injured since the giant container ship Ever Given wedged in the canal and blocked one of the most popular trade routes in the world. The situation with Ever Given container ship is a tragedy on a world scale. It is causing tens of millions losses per hour and cuts of access to oil to many countries. The poorest of them, especially those in conflict, like Syria could have serious problems in proper functioning. Even though current trials on removing the container didn't...

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large study in the US, Peru, and Chile. The vaccine was 100% effective against the severe course of the disease supported by the research of more than 32 000 volunteers across all age groups. AstraZeneca hopes that any doubts in the US and in Europe will be dispelled. The US trial of this vaccine was the largest by far and about 20% of vaccinated were 65 or older and 60% were not in the best health, including diabetes, obesity, and heart diseases.   In my opinion, US and Europe should be using AstraZeneca's vaccine. There were no deaths caused by this vaccine and even blood clots, that occurred in the very small percentage of vaccinated, were not correlated with the vaccine itself. The results of the study went surprisingly good and they should be enough to allow to vaccinate people with the AstraZeneca.  The AstraZeneca vaccine was always intended ...

Researchers said that the series of droughts and heatwaves in Europe is the most extreme for more than 2000 years. The study analysed tree rings dating from the Roman empire to create the longest record ever to date. The scientists said that global heating is the main cause of the recent rise in extreme heat. This heatwaves have devastating consequences such as thousands of early deaths, destroying crops, and causing forest fires. Also, low river levels, affected transportation and cooling nuclear power stations. What is worse climate scientists predict more extreme and more frequent droughts in the future. It is terrifying that the situation is so bad for the last 2000 years. In my opinion, all countries in Europe should discuss this serious problem and try to join forces in order to prevent this irreversible catastrophe. It is unacceptable that countries like Poland do almost nothing to prevent climate tragedy. We should follow for example Denmark and invest in renewable energy, red...

 Switzerland is going to follow France, Belgium and Austria after voting in a referendum to ban women from wearing burqa or niqab in public spaces. Full facial veils will still be allowed to be worn inside places of prayer and during native customs, for example, carnival. The new law won't affect face masks worn because of Covid-19. Muslim groups have criticised the ban and said that it was clearly aimed to marginalize their communities in Switzerland even more.  Supporters of the ban argue that it was intended to stop violent street protesters and football hooligans wearing masks and that the referendum text doesn't mention Islam  or the words “niqab” or “burqa”. In my opinion, Switzerland shouldn't make it a law, because it offends the religious feelings of  Muslims, who are over 390 thousand there.  Maybe it wasn't an intention and it would help decrease the criminality rate but it should be regulated in a way that it won't negatively affect Muslim communitie...

Despite threats of Covid-19 and terrorism, first ever pope is going to visit Iraq on Friday. During this visit, Francis will meet Christian communities and one of the most influential Muslim leaders in the world. This will be the first visit abroad for 15 months for 84-year old Pope Francis, due to Covid restrictions. All of the members of the papal entourage will be vaccinated against the virus and all of the safety procedures will be required. Although, all of the security measures will be provided many says that this trip is too risky for such an important person to the Catholic church, especially considering the suicide bombing attack at a Baghdad market last month. In my opinion, it is very good news, because pope should care about the positive image of the Catholic church and keep good relations with leaders of other religions. I very much appreciate Francis's efforts to modernize Church for example his last speech about homosexuals being God's children same as others and...

Israeli authorities are trying to find the ship that is responsible for an oil spill in its Meditteranean shoreline. Specialists said that this is a huge blow to the environment and it can the years to clean it up. Last week a 55 foot-long whale was found thrown out on a beach. An autopsy had found oil-based material in the whale's body. It was called a big disaster, especially that it affected not only the environment but also millions of living creatures in the sea and on the shore. Luckily, thousands of volunteers gathered to help with cleaning the beach from oil, also Israel's military forces offered help with cleaning. Israel is looking for a ship responsible for this disaster with help of satellite images and modeling of wave movements. Israel environmental protection minister said that there were nine ships in that area at the time they are looking at and it is a big chance that the specific ship would be found. In my opinion, the ship responsible for the disaster and th...

 There has been an increase in the number of people getting involved in projects that help local environments. The Woodland Trust, the largest organization engaged in the planting and protection of trees that runs a free trees scheme for school and community groups, experienced this tendency on their own example. Last year they planted over one million trees. Despite Covid, they had more applications for spring this year than for the previous year and they are going to send close to half a million new saplings. The average of planted trees is around 4000 a day. Kay Clark manager at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) said that there was an uplift of people wanting to help environment and that he had never seen anything like that. I think it is super interesting that people despite pandemic are so willing to help our planet. Or maybe the pandemic was the reason why the people care more about others,our planet included. Just like Kay Clark from RHS said  “Once people start to ...

 Himalayan glacier crashed into a dam in Sunday, which caused floods that were a huge danger for villages downstream. The exact number is not confirmed, but 100 to 150 people were feared dead. A witness said that a wall of dust, rocks and water created an avalanche coming down a river valley. Locals also said that it came so fast that there were no time to alert anyone. India's air force are ready to help with rescue operations. Also disaster response teams were airlifted to bring help and save lifes of injured. Chief minister of Uttarakhand, a state where the incident occured claims that the water level of the river is decreasing and the situation is under control. Uttarakhand is especially vulnerable to flash floods and landslides. This case shows that this kind of disasters is extremely dangerous especially considering lack of warning devices and evacuation systems. It also leaves us with the question if building energetic projects and villages in such sensitive place is reasona...

 In this semester I would like to improve vocabulary while speaking. When I am reading I don't have a problem to understand most of the words, also while writing I can came up with most of the words that I need in that situation. Despite this, when I speak I often can't find out the right word. It may be caused by stress or by short amount of time or just by lack of fluency in my vocabulary. I think I can improve it by talking to myself in English or even recording myself and then listening and finding mistakes. Another solution might be reading more books or watching films in English and then checking unknown words and writing them in the notebook.