Time for a change, please

   Poland has a problem when it comes to portraying its image abroad. The government has to take much of the blame for this, but different media around the world often compound the issue.

   Last week it was Canada's turn. Across the country a media circus gathered momentum over a family of illegal Polish immigrants who were being deported back home. In all the reports, Canadian immigration came out looking like cold-hearted villains. Poland itself didn't fare much better.

   The eldest son was quoted as saying he would "miss everything, especially the lifestyle and the freedom that you have here (in Canada) – People are very lucky here." And Peter Mizgalewicz, the president of a local chapter of the Polish-Canadian Alliance, said the family had been slow in processing the papers because they were used to a communist system, "where individuals are basically nothing." So much for the free elections of 1989 and the changes of the past decade, some of which the family must have seen prior to departing 1994.

   Both statements were obviously made in an attempt to win public sympathy, but also to play along with a distorted picture of Poland and one that most North Americans seem willing to accept. Despite the well-known events in Gdansk and the presence of foreign companies and investment, the vision of Poland as a modern, dynamic emerging nation simply doesn't exist for many North Americans.

   Often the image of a communist-ensnared country is kept alive by newspapers in Polish communities throughout North America. A look at many of these publications reveals a fixation with the glories and sufferings of the past, but often little information about the present or, more importantly, the future of the country. And statements such as Mizgalewicz's only reinforce the perception of an oppressed and oppressive "Eastern bloc" country.

   Hungary and the Czech Republic have escaped this type of stereotyping, but Poland appears to be lumped together with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as a hostile, corrupt place caught in a cold, gray communist time warp. The real picture of a changed and changing country just hasn't made it to the outside world.

   The problem is made worse by the present government's relative failure to help change Poland's image abroad. This year the Polish Tourist Organization (POT) has been allocated a budget of $10 million, a bagatelle when compared to Hungary's $75 million tourism budget.

   POT expects to be given $93.7 million during the next five years or about $18.5 million per year. This is hardly enough money to launch what is really needed: an aggressive worldwide campaign to promote a vibrant country experiencing growth and offering opportunities to tourists and investors.

   Poland has changed and has much to offer visitors and businesspeople. It's time the rest of the world was made aware of this.