News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]

What?

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]

So the Polish state can confiscate Church property, and then instead of giving it back, it just throws a tantrum, says, "Waaaah! The Church is greedy!" and keeps it for itself? Fine, but I don't think that's fair.

And what's wrong with teaching religion in public schools? Why shouldn't people be taught religion?

I frankly think it's an excellent idea if kids know about the religion that has been part of their country's culture for centuries or millennia, and that it's pretty anti-intellectual to censor, for purely ideological reasons, such an important part of what should be every young person's curriculum.

I wouldn't mind if they teach Slavic paganism and Eastern Orthodoxy in addition to Catholicism, if they wish to, since nobody has to believe in anything if they don't want to and those three religions have been the most influencial in Polish history.

Similarly, in the UK, equally, compulsory lessons in Germanic paganism, Catholicism and Anglican Protestantism would, in my opinion, be hugely beneficial in helping people understand how the modern values of their culture have developed.

Seriously, how is teaching religion different from teaching history? And how is it possible to understand a culture without understanding not only its history, but the beliefs which it has stood for over the years?

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]

Lol, my comment was tongue-in-cheek.

But yes, I would be shocked and disappointed if someone like Palikot were elected into power.

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]

Either that or it's more of a strategic game, where Palikot's extreme radicalism is used to make other radical policies seem sensible.

Let's have a (ridiculous) hypothetical scenario.

Palikot: "Poland is infringing on children's human rights by not permitting prn being broadcast on children's channels."

Other party: "We're not crazy like Palikot. We won't broadcast púrn on children's channels aimed at under 4s, and children above the age of 4 will only have access to púrn after 4pm."

We'll see how that works out. If they actually get into power, I suggest Poland's experiment with democracy has been a failure and it should declare itself a communist vassal state once more for its own good.

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]


ROFL. The Gay Party. You mean the Pink Dildo Party, right? Ruch Palikota.

Yeah, I don't think Poland actually needs them. It's got enough clowns in politics as it is. They contribute and represent nothing positive and are offensive and unworthy of the airtime they get. Poland needs them just about as much as it needs another World War/Nazi/Communist invasion.

History / Are Suwalki/North East Poles Polonised Lithuanians/Balts? [3]

Yes, some are. I actually know a family from that region, who consider themselves Polish of Lithuanian ancestry, who continue to maintain certain Lithuanian traditions, even though they have thoroughly polonised over many generations.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Oh please, people need to stop blaming PiS for Poland's problems. They were only in power for 2 years, and they did some good things, such as introduce the "becikowe", which is tiny compared the Russian $9,000, but still better than doing nothing about the looming demographic catastrophe.

In fact, the thing I particularly dislike about the current government is not only its lack of meaningful pro-natalist policy, but the fact that it actually reversed such policies inherited from previous governments, left, right and centre. The infamous VAT increase on kids' clothes is an awful example of horrible, horrible policymaking.

News / What should Poland do to solve the population crisis? [101]

Putin pays you $9,000 to have a second child, plus gives you cash to raise them and pays for additional subsidies for childcare, etc. Makes Polish "becikowe" look like a joke, and even that tiny little payment of a few hundred bucks had vocal critics about poor, hardworking people having to pay for other people's "brats" ("bachory"). And the Polish government, instead of actively subsidising children, has increased VAT on kids' clothes.

Putin's government has been aggressively pursuing pro-family policies and supporting young families and marriage, eschewing much of the political correctness of the West. The Russian government now wants to encourage families to have 3 children, and aims to work towards that goal by providing additional subsidies and attempting to make people feel economically secure enough to decide to have further offspring.

All the nay-sayers, who said that the State shouldn't interfere or subsidise children and that such policies are expensive and have no effect have now been proved wrong, as Russia, which was recently trending towards demographic collapse, has this year recorded population growth for the very first time in about 20 years.

Russia's future has gone from very bleak to increasingly positive in just a decade of good, patriotic government that has at least attempted to look after the interests of Russian citizens instead of just lining the pockets of Western businessmen (although I'm sure some of that has probably happened too, but much less than under Yeltsin).

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

"U mnie jest" doesn't strictly indicate possession as in Russian but is sometimes used where you would normally use "have" in a Western European language. "Czy tylko u mnie jest problem?" could be understood as in "Is it only me that there is a problem with?" but whereas this construction sounds fine in Polish, it's strained in English and would typically be translated as, "Is it only me who *has* a problem?"

My point was that the Russian construction is not terribly difficult to understand for a Polish speaker because there is some overlap in meaning and in usage. I could point to similarities in conjugation with the East Slavic branch, such as Czech/Slovak/Polish/Ukrainian/Russian dáváš/dávaš/dajesz/dajesz/dajosz, but my personal opinion is that by far the biggest impediments to mutual understanding are not minor differences in grammar, vocabulary and conjugation between individual languages and the Slavic families, but rather the fact that very similar words can sound very different.

Take the word for "goose", which is fairly predictably husa/hus/gęś/husak/guś in the above languages.

Even though Polish is closer to Czech than it is to Russian, it's probably the Russian word that's easiest to recognise for a Polish speaker unused to hearing other Slavic languages. And even though Ukrainian is closer to Russian than it is to Czech, it's probably the Czech word that's most recognisable to a Ukrainian speaker unused to hearing other Slavic languages.

These very simple and very predictable sound changes, I think, are the biggest problem in casual understanding. Only once you become accustomed to hearing a closely-related language and the differences in pronunciation are no longer a barrier to understanding can you appreciate more complex similarities/differences in vocabulary/grammar.

News / What should Poland do to solve the population crisis? [101]

Poland needs to look to Russia, which has raised it's fertility rate from a catastrophic 1.2 to an improving 1.6 in a decade, while Poland has languished in the pits of demographic despair.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Really? Why?

Language / Quick question on Polish language fundamental [40]


Seriously, don't worry too much about it.

The main uses are: 1) instrument, 2) być, 3) prepositions

You'll often find the instrumental replaces a word in English, typically "with" or "by," but with "być", it usually replaces the indefinite article. And as gumishu said, it can replace other words, such as "wieczorem" = "in the evening."

Instead of thinking of it as a big, scary, Slavic case, think of it as shorthand, and something that makes your life easier, because you can use fewer words, don't have to remember so many prepositions, and you don't have to worry about word order ;)

"Jestem AKTORKĄ" = "I am AN ACTRESS"

Why instrumental and not nominative? Well, Polish loves having a flexible word order, and case marking means you can switch things around for emphasis and still be completely correct. "Aktorką jestem" is 100% natural and correct Polish too.

"Interesuję się FILMEM" = "I am interested IN FILM" (literally "I am interested with/by film")
"FILMEM się interesuję" = "I am interested IN FILM"

As for prepositions, "z" doesn't mean much until you combine it with either the instrumental or genitive case.

z czymś = together with something
z czegoś = out of something

z serem (inst) = together with cheese
kanapka z serem = sandwich with cheese = cheese sandwich

z sera (gen) = out of cheese
sos z sera pleśniowego = sauce made out of blue cheese = blue cheese sauce

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]


Good for him! Ukrainian culture is lovely.

But I don't think some monarch's Ukrainophilia is all that relevant to Lvov.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Berlin was originally a Slavic city.

Big deal.

The latter stages of Austria-Hungarian rule are generally regarded positively by many nations formerly subject to it. It was at that time that the Polish and Ukrainian cultures were flourishing in Galicia.

All I'm saying is that Lvov can neither be regarded as a solely Polish, nor Ukrainian city historically. It's changed hands between different countries multiple times, and historically, it's been a multicultural, Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish city. In 1900, when it was still part of the Austrian empire, it's population was 20% Ukrainian, 49% Polish and 27% Jewish.

And all that stuff about Franz Joseph doesn't sound particularly credible.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Of course they wouldn't hire unprofessional Polish people, as they have too much of an entitlement mentality and would demand higher wages for less work. Heck, my grandparents live in Eastern Poland and prefer to hire foreigners over Polish people because they consider Polish people to be lazy and expensive.

I don't know what planet you are on, ufo973, but while Poland lags behind in Europe, it cannot be compared with the third world.

In Italy, there are 690 vehicles per 1000 people.
In the United Kingdom, there are 525 vehicles per 1000 people.
In Poland, there are 508 vehicles per 1000 people.

In India, there are 18 vehicles per 1000 people. And people don't know what side of the road they're supposed to drive on.

So if most people can afford to spend their money on pieces of metal and hydrocarbon fuel instead of food, Poland cannot be that bad.

old Russian-built infrastructure
vs
no infrastructure

low wages
vs
no wages

And unemployment that has historically been bad due to mismanagement of the economy after communism is nowadays around the European average, which isn't great, but it's not Spain or Greece.

It's the simple things, such as clean, potable water, reliable electricity supplies, people knowing which side of the road they're supposed to drive on which count for a lot in my eyes.

Admittedly, these things were developed and inherited from Soviet times and progress has been slow since then. But jeez, you make it sound like Poland is a third world country, which it most certainly is not.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


Okay, I don't know about Afghanistan because I haven't been there, but I've been to Iraqi Kurdistan and India, and Poland is paradise compared to what I've seen in those places.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Lwów/Lviv was a culturally important Polish city before the war, but even though the city's population was mostly Polish-speaking, that of the surrounding rural regions was predominantly Ukrainian. Many of the eastern territories were ethnically mixed and both Poland and the Ukrainian SSR had a reasonable ethnic claim to them. It's not so much the territorial loss that is the most painful, but the cultural loss of Lviv specifically, and I'm sure many Poles would have much preferred Lviv to be a border city, but Stalin said no.

Nowadays, Lviv is the capital of Ukrainian culture, with the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, russified to such an extent that Ukrainian is seldom spoken there. So while losing Lviv was a cultural disaster for Poland, for Ukraine, it would now be a fatal catastrophe.

I'm sure many Ukrainians would understand that some Poles quite understandibly mourn the loss of Lviv, including the ones I know who were born there, but I've never heard the phrase "Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland" and I've found bitter sentiments such as these to be in the minority. Ukrainians and western Ukraine, as far as I'm aware, are regarded quite positively in general.

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]

I think you're better off picking something that looks awesome than hoping that a label makes it cool.

Branding generally makes clothes more expensive, not necessarily cooler.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Oh, okay. Well, in that case, Poland's neither particularly poor nor particularly rich compared to other countries that were part of the Soviet Union or bloc. It wouldn't seem extremely poor to someone from a rich post-communist state, such as Slovenia, and it wouldn't seem exceedingly rich to someone from, say, Belarus or Bulgaria. Slovakia isn't much different from Poland in terms of development, other than the fact that they use the Euro. Slovenia is significantly better off, but it's a tiny country. Incidentally, both are beautiful, mountainous countries, and off topic, I recommend visiting.

Poland, like most of the Soviet bloc turned out to be second-class first world. It has neither the shocking third world levels of poverty nor are there populations living in shanty towns alongside ludicrous riches, as occurs in some rapidly developing nations. You have all your basic first world conveniences - healthcare, shelter, warmth, but it's not quite as good and you get crappy value for the work that you do.

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]


:D

ROFL. Brilliant.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


Well, I compared it with Norway, which is one of the richest countries in the world, and with Mali, one of the poorest.

The worst and most undeveloped countries of the world probably do not resemble Poland at any point in its 1,000 year history. But Poland still has a long way to go to catch up with the richest of the Western nations.

Life / Do Polish people know a lot about the world ? [16]

Sounds like you live with someone who is possibly a little, how shall I put this gently...

...ssssslow?

I don't care if you're a troll or not, I just imagined your poor face when you realised the woman thought you're from a favela and have never previously had access to clean water. Oh, how your blood must have boiled.

And on account of being an EU citizen, she has the right to milk the State of whatever country she chooses to reside in, so has decided the Supreme Soviet of the European Union. Oh, I can feel your blood boiling even more!

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

gumishu


Oh, I agree. That's why I said a relative absence - i.e., a lot fewer than in Afghanistan or Mali. Malnutrition is still there, but it's not as significant as in truly poor countries, such as, say, Poland soon after the war.

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]

Now, now. The PiS guys have a point in criticising the ruling coalition for political naiveté; altruism on the international scene is not how things work, and if you bend over, you're gonna get f*cked.

But what PiS have failed to realise, and what many have pointed out before, is that you can't burn bridges with your neighbours, Russia and Germany because then you are also gonna get f*cked.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Depends what you mean by poor.

If you compare it to a country like Norway, then yeah, it's pretty poor, with an aging infrastructure and with people getting a relatively low income for long hours of work.

If you compare it to a country like Mali or Afghanistan, then Poland's streets are paved with gold, with free healthcare, more than adequate infrastructure and a relative absence of serious starvation, malnutrition or disease.

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]


Someone already mentioned that another word for "tongue," the organ, is "ozór."

I agree that unusual grammatical patterns and non-Slavic vocabulary do play a part in the problems other Slavic speakers may have understanding Russian. Polish has considerable East Slavic influence, so those differences aren't as significant as for other Slavic speakers. For example, using "u mienia jest'" to indicate possession is odd, but not completely alien to Polish. "Czy tylko u mnie jest problem?" vs "Czy tylko ja mam problem?"

I think accent plays a much bigger role. I'd imagine most Polish speakers would agree, for example, that Slovak is much easier to understand than Czech, even though on paper, the written languages are almost identical and almost completely mutually intelligible. The main difference between Czech and Slovak is that Slovak tends to palatise consonants more, shorten some long vowels and in certain dialects, stress falls on the penultimate syllable as opposed to the first.

In Russian, I think it's both, the unpredictable, dynamic stress and the akanie (the reduction of unstressed vowels to 'a' or schwa) that make it difficult to recognise word boundaries, and make otherwise familiar words sound very different to Polish speakers. Ukrainian doesn't have akanie, which makes Ukrainian sound a lot less Russian and more familiar as far as vowels are concerned. Russian has more palatisation than Ukrainian, however, which makes Russian consonants sound more familiar. So the relative importance of vowels, consonants, accent, grammar and vocabulary to a person's individual understanding will mean people's opinions will vary as to which is easier to understand.

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

Lol, I only need to look at a few generations of my family history. One side are devout Marxists, the other devout Catholics. Needless to say, they never got along, and I identify more with the latter than the former, lol.

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]


No. Enlighten me.


So what if it's a leftist site? Even if it were a revolutionary communist site, it doesn't necessarily mean they're lying about something or wrong about a particular matter.

Anyone can distort facts to suit their own ends, left, right and centre.

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

Jeez. What's the problem with Russians?

Sure, Poles have historically regarded Russia as a threat to their survival and have been hostile to and suspicious of the Russian government, with good reason.

And the Russian government has historically considered Poles difficult to integrate and a major pain in the ass, also with good reason.

But, at least anecdotally, I've generally met with positive opinions of Russian culture and the people themselves, insofar as they didn't somehow represent the Russian government.

As regards genetic similarity, this information may be useful in understanding the history of Slavic migrations, but otherwise, it has little bearing on what people identify as. I have blood ties with Hungarians, Jewish communists and Far Eastern Siberian Ukrainians. I don't identify ethnically, spiritually or ideologically with any of these groups.

News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]


Let's say that were true. Claiming the opposition is worse does not exonerate the party in power. That's like saying, "Just because Jeffery Dahmer killed and raped lots of men, he should be set free and let off the hook simply because there's another guy who I say would have done even worse things if he were in Jeffery's shoes."

Such claims do not exonerate Tusk's government from betraying their electorate by doing the exact opposite of what they pledged they were going to do. That's by far the most glaring failure of the Tusk government - they failed to do what they were elected to do.