News / PiS spokesman steps down after Poland's CBA find undeclared cash in his bank account [22]


How does one simply forget to declare 100,000zl - and more to the point, fail to declare it to the parliamentary authorities that require the registration of such funds?

Hofman is just proving our point - that PiS are out to feather their own nests, and that much of their anger towards PO stems from the fact that PO haven't allowed them to do so.


Yawn. Hofman was caught red handed, there's no-one to blame but himself.


How do you know about our Polish skills?


No, we know that if a populist party comes into power, it'll be us that will have to work harder to repair the damage done by their short term policies.

Now, let's get back to the topic - Hofman has been caught red handed with cash in his bank account that he didn't declare to the taxman.

For those of us that follow Polish politics, the downfall of Hofman is very satisfying indeed. He won't be smirking anymore.

Poland bank man:

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


Depends towards who, Ironside.


I know it's quite common for mentally disabled people to shout and scream - they have issues with expressing themselves, therefore shouting/screaming is a good way to convey emotion.

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


Poor guy. Imagine being that person, knowing that there are a load of people tutting under their breath and considering you to be the scum of the earth?


Because I don't advocate Nazi theories, unlike yourself?


Of course I would. I feel sorry for people who have disabilities caused by no fault of their own. In this case - autism - those of us that have actually worked with autistic individuals know how rewarding it can be.


I already work with an autistic person, thanks :) And I've never sat there tutting under my breath just because some poor chap was having problems.


Why is it strange? What's strange about autism, or mental illness? Like others have told you, many people suffer from it - and I suspect many others suffer from it without even realising.


You acknowledge them by advocating that they get locked up.


What has that got to do with autism?


What risk is there to you by someone who shouts and screams?

Oh yes, I forgot, it would ruin your comfortable middle class existence which scorns such people.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


They certainly wouldn't, not least because Poles don't often admit to their cheating ways.


A genuine big cheese in IT would be picking up a hell of a lot more than 8K gross, I can tell you that. Junior programmers here can take home 5-6K a month here gross - a big cheese (or even a small cheese- let's say a project manager) would be on at least 150k gross a year. Even a relatively junior SAP specialist would be taking home at least 6-7k a month.


Reflects the work that they do.


They aren't nice as in appearance, but they're nice in terms of size and location.

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


Disturbed as in disturbing their dinner.


Except it isn't the truth. The fact that you come on here preaching about religion, then show utter intolerance towards people with problems shows you for who you really are.


I'd pity the person. Maybe you consider your enjoyment to be worth the most important, in which case, I'd recommend reading the prologue to The Canterbury Tales.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


Actually, you do need that pinch of salt. It is very common (due to the high social insurance taxes) for people to be paid only part of their salary legally, with the rest 'na czarna'. I forget who said it (possibly KPMG...) - but something like 25% of income isn't declared in Poland.

What you haven't taken into account is that many of the older people who occupied very nice flats in good locations are now dying - for instance, in Wroclaw, in those flats near Galeria Dominikanska. They're worth quite a bit of money on the open market, and the sale of one such flat would easily pay a huge deposit on a new flat somewhere else.

UK, Ireland / Why can't unemployed Polish people on benefits just leave UK and go home please? [240]


I dunno, look at the Arab oil countries, or Norway - both heavily interventionist...

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


No, it's based on being Christian and humane. Do you think Jesus would want to lock people up just because they disturbed someone?


People agree with you? No evidence of that on here...

UK, Ireland / Why can't unemployed Polish people on benefits just leave UK and go home please? [240]


Not really. The damage done by lorries is significant - and the utter failure of the UK to do anything about foreign trucks that don't pay road tax is astonishing. There's a good reason why most of Europe has gone to distance-based tolls for trucks.

UK, Ireland / Why can't unemployed Polish people on benefits just leave UK and go home please? [240]


That wouldn't make any sense at all. Minus 95 million is believable, but billion? Given that NHS England has a budget of around 95 billion, it seems pretty unlikely that immigration would cause that kind of number.

Love / Indian girl met a Polish guy and got pregnant. He doesn't want to marry me and my visa expires... [14]

It is absolutely cast iron these days, although what Ireland did was make it so that you had to be legally resident on the Island of Ireland in order to obtain Irish citizenship. A child born to illegal immigrants on the island wouldn't be legally there, therefore they couldn't obtain Irish citizenship.

EU citizens can't be deported, after all.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_case

In this case, with a Polish father, the child is perfectly entitled to Polish citizenship and thus the mother has a right to stay.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]


It's in my local one - I don't think it ever went away?

News / Poland to sign FATCA, USA will get information about bank accounts [67]


Ugh, I oppose any sort of data sharing with the US.

Law / Is my Pesel number on my old Polish passport? [4]

The consulate should be able to tell you it, surely?

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]


Seems to be, it's always in my local Biedronka.

It's not great though, and not a patch on the Lidl stuff.

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]


It's always funny to be honest - what do they really expect from a foreigner? I don't sulk when someone sends me messages with mistakes, why would I?

Love / Indian girl met a Polish guy and got pregnant. He doesn't want to marry me and my visa expires... [14]


No, that part doesn't matter. As the parent of an EU national, she's got the right to stay in the EU.


Absolutely. It is critical that the child obtains Polish citizenship - as a result of that, you can move to a more friendly country for Indians (the UK) and get on with your life there. The English legal system will have no problems enforcing a child support order on him, too.

News / PO-PiS again neck and neck [248]


Correct, but those same opinion polls show 70% of voters are against them, hence their views are a minority view.

Study / Canadian Pol wants to study in Warsaw Poland [9]


Yes, this is the most important thing - once you get it nostrificated, you can proceed with admissions. You should go have a chat with the Fulbright Commission in Warsaw - they will help you with the nostrification process.


All of them are legitimate - as the matura is an external exam, the school doesn't matter.

Study / Canadian Pol wants to study in Warsaw Poland [9]


I think you might be fine - but it depends on what paperwork you have. Do you have a transcript of grades from high school showing that you had to do math to graduate?


There are plenty of them - Cominus for example - cosinus.pl/Miasto/warszawa/MojCosinus.aspx

But I'm not convinced you'll need it - your best bet is to go and have a chat with the international office in the university that you want to apply to.

Study / Canadian Pol wants to study in Warsaw Poland [9]


As I understand it, as long as you had mathematics in your final year of high school, you'll be fine. It doesn't need to be advanced mathematics - they won't apply such criteria to you, they'll just take the mathematics score from your final year regardless of what classes you actually took.

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


Are you a parent?

Genealogy / Being ashamed of Polish ancestry? [156]


It would have been rather difficult to come from Poland in 1902.


You could easily be German too. Either way, it's meaningless - be proud of where you're from - America - not some random relatives in the distance past.

What is it with Americans and latching onto a distant ancestry that is pretty much meaningless when they have such a great nation to belong to?

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

InWroclaw, cheers for the information, 100zl duly spent on the stuff ;)

Study / Looking for 'reviews' of schools for expat kids in Poland [28]


To be brutally honest, outside of Warsaw, you're not going to find quality English-medium education. Most so-called international schools are actually run with a heavy amount of Polish teaching staff with Polish ideas and methods - so putting them into an English language school won't really do very much for them here.

If you're in Poland for the longer term, I seriously advise looking at what Polish language education can offer them, not least because isolating them in the country like this that doesn't have much available for non-Polish speakers is a bad idea.

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


And what if you can't see them because of various rules, what if you're being told one thing by the hospital and yet they are telling you another, and so on and so on?


Who is forcing them on the public? They are people, WP, like you and me.


I'd think that they suffered from autism, not mental illness.


Why shouldn't they have the right to eat the meal in the same environment as me? They could be perfectly fine 99% of the time, I'm not going to segregate someone for the sake of the occasional incident.

People used to think it was acceptable to segregate people according to race, too. Advanced societies know better.


That's because you've got no real experience with it.

UK, Ireland / Mentally ill people in British society [55]


How would you feel if a close family member developed mental illness and was locked away, unable to access the outside world?

For instance, I know someone who has a father that developed mental illness. He was working hard for many years, had a very good job and was in a decent position in life. One of his projects miserably failed - and he had an extended bout in hospital as a result. These days, he still suffers from the consequences of that - but the hospital got him in a position where he's able to lead a somewhat normal life. Your suggestion that they should "live somewhere separate" is highly insulting.


How do you know it's mental illness and not something else?


Not a bad idea. Nazi Germany certainly started with the mentally ill, and I believe (Harry will no doubt correct me) that many mentally ill Polish prisoners were executed in Poznan.


I think the clue is in "later found to be". The Polish chap that went beserk on Jersey was a great example. Or do you think anyone that doesn't feel great should be locked up for the sake of society?


Source?

The thing is that we usually don't know about such people being dangerous until after they committed the crimes.


No, in Poland, they are ostracised and kept in institutions well away from the public eye.


That's because the UK takes the humane approach and lets people live in society and accepts them for who they are rather than the Russian mentality of locking them up.

WP, how would you feel if a family member was locked up in an institution even though they were capable of living a disturbed, but relatively normal life?

Law / Student. Looking for a way to extend my stay in Poland by study (to eventually apply for permanent residence) [19]

Actually, having thought about this : combining Linguistics with a music education could very well work.

Study / Looking for 'reviews' of schools for expat kids in Poland [28]


How old are they?

Neither international school in Poznan is particularly great - both of them rely on Polish teachers, even to teach English. They aren't really international schools in the real sense of the word - more Polish schools catering for mostly Polish parents.

Really, it depends on their age. There are some very very good schools in Poznan that follow the Polish programme - if you're looking at Poland for the longer term, then these would be an excellent bet, particularly as there is a fantastic bilingual high school here with an IB programme.