Here in Kraków we have been celebrating 750 years of the founding of the city. Well, I say celebrating in the sense that the city put a few stages on the main square (Rynek Głowny) and organised a few events. On Friday evening, some of these events were televised on TVP, one of the state owned public broadcasting channels. Now, it is relatively sufficient to say that the stage acts and performers were not anything to get exceedingly excited about on this particular evening (a few average bands, some comedians, cabaret acts, etc.), unlike Sunday evening when jazz great Tomasz Stańko performed, but what I wish to draw attention to is one particular cabaret act that did a short sketch and song on the stage in the early evening. It consisted of two men acting as if they were washing dishes in a restaurant in London and a portly woman as their boss. The lyrics of the song were a dig at the fact that so many Poles have taken off for the UK in order to earn more money (whether as kitchen help, masons, architects, etc.) than they can earn in their home country. This in itself was amusing, but the Polish lady that portrayed their English boss then went on to berate and yell at the two workers with comments in English like “Get to fucking work” and “Move your fucking asses”. I can curse with the best of ’em, but I think that if you were trying to promote the artistic and cultural elements of your 750 year-old city on the the historic market square (the main tourist attraction) in front of thousands of local residents and English speaking tourists, would you repeatedly use the word “fuck”? Not to mention that, as stated previously, it was still relatively early in the evening (around 20:30) when many children are roaming the square, buying noise-makers from street vendors (who, in my opinion, should be executed on the spot for selling those damned annoying things) or sitting at one of the many outdoor restaurants with their parents getting that last ice cream of the day for desert. “Hey daddy … what does she mean by ‘move your fucking asses’?” Yes, “fuck” is an English word, but you would be hard pressed to find an individual from any country anywhere in the world that doesn’t know this one! Again, let me say, televised on “public” TV. Makes you feel proud, doesn’t it? Apparently, there have been a few news articles concerning how low the standards were for this gala event … and in true political fashion … no one is sure of who to exactly blame for organising some of these events.