News / "We will not hesitate to shoot Kaczyński dead" - KOD Facebook page [164]


Except PiS have just announced an economic plan that relies on half a trillion złoty of money coming for the EU...

Actually, one valid point. If the UK leaves, the EU would have to redraw the budget for 2014-2020. It's almost certain that Poland would receive significantly less cash than expected as a result, which would almost certainly cause trouble domestically. Hmm...

I'm all for Brexit. Poland will be screwed if the budget is renegotiated, which will remove this government from power faster. Works for me.

Work / Taxes and ZUS on a second job in Poland [11]

The tax office needs to know.

Genealogy / How can death influence twins, I wonder? [6]


You know, I don't think he's a vile person as such. Everyone reports him to be charming and decent in private, which makes me think that everything he does is cold, calculating and designed for maximum political gain. He would probably be a brilliant CEO in a different life.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Unfortunately, no. I don't remember where the ruling was, but it was ruled illegal to require mandatory vaccinations to enter school in Poland.

If this government had a clue, the 500+ programme would be linked directly to vaccinations. No vaccination, no money.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

America is just plain weird. Look at all those anti-vaxxers in California and how these supposedly educated middle class parents actually believe that vaccines are bad. Unfortunately, the anti-vax movement has been taken up in Poland by Kukiz'15, who want to make vaccinations optional and not mandatory.

Joy of joys.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

Interestingly, Poland was the first to ban corporal punishments in school way back in 1783.

News / Cameron's EU reform good for Poland [95]


Or an even worse draw when the EU imposes a small (but significant) tax on non-EU/EEA/CH financial transactions unless they comply with some clearly made-up requirements that are designed to punish the City. European banks will all flock to Frankfurt/Paris, and non-European banks will be happy to work with Frankfurt rather than London as the Euro is far stronger than the Pound.

The EU can be very malicious when it wants to be - Switzerland had to accept Dublin and Schengen in exchange for continued favourable access to the EU, after all.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Couldn't agree more. Someone that has to hit a child is clearly just a bully, nothing more.

Law / A Polish company have not paid me [13]

Give us what you know and we can help you.

Genealogy / How can death influence twins, I wonder? [6]


Indeed, the guy is an absolute master of playing with emotions and stirring the pot. That's the hallmark of a high intellect, not a low one. Furthermore, even his biggest political opponents have never accused him of having an impaired intellect.


All of their trolling is particularly rubbish. I've never seen a good piece of Russian trolling yet, apart from invading Crimea.

News / Cameron's EU reform good for Poland [95]


He deserves it. I'm pro-EU, but this 'deal' is garbage - nothing much has changed, and it doesn't address many of the key points that people were unhappy about. People were expecting serious change on benefits, for a start.


Just saw that he's going to announce it at 10pm tonight. Either way, the bookies seem pretty confident.


Quite a lot, not least providing a huge trading market and allowing London to become the undisputed financial capital of Europe. The UK leaves, the EU will almost certainly create a tax deliberately aimed at destroying the City and moving the business to Frankfurt with a secondary market in Paris along with a possible 'emerging market' in Warsaw.

Study / Medicine school Fees in Poland [8]

Free, if you can gain entry. However, entrance requirements are very tough - you need to be more or less in the top 1% of high school graduates in your country. Furthermore, that one year of Polish is not enough by itself - you'll need to commit serious time and effort to get anywhere near the standard required.

Work / Is it possible to find a job on short notice in Lodz,Poland? [4]


There's no such thing as a decent paying job in a restaurant, customer service or in warehouses. Furthermore, how would you expect to work in Poland without knowing Polish and with a lot of Ukrainians (that can more or less understand and be understood in Polish) willing to take such jobs?

Furthermore, you're Canadian. That means you need a work permit, which no-one is going to apply for on your behalf when they can just employ a Ukrainian student that doesn't need a work permit.


It's cheap if you earn a good salary. You won't get a good salary working in the lowest jobs.

News / Cameron's EU reform good for Poland [95]


I didn't notice this!

That's almost certainly going to turn some undecided voters into Leave - nothing will look worse than Poland gloating about what they've managed to get out of the UK.

But still, it all depends what The Sun does. If Murdoch comes out and backs Brexit, then things will get very interesting. I suspect, like the Scottish referendum, he'll simply sit on the fence.


The bookies seem pretty confident that the UK will stay. 2/7 for the UK staying in is pretty decisive.

But, and one but - if Boris joins the Leave campaign, all bets are off. I'm almost certain he won't - the City is so dependent on the EU that it would be suicide for him to back the Leave campaign.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


I wish Hollande would say it how it really is - these countries won't get suspended, but there might just be problems with CAP payments and structural funds. I'm sure the EU could find...problems.

News / "We will not hesitate to shoot Kaczyński dead" - KOD Facebook page [164]

That article is rather laced with propaganda, to be fair. The Balcerowicz plan was double edged, but you have to remember that in 1990, Poland was still under the massive debts incurred under Communism. The other problem is that those assets were not sold at 4-5% of their value - the number changes according to who you speak to, but it seems that people were valuing them in the pretend PRL exchange rate rather than the real exchange rate.

Some facts :

GDP went from 64.7 billion USD in 1990 to 139.4 billion in 1995. That's a pretty decent gain, especially when the Czech Republic in comparison only managed a 50% increase in GDP and Hungary barely 33%. Only Slovakia managed a similar percentage increase.

You might like this - https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_cd&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:POL:UKR&ifdim=region&hl=en&dl=en&ind=false - you can play with a lot of economic data here to show how Poland really developed between 1990 and today.

This one is particularly interesting - https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:POL:TUR:HUN&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gnp_mktp_cd&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:POL:UKR&ifdim=region& hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false - Poland really left Ukraine behind after starting 1990 almost equal.

Everything I've read on the subject says the same thing - that the Balcerowicz plan was solely intended to show that the country was credible. It worked, didn't it?

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

If the złoty falls, it means that the markets think there's something to it.

Isn't there a saying about how the markets are always right, or something?

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Latest demonstration - "My, naród" will be in Warsaw on the 28th February from 13:00-17:00.

More details here - facebook.com/events/1693154147595269/

Shameful. I can't even get the date right.

It's actually on the 27th February at 13:00-17:00.

News / Poland to join anti-ISIS coalition [22]

It's all about the NATO base, nothing more.

Quite why inviting people in that part of the world to hate us is a good idea, I don't know.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

Exactly, it's a huge problem. It's one thing having strict punishments for offenders, but you also need to find out when they are offending - and that requires sex education so that they can talk about it freely.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


It's a lot more complicated than that. The problem mainly lies with a lack of qualified teachers - such things tend to end up being discussed by class teachers, who are frequently not qualified or able to talk about such issues with children. Some are, but many aren't. Others simply don't want to for religious or personal reasons, so you end up with campaigns that end up being quite ineffective.

The Ministry of Education now - who knows. They are ideologically opposed to sex education, but about child abuse - I really have no idea. All I know is that the existing controls are ineffective and need to be strengthened considerably. Ziobro has some proposals, but they do nothing to address the core problem that children are not encouraged to speak about it.

Still, it's an idea to put together a proposal for the Ministry. It has nothing to do with sex education, so perhaps, just maybe...someone will listen.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]

I wish I had the contacts at a high level there to do something about it.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


I don't remember how it works, but I think there's an age in which it's assumed that a child cannot give consent. But the law also distinguishes between ages - someone aged 45 that has consensual sex with a 16 year old is also breaking the law. I seem to recall that if you're in a position of authority over the child, the punishment is also more severe.

But you're right - I agree with you that it should simply be a blanket ban on any adult doing anything with a child under 18 and that it should be automatic prison with a lengthy sentence for doing so.

InPolska - there are some campaigns, but the problem is that there's a lack of widespread awareness of child protection issues. My written Polish isn't good enough, otherwise I would start a campaign to deal with it :(

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


Well, the workplace is outside the parish too. But what's interesting to me - a lot of the church sex abuse cases have been consensual, there have been very few incidents of priests actually forcing children into sex acts. This tells me that perhaps the problem is rather related to basic human needs - that perhaps it would make much more sense to allow priests to lead normal family lives.


Agreed. I'm not much of a fan of the 15 year old limit. 17 would be more acceptable in my view, particularly as it's not uncommon for 19/20 year old men to go after 15/16 year old girls. I know one case where a friend's daughter is 16 and her boyfriend is 20 - every time I see him, I can't help but think "...can't you get someone your own age?".


As far as I know, it's an absolute no-no to do it.

Having said that, a conviction for child abuse (be it physical, mental or sexual) should be an immediate life ban from working with children again.

News / Poland's Prime Minister Szydło keeps American bulldogs on short leash [36]


Not everyone, just the vast majority of the Sejm, including the Minister of Defence.


Hardly. Even PiS aren't so stupid as to think that a Polish army could defend itself in the event of genuine aggression by Russia.

Life / Polish culture versus rotten West [279]


It will be interesting to see what happens in the future - employers are responsible for the safety of people in their workplace, so there's no guarantee that any such declaration will protect them.


I don't agree with chemical castration (it can't be reversed, can it?), but we need far stronger controls in Poland. I introduced a lot of American/British best practices into work, but it's still a hell of a battle convincing people that child protection is important.

The RCC here would do very, very well to introduce proper child protection measures based on the British/American model. If they did, they could hold themselves up as being genuinely interested in child welfare, unlike 99% of other people in this country.

Off-Topic / WB's body building and general fitness thread [97]

When are you going to post more pictures of your physique, WB?

News / Visegrad Battle Group under the command of Poland [261]


That will is highly unlikely to conjure up half a trillion złoty by themselves.


Easy for you to say when you don't live in Poland and don't care about that half trillion złoty.

News / Visegrad Battle Group under the command of Poland [261]


And where will the V4 get the money from to sustain their current development? Poland has a new economic plan, which consists of 50% of funds coming from the EU. Visegrad can't replace that.

Law / Car Market in Poland? Aftermarket car parts? [22]


Tell you what - you could do a lot of business here with a good returns policy. A lot of Polish online shops offer the bare 14 days for refunds - but if you offered 28 days (or even longer) - you might do very very well and be able to cover up for the slightly longer delivery time.