News / "EU Politicians Angered By Polish Chemical Castration Plan" [45]

Unfortunately, there's some evidence that it doesn't work - in fact it can make paedophiles worse. The type of paedophile who gets their kicks by hurting children are apparently made even worse by chemical or physical castration.

It would be a dangerous move and probably achieve the opposite effect to that intended.

UK, Ireland / I'm making a TV show about Polish food and culture in the UK - help? [4]

Try the Polish Cultural Centre in Leeds. They have a restaurant (private, I think) that's been going for years, even when the ingredients are hard to find. Most of the customers are 2nd and 3rd generation British and don't always speak Polish. But they do still go to the restaurant.

Life / Grafitti in Warsaw [44]


unfortunately it's art on somebody else's canvas, selected by bravado rather than artistic merit and the viewing public have no choice but to wander through the gallery.

Where I live, in an expensive district of Warsaw, every wall that isn't protected is covered in scrawled grafitti. Even though the penalties for doing it in poland are high (up to 5 years in gaol and the cost of repainting the building). I used to sometimes, on boring tram journeys, close my eyes then open them again and start counting the seconds until I saw some grafitti. In Warsaw I never got as far as 10.

The crazy thing is, in 10 years in Poland, I've never seen anybody actually doing it, even though some of the more complex scrawls must take some time...

Life / Banks in Poland - Any good recommendations [30]

I use Nordea Bank, which is Swedish-owned and has a few branches in Warsaw. I changed to them 3 years ago after having endless problems with Citibank.

They're quite friendly, and the internet service is good.

Life / A Polish Priest lying about freemasons [57]


I must be going to the wrong lodge!

But seriously, there are a lot of priests in Poland, not all of whom are particularly worldly wise (remote village school to provincial seminary to remote village parish where people hang on their every word) and they do indeed come out with some nonsense from time to time. But not all.

When the best known and loved figure within Polish masonry died a year ago his (very big) funeral was attended by a Roman Catholic Bishop in an official capacity. Most masons here are Catholic to one degree or another. There are a huge number of Catholics in Poland and Catholicism is, as its name suggests, universal. Therefore it contains people of the highest level of common sense as well as the most credulous.

I do wish that some, and I'm thinking about a certain radio station, were a little slower to condemn things thatothers do and a little quicker to examine their own actions. Also that those people who make a living publishing books containing the most ludicrous allegations about freemasonry (a man called Stanisław Kraijski writes some spectacular drivel for the Polish-language market claiming among other things that the YMCA is a masonic 'front' - and he's often on the radio fanning the flames of misinformation) would find something a bit worthier to write about.

History / Secret Society/Secret Police in Poland [47]


The first lodge in Poland was founded in 1721 in Warsaw, though there were almost certainly Polish members who joined abroad before that date. One problem is that most membership records from the old days haven't survived, and that due to geography, most great buildings in Poland were built from brick. There are some extremely old buildings in Kraków with masons' marks on, but no records exist to shed more light on their origins.

UK, Ireland / Polish towns/cities/villages twinned with UK ones [30]

Gdynia - Plymouth

They have a lot in common really.

I'm surprised my home town is twinned with Gliwice! But then again, when I was there last I heard a lot of Polish being spoken and the local airport seems to mostly serve flights from Poland.

Life / Is there Christmas shopping madness in Poland? [8]

The biggest mall (Arkadia) usually gets 18000 customers a day, now it's more than triple that, and it's really hard to get a cab this week.

Shopping madness!

Work / "Ethnicity" form - Polish Europeans? [77]

I think that's only in the US, and in any case, I've never been to Caucasia.

Life / Whats gay life in Poland? [140]

Benek's right. Things are similar in most of the world (some of the east Asian countries have a different way of looking at sexuality, but not all of them).

The biggest factor in Poland is the strenghth of the family - excellent in nearly every way, not so good if there's potential for conflict.

Life / What is the attitude of Poles in Poland to émigré Poles? [15]


Some people feel a bit awkward about them. Although it isn't at all easy for them to 'return' (many conditions have to be satisfied), in some small towns, the town council has bought (modest) houses for them to live in which can irritate their neighbours. I don't think there's open hostility, since just abou everybody believes they should all be able to come back, but the communities they came from, often in Eastern Poland tend to be quite poor places, and many were deported from towns and villages that are now in Belarus. Those people get a rough deal, since it's hard to say where they should go in Poland and of course the generation who were deported along with their parents are now elderly.

Poles from the Ukraine tend not to be hassled if they outstay their visas, especially if they have Polish names and speak the Polish as a mother tongue.

News / Weak US dollar in Poland and other countries... [180]

The smart money seems to think that the dollar will recover somewhat. I found this today, while I was checking: waluty.onet.pl/1437025,artykul.html

I'm thinking that as all those million+ Poles return to Poland for Christmas and start changing their pounds to złotych, it might be time for a bit of pound trading, since there always seems to be a hiccup around Christmas, and will probably be a bit more so this year.

UK, Ireland / Anti-Polish sentiment of England [253]

Worth reading the original statement very carefully.

Life / Whats gay life in Poland? [140]


In fact, yes, since I'm not a Pole (by birth anyway!) and I have a fine solution.

Your only option is to find somebody else who will willingly work behind bars, in pizza restaurants, call centres, security firms; and all for minimum wage.

With the only proviso that that when you find such a nationality, you won't moan about tham either. I expect you'll have to look for quite some time!

Life / Whats gay life in Poland? [140]

Not bad if you're gay either :-)))

Life / New skyscraper in Warsaw... [58]

It looks impressive though - and I heard the flats were sold out straight away!

Life / Whats gay life in Poland? [140]

It might have been 'Pikiet'. A small place that I remember through an alcoholic fug...

Life / Is there Christmas shopping madness in Poland? [8]

The shops in warsaw were jammed to bursting point this weekend!

Life / Whats gay life in Poland? [140]

I forget the name. Not sure if it's still open, it was new in the summer, but may have been a flash in the pan. There are a few others in Sopot: sixty9, Niebieski Kot (been going for a while - allways empty when we've been), and one called Enterpub, which is apparently quite good.

There's also a new one in Gdańsk starówka.

Work / ABOUT POLISH WORKERS [28]

Like any nationality, some people are hardworking, even very, and some people will take the p***. Poles are no different.

It looks like the guy you've got is swinging the lead, and should be treated like any other person who does so!

Life / Whats gay life in Poland? [140]


Is that still open? There's a new one nearer to Gdańsk (Przymorze) that seems a bit better...

History / Chicago Public Radio on *Polish* concentration camps [62]

Read it again - it specifically mentions atrocities, torture and deaths. I spotted that bit first time..... And it was certainly the first concentration camp in Europe.

But since it's in Belarus, those who believe Auschwitz to be a 'Polish concentration camp' should call it a Belarussian concentration camp, and those who conside Auschwitz to be a 'German concentration camp should call Bereza-Kartuszka a Polish concentration camp. Unfortunate, but that's the way it is.

Having read the wikipedia stuff and other sources, I have but one question. Why did the Poles behave like that, tp their own people and others? Why?

Life / Does Gadu Gadu cancel/reassign your id or account if you dont use it for a while? [17]

They don't say what the limit is, but they do assign unused numbers. Some people register many times until they get a number they like and then ignore the rest!

History / Chicago Public Radio on *Polish* concentration camps [62]


Maybe send them a strawberry...

History / Chicago Public Radio on *Polish* concentration camps [62]


Quite. 'A concentration camp in Poland' might be a tactful alternative given the feelings about this, but I wouldn't hold out much hope that things will change soon.

And, inwrocław, I think that you can make a valid comparison between the Auschwitz Memorial and Malbork Castle. Both are internationally known sites, both built by Germans, both in Poland and both attracting thousands of visitors annually.

News / A Pole to start the HIV AIDS epidemic? [52]

The medical services here aren't that bad, and considering the level of funding, they do really very well. That includes medical care for people with HIV, which compares well to services in the rest of Europe.

I'm sceptical about the figures though, not least due to recording methods and the large private sector within medicine, which may mask the real totals.

And Poland is most definitely not a third world country. It is a middle-income country and developing fast.

Life / Freemasons in Poland [41]


No problem!

I should say that in Britain and the US it's a bit less 'cloak and dagger' and they don't generally do the blindfolded Q & A session. I think they only do one interview too, by a kind of committee. Especially in the US there are more and more open days, and in Britain, they'll often invite you to the lodge's bar after a meeting to get to know people. In the US they don't usually have a bar, but often have big social functions, hog roasts, pot luck suppers etc.


The eternal question, that only answers itself after you've joined. All that stuff about getting off speeding tickets etc is nonsense - the benefits are very hard to describe.

A lot to do with self-development.

Life / Freemasons in Poland [41]

If you're in Poland, try wolnomularstwo.pl and you can make contact with somebody who'll be pleased to have a chat. In most other places, your local lodge will be listed in the phone book, or try googling 'freemasonry' and the name of the town or county you're in.

Sometimes there are open meetings. I think there's one tomorrow in Warsaw, but I'm not sure if it's completely open or by invitation only.

Another way, probably the best way is to speak to somebody who you know is a mason - they're usually happy to answer questions.

If you decide to proceed, you have to write a letter asking to join - this is essential as members must join of their own free will. The next part of the procedure varies a lot from place to place. I only know how it goes here in Poland. You will meet with various people, usually four individual meetings which last several hours each, and have to discuss your outlook on certain topics. Then you will be invited to a lodge, blindfolded (so you can't see who is in the lodge - your neighbour, boss, mother-in-law etc could be there!), and asked certain questions based on your responses to the interviews. The lodge will then vote. If the vote is positive, you will be given a date for initiation. At any stage, you can back out, or they can decide to not to continue.

Life / Freemasons in Poland [41]

Most don't want to. But some do, and are wished well and usually stay friends.

In the middle ages, the trade secrets of the stonemasons were the basis of many people's livelihood so it was perhaps harder to leave in those days, but we stopped killing people for betraying the correct way to build a cathedral many hundreds of years ago.


in four figures!!

Life / Freemasons in Poland [41]

Mattie and Shelley are quite right. Though the 'secret handshake' stuff is a bit overrated - masons don't go around doing that sort of stuff in the hope of meeting another mason - it would be a bit frowned on. Only a few wear rings, and some (including me) wear a discreet lapel pin. There's a Polish TV presenter who wears a large aquare and compasses on his jacket, visible to the viewers but that's highly untypical. It isn't secret, just meant to be discreet, and the time spent in lodge is a kind of freedom from the outside world, where peopel who often lead very pressured lives can truly relax.

Forget the 'Albert Pike' and 'P2' stuff. Utter rot. Not that P2 was a masonic lodge for most of its existance due to being expelled or that the name 'Albert Pike' is known outside the fevered minds of conspiracy theorists.

Freemasonry is a system of morality and a way of looking at life. It's quite popular in Poland, and has existed since at least the eighteenth century. Adam Mickiewicz was a member. The craft was banned during the communist era, but has been growing extremely healthily since, with about 20 lodges of different sorts around Poland, most in the capital.

Have a look at wolnomularstwo.pl and see what it's really like.


From whence to whither? ;-)))) (Not that that particular form is used within Polish FM)


And if you want to leave, you just send a letter saying so.