News / Polish families are urged to establish themselves in Norway : Taking children away? [36]


What, and put them at further risk of harm?


So it's an issue of homophobia, then.


Bwahahaa. When has that ever stopped Poland from turning a blind eye to the kidnapping of foreign children?


That's what the mother claimed. What was the real story? No-one is ever going to say "oh yeah, I beat the crap out of my child and knocked one of her teeth out", are they?


Of course they do. Haven't you heard of Stockholm Syndrome?


What kind of hero subjects a child to immense trauma?

A real hero would stay in Poland and work to stop child abuse here.

News / Polish families are urged to establish themselves in Norway : Taking children away? [36]


I've got a tinfoil hat here. Only used by a few PF posters, and only comes in a (very) small size.

What usually happens in Norway is that the parents claim one thing, but the relevant agency is prohibited by law from sharing details of what actually happened. So the usual story - poor "Eastern" European parents claim that they did nothing wrong, but everyone knows that they were beating the child or worse.

News / Polish families are urged to establish themselves in Norway : Taking children away? [36]


Or more accurately, they have no political correctness and will take away a child in danger. If people are too stupid to understand that Norway has zero tolerance towards "pathology" at home, then they deserve all they get.

Having said that, curiously, Norway isn't a signatory of the Hague Convention.

News / Russia threatens Poland over monument [33]


It's funny how much loathing that Putin-supporters have for the EU and for the West in general.


The thing that links them all is absolutely no attempt to investigate them. Russia is the master of the "no evidence" assassination, after all.

News / Russia threatens Poland over monument [33]


It is possible, and I think Russia really does have an overinflated sense of self importance. Poland could just delay (massively) exports from the EU at Terespol and the other crossing into Kaliningrad and Russia would be crying. With such cheap oil and gas prices at the minute, Russia couldn't even threaten to cut off the gas because they desperately need the hard currency.


Russia is claiming that only Russia is respecting it. I wouldn't believe them in the slightest, but can you find a copy of the agreement somewhere?

Yes, the Russian inflexibility with monuments is somewhat notorious. A honourable relocation would make a lot of sense, but they seem hell-bent on keeping monuments exactly where they are.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


Corrected it for you.

News / Russia threatens Poland over monument [33]


news.yahoo/russia-threatens-poland-over-dismantling-soviet-monument-111047719.html


Russia? Easy. They could simply make sure that no-one visits Katyń.

I'd bet good money on Russia doing exactly that if Poland keeps demolishing monuments without agreeing it first with Russia.

What's particularly annoying the Russians is the way that the Poles go about it - they're literally just demolishing monuments in some cases, or dumping them in storage (like this one). The proper way would be to hold some sort of handover ceremony with all the typical Russian pomp, as Russia would still feel important (image is everything there...) and the Poles could try and keep a straight face during it.

Work / Lang Company fired me [17]


Part of the problem is that ZUS and others really started to hurt language schools that were using dodgy contracts. They were ignored before, but using umowa o dzieło for fully-directed work (such as teaching) is now an absolute no-no.

Real Estate / EU national wanting to move and buy a house in Poland [41]


No worries there, then. You'll get the "certificate of residence" without any issue (it's free of charge).

Anyway, you can buy a house, it won't be any problem whatsoever.

Real Estate / EU national wanting to move and buy a house in Poland [41]


He can, but it's unlikely that a mortgage would be granted to anyone with less than a permanent contract in this case.


He has to go. But if you have a physical asset and money to live on, the Straz Graniczna could well issue a "tolerated stay" permit.

Also, if he/she loses their job, they still have till the end of the residence permit.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


The Polish Ambassador to the UK certainly doesn't.

twitter.com/evagrosman/status/644530515467456513

I'm shocked that they would publish something like that without even including a basic disclaimer that it's just an opinion and not the view of the editorial staff.

Real Estate / EU national wanting to move and buy a house in Poland [41]


None of that is relevant. That refers to permanent residency obtained by a non-EU national.

However, it is worth pointing out that the Polish authorities will want to see clear evidence of income and health insurance if you want to reside here legally.

UK, Ireland / Brutal stabbing, Poles arrested [36]


Clearly you're choosing to ignore the lawlessness of the early 90's.

I've seen a collection of photographs from Poland back then showing how non-white people were beaten up regularly and without any response from the police.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


I'm suggesting that Davies knew fine well that if he wrote anything bad about Poles in the last century, then he would have real problems here.


Wrong. Don't try and push that tired myth. He's a professor of history, as listed on his faculty page. The fact that his PhD is in sociology doesn't change a thing about what his title is. If you want an honest debate, you need to respect the facts.


There's usually a reason for that.


If it was genuinely researched and truthful, I suspect it would. The Americans might have some weird love-affair with Israel, but others don't. I find it interesting that no-one has actually attempted to do such a thing.


It works both ways. What's curious about political correctness is that it also applies to the right wing.


Think about it - you want publicity for your book, right? So why not say something completely ridiculous - which will cause the right wing media to explode. It did, and Gross got 2-3 years of free publicity from it. The resulting hysteria was also widely reported in the United States, so it helped him with book sales there, too. Very clever, I'd say.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


Davies is sometimes very poor though - I noticed that in his book about Wrocław, he somewhat ignored most of the post-1945 history and concentrated on anecdotes from small villages instead. When you consider how well researched the early stuff was, it seems that he was too afraid to write about the modern era.


The man is a professor of history - not exactly the domain of pseudo scholars.


Or because they are heard? People in Poland do tend to believe a certain mythology about Jewish people.


Such is the level of debate in Poland. There's no rational centrist position here.


Seems like a good marketing act to me.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


I would, too. The problem is that the only people that are seemingly able to do it properly are non-Poles, yet any foreigner attempting to tackle the subject is immediately accused of bias if the result is against the Poles in any way. I've noticed the same hysteria with the issue of the Poles in Lithuania - Polish people simply don't want to admit that the real situation is anything other than bad Lithuanians being evil to Poles.

At least in my opinion, Gross crossed a line this time. I don't normally support Polish hysteria, but if he genuinely said what was reported, then he really should apologise for it.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


The problem is that it works both ways. The opposition to Gross (at least, until now - I suspect that this incident with Die Welt will **** off a lot of people) has consisted of people that constantly brought up things like "BUT THE JEWS COLLABORATED WITH THE NKVD!" as a counterpoint. I read one interview with someone opposed to him a while ago, and half the interview consisted of an attempt to portray the Jewish minority as being equally evil. It was ridiculous.

I'm all for honesty, but it has to be genuine honesty and not based on an attempt to score cheap political points.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


I would agree, provided the Poles do the same. When will fronda.pl start writing about the wrongdoings committed by Polish people?

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


Oh yes, it's a very Russian thing to me. Even the terminology is utter denial - "Great Patriotic War", anyone?

I've always been rather amused by the way that those right-wing Poles more or less copy Russian ideas and mentalities. Fits in with their Eastern origins, I suppose.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


It's the usual right-wing cry-baby reaction. They try and diminish Polish crimes by pointing out that others committed crimes too, so they can reduce/minimise the discussions about Polish crimes.

News / Why no reprivatisation in Poland? Holocaust-era property ownership. [119]


I think there were some issues such as communal flats - what would you do with all those people that moved from villages into city centres to change the demographics? And how could you deal with issues such as ZUS contributions suddenly being worth far less than people thought?

Life / Driving test, English speaking driving school in Warsaw? [95]

Amusing spam ;) Wise to avoid the "Rajdowiec" school given that the two reviews above are obviously fake and written by the same person.


I'm from the UK. A native speaker wouldn't make that mistake :)

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]

Why are you so sure that it couldn't happen?

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]


Without any bias, I think that if the situation emerged that PiS (and any allies, such as Kukiz or Korwin) had around 220-225 seats between them and PO/PSL/ZL/Nowoczesna/MN had the remaining 235 seats, we would see a technocratic government form. It wouldn't be a PO government, but rather one that was led by a respected non-political figure with the parties getting ministries according to seat numbers. Or we could see the situation emerge where the PO/PSL/ZL/Nowoczesna/MN bloc (let's call them the blue coalition) agree to support Kopacz as Prime Minister in return for some political concessions.

Either way, it seems easy for that bloc of parties to agree to keep PiS out.


The problem PiS have is the stability of Korwin or Kukiz - neither would be good coalition partners. Korwin would disgrace PiS in the same way that Lepper did, while Kukiz's "anti-system" agenda would probably manifest itself in some very ugly nationalism, comparable to Giertych's LPR. Either result is bad, bad news for PiS.

But a question for you - would you accept, as a PiS supporter, a Szydło-led PiS/PO coalition with the elimination of Kaczyński, Macierewicz and a few others?

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]

What kind of fool would bet on elections in Poland more than a month away?

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]

Oh I will. Probably while laughing my head off at PiS not putting together a viable majority.

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]

Not sure why you're so confident, given that the polls are showing wafer-thin majorities for PiS in alliance with Kukiz.

It only takes a 5% swing to PO/PSL/ZL/Nowoczesna and PiS will be in opposition. Again.

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]


It could be offered, but can you imagine the consequences? They would have to offer minimum wage salaries and not much else, just to be able to manage the risk effectively.

But with a huge change to the kodeks pracy, perhaps it could work...

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Indeed. I don't think it's much of an issue, personally. If the members feel that their money should be used to pay for their boss to enjoy a luxurious holiday far beyond what they can ever hope for, then it's entirely their choice to do so.


Patriotic would be giving up the luxurious holidays and using the money to help the members of the union that need it. But hey, not my union, not my problem. But you know, going on the kind of holiday that involves special towels being made for your dog is certainly not patriotic when winter is coming and people need help.


May I remind you that Duda openly mocked his electorate by saying that surely people didn't expect him to actually keep the promises he made?

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


You haven't heard about how Duda used public cash to earn private money teaching at a private university? If it wasn't true, Duda would have waived his immunity and let the courts deal with it.

Piotr Duda is a different story - he's used trade union money to have lavish holidays and all the rest of it, but I'm personally of the opinion that it's an internal Solidarność matter. If the members are happy for him to live such a lifestyle, then...it's their money, isn't it?


It's PiS. They're very much headline-focused.


Sure, they're going to leave the UK with a minimum wage that's going to rise to 7.20GBP (41.22PLN) to a country with a minimum wage of 12PLN (2.10GBP). I know you're young, but surely you're not so naive as to believe that they're going to return simply because of a change of government and that money isn't a factor at all?


If I ask educated people that are genuine patriots (i.e., they clean up after their dog, they don't throw rubbish on the streets, they help others) - they will be proud. If I ask the average burak, of course he won't be proud - because he lets his dog **** everywhere, he throws rubbish on the streets and he couldn't give a toss about anyone but himself.


I don't think you understand his job if you think that it's about only promoting Polish interests.


Not really. Komorowski's campaign was pathetic by all accounts, and even PO were pretty furious with him for what he did. What Kopacz is doing now is what PO normally did - but Komorowski was foolish enough to believe that he could just do nothing and people would still vote for him.


I wouldn't call them idiots, I'd call them socialists.


The SLD went pretty much to the centre-right after 1990 - neither their 1993-1997 or 2001-2005 governments were left wing economically. Furthermore, look at the Constitution - it's very much a centre-right construct.


I wouldn't call myself British. I might have a British passport, but I don't have any loyalty to Britain as a political construct. I don't even know the words to God Save The Queen.