Posts by Polonius3

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

Life / Under-river tube a mistake! Tunnel flood in Warsaw. [13]

Elevation of a steel-rail tranbsport as in Chicago is no soltuion. I've spent time in Chicago and been in flats where the passing el rattled window panes, chandeliers and spoons empy coffee cups. A horrible racket. I was referring to a trackless monorail which is silent running. Check out:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail#Monorail_systems

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

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

ALl depends how you define 'know'. Initially I thought the thread-starter had meant 'feeling the country, having a sense of Polishness' (hence my anthem & carol input). But if just pure knowldge and information were implied, then I'm sure the DC Irish bloke can rattle off statistics, names, cabinet line-ups, events and occurences you and I haven't the foggiest about.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

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

And the majority ofr Poles rarely go to the cinema. It's TV and entertianmernt on the net that rule the day. Hollywood is a coded-name for the entiire cheap, tacky and downdumbing entertianment industry. Ever see a computer game? What positive things do they show a young person? How to pursue your foe and zap, riddle with bullets, blow up, destroy, incinerate, hack to pieces,etc ASAP. Who cares if a game is manufactured in Seattle or Atlanta -- it's all part of the same crapola!

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

May a high-on-pot dentisttwork on your teeth and a pissed surgeon remove your appendix. The point is not to mutliply stupefiants (substances that make one lose controlk but to curtail and restrict their use as much as possible. That is my gripe v Hollywood -- constantly showing people sniffing coke, smoking pot, drinking, etc. which the average Joe Slob and Jessica Slobette takes to mean it's OK, it's cool, let's go for it. And they do. And the cartel bosses and dealers couldn't be happier.

Whaddya guys have against clean living, anyway?

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

Life / Under-river tube a mistake! Tunnel flood in Warsaw. [13]

Indeed I hold no degree in civil enginerring and speak only as an interested and concerned obserrver. You may be right except for one thing. Around hte world underground systems are known to run part of the way at ground level in roofless stretches and somehow the elements (rain, etc.) are no obstacle. Re terrorism, it is not likley ot go away anytime soon and no-one is to say when and where it may crop of. Tube systems have above-ground (elevated) monorail network: cheaper, safer and more dynamic and modern looking than trams and buses.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

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

Hollywood is the world's most effectvie propaganda machine, whose ability to influence would put Hitler and Stalin to shame. The more so that unlike ideologically recognisable propaganda, most people don't perceive it as a brain-washing behemoth. The glitter, glamour and sugar-coating obscures the fact that it is not just pure entertianment but shapes the way people think, act and dress, what they like and dislike and how they live their lives. This applies to feature films as well as soap operas as well as reality shows and other cheap and tacky pop culture including MTV-style fare, computer games and the lot.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

Nearly all hard-drug addicts started with pot. That does not mean all potheads will go that route. Those who stick to just pot over a period of time and systematically poison themselves with it don't report to surgeries but can become societal drop-outs, failrues at work and family. Ever try to hold a seirous conversation with someone high on pot? Drug use BTW does not eliminate alcohol but in many cases compounds it. In Poland it woiuld be good tor raise the drinking and tobacco-buyxing age to 21 and seriosuly restrict availabiltiy, but the greedy politcians would never pass such laws as they want their booze baron kick-backs to keep coming.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

Life / Under-river tube a mistake! Tunnel flood in Warsaw. [13]

Yes, building a new bridge would be horrendously pricey. I meant running the tube line over one of the exisitng or under consruction bridges. They would only have to be reinforced a bit. That surely wouldn't be costlier than under the river drilling and a hell of a lot safer. Naturally, a few buildings might have to be remvoed when building the emergence approach and the descending route on the opposite bank, but that still seems to be a cheaper solution.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

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

bullfrog
Comment traduisez-vous "Françaises de souche" en anglais?
True, genuine, ethnically pure, honest-to-goodness, dyed-in-the-wool, red-blooded, pure-blooded, full-blooded Frenchwomen?
In Polish you could say (with tongue in cheek): Francuzica z krwi i przy kości, although Frenchwomen are actually quite svelte.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

News / Czech drug legalisation threatens Poland [111]

Polish drug experts on TV regularly emphasise that there is no such things as soft, harmless or recreational drugs. True, some dabble and then go theirimerry way without f*cking themselves up, but I have first-hand knowledge of young Poles who have really messed up on grass. They have become listless, lack energy, initiatve, ccan't think straight, have a hard time holding down a job and are largely preoccupied with their next opportuntiy to get high. Of couse it is not the same as heroine, but neither is it harmless. Those who say grass is healthier (?!) or not as bad for you as alcohol forget that many young people combine the two. There is probably the personal factor -- some organisms deal with substances differently. As with nicotine, there are casual smokers who only smoke OPs (Cudzesy) at parties, but are not addicted. Others will get up in the middle of the night and rummage through ash-trays for smokable butts or head for the nearest all-night shop or petrol station for a fag..

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

Life / Under-river tube a mistake! Tunnel flood in Warsaw. [13]

Dunno about you. but I regard the recent tunnel flood in Warsaw as symptomatic of the ill-fated effort to run a tube line under the Vistula riverbed. To avert potential hazards the cost of such a project is headspinning, and in our terrorist era the prospect of commuters stuck under the river is hardly a pleasant proposition. It would have cost only a fraction to run the line acorss one of the bridges and then let it go below ground on the opposite bank. Just not to be the typical Polish grumbler, praiseworthy is the fact that one of the new bridges will have a tramline running across. Unfortunately the £azienkowski and Świętokrzyski bridges do not. In so congested a city as Warsaw, public transport should be vigorously promoted and motor-vehicle traffic curtailed.

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

News / Poland - shopper's paradise? [4]

Anyone know if visitng shopeprs are buying in commercial quantities for resale in their own counrtries at a profit?

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

Travel / Driving in Poland, are there any rules at all? [149]

In the context of motor cars and pedestrians, Polish motorists do not drive, they aim!

Polonius3

4 Sep 2012

News / Poland - shopper's paradise? [4]

Last week one of the news channels, probably TVN24, ran an item on how not only Germans are coming to Poland to shop (cheaper and better bread nad cold cuts, hair dressing, car repair, etc.), but for different reasons so are Lithuanians, Belarusians, Kaliningraders (spelling?) and Czechs. It seems in different areas there is a deifntie price advanatge to neighbouring foreigners. They made it sound like a consumer invasion (typical media hype!?) whcih is probably an exaggeration. Have any of you seen signs of this?

I know fags at 10-11 zł a packet are very attractive do EU smokers.

Polonius3

3 Sep 2012

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

The sources besides WIkipedia, the Internet (just Google what you're after), personal knowledge (I have spoken to many of the KOR people who later became part of the GW/ Unia Demorkatyczna camp) and general knowlegde -- ask any Pole. If this is that important to you, I'm sure you have the computer-savvy to find out. Koniec. I've got better things to do.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

I suppose it may be somewhere out there on the net, but anyone know offhand if GW has ever been the subject of a master's or doctoral thesis? It woudl prove extremely interesting reading. The whole process from the pre-4th June 1989 election (that's why it was called Election Gazette), to when Wałęsa stopped Michnik using the Solidarność logo, and a GW journalist called Cichy who wrote that the AK was a band of Jew-killers...Their take on Wałęsa 1992 June parliamentary coup, Jedwabne, Kukliński and Jaruzelski was also eye-opening. I recall many episodes, but it would be interesting to see if someone has compiled it all into a thesis.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

Pederasta, pedał, pedzio are all derogatory terms for a homosesual. Techncially pederasta means a paedophile, but I'm referring not to dictionary definitons but what the Polish street and podwórko say.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

Pederasta in colloquial Polish is a pejorative term for a homosexual like the American fa**ot.
Homoseksualista is the netural generic term.
Gej is the supportive, smypathising term for a delcared homosexual, often an activist.
Michelangelo may have been a homosexual but he wasn't a gay -- no such movement existed back then.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

I don't wish to mix my professional affairs with forum discussion, but I was born, rasied and educated in the good ol' USA and first visited Poladn as an adult. Since the collapse of PRL I've been back and forth many times, maybe six or seven for a total of another decade or so;.

this year including all of Euro 2012. But that is neither here nor there. It is interest, involvement and commitment that count. No, to me Poland will never be just another foreign country.

No, I'm still sober. Jon 29 is constantly saying that working agaisnt PRL was treason. Well, President Komroowski has regularly decorated dissidents who worked to undermine communmist Poland, so in Jon59's books both they and Komorowski must be traitors. it's as simple as his skewed and convolute mind frame.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

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

If it's just knowing facts,rather than feeling the country, then the length of time one has been away doesn't necessarily matter. You don't even have to be Polish to know everything about Poland. A guy who mans the Poland desk in DC is of Irish background but knows more about Poland than you or me. That's his joib. An emigre who is really interested, can follow Interia, Onet, WP, and read the Polish press and watch TVP Info and TVN24 every day on the net and be better informed than Staś Q. Publicki in Poland.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

At least 10 years, including all of martial law. Smelt my share of cinnamon-scented tear gas, and was hauled in for questioning at Pałac Mostowskich. If I had a dollar for each time I visited Kuroń's place in Mickiewicza street for the latest KOR bulletins or phoned it (that was the main dissident clearing house for news on strikes and protests), I'd be rich. But one needn't be in a country physically to know much about it. There are many Poles, too many, living in RP3 who know very little about their own country and couldn't less. Their main or sole preoccupation is finding out where they can get their hands on the most $$$, €€€ or £££.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]

pawian
The Poles have one word for it: ŚLISKI! Tricky Don is the only person around who can enter a revolving door behind you and come out

ahead of you.onl

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

All the jon37s, delphimides and other Jabberwocky-lovers will probably say that the AK were all traitors, They worked agaisnt the General Governorate (Generalna Gubernia) which was also a kind of Polish puppet state of sorts. Things weren'tr quite that bad in PRL, but anyone tried to weaken or undermine it for ideological reasons was a hero. The traitors joined the party and licked Jabberwocky's a*se. Komorowski has decorated many of those anti-PRL 'traitors' with medals, so he too must be a traitor, n*est-ce pas?

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]

Nobody ever said that tricky Don's rhetoric was not glib, slick, smooth and slippery. In fact, he could probably talk a dog out of a kiełbasa factory.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

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

I think it's a personal thing which cannot be generalised. Some expats may know that a tram tickert in Warsaw costs 3,60 z$ and that there is a 20-minute one for even less, but he may not feel Polishness in his heart. He happens to be in Poland, but under different circumstances he/she coiuld well be working in Denmark or Hungary. My coutnry is where they pay the best. But that does nto mean that some expats may get converted and come to feel the rhythm of Poland, the Polish spirit and may feel choked up when they hear 'Jeszcze Polska...' at the Olympics or at midnight mass when the words 'Podnieś rękę, Boże Dziecię...' are sung by an overflow congregation. Someone who said he runs only with a PO crowd is sheltered and has shut himself/herself off from the rest of the country. Not only Poland B. There are many supporters of the SLD and PiS in Warsaw.

The bottom line is that there is no simple yes or no answer. Each case is unique.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

That was a nice sugar-coated propaganda veneer emanating from every Kronika Filmowa, TV news show and even feature films set in PRL times. Buu what about forcing people to listen to, watch and read outrageous commie propaganda instead of real news, or those languising in prison or killed by 'nieznani sprawcy' for daring to speak their minds... Or living in country about whose leader Gen. Jabberwocky it was said; 'The reason his lips are so red is becuase Brezhnev's got haemerrhoids!' Or maybe you also liked the PRL toilets. The good thing is that you didn';t have to ask where the loo was -- you could smell it from 200 yards away.on contemproary. So go ahead and travel down your PRL memory lane. To each his own!

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

Remember how when GW splashed big headlines across their front page triumphantly proclaining that 'only' 40% of Poles attend Sunday mass. WHy is it that no otehr Polish daily did the same? They all reported it without going overboard. Michnik will neverly openly write what he thinks about the church, but subliminally it is obvious that the GW clique is a godless bunch, therefore out of step wioth the 95% or more Poles who declare themselves Chritsians (regardless of frequency of Church attendance). Hendce, yet another proof that GW is an alien element in the Polish national realm.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]

On Sunday, PiS chief Jarosław Kaczyński launched a poltical project intended as an alternative to the present Tusk regime. It will includde: a 10-year-plan to combat unemployment which would create 1.2 million new jobs in 10 years, esp. in towns of under 50,000 and in depressed rural areas; a housing fund into which would be channelled one-half of the taxes from housing construction;… 50% tax write-off for each additional child. Child allowances would begin at conception, and there should be discounts on textbooks. A family coupon for poorest families would provide up to 300 zł towards nursery and preschool costs; the elderly coulod chosoe between OFE and ZUS, the 60 and 65 retirement age would be rerstored but people could work until 67 if they wanted to. The National Health Fund would be liqudiated, and the 8+4 format in education would be restored; a full curriculum in history, Polish and religion would be restored and school doctors would be reinstated. The culture ministry should .return to a policy of promoting our national heritage in the best sense of the word rather than financing controversial projects. Banks and chain-retailers should be taxed. There should be stiffer openalties for violent crime and corruption including confiscation of property..

This is a foretaste of what is in store once the corrupt Tusk clique lands on the trash heap of history. And that's never too early.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

The USSR and Red China had even a higehr % of party members. Does that mean life was better in those countries? Most career-minded Poles were radishes -- red on the outside.

The only true communsits in Poland were the hangovers from the KPP and a few dyed-in-the wool weirdos. The vast majroity was pretending to get ahead.

Polonius3

2 Sep 2012

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

There's talk that Zyta Gilowska will be PiS's secret weapon as PM if a constructive vote of no confidence succeeds.