Khun Wimon was a happy young lady who arrived in Pattaya for a bit of a holiday. She went to an ATM on Jomtien beach and withdrew 10,000 baht. She was promptly set upon by two thugs who stole her bag containing the money and mobile phones, and then punched her in the stomach. “I’m never coming to Pattaya again” exclaimed the shocked Khun Wimon, lying in hospital clutching her stomach.
Well, probably not. Because the next morning she checked out of hospital after the doctors could find nothing wrong with her, and is now being sought by the police whose inspection of the CCTV footage at the ATM showed that she had never withdrawn any money. Apparently she has a nationwide history of fraudulently extracting sympathy and cash by inventing crimes.
Meanwhile, and of considerably less importance, the Polish President Lech Kaczynski has been upsetting the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the second world war by complaining about the Russians. Blah blah blah, Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, blah blah blah, 22,000 people massacred at Kratyn, blah blah blah.
Hang on; 22,000 people? In 1940, the soviets took 22,000 doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers and army officers to a forest in Katyn and shot them all in the back of the head; at a stroke wiping out the more educated portion of Polish society. Then they blamed it on the Germans and covered up the truth for fifty years. Even now they refuse to acknowledge this as being a war crime.
Normally, this sad little fact is something you would probably just skip through when reading the news about the Poles bitching about the Russians. But it happened to coincide with my watching of a movie called “Katyn”, and you can guess what it is about.
Director Andrzej Wajda’s father was one of the victims, so he has a compelling reason to make the movie; and it is worthy of the Oscar nomination it received. The story is told from the point of view of the soldiers who were interned and eventually shot, and their families waiting for them in an environment reeking of suspicion, control and obvious lies. It’s a sombre tale, and wartime Poland looks as bleak as you would imagine it to be. Don’t expect any jokes, do expect to be moved. The ending, which is a protracted recreation of the massacre, is chilling.
It does put an idiot woman who pretends to have been punched in the stomach into perspective.
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2009-09-02| genuinej says“fraudulently extracting sympathy” A female pursuit if ever there was one, but this does seem a trifle OTT.