by Kinia Adamczyk
Summer. That delightful time when one should take a moment to savor warm weather, take a vacation and catch up. Catch up on forgotten friendships, or create new ones. Read a few more books, head to a gallery, or enjoy the green turf to play some football. And what about taking the time to reminisce about fond memories of the past, or about the people, famous or perhaps less known and close to us, who have touched or transformed our lives?
This summer at CR, we took the time to slow down and to bring you an eclectic mix of warm delights to enjoy while sipping that glass of chilled white wine or licking the last of your strawberry sorbet. In this issue, travel back in time with architecture critic Witold Rybczynski when he visits Poland for the first time in 1967, discovering his parents’ homeland for himself. Had he imagined that the “oppressive shadow of the Soviet Union” looming over Poland would gradually erode, collapsing in 1989? This year, Poles celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Communism in Poland, with the roundtable talks and the first democratic parliamentary elections, bringing about almost unbelievable changes to Europe. Justine Jablonska rediscovers the euphoria of those moments of liberation while taking you to the concert Freedom ’89 in Chicago.
Indeed, in recent years, many groundbreaking events in European history have been marked, especially from the perspective of Poland, as Kasia Szyndel noted. Read her commentary about the election of Jerzy Buzek as the President of the European Parliament, noting how “the last remaining symbols of the old divisions in Europe are dropping.” And discover how the economic and political landscape in Poland has changed in the last two decades with Anya Ogórkiewicz’s “Lobbying in my Forefather’s Country: a Personal Coming of Age.” Still along political lines, come across the Atlantic with Wanda Urbanska, as she notes the embarrassment that 28 million Americans don’t get any paid vacation or paid holidays in the United States in “Legislation for our No-Vacation Nation”.
If adrenaline is your cup of tea, savor a mint julep and admire elegant horses with Justine Jablonska, as she discovers her first Kentucky Derby, or flip through Filip Dutkowski’s “Polish Football: A Survival Guide” to polish your vocabulary as Poland gets ready to stage the 2012 European Championships with Ukraine. To cool off a bit, why not head with Aleksandra Styś to a photo exhibition inspired by Bruno Schulz? Or browse through one of our book reviews, including Anna Cienciala’s “Katyń: a Crime Without Punishment,” which documents the murder of 22,000 of Poland’s best and brightest by the oppressive Soviet regime. Nina Jankowicz reviews Alex Stororzynski’s “The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution" which taught her about the brilliance of Kosciuszko’s military engineering at West Point and during the Revolutionary War in the United States, as well as about his leadership during what became known as the Kosciuszko uprising, in which the citizens of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth rose against their Muscovite oppressors.
Anna Kisielewska, for her part, reviewed Wanda Urbanska’s “Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet”, which advocates an innovative, thoughtful and deliberate approach to how we live, work and spend our leisure time. Aimed at a middle class audience, “at times it reads a tad too idealistic, but overall it presents a strong case that each of us has the power to choose to change the status quo.” Simplicity and a life in contact with nature are echoed in Kinia Adamczyk’s experience as she explores two eco-villages in Denmark.
For the true bookworm in you, polish it all off with a review of two marvelous novellas about immigration and exile by Polish American author Danuta Mostwin: these “little gems… illuminate complex characters struggling with lives altered by circumstances, the psychological changes imposed by dislocation and loneliness, and the philosophical reflections prompted by their fate.”
Finally, if you are seeking inspiration, have a look at our events and spotlight sections, featuring news about the Young Polish-Canadians Professionals’ Association shaping up in Toronto, and about the Szkoła Liderów, which led 30 young Canadians and Americans to Poland this summer. Poland in the Rockies alumna Katherine Cioch, from Chicago, will be undertaking research about Poland’s work in combating human trafficking on a Fulbright scholarship in Warsaw this fall, and Antoni and Jan Kowalczewski, also PitR alumni, have teamed up to develop technology that could revolutionize physiotherapy for people who have had a stroke or a spinal cord injury.
To end it all with bit of a chuckle and life advice, read Patrycja Romanowska’s musings as she compares Plato’s idealistic life advice with her grandmother’s more pragmatic, down-to-earth tips. Irene Tomaszewski’s “Reminiscences: Fathers, Socks and Figi” will surely bring a smile to your face as the author recalls the warmth and friendships in post-war Hatherleigh, a small town in England, through a funny story involving… nothing more than underwear.
At CR, we’re extremely happy to celebrate the birth or our third issue, and we hope you’ll enjoy traveling between the past and the present and back and forth between Poland and North America with us, right from a warm and comfortable spot that a good summer vacation can provide. CR
picture: summer is here by GViciano, from creativecommons.org
Polish-born Canadian Kinia Adamczyk, a 2006 PitR alumna and 2008 intern, completed a degree in journalism and communication studies at Concordia University, Montreal, the Hogeschool Utrecht in the Netherlands and the Danish School of Journalism and a Master's degree in European Studies at the College of Europe, Natolin, Warsaw. Kinia is a horse riding, tennis, languages, piano and travel addict. She's a big fan of the late writer and reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski. Her traveling adventures are available at kiniaontheglobe.blogspot.com.
