Just as in the famous disaster film “2012,” our local ends of the world came crashing down on some people with a bang and by surprise, although of course there were also those announced in advance by various kinds of “prophets” and local “Mayans”.
The 2012 WOŚP finale in Bolesławiec was supposed to fail and, under the leadership of Henryk Jasińki, was supposed to be a major disaster. WOŚP veterans predicted this two months in advance. But nobody paid much attention to it.
After the finale, volunteers reported to the police station in Bolesławiec and stated that Henryk Jasiński had not accounted for the collection tins opened without authorization, and that he had used money collected by volunteers to pay the bands performing during the finale, which—as they claimed—was contrary to the WOŚP regulations. For this reason, the organizing committee had no idea how much money it had actually collected. The prosecutor’s office investigated the matter. Those involved in the case must have thought more than once that the discontinuation of the proceedings due to a lack of data sufficiently justifying suspicion that an offense had been committed was a real end of the world.
In March, the president proclaimed another end of the world. In a guide published for Euro 2012, the Lower Silesian deputy marshal did not promote Bolesławiec as a city of ceramics. He invited fans to Gliniada, an event accompanying the city’s main Ceramics Festival. Only after everyone had recovered from this shocking event did it turn out that UEFA had scheduled the Euro for June, while the Ceramics Festival and its accompanying Gliniada took place two months later. Fans who came to Bolesławiec would not have seen Gliniada competing with the Ceramics Festival anyway. And there will be no end of the world.
Councillor Wojciech Kasprzyk brought a private end of the world upon himself when he posted a joke on Facebook about a Black man who was supposed to listen to a white man. He forgot that members with dark skin belong to his party, Platforma Obywatelska. He also failed to consider that his Facebook friends would copy the joke and send it to “Wyborcza”. He probably regarded the reaction of his party colleagues from Bolesławiec as the end of the world: they denounced him and nearly expelled him from their ranks.
The world—though probably only temporarily—collapsed for Mayor Robert Relich, a pilgrimage enthusiast, when he discovered links to websites featuring naked women on his municipal office’s website. In an official letter, the mayor explained that the links appearing on 9 April 2012 on the office’s website, www.nowogrodziec.pl, were “unlawful interference by unknown persons with the content” of the website. The end of the world!!!
For many residents of Bolesławiec, the proposed development of the square in the Market Square—between the eastern frontage of the Old Town Market Square and the Basilica—turned out to be the end of the world. According to the plans, a hotel modeled on a 19th-century building, the Kronprinz Hotel (German for “crown prince”), would be built there. Some considered the construction of a hotel on this site an apocalypse; others claimed that the real end of the world would be leaving the square empty, so that dogs and cats could relieve themselves there.
The city of ceramics was shaken by the ceramic Walk of Fame beside BOK-MCC. Its very creation was deemed the end of the world. And a true Armageddon was triggered by the proposals of the artists who immortalized their hands there: Krystyna Gay-Kutschenreiter, Bronisław Wolanin, Mateusz Grobelny, Marek Zyga and Edyta Orlińska. Meteors of outrage rained down on the people behind the idea. It is a miracle that the avenue escaped destruction!
The lack of space on the digital platform for TV Trwam was also deemed the end of the world. During a session, the president said that if “millions of people” wanted TV Trwam, while the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland had no influence over the National Broadcasting Council, then something bad was happening in the country. He then advertised the film “Mgła”, which should clear people’s minds enough for them to see the burning injustice affecting Father Rydzyk’s media. To prevent the apocalypse—the lack of space on the platform for TV Trwam—a march and protest rally was organized in Bolesławiec, attended by almost 200 people.
Another matter that many people could not get their heads around was the councillors’ decision to grant the Piarist order the use of the property on Bankowa Street. A Catholic school is to be established there. We asked our readers whether they supported creating a Catholic school in Bolesławiec. Nearly 500 votes were cast in the poll over six days. Only 18% of voters answered our question affirmatively; as many as 78% did not want a Catholic school.
The struggle by Maciej Małkowski, a county councillor and former deputy president for education, to improve the situation of children in overcrowded classes, in his view, also ended in an apocalypse. The councillor’s end of the world came on the day when the new deputy president, Kornel Filipowicz, informed councillors that Maciej Małkowski had already reduced the size of first-grade classes once during his term. He did so at Primary School No. 4, in the same year in which his daughter began studying in one of the classes he had created.
Each of us can add our own private apocalypse to this selective list of ends of the world. We survived all of them, emerging in better or worse condition. And each time, after our local end of the world, a new day dawned, and we were ready for more Armageddons.
Grażyna Hanaf