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Posts by Des Essientes  

Joined: 6 Feb 2010 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O		 Last Post: 10 May 2015
Threads: Total: 7 / In This Archive: 7
Posts: Total: 1288 / In This Archive: 902

Displayed posts: 909 / page 14 of 31
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Des Essientes   
15 Sep 2011
History / The strange destiny of Antoni Aleksander Iliński [32]

There is a painting of St Stanislaus Kostka at banquet fainting at having heard a swear-word in which all the revelers save him are turbaned, but I was unable to find a copy of it online, and I am sure I have seen other pictures of other "Sarmat" Poles wearing turbans, but you all are right that turbans were not an integral part of Sarmatian costume, and most Sarmatian portraiture does feature them bare-headed.
Des Essientes   
14 Sep 2011
History / The strange destiny of Antoni Aleksander Iliński [32]

An interesting peculiarity of Polish fashion history is the fact that not long after a surviving copy of Tacitus’ Germania was discovered in Hersfeld Abbey and its contents, placing Sarmatia in what was now Poland, became known to the Szlachta, they began affecting an Oriental style of dress complete with turbans, and it stands to reason that after Lane’s French translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night became known to the Polish aristocracy those still sporting Sarmatian vestments must’ve sometimes though of the City of Peace when they looked in the mirror.

After fighting for Polish freedom in the November Uprising of 1830 against tsarist rule, and after troubling other reactionary European powers in Józef Zachariasz Bem’s Portugese Legion, Antoni Iliński found himself in Turkey organizing yet another force to fight Russian autocracy and he was arrested by the sultan’s police at the request of the Russians. Faced with deportation to a Russian prison Iliński opted to convert to Islam and joined the Sultan’s army wherein he distinguished himself by defeating the forces of a rebellious Bosniak vizier and by many victories against the Russians in the Crimean War and he was promoted again and again. Adam Zamoyski’s book The Polish Way claims that he was eventually made military governor of Baghdad. The Wikipedia article on Iliński says that he was subordinate in Baghdad to a fellow Slav named Omar Pasha (Mihajlo Latas), but in any event Iliński, now know as Iskander Pasha, had come closer than any other Pole in history to realizing the ultimate Sarmatian fantasy of combining both style and substance. He was practically the Caliph of Baghdad like the night adventurer Harun al-Raschid himself!
Des Essientes   
13 Sep 2011
Life / Articles of Jamie Stokes concerning an ex-pats life in Poland [10]

Look at what he writes in the "Polish myths about England" article linked to above in the OP:

Poland draws its idea of sophistication and civilisation from a Central European ideal that was heavily influenced by Napoleonic France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. England regards this ideal as pompous and probably very tiring. Polish sophistication is intellectualism, fine food, fine clothes, education and concerts. The English have a horror of intellectualism and fall asleep at concerts.

This characterization of Englishmen seems rather hyperbolic to me. If we look at this forum we see that there are indeed several anti-intellectual British posters, but others here seem quite bright and open to continental notions of appropriate discussion topics. This Jamie Stokes does England a disservice by claiming it is a nation of yokels.
Des Essientes   
13 Sep 2011
Love / Why Poland and Indian Sub-Continent? [30]

Come on, the only reason they come here is because it offers an cheap, easy way into the EU.

Ha ha get a load of yourself Dopeyandomine claiming you know "the only reason" Indians come to Poland. Your stereotyping of Indians is shameful. You should be ashamed of yourself. The OP actually knows Polish/Indian couples. You are just always ready to believe the worst about people and I suspect it is because you project our own perverted motives onto others. Fullyalive, never mind him and his xenophobic cohorts. They are just haters and hating is what they do.
Des Essientes   
13 Sep 2011
Love / Why Poland and Indian Sub-Continent? [30]

Many Poles and Indians (especially the upper caste ones) have a common male ancestor as the wide distribution of the Ra1 genetic haplogroup in both populations evinces.
Des Essientes   
12 Sep 2011
Work / Job opportunities with Hungarian-Swedish-English languages in Poland? [51]

The battle hasn't been lost

In the wider society it surely has been lost, Lysko. Take the example of newspapers all of which has dumbed their language down as the decades have passed. Now we inhabit a culture wherein images are (re)produced to describe it, rather than words, and in an image based culture the debasement of language will proceed unabated.
Des Essientes   
12 Sep 2011
Work / Job opportunities with Hungarian-Swedish-English languages in Poland? [51]

Lysko, it is just the way of the world. There was once an evolutionary theory of language that claimed that languages like organisms grow in complexity as the generations pass, but William "Oriental" Jones discovered that Sanskrit was an Indo-European language and that it was more complex than either Latin or Greek and the awful truth slowly dawned that people from simpler more ancient societies have more complex languages. It makes sense in a way that human intelligence would be directed into linguistic complexity when there was less societal distraction.
Des Essientes   
12 Sep 2011
Work / Job opportunities with Hungarian-Swedish-English languages in Poland? [51]

'gonna', 'wanna' and 'shoulda'

They are just contractions Lysko, so what if they make it into the OED? You cannot deny that English has be devolving in complexity since Elizabethan times, and Indo-European languages in general have been becoming less and less complicated for the last 2500 years. It just seems to be the way of the world. As societies become more populous the language becomes debased.
Des Essientes   
8 Sep 2011
Genealogy / How common is it for other people of Polish origin to discover they are actually Jewish? [127]

Perpetuating a refugee problem is the intentional policy of Arabs who benefit politically from this situation.

The refugee problem was caused by the Zionists who expelled almost one million Palestinians from their homes in 1948. Blaming neighboring Arab states for their status as refugees is a disgusting subterfuge on your part Yehudi. You and your racist state are contemptable. We in the West believe in equal rights for all people regardless of their religion. Your "Jewish state" is an anachronism that is doomed to be thrown into the dustbin of history.
Des Essientes   
7 Sep 2011
USA, Canada / Why are Polish restaurants not successful in the USA? [698]

I really think this is the cause of a lot of the so-called blandness issues.

I find it hard to believe that there are not myriad Polish home cooks that create delicious and exciting food using the ingredients that the land of Poland provides: herbs, mushrooms, etc.
Des Essientes   
2 Sep 2011
Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]

No, my point was what they perceive as Allah (which I assume to take a different form than how the Jews see G_d) is not the same as what Christians perceive as God.

You assumption is wrong. Their Allah is the same monotheistic God of the Jews and the Christians.

God, according to the Torah and New Testament, already existed long before Islam came along later. Simple.

So you think the Muslims believe God didn't exist before Islam! How stupid are you Seanus?
Des Essientes   
2 Sep 2011
Life / People living in Warsaw are rootless peasants! [41]

"Rootless peasant" is an oxymoron. Peasants are from places that they, or their ancestors, farmed, as the thread-starter reveals when he states that Warsaw is deserted over the holidays because many of it's citizens return to visit their family in the places of their roots.
Des Essientes   
2 Sep 2011
Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]

so then you admit that they are calling God "God" in their own language now, so your previous post had no point. You stupid Islamophobic, conspiracy theorist moron.
Des Essientes   
2 Sep 2011
Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]

somehow seek to claim Allah as God?

"Allah" is the Arabic word for "God" you ignorant idiot.
Des Essientes   
1 Sep 2011
Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]

However, politicians will always find a way to spark things. Obama did it by proposing a mosque near Ground Zero (what a moron!)

Seanus, President Obama did not propose the Mosque near Ground Zero. It was proposed by the people that run the Islamic community center that was already there before 9-11. Do you even understand the American system of government which seperates church and state? The president of the USA does not go around proposing that any houses of worship be built. Claiming that he does is moronic.
Des Essientes   
31 Aug 2011
News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]

Voting rights should be lifted for all Poles who stay abroad longer than one year

That is an absolutely crazy thing to propose. Poles that travel the world shouldn't lose their rights.
Des Essientes   
31 Aug 2011
Genealogy / Where Polish-American People Living Now? Updated List. [8]

Californian people tend to like, and even love, Polish people and there are lots of Polish-Californians too, but, unlike many Polish-Americans elsewhere in the USA, we don't tend to live together in Polish neighborhoods here in California.
Des Essientes   
30 Aug 2011
News / Multi-culti (in Poland) -- roadmap to disaster? [344]

In today's western world you cannot have a multi cultural platform without it meaning the gates are wide open, everyone's welcome, no questions asked

This is what is known as the "straw man" fallacy. No country in the Western world has such an immigration policy welcoming "everyone" with "no quesions asked".
Des Essientes   
30 Aug 2011
News / Multi-culti (in Poland) -- roadmap to disaster? [344]

So as I say,it's quite a silly thread, an excuse for rants about immigration.

This thread has only a congectual relation to Poland in some possible future, and thus it becomes, not really about Poland, but merely a platform to vent, by those so inclined, about Western Europe and the USA being overun by "teeming masses yearning to breathe free."

The truth about this thread divided by a mere 228 posts.
Des Essientes   
25 Aug 2011
Law / Difference between an expat and a immigrant (or permanet resident) in Poland [41]

There is another twist to this story.

sobieski the Belgian, I think you need to learn the meaning of both the words "twist" and "story". Given the title of your thread you just made an off topic post and you even misspelled its ethnic slur making you look both ignorant and oafish.
Des Essientes   
24 Aug 2011
Travel / After 7 Weeks, why i loved Poland =) [22]

Delphiandomine is lying according to the Wiki article on Polonia in Brazil:

The number of people of Polish descent in Brazil is estimated at between 1 million and 5 millions. Most Polish Brazilians are Catholic

Des Essientes   
24 Aug 2011
Travel / After 7 Weeks, why i loved Poland =) [22]

Levi, it is good to see a Brazilian on this forum. Brazil has the second largest population of Polonia in the world and they should have more of a presence on this forum. Today is the poet Paolo Leminski's birthday:

INVERNACULAR

This language isn't mine.
It's plain as day.
When meaning goes away,
the word stays behind.
Maybe I'm just lying.
Or am I lying truth?
So I say myself - just,
Maybe - I can barely say.
This isn't my tongue.
The language I speak mutes
a distant song,
the voice, beyond, not a word.
The dialect you utilize
on the left bank of the phrase,
that's what does it, lusifies
me, half, maybe, inside.

°°°
elsonfroes.com.br/kamiquase/chris.htm
Des Essientes   
21 Aug 2011
History / Chance of Lwów once again became coming part of Poland [344]

That's good. I would be neat if it was like a Mecca for masochists and it's sadistic residents could make a good living wielding the whip doin what they love to do, eliciting involuntary vocal responses from their subjects.
Des Essientes   
20 Aug 2011
Life / Your Polish friends - why do you regard them as such? [41]

Grubas, stop sidetracking things. I'm just speaking the truth here.

Grubas "sidetracked" nothing. He was absolutely correct to point out that your "response post" was laughably superficial.

Sorry that I'm not gay and don't have gay sex with him, DE. I'm sure that's what you wanted to here.

You actually do sound rather fruity in the OP, but that is not what I wanted to "here" from you, Seanus, the English teacher.

You don't have a clue about life here and you show it time and again.

You asked me about my friends in California.

Your 'stories' would go well in a book of fables.

You obviously have no clue as to what life is like here in California. You begged me for some stories and now you are calling me a fabulist. You, Seanus, lack honor.
Des Essientes   
20 Aug 2011
Life / Your Polish friends - why do you regard them as such? [41]

So Seanus you begged me, in two seperate posts, to come on your thread and share my stories, which I did despite your OP's extremely boring account of your friendship with "Danny" and my thus being loathe to even appear on such a thread, and now you tell me that my Polish friend isn't really Polish anymore but rather "Americanised", but hey you're the Scotsman, and on this forum it seems its the Scots who think they know what's Polish and what isn't. Seanus, my stories about my friends making me laugh, helping me to score trim, and getting me loaded, are truly Polish, and your stories about how your friends curse, but not too loudly, and drink, but not too much, are un-Polish.