as probably the whole world knows by now, the polish president is dead. on april 10th 2010 at around 11.00am local time, a tupolew tu-154m lux plane crashed close to smolensk airport in russia. polish president (lech kaczynski), his wife and major political, economic, military, spiritual and intelectual leaders died in the crash. some 90 people in total. no survivors. a brutal blow for the administration of the polish state. newspapers all over the world (including "the vancouver sun") have reported the tragedy on the front pages. polish media talk about nothing else. without a doubt, poland has been paralyzed. all the sport and entertainment events have been cancelled for this week. in a deep shock, the polish people mourn and pray.
on the day of the crash, i was asleep on the opposite side of the world and my mom woke me up in the middle of the night with a grief phonecall. she told me what had happened. she started to recite the surnames of the people who died in the crash. the list went on... very influential people i have known from tv since i was a kid.
here in vancouver the polish community mourned the death of the president as well. at st. casimir's catholic church a framed picture of mr. kaczynski was exposed surrounded by flowers and candles. "polonia sasuage house" on east hastings, close to where i live, put out the polish flag with a black ribbon, giving me goosebumps as i waited for the bus.
friends of mine kept coming up to me saying they'd heard what happened and that they were sorry. in a way, i am sorry too. but my feelings have been mixed and not so clear-cut like everybody else's back in poland. as much as i acknowledge the great tragedy which has just touched my country, there's certain aspects of it i particularly despise.
first of all, i dislike idealizing the figure of the president. again, as much as i feel sorry for what happened, especially for his family, i still think he was just a bad, conservative and xenophobic president, who halted the development of poland and the entire eu. to me, his death does not make him any better president. for many polish people it does. death makes mr. kaczynski immune to all criticism marking him as a martyr and a true patriot who died on a mission. it's not allowed to crticize somebody like that. if stephan harper died in an accident and you opposed his policies, would you praise his office as a prime minister?
second of all, it is not really the death of the president, which will affect poland politically and economically in the years to come. it is the other passangers of the tu-154m lux whom i consider irreplecable. most notably, the president of the polish central bank, commanders-in-chief of the navy and airforce, opposition members of the parliament, influential female senators...
third of all, i cannot stand how polish media keep reemphasizing the 19th century literary theme that poland is the "christ of all nations" and that we have benevolently suffered throughout history: "look how poor are we", "it has happened to us again". it may be true to some extent, but ask somebody from kurdistan, palestine or chechnya what 'unfortunate history' and suffering of a nation means...
lastly, as a young polish person who has traveled the world and lived in several different countries, i would like to see my nation strong and united not only during the mourning times after such terrible events, but also in everyday, busy life. this is something that we colectively need to work on.
now with all my sorrow and anger, i do connect with the souls of the people who died tragically in smolensk last weekend. at the same time, i hope that in the future poland will be able to restore its tragically lost intelectual capital.
