News / Tusk or Hollande -- a Salomonic dilemma? What will be better for Poland? [180]


The problem is also that the EU for many years had to try and find consensus on many issues rather than making difficult decisions, so you ended up with a lot of idiotic compromises that often reflected the objections of one country. It's not so bad after Lisbon, but there are still a lot of frankly idiotic decisions made because of one or two countries whining and blocking things until they get what they want.

The best example is with VAT. Instead of having a single EU-wide VAT rate with a unified system, we have a huge amount of different interpretations of EU VAT law and rates which makes life hell for businesses trying to keep up with it all.

But, and this is the big but - nothing like the EU had been tried before, so in a way, teething problems are inevitable.

Law / Polish grandparents, citizenship? Parents moved from Poland to Australia before my birth. [8]


I checked again, and it looks like it's possible to get one without a PESEL. In your case, with a passport that expired in 2011, you won't have any difficulties.

The website is here - sydney.msz.gov.pl/pl/informacje_konsularne/paszporty/paszporty
- you should just apply for a new one. You don't need to worry about claiming citizenship from your parents or grandparents, as you've already had a passport issued in your own name.

It should be pretty straightforward, but the lack of PESEL might cause issues - I'd call the consulate in Sydney and double check.

Law / Polish grandparents, citizenship? Parents moved from Poland to Australia before my birth. [8]


In this case, you should be able to just apply for a new passport. You need the personal identification number - PESEL - do you have it anywhere?

News / Tusk or Hollande -- a Salomonic dilemma? What will be better for Poland? [180]


He's looked like it for a while now, I've been saying that it doesn't look like he's got much left in the tank. The speech he gave on Thursday was dreadful as well, no coherence at all. It also looks like he was rattled by the counter-demonstration yesterday too.

This upcoming fight with the KRS is going to be a defining moment for him, especially as the judges have come out and said that there's no legal possibility to do what they're attempting to do.

News / The Biedroń efffect - people leaving Słupsk, Polish city in crisis [21]


He's actually known for stabilising the city of Słupsk and for appointing competent individuals to top jobs as opposed to those that are friends with him.

By the way, Biedroń got elected through sheer hard work.

News / FEMI-FASCISTS MARCH AGAIN IN POLAND [126]


I bet Anna Walentynowicz should have just gone home instead of closing the gates of the Gdańsk shipyard, right?

Life / What items is Poland's market missing? [20]


It was mysteriously in the local Żabka next to my work for about a week, then it vanished and it was never seen again.


I'm moving to America. That's a sane, sensible way of preparing cold drinks. The UK isn't so bad for it, but elsewhere? I remember having to beg them in one pub to actually fill a glass with ice one summer, they just couldn't wrap their heads around why I would want to drink the cider with so much ice even though it was over 30c outside.


Even the beer here can be pathetically warm at times. There was one pub in Poznań that I used to love for the fact that the glasses were kept cool, while the beer was ice cold. I guess it's also connected to the idiotic myth that drinking cold drinks will make you sick :/

News / The Biedroń efffect - people leaving Słupsk, Polish city in crisis [21]


That sounds exactly like PiS over the last two days.

Travel / Airline tickets from LOT... changing flights. [29]


Marika, does she have travel insurance? If not, you can try contacting the airline to see if they will change the date of the flight, but it's by no means certain. If they don't agree, contact your member of Congress and ask them to intervene, and contact local newspapers/TV/etc too.

News / Tusk or Hollande -- a Salomonic dilemma? What will be better for Poland? [180]


How do you explain the fact that Jarosław Kaczyński runs unopposed for leadership of PiS every 3 years, then?

Are you, in fact, comparing Jarek to Stalin and Hitler?

Food / A request for WHEETABIX to be stocked in Polish Tesco's [39]


What on earth is promite?

News / The Biedroń efffect - people leaving Słupsk, Polish city in crisis [21]


You mean on last night's propaganda. If it was on there, it means it was on there as a political attack.


I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult for PiS to transport a couple of people connected to PiS members there to express alleged dislike of him.

Now, perhaps you can tell us about the cancellation of the S6 between the town and the Trójmiasto, and who was responsible for cancelling the road.

Life / What items is Poland's market missing? [20]


Wait, is it true about Americans loving ice-cold drinks then? I saw an American once getting quite hysterical over ice on Stary Rynek in Poznań, but I thought this was a myth!


Yeah, it's something that I've noticed has changed a lot. I remember it being not entirely uncommon to discover shops with turned off fridges, but I haven't seen one in a while, not even in small villages.

News / Tusk or Hollande -- a Salomonic dilemma? What will be better for Poland? [180]


It's well known that Jarek has little to no knowledge of how foreign affairs works. He's rarely been abroad, and his 'schemes' simply don't work in the EU. It seems to me (and as is reported widely) - the whole thing was about a personal grudge, and he pushed it despite the overwhelming evidence that it was going to backfire badly.

I wouldn't be surprised if this incident is the one that goes down as the moment that the PiS government started to fall. Schetyna looked relaxed and excited yesterday, Nowoczesna are signalling that they will cooperate heavily with PO in the local elections to keep PiS out, and PO are closing the gap now. The danger is that PiS might become even more radicalised if they start to face a loss in 2019.

News / The Biedroń efffect - people leaving Słupsk, Polish city in crisis [21]

Complete and total fake news, but as Jon says, Polonius is posting these lies for one reason and one reason only - Biedron is popular and looking increasingly presidential.


Actually, as anyone who knows anything knows, one of his very first acts as mayor was to demand that all city management jobs were filled through an open and honest competition. Meanwhile, Polonius ignores the 1000+ cronies appointed by PIS within a year of winning the election.


Really? Why isn't this reported anywhere else?


As anyone who follows the story knows, he's been trying to find a way to get the water park completed while not adding to the huge debts that the last mayor incurred over the water park issue. People in Slupsk don't want to pay for it anymore, as it already nearly bankrupted the city.

PiS are simply slandering him because he openly and publicly outed Jarosław Kaczyński as a homosexual. Nothing more, nothing less.

By the way Polly, the S6 expressway from Koszalin to Gdańsk was cancelled by...PiS.

Life / What items is Poland's market missing? [20]


You can get them made to measure very cheaply, and although the quality isn't fantastic, they last for a good 2-3 years easily.

Life / Immigration Free Poland is Not Being Racist [194]


Thank you. The proof of this is in the way that people in the legal profession cannot easily move between the three separate legal jurisdictions.

Now, perhaps we can move on to the other point that he made, that Sharia Law is now part of the legal systems in use in the UK. As you will be aware from your excellent Google skills, private courts have long been a feature of English law. There are even private divorce courts now, and the use of private courts in business arbitration is long established in England.

Life / Immigration Free Poland is Not Being Racist [194]


My, looks like our friend here needs to get some basic lessons on British culture, given that it's the most basic of basic facts that there is no such thing as the British legal system.

News / Tusk or Hollande -- a Salomonic dilemma? What will be better for Poland? [180]


It's a monumental defeat for PiS. The phrase "diplomatic suicide" is all over the media now, and I couldn't agree more. The UK and Hungary voted for Tusk, and even tiny Malta turned round and told Poland to **** off with the stupid games. Warsaw is now trying to block the official declaration from the meeting in retaliation, but they don't seem to realise that their petty games won't work in Brussels.

News / Penderecki, Poland's greatest living composer, accused of being SB informer [62]


So you agree that public prosecutors that prosecuted dissidents, along with snitches should be excluded from public life?

Work / Finance Work in Poland - is it hard for a non-Polish speaking person? [35]

Thanks - I can tell you a thing or two about those jobs. It's basically SSC/BPO work - so you have little chance of progression, or if you get it, it's very often without any increased financial benefits. They're quite soulless places to work, and you don't really get to do anything satisfying there - it's menial, repetitive work for faceless people in the West. If you're a go-getter, you'll find them to be incredibly frustrating places.

The work is good in that the salaries are stable and the work is stable, but you'll struggle to start a family on the wages on offer in those places in Warsaw. Very often, the people working in those places are sharing rooms in Warsaw, or commuting from far outside Warsaw - the salaries are just that low. You won't get anything near 300.000PLN/year there - rather 50-60,000PLN maximum net.

Don't be misled by titles like "junior" and "senior" - these are not real financial jobs, but rather SSC jobs - meaning that the titles don't really stand for much.

Dominic and cms will tell much more about these type of companies - but you won't get $80,000USD there. I don't know where FT got their numbers from, but I suspect it's based on a survey of graduates working in London rather than in the country where the job is.

Life / Immigration Free Poland is Not Being Racist [194]


There's no such thing as the "British" legal system.

Hard to take the rest of your post seriously if you're making such elementary mistakes.

Work / Finance Work in Poland - is it hard for a non-Polish speaking person? [35]

That salary ranking is quite frankly nonsense. You're not going to find many people on 320,000PLN/yearly in Poland, and I wonder where they got their figures from? It might be based on those working in London after graduating from Kozminski, which would make more sense. The real number you're looking at will be no more than 6000-7000PLN/start for a typical corpo language job with rare languages (such as Dutch/Danish/Finnish). That number won't rise dramatically in such corporations, as they rely on a revolving door of people.

In real companies (i.e., not outsourcing sweatshops) - you can get much more after a few years, but you're going to struggle to get into those jobs with a degree from a private university and without a solid grasp of Polish.


Can you share with us what you're looking at on Glassdoor?

By the way, is your fiancee from Warsaw, or from elsewhere?

News / Will Polish-Americans need visas to visit Poland and other EU countries? [21]


Agreed. It's an absolute disgrace.

News / FEMI-FASCISTS MARCH AGAIN IN POLAND [126]


My, someone has no idea about Poland. The women on the streets are the educated ones, which you would know if you actually came to Poland and talked to them.

News / FEMI-FASCISTS MARCH AGAIN IN POLAND [126]

Yet he's silent when the anti-abortion crowd demand the right to decide what women do with their uterus.

Hypocritical much?

Life / Immigration Free Poland is Not Being Racist [194]


You don't live here and haven't been here, how would you know this?

News / Penderecki, Poland's greatest living composer, accused of being SB informer [62]


It did. Haven't you seen the total failure to put new roads to tender, the total failure to order submarines and the cancelling of the helicopters order while the introduction of the bank tax led PKO Bank BP to introduce significant fee hikes?

They found money for 500+ by cutting everything else.

Tell us, Polonius, would you be in favour of everyone's activities for the PZPR and affiliates being revealed? I certainly would.

News / Penderecki, Poland's greatest living composer, accused of being SB informer [62]


Indeed, look at today. PiS are trying desperately to cover up the presence of an SB snitch as their ambassador to Germany, and they've got a Communist Party public prosecutor occupying a prime place in their government. Then there's the people who come from heavy PZPR families, and you soon realise that there's no will whatsoever.

I'm all for genuine lustration as well, but the consequences should be a complete ban on anyone that held membership of the PZPR or their parentsl as well as anyone that worked for the PZPR in any way. Only then can Poland be truly "lustrated".

Work / Finance Work in Poland - is it hard for a non-Polish speaking person? [35]

I'm sorry for multiple quotes, but there are some separate things that need to be addressed here.


OK - first lessons for you - Poland is no place for self-proclaimed intellectuals. If you use that kind of attitude here, you'll soon run into a very big brick wall.


Where did you get that from? Kozminski doesn't even have university rights in Poland. It might be called "Kozminski University" in English, but "university" isn't a protected title, unlike "uniwersytet". Furthermore, unless you already have connections in Poland, the degree itself won't be worth much.


You should do a bit more research. You might get a job as a senior in some third rate finance company, but any respectable institution will start you as a junior. Don't get too hung up on job titles in Poland - it's quite a common trick to give people grand sounding titles with a pathetic salary/responsibility.


You're talking about BPO/SSC type places, which means you're talking about glorified data input positions. They offer very little in the way of career progression, unless you're willing to relocate abroad. Jobs in Polish financial companies go to Poles and foreigners with a sound grip of business Polish, not "amateurs".


You're coming to the wrong country then. Poland is only superficially religious, and as for family - if you want a good corpo job in Warsaw, you won't be seeing much of them if you want the children to have a good upbringing. You won't be doing 40 hours and home - you'll be doing upwards of 50, plus work at home. If you don't want to do it, they'll quickly find someone else that will.

As for "good and free education" - you should perhaps spend some time in Polish schools before making that assumption. Schools are underfunded, teachers are paid significantly below average wage - the "free" education actually turns out to be quite expensive in the end.

By all means, come and see for yourself. But be warned, Poland is not a place for sensitive people, and you'll soon find that the Polish corporate environment is far less professional than you think it is.