Rabbits of Berlin

Dear readers,A long time ago, in a place far, far

away… There lived rabbits. They were completely healthy and content. They had everything they needed – grass, sun, water, love. The rabbits lived between the two walls of the Berlin Wall. A safe and cosy place for those little, white bunnies.

Nothing to worry about, absolutely no problems, a perfect, easy life – one could say.

Unfortunately, rabbits couldn’t see that. They weren’t bored, they were just curious of the world behind those two walls. That curiosity was slowly growing within their souls. And soon enough all of them longed to see the outside world. A dream so strong, that the rabbits couldn’t see just how peaceful their lives are, and what a great thing it is. They dreamed of freedom.

Sometimes it happens that a dream comes true. That’s when people, and rabbits, realize that they should have been more cautious of their dreams. That’s exactly what happened to the rabbits.

The Berlin Wall was destroyed, and bunnies finally came out of their so-called “prison”. They were amazed by the outside world, by those colorful people, all the high buildings, other animals they

met at last, the great variety of grass and flowers. Germans were amazed as well, some by the new world, some by the rabbits. They took the cute bunnies home, or just gave them food. They played with the rabbits, took pictures of them, they were happy whenever they noticed a rabbit.

However, everything good has its end, and so does amazement. A few weeks passed, and people started to find rabbits not only boring, but also irritating. They began to hunt for them. Making dishes of rabbits became a new, trendy thing to do. Rabbits were frightened, they wanted to come back to the “prison”, that turned out to be their home. Sadly, there was no way back to the way things used to be – ‘home’ didn’t exist anymore. Rabbits had to run away from Berlin.

At difficult times like those we’re living, I hope you’ll consider your wishes and choices thoroughly, not like the rabbits. Don’t be blinded by false freedom, that adolescents seek so hard. Think, always, that’s the most important thing.

~Wiktoria Sagan

The Missionary Church of Kopimism – is it really just a prank?

Have you ever heard of kopimism? It’s a new religion in Sweden,

that became legitimate on January the 5th

2012 and is already practiced worldwide. Kopimism is talked about everywhere, from Japan, through Greece, France, Russia, up to United States. But what is it really about?

Beginnings

Everything started with an idea of a 19-years-old philosophy student – Isak Gerson. Along with a group of his fellow-believers, he started the Kopimism. First, they wanted to be an official church, so they sent their application to the Kammarkollegiet (Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency). After three trials they were finally recognized as a religious community. “Since Kammarkollegiet has been strict with formalities, we had to apply three times”, Gustav Nipe – a board chairman for the organization – says. He continues, “I think it might have something to do with the governmental organizations abiding by a very copyright friendly attitude, with a twisted view on copying.” How’s that surprising? It’s no secret that government doesn’t particularly like copying, as they think it’s the same as stealing.

Doctrine

Kopimists (that’s what practitioners of Kopimism are called) don’t believe in anything supernatural, like God or miracles, they just state that information is holy and copying is a sacrament. The church considers CTRL-C and CTRL-V sacred symbols.

Other beliefs of Kopimists:• All knowledge to all• The search for knowledge is

sacred• The circulation of knowledge

is sacred• The act of copying is sacred.

Society’s opinionThere has been quite a

heated discussion over Kopimism. One side says it is outrageous to mock other religions. Christian church says Kopimi is not a real religion to begin with. Copyright supporters say it’s a breach of the law.

How do Kopimists reply? They refer to the Enlightenment ideals, laws of nature and the monks of the Middle Ages. They accuse “copyright extremists” of being in conflict with human nature (which is, according to Kopimi, copying), censorship and confining the knowledge flow. Christianity, on the other hand, they praise greatly. They say that there is not a single thing in the Christian Church that was made from scratch, which is an excellent example of the remix culture, and that Christians used to see just how important copying is (as a proof they give the Dark Ages monks copying books), but they don’t acknowledge it anymore.

Other wacky churches

It’s not only Kopimism, that is considered bizarre or even wrong, there are other people with ideas just as weird as those of

Isak Gerson. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for the sole example, which is meant to spoof all religions by saying that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, and that global warming and natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of Pirates since the 19th century. Even though it’s just a joke, I strongly believe there are people, who actually think it’s all truth.

The Missionary Church of Kopimism - some say it is an example of our culture falling down. That might be true, though, in my opinion, as long as there are some values behind it and people who are ready to fight and die for it, then Kopimism is acceptable as a religion. ~Wiktoria Sagan

Salvador Dali – mad or genius?

Salvador - Dali probably the most gifted man in the world of art. Sitting and watching his paintings, without any knowledge of art aspects, takes long hours. The amount of time I spent in front of the “Mountain lake” – Dali’s first work, was enough for my friends to see the whole museum. Dali is a classic of surrealism. He shows things with uncommon properties and in some strange situations, like in a dream. Pictures painted by him aren’t beautiful. Most of them are rather scary. For the sole example a frequent sight in his paintings are ants going out of a wound. Every picture has its own, unintelligible anxiety, which

involves you more and more. My friend watched Dali’s film - ‘Andalusian dog’ – and told me, that man who made it, was surely a psychical ill child. It’s true, also in his times, this great painter was regarded as a stranger. He once told about himself: “the only thing what differentiate me from a mad man is the fact, that I haven’t done anything mad.”. It is possible, that nobody with healthy mind would think out those unusual sights. Probably we’ll never get to know what is true. A better question is: ”does it really matter?”. Human mind is human mind, and it will never be completely understood.

~Tonia Moskal

“Turn left, turn right “– turns out Asians can make movies!

A beautiful love story. Not a cliché, but still a cute, warm and funny film. “Turn Left, Turn Right” is a 2003 joint Hong Kong-Singaporean romance movie, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung.The plot is based on a graphic novel and a poem by Wisława

Szymborska “Miłość od pierwszego wejrzenia” (“Love at First Sight”) . It’s a story about a love between a young translator, Eve Choi, and a violinist, John Liu. Although they met only once, when they were in elementary school, they still hold feelings toward each other. What they don’t know, is that after they’d moved to Taipei they live in the same building and their flats are separated by just one wall. Unfortunately, because there are two staircases, they can’t see each other. Finally, they meet by an accident. They distinguish themselves as their loved ones from elementary school, and they exchange phone numbers. Sadly, they must

quickly say goodbyes and run away (from their angry house owners), which causes a misery: their little sheets of paper with each other’s phone numbers get destroyed by the rain.

The story continues, and we see Eve and John living lives so similarly, dealing with almost the same problems and wishing to see each other once again. “Turn Left, Turn Right” is a weird film. No matter how many times I watch it, I always get the feeling, that something is missing, that something is inadequate. It might be the music, which is sometimes unnoticeable, or maybe it’s the actors, who act somehow strangely, though not poorly.

That might be the bizarre way of framing.

However, whatever it is, it makes the film even better. “Turn Left, Turn Right” is original and unforgettable, makes you cry and laugh. Makes you think you didn’t waste an hour and a half.

John Lennon– a crazy cat la–––––dy!

John Lennon – the most famous of the Beatles, a singer and a worldwide known idol. Have you ever heard of his love of cats?

In his life, John Lennon owned way over fifteen cats (and two dogs). Maybe he even taught them to sing?

His first cat was called Elvis, and wasn’t actually his, but his beloved mother’s. Elvis was named after Elvis Presley, whom both, he and his mum, greatly adored. After some time, they found out that they made quite a mistake while naming their cat – Elvis turned out to be a girl. Lennon discovered that, when Elvis gave birth to a litter of kittens. However, the name remained the same.

Another two cats he owned were Tich and Sam, though they didn’t live long. Then, John found

a stray cat, and his aunt Mimi allowed him to take the cat home. He named the marmalade-coloured half-Persian cat Tim. This cat became Lennon’s favourite.

Then, John got married to Cynthia, and they acquired about ten cats (one of them was named Mimi – after John’s auntie).

Later, as The Beatles member, he had a cat called Jesus, which was a retort to the “the Beatles are bigger than Jesus” controversy of 1969.

While having an affair with his secretary, she talked him into adopting two stray cats, which they called Minor and Major.

John also had two cats with his later wife, Yoko Ono. One was black, the other was white. Lennon christened the white cat Pepper and the black one Salt.

John’s Russian Blue cat named Alice, however, was his special favourite. One day, Alice jumped out of an open window in the Lennons’ high-rise apartment at the Dakota and plunged to her death. Sean Lennon, John’s son, was present at the time of the accident. He remembers it as the only time he ever saw his father cry.

Later, John had three other cats named Misha, Sasha and Charo. He made several sketches of his cats, some of them even got published in his books. ~Wiktoria Sagan

My food habitsLessons start at 7.30. alarm clock: goes off at 5.30. I wouldn’t do anything without a cup of coffee. Sometimes I have enough time to eat something on the fly, sometimes not. “Something” is usually a dry toast or a bowl of cold milk with corn flakes - every day the same. Sandwiches for a brake are very important. Without them I would be hungry for long hours at school. I am hungry regardless of that, but it doesn’t matter. I simply like having sandwiches. Even though I don’t eat them. I have sandwiches if my mum gets up before I leave home. It isn’t every day. Mental effort, stress, sadness… Everything I dream about is chocolate. No matter how much money my pocket includes, everything can be easily changed for sweets. A few days a week I eat outside. What can we buy in the center of Cracow for less than 15 zł? Kebab, kebab, kebab, hamburger, hamburger, Chinese, pancakes, dumplings.

Nothing more. The last two aren’t bad. But how long? Of course, with less than 6 zł there’s no

problem with choice: what’s for dinner?- a bagel or two. Very important for me is not to eat dinner after 6 pm. Not eating too late is healthy and helps you keep a good weight. I'm

usually full by 6 pm so that I could go without eating to the end of the day. It should be ok, shouldn’t it? Maybe it should be, but it is not, because 6 hours later, at midnight, my brain again works hard, doing homework. When it finally finishes, it deserves some award. Some dopamine? At 0:30 I eat everything I can find. Now, tell me: which teenagers don’t eat like me? Maybe there are a few in my class. Why are we still alive?- we can laugh, but it’s sure, that living like that, we will lay sick earlier than our grandparents do.

~Tonia Moskal