The Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival (BŚC) in the city of ceramics had not even begun when Kazimierz Marczewski, the famous columnist and reporter for Bolec.info—who begins each of his columns with a sentence about drinking coffee from a Bolesławiec ceramic cup—apparently poured himself a drink other than “a small black coffee” and began hunting for scandals.
It began with the BŚC platinum sponsor’s banner hung on the city hall high-rise. According to Bolec.Info, the banner could have endangered the life and health of officials as well as taxpayers’ property, but it endangered only the readers’ common sense.
When it turned out that there was one banner, not two as the portal claimed (hence my suspicions about the contents of the columnist’s cup), when it was proven that it would not catch fire because it was fireproof, that it would not suffocate anyone because the windows could be opened, that it had certificates and several permits, and finally that it had been paid for by the sponsor rather than the taxpayers, something then began to smell to the Bolec.Info reporter in the Market Square.
A Bolecnaut called the portal’s editorial office, having noticed the odor at an unfortunate moment while wooden stalls for exhibitors were being set up. Some larger team—or perhaps a committee of the portal’s journalists—went to the Market Square. Unless, after drinking coffee from native stoneware, the columnist was writing about himself in the plural: “We went to check this unusual information on August 21, 2012; we were in the Market Square in the evening, at around 8 p.m.”
After checking, it turned out that there really was a problem—and that it even stank. The professional Bolec.Info journalistic team nevertheless had quite a problem identifying the type of smell and its source. Some specialists thought it was the smell of impregnated wood, others that it was sewage, and still others that it was the smell of horse manure. After investigating, they stated: “The stench is so strong that it is difficult to tell where it comes from.”
And at the very end they added that if the stench persisted, it would be the first smelly Ceramics Festival in the city’s history. Then, apparently to take shelter from the smell, they went down to the basement.
Another piece was produced in the basement. In an “exclusive” interview, Stanisław Wiza and Paweł Zwierz (members of the Ceramic Brotherhood), wearing kontusz coats sewn with taxpayers’ money and commissioned by the director of BOK-MCC, also decided that something had always smelled fishy to them about the Ceramics Festival.
Stanisław Wiza revealed that “eighteen years ago, Ceramika Artystyczna-Cepelia ‘ruled’ in Bolesławiec, and everything the other ceramic artists did […] ‘smelled’ to that ceramics company and was described by it as a counterfeit […], while the other ceramic artists were treated as ‘counterfeiters’.”
The next scandal was supposedly that Bolesławiec exhibitors had to pay for the stalls where they did business. Apparently, former mayor Józef Król promised Wiza that they would have places free of charge. Wiza and Zwierz leave out—and Marczewski does not ask further about—the amount over which they are turning up their noses. Meanwhile, after checking, it turns out that they are haggling over PLN 600.
In the interview, Wiza also claims that the mentality of the president of the Ceramic Plants needs to change because he is undermining the initiatives of the Ceramic Brotherhood.
The biggest scandal sniffed out was supposedly Wiza and Zwierz’s admission that the Ceramics Festival exists so that those in power can promote themselves.
It is possible that Bolec.Info and the two members of the Ceramic Brotherhood will now actively combat this stench surrounding the BŚC. I would suggest trying aromatherapy or fragrant incense sticks.
(Grażyna Hanaf)