By Jeffrey Treisbach, HIA Fellow
Poland's transformation in 1989 resulted in greater freedom for many, but we have to wonder: what freedoms were given, and to whom? On this topic, the HIA Fellows had a very full day on June 11th talking about all aspects of transformation - from political to economic to social. There are probably few better places than Poland that we could have had the conversations the ones we had today.
Our day began at our home-away-from-home PZN where we listened to a fascinating presentation by Prof. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk. She had a very unique perspective on the transformation that Poland underwent in the 1990s as she is an academic but also has experience of working in a large corporation during the time of transition. She called upon this experience several times during her talk.
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| Prof. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk speaks with HIA Fellows Photo by Benjamin Overton |
Through Prof. Giza-Poleszczuk's talk, we learned that there were many ups and downs in Poland since 1989. The original euphoria that took place after the fall of Communism was replaced by realism when people began to realize that Poland was not the 10th most powerful country in the world as people were taught growing up. International corporations took advantage of the new reality on Poland by investing heavily in the country but this did not always have a positive impact. One example of this was a factory town outside of Wrocław that was mentioned by Prof. Giza-Poleszczuk. The ketchup factory in the town was purchased by Hellmanns but it was eventually closed resulting in 60% unemployment in the town. After the Russian economic crisis of the late 1990s when things got very bad for the Polish economy, the trends reversed again to go in a more positive direction for Poland as the acceded to the European Union in 2004 and weathered the economic crisis better than most other European countries.
Before lunch, we had a short session to discuss our possible action projects with HIA Poland Staff Monika Mazur-Rafał and Magda Szarota. They showed us examples of some very successful projects from previous years and we worked in pairs to talk about some of our first ideas.
The first part of our afternoon was spent at Aim High (Mierz Wysoko) where Tomasz Rudziński told us a lot about the organization that he works at in Warsaw's Praga district. Unlike the rest of Warsaw, the Praga district survived World War II very much in tact (at least architecturally). While 80% of the city to the west of the Vistula was destroyed in the bombing campaigns, 80% of area to the east of the river survived because that part of the city was liberated by Soviet troops earlier in the war. For this reason, Praga is one of the few areas in the city where we can still see pre-war architecture.
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| HIA Fellows view photos of Aim High's programs Photo by Benjamin Overton |
Although the buildings survived the war nearly 70 years ago, the neighborhood is still a complicated area and very much considered to be in transition today. It is far more impoverished than other parts of Warsaw and as a result has a bad reputation for street crime. Aim High is trying to combat this stereotype through innovative projects that bring youth together to participate in artistic actions and events. Happenings like a street fair where participants can learn to juggle and walk on stilts give area youth the idea that there is an alternative to the reality that they are living in. The organization produces some educational programs but the important thing is that the kids come to the programs on their own free will. They are encouraged to participate but Aim High aims to not make it something that is forced but rather something that the kids enjoy doing - and based on the expression of some of the youth that came by when we were there it appears that they are succeeding in their mission!
Our day finished at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews where we had our Fellows Discussion. HIA Fellows Immanuel and Ela moderated the discussion where we talked mostly about the big question of the day: what is transformation? This prompted a very in depth conversation that involved the topics of the role of education, groups left out of transformations, and challenges faced by children of different economic backgrounds. We decided that it is fair to say that whatever and wherever the transformation is, some groups benefit more than others - as we learned today this was certainly the case in Poland.
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| HIA Fellows and Staff near Aim High with Tomasz Rudziński Photo by Benjamin Overton |
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