Return PolishForums LIVE
  PolishForums Archive :
Posts by Polonius3  

Joined: 11 Apr 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 2 - QQ		 Last Post: 9 Apr 2018
Threads: Total: 990 / In This Archive: 289
Posts: Total: 12,349 / In This Archive: 906 		From: US Sterling Heigths, MI
Speaks Polish?: yes
Interests: Polish history, genealogy

Displayed posts: 1195 / page 9 of 40
sort: Latest first   Oldest first   |
Polonius3   
16 Aug 2009
News / RUSSIA IS TO POLAND WHAT TURKEY IS TO SOUTH SLAVS [66]

Slavic soldiarity does not strike a respondent chord in Poland, because Russia has traditonally been Poland's biggest foe. It swallowed up the largest chunk fo Poland in the partitions, annexed the eastern half of the country in collusion with Hitler in 1939, and then held a truncated, 20% smaller Poland in semi-subjugation for 45 years ending in 1989. 19th-century notions of panslavism usually implied uniting all the Slavs under the sceptre of the Russian tsars. I beleive the Polish emotional reaction to Russia can be compared to what Bulgars and Serbs historically feel towards Turks and other Moslems. Or ask a Slovak what he thinks of Hungarians!
Polonius3   
16 Aug 2009
News / WHY DOES POLAND, EU PERMIT FLOOD OF CHINA JUNK? [40]

This is general knowledge, but here is a link: china-labour.org.hk/en/node/15889

Besides, how can Europe compete with workers earning less than $1 an hour? Normally customs tariffs are used to ensure fairer competition. They need not equalise prices, but lessen the gap somewhat.
Polonius3   
16 Aug 2009
News / WHY DOES POLAND, EU PERMIT FLOOD OF CHINA JUNK? [40]

Wasn't the EU supposed to be a common market able to complete with N. America and the Far East? There are obviously no customs barriers between EU countries but why do they permit an apparently unrestricted flood of cheap "Made in China" junk produced through child labour and grossly underpaid labour. The European institutions make a big fuss about countries that practise the death penalty but somehow meekly turn a blind eye and open the floodgates to shoddy Chinese goods and imtiations which are undermining European markets. Aren't any customs duties imposed? If there are some, they must be too low. The Chinese have entered the automotive age and within a year or two will be flooding markets with underpriced cars, thereby posing a threat to one of the most vital and lucrative ranches of EU industry.
Polonius3   
16 Aug 2009
Life / Poems for Poland. [41]

A bit of tongue in cheek doggerel from the PRL period:

KTO TY JESTEŚ? - POLSKI KMIOTEK.
JAKI ZNAK TWóJ? - SIERP I M£OTEK.
GDZIE TY MIESZKASZ? - W POLSKIM KRAJU.
KTO NIM RZĄDZI? - JA NIE ZNAJU.

Literal unrhymed translation: WHo are you? - A Polish serf. What is your symbol? - The sickle and hammer. Where do you live? - In the Polish land. WHo rule it? - I don't know (in Russian).

(This is a take-off on the children's patritoic poem "Kto ty jestes - Polak mały...")
Polonius3   
15 Aug 2009
Life / Bringing up children in Poland. [16]

Well, there was discussion of different religions or value systems to raise children in so for the sake of balancne the Jewish mysticism known as Kaballah, espoused by pop icon Madonna, might also be considered. Also the church of Scientology.
Polonius3   
15 Aug 2009
Life / What is assumption day in Poland? [18]

In the 1930s "the pulse of modern Europe" was fascism, naziism or pro-fascism and pro-naziism, and we all know where that led. Mindlessly going with the flow can be danegrous. Today's decadent, here & now consumption-obsessed, anarcho-libertine Europe may also be heading for disaster. Are trends always better than traditions, fads superior to values and pop icons more reliable than authorities?
Polonius3   
15 Aug 2009
Language / CARBON-COPY POLISH SPREADING? [30]

W£AŚNIE can convey the flavour (depending on context) of: that's the point, that's what I say, you said it, precisely, exactly, even: I agree with you or support your position.
Polonius3   
15 Aug 2009
Genealogy / Dudarz Family or descendants [3]

Etymologically, Dudarz and Dudziarz mean piper (in Poland usually goatskin bagpipes were one of the original primtive instruments used by peassant musicians). It could have also arisen as a toponymic nick from some locality starting with Dud-.
Polonius3   
14 Aug 2009
Genealogy / INSTITUTE OF GENEALOGY FOR FAMILY ROOT-SEARCHING [7]

No, I'm not personally invovled but I have been in e-mail contact with Zygmunt Rola-Stężycki who runs it. This is not an endorsement but reportedly he has helped some people trace their roots, however it is not cheap.

Try instytut-genealogii.
Click on the Union Jack for English!
Polonius3   
14 Aug 2009
Genealogy / shuma or szuma surname [10]

Assuming some letter such as the 'n' did not get dropped over centuries of recopying, there is a huge difference. Shuman looks to be an Anglicisation of the German occupational surname Schumann (meaning shoemaker or shoe-seller; German also has Schuster and Schuhmacher).
Polonius3   
14 Aug 2009
Genealogy / INSTITUTE OF GENEALOGY FOR FAMILY ROOT-SEARCHING [7]

Perhaps not everyone is aware of Poland's Instytut Genealogii which helps people trace their ancestral roots: researches public records, locates relatives, maps family trees, coats of arms, photographs family homesteads, graves and living relatives.

instytut-genealogii.com.pl
Polonius3   
14 Aug 2009
History / PIŁSUDSKI'S DREAM OF CONFEDERATION? [14]

Actually Piłsduski's great dream had been to create a grand confederation encompassing Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus approximating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzplita Obojga Narodów). When he marched into Kyïv that had been his intention, but his ally Petlura was unable to stay in control, the Poles got pushed back to the gates of Warsaw and Ukraine ended up in Soviet hands.

Had Piłsudski's dream come true, the USSR probably would have never happened or at least it would have been far smaller. The expasnive and bellicose Japs would have probably attacked Russia from the east, re-Asianising the tsars' ethnically non-Russian acquisitions in much of Asia.

If we add Piłsduski's proposed (to France and England) pre-emptive strike against a still weak and underarmed Germany (early 1930s), the whole course of world history migth have been altered. Probably for the better, because WW2 might have never occurred.
Polonius3   
13 Aug 2009
History / PIŁSUDSKI & BANDERA? [11]

These two figures clearly show how one man's freedom-fighter is another man's terrorist. The recent ill-fated Bandera cycle rally brought this into sharper focus. The Ukrainian cyclists were turned away from the Polish border and not let into Poland because their event was designed to glorify the leader of the 1943 anti-Polish massacres in Wołyń. Piłsudski is viewed as an enemy of Urkainian ndependence by many Ukrainians. Poles are also divided about Piłsudski, although a majority regard him as a hero. What do you think?
Polonius3   
13 Aug 2009
Language / VERB GENDER OF ABBREVIATIONS PZPR, PiS, PZU, PKO &C. [4]

Some are obvious such as NATO było, ZUS był, etc.
but PZPR (partia) has become a masculine acronym in oblique cases (należał do PZPR-u)
but what about the nominative: PZPR zrzeszała, zrzeszało, zarzeszał 3 mln członków?
Zapisał się do PiSu (PiS-u?), ale PiS głosowała, głosowało, głosował przeciwko ustawie.
Ona pracuje w PZU, but what about: PZU ma zostać sprywatyzowany, sprywatyzowane?
Polonius3   
13 Aug 2009
Genealogy / POLISH (-ski) and ENGLISH (of) = TOPONYMIC NICKS [18]

The German Onamastik article just goes to show that an almost identical process existed in German-speaking lands, where for instance the orignal von Lepizig (from or of Leipzig) might evolve into Leipziger (in Polish: z Lipska into Lipski - there are several Polish localties called Lipsk and Lipsko).
Polonius3   
13 Aug 2009
Genealogy / POLISH (-ski) and ENGLISH (of) = TOPONYMIC NICKS [18]

The concept of surname is of rather recent (17th-9th-century) vintage. What we now refer to as surnames or family names usually started out as nicknames identifying people on the basis of their native locality, occupation, appearance, characteristics, who their father was, etc. Perhaps for genealogical purposes it might be advisable to speak of nicknames-turned-surnames. What do you think?
Polonius3   
13 Aug 2009
Genealogy / POLISH (-ski) and ENGLISH (of) = TOPONYMIC NICKS [18]

Besides occupational and patronymic nicknames, in much of Europe nicknames based on one's place of residence have long been a tradition. These could refer back to a hamlet, village, town or (in the case of the gentry) estate. German often prefaced the locality with von, the Dutch with van and the French with de.

Both in English and Polish such names have evolved in a somewhat similar, albeit not identical manner.
In English the norm was to drop the "of" so Richard of York became simply Richard York.
In Polish the place-name got adjectivalised so Piotr z Radzikowa became Pitor Radzikowski.
The bottom line is that if your Polish surname ends in -owski or -ewski, you can be almost 99% sure that its source was some locality.
Polonius3   
9 Aug 2009
Life / LONG-TERM RESULTS OF SINGLES EPIDEMIC in POLAND? [4]

The reasons (economic, cultural, religous) have indeed been discussed but I don't recall seeing any projections. What is we all can see about us, but the interesting thing is where it may lead, what kind of society we will be living in 10, 20 or 30 years from now..
Polonius3   
9 Aug 2009
Life / Openly gay in Poland [245]

If data compiled by the US Department of Justice are all lies, well so be it.

The New York Times in an article entitled Silence Ending About Abuse in Gay Relationships cites some information which may indicate that domestic abuse may be under-reported.

“But the issue of gay domestic abuse has been shrouded by silence until recently...
For years, gay people have tried to keep quiet about the problem, said Dave Shannon, coordinator of the violence recovery program at Fenway Community Health, a gay and lesbian clinic in Boston. Mr. Shannon said: People feel, ‘Why should we air our dirty laundry? People feel so negatively about us already, the last thing we should do is contribute to negative stereotypes of us’.”

Data from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Center for Disease Control showed "married men who are not separated are at least 25 times less apt to be domestically attacked than a homosexual male in an 'on-going relationship.' Even if we include all married and separated husbands, the risk of domestic violence in a male-male homosexual relationship is still at least 18 times greater." Another study indicated that 83% of homosexuals report they have been emotionally abused by homosexual partners. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Domestic Abuse Fact Sheet states that "11% of women in homosexual relationships and 23% of men in homosexual relationships report being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by an intimate partner". A study published in The Journal of Family Violence reported among its participants that "Emotional abuse was reported by 83%" of its participants. These statistics suggest that homosexual couples are more violent than heterosexual couples.
Polonius3   
9 Aug 2009
Life / Openly gay in Poland [245]

Adrian - you msut be an exception to the general rule, because practising homosexuals have a higher average level of domestic violence against their partners than do heterosexuals. This is one of the documented facts that the pro-homo lobby conveniently sidesteps and passes over in silence. In so doing, they are failing to address a serious problem affecting that community.
Polonius3   
8 Aug 2009
Food / Non-Pork Polish Foods/Dishes [15]

Classic Polish non-pork dishes include:
zrazy wołowe zawiajne (beef roulades)
pieczeń po husarsku (hussar beef roast)
sandacz po polsku (pike-perch polonaise -- with egg & dill topping)
kołduny litewskie (lamb-filled ravioli)
kurczę po polsku (roast chicken polonaise -- with dill-flavoured stuffing)
kotlet z piersi kurczaka (breaded chicken-breast cutlets -- pork lovers won't know it's not a schaboszcak!)
klopsiki, pulpety, kotlety mielone (meatballs, poached forcemeat balls, minced cutlets -- besides pork can be made with minced veal, beef or turkey or a combination thereof)
Polonius3   
8 Aug 2009
Life / LONG-TERM RESULTS OF SINGLES EPIDEMIC in POLAND? [4]

The singles generation syndrome is gradually gaining a foothold in Poland and is close to reaching epidemic proportions in much of the West. There have been generations overrepresented by widows and war orphans in the wake of massive military conflicts in the past. But this is probably the first singles generation that is turning away from the concept of the traditional family and going it alone or creating alternative forms such as test-tube babies, uterus rentals, homo adoptions, etc.

What do you think the economic, cultural, political, demographic, psychological and other impact of this development will be in 10, 20, 30 years from now? That is assuming it continues. Such projections based on what is are always risky because life has a way of surprising people and playing tricks on forecasters. This phenomenon applies mainly to the West and emerging countries such as Poland, but there are parts of the world (and minority enclaves in the West) experiencing demographic explosions. France's comparatively high birth rate is largely bolstered by its Moslem minority.
Polonius3   
5 Aug 2009
Love / What are your views (or Polish views) on abortion? [102]

Except for those females who can legally prove immacualte conception, abortion should be permtited only with the written consent of both partners. If she can't find the guy who dunnit, then it's her tough luck for running round with irresponsible, footloose dorks.
Polonius3   
4 Aug 2009
Love / What are your views (or Polish views) on abortion? [102]

And they say Poles and Polish émigrés are so staunchly Catholic, but it seems there isn't a single Catholic on this forum. I mean a practising, not a lapsed Catholic. The Catholic faith teaches that premarital and extramarital copulation is a sin, and abortion is murder, pure and simple. Nobody has to be a Catholic, of course. It's always easier to go with the flow, take the easy way out, be fat, fłabby and decadent, and do what is pleasant and expedient. So be it.
Polonius3   
3 Aug 2009
USA, Canada / Best Polish Restaurant in MI [17]

Sisters reminded me that there is a Polish restauant called Three Brothers on the west side.
Three Brothers, 8825 General Dr, Plymouth, MI
Tel: (734) 416-3393