Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

The other stuff appears to be bób, po Angielsku broad beans, as Chemikiem said. I've never been offered them as a guest in anybody's home in Poland, but they must be popular because they're all over the place in fresh or frozen form. I believe you call them fava beans in America.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

Yes that's it. They're the wrong shape for kotlety and too thick, must be fish.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

Kind of looks like kotlety schabowe but they're a rather square shape so I'm not sure - whatever they are, I bet being fried in smalec was involved :) and the veggies are bób?

Travel / Lot compensation for cancelled flight [18]

VitaNali, nobody here knows what airline you were flying with, where you were flying from or going to! How can anybody suggest whom you should write to?

Travel / Visiting the Polish Balitic Sea coast in the Winter [30]


I was just teasing you Dolno. I was surprised you mentioned British women in Poland as the few that there are, are probably more like your own wife than the 'hopeless failures' you allude to. Anyway I think there are very few British women married to Poles. It's mostly British men married to Polish women.

Travel / Visiting the Polish Balitic Sea coast in the Winter [30]

Isn't your wife British.................

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]


And not for the first time in English history, but at least it's only the black faces. Cromwell banned dancing entirely, including Morris dancing - and Christmas of course. Did you know that before Cromwell, mince pies were made in the form of a little pastry manger with a pastry Baby Jesus nestling in the mincemeat :)) but after the Restoration, the tradition never really caught on again.

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]

Oh yes, and another form of 'folk' music is the Brass Band tradition such as the colliery bands of the north of England.

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]

Don't forget the great British institution of the Music Hall, which is also Folk music in its truest sense.

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]


Folk music is the music of the people, it doesn't survive if it's not sung by them - now think of the rich musical tradition of England that expresses itself in varied ways: church music (many hymns are centuries old), nursery rhymes, also very old and traditionally sung to children and then by them, and most importantly pop music, which is the modern folk music of England and which has been exported all over the world. Of course there's also modern 'folk' music which draws on the old styles of a couple of centuries ago or modern folk like Ewan McColl 'Dirty Old Town' comes to mind.

Btw Greensleeves survives as the Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" as it's not really a song but an old English 'air' sung with a variety of different words at different times in English history.

youtube.com/watch?v=nwyvWQxoVhk

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]


I'm surprised at you, the music buff that you are, if that's all you can think of.

I don't think the English feel the need to celebrate their Englishness with a public holiday. Apparently celebrating St George's Day was a folk custom that was already on the wane in the 18th century. England is a very 'old' society, steeped in centuries of history, that hasn't been invaded, interfered with etc and therefore has a degree of maturity and self-assurance that doesn't need something as simplistic as a St George's Day celebration. 'Englishness' is celebrated all over England every day by communities doing quintessentially 'English' things.

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]

But you were talking about England. You said England was the only country that didn't celebrate its culture.

Life / Poles against gay marriages. Really? [120]

I mean Ziem that you may not hear about all of them. In fact I'm sure you don't, especially those that occurred forty or fifty years ago where the victims haven't spoken up and may never do so. As a matter of interest when did the reporting of such cases begin in the Polish media? And how recent were the offences?

Please stick to the topic "Poles against gay marriages"

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]


Celebrating the culture which you respect takes many forms, not necessarily dancing in the streets on national holidays.


What 'saints' (plural) are you referring to, apart from George?

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]


We certainly don't in Ireland. There is really no such thing as a traditional Irish costume though attempts have been made to 'invent' one since the 1880s. The nearest thing you'll get is the Galway shawl or the Kinsale cloak. The hideous, garish costumes worn by Irish dancers from the 1960s onwards are a modern invention. At least since Riverdance toned it down, we don't see as much of them, thank God.


Well now.........actually England is a superb example of a country that has enormous respect for their culture, heritage and history, as you'd have seen for yourself if you'd ever visited England.

Life / Poles against gay marriages. Really? [120]


You're being very naive if you think it doesn't happen. But I think the scale of abuse is probably far less here than in Ireland, another Catholic country, because in Ireland, the clergy had far greater unsupervised access to the nation's children through the education system which was completely under the patronage of the Catholic church and through institutional, residential care which was also under church management.

I really don't see any connection between a 'degenerate' society and child abuse. There was nothing degenerate about Ireland, which was a far more conservative place than Poland, at the time that child abuse was rife.

I also think that you can't assume it doesn't happen because you don't hear about it. Again, compare it to Ireland. We never heard about it at the time it was happening. It came to light many years later. You probably will hear about cases of abuse by Polish priests at some point in the future, but as I say, not on the same overwhelming scale.

News / Poland exports 60 million tonnes of meat annually.. but.. [11]

Thanks for the heads up Doug, Really horrifying. Won't be eating any beef for a while :((

Study / Expat kids in schools in Poland [77]

As a primary and pre-school teacher of many years experience my advice to Intermarium is - relax and stop fussing over the potential bullying 'x' years down the road, of children who are presently 1 and 3 years old. Take life as it comes and see how things go when your kids start school, take it a day at a time. Parents fuss far too much over children. As for propaganda, dogma and indoctrination, a child's chief educator regarding values is their home environment.

Work / Expected Salary Level with Intel in Poland (Gdansk) [9]

Would agree with Terri and Dovla. I know many people working as software engineers and 25,000, even with 15 years experience is a very high salary. It's possible to get that kind of money, but unlikely, especially outside of Warsaw. Software engineering salaries in Gdańsk are about 10% lower than Warsaw.

Genealogy / Stanislaw (Jan) Czternastek & Bronislaw Wydrowski - searching info on Polish War Pilots [45]


That might be difficult - I think you mean his descendants ;)


The Polish postal service Poczta Polska is very unreliable. Stuff goes missing all the time. Some national mail carriers eg Royal Mail in the UK pass the registered/tracked mail on to private couriers in Poland as they are more dependable. Royal Mail uses GLS. If you end up sending the parcel to Poland, I would suggest you find out from Canadian postal service whether they use a courier in Poland for their deliveries. If they don't, then use a reliable courier service which will provide insurance and tracking.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


You have a fair point there but it doesn't change the fact that such images reflect the reality of life in Poland for many.


Agree it's not typical of what I've seen in Warsaw but I don't know what it's like in small towns in poorer parts of Poland. There were certainly no resources or visual aid materials that you would expect to see for children of that age, not even a poster. Why would they be moved to a different room for a lesson instead of having it in their own classroom?

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]

It's a sad fact that Poland has the worst air pollution in the EU. Great article on it here:

nytimes.com/2018/04/22/world/europe/poland-pollution.html

On a side note, I can't believe how drab and depressing the classroom looks in the primary school and the lesson being taught chalk and talk style with no resources suitable for such young children, but at least they're being given the important message about the dangers of air pollution.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


That was about a year after his time at Cultybraggan. His private papers are held at the Imperial War Museum and are catalogued as including " his service with the Pioneer Corps (1940 - 1944), his work as Interpreter in camps for German POWs at Comrie, Droitwich and Featherstone Park (January 1945 - June 1948) - " Cultybraggan Camp is just outside the village of Comrie.

The British Army keep impeccable records of army service and there can be no doubt about his service at Cultybraggan. He was posted there in January of 1945 as Staff Sergeant. On 11 November of that year, Armistice Day, he invited the 4,000 German prisoners to assemble on the football field voluntarily for a service of remembrance.

"If you agree with my proposal, parade on November 11 on your parade ground and salute the dead of all nations-your comrades, your former enemies, all murdered fighters for freedom who laid down their lives in German concentration-camps-and make the following vow; 'Never again shall such murder take place! It is the last time we will allow ourselves to be deceived and betrayed..."

Only ten refused to attend.

You should never rely solely on Wikipedia :))

@Bratwurst Boy and Lyzko, just to wrap it up, I thought you might be interested to know that all the officers in charge at Featherstone were Jewish, Captain Walter Merkel, Sulzbach and Lieutenant-Colonel Vickers. The prisoners at Cultybraggan were all categorized as 'black' which was code for the most virulent Nazis. Those at Featherstone were black and grey. Vickers told the prisoners that he had been a PoW in Germany during WWI and that he had been treated as a gentleman so that's how he intended to treat them. Gradually they were given more freedom and at Christmas 1946 they were invited to spend Christmas Day with local families in their homes.

One of the prisoners, on returning to Germany, wrote to Merkel:

"I cannot but thank you for all the kindness and humane understanding you showed, not only to myself, but also to the other PoWs in 'C' compound.....

Most of those British officers under the command of Colonel Vickers have done more for understanding between our two nations, by the way of treatment in the camp, than statesmanship can ever hope to achieve."

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]

If there were any agents at work they'd be more likely to be Opus Dei than the Masons in "Catholic Poland". One has nothing to fear from the Masons - Opus Dei, on the other hand............

Life / What's the family life and culture of families like in Poland? [14]

I'm not so sure about the man being the sole breadwinner, not in post-war Poland anyway. Most women I've met in their sixties or seventies had jobs while raising their families, but working hours for women tended to be from maybe 6 or 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon so they were home to make dinner for the family etc. There were widows and divorced women who had to work. Lots of divorces in Poland, despite being a Catholic country.

Life / What's the family life and culture of families like in Poland? [14]

Pretty much the same as any other modern, European country. It's not a tribe in the Amazon :)

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]


Well, Western European countries are not really that poor and they don't actually need aid :)) Ireland is a very rich country despite the lack of employment opportunities and if you do manage of find a job we pay some of the highest salaries in the European Union. Also we have free college education, comprehensive public health care etc. a lot of things that you don't have in the USA. It's weird isn't it?

I'm glad you've connected with your aunt and hopefully you'll find out a bit more about Mary B. Don't forget to use the Polish spelling of the name when searching as you won't find any information in Polish records with the 'wich' spelling.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]

You sound like a very nice lady Valerie, but maybe a bit naive. Having Italian blood doesn't mean you'd be happy living in Italy. You should read a bit about the country, not as a tourist destination but about the politics and the social problems. It's an insane place.

Ireland is a lovely country but outside Dublin, Cork and Galway it's quite hard to find a job and if you lose it, hard to get another. Also the cost of living is very, very high.

Good luck with the surgery!

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


In Poland it's around 50,000 deaths per year attributed to pollution related illness. I personally can't open the windows sometimes in winter because of the fumes (I'm in Warsaw). I can taste them. And it's not just coal. I have a neighbour who is not poor by any means and he regularly burns rubbish. On the air particle index, acceptable air quality is up to 50, today in Warsaw city centre it was 158 but there are parts of Poland where it hits 300 at times. It's scandalous.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]

Merged:

Deck the halls with coal??? - Poland hosts the UN Climate Change Conference

They've done it again - as the article below states, it's beyond parody. Location Katowice, sponsored by the coal industry, welcoming party Coal Miners' Band, conference centre decked with coal including coal jewellery and cosmetics, whilst Duda cheerfully announced that there are 200 years worth of coal supplies left in Poland and they should be used. Surreal doesn't begin to describe it.

earther.gizmodo.com/poland-literally-filled-an-international-climate-change-1830820392