Genealogy / Poland's distribution of I1 haplogroup (Germanic haplogroup) and influences from Europe [17]

@Ziemowit

Well first off I think the poles of yesteryear I.e. those in the middle ages, renaissance, commonwealth years, etc identified poland with much larger eastern boundaries esp during the polish-lithuanian commonwealth. The western part of medieval, ww1, modern poland was kind of there frontier boundary to western europe. Its just the lines would change so you may use some poles with germanic Anglo Saxon type genes. However if you're Ukrainian or Russian itll tell you basically that your genera are eastern European and it gives you various things by which you can narrow down countries.

If you're interested in learning more about the various little tribes inhabiting poland pre 996 ad and during the Roman times you can check out ptolemys accounts. A while back I wrote about the various tribes inhabiting poland. So in general no there most likely wasn't a giant migration from Rome into poland and the other parts - maybe a little at the end after Rome's fall but in general there would be been trade routes with people ideas and goods especially with Poland's amber being sent out and of course stuff and people coming from the Roman world. This was known as the amber trail and you can look it up in wiki as well.

Work / Working at Volvo Company in Wroclaw [27]

Congrats! I plan to move to Poland in the near future to work too. Hope you enjoy living in Poland.

Wszystkiego najlepszego

Genealogy / Poland's distribution of I1 haplogroup (Germanic haplogroup) and influences from Europe [17]

@Ziemowit

Ill have to dig it up this was a few years back... R1a or r1a1 or something. It didn't really define it specifically as polish though but rather eastern European. It said I was like 75%/80% eastern euro and the rest scandinavian. Maybe because the potop szwedzki? I don't know... There's no one in our family that I know of that's Swedish. Most are polish, lithuanian, and belorussian. Ill find it and upload it if possible altho the 100kb size is rather prohibitive

Genealogy / Poland's distribution of I1 haplogroup (Germanic haplogroup) and influences from Europe [17]

Spanish people in general I believe are the ancient iberians. I took Latin in high school for 4 years and got to read some of ceasar Ptolemy etc. As far as specific dna etc I'm not sure.

There was probably influence to and from Spain to the UK and Ireland especially during Roman times. Although much of the northern lands of the British islands were isolated by hadrians wall i.e. the picts.

Genealogy / Poland's distribution of I1 haplogroup (Germanic haplogroup) and influences from Europe [17]

@Atch

Very interesting. It is small indeed. Many of the very wealthy little islands like malta or Microsystems like Lichtenstein San Marino Andorra etc have a very high standard of living esp compared to the rest of larger eu countries. They seem to mostly thrive off banking, tourism, services and perhaps a lil agriculture and fishing depending on the country. if I remember correctly isle of man has a very rare cow that disappeared in the rest of England forgot the name of it though.

Also there is a small basque community in the bus in Boise, idaho. Interesting language basque.. Kind of like Spanish (the real Spanish not Latino Spanish) in sound but yet different.

Genealogy / Poland's distribution of I1 haplogroup (Germanic haplogroup) and influences from Europe [17]

@Ziemowit

I've read about the haplogroups about various other nationalities esp after I sent my DNA in and and I'm sure I can find some info on common haplogroups of the irish and scottish. Info on Gaelic Welsh speakers specifically may be harder to find.

Apparently there is actually a small but rather significant amount of Celtic genes in poles especially those in northern Poland.

Manx is a general adjective to describe people or things from the Isle of Man. A very old civilization by European standards. Also one of the best places to live in the UK due to their low tax schemes, high income and high HDI.

Law / Settling into Poland to make it a new home; documents, drivers license, tax code, etc. [10]

@Lyzko

I'm pretty fluent in polish as I was born there and all (actually during prl times ) but most of my day to day communication is in english nonetheless. I can certainly get around in poland that's not a problem but I sometimes mess up (kalecze as they call it) the endings of some words and don't know some of the more technical terms used in business, biology, law, etc. Every time I go to Poland though its the best practice. I'm not too concerned about fully mastering the language as itd take me a year at most living there since that forces you to learn. Plus I could supplement it with a few tutoring lessons in business polish. Like I didn't know what a sp zoo stood for until fairly recently.

Law / Settling into Poland to make it a new home; documents, drivers license, tax code, etc. [10]

After visiting Poland and the rest of Europe many times I've come to the conclusion that money isn't everything and I would be more than willing to trade a far smaller income and a humble existence for life in Europe. The us is great don't get me wrong. While the income potential and opportunities here are vast, the quality of life overall doesn't even compare to Europe. We actually rank in the some teenth place on the happiness/quality of life index with countries like norway, iceland, denmark, finland, sweden, Germany consistently ranking at the top and ahead of us by a long shot.

I miss my home continent. There's no cobblestone ryneks here, every food and drink is basically modified corn, there's enormous income inequality and many other societal problems, and everyone only seems to have working and politics on their mind. Its like no one stops to smell the roses every once in awhile. Plus all my family is scattered throughout europe literally from one end to the other - England to Poland. I supposedly have some family outside Minsk and possibly even Kazakhstan but never met them. This was during the late Stalin and early Brezhnev years where people were being forced to migrate and some of the family from my dads side ended up scattered around the ussr.

But ya I'm gradually getting my ducks in order to move out in the next few years. I plan to save up enough money to buy a small condo, maybe open a small business like a currency exchange or pawn shop, learn some of the more technical business/law/etc polish terminology (could use a few hours of tutoring if someone's good with business polish) and perhaps brush up on my Spanish and Russian so in the worst case I can find employment at some company. While just like every other human on the planet I want to have a decent existence but if having a big house and working 24/7 just to pay the mortgage means never seeing my family and never being able to take a stroll in a cobblestone rynek meeting people of all walks of life, ill take a simpler existence and be happy. Even in the us itd be kind of weird to order only coffee with a friend and sit there chatting for 2 hours yet that's totally normal in Europe.

Like Travolta said in pulp fiction when discussing Europe (specifically holland) 'they got the same $hit as they do over here, its just a little bit different '

Law / Settling into Poland to make it a new home; documents, drivers license, tax code, etc. [10]

United states

Law / Settling into Poland to make it a new home; documents, drivers license, tax code, etc. [10]

Thanks jon. I've read that the us has some 40 different tax agreements with other nations. There appears to be several exclusions though. I typically have a Jackson Hewitt or my dads accountant to my taxes but id probably have to find someone that specializes in expats or at least is familiar with them.

Not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but it would appear that if I make under 100k usd (which I highly doubt ill have a salary over 370k zl in poland) I may be able to exclude this income earned in Poland from my us taxes:

irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion

If I'm reading this correctly if I've lived in Poland and paid income taxes there then I could claim the exclusion below after a year. That first years income id have to pay to both poland and us but then after living there a year id qualify for the exclusion and wouldn't be taxed unless I made over 100k usd income in Poland

irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion-can-i-claim-the-exclusion-or-deduction

Sorry this is all like Greek to me...

Ugh looks like ill need an accountant that's familiar with expat tax liabilities.

Love / I am in love with a Polish man but he is trouble [15]

He's either

A) a criminal

B) pretending to be a criminal to play the bad boy card

C) could have some very strange perversions he is embarrassed of

D) a young emo/goth dude. Does he wear all black and have a brooding disposition? (He's not evil, he's just read too much Bram stoker and listened to too much Cannibal Corpse)

Personally if a girl told me straight up I'm crazy, I'm evil, I'm a $lut, etc it would def put me on guard. Then again the crazies tend to be the best in bed.

Maybe ask him where he works or what he does for a living? Maybe ask him what kind of girls or fantasies he's into? That could help narrow down his 'evil' side or why he believes he's such... Maybe he's just a drug dealer or something. In that case its a personal preference on how you view such activities.

Either way is be very careful... Its like the story of the old woman who brought a frozen snake into her house and was surprised when the snake bit her... The guys telling you he's evil - that's a big warning sign. Its one thing to say on a date things like I'm shy, I'm from a poor family, I'm unemployed, I'm horny, hell I've had a girl tell me straight up she's diagnosed bipolar before. But evil??

Love / Advice needed... Canadian guy to meet a Polish woman in Poland [15]

Ya def don't go to Poland without a degree. IT is a hot paying good career option atm in Poland. Even people who simply know how to program code provide security etc are in great demand too even if they don't have a 4 6 8 year degree. However youd need to know locals to squeeze yourself into a job like that. Its way better working for foreign corps though esp American British Scandinavian German etc. Not sure about Canadian but there is a lot of American ones.

Love / Advice needed... Canadian guy to meet a Polish woman in Poland [15]

@delphiandomine

How could you call him and polish men general cavemen? Many polish women are with foreigners of all colors and countries but nonetheless polish women generally marry polish men. Only a small portion of marriages in Poland are interracial - the vast majority are not. There are many polish women though with American guys, canadian, british, german, even with Indian guys as well as men from former French African colonies. Quite frankly I'm happy that Poland is now more on the world stage and guys from all over love polish girls because they're (in general of course) not only beautiful but well educated smart and family oriented. Nonetheless though the majority of marriages in Poland are between two poles... Just as in almost any other country - koreans marry koreans, Mexicans marry Mexicans etc. Idk why you'd classify roughly half the polish population as cavemen that's very rude. Just try to lay off the insults please so we can get some more new people around here

Love / Advice needed... Canadian guy to meet a Polish woman in Poland [15]

Lol polish women aren't gold diggers

Bwahahahah omg I'm almost crying..

But ya there is good and bad but still there's a lot of man eaters in pl. Ukranian even more. Russia idk I like Russian and cZech girls more than polish personally. If the girls from a good family though regardless of her nationality has an education perhaps speaks good English go for it. Id stillrecommend tho going for a polish girl living in Canada us or uk n if you guys have a serious relationship u can consider travelling there or even establish a vacation apartment house whatever

Law / Importing cars into Poland [8]

Thanks.. Aww that's too bad because I'm into old school American cars and some Mercedes coupes.. Especially the ss novas and chevelles 442 cutlass 560sel etc. Guess ill have to send over some cheap Japanese or Korean car if its going to mean saving a lot of money on the taxes and fees.

USA, Canada / If you moved from US to Poland, could you please share your experience? [16]

[moved from]
@Polonius3

I plan to move to Poland too. Its not even just the ideological differences but the taxes inflation high CPI along with stagnant wages that drive me insane. Its difficult for an educated young male to purchase a young home or get a good paying job even with a bachelors. One of my best friend is a lawyer and he lives with 3 other guys in the city and they have to argue over whoever is going to cover tonight's pizza or the next round. Even those who work really hard in good jobs appear not to be moving forward but rather living just to pay bills and not putting any significant capital aside.

20 30 plus years ago one could become an electrician welder or whatever and support a family. Now single breadinner households are becoming more and more rare. In one way its good because it empowers women but on the other hand bad because now an extra person in the house has to work to afford the same things for the family that a single breadwinner could previously attain for the household. Even middle class trappings like a 2 story home and an annual vacation are like luxury goods now.

Some 50 years ago my grandma lived in the us and she made $7.50 an hour. That may sound like peanuts but she paid $40 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment in a middle class neighborhood.

Now a family who has a household income of 70k in NYC, San Fran, Chicago, etc can't afford to buy a home in a decent area let alone send just 1 kid to the local private college unless he or she receives a scholarship. Hell its hard to live on 100k in those cities.

Things have been going down the tubes since around 2007 and its not getting any better. Yes the government says that we only have a 5% unemployment or whatever yet when you go on bls.gov and search for the graph that shows 16 to 65 year olds not participating in the labor force along with the reasons for not participating you'll see that tens of millions of adults (I believe 80 million) simply aren't participating in the labor force and the largest group is those who aren't working simply don't want a job. Other reasons included schooling, early retirement, taking care of family, poor health, etc but by far the largest group were those who aren't working simply because they don't want to.

Quite frankly I don't blame them. Why would I flip burgers for $8 an hour if I could sit at home and have the government pay for everything. It comes out to the same as making roughly $15 an hour - or twice as much as a person would make at a McDonald's.

Well, someone has to support all this people... According to some statisticians 1 in 5 Americans are on food stamps. If they counted other forms of government aid - medicaid, welfare, rent assistance, tanf, etc I'm sure that number would be higher.

News / Poland directly threatened by ISIS. Do Islamists planning terrorist attacks in Poland? [390]

There was a story about Isis camps in Mexico with operatives trying to get into the us.. Turns out it was b.s. and in reality the sinaloa cartel publicly stated they will murder any Isis terrorists that are discovered in Mexico. They didn't want the coyote dollars. Smart on their part...

I don't deny that Bosnia has its share of issues with terrorism namely al Qaeda and foreign mujahideen. Hell even Osama bin Laden had a Bosnian passport... Not to mention the hundreds of millions the Saudis funneled to Islamic charities and mosques.. However Bosnian terrorists threatening Poland? Unlikely... Maybe Serbia due to ethnic tensions.. That's why you guys need a josip broz tito ii lol.

I'm sure there's some crazy country bumpkins outside urban areas just like everywhere. Rather recently the federal bih police conducted a huge raid on a village suspected of terrorist activities. In fact there are some villages in Bosnia where they simply prefer not to have outsiders. I don't think that's so weird. Hell one of my neighbors gets the cops called on him regularly because apparently the WASPs don't like black men running through the neighborhood.

The question is whether Bosnia will continue its anti terror activities, if only to appear they're really taking an interest to appease media (their budget is also rather limited), or if they'll just take the lazy approach and say well much wealthier countries like France England Belgium Germany etc have problems with terrorists so who are they to say what poor lil Bosnia should do.

Also id like to tell you that one of my best friends is Bosnian. He came to the us with his family in the early 90s. One of the most generous fun loving friends I've ever had. Unfortunately he passed away last year.

News / Poland directly threatened by ISIS. Do Islamists planning terrorist attacks in Poland? [390]

Polish police will root them out.. Also from the perspective of Isis an attack on Poland would be very difficult to pull off and the propaganda value would be next to none. They'll focus on countries with more clout like England and France where they already have some sympathisers.

Isis is on its knees. They're pretty much finished in Iraq and will be finished soon enough in syria. The problem with that is though many of these jihadis will return to their home countries.

Funny how even Isis is too extreme for groups like al nusra and al Qaeda which are gradually being touted as 'the good guys'

Also Isis is gradually shifting towards insirping lone wolf attacks rather than recruitment for jihad and syria.

If you follow dabiq (may be illegal to read in your country) you'll see how their message has changed since they've been on the ropes.

Work / Warsaw Poland - stock market investment? [8]

Yea it depends on the brokerage firm. Some won't even take you on a client if you don't have a certain net worth or invest a certain amount. When I worked as a broker our minimum was $5k but most people held between $25k to $100k although we had a few that were 500k to 1 mil. There's a 10% commission half going to brokers half to the house. About half my clients were wealthy farmers and ranchers. Some of these guys had a 7 or even 8 figure net worth yet no internet connection.

This was my first 'real' job and the way I tried to distinguish myself from the more experienced brokers is through customer service. I was happy to get anyone though and ill never forget when one of my clients put in a huge buy order for silver and I made a $40k commission check. The whole reason why I became a broker is because I thought it was the best paying job for me at the time without a bachelors and I needed money to pay the remainder of my tuition. I basically made a year tuition with what was my largest order there.

Right now bitcoin is at a new high. I plan to sell within the next hour its starting to get into bubble territory again. Sell, wait for correction, buy, and repeat... Easiest $3k profit on an $11k investment in two weeks I've ever made.

Work / Warsaw Poland - stock market investment? [8]

Yeah thats what i was thinking.. Perhaps establishing a hft firm in Poland or even buy some software and a super fast connection to a flat or office right by the gwp. I haven't been able to find a whole lot of info on high frequency trading in Poland so I'm wondering how widespread it is and how much volume it accounts for. I3n the us estimates range from 97-99% of an average trading days is all hft firms.

Yes the gold and silver I have is bullion specifically krugerrands (south africa). I don't really have much left though a couple grand worth that ill probably keep well into my old age and give some to my kids or nephews and neices.

Also I haven't heard of any citizenship requirements to buy and sell securities on any exchange if its your own money. But if you want to work as a trader or broker in Poland id imagine you have to get a work permit/visa and be licensed.

Speaking of which... How did polish society take the whole amber gold scandal? It wasn't all that much money in the grand scheme of things but I'm sure that it undermined the confidence of some individuals that perhaps aren't too familiar with the workings of a market and entrusted savings to a broker.

Work / Warsaw Poland - stock market investment? [8]

@Wulkan

Thanks for the correct nomenclature. Rather long proper name..

@Ziemowit
Thanks for all this info. Wow that's a heck of an roi. Bit risky with leverage but good to hear it turned out okay. I do plan to educate myself more on the companies listed in the exchange as I plan to move to Poland in the relatively near future. I currently have investments in real estate, stericycle (short at the moment, I use to work for this company and received a 10% discount but could only purchase 2x a year on a specified date which usually got leaked out driving up the price), walmart, bank of america (bought in November 2012 and has nearly tripled but I'm still holding), a small cap mutual fund, bitcoin (I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on ethereum too) and a small amount of physical gold and silver. Most of these are long term holds with the exception of bitcoin but I still tend to check up on them a few times a day during hours. As far as bitcoin I have a chart running on my phone all the time. Its on another rally again I wonder if it'll break $3k.

I would like to buy some shares once I move to Poland and get more familiar with the business and corporate environment there. Yes I do expect the polish market and its indices to be more volatile than its us counterparts but that's not always a bad thing. With only 300 some companies on the exchange it wouldn't be too hard to get familiar. I did read some brief history on the gwp and apparently the day it opened there were only 5 firms listed with about 2k USD turnover. Crazy how things changed since then.

Also when did this bubble burst? Was it around 2007 or the years following? In hindsight as a whole Poland took the recession quite well although I bet the traders and brokers were rather anxious during that time.

Also is the volume dominated by HFT like in US?

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [564]

Why couldn't the crazy van driver in uk be more like the boys in saudi : /

youtu.be/OjqC474bRbA]

News / Poland Targeted by Israel-Based Financial Fraud [18]

In the us such matters are settled by the ftc (federal trade commission) sec (securities exchange commission) and fbi if there's suspected federal crimes like mail or wire fraud. In poland its probably the same organisations just with different polish names.

Financial crime in Israel flourishes because of a sort of don't ask don't tell environment. Also, the israeli government knows who's doing what.. Believe me these guys have tech that's a decade ahead of the U.S. I use to work for an Israeli IoT company. Israel is at the forefront of r and r research and has some of the most intelligent programers, coders, network admins, etc.

Also, if itd a few hundred thousand ornanfew million Israel will most likely go after them. Now if there's say an extra $129 mil in an Israeli bank, well then instead of sending investigators they may send a political operative to solicit a campaign donation.. Or even may just want a bribe to look the other way.

Each country is unique but the bank secrecy laws and easy of doing business in Israel is pretty similar to places like switzerland, Cayman islands, panama, Hong kong, macau, wherever. Only difference is the sugar baby/sugar daddy relationship that Israel has with the us. Also israels clout reaches far and wide for such a small country due to the many jews who obviously feel a high sense of patriotism towards Israel.

Also from my experience tax reports are done quarterly in the us when the company has to release their EBIT and updated balance sheets to shareholders. My dad does his corporate taxes like once a year but he's a rather small operation and isn't publicly traded. Nonetheless a monthly tax report would seem a bit redundant but depending on the company, their product or service, it could be vital and important. Im going just based on my experience which is of coursendifferent from others. Sales reports are typically done monthly or even quarterly or as late as semi annual/annual depending on the type of product and its relevant sales cycle. A case of coke that will most likely be sold to a gas station has a far shorter sales cycle than software which will assist a company on implementing the next generation of some technology or a new MRI machine.

Classifieds / Drive me around Warsaw June 1? [13]

That's actually a pretty standard international price for like an 8 hour tour even cheap when compared to some other places. So yeah 270 / 8 = 33.75 hourly roughly the same cost of a chaffeuer service here. You're paying for someone who is bi or tri lingual and has an intimate knowledge of warsaw and not shy speaking. Plus they most likely are part of a company rather than just a private individual hence driving up the cost.

What surprised me when I booked my flight for my upcoming trip is that business class for 2 ppl round trip cost $14k. And yet those were the last two seats available! The seats I got a literally like 3 rows behind business yet still cost 3.2k round trip for 2 ppl. When I booked a flight in February it was almost half the cost.

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [564]

What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?

Nothing! You already told her twice!

No but seriously that's not right... That's always really bugged me when id see a man hit, even if its a slap, a woman. Then the jury gasps when the prosecutor explains how the woman murdered her husband or cut off his junk..

You'd think you wouldn't have to explain to some men that you can't hit your wife, you can't have sex with a teenager, you can't force your wife to stay in the house but no...

I remember watching this one documentary (I believe vice) on Afghanistan where a rather high ranking us officer explained to his counterpart in Afghanistan that he can't have citizens - especially chai boys - at forward operating bases or police stations. The afghani officer responded 'well what do you expect them to fxxk? Their grandmothers!?'

Perhaps it would be a good idea to place incoming migrants and refugees into a sort of education camp for a short period of time so that they can learn the social norms, customs, and also provide them with info on how to obtain language lessons, hospital services, whatever. This is what south Korea does to north Koreans once they arrive in the country. No one there complains that its cruel or anything and the people who go through it appreciate it because without it they'd feel even more lost in a new society. However some people equate such education centers as concentration camps even though clearly its meant only to help newcomers assimilate.

Work / Work Culture and Expenses - 11000 PLN gross in Poznan [27]

Depends on local laws and contract. In the US if you flat out quit you most likely won't be compensated for paid days off nor will you be eligible for things like unemployment. However if you are fired (or if your on good relations with your boss and ask him to fire you but still give you a good reference) you will be able to receive your paid days off and you can get unemployment benefits. It depends on the company's policies, your employment contract, and local laws. I don't know what the situation is in poland or outside the us so id recommend doing your own research as it pertains to your company and contract as it varies from company to company person to person. A Yahoo CEO can get fired after a very short time on the job and receive millions in severance where another person will receive nothing or at best 2 weeks.

News / Poland Targeted by Israel-Based Financial Fraud [18]

Yeah you definitely can't do that but as far as a us court flat restricting someone's internet use I don't know about that... Although it is a crime it usually on the very bottom of a police or courts priorities especially if no one has been injured... Unless the person lived in some rural town where the cops didn't like him and wanted to kill some boredom.. Oftentimes police and courts are restricted in what they can do even a restraining order toll something happens. There's an ongoing debate in the us whether registered sex offenders should have their internet restricted or not. Could it perhaps be a condition of a restraining order which typically states that the person isn't supposed to contact someone? If a court can't restrict some convicted child molestors internet there not going to restrict some trolls. Even then usually restraining orders are issued only after a number of incidents rather than just the threat of violence. I've never heard of a situation where a person s internet is restricted because they threatened someone online especially if they didn't go through with it. Quite frankly I'm surprised it even took the course of police in two different countries and later a court case to issue a restraining warrant which typically requires the petitioner to be present. Typically such crimes if there was only a threat but no action don't result in anything past an investigstion and a warning from a detective on the perps cell phone to stop or they will be arrested. The person could claim they forgot to log out and someone else used the computer to write a message. There's no way to really prove that a specific person wrote a specific threat online way too circumstantial. They could find the ip it came from but that's about it.