On things political

The political life of Poland is well, thank you for asking.

From the grass roots, street level all the way to the top it's just buzzing.

Here are just a couple of political graffiti pieces you see in the streets.

I really love the bashing of a neo-nazi with a bike graphic. It says so much more that just being against nazism in all forms.

Interestingly, when you see neo-nazis walking the streets, they are always in groups, being loud and yet strangely insecure. There's just something in their body language that shows that that despite their macho gait and appearance they seem scared. A bit like children singing loudly in a forest to pretend they are not afraid of the dark.

The skinny, spindly anarchists on the other side feel quite happy and safe to ride their rusty bikes on their own.

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Then there is the whole story about our dearly departed president.

All the soppy TV coverage of the villages (this includes Warsaw) filled with crying folk is moving, but here in Krakow the mood is a bit different.

Krakow has always been an intellectual centre of the country and a left leaning one too.

Mr. Presidents is remembered here as a right wing Christian, who in his infinite wisdom was against Poland joining the EU. After all we have SO MUCH TO OFFER that according to him EU should be begging to join us. This sat well with the uneducated, religious masses but just don't cut the shit here.

The guy didn't really do anything groundbreaking for the country and his only real claim to fame was dying in a plane crash. Just like Elvis and Kurt proved before, there's no better PR stunt than death.

We have a place here, called Wawel. An average size and quality royal castle (you can see parts of it in the photos in previous posts). The tradition is that people who actually meant something to the country are buried in the crypts under the castle. People like kings, queens, great poets, great warriors...

Being a president of the country, Kaczynski was offered a choice of two prestigious burial places in Warsaw, his brother however requested that he's buried at Wawel.

He was told that the government cannot make this decision, as Wawel is not under the control of the government, but belongs to the archdiocese of Krakow and only the archbishop of Krakow can make that decission. The living twin rang the archbishop and within half an hour they decided to bury the dead twin at Wawel and this is when the shit hit the fan.

The city was abuzz, phones rang, posters appeared on walls and a protest was organised for the evening. I ran and dully joined in. The gathering took place at the archbishop's palace. The archbishop is also a cardinal, so the most popular cry was: "Quit, you've made a cardinal mistake", cute!

The plan is to protest every evening until Saturday night, the day before the burial.

At the same time the presence of heads of state has been announced for the burial, including Mr. Obama's. The city is about to go into shutdown. No flights, restricted movement, no gatherings... the Saturday protest may get quite "interesting".

Here is an Australian connection for you, spy drones are being brought in to monitor the city for Obama's visit. According to my research into Boeing, they are built in Melbourne, just next to the Westgate Bridge. If not built, Boeing's site claims that's where the "research" goes on. So next time you hear of a wedding party being bombed by a drone, be proud of our contribution to the world peace.

Anyway, even the taxi driver who took me home last night spent half an hour talking to me about the burial, Wawel, the future of the country and who, how and why will need to cooperate with whom and why and how... He'd dully turned the meter off just to have a chat - brilliant.

And so the history rolls on. Everyone feels sorry for the loss of life, the tragedy of the accident and the turmoil it had caused but burial at Wawel is too much.

Normally, if one's not a king who resided at the castle, a Wawel burial is something special, which happens a few years after the death once the people and history decide one deserves Wawel. I heard a statement: "Why rush it? They could wait, after all he's well cooked, he'll keep" oh the subtlety of Polish humour.

After the demo we went to a cafe, which served free coffee to anyone who attended the demonstration. There I was with well over 100 people crammed into a couple of rooms discussing politics, smoking and drinking coffees and vodka until 1am. Today back to works, back to the demo at 8pm, then the cafe again. They know hoe to party!

HA! Just heard on the radio a spokesman for the church: "We understand why people protest, but they should stop for the respect for the dead" funny mother#^@&$*.

By the way, how's the weather?