Language / Sorka means przepraszam [17]

More of it, please :)

(and it does help with my learning of Polish too - stuff like -


- also helps a hell of a lot to understand how some Polish words came about. Thank you! :))

Language / Sorka means przepraszam [17]

Gumishu - nothing to add, but I'd like to say thank you for your posts on language - they're always very interesting to read. I especially like the way that you use other examples to illustrate the point, too.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]

Absolutely pointless statement - PiS had 22 more seats than PO in the 2005 Sejm and needed PO for a viable coalition over the 4 years. PO in 2007 and 2011 didn't need PiS at all - so it's a completely pointless comparison.

The point is not that PiS were in control of those ministries, but rather that PO didn't want PiS to be in control of them. PiS wanted control of them - and were forced into a coalition with LPR and Samoobrona as a result. The same coalition destroyed the centrist vote for PiS - and also destroyed the viability of them in Government. Kaczynski's gamble all along was that he would discredit his coalition partners, take their votes - and with the 27% from 2005, plus the 20% from the coalition partners - they would have enough to sneak a parliamentary majority.

And it worked, sort of. They took the 20% away from Lepper and Giertych - yes. But they lost the centrist voters that won them the 2005 election - and with it, the Government.

Ah well. We have another 4 years of PO dominance - here's to it!

Food / Anybody in Poland actually eats soup-mix soups? [27]


Polonius, being American, is somewhat unacquainted with this concept.

News / Anti-Szymborska hate content on Polish websites [38]

But - logically speaking, a self-proclaimed patriot is one who loves his country, so why would any patriot want to live elsewhere?

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]


But - if you were in Tusk's shoes, would you really let the "other" party control the power ministries without restraint? Tusk would have known fine well what happened in the Contract Sejm, with the institutions still being used against Solidarity after the election. I wouldn't trust Jaroslaw Kaczynski with unlimited power, would you?


That's politics for you. But they did have a lot of power over PiS - PiS needed them for a viable majority, and yet Tusk pushed them into doing the worst thing possible - coalition with LPR/Samobroona. The electoral mathematics was exceptionally interesting in 2005 - and Kaczynski made a mess of it.


Well, that's generally what an opposition party does. PiS has been trying since 2007 to do the same thing.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]

It wasn't the amount of ministries, but rather control over the security-related ministries. If you remember back what happened in the Contract Sejm, there is a very good reason not to let one party control all the ministries relating to security and power. As for PO sabotaging attempts - well, that was their price. They were only around 20 seats behind PiS - and could demand a high price for agreeing to the coalition.

Tusk must have been laughing his head off when PiS went into coalition with those two fools - all he had to do was sit back and wait.

News / Anti-Szymborska hate content on Polish websites [38]

Excuses. There is absolutely no excuse these days for any self proclaimed Polish patriot to reside anywhere other than Poland.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]

Wrong. They could have entered coalition with PO instead - but Kaczynski's maniacal desire for control prevented that. If you look back, everyone expected a PO-PiS coalition - but PiS demanded control of all the "security" ministries - which was understandably a deal breaker.

It was the one thing that single-handedly destroyed PiS - the utter shame that was Deputy Prime Minister Lepper alienated most of the centrist voters.


Minority governments can be very successful if the Government pursues a policy of ruling by consensus. The Scottish Government 2007-2011 was an excellent example of this.

Marcinkiewicz was also fairly popular - if you speak to many PO supporters, they'll tell you that he wasn't a bad guy. But obviously - he started to pursue his own path contrary to the wishes of the Dear Leader, and so he had to go.


Merkel could easily have gone for new elections, too. But the Grand Coalition was on offer, and represented the will of the German people at the time. As for "despising" - what rubbish. The CDU and SPD are centre-right and centre-left respectively - there was enough common ground to reach agreement.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]

There are many cases, but the one I remember most vividly was his veto on public sector pension reform. Another 17 bills were vetoed - not normal behaviour for a President. What made it even more interesting was that he had only vetoed one bill during the previous Government - and a clear sign that he was using the office maliciously.

(and this is without mentioning his abuse of the Constitutional Tribunal as well, which he didn't do during the PiS government)

Let's not forget the fact that he was very, very pro CAP -which is nonsense for someone who claimed to be against the EU.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]


All you need to ask yourself is why he vetoed the appointment of professors, laws, etc. It was solely out of malice in many cases.


What? What lies and manipulations? Are you claiming that he didn't have TV Trwam, Radio Maryja and Gazeta Polska 100% behind him, as well as countless hysterical right-wing websites?


He cannot do anything except ceremonial tasks - the problem was that the architects of the Constitution didn't imagine that the President would be so petty as to use the veto as a weapon against political opponents.


I don't know about your type, but me and my friends barely switch the thing on. And when I do, it's usually for playing computer games, not for watching TV.


Say what you want, but the professionals at the IPN have cleared him of what he's accused of by the usual suspects. All this because he suggested that Jarek was gay...


They're the best chance of getting unbiased opinions. The US opinion about the PiS/Samobroona/LPR coalition is very interesting - they make it clear that the twins (as we know) were hell bent on destroying the credibility of their coalition partners and stealing their votes in order to gain a majority.

Love / More loveless sex of Poles living in the regained lands [73]

Indeed. It's a hysterical part of Polish society that those who are most "anti-Communist" are actually the ones repeating Communist myths over and over again.

Anyone with half a brain would use "Northern and Western Territories" or similar.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]


That's your excuse, but Lech Kaczynski had the 2nd highest selling daily newspaper behind him, as well as a TV channel and radio station. Trying to claim that the "media" is to blame is futile.


Yeah yeah, he was all these things, but all he did was petty, senseless acts. He didn't do a damned thing about corruption among his own, he had no idea how to deal with the EU (mainly because he was acting in a ceremonial, not executive role) and he hardly supported decommunization when his own father was a turncoat traitor.


That's the usual excuse spouted by those who simply weren't good enough to make it. I could introduce you to plenty of people who got there through hard work, but you'd just scorn them because they aren't failures.


Again - excuses. People hated him not because of what the media told them, but because of what he did. He was an utter disaster as President, with approval ratings at the time of his death hovering around the 20% mark. You know - unlike your PiS crowd - we can think for ourselves. We don't need to media to tell us that he's bad - we only need to know that he vetoed endless things.


And that's exactly why you and PiS will stay in opposition - abusing the President (who has approval ratings in the 60's) won't win you elections.


Indeed. I don't think it's much of a surprise that they went after the SLD - heck, the stuff with Walesa (who has been definitively cleared by the IPN) was nothing but a ridiculous witchhunt.

The brothers did nothing about corruption apart from a couple of high profile incidents - all designed to get them media attention. All the talk of "anti-corruption" was just a way to get cheap votes from people who thought that the sons of a Communist traitor (who betrayed his former AK allies) would actually do such a thing.


The best source is The Economist - they tend to present a balanced view of what's going on. You might also want to read the US Embassy cables relating to Poland - many of them objectively discuss things, and show what PiS were upto when in Government.

Stay away from Polish-written sources, especially in English.


Of course you will. Gazeta Polska et al will happily present such views. You can even read the hysterical freepl.info if you want to read more of such rubbish.

News / Anti-Szymborska hate content on Polish websites [38]

Totally different. You'd soon also see that most of them didn't actually live in Poland despite claiming to be patriots.

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]


No, it's not. The constitution makes it very clear - the Sejm is the most important. The Presidency is an advisory/ceremonial position and carries little executive power (and certainly not the amount of power that LK thought it had).

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]

Nice way of dramatising it. The truth, of course, is vastly different.

What made many of the centrist voters angry (and turned them into solid PO voters) was the coalition with Lepper and Giertych. PiS were desperate for real power, and the only way to hold onto it was to work with them - which - when the centrist voters expected coalition with PO - was an incredibly stupid move.

News / PO at lowest point since 2007 [7]


Actually, it's not PO that you should be looking at, but rather that PiS has dropped to 22%. That's a clear sign that they're failing in opposition - and probably also a sign that Ziobro did indeed snatch a portion of their electorate.

I do think it's quite likely that we'll see some complicated electoral possibilities in 2015 - so yes, it could be a sign that things are about to get interesting.

But - as always - PiS are nowhere to be seen. 22% won't win them an election!

News / Anti-Szymborska hate content on Polish websites [38]

You do realise that most of the foul vulgarity found online on Polish websites tends to come from the right wing, right?

(having said that, the tiny minority of hard left-wingers are equally as bad, especially the racist "anarchists")

Love / More loveless sex of Poles living in the regained lands [73]

Course you are. You constantly post about people having sex, it's like some sort of obsession.

News / Anti-Szymborska hate content on Polish websites [38]


I'm so glad that you have finally accepted TVN24.

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Incidentally, most people abusing Szymborska happened to be right wing "patriots". Surprise, surprise.

Love / More loveless sex of Poles living in the regained lands [73]


You're actually jealous, aren't you?

Incidentally, abusing them for being "rootless" is rather low, considering that they were forcibly evicted from their lands. But hey, anything to score a point, eh?

(incidentally, if my knowledge of the East is right, the same stuff goes on there, just no-one talks about it)

History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]


Me too. Also worth mentioning that he was ridiculously petty - often vetoing things like professorial appointments. He more or less behaved exactly how the President shouldn't behave - his attempts to use every little bit of power he had was just sad.

About the only good thing from his record was his work with the Jewish commmunity - which was excellent. It will always be a mystery to me why he associated so much with dodgy right wing groups when he actually had such good personal relations with the Jewish - it could very well be that the often-mentioned allegation that Jarek was controlling him was true.


No doubt they'll soon tell us that Poland was wrong and that he was the best President ever.


You mean our President who was locked up for trying to fight for a free Poland, right?

Work / British working in China and moving to work in Poland. Income tax exemption? [3]

I'd be asking for more than that - I'd want a decision from their local tax office.

Either way, sounds like rubbish to me.

History / Lwów, Wilno ... kresy - Poland have lost enormoust part of our heritage... [389]


Oh yeah, and that's exactly why there are so many religious wars even between very similar nations!


The former president who died in the plane accident was very anti-Russia, and pro-USA, so he certainly wouldn't approve of any union with Russia.

The president doesn't have that much decision power and the government at that time was already PO, so clearly you've got no idea what you're talking about.

And what klilled them was bravado and negligence, not any EU state, nor Russia.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


I suppose, not being a property owner, you wouldn't understand the meaning of "deposit". People buying houses tend to sell another property, you know.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


It's not just there - Kielce (bloody Kielce!) is booming these days, too.


No-one is paying 15 times their salary for a house. Maybe you would have to, because working two english classes a week doesn't mean much.

Off-Topic / Book: Gogol's Taras Bulba [37]


They don't - it's gramatically wrong, because "The Ukraine" was referring to a geographical area, not the country. You don't say "The Poland", or "The Germany", so why "The Ukraine"?


My my Des, I thought you were supposed to be against evil colonial naming conventions and so on?

As I explained - The Ukraine was a geographical area. Ukraine is the country. Using "The Ukraine" is offensive and implies that it's still occupied by colonial forces, or worse.

History / Lwów, Wilno ... kresy - Poland have lost enormoust part of our heritage... [389]


And?

Culturally, Poland and Serbia have little in common. There's much more in common with Poland and Croatia.

Work / I Want to offer a Telesales Job to 5 Brit Expats however... [19]


It's a bloody hard job, I couldn't do it! I've seen it done by someone who knows how, and it's impressive to watch - but still, a very difficult job.


It shouldn't be a problem with posting a job advertisement, just don't post using @gmail addresses or similar.

As someone said above, you should definitely get a fair few people applying, especially those who haven't carved out a career here.

Teflcat - the easiest way is to keep them on the phone for hours. No sales = not on target = they get fired. They'll soon learn.

Work / I Want to offer a Telesales Job to 5 Brit Expats however... [19]


Quite a lot - people are aware of this site, but they don't post because of the racism/hatred/flame wars/etc.