David Clowes, The Economic and Security Challenges Facing NATO’s EU Member States, Kraków 2018, pp. 152

revie

David Runciman, Jak kończy się demokracja, Biblioteka Kultury Liberalnej, Warszawa 2019, pp. 256

revie

Software architecture based on XMLmessages in a project for secondary loan trading

Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceIn many business cases having a single application serving multiple technical and functional purposes is not a viable solution, especially in financial or banking environment which requirements are especially demanding considering the simple fact that there is money involved. Design of the appropriate software architecture and the following maintenance of the quality of data is possible thanks to the utilization of XML messages that permit establishing a connection between various applications. The flexibility of such solution allows the information to flow through designed architecture and be integrated according to the rules specified. This report details a project realized in a multinational investment bank in the business line of secondary trading for syndicated loans. The structure developed on the technical level was not tailormade for the software utilized across three different locations and required adjustments and further developments in order to achieve properly functioning infrastructure. This work describes the phases of the project, its challenges and finally an overview of solutions developed, but beforehand provides the reader with a background information on the business the project is realized for as well as the software involved in the infrastructure designed

Rumours in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: 100 Days from the Life of an Occupied Country

The article discusses rumours recorded by the German Security Service [Sicherheitsdienst, SD] in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia between 1 January and 10 April 1943. The author pursues quantitative and qualitative analysis and discusses rumours shared by Czech and German inhabitants of the country. The analysis results indicate that early 1943 saw a real crisis of confidence in the state and the Nazi regime among Germans living in the Protectorate. The Czech public opinion had likely reached a turning point, still highly afraid of German repressions, but also with a growing hope for the defeat of the Reich and a swift end to the war

Józef Trzebiński

Biography of Polish botanist Józef Trzebiński (1867-1941

‘Coat Thieves’ and Bandits? Belarusian Counter-Memory of the ‘Cursed Soldiers’

In the article, we analyse attitudes of representatives of the Belarusian minority in Poland towards the armed anti-communist underground operating in the Podlasie region after 1944 (the so-called ‘cursed soldiers’). Drawing on semi-structured interviews with various Belarusian actors, as well as on observations made during field research in the Podlasie region in June 2021, we are able to illustrate a clash between official commemorative practices and the local and communicative memory of the Belarusians. We analyse the role played by the collective memory of the underground among the Belarusian minority in Podlasie against the backdrop of the hegemonic politics of memory that glorifies the ‘cursed soldiers’ as national heroes. The analysis of counter-hegemonic memory accounts and their relation to dominant narratives uncovers the emotions generated by the hegemonic politics of memory among representatives of the Belarusian minority, who generally regard it as depreciating their experience and evoking a sense of endangerment. We show that Belarusian memory is perceived as incompatible with the ideological assumptions of the hegemonic Polish memory; therefore, we want to give voice to the marginalised representatives of the Belarusian minority. However, the Belarusian minority should not be perceived as a homogenous group – our analysis points to the fact that various actors various actors negotiate the hegemonic politics of memory in various ways when faced with the pressure of assimilation

African-American Music in the Service of White Nationalists: Polish “Patriotic Rap” as a Pop Cultural Tool to Promote National Values

In today’s world, cultural products, technologies, information and ideologies easily transcend national borders, and the history of the internationalization of rap music is a good example of this phenomenon. Rap has not only become a symbol of the IT revolution and the prevalence of the western capitalist business practices, but also a cultural tool used by some marginalized groups to express their identity. The first part of this article explains how rap, having become an important element of African-American culture, enabled its audience and artists to manifest and communicate their ideas, beliefs and values, including those that are rooted in the culture of black nationalism. In the second part, I provide an outline of the history of Polish rap and trace the African-American influences, to finally focus on the rise of a specific Polish subgenre called “patriotic rap.

Rap jako muzyka tożsamościowa: od czarnego getta do polskiego pop-nacjonalizmu

Rap as identity music: from the black ghetto to Polish pop-nationalismIn today’s world, cultural products, technologies, information and ideologies more and more permeate from one society to another, crossing all kinds of borders in the least expected way. Rap career is an illustration of this process. It was created in the late seventies and eighties of the twentieth century in New York ghettos and today it represents one of the most popular genres on the global scale. Rap is not only a symbol of revolution and the domination of Western capitalist business practices but also a cultural tool by which different groups, often marginalized or considering themselves as such, express their own identity. I am analyzing the indicated above phenomenon using two, extreme at first glance, examples. First, I present the story of the emergence and development of hip-hop culture in the United States. I try to show how rap music, which is an important element of this culture, allowed a marginalized part of American society for manifesting and communicating their views, beliefs and values, becoming a “transmission channel” for various ideologies, including the ideology of black nationalism. In the second part of the text, I am additionally analyzing the artwork and public appearances by Tadeusz “Tadek“ Polkowski, a Polish rapper, whom I consider a representative of an expanding hip-hop society relating to or sympathizing with the national movement. The music he creates is designed not only to restore the Poles’ “memory”, and therefore also the pride in their heroic and admirable past, but also to open their eyes to what is happening in their country that he believes is being colonized by the occupants. Rap jako muzyka tożsamościowa: od czarnego getta do polskiego pop-nacjonalizmuWe współczesnym świecie wytwory kultury, technologie, informacje i ideologie coraz częściej przenikają z jednego społeczeństwa do drugiego, przekraczając różnego rodzaju granice w najmniej oczekiwany sposób. Przykładem tego procesu jest kariera rapu, który powstał na przełomie lat 70. i 80. XX wieku w nowojorskich gettach, a współcześnie jest jednym z najbardziej popularnych gatunków muzycznych w skali globu. Rap jest bowiem nie tylko symbolem rewolucji informatycznej i dominacji zachodnich, kapitalistycznych praktyk biznesowych, lecz także kulturowym narzędziem, za pomocą którego różne grupy, często marginalizowane bądź za takie się uważające, wyrażają własną tożsamość. Zasygnalizowany powyżej fenomen analizuję, posługując się dwoma, skrajnymi na pierwszy rzut oka, przykładami. W pierwszej części artykułu przedstawiam historię powstania i rozwoju kultury hip-hopowej w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Staram się przy tym pokazać, w jaki sposób muzyka rapowa, będąca ważnym elementem tej kultury, pozwoliła marginalizowanej część społeczeństwa na manifestowanie i komunikowanie swoich poglądów, przekonań oraz wartości, stając się „kanałem transmisyjnym” dla różnych ideologii, w tym także ideologii czarnego nacjonalizmu. W drugiej części tego tekstu analizuję twórczość i wypowiedzi medialne Tadeusza „Tadka” Polkowskiego, polskiego rapera, którego postrzegam jako przedstawiciela coraz liczniejszej grupy hiphopowców związanych bądź sympatyzujących z ruchem narodowym. Tworzona przez niego muzyka ma za zadanie nie tylko przywrócić Polakom „pamięć”, a zatem także dumę z ich heroicznej i godnej podziwu przeszłości, lecz także otworzyć oczy na to, co dzieje się w ich „skolonizowanym przez okupantów państwie”