I watched WOŚP. The same emotions as every year. But also the same damn frustration

I watched WOŚP. For the 34th time. The same emotions as every year. But also the same damn frustration.

The finale is the volunteer effort of 120,000 children and adults who walk around in the freezing cold collecting money in tins. Musicians perform on the stages of 1,700 headquarters, and their number may exceed 20,000. Over three and a half decades, the enormous effort of hundreds of thousands of people and the generosity of millions of citizens have produced a real result: 2.5 billion złoty raised and more than 81,000 medical devices purchased. One in five devices in state hospitals bears a little red heart, and more than one in two residents of Poland has used one of them at least once. The number of human lives saved thanks to incubators, diagnostic equipment and ambulances cannot be counted.

Over more than 30 years—2.5 BILLION złoty. At the same time, this is the amount the Polish state spends ANNUALLY (ANNUALLY!) on the salaries of religious-education teachers in public schools (2 billion), the salaries of chaplains in hospitals and the military (100 million), and financing priests’ ZUS contributions (the so-called Church Fund—280 million).

At the same time, this is the amount by which the debt of public hospitals grows every year. Hospitals where, due to a lack of money, the closure of maternity wards and the transfer of childbirths to emergency departments are being considered—among intoxicated people injured in fights they themselves started, who may attack staff.

The institutional Roman Catholic Church in Poland is, in practice, a corporation that does not pay taxes. A political party that does not have to meet the requirement of disclosing its sources of funding, as other parties do, and is not supervised by any public oversight body to which political parties are subject. It is the most effective trade union, both in terms of protecting its employees’ jobs (because it is practically impossible to be expelled from the profession) and in extracting subsidies from public funds (employees not only do not have ZUS deducted, but have it paid from the state budget).

This wealthy institution, Poland’s largest private landowner, deriving billions of złoty in profit from leasing these properties, receives money from the state budget that is lacking for saving health and lives. By eliminating the above-mentioned spending and redirecting it to healthcare, we could eliminate the poisoning of people’s souls in one move while ensuring the saving of people’s bodies.

The commentary was written by Monika Tichy—an activist known, among other things, for taking part in the Święto Ceramiki festival, where she appeared as a clay figure carrying a rainbow flag. The text is her commentary on the WOŚP finale and the role of the state and the Church in financing healthcare. You can follow Monika on Facebook: facebook.com/monika.pacyfka