Life / Positive things which make a Pole stand out positively in the World! [30]


Need I remind you that many Poles collaborated (actively or passively, doesn't matter) with the Soviet Union for many years?

Doesn't strike me as being particularly "strong" to me.


Hahahaha. You don't live here, that much is obvious.

Most Poles couldn't care less about "other people around the world". They also love their country so much that they tend to steal from it whenever they can.


Ah yes, WW2 - when Poles ran away from Poland rather than surrendering. How...brave!

Incidentally, "never surrender"? Those defending Westerplatte might disagree with you.


Hahahaha. You really are making me laugh - Poles really couldn't care less about other people. Need I remind you about how Poland made life much worse for Ukrainians, Lithuanians and even Czechs at one point?


HAHAHAHAHAHA. You really are killing me now - have you actually ever visited a Polish village, where abuse of animals is widespread? Poland has huge problems with animal abuse - but then again, what would you know, Yankee boy?


Many Poles? I count exactly...two.


You're hysterical - the Poles are leaving because the wages are 3-4 times higher, not because they actually care less about the other countries. To defend wildlife? Poland has huge problems with poaching and destruction of wildlife.

Perhaps take a trip to Bieszczady before you make future stupid comments about wildlife, huh?

Real Estate / Stan deweloperski vs stan surowy [developing or undeveloping property state] [36]


I can see why - building costs aren't much lower than in Western Europe (I saw one figure recently that suggested for car parks, the actual cost was about 15% cheaper than in Germany) - yet there's no way properties would shift if they were priced at that sort of level.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


Bingo.

Meanwhile, Lithuania subsidises Polish language textbooks.

All this "EVIL POLES" or "EVIL LITHUANIANS" is just one sided nonsense - both sides are as bad as each other.

Real Estate / Stan deweloperski vs stan surowy [developing or undeveloping property state] [36]


I'd say that it's absolutely vital in Wroclaw to check this out - the problems that caused the flooding last year still haven't been solved, and this summer is looking to be the same as last summer in terms of warm days and rainy evenings.

History / Why did Russia attack Poland in WW2? [178]


But yet Malta and Estonia do just fine, despite being tiny.

History / Poland Lithuania - current relations [124]

:)

Must admit it gumishu - I think PO's strategy towards Lithuania is failing.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


It's crazy. Poland allows bilingual signs, but doesn't allow textbooks to children. Then you get Lithuania, which subsidises books in Polish, but also refuses Polish signs.

Seriously, WTF?

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


Also worth pointing out that it was a Lithuanian city after WW1, only for Poland to seize it by force.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


It's the most sensible way - give the Lithuanians everything, then use it against them at every opportunity. What can they get upset about if the Lithuanian minority is treated very, very well?

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


Indeed, and this is part of it - they've definitely gone back on their word several times. As I said - both sides are to blame.


Well, EU law just ruled in their favour. As for that agreement - both sides should be sticking to it.


It's retaliation on both sides.


Is it really in Poland's interest to have a Polish minority antagonising a useful regional partner?

From a purely strategic point of view, Russia must be loving the problems between Poland and Lithuania.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


The problem is that Poland is accusing Lithuania of something, when Poland is doing the same thing themselves. Then you get Lithuanians accusing the Poles of doing other things that they haven't done, such as closing schools. Then a Polish politician gets upset and insults Lithuania, so the Lithuanians do something to retaliate. And then Poland will accuse Lithuania of something else, and so on.

The whole thing is full of intolerance from both sides - and really, it's about time that someone such as Germany came along to give them a proper telling off and stop the discrimination from both sides.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


I'm trying to find that out now. So much is just retaliation that it's impossible to find where it started.

Apparently Lithuania subsidises Polish language textbooks for Poles in Lithuania - yet stops them from using Polish names. The whole thing is absolutely nuts from both sides.


Tell us - can you register a proper Lithuanian name in Poland?

The answer is - no, you can't. You cannot use Lithuanian diacritical marks in official Polish documents - so :)

What's really interesting is that relations between normal people in Poland and Lithuania are quite, quite normal. I even attended an exhibition of Lithuanian art not so long ago :)

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


The problem is that Poland is also discriminating against Lithuanians - for instance, did you know that although there are Lithuanian schools, they're forced to use Polish language textbooks because the Polish Ministry of Education won't approve any Lithuanian-language ones? It's nonsense, as is the Lithuanian law that requires the compulsory study of some subjects in Lithuanian.

Plenty of such nonsense exists on both sides - neither side is right, or wrong.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


Strange, strange decision.

Still, I wonder when Poles will allow Lithuanians to have proper Lithuanian spellings of their name in Poland.

Worth also pointing out that in Poland, you cannot have whatever name you wish - there's plenty of examples where registars have refused to register a child unless the name is changed to be in accordance with Polish orthographic norms.

People should be able to spell their name how they want - be it in Lithuanian, German, Polish, whatever.

Travel / Polish Lot - Serving Alcohol [14]


Then don't drink.

Not difficult, surely?

News / Row over status of Poles in Germany sours relations [176]

Surely if Germany is so bad, they should just come back to Poland?

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


If Germany and France wanted to ruin Poland, they could do it overnight. All they'd have to do is get the other Eurozone countries to agree to cut off the tap to Eastern Europe (perhaps under the guise of "emergency budget measures") and reinstate border controls on the pretext of national security - and job done.

Ah well - at least Tusk will be re-elected comfortably this year. Latest opinion poll says 45% for PO - more than enough.

Life / Why are cars so expensive in Poland ? [23]


Nice of you to compare Polish graduates to toilet cleaners.

Perhaps economics eludes you, but don't forget - the UK had ...somewhat of a head start. And heck, you have to live in the UK for that money - a cold, overcrowded (in Englandshire, anyway) place with some shocking problems.

Life / Why are cars so expensive in Poland ? [23]


Yes.

It's quite common in cities like Berlin to see people employed under a so-called "minijob" - paying 400 euro a month. In Poznan, you'd have to be a blithering idiot if you couldn't get 1,600zl netto a month after graduating.

Electricity reflects the real cost. Likewise with gas. Telephony is dirt cheap (the phones are unsubsidised, true - but that's no bad thing) compared to the cost of the infrastructure (which is about 15% less than in Western Europe). Clothing isn't cheap, but who the hell wants to buy cheap clothes anyway, made in some sweat shop?

I'm really not sure why people think Poland should be much cheaper than Western Europe when the economics don't add up at all.

News / Kaczyński wants a people-friendly Poland [64]


As Tusk said - there is no "quick fix" for the hooligan problem. Anyway, playing games behind closed doors is a standard European punishment for hooliganism - what's to whine about?

Perhaps the clubs might be more inclined to put pressure on the hooligans now to actually behave.


Your clue is in the word "mainstream". The majority supports those media sources, they support the government - which was elected by the majority. Everyone's happy.


Given Jaro's actions in recent months, anything is possible.

Thankfully, you and your kin will remain in permanent opposition for a loooong time - while the Government gets on with governing, you can rant on internet forums :)

News / "Shale Gas Revolution" will make Poland a Leading Country in Europe! [202]


Says someone who clearly doesn't know what this gas actually involves.


And no-one will buy, instead choosing to use that nice pipeline from Russia.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


It's a never ending argument over voting - I think the current arrangement works, although in that usual EU way of being horribly complicated. But the problem with the Polish method is was that some countries (like Malta) would have lost almost 1/3rd of their voting power - so not fair, either.

Either way, Poland does have a great deal of influence that she's not using (neither Tusk nor Kaczynski arguably have used it well).


It's not a matter of being screwed, it's a matter of getting things done. You only need to look at the history of European voting to see how the veto has been used as a weapon, often for the sake of domestic politics - look at Slovenia blocking Croatian accession to the EU, all because Croatia wouldn't give in over a minor border dispute. Or - what about how Romania is now threatening to veto Croatian accession if they're not allowed to enter Schengen. Yes, it does erode Poland's influence, but the system erodes *everyone's* influence for the sake of the bloc as a whole. You simply cannot get anything done if 27 members can veto everything they don't like - hence why QMV works.


Indeed. I'm still in two minds as to whether Poland should have gone for membership at all - economically, I don't think the country was ready at all. But then again - I remind myself that I was able to cross between Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice about 20 times a couple of weeks ago and no-one gave a damn about what I was doing.

But Poland really should be following the Tusk doctrine - be nice to the neighbours, win their trust and manipulate them from there. Janusz Lewandowski's actions recently are a great example of that.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


Kaczynski completely forgets to mention that Germany bent over backwards to include Poland in the EU - I have a book dating from 2002 which makes it clear that Germany has refused EU expansion without Poland included - even though Poland should never have been allowed to join in 2004.

Poland also (in terms of voting strength) is one of the big nations in the EU - under the current rules, Poland has 27 votes. Even the big boys (Germany/France/Italy/UK) only have 29 - so what Poland is complaining about, I don't know. There's also the point that Poland could do very well by acting as a "not in the old boys club" and standing up for the smaller countries - a kind of regional leader, if you will. But Kaczynski's "NO NO NO....uh we want to stay in the EU...NO NO NO" stance just didn't work - small countries were ignoring Poland and the big ones were getting annoyed with her.

When you look here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_the_Council_of_the_European_Union#Qualified_majority_voting - you can see that Poland actually does have quite a strong voice in the EU. Anyway - at least in my book, Kaczynski had the Presidency and the majority in the Sejm - if the EU was so bad, why didn't he remove Poland from the EU? Right now, and Lisbon hasn't changed anything - EU membership can be revoked by simply repealing the relevant law.

News / Grafitti plague in Warsaw [84]

Says our resident bedroom expert.

Anyone with half a clue about criminology will tell you that serious crimes often begin with far less serious ones.

News / Grafitti plague in Warsaw [84]


"not in the public interest" is probably our equal.

Utter nonsense where vandalism is concerned - it doesn't take a genius to work out that a vandal can easily progress onto more serious things.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


What PO should be doing is more to attract well qualified individuals into teaching - the current system is an absolute farce. It's nonsense that someone can become a teacher after scraping their way through university - and equally nonsense that nothing is done to attract people from business and industry into teaching.

But the amount of native speakers working in public schools is minute - perhaps 5 in Poznan at the most?

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


It's probably not on offer. The EEA is also a pretty lousy deal - they have to pay quite a bit of cash to the EU every year (as I recall, Norway is paying nearly 1 billion Euro a year) in exchange for EEA membership, without any of the voting rights associated with the EU. EFTA maybe is more of a good deal, but look at Switzerland - although they don't actually pay much to the EU, they had to accept Schengen and Dublin or face having the bilateral treaties being torn up.

The billion dollar question is over whether Poland is actually losing by being part of the EU. Given what I saw in Slubice (vast amounts of Germans buying Polish products at inflated (for Poland) prices) - it seems not.

Australia / Austrlian married to polish man wishes to reside in Poland [9]


Family members have a right to reside in EU+EEA+CH countries - no such limit applies to them.

Food / Chinese restaurant / takeaway / supermarket Poznan [7]

It doesn't, it's just full of utter junk.

Had a rather enjoyable 20 minutes in there once ridiculing the stuff on sale - 95% of it was just complete garbage.

News / Grafitti plague in Warsaw [84]


How about on your grandmother's house in which she's lived all her life?