Life / Polish pride. PL stickers, flags and the white eagle! Where does our obsession come from? [79]


It's become an industry in its own right. I know the other day, I was asking people "uh...why are there flags flying?" - and hardly anyone knew the answer.

They should just announce one date as a general "remembrance" date - have a two minute silence on that day and no more. I'm sick and tired of seeing failures commemorated too -why the hell are people celebrating the Gdansk Agreements when the PZPR had no intention of honouring it anyway?

USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]


You do make a rather...large amount of assumptions, don't you?


I don't? Strange, I could have sworn that my driving licence says "PL" on it and has a Polish address. Must have got mixed up somewhere along the line, I guess.


This isn't RussianForums.com, but PolishForums.com. If you want to discuss how retarded Russian expatriates are, go do it somewhere else.


That has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Posen was a very, very Germanic city.

You know, the funny thing is that no Polish person actually living in Poland (who are much more TRUE POLES in my eyes - at least they live in and contribute to the country!) has a bad word to say about my observations of the American Polonia. Could it be because - actually - most Poles think that Polish-Americans are retards, too?

USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]


What's insulting about the fact that Posen was a German, not a Polish city? Documentary evidence, as well as pictures show us clearly that the city was, to all practical extents, a German one. You know, there's a rather large German castle here to remind us of that fact ;)


If there were dumb American Russkies, I'd be insulting them just as much.

(for your information, the dumb polaks remark was aimed at the American Polonia, not the ones who live here)

USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]


Versailles was about revenge, nothing else. It'll probably go down as being one of the worst treaties ever - it satisfied hardly anyone, it caused possibly decades of war and did hardly anything to actually resolve the probles - and indeed, just caused German instability and resentment.

To be fair though, the uprising in Poznan was probably one of the most well executed uprisings ever - it was cold, calculating and devastatingly effective. Why the leaders of the Warsaw Uprising didn't copy them is entirely beyond me!

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]


Agreed. The chicken is inferior in Scotland though - Poland really does have excellent chicken. But beef? It's a struggle, and pricey.

Weird really, you'd think that with such a large dairy sector, they'd be able to produce beef, but clearly not...

Life / Best of two worlds - Poland and... Germany [29]


These days, not so much - I can use the example of Frankfurt-Słubice. A beer in Słubice is about 5-6zl, a beer in Frankfurt is 2 euro. Not so much of a difference, really.

The strange thing is that Germans are now opening their own businesses on the Polish side - there's a very nice German cafe there :)

UK, Ireland / Ive been in the UK for 6 days to relocate and im going back to Poland. [281]


Well - that's simple, require them to go to the Jobcentre once a year to confirm their residence :)

(or even better : link it to school attendance - if the child isn't present in school, say on the 15th September, 15th January and 15th April, bye bye benefits)

UK, Ireland / Ive been in the UK for 6 days to relocate and im going back to Poland. [281]


And that's all because successive governments have done sweet FA about actually linking child benefit to some sort of regular residency test. You'd think that if the national insurance number isn't being used, child benefit would be cut immediately!

Work / I'm desperate for some employment advice in Poland and I'm not speaking about teaching English! [2]

My recommendation is very simple - teach, teach and teach for a year to build up a good network of contacts. Build good personal relations with every single student - and someone will know the right person to help you find what you want.

Teaching is very, very underrated as a way to move into other areas in Poland - though it has to be said - most expats I know are either teaching or they're self employed.

News / Polish leader urges EU to keep generous aid funds [32]


No, they don't. The current implementation of the CAP rewards large landowners and yet pays barely enough for small farms to exist - it's a terrible system and doesn't promote reform at all.

Life / Best of two worlds - Poland and... Germany [29]

Right now, places like Gorlitz are actually getting worse and worse due to the "brain drain" and the fact that there is just nothing happening there economically. They've suffered quite badly with Poland offering very favourable terms (and the all important cheaper labour) - look at Frankfurt (Oder) and why you can't find a fuel station there in the centre, for instance. And that's just one example of many.

You've also got the problem of being perceived as a foreigner in both countries - which makes life even more difficult. Gorlitz may look nice, but living somewhere with crushingly high unemployment and little career prospects will soon get you down.


I'll never forget the time I spoke Polish in the station in Frankfurt (Oder)...to say that I was given a filthy look by the staff is an understatement :(

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]


No way, it's very similar to black pudding.

Life / Best of two worlds - Poland and... Germany [29]


That's because Poles still require work permits for working in Germany.

Anyway, your great plan has one problem - economically, the German borderland is much worse off than the Polish side. Don't let appearances deceive you - the nice German borderland is solely due to the massive transfers from West to East - but they have spectacularly failed at attracting new investment, unlike places such as Kostryn and Słubice. The job market is somewhat dire in places like Gorlitz and Frankfurt (Oder) - in fact, the situation is now approaching the point where Germans are looking for work in Poland.

Even Berlin is massively struggling these days.

Travel / Starbucks in Wawel Castle, Krakow. Is this a joke or true? [42]


Some people do, but you find the mugs in places like Go Sport and so on.

It's definitely the smart option.

History / Today is the 1st of September (WWII start in Poland) [138]


There's something going on at Westerplatte today - Komorowski is apparently there.

News / 30 years of Solidarity in Poland? Fat chance! [23]


I think, from the history sources we have available (and lacking a lot of the documentation from the Communist side) - it's obvious that at the very highest level, the Communists agreed to step aside in exchange for not being prosecuted. But I don't blame Solidarity for agreeing to this - Solidarity knew then that the army wasn't loyal to Poland, and if the Round Table failed - who knows what might have happened? Obviously, in hindsight, we know that Communism was failing anyway - but Walesa et al didn't know this at the time.

The thing that people can't seem to answer me - if compromising with the Communists was wrong - what was the alternative? Solidarity hardly had the means of fighting man to man with the authorities - and as far as I can tell, many of them were all for peaceful opposition anyway. It's funny - but anyone who is surprised these days by the split between Tusk and Kaczynski supporters should look back to 1980 - both of them lead straight back to the "intellectual" and the "worker" factions that came together then anyway.


It's the same here with Ciegelski in Poznan - from what I understand, they managed to drive the company into the ground despite them producing shipyard engines (which are in massive, massive demand right now). They really have no-one to blame but themselves - the companies were debt free, but from what I heard, the working practices were/are very much based on what was good for the workers, not for the health of the business. Of course, they were also subsidised for so long on the basis of sentimentality - which is no way to run a business!

Love / Polish citizen in the UK: I made a mistake and now she won't forgive me, help! [57]

I think you need to man up and accept that your girlfriend is now the star of the school :)

Work / Self employed teacher, what do you think about this? [9]

It's the same as umowa o dzielo, except with ZUS paid. I'm not sure if all the elements of ZUS are paid under it (such as sickness and unemployment benefit) - but if it's a matter of 500zl difference in salary, go self employed! You'll be much, much better off and you can issue an invoice - which is the magic word for many private clients.

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


I *think* the reasoning behind it is that someone who rides a bike drunk and dangerously (let's face it, they're not going to stop a random bike rider to test his breath!) is probably going to do the same thing when sober.

(anything that cuts down on the amount of drunk idiots on the road is probably a good thing here, even if we find it absurd)

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


Me too :P

(what about rollerblading? the Polish law only prohibits actual bicycles)

Law / Can I take the Polish written test and obtain a Polish driving licence? [28]

I can confirm that you need the sworn translator for both parts of the exam unless you can demonstrate to the confidence of the examiners that you know the language.

Incidentally, choosing the English option for the theory test automatically means that you need the translator for the theory.

News / 30 years of Solidarity in Poland? Fat chance! [23]


Sure.

As I understand it, during 1980/1981, and even 1989 - the Communists were attempting to portray Solidarity as being a negative social influence through the mass media. There were plenty of stories (many of them made up by TASS) going around about Solidarity and acts of violence - along with more damaging personal smears about various members of the organisation. As far as I can tell, the general idea was to portray Solidarity as "hooligans" - people more intent on trouble and their own well being than the well being of the country.

And now - it seems to come true.

Second sentence - Timothy Garton-Ash's excellent book on Solidarity explains a lot of it. Walesa for instance was riding around with a personal car and driver, and many other high ranking officials within his "circle" in Solidarity were doing quite well for themselves too. As mafketis says, they wanted something more similar to the Swedish social welfare state - and they never really wanted democracy either. Look at the Contract Sejm - the fact that Solidarity agreed to being allowed to run on the ballots, but not full democracy tells you everything you need to know - that many of them were content to share power.

I seem to recall that Solidarity at one point wanted to "control the means of production by independent self governing factories" - the idea being that Solidarity would run the factories for the benefit of the workers. We can now clearly see where that led - to complete disaster in the shipyards, in Ciegelski and others.

Life / Polish pride. PL stickers, flags and the white eagle! Where does our obsession come from? [79]


Funnily enough, there seems to be little celebration of Walesa's election, the first democratic election in 1991 or even the election which created the Contract Sejm - yet at the time, Walesa's election was very much "bye bye communism" and celebrated wildly.

They also seem hell bent on removing all traces of the PRL - it seems kids are taught up until 1945, then...nothing.

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


It's illegal to ride a bike here when drunk - the punishment is just a fine if you don't have a driving licence, but if you do have a licence, then you lose the licence as it's the same as drink-driving.

News / 30 years of Solidarity in Poland? Fat chance! [23]


Solidarity should change their name - with every passing month, they're simply cementing the impression in people's minds that Solidarity were selfish morons out for themselves - as the Communists tried to paint them.

I'm firmly of the impression that Solidarity wanted what the Communists had, they didn't want freedom or democracy at all.

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


The only way to deal with that is some serious jail time, nothing else is going to give them a wakeup call. But again, it's all down to the complete lack of interest in actually enforcing the rules - it's a joke that you can go over 24 points, then do a 400zl course to get you under 24 points again!


Yup, it's a problem. It's finally starting to be seen as socially unacceptable to do so, but you still see drunken 40-something idiots with moustaches and crap cars driving all over the place on the road. The big problem in Poland is that THE MAN IS A MAN and the women simply won't stand up to them - and I think we all know who to blame for this.

News / 30 years of Solidarity in Poland? Fat chance! [23]


Better to be a brother of a Russian than a coward like Jarek.


I think people knew fine well about the Russians long before Lech and Jaroslaw appeared on the political scene. You know - Jaroslaw was too busy being protected by his father to fight anyone ;)


Looks like the end game is in sight for his political career. As you say - Szczypińska doesn't seem particularly upset, and she's clearly in line for leadership of the party.

Travel / Poland-My 9-day experience [239]


Really, do try harder.

Or are Australian history books so poor that they're using names from 70 years ago? Must be a very poor country then!

News / 30 years of Solidarity in Poland? Fat chance! [23]


I'm not surprised. Solidarity as a whole know that their time of State-funded invincibility is coming to an end, and this is just the dying gasps of a movement that long ago ceased to be representative of Poland as a whole.

USA, Canada / American Polonia. Wisconsin - the most Polish state? [112]


Scottish, but only as far back as I've bothered to trace - so to around the early 1800's or so. Before that? Impossible to say, so many Northern people ended up in Scotland one way or another.