News / Turkish invasion on Polish TV - Poland's opinion on Turkey [30]

Brazil's one and only female leader, Ms. Rousseff, just was ousted due to scandal. Hopefully, the same fate won't befall either Ms. May, Ms. Merkel, or Ms. Szydło:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

@Ironside old fella,

If I were an author aka self-styled "historian" and contended (IN PRINT NO LESS!!) that African-Americans benefited from slavery etc.. or similar poppycock, would anyone, even you, honestly claim that I was "speaking my mind"????! Or would I be understandably roundly shouted down and taken to task for such irresponsible slander?

Finkelstein shows that either he has no mind, or, he's merely one of numerous provocateurs, seeking approbation simply for creating nothing more than pure shock value, end of statement.

You may think me wrong, which is fine on an open forum such as this, as I am open to show you where you're mixed up. That's fair, isn't it?

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

As far as Poland is concerned, again, although I've not been back for many years (having only visited once, and all too briefly!), Poles are scarcely the most extreme of xenophobes!

Finkelstein is more than a black sheep; he's a vicious, self-hating Jew! His representation of a so-called "Holocaust cottage industry" is more revolting than can be imagined from one of our own. From David Irving, I would merely roll my eyes aka "There he goes again...", but from Finkelstein??

Anyway, Poland has her good and bad sides, just as with other countries:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Norman Finkelstein would agree with you there!

But then, what does he know?
:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Righteeo, Dreamer!

What I've observed, Poland's racism has been excoriated, and rightly so. However, no one's yet counterbalanced this with many of the positive aspects of living in Poland?

First of all, xenophobia is hardly something unique to the country:-)

Furthermore, taxes in Poland are lower than in many Western European countries, Polish produce aka apples, are considered among the best tasting anywhere, and Poland is still a mecca for any one of several industries, including high tech etc..

These remarks are merely intended to counterbalance this thread which has up to now focused on racism.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Jews are certainly not "out of bounds", Polonius!

That's precisely the point; Jews are no more saints than I'm Mary Queen of ScotsLOL

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

I have, and that's exactly why I said, it is NOT a melting pot like the US!

You misunderstood what I was trying to say:-)

Work / Is finding an engineering job in Poland difficult? Do I have to be fluent in Polish? [17]

Good for you, ol' man! Follow through and don't let anyone belittle your efforts:-)

It'll all make your professional experience so much more worthwhile.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Poland, Germany, Sweden, for instance, as we've already said, have only comparatively recently become a "melting-pot" society, in stark contrast with the US, even England or France, who for centuries became used to other-colored outsiders due to their colonies. To a degree, the Dutch as well, what with Surinam etc. However, Scandinavia has no such historical precedent, hence, Sweden especially, feels her tried-and-true Lutheran homogeneity seriously at risk with the arrival of non-white, non-Christian foreigners.

Tolerance seems a virtue rarely practiced, even more rarely taught, either in school or at home. The Church has always had a problematic relationship with this concept of unconditional acceptance, as far too many Christians are little other than mere Sunday hypocrites:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Don't follow your (il-)logic!

I'm using Mexicans as an example. Furthermore, a "Latinophobe" dislikes Latinos, Chicanos and other Hispanics. I dislike none of the former; in their countries, they're fine and should remain. However, when they are either shipped over in boatloads to the States (or come by their own accord), then are often hired as less-expensive workforce over a native-born white American, this is where I have a legitimate beef.

No, I certainly feel that anyone who suborns racism such as Donald Trump or any counterpart anywhere in the world should be shouted down.

We must though remember that resentment of foreigners per se didn't spring up ex nihilo. Regrettably, the roots of racism are grounded in the sereptiousness of certain governments to profit off the sweat of poorer-born foreigners at the expense of homegrown workers.

THIS is what some of us find shameful.

It's all fine and dandy to espouse feel-good liberal philosophy. The real world though is a different story:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

The US, perhaps even post-Communist aka "capitalist" Poland as well, is currently in love with cheap labor. What better way, in the US anyway, for a typical, dollar-sign-oriented business owner of the Reagan Era to maximize their profits than by hiring a Mexican for slave wages (as he thinks they're not expecting much anyhow) over a possibly more talented aka more EXPENSIVE, native-born Caucausian American citizen?

If there's a loophole to be had, trust the pure-bred, anti-New Deal capitalist to find it...at the expense of other values such as diligence and quality:-)

America still "greatest nation on earth"??!

FDR'd be turning over in his grave!

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Maybe I can't blame them necessarily, but if integration is handled as it should be (but usually isn't!), there would only be a need for migrants to be brought into a country where there may be a work "deficit" in certain key shortage areas aka construction, engineering, forestry.agriculture and or similar fields.

The migrants would be brought in as a desired labor force with the clear understanding from the outset that after said tasks have been completed, the foreign-born laborers would willingly return to their own countries.

The reason this almost never happens is because the countries from which said migrants hail are usually so economically depressed and in need of fortifying that the migrants have no desire whatsoever to return, attracted instead by the blandishments of the host country which invited them in in the first place. One really can't blame them either, can one?

-:)

I don't think I'm too far off the mark here!

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Ahemm, "diversity" has always been a double-edged sword, folks! A necessary evil to be sure, the message remains that so long as diverse elements are welded into a cohesive national whole, then, there should be no problem!

The problem arises when those diverse elements are allowed to remain in their own little enclaves, and REFUSE to integrate into the host culture:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

I'm Jewish and PROUD....but not of what many of us have become!! We've turned from "People of the Book" to "People of the Bookie" and Judaism has long since been hijacked by those who mistakenly prize skullduggery (Madoff & Company....) over scholarship (the ancient rabbis, the Enlightenment Jews of Europe etc...).

You're free to disagree, after all, in no religion is being wrong a sin......only a shortcoming which can easily be overcome through spiritual education.

And I'm NOT being holier than though, rather simply realistic:-)

Incidentally, I'm not "pushing for open borders", but I'm not pushing for Trump's philosophy either. The "crap" you speak of which many countries have to endure, is called "facts of life", my friend!! The Nazis too wanted a perfect life, with no outsiders, no problems and everything hunkey-dory. Well, that's not the kind of life, I consider decent.

In looking at the problems allegedly brought by Jews, "foreigners" etc., look instead into yourselves.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Nothing. Merely, that Johnny Boy labels the NYT a Jewish paper, if for no other reason than because it was founded by a Jew, Adolph Ochs and later managed by one "Punch" Sulzberger, also of the Tribe.

Why this is anti-Jewish, is because one doesn't usually go around saying "So-and-so, the well-known black newspaper, or calling the Wilmington Star, the" famous Prostestant" journal etc..

Uhuh, no soap, Johnny! You're a bigot and you know it, so might as well fess up to it!

Please get this thread back on track; Polish people and racism.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Referring to a newspaper such as the Times as "Jewish" is by ANY definition, labeling and bigotted:-)

By admitting you have a deficit, in this case, with seeing the truth, is the first step on the (long!!!) road to recovery and self-analysis.

You and several others here are truly in danger of learning something and improving your badly warped world view.

The difference between America and a country such as Germany, is that America today picks and chooses which of her citizen she decides to save, money being the unabashed criteria. Germany continues to view ALL of her citizens as worthy of saving, rich or not (since in a socialist democracy, the gap, although there, is never as great as in the US, Russia, or China).

Voting for Trump is not the death of business as usual, but the death of everyone who's not like Trump or his kind. The naive electorate still doesn't get that, even at this late date.

Well, at least Hill's comfortably ahead in the polls.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Johnny's anti-Semitism is surfacing once again:-)

What if I were to say I don't like your W.A.S.P. thinking? By the definition of prejudice, wouldn't that be equally "biased" thinking??!

You don't make sense (..except to yourself).

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

And, Mr. Expert on US newspapers, I'm almost afraid to inquire as to what YOU'D recommend in its place?? "USA-Today", "The New York (Com-)Post" or perhaps even one of countless free newspapers for the semi-schooled masses???!

Seriously, what have you against literate reporting? I see, because it's reported from a left-wing perspective, it therefore must be bad??

Although "educated" doesn't necessarily mean "enlightened" (as I posted the other day), at least it's a start:-)))
Try it some time, Wulky, you might be in danger of learning something! LOL

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Spot on, Maf:-)

@Wulky,

In today's New York Times, according to the article I read, blacks are ever wary of Trump's supposed "minority outreach" attempts!!

Most informative.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

I read the article and fail to see its relevance to our discussion. Slow-witted as I may well be, the article looks as though there is allusion to some double standard regarding ignorant white people who believe themselves to be privileged.

While I can't speak for Poland, I can speak for the US, where race is above all very much tied to class distinctions, perhaps a great deal more than in socialist-leaning countries such as Germany, France, or Sweden etc.

For every poor, disenfranchised, white Trump supporter (usually lumped into one category), there are just as many rich, frustrated white Trump supporters who feel equal frustration with the perceived failures of liberalism, only for very different reasons:-)

It seems to me that the article is polarizing groups by stigmatizing "poor whites" (in the South, "poor white trash") as necessarily all racists or bigots, whereas bigotry and racism extend beyond every social class and ethnicity.

Seems as though you're trying to provoke a hypocritical counter-argument, nothanks.

Moreover, education in itself is not always a condition for tolerance or enlightenment! Look once again at Nazi Germany, where it was the educated "elite" who supervised the extermination process, initiated the sinister campaign of propaganda, and lent their perverse skills to the highest levels of the regime etc.

Genealogy / Furth DP camp Residents? [3]

To the best of what I've been able to detect on the Web, this Finkenschlag Lager in Fuerth, Franconia was almost exclusively Jewish, though doubtless, as with most such camps, there were to be sure quite a number of non-Jewish inmates as well:-)

Countless gentile German along with Poles, Gypsies/Sinti-Roma and, of course, "anti-social prisoners" aka gays etc. were imprisoned, tortured and exterminated, though Finkenschlag appears to have been solely an internment camp and DP or Sammellager, not a Concentration Camp as the term is usually employed to describe a facility such as Ohrdruf, Belsen etc...

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

...But that's for other reasons:-)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

If so, a sad commentary indeed!

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

There you go projecting again:-)

Racism is a two-way street, in Poland as elsewhere! Nonetheless, it's NOT justifiable by anyone who calls him or herself a Christian. It's a most regrettable manifestation of the all too human spirit!!

Guess that's why there are so many churches out there; people need to pray a lot for forgiveness. I hope you do.

Let him who is without sin cast the first stone! When d'ya wanna start throwin'?

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

How right you are, Dreamergirl!

The problem with the entire thread is that there appear to be those here who willingly, if not gladly, fess up to Poland's problem with xenophobia, while too many others do not, and don't even try:-)

After I assert that while Poland doesn't have a monopoly on racism, it nonetheless has though a serious problem dealing with it, to throw back in my face "Oh, you Jews are always complaining!!! What about what your country did to their Native Americans??!", is unacceptable. The two situations are apple and oranges.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Ironside,

Your messages to me are so full of inaccuracies, misstatements, and missunderstandings, I don't even know where to begin!

If you have something intelligent and grammatically correct to post, by all means do so:-) Other than that, please SPARE US!!

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

It's always easy to attack other, rather than look at the truth:-)

A final thought, Ironside. If what I posted was so ludicrous, as you and several others have suggested, why become so exercised over it? Methinks thou protesteth too much:-) It looks to me from what you've written that maybe, just maybe, you're projecting a little, huh?

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Who's talking "victimhood"? You use a lot of words, but do you understand what they mean? Use simpler language:-) You meant to say, "many Jews feel perhaps a need for victim status." This is something different from victimhood, implying to an English native speaker, that the Jews or others CHOSE their ultimate and tragic status, instead of it being foisted upon them.

Go and look up some of the more difficult vocabulary in your dictionary before you seek to criticize my postsLOL

Furthermore, there's nothing false about any of my above statements, that is, if you choose to know the history of Europe! Since when is there a statue of limitations on mass murder?! The Armenians also are contesting this, even today, almost one-hundred years hence.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

In truth, there is no collective guilt! However, historical precedent is the determining factor here, and the Holocaust is considered a sui genre, a singular event, both ideologically as well as physically, of such cataclysmic proportions that heretofore established guidelines of criminality must momentarily be suspended, as must any or all LEGAL considerations of what may be deemed "just" retribution:-)