Thoughts on France and Poland

 

Thoughts on France and Poland

I wanted to share a few thoughts from our trip that didn’t fit neatly into any of the other posts.  I hope that’s okay.  If it’s not I suppose you can just stop reading the blog.  Which wouldn’t trigger my severe abandonment issues at all…  I'll intersperse the thoughts with some of the pictures of our travels that I haven't had a chance to share yet.

We found Paris to be delightful.  I had always heard about – and was nervous for – rude Parisians.  But every Parisian that we met was extraordinarily kind.  From the RTR employee who helped us buy the right tickets to the waiter who gave our kids free ice cream at the end of the meal, to the Disney employees and cab drivers.  Maybe we got lucky.  But I think Parisians are a lot nicer than people think.  We did however notice a couple of important things.

First, lines and procedures seem to be important to them.  Which is kind of ironic because they themselves push and elbow and cut in line.  And the process often changes on a whim.  But most of the people I saw who got in trouble were ignoring a line or forgetting to do some step in a process.  And the processes aren’t necessarily clearly explained, which makes it hard.  But if you do some research ahead of time they are learnable. 

Also they really like to be greeted.  I read somewhere that you should just say “bonjour” or “bonsoir” at the start of every conversation.  And it worked.  And I notice they all did it to.  Like at Disneyland there was a cast member whose job it was to stand at the front of the ride, and just tell people to scoot towards the door.  That was it.  But every time he said it to somebody he started with “bonsoir.”  Hundreds and hundreds of times.  It seems weird to Americans because we are used to someone greeting us and we immediately tell them what we want.  It saves time.  But I think this is rude in France.  And now that I think about it it is kind of rude in America too.

I’m struck by how much better every airport in Europe is compared to any airport in America.  Like leagues better.  More organized.  More efficient, and quicker.  On average it took us less than fifteen minutes to get through security.  In Helsinki it was always less than five.  And if you are travelling with kids they are quick to move you to a shorter, more efficient, more kid friendly line.  I know we have different security concerns but c’mon America.  There’s gotta be a better way to do things.

It saddened me how little I knew about Poland.  It wasn’t even on my radar of places to travel.  We only really went because we had this connection there.  And it totally blew me away.  It was beautiful and as filled with art and culture and history as any of the cities I’ve travelled to which include Paris, and Florence, and Rome.  Everyone talks about the French resistance in World War II.  But there was a much longer lived and more successful resistance in Poland.  Poland played a crucial role in breaking the Nazi’s enigma cypher.  They have beautiful castles and famous battlefields, and gorgeous churches.  Why don’t more people know about it?

It's often said that history is written by victors.  I knew that, and assumed that it meant that if you lose a war you won’t get the fairest representation in history books.  I also knew that history has a decidedly western bent, and assumed that meant that people of color were unfairly excluded.  Both of those things are true, but so much more is true too.  Poland should be a top tourist destination for history buffs and art lovers, and devout Christians, and have a thriving tourist economy like Italy or France.  Instead today tourists visit it primarily for its low prices for a bachelor’s party getaway.  Why?  Because after the war, Poland was behind the Soviet iron curtain.  And the Soviets didn’t want to celebrate anything that wasn't communist, and the west didn’t want to elevate any communist country.  So we all lied.  And those lies have dramatically impacted the history of twentieth century Poland.  Lies like that not only hurt people but alter the course of their history.  We should keep that in mind as we approach an election in which one of the presidential candidates tells lies at an historically unmatched level.

Which brings me to my final point:  Trump.  Everywhere we have been people have asked us about him, and his prospects to win election.  Our first night in Krakow was the night of the debate.  We thought about watching it, but it was late, and we just wanted to be present in Poland, and not consumed with our own Americanism.  The next morning we learned that our hosts had stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch the debate, and that they suspected most Polish people had as well.  People staying up through the night to watch a debate in a language they don’t speak between two candidates in a different country.  That’s how much American politics matter to Europeans.  That’s how much the course of American politics affects the average European citizen.

And they’re all terrified.  Not because Trump is going to “straighten them all out” or “make America Great Again.”  They are terrified because his proposals would have immediate and dramatic effects on their lives.  They like America.  They count on Americans.  They want assurances that America won’t abandon the continent to the Russians, or sabotage the global economy, or make environmental choices that will accelerate climate change, or turn its back on displaced refugees, or any other number of proposals that Trump has advocated.

It's worth remembering that Europe has had its own recent history with dictators, both past and present.  Very few seized power by force – most were democratically elected.  Most did not campaign on oppressing people, or fomenting war, or the repression of liberty.  They campaigned on false victimhood and nostalgic pining for former glory days, and fearmongering and economic fantasies and most of all a promise to help “real people.”  Forget about all of those “other people,” dictators help “real” citizens.  Who are almost exclusively white and exclusively men.  Europe’s seen candidates like that win before.  And then things get really bad almost immediately, and the entire world suffers.

Europeans are desperately hoping that doesn’t happen in America.  They are hoping that we don’t make a short-sighted decision that will have real consequences across the globe.  They are hoping that we won’t re-elect someone whose last acts as President were to try to destroy our system of democratic elections, and has promised to be a dictator on day one of his presidency.  They are hoping that we won’t make everyone’s life scarier and more fragile just because Trump ran on the empty promise to make eggs a buck cheaper, somehow cut gas prices by thirty cents a gallon, and cut taxes on tips.  They are hoping we aren’t that selfish.

So am I.

Hei Hei