National News
Vuvuzela-mania a boon for Pole
2010-06-24 18:05
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Warsaw - His national team may have failed to qualify for the World Cup, but vuvuzela-mania is good news for Piotr Zawadzinski, who runs a small plastic floor-tile firm in Poland's capital Warsaw.
Zawadzinski told the newspaper Metro that gathering dust in the back of his workshop was a machine for making plastic products such as hula-hoops and bottles, bought years ago in a bankruptcy sale.
He is now giving it a new lease of life turning out vuvuzelas.
"It only needed a few tweaks to make the right shape," he said.
Zawadzinski said he can produce four vuvuzelas a minute at a cost of €0.12 per instrument.
Selling a thousand for up to €2 each would cover the cost of his machine, he added.
Same noise
Chinese-made vuvuzelas imported by Poles surfing the wave currently fetch €1.48 to €1.97 on local online auction site allegro.pl.
"I guarantee that my vuvuzelas make the same noise as those in the World Cup," said Zawadzinski.
The tuneless, deafening plastic vuvuzelas have become the defining sound of South Africa's World Cup, leaving television networks hunting for ways to filter out the constant buzz.
Vuvuzelas have inspired Polish trade unionists seeking new ways to grab attention at rallies, beyond their usual sirens, air-horns and fireworks.
"We'll hand them out to our members before demonstrations. Around 200 to 300 instruments will be enough in a rally of 7 000 to 10 000," Grzegorz Ilka of the OPZZ union federation told Metro.