USA, Canada / REFUSED A HOLIDAY VISA TO THE U.S CAUSE IM POLISH [323]

Aww. cute.

How is visa refusal 'discrimination'?

And if it is, you've been discriminating against Ukrainians and Belorussians quite badly since Schengen game in.

USA, Canada / REFUSED A HOLIDAY VISA TO THE U.S CAUSE IM POLISH [323]


You do it constantly to Ukranians and others. In fact, obtaining a Polish visa is nearly impossible in some Eastern European countries without paying a bribe.

As for suing them - suing them for what exactly?

History / What British unit liberated Poland in 1945?? [445]


Those of us that pay taxes in Poland care.


I find it highly unlikely that a country that can't afford to build motorways across the entire country and which can't even afford to subsidise medicine or get rid of bribery and corruption in its state health system can afford to integrate Western Ukraine.

Let's not forget that Poland is running a huge budget defecit and was teetering on the edge of economic collapse not so long ago. And you think you can afford to integrate Western Ukraine? Keep on dreaming!


Of course you wouldn't.

History / What British unit liberated Poland in 1945?? [445]


Who's going to pay for the cost of integration, then? Poland is the third poorest country in Europe and simply couldn't afford to integrate Western Ukraine. Or do you suggest that someone else pays for the cost of your fantasies?

You have to question the logic of people that would give up Wroclaw and Gdansk for Lwow!

History / What British unit liberated Poland in 1945?? [445]

I wonder how many Poles would be happy to accept that part of the world back, on condition that they pay an extra 10% income tax to pay for the massive work needing done there. I suspect most romanticism would be gone after they were told that fact ;)

It's a shame that both Polish and Ukranian border authorities can't sort out the mess at the checkpoints and allow much easier access to and from Lviv - both sides are just as bad as each other at Medyka, though there can be no excusing the Polish treatment of non-EU nationals there!

USA, Canada / Canadian wanting Polish Citizenship? [30]


I certainly wouldn't talk to a law firm that doesn't understand Polish citizenship rules!

An ID card is not required for Polish citizens not resident in the territory of the Republic of Poland!

UK, Ireland / Posting from UK to Poland....not good! [53]


Royal Mail, easily. The decimation of the Post Office network (although the Government is ultimately responsible!) has been an utter crime, and the service has detoriated badly in recent years to the point of becoming unusable.

I wouldn't trust a word that they say either - Poczta Polska might be useless with complaints, but the Royal Mail isn't much better, if at all. One thing was actually telling about that report today - it's seen as a problem that every village doesn't have a post office. Compare this to the situation in the UK, where if a village has a post office, it's a minor miracle.

An Post isn't too great either, from what I remeber.

Work / Poland Visa D and traveling-US Citizen [13]


It's a common myth, but it's not true.

What happens with Schengen is that the static checks on country borders are replaced with a 'hard' outer shell and a 'soft' inner shell. The shell still exists however, and is manifested usually with random border checks away from the border. The execution is different in different countries - for instance, France will check you anywhere at any time, whereas Austria is known for pulling people over 500m from the border.

For that reason, it's vital for ID to be carried at all times when in the zone.

USA, Canada / Tracking a package through the Polish Postal system sent from US [57]


I'd be half inclined to blame Polish Customs for this - as far as I can tell, dealing with them is generally an unhappy experience. I had 'fun' with them and their idiotic ways on the Ukranian border.

Work / Poland Visa D and traveling-US Citizen [13]

I need to double check this (I'm not at the computer which has all the information) - but off the top of my head, as a US citizen, you are entitled to 90 days visa-free as a tourist in the Schengen zone. The national long-term visa system hasn't been harmonised (yet) - so you would be treated as a tourist in the other Schengen zones - effectively meaning that you have 90 days visa-free in Schengen outside of Poland.

But I'm not 100% certain on this - let me double check first :)

To obtain a definitive answer, I would contact the border control authorities for each country and ensure that they will allow this.

Work / An IT System Engineer interested in moving to Poland [11]

Do you speak Polish?

Travel / Driving to Lublin from Cork in Ireland [7]


I'd actually recommend doing Le Harve to Western Germany in one day (it's an easy run) and then stop for the next night just across the Polish border. That would leave you fresh to tackle the Swiecko-Nowy Tomsyl section of road, and Lodz to Lublin isn't so far.

An interesting alternative could be to head across from Le Harve towards Charleroi, going past Lille on the south side. Then Liege, Aachen, Cologne, Erfurt, Dresden, Gorlitz, Wroclaw, Krakow and Lublin.

This would have the benefit of spending the maximium amount of time on motorways, though I have no idea how it would compare to the Hannover/Berlin/Poznan route.

USA, Canada / Renewal of Polish passport from the USA [44]


I'd suggest changing your social circle.

I've got nothing to hide, yet I don't see the point in wasting a vast amount of money that the country doesn't have on a massive database system, the reliability of which is questionable given that they admit that something like 10% of the DVLA's records are wrong.

Are you really happy for government officials to be able to access all sorts of private data about you, as and when they choose? Let's see...would you really want next door's neighbour being able to access a database which tells them all about you?

The databases will be a *huge* target for identity theft - and if you can successfully assume someone's identity, then the presence of an ID card will back your new 'identity' up. Voila, someone's life is ruined.

I suppose you're also for CCTV everywhere and completely in favour of endless photographers being harrassed just for taking photographs?


None whatsoever. The ID card technology has already been hacked, for one.

History / Jaruzelski asked Soviets for assistance [51]


Anyone with half a brain, or even less can clearly see this. Why is it that the SB never used these 'documents' against Walesa to destroy any credibility he had as a leader of Solidarity? Could it be because the documents are at best, a falsification by the SB and at worst, fabricated by Kaczynski-fans?


If the IPN was a tool of the SLD, I have the utmost faith that Kaczynski would be 'found' to be a registered agent. Given that the IPN has proved itself time and time again to be politically biased and wrapped up in politics, how can you trust a word they say?

USA, Canada / Renewal of Polish passport from the USA [44]


You learn something new every day..! I think it's actually worth a try - rules are there to be broken in Poland, after all ;)


Ugh. :( I don't think there's any other response than ugh.


Shouldn't be a problem - in fact, the only problem that I can see is that you're currently without valid ID from the eyes of the Polish. I've never heard of anyone having trouble because their passport was expired upon renewal - as long as you're able to present the expired passport, no problemo.

History / What British unit liberated Poland in 1945?? [445]


If I remeber rightly, Polish law is a bit of a mess, neither recognising the PRL as legitimate, nor recognising the Government-in-Exile much either.

About the only thing that is certain is that the current Polish state had Jaruzelski as the first President - and that this state is new and not the same as the previous Polish states.

USA, Canada / Renewal of Polish passport from the USA [44]


You're Gibraltarian?

I bet they would accept any old nonsense as long as it had a stamp on it purportrating to be from the British Embassy - in fact, it could be a nice little profitable racket! In fact - as long as it complied with what the Polish government says it should have, along with a stamp, I very much doubt they would bother to actually check it out in any detail.


It makes me sick. If the British Embassy did anything of note, then I wouldn't object - but what do they do, apart from charge extortionate amounts?

Ah wait, those garden parties have to be paid for somehow.

USA, Canada / Renewal of Polish passport from the USA [44]

It's for a 'certificate of no impediment'. Basically, the Polish Authorities ask for it to confirm that you aren't already married in the UK. Fair enough - they can't check their own databases, so they ask you to provide something from your 'home' country.

But the UK doesn't have any concept of national registers, so all they can do is stick a notice up in the embassy saying "so and so intends to get married" - just like they would outside the registry office in the UK. If no-one objects, then they grant the certificate. And for this, they charge 606zl at current rates...!

Passport renewals are another scam here, last time I checked, they were running at around 600zl! And if you need an emergency passport outside of consular hours, they charge you 128 pounds/hour for an official, on top of the emergency passport fee. And let's not forget that all fees must be paid in cash in person or via Poczta Polska - nothing else is accepted!

I'd love to know where this money is going - is it going to fund identity databases and ID cads that no-one wants in the UK?

USA, Canada / Renewal of Polish passport from the USA [44]


Likewise with our dear British Embassy in Poland.

Mystery of the week is why it costs over 600zl for the British Embassy to stick a piece of paper on a noticeboard that no-one is going to read.

Food / Wanna buy Spiritus Krakow [28]


I'm not sure about the person going down 'well'...if anything, they're likely to hit the deck with an almighty thud ;)

History / Jaruzelski asked Soviets for assistance [51]


Understandable, given that they were totally reliant on the Soviet Union - let's not forget, a Soviet Union that was unpredictable, ran by a Kremlin full of spoiled old men completely out of touch with reality. I don't think it was an option to simply say "no".


Peaceful in what sense? Their strikes were paralysing the country, and their leaders wanted more than the Communists could offer. Power sharing wasn't on offer, nor was it available in 1981 - would Brezhnev have accepted the loss of total Communist control in Poland? More than likely - no.

They didn't intend to invade because the Polish communists had no intention of letting Solidarity share political power. I don't think the Soviet Union was particularly interested in what went on economically as long as Communist rule was intact.


You can't compare the 1989 agreement with 1981 - the political climate had changed dramatically in Moscow to the point where their leader had openly announced that countries in the Warsaw Pact were free to go their own way. Compare that to 1981, where no-one knew what the Soviet Union was thinking - and Brezhnev had a long history of using force!

As I said - credible alternatives to Martial law? There really isn't any - every time the Communists gave an inch, Solidarity wanted more.

History / Jaruzelski asked Soviets for assistance [51]


What else could the Polish communists do at the time? The country was breaking down, they had massive debt repayments to make to the West and the situation was spiralling out of control. Solidarity couldn't be trusted to cooperate - indeed, they wouldn't cooperate with the brutal economic programme that was needed. Look at the way that people were striking the second price rises were announced - the country was ungovernable.

I maintain that it was martial law or civil war - and let's not forget that both the Czechoslovaks and East Germans wouldn't have opposed the chance to give a black eye or two to the Poles.

I'd actually love to hear credible alternative scenarios to martial law.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


Wroclaw would be easier than Poznan for a 'first timer' - Poznan tends to operate a bit more on the 'old boys network' principle than most other Polish cities. Wroclaw is also much more set up for the foreigner than Poznan - but it does depend what you want, as Poznan is much more charming than Wroclaw due to the lack of British "tourists".

If you do the CELTA in Wroclaw, you should have no problem finding a job - you would have the benefit of being able to hunt for employment there, and the IH Wroclaw course has a good reputation from what I'm told.

Either city is recommended really - though Poznan's public transport is superior to the transport in Wroclaw ;)

Any questions, feel free to ask.

History / What British unit liberated Poland in 1945?? [445]


Really?

The "Noble Democracy" was somewhat communist in thinking, what with the liberal, multicultural approach that it had. Pilsudski was also a socialist, wasn't he? Even today, all the major parties have a certain element of socialism in their thinking - what with PO and PiS' origins in Solidarity and the SLD's role as a post-communist party.

I strongly believe that Solidarity would have happily accepted a real power-sharing agreement with the communists had it been on offer - to the exclusion of real democracy. If you look at what Walesa was trying to achieve - he was clearly after workers control of workplaces, but not so much interested in political power.

(of course, post-1989 Walesa is different!)

History / Jaruzelski asked Soviets for assistance [51]


Do people actually believe this?

As far as I can work out, Marital law was introduced to stabilise the country as it was in danger of completely collapsing as a society. Did Jaruzelski really have much other choice, given that he couldn't meet Solidarity's demands without coming into conflict with Moscow?

Timothy Garton Ash's excellent book on Solidarity gives a great narrative of what was going on in Poland at the time - and I think it's pretty clear that Jaruzelski was forced into a corner. History will not be kind to Jaruzelski, even though he does deserve a great deal of credit for successfully managing the transistion to democracy without the problems seen elsewhere - in fact, could the rest of Europe followed if he had adopted a hardline tone?

Having said all this, I think it's ridiculous for a taxpayer-sponsored witchhunt (the IPN) to embark on these crusades against certain individuals that are enemies of PiS - shouldn't these things be impartial and free of political interference? Walesa, uncharacteristically, seems to pointing this out in an unhysterical way.

History / What British unit liberated Poland in 1945?? [445]


There's a good "what if?" scenario there - if we assume that Britain didn't enter the war and instead sat on her hands, Hitler (well, the Axis) would control mainland Europe. Then what?

America would have entered WW2 regardless with Pearl Harbour - and a Britain not attempting to actually fight could become a very dangerous opponent because they would have plenty of time to mobilise without interference.

Certainly, a brutal war between the Axis and Russia would have devastated both countries - and even if Germany managed to take Moscow, their supply lines would've been under constant attack anyway from partisan forces.

Could have been interesting post-war - America would undoubtably end it with the nuclear bomb, Russia and Germany would be devastated, and from there, who knows?

USA, Canada / Tracking a package through the Polish Postal system sent from US [57]

Doesn't make them any worse than the USPS, does it? :)

USA, Canada / Tracking a package through the Polish Postal system sent from US [57]

18 months nearly ;)

But it's true - I don't have problems with them at all. There's the isolated bout of laziness from posties that can't be bothered to come up to deliver something, but that happens everywhere. But they are much, much better than Royal Mail/Post Office ever will be.

Mind you, this utterly weird habit of postmen handling cash is very odd - as is the habit of tipping them!

(of course, maybe I'm simply viewing anything above 'useless and incompetent ; see also Royal Mail' as being amazing!)


18 months nearly ;)

But it's true - I don't have problems with them at all. There's the isolated bout of laziness from posties that can't be bothered to come up to deliver something, but that happens everywhere. But they are much, much better than Royal Mail/Post Office ever will be.

Mind you, this utterly weird habit of postmen handling cash is very odd - as is the habit of tipping them!

(of course, maybe I'm simply viewing anything above 'useless and incompetent ; see also Royal Mail' as being amazing!)


If you get caught, that is.


Really?
complaintsboard.com/complaints/usps-c111196.html

Among many others. Explain?


They steal in every postal system, that much is a fact. The USPS is no different.


So why is the internet full of complaints about stolen mail from the USPS? Are these people somehow living in an alternate universe where the USPS does steal? Let's not forget that people making very, very good money have stolen before and will steal again.


Really? Expert on Poczta Polska's hiring schemes, are we?

The USPS doesn't appear to be so great - look:
ehow.com/how_4475866_post-office-easy-way-exam.html

Open your eyes, darling ;)

USA, Canada / Tracking a package through the Polish Postal system sent from US [57]


So why have I never had anything go missing from the UK? Poczta Polska have actually been delivering stuff within 3 days of it being posted in the UK - which isn't bad service!

Maybe the USPS lost it? They hardly have the greatest of reputations....

Travel / Sports bar in Poznan (SKY) [11]

Good news, wonder if they'll show the darts if I ask nicely...?

(by the way, for anyone in Poznan, there's a meeting this Friday at 7pm at the Van Gogh Cafe, Zydowska 12)