News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

It's a good thing Poland doesn't let expats make the rules. It's surpising that Poland even tolerates know-all expats whose main hobby is defining what Polishness is all about, telling Poles what they should do and, even more so -- Pole-bashing in every size, shape and form.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

There's no such thing as "US ancestry". Unless you mean the Amerindians and even they emigrated from Mongolia.
Voting is always extra hassle. Polonians interested only in material aggrandisement wouldn't go to all the effort. Those that do are truly committed Polish patriots keenly concerned about the welfare of their ancestral homeland and their loved ones living there. Should such sterling patriots be disenfrnachised just because some Tom, Dick or Harry thinks so?

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Polish émigrés not only tided Poles over the commie era by generously supporitng anti-communist freedom causes such as Skarb Narodowy, the truth about Katyń, uncensored news stations and balloons containing Free World information leaflets dropped on Polish territory. Polonans also provided massive financial aid. My grandparents sent a team of draught horses to relatives in Bydgoszcz after the war. Naturally they came from a stable in Benelux but they were paid for in the States. And Pekao and later Pewex were set up mainly to enrich the regime's coffers with émigré dollars and and pounds but that channel did provide loved ones in Soviet-ruled Poland with many necessities not available there. To this day cash continues to flow from the US, Canada, the British Isles and wherever else Poles live and work. If they have not renounced their Polish citizenship, émigrés have every right to vote in Polish elections. Amen!

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

facebook.com/torontopersonaltrainer/videos/o.775584332526236/10153355727657069/

A female prompter stays within earshot of Komorowski so he'll know what to say. After all, he can't very well bring his teleprompter contraption along when he mingles with crowds.

Life / Little-known facts about Poland [45]

Remember, there is this opinionated expat crony of yours who claims a scrap of paper (citizenship certificate, passport, etc.) is everything. By his standards any citizen of the Najjaśniejsza Rzeczpospolita would be Polish. Hevelius was defintiely a citizen.

I don't necessarily buy into that, but since you two usually support each other, that may be your view as well.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Bronek sees the light! Millions of signatures have been collected for the singlel-mandate thing and othger issues, but the Platformers and Bronek never saw fit to act on them. Suddenly, a miracle occurred. The day after election day, he starts signing things into law, pledges to have the Senate do their thing, etc. Did he have a vision of Archangel Gabriel? Maybe it was pure coincidnece? No, he saw how his rivals fared in the first round and realised that imitation was his only chnace to stay at the feeding trough for another 5 years. Tak trzymać, Bronku!

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Others are saying: Jeśli Platformersi i ich kolesie zostaną, ja wyjeżdżam do Białorusi!
(If the Platformers and their cronies stay, I'm moving to Belarus!)

Life / Where to find reputable house cleaner/ cleaning agency in Poland? [9]

google pralnie chemiczne szczecin

Genealogy / Descendants of Jan Szczepanik (the Polish Edison) of Tarnow [2]

SZCZEPANIK: hypocoristic (pet) form of Szczepan, one of two versions of Stephen in Polish, the other being Stefan. It could have originated as a patronymic nicc whose English equivalent would havr been Stephenson.

DZIKOWSKI: root-wrod dziki (wild, savage); probably originated as a toponymic nick for someone form Dzików or Dzikowo (Wildton, Savageville).

PANEK: diminutive of pan (lord, gentleman); it could have emerged as a patronymic meaning the lord's son or could have been used sarcastfcially for a commoner putting on airs.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Although Poland is largely a Catholic country, it does not like extremism. Braun may be wise and well-meaning but he simply came on too strong and overdid it. If a prickly, abrasive and radical candidate such as Kaczyński had run against Komorowski, he probably would have got no more than 25% of the vote and only from the most dyed-in-the-wool PiS hardliners. Duda came across as more moderate, conciliatory and open to dialogue -- a champion of "the little guy" rather than a defender of the PO oldboy elite.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Final 1st round results show that Poles have largely rejected leftists and extremists of every ilk, whackos like Palikot and Korwin, ultra-mega-Catholics like Braun, pretty PhDs like Miss Cucumber and ultra-nationalists like Kowalski. Also unknowns like Tanajno and Wilk. However the presidential election turns out, the good news is that leftists -- ex-communist, post-communist, Palikotist, greenist-extremist, libertinist, anarchist, whatever will most likely not make it into the Sejm for the first time since Poland dumped communism. I read somwhere that this is the left's poorest showing since (believe it or not?!) 1935. Bogu niech będą dzięki!

Grzegorz Michał BRAUN - 124132 - 0.83 percent
*Andrzej Sebastian DUDA - 5179092 - 34.76 percent
Adam Sebastian JARUBAS - 238761 - 1.60 percent
*Bronisław Maria KOMOROWSKI - 5031060 - 33.77 percent
Janusz Ryszard KORWIN-MIKKE - 486084 - 3.26 percent
Marian Janusz KOWALSKI - 77630 - 0.52 perent
Paweł Piotr KUKIZ - 3099079 - 20.80 percent
Magdalena Agnieszka OGÓREK - 353883 - 2.38 percent
Janusz Marian PALIKOT - 211242 - 1.42 percent
Paweł Jan TANAJNO - 29785 - 0.20 percent
Jacek WILK - 68186 - 0.46 percent

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Polsyr - you misread my statement. Komorowski was an anti-communist and nationalist Catholic originally who did time for his beliefs in a commie lock-up. But he changed his tune as an opportunist and now backs a party (PO) that has become a przechowalnia (retaining tank) for those ex-commies who slipped through the cracks of a very half-hearted lustracja. All the ones with things on their conscience said "nie grzebać w życiorysach" (don't dredge up the past) and went on to worm their way into positions of power in government and the business sector. But PO is a catch-all for opportunists of every ilk, careerists, scam artists, corporate thieves, the banking lobby and others eager to channel their profits to their home offices abroad.

Work / Why English Teachers stay long term in Poland [30]

CMC - I can see there is no room for your ultra-materialistic philosophy for love and that you have en extremely low opinion of females. They, according to your expositon, are all gold-diggers out to land a rich dude and nothing else matters. Sure, there are people like that about, but is that a fair appraisal of all womanhood?

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Correction: one-mandate, not one-made!

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

The support for Duda amongst émigré Poles should surprise no-one. It was Polonia that upheld the continuity of legitimate Polish rule over years of Nazi nad Soviet enslavement, kept up traditions the commies tried to destroy and was ultimately instrumental in Poland's re-emergence as an independent state in 1989. Blackmailed into at least feigning support for PRL, people in Poland had to survive, put food on the table and send their kids to school . Polonia was their only free voice. Émigré media told the world about Katyń and other communist atrocities as well as day-to-day PRL misrule, when people in Poland were muzzled. They provided massive aid to their compatriots in the Soviet satellite and strongly supprotred VOA, RFE and other stations beaming uncensored news to Poland. Maybe also at present Polonia is unfettered by the strictures of de rigueur docility towards the ruling PO establishment and is showing to way to true Polish sovereignty and freedom. Not only totalitarian regimes but also foreign banks and corporations as well as unbridled acceptance of EU intrusion can also restrict a naiton's sovereignty.

Some Kukiz voters will not bother to vote at all. Those who do are more likely ot vote for Duda. Kukiz has clearly indicated his rejection of all Komorowksis stands for. And Duda supports the one-made constituencies and civic referendum ideas of Kukiz. One need not agree on everything to form a strategic alliance. Who knows, maybe it'll be called the V RP.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

The only ones who fear IV RP are those with things on their conscience -- concealed commie-era misdeeds or more recent corruption.
The PO has become a safe haven for ex-commies with blood on their hands, participants in the Katyń conspiracy of silence, foreign non-trax-paying banks and enterprises and various corporate and non-corporate scam artists. The sooner they go, the better.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

This has been the rough breakdown in recent elections. The only interesting thing about it is that Mazowsze, including Warsaw, the bastion of arrogant look-down-on-everybody-else snobs, "red" £ódź and Śląsk -- which had been PO country, have joined the PiS bandwagon. The 4th RP looms. Lefty expats, pack your bags?

UPDATE: According to late exit polls Komorowski did win in Upper Silesia after all. Szkoda!

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

My family voted for Duda.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Initial exit polls show that Andrzej Duda, candidate of the opposition Law and Justice Party, won 1st place with 34.8% support in Sunday's presidential election. A field of 11 candidates took part. Incumbent Bronisław Komorowski got 32,2% which came as a surprise because he was favored to win by pollsters, mainstream media and betting firms alike. The most unusual result is the more than 20% won by rock star Paweł Kukiz, an anti-establismentarian candidate. Duda and Komorowski are due to clash in two weeks' time in a run-off election to decide who will be Poland's next president.

A lot depends on whom Kukiz calls on his voters to support. If he and several other minority parties give their vote to Duda, he could win by 60%. That could also be a harbinger of a Duda-Kukiz alliance which would finally put an end to the PO's political monopoly and hate industry which has attempted to divide the nation. One of Komorowski's campaign slogans tried to divide the nation into the rational and the radical -- describing himself as rational and the opposition as radical. Komorowski has admitted that the result is a serious warning to the current ruling class.

The only worrying thing is that the low turnout of under 50% may be in part attributable to PO voters who didn't vote under the influence of their party's excessive self-confidence and arrogance of power and the resultant belief that Komorowski was a shoo-in canddiate. If the PO start mobilising their electorate and trot out their worn-out PiS scares, Komorowski will probably do better in the second round. Will it be good enough to win? We'll have to wait and see.One thing is certain. Polish voters want a change. The PO old-boy network has outlived its usefulness.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

No-one named Mayback is standing for president. There are a number of people -- Wilk, Kowalski, etc. -- whom hardly anyone has heard of so far, but no Maybach.

GOOD NEWS! Intial exit polls show Duda to be the front-ruuner with 34.8% support. Komorowski is seond with 32.3%. Kukiz is third -- over 20%. I realise this is just an exit poll but it is heartening news indeed. Let's hope it'll be a harbinger of an end to the Platformers' misrule next autumn.

Genealogy / Suminska surname. Is my Polish Grandmother a Jew? [9]

Anglicanism? if it exisited in even the most miniscule form anywhere in Poland, it was super marginal, jultra-anecdotal and hyper-peripheral, countable on the fingers of one hand. What Pole would want to have anything to do with a religion concocted by a serial wife-killer?!

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

So were the North Africans that went on a rampage in French cities a few years ago rampaging for Islam or for their ethnic difference? When someone burns, destroys, loots, maims and kills, does it real matter what his motivation is? Stalin did so for purportedly "progressive" reasons and Hitler for nationalistic ones... Crippled is crippled and dead is dead regardless!

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

You're quite right. I have strayed. Mea maxima culpa!

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

If one has to bugger 10-year-old boys and wallow in decadent luxury to love life, then I guess you're right. I think it's better to love people, especially the underprivileged and disadvantaged.

Genealogy / Ancestry: Looking for relatives Bartochevicz, Klacskiewicz, from Rudnia, Poland [11]

BARTOSZEWICZ: patronymic nickname-turned-surname meaning "son of Bartosz" (Eng. Bartson); numerous coats of arms including an own-name one.

KLACZKIEWICZ: patronymic nickname-turned-surname indicating the son of someone nicknamed or surnamed Klaczka (little mare).

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

The point is that those blindly wallowing in their fat and flabby decadence in a world of such extreme poverty and suffering are proving to the ISIS barbarians that they are somehow less than human, that they are bereft of any semblance of social conscience and do not deserve to live. These are the people overindulging in food, drink and drugs, wallowing in luxury, travelling to Thailand to bugger 10-year-old boys, etc., etc. as if oblivious to the countless poor Africans trying to escape hunger, disease and physical coercion only to drown in the sea while trying to reach Italy. And that is but a minuscule snippet of the misery in what the luxury-blinded and pleasure-minded regard as "the best of all worlds".

News / Should Poland change its Government from Parliamentary to American Style Republic? One-mandate districts? [20]

Greens are moderates?! More like publicity-seeking whackos and loonies. Last anyone heard MP Bejgowski-turned-Grodzka is in their bin.

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

There is a huge difference between change and collapse. The Roman Empire did not change in a peaceful and evolutionary manner. It collapsed on the one hand through implosion when run-away fat and flabby hedonism outstripped common sense, and on the other -- under preponderant barabrian pressure from without. That is what seems to be in store for the West, although some refuse to see the writing on the wall. They are horse-blinkered into deluding themselves that this is the best of all worlds, where half the people of our planet go to bed hungry each night. The only unknown is whether the collapse will occur 10, 30 or 70 years from now, whether it will take place in stages and, if so, how many, and what role be played by aggressive Islam, the Far East, Russia or some as yet unforeseen constellation of forces? Oto jest pytanie!