News / Poles honour 'Cold Warrior' Ronald Reagan [92]

I don't see what you mean about my "attempts to expose German anti-commie movement" - I am simply pointing out that the Germans didn't take everything laying down.

And I did mean it about civilian unrest - the Hungarian thing STARTED as civilian discontent, not as the continuation of another war.
I hadn't heard of anything like the Berlin demonstrations in Poland at that time - do you have any sources I could check out?

News / Poles honour 'Cold Warrior' Ronald Reagan [92]

To be clear - I was talking about civilian demonstrations. The armed resistance you're talking about was really part of the Second World War.

News / Conroversial Palikot or not [19]

I think his biggest problem is that the form of his public appearances often overshadows their content - as in the incident where he appeared with a rubber penis and a gun in his hands to protest alleged sexual abuse and violence at a police station. Today hardly anyone recalls what the whole thing was about, but everyone recalls seeing Palikot waving a dildo and a gun around.

News / Poles honour 'Cold Warrior' Ronald Reagan [92]

Regarding rebeliousness - Berlin was the site of the first public demonstrations in the eastern bloc - in 1953, three years before Hungary and Poland. To be sure, they didn't do much organized protesting after that, but several hundred people did lose their lives trying to get out.

As far as Reagan goes - with all his faults, his hard stance finally bankrupted the Soviet Union, which tried to keep up with the US in the arms race but couldn't. We are all a bit better off because of that, including most likely our friend ConstantineK, whether he likes to admit it or not. Granted it was a dangerous game, but in the end it paid off.

Poles generally like Reagan because they saw him standing up for what he saw as being right. That's something politicians were never very good at, and that's why it made him stand out among them.

News / Simon Moleke Njie. [36]


Done

On the other hand, Africa has a serious AIDS problem partly due to the incredible myths circulating among the people there, such as the one about curing AIDS by having sex with a virgin:

alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/107036097535.htm

This has nothing to do with race, but it certainly does have plenty to do with culture and education in that part of the world. When serious government officials think that there's no need for sex education because garlic and onions will do the job, there's a huge problem:

guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/06/internationalaidanddevelopment.southafrica

News / Brits battle to save historic railway in Poland [9]

Contact the authors of the Around the Water Tower blog: polishrail.wordpress.com

News / Putin for Polish president? [69]

Poland needs a reasonable political system, not the mess it has now. Everything else will follow if and when.

Life / FAVOURITE POLISH POP/ROCK GROUPS? [18]

Kult/Kazik
Myslovitz
Elektryczne Gitary
Lech Janerka
Homo Twist/Pudelsi
Hey/Kasia Nosowska
John Porter and Anita Lipnicka

News / Father Rydzyk In the News Again [28]

What a pain in the b****


Well, speaking with a whole range of Jews about Poland and Polish-Jewish issues, for one. Both in Poland and abroad.


Let me quote myself on that one, since it didn't sink in the first time:
"You can debate various issues with some of them, and others will just ignore all arguments, no matter how reasonable, and keep repeating the usual mantras."

To make it clear, I have seen and heard their reactions, which were far from uniform.


Jeeezzusss, man. Does the fact that there are anti-Polish Jews justify this kind of remark or make it any less anti-Semitic?

As for quotes, I don't have a ready list of them for you - sorry. Like I said, I don't have a major fixation about the man, and I'm not going to waste time looking for them now. I think the ones I provided prove my point sufficiently.

News / Father Rydzyk In the News Again [28]


Not in my experience.


Not idyllic, but empirical. I have seen and done what I described. My statistics aboviously look different than yours.


Nonsense. It's true that many Jews have an unfounded dislike for Poland/Poles, but that does not extend to all of them, or as I've mentioned in my experience even the majority.

As to Rydzyk, I'm not a nut-case enough to keep records of his statements. I've heard a few that have made my ears prick up. A quick search of the web yields these (and if you say these don't show his anti-Semitism I have no arguments to convince you that they are - it's a matter of interpretation):

radiomaryja.pl.eu.org/nagrania/20020502-rydzyk/20020502-rydzyk.html

rydzyk.netcode.pl
o. Rydzyk: - Jest takie przysłowie: "Jedno jabłko zjedz dziennie, a lekarz będzie z daleka od ciebie". Żydzi to jabłko zamienili na czosnek i teraz wszyscy porządni ludzie są z daleka od nich.

News / Father Rydzyk In the News Again [28]

Puzzy, Rydzyk's simple-mindedness is best shown by the fact that he doesn't see anyone else's views as having any value at all. The term applies to anyone who sees things in shades of only black and white, as he does. This is also what I meant about his provincialism - not the physical reach of his broadcasts, which is in fact very wide, as you pointed out.

As to people scared away from the church, that comes from people I've spoken to personally, not public appearances. You can either believe me or not - either way, I know what I'm talking about.

Despite what you seem to believe, Jews are a very diverse group of people. Some carry a serious and unjustified bias against Poles, and some don't. You can debate various issues with some of them, and others will just ignore all arguments, no matter how reasonable, and keep repeating the usual mantras. Lumping them all into one category is as crazy as assigning uniform character traits or intentions to all Poles, Americans, Brits or Zimbabweans.

News / On the news: 600 of the 700 Polish criminals in Holland come from Warsaw [30]


I didn't mean to upset your national pride. Polish criminals can be as nasty as any of them, or even nastier. What am I saying? Polish criminals are the most criminally criminal of them all. Polish criminals are, like everything else, the best (worst?) in the world.


Nope, I'm just a reg'lar Warsaw boy with a few twists in my bio.

Food / Polish Milk, Just not the same [54]

Look or ask for "świerze mleko" - it's generally much more available now than it was in the past. I can personally recommend Milko and Mlekovita brands. I've tried others that were good to, but don't remember the names.

News / On the news: 600 of the 700 Polish criminals in Holland come from Warsaw [30]


Well, they're nastier than a band of teenagers smoking cigarettes by a liquor store, but on the Russian/Albanian/Transdnester scale they're really just a bunch of babies.

News / Father Rydzyk In the News Again [28]

Rydzyk is a simple-minded provincial priest who doesn't recognize the fact that his message and way of preaching scare more people away from the church than they actually attract to it. What he thinks are his "common sense" views most people consider xenophobic and anti-Semitic rants, and I'd personally tend to agree with the latter. You can certainly point out some pretty questionable actions by Jews and Jewish organizations, but once you cross the threshold into generalizing about "The Jews", you're on pretty shaky ground in my book.

News / News in Poland: are Poles more positive? [7]

Something to mull over on the subject:
Changing Attitudes
nwe.pl/National.php?article_id=535

Life / JERZY OWSIAK - PRO AND CON? [8]

I think a lot of his detractors have a problem with his flamboyant image - they still think that in order to be truly charitable you have to dress in a potato sack and turn all attention away from yourself.

The Przystanek Woodstock thing is also part of it - some people say that he shouldn't be spending the charity's money on it, but in fact the hoopla he has built around the Orchestra is one of the reasons why so many people continue to volunteer, and the money actually comes from interest on the collections - but not even all of it. The rest of the interest also goes to charity, and each year the Orchestra donates more money to its causes than it collects from people. Now that's a neat trick.

History / Why has Poland been attacked so often by its neighbors? [180]


Do you really think that the Serbs were the only ones raping and pillaging? Not that they didn't have some real bastards in their ranks, but the whole thing wasn't as one-sided as western media would have you believe.

On the other hand, the Serbs aren't helping themselves very much - instead of ranting and threatening people, they should look into hiring some REALLY good media relations firms to rework their image. That would work a whole lot better, IMHO.

History / Why has Poland been attacked so often by its neighbors? [180]


Because it was inconvenient for its non-neighbors to attack.

Life / What is there to do in Warsaw?? [37]


Have you already published it? I need to see this one.

As far as "activities" for young people, the preferred option seems to be getting s****faced until the early hours, with the venue depending largely on the budget. If you've got the dosh, it's Monobar, Klubokawiarnia, Lemon, etc. (watch out with the last one, they seem to have a violent streak). If not, it's the nearest park bench with a can of Tatra.

Life / An alternative for Medicover ? [3]

I've always had good luck with Damiana. However, unless the waiting goes into weeks, I'd say having to make an appointment ahead of time is pretty normal for good doctors anywhere you go. From what I hear Medicover is still one of the better options out there.

Life / Socialist Realism in Poland [4]

Well, the most monumental stuff will naturally be in the bigger cities. I haven't seen anything outstanding in any smaller places. Nothing to match MDM or Nowa Huta, anyhow.

News / Pope's would-be killer wants to move to Poland [36]


He said he wanted to serve out the remainder of his sentence in a Polish prison. We're talking Polish inmates, not Poles in general. If he survived prison, he might stay alive.

News / France to lift job restrictions on Poles [84]


And that makes them soooooo different than everyone else.


Well, Germany does reciprocate - by allowing Polish companies to invest and do business in Germany as well. Movement of labor is a different bag of bananas, and Germans AFAIK can't work in Poland without permits either.

Food / Żubrówka + apple juice anyone? [41]

I had the same thing with Jack Daniels for more than a decade. But it's me who's to blame for that, not the fine folks in Kentucky. Same goes for your Żubrówka experience.

News / Political coalitions Poland? [4]


This is some kind of local campaign committee - not a real nationwide party.

Group 2 seems to be a bit out of whack - PO worked together with the commies in getting PiS and co. out of power, but I'd hardly call them a team.

PSL works with anyone who'll give them jobs for the boys. And I mean anyone. The German minority generally votes with whoever's in government at the time. I'm not really sure what the point of that is, but it seems to be a general rule.

News / Samoobrona politician jailed in sex scandal [8]

The conviction is new. The scandal is not. And I think you're seriously overdoing things with Poland being "one big, ugly sex/politics scandal". Grow up, young man. :-)