Finding Our Brand, Building Legitimate Pride

Quo Vadis II Essay contest 2010 - 2nd place

What ground-breaking initiatives would you propose to second and third-generation Polish North Americans to foster a greater pride in their heritage?

Finding Our Brand, Building Legitimate Pride

by Kinia Adamczyk

In the field of “nation branding”, Italy was branded “fashion”, and Spain, passion. What about Poland? Creative tension. The country currently ranks 29^th on the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index (NBI), way below Germany, France, the UK and Canada (the top 4 countries on the NBI). In an interview with the British Telegraph in 2007, nation branding guru Wally Olins said that he has “paused his involvement with Poland’s chamber of commerce, which had brought him to change the grey and gloom image of the country abroad”. At Nation-Branding.info news of Olins’ contribution to the branding Poland project had been reported “here and here, and things looked fine, but the irreductible Kaczynski brothers are damaging the country’s image in a way that branding alone cannot cope with.”

Simon Anhol’s concept of nation branding defines “a field of theory and practice which aims to measure, build and manage the reputation of countries (closely related to place branding). Some approaches applied, such as an increasing importance on the symbolic value of products, have led countries to emphasize their distinctive characteristics. The branding and image of a nation-state and the successful transference of this image to its exports - is just as important as what they actually produce and sell."

Are we going to let Olins and the likes define who the Polish nation is? Do we like being defined through the words “creative tension”? Are they appropriate?

There are close to a million Canadians of Polish descent and over 10 million Americans of Polish descent in Canada and the United States. That’s around 3.3% of each country’s population. As Henri Massis wrote in Les jeunes gens d’aujourd’hui, “it is man that makes history, and not history that makes man” (“C'est l'homme qui fait l'histoire et non pas l'histoire qui fait l'homme.”)

Following Massis, are Poles-in-exile, which make for a considerable fraction of the North American population, going to write their own stories, their history and create their own brand? Or are they going to let others do it for them? Will they unite and use their history to build their own leaders and a strong voice, or simply let their past control them, and fade into political ghosts, as internal quarrels extinguish creativity, innovation and youth?

Pride is defined as “a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from possessions or qualities that are widely admired.” It is also “the consciousness of one’s own dignity, and more negatively, “the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or of one’s importance”.

Can North American Poles derive that feeling from their achievements at political, economic and cultural levels? After all, hundreds of Americans of Polish descent have made it big in North American, including artists Tamara de Lempicka and Krzysztof Wodiczko, the Wachowski brothers (filmmakers), journalist Andrew Nagorski, model Anja Rubik, composer Leopold Stokowski, actress Jane Kaczmarek, hockey player Wayne Gretzky and political advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, to name just a few. However, there remains much room for improvement, especially at the PR, political and economic levels.

Whether in Canada or the United States, how often do we hear of a (financially and politically) powerful Polish lobby? How often do prominent Americans and Canadians with Polish roots refer to their backgrounds with pride? How efficient is Polonia in promoting a positive image of Poland, its culture and achievements? Are regular referrals to World War II, to Soviet and Nazi/German invasions and occupations, to folk culture and a limited part of our gastronomy the best way to foster a sense of pride among young North Americans of Polish descent? How many young North American Poles receive funding from their own ethnic community to attend the best schools and to attain positions of power?

The first ground-breaking initiative to foster pride in Polish heritage amongst young Polish North Americans would consist in honestly answering these questions. The second ground-breaking initiative would be to fill the gaps where our answers are not satisfactory. Far from suggesting we forget our history, I believe we must learn from our mistakes and pains in order to build bridges between our past and present, as a result constructing a more successful future.

That takes knowledge, honesty, guts, money, leverage and power. It takes a young generation of optimistic, hard-working youth that will develop a solid reputation in political and economic spheres, in the USA, Canada, Poland, and beyond. It takes lawyers, lobbyists, PR specialists, journalists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and politicians who will first develop solid reputations and make it in their respective North American entourage, then give back to their (Polish) community, encouraging young Poles financially, politically, intellectually and even emotionally.

Solid individuals make for solid communities. Whether we like it or not, change is inevitable, and its fast pace these days is a characteristic not only of North America, but of the 21^st century. Polonia must embrace change and use it to its advantage. It must have representatives in the White House and on the Hill, on Wall Street and Bay Street and writers in the New York Times and the Globe and Mail; policy analysts at think-tanks such as the Hoover Institution, the Brookings Institution, the RAND Corporation and the Fraser Institute. Poles in Canada and the USA must be seen, heard and spoken about, “loud and clear”.

Various initiatives at the North American level have created ripple effects, including Poland in the Rockies, a biennial symposium aiming to stimulate an interest among English-speaking Americans and Canadians in Polish history and culture through lectures, films, discussion and friendship; to create a network of well-informed and dynamic friends of Poland; and to encourage Polish Americans and Polish Canadians to integrate their identity and “things Polish” into the mainstream of North American life.

In 2008, a group of alumni from Poland in the Rockies founded an online, transatlantic quarterly named cosmopolitanreview.com. The review boasts acclaimed writers and journalists such as historian Norman Davies, Wanda Urbanska (producer of a PBS show, Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska), former Warsaw Financial Times correspondent Krzysztof Bobinski, the Calgary Herald’s Kris Kotarski, as well as emerging talent, including many PitR alumni: Chicago-based Justine Jablonska, Christian Davies, currently in Warsaw, Pennsylvania-based Vincent Chesney, and Dominic Roszak, from Ottawa, amongst others. CR boasts a cosmopolitan readership from over 50 countries and has received support and acclaims from numerous organizations, including the Polish Institute for Arts and Science in America, the Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies and the Polish-Canadian Association of Alberta.

Quo Vadis, itself inspired by PitR, seems to have spurred action as well: following the 2009 conference, a few Torontians founded YouNxt. A branch of the Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce of Toronto, YouNxt is a network dedicated to connecting, promoting and advancing Polish-Canadian talent. Its mission is to create a successful and vibrant Polish-Canadian Community and strengthen Canada through its rich Polish heritage and shared talents.

2009 was thus a year full of effervescence for the young members of the Polish-North American community, and the accomplishments listed above can definitely be a source of pride for our generation. The challenges lying ahead, however, are related to how we manage our (human and financial) resources. We must encourage each other and avoid duplicating efforts. We must create our own brand, by uniting, speaking in one voice, and resolving internal and inter-generational quarrels with poise, delicacy and diplomacy. That, in itself, will be an enormous breakthrough.

QVII will be a litmus test of the progress we have made so far. Youth conferences are a wonderful opportunity to build networks and to share ideas, but they are also known for their good dose of partying. The former must definitely take precedence over the latter. Participants must leave QVII with new knowledge and tools, a sense of purpose and direction and a concrete plan to transform thoughts and ideas into action. Without action, conferences remain but little more than a few days of fun and joy.

But I know we won’t let that happen. We’ll be too busy writing the next chapter of a brilliant history that will surely transform into a great source of pride for young Poles in North America. CR

Published on an annual basis, 20,157 interviews have been conducted with approximately 1,000 interviews per country for the 2008 Index to determine how countries are perceived by others. People over the age of seventeen have been interviewed in twenty core countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Turkey, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, South Africa. See footnote for the criteria underlying the NBI ranking are. People: Measures the population's reputation for competence, education, openness and friendliness and other qualities, as well as perceived levels of potential hostility and discrimination.

Governance: Measures public opinion regarding the level of national government competency and fairness and describes individuals' beliefs about each country's government, as well as its perceived commitment to global issues such as democracy, justice, poverty and the environment.

Exports: Determines the public's image of products and services from each country and the extent to which consumers proactively seek or avoid products from each country-of-origin.

Tourism: Captures the level of interest in visiting a country and the draw of natural and man-made tourist attractions. Culture & Heritage: Reveals global perceptions of each nation's heritage and appreciation for its contemporary culture, including film, music, art, sport and literature.

Investment & Immigration: Determines the power to attract people to live, work or study in each country and reveals how people perceive a country's economic and social situation. From Nation Brands Index Site for information about Simon Anholt, Retrieved 2008, 07-05.