Elżbieta (Elizabeth) & Zygmunt (Ziggy) Broniarek

THE    CHRISTMAS   CAROL    2011

Once upon a time there was a Polish gentleman whose first and last names were Hipolit Cegielski (pronounce Hee-POH-leet Tsa-GHIAL-skee) who Iived in the years 1813 thru' 1868 in the City of Poznań in Western Poland. Hę was a real person and not a hero of a fairy tale. These were times of the partition of Poland (1795 thru' 1918) and Poznań was in the hands of Prussia. Mr Cegielski did not believe too much in Polish uprisings as means to regain independence but favored down-to-earth hard work which Polish historians called the Organie Work. He became famous by founding a factory of agricultural machines which in the mid-war independendent Poland (1918-1939) and after World War II turned into one of the best European factories of engins for ships.

Right after Poland regained fuli sovereignty in 1989-90, a group of prominent Poznań citizens founded The Hipolit Cegielski Society and established its two yearly awards - The Golden Hipolit Figurine and The Diploma for A Prominent Personality in the Field of Organie Work. It was a complete surprise to me that the President of the Hipolit Cegielski Society Dr Marian Król (pronounce MAA-riaan Krool), and the Chairman of its Chapter for the Golden Hipolit Figurine Professor Grzegorz Skrzypczak (pronounce GZHA-Gosh SKSHIP-Tchak) have bestowed upon me, a modest newspaperman, those two honors for 2011. The greatest part of this surprise however was the fact, that along with seven other winners there was Lech Wałęsa, the hero of the liberation of Poland from the Communist rule, the Nobel Peeace Prize Laureate of 1983, and the President of Poland 1990-1995. By the way: the correct pronounciation of the name Wałęsa is Vaa-WEN-saa, not Vaa-LA-saa.

The year 2011 brought some bad but aiso many happy events to Poland. Amomg those happy ones were parliamentary elections of Sunday, October 9, which resulted in the yictory of the Civic Platform led by Prime Minister Mr Donald Tusk. In this way, an immediate danger of Poland turning into a country led by tha Law and Justice Party of Mr Jarosław Kaczyński (pronounce Yaa-ROS-waav Kaa-TCHIN-ski), an anti-Eurepean, nationalistic leader supported by fundamentalist Roman Catholic hierarchy, was averted (but hę still garnered about 30 percent of the Polish electorate). Mr Tusk won the elections with a good majority and became the first Prime Minister in the free and democratic Poland to be re-elected after being in power for the last four years. Yet Mr Kaczyński himself, his politicians and the majority of the Polish TV commentators have been attackiing him incessantly probably because of the typical Polish morbid „disinterested envy" for him being too successful. An anonymous internaut even coined the following nursery rhyme defending him from his detractors: „His arę in King's English // Both first and last name // Hę is a real statesman // Of a worldwide famę // Shut once and for all // Your tongues madę of stone // Either treat him fairly // Or leave him alone"

Finally Destiny was fair both to him and to everybody else in Poland because of a worldwide feat of a single Polish mań. A Boeing of the Polish airlne LOT, flying from Newark, N.J. landed safely November l, 2011, at the Warsaw airport on its „belly" because its undercarriage failed to function. All its passengers and crew of 231 persons were intact. This single Polish mań was Captain Tadeusz Wrona (pronounce Taa-DA-oosh VROH-naa) - of course assisted by his crew and many people on the ground, but it was his skills and cold blood that carried the day. And sińce it happened on All Saints Day when all the Poles celebrate the memory of their Dead Ones, it was evident that Caprain Wrona turned this day into the Day of the Rescued.

With this most optimistic event in mind we wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year in all their splendor.