Life / A question on PS2 Games Bought In Poland [5]


The region lock in on the PS2 is only between PAL and NTSC.

News / Thank you Polish patriotic emigrants for sending money to Poland [27]


Doesn't stop all these Indian professionals fighting over each other to get to the US.

The dollar is rebounding, while the strong Euro, Pound and even Zloty mean than
exports will be a problem for these countries. EU ministers are already wetting their pants over this. They WANT a stronger dollar, the US administration and businessmen I spoke to over there don't really mind at the moment, its better for exports anyway.

USA, Canada / Obtaining a Polish passport being a US citizen [3]

Contact the Polish consulate I guess for info.

However since you have the US passport, why would you want the Polish one,
it's less important than the US one.

News / Polish Japanese relations (history and present time) [90]

I think it's more of a racial issue. Let's face it for all the pro-Japanese BS on this forum, an Asian person in homogenous Poland is till often frowned upon, if not openly then in secret, and the same goes in Japan where gaijin have a very hard time living - I'm not talking tourism here, I'm talking about a more permanent residence.

I know US WW2 vets who despise German soldiers too to this day, I even remember one CNN interview where
a US commander was disgusted that Germans were allowed to partake in D-Day
celebrations. As for the British pilots, I wonder if they salute the same guys who dropped bombs on British cities too? Eh? Like I also said, Germans and Brits come from a similar ethnic/language group, and had common enemies before - French.

The Japanese are seen as eastern and inherently evil, they're not Christian (mostly) after all, even though the second A-Bomb was dropped on Nagasaki a predominantly Christian city in Japan.

There is also the matter of Japan being heck of a further distance away than the distance between the UK and Germany.

Japanese forces were cruel in Asia but this cruelty is far less substantial compared to the 'civilised' (yeah, right) wholesale industrialised slaughter of civilians and POW's

by Germany - an European country. As more facts come to light we see that ordinary Wehrmacht was responsible for mass atrocities not just units of the SS.

You could probably compare Japanese units to the SA while the Germans were
their proud SS.

I say all this as a Polish expat who's in love with and dating a (Catholic
) Japanese girl and also as someone with a good few close Japanese friends.
One of whom who's grandmother is Catholic and who still loves John Paul II, although he is not Catholic himself, still resents the A-bombs saying that they would never have been dropped on German (caucasian) cities.

Life / Smoking ban - will this be coming to Poland like other EU countries? [183]

We had it in South Africa way before any European country. It really rocks. Restaurants are seggregated with sealed off ventilated sections for smokers. Its probably the only positive thing this corrupt government here has ever done.

News / iPhone to be Released Officially in Poland? [21]

I have a Mac Pro. Apple machines are just so superior to PC's. It's mostly due to the Operating System which Apple won't open up to avoid getting into competition with Microsoft. I think the new MacOSX Leopard comes with POLISH support, which is good.

Is Itunes store operational in PL though?

I think things like PayPal acceptance of Poland, iPhone official support in Poland
and possibly iTMS in the future are all positive signs of acceptance of Poland into
the international family - which IMHO is LONG OVERDUE.

Life / How much do you HATE POLISH PEOPLE and POLAND [1260]


Are you refering to service levels in shops? I'm not talking about making friends
and hanging out with people and expecting them to love me, just to serve me
in a courteous manner.

By old I mean 30 and older, not 60 and up :).

During Communist times salespeople were incredibly rude, as were the customers.
I remember the fighting in the queues as I waited for butter with my mom. It was really bad. Some of these people still believe that's the norm, the customer is just a nuisance and they should get paid for the heck of it.

In Japan the older folks are quite anti-gaijin I guess, except for my gf's grandmother who's the sweetest woman around. Then again she's a Roman Catholic Japanese which is very rare and maybe why she's so.

Life / How much do you HATE POLISH PEOPLE and POLAND [1260]

Are you from Germany by any chance? It could be an European thing. I know
that Americans usually complain about the rudeness of the French and sometimes Germans. I live in one of the ex-British colonies, I've dual citizenship Polish/South African and whenever I travel to Poland I'm struck by the rude service in the big stores and some small outlets. Look

it's not general but out of 10 shopping mall visits 3 experiences have been not too nice
with the check-out people being rude, security guards blocking entrances by casually having a smoke break having you to walk around them, etc. In Radom I browsed some

magazines in a newspaper store only to have the woman reprimand me not to
mess them up in a rather nasty tone - I'm a 30 year old doctor and I do dress well
and look neat and I was about to make a PLN 100 purchase, I just put the lot down after I heard what she said and walked out. I've had plenty of pleasant experiences in shops - always from young

people but let's say that no-one in the US, RSA (where I live atm), UK or other
parts of the world has ever been this nasty to me (and my folks). It was far worse in 2001 when I visited Poland before. I stress that these were mostly older people

brought up in the old system, the younger (30 and below) people are very nice
and friendly and will even go out of their way for you.

I had to catch the bus once in Radom with my mom, the bus driver was a total rude bugger - to a 65year old woman to boot. She bought the tickets but these tickets

happened to be for a different bus line - we didn't know that - instead of explaining
simply that the tickets were for a different bus company and she should buy a new
ticket now he started giving rude comments. I was so furious I even fired off an email
to the mayor of Radom, he has a website in German,English and even Japanese,
well it only takes 5 seconds to make a Japanese investor turn away from investing
and Radom needs LOTS of investment.

So when visiting a Polish store just be extra polite to the salestaff as they can get very touchy even for no reason, especially the older staff. They have an attitude that THEY ARE doing you a FAVOUR. Which is not to say people should be rude to salestaff but

what I came across was rudeness exclusively from their side. I never have such
problems here.

I'm not saying so only for myself. Its a pity that ordinary Polish shoppers get treated in a nasty manner that's the biggest pity.


I don't think he should be embarrased to be Polish. Look I don't go to football matches myself, we play rugby over here, but I think if he was only doing this to **** his friends off it's a great way but if he's genuinely embarrased to be Polish, I don't think he should be. Poland is not a rich country but it is rich enough and it's definately stable. Polish history is very noble - no bloody uprisings, no king executions or mass exterminations

of people at the hands of Polish rulers and no colonies to subjugate. Poland was one of the most progressive European states with a democratic constitution and of course

freedom of religion during a time of religious intolerance - that's why so many Jews settled in Poland and why even Protestants from France settled here (PL). I like England and all but England does have a past of subjugating various people from Africa to Asia to

Australia. Same for France, Spain, Holland and Belgium - the way Belgians treated the
Congolese in the 19th century (Robert Konrad a man of Polish heritage wrote a book about it - Heart of Darkness) was as bad as the Nazis treated us and the Jews.

So while we're not G8 material - we're a stable country.

Life / How much do you HATE POLISH PEOPLE and POLAND [1260]


Just don't go shopping in Poland. Worst service in the world, maybe second only to France.

News / iPhone to be Released Officially in Poland? [21]

I'm sure many people will go for it. Its the rage around the world after all.

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

Some libertarian Americans consider Zbigniew Brzeziński to be a neocon too.
Opinions?

Life / To all of you who are Polish - where did you learn English? [64]


Do you speak Polish with an accent though? I know many people who stopped speaking Polish at a young age - even at home - and now they either cannot speak Polish any more or they speak it with a terrible accent. I'm not suggesting you have an accent, just wondering.

Life / How much do you HATE POLISH PEOPLE and POLAND [1260]


Get em out already! Put em in Britain!!!

News / Do you think that Polish catholics resent the new German Pope? [108]

Neither I nor any members of my family resent him. He was quite close to JP2
and that is also quite nice I think. The new Pope may have been someone
distant from the previous one.

Life / Would this be viewed as okay for most Polish families? [38]


Hope you enjoy the communal showers Ro-cky! :)

Life / A Polish Priest lying about freemasons [57]


At least the boys are spared. :)


You're missing the point. It has nothing to do with being 'unnatural'.

Roman Catholic Church and the Freemasonry have always been at odds with each other.
When you're in the Catholic Church you're supposed to put God in as your ultimate authority hence dictators like Stalin and Hitler despised the church while

your organisation perhaps puts other things as being more important than God, say
secret pledges and what have you. Now I don't even care about the Freemasons but I'm telling you this to calm your nerves so that you can get over this and post some

cooler stuff instead. :)

Life / Greatest Polish Films [22]

You should look at pretty much anything by Kieslowski, Wajda and Polanski.

You can obtain these from Astabe.com or even cheaper, places
like DVDPacific.com or CDUniverse.com.

Life / Must See Movies in Polish? [65]


Other films by:

Kieslowski (Decalogue - see what Ebert says about it, Double Life of Veronique,
Three Colours and Kielsowski's earlier stuff and docus).
Kielsowski's screenplay - The Day of the Camel - I think its only in Polish though,
directed by Jerzy Sztuhr.

Wajda - pretty much anything but especially his older stuff - Landscape after the Battle, and other older works. His newest stuff is not as good. His pretty much like Kurosawa I think, great in the beginning but burned out a little now and became too commercialised.

Roman Polanski - The Pianist but also older stuff too. Definately worth seeing.

Other directors:
Krysztof Zanussi
Wojciech Has - Saragossa Manuscript and The Hourglass Sanatorium (Amazon.fr has this one in French and Polish - I acquired it recently :) ).

Studios: the legendary TOR studio :).

Sadly most modern Polish cinema is not watchable. They try to copy Hollywood too much, while they have some talented actors and directors the screenplays are usually poor and plots completely unbelievable. Avoid!

Dzien Swira - Day of the Whacko was pretty good however it has some racist undertones (Black, Asian). However I wouldn't compare it with the stuff above.

You can buy most DVDs from a Polish store like Astabe.com (it mentions which DVDs have English tracks) or from labels such as Criterion Collection, Artificial Eye or

Tartan Video. Kieslowski, Polanski and Wajda are in the Criterion Collection.

You can find Polish films at:
Astabe.com Ebay.pl (more exp than Astabe) and Merlin.pl
US based DVD retailers eg Amazon.com or DVDpacific.com
some European retailers like Amazon.fr/de/uk
and other rare movie sites like Superhappyfun.com or Sazuma.com

Study / Does Poland offer Polish Lessons for Free? [16]

I seriously doubt it.

Love / How does Polish men feel towards Asian girls?? [137]

I'm Polish and have a Japanese girlfriend. She's Roman Catholic though which is pretty rare for Japan and she's very sweet although she looks much younger than she is,

so her age being 21 - she looks 16 to some people, which means passport
checks in places where booze is sold. Oh well :).

Personally I like both Caucasian and Asian girls. :)

As for looking as good as Polish girls, it depends, I tend to take it on an individual basis :).

^_^ <---- obligatory Japanese emoticon.

Life / So whats your opinion on the Polish health care system? [17]

My Polish grandmother is currently receiving care from an oncology unit in Poland. She's receiving pretty intensive care, with Xrays, CT scans and ultrasound every 2 weeks,

that's how her chemo is scheduled. I'm quite impressed with that. However I found that when I visited a Polish hospital with her last year, to pay for the CT scan which picked

up her tumour, the nursing staff were pretty rude - to ther people that is. The Radiologist was a friendly chap himself but we needed to pay for the scan as

it would have taken very long to get one otherwise. Otherwise I have at least one
doctor in the family in Poland and my younger cousin is studying medicine pretty much
following in my foodsteps although I studied med abroad.

I've worked with US, Canadian, South African, British, Bulgarian and Polish doctors
and I found the Poles to be on par with everyone else.

News / What makes Poland different from other countries [55]

Least favourite thing - many people are just rude. Its improving but its still bad.

News / Poland and her geo-strategic enviroment [15]


I don't believe anyone sold Poland out. In WW2 Poland managed one key victory. That was to get the Western Allies into the war. Poland held out long enough to get France and Britain to declare war on Germany as per the pact Beck had setup among those 3 nations. German plans were really to expand eastwards and not westward, Germany was not a threat to Western Europe (Britain and France). Hitler did not want a war with Britain and France. On the other hand Stalin wanted Germany to weaken herself on Poland so that he could move in and crush Germany and have both Poland and Germany for himself - then the rest of Europe. Suffice to say Germany did not wear herself out (too much) on Poland as the Polish armies were ordered to retreat strategically in most cases (ultimately to the West), or to disband and form the AK. You could also say that Hitler was also in an unwinnable situation. He could only attack the USSR as Stalin was building up his armies to take on Hitler. Hitler's only chance was a swift defeat of the Russians ASAP hopefully on two fronts, hence he declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor to get the Japanese to attack the SU, but they weren't stupid.

However after WW2 no-one expected the West to fight the USSR over Poland.
The West was too scared of Stalin, as the Red Army at that stage (1944 onwards) was
unstopabble and had they tried, Western Europe would be speaking Russian now.

So yes Poland has to be careful and needs to make alliences with more distant countries
as I wouldn't trust either the Germans or the Sov.... ahem Russians.

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


Please cite the scientific paper where it says that Poland is economically behind because of poor education, or are you just spouting forth BS? You criticise the guy for ripping Jews off then you attack the Poles and claim they are uneducated. If Pollacks are so ignorant, what are you doing on these forums anyway? Ne?

News / What can Poland do to maintain its Ethnic Integrity? [118]


What do you have against Japanese peoples' fashion sense then? :) Sanrio's Hello Kitty is da bomb I tell you. :) You must also check out the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_lolita - GothLoli fashion style :). Sadly my g/f thinks it sucks. :(

Seriously, this post started out as a rather racist or zenophobic one. However there is an answer, Poland must stay relatively poor to remain unattractive to most foreigners :).

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]


I'm sorry that you lost your job. The British government should place some
restrictions to protect its own people against foreigners (Polish or otherwise). Hopefully you'll
be able to get some sort of a social security and maybe use the spare
time to upgrade your skills to get a much better job or maybe get your old job back. Hope things work out!

News / Why do Poland block the European Constitution? [68]

Obviously everyone suffered in WW2. However while Germany was rebuilt by the United States, the way Japan was, Poland was under Joe Stalin's influence which lead to further destruction of our already German devastated society. :) Had WW2 not occured

Poland would have been much stronger and larger it is now. The private companies which developed in Poland in the 19th and early 20th centuries would be in the league of the Daimmler Benz, Volkswagens and Siemens' of this world. Heck our movie industry may possibly have been where Hollywood is now, with the MGM's and Warner Bros

of this world possibly founded in Poland instead. :)

So I don't think Poland is living in the past the way the Jewish people are not living in the past when they bring up the Holocaust. It is not even an entirely anti-German feeling but more of

a pragmatic one. Germany did elect Hitler democratically, they did invade Poland voluntarily and they did occupy Poland and managed it in a most brutal way, wiping out the elite and designating most Poles for extermination. So that's a fact. We don't blame the current generation of Germans for this but we do find it hurtful when they brush off these issues and want to now dominate us. After all no matter how benign Germany may appear to be, the role of their government is to look after German interests first

(this goes for any government obviously) and with the ability to dominate who says they won't. Heck look at the UN, the developing nations all want permanent seats on the Security Council too. They also believe they are being dominated.

People like the Kaczynski's who bring up WW2 are NOT living in the past. WW2 and its consequences are the direct causes of a poor, less developed Poland. It's utterly disgusting for anyone who hasn't suffered to the degree we did in WW2 to minimise the consequences and the impact of the war on Eastern Europe (the other Eastern European nations suffered as much as we did). Heck in Asia the Koreans and Chinese constantly bring up the issues of Imperial Japanese occupation and comfort women etc

during WW2.

I must also say that the EU constitution was rejected in France and the Netherlands in the referanda held there. This new treaty is some sort of a cop out, a cop out with which the UK isn't entirely happy with either.

News / Poland's Contribution to the E.U. [56]


Poland has always been in Europe, and Poland should have been in the EEC/EU from the first moment, except were were occupied by Soviet Russia (after the brutal German occupation). Saying so I don't think Poland is introducing anything new in the cutural sector, it didn't provide before it was in the EU (Chopin, Copernicus, Penderecki, Gorecki, Marie-Curie etc).

One thing Poland does provide is a buffer between Europe and Russia. It has 38 milion people who are pro-Western, have a history of democracy and are themselves a stable society/country. This is of great benefit if not only for NATO but also for the US as Poland is a great military ally for the US. As for the EU, EU is fine and all, but I think Poland should not compromise on a great relationship with the States to gain favour with the French and Germans. :)


France and especially Germany want to dominate the EU. Personally I don't think the Germans should even have a greater percentage of votes than Poland. In fact maybe they should pay a few trillion dollars of reparations to Poland for destroying it between 1939-45 and then letting the Soviets have their way with us. Of course this won't happen, but if the world was really fair Germany should pay for WW2 or at least as colloquially said on some internet forums STFU :) when it comes to issues dealing with Poland. I agree 100% with the Kaczynskis. Germany destroyed Poland and now want to dominate it. I especially think that Poland should keep good relations with the Yanks and the UK,

if anything BETTER and closer ties than with Germany. Despite this I have numerous German friends and they're all wonderful people, so please bear in mind I'm speaking only in terms of governments here.