News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

The question is why have they decided? WHo are what persuaded them? Aee marrieds with four or five kids looked up to nowadays, , envied by peer groups, glorifed by the media and honoured by the state with medals and special stipends? Or, on the contrary, is the view being peddled that having kids is costly, wrecks one's social life, hamstrings one's career and should be put off until the wife is on the very broink of birthabiltiy (35-40), when a second chiuld is out of the question?

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

In the language sphere freedom of choice should prevail. A person not speaking the host country's language fluently usually limtis himself/herself in terms of job opportunites. However if they choose to live and work in a Polish ethnic neighbourhood where they can get by without much English, that should be their sovereign choice. The US for one does not have any anti-foreign-language laws, in fact they bend over bakcwards to accommodate Hispanics, various Orientals and in Chicago, at least ,Poles who are able to attend school in a bilingual format and take driving tests in their native tongue.

As long as they are not breaking immigration or economic laws, Poland's Vietnamese should not be forced by law to learn Polish if they don't want to. Neither should PF expats be attacked or ridiculed for not knowing Polish well. Lithuania is using heavy-handed tactics to force non-Lithuanian citizens to learn Lithuanian and penalising them if they don't.

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

OK, what is your infallible reason for the demographic collsapse?. Your beloved Tusk is also concerned. POLAND IS AT THE TAIL END OF EUROPE WITH BULGARIA AND LITHUANIA IN TERMS OF BIRTH RATE. 1.3%. I await your as always enlightened reply.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

If somene was born of Polish parents in Cardiff and spends a decade living in Lublin, is he a Polonian or an expat?

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

Creationists are exercising their freedom of belief, but the UFO and alien-lovers are victims of yet another popculture ploy. And those those churning out the literature, DVDs, gadgets, T-shirts and staging shows and sessions are raking in the dough. There's a sucker born every minute.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

I have the same amount of evidence to support that claim as the one hwo listed Mossad.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

teflcat
Of coruse not. If the Obamists were to attack Poland to force it at gunpoint to introrduce abortion on demand and dispense free condoms to 13 year olds, then no decent person could support that, could they?

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

SeanBM
Your not very original. Reductio ad absurdum was thought up by the ancient Romans. No-one would pin fertiltiy or its lack on one thing like computer games. They were but a tiny fragment of the umbridled plunge into the consumerist pop culture that engulfed Poland after 1989, and that was largely to blame. People going gung-ho like the suddenly unleashed guard dog Burek. Just shows to go, that 'co nadto to niezdrowo!'

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

It woudl largely depend on what the war was over. Luckily, unlike Germans and Japs, Poland and America were never at war. During the cold war the PRL puppet state was opposed by patriots in Poland (who had to lie low and pretend to be 'za socjalizmem' to feed their famlies) and across Polonia who more vociferously opposed the red Soviet-installed regime.

BTW, one of the few good things the PRL puppet state did was to create Cepelia. It provided a livelihood to thousands of homsepun folk artists and also helped preserve the coutnry's folk culture around the globe.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

Polonia is a state of mind, not a place; it's a state of awarenss and belonging.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

i have never left my homeland -- the American Polonia. I was born a Polonian and continued to be one while in Poland I have never left or abandoned Polonia and do nto intend to. That is my homeland. And yes I am married within my own ethnic fold.

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

SeanBM
I often get the imrpession that you are only out to hone your debating skills rather than trying to get to the bottom of a real problem. That's OK, I reckon, to each his own. If you scrape the bottom of the barrel you may even come up with draughts and tic-tac-toe (spelling?) addictions, but the number of people in such therapy programmes I'm sure is negligible comapred to booze, drugs, nicotine, gambling and Internet dependence.

And probably the chess addicts are mainly those who play internet chess, maybe also internet solitaire -- so those would be double addictions..

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

Quite! It's a handy short-cut.

Harry
If two people who liked to drink or fancied the opera or hang-gliding or were of the same educaitonal level married, you wouldn't call it racist. The more things one has in common (and the less there is to argue over) the more likely it is to make a go of it. And marrying within one's own religon or ethnic group is among the most important common values. In today's selfish 'me, myself & I' times, any marriage is a diffcult challenge, but mixed marriages can pose insurmountable obstacles, especially when the kids come along.

One thing often forgotten by those 'madly in love' is that you are also marrying parents-in-law, siblings-in-law and lots of other people, places and ways of doing things that may seem strange and exotic. Mixed marriages compound the whole shebang. That does not mean they can never work, but they require a hell of a lot more effort, understanding and sacrifice.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

No, Obama's CIA!

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

Every heard of chess-addiction therapy or support groups? One can be a tennis or fishing devotee but comptuer games are actually regarded as addictive. And to the very young virtual reality is real and everything else is unreal. So, yes, there is a difference.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

Poland's heritage and good name can be served everyhwere. In fact more can be done to spread the good Polish wordd abroad. Doing it in Poland is like preaching to the choir. Too bad there are so few in Poland serving only their own narrow self-interest.

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]

The only thing wrong with the IV RP was the timing. It should have been done by the mid-90s. The esence of IV RP was to clean up the coimmie gangster scum, eliminiate the PRL-rooted old boy cliques and start building on bedrock,. not on a trash heap. But by 2005 the scum had deeply wormed their way into the system: past and present special services, crooked bnuisness, gangster underworld, corrupt politicians and acquiescent media like Michnik and his ilk.

Had Wałęsa not staged his 1992 parliamentary coup and the teczki were gone through and sorted out, we might have had 2-3 years of chaos and then thinss would have probably settled down. Other countries did precisely that. Gauck was rewarded with the presidency, whilst Wałęsa is known for his cover-up. That ill-conceived coup has been behind the entire fracas that has marked the following decades of III RP. All the time, energy and money wasted on the Pis-PO wrestling match, the sideswiping, backbiting and commotion which diverted the poltiical stage from the coutnry's real problems.

To the foaming-at-the-mouth critics of IV RP, do you really believe corruption and non-transparnet behind-the-scenes dealings should be ignored or swept under the rug. Or should they be tackled head on? PiS tried to do that by then it was too late.

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

It depends on how one defines 'fun'. Mainly it is the celebs, entertinament industry, rock sector, dealers and peer pressure that are defining it, and stupid people are taken in and go with the flow. 'Najpierw pomyśl -- to nic nie kosztuje!' is what should be promoted, not just senseless fun and games!

The tele-marketers that ring and ask. 'Does anyone between 16 and 30 live there?' are right on the mark. Teens and young adutls are the most gullible suckers around and the easiest to fleece. Just tell 'em it's 'fun' or 'cool' and they're ready to reach for their (or theri parents') credit cards.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

Well, what do you tell a Polonian whose grandparents came from Poland and who is deeply itnerested in his heritage, attends Polish events, visits the country, would never marry a non-Pole and whose house looks like ac Cepelia? Get interestedin black ghetto thigns or Mariachi bands, because we do not consider you to be Polish.

In reality, there are millions of native speakers of Polish in Poland who don't care less about their country and its image. but are in it only for themselves. Does native speakerhood = patriotism?

I've got a fair command of Polish but would never think of denying the patriotism of someone who doesn't speak the language. Not everyone has had the opportuntiy, not everyone is linghusitically inclined (Anglos are notroious for that!), Try learning a language as an adult and youi'll probably never really approach native speaker level.

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

Yes, it happened all over. I recall at the start of freedom, someone in then Czechoslovakia asked how to get Czechs buy a product. The answer: they will buy hovno if it's brightly packaged and has German writing on it. (They still hadn't graduated to the Anglo-phase of developemt in the very early '90s.)

But on this forum we are mainly discussing Poles, Poladn and things Polish.

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

Computer games are but a tiny part of the huge consumerist popculture cauldron into which Poles plunged headlong after the collapse of PRL, acting exactly like 'burek spuszczony z łańcucha'. The religion of 'consume and excrete (spożywaj i wydalaj), shop till you drop, live beyond your means on credit because you were born to buy' is not necessarily superior to Christian or Buddhist values or even plain ol' common sense. But one hell of a lot of Poles swallowed the whole shebang - hook, line nad sinker.

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

I know, but if you stamped yours and a million otehrs joined in, we COULD make a difference! Każdy sobie rzepkę skrobie' is what isn't working.'

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

A sense of Polishness trasncends two-bit political groupings and passing fads. It is a sense of healthy etnhic pride, a knowledge of its history and culture (not necessarily language - there are many true Polish patriots in the Diaspora who don't speak the lingo). It is a desire to share teh Polish nation's accomplishments with others, promote its heritage and defend its good name. It is a concern for both the nation's image and well-being, All that is permeated by a strong emotional attachment to the nation's legacy -- its culture and folkways, traditons and values .

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

How often do you listen to Radio Maryja? You seem to be an expert on the subject.

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

The real solution is a demand end one. Why do people reach for drugs? If we all joined to destroy the motivation, then dealers would be swepeing floors at McDonald's to make a living. The real enemy is the one who says drugs are cool, be it a peer, dealer, celebrity or media outlet.

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

The kind of relativism being spread today by the media, entertianment industry and people like you causes pre-adolescents and adolescents to concldue that: 'it's OK to ..' .(do this, that or the oiher thing), and start making a mess of their own lives. Since they are not on a desert island that affects their family, neighbourhood, communtiy, etc. And the taxpayer has to foot the bill for the consuquences, be it drug rehab, correctional insitutions, emergency rooms, unwed mother shelters, HIV treatment, etc., etc.

And then in feigned innocence some dingbat will claim: 'All I said was that alcohol is worse than pot' or some such banality, relativising the problem away rather than thinking of ways to deal with it.

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

All those alleged 'assets' and 'skills' would also be a boon to a Gestapo or KGB agent. What about ethical values? That's what really counts, innit?.

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

Does our media-buzz world need more confusing and distracting arguments, more anarchic thinking, more mental chaos, more noise, hype, disorder and dissolution? Maybr it's better consensus we should be striving for.

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

So as an ardent apologist for pop-culture crapola, what positive and valuable things do you think they convey to youngsters?

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

Apologist for the drug cultrue who bring in facts like these, red herrings I'd call 'em, are adding to the chaos, confusion and depravity of the youing.