News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

PiS and Kukiz do not have 65% of the vote combined. Don't forget that PO won 48.5% in the Presidential election during a shockingly bad campaign, and in the first round, took 33% of the vote. Don't forget that PO have heavy resources behind them, particularly as the business community is overwhelmingly behind them, and those resources will pay for a brutal campaign against PiS. Every single mistake by Duda will be relentlessly analysed and criticised, and PO will be in the somewhat strange situation of a ruling party being able to behave as if it's in opposition.

A far more realistic outcome would have PiS narrowly winning with around 32-34% of the vote, PO winning 30-32%, Kukiz taking 10-12% along with NowoczesnaPL and the PSL taking 5-6%. It could be enough (just) for PiS-Kukiz, but it would be a razor thin majority.

As for PiS, they have a history of causing trouble with coalition partners. Whether Kukiz would be foolish enough to sign any agreement with PiS without getting control of the MSW, well.

More to the point,

News / Pro-Israel lobby to be formed in Polish parliament [29]


Yes. And the leader of the group is from PiS.

What a surprise.

News / 23 Shale Wells Drilled This Year Alone in Poland - 41 More to Go... [50]

Actually, the LNG terminal is almost complete. Nothing to do with PO and everything to do with EU tendering rules obliging Poland to select the lowest bidder.

As for shale gas, obviously if you actually cared about Poland, you'd be happy that it's proving to be a huge bust.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

Does anyone actually believe that Kaczyński won't do what he did with Marcinkiewicz and just remove her from power as soon as she starts showing any signs of independence?

PiS will win 30% of the vote. Where the other 70% goes, who knows - but I don't believe that Kukiz can win against an organised PO/SLD/PSL campaign. It's easy to get votes as a one-man candidate, but it's much harder to translate it into electoral success in parliamentary elections. For a start, Kukiz needs to be able to field roughly 4600 candidates!

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


Yes, the PSL also tend to do better in elections than they poll. If it wasn't for PO doing a great job in Western Poland of destroying their small town electoral base, they would be polling at around 8-9% as usual.

The problem with Kukiz is history. Presidential elections always seem to attract strange protest votes, which means that he doesn't have much time to build any sort of electoral structures. He also doesn't have any political big names behind him, which are sorely needed in a bruising parliamentary campaign. PiS may feel that he will be their puppet, but if the situation arises that PiS get 30% and Kukiz 20%, why would they support PiS without significant concessions?

Law / Ways of getting Permanent residency in Poland [101]


No.

It is possible to obtain a tolerated stay permit, but these are only granted when there are significant extenuating circumstances.

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]

What's curious is that there's actually no proof for the allegation in the first post. Some gossip hardly counts as evidence.

Life / POLISH YOUTH compared to the youth in other Western countries? [57]

Actually, we have two black members of parliament.

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Polonius3, do You genuinely believe that the United States didn't have plans to annihilate Poland in the event of war? NATO was no friend of Poland's during the Cold War, and any conflict would have seen NATO using tactical nuclear bombs at a minimum to destroy Soviet supply lines through Poland to prevent West Germany falling in the face of the vast Warsaw Pact numerical superiority.

The same NATO had absolutely no interest in getting involved with helping Poland when Poland needed help most.

thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/51378,Cold-War-NATO-documents-released-on-FM-website

I rather think that Kukliński did it for the money. Please don't forget that in order to rise to the position of Colonel in the LWP, he would have been required to prove his loyalty to not only Poland, but also Moscow. Like Jaruzelski, you didn't rise to the top of army structures without being completely obedient to your masters. Have You also forgotten that he took part in detailed planning for the state of war?

Some people also believe that Kukliński was a double agent. It is possible.

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Kukliński, the man who went to the United States and helped an enemy of Poland with preparations against us in exchange for a few dollars.

Just think that had NATO gone to war with the Warsaw Pact, Kukliński's actions would probably have helped to bring about the demise of Poland eternally. A patriot? No. I imagine the death of his sons was compensated with bags upon bags of American cash.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

If that 50% actually voted, then PiS would never win an election.

Regardless of what You might say about them, PiS voters are fanatical to the point of behaving as if it's a cult. They will always vote regardless of the weather or time of year.

USA, Canada / 10 things that show you are Polish [24]


I always thought that this sort of thing was a perfect example of Orientalism.

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

It's funny that You mention ethnic cronies.

marucha.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/kim-sa-kaczynscy

The Jewish history of the Kaczyńscy family is no secret, too.

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

So You will have no problem with also removing Jarosław Kaczyński from public life, then?

galopujacymajor.salon24.pl/28867,awantura-o-kaczynskiego-rajmunda

As you say.


Good to know the facts indeed.

4lomza.pl/forum/read.php?f=1&i=229291&t=229291

Very good to read this as well.

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]

No, they have been optional ever since their introduction into schools at the beginning of the 1990's.

Ethics classes are supposed to be offered, but the reality is that religion classes are often scheduled for the end of the school day, and thus students are free to leave school if they don't attend. The actual provision of ethics classes is scandalously low.

Life / Is 10500 monthly is enough for a family to live in Warsaw Poland [136]


Net or gross?


Around 2000zl/gross in a private kindergarten.

Dominic is wrong. Jobs are pretty easy to come by in kindergartens.

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Do you feel that family background is important? I'm thinking about Adam Michnik, for instance. Should he be allowed to hold a position of such great influence on the media, given his family background?

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]

Who mentioned anything about American universities?

Polish universities couldn't care less about putting a man on Mars. Getting Professor Kowalski's grandson through university even though he's a retard, well, that's far more important.

It's a shame, because the schooling system is very good.

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Polonius3, would You agree that those who gained through collaboration with the PZPR/Soviet Union should be swept away?

History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Polonius3, can you explain why you wish for the democratically constituted III RP to be replaced?

To me, that's treason. People died for our III RP, and it means a lot to those of us who were actually there.

Life / Little-known facts about Poland [45]

Yes, probably one of the worst things about Communism was the attitude towards work. It seems almost paradoxical to educate massive amounts of people and then to waste them in non-jobs, doesn't it?

"Little-known facts about Poland" thread, the one about Communism is elsewhere

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]


Again, what experience do you have of the European educational system?

Oxford and Cambridge place heavy, heavy emphasis on the person rather than the background. Poland has huge problems with volunteering (rates are among the lowest, if not the lowest in Europe), while the typical applicant to Oxbridge would be expected to have significant amounts of volunteering experience. There would also be expectations of taking part in/leading a student society, which again isn't particularly common in Polish schools. A part time job in summer would also be helpful, which is positively discouraged among middle class Polish families with children that have aspirations to go to Oxford. Instead, those families are likely to send their children on some sort of paid volunteering trip, which would be looked at very negatively.


Unthinkable in Poland. Universities here are seen as something to be suffered, and every student will have stories of sheer university incompetence.

A friend's girlfriend can't defend her thesis in one university here. Why? She's the only girl on the course, and the professor responsible for her defence thinks that women shouldn't be there. He is simply refusing to give a date for the defence, and because he's a professor, he's untouchable.

Life / Little-known facts about Poland [45]

I've done some more research, and it seems that they did exist to a certain extent. It seems to have occured in pre-war kamienicas, and the policy was abandoned in 1956. New build apartments between 1945 and 1990 always had individual bathrooms and kitchens.

My favourite fact about Poland is that universal free education was introduced by the Communists. It seems from my research that the Communists actually oversaw a mass basic education effort, which is rather contrary to the view of the PRL being a hellhole with no positive characteristics.

Life / Little-known facts about Poland [45]


I was under the impression too that Poland never built such things, and that they were rather a Soviet thing, the so called "komunalka".

I don't think there's even a word in Polish for komunalka, is there?

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]


There are very, very few Catholic schools, and those that exist are struggling badly for numbers. They also have quite poor results in general.


It certainly doesn't seem as if he has much knowledge of either system.

I would personally agree that the centralisation of Polish education in schools is exactly why it's such a success. The same centralisation is seen in many other successful countries such as Finland, while decentralised education tends to result in huge regional variances. Polish university education is widely acknowledged to be poor, and this is also a direct result of the Communists allowing universities to have significant autonomy.

Levi, as for France, do you really know anything about public life in France? The Catholic Church managed to put 800,000 people on the streets of Paris against abortion, which sounds like a pretty powerful institution to me.

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]


Slight problem. Czech society is one of the most secular in Europe, while French society is still heavily Catholic.

Work / Cost of living in Warsaw with two kids [14]

Indeed, Jon.

A friend went from a job paying 3000zl net in Poland to one paying 4000 Euro/net in Germany without much effort. She's now firmly in the senior ranks and earning a shade over 6.5k a month in Germany, but she would never have got there if it wasn't for being able to get the job in Poland in the first place.

Dominic has clearly spent too much time around SSC workers to have much, if any of a clue about the job market.

This is not a discussion about posters/members

Work / Cost of living in Warsaw with two kids [14]

Dominic, your obsession with "absolute dollars" completely fails to take into account that these jobs simply don't exist elsewhere, or have already been taken up by very well qualified Europeans. There's a reason why we're seeing so many queries on PF, because these companies are willing to hire foreigners from non-European countries to try and fill the positions. It's also quite likely that the OP is considering it because it offers a considerable upgrade on their current living conditions.

Having said that, it would be perfectly possible to place the youngest child in a bilingual nursery and homeschool the other child for the time being, or even place the child into a democratic school.

odpowiedzialnaszkola.pl is one such school, and the child won't be under traditional pressures there. They're also far more likely to learn Polish if they can actually have fun at school, too, as play transcends language.

Absolute dollars are meaningless if you don't have the means of obtaining them.

Law / Advice on starting an international/British school in Warsaw, Poland [26]


Actually, not quite. The rules are quite flexible, as the Ministry only requires that the school programmes are followed, which are silent on the matter of rote learning vs creative thinking. How you follow it is rather up to the teacher. All State exams these days require far more logical thinking than rote learning, and good private and public schools follow that. The issue is rather related to the lack of funded hours, which forces teachers in poorly funded gminas into following "the book" rather than the programme as it's the only way to make sure that the programme has been broadly covered in case of inspection.

There's definitely an approved Montessori programme for primary schools, so there's no reason why creative thinking can't be taught. Montessori has her own problems with the method (particularly as puberty is starting earlier and earlier), but alternative educational models can be approved in Poland.

The lack of homework and grades would immediately turn off many of these parents, regardless of how good the education actually is. Unfortunately, the parents with the most money are the most demanding, and this is what would ruin the OP's vision.

Law / Advice on starting an international/British school in Warsaw, Poland [26]

Mark, as a specialist in so-called early years education in Poland, I can tell you about one major problem with your idea.

The parents.

Parents that have cash to afford private schools in Poland mostly want their children to be high performers. They don't particularly care about the happiness of their child or their dreams, but they really care about being able to boast to their friends that little Amelia got straight A's last semester and that she also has extra horse riding and ballet classes.

I understand completely what you wish for, but your dreams might actually be best realised by opening a small democratic school, although these also have significant problems relating to the law and funding.

If you want, I'd be willing to have a chat with you about these things. I love your vision, but I'm just not convinced that Polish parents care about their child's happiness.