Law / Saving in Poland; bank interests [4]

Try bank Zachodni WBK they have an internet bank site. Tick the English button to get the info if you don't speak Polish!

UK, Ireland / Are the Poles in England hated? [450]

Post and blogs are often bite size. Sign of the times. Depends where you are. atown with a sudden influx of any nationality that changes its character quickly like Slough or Peterborough or Southampton with numerous 'Poles' who may actually be Czech, Slovak or God knows even Somali to a Brit is bound to cause tension. Generally there is no problem and Poles are quite ok and accepted everywhere as decent hard working people. But, but, but as more stories of more families coming and social support being sent back to Poland then tensions grow. If immigrants because of their 'hardship' are seen to be given precedence in housing or social benefits over the local indigenous population consequences follow including extremist agitation or local thugs looking for a seemingly excusable outlet.

History / European Union to learn facts "WW2 Polish expellees" 70 years later? [3]

Wouldn't it be better to have a travelling show or to use the excellent film A forgotten Odyssey given as much PR as for other national sections or religions in schools in Europe. I fear the EU Parliament is a graveyard itself and just gives lip service to an inconvenient truth.

Or cynically, as Mr Sarkozy has given up the French being nasty to the US and the West, in particular the EU, have let the Russians back in the game by interfering with a nation state called Serbia. They now are finding good reasons to remember how the Poles were treated and by whom. We can thank the West and look at the threat in the East! The EU needs a new bogeyman to keep the middle aged engaged. They have the young in tow by saving the world. They also need to re educate their Parliamentary members to remember that they do not belong to the Comintern.

See I distrust the EU!!!!

History / Poland Betrayed in WW2 [243]

Returning to a sensible subject most would concede that the service men and women in the exile armies and the AK felt a sense of betrayal. Most are dead now. Many of the second generation were brought up with that sense of betrayal or an abandonment of the old country in favour of forgetfulness.

Rather than loved WIKI quick bites might I suggest before making silly comments the works of Norman Davies on Poland are read as well as The Poles in Britain 1940 - 2000 or The Abandoned Legion or Forgotten Holocaust or Forgotten Odyssey and others.

Serious subjects require serious perspectives.
Should we lighten up and join the ever repeating young generations who happy clap every alternative liberating view that happens along that decries the past.

Young Poles love the EU let us sing the united chorus and hug some consumer goods, middle aged Poles pray for the sainthood of a past Polish Pope or just avoid looking back at how the Party faithful got their hands on wealth, the old are just forgotten in the rush to the trough.

History however it is interpreted is just darned inconvenient. Sure Roosevelt played a game and for America as he saw it. The Poles lost - thats it. They lost the war. If they are not careful and forget who they are and where they have come from they will lose again in the economic quagmire known as the European Union and remember any friend of the US aint popular with the EU.

Real Estate / Foreigners: Please don't buy Polish Land! [823]

I have had a lot of Polish workers alongside me recently some extoll Poland and some are buying property back home. Certainly some bemoan life at home. Isn't that common to the world? When the British housing boom took off I took big risks to join it. Some Poles take the risk others do not. The risk may well take excessive hour work for many years as is the case the world over.

As a number of the English (plus Canadians, Americans and Irish) buying in Poland have Polish fathers or mothers at what point do they not become Polish?