Creator of Polish cartoon, “Reksio”, lives in poverty

Growing up as a kid in Poland in 70s and 80s, everyone knew the cartoon characters: “Bolek i Lolek” and “Reksio”. 

By today’s standards, those plain, family friendly, uplifting cartoons are bleak and unattractive. However, in a communist Poland, kids loved Reksio and played Bolek and Lolek games. Let’s now forget about Tola, the female friend of Bolek and Lolek. Both movies are forever imprinted in Polish history. 

In fact, the movies were so popular at the time, they were distributed by many all over the world. Not surprisingly, “Bolek i Lolek” is known even in countries like Iran.
Today, Polish kids watch the “Sesame Street” and “Pokemon”. The old, hand drawn cartoons, lost their appeal but their creators are still around. 

Just recently, the 86 years old animator who created “Reksio”, Marian Wantoła, was featured on Polish TVP show “Case for a reporter” (Sprawa dla reportera). Shockingly, the animator who spent 47 years at the studio since the age of 25, now lives in town of Bielsko-Biała in a run-down house without running water, gas, with mold and coal stove for heating. Being a honest, hard working guy in a communist Poland, pretty much put him in a state of poverty. 

Polish vlogger, Krzysztof Gonciarz, who first reported on this disgrace, started a website to raise funds to help Marian Wantoła. 

You can watch the video and check out the website at http://www.indiegogo.com/Reksio
And some Bolek and Lolek.



Update: December 8th, 2012.
So far, the http://www.indiegogo.com/Reksio website, collected over $30,000 for the animator, Marian Wantoła.  That's a great response.  However, an article from gazeta.pl sheds some new light on the whole situation.  

First of all, the animator lives comfortably in his own apartment, paid off years ago.  There is running water, no sign of mold, and working coal furnace.  It might not be a Ritz, but the conditions are far from what it was reported by the media.  

Second of all, just to make sure that everyone understands, Mr. Wantoła is not a creator of the famous "Reksio".  He's the animator and never claimed to be a creator.  Lechosław Marszałek is the true creator of "Reksio". 

Were people duped by the sad story to extort some money?  It's for you to decide.

Polish terrorist-wannabe, Brunon Kwiecień, arrested for planning to bomb government buildings

Source: nasza-klasa.pl

Polish style of filthy-mouth politics just became more serious.  On November 9th, 2012, the Polish Internal Security Agency (Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego aka ABW), arrested 45-year old chemist, Dr. Brunon Kwiecień, charging him with planning to bomb the Polish Parliament, office of the Polish President, and the other Polish government buildings.  Dr. Kwiecień works at as a research fellow at the Agricultural University in Kraków.  You can check out his university profile here. 

According to wyborcza.pl, his actions were not based on his social or economic situation considering his steady employment and salary of about $15,500 a year plus $2,500 flat rental income.  His wife also works at the same university as a biologist.  Newsweek.pl describes his actions as "nationalist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic" based on the recent wave of hatred spread by mass media in Poland, mostly owned or controlled by foreign entities.

Whatever his reasons have been, this person is not to be taken lightly.  So it seems.  His neighbor stated that Kwiecień loved the explosives as a kid and even lost some fingers in a firecracker accident. Thenews.pl and ABW report that he was able to accumulate 4 tonnes TNT and other pyrotechnic materials, detonators, fuses, remote detonators, firearms, ammunition, bulletproof vests, Kevlar helmets, ghillie suits, Polish and foreign registration plates, sniper and bomb-making manuals.

How was he able to prepare such a details operation?  He's job as an explosives chemist for the university provided a perfect cover.  Kwiecień was able to recruit 4 people that were later arrested but promptly released by a judge without any charge.  Strange.

Now, let the games begin.  Paraphrasing the words of the poplar Polish movie character, captain Hans Kloss, from the 1968 TV series "Stawka większa niż życie": Nie ze mną te numery Brunon!

Polish media already exploded, yes, pun intended, with reports of the Internal Security Agency provocation.  Although, Kwiecień's wife reported his behavior to the authorities after he started asking questions about the biological germ-ware, the question of motive still remains.  Is Kwiecień just a misguided and frustrated psycho fantasizing of destroying current Polish government run by Civic Platform (PO = Platforma Obywatelska)?  Or, was he pushed by the ABW agents to the extreme?  We'll find out soon enough.  Or will we?

On another note, the Polish Army really dropped the ball on this one.  The guy is a MacGyver of explosives.  With a resource like that, they could be producing some mean bombs.  Their loss.

Pablopavo and Ludziki performing “Do Stu”

If you wonder what is going on with the contemporary Polish music scene, you might be surprised. New artists of the past 20 years of post-communist Poland, shaped the unique niche in our country. Behind the shallow mass-media garbage fed to an average Pole, there is a rich and deep wave of new music growing out of frustrated young artists itching to be heard. Hip-hip, reggae, punk, industrial, blues, rock, ska and many other genres, have strong following in Poland. The list of bands and artists is endless. Today, check out Pablopavo and Ludziki performing "Do Stu".

Who’s to blame for Polish National Independence Day riots in Warsaw?

Yesterday, November 11th, Poland celebrated the Polish National Independence Day. Poland restored it's independence in 1918 led by one of the most important Polish statesman and First Marshal, Józef Pilsudski.

Every year, different Polish political fractions and groups, mainly the ruling Civic Platform (PO = Platforma Obywatelska) and opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS = Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc), claim to be the only true continuators of the independence movement.

Sadly, today, during the nationalist march in Warsaw, organized by the All Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska) and the National Radical Camp (ONR = Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny), a wave of violence took over the city. Although, both groups have questionable ideology, one must wonder what really happened yesterday that sparked the clash with the police.

Polish media reports that from the very beginning of the march, stones and flares were thrown from the crowd at the police. The other side claims a premeditated police provocation.

Below are some of the YouTube videos taken during the march. One question stands out: why are plain clothes policemen wearing ski masks are mingling in the crowd? Mix a batch of angry youth and you have yourself a riot. And to be clear, yes, the police acted in a very provocative way. You make up your own opinion on who's to blame for that mess. To put things in perspective: the tolerance is a two way highway.

 

Polish Film Festival in America (PFFA) starts November 2nd, 2012

All the info and details are at the Polish Festival in America (PFFA) website.

The 24th edition of Polish film Festival in America (PFFA), the world’s largest showcase of Polish film, will take place from Friday, November 2 to Sunday, November 18, 2012 in five premier cinematic venues in the Chicagoland.

Was the TNT reside found inside the crashed Polish presidential plane?

The gloomy waters around the Polish presidential plane crash in Smolensk on April 10, 2010, are getting ever murkier. On Tuesday, October 29th, 2012, Polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita" reported that TNT and nitroglycerin residue was found on 30 plane seats and passenger clothes. Even though, the newspaper retraced the claim today due to the unconfirmed sources, the media firestorm over Poland blew up already.

Although, the Russian investigators deny any such findings, the bigger questions remains: why, in the name of all that is logical, the wreck of the Polish Tu-154 plane is still in Russian hands? Why Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, haven't used any means necessary to transport what is left from the plane back to Poland to conduct an international investigation? Was the late President Lech Kaczynski such an enemy of the ruling Civic Platform, that even after his death he's posing a threat? Next April, Poles will already observe the third anniversary of the this devastating crash. Get moving Tusk!

To add to the insult and the shadow conspiracy, last week, Polish flight engineer, Remigiusz Muś, who landed on Yak-40 in Smolensk just before the crash, committed a "suicide". Warrant Officer Muś was and important witness during the crash investigation. He was vocal about the Russian tower operator asking the Tu-154 pilot to decent the plane to 50 meters. Read more about what Muś said here. 

Even the Russian newspaper "Pravda" reports the key testimony about the crash:

In his testimony, Mus reported that the flight officer on duty gave the Polish liner a permission to descend to the "decision-making height" of 50 meters, despite the thick fog, says RBC. Officially, the air controller did not allow to descend below 100 meters. According to Mus, the Yak-40 was also allowed to go down to 50 meters. The flight engineer also claimed that he had heard two explosions a few seconds before the Tu-154 crashed.

Recently retired from the Polish air force, 42-year-old guy with a decent pension, loving wife, open to new employment possibilities does not hang himself without a warning.  It just doesn't add up.

But wait there's more!  Two weeks ago, a Russian blogger released gruesome pictures of the killed officials.  Read more about it here.

Want more?  Four bodies were already exhumed, DNA-tested, and confirmed as wrongly identified and buried after the crash. The Polish military prosecutors are testing remaining bodies to rule out any mistakes.

What is going on here?  Haven't DNA tests been performed already?  Who runs this operation?  Idiots?

This whole shady cover up is yet another proof of the inability of the current Polish government to handle any emergency situation. Don't get me started about the still unanswered question about the cause of the crash.  Sadly, about half of the population voted for this so-called "new intelligentsia". 

All Saint's Day as a kid in the Roman Catholic Poland

Agree or disagree, Poland's history, culture, and traditions are shaped heavily by the Roman Catholic Church. One would say that Polish religious customs are one of a kind in the world. For centuries, being a nation of many different cultures, Polish tradition is surely a mix of an Eastern and Western world.

Photo by planetka @ stock.xchng

Poland celebrates all of the important Roman Catholic holidays like Easter, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Second Day Christmas Day, Corpus Christi, and Assumption Day. Similarly, All Saint's Day (Wszystkich Świętych) and All Souls' Day (Dzień Zaduszny), celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, respectively, are also very special to the Poles.

Having to live in Poland, in a family house right across from a cemetery, I vividly remember the view and the aroma of the thousands of candles flickering with a rainbow of colors. Hundreds of people walking and praying among the lit, marble tombs, reflecting on passed on relatives and friends. The cemetery was full of life until the very late night hours. Around one or two in the morning, the glow of candles seemed to slowly extinguish. Until the next day, when the candles started to glow again.

For a Polish kid, All Saint's Day was also a chance to explore. Explore with fire and hot wax, of course. On that day, ordinarily forbidden box of matches became a box of flaming and hazardous fire sticks used in every way possible to prolong the fun. Lighting up the candles was just a pre-game to more fun, read: dangerous games.

Flicking the match was one of my favorites. In one hand, you hold the match (zapałka) with your thumb on the strike strip (draska), and using the other hand, you flick the match with your index finger. If you are skilled, the lit match will shoot up in the air like a small rocket. If you could hit your buddy with the match, you have mastered the skill. No, nobody lost an eye.

Another activity was the hot, candle wax (wosk). Making the wax fist was a must. Having so much colorful and moldable material around was a perfect opportunity for an experimentation. Yes, the first layer was painful but after couple of extra layers, our fists were ready for the smash-a-ton. The hardest shell would win. The reward was a pink hand smelling like a candle.

But the most fun, and by far, the most dangerous game played in the cemetery, was the explosive spit cup called patena. You take a small, burnt out, metal candle cylinder, wrap some wire around it for a handle, fill it up with wax, and hold it over a lit candle. When the wax catches on fire, you spit in the cylinder causing the wax to explode up in the air. If you showed up at the school next day with all your eyebrows intact, your patena obviously sucked.

Looking from a perspective, those games were extremely dangerous. One would hope that today, the sentimental parents would at least provide some good tips and supervision. American style Halloween is fun, but All Saint's Day in Poland rules the pants out of trick-o-treating.

Please, share your experience about living in Poland. Our experience and traditions make us what we are today.