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.
How proud we all are that Poland is MIPIM's “Guest of Honor” this year – now, the message that Poland was the only EU country to avoid recession, that it is a great place to invest – in real estate and in other sectors – and that it has a bright future, will all be heard loud and clear, right?
Well, only really if you speak Polish.
On Tuesday, Poland had the honor of co-opening the huge real estate event with a set of four talks that were to be a focus of the first day. The first was a speech by Rafał Baniak, undersecretary of state in the Economy Ministry, and the second a speech by Sławomir Majman, head of PAIiIZ. The third and fourth Poland-focused events were panel discussions, one which was moderated by myself, on Poland’s investment attractiveness.
The session I led was the only event of the four conducted completely in English.
Undersecretary Baniak’s speech – though full of positive economic data – failed to impress. Visibly sweating in front of the crowd of 200 or so, he droned on in a monotone Polish, only to look up from his notes once every few minutes. Mr Majman’s speech was more upbeat and entertaining. But after an introduction of two or three sentences in English, Mr Majman turned to the audience and asked: “Now, who here speaks Polish? Raise your hand.” After determining that the majority in the audience were Polish speakers, he continued for the rest of his speech in Polish.
Admittedly, there was a translator (who before the speeches was visibly upset, complaining to organizers that she had not received “a scrap” of preparation material from the undersecretary), so those who did not speak Polish could listen in on earphones. But the prolific use of Polish seemed to turn away foreign-language speakers, with only a handful of foreign journalists staying on to watch the final panel. There was a palpable atmosphere of Poles speaking to Poles, for Poles.
The post-event cocktail was poorly attended – again, mostly by Poles.
All of this begs the question as to whether Poland is really making the most of the spotlight that has been cast upon it for MIPIM. It is an unprecedented opportunity – to showcase its potential to foreign investors not familiar to the market, not to brag to those who already know. The constant use of Polish comes off as standoffish, whereas English use might have generated more interest – and would have showcased Poland’s ability to use the most investor-friendly tool of all – speaking the world’s lingua franca.
---
On a separate but related note, Poland’s city stands are impressive – large, modern set-ups with scale models of Euro 2012 stadiums, television displays and even bartenders. But there seem to be few new investors visiting. Just this morning, on a visit to the level just below where Gdańsk, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław and Warsaw are located, I found a packed room of visitors flocking to the Moscow, Seoul, Frankfurt and Vienna stands. The Polish area upstairs was much emptier. The people who were there were hardly new to Poland as an investment destination. Most of the visitors were either speaking Polish, or recognizable to anyone in the market as those of businesspeople from Warsaw.
Whether this is due to the ubiquitous use of Polish at Poland-focused events is doubtful, but it’s hard to find another reason. Perhaps traffic will pick up in the days to come.
