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25.04.2012 - Case closed and resolved :) Thanks to quick+thoughtful reaction by Freerice - Organizacja Freerice zareagowała pozytywnie :) Rozwiązanie dyskusji tutaj: czarykuchenne.blogspot.com/2012/04/freericecom-dziekujemy.html
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[uwaga, wpis po angielsku, tłumaczenie pod spodem]
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I hope this is just en error, but such errors should not happen! A "famous landmark" is a castle, a mountain, a cathedral, a famous garden or temple - but NOT the scene of a genocide! It is surely a "landmark of horror", but no Polish child ever learns about this as being a "world famous landmark of Poland"! The Auschwitz camp is a HERITAGE SITE and a MEMORIAL, but NOT a "world famous landmark", especially in such a context, where young people randomly learn it along (magical) Taj Mahal = India, (wonderful) Louvre = Paris, and then (horror) Auschwitz = Poland! Such a controversial place should not appear in this game, while no other country received such a strange "landmark"! Not when the people of my country were murdered in that place, and it was build by the forces of the occupying Nazi Germany! Such an error is not only insulting the memory of my own relatives, who were tortured and murdered in that horror place, but also the memory of ALL Polish and Jewish people, who suffered or were murdered by the GERMAN NAZIS!
I think there was already more than enough controversy about NAZI GERMAN concentration camps being re-labeled as "Polish" or "in Poland". Surely they were build in Poland WHICH WAS 100% OCCUPIED BY NAZI GERMANY DURING THAT TIME. Now, thousands of people, especially young people, students, who visit your website, casually learn (without any further context), that the scene of a genocide of Polish people is a "Landmark of Poland". Additionally, while you did not forget one single famous Austrian or German castle or museum or real landmark, you actually omitted ALL famous Polish castles, temples, historical sites and cathedrals, with the Wieliczka salt mines being the only other "famous landmark" aside Auschwitz!
I am just so angry right now, literally trembling. When I think about all my old aunties crying, and telling me the long horrible "stories from the camp", I was just little, but I did not forget until today.
If you are keen on labelling Nazi camps as "world famous landmarks", then please name the ones located in Germany, so young people will CORRECTLY learn in your game "concentration camp = Germany". How about Dachau or Ravensbrück, to just name 2 "world famous" ones?
PS. (21.04.2012) Dear Freerice.com team, I am sorry if this post is very emotional, but this is how I feel about this subject. I do not wish at all to have to prove to you that I am not the only person who feels like that. For you it is just a few clicks, and 1 controversial question changed. I love playing the Freerice charity games, and I would very much hate to cause any bad publicity for you! I already started petitions in the past, some of them attracting many thousands of people in response, I am keeping a low profile now due to my illness, and I do not really wish to take out all my big guns, especially since you are such a great project, and it really could be solved very quickly!
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[Przepraszam za wpis po angielsku, ale po prostu to mnie tak przeraziło i nie mogłam uwierzyć że to prawda. Strona Freerice.com w jednej ze swoich gier charytatywnych podała "Oświęcim" jako "światowej sławy symbol Polski" (przy tym pomijając wszystkie polskie zamki, pałace, klasztory itp, jedynym innym "sławnym znakiem Polski" nazywa kopalnie w Wieliczce - a wszystkie inne kraje dostały zamki, pałace, katedry, góry, wielkie pomniki itp). Mam nadzieje że to szybko zmienią, ale jeśli nie to będę startować akcje, i zbierać tysiące podpisów jeśli trzeba. Strona Freerice.com jest odwiedzana przez setki tysięcy ludzi, i przede wszystko młodzież i dzieci, używające wszystkie te gry edukacyjne, i taki błąd właśnie na tej stronie jest po prostu fatalny. A najgorsze było to, że nie zapomnieli ani jednego Niemieckiego ani Austriackiego zamku, albo musem albo innych naprawdę słynnych miejsc - ALE POMINĘLI WSZYSTKIE NIEMIECKIE OBOZY KONCENTRACYJNE. Tylko Polska nagle ma miejsce gdzie mordowano Polaków i Żydów jako "słynny Polski symbol" ;(]
I HEREBY ASK YOU TO REMOVE THE "AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP IS A WORLD CLASS LANDMARK OF POLAND" QUESTION FORM FREERICE.COM. OTHERWISE I WILL SEE MYSELF FORCED TO START A CHANGE.ORG CAMPAIGN, AND GATHER ENOUGH PEOPLE TO MAKE YOU REMOVE THIS ERROR.
Sincerely,
signed: Katarzyna Jastrzębska
Polish citizen, 30% of my family were murdered by the Nazis, among others in the Auschwitz concentration camp
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PS. (21.04.2012) Dear Freerice.com team, I am sorry if this post is very emotional, but this is how I feel about this subject. I do not wish at all to have to prove to you that I am not the only person who feels like that. For you it is just a few clicks, and 1 controversial question changed. I love playing the Freerice charity games, and I would very much hate to cause any bad publicity for you! I already started petitions in the past, some of them attracting many thousands of people in response, I am keeping a low profile now due to my illness, and I do not really wish to take out all my big guns, especially since you are such a great project, and it really could be solved very quickly!
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[Przepraszam za wpis po angielsku, ale po prostu to mnie tak przeraziło i nie mogłam uwierzyć że to prawda. Strona Freerice.com w jednej ze swoich gier charytatywnych podała "Oświęcim" jako "światowej sławy symbol Polski" (przy tym pomijając wszystkie polskie zamki, pałace, klasztory itp, jedynym innym "sławnym znakiem Polski" nazywa kopalnie w Wieliczce - a wszystkie inne kraje dostały zamki, pałace, katedry, góry, wielkie pomniki itp). Mam nadzieje że to szybko zmienią, ale jeśli nie to będę startować akcje, i zbierać tysiące podpisów jeśli trzeba. Strona Freerice.com jest odwiedzana przez setki tysięcy ludzi, i przede wszystko młodzież i dzieci, używające wszystkie te gry edukacyjne, i taki błąd właśnie na tej stronie jest po prostu fatalny. A najgorsze było to, że nie zapomnieli ani jednego Niemieckiego ani Austriackiego zamku, albo musem albo innych naprawdę słynnych miejsc - ALE POMINĘLI WSZYSTKIE NIEMIECKIE OBOZY KONCENTRACYJNE. Tylko Polska nagle ma miejsce gdzie mordowano Polaków i Żydów jako "słynny Polski symbol" ;(]
Jestem tak samo jak Ty zszokowana tym, co oni napisali i bardzo Ci dziękuję za odpowiednią reakcję. Zrobiłabym to samo. Popieram Cię w całej rozciągłości. Mam tylko nadzieję, że szybko to zmienią. Trzymaj się ciepło Kasiu!
OdpowiedzUsuńDziękuję za poparcie :) Też mam nadzieję że to po prostu zmienią, i nie będzie żadnych dramatów, w końcu dla nich to tylko drobnostka, parę kliknięć i już.
OdpowiedzUsuńAle skoro po mojej długiej nieobecności prawie nikt tu nie zagląda, uważają mnie zapewne za zbyt nieważną, i nie wierzą że moje słowa mają jakiekolwiek znaczenie :/ Szkoda, bo nie mam ochoty na jakieś wielkie akcje, a lubię Freerice, i uważam za dobry projekt. Nie było by zbyt wesoło gdyby się pogorszyła ich reputacja, a na pewno się pogorszy, jak by się okazało że petycja jest popierana przez tysiące ludzi. Ja już raz wystartowałam petycję, i to z o wiele "mniejszego" i bardziej niewidzialnego powodu, i tak bardzo urosła (setki tysięcy ludzi), że na koniec byłam zmuszona oddać pod opiekę dużej organizacji, bo sama nie mogłam sobie dać rady z nadmiarem pracy i zainteresowania.
Moje zdrowie nie jest najlepsze, i mąż nie jest tym tutaj zachwycony, mimo tego powiedział że rozumie dlaczego tak mnie przejęło. Sprawdziłam już co i jak aby zacząć petycję na stronie change.org, ale na razie wierzę że może uda mi się ich przekonać tylko powtarzając o co chodzi na Twitterze i przez E-Mail itp. Naprawdę nie mam ochoty walczyć właśnie z projektem Freerice, bo bardzo go lubię i popieram :/ Problem w tym, że czasem ludzie uważający się za "dobrych" myślą że nigdy nie robią błędów, i że wszystko co robią jest automatycznie "dobre".
Ale ja po prostu nie mogę udawać że to "nic", wiem w jaki sposób członkowie mojej rodziny zginęli w obozach koncentracyjnych, do dziś to mi się śni w koszmarach. Osoba która dodała to dziwne pytanie do gry zapewne nie rozumie co to znaczy.
Hi,
OdpowiedzUsuńFirstly, thank you so much for your support and for taking such a keen interest in our site. We greatly appreciate it.
Freerice so far has raised enough to feed over 5 million people, purely through word-of-mouth and players like you taking the time to "rice up". And for this reason, your opinion is important to us.
Freerice's goal is provide meal, but also free education. And our subjects are designed with this in mind, which is why we have avoided gimmicky flash games and the likes.
The World Landmarks subject looks are a range of places, some very obscure but important in our history. Our feeling is that Auschwitz concentration camp is a part of our history that should never be forgotten, and we have included it in the subject with this in mind.
We also plan to release a History subject shortly, and again would make reference to this time in our history.
We do appreciate your feelings, and agree with you, but the question is not intended flippantly. Many teachers use our site, and it's a good opportunity for them to explain the history behind this landmark that should never be forgotten.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. I understand how upsetting this is absolutely, on one hand. Particularly, since as you put it, the only other site about Poland was the Wieliczka, whereas Germany has not one of their own made Concentration camps listed. Poland is seen as the site of the Holocaust, particularly it is seen as the site of the death of millions of the world's Jews. Which is a part of our history, yes. But it ISN'T our only history. And we should not be summed up as a nation where the Holocaust occured and that is all. It should never be forgetten. But it should not be all we are.
OdpowiedzUsuń@Team Freerice: Thank you very much for the response and consideration of this topic. I answered already via Twitter (twitter.com/KasiaBajka), but repeat it here again for those who do not use it (yet) -
OdpowiedzUsuńI understand that you include different memorable places in your charity game, but in this case I would still ask for GERMAN concentration camps to be included as well. Or at least an online accessible explanation, for all those who only see a "Polish" concentration camp, and do not learn any further context. Online attention span can be very short, and especially young people never click any further, and do not follow in-depth info on difficult topics :/
There has been a lot of controversy about this topic, so very painful for Poland, and even Polish consulates were speaking up on behalf on this around the world. I do not wish for any people form Poland to shun your great charity project, and so I hope that there is maybe some solution. Of course I know you do not have a lot of staff, since the money you earn is going to feed hungry people, and not to employ thousands of people, so it is clear you cannot respond to each request in seconds like some giant company :) But each day this stays online just like that is harmful for the memory of all the Polish victims, who died at the hands of the German Nazis.
@ Polish Mama: Thank you for dropping by :) You are absolutely right, a difficult topic, and this is why it is so easily misunderstood, if presented in a quick online game without any further context :/ The remembrance is of course essential for such atrocities to never repeat again, my point here is the exclusion of German concentration camps, and the learning effect for those kids, who do not have any guidance by a teacher. In the end they are left with a "concentration camps = Poland" result, which is not only not helpful, but downright harmful for any Poles, especially abroad.
I already encountered people myself, who asked me questions like "But did not Poland start the war with Germany?!" or "Were Polish people not involved in building concentration camps too?" :/ I was asked that at work, by coworkers, who actually believed such things, and it was difficult to get through to them, and get the message across that Poland was NOT "actively helping Hitler" :/ When I told them about how Hitler staged the "Polish attack" on Germany to have a scapegoat for starting the war (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident), and how millions of Polish people died as forced labor or in concentration camps, they were shocked, and I had to open up the internet, and show them data from scientific webpages to make them believe me :/
Hi Kasia,
OdpowiedzUsuńFollowing from our Twitter conversation, thank you so much for explaining your concerns from a Polish perspective.
Poland is one of our top 10 countries, and so it's important to understand Polish sensitivities.
We have updated the question to make clear the link to Nazism and we have added mention of Buchenwald, the remains of the well-known concentration camp in Germany http://freerice.com/#/world-landmarks/1463489
We're a small team - with only one full-time staff member - so we greatly appreciate your help. If you feel there are other landmarks that are educational and important to highlight, please feel free to submit them to us at wfp.freerice@wfp.org?
Thank you for taking the time to raise much-needed rice, and to write to us about your concerns!
Warm regards,
Team Freerice
@Team Freerice: Thank you very very much for such a thoughtful solution :D :D :D I feared a little that you may be stressed and overworked, and will not find any time to check on this, especially since my reaction was so emotional (I was actually crying writing my post, and thus it turned out very dramatic). I am sure someone, who was not personally interested in worldwide charity issues, would have reacted differently, and shoved my concerns aside :)
OdpowiedzUsuńI think I learned a lot form that too, I am a very emotional person sometimes, unfortunately this may turn things dramatic. My illness, affecting also my brain, is not actually helping me stay calm at all times. I am really really glad that I can advertise for your project again, without any sad thoughts. It also made my day today, there is not even a memorial stone for my family members that were killed during that time, I can only guess they are buried in one of the many anonymous mass graves at the memorial sites. I lost my entire family due to wars, revolutions and lastly, communism in Poland, there is no one left alive I would know of. Therefore this subject is a very emotional one for me, and your kind response is something I am very grateful for. Thank you ;/