I am in Poland right now (survived an 18 hour ferry ride to get here, and I hate, hate, hate ferries, and that’s why there was a slight delay in posting this week – I had to recover) and watching wiadomości. And the news is bleak. Or at least the newscasters make it sound so bleak. But in the case of that poor guy held by the Taliban in Pakistan the news is really bleak. That story (and the economy) seemed to dominate all the news programs today.

The guy in question is a Polish engineer doing some sort of survey work in Pakistan, and boom, został porwany by bad dudes with guns. That happened last September. I vaguely remember reading something about it back then. But then the story quietly faded away, other, more important news, like the economy and financial crises, happened. Until this week. Why this week? Because that’s when the deadline set by the bad dudes with guns was going to expire. Suddenly, the Polish engineer held in Pakistan was top news again. Well, at least in Poland.

I guess the bad dudes with guns are also losing their resolve, because now instead of demanding the release of 15 of their friends who are in prison, they only want four. And they extended the deadline, too.

That of course prompted various politicos to say this success was the result of Polish negotiators and their hard work. Well, if you ask me that’s not much of a success. The guy has been held od zeszłego września. If this is the best they can do in five months… well, I think I should just shut up right now.

I feel for the poor guy, but I do believe that this story will have a happy ending. The Taliban will realize sooner or later that kidnapping Poles is rather counter-productive. Poland simply doesn’t have enough weight to throw around with the Pakistani government. Or any weight at all. Because if it had, the guy would have been home by now.

Well, good luck poor guy! My thoughts are with you!

  • wiadomości (noun, plural, fem.) – news (or messages)
  • wiadmość (noun, sing., fem.) – message
  • został porwany – was/got kidnapped
  • porwać – to kidnap
  • od zeszłego września – since last September
  • wrzesień (noun, masc., plural: wrześnie) – September

PS. Unfortunately, it looks like this story does not have a happy ending. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of this man.