Little Vacay

I haven't been writing so much these past few weeks. I will be back with all sorts of news, from the floods, to elections, to the drastic drop in the Zloty (and everything in between.)

Spring is here and the days are marked by passing clouds and showers and some heated sun. The garden on the balcony is starting to take off. People still tote coats around, but even the nights can be sometimes balmy.

Oh, and the US just parked a PATRIOT missile battery in northern Poland. The Ruskies are pissed.

Plane Crash: After Effects: The Results

It is undeniable that Saturday's plane crash robbed Poland part of the cream of the Polish Government and military. Regardless of your opinions of those who died (and if you consider them the 'cream'), there were many high-ranking casualties in all areas of the Government. The numero uno of them all, Lech Kaczynski, will be laid to rest this coming Saturday. His body will lie in State on Tuesday for two days.

Krakowskie Przedmiescie has been turned into a pedestrian zone.

Yesterday, Sunday, the body of Kaczynski came back to Poland. A motorcade wound its way through the city and ended at the Presidential Palace. Personally, I missed the entire thing, not aware what was happening. I did hear the two blasts of sirens, one marking when the plane crashed, and the other at noon for a moment of silence. The remainders of the other victims are apparently still in Russia, awaiting identification before they are returned.

A side street off Krakowskie Przedmiescie. A mourner lights and leaves a candle in the growing collection.

Poles have been noting the actions of Russia, particularly their prime minister and de facto tsar, Vladimir Putin. Putin declared himself head of the investigation into the incident, while sock puppet Medvedev, made a passionate speech. Russia declared a nation day of mourning and told relatives of the deceased that they could come to Moscow to identify the bodies and take them home, with Russia footing the bill.

This all comes at a crucial time for Russia, which has been rocked with a sour economy and protests, which have been violently quashed. The turmoil in Kyrgyzstan has been blamed on the Russian-back opposition. Recent bombings in Moscow leave questions to whether Russia can provide safety to things such as the 2014 Sochi Olympics, plus they bring unwanted attention on the horrific situation that still festers in the Caucus Region (something Russia would like to sweep under the rug if it could.) Russia stands to polish (pun intended) its image abroad as conciliatory, supportive, and sympathetic. I even heard that Russian state TV played the movie Katyn unedited.

Remembrance candles burning in front of the Presidential Palace.

The investigation has not been concluded, but it seems that pilot error was the main reason. Many people question why so many VIPs were flying in one plane. The Polish Government had wanted to buy more newer planes for official use, but budget concerns made them think otherwise. It would not look good (especially in an election year) to buy a fleet of new planes while the rest of the world is in a recession. People still might remember Obama nixing a fleet of twenty-eight new helicopters (price tag: $11 billion) as something analogous.

Poland itself has been trying to trash its Soviet-built aircraft. It recently acquired a whole fleet of F-16s, with hopes of buying the JSF F-35 as well. LOT flies an almost-exclusive Boeing fleet (with some ATR and Embraer planes) and is the European launch customer for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It makes a point to advertise its Boeing fleet, and for a while boasted about the 787 on the front page of its website.

A scout offers water to the crowd.

A scout takes a mourner's candle to place it with the others.

Part of the city of light in front of the Presidential Palace.

Foreign TV personalities (the nearest one was French.)

Well, what I did head downtown yesterday, I was simply awestruck. It wasn't just the crush of people in front of the Presidential Palace or the seas of candles that were growing like some sort of amoeba or colony (or even that there were more roses than Valentine's Day); it was the sellers of such products. Well, there are always a LOT of flower sellers in Poland. They are at almost every subway stop. BUT, I didn't even know that Warsaw had this amount of candles on hand. They are all the church candles (you see them particularly in cemeteries) enclosed in red glass. Hawkers have pallets and pallets of them (plus, where did all the Polish flags come from? Who has this amount of paraphernalia on hand? Probably kept in storage in anticipation for the Euro Cup.)

Krakowskit Przedmiescie has been closed off to traffic (aside from government cars and police/emergency vehicles.) Crowds of people stream in both directions. The thickness of the crowd leads to some pushiness (I can still feel the hand of a dzialka on my left should blade has he essentially pushed me through the throng.) Even though there's a great mass of people, it's not as loud as one would think (I'm used to gatherings greater than forty people shouting "Yankees Suck!") Most people converse in hushed tones, leaving the crying of babies to ring clear.

In front of the Presidential Palace, the crowd was pressed tight. Some small tents covered TV crews and international media personalities. Bouquets were lashed to light poles, and a few ever-growing pools of candles dotted the streets. Directly in front of the Palace, tens of thousands of candles flickered. When a gust of breeze blew across them, it hit the crowd with a sooty warmth. Scouts kept the crowd a bay; when people brought up candles or flowers, they handed them to the scouts, who would place them amongst the ocean of light. Every so often, a scout would walk past handing out free water. Sometimes a scout would come with a trash bag and pick up all the extinguished candles, but this hardly made a dent in the great collection. Journalists and photographers held free reign and went about, unmolested by authorities, in search of epic and solemn shots. Those amongst the crowds touted their own high-priced equipment, snapping photos at every instance.

At Pilsudski Square, more oceans of candles lay around half-masted flags, the giant cross, and the Tomb of Unknown Soldier. The largest one was at the cross, where a few old women led the surrounding crowd in prayer, reciting Hail Marys (I think they were doing the whole rosary.)

Some babci lead the crowd in prayer.

Poles gather and reflect near the forest of candles.

The Poles expect a large amount of foreign heads of state and dignitaries to come to Warsaw for Lech Kaczynski's funeral. They even explicitly hoped for Obama's arrival (personally, I think just Biden will show up, but we'll see.)

Plane Crash: After Effects: The First Few Hours

With the recent tragedy that has fallen upon Poland, the outpouring has been immediate. In downtown Warsaw, Polish flags are waving everywhere, each adorned with a black strip of mourning. In front of the Presidential Palace on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, a huge crowd of several thousand showed up. Piles of flowers and a small forest of candles flicker in the cold spring air.

The flags of Poland, the EU, and NATO fly at half-mast.

Flags of mourning fly everywhere.

…even from a sex shop.

I walked around to catch the general mood of the Poles in mourning. The people are quiet, barely talking above a whisper to themselves; some say prayers, others mutter to each other; a few brave souls sing hymns aloud, creating a ghostly sound as their voices waft over the crowd. The flower and candle sellers are doing a brisk business. Many people bring bouquets of tulips or roses to plant near the lions that guard the gates at the presidential palace. Others bring wreaths, scarves, or maybe just a single rose. As I said before, the mood was quiet and glum, but the amount of cameras is absolutely astonishing. Every other person is touting a big expensive SLR and snapping away with abandon; babci wave around their tiny Exilims, teens hold up their camera phones, and TV men shoulder massive TV cameras. A small armada of dish-adorned vans were parked in a neat row, with TV personalities grooming themselves before mobile spotlights.

I am curious as to whom these TV personalities are.

Guards march to-and-fro from the palace, while two scouts stand watch.

Some scouts near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before going to pay their respects.

I was approached by an Israeli journalist. He and his team were in Poland to cover the March of the Living on Monday. The March is a walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau and attracts thousands of Jews to Poland each year. We talked a bit, (he was very nice) and he was musing if it would lead to war (I said that it wouldn't; he didn't seem to seriously think that war was possible.) He brought up the 2006 invasion of Lebanon over two captured IDF soldiers; I pointed out that Poland wouldn't be dealing with Hezbollah, but rather Russia. A couple of others of his team came by and we chatted a bit before they left for food. I asked them what they thought of the Poles and they seemed to think the world of them, but they did note that they were 'cold' in their mourning.

The reporter from Israel (Haifa, to be exact, I believe he said.)

The crowd was swelling to enormous proportions (thousands and thousands.) A truck unloaded porta-potties (Toi Toi) while police cordoned off a small passageway into the palace. Cars with heavily tinted windows rolled by every-so-often, and the police habitually came by to push the crowd back. The police were polite and respectful (not angry or aggressive, as I've sometimes have seen.) No one was causing a ruckus.

Unloading toilets.

The crowd numbers in the thousands.

I shouldered up into the crowd, cameras were snapping off all around, and waited while the police opened up a passageway through the crowd. A few smartly-dressed soldiers marched in and out; every so often a car would drive either in or out of the palace; and finally, three men walked up to the crowd. The men drew reporters like a magnet drawing metal shavings; in an instant, they were swarmed with journalists shoving microphones near them and all the while sending off a storm of camera flashes. The man in the middle spoke a few words (none that I could hear) then headed back to the Palace with his menagerie of journalists in tow. A steady stream of press folk went to the palace entrance (under colonnade), where I presume there was an address of some sort. I didn't think quickly enough to whip out my Canon and try to make it in, but stood at the entrance a little longer. Regular people were allowed in on the far side, and exited on my side.

The media circus swarms around the Government men (I don't recognize them) for a brief announcement. (This sequence of photos takes place in about twenty seconds, to give you an idea.)

The supermarkets were packed. Crowds of people, much more than are usually there on Saturdays, are stocking up in case all the stores are closed on Sunday. A one-week period of mourning has been called, with a two-minute moment of silence at noon on Sunday.

Horns (sounding like air raid sirens) blasted for two minutes on Sunday at the time of the crash, and again at noon. They were to mark the passing of the President of Rzeczpospolita Polska and the nearly-100 other souls.

Some nuns (whom I had seen earlier at the palace) pray at the cross near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, while a candle seller hawks his wares on Krakowskie Przedmiescie.

The forest of candles and flowers.