We have just received news that a tragic incident took place in Gdańsk. mayor of the city, Paweł Adamowicz, has been attacked while on stage during one of the fundraising events taking place in aid of our charity. The assailant has been detained. This took place in central Europe, in Poland. This country is famous for re-inventing freedom, for inventing Solidarity in the 20th century. It’s a country which devised freedom, and other countries followed suit. This country found that the road to freedom can be peaceful.
This is the country which got so confused in the last 3 years. We got so tangled up that we cannot respect a day so special like today. We got so tangled up, so messed up, that we began to attack each other. We keep repeating – “let’s play peacefully”. All these resentments, all the pain causes people to attack our fellow citizens.
Sometimes it is a wild country. Don’t go down that road. You can’t fight violence with violence. Take this message to heart, especially today, when we are doing such amazing things. On this day, when we want to be together, even though some people prefer to show us in horrifying light, like clay figurines. We are not evil. We are here to improve the world. Just today we have reached another magical threshold – we raised 1 000 000 000 PLN in 27 years. The world is buzzing about this achievement.
Let’s be Poles who love one another. Let’s be Poles who are friends to one another. Let’s be Poles who have no violence towards one another. To think that this act of violence took place in my hometown… I am shaken.
Let’s not listen to those who tell us to split. Don’t follow that path. Don’t go down the road of evil. Don’t follow people who resent the world and foster that resentment in others. Don’t go down the road of division.
There was no East or West Berlin. There was no East or West Germany. No divided Korea. This will end too.
We mustn’t create divisions or split this country in two. No one has the right to say that there are two countries where there is one Poland. Poland is just like we are here today – good, wonderful, amazing.
Don’t go down that path. Don’t follow the path of resentment. Let’s follow the path of positivity. I would like to apologise to all watching this telethon. Life writes the script. Thank you for being here with us. Young, very young people are here. Thank you to all compatriots who are here, and those who are with us around the world. Let’s follow the path of love. Now, let’s listen to Kasia (Nosowska; Polish vocalist) singing “Arahja”. Let’s listen to the words. You know what it’s about. It’s clearly about splitting apart, about division. Let’s stay together. Don’t let anyone break us apart.
Mr mayor, you are in our thoughts. We hope that everything is going to end well. This fundraiser is still going strong.
Listen to the song, and we shall continue to welcome our guests in the studio and we will continue to be joyous. Have joy! Don’t hold on to resentment. Live according to the ideas of Love, Friendship, Music!”
- Jerzy Owsiak at the live broadcast from the Grand Finale studio in Warsaw
Months of preparation, thousands of events around the world and hundreds of thousands of people involved. The 32nd Finale of GOCC is just around the corner! In Warsaw, the Orchestra's heart will be beating the loudest at PGE Narodowy meadows. It is here Jurek Owsiak summed up preparations for the next edition of the fundraising.
For the eighteenth time, Jurek Owsiak, this time from the final stage on the PGE Narodowy meadows in Warsaw, opened the joyful run under the same slogan "Get Even with Diabetes". Crowds of running enthusiasts, after a five-kilometre route through the streets of Warsaw, will reach the finish line located in the same place.
Five days before the 32nd Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, we visited the 'Pomnik - Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka' (Children's Memorial Health Institute) to ceremoniously inaugurate the first Ophthalmic Simulation Laboratory in Europe dedicated exclusively to the field of peadiatric ophthalmology.
