What readers find interesting is often surprising. The editorial board of this newspaper got to work last Monday with the expectation that the IPO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange – a symbolic debut that symbolized the coming of age of Poland's economy after communism – would be the most widely read story of the week. 

We were dead wrong. 

Now, we cater to an international readership, and it may be that international readers are less interested in history-making stock debuts than we thought, but nothing prepared us for the huge number of hits our story on the completion of the huge statue of Jesus in Świebodin got last week. It was by far our most popular story. 

The story certainly had legs. It had been around for weeks as the statue neared completion and we had shied away from reporting it, because there was little news and little to interest our readers (or so we thought). We felt its final completion was worth a story though, and were genuinely surprised that it garnered so much interest. 

There is, of course, a certain element of humor that can be found in the story. Even American satirist Stephen Colbert, as is often his modus operandi, found a way to both mock the statue and his own country at the same time. (link here)

As the story made its way around the social networking sites, the reaction of Poles to those who posted it on their Facebook pages was interesting.

“Welcome to Poland. There's nothing f&#@ing else to do,” went one comment. “I'm ashamed of this. What a stupid idea,” went another. 

These were reactions that were fairly common, at least here in Warsaw amongst this newspaper's readership, contacts and colleagues. Urban, well-educated Poles mostly found the statue embarrassing.

The reaction is fairly common with certain news stories – especially religiously tinged ones. We heard a lot of it this summer during the argle-bargle over the cross in front of the Presidential Palace.

But it is this editor's opinion that Poles have nothing to be embarrassed about. Certainly this story does attract a certain amount of attention (as evidenced by Colbert, et al.), but such stories are common and short-lived. Every country has its quirks, and Poland is no exception. One can question the usefulness of the statue (will it really draw the number of tourists the city hopes to draw?) or its mission (how many hungry mouths could have been fed with the €1 million needed to build it?), but that it says anything about Poland as a whole is a stretch. 

Sure, building a giant Jesus in a small Polish town might be seen as eccentric. But from all of the positive stories also in the international media (like the successful IPO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, or the opening of the Copernicus Science Centre), there is plenty out there for Poles to be proud of.