Donald versus Duck

Seim debates regarding the Smolensk accident have not only failed to put a period to the most important and urgent issue of domestic Polish policy but rather started the new round of national madness instead. They threaten Poland if not with the civil war, then surely with a loss of control over the country. 

 On the 19^th of January Polish Seim was shattered with the parliamentary hearings, dedicated to the Polish Board Number 1 crash near Smolensk. I can hardly describe what was happening in the parliamentary chamber. It seemed that just a little bit more, and the Ukrainian Rada-like fight would begin in the seemingly civilized and quite democratic parliament. PiS deputies, headed by the fearless fighter against Russia and its Polish henchmen (Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronisław Komorowski) were shouting “Disgrace! Away with them!” and used other abusive phrases. Pan Jarosław Kaczyński has even left the chamber as a sign of protest (although, it remains unclear against what exactly). One of the famous Polish political writers claimed his behavior to be dancing on the grave.

Opposition requests, put forth due to the death of Lech Kaczyński and other 95 passengers of Tu-154 plane, can be called neither sensible, nor fair, nor even civilized. Brother of late President demands for no less than permanent political departure of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronisław Komorowski. One doesn’t have to be an expert in the matters of Polish politics to understand who should fill the vacant post in this case. Report of the International Aviation Committee was called to be the spit in the face of all Poles; IAC leadership was accused of corruption, Tusk along with Vladimir Putin — of attempted murder of the Polish political pick etc. I’m baked enough to cite all the accusations towards Russian and Polish governments. I can’t even dub them delirious — that would offend actual patients of psychiatric hospitals.  

Laughing at the tragedy of Polish nation would probably be a bad thing to do, but I just can’t stop myself from a harmless play on words about IAC, Donald Tusk and Kaczyński (whose last name may be freely translated into English as “Duck”). Sheer “Duck Tales” with Donald and the Duck we have here. By the way, a video from these series named “Duck landing in a fog” spread all over the Polish Internet. That’s a shocking humor indeed but 150.000 views during a single week speak for themselves. Comments regarding the Seim debates are not conventional either: “Don’t watch that horror, they are spitting at each other!” Topic of Smolensk tragedy ruled the Polish minds so completely that a well-known Polish political writer Michał Kolanko has even stood up with an initiative “Smolensk-free day” — and was immediately defamed by Kaczyński advocates of course.

Frenzied PiS members treat all the conclusions of Russian aviation security experts in no other way but as the attempts at Polish sovereignty. IAC report contained the information that Polish Air Force Commander in Chief, General Blasik was in the cabin, having 0.6 per mille of alcohol in his blood (by the way, according to Polish legislation, driving a car while having more than 0.5 per mille of alcohol in blood is a criminal offence). Valiant champions of Polish sovereignty claimed it to be insulting for Rzecz Pospolita. However, it remains unclear what does that have to do with IAC — perhaps it was them who made him drunk. There is no such information regarding other passengers of the Board Number 1. How should we treat this fact? Was General sipping alone from his flask, having locked himself in a closet? We may just assume that former Commander-in-Chief Kaczyński — known for his love for strong drinks — accompanied his subordinate. Then why was no alcohol found in his blood? Is it some sort of extra-delicacy of our experts?

Kaczyński is also not convinced by the fact that he appointed IAC-accredited Polish colonel Edmund Klich to his post (chief of Flight Accident Investigation Committee) himself — while being Polish Prime Minister. Klich was also proclaimed to be a traitor of Polish national interests. I think that versions about artificial fog over the “Northern” air-field, evil plot of air-traffic controllers, who have purposefully guided the plane right into the ground and the rest nonsense, is not even worth taking the readers’ time. The only theoretically — and I repeat, theoretically — possible accusation towards Russian authorities may be controller’s mistake. Investigation, conducted by the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office would establish their fault if there was any. Other versions of Russian guilt in that sad story cannot be considered, while being in a right mind.

Yet nothing can embarrass enraged Polish opposition. Governmental offers of compensations to the victims’ families in the amount of 250.000 zloty (over $80.000 or 2.500.000 rubles) is a paltry dole, assumptions of insufficient training of Polish pilots offend the military elite of the country and, by the way, all the Poles buried at Katyn, Kharkov and Medny should be immediately re-buried at the Polish territory and so on, and so forth. Creative suggestions of “true Polish patriots” are countless. However it fell flat with the compensation money. In January of 2008 Polish Air Force military cargo plane CASA (made in Spain) crashed near town of Mirosławiec and twenty officers died — their families have vividly responded to the offer of compensation. Their lawyer Sylwester Nowakowski stated that his principals would be glad to receive compensation of that size, as long as by now they’ve got nothing. According to the lawyer’s opinion, both accidents (near Smolensk and near Mirosławiec) are similar — in both cases crashed planes belonged to the Ministry of National Defence and the families of its victims “suffer from the same soul pain. We believe that interpretation of law cannot cause discrimination or dividing people into the first and second class”, — claimed lawyer Nowakowski.

 ^{Monument for the Mirosławiec plane crash victims}

At once, a terrible media hype started — journalists were pointing out that people who died near Smolensk were anything but poor. Bureaucrats have quickly calculated the monthly salary of a Polish Seim deputy, Minister and President and then quickly put the victims’ families — “willing to profiteer on the national tragedy” — to shame. A little bit over the top again.

Telling the Russian reader about this Polish-Polish War (as Poles themselves call it) for Smolensk, we can’t fail to mention the other side of the conflict. There are idiotic yarns about Russian soldiers, finishing the survived Poles off with the machine guns — some of survivors were allegedly put into the Paddy wagons and driven the bush. They’ve brought to life an entire cycle of folk-story-like mocking comments. Some of them feature President Kaczyński allegedly seen at the Vorkuta railway station, wearing quilted jacket, ear-flapped cap and guarded by two robust Russian soldiers, who didn’t speak Polish and thought they were guarding an important Al-Qaida member — such stories became a local hit of the Polish Internet. Frankly speaking, catastrophe near Smolensk had not only polarized the Polish society but also gave pretext for numerous shabby jokes from both sides. The only comforting thing here is the public opinion poll — according to it, only 20% of the Poles are interested in the Smolensk detective story. However, these 20% cry so loudly that the rest 80% have the aching ears.

There’s completely no point in analyzing this ravings furthermore. It’s time to move on to some serious conclusions. In my opinion Tomasz Lis — editor-in-chief for the “Wprost” magazine, well-know Polish publicist and social activist — made the best comment on the issue of Smolensk tragedy.

^{Tomasz Lis}

“Smolensk calls us to search for the answer to difficult questions: who we are, what is our world outlook, what is our concept of Poland, how do we understand honor and virtue, responsibility and honesty? As for me, Smolensk episode is not about truth (we already know it) and it’s not even about WHOM would Poland be guided by. The most important thing is WHAT Poland would be guided by: common sense and responsibility or cynicism and insanity? The matter is WHAT would become the foundation of our self-identification — tough, yet truthful history or a fairy-tale for the less smart of us? MATURITY would be at stake in the struggle for the face of our society in the post-Smolensk era. Whether we’re going to get this matriculation certificate or not, depends on several tests. The first one is a test of Polish common sense, of our unreceptiveness to demagogy, to savage emotional blackmailing. The second one is a test on our comprehension of honor and virtue. ‘Protectors’ of the Polish nation insult honor of Prime Minister, President’s virtue and call our country ‘Russo-German condominium’. How dare they? We would pass these tests if we cast away the jihadist logic, according to which, majority of us are in the camp of national betrayers”.

I beg your pardon for a lengthy quote, but words of Tomasz Lis seemed so topical and not just for Poland. It would be good for us to pass our own tests as well.