Law / Jobs and Economic Status in Poland [64]

This is partially due to the EU budget cycle - 2013 is always going to be a slow year as all the money has been more or less spent.


The situation on the labour market isn't terrible at all. Terrible was 1991, not 2013. Debt isn't growing rapidly at all, minimum wage is increasing and GDP growth is still positive.

It might not be a bed of roses, but it certainly isn't terrible.

Then again Greggy, it is your job to post this stuff, isn't it?

News / Poles back Gronkiewicz ouster referendum [26]


It's actually a very bad move by the SLD - their name is associated with this and PiS, but Ruch Palikot wisely moved away from it.

Are there any reliable opinion polls showing her support in Wasaw?

News / Poles back Gronkiewicz ouster referendum [26]


Strange. The only ones that seem to say this stuff are the ones who also cheat ZUS, who cheat others and who live thoroughly dishonourable lives.

I doubt she's got much to worry about, having won last time in the first round comfortably.


Sexist to the end, aren't you? I mean, a woman, in charge of Warsaw? No!

News / Poles back Gronkiewicz ouster referendum [26]


By "patriots" that don't even live in Poland?

Quite obviously much of this is to do with sexism.

News / Poles back Gronkiewicz ouster referendum [26]

Her name is Gronkiewicz-Waltz, not "Gronkowicz" or any other stupid variation that you've invented.

For what's its worth, this is just yet another attempt at publicity seeking by PiS supporters. Nothing new, and nothing will change.

Like the vote of negative confidence in Tusk (whatever happened to Glinski anyway?), this vote is doomed to fail.

USA, Canada / Prayer, relgious symbols OK in public in Québec! Poland watches. [99]


It doesn't have a past. It was put there in 1997 under the cover of darkness by people who had no business being there.


Who asked if the people working there and studying there wanted a cross? Shouldn't it be up to them?


Perhaps you could start by reading the Constitution. I know you haven't read it (despite your patriotic claims) - but really, a quick look there will tell you all you need to know.

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


As long as Ironside brings it up, I'll keep bringing Kaczynski's father up. It'll soon be time to question the mother, too.

News / TV Trwam gets credibility stamp [21]


It is entirely possible - and quite understandable why the donors might not want their names in public. I don't think it's much of a secret that TV Trwam's funding relies on donations - which I think was why Lux Veritas were attempting to move into other areas of income.


They could, but I think the KRRiT wouldn't allow them to cross-subsidise like that. But it's also worth pointing out that losing 10 million a year + programming costs just to hurt Trwam would be pretty pointless, especially as Trwam's viewership is politically aware.


I think it's a shame that the media in Poland (on all sides) is so highly partisan. Independent journalism just doesn't exist here.

News / TV Trwam gets credibility stamp [21]

As far as I understand it, the main issue is that if you want to broadcast on digital terrestrial TV (through an aerial) - then you need to find 10 million zloty a year in fees. TV Trwam - regardless of what you think of it - is the biggest religious TV station in Poland - but to pay 10 million Zloty in fees would cripple any religious broadcaster. When you look at TV Trwam's shows - these are not high budget productions.

As the bidding process goes - there will be at least three more spots opening up next year. Seems unlikely that any religious TV will win a spot - but I don't think Religia TV even attempted to bid for a licence.

It's worth pointing out that the Lux Veritas Foundation could put a stop to this once and for all if they opened their books to the public - if they could clearly show that a 10 million payment was possible (yearly), then there would almost no way that the KRRiT could refuse them.

I found one reference that suggests that the Lux Veritas Foundation has about 90 million zloty in assets, but the vast majority of this is a loan and not actual cash on hand. Even if the loan is on favourable conditions, it's still not their cash - which is probably what caused them to be rejected. It's worth pointing out that 10 other stations were rejected too at the same time - it's not as if Trwam was the only one.

Study / Vistula University in Poland. Any experience? Any student? [57]


Nope. Anyone with a high school diploma can get in.


They probably paid the magazines, which isn't exactly uncommon.


It's a higher school of education, not a high school. In short, it can grant university-level qualifications but it's not a university.

Study / Vistula University in Poland. Any experience? Any student? [57]


It's not a university. It's a higher school of education - something different.


Anyone could get admission.

News / TV Trwam gets credibility stamp [21]


Basically, one of the criteria of the bidding process was that you had to supply all the relevant financial data. This was including sources of funding - financial stability was one of the most important criteria for the new public TV system. There was also one station set aside for "religious" programming.

Now, the KRRiT declined to grant a spot to TV Trwam. A letter was written to the Lux Veritas Foundation explaining why they were refused - but the trustees of that foundation have declined to publish the reason why. There are two possible reasons - either they refused to open the books, or they are relying too heavily on viewer donations. Either way, until the Lux Veritas Foundation chooses to tell us why, we can't say what the real reason was. What is clear (also from KRRiT statements) is that there was an issue with the funding of the station and that they weren't satisfied with what TV Trwam supplied.

All politics aside, I think the real issue is that the Foundation doesn't want to have outsiders looking into their financial affairs. I don't even think it's wrong doing as such, but rather a desire to keep their financial backers names out of the media. It's pretty obvious that had their finances been shown to the KRRiT, then they would have been leaked and published in the media.


It doesn't, actually. It's a bit of a myth spread by the Foundation - essentially, the only difference is that you would be able to pick up TV Trwam on normal TV through an aerial rather than through cable or satellite. TV Trwam is already available for free with a satellite dish and decoder, or it's normally available with basic cable packages - so absolutely nothing has changed in this respect.


Numbers haven't changed - just that it requires less effort to receive. But in reality, many places aren't able to receive TV anyway - for instance, where I live (in a valley) - it's impossible to pick up normal TV through an aerial.

What may be concerning for TV Trwam is that those seeking religious TV may be content with whoever wins the spot on the normal TV - which will hurt them when it comes to advertising revenue.

Law / Jobs and Economic Status in Poland [64]


And how many returned?


Yes, because you don't want improvement. You want to see the destruction of Poland.

Poland in the early 90's was "very bad". Now? don't be ridiculous.

Study / Tell me about Collegium Civitas (Warsaw)! [34]

I'm sure you are. Just like you never voted PiS.

For what it's worth, I find that one problem in Poland is that people will send their CV for jobs that they are completely unqualified to do "in the off chance". Your number of 300+ CV's should be considered in that most of them are probably totally unqualified to do the job to start with.

USA, Canada / Prayer, relgious symbols OK in public in Québec! Poland watches. [99]


He puts Jesus to shame!


Your turn? More of the TKM talk?

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

As long as it's within the law.


Absolutely. There is no reason in Poland to continue funding the joke that is TVP. Polskie Radio should be funded as it serves a useful purpose (and I really enjoy Trójka), and perhaps TVP Polonia, but the rest should be binned immediately. TV is not a 'right', and there are plenty of commercial broadcasters willing to broadcast for free anyway. TVP serves as nothing more than a place for petty political rivalries to be played out, and should be shut down immediately.


Oh please. Haven't you seen the mass amount of political nonsense on TVP from almost everyone?


Tell us Ironside, what are Rydzyk's qualifications to run a TV station and newspaper? He's not a journalist, he's a priest. Or perhaps, what are Kaczynski's qualifications to be a politician? He's a lawyer, not a political scientist.

As for her father, I think we all established that if we're to use the parents, then Jaroslaw Kaczynski should be immediately removed from public life.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


Oh dear. Ironside, where did you read such rubbish?

The story with Polish highways is much simpler. The GDDKiA have been operating with a heavy commercial focus - they have been insisting on contracts being completed exactly to specification, combined with delaying payment until the last possible day. It's quite unknown for a government agency to work like this in Europe, and many constructors were caught out by the attention to detail. What makes it even worse is that many contractors were caught doing things that they shouldn't have been doing - and the GDDKiA were holding them to account and being rather ruthless about the whole thing.

The end result was that many foreign companies that expected to make a quick buck in Poland found themselves in deep trouble - they had bid intentionally low knowing that they could cut many corners with construction, but then the GDDKiA's attitude (fix it or we keep the huge bonds required and sue you) meant that costs were higher than they expected.

I fail to see why you can have a problem with the GDDKiA ensuring that the Polish taxpayer got value for money. It's also worth pointing out where contractors haven't been messing around, construction has been remarkably fast in Poland compared to Germany or France.

Many contractors have been messing around elsewhere too - Alpine (responsible for the A1 mess at Mszana) for instance have been pulling the same tricks all over Europe because of their messy financial situation.

USA, Canada / Prayer, relgious symbols OK in public in Québec! Poland watches. [99]


Who are you to decide what's good for people?

That sounds like Communist talk to me - portraying something as "enemy of the people" and so on.

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


So why have they got the right to be biased, but not TVN?


Oh please. We all know that TVP has been heavily political for years, or have you forgotten already about how it was being used as a mouthpiece for the Government in 2007?


What were those circumstances?

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


Really?

So given that TV Trwam was incredibly, heavily biased towards PiS, do you agree that they have no business to do so?

Olejnik had every right to air her views.

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


And no doubt he would have had PiS been re-elected then. This is - again - why PiS will never win in the current format.


Even more of a disaster for PiS - 39% of the vote and yet losing to a PO/SLD/Palikot confidence/supply coalition. Palikot's no idiot - he would take a ministry (perhaps of youth and culture) and use it to great effect in exchange for his support, and PiS simply could not go into coalition with partners that were ex-Communists. All good!

And I wouldn't write Palikot off - they've been doing a hell of a lot of grass roots work recently.

News / TV Trwam gets credibility stamp [21]


If that's true, why didn't TV Trwam open the books? What did Rydzyk have to hide from the KRRiT?


Means nothing. These companies will hand out 'certificates' to anyone that will pay. Fortunately, the KRRiT rules are clear - open the books or nothing.

Why won't Rydzyk publish the response that he got from the KRRiT? Why?


The link is from Rydzyk's newspaper mouthpiece. It's not exactly credible, and it's got a long history of telling the most absurd lies. If TV Trwam is in such good shape, why doesn't Rydzyk open the books for everyone to see? Certainly the KRRiT argument would have been destroyed if Rydzyk had published the accounts online for everyone to see.


No, he did what he had to do according to the law. There's a difference.


Of course, does anyone genuinely believe that TV Trwam actually wanted to be on the multiplex? If they got it, they would be forced to adhere to certain standards. It's much better for them to be 'excluded' (though - let's point out that it's still available via satellite and cable quite freely) from the multiplexes and then they can use it to brainwash their followers.

Study / Tell me about Collegium Civitas (Warsaw)! [34]


Oh dear Greggy. There are plenty of jobs in Poland for those who chose to get off their ass and do something about it. I know you miss the glory days when everyone had a job, but really.


Pretty much. Roll up on a student visa, sell kebabs, hopefully meet naive Polish girl, get married, move to West. Voila.

It's an investment, and one reason that I believe there should be minimum tuition fees in the EU as a whole for non-EU students.

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


Must've been Jewish.

USA, Canada / Prayer, relgious symbols OK in public in Québec! Poland watches. [99]

I think the Sejm would vote in favour of keeping it, yes. That's why the reluctance to vote on the matter is strange.

USA, Canada / Prayer, relgious symbols OK in public in Québec! Poland watches. [99]

Or alternatively, they could vote on it and settle the matter.

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


Could you perhaps outline why they are a threat?

USA, Canada / Prayer, relgious symbols OK in public in Québec! Poland watches. [99]

What I object to is the placing of the cross "just because". If it's asked for, fine - but it should not be there just because one person decides. The one in the Polish Sejm is the perfect example of this - it was never voted for and never agreed on.

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


It's one theory. The problem is that Gowin's views on economics would seem to be completely at odds with PiS.


Probably not. PiS, for all their failings, are very very good at crushing opposition like this.


This is why I don't understand the support for Kaczynski within the party. It's obvious that winning a majority is nearly impossible, and he seems to be determined to either have all the power or none.


Absolutely. That's why I think a PO-PiS coalition down the line is not impossible once Kaczynski goes.

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

Poor Greggy. Another 4 years hoping and begging for the Dear Leader to come and rule him.