PolishForums LIVE  /  Archives [3]    
   
Posts by thebadmonkey  

Joined: 20 Feb 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 2 Mar 2012
Threads: Total: 2 / In This Archive: 2
Posts: Total: 71 / In This Archive: 67
From: Lodz
Speaks Polish?: Troche
Interests: Photography, History, Reading, Movies, Music etc

Displayed posts: 69 / page 3 of 3
sort: Latest first   Oldest first   |
thebadmonkey   
23 Feb 2012
History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

To be fair the Poles fought hard in a number of theaters (including Brit inspired disaster Market Garden, despite having raised valid concerns) only to be betrayed by their Allies to Stalin. Must have been a bitter pill to swallow for those Polish pilots who did fight in the Battle of Britain. Granted at least the Brits did feel uncomfortable with it.
thebadmonkey   
21 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

Foreigner4 - valid points.

Just taking a few of them - Sins of our fathers is offset somewhat by the the fact that it's those who complain the most about how England is becoming less English, and that the foreigners are taking all the jobs who are the very same who display such pride in the 'Empire' and moan about how England is no longer the power it was etc etc.

It's a minority to be sure, but sadly quite visible abroad any time I've been holidays. The rhetoric from the likes of Wilders and the BNP doesn'r really help anyone aside from stirring up xenophobia by playign on peoples perceptions and fears as opposed to facts. It is gratifying to see though that the majority seem to reject such extremism but not in as large numbers as they once did perhaps.

Regarding Dutch Business concerns, I can understand why it can be said they are looking after their own interests. After all they are in business to make a profit, not for the public good. If you take the Southern states of the US however, who enacted the type of contraversial immigration bill Wilders would like to bring in, it hit everybody hard. Both small and big business suffered and the local economy was badly hit with for example crops left rotting in fields as the labour who had previously harvested them were gone. It also had a PR impact as executives from Japan who were due to invest heavily in a car plant there had second thoughts purely based on the nature of the bill.

I don't agree with you with regards the Chinese comment. Poland has signed up to the EU with all that entails (free movement etc) and is receiving hundreds of millions of EUR in EU subsidies as a result, money which is creating jobs for Poles in a variety of areas, not least construction as the infrastructure is improved. Social Welfare rates are very low in Poland as well, so it's unlikely to suffer from the 'welfare tourism' that some countries have to deal with. Plus, similar to us Irish, it would be difficult for the Poles to complain about immigration when so many have emigrated themselves.

Immigration is a sensitive topic, there's no doubt about it. From an economic perspective, there are benefits which are easily forgotten. Immigrants need homes, food, drink etc to survive all of which must be paid for, which involves spending money in the local economy.

Typically, large numbers of unskilled immigrants are involved in areas where local workers have not been seriously interested in (hell, huge numbers of English and Irish go to Oz for a year out to do something similar, like harvesting fruit etc). This was something noted in the study carried out by the University of Rotterdam.

The number of skilled workers, while a lesser number have also had a role to play as in a srong economy there is typically a deficit in many areas whereby the number of qualified local workers are not enough to fill the economies requirement.

Perhaps a key issue is that people seemed quite happy with immigrants doing these jobs when the economy is good (doing jobs no one else really wanted for little money, resulting in lower service costs for the wider community)... but when the economy goes downhill, it suddenly raises an ethical question.

From a cultural perspective, I can more readily understand peoples' fears I guess. An influx of immigrants from a different culturual or religious background may have a detrimental impact if they refuse to integrate and accept the laws and standards of the society around them.
thebadmonkey   
21 Feb 2012
Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

How did it go Markus?

I was in a similar situation as yourself with exception I'm Irish and both my wife and I were working in Ireland when applied

We got a mortgage eventually with Nordea (only other real alternative was Deutsche Bank) but it was an incredibly long drawn out process and we ended up having to to give my wife's mother power of attorney to act on our behalf given the number of documents that needed to be lodged and signed - usual multiple versions of each as they either misplaced copies or took so long to process that they were too old by the time they got to them! All this by the way while having owning the site whose value was around 1.5 times the size of the mortgage...

Took about five months to get it but we got there eventually. In a way it;s a frefreshing change to see banks actually be careful but Nordea took it to an extreme.

If you have any particular questions sure give me a PM and can see if can help!
thebadmonkey   
21 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

Considering Englands tendency to go around invading countries where they weren't wanted, I'm constantly surprised by their unhappiness at people from these self same countries coming to England...or complain about immigration ruining their culture and diluting their Englishness (all the while planning to become ex-pats in Costa del Sol)

OK that's somewhat tongue in cheek, and not applicable to Poland but it's an attitude that's always puzzled me.

There's a few alternative ways of looking at it though Athelstan

a) those Poles need to live somewhere , buy food, pay tax, socialize etc, all contributing to the economy.
b) English (and us Irish) are quite insular, we don't take advantage of the opportunities provided in other countries. Oth nations do it, so what's stopping us? Fear of change? Fear of failure?

c) Wilders and his ilk are idiots.

To put this Wilders stance into context, quantified research from the University of Rotterdamn have found his claims that mass immigration from Eastern Europe has hit the economy to be completely false. Business leaders in Holland have also expressed concerns that his attitude and the publicity around this site will actually cost the country jobs as multinational companies reconsider their position. It's also worth noting that several southern states in the US have implemeted the type of draconian anti immigrant laws Wilder believes in....and it's devastated the economy, costing billions of dollars and leading to all sectors of business pushing for a repeal of these laws. Wilders and his friends in the BNP are using scare mongering to try and whip up a frenzied support for their viewpoint and to win votes. It's appalling.

I feel or your son - members of my family have lost their jobs with the recession here and are in danger of losing their house as a result. That's due more to the stupidity and short sighted nature of our government when it came to prudent financial controls than immigration. Likewise in the UK.
thebadmonkey   
20 Feb 2012
Love / Do Irish / British guys like Polish girls? [138]

Generally find the Irish accent increases in some emigrants the longer they are away from home :D

As for Irish men liking Irish women, I married one so I guess so in my case. As long as you understand sarcasm and don't get easily offended you'll be fine ;)

The problem with Americans is that they are a mongrel race (don't mean that in an offensive way, just that have a very enthically diverse background which merged in a very short timeframe). To give an example, I was in Ohio with work few years ago for Paddy's Day. Lost count of the number of Americans who came up telling me they were one quarter Irish, half Polish and quarter Italian etc...friendly people though, had a really enjoyable time.
thebadmonkey   
20 Feb 2012
Love / What are Polish Women like? Just started to date one. [256]

It's something my Polish friends noticed when here when came here first (ended up marrying one of them, still not sure how it happened but worked out ok!)

A large percentage of younger women can get pretty messy when out in club (drink that little bit too much, fall around etc). It's far from being the majority but still a large enough percentage to be visible in comparison to most other nationalities. Never really notced myself, was only when it was pointed out that kinda looked at it objectively. Not that I really cared either way!
thebadmonkey   
20 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

Social Welfare is too generous here (Ireland), but that goes for everyone, not just Poles or other EU nationals who come here.

The recession is really beginning to bite here and alot of people look for someone to lash out at-sadly immigrants fit the bill nicely for some and are an easy target. 'Coming over here, stealing our jobs, taking our welfare etc etc'.

It's the same across Europe. There's no denying some Polish have taken advantage and rip off the system, and seem to feel no shame in doing so but they're the smaller element of a much wider problem that affects everyone here, Irish and Pole alike. But when emotions run this high, logic tends to go out the window. It hasn't helped when it's been publicized how much money has been taken from the Irish economy by Polish and sent back to families etc in Poland, hundreds of million of euro in the last decade. At face value I can understand why people get upset at that ....but considering our history of immigration over the past hundred years, and the fact the Irish did the exact same thing when huge numbers of us emigrated to the US, Canada, Australia, Britain etc I really can't see how we can complain too much about it.

The worrying thing is that with the economies etc in Europe sliding, people become more narrow minded and extreme in their views - resulting in that Dutch site. Stupidty as they say, knows no nationality.
thebadmonkey   
20 Feb 2012
Love / What are Polish Women like? Just started to date one. [256]

Have never really noticed too much more different about Polish women to be fair. Very good looking but by and large women the world over are the same...completely alien to us men :D

I guess the one thing that stood out for me was the different attitudes to alcohol but that was pretty much it.
thebadmonkey   
20 Feb 2012
Love / Getting married in Poland (papers stating we are eligible to get married?) Certificate of no impediment. [24]

Got married to a Polish girl in Lodz in 2008. Harry has covered it off quite well to be fair.

It was difficult for us as we are living in Ireland (though soon to emigrate to Lodz) and there was a hell of alot of getting official documents etc translated but it was largely ok aside from the incredible amounts of red tape Polish authorities seem to enjoy so much.

Probably the most difficult for us was the confusion caused by the different standards applied in Ireland to naming conventions (it's William on my Birth Cert but Billy on my passport and tax records as that's the name I go by, and is recognised as such by most English speakers) . There was no problems in Ireland with this as it's common practice but (understandably) it caused huge problems when in Poland. Eventually had to get my original passport cancelled and replaced with new version with both William and Billy on it. Irish passport office had a good laugh at that one apparently.

Anyway with regards notification of no impediment, that's not just a Polish requirement - it's generally required in most countries to avoid bigamy. it may not be known by the same name but would be surprised if the embassy could provide nothing at all.

Best of luck with marriage anyway. Polish weddings are great craic! But like someone has mentioned, need to negotiate when setting it up!