Latest news with #LechWalesa
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Small Boat, Big Experience: Exploring Belize and Honduras
I recently had one of those milestone birthdays, so I was searching for something to make that December day an extra-special one. So when my brother suggested taking a small-ship luxury cruise to Central America's famed Mesoamerican Barrier Reef on French cruise line Ponant, I jumped at the chance to do that and to go scuba diving on that reef in Honduras on my big day (and in Belize soon after). The Ponant cruise line launched its first ship, the Le Ponant, in 1991. It's a three-masted sailing ship with only 16 cabins, which still sails today as the first Relais & Chateau luxurious sailing yacht moving around the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean. Today the company has 13 ships, including Le Bellot, the one my brother and I climbed aboard in Belize City. That ship runs under engine power and is part of the Ponant Explorers series of six yachts, each one holding up to 184 guests and designed to take adventurous travelers to unexpected places ranging from the Arctic to Asia, Central America to the Indian Ocean and everywhere in between. These cruises are unique for many reasons, beginning with the experts you'll find along for the sailing. There's the Smithsonian Journeys, which offer 49 different trips featuring guest speakers on board, like archeologists, marine biologists, historians and even Nobel Laureates like Lech Walesa, and the Explorers Club, scientific-research enriched sailings done in conjunction with that famed club formed in New York City in 1904. Our eight-day Ponant Explorers Club trip began and ended in Belize City when the Le Bellot, a Green Globe and Cleanship-awarded vessel that is dedicated to sustainable practices, headed out into the Caribbean Sea. My brother and I were soon in Honduras, ready to discover the 'Unexpected Encounters and Nature' in Belize and Honduras, as promised by the cruise's title, boarding the ship after spending a night in Belize City and exploring the lively dock scene (restaurants, live music and duty-free shops) beforehand. The first thing travelers should know about cruising on a small ship is that, well, it really is small. Ponant's under-200 guest vessels mean you're not going to find giant water parks, paintball courses or ice-skating rinks, nor will you be on a floating city of 7,600 passengers plus thousands of crew members. Instead, this ship is an intimate size, with a panoramic viewing lounge, swimming pool, theater, spa, fitness center, two restaurants and a very cool underwater speakeasy. It's the kind of cruise that by the end of your trip, you know the captain (Francois-Xavier Avril was at the helm during our Le Bellot adventure) as well as many of the 118-member crew by name. And you're likely to meet other fellow passengers on board or while off on an excursion, soon gaining a new set of friends to discover the wonders of Central America with. Most excursions are included in your cruise, ranging from jungle hikes, beach days complete with salsa dancing and snorkeling, mangrove Zodiac cruises and much more. Scuba diving is an extra charge; Open Water-certified divers are also the only people allowed to go diving, and even they must jump through some hoops to make that happen – booking in advance is mandatory, as Ponant only allows a limited number of guests to dive. The Belize-Honduras cruises on Ponant are scheduled in December and January, which usually means warm, sunny weather in both countries, but not the oppressive heat found there in summer months. The jungles on the various stops (Cayos Cochinos, Guanaja, Punta Sal, Cuero y Salado, Placencia and Half Moon Caye) will still be humid and sweat-inducing, so plan accordingly – and don't forget that bug spray! Being on a luxury small ship also means that the staff is very well-informed about each guest, but it was still surprising to be greeted with 'Happy Birthday' by stewards, waiters and even Captain F-X, as I made my way toward the expansive back deck. Dive sites off of Guanaja, like Leo's Garden and Afternoon Delight, were filled with huge stingrays, big barracudas, gnarly Moray eels with giant teeth and beautiful coral gardens. Located in the waters near the most remote of Honduras' Bay Islands that are perched on the barrier reef, the setting was also perfect for my brother and other cruisers who snorkeled and visited the mangrove swamp and rainforest in search of the Ara parrot. Ara parrots are also known as scarlet macaws, those famed and stunning large birds with red, blue and yellow feathers – they're so spectacular that they are also the national bird of Honduras. Later that evening back on board the Le Bellot, scientist, naturalist, manatee and mangrove expert Jamal Galves (the Explorer's Club guest lecturer) gave the first of his talks on what we saw that day, as well as delving deeper into the importance of the local conservation that keeps the planet healthy on a global scale. Exploring the undersea world and then geeking out with an ecology expert while holding a glass of champagne meant I had already had a practically perfect milestone birthday, which was topped off by a fine-dining, seafood-heavy French cuisine experience at Le Grill, the ship's outdoor back-deck restaurant. Stars twinkled in the sky, chocolate cake appeared and the birthday song was sung, all making a spectacular memory. Each day on board this Ponant cruise brought new experiences, with a highlight happening as we returned to Belizean waters and docked in Placentia. There a talented group of the drummers and dancers of the Garifuna people came aboard and put on a lively and memorable show. That reminded us of one of the reasons that the language, dance and music of the Garifuna is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, telling stories of this indigenous community dating back to the 1700s. Ponant small-ship cruises cover the world, so whatever your birthday dream happens to be, there's likely to be a chance to join an adventure and make the celebration an extended and extra-special one. Want to see the Northern Lights or go Down Under and beyond to Antarctica? Perhaps explore South Africa and Madagascar or go from Rio to Buenos Aires? These ships can go where the huge ones cannot – so if you can dream it, you can likely do it. And a bonus if you're simply ready to escape your everyday life and take a solo trip, Ponant is one of the growing cruise lines that have begun to waive single-supplement penalty fees for traveling alone.
Calgary Herald
04-06-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Exclusive interview: The exiled Crown Prince of Iran
Article content I don't think any nation's salvation depends on others. Israelis understand this better than anybody else. You only can count on yourselves and nothing else, but life becomes easier when you're not alone, that you have more help. Article content Article content I'm sure this is something that Lech Walesa had to face, Gandhi had to face, Nelson Mandela had to face. And eventually the world catches up. It is critical for people to tell us we're not alone in the fight. Article content What is that strong leadership that could change the face of history? Trump? Depending on how he looks at it. Is he seeing this as a legacy that can change the face of the region? But this is not a real estate deal that he can cut with a regime that is very corrupt, right? Article content So then we can divest from the region, putting America first, which is his slogan, but you cannot say America first and leave a mess behind. You want to have lasting stability, so that people in Riyadh or people in Jerusalem don't have to worry any longer about what Tehran is about to do or not. Article content Article content What do you see as Canada's role? Article content It can take the moral approach of saying, they are on the side of the dissidents and the freedom-seeking people, and will not bow and bend to their oppressors. You are not facilitating our struggle for freedom by trying to approach a policy of appeasement and isolation, which hasn't worked. Article content I think it's a message that Canada can loudly send to Iranians back home. Canada should ask the G20: Why aren't you listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity? Article content Right now you have every time there's a fire, this or that government is dispatching a fire truck to go and put out the fire. But how many times has anyone bothered to go after the arsonist? Article content I'm not running for any office or position, but I think that the trust that Iranians have in me puts me in a position that I can play that role for them, and that's exactly what I'm doing. Article content Article content They know my commitments to these democratic values. They actually asked me to intervene, because they think that I'm probably the best person playing that role for them right now. I'm not saying I'm the only one, and I'd like to work with everybody, but that puts me in a prime position to play that role.
Ottawa Citizen
04-06-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Exclusive interview: The exiled Crown Prince of Iran
Article content I don't think any nation's salvation depends on others. Israelis understand this better than anybody else. You only can count on yourselves and nothing else, but life becomes easier when you're not alone, that you have more help. Article content Article content I'm sure this is something that Lech Walesa had to face, Gandhi had to face, Nelson Mandela had to face. And eventually the world catches up. It is critical for people to tell us we're not alone in the fight. Article content What is that strong leadership that could change the face of history? Trump? Depending on how he looks at it. Is he seeing this as a legacy that can change the face of the region? But this is not a real estate deal that he can cut with a regime that is very corrupt, right? Article content So then we can divest from the region, putting America first, which is his slogan, but you cannot say America first and leave a mess behind. You want to have lasting stability, so that people in Riyadh or people in Jerusalem don't have to worry any longer about what Tehran is about to do or not. Article content Article content What do you see as Canada's role? Article content It can take the moral approach of saying, they are on the side of the dissidents and the freedom-seeking people, and will not bow and bend to their oppressors. You are not facilitating our struggle for freedom by trying to approach a policy of appeasement and isolation, which hasn't worked. Article content I think it's a message that Canada can loudly send to Iranians back home. Canada should ask the G20: Why aren't you listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity? Article content Right now you have every time there's a fire, this or that government is dispatching a fire truck to go and put out the fire. But how many times has anyone bothered to go after the arsonist? Article content I'm not running for any office or position, but I think that the trust that Iranians have in me puts me in a position that I can play that role for them, and that's exactly what I'm doing. Article content Article content They know my commitments to these democratic values. They actually asked me to intervene, because they think that I'm probably the best person playing that role for them right now. I'm not saying I'm the only one, and I'd like to work with everybody, but that puts me in a prime position to play that role.
New York Times
01-06-2025
- General
- New York Times
Poland's Presidential Election Goes Down to the Wire
A pivotal presidential election on Sunday in Poland was too close to call, with exit polls putting the two contenders nearly neck and neck as voting ended and an official count of the ballots began. Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, appeared to be narrowly ahead in the runoff election, but by such a small margin that it was unclear whether he would prevail in the official vote tally due on Monday. Mr. Trzaskowski nonetheless claimed victory. 'Dear ladies and gentlemen — we won!' he declared to supporters Sunday evening in Warsaw. 'I think that the term 'razor-thin victory' will enter the Polish language.' The results of usually reliable exit polling, broadcast by public and private television stations Sunday evening after polling stations closed, gave Mr. Trzaskowsk a tiny advantage, with 50.3 percent of the vote. His rival, Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist historian backed by Poland's previous right-wing governing party, Law and Justice, had 49.7 percent. Mr. Nawrocki told his own supporters after the exit poll data came out that the official results would show him to be the victor. 'Dear people, we will win,' he said. 'Tonight we will win and save Poland.' The turnout was 72.8 percent, the highest in a Polish presidential election since the first free and direct vote for the presidency in 1990, when Lech Walesa, the Solidarity trade union leader, won after the collapse of communism. The election has been widely viewed as a test of whether populist nationalism is a rising or receding force in Europe and beyond. A hard fought campaign drew in supporters and foes of President Trump on both sides of the Atlantic. The Trump administration, along with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and other right-wing politicians, including the defeated Trump-admiring nationalist candidate in a recent presidential election in Romania, were rooting for Mr. Nawrocki. Europe's mainstream political forces supported Mr. Trzaskowski. The election hinged on the question of whether Polish voters want a president who can work with the sitting government of Poland's centrist prime minister, Donald Tusk, or one who opposes it. The closeness of the race highlighted Poland's polarization between right-wing nationalist forces opposed to Mr. Tusk and centrists who support him. The election of Mr. Trzaskowski, who was backed by Mr. Tusk's party, Civic Platform, would likely end a long period of political deadlock that began when Law and Justice lost its majority in Parliament in a 2023 election but retained control of the separately elected presidency. The presidency is a largely ceremonial role, but the president has veto power over legislation passed by Parliament. The departing, term-limited president, Andrzej Duda, used this power to obstruct efforts by Mr. Tusk's government to reverse the legacy of eight years of populist rule by Law and Justice. A win for Mr. Nawrocki would continue and even harden this deadlock. Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting.
Times
31-05-2025
- General
- Times
Is Poland about to elect a hooligan ‘pimp' as president?
The Baltic port of Gdansk has been a crucible of some of the most significant events in modern European history. The opening salvos of the Second World War were fired from its harbour. And 50 years later, the Solidarity trade union movement forged in its shipyards toppled Poland's communist dictatorship, propelling a mustachioed electrician called Lech Walesa to the presidency and then to the Nobel peace prize. Now another son of Gdansk, who trained as a boxer on the same vast shipbuilding complex from which Walesa rallied the nation, is threatening to upset the country — and the continent's — political order. • He's already lost — but could still decide who wins Poland's election Karol Nawrocki, 42, a right-wing historian with a background in football hooliganism who has never previously held elected office, stands a solid chance of winning the Polish presidency on Sunday. Should he triumph, he has given every indication that he will take a wrecking ball to the centrist agenda of prime minister Donald Tusk, using the head of state's powers to obstruct him wherever possible. Poland's neighbours are increasingly alarmed at the prospect. 'A Nawrocki presidency would be a nightmare,' said one European diplomat. It is a sentiment shared by Walesa, 81, who posted on X: 'My last request … and warning — anyone but Nawrocki!' Until six months ago, Nawrocki was largely unknown to anyone outside his particular academic niche. For all but the final weeks of the campaign he languished in the polls, far behind Rafal Trzaskowski, 53, the mayor of Warsaw and Tusk's preferred candidate. Over the past ten days he has also been bombarded by allegations about his past that might have destroyed a mainstream politician: participation in mass street brawls, contacts in the criminal underworld and claims that he procured prostitutes for guests at a luxury hotel — which he strenuously denies. Yet Nawrocki has the backing of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, one of the most ruthless and effective populist electoral machines in Europe, and its mastermind Jarosław Kaczynski. In 2017, only four years after he completed his doctorate in history, Nawrocki was plucked from obscurity by Kaczynski to run Gdansk's imposing Museum of the Second World War. One of Poland's flagship historical institutions, he turned it into a showcase for Kaczynski's black-and-white vision of an innocent country that suffered more than any other from the conflict. • Poland's pivotal election could deliver abortion pledge at last 'He was unknown in academic circles,' said Pawel Machcewicz, a former senior adviser to Tusk who was the museum's founding director until he was ejected to make way for Nawrocki. 'His approach 100 per cent reflects the politics of history of the Law and Justice party. One can call it nationalistic: emphasising the exceptional heroism and martyrdom of Poles in the 20th century, rejecting any more critical approaches to our history.' In 2021 Nawrocki was promoted to lead the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a public body tasked with investigating crimes against the Polish nation and vetting newly appointed public officials for ties to communist-era state security bodies. Figures in PiS say he was then chosen to run for the presidency because he combined the loyalty and reliability of a party footsoldier — despite never having been a card-carrying member — with a clean skin in political terms, untainted by the party's controversial years in government from 2015 to 2023. • Inside the fight to shut down Poland's 'propaganda machine' The idea was that this would allow him to unite Poland's fractious right, luring back voters who have drifted away towards more extremist candidates such as Sławomir Mentzen, a radical libertarian, and Grzegorz Braun, an unabashed antisemite. 'A non-party candidate offers the opportunity to gain broader support in the elections,' said Radoslaw Fogiel, an MP and former PiS spin doctor who serves on the party's national executive. 'Karol Nawrocki's greatest strengths as a political figure lie in his staunchly patriotic and sovereigntist stance.' Under the intense media scrutiny of recent weeks, however, Nawrocki's skin has turned out not to be quite so clean as it once appeared. Alongside a loyalty to Chelsea football club so profound he once had its logo tattooed on his chest, Nawrocki was also for many years a fanatical supporter of his local football team, Lechia Gdansk, and its firm of thuggish hardcore fans who call themselves the 'hooligans of the Free City'. Over the past fortnight he has admitted that in 2009 he took part in 70-a-side punch-ups with fans of rival clubs, alongside scores of convicted criminals armed with clubs and brass knuckles. Nawrocki has tried to shrug these melees off as 'noble' battles. Others, however, regard them as a symptom of something darker. 'Taking part in an arranged fight is a crime — it constitutes participation in a brawl,' said Szymon Jadczak, an investigative writer for the Wirtualna Polska news website who specialises in football hooliganism. He has identified 35 participants in Nawrocki's 2009 forest brawl with a detailed list of more than 130 court convictions between them. Nawrocki's contacts with football hooligans and criminals also lasted well beyond 2009. Last year he was photographed with Patryk Masiak, a fellow Lechia supporter and MMA fighter who served time in prison for abducting a woman and is facing additional court proceedings for participation in an organised crime group and pimping. 'These are ongoing accusations, and Mr Nawrocki does not deny his acquaintance [with Masiak],' said Jadczak. The candidate has characterised his relationship with Masiak as 'former sparring partners'. A more lurid raft of allegations surfaced this week when Onet, another news website, published an investigation that accused Nawrocki of having moonlighted as a pimp during a stint working as a security guard at the Grand Hotel in Sopot, a coastal resort near Gdansk. Nawrocki denied the report and said he would sue Onet — although rather than using a 24-hour judicial process designed for rapid rebuttal in elections he has opted for a standard libel case, which may take years to come to a conclusion. Separately, it emerged that Nawrocki had acquired a flat from a disabled elderly man in exchange for a promise to care for him for life, but reneged on his pledge. The original owner was found living in a state care home without any assistance from Nawrocki, who has since offered to donate the apartment to charity. PiS functionaries and the outgoing President Duda, an ally of the party, have dismissed these negative headlines as either baseless political smears or forgivable 'mistakes of youth'. Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at Oxford University and an expert on Poland, said: 'One would need to check the detail on every story: extorting a flat from an elderly alcoholic, pimping for prostitutes, stories about financial improprieties at the Institute of National Remembrance. 'Some give the impression of someone who has neither the character nor the professional qualifications to be president of a very important European country at a very important juncture in European history.' Yet Nawrocki is not without international support. President Trump, who has a soft spot for Duda and the PiS party, invited him into the Oval Office for a photo opportunity, and last week Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, implied that only a Nawrocki presidency could ensure that American troops remained in Poland. 'Donald Trump is a strong leader for us, but you have an opportunity to have just as strong of a leader in Karol if you make him the leader of this country,' she said on a visit to Rzeszow. 'If you elect a leader who will work with President Trump, the Polish people will have a strong ally … You will continue to have a US military presence here.' The final polls suggest that Nawrocki and Trzaskowski are separated by a fraction of a percentage point in the electoral race. Turnout may prove decisive. The Polish media environment has become so poisonous that the allegations against Nawrocki may even be helping him. There are signs that fringe right-wing voters are rallying to his cause because they regard him as a political martyr. Pawel Rybicki, an adviser to the Nawrocki campaign, said the candidate had been subjected to the 'dirtiest game in the history of Polish politics since [the start of democracy in] 1989. 'Most of the media, including state media, are openly on Trzaskowski's side. Poles do not like intrusive propaganda, which is why the current actions of the media and authorities against Nawrocki are rather contributing to an increase in support for him. 'Poles have simply assumed that the government is panicking in fear of Nawrocki's victory.'
