The tragedy in Smolenks

[Rasa]

I just heard about this terrible tragedy of Poland. Please accept our most sincere condolences from Lithuania. I know you guys are strong and tough and will overcome this hard period. We are besides you. May all these people and those who died in Katyń rest in peace.

[Ashkhan]

I've been at my university when I got to know it in a short break between two exams. At first I, and my friends, considered it as some kind of a joke, especially since everyone speaking about it knew it only from hearing someone else saying so. So I took a mobile, connected to the Internet and read about it. I wish it was just a blague. Too bad it isn't.

[sledopyt]

Выражаю глубокое соболезнование всей Польше по причине гибели польской делегации во главе с президентом Лехом Качиньским под Смоленском. Очень сожалею...

[nadi]

I have just heard the bad news. I am sharing the big grief that our Polish friends are suffering. May your president and everyone who have lost their lives in the accident rest in peace. Condolences to the Polish friends.

[BezierCurve]

I'm sure all the Polish members here appreciate these posts guys, thanks.

[pittmirg]

Initially I thought you guys really had some kind of metathesis in that name.

[Boes]

Why were they all on one plane? Which country puts nearly half of their political, military and spiritual leaders on one single plane?!

[Loiks]

If we could do anything to make you feel better, we'd do it. Hugs from Estonia.

[Oleksij]

Condolences to all Polish Unilangers...

Why were they all on one plane? Which country puts nearly half of their political, military and spiritual leaders on one single plane?!

Good question. One of my guesses would be that Poland wanted to save money..

(Neverminding the fact that it was a Tupolev 154, which is a criminally obsolete, crappy plane from the 60's, which was not designed to land in foggy conditions...)

[BezierCurve]

Good question. One of my guesses would be that Poland wanted to save money..

Yes, that's what it looks like. A new plane wasn't a popular topic, if you didn't want to be blamed of spending too much of tax payers' money. It also looks like the pilot wasn't assertive enough to divert (probably flying under great pressure to be on schedule). There's been at least one situation before when the president was very unhappy with a pilot obeying orders not to do what the president wanted (because of security reasons). Sad.

[Lada]

(Neverminding the fact that it was a Tupolev 154, which is a criminally obsolete, crappy plane from the 60's, which was not designed to land in foggy conditions...)

Read more about this plane please. It was built in 1990s and was fully renovated just 9 months ago with all the newest navigating systems that Mr. Obama has too and all the rest VIP persons. Tu-154 crashed several times before, but that was always pilot's mistake, it has never crashed because of technical problems. According to Russian media, this time pilots made a fatal fault too...

Anyway, it happened and that was a great shock for everyone.
Today is Mourning Day in Russia. Let all them rest in Peace.

[Luís]

I didn't really know where to post this, but it seems this topic is by far the most political in the whole forum.

I was looking at the results from the Polish presidential election and there seems to be a clear geographic divide in the country. I was quite unaware of this, but can I infer from the map that southern/eastern Poland is more conservative than western/northern Poland?

[Milya0]

I didn't really know where to post this, but it seems this topic is by far the most political in the whole forum.

I was looking at the results from the Polish presidential election and there seems to be a clear geographic divide in the country. I was quite unaware of this, but can I infer from the map that southern/eastern Poland is more conservative than western/northern Poland?

Maybe. It's quite common that "West" is for PO and "East" for PiS. Eastern Poland is also more eurosceptic.

[Oleksij]

Funny how old empires leave such lasting twists.. To my naked eye the electoral divide looks very much like the border between Germany and Russia after the partitions.

[Cosi]

Exactly That's how it looked like:



Other way to redraw the borders of partitioned Poland is to look at the map of railway coverage.

[linguaholic]

Moved to the Politics forum.