The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 11 August 2019 *** 17World news
The village
where no boys
have been born
for a decade
By Matthew DayIT WAS during a competition for
junior firefighters that someone drew
attention to the entrants from the
small Polish village of Miejsce
Odrzańskie. Every one of the
uniformed children was a girl.
The reason is as simple as it is
surprising. No boys have been born in
Miejsce Odrzańskie for almost a
decade, while the village’s women in
the rural backwater of 300 souls have
given birth to 12 girls.
The shortage of boys is so acute that
the mayor has offered a cash reward
for the first family to produce a son.
Now the world’s media have
descended on the village in south-
west Poland not far from the Czech
border to investigate the
phenomenon.
“Of course the media attention was
a surprise for us, for the residents and
the area,” Rajmund Frischko, the local
mayor who offered the reward – and
the father of two daughters – told The
Sunday Telegraph.
“There has been so much talk about
us in the media that for a minute there
I was considering naming a street after
the next boy born here,” he said. “He
will definitely get a very nice
gift. We will plant an oak
and name it after him.”
“The situation
was that the girls
were growing
up, and the kids
were around us, so we didn’t pay
much attention to it. Until someone
noticed during a competition for
volunteer firefighters that the team
consisted of just girls.”
The mayor said doctors from across
Poland had been calling with tips on
how to encourage the birth of a boy.
One retired doctor told him the sex of
a baby depended on its mother’s diet,
which must be rich in calcium to
guarantee a son. “There is always the
tried way of the Polish highlanders: If
you want a boy, keep an axe under
your marital bed,” he joked.
“We treat the whole affair assomething as a curiosity,” said
Krystyna Zydziak, the village head and
mother of two daughters. “I always say
that nature can find ways to balance
things. There may be more girls born
here but somewhere else in the world
more boys are probably being born.”
The lack of male births over the past
few years compared with the dozen or
so female births has added to worries
about the future of the village. Like
many Polish villages, Miejsce
Odrzańskie has been fighting a losing
battle to retain its population as peopleleave the fields for Poland’s flourishing
cities. It has shrunk in population from
1,200 to a little under 300. Without
men going into farming, people fear,
that struggle could get harder.
Ms Zydziak, said every villager had
family living and working elsewhere
in the EU. “Some villagers are
concerned who will fill the farming
jobs in the future,” she said.
Malwina Kicler, 10, has been a
volunteer firefighter for three years.
The lack of boys has not stopped her
crew from scooping up trophies inmajor competitions across Poland in
the six years since it was founded.
“Boys are noisy and naughty,” she
said. “At least now we have peace and
quiet. You can always meet them
somewhere else.”
Scientists have stressed that people
should not jump to conclusions as to
why so many girls are being born.
“You have to go deep into the
history and check the birth statistics,”
said Prof Rafal Ploski, head of genetics
at Warsaw’s Medical University. “You
have to check to see if the girls’parents are not related to each other,
even to a very distant extent. You have
to conduct detailed interviews, and
check the environmental conditions.
Only then can a trail appear.”
Not everyone sees the dearth of
boys as a problem. One villager,
making a veiled reference to a Polish
history scarred by war, and invasion,
said the string of daughters was a good
omen. “They once said that ‘when
boys are born there will be war, when
girls are born there will be peace’ so
thank God it is as it is,” she said.n.
e themedia attention was
r us, for the residents and
jmund Frischko, the local
offered the reward – and
two daughters – toldThe
graph.
s been so much talk about
dia that for a minute there
ering naming a street after
born here,” he said. “He
y get a very nice
plant an oak
after him.”
ation
girls
g
kids
d us, so we didn’t pay
ion to it.Until someone
ng a competition for
efighters that the team
just girls.”
r said doctors from across
been calling with tips on
urage the birth of a boy.
doctor told him the sex of
nded on its mother’s diet,
be rich in calcium to
son. “There is always the
the Polish highlanders: If
oy, keep an axe under
bed,” he joked.
the whole affair as‘For a minute
there I wasconsidering
naming a
street afterthe next boy
born here’‘There is
always theway of the
highlanders:
If you wanta boy, keep
an axe
under yourmarital bed’
Residents like
Krystyna Zydziak,
left, the head of
Miejsce Odrzanskie,
fear for the future
of the village where
no boys have been
born for nearly a
decade. Its junior
firefighters crew is
made up entirely of
girls, below. That,
says 10-year-old
Malwina Kicler,
centre right, is no
bad thingYoungsters throw in
their lot with boules
By Henry Samuel in ParisONCE the preserve of pastis-
sipping retirees of Provence,
the game of pétanque, or
boules, has become a sur-
prise hit with French youth
amid a fashion for all things
retro and a desire for simple,
“authentic” pleasures.
Among France’s 302,
registered boules players,
8 per cent are now “minors”,
according to the French Fed-
eration of Pétanques and Jeu
Provençal.
“The young trend has
taken off,” said Clément Me-
neghin, the group’s spokes-
man, adding that one of thekey reasons was that pé-
tanque is now played at PE
sessions in many schools.
Boules clubs in French
universities are all the rage,
and many young workers
play the game during their
lunch breaks to relax.
Patrick André, of the
Boule museum of Marseille,
said: “Young people want to
get back to authenticity, to
simple things.”
Pétanque involves throw-
ing metal balls at a smaller
wooden ball, the “jack”.
It is also catching on in
England, which now has
nearly 200 clubs, according
to Pétanque England.NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINEРЕЛИЗ
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