News / FT:Chance to remake a capital city (Warszawa) [6]

"Warsaw's crowded core was destroyed in the secondworld war and now prewar buildings still pockmarked by bullet holes stand next to parking lots and concrete monstrosities from the communist era"

Poetic licence. Whatever.

Never mind. This haphazard article reflects the various competing interests at work. What it missed out is the planned destruction of the few green areas in Warsaw using the excuse of "national interest" and "preparation for the 2012 Euro championships".

History / 1939: the road to tyranny. Is it happening again? [14]

While it's true that Americans have little real idea about what's going on in their own country, neither does anybody else.

Ask any Brit who doesn't read Private Eye about what's truly going on in Britain and you quickly realise how utterly ignorant they are.

But we are not heading down the road of dictatorship. If anything, the degree of manipulation that's always been there is becoming more apparent for those who are interested in looking for it.

Neo Cons are so passe, by the way.

Travel / Going to Poland this summer -- US dollar prediction... [34]

Oil prices are so high because they are denominated in dollars.
Ditto, gold.

Life / Angina, Polish resources needed [27]

Now for a serious comment about angina, even though it will look strange at first.

I had some heart pain a few years ago due to overwork; I also have a slight heard defect. I saw specialists in Poland, who detected the defect but said it was nothing to worry about and certainly didn't warrant any treatment.

Nevertheless, the pain continued - little stabbing pains so I decided to self-treat by ... eating 99% Lindt chocolate! The effect is instantaneous - the pain simply melts away immediately.

The mechanism involved is as follows:
Metabolising the chocolate involves the production of nitric oxide, which dilates the arteries - hence relieving heart pain. Doctors actually prescribe drugs to do this - but you can eat this god-awful chocolate instead. 70% Lindt doesn't have the same effect - it has to be the vile stuff.

Life / Jaywalking in Poland ? [38]

I saw a great sight the other day - a motorcycle cop sat on his bike outside Hard Rock Cafe, surrounded by young women.

Life / Jaywalking in Poland ? [38]

They do in Pruszkow
Ordnung muss sein!

News / EU or America - which country is better to work now? [56]

I have a young cousin and a young acquaintance who went to the States - they found it fun - an adventure - but weren't much impressed. As they are well-educated, Poland provides a better future.

Life / Jaywalking in Poland ? [38]

It's worse in Switzerland.

Not only do they get you for jaywalking, they also get you for not picking up a basket in a supermarket!

I had a friend who got caught for this - he only wanted to buy a bar of chocolate, but he got stopped by the security guards and the police were summoned and gave him a caution!

UK, Ireland / Whats needed for Poles to work in the UK [4]

zpwb.org.uk/pl/Jak_zyc_i_pracowac_w_Wielkiej_Brytanii.pdf

UK, Ireland / 700 are arriving every day from Eastern Europe into Britain [50]

What I like is that Poles can work in the UK and claim child support for children left behind in Poland. A PLN 5000 present annually.

Soon, there will be large numbers of Poles who are unemployed and drawing benefit in the UK while working in the black economy and claiming child benefit. That would be perfect for the restaurant trade and construction industry too.

News / Revenge or Justice? Vetting Laws in Poland [18]

Cardinal Wyszynski's family did alright under Communism as well.
Ergo ... his family should be dispossessed of land in Konstancin.
No - can we just fast forward to economic growth please.

The damage was done, the previous elite has handed/is handing over the reins to their friends and family - let's punish them too for the sins of their fathers, shall we?

UK, Ireland / English people attitude towards Poles? [761]

"I have never had an English teacher that spoke Polish during my lessons. I couldn't even begin to understand how anyone could teach English through Polish."

Hmmm, I find the explanation of complicated or unexpected points of grammar in a foreign language to be counter-productive, especially to less advanced learners.

For example, while it is possible to teach foreign verb conjugation to English children through the target language, it diverts the attention of the learners away from the task in hand, a task which is by the way utterly alien to them as they never meet conjugation exercises in English.

Our view of education is often highly-coloured by our own experience of it.

News / Climate change - what is Poland doing to reduce its carbon emissions? [14]

Poland's emissions limits are quite low in light of the amount of construction required in the next 5 years. The cement-producing industry alone will produce loads of CO2. This is why eco-fascists abound in Western countries which don't need to develop massively. The older ones are usually failed nuclear disarmers, anti-whalers and suchlike. Anti-capitalists after the death of marxism.

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that, in line with the predictions of a certain climatologist called Dr Landscheidt, the long-term drought in the south Sahara has come to an end. He also forecast a downturn in temperatures globally starting in around 2010, hitting a minimum in 2030. Still, what did he know? He was the only one to keep on correctly predicting el Nino.

News / Revenge or Justice? Vetting Laws in Poland [18]

The present-day population of Poland should be punished continually by politicians concentrating on the past.

How ... errr ... forward-thinking.

News / Revenge or Justice? Vetting Laws in Poland [18]

The files contain lies and truth, all mixed up together.
There is little point diverting public attention from current political concerns. The regime change in 1989 was essentially a trade-off: we forget about the past and you go quietly ... with your ill-gotten gains.

Poland's now got high growth, a plummetting unemployment rate (for various reasons) and the EU is co-funding investments in Poland's infrastructure. Let's talk about getting the tax rates down and cutting expenditure on non-essential public services, while giving pay rises to decent doctors and nurses and kicking out nurses like the one who argued with me about her not wanting to pick up a pillow which had fallen on the floor when I could barely move in bed.

You can see what motivates me - getting good value out of govt now and in the future, not the settling of old scores between a bunch of liars and cheats - all of whom claim to have Truth on their side.

News / Climate change - what is Poland doing to reduce its carbon emissions? [14]

Next year rape will become a decent commercial option for farmers.

By the way, eco-friendly as I am (and from times pre-dating the hysteria), I am not convinced by the climate-change fascists. Case definitely not proven. Even if it were proven, the money could easily be better spent elsewhere.

I will keep on taking planes for my holidays. Unlike other people, however, I won't be a hypocrite.

Life / What do Polish people think about Americans living in Poland? [48]

Generally, the westerners who come to Poland are quite unusual. A self-selecting bunch, they tend to be much better-educated and informed about the world than the normal person who stayed at home.

Western immigrants then come face-to-face with normal Poles from all walks of life, who have various shades of opinion.
Poles are generally pleasant towards westerners. Some Poles will not be, of course, but there are higher standards of behaviour and politeness here than I was used to in the UK. Except for neighbours, that is! Poles don't make neighbourly neighbours - it's their recent small-village peasant heritage, where the neighbour is seen as someone to steal chickens and plums from.

I'm lucky - I have my sister-in-law one side and a hopeless builder who'll never finish his house and move in on the other. On the third side, she died.

History / Polish Jews - they changed their Jewish surnames to Polish [532]

I travel through Puszkow on the train twice a day.
The music bleating out of their earphones leaves much to be desired.

Oh - it must be a Jewish plot. /yawn/

However, I'm not saying Jews are fantastic or that Israel is the best country ever invented.

It's just I think there are far more important things to be getting on with in life.

Travel / anyone been to Piotrków Trybunalski? [24]

Gotcha.
Are you a lawyer or did you major in pedantry at university?

Travel / anyone been to Piotrków Trybunalski? [24]

That's about the most interesting thing about it.

It's got some interesting logistics depots for distribution businesses, as it's at the future crossroads of the N-S and E-W motorways.

It's a place you go past without stopping, unless you are a trucker that is.

History / Polish Jews - they changed their Jewish surnames to Polish [532]

The list of names was just dumb and unhelpful.
Jews don't run the world, but they have had an unusual degree of influence.
By "Jews" you have to define what you mean. I suppose the best handle for this is to say that someone is a Jew if he has some recent Jewish ancestry and identifies with other Jews and they with him/her.

Interestingly, in mid 19th century Russia Jewish factory workers banded together in an attempt to win Jewish emancipation (roughly at the same time as the serfs). This organisation was large and swamped the Social Democratic Party (the communists) numerically when they merged. As power groupings tend to self-perpetuate (like aristos in present-day Britain), the early years of Communist rule in Russia were dominated by mixed Jews.

More recently (4 or so years ago), the World Congress of Jews issued a report on oligarchs in Russia - complaining how their gangsterish approach to business reflected badly on their Jewish heritage. These are people such as Berezovsky, Abramovich and Khodorkovsky.

And then there were high-profile Jewish Polish communist lackeys helping to run Poland for Russia after the Second World War.
BUT
Most Polish communists were actually Polish, and most mixed Jews were not in government or connected with the government. My best friend in London is a Jew (though Christian) and worked alongside me as a schoolteacher. He hardly runs the world - but he does have a rich brother, if that helps! And he was a close acquaintance of Yehudi Menuhin. But that's still not running the world, is it?

Nepotism and networking exist everywhere in the world - perhaps some Jews try harder at networking ... like the Norman aristocracy has done successfully in England for almost a thousand years.

UK, Ireland / Polish registering with a UK doctor [8]

In Poland, free treatment depends on you showing you have paid your ZUS health contributions (health part of national insurance contributions).
Without ZUS proof they ask you to go private - even if, in my case, it was an emergency.
To prove you've paid your ZUS, you have to show the paying-in slips or get proof of payment from your employer.
If you can't provide proof yourself, you have to approach ZUS (the social security agency) and they will give you proof in around 6-8 months.

Much voodoo, Huegel, I'm afraid.

Hegel using cartesian logic ...
Ho-hum!

History / Poland - Looking back to 1990. [18]

But I got married then!

Life / Having a Baby in Poland [28]

Generally, this is something best sorted out with the help of the English-speaking doctor who will be assigned to provide first-stop health care to military personnel.

There will be cultural differences but not insurmountable ones. Poland can feel very foreign but, with preparation and help, misunderstandings can be avoided and risk minimized.

Having said that, my hospitalization at a top Warsaw hospital was made much more unpleasant due to a lack of elementary care. Before you ask, I'm not going to talk about it except to say that it was the sort of thing you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy and I do sometimes scream in my sleep ...

Life / Scenery POLISH MOVIES (HELP) [12]

"Nóż w wodzie" Polański
This was the first Polish movie I ever went to see at the cinema ... no, not when it first came out - I'm not that old!

News / POLAND's ENERGY -WHAT is it? WHERE is it from? [29]

It's the thought of trying to maintain the concrete sarcophagus around the nuclear reactor for 200,000 years ...
Hmmm, a bit daunting since human civilization has only been going for around 7,000 or so.
Still, it'll be an off-balance sheet event and memory of the shareholders will have vanished into legend ...
Let's go nuclear and to hell with the planet.
And is it apposite to say that in between times there will be several ice ages? Just try to stop all that ice!! Ha ha ha!

News / POLAND's ENERGY -WHAT is it? WHERE is it from? [29]

First CO2-driven global warming is a scientific fad dreamed up just a few years ago to suit Mrs Thatcher's plans to dismantle the UK's coal industry - she's the one who started the ball rolling by opening the Hadley Centre for Climate Change charged with (and supplied with generous funding) proving that coal was bad (the biggest miner's union was led by a fiery communist), and by setting up the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.

1) I'm not convinced that CO2 is driving climate change
2) Even if it is, money would be far better spent on coping with the effects of climate change
3) One thing is for sure: specialists can out argue non-specialists in any direction they want. a specialist CO2 freak can defeat a non-specialist global warming denier anytime (the term reminds me of holocaust deniers) ... and vice versa!

UK, Ireland / The un-acceptable side of new entrant countries coming to the UK [56]

You've got to be loaded to be in the "right crowd".

The British Conservative Party at the moment is an extreme case in point - 11 of Dave Cameron's cronies are from Eton.

(Great school, by the way)

UK, Ireland / The un-acceptable side of new entrant countries coming to the UK [56]

Lee in Poland ...

I've never met a Lee here, strangely.

Names are interesting, but in the final analysis it's all about dead people you have little in common with - it's better trying to get on with your living family before we all become mere names ourselves on crumbling tombstones somewhere.

That is, not crumbling tombstones in Poland. Here, they generally uproot old tombs and recycle the plot. God only knows what they do with the skeletons. Does anybody out there know anything about this, or do I have to get buried under an oak tree somewhere to stop my body from being disinterred by latter-day Burkes and Hares in cassocks?