1198 Palin in Poland

This has to be notebook day such has been the diverse nature of activity. Foremost when considering some order of significance must be Mr Palin's visit to Auschwitz as part of his travels around Poland which included a meeting Lech Walesa, whose protest strike at the Gdansk shipyard and election as the head of Solidarity, within couple of years of Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow, becoming Pope John Paul II, led to the fall of Communism from power in Poland and to him becoming President.

Walesa, four years my junior, was not an opportunist having been convicted of anti social behaviour in 1970 for his part in strike action which led to 80 fellow workers being killed by riot police. Blacklisted in 1976 he survived with the help of friends, helped organise an illegal underground free trades union, arrested several times, but managed to return to the shipyard in 1980, the right man in the right place at the right time and his activities led to internment for a year before returning as a simple electrician under virtual house arrest in 1987, having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. It was not until 1987 that his role become more political with Solidarity forming a political party and Walesa managing to create an anti community alliance which in 1989 became the first non communist government within the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1990 he became the elected President and continued until 1995 when he lost political support among the parties and the public in general.

He continued in the background helping to form a new party and in 2000 standing for the Presidency he only attracted 1% of the vote. He reminds of Churchill and other great leaders who have their time and then cannot adjust to changing needs and ambitions, or accept the role which the new generations tends to assign, that of the respected, even venerated, elder statesman/woman but without direct power.

Walesa has a grace and favour office where Palin was given an audience; the Gdansk airport bears his name. he has received honorary knighthoods and other honours and doctorate degree from all over the world, but from the brief meeting one gained the impression of a man who longed to be leading some cause, in control, uncomfortable with being history and waiting for death and sainthood. He made Churchill's comment that all the things you liked were either immoral or not good for you. A hymn to old age.

While I have no connections with Poland the country has had my attention since I visited Unstitch in my imagination as I read the War Crimes Trials report at the instigation of my Jesuit History teacher when I was fourteen or fifteen years of age. I had written of this event earlier in the day without prior knowledge that a visit would be included in the Palin programme, which I would have anticipated had I given the programme further thought after disclosing this was the next part of his travels. He and the camera communicated the horror and despair of Auschwitz and the chilling observation that does the retention of such places make the present generation of the mind to recreate such places in modern form think again? I believe not. It puzzles me why we have to create devils as giant monsters breathing fire and smelling obnoxious when we have them now, as we have always had, in human form, and locked away within everyone, fortunately.

Also fortunately, there are those of great faith. Michael visited the most important Catholic shrine in Poland, a black Madonna, where such is the extent of the belief that the icon becomes a presence that different interest groups are allocated pilgrimage days during which the Madonna is shown periodically during a cycle of all day masses. The camera was able to convey the emotional significance of the experience on the faces of the older women present and I thought of how my mother and her sister would have been moved by the programme as they were by the kindness of a Polish priest who visited the parish from time to time, who came to their home and kept in touch during the decade before she was admitted to residential care.

There was an interesting Englishman who rather like Dick Whittington had gone to Poland in search of his fortune , had learnt the language, one of the most difficult in the world, became a fireman and is now a section head, and also a TV personality comic. He had some important words of wisdom which alas I suspect will fall on deaf ears, wishing that the British would show the same welcome to those now making their way for a new life here, as he was shown.

Whether it is from films about the Polish contribution to World War 2, the destruction of their capital and the building by the communists which included the authentic rebuilding of an old quarter, to the Warsaw concerto, I have felt the Polish people to be a serious nation with a horrendous history of enslavement who managed to retain their culture, their standards and their faith. This was eloquently expressed by one young woman about her hopes for the country's recognition and position in the new Europe. I have felt no such connection with other central European nations, from the programme, which is not to say that their tortured history and collective identity does not merit similar attention.

Being palin there were also the little boy Monty Pythonesque moments in the programme such as joining into a comedy theatre group, driving a traditional steam engine with passengers, visiting a salt mine where miners have created an amazing chapel with the finest sculptured statue scenes. Some 60 metres underground.

The programme was compensation for the catalogue of sporting disasters with Louis Hamilton making a mistake, his vehicle then developing a fault and finishing just outside the points placing to gain the championship. However there is a late news item of a query regarding the vehicles of two drivers who finished ahead which could result in the position being changed, but if this happened there would be no sense of victory. After yet another atrocious start, Sunderland fought back to a drawing position only to miss opportunities to go ahead and then lose by 3.1. Mr Keane remains resolute and if anyone can break the recent mould of the club fighting brilliantly to gain promotion and then only managing to win a handful of games as they drop back again. The Newcastle Rugby team also lost at home so everything now hangs on Newcastle entertaining Spurs on Satanta tomorrow night.

I did it. I managed to complete 101 games of level one chess against the computer without defeat or allowing the game to end in a draw after reaching, over 10, 20, 39, 40 and 50 games over the past week or so, and nearly abandoning the quest in frustration at my inability to concentrate or exercise self discipline and not play when I was tired or was divided in what to give my attention. I can now adopt a more relaxed approach to level two. However there is no sense of triumph because of the level one inclination the computer to commit suicide rather like the defences of the North East football clubs. Chess is usually a hopeless game for those like me who cannot remember sequences of moves or whose dyslexic myopia often prevents seeing what there is to see. Fortunately the computer allows one to reverse play to prevent simple errors, although this also enables cheating, except when one loses attention at the end game and there is a draw. All it takes is a moment's distraction and several hours and several days of activity come to naught from the point of the objective although the journey has its own interest.

I have also been working hard over the past week, but only in shorts bursts, sorting out the 101 work, making up new sets, and registering them in the index system. I have nearly completed the basic work and move on to creating artman signature cards and then photographing the completed sets and albums which will take the rest of this new week, which includes theatre on Wednesday and live football on Saturday, a visit to the bank re Mabel matters ion Monday and perhaps a trip to the cinema Tuesday or Thursday. If I concentrate hard during this week and get around to some jobs in the house and the cooker arrives as is sorted next Monday by next midweek I should be in a position to recommence work on the two river's project.