Life / What are the things which cause culture shock in Poland? [164]

Just to add something to "gest Kozakiewicza" discussion ;-)
Indeed the old name for that is "takiego wała".
Which more or less means "I have such a big dick that you all " hm... "możecie mi skoczyć" ;-)

"wał" means "dick"...

News / Why are Czechs more effective than Poles and Poland? [116]


Your link gives nominal data. In PPP terms gap is narrowing.

As for general question, important factors to notice are:
1. better starting position for Czech economy in 1989 (much smaller debt burden)
2. because of 1. much smaller debt burden relative to GDP now -> more stable currency (that is why I prefer PPP numbers in comparisions)
3. better geographical position (closenest to very rich Bavaria and Austria)
4. historically very good engineering traditions from pre-communist period
5. last but not least Prague as a single most attractive tourist city in CEE. Prague is a gem and Czechs use this advantage well.

But overall, it is better to have richer neighbours, isn't it? ;-)

UK, Ireland / Are the working class in the UK now shunned in the 'new' Poland? [53]


Rhetorical question or/and answer for thesis made in question is usually considered equal to conclusion... Well, for sure you advanced a thesis ;-)


Well, my post was maybe short and cold, but certainly it wasn't offensive, so you don't need to be either... I merely pointed to posible incoherence in your generalisation, there is no need to taking it personally... I was rather hoping you will answer my question instead but I kind of lost my interest now... Anyway, have fun. EOT

UK, Ireland / Are the working class in the UK now shunned in the 'new' Poland? [53]


The short answer is: no
The medium is: depends by whom
And simple question for you is: do you speak Polish?
If you don't speak Polish and if your opinion is based on talks in English with random Poles, then your chances to have reasonably fluent conversation with true "working class" representant of Polish society are quite slim... Ergo, your statistical base is flawed from the start and consequently your conclusions are wrong.

History / The Grunwald Battle: Today is 600th anniversary of the greatest medieval battle. [66]


Well, I can't agree it is rabbish. The siege lasted until end of September and didn't achive anything. Even in 1454-1466 war, when finally those lands fallen under Polish king, it wasn't conquered but entry was bought from mercenaries. Malbork wasn't and isn't just any castle, it is still the largest brick castle in the world after all...

Anyway, there can be many speculations, some cool advert of this year reconstruction:

youtu.be/vpR_Ckg3q6s

History / The Grunwald Battle: Today is 600th anniversary of the greatest medieval battle. [66]


Well, I was taught the same thing in school :-) but I've listen recently interesting broadcast about this battle with some historian, and supposedly not exactly true. According to this historian:

1. United forces under Jagiello wanted badly to capture Malbork castle, but at those times it was almost imposible to capture such well maintained castle by force. It was some time before powder were invented for such purpose in Europe.

2. It is not true that it wasn't used politically. This notion is very resistant in polish historiography mostly due to Jan Dlugosz (most known polish chronicler in XV century). This guy just didn't like Jagiello and he deliberately reduced Jagiello successes in his writings. In fact after this battle (and entire campaign) Teutonic Order was no longer a threat from political, economic and military point of view. The fact that in XVIII almighty Prussia was born there is just different story.

Well, but history is not math there are countless interpretations there...


This guy said that latest estimates are more or less like this:
30000 on Jagiello said
15000 on Teutonic Order side
so in line with lower boundary of your numbers.
Anyway, the fact that historians are using round numbers tells us, that they are far from knowing the actual size of this battle :-) But for sure it was very big battle considering medieval Europe standards :-)

PS. I've heard that this year there will be about 2200 people taking part in reconstruction
and camp should be about 6000. Well it should be quite cool event :-)
Last year:
youtube.com/watch?v=M9F6Le950bg&feature=related

This is quite cool to: 32 people embroiders "The Battle of Grunwald" by Jan Matejko :-) :

bialystok.gazeta.pl/bialystok/1,35233,8123236,Krzyzacy_z_krzyzykow_na_finiszu.html

Travel / My first visit to Poland - I will be returning maybe later this year for a more! [10]

Well, you really like trains... PKP with those temperatures outside?
You are my hero :-)

Life / What are the poorest regions of Poland? [15]

It is a nice map:
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/mapToolClosed.do;jsessionid=9ea7974b30ddcb577b72057a4716a43efec8fb927df4.e34SbxiPb3uSb40Lb34LaxqRb30Ne0?tab=map&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tgs00005&toolbox=types#

it is interactive, just move cursor over choosen region and you will see PPS value.
According to this map Podkarpackie is even poorer than Lubelskie. But as for statistics always some disbilief is needed. For example recently were others stats where some additional things were measured and it showed that some western regions were slightly worse..

As for you question "why east of Poland is poorer" it is a combination of factors like:
- it is quite rural (what wouldn't be bad thing alone if size of farms weren't so small there)
- it is far from let name it European core of wealth :-)
- it has worse infrastructure
- it has quite poor neighbourhood -> Ukraine and Belarus.

Well, on the bright side, those region in medieval and renaissance times was supposedly relatively rich given European standard of that time... so there is a hope :-)

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]


And yet polish company Assecco was fifth biggest European Software Vendor in 2008... and is probably the biggest IT company in CEE... Unfortunate true is that country such as Poland cann't count on foreign investors. It is rather such companies as Assecco who should grow their own R&D.

I don't know about HU but CZ was a productive powerhouse in this part of Europe for a long time, so I'm not surprised that they gradually regain what they've lost because of communism, I bet that aproximity to Bavaria helps a lot...

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]


Yet you sounded previously like it was all doom and gloom :-)


I cann't agree that new and complicated mobile application for relatively new electronic device is basic. It is not like making NP problem solvable but definitely it is not basic :-)

Well, in general I agree that Poland is relatively weak in terms of patents and it lacks both big industry and govermental support in scientific research. But on the other hand I can't agree that there is low human resources pool here. The main problem though is that many of the best go west in search for better salaries and better opportunites...

As for advanced certification, well it cost a lot of money and is rarely needed in tenders. So basic policy of most of companies is to pay for a training and exam of a few choosen ones in case of tender requirement.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]


Well, I don't want to interrupt your insightful discussion here ;-) but Dell is not good example of anything because they mostly assembly computers from pieces made in Asia...


Sorry man but you doesn't sound like a big fish in that field ;-)
I was under impression that your "operational area" is close to Wroclaw, so you should be aware that there is couple of quite interesting IT ventures here, including Nokia-Siemens R&D with more than 1000 engineers or Opera R&D in Wroclaw, this is their latest success:

youtube.com/watch?v=OpTCS3g-cBY&feature=player_embedded

There is plentiful of other IT companies here. Thing is, that you will not find almost any meaningful operation regarding electronic in Poland, because those kind of investment are usually enormously costly, and are in the most part located in Asia...

Law / Banking tax Procedure in Poland [14]

In Poland it works differently. It is a bank job to count and pay tax from client interests.

Law / Banking tax Procedure in Poland [14]

1. Most of the banks (except Polbank maybe) are under polish guarantor called BFG, which means your savings are 100% protected up to 50000 EUR in case of default, more than that there are different rules.

2. Yes there is plentiful of savings accounts to choose.
Here you have some ranking, unforunately in polish, but there are some clear tables for deposits:

e-lokaty.pl

and for save accounts:

konto.lokat.pl

There is 19% tax on interests, but there are products like "lokata jednodniowa" thanks to wich you don't pay this tax as long as a daily interest is less than 50gr, so with 4% interest you can make about 24000 zł deposit. But there is no problem in some banks to have a few deposits. I know it is a bit tricky but it is common and as far as I know it is legal.

As for banks, in my experience internet banks are the best, both cheap and usually with better products. The biggest internet bank is probably mbank (they belong to BRE bank), but because they are big, their offer recently started to look weak. I must say that recently I've started to like Toyota bank offer and Getin bank but I have no experience with them yet.

PS. besides banks there are para-banks named SKOKs, they have their own rules and different guaranties.

PS2. One word of warning: in polish "lokata" means deposit. But there are many products called "lokata strukturyzowana" which in fact is not deposit and is usually not guaranted. What is more it is usually financial product which is a combination of a deposit and some risky investment.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

The short answer is: they are low, and you cann't expect a decent live on it.
The longer version is: if you are not a professor or some academic superstar on some private university, then even with PhD you will struggle. Most PhD (in technical field) I know got their title and left uni for better salaries, or stayed doing next to nothing on uni and taking additional jobs outside.

If we are talking about salaries for jobs as ie. language teacher those are lower than PhD of course, and usually such persons are taking some additional jobs.

Travel / Train routes and timetables in Poland - planning and info [19]

Here you are: rozklad-pkp.pl/?q=en/node/143

Real Estate / Relocating in Poland - what's the best area? [56]

For money? Warsaw
Quality of life? Anywhere where your friends are :-)
Hm... so why you called yourself Wroclaw Boy if you relocating now?
Anyway, summer in the TriCity is really nice experience (even if it is raining)...

News / 20 YEARS ON A BETTER POLAND -- ALSO BETTER POLES? [21]


I needed two exciting games today and a couple of beers to understand and appreciate brilliance of your way of thinking :-) With that in mind I will open my cards: I would rather want Poles to be bad people ;-) We will see after tomorow finals ;-)

News / 20 YEARS ON A BETTER POLAND -- ALSO BETTER POLES? [21]

Interesting idea! My thinking was in slightly other direction: according to some church circles Komorowski equals pure evil and Kaczynski (as he once said) is pure good. So, as the priests should now such things, theoretically those who will vote for Kaczynski are those who will go to heaven and those who will vote for Komorowski are those who will go to hell. I think it will be the closest heaven vs hell statistics aproximation we could get in this year ;-)

[there could be noice in such data, because not surprisingly priests are supporting single man without kids with cat vs man with five children, I fell some corporation thinking here ;-) ]...

Err... sory Polonius3, I didn't want to ruin your thread, so to get back to more serious staff:


In my opinion it could be a problem, because what Poland did in recent years was unemployment export which softened social tensions in Poland but as world is looking for equilibrium it worsened statistics of others... Frankly much of Polish robbers chose greener lands... I would like to appologize to everyone affected...

News / 20 YEARS ON A BETTER POLAND -- ALSO BETTER POLES? [21]


Of course not, but your question is just to general :-)
How one can measure kindess of a nation? Personal experiences that some X was kind to the Y are quite meaningless in that regard. For a starter we can begin with crime statistics ;-) :

epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Urban_rankings

From around 2002 we are going in the right direction -> down.

Another partially useful statistics would be HDI:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

There Poland is going up, wich is good in that case.

But in the meantime foreigners whining about rudeness of polish clerks and salesmans seems to be never ending story...

PS. Hm... the best statistics you can get will be from God :-) I mean if we could get number of Poles going to heaven every year vs those going to hell... that would definitely mean something ;-) Hm.. I wonder if it would fit with the result of presidential elections in Sunday ;-)

News / 20 YEARS ON A BETTER POLAND -- ALSO BETTER POLES? [21]

I'm not better, I'm just older... From that point of view I'm rather worse ;-)
On the other hand, abundance of opportunites that I have now is uncomparable with misery of communist times... But it is environment not me...
On the other hand generation born in free Poland just don't know what they have... They don't feel the difference even they do now it exists.

Your question as a philosophical one is probably unanswerable...
But on the other hand GB Shaw supposedly said:
"Now when we learnt how to fly like a bird, how to swim like a fish, we must learn how to live as a human being"...

Which could mean many different things :-) But it can mean that by choosing more human friendly political system we got better already ;-)

On the other hand... it can mean also that regardless of technological and social development humans are just animals with thin layer of social mask, so maybe we merely changed mask not ourselfes ;-)

Language / Is czarnoskóry acceptable? [21]


"Czarnoskóry" or "Ciemnoskóry" is not offensive.
Why it is mentioned in media? Well, wasn't it considered globally and especially in USA that it was big political breakthrough? First Afroamerican as a president.

You know, you must put yourself in Polish "Kowalski" mind. To do that, imagine that in tv in USA they are talking about some x president of some y country. Who the x is anyway? Obama skin colour is distinctive and Kowalski in a second remember who the hell Obama is... Of course Obama is not x and his fame is wider than some x from y, but still even if news about USA in polish media are not so rare as news about Poland in USA media, then still they are rare... For most of Poles Obama even if he is not x he is no more than X, because he is not our president but president from far away country :-) So, when media says "black president of USA" then we instantly get context: "oh, yes I've heard few years ago, that it was important to the USA that they choose black president"...

Quick test for all of you: what is the name of president of China, probably second world power ? ;-)

It was a trap, China has no president, they have chairman of communist party as a leader :-) Wouldn't it be easier to remember his name if he was a black men? :-) :-)

History / Give back Lwow to Poland and Kaliningrad to Germany - is it possible? [198]

Then go and write a book about it!

History / Give back Lwow to Poland and Kaliningrad to Germany - is it possible? [198]

Hm.. so, you say that after we finish brand new stadium in Wroclaw and brand new highway around it, you want us to give it back for some city 600 km away?

(because you know, you can't forget about Wroclaw in such exchange...)

No chance in hell! If you like Lwów so much, then you can emigrate there. There is no need for geopolitical earthshaking just for you ;-)

News / Russia, Poland ready agreement on visa-free travel [71]

There is no need to make from this small issue Polish-Russian war again...
The reality is that it is not about some milions of hungry ruskis but about simple guy who wants to buy a couple of beers in a nearby polish village near the border without a hassle with visa. It is also about one milion people there and about 1,5 milion on the polish side + about milion in tricity area. All this people want is to trade and expand tourist industry in the region to which Kaliningrad area would be a nice supplement. I bet it would be a lot easier to deal with problems with Pilawska Strait when this agreement take place. There is no need to bring big politics here. There are only "technical" issues here like:

- illegal workers -> but considering small population of Kaliningrad it will not be rather a big issue, especially when wages in Moscow are quite atractive...

- security issues
- bad medical statistics in Kaliningrad a few years ago, I wonder if it changed

I think it is worth a try, we can always bring visas back...

Genealogy / Information on Dr. Tytus Chalubinski [6]

Well, if googling will not help you, then my advise is: try to make contact with some institution in Radom. The guy was born there and was living there and they are quite proud of him.

For example he is a patron of one of the high schools there:
chalubinski.pl
szkola@chalubinski.pl

Secondly those guys are quite fond of him:
ptt.org.pl

They announced 2009 as a year of Tytus Chalubinski, so I suppose if there is some living ancestor they know him and made him to cut some ribbon somewhere...

* of course I meaned living descendant not ancestor :-)

News / Russia, Poland ready agreement on visa-free travel [71]

Królewiec region is so small (about half milion of people) that it is worth a try. The only thing I'm affraid of are medical issues, because they had really bad statistics over there with AIDS and so on.

Law / What is the quickest and cheapest way to send money to a bank account in Poland? [37]

Within EU (plus few outsiders) the best way is SEPA:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

It cost 5 Złoty to make such transfer from Poland elsewhere in mbank. I suppose it is also quite cheap in opposite direction.

PS. Be aware, and if it is possible transfer from for example EUR account to EUR account in Polish bank, otherwise you can get some unfavourable exchange rates

Travel / Why do people say that Poland is so unsafe? [60]

Some cool numbers for you people :-) :
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Urban_rankings#Crime_rate
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Crime_trends_in_detail
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Crime_statistics

PS. looks like robbery is kind of national sport in countries like Spain, Italy and especially France, anybody knows why? For example in 2007 there were supposedly 22766 robberies in Poland vs 112885 in France, well France is not five times bigger than Poland...

Hm.. it seems than England is wild place to...
Of course we can start to argue that all those statistics are lies, but are they?

Language / Why x.xx$ in Poland? [20]


I strongly disagree with that :-) The best and most logical way of writing the date is:
year_month_day
because of very simple reason: when you start your folders names with such string (ie with photos from vacations) then you can sort it by date :-) Otherwise it is a mess :-)

Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

Well, it is not first time I see that foreigners have this "small change" problem. And frankly I don't get it. In my case 100% of time it goes like this:

- "Don't you have some grosze"
- me: "Let me see"
a)
- me: "yes, I have" -> no problem
b)
- me: "no, sorry I've not" -> in which case it is always ends that somehow salesclerk finds some change...

You guys are shopping in strange places or just have some bad luck...