TOMB MAY TELL Business Activities Onto Airports > by Night and Passengers and Is Demanding Hand, and When Vital Deci- Special Treatment
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
FREE August 2008 Edition 46 krakow POST ISSN 1898-4762 www.krakowpost.com Krakow A report from the Krakow Fly Away YMCA >> page 3 John Walczak Poland The low-cost carrier announced last month that it is suspending all Bronisław Geremek remem- flights from Krakow from Nov. 4 to bered Dec. 19. It cites low passenger >> page 6 numbers, high fuel prices and air- port fees as the reason for its Feature decision. In addition to Krakow, Rzeszów will also have all Ryanair The Post explores bike flights suspended and Warsaw trails around Krakow will have its Dublin connection >> page 10, 11 grounded during this time. Rya- nair founder Michael O’Leary an- Business nounced that it costs less to keep aircraft on the ground than to fly The future of Skeletor to these destinations. decided? >> page 13 Rumours have begun circulating that Ryanair will not return to Kra- Sport kow after the suspension, and will move to Katowice Airport instead. Polish Beckham in police Aviation industry experts claim punch-up that this tactic is an attempt to >> page 14 try and force the airports to lower Photograph by Adrian Pingstone their fees. Culture Ryanair is threatening to leave Krakow for good. The authorities at Krakow Balice Summer at the Kossaks’ Airport reacted very angrily to >> page 15 these statements. “Ryanair has shown yet again that it is a carrier that doesn’t care about its pas- sengers. Not for the first time it Citylife is trying to pass on the cost of its TOMB MAY TELL business activities onto airports > by night and passengers and is demanding hand, and when vital deci- special treatment. In an ultima- sions require to be taken in Notes From the tum addressed to the Krakow Air- consultation with us – is a Underground bewildering visitation of port Authority and also to several Was Poland’s WWII leader /CL 2 other Polish airports, the carrier Providence; so much so, is demanding the abolition of all that Poles everywhere sus- > reviews airport fees in the November - De- assassinated? pect the hand, not of Provi- cember period,” said a statement dence, but of a felonious Drop In, Fork Out, enemy.” from Krakow Airport. Get Served Nick Hodge The new chief executive of Kra- The results of the Big Three /CL 3, 5 kow Airport thinks that the infor- meeting at Tehran in No- mation that Ryanair is to leave he Archbishop 1939 until his death four “This catastrophe,” wrote vember 1943 served to fuel > spotlight of Krakow, Car- years later. the Polish ambassador to the suspicions of conspir- Krakow for good is a marketing Coke Live Music Festival ploy. He commented, “This isn’t dinal Stanisław London in his diary, “com- acy theorists. It has been previewed the first such announcement from TDziwisz, has At 11 p.m. on the 4th of ing at a turning-point in the stressed that Churchill and them and until now none have given his blessing for the July 1943, Sikorski’s plane war, when the Big Three Roosevelt made it /CL 6 >> 2 been fulfilled. It seems as though tomb of General Władysław took off for London on the meeting is apparently at clear to Stalin at the airline is playing off airports Sikorski to be opened. return-leg of a trip to Brit- > posted in southern Poland against each ish Gibraltar. Seconds after other.” The general, whose passen- climbing into the air, the Concerts, exhibitions & ger plane crashed in pecu- vehicle plunged into the parties The withdrawal of Ryanair’s serv- liar circumstances 65 years water. Of the plane’s 16 /CL 7, 8, 9, 10 ices from Krakow will reduce the ago, is an iconic figure in passengers, only the pilot number of cities passengers can Poland, and conspiracy the- survived. fly to; however, this may only be ories about his death have temporary as other low-cost air- never been quelled. An official British inquiry lines are waiting in the wings to at the time ruled that the take over gaps in the market. Sikorski was prime minister death had been accidental. of the Polish government- Yet from the outset, there in-exile from September were cries of foul play: Sikorski’s tomb, undisturbed for the moment at Wawel 2 Krakow Post August 2008 www.krakowpost.com News Krakow Letters << Continued from 1 To the editor Tehran that they would not thwart his territorial designs on Poland. The ulti- mate conference at Yalta in February RE: We DO Speak English. Really. 1945 appeared to cement this arrange- ment, and Poland teetered into the Soviet sphere. It was not until 1993, following the fall of the Iron Curtain, Dear Editor, that Sikorski’s body was brought back to Poland. I’m writing in response to your article entitled ‘’We DO Speak English. Real- Theories about the elimination of ly!’’ about Polish people’s poor knowl- Sikorski have developed in many di- London and Sikorski Museum. Institute Polish Image: edge and usage of English in the Polish rections over the last few decades. The British General, General Sikorski, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Lt Gen Andrew McNaughton, UK 1941 service industry. I disagree with the finger has been pointed at Russian, Further accusations fly around the Although acknowledging Russian in- author’s opinion and assumption. In If every- British and even Polish hands. Some figure of Kim Philby. Mr. Philby, a per- terests in removing Sikorski, Profes- the author’s opinion, everyone in the “ have claimed that the general was ceived pillar of the establishment, was sor Davies was dismissive of British service industry - for example, wait- one in murdered before he actually entered the head of British Intelligence for Gi- involvement in any alleged attack, ers, cashiers and shop assistants,etc. Poland the plane. braltar at the time of Sikorski’s death. saying that “the British went to great - should be able to speak English flu- In 1963, he was unmasked as a long- lengths to protect the plane from the ently. If everyone in Poland had a lot had a lot Lech Kaczyński, today’s president of serving double agent, and he spent his Russians.” He added that the freeze on of opportunity, money, time and ef- of oppor- Poland, is backing the belated autopsy last years in Moscow, where he was British intelligence documents relating ficient resources for studying English, on Sikorski, as is Prime Minister Don- commemorated as a hero on Russian to Sikorski was “not discriminatory to- then maybe everyone in the country tunity, ald Tusk. postal stamps. wards the Poles,” as this was the gen- would be able to speak English flu- eral status quo regarding intelligence ently. But, in reality English is still not money, “The tragic circumstances of the death Another theory, currently being devel- files. accessible, cheap or the most impor- time and of General Sikorski should be clari- oped as a TV series by Polish journalist tant priority for everyone in Poland. It fied,” the president said. “The exhu- and historian Dariusz Baliszewski, im- As it was, a third of the passengers on wasn’t so long ago (less than 20 years efficient mation may help in this matter. It is al- plicates Churchill himself in the crime. the doomed Liberator plane were Brit- in fact), that the majority of students resourc- ways worthwhile to pursue the truth.” The Churchill theory has been voiced ish subjects, including two MPs, one of in Poland had to study Russian as a before, the hypothesis being that the whom, Victor Cazalet, was godfather second language. Back then very few es for Russian sabotage remains an enduring British wanted to appease Stalin. As it to Churchill’s daughter Mary. John people in Poland expected that English theme. A pivotal issue is the so-called stands, British Intelligence documents Colville, Churchill’s former secretary, would become as useful and common studying Katyń Affair, which broke three months relating to the incident will remain un- pointed this out in a letter to The Times as it is today. In only 15-20 years, peo- English, before Sikorski’s death. In April 1943, der lock and key until 2043. in January 1969, describing the allega- ple’s perception of English and their the Germans uncovered mass graves of tions as “an absurd fabrication.” opportunities to study and use it have then members of the Polish elite. The Rus- Baliszewski expands on this theory by greatly changed. A lot more people maybe sians denied guilt, claiming that it was implicating Poles in the plot. He says Professor Davies suggests that the now can speak English, but our mother a Nazi plot. General Sikorski, then in that a clique of high-ranking Poles was tragedy may even have been caused by tongue is still Polish and it’s not Polish everyone London, called for a Red Cross inves- unsatisfied with the general’s handling the most mundane of reasons. A Royal people’s obligation to automatically tigation. Stalin promptly broke off all of Polish affairs, and that Sikorski and Airforce report conducted immediate- know and speak English fluently to in the relations with the Polish government- two of his staff were murdered in the ly after the crash, but not published suit tourists’ needs. country in-exile. It was not until 1990 that Gor- British Governor’s residence, prior to at the time, attributed the fault to a bachev admitted Soviet guilt for the the flight. An enduring mystery is that British soldier who fell asleep while So, a word to the author and other vis- would 20,000 Polish victims.