Two years ago in the fall, cosmopolitan review was just an idea - and it was brewing in three great cities: Warsaw, Montreal and New York.
Seven issues and more than 150 articles later, with the contributions of almost 50 writers, CR is well alive and kicking. We've taken you around the world - from Barcelona to Baku through Białystok and even Istanbul...
Our readers and writers have been on surprisingly happy, exotic journeys to Polish World War II settlements in India and Tengeru, and on cold, icy and even deadly journeys through Siberia.
Through book reviews, poetry, travel pieces, social and political commentary, event - and sometimes even sports - coverage, CR is always striving to inform and animate discussion about issues that have an international dimension, and always through two lenses: the cosmopolitan one and, true to our name, the Polish one planted firmly in the world at large.
For those who have just joined us, we want you to know that CR is the brainchild of Poland in the Rockies alumni, a biennial symposium in Polish studies taking place in the majestic mountains of Canmore, Alberta.
The latest and fourth edition took place in July 2010. CR was there - check out our two articles covering the only event of its kind in North America.
Both speakers and alumni alike have contributed articles to CR. In this issue, we are pleased to have 10 PitR alumni as contributors as well as one PitR speaker (and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist) Alex Storozynski.
In his article The Media's Slander of Poland: Ignorance, Lazy Editing, or Malicious Libel? Storozynski addresses journalistic practices that turn victim into perpetrator and distort history.
Indeed, it is hard to believe that Poles still have to fight major news media over the term "Polish concentration camps." We reject that this is done through malice, but it is very discouraging if done through ignorance.
The New York Times? The Wall Street Journal? They have journalists/editors who don't know who built Auschwitz?
And speaking of catching up on history: August 15, 1920 is a date to remember - one commemorating the Battle of Warsaw, which established Poland's independence and also stopped the Bolshevik advance into war-weary Europe. In her article Independent Poland's Baptism by Fire: The Battle of Warsaw, 1919-1920, Justine Jablonska wonders why the Encyclopedia Britannica forgot.
Still on a historical - but also, cultural note - Poland in the Rockies alumna Anna Butkiewicz reviewed Becoming Metropolitan: Urban Selfhood and the Making of Modern Cracow for us.
The book shows that Cracovians in late 19th century were feeling metropolitan, cosmopolitan and very much a part of western culture, and were well informed about it. A century later, too many western writers still have only the vaguest knowledge about this central European country.
For example, CR stumbled upon a blog entry by Canadian journalist Paul Wells who seems to think that Poland's independence was a gift from Wilson, Lloyd George and Clémenceau.
In fact, Lloyd George neither knew nor wanted to know anything about Poland; Clémenceau gave the subject little thought; Wilson was, indeed, a great friend of Poles and very supportive. But the Poles had to defend their independence themselves from the start and -- nota bene Paul Wells -- it is Pilsudski who gave his people their independent state (and honored Wilson by naming a major street after him) - not Lloyd George, nor Clémenceau.
Although we do occasionally stumble upon ignorance and articles about Poland that make us squirm, CR is pleased with many developments taking place in Poland and beyond, and its success is noted - as so clearly stated by former US ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe in his speech at Poland in the Rockies last summer. And, many Poles around the world, are making sure that the POL in cosmopolitan is noted and well integrated in their communities: Pangea Alliance and its Outsanding Pole Abroad contest, Dominic Roszak's premiere presentation in Ottawa of Mary Skinner's great film, In the Name of their Mothers, Christina Szurlej's article about Canada-Poland initiatives and Ola McLees about US-Poland education programs.
As we embark on our third year, we continue to explore our surroundings, wherever we may be. Our popular chronicler of the Pennsylvania coal region, Vince Chesney, leaves home for a while to visit L'Viv; Kinia Adamczyk shares her conversation with young Zambians about Africa's future; Isabelle Sokolnicka's work in human rights in South Africa this summer strengthened her interest in the problem of human trafficking in her own country of Canada; and Irene Tomaszewski's journey back into history introduces us to the brave and beautiful spy Krystyna Skarbek.
So wherever you are, dear reader, you're in our world, and whoever you are, read Asia Beattie's observation: you don't have to be born Polish... to be Polish. CR
Image by Angelos DeSantis, from creativecommons.org
