Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


No I think it's more about historical mistrust of credentialism and/or 'experts'. If you're enrolled in a learning institution you're a student regardless of level or prestige. for the same reason the word 'study' refers not only to formal degree programs but informal programs or any kind of vaguely systematic learning...

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

What age / grade do you teach? and which standard do you tend toward UK or US?

The word pupil is a _lot_ more used in the UK than in the US (where student has almost completely replaced it, even for kindergarten).

Genealogy / Did Polish fathers name their first son after their own name? [23]


Boy, you done filled up the bathtub with crazy and now you're taking a good long soak.

Genealogy / Did Polish fathers name their first son after their own name? [23]

What I was going to say... I have no idea if it was a thing in the past, but it's absolutely not a thing now.

History / Should Poland be given ANY credit for ALLOWING Jews into Poland for 1000 years? [195]

I don't think the first step should be missed: Poland played no role in carrying out the holocaust so... sorry, no compensation.

Those with property lost to the PRL have a better claim, but more financial and not return of real estate (complete with post war constructed buildings...).

History / Should Poland be given ANY credit for ALLOWING Jews into Poland for 1000 years? [195]


Why should it?

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


There's more than one definition, I use the one used by Philip Bobbit (roughly) that is about the relationship between the government and the people:

The government provides services for the population to improve their standards of living (infrastructure, education, legal protections etc)
The population supports the government and when the government calls for it - makes sacrifices for the common good (including going to war)

This model came into being with the nation state (and non-ethnic-based nations adopted it because of its utility).

When people talk now about the death of the nation state they're talking about the death of this model (see the English government increasingly withdrawing from providing public services).

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


Every in the 20th century was a nation state (in terms of general government model - it's about a lot more than just ethnic makeup...)

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]

Within reasonable numbers... and not supported by excessive accommodation.

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


It's more a question of a negative definition: Usually western men don''t wear dashikis or flowing robes or dhotis or any kind of headgear that's not a hat or cap.

A turban will attract attention in Poland, mostly idle curiosity and among a very, very small portion of the population maybe aggression...

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

My guess - some former Jewish site, either a cemetery or something else....

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Shows how little you actually know about Polish realities....

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]

But they mostly come to do business, not do jobs... Filipinos on the other hand are not very entrepreneurial abroad but are willing workers.


IINM in the UK religion matters among immigrants from the sub-continent, Hindus do a lot better overall (in gaining education, contributing to the economy and obeying the law) than do muslims. Can/does the consulate ask about religion? Not so sure about other religions from South Asia...

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


It sounds more like Kurds.... in general ethnic Turks in Europe are much better behaved than Turkish Kurds, anyone have any info on the identities in this case?

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


free language and culture courses? I've hardly had contact with them but I had the idea they try to use (Indian!) English everywhere which is a recipe for miscomprehension and failure to integrate...


Another vast scandal in the making - private universities need lots of old money and a large donor base and Polish ones don't have either so they rely on lax standards to put paying bvtts in chairs - clearly not viable. If Poland needs private universities (by no means a certainty) then it would be better to privatize a prestigious state school or two with endowments and charitable tax write offs to see if they could make a go of it (my guess: they can't)

Largely private universities are moonlighting schemes to make up for poor compensation at state schools - raise teaching rates to something realistic and they'd dry up and float away

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


The open door policy with India is very visible at street level in any large Polish city (unlike Ukrainians who mostly blend in).

Like every other European government they're assuming that the people won't want to stay and won't have kids... so there's a real danger of creating a linguistically and culturally maladjusted minority which is not something Poland needs....

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

Successful thesis (licencjat or magister) defense? The flowers look a lot like the ones students give their advisers/comittee heads (promotor in Polish)

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


it's not in a good position for that.... considering sexual abuse by priests... (that's what I mean when I say they need to get their house in order).

Those in glass houses....

(I am waiting for the media to pay attention to sexual abuse in yeshivas and madrassas too...)

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


weren't they in favor of stores closing on sundays? if so, it hasn't worked out for them.

I worry about it a little, I think it would not be great if the church gets too weak (they might be needed in the future) but they seem committed to failure at present.

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]

like I said... mental illness, there's plenty of mentally ill people on this forum...

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


Even in my first visit to Poland in the PRL I could tell that Polish people were not super religious, Catholicism in Poland is always strongest when it can be tied into a political agenda. Using the church to manifest resistance to communism is one example, the former strength of the very political Radio Maryja (catering to those having trouble adapting to a non-communist reality) is another.

There's no political function to catholicism at present and so it's weakening.

I really think that the practice of catholicism helped Poland negotiate the end of communism much better than some countries with weaker or eradicated religious traditions (Hungary, former ZSRR countries) so I'm not so happy at the weakened position of the church but it's floundering at present (and Rome is doing nothing to help....)

Life / Is it safe for Indians, Sikhs living here in Poland? Any Temple / Gurudwara in Wroclaw? [159]


This forum is not typical of Poland at all, it's mostly non-Polish people, many of them mentally ill who shout all kinds of nonsense.

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


Well that's the problem with bloated institutions.... they become too slow and ponderous to actually do much good and they react to problems by.... becoming slower and more bloated. Essentially every new initiative of the EU will (by design or not) make it slower and more ponderous and less in control...

Language / Polish and other slavic language differences [60]

a vv hore plays for pay... (gets money to do it)

for a slut the play is it's own reward... (just likes doing it)

Language / Polish and other slavic language differences [60]


more like 'vvhore' (with an extension to slut)...

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


Turks or Kurds? In Germany at least the great majority of crime by 'Turks' is committed by Turkish Kurds...

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


You thinking that you're Polish.... is the funniest thing ever!!!!!!

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


The polarization is between majority citizen opinion and the people who are supposed to be serving them and who are not!

Life / What do decent Poles think about true rightists ? [148]


AfD did not cause the difficult problems. And there's a terrible disconnect between public opinion (58% want less or no immigration) and political parties where the only party to reflect public opinion is.... AfD...

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Well on the right you have somebody's weekend...