Latest news with #Irena
Otago Daily Times
01-07-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Kindness, faith of Polish WW2 refugee endless
Irena O'Brien in the ' photo was taken as part of the Red Cross initiative to reconnect her with family she lost in World War 2. Photos: supplied Gore locals may remember Irena O'Brien as the friendly Polish woman who was always in a headscarf and sunglasses. To her friends and family, she was a selfless, devout Catholic, who coped with the pain of fleeing war-torn Europe with her faith, quirks and a strict routine. She died on June 7 aged 96. She was visible in the community due to her daily walks. So visible, that her daughter Janice Rabbitt said people gave her lifts if they saw her walking by. "I think she was the most picked up female in Gore," Mrs Rabbitt said. Her longtime friend and fellow Pole, Renata Brumby, said Mrs O'Brien had a good sense of humour and was a very "structured person". "Even if she wasn't in the church going to mass, she was still in the chapel," Mrs Brumby said. "If you were in town and you wanted to see Irena, if she wasn't home, you'd go to the chapel." Born in Poland in 1928, Irena was raised by her grandparents, slept on straw and only had one pair of shoes to share with her siblings. Because of all that befell her in her early years, Mrs O'Brien felt unworthy of new things, wearing the same pair of purple crocs until they were worn through. A young Irena O'Brien (nee Pawlak) in Germany before being relocated to New Zealand as a refugee after World War 2. Her beloved Christmas decorations were made using cheap or recycled items such as tinsel or CDs, giving her home a shiny festive look all year round. Her daughter Veronica Swain said Mrs O'Brien had infinite generosity. "She'd give whatever she had on her back to anyone," Mrs Swain said. Mrs Rabbitt said growing up, she and her seven siblings were not told much about their mother's origins. "It was never talked about in the family," she said. "I remember [my dad] saying that it was too bad, you don't want to know." Germany invaded Poland in 1939, when Irena was 11. Her loved ones were unsure of the specific details of Mrs O'Brien's past because she did not like to speak of it. "She would only tell you so much and she'd stop talking," Mrs Brumby said. "Because you could tell there was so much hurt and pain." The ship Irena O'Brien came to New Zealand on in 1949. After the invasion, Irena and her family were put into labour camps in Germany, which housed Eastern-European workers. The camps were separate from SS-run concentration camps but their conditions were still lacking in food, medicine and clothing, while working long hours. Irena's mother died in one of these camps and it pained her for years how the Germans buried her, she used to say it was like a "dump area" to her. At the end of the war when Russians seized the German camp, Irena fled and her family were separated. "[Her remaining family] went one way and mum went the other way," Mrs Rabbitt said. Irena was taken in by a German woman and worked on the farm. Three years later, she was found by American soldiers and told she would be sent to a new country, like England, that would be her new home. "She must have felt so lonely and frightened," Mrs Rabbitt said. In 1949, at the age of 21, Irena arrived in Wellington and stayed in Camp Pahiatua, which housed more than 700 Polish children. A few months later she was relocated again, alone, to Gore. Irena O'Brien with her children Paul, Janice, Peter and Theresa at their Broughton St home in the '60s. The first time her future husband, Bill O'Brien saw her, she was coming off the train. She worked in the Gore Hospital as a domestic in the children's ward, and was taught how to speak English by the nurses and looked after by the nuns. A few months later, the nurses threw a party for Irena's birthday and Mr O'Brien was invited. It turned out they had the same birthday. A courtship began from there and two years later, they were married and they went on to have eight children together. Decades on, with the help of the Red Cross, she was able to find a living relative in Poland. In 1992, Mrs O'Brien received a letter from her brother who had thought she was dead. Mrs Brumby said the letters back and forth showed the separated siblings trying to piece together their broken memories. Mrs O'Brien's brother yearned to see his sister again but due to his difficult financial situation in Poland, he slowly realised this was unlikely. "He was dying to see her again and you can see how . . . his faith slowly is dropping, thinking, I'm not going to see you, this is too far away," Mrs Brumby said. The registration papers of Polish World War 2 refugee Irena O'Brien (nee Pawlak), issued by the New Zealand Government as part of the Aliens Act 1948. "Then he says, I realise we probably won't see you again but I'm grateful that I found you and could help. And then he's hoping that maybe the children, our children, you know, will be able to meet each other one day." Later that decade, Mrs O'Brien lost one of her sons and her husband followed just three days later. Mrs Swain remembered, after her father's funeral, she found her mother in what they called "the boys' room", looking out the window. "She said, 'how can I keep my faith?' and I said, you've just got to," Mrs Swain said. "And she did, she just stuck with it." After that, Mrs O'Brien disconnected her phone for good, as her daughters said, she could not handle any more bad news. Mrs O'Brien was strong, both in herself and in her faith, which kept her going. In her final years, Mrs Rabbitt recalls one of her mother's carers recognising that strength. "She had a lot of respect for her, and said she was 'one tough cookie'."
Daily Record
01-07-2025
- General
- Daily Record
15 minute chicken curry is a great mid-week dinner 'loved by all the family'
If you're in a hurry for a curry, this simple recipe uses pre-cooked chicken and is ready and on the plate in minutes With the kids off on summer holidays, keeping them fed and watered can feel like having another full time job. Cries of 'I'm hungry' are commonplace as they forage for food throughout the day, often stripping the kitchen cupboards bare. So when it comes to the main meal of the day, something quick, easy and filling is a bonus. This is especially true mid-week when the juggle of work, chores and c hildcare start to see you flag. Curry fans are covered though thanks to a 15 minute recipe for a delicious chicken curry which can be ready in a hurry. Irena Macri, culinary expert and founder of Cooked and Loved, shared her super simple "chicken curry in a hurry" recipe that takes just 15 minutes to prepare. The secret to it is using pre-cooked chicken to get it on the table fast. And best of all, it's one for all the family to enjoy. Irena said: "It's inspired by Indian curries like chicken tikka masala or butter chicken. The sauce has a tomato coconut base, which works superbly well with chicken. "It has a little kick but isn't too spicy; it's lovely and mild. You can always add more chilli if you like." And she added: "This is a perfect quick dinner meal to make during the week when you're short on time. Kids will love it, partners will love it and your granny will enjoy it." The trick to this dish's speedy preparation is using pre-cooked chicken to cut down on cooking time. It could either be leftovers or you can use the meat from Rotisserie-style or cooked chicken from the supermarket. Here's everything you need to make it, as reported by the Express. Quick chicken curry Ingredients Two cooked chicken fillets (diced) One tin of diced tomatoes One tin of coconut milk (full fat) One small carrot (diced) One clove of garlic (diced) Half a large onion (diced) One teaspoon of grated ginger One teaspoon of garam masala One teaspoon of mild curry powder Half a teaspoon of turmeric powder One tablespoon of olive oil or coconut oil Handful of fresh coriander (for serving) Salt and pepper Method 1. Start by chopping the onions and carrots, then warm the oil in a frying pan on a medium-high flame. 2. Toss the chopped onions and carrots into the pan, season with salt and pepper, and saute for about five minutes until they soften. the garlic and grate the ginger before adding them to the frying pan, stirring for around 10 to 15 seconds. 4. Sprinkle in the turmeric powder, garam masala, and curry powder, mixing them in well. 5. Finally, pour in the tinned tomatoes and coconut cream, combining everything thoroughly. 6. Lastly, add the diced cooked chicken and stir until it's heated through. Sprinkle on the fresh coriander and your mouth-watering curry is now ready to be served.
Trade Arabia
03-06-2025
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Brazil, Irena to co-host first global energy planning summit
The Government of Brazil and the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) will co-host the 1st edition of Energy Planning Summit which runs until June 4 at the BNDES Headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The event will mark the official launch of the Global Coalition for Energy Planning (GCEP), a landmark initiative emerging from Brazil's 2024 G20 Presidency to help close the investment gap in the clean energy transition through improved energy planning, said the organisers. The Summit and the Coalition will contribute to building momentum ahead of COP30 in Brazil and other key global milestones, they stated. "Although significant investment opportunities exist in emerging markets and developing economies, perceived risks remain a key barrier to investment, particularly from private sources," said Irena Director General Francesco La Camera. "Brazil has demonstrated how long-term energy planning, which incorporates investment-ready strategies, can help reduce those risks, attract private capital, scale up renewables, and strengthen local supply chains," he stated. "As GCEP Secretariat, Irena will leverage its near-universal membership and extensive repository of best practices for renewable energy planning and modelling to support countries, particularly in the Global South, in developing energy strategies that align with national development and climate goals," observed Le Camera. Alexandre Silveira, Brazil's Minister of Mines and Energy, said: 'Promoting a just and effective energy transition necessarily requires recognizing the leadership of developing countries. By advancing the Global Coalition for Energy Planning, Brazil reaffirms its commitment to multilateral dialogue and to strengthening tools that connect strategic planning, public policy, and financing mechanisms in support of a more inclusive and sustainable energy future.' This high-level event will bring together senior officials from energy planning and finance ministries in a structured dialogue to establish a new global platform for cooperation. Expected outcomes include agreement on priority workstreams, a roadmap for thematic coordination, and an initial mapping of partners ready to collaborate, said the organisers. By demonstrating how robust planning can reduce risks and unlock investment, the Summit aims to strengthen political commitment to use energy planning as a strategic tool to inform national and international development strategies.
The Courier
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Kirriemuir camera obscura under threat due to volunteer shortage
Kirriemuir's camera obscura is facing a new fight for survival – a decade after local volunteers saved it from closure. The attraction on Kirrie Hill is one of just three of its kind in Scotland. It is housed in a pavilion gifted to the Angus town by Peter Pan creator, Sir J M Barrie in 1930. Until 2015, it was managed by the National Trust for Scotland. But when Angus Council pulled a £10,000-a-year subsidy to keep open, Kirriemuir Regeneration Group was set up to secure its future. Since then, the camera and pavilion café have welcomed thousands of visitors. The 2025 season has been delayed by a technical issue with the camera in the roof space of the building. And while it has now been fixed, KRG treasurer Irena Krasinska-Lobban said volunteer numbers were critically low. 'This year, for some reason, we really are struggling for volunteers,' she said. 'March was the tenth anniversary of KRG being formed. 'I've been involved from the outset, but we've never struggled for volunteers as much as this year.' However, a plea on local social media has offered a glimmer of hope. 'One of our volunteers put a message up on Facebook. I've already sent out 20 emails to people who have said they might be interested in helping out. 'All we ask is for them to do a shift of three hours a month in the camera obscura or the café. 'It's not a big ask, but we need to know that we have volunteers so we can let people know we will be open. 'Ideally we'd like to open Saturday, Sunday and Monday. 'We are to be open this Monday, then we will try to arrange something with the people who have been in touch. 'If we could get even half of them to volunteer regularly it would make such a difference,' Irena added. Anyone willing to volunteer should email krg7630@ The pavilion features a host of items relating to Kirrie-born author Barrie. Those include prized pieces of history connected with his love of cricket. He first enjoyed the sport at Kirrie Hill. Thousands witnessed a match there to mark the gift of the pavilion on the day he was made a freeman of the town in June 1930. Irena added: 'Last summer was really excellent. 'The camera was busy with visitors, and the café has also become a place where Kirrie folk like to meet. 'It is lovely for them to come in for a coffee and a scone after enjoying a walk up The Hill. 'KRG is involved in a lot of other things, but I really hope we can get the volunteers to keep the camera open. 'It would break my heart to see it go.'
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Triple-Digit Heat, and Scolded for a Sip of Water
After nearly 20 minutes of intense yoga in a 105-degree room, the influencer had grown thirsty. She dropped her pose, leaned down to pick up her Fiji water bottle and took a sip. She didn't think it would be a problem. She certainly didn't think that within days, hundreds of thousands of people would have seen a video about her impromptu water break. But that small decision, to take a drink of water partway through a 90-minute hot yoga session at Bode NYC, touched off a series of events — and one widely seen TikTok video — that resulted in an instructor losing her job. And as with so many other moments of consumer outrage, broadcast by indignant shoppers or travelers (or yogis) to the riled-up masses on social media, this one also found a large and often sympathetic audience. How could drinking water be a problem? In a yoga class? The video in question contained several potent accelerants known to stoke outrage: sweaty vulnerability; the indignity, in an age of obsessive hydration, of being told you can't drink; relatively low stakes. ('Denying hydration in ANY workout class is a huge red flag,' one TikTok user thundered in a comment.) Those chiming in from the sidelines missed some nuance, as they often do. But surprisingly, this modern moral tale finds its ostensible antagonist in a surprising place at the end: back on a yoga mat, at the same studio where all the unpleasantness began. The firestorm began on Jan. 26, when Roma Abdesselam settled in for a 6 p.m. yoga session on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The class was billed as Bikram style, meaning that practitioners would be expected to move through a carefully prescribed sequence of 26 yoga postures, directed by an instructor. While working through the sequence, which was developed by the yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, who fled the United States amid a hail of sexual assault accusations in the 2010s, practitioners are often encouraged to refrain from drinking water until about half an hour in, usually once they reach eagle pose. (Instructors sometimes call this 'party time.') Although her class hadn't yet reached eagle pose, Ms. Abdesselam, 29, exercised her free will and took a sip anyway. The instructor, a longtime Bikram practitioner named Irena, took notice and reminded the students not to drink water until they were cued to do so. Ms. Abdesselam, who said she did not remember that rule being explained at the start of the session, became frustrated and left early with her fiancé, who was also in attendance. They didn't say a word to Irena. 'I was a little taken aback because, like I said, I've taken the class before, and I never had an instructor say that to me at all,' Ms. Abdesselam recalled in a phone interview. Moments later, walking through the January night, she recorded a video for TikTok. Clutching her black yoga mat, the infamous water bottle sloshing in the corner of the frame, she stormed down a Manhattan sidewalk with all the fervor of a woman who had sought the meditative calm of a yoga session but got the opposite. In the 42-second post, Ms. Abdesselam vented her frustration. 'And the instructor bullies me — calls me out in front of everyone — and is like, 'It's not time to drink water, I'll let you know when you can drink water, you drink water when I want you to drink water,'' she says in the TikTok video, which has since been viewed by nearly two million users. Some commenters described similar experiences at the studio. Some faulted her for airing her grievances publicly. And others expressed skepticism that the incident had happened at all. The instructor in question is also skeptical. At least, she recalls the day differently. Irena, 56, who requested to be identified by only her given name, maintains that she did explain the instructions at the start of class, contrary to Ms. Abdesselam's recollection. She also said she didn't 'command' her pupil not to drink water but instead asked to 'please try to refrain' until the appointed time — the idea being that selectively forgoing water can strengthen discipline and improve flexibility, among other health benefits. 'I thought it was innocently said,' she said in an interview. 'It was my invitation — not an order, not a royal command.' 'It Just Felt Targeted at Me' The day after Ms. Abdesselam filmed herself, red-faced and fuming, the studio posted a lighthearted response on its own TikTok account saying that 'not only is drinking water allowed it is encouraged!!' In the caption, the studio added that 'while we try to hold off until after eagle pose in original hot yoga, please drink water whenever you feel your body needs it.' Then Jen Lobo Plamondon, who founded Bode NYC in 1999 with Donna Rubin, released a video statement in which she said that the situation 'does not align' with the studio's standards. At Bode NYC, one of the first studios in New York City to offer Bikram yoga, teachers are instructed to 'encourage clients to drink water in between postures when they need it' and not to 'micromanage when or how much water people drink,' according to Ms. Lobo Plamondon. 'We were the only hot yoga studio in town for six or seven years,' Ms. Lobo Plamondon said. 'You knew when you were going to hot yoga, you were going to a Bikram yoga class. But now, every studio is hot. So when they come in and we ask if you've done hot yoga before, they say yes, but then they come into a Bikram-style class and it's very different.' For Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a history professor at the New School and the author of a book about America's exercise obsession, the problem stems from the 'slightly awkward way' that Bikram-style yoga fits into today's group fitness universe, butting up against faddish and social-media-friendly studios like CorePower or Y7. Bikram fans might find value in the discipline baked into the practice. But in an era in which many think of yoga as rooted chiefly in 'self-care,' modern exercisers may find it abrasive. In a phone interview a few days after the incident, Ms. Lobo Plamondon said that she held an all-staff video meeting to go over the company's policies and to emphasize to teachers that external reviews are taken seriously. She also said that the studio and Irena had parted ways. 'One-off reviews are not going to jeopardize your job,' Ms. Lobo Plamondon said. 'But when it spirals like this and we see that other people had a similar experience, it's not going to be tolerated.' But despite Ms. Lobo Plamondon's efforts, it has proved difficult to reconcile the tenets of the practice with students' expectations. Another Bode student, Monica Carbone, 28, said that she had an experience similar to Ms. Abdesselam's during a 75-minute hot yoga class last month. About 25 minutes in, while holding a pose with one leg up and her foot clasped in her hand, Ms. Carbone began to feel lightheaded and took a sip from her water bottle. The instructor then asked the class to wait until after the pose was completed to take a water break. 'It just felt targeted at me,' Ms. Carbone recalled in a phone interview. 'I was sitting in the front row, and whether or not that was the case, it definitely made me feel a little bit uncomfortable.' Later, when Ms. Carbone got up to leave the room after starting to feel thirsty again, the instructor stopped her and offered to refill her bottle for her. She declined, then went to the front desk to explain to a manager what had happened. 'He said something which made me even more taken aback,' Ms. Carbone said. 'He was like, Yeah, I think she's one of the more traditional teachers. And traditionally you only leave Bikram classes when you have to do one of the three P's: puke, pee or pass out.' The Teacher Becomes the Student Irena has been practicing this style of yoga for 13 years and did teacher training with Bode in 2022. She said she understood that adaptation was necessary for any business to thrive — even ones rooted in tradition. Still, she stressed the importance of adhering to the principles of Bikram-style yoga whenever possible. 'You are seeing in this new era, young people are having a very hard time to be told what to do,' she said. Reflecting on the fallout from her video, Ms. Abdesselam said she never wished for Irena to lose her job, just 'for her to be talked to.' 'Just because it's always how something's been done doesn't mean that it needs to continue being done,' she added. Her onetime instructor might disagree. The same week she lost her job, Irena turned up for a class at Bode NYC's Flatiron location, where she remains a student. She loves the instructors and the community, she said, and has no plans to leave the studio. 'Yoga is bigger than you or I,' she said. 'Yoga is bigger than any teacher or any studio owner. Yoga is a culture, it's life, it's a discipline. The practice of yoga is my medicine.'
