FREE October 2008 Edition 48 krakow POST ISSN 1898-4762 www.krakowpost.com Krakow Sorry CNN, Engineer from Krakow firm kidnapped in Pakistan Krakow’s Broke >> page 4 Krakow can’t afford CNN ad Poland space More reports surface on CIA John Walczak prisons in Poland >> page 6 The city’s miserly promotional budget for this year, coupled with Feature reckless spending, have left Kra- kow broke. Krakow is the only large A guide to absentee voting Polish city that will not be advertis- in upcoming elections ing itself on CNN International to >> page 10, 11 140 million viewers. In an article in the Polish daily Property Gazeta Wyborcza, it has been re- vealed that Krakow’s authorities Where and how resigned from a gigantic advertis- to buy ing campaign for a bargain price on >> page 13 CNN International. Krakow was to show itself in several hundred ad- Sport vertising spots on the international news channel for 900 thousand Wis a cling on for Second złotys. According to CNN employ- ł ees an identical campaign on a TV Coming station with fewer viewers would >> page 14 normally cost more. Culture The weak dollar and the positive Above: The future Krakow Congress Centre, designed by Krzysztof Ingarden, is the largest edifice to approach of CNN bosses to Poland be commissioned for the city since the 1930s. See page 15 for more buildings on Krakow’s horizon. Discover Polish architecture led to budget prices being offered >> page 15 for the campaign, which has the potential of reaching 140 million viewers worldwide. CNN offered several hundred prime-time ad slots to the authorities of Krakow, life , Gda sk and Warsaw - only City Łódź ń GOODBYE, KOCHANIE! Krakow declined. > by night What’s the reason behind the sud- den offer to Polish cities? The com- without work it got lonely Notes From the mercials are to form a background for me. When I had prob- Underground to a weeklong series of CNN Inter- UK “Recession” Hits Poles lems, there was no one national programmes focusing on who wanted to help.” /CL 2 Poland under the banner “Eye on Poland: Country at the Crossroads.” Providence Row, a home- > reviews The coverage starts on October Robin Das less charity in East Lon- 6th and runs through to October Drop In, Fork Out, don, says that since last 12th. The station says it wants to Get Served focus on the colour and contrast a r i u s z in food, energy and other anything more perma- year the proportion of of one of Europe’s fastest devel- Bart left staples, people are tight- nent, but during the past people it sees from East- /CL 3, 5 oping nations - from business and his home- ening their belts. Poles months even that source ern Europe has grown to politics to pop culture. There will town near in minimum wage jobs has dried up. He noted, “It a third. This year they be- > spotlight be numerous live broadcasts, and M Wrocław in 2004, lured are among those feeling definitely got a lot harder gan working with Barka, a programmes will run daily, with to the UK by the oppor- the pinch of a consumer and things got a lot more charity which helps Poles Unsound Festival each one devoted to a different previewed sphere of life: business, the Euro tunities it offered and spending clampdown, expensive. It was harder who have fallen >> 2 2012 championships, as well as the buying power of one while others employed in to get casual work and into hardship /CL 6 relations with Russia and the USA. pound to seven złotys. construction are bearing Many interviews are also promised This year he returned to the brunt of a collapse > posted with, amongst others, Nobel Peace Poland, disillusioned by in new building projects. Prize winner and former President the UK’s economic rot, a With reports of Poles suf- Concerts, exhibitions & Lech Wałęsa and current President succession of shorter and fering increased hardship, parties Lech Kaczyński. Talks with promi- nent politicians, political analysts shorter work “contracts” it seems the honeymoon /CL 7, 8, 9, 10 and Central European commenta- and the increased cost of is over for Polish emigra- tors are also on the schedule. Short living. tion to Britain. clips showcasing Polish cities will also be broadcast. Krakow, at least, The UK’s economic boom Mariusz used to wait in will be amongst these. A CNN In- of the last decade has west London to be picked ternational film crew spent sev- come to a shuddering halt. up by building gangs for eral days here in August, With a crash in house pric- casual labouring work though unfortunately it >> 2 was raining heavily at the es and inflationary costs when he didn’t have Polish builders are returning home / photo Adelina Krupski 2 Krakow Post OCTOBER 2008 www.krakowpost.com News Krakow << Sorry CNN Letters << Continued from 1 continued from 1 To the editor and can’t find a job a way to return builders. There’s no doubt about time. “We don’t know how we’ll come Re: “Ten of the Best for Poland” p. 14, Sept. ed.: home to their families in Poland. it. Many aren’t prepared to wait for out on the screen,” Krakow officials have said. I feel I have to take exception to some of the state- Dagmara Walczyk from Barka stated, the construction boom that’s go- ments made in the above article by Daniel van “Many may be unwilling to go back ing to happen for the Olympics in Hoven... The situation should be cause for con- because they don’t have a home to 2012.” Poles worked on Heathrow cern for Krakow’s authorities; this cov- Though I’m not a gambling man, if someone had return to or feel ashamed of coming Terminal 5 and there’s a worry that offered me a bet before the Olympics that Moldova erage should be backed up by a mass would win more medals than China or that Mauritius back to their little communities. If the big building projects of the Ol- advertising campaign, but for this, would win more than the US, I think I would have they can’t or don’t want to return ympic Games will suffer because of Krakow has run out of money. Officials taken it. However, under a much more equitable sys- from the City Promotion and Market- tem for rating the accomplishments of the countries, they can stay in one of our centres a shortage of skilled Eastern Euro- I would have lost both bets. I thought of the new or other programmes depending on pean workers. The Polish plumber ing Bureau can only despair, as their two-step system myself, but so did someone else and, budget this year was only four million what their problems are.” Dagmara and his blue-collar colleagues shook even better, they did the work to summarize the nec- złoty, compared to 17 million allocated essary data. Then one of my trusty Kraków acquain- adds that Poles sometimes fall into up British builders with their work by ód and nine million by Szczecin tances furnished me with that (unsolicited). Though Ł ż the poverty trap because they are ethic, reliability and low costs. In (which is half the size of Krakow). The system is very simple. It consists of assigning a I’m not a exploited by gangs, and there is a anticipation of a dearth of bright, point value to each kind of medal and then relating lack of support from the Polish gov- young Poles able to plaster a wall The director of the bureau said: “This the total points to the population of the country. In “ my case, it was provoked by having to put up with gambling ernment for migrants. smoothly, industries, including the expenditure was not foreseen in this the continual tedious unresolvable argument as to body in charge of the Olympics, are year’s budget, and any money we had whether more total medals or more gold medals man, if left went to finance the “rescue” adver- should determine the overall winner. A gold medal For those who decide to make the pouring money into training British tising campaign on the National Geo- is worth three points, a silver two and a bronze one. some- return journey, opportunities for workers in basic construction skills, Step two is to simply divide the population of the graphic and BBC channels earlier this country by the number of points to figure out how one had work now seem brighter as the such as how to use a digger. year, after figures showed a 20 percent many people it took to get a point. Voila! offered Polish economy grows, buoyed up drop in visitors to Krakow.” All this is Under this new, improved system, Moldova finishes by large-scale building projects such But even for Poles who have good after city councillors spent three mil- in position #61, ahead of China in position #66 (!!), me a bet as the construction of stadiums for jobs these are unsettling times. lion złoty on a mock battle and a se- while Mauritius finishes in #41, ahead of the US in ries of other events to commemorate #45! As can be surmised from these results alone, the 2012 Euro championships. In a Rafał Skarbek’s job as the head of the victory of the army of Polish King the established methods of listing the countries before global economy and a Europe with- the Polish Somerset Community undergo considerable shaking up! It actually took Jan III Sobieski in the Battle of Vienna out borders, it seems there will al- Association, helping new arrivals China 5,964,325.58 people to manage one point; this the Olym- in 1683.