Kiwi battler in Poland
How a New Zealander fought post-Communist officialdom – and won. By James Belfield.
JOHN BORRELL is a battler. This memoir of a Kiwi-born journo who starts up a guesthouse, wine distribution company and crusading newspaper in Poland pits Borrell against ranks of crooked officials, nasty neighbours, treacherous tangles of red tape and systemic corruption at almost every turn.
Borrell and wife Ania started to build Kania Lodge – named for a rare red kite which had been seen as a good omen gliding over his newly bought field – in 1993. He was 45, had recently packed in a successful and varied career in journalism, which started as a cub reporter on the Taranaki Daily News and took in stints with The Australian, The Guardian, The Economist, Reuters and Time, and had sunk his savings into a field near the hamlet of Sytna Gora in Kaszubia, not far from Gdansk and the shores of the Baltic Sea.
As his first sods were cut on the project, Poland was still less than five years into its post-Communist era and Borrell displayed all the entrepreneurial nous expected of a well-travelled reporter to realise ‘‘that on the scuffed, down-atheel fringes of the New Europe, a little capital and a willingness to take risks opened up opportunities seldom found in the plump, comfortable economies of the Old Europe’’.
But right from the outset he was beset by the sort of planning regulations hell, land disputes and tradesmen frustrations which – compounded by working in a foreign language – would probably have called a halt to many such projects.
He was embroiled in years-long court cases and even kinghit with a fencepost at one point.
Borrell’s commentary of these roadblocks sometimes paints him in a belligerent light – and it occasionally risks becoming the type of rant heard the world round by those trying to get planning permission for self-build projects.
It is clear from the outset that he is a stubborn man – not the sort of fellow you would want to have a row with in any language – and the dogged determination that made him a sought-after foreign correspondent, also makes him a tough nut to crack, even for hard-nosed Polish officials.
But instead of turning into a cross between Grand Designs and Neighbours From Hell, Borrell’s tale is peppered with insights into post-Communist Poland and an honesty about what had taken him around the globe.
He is quick to dissect the Polish language and peculiar mannerisms, and see them as reflective of a nation which has been stomped on for centuries by invading armies marching both east to west and west to east.
And for all his frustrations and injuries – he was embroiled in years-long court cases and even king-hit with a fencepost at one point – he shows an understanding bordering on tenderness for his adopted country.
Eventually his battles against council bureaucracy lead him to start up his own newspaper, in which he rails against corruption and because of which he fights a long court battle against claims he lost a mayor an election.
If planning regulations are an insightful window into mid-1990s Poland, then regional journalism is a full broadcast on the battle between the old ‘‘red’’ guard and the new capitalism. Borrell’s success in his storytelling is in maintaining his journalist’s eye for detail throughout the story – albeit with the subjective hindsight of knowing he emerges the victor.