Straw of fate

It was a beautiful, late Friday afternoon. Nobody had volunteered up until that point and the magazine was just about to go to press. The silence was rather awkward. “Okay, since there are so many volunteers, we will have to choose someone democratically. I want somebody to bring the requisite number of straws from the kitchen.” This sounded like an innocent request. “I’ll do it! I’ll run straight there and even cut one right now,” I shouted. I thought that if I did this myself, taking things into my own hands, then I could somehow cheat fate. After all, it was impossible for me to draw the straw I had neatly cut myself. So I also jumped in to be the first one to draw one of the expertly mixed and concealed straws from the editor-in-chief’s hands. And? The seemingly impossible happened. I could not believe what I was looking at. I was holding a beautifully, diagonally cut straw. No, this couldn’t be true. Even though I knew it was pointless, I still insisted on measuring my unfortunate straw against the others. But despite all that, I’m glad to have been the source of such mirth. I haven’t heard such genuine laughter in a long time... nor have I seen so much weight lifted off my colleagues’ shoulders, either. “No, I can’t believe it,” I said. “Thank the person who came up with the idea for the Endpiece column many years ago,” someone said. Thanks, but how does this help me? It doesn’t. When I then asked for suggestions for the topic of the column, somebody said I should write about the drawing of the straw. Which is what I’m now doing. After all, orders are orders. However, coming back to the notion of fate, it is a cruel mistress. As was the case at a recent sports tournament for the real estate sector, when the team of the main sponsor couldn’t attend. Such is fate. Draws are also commonplace at real estate events, but of the kind where you can win prizes, such as the draw that recently took place at a conference. Among the prizes was jewellery produced by a company that has a developer among its shareholders; another was a bicycle designed for office workers. One gentleman present, who was looking hopefully at the bike, won the necklace. A lady who was not really paying attention to the results of the draw, and was more interested in the conversation she was having at the time, won the bike. Sadly for the gentleman, she didn’t want to swap. When it comes to real estate, however, I would personally like it to only intervene in situations similar to those I’ve mentioned. Unfortunately, when it comes to urban planning and architecture, in some locations and towns things still look as though someone has throw some dice across a map. The shapes and layouts of districts and estates can be very random, to put it mildly. I would rather see well thought-out schemes instead of such chaos: designs chosen by specialists, commissions, by someone experienced in such issues, and perhaps with the local residents and other interested parties being given a say in the process. But however it’s done, please don’t let it be random. And I’m not just referring to the centres of Polish cities and towns that have been demolished in the past and left undeveloped. Urban planning in Poland is lamentable across the country and always seems to be a case of: “Let’s throw the dice”. There’s a building here, here, there’s some empty space there and a car park over there, not here, and we will not be connecting it to another building. There’s an entrance to the underground next to the building, but no exit is needed on that side. Nothing seems to require coherent planning. Perhaps somebody will come up with something in the meantime. But until then we are left to rely on fate again. An estate? Stick it here. But it’s a marshy area prone to flooding! No problem – the decision has been taken and it’s going to stay that way. It’s as though no one decides and that fate always wanted things to be this way, so no one can change it either. Without delving into who controls fate, because that’s another story altogether, the next question is: who will design it? Somebody will come along. Anybody. Just as long as they’re cheap. So fate raises its fickle finger once again. Our beautiful country has plots and areas that need to be developed, preferably by the world’s leading architects. This should involve expert analysis and a discussion between those involved and affected, informing a conscious and considered final decision. And it certainly, absolutely should never be the work of fate.