News / Polish-German Reconcilliation Seminar [491]

Germany is of Serbian origin... . Probably the most insane thing I have read so far by Crow... .

Not that what Dirk writes has any claim to reality either.

News / Polish-German Reconcilliation Seminar [491]


No doubt they did, and worse, but since they were still savages they left no written records behind.

@Crow: You do know that your precious Sarmatians owed every bit of civilization to the Greeks and Romans right?

News / Polish-German Reconcilliation Seminar [491]

You'll find that all people practiced customs that we know think of as deplorable back then. But the truly remarkeable thing about the Greeks is that they were regardless able to pass on their profound philosophical teachings to posterity, a truly impressive achievement.

If their is one obvious failing in the Slavic world, it is that they never left a deep impact on the philosophical stage.

News / Polish-German Reconcilliation Seminar [491]

It is not like Poland has any legal claim to reparations, let alone a way to enforce it. And the Polish government knows this.

This is just a ploy of PiS to distract the Polish people from their own disastrous Eu foreign policy, nothing more.

News / Polish-German Reconcilliation Seminar [491]


That is a really ridiculous argument. Never mind that Austria had a larger claim to being the legal predecessor of Germany at the time, none of the territorial changes of the past live up to standards of our time. And even then, Austria repeatedly confirmed Prussia ownership of Silesia in several peace treaties afterwards.

@Ironside


The issue has been solved long ago. Germany does well to refute any Polish claims to the contrary, because even if it was willing to pay. Who would guarantee that a future Polish government would not come again? Because evidently agreements and binding treaties have no value to some people in Poland.

News / Poland versus Greece in economy [175]


You have your own politicians to blame for that. Anyone who voted or believed in the madman Varoufakis who caused this situation is also guilty.


The Greeks obviously. Otherwise they would have lost the Euro, something they desperately wanted to avoid.

News / Poland versus Greece in economy [175]


I agree with most of what you have written, but this is not true. It was Greece who received the bail-outs, not the banks. They used it to pay back the banks, (which were from other countries as well) but it was Greece who benefited the most from it because it did not go bankrupt and could keep the Euro.

If all they wanted to save were the banks, they could have let Greece go bust and bail-out the banks afterwards.

@Dirk


As pointed out to you several times, no she did not. Which is what you should easily picked up by now.

News / Poland versus Greece in economy [175]


The Republic of Northern Macedonia has a fraction of Greece's GDP, population and diplomatic and military cloud. The idea that they could threaten Greece is laughable.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


Which only works because Turkey cooperates. And they only cooperate because the EU pays them and takes a number of refugees from them. Tunisia has already stated that it has no interest in a similar deal, and Libya has no government with authority to sign such a deal.


You expect a country with 8m people to solve the refugee crisis?


Because we are better than the Arab world. We claim to be superior, in social progress, wealth and morals, so we can't use them as a benchmark.


Yes Poland. poland participated in the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, because they wanted to get brownie points from the USA.


You'll find plenty of native people who have no interest in working either.


You might have more in common with those people than you'd think.


The way benefits are usually disrtibuted to refugees in most European countries, this is hardly the case. Meanwhile our governments have actually and are still funding terrorists and warfare in the ME.

But honestly, this is getting tiresome. Regardless of which topic we have, some people always have to talk about refugees. Like it happened here. We talk about the Polish economy, some point out the potential dangers for the future and then some people write "POLAND IS GREAT BECAUSE IT HAS NOT ACCEPTED A SINGLE REFUGEE!"

@SigSauer

The pleasure is mine.he refugee crisis is certainly one of the most complex international problem we are facing today, it would be great if there was a simple solution to this, we haven't found any that could actually work.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


And what do we do with people wo travel through the land? Europe is not al island after all. ;)

On a more serious note, I assume you are alluding to the Australian model here? I have read quite a lot about it, and frankly I do not belive it is a suitable model for Europe, because of practical and legal reasons. We could now reurgitate all those arguments that have been made on various media, but this would probably be a pointless endeavour. I would personally favour a solution that would see large camps in North Africa where refugees could be registered and await their application, but even this is very difficult to implement since the countries in question have either no interest in housing those camps (Tunisia) or have no government with the power to agree to something like this (Libya).


Sure, but none of them are willing or capable to take in and care for such a high number of refugees. There are of course places they could go. The USA could easily absorb 1-2m refugees per year and thus solve the Syrian refugee crisis on its' own. But since the USA prefers to start a crisis rather to end it.... .


The (hopefully soon formed) new government wants to my knowledge lessen the threshold to one year. While I agree with you that refugees should be under special scrutiny, since they are benefiting from the hospitality, we have to also consider a proportional response. No question if someone commits a serious crime, he should have to face all the consequences. But sending someone to his potential death because he stole a purse is rather questionable.


Should we instead expect the poor countries to care for them? We can certainly argue about conflicts on the other side of the world, but given how much the West has screwed up the ME in the last 100 years, I'd we have (not all) responsibility for them. In fact, I believe that Poland has more than e.g. Germany, since Poland actually participated in the foolish Iraq war.


Of course. Genital mutilation, "honour killings" et al. are despicable and should be punished according to the law. That being said, I do not believe that political correctness is that much of a factor in many cases, often prejudices against the poor is also rather important. The police in Germany for example ignored the NSU, a group of right-wing terrorists for years, because there victims were foreigners. The police thought that the victims - perfectly law-abiding citizens - were victims of gang wars and deliberately ignored leads that suggested otherwise. I have recently watched a documentation about genital mutilation in Europe, supposedly the biggest problem for the prosecution is the lack of testimonies by victims and witnesses. If the victim does not say anything, it is difficult to prove just who is responsible for it.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

@Atch


There might be areas where he is competent, but he has repeatedly shown that he has no deeper knowledge about Poland or the EU. He is ignorant about the importance of the EU for Poland, as he said he is even proud of his ignorance. Even if you try to correct him he'll simply ignore you and your sources and state the same nonsens again and again.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

@SigSauer


I just found this website where this and other arguments are explained in more detail.

government.se/articles/2017/02/facts-about-migration-and-crime-in-sweden


If we go with this kind of reasoning, we would have to ban anything that is remotely dangerous. You would have to ban beer, because drunk might to stuff that could hurt other people. Instead we have decided that the actions of a minority should not be used to condemn the majority.

Obviously you could also argue against kind of immigration this way because an individual might be the victim of an immigrant. Only recently my grandparents were almost cheated out of their savings by an Eastern European gang that used the despicable method invented by Polish immigrants. Am I supposed to argue on base of this experience against Polish migeants?

Something similar is also mentioned here.

google.de/amp/s/www.thelocal.de/20170427/anything-but-dramatic-what-the-new-german-crime-report-really-means/amp


This is not true. While for example most applications made by Afghans are rejected, a minority could prove that they have been targeted directly by the Taliban and thus have claim for asylum. Even people from Africa have sometimes claim for asylum because they can prove that they were targeted for their belief, sexual orientation or because they criticized the government. The problem is, that every case has to be examined first before an an deportation can be made.


Sure, but what is your alternative solution? Those people enter among genuin refugees, and once they enter Southern Europe, those countries let them travel North because they are sick of having to deal wirh them alone. If we had a proper relocation system that would distribute the refugees across Europe, we could build large camps in which refugees are detained and investigated first. But Southern Europeans have no interest with such camps since they fear that they will be stuck with the refugees.


Somewhat understandable, but we are licing under the rule of law and punishments have to be according to the crime. Sentencing someone to solitary confinement (which is not even a valid punishment given by a court) is disproportionate for the crime of having a claim for asylum rejected.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


The problem is that you are not taking into account of the various factors behind this increase. Sweden has since 2006 introduced laws that make sexual more easy to prosecute, and it is proven that people are more willing to report rapes by foreigners than by locals (especially if the culprits are known).

The same counts for Germany. If we consider a) the number of refugees and b) their average age, it is not surprising that they are responsible for an increase in crime reports. If you introduced a large number of young Poles to Germany, you would also see an increase in crime. This in fact actually happened after free movement applied to Eastern Europeans. Furthermore, the largest number of refugees (Syrians) is not more likely to commit crimes than native Germans of similar age, the problem is that a relatively small group (North Africans) are very likely to commit crimes.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


Perhaps for a few more years, but probably not long enough to catch up with Western Europe before the effects of demographic decline sets in.


This is of course nonsense. Chinese trade with Eastern Europe is tiny compared with the economic ties between China and Western Europe.


The EU commissars enjoy as much democratic legitimacy as any minister in a democratic elected government.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

@dolnoslask


It is not like coal-mining does not destroy the environment either. That being said, I believe Poland should invest more in renewable energy. Not only because nuclear energy has a lot of risks, but also because nuclear energy can produce a lot of long-term costs, particulary regarding the safe storage of nuclear waste.

To rely on nuclear energy when a lot of countries have started to reduce nuclear energy as an energy source seems questionable to me. It makes sense for countries like France to rely on nuclear energy long-term because they a) earn money by building nuclear plants in foreign countries and b) have strategic interest in getting ressources for their nuclear weapon programs. Poland on the other hand would have to pay for each plant build in Poland, would have to import nuclear material and would have to pay for its' safe-keeping.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


It would be insanely high for a Western European country, it is still good for an Eastern European country.

However it is concerning that despite its' high growth rate, Poland is still having a relatively high budget deficite. Given Poland's unfavourable demographic outlook, it might not be the best idea to produce more and more debts while the economy is still expanding.

News / Beata Szydło - the best Polish politician, world's politicians could learn from her [80]


All of those attacks (in addition to others) have claimed the lifes of less than 20 people. In other words, islamic terrorism has claimed the lives of perhaps 1 German per year since 9/11. Cows have killed more Germans during this time than terrorists. Yet nobody claims that Germany is under danger from cows.


Neither are the genuine refugees like the Syrians. If you want, you could easily portray Polish people as criminals too, particulary large Polish families are known to commit a large range of crimes in Germany.


Do not confuse refugees with migrants.

News / Beata Szydło - the best Polish politician, world's politicians could learn from her [80]

@Dirk diggler


Those people lived under such systems for all of their life, so naturally they will not change their views immediately after crossing the borders. Not so long ago, Europe was not a particulary democratic of human-rights adhering continent either. Many older East Germans are still holding on to antidemocratic views, not to mention those who came from Eastern Europe as descendents from German expatriats. Given time, they or at least their children will change their views.


You are still claiming that terrorism is a big problem in Germany even after I explained to you in detail that this is not true?

Off-Topic / Is anyone in Poland planning a trip in Croatia? [26]

If you want any credibility here, you'd better stop refering to Croatia as "Nazi-Regime". I don't use the term for Serbia, and their actions are certainly more deserving of the title.


Even if that was true, the Croats had no reason to feel any attachment to Yugoslavia or its' constitution. Yugoslavia was an artifical construct that was based upon the supression of non-Serbs and only worked as long as Tito survived.


Of course, the Serbian leadership was also (or would have been in the case of Milosovic) been convicted for the same reasons. With the added problem that Serbs are responsible for the worst atrocities (Srebrenica) and later continued to commit crimes e.g. with Kosovo.

Both sides proved the savage and backward nature of the Balkans, but at least Croatia managed to turn around and their actions can be partly excused as the inevitable consequences of war.

Off-Topic / Is anyone in Poland planning a trip in Croatia? [26]


Yes, they commited crimes too, but the worst one were not done by them, and most importantly, they had the right and history on their side. The break-up of Yugoslavia was inevitable, and what Belgrade did was wrong on every level. I am not painting Croatia and Co. as saints, but their motivation was understandable and my post was a response to the grotesque lies written by Crow.

Nobody would deny that the Allies did their fair share of atrocities, yet nobody would be taken seriously if he claimed that the Allies were the evil ones and the Axis power acted in legitimate self-defence to protect the world against Communis,/Jews (as e.g. Nazi-Germany did).

Off-Topic / Is anyone in Poland planning a trip in Croatia? [26]

I hope you do not expect anyone to read your ramblings. Just clarify, Slovenia's relations with Germany are very close, and Germany is not involved in the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia.

Also you may stop trying to paint Croatia and others as the evil. Everybody outside Serbia knows that Serbia was the villain in this conflict, and eventually Serbians will acknowledge this as well.

Off-Topic / Is anyone in Poland planning a trip in Croatia? [26]

And how is Croatia's foreign policy related to the question in the first post. I spend my holidays twice in Croatia (during the last 5 years, and I never had any trouble there, the people were very kind.

Btw the reason why Slovenia probably "mistrusts" Croatia is because of a territory dispute, not because of its foreign alliance. Because Slovenia has been a staunch ally of Berlin during the last years, particulary during the Euro crisis.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia%E2%80%93Slovenia_border_disputes

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]


They were not pacifist, but most Americans wanted to stay out of what they considered an European affair. No country had declared war on the USA, no American terrority was attacked, so this line of thinking had merit. The influence of the German-Americans was neglible, and had declined since WWI (and even then it was not great enough to keep the USA out of WWI).

No possible pleading Churchill could have done would have swayed the American public.

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]

Not to mention that the USA had no army to speak of in 1939 that could have helped Poland, or that the American public was overwhelmingly opposed to join the war.

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]

@Dirk diggler


No, Germany does not have a terrorism problem, at least not a significant one. Less than 18 Germans have been killed in Islamic terorist attacks since 2001, which means less than one German per year. So terrorism is under control , only fools would exaggerate the threat here. There have been car crashes that killed more people in 2017 alone.

businessinsider.de/ap-german-police-say-31-injured-when-bus-burns-after-crash-2017-7?r=US&IR=T


That was not a terrorist attack. Nor is it relevant any longer, since measures have been taken that will prevent such incidents in the future (mostly by putting restrictions on North African migrants).


We shall see, the AfD lost votes in the last regional election in Lower Saxony in October 2017 and they are still a small minority. Unlike the USA, the far-right is stil far away from the government.


And 50% want her to stay, which is more than the guy in the White House currently has. Forming a government can take time, but there will be a new one eventually, with or without Merkel, but certainly without the AfD. The heavily federalized nature of Germany means that the absence of a new government is hardly felt anyway so far.


There has been no ak-47 incident in Germany, and as pointed out above, all of those incidents claimed the life of only a few Germans. Terrorism was a bigger problem in the 70s and 80s than it is now, and the biggest favour you can do to the terrorists is exaggerating the threat, just like the USA did after 9/11.

So in short, Germany is politically stable, and the refugee crisis is far from the dominating subject it was one year ago, since the number of arrivals have decreased and measures have been taken to prevent further incidents. I know that Breitbart and other media love to paint the picture of Germany in disarray, but this is simply ludicrous.

Germany is currently one of the most prosperous nations in the world, with a growing econmy and historical low unemployment and with overall less votes for right-wing parties than in basically the entire Western world. You view of Germany is based on lies and exaggerations, please stop commenting on things you have obviously no idea of.

Furthermore your ideas about British help for Poland are ludicrous. Not even modern planes could do that even if they had been allowed safe passage from Germany to Poland (so this is no option for a potential conflict with Russia in the future), let alone back then. Even today, most logistics for a conflict of this size would have to be sent by train of cars, there is no way the UK could have made a meaningful contribution to Poland this way.

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]

@Dirk diggler


Not that this was in any way realistic, how should those soldiers entered Poland in the first place after the war broke out?


You might be confusing the USA with Germany here. Germany is politically stable, as well as socially. And terrorism is not a problem here either, in the great scale of things. There have been mass shootings in the USA that killed several times the number of people who died due to terrorism in Germany.

News / Is this the first clear and open signal that Poland makes preparations for war with Russia? [163]

It is just interesting how you can write so much Nonsense when a quick Wikipedia search reveals that you are writing utter bs. (And yes, Wikipedia is not the best source, but they are reliable when it comes to basic data like this.)

wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia

Nothing of what you are writing is true. Are making those numbers up as you go? You are just so amusing. Dreaming that your tiny, irrelevant country could do anything of significance is just so funny, let alone expand. Sorry, but the days when Serbia could set the Balkans on fire are over.

Life / Health system in Poland one of the worst in Europe: report [78]

As someone who doesn't live in Poland, I can obviously not claim first-hand knowledge about this topic. However I do know that a large number of Polish doctors have migrated to Germany because of better working conditions which not only includes wages.

Which is of course great for Germany, but surely not for Poland. So Polish officials should think about how to stop this trend, and claiming that everything is "fine" is surely the worst way to proceed.

Law / Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland [174]

If she is, you'd be applicable for Polish citizenship as far as I know. You should check this.

Law / Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland [174]

Has your mother Polish citizenship?