How do you pronounce your first name?
My first name /ɣɛrcɑn/ is complicated to pronounce if you are not Dutch. That's why I respond to: Gianni (for Italians and other Latin-based language speakers), Gert (for English and German speakers), G (if you happen to be family), and I usually sign my emails simply with GJ.
So what is the story of Baba Filarski?
In academic research there are many serious people studying very serious things, carrying very serious titles. One day, when we were wrapping up a grant proposal for funding, the chief scholar asked me: ‘what are your titles?’.
‘I have none…’ I replied. He didn’t believe me.
The next day, he mailed me again: ‘what are your titles?’
‘I still have none…’, I wrote back,
When this exchange of non-information happened for the third time, I explained to him, ‘I have finished two bachelors, one in Business Economics and one in Medieval Studies. I have no titles that make any difference for your proposal. I am not an applicant, just a supporter. But if you must call me anything, call me baba.’
The irony must have been lost in the mail somewhere, because when I reviewed the filed proposal and went through the supporting list of all the distinguished professors, I found myself there as Baba Filarski.
The name stuck. And as a lover of myth, fairy tales, the fantastic and grotesque, I carry it with pride. I believe there are stories everywhere to be told, some are true, some could be true and some should be true. The most interesting ones are those that didn’t happen but are still true. So there it goes: these blogs are the tales of Baba Filarski, consultant extraordinaire in the fantastic world of academia.
Is Poland the land of your ancestors?
Yes, and no. It is true that Filarski is a Polish name. My ancestor (Jan Daniel) came to the Netherlands as a mercenary who fought for the British-Russian expeditionary force in the invasion of Holland at Bergen in 1799. They were defeated by the French republican army that held the Netherlands at the time. Afterwards he stayed and promptly signed up to work for the French. Story is that he went with them to fight Russia, but lost his leg near Dresden and hopped back single-leggedly to Amsterdam. The French seem to think that he died in battle though. A historian I worked with once told me that his name is registered in an archive in Paris among the casualties. But maybe Jan Filarski is a very common name, we don't know.
Anyhow. Point is that he left Poland in 1799, at a time the country did not exist. Ask the Poles - Poland has a habit of disappearing and reappearing throughout history. He is also said to come from a region (Stettin, Pommerania) that belongs to modern Poland, but had by 1799, been part of Sweden for most of the 17th century, and was ceded to Prussia - what would later become Germany - in 1720. So yeah, he was a native Pole, not living in Poland, it's complicated. Not to mention the fact that, although the name stuck, since his arrival in the Netherlands, there were quite a number of other people involved before I was born... my mother's last name is Andersen, coming from 19th century Norway, my grand mother's last name was Laveaux: Hugenot refugees from 17th century France. And then there were of course many native Dutch - mostly from the coastal areas of North Holland.
So, yes, and no. But regardless, I have always really liked Poland - it's a fantastic and beautiful country with a fascinating history and very open and hard working people. In the Netherlands we tend to forget the crucial role of the Polish army in the liberation of 1944 and 1945. We remember the British, American and Canadian forces, but few people know the story of the Poles. Poland fell to communism afterwards and spent most of the latter half of the 20th century as an enemy forced behind the iron curtain under Russian control. So it was easier to forget. Luckily this has started to change over the last thirty years. But do read the fascinating story of e.g. General Stanislaw Maczek.
Do you speak Polish?
No.
What's up with the Italian flag in your Twitter handle?
My wife is Italian, so my children are both Dutch and Italian, and I spend so much time there that it has become a bit home away from home.
Do you speak Italian?
Not enough, I have a harder time learning Latin-based languages than I'd like to admit. But I haven't given up yet. Most of my Italian is passive, I know enough to follow every day conversation and get the general drift of newspaper articles. And if Italians could learn to speak a little bit slower, I maybe able to join a conversation with some basic sentences.