Vibes to Poland

[Sir Stewart]

Why all of these people were on the same plane is a mystery to me, but more importantly, my heart goes out to the Polish people. What a horrible loss.

 

http://www.npr.org/t...oryId=125810009

 

Poland is in mourning after the death of its president and nearly 100 members of Poland's political, military and governmental elite in a plane crash in Russia. The plane crashed while landing at Smolensk, near the site of the Katyn massacre, in which 20,000 members of the Polish elite were executed by Soviet secret police in 1940. The president and his colleagues had been due to attend a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre.

 

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Why all of these people were on the same plane is a mystery to me, but more importantly, my heart goes out to the Polish people. What a horrible loss.

 

http://www.npr.org/t...oryId=125810009

 

Growing up in the heat of the Cold War and being brought up on a steady diet of tales of Soviet nastiness, the conspiracy theories come RACING into my mind.

[Ghost of Electricity]

The tragedy is deepened by the fact that they were on their way to commemorate the massacre at Katyn, where thousands of Polish officers were murdered by Soviets.

 

As far as conspiracy theories are concerned, I think it's unlikely. The plane was an ancient Russian Topolev that apparently even Aeroflot had retired. I heard a rumor yesterday that the last pilot resigned his post a month ago, calling the plane a flying coffin. Why the Polish government was using it is a big part of the mystery. Additionally, Russia's handling of the situation has been admirable, and ironically, the tragedy might actually improve relations between the two countries.

 

As far as Kaczynski's politics are concerned, they were pretty distasteful. His views on homosexuality, for example, have been described as "pre-modern." So I will mourn him as I will mourn the others, as human beings and fellow (adopted-)countrymen.

 

Thanks for the vibes, Sir Stuart.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Growing up in the heat of the Cold War and being brought up on a steady diet of tales of Soviet nastiness, the conspiracy theories come RACING into my mind.

 

Those Tupelovs drop out of the sky like rain drops, and it sounds like pilot error played a huge part. If anyone had wanted to kill him, all they had to do was wait.

 

Absolutely tragic. I can't imagine why anyone thought it was a good idea to have most of the ruling coalition and military leadership all on the same plane - and on a 40 year-old Soviet-built plane, no less.

[Ghost of Electricity]

Usually nothing interesting happens around here. This weekend, Obama, Medved, Sarkozy, Merkel, Saakashvili, and a few others will be paying my town a visit. Yesterday and today there have been protests in the streets. And geeze, my band's show was cancelled.

[Ghost of Electricity]

The funeral was today, and thus brought to and end what was one of the craziest weeks around these parts.

 

There were protests over the decision to put Kaczynski in the Wawel crypt alongside the greats of Polish history, and counter-protests as well. No one would take responsibility for the decision, so there was a general hullabaloo about this.

 

Meanwhile, the city of Kraków struggled to prepare for a couple hundred foreign dignitaries, including the bigwigs mentioned in my previous post. A friend of mine used to work for the branch of the Police that organized important visits. When Pope Benedict came, it took almost 6 months of advance planning. Now there were 4 days to prepare for a couple hundred.

 

Until a volcano had to go and erupt and make most of all that moot. In the end, Medvyedyev was the only important one to actually come. There is hope that Polish-Russian relations will improve.

 

At midnight last night the bars stopped serving alcohol, the streets in the center were closed down. An enormous stage had been erected for the Berlin Philharmonic to perform Mozart's Requiem, two or three giant video screens were erected in various locations around the city.

 

I stood down by the Wawel with my son, waiting for the procession for about 3 hours. When it came, we couldn't see anything.