11th November. It's Independence Day in Poland: the ultimate celebration of Polishness.I'm reading The English. A Portrait of the People by Paxman at the moment. I was desperate for a book with no 'law' or 'legal' in a title to read in those scarce free moments and only this in the entire English bookstore seemed at all entertaining, so I bought it for 5 euros.
One of the chapter is entitled Funny Foreigners and it basically talks about the English dislike for other nations. The book is from 1999, so in the context of current deliberations as to the immigration policy and the EU treaty renegotiation, it acquires a new dimension, but anyway, I thought of me being a foreigner in the UK. As much as I assimilated with the culture, I still hold a Polish passport. But despite this passport I'ma foreigner in Poland too, because my mentality has changed a lot and I probably feel more foreign to Poland than England at this stage.
So today, as the entire Poland celebrates the independence regained after 123 years of annexation, I wonder who I am actually? I can wear a patriotic white and red pin on Nov 11th, but I'm equally enthusiastic about the Queen's jubilee (or the Royal wedding or the birth of another prince). This is a strange feeling of being neither here not there. Though I'm not entirely sure how important it is to identify yourself with a specific country nowadays. I mean we live in a global world and the mobility is so widespread that it's sometimes a matter of pure chance where you end up being born.
So if I got asked "who are you?" (kto Ty jesteś?), being Polish would probably not be the first thing that came to my mind. Maybe 6th or 7th, that's definitely more like it. And there's nothing wrong with it. It took me ages to deal with a feeling of some bizarre patriotic guilt. But what seems important to me now is not how much of a Pole I feel or are perceived as by other people. What is important is that if I wish I can go back to Poland that is free.
So today, as the entire Poland celebrates the independence regained after 123 years of annexation, I wonder who I am actually? I can wear a patriotic white and red pin on Nov 11th, but I'm equally enthusiastic about the Queen's jubilee (or the Royal wedding or the birth of another prince). This is a strange feeling of being neither here not there. Though I'm not entirely sure how important it is to identify yourself with a specific country nowadays. I mean we live in a global world and the mobility is so widespread that it's sometimes a matter of pure chance where you end up being born.
So if I got asked "who are you?" (kto Ty jesteś?), being Polish would probably not be the first thing that came to my mind. Maybe 6th or 7th, that's definitely more like it. And there's nothing wrong with it. It took me ages to deal with a feeling of some bizarre patriotic guilt. But what seems important to me now is not how much of a Pole I feel or are perceived as by other people. What is important is that if I wish I can go back to Poland that is free.
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