News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]


The ones marching in Warsaw don't care about jobs and a better life - they care about control over others.

News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]


I'm offended on behalf of your dog that you're comparing him/her to those pond life.

News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]


The rainbow, as has been repeated many times by authorities such as the city council and priests, stands for nothing in particular. One priest even reminded people that rainbows should remind us of Noah.


Those with a keen interest in Polish politics can see that there is an emerging power battle on the right - Kaczynski managed to unite them all, but obviously he's now failing to keep them together.

What's interesting is that Smolensk doesn't feature in their narrative at all.

News / Emigration from Poland (2.1m Poles are living abroad, most within Europe) [37]


Of course they do - the problem is that employers know that students will be dreadfully unreliable in summer.

Even small towns have plenty of businesses that would appreciate an extra pair of hands - if students are determined to gain experience in their field, they need to start by being responsible. I know several employers who simply won't take on interns because of their unreliability - they will often agree to (for instance) 4 weeks in summer, only not to show up because they wanted holidays instead.

For what it's worth, my workplace isn't in a big city and we would take on as many interns as were interested in the summer months. There's countless things that can be done then - but they simply aren't interested despite us advertising the possibility.

News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]

It was remarkably stupid by all accounts - that picture will be all over the media throughout the world, and will give the authorities a perfect reason to ban the march next year.

News / Emigration from Poland (2.1m Poles are living abroad, most within Europe) [37]


The two aren't connected in the slightest, and Poland doesn't have problems with governing.

Perhaps you should visit Poland once to see for yourself?

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]


Which means that it's probably Dąbrowski originally and was simply changed along the way.


If they couldn't read/write, then they were probably relying on someone writing it down. If they were living in a Germanic area, then Dąbrowski -> Daberski is quite possible.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]

What for? I'm not the one making unverified claims to being Polish.

I think you should investigate the Jewish angle further - we used to have a poster on here that also discovered that she possibly may have had Jewish roots despite her family being adamant that she was Polish. It's not uncommon - plenty of them did it for whatever reason.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]


Actually, it's quite strange for a Polish name to have only a handful of examples in Poland, especially one ending in ski. That's what makes me think that it was invented, thus showing a potential Jewish link. It's certainly worthy of more investigation.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]

Actually, I actually think the Jewish theory has some merit. They did tend to take geographical place names as their last names - I forget the what and why, but I know they often didn't have last names. So - as a result - you often saw Jewish people with geographical place names. There is a "Dobra" town in what used to be Germany (Daber) - which, combined with the lack of "Doberski" names in Poland (only a handful exist) sounds very much as if the name was invented at some point.

Their records are pretty much meaningless - people had little connection to even ethnic groups then. If they spoke Polish (or something assumed to be Polish), then they would have been recorded as Polish.

For me, the lack of people with the "Doberski" name in Poland despite the "ski" ending implying nobility is a clear pointer that the name is not all that you think it is. It may have been corrupted from something else at some point, or simply invented when required.

Do your ancestors, to your knowledge, all have the name "Doberski"? If so, then they can't have been Polish - as females would have been Doberska according to the rules of Polish.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]


Could be. Couldn't care less.


It's rather strange to be proud of something so...uncertain, isn't it?

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]

The Doberski name may not mean very much if there are only a few in modern day Poland - it's always possible that they took a last name when required to do so. That would hint at Jewish blood (as I recall, they often didn't have surnames) and simply took the word for "good" and added ski to make it sound Polish at some point.

As for what I've done - quite a lot of volunteer work and I still do it. Nothing to shout about, but still.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]


Exactly. Very few Poles can trace a clear unbroken linage of Poles back to the founding of the Polish state, and indeed, the variety of surnames in Poland prove this.

As for being proud to be Polish, what have you done for Poland? Being proud of a nationality is rather silly unless you contribute to it, in my opinion.


Seems to be Pila, but I suspect the name has been changed somewhere along the line, possibly upon emigration to the US.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]


You do realise that the history of Poland stretches back for over 1000 years, with many occupations and invasions in that time?

Even the concept of "Polishness" didn't really exist for a long time - people were attached to their local areas much more than the concept of nationhood and nationality.


Pretty meaningless, as "Polish" blood can easily be Lemko/etc.

Genealogy / Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert. [73]

You could be anything, given the long and complicated history of Poland. There's little point worrying about it or focusing on it - there has been so much mixed marriages throughout the centuries that it's unlikely that you are anything other than a mongrel.

Travel / In last place was Polish airline LOT [22]


It's pretty much a direct consequence of the Boeing culture - I still can't figure out what on earth the management are doing in Chicago when everything is built in Seattle.

I still think it will be a great plane when they sort themselves out, but they seem absolutely unable to actually do this. Did you read about the whole nonsense with Norwegian and BoeingCare not being what it was supposed to be?

Travel / In last place was Polish airline LOT [22]

Part of these issues have been caused by the customers themselves. Norwegian in particular seem to have got it completely wrong - they put the 787 into heavy usage as one of the first customers, then were surprised by problems occurring. Boeing aren't blameless, of course.

News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]


They don't seem to realise the meaning of the term "own goal".

I'd be very surprised if they let the march go ahead next year after this - the police were obviously ready for them this year, but the general public want something done about them.

PiS were very wise to avoid Warsaw this year.

Love / Massive problems with Polish mother-in-law [36]


As if you're actually Polish.

News / Emigration from Poland (2.1m Poles are living abroad, most within Europe) [37]


Yes. If you look at the - for instance - gazeta.pl forums, you'll find that emigrants have a habit of painting Poland as some sort of terrible place.


I'm not actually convinced that the Polish Government is that bothered by it. Most of the people leaving are unemployable anyway for various reasons, and the phenomenon is similar to the Yugoslav emigration of the 1960's and 1970's to Germany.


What *is* true in the comments is that there is little future for badly educated people living in villages, or for people who studied crap degrees without having any sort of connections. But the first point is true everywhere, and the second point is directly related to the Polish work culture, or lack of. Most students are horrified at the thought of actually gaining work experience in their holidays, which is again the norm in some Western countries.

I can speak from first hand experience - it is nearly impossible to find students willing to work on projects for their own self development within Poland. They simply don't want to do it if it clashes with things like going home for the various long weekends, summer holidays, etc etc.

Love / Massive problems with Polish mother-in-law [36]


That's what I've been trying to say in this thread.

It's entirely understandable given the culture of fighting back for centuries - someone unable to do so would be seen as weak.

Life / Learning Driving In Poland - rules? [55]


Yes. In fact, failure to do so can attract a fairly considerable punishment.

News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]

What were the marchers doing anywhere near the squat in the first place?


Here's hoping that they put rainbows in every Polish village, town and city from now on.

News / Skins vs anarchists in Warsaw [93]


I wondered how long it would take for someone to defend the thuggery that's going on in Warsaw.

I suppose you also claim that the poor marchers just started fires because...because, right?


It seems that they were protected from what Harry said.

News / Emigration from Poland (2.1m Poles are living abroad, most within Europe) [37]

Unfortunately, most of those comments are politically biased and/or nonsense.

I've just read one that claimed that it takes 6 months to start a business. Those of us living in Poland know that it takes a matter of minutes (the time needed to fill in the form, print it and take it to the local Urzad Miasta).

Some of them are also hilarious, such as the history and politics graduate that couldn't find a job when - it has been known for years in Poland that those degrees are unemployment factories.

The reality concerning emigration is that as is mentioned in the comments - these are mostly people who graduated from poor degrees, or people from the countryside.

Work / Australian living in Poland - fire protection / construction field jobs? [11]

As an Australian, you require a work permit - and there's no chance of you getting one when the province is poor and suffers from high unemployment as it is.

What kind of work do you think you can do without Polish skills?

Work / Australian living in Poland - fire protection / construction field jobs? [11]


Lesko isn't particularly wealthy in that region (it's not as bad as some other areas, but it has those rather poor housing estates on the road to Cisna) - and employment is hard to come by for locals, let alone foreigners who don't speak the language.


In Lesko, very little - it's simply not a tourist destination as everyone is driving through.

If I were in your shoes, I'd be looking at starting a business in Cisna. It's the most well-run out of all the villages there, and has the most potential to expand further. But you'll need significant capital to even start there.

More to the point, on what basis are you staying in Poland? Do you have a valid residence permit, or an EU passport?

Work / Australian living in Poland - fire protection / construction field jobs? [11]



There isn't exactly much employment in Bieszczady outside of the tourist industry, and that is incredibly seasonal. Did your relatives not explain to you that Lesko and the surrounding area isn't exactly a great place for someone who doesn't speak the language?

Do you have capital to start a business? That's about your only chance there.

Love / Massive problems with Polish mother-in-law [36]

The OP needs to ignore wishy-washy thoughts of good feeling and simply cut the evil cow out of her life.

Polish people by nature do not understand subtlety, but understand and respect the fist. OP, you may well find that she respects you more if you take a very firm line with her.

What you'll probably find is that the MIL has some twisted understanding of respect - that you should respect and obey her based on her age, but you don't deserve any. As I said, the fist is stronger than the word.

Love / Massive problems with Polish mother-in-law [36]

Cut her out of your life completely. Don't negotiate, don't discuss, just cut the ties completely.