.:Poles Sick and Tired of Elections?:.

Greetings!

As usual - long time no see, but I promise, I'll work on this inconvenience ;]

Let's get to the point. Polish governmental elections are looming in, therefore, I've translated for You a very interesting article about the approach and attitude of Poles towards this important event.

[Thanks to Raf Uzar for providing some improvements to this text :]

The original article can be found HERE.

Hope you'll enjoy it!

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Tłumaczenie: Krystian Iwaniuk

.:Are Poles Doomed to Tusk?:.

Genuine elections, or just yet another masquarade?

Poles are seemingly fed up with the incessant fight between Poland’s two main parties – Civic Platform (PO) and Law and Justice (PiS). However, in practice they dismiss all other parties that are trying to force their way into this political battle. “This has lasted for so long that we have to acknowledge the fact that it is a phase in history, which may even last for several years,” forecast Mariusz Janicki and Wiesław Władyka of Polish weekly Polityka.

Poland - First to Fight!

They have analysed the election strategies of PO and PiS. Both columnists claim that Kaczyński’s party aims to dishearten those who voted for Donald Tusk’s party in 2007. This explains why PiS has created a negative atmosphere with visions of the end of the world and PO voters abandoning the Polish PM. Whereas PO, according to Janicki and Władyka, is struggling to break through this negative atmosphere and take the initiative. This could explain their need to introduce American-style debates.

Disheartening leader?

“It could be the most emotional and the least factual campaign ever, a peculiar festival of aggressive helplessness because increasingly more depends on global events, of which Tusk is aware, whilst Kaczyński still pretends not to know,” according to the two journalists.

Moreover, Janicki and Władyka think that despite the fact that Poles are discouraged by the fossilised political scene, and by the fact that the spotlight is constantly focused on PiS and PO, they continue to dismiss new parties attempting to enter the political scene. “In some way this duel fascinates Poles, in some way it reflects the cultural and ideological division of Poland. The fact that this impasse still lasts shows that we are witnessing a process that reflects society,” state the Polish columnists.

Poles aren't ready for 'modern politics'? [Here, Janusz Palikot]

What is more, the Polityka journalists assume that such a political situation may last for years. “The division in Poland, which appeared and became increasingly defined after 2005,  reflects a deeper and genuine truth about Polish society. It gives us an overall picture of Polish society. This picture will not change until society changes. This impasse cannot be avoided without descending into political infantilism. The scenery may have changed but the actors, emotions and their ‘visions of democracy’ have not,” they conclude.

Awaiting the Improvement? 

.:Wywiad z Trentem Reznorem:.

Witam!

Chwilę mnie tu nie było, ale mam nadzieję, że ten wywiad 

trochę osłodzi Wam naszą rozłąkę ;]
-

Przetłumaczyłem dla Was wywiad prosto z amerykańskiego 

Rolling Stone [znajdziecie go tu] przeprowadzony

z multiinstrumentalistą i mózgiem kultowego Nine Inch Nails - 

Trentem Reznorem!

A w wywiadzie wiele pyszności: Trent opowie nam m. in. o ceremonii wręczania Oscarów,

Beatlesach, swoim nowym projekcie i co gra swojemu synkowi na dobranoc...

ENJOY!!!

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 Tłumaczenie: Krystian Iwaniuk

Oryginał: Austin Scaggs

Trent Reznor: "Chciałem zmusić siebie do napisania czegoś innego"

“Nie nosiłem krawata od lat" przyznał Trent Reznor (46 l.) ubrany w elegancki smoking prosto od Prady, gdy odbierał Oscara za najlepszą muzykę filmową. "Fajnie było na chwilę  wyjść z roli 'warczącego gościa wypruwającego się nad mikrofonem'”.

Reznor w 2009 r. zaszokował fanów Nine Inch Nails, ogłaszając, że zespół robi sobie przerwę na czas nieokreślony.  Od tamtego momentu, wraz ze swym przyjacielem Atticusem Rossem, Reznor rozpoczął intensywną współpracę z reżyserem Davidem Fincherem – tworząc m.in. muzykę na miarę Oscara do The Social Network oraz do nadchodzącej ekranizacji powieści Stiega Larsson Mężczyźni, którzy nienawidzą kobiet. 

How to Destroy Angels: Atticus Ross, Mariqueen Maandig i Trent Reznor

W zeszłym roku Reznor wraz z Rossem wydali EPkę swojego nowego projektu zwanego How to Destroy Angels, na której pojawiła się również żona Trenta, Mariqueen Maandig (która powiła Reznorowi zeszłej jesieni syna). "Będąc z żoną w jednym zespole jestem świadomy ogromu rzeczy, które mogą pójść nie tak", przyznał Reznor, obiecując wydanie longpleja swojego nowego zespołu jeszcze w tym roku. "Jesteśmy najlepszymi przyjaciółmi i interesują nas te same rzeczy, więc naturalnym jest, że tworzymy razem muzykę. Pełnienie roli bardziej drugoplanowej i co za tym idzie, brak potrzeby bycia w centrum uwagi, jest właśnie tym, co mnie teraz najbardziej kręci".

Główny temat muzyczny The Social Network nosi tytuł “Hand Covers Bruise”. Dlaczego?

Musiałem wymyślić 18 tytułów piosenek w ciągu jednego dnia. Stanąłem przed zadaniem typu „Nie nazywajmy utworu ‘Mark biegnie przez kampus’” [śmiech]. Kiedy rozmyślaliśmy nad tym, jak ta muzyka będzie brzmieć, jeden z utworów  już nosił nazwę “Hand Covers Bruise”. Wydał się nam idealnie pasującym do tego tematu.

 Ross i Reznor

Spodziewałeś się, że wygrasz [Oscara]?

Myślałem sobie “Pewnie nie wygram, ale jeśli wygram, mam nadzieję, że nie zrobię z siebie idioty”. Niepokój rośnie. Następnie uświadamiasz sobie, że nie jadłeś od 12 godzin. A kamery skierowane są praktycznie cały czas na ciebie. „Muszę podłubać w nosie! Ale nie mogę ryzykować…” Potem słyszysz niczym w zwolnionym tempie swoje imię. „Dobra, przytulić żonę. Nie potknąć się o kabel. Dlaczego robię dwa kroki na raz? Potknę się, ale nie mogę się zatrzymać. O boże, tam jest Nicole Kidman, ona ma ze 3 metry wzrostu. Czy mikrofon jest włączony?” Po milisekundzie jest już po wszystkim, a ty stoisz za kulisami z Oscarem w ręku.

 To słowo jest nadużywane w szczególności, jeśli chodzi o Oscary, ale kogo uważasz za geniusza?

To oczywiste – The Beatles. Gdy dorastałem nie lubiłem ludzi, którzy lubili the Beatles, więc nie zwracałem na ten zespół uwagi. W okolicach  nagrywania The Downward Spiral zacząłem się naprawdę wkręcać w okres White Album Beatlesów, i tak ta fascynacja zaczęła się pogłębiać. Wyprzedzali całą konkurencję tak daleko, że to było wręcz nie fair. Również Prince miał na mnie ogromny wpływ – to, co potrafił stworzyć bez niczyjej pomocy.

Dokładnie 20 lat temu przygotowywałeś się na swoją pierwszą trasę Lollapalooza. Jakie są twoje najżywsze wspomnienia z lata 1991 roku?

Nasz teledysk leciał wtedy na MTV, nasze piosenki były grane w radiu i któregoś dnia odebrałem telefon: “Jane's Addiction chce byście zagrali z nimi na tym nowym festiwalu.” Nasz pierwszy występ, w Arizonie, trwał półtorej piosenki. Pamiętam, jak zobaczyłem profesjonalne case’y na sprzęt Living Colour prosto z Guitar Center, no i te ich błyszczące stroje z lycry, podczas gdy ja miałem jedynie jasnoniebieski kabel, który ojciec podarował mi na gwiazdkę, jak miałem 15 lat. Wtedy w Arizonie było z 40^oC, kabel się stopił i nasz koncert dobiegł końca. Po prostu pobiegłem z powrotem do busa. Potem były lepsze koncerty.

Reznor podczas jednego z koncertów  Lollapalooza' 91

Jaką muzykę grasz swojemu synkowi?

Gram mu głównie na fortepianie: Bach, Beethoven i Mozart, odrobinę Chopina. Oraz puszczam mu nagrania odgłosów macicy i suszarki do ubrań, które pomagają mu zasnąć. Pewnie pokocha filmy Davida Lyncha. Jego pokoik  jest wypełniony dźwiękami rodem z  Eraserhead [śmiech].

Na tweeterze pisałeś ostatnio, że oglądając stare nagrania NIN, zatęskniłeś za koncertowaniem. Kiedy NIN znów wyruszy w trasę?

Powodem, dla którego przestałem koncertować z Nine Inch Nails jest to, że chciałem zmusić siebie do napisania czegoś innego. NIN jest dla mnie ‘wygodne’, jest czymś znanym. Lubię te piosenki, lubię  je śpiewać, lubię tę energię na scenie, ale nie jest to teraz dla mnie tak istotne, jak wtedy, gdy miałem 25 lat. I jest jeszcze ta  niewypowiedziana presja by wciąż koncertować – jest to jedyny sposób by zarobić na życie. Patrzę  na odwagę Davida Bowiego w zmienianiu i wymyślaniu samego siebie na nowo. To wymaga odwagi. Mimo to, ta przerwa nie będzie trwała wiecznie. Chęć wyruszenia znów w trasę, w pewnym stopniu, powróci w przeciągu kilku następnych lat.

Nine Inch Nails  podczas koncertu w Hasselt, Belgia, 18.08.2007

.:Little Secret:.

 Welcome back!

Today I've translated for you a very interesting story 

about a teacher, who had a very peculiar secret...

Original PL article can be found here.

Enjoy!!!

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Translation: Krystian Iwaniuk

Original: Małgorzata Szlachetka/ Gazeta Wyborcza

.:Little Secret:.

Maciej Białek has been a teacher for 18 years – he cannot see for 12. He’s been gradually losing his sight. For the first four years he concealed this fact, because he was afraid of losing his job.

In one of the secondary schools in Bronowice, Poland, a history lesson begins. Attendance list is being checked by one of the students. She marks absences in a class register. Later on, this data will be entered by a school librarian to an electronic register.

A historian, Maciej Białek, tells about reigning of the first Piasts throughout 45 minutes of the lesson. He doesn’t use any notes, and when he wants to draw a contour of Poland he asks students whether a blackboard is wiped clean.

Maciej Białek has been losing his sight gradually. He has worked as a teacher for 18 years, whilst he cannot see for 12. For the first four years he concealed this fact because he was afraid that he will be dismissed. Only few people knew the truth. “I lived in the same neighbourhood where I worked. I’ve known the layout of the school. I’ve just tried to walk slower and be more careful. Nevertheless, it happened a few times that I hit a post, stumbled over a pavement, or a neighbour thought that I was drunk because I tottered a bit,” tells Białek.

He resorted to a simple trick in the school. “I asked a caretaker to nail a hook on a board, which hung in a teacher’s room, at a height of a key no. 12. Thanks to that, I knew, by counting, where are the other ones,” explains Białek.

The whole truth was revealed at a school trip, when Maciej stepped on a dress of one of his colleagues, and hit something else afterwards. He heard that someone said: “You’re walking like a blindman.” Then he told the truth. He didn’t lose his job. Moreover, he has as many duties as the other teachers, with the only difference that he is not a class tutor.

At first sight it is extremely difficult to figure out that the teacher is blind. During a discussion he turns his head towards an interlocutor, he does not use a white cane at school, and when he goes down the stairs he does not even touch a banister. Out on town he does not use any help of a guide. He highlights that young people, especially his students, treat him very well. “We have an agreement that there is no cheating during the tests. But when I catch somebody red-handed, because I will hear a rustle of turning pages, I have no mercy – he gets an F!”

What is a loss of sight? Maciej Białek calls it “the end of the world.” The most difficult thing for him was to learn to ask others for help. Till this day he regrets that he cannot see a screen in the cinema, because until he was six years old he lived by the Grunwald cinema, closed down years ago. In the beginning, he could not get used to the fact that he cannot read. He had to stop his doctoral studies, as well as give up playing bridge. “I was the only blind person who was buying books to wait for better times. My friends chipped in to my first talking computer. Thanks to the advanced technology it is a lot simpler to live: if I want to read a book I scan pages and the computer converts the print into words,” says Maciej Białek. However, equally often it happens that his friends or family read his students' tests to him.

Blind people can also dress themselves to match a colour thanks to a device resembling a remote controller. They press it to their clothes and they can hear its colour.

How to handle a talking computer taught him years ago a man, who came specially for him from Warsaw. The man was blind as well, but despite this issue he brought up three sons only by himself. Moreover, he was not afraid of any physical effort: he liked rock climbing, tried horse riding. “He was a model to me,” admits Maciej.

What Maciej did not have to give up? Such pleasures as cooking for friends or travelling abroad.

For GW Anna Woźniak-Szymańska, a president of Polish Association of the Blind (PZN).

“Unfortunately in Poland only 15-17% out of all blind people has a job. This indicator in Europe reaches 50%. There is a view in Poland which still lingers on – that if somebody is blind he has to stay at home and draw a pension. After all, losing a sight does not mean that someone has lost his knowledge.”

.:Sex Instead of a Lunch:.

Hullo!

So, to kick off yet another beautiful week

I have translated for you a letter.

It describes how buisness-Poles blindly adapt some

Western fancy, hip etc. trends (here - sex trend).

Here you can find the original PL text taken from Wysokie obcasy.

Enjoy!  

---

Translation: Krystian Iwaniuk

Original: Anka

.:Letter of the Week:.

My girlfriends from work instead of a lunch with their colleagues choose sex – in toilets or a nearby park.

I work in a big company, I have a family – for the time being I still have a husband and a child. The question is for how long I will have my husband by my side, because the child will be always with me. I would like to know, am I of a normal kind of people or rather of dinosaurs which will become extinct in a near future. Until recently, I have been coming to my job with pleasure, acquiring new skills and climbing up the corporate ladder. I am still developing there, but I just can’t stand the habits, which started to prevail there lately.

Sex for lunch. That’s, in short, how can be described the activity which, besides social networking websites, occupies my work colleagues' time. My girlfriends from work instead of a lunch with other colleagues choose sex – in a toilet, in a nearby park, under a bridge, in a car etc. They aren’t attached to a particular guy, so it can’t even be called an affair. That’s how those who have families are living, those for whom it's hard to getaway on weekends. They, who aren’t in stable relationships, also realize their fantasies on weekends, at random parties – and it becomes a topic of chats and e-mails at work. They exchange their experiences and information about which colleague can last longer than others or which is better at oral sex.

 And what are YOU having for lunch today?

Advising on whom you should sleep with is blooming. Should you choose that manager or rather someone else? And may it endanger your career? More discreet are women who have families. They are young, in their twenties, and have no inhibitions.

I learned from my friends that my company is not an exception – it’s a common habit in jobs involving great stress. Once there were smoking rooms, now employees should think about organizing special sex rooms for those who prefer sex to lunch.

I have the impression that while men are able to reconcile their careers with such pleasures, women just can’t. Those ladies who are more active during lunch breaks do not apply themselves to work, are not promoted, do not receive any awards, they are at a standstill. Nevertheless, they keep their positions thanks to those men, who  make use of their "services".

Is it really a place to make a sweet love?

.:To Break Free of Death’s Grip in the Land of Smiles: Part II:.

 I keep my word and present you

the second part of the interview with

Michał Pauli.

Here you can read the original PL text.

Enjoy :]

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Translation: Krystian Iwaniuk

Original: Kinga Matałowska

"If the guards had known this, I would have been in a helluva trouble."

- How did you manage to break free?

It was a long-lasting process. After my third fruitless appeal I hit on an idea to write to influential, significant people in Poland to ask them for support. I discussed this through with our embassy, but they told me straight that they can’t do a thing without a permission from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MSZ).

- So what is left in such a situation? Wait for a miracle to come?

I suppose that in such terms my amnesty should be considered. Although I had to help this miracle to come by writing another letters. First what I had done was writing letters to MSZ, Radosław Sikorski [Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs] and several other significant politicians, who left my letters unanswered.

            The breakthrough happened when my mom and I had written two letters asking to support my amnesty to Lech Wałęsa. And he signed it. Other sympathetic people who signed it were Aleksander Kwaśniewski and – to my surprise – Lech Kaczyński. However, both were spurred to signed it by their wives, to whom I have addressed the letters counting on female empathy. When we collected the signatures Polish ambassador handed them personally to a royal secretary.

 Pauli's painting titled "Pu Chai"

- What did you feel when after those years of imprisonment you were free and you could live a normal life outside the prison walls?

World changes. I spent years in a place, which technologically reminded the Stone Age period: no electronics, no communication other than mail, no computers or phones – that’s one thing. The other is that life in prison deprives you of humanity and ability to live in a civilised world. You waste there time on obtaining  stuff which will allow you to survive, you’re not doing anything developing. When you leave prison you are like a child – everything makes you happy and frightens you at the same time.

            Already on a plane to Poland I had a pretty funny situation. In those big Boeings you have a small telly and a joystick to control it, so I grasped it and started to play with it. At one point a cable pulled out, and I didn’t know what to do with it. I called a stewardess and asked her how to put the whole thing in. She looked at me as if I was an idiot, pull the cable towards herself and it all just hid. It’s a kind of silly thing, but life is based on such silly things, and the lack of some abilities may simply terrify you.

            Well, after returning to Poland seeing the technological development was really surprising. And all those traffic jams. These are the things which you don’t notice so much on daily basis, but when you come back from such a place like a Thai prison they simply astound you.

Giving food at a prison square

- You are a visiual artist. Did you use your talent behind the bars?

In prison I made sketches which illustrate my book. I drew them with a pen on obtained scraps of paper. If the guards had known this I would have been in a helluva trouble. We smuggled them so that they could see the light of a day. Such sketches are the only documentation from those prisons – taking pictures is forbidden. There is no gear to take them there, anyway.

­- In spite of all what you have experienced, would you say that you have gained anything from it?

I think so. „What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” – I am a living proof of truthfulness of this maxim. What I’ve experienced changed my world view, and convinced me that I can subconsciously have an impact on reality. I was in a hopeless situation. I was just a grain of sand being  poured from one bag to another. Back then, every single day I imagined that I’m coming back home.

            Also I have discovered a thing which people call "the will to survive". Einstein said once that everybody says that something cannot be done until there comes an individual, unaware that it cannot be done, and actually does it. That's how it was in my case.

            Things I’m saying right now are wisdom, which we learn in extreme situations. You know, people break down because of various things: lack of money, unemployment… I’m happy just because of the fact that I am here and can live another day. Of course I care about my own living standards, to keep my ass warm. But I can always say: ‘OK! It didn’t work out, but I can go somewhere else and find a job there.’ It can’t be helped, it may be hard, but I will live another given day. The day which wouldn’t have to come.

           

SkyTrain station

- Please tell us about paintings which you have here.

It’s a series of “postcards,” which  is interrelated with my book. 12 x śmierć. Opowieść z Krainy Uśmiechu [12 x Death. A Story From the Land of Smile] is about my prison vicissitudes, and the paintings recall my positive memories from Thailand, which I have a lot. Look, you can see in them a SkyTrain station, a little girl, monks, tuk-tuk, which is a symbol of Bangkok’s streets. I wanted those paintings to be different from the story, which is in detail told in this book. I’ve described there the dark side of the Land of Smile. In the paintings I show its smile, which I  remember so vividly.

- Have you noticed any changes in your sensitivity to art, colours, understanding of   space after coming back to Poland?

I think that it remained unchanged because it’s a thing which one either has or hasn’t got. My technique has changed for sure. However, with painting is like with riding a bike. If you pass a certain stage, you’re experienced in it, your technique may become blunt for a moment, but it all comes back after a while. For sure I have lost multitude of time, which now I have to make up.

- How did your book come to being?

I returned to Poland in 2009. My friends were encouraging me to write down or tell someone all what happened to me. I’ve written this book to commemorate all those who were left there. I started writing in February and finished it in August. I was writing really fast because I didn’t have to make anything up by the sweat of my brow – I just focused on relating to the facts, enclosing the whole content in a narrative form. It was a kind of a katharsis to me.

Front cover of Pauli's book

- Have you written anything before?

I'm a visual artist. My Polish teachers would be really astonished if they knew that I’ve written a book.

- What are your plans for future?

I would like my book to become a warning for those, who may by accident get into similar troubles, which I have experienced. I really want to help, in any way, those who already got into them.
            I will get back to painting that’s for sure. Another theme which I will work on will be Cambodia’s landscapes. I also would like to paint a series of “postcards” from Angkor – it’s a city founded by the Khmer civilization - amazing place! I was really impressed by tress there, which were as if taken from Beksiński’s paintings, as well as architecture resembling the Aztec pyramids surrounded by a jungle. I’ve been there years ago, but it still is in my head.
            I’m also thinking about making a painting reportage about Bangkok. I have a lot of photos, which I use to remember myself those real-world elements and transfer it onto canvas. I will put them on my website (www.michalpauli.pl).

.:To Break Free of Death’s Grip in the Land of Smiles: Part I:.

Greetings!

To kick off the new week really hard
I've translated for You really interesting, inspiring and 

sometimes disturbing interview with Michał Pauli -

a Pole whose journey to Thailand ended with 12 death sentences...

It's a pretty long interview so I have split it into two parts
(next one at the end of this week :)

Bon Appétit!

---

Translation: Krystian Iwaniuk

Original: Kinga Matałowska

.:In the Land of Smiles:.

Michał Pauli, a slim, dark-haired man with hazel eyes and a wide smile stuck to his face. The smile which has not been rubbed off even by what he had experienced for 6 years in Asian prisons.

A young Pole sets off to exotic Thailand, where he gets entangled in a drug smuggling. He is sentenced to 12 death penalties commuted to lifetime imprisonment. Finally, he lands in one of the harshest prisons in the world, shrouded in a grim history, the Bangkwang Central Prison. He shares his cell with serial killers serving short sentences. He has no right to visits, and the only privilege he has is a 15-minute conversation with a Polish consul per six months. And in this abysmal circumstances he does not, even for a moment, lose hope, and from behind the bars makes an effort to change his wretched situation.

- How did your Thai adventure start?

I’m a visual artist, but my second passion is travelling. About ten years ago my private life changed, and I’ve decided to pick up travelling once again – I’ve chosen Southeast Asia. Back then, I still had my own ceramic workshop in Poland where I earned my living. However, with time it started to bring less and less money so I decided, using my connections in Poland and Asia, to import handicraft from Asia.

     Everything went great in the beginning. But with time I encountered serious financial problems. Autumn came, and I was up to my ears in debt. And then Pim, my Thai friend who was helping me with the handicraft business, called me. She asked me to do her a favour and send some ecstasy from Poland.

Pauli's painting titled "Sao Noi"

- How did she even know that she can ask for such a thing?

Well, she knew about my financial problems, as well as my attitude towards substances such as marijuana.


- What about Thais? What is their attitude to drugs?

More lenient than to other illegal acts, albeit drug possession is a punishable crime. Nevertheless, when I was there I’d seen masses of people in clubs taking ecstasy, smoking marijuana, and there was no problem with buying them. I don’t know how does it look like now, but then those drugs were quite popular. Unfortunately, after the smuggling I found out how Thai police works. Policemen often caught tourists who were possessing drugs and wheedled money out of them. You can be sentenced for seven years for marijuana possession there. 

    During my trips to Thailand I didn’t experience any of this, and I witnessed the widespread of drugs. Moreover, I regarded Pim as a friend so I had no anxieties about her request. 

     Well, now I could talk at length about whether I was inclined to do it or not. The truth is, I was lured by money – it wasn't much because I was smuggling small amounts, and treated it more as a favour. In the end I sent her letters from Poland, in which I’d placed several ecstasy pills. In Poland I also had no problems with getting them anyway.

- How did the jail look like?

It was a typical one. During my last trip to Thailand some guys wearing civilian clothes, without any badges, flattened me on the ground, handcuffed and dragged me to a car. They drove me to a house, which had nothing to do with police whatsoever.

     Oblivious of what was going on, I was interrogated by a bunch of Thais who didn’t speak English. After some time a black American guy came along and told me that he is a DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] agent, and I finally realized why did they catch me. The American expected information, which I wasn’t able to give him.

 Bangkwang prison - Everything' seems fine...

 - What information?

He asked about people from whom I got the drugs. It was tough interrogation situation anyway - I was scared, didn’t understand much, I had no idea what happened to my friend. I was worried.

     Later, in the evening, I landed in a police station. They took me to a room where on a desk where the contents of all my letters were heaped up. Next, they dragged me to a cage, 4 metres wide and 5 long, in which already were forty people. I spent there two weeks, including interrogation breaks.

- How to pull oneself together in such a place?

It’s really hard. After a couple of days came a guy from a Polish embassy telling me how screwed I am, and that they can’t help me because they have no time for it. People with whom you are sharing the cage aren’t very communicative. You land in a world of monkeys, which want something from you, but there is no possibility of mutual understanding. Living in such small space makes you start to feel like an animal as well. 

     After two weeks I went to a first prison, Bambat. In the meantime I learned that my ‘friend’ works for the police and is the chief prosecutor in the trial. Furthermore, the consul informed me that in Thailand for what I’d done I can be sentenced to death.

- How did the trial look like?
It’s too much to talk about, but frankly, it did not ‘look’ at all. You may refer to my book, where I’ve written in great detail how certain things looked like, and how they were deprived of fundamental features of what is known in European countries as law. It’s worth reading to get an idea how Thailand’s judicial system works, as well as to understand my yearning for freedom.

- Bangkwang prison is in the top ten of world’s worst prisons.

Prisons in Bangkok, and I’ve been in a few, are places which recall times of the colonial slavery. They are overcrowded and have no basic sanitation. Bangkwang prison was established during WWII by Japanese to keep thousands of prisoners. At the moment there is over eight thousand people being kept there.

     First, I was in Bambat prison, it’s only for the ‘drug guys,’ where in one block were even 1000 prisoners, and in a cage were 50 people. At three o’clock you go to a cage, and at seven you go out to a square, where Thais had to work. I was also forced to work for a long time, but with other foreign prisoners we finally stood up. When I landed in this prison for a good start they had welded heavy chains onto my ankles. Later was only worse. And this exotic climate…

 One of Pauli's illustrations to his book

- Perfect for incubation of diseases.

Exactly, for diseases and vermin. After staying in a seclusion room – a place where heat and bites of a multitude of insects just wrecks you – my leg became infested with fly larvae. They were removed in hospital, probably the worst part of the prison. Nevertheless, in terms of living more comfortable than blocks.

- In what sense?

It was a dying room. There was a reek of boracic acid and rotting bodies, which were lying in bedclothes until a corner came. The worst was when a sick died on Friday, and in this high temperature his body started to decay after one day, and a corner came on Monday. 

     When it came to a treatment, paracetamol was the cure for everything. Doctor visited every few days for an hour. The hospital was absolutely overcrowded, people lay everywhere. You could catch several diseases there – the staff didn’t enter the sick’s cages because they were afraid of infections. But thanks to that we had more freedom – we could gamble, were allowed to have more personal belongings. 

- Is there a possibility of getting used to such a way of living?

With time you’re getting used to it and start to organize your life. I survived this thanks to money from my family, by which I could arrange things with guards on the side – they helped only in exchange for money. I arranged food and pure water, because the public one was drawn from a nearby river and had a coffee-with-milk colour. 

     You could order foodstuff - you chose it from a list and waited for four days. Rice with eggs cost equaled PLN 20 – twice as much as behind the bars. 

 Another Pauli's illustration picturing prison corridor of cages

- In your book, you have described torturing people to death, slave work, corruption of prison guards. These are blatant abuses of human rights!

Unfortunately, that’s what things are like there. Thailand’s judicial system is in no way like European. The embassy works in accordance with directives which work in countries where prisoners are treated like human beings and have, at least, basic rights. 

     According to these regulations, Polish diplomats can react only in a situation when I would be treated worse than an ordinary Thai. And that’s the case - you just can’t treat anybody worse than that! We – the foreigners – coped better in prisons than Thai citizens because administrators were afraid that if they attacked us the embassies would protest.

- Have you got any idea why it is so?

Thais have undergone constant indoctrination. They are made believe that drug dealers commit worse crimes than murderers. A dealer ‘kills millions’ while a killer only one person.

     As for correctional institutions in Thailand, stories of establishing such facilities like Bambat are very interesting. It all began after WWII. Back then opium trade was legal in Thailand bringing the country great profits. In the 1950s CIA subsidized opium plantations, thereby supporting general Li Mi’s army. Whereas heroin trade was organized by a chief of Thai police himself. Moreover, key politicians were involved in it. 

    Later the Vietnam War broke out, and gigantic amount of drugs produced in the Golden Triangle reached USA. In 1971 Nixon established DEA and officially declared war against drugs. America allotted huge money for this fight, building infrastructures etc. 

     But Thailand is not America. At that time money came in torrents to Thailand, and the police manipulated evidence and fabricated investigations in such a way to keep figures looking good. Effectiveness mattered – it gave money, not such an abstract concept like law. For my capturing DEA gave Pim a big pay rise. The fact that she arranged the whole thing and abused my gullibility is a different matter…

Don't judge a book by its cover?

 - Is friendship in such prison circumstances possible?

First of all, it’s certainly difficult to make friends in a place where you found yourself against your will surrounded by people who were there against their will as well. Secondly, we are talking here about a company of ‘alpha males.’ Thirdly, there were [all kinds of] pressure and problems constantly overlapping each other. Nevertheless, I must say that there was a group of people with whom I got along, and to some extent I can say that they are my friends. 


- Do you know what happened to them?

Their situation haven’t changed – they’re still where they were. I had a huge luck, stories like mine rarely happen. Royal Pardon, by which I was released, is given to one or two people out of thousands a year at most. I had in mind all those who didn’t manage to break free when I was writing my book. I believe that the world should know about their misery – they deserve it.

     I had no idea that there were, and still are, so many Poles around the world who got into similar troubles to mine, but hadn’t so much luck. Recently, after my appearance in a few Polish TV programmes, I’ve received quite a lot of dramatic letters from distraught families. I really would like to help them because I know from my own experience how ‘great’ Polish institutions’ support is.

 Bright side of Thailand...

End of the 1st part.