Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

The Mohawk might be gone Roger but I bet you can still launch yourself into the 'pogo' when the mood is right! Carry on as long as your knees can take it, that's what I say!

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Well you're looking at one. I was a big metal fan in my teens, a real little head banger, though being the discerning type I favoured only the classic crème de la crème, more heavy rock than metal I suppose, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix of course. I think pretty much everyone in school was into the same music. Now I went to a girls' school of course but at the weekends we hung out and socialised with the boys. They had long hair and leather jackets but they were good kids, properly brought up, said please and thank you and gave up their seat on the bus for an old person or a woman with heavy shopping. You're making assumptions about people's characters based on their tastes in music and the way they dress.

Anyway, people often carry on loving the music they listened to in their teens but they grow up and leave the other trappings behind. What about the old guys who were Elvis fans in their youth? Ok, some of them still have the hairstyle (!) but you don't see them in drainpipe jeans, Teddy boy drape jackets, winkle pickers and saying 'hey daddio' , 'see you later alligator'.................

History / Why is the Diary of Saint Sister Faustina Kowalska still unknown to Polonia and other countries? [29]


He's not twelve! And neither am I - do you know how he's impressed me? By being kind, generous, considerate, hard working, loyal and facing many challenges and personal difficulties with great courage and steadfastness. Anyway his mother and grandmother would tell you the same kind of stories. They're just chatting about the old days, not trying to impress anyone. Mr Atch actually laughs quite a bit about it and a lot of such stories are told with the tongue firmly in the cheek. He's just making a point about the general atmosphere of mistrust and paranoia that he remembers and considered normal. He says he wouldn't change anything about his childhood and he considers himself very lucky. How about sharing some of your own experiences? Everyday life in Communist Poland. It's not discussed much on this forum and it's an interesting subject.


Yes indeed. He tells me that once when they went into the shop there was nothing there but vinegar. Shelves and shelves of it. Now there's many things about that which are fascinating. Firstly, somebody supplied the shop with a huge consignment of vinegar, presumably so that they'd have at least something to sell, secondly the shop dutifully filled the shelves with it, which is quite ludicrous really. Why did they do that? Because they thought it looked better than empty shelves? Because they didn't have room in the stockroom?? Who knows.


That's your personal opinion which you're entitled to but it's a purely subjective view. It's also extremely simplistic.


It's harldy earth shattering now is it? All the message does is remind us of something that every Catholic already knows, or should. The message of God's mercy is very central to the Catholic and the Anglican faiths.

History / Why is the Diary of Saint Sister Faustina Kowalska still unknown to Polonia and other countries? [29]


Ah you know what I mean Irony. Poles tend to have a suspicious nature, they can be a bit paranoid and they see conspiracies and plots everywhere. I imagine it's a remnant of the Communist era when you had to be very careful about what you said to whom. Agents were everywhere at a low very low level.

Mr Atch (have to stop calling him 'my husband', sounds too much like the Queen talking about Prince Philip, you know 'my husband and I') has told me quite a few tales about some of the strangeness of everyday life in the Poland of his childhood. For example he says that people were wary about spending too much in a single shop in case the shopkeeper was an agent and would wonder where they got the money from and report 'Mr So-and-So bought 2 kilos of pork today and he usually buys sausages'. It sounds ridiculous I know but......look, I don't need to tell you, I know you must have watched Alternatywy 4. There were plenty of Stanisław Anioł types around.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

Polonius and Eamon De Valera separated at birth? Read on.............

'the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit - a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live.' (De Valera's vision for Ireland from his 1943 radio broadcast).

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


There was always a pattern for emulation in society Polly. In Poland for example at one time, the gentry had a very strong influence, indeed as they did in England. The gentry with their wealth, superior health, ample time and opportunity to educate themselves etc were able to cultivate high ideals which the masses actually tried to embrace on some level. The lord of the manor was your role model.

In the Victorian era with cheap newspapers, magazines and photography Brits went Royal Family crazy and began collecting photos of their various Royal favourites. Then photos of actresses and singers began to appear and people collected those. Many people followed the activities of the celebrities of the day, but as you say, theirs was an untouchable life that the general population were content to merely observe. But all that began to change after the First World War.

But you have a very gloomy view of the world. There are still plenty of people who read things other than tacky mags or celebrity gossip, people who admire art, watch quality films, play a musical instrument, take part in sports, grow flowers or veggies.....

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


I don't think either of them have really, but I would say that Poland is more in danger of heading in that direction than Ireland for many reasons. For the one thing Ireland has evolved gradually, experiencing the cultural revolution at a steady pace from the 1950s onwards. With Poland, they were pitchforked more suddenly and forcefully into the 'modern' era. Secondly Ireland still retains a very strong sense of its own cultural identity and aspects of the old Gaelic ways are actively alive in everyday life with the music, the Gaelic sports etc. Polish traditions and customs seem to be more regional, not really relevant for a lot of Poles and somehow a part of the past. And finally, thinking beyond the material, volunteering and giving to those in need is strongly rooted in Irish culture in a way that it doesn't seem to be in Poland.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


No.

Today when I logged on my senses were assaulted with the question of the moment 'What's happened to Tom Cruise's Face?' Really?? Apparently it looks inflated.............No Polly I don't care about Tom Cruise's face or Kim Kardashian's rear end or Madonna and her Gollum-like arms. The media also informs me that I should be outraged that Brooklyn Beckham has been given the Burberry campaign. Yes that grieves me deeply.

History / Why is the Diary of Saint Sister Faustina Kowalska still unknown to Polonia and other countries? [29]

Pol Attorney, please, please stop with the conspiracy stuff. You're perpetuating a most unfortunate Polish stereotype. Time to leave that stuff behind. As for Sr Faustina, here's my own experience. Ten years ago in Warsaw a neighbour, a young man in his early 30s I'd say, asked me if I knew about her and gave me a little pamphlet. A couple of years after that my mother in Ireland was given a similar piece of literature. Then about 3 years ago when I was standing in a train station in Dublin an Indian lady approached me and handed me a little card with the Hour of Divine Mercy prayer on it. So I'd say that she is known both in and outside of Poland by many practising Catholics. You have to remember that she's competing for attention with thousands of other saints, many with a long established fan base!

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

Actually Polly I think that the decline of local customs and cultures goes further back. I think the roots are in the industrialisation of Europe and the movement of people from the land to the cities. That's part of it anyway.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Ok then missus, let's hear a few bars of at least a dozen French folk songs handed down for the last few hundred years or so and see you do the basic steps of any French folk dance. No, not some peasant from the mountains, but you ma petite member of the bourgeoisie.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

That's an interesting point Polly. I can only speculate. I think possibly that if you were to look at the abuse perpetrated in Ireland, it would be probably be about the same as in any Catholic country but it's been very widely reported on in the Irish media so we are more aware of it. In a country like Spain for example, I don't think they'd be so quick to publicise abuse or hold it up to the microscope. But I think you have to view the abuse alongside all the positive things that individual members of the clergy have done.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

The thread is about the culture of the West and how it differs from Poland.


Live in Ireland a while InPolska, it might loosen you up a bit.
As for keeping the traditions alive, take a quick look at this. It's only a minute long. It's not laid on for tourists, in a 'costume' as an exhibition, it's just an ordinary lad getting up in the local pub.

youtube.com/watch?v=_ABeKsMEHdc

Oh yes, you can see that anywhere. Maybe some Andalucian peasant might get up and dance but he won't be driving home afterwards, it'll up on the donkey with a bag of grain in his back pocket. It's unusual in developed societies to find the old traditions actively truly 'alive'.

In Poland the Highlanders dress up in their fabulous costumes and give staged displays of Polish folk culture, not the same thing at all. Plus the folk music of Poland means precisely nothing to the average Pole. Most of them don't even like it. Irish music has been kept 'alive' by the Bardic tradition. Despite having lived in many places, you're a rather insular person InPolska.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


The poster made a comment about Ireland and I was responding with my view as an Irish person, that's all.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Yes, worked really well for the Commies didn't it?!


Our cultural identity is still very strong. But I do think that the mass immigration into Ireland is a factor because we are such a small country and we're heading towards a fifth of the population being non-Irish. However there's a strange phenomenon whereby Ireland seems to cast a spell on people and they find themselves adopting Irish 'ways'. Maybe it's because we're an easy-going people and we don't shout the odds or try to force others to see things our way.

As for Christianity, Ireland has a strong moral code that long pre-dates Christianity. I think there's a misconception that we were a wild and savage people who were civilised by Christianity but that's not so. For example, in Gaelic Ireland, long before Christianity every member of society had his 'honour price'. If you were found to be untrustworthy, your honour price was halved and for some acts, for example a violent attack on another person, you lost your honour price completely. This meant that not only were you ruined financially but you became a social pariah, a person with no 'honour', of no value to the community. Although Christianity rocks - I am sooooo a Christian - we had a decent, people before it and I'm confident that we still would. Back in 2012 during our recession Irish people donated 800 million euros to charity. That's not because they're Christians. It's part of the Irish nature to give and not just materially. People are quick to give their time, their help, a sympathetic ear, moral support. And it's still a feature of Irish society that that kind of warmth is extended to strangers.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


People were taking food from bins ten years ago. That hasn't changed.


I don't know what you think the 'Western' system is' but take a look at the socialist policies pursued in Scandinavia and the standard of living of people living in those countries and the way in which the state provides for the less well off, the vulnerable etc. Look at my own country, Ireland, one of the most generous welfare states in the world probably, but there will always be those who slip through the net.


More than you do.


It's actually your own less than sweet self who has a very simplistic view of the world.


Off you trot then and find some vessels worthy of pouring your special brand of wisdom into.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Yes Ktos, people look happier. Surely that's a good thing?

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

Ah Ktosusz me aul mucker, it's yourself! How are you dear? Now, it's still only February so the year is new and you have a chance to start afresh with your New Year Resolutions of which being happier would be a good choice. Smiles aren't always fake you know.

I first came to Poland about 11 years ago and there has been a distinct improvement over those years in customer service and in peoples' demeanour in general. As far as customer service goes, I don't care if the person smiles at me, but I do expect to be treated with basic common courtesy which wasn't always the case here years ago. Staff could be downright rude. I'll give you an example. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.......

At that time we had a dog and I wanted to buy a dish for her. Off I went to the pet shop and looked in the window. There was a lovely dish, just what I was looking for. So in goes Atch but when she looks around, she can't see the same dish on the shelves. So now she has to ask the assistant, a middle aged man. Well I started in my faltering Polish but I didn't get far. When he realised that I was not only not a Polish speaker but not even vaguely Slavic, he wasn't going to bother his barney serving me. He grunted at me, it really was just a grunt, a sort of 'yah' sound, gave me the wave of the hand that you use to dismiss someone and proceeded to walk away! I'd been treated that way a couple of times already in other shops. Usually I just left. But this time I was desperate. I had to get the dish that day and was short of time, so I actually pursued him and insisted that he listened to me. Well it worked, I got the dish, but naturally I never shopped there again.

On the whole though, in small local shops where you're a regular customer, it's always been good in my opinion and you will be smiled at, especially if you make an effort to speak the language however badly. The one area where Polish people differ from my own countrymen, Irish, is that they won't make an effort to put on a brave face if they're in a bad mood. Sure aren't you the perfect example! Ah, well, welcome back anyway and once more into the fray!

Food / A recipe for hootch? Bimber taste in Poland. [42]


People use it as a base for making their own home-made vodkas etc. We made a delicious raspberry vodka from it.

Food / A recipe for hootch? Bimber taste in Poland. [42]

Boys, boys, boys.....


All I know anyway is that Poitín in Ireland has always been taken to mean the stuff made in home distilleries and considered absolutely lethal. There are commercially produced versions now but everyone knows they're not 'the real thing'.


He may have scar tissue on his larynx. I once knew a doctor, an ear, nose and throat specialist and he told me that one of the main functions of the larynx is fixation of the chest for lifting heavy weights. The fact that we can produce sound with it is just an added bonus. He said that people who do a lot of heavy lifting often damage the larynx without knowing it and can have very raspy voices which are mistaken for what he called 'a typical beer voice'. Anyway if Delph has ever put in a few months of heavy lifting, that could be the reason for his raspiness!

Food / A recipe for hootch? Bimber taste in Poland. [42]

Well it can be anywhere up to 90%.

Food / A recipe for hootch? Bimber taste in Poland. [42]

The Irish equivalent is Poitín (pronounced putcheen). It was often made from potatoes and was produced illegally for years. It was said to cause blindness if you got a bad batch. I remember there was even a song about it. My mother used to sing it sometimes when she was in a playful mood. She was tee-total before you draw any conclusions........ 'Gather up the pots and the old tin can the mash, the corn, the barley, and the bran, run like the Divil from the excise man, keep the smoke from rising, Barney' (the smoke being the giveaway that there was a still located nearby). When they found a still, the Guards (Irish police) used to simply smash the barrels with axes and empty them into the sea.

Ah, here you go I found the song on You Tube:
youtube.com/watch?v=_G06xa-jJMA

Life / Did you send your children to regular Polish preschool or English one? How did your children find it? [7]


Not a good idea. The phonics of English being so different to Polish, it may confuse her when she comes to learning to read in Polish. Just put her in a local Polish pre-school and she'll be fine. I'm a Montessori teacher by the way Deb. You can let her have books in both languages and read to her of course. You'll find that she may begin to pick up some words by sight in both languages. Just don't obsess over it. Let nature take its course.

UK, Ireland / How long does it take the package travel from UK to Poland [6]

Is it Royal Mail 'tracked'? If so you should have a tracking number and you can check its whereabouts on their website. I've had stuff sent to me through Royal Mail a few times and they used a courier at the Polish end, not Poczta Polska. Generally takes about a week.

Law / Wife runs off with a child from Poland to England after splitting from her husband. Education of their son. [8]

Well if your brother-in-law knows which district of which town his wife is living in, he could contact the secondary schools in that area to see if his son is enrolled in any of them. The best thing would be to send an email outlining the situation very briefly and in a business like manner and if he finds the school that his son is in he can then discuss the situation in more detail with the school. He has every right to do so as he still has his parental rights and parental authority. He would have a right for example to have a copy of his son's school report at the end of the year. I'm a teacher by the way and that's how we do things in Ireland which has pretty much the same system as the UK. Unless a court has stated otherwise the school has to accord the father the same rights as the mother. As the boy is living in England, English law will apply. Best of luck with it.

UK, Ireland / Hundreds turn out for funeral of Polish man who died alone on in County Clare Christmas Day [28]


Not so sure about that. His remains would probably be dealt with by the local authority in an efficient and respectful manner but there would be no bells and whistles, probably a cremation as burial plots are at a premium and I don't think you'd see the genuine sentiment, the funeral mass with choir, poetic speeches and musicians at the grave side. That's very much part of the old Bardic tradition of Gaelic Ireland.

And the Irish are still very quick to make spontaneous gestures of kindness to a stranger which you don't see so much nowadays in developed societies.


Well said.

UK, Ireland / Hundreds turn out for funeral of Polish man who died alone on in County Clare Christmas Day [28]


Absolutely Dolnoslask. In my humble view, this is a result of Communism and the purging of old Polish society and undermining of traditional Polish culture.

UK, Ireland / Hundreds turn out for funeral of Polish man who died alone on in County Clare Christmas Day [28]


But they attended his funeral Ironside. Ennis is a small town and he would have been known to other members of the Polish community. The word would have been out locally that he had died within days of his demise and it would have been known locally that his remains were still in the morgue because he had no family and nobody to take responsibility for his funeral. The Polish community did not step forward at that point because it's not the Polish way. My observations of Polish society from living there are that people care very little for the greater good or for those outside their immediate family or intimate circle. If this man had died in his own home town, I'm willing to bet that he wouldn't have had the funeral he was given by the people of Ennis. As a matter of interest he is buried very close to a Polish friend of his who died a couple of years ago. They had lived on the streets together when both of them were homeless.


Yet they, the Polish, are his 'people' and the Irish, foreigners, who are in the same position of hardly knowing him have the respect, generosity and compassion to give him what the undertaker referred to as 'a dignified burial'.


We do know that the people who spoke at his funeral and who knew him spoke well of him. He was described as 'a soft soul' and 'lovely'.

UK, Ireland / Hundreds turn out for funeral of Polish man who died alone on in County Clare Christmas Day [28]

Not wanting to make an issue of this, but here are the facts. His name was Marek Skiba and he had worked in Co Cork but was an alcoholic and had fallen on hard times and ended up homeless. He was befriended by an Irish woman ( a platonic friendship it seems) whom he described as an angel who came to his assistance and at the time of his death he was living in an apartment. He was not friendless and was not ill-treated by the Irish. He was merely a single man living in straitened circumstances, there are many Irish men in a similar situation. The undertaker who heard of his case offered to provide the funeral because of the old Irish adage 'leave no-one above ground' and felt it was the morally right thing to do. Why is a gesture of kindness being twisted here to seem like the opposite? Is there no end to the cynicism and nastiness on this forum? And once again I ask, where was the Polish community in Ennis during all this? Did they have a whip round to pay for this man's funeral? No,they didn't. Speaks volumes really.

UK, Ireland / Hundreds turn out for funeral of Polish man who died alone on in County Clare Christmas Day [28]

We don't know that do we? There's no suggestion that he was shunned by the Irish community during his lifetime and what about the Polish community in Ennis, many of whom apparently attended his funeral? On Christmas Day he had attended a Christmas dinner organised by a local Irish man for those in need so clearly he was at least being assisted by the community on some level. How come it appears that he wasn't invited by a Polish family or even another Polish individual to join their celebrations? The sad truth is that many of us aren't aware of a person in our midst who is in need or lonely.