Posts by DariusTraveller

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Hi People

I don't know where to start with this but I'll drop it in this section so this post is my view of Poland as a society, culture and country . I'm an ethnically Persian student/tourist aged 21 and I've visited a lot of countries all over the world. Recently I've been to Poland, Warsaw a few times on work/study related trips so naturally I've been exploring quite a bit all over the city.

Now before anyone starts pointing fingers while screaming "filthy dog, go back to your country" I'd like to point out that I've lived all over the world from a very young age. I speak 4 languages and I've lived in several western European countries and New York, California, Canada, Hong Kong etc. I currently hold 3 different passports and I come from a long line of very educated people who have contributed greatly and are recognized in several scientific fields. Now I'm not saying this to brag or anything but I have noticed the awful amount of misconception polish people and other Europeans learn about the world and I'll address that later in my thread.

I have to say right of the bat that my trips were pretty pleasant and I didn't run into any real negativity as such. The polish people I met seemed hospitable and nice and the general experience was good but I've still left Poland with a slightly sour taste in my mouth.

The first time I visited Warsaw I was very new to the city and eastern Europe so I didn't know how to get around. Naturally I ran into one of the overpriced illegal taxis the very minute I got out of the airport, of course I fell for the scam and this dude around my age drove me to my hotel downtown.

Now don't get me wrong, the guy was very nice and he had great stories to tell but somewhere along the conversation he started telling me that If I wanted he could get me "young and slim" prostitutes and drugs :S I knew Poland had it's social problems before I got here, I had read online that something like this might happen. Personally I'm not comfortable with these sort of activities so I declined the guy politely.

Now during the course of a week I stayed at a swanky hotel paid by my university which was nice, the people were more than pleasant and I didn't run into any problems in relation to the accommodation. My work hours were very short the days I was there.. I just had to talk to a few people, check out a few things, sign papers etc. So most of the days I was out taking pictures and just being really touristy.

As I mentioned before I knew that Poland might be a troubled country, specially for someone like me and before I was sent here I read up online a lot about what to expect as I didn't want any trouble. I have a statistical mind so I like facts and numbers, before I arrived I read up on polish history, watched a few movies and memorized some facts. After just a few days I came to the conclusion that Warsaw was very much like a small Manhattan in Europe. Capitalism seems to dominate and the infrastructure seemed to cater to cars. People were well educated somewhat modern and very westernized.

after about a week I thought I might take a drive outside of the city to see how the landscape would change. After I was outside of the city things really started sinking in, Warsaw seemed like a completely different world to the rest of Poland. So sum my experience up outside of the city ---- Narrowminded Village societies.

I'm not saying this to be rude or anything but I really didn't like what I saw outside of the bigger cities, poor conditions, Rude people, narrowminded opinions, unhelpful and just plain uneducated folks. I'm fully aware that this isn't just a Poland problem and that every country has it's city life versus village societies so I'm not going to go too much into that.

I've lived in Europe for quite a few years and I'm fully aware of the reputation that arabs, turks, kurds, libanese and africans and whatnot have all throughout Europe and I've heard all the things people say. I've personally run into a lot of discrimination all over Europe and I did meet the classic subtle discrimination in Poland too... BUT and there's a big but.

What I did notice is that Poland doesn't have any real visible minorities which gives visitors a pleasant advantage of actually being treated like a human and not a subhuman. People in the city seem more open about your culture and heritage, they don't call you names behind your back and they don't scuff at you just for being you. I was pleasantly surprised as quite a few people would ask things like --- "where are you from?" --- "really?" --- "tell me about it" like polite people would do. If this was England, Holland or Denmark people's attitude would be more like --- "you're an arab" --- "you're a muslim" --- "you're unwanted". Which of course is completely untrue as we're Zoroastrians and not Muslim and we're Persians not Arabs.

Generally Polish people and Poland seemed nice in person but ever since I found this forum after the first trip I've been left with the same sour taste in my mouth as I do when I'm in Germany, Denmark Holland or any other radical anti-cultural country.

After reading a few very disturbing threads sporadically on this forum I've been kinda shocked. The way some people talk about other ethnicities and my homeland here is just unbelievable. I understand this is a polish forum? presumable visited by english speaking poles so you're most likely polish posters. The way Turks, Kurds and Indians are described and talked about is mind boggling. I know these countries have their problems and bad reputation but the way people talk about them is blown out of proportion. I mean Polish people have just as bad of a reputation throughout Europe so it's not the best time to point fingers at eachother.

I've also read quite a few anti Persian comments which I don't understand either. My country saved hundreds of thousands of polish lives during the Polish exodus from Russia where poles rushed in mass numbers to evacuee camps at the shoreline of Pahlavi and in and around Tehran also known as the "promised land" among them. My grandparents worked as medical doctors in those camps and saved countless of polish lives when they needed it the most. The king let polish people live there for years and they were treated with nothing but dignity and respect, even to this day today polish people still live there in small pocket communities and what's more noticeable is the amount of newborn polish boys who are given Persian names each year even today.

Now I'm not saying that the polish people are in debt to us but it's more than obvious that a lot of keyboard warriors on here continuously tell lies and spread propaganda about what kind of people we are, when in fact they know nothing about what people we are or our culture or heritage.

All I'm trying to say is that Poland and the Polish people seemed pretty decent and unbiased towards world issues, I'm not saying you should embrace open border or anything like that but you're on a slippery slope and I'd hate to visit 10 years from now and see a country overrun by fascists. remember what you fought.. A totalitarian Nazi regime isn't the solution to anything, just look at what fascism has turned my country into today.

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Well I didn't run into any anti persian behavior when I was there in person but I have read some untrue things online, I did assume users of this forum were mainly polish... I guess I'm wrong but atleast some of the 10% the natives will read this post My final point as a general foreigner is that I came, I saw and I learned. I've met people who visited my country with the idea that they would either get kidnapped, shot, stabbed or raped but what they found was big westernized modern cities with nothing but hospitable people who were eager to please and represent our homeland. All I'm saying is that what you see on television is far from reality. I'm ashamed to say I expected worse from Poland but I learned that it wasn't as bad as I thought.. In general it was good.

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

In your lengthy post titled "Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective" you actually didn't say thing about Poland.

As I said. I commented on the country, society and the people i met from my perspective as a tourist. My experience of the rural areas was narrow mindedness and deeply rooted social problems. I'm not saying everyone outside of the city were bad and this might not be in depth and scientific but this is what I saw with my own eyes in the short period I've been there. If I had to describe everything I saw and the people I met I could write an entire book.

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Right now all I know that you are descendant of very fine family, got a few passports and traveled a lot. I also know that you have got some "sour" feelings about Poland, you did find most of Poles narrow-minded and Poland has deep-rooted problems. Come on - you can say this regarding any country in the world.

Would you like me to comment on insignificant things? like The buildings? the shops? Of course I'm commenting on my feelings towards what I've seen and the people I've met and I think you should read my post again. Poland without polish people would just be an empty piece of land. I've explained my observations of city life versus country life. I never said I found most of poles narrow minded and I never said Poland as a whole had deep rooted social problems. Please stop twisting my words towards your own vilified agenda.

If you read my post again you will see that it's a written through my PERSPECTIVE if you're familiar with that word. I wrote positive things about Warsaw and the people of Warsaw while I wrote less positive things about rural Poland and the people there. in a nutshell I said my experience was that most of the the country folks i met were rude and narrowminded while city folks were much more modern this is what I experience therefore I can't change it. Deeply rooted social problems can be roadside prostitutes and drugdealers which I saw lots of, I don't want to get too much into that as it's insignificant to my post.

My whole point of the post is that I came, I saw, I experienced and yes you're right.. You can say this regarding any country in the world which I also pointed out if you had actually read my post.

To you and everyone else..Please refrain from commenting if you're not actually Polish or an expat living in Poland or if you haven't lived in Poland for a longer period of time. This thread was intended for people like them and not other foreigners who wish they lived in Poland.

No offence in any way ofcourse :)

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

You are not the first person, who is misled by the name of the forums, thinking that all the nasty, disrespectful things, are said by Poles!

Yeah it seems like you're right, I started this thread because I thought It was a forum filled with poles so I thought I could hear some of their opinions... Ohh well.. atleast there's a few on here. I'm not really interested in foreign opinions as they have nothing to do with Poland as such. I'm aware now that this place is mostly visited by foreigners but if poles reply I'll reply aswell.

As if I heard my best friend - she is Iranian as well! I also got to know her parents!

Do they live in Poland? I got drafted for the revolutionary guards but paid my way out of it. they're like a cult. Not good for our country. Personally I'm not a fan of the king or the monarchy as they single handedly along with the british government managed to turn our country upside down. We prefer the word Persian over Iranian. Back in the 1930's Military generals changed the countries name from Persia to Iran in order to be closer to Hitlers Nazi Germany. Iran basically means Aryan.

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

As I mentioned earlier, I thought most people on these forums had actual ties to Poland. Either as ex-pats or natives. As I said I wasn't trying to brag, I was just clarifying before anyone made any assumptions that I came from somewhere as an illegal refugee strapped under a truck.

I read in earlier posts by other users where they were claiming that Indian immigrants wipe their asses with their hands and that they take care of their toilet business in their gardens like animals even after they move to Europe.

Of course I now know that most of these comments were by other European nationals and not necessarily polish... Alot of users on here have polish sounding usernames therefore I was expecting them to be polish bigots and not someone else.

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Yes, but the people are still referred to as "Persian". They get rather pissy about it, actually. The language can also be called "Persian".

You're right As I mentioned earlier we prefer the word Persian which it's been for thousands of years over Iranian.
Back in the 1930's Military generals send out a note to the world leaders and officially changed the countries name from Persia to Iran in order to be closer to Hitlers Nazi Germany. Iran basically means Aryan.. This was of course done to please Hitler and the Nazi regime.

It's a long complicated story.. The official red, green white flag with the crest in the middle which you see today isn't really the "real" flag.. it's a vandalized version of the 1964 Lion and Sun flag

DariusTraveller

7 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

So why change to the name of the country if they are not ashamed of it?

The country has been couped several times during the last century, when corrupt military leaders and foreign mercenaries meddle in a countries affairs then there's nothing you can do. Specially after your rights get taken away overnight.. literally in some cases.

I had heard that story before, but I was under the impression it was a bit fabricated. "Persia" sounds so much nicer, they should change the name back =/

True story.. Check wikipedia. Ever wonder why they never teach you about the Persian Empire in school.. it's always the Greek Empire even though the Greeks plagiarized our technology for hundreds of years. .. Kinda weird uh? All humor aside. A namechange will most likely happen after the next regime change. People just need to get off their asses and start a rebellion.. If the IRA in Ireland could do it then people of our homeland should be able to also.

And how did you rate the women on average here, Darius? I've seen some Iranian women and some are really hot. I like their complexion, when you can see their face that is ;) ;)

Good looking on average :) Very friendly.. Almost too friendly, kinda suspicious. Overall the women seemed nicer than their southern colleagues.. Like compared to Italians.. those Italians are impossible.

You are right , the vast majority Polish people is not at all racist or unwelcoming , in general as we know ,respectable people are respectful.

Let me guess? he's not polish either right?

DariusTraveller

8 Mar 2010

USA, Canada / Finding a job without work permission in the US [32]

Why not just apply for a decent job? I'm not sure if you noticed, but Mexicans have the sh*t job market pretty much wrapped up.

That depends on where you are, some places are filled with Russians, others Chinese, Korean or whatever dominates in that particular area. No need to give Mexicans a worse reputation than they already have.

If the OP isn't a skilled worker he's going to have trouble applying for a job that will actually give him an H1B visa or equivalent. The core of the problem here is a broken immigration system and the influx of illegal workers take the illegal route because for some it's the only way.

DariusTraveller

8 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

No offense people but this thread has turned into one big unproductive shouting match so I'm just going to walk all the way around some of these topics but I'll comment shortly on the significant topics.

I'm not going to get too much into the insanity of race relations but to claim that the people of the Persian empire were purely "white" or European in any sense is just plainly uneducated. I don't blame anyone here for being ill informed as it's not your fault. As I mentioned earlier, the history of the Persian empire and the Persians has repeatedly been swept under the rug in western schools. A lot of historical artifacts and drawings are still stuck in Iran this day today. I have seen many and there are paintings with entire armies of "brown men" with long curly black beards... Nuff said on that.

Just recently last year a group of people from a Persian history organization campaigned against the lack of funding on Persian history and libraries who had deliberately excluded Persian History from their shelves while they proudly boasted hundreds of books on the Greek Empire and several other empires. They also campaigned against publishers who would print history books without even a single mention of the Persian empire.

The world is not as forward thinking as you might think when western historians deliberately manipulate world events in order to perceive European superiority ... I'm not saying things like this doesn't also happen elsewhere in Far East Asia but I'm mentioning Europe now as this seems to be a practice which happens far too often on this side of the world, what's happening today is no different than when the catholic church banned books all over Europe back in the day. It's simply easier to control people when you keep them in the dark and brainwash them with methods taken right out of the Nazi handbook.

Fact is that a lot of Europe's advances were made off of piggybacking on Middle Eastern breakthroughs in the fields of science, specially physics and mathematics. When Europeans were living the simple life in Mud houses the Persians were carving an entire river through the desert, When religious nutjobs went rampant all over Europe the Arabs were making world changing discoveries in maths. I've studied mathematics on an advanced level and it's a historical fact that many of the world changing breakthroughs in these fields were discovered by Arabs and Persians. I'm not saying that Europeans didn't also contribute greatly to these fields but these significant historical figures came later on when Europe had lifted itself to the level that the middle east had been at for ages.

It's easy to manipulate the course of history when debating on the Internet. I'm not a nationalist and I couldn't care less about who's whiter or who's smarter. But we all know that if it wasn't for science we would not be debating online right now, instead we would all be living in mud houses and we would all be hunting our dinner tonight with bows and arrows. we can all understand science and any of you guys can pick up a science history book and immediately notice the over representation of middle easterners.

How come africa is poor and Europe is wealthy? (Don't go talking about colonies now). .

Are you really that uneducated? Oil, Gold, Diamonds, gun-running... These are the reasons why Africa is still poor. Foreign nations and corporations both western and eastern still exploit Africa this day today. Just an example.. who do you think imported 100.000 brand new machetes into Rwanda right before the civil war began in 1994?... The Brtish. In other words they meddle with the affairs of another country.

How come the arab states are so full of violence and hate? No prosperity there either.

Mainly because of Israel and the constant foreign meddling into their own countries affairs. I don't know why you would claim that there's no prosperity in the middle east? There's lots of prosperity in the massive cities all over... but of course you can't see that because you think that it's all just one big dry desert. Am I right?

I prefer the word English, but that doesnt stop people calling me British :D

Your somehow under the illusion that I'm Pro Islamic Republic and that I would be offended by what you're saying? Yes you're right, our country has been occupied by Nazi Mullahs, Yes you're right. The current president of the occupation does deny WWII and yes you're right Public hangings and the imprisonments of thousands of political prisoners in Evin prison is a reality. And yes.. Television and Internet is censored but that can be circumvented with a satellite dish and proxy server... What's you're point with all of this?

If you're somehow trying say that we turned our own country into what it is today then you're seriously a sad case. I think you should read up on your very own British history where you'll find some very useful information about the 1953 Iranian coup d'état.

Now you might wonder.. what does a foreign coup d'état have to do with England? Back in 1951 we had everything, no Islam, prosperity, freedom, democracy, a real president. You name it we had it. In 1953 the CIA along with the British government staged an overthrow of the democratically-elected Iranian government and our prime minister in a covert operation against us... a foreign government. Now what was our "crime"? Our president had nationalized the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), so our country could benefit more from the sale of its vast national petroleum resources... Basically Oil.

In a nutshell your country messed up my democratic country with a democratically elected parliament and president and turned it into an Islamic hellhole all because you greedy people wanted an unfair share of OUR cake. All our parliament did was to stand up against an injustice. The actions of YOUR British government is the DIRECT cause of why my country is what it is today. This is an undeniable fact and it has been acknowledged by your own government.

You brought it up! So here's the truth. You burned down my house and now I'm living in your house haha! And yes I have a British passport which allows me to live in your damn country. I also have a Swedish passport just incase. Do you think I wanted to live in your country? I didn't and I never intended on coming to Europe. You can thank your government for destroying and forcing me to move out of my own country. I still live back home for months at a time and I only go to Europe to study as it's not exactly a picnic to live in western Europe.

I think you should brush up on your history and learn more about what atrocities Britain have done to my homeland.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat

All jokes aside.. I didn't want to discuss any of this in this thread, all I wanted was to hear some polish opinions but I can't ignore a British guy who's taunting the misery of my homeland when his government was the sole cause of it. I'd be very ashamed if I did that.

DariusTraveller

8 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

You have to understand that politics in Iran today is nothing more than theater to fool the outside world. All of these guys are on the payroll high up. The real leaders are the clerics and they control everything. For example If you want to go to a good university you need to be religious, rich, and on a first name basis with a cleric.

The only reason people support this guy is is because he's 1. A Nationalist and 2. A Leftist and 3. Promises more freedom. People secretly hope that if a guy like that gets elected that things will change but I'm pretty sure that's not the case... He's not exactly a saint and he made some horrible decisions back in '79.

Pro-American or not is insignificant, The U.S and the British has meddled enough in our affairs already and President Jimmy Carter made one of the worst foreign policy decisions back in 79' Everyone knows it but they'd rather look away and pretend nothing happened.

personally I think people should rise up and start a Republican Army like they did in Ireland and elsewhere. A guerrilla campaign against the authority. Unfortunately that won't happen as gun running is controlled very strictly so people can't get their hands on them. I don't know how effective a small army armed with kitchen knifes would be but if millions can gather in the streets then so can a million people armed with knifes.

This is of course all just guesswork and daydreaming. over 50% of the population consist of people under 25 and their biggest worry is not armed struggle over the next 100 years, but instead it's probably what type of hairwax they're going to choose in the morning.

Personally I just blame the older generation, they let this happen in the fist place including Mousavi.. He knows what he did.

DariusTraveller

9 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

As I said. It's all theater at best. The presidency is a puppet post. I don't agree with what the man says most of the times but you have to remember that these people have occupied a country against our will so what comes out of the piehole has no credibility at all. It would be more wise to spend time on the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) which is our real government in exile located in France.

I don't know why people keep claiming that we have a problem with the Jews or anyone else for that matter. Historically Persia has been a safehouse for Jews for millennia Iran has the largest Jewish population in the middle east and the average Persian doesn't give a damn about Judaism or Israel for that matter. Official state statistics show that 100% of the population are practitioners of Islam but that completely contradicts the picture you get inside the country. In actuality most people believe in Zoroastrianism and it's displayed everywhere, on windows, cars, jewelery, body tattoos, clothing etc. Jews are treated just as well as the native population so the whole Jew hating image is nothing more than war prnography portrayed in the media for the average western couch potato.

I don't know much about Nuclear energy other than it's clean, safe and it's the future. I think every country should be allowed to have it but this should be supervised by an external neutral council that's not manipulated by any country, superpower or union. If a government decides to turn that technology into A-Bombs then they have to suffer the consequences.

As for the whole "wipe Israel off of the map" debacle I just don't know what to say. That translation was probably THE most manipulative incorrect translation in modern day journalism. The man is a lying dog but there's no reason to twist someones words like that. he never used the words "wipe" "Israel" or "map" in the same sentence. All he said was: "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time"

Again this demonstrates him being a puppet quoting what he's been told.

Personally I couldn't care less about all of this. If any country decides to attack I just hope they used trained snipers instead of bombs. The amount of historical monuments and sights lost in Iraq was just sad. Same thing happening here would be equality bad. But then again, this place isn't like Iraq.. We're not just a desert country. We have Alps A winter paradise, mountains, Surfer Beaches, Tropical Jungles, lots of forests etc.. The terrain is much different which is also the reason many countries are scared of sending troops in.

DariusTraveller

9 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Yep and Pakistanis were Indian - you are now Iranians, not Persians, Iranians are generally considered arabs, but I can call you asian if you prefer? - and who can blame someone for thinking you're Muslim when its called "the Islamic Republic of Iran" A place where other religions are not exactly tolerated.

I just wanted to correct you on this one.. Your Pakistani/Indian example here is completely wrong Pakistanis and Indians are the same people but Pakistan and India are two very different countries, two very different people and two very different cultures.. They've all chosen a side by free will.

Irani is a term we have used within the country for thousands of years. Just like Finnish people call their country Suomi amongst themselves and Finland to the outside world. Just like Germans call themselves Deutsch and the country Deutschland, but on the map it says Germany. In the English language as a people we're still Persians and it's still called Persia, The reason people resist the labels Iranian and Iran are because of the ties to Nazi Germany. Just because someone send out a telegram to the world saying that we changed our name doesn't mean that we actually have. If someone changed the name of Poland to something else people wouldn't just stop being polish.

As for the whole issue about immigrants acting a certain way when they've lived in Europe I don't have much to say. There's only so much direct and subtle discrimination you can take at work, in school, in shops or elsewhere before you snap. It's kinda like if you have a child that you feed well and make sure they have everything, but you also sexual abuse them.

That child will most likely grow up to hate you even though you made sure they were well fed and had everything.

Currently there's millions of European Jews and Troops deployed all over the Middle East. they meddle in political affairs, they rape women, kill children and destroy lives just for fun..worst of all: They're not even guests they came out of the blue and just started grabbing land. Kinda sounds like the things you blame immigrants in the EU for right? So please don't give me an "IF Europeans" there's no "IF" here. You're already over here in the millions. Before you start twisting my words I'm not saying real Jews aren't welcome in the Middle East because they are and they're historically linked to the place.

All I'm saying is that most of the Europeans who settled in Israel weren't Jews, some had far far away Jewish ancestry and some were the real thing but most of these Europeans were nothing but frauds disguised as Jews who escaped the war and misery in Europe and the Soviet Union in order to create their own country. I don't care what anyone says about Jews in general but are you're seriously that blinded that you refuse to see the massive European Trojan horse that is Israel in the Middle East? Fact is that the majority of Israelis are Europeans and they behave FAR worse than anyone from the middle east EVER does ANYWHERE in Europe.

Just to clarify.. I'm not Anti Israel and I welcome true Jews and I hope that they someday have a real country of their own without a bunch of warmongering Euro frauds amongst them. There's a reason Antiantisemitism is such a big problem in Israel today, which is the sheer amount of frauds among them who secretly hate on real Jews and drive their Nazi agenda forward on the back of Judaism.

DariusTraveller

9 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

No it's not. They were white Europeans who came to a country that was already occupied by other white Europeans. All they had to do was to assimilate, talk the same way, eat the same food, adopt the same values. After a generation or two they where the same as the locals.

I live in London sporadically for months at a time and I have a fluent North American accent. Even If I put on the best British accent that I can pull out of my hat I'm still no more British than I was before. the color of my skin and hair makes me a target for the so called "indigenous people" as the nationalist call themselves here. I know a danish guy in London who's uneducated and his English is worse than me but people still mistake him for being native, partly because he mumbles when he talks so his accent is less noticeable.

My point is.. This guy doesn't even put on an effort and half the time hes accepted as one of them. I do everything I can to be respectful culturally and educationally and I'm still met with lots of "go back home".

Of course you can't comprehend these kind of thoughts so I'm not going to discuss this topic any further.

DariusTraveller

9 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

have you seen many spanish, italians or greeks? olive skin and dark hair.

I'm aware of that but you obviously haven't seen how they're treated in West and Northern Europe or else you wouldn't have mentioned them. They're treated just as bad as Middle Easterners as they're far too often mistaken for being from the Middle East thus being categories that way. I'm sorry but You haven't walked a colored mans shoes so you can't comprehend this thought hence your justification for this behavior and inability to condemn it.

As I said I'm not going to discuss this any further as you've failed to comment on anything but snippets of my long posts while you're obviously singling out and arguing race based topics with untrue statements and a vilifying agenda at mind along with other specific posters.

DariusTraveller

9 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

you brought up the race issue, i merely made a comment on it.

No you guys did by implying untrue factuality. you made a comment on a comment I made about Amathyst views on Immigrant behavior, if you butt into a discussion and take sides then you're part of it. I explained how discrimination was a large cause of this anti-social behavior and you two simply brush it under the rug as en "excuse". By denying this proven fact you're deliberately insinuating that we're somehow "less developed" than you guys.. And that's racist.

and i have made no vilifying or disparaging remarks regarding iran or the middle east, feel free to prove otherwise..

Page 2. You said an untrue and degrading statement about Persian women, in other words a disparaging remark about the people and the people who made the country.

its the hair on the bodies that is the turn off.

What are you talking about

Dude you still can't use this as an example. The namechange in Iran/Persia and what happened over there is two completely different events with no similarities whatsoever.

Same as those Swedish girls that get raped by foreigners....Do you want me to post you links?

And this just about sums up you and your hidden agenda, sir. You took my comment completely out of context and now you're comparing my comment about simple discrimination with full on rape. I've lived in Sweden and you're talking as if the cute little Swedish blond girls can't walk out their doors without facing the risk of getting raped by an immigrant. Native swedes are very much overrepresented in the rape category so you're example just makes you look dumb.

You don't need to post your propaganda links. I've seen the photo of the girl who was raped and that was unfortunate for her but she was targeted randomly, it could have been anyone. Now I'm asking again... Why bring such a crime up against my comment? Bringing rape into a discussion about simple discrimination is just a low blow. You're obvious trying to overcompensate you're lack of rational reasoning by stigmatizing and vilifying people of color...

!!!! >.< !!!!

This discussion is getting pretty sad I don't like being ganged up on by a bunch of nationalist British guys who wish they were polish so I'm just going to GTFO of this forum now forever. Here I thought this was a real polish forum and it turns out to be a white nationalist forum... Talk about bait 'n' switch uh?

By the way.. Don't bother replying. This is my last post on this forum.

DariusTraveller

9 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

So the hatred is finally coming out. I thought only the Muslims were brainwashed.

I wasn't going to post but I had to comment on this one... how dare you? Are you a 5-year old child? DO NOT TAKE SNIPPETS OUT OF A PARAGRAPH IN MY POST AND TURN IT INTO ANTISEMITIC PROPAGANDA !!! I specifically emphasized that a large majority of the millions of Europeans who live in Israel today where frauds from the EU and Soviet who claimed Jewish ties with the intention of settling there to get away from the war in Europe. In the last paragraph I heavily emphasized that real ethnic Jews had every right to be in the Middle East and even have their own country.

Just to clarify.. I'm not Anti Israel and I welcome true Jews and I hope that they someday have a real country of their own without a bunch of warmongering Euro frauds amongst them. There's a reason Antiantisemitism is such a big problem in Israel today, which is the sheer amount of frauds among them who secretly hate on real Jews and drive their Nazi agenda forward on the back of Judaism.

WHY DID YOU INTENTIONALLY FAIL TO QUOTE ME ON THIS SECTION OF MY POST.. WAS IT JUST SO THAT YOU COULD MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A JEW-HATING WARMONGER? THAT'S SERIOUSLY IMMATURE.. GROW UP MAN.

We're not European, we're Jews - some of who came from Europe and others came from the middle east

There's been millions of Jews in Europe for several THOUSAND years with many of them being CONVERTS so I'm pretty sure that qualify them as EUROPEAN.. Just because they slap on a Jewish name tag that doesn't make them any less European. This brings me back to the millions of EU citizens and Soviet citizens who fraudulently claimed Jewish ties so they could escape the EU and Soviet wars. I say this again. Before the state of Israel was established there weren't that many ethnic Jews located in the Middle East.. So it's pretty obvious how Israel's population suddenly boasted over 7 Million. Simple fact is that fraudsters highjacked the Jewish ethnicity and religion in order to move to a brand new established state. Claiming otherwise is just denying the course of history.

We're not all over the middle east but only in Israel

ummmm...ok? keep telling yourself that. I say this again.. WHY DO YOU IGNORE THE THINGS I WRITE IN ORDER TO MAKE ME LOOK BAD ???.. Iran has the largest Jewish population in the Middle East and the 3rd largest after 1. Israel and 2. The United States. This day today Tehran has a strong Jewish community of over 25.000 Jews, they have a Jewish MP in the Iranian Parliament and they have pretty active community centers such as the Tehran Jewish Committee, official website: iranjewish.com

So what was that again about me being "brainwashed" and about Jews only being in Israel?... I can't hear you !

send me some factual data on Israelis raping women or else shutup.

How about the thousands of uninvestigated Palestinian abuse claims against Israeli troops? Or how about the videos flying about on the internet?.. I'm not going to send you any "facts" go google it yourself. You're fully aware that sexual abuse is everyday life in war and both sides are doing it in order to demoralize their enemy. Rape in war is reality and it happens every day. Denying it just makes you look dumb.... and don't tell me to shutup you big child.

Before you start your crusade to paint me as some kinda hater I say this again: I don't have a problem with Jews or Israel. I do however have a problem with the western fraudsters who give ethnic middle eastern Jews a bad name.

I didn't want to make this post but it's not cool to twist someones words and accuse them of being something their not. To all other posters. Stop taking snippets out of context out of my paragraphs just to vilify the things I say. doing so just makes all of you look CHILDISH.

I'm Out

DariusTraveller

10 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

I'm kinda tired of this so I'm just going to keep it short and neat with my last reply.

I hope you're not as dumb as you sound.. "European" is mainly used as a geographical term; in this sense a Russian can be "European" or "Asian" depending on the continent they were born/live on, but all ETHNIC Russians are considered Indo-European people and linguistically Slavic, not Asian. In other words, all ethnic Russians are of European descent as ethnicity does not change with geography. whether you acknowledge it or not there's currently atleast several million Europeans of European decent living in the Middle East all over. A child of European Immigrants born in Africa is still European, although he/she may be called "African" (or Afrikaner). Same applies to Europeans living in the Middle East. (Excluding Ethnic Jewish People who have been there for millenniums, happy?)

I'm not going to get into the rape thing any further as you denying it just makes you look like a sad case. There were performed many atrocities from both sides during the Israeli-Arab conflict spanning over decades upon decades. Rape along with many other horrible things were everyday life. As I said.. uninvestigated cases have not been looked into and obviously an Israeli solder will never be trailed for rape in an Israeli court.

Who we accept in our country is not your affair

You lost that right when you broke your agreement with the Arab Nations, British Mandate, U.N and extended your borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition. You people turned the two state solution into a full blown illegal occupation. Back in the day it was everyones affair, the British the U.S the UN and the Arab Nations. You people double crossed everyone and betrayed them by acting in contradiction to a prior agreement. Whether you personally acknowledge this or not is insignificant. This is what happened and you can pick up any history book and read about it.

I'm not going to continue this conversation as it's clear that your memory doesn't span any further than a couple of years and that you completely deny the course of events trough world history as if they never happened.... Or maybe you don't know the history? Seems like a common Israeli trait to me.. I don't know if they teach you to not think about prior events in school or if you people just selectively shut out event's that you don't like to hear about but it's clear to me how you think when you deny that there aren't any sexual abuse going on in war.

Also I'm not going to provide you sources to information you're not going to read anyway as you're too immature to acknowledge that both sides are just as bad and it's clear that you're set in your own mind.

DariusTraveller

10 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

since it proves that israelis find Arab women not worth raping

You can't "prove" that every Israeli soldier finds Arab women unattractive, You can't prove it in any way scientifically. I don't care how many surveys some half-assed professor decides to make. As I said, Rape and sexual abuse is a tool of war used in every war by a lot of soldiers. The only absurdity here is that you truly believe that every single Israeli soldier would pass up an opportunity to abuse a cute Palestinian girl... You can't be that naive?

but in Israel an accusation of rape by an israeli soldier would be in every newspaper and it would cause a public outcry and certainly be investigated.

The same way theres a public outcry against the big ass concentration camp (Gaza)? Or the Israeli medias fine job of investigating and reporting on war crimes? I have no doubt there would be a public outcry to clear the defendant of all charges. Israeli soldiers never do anything wrong right? that would be preposterous.. Israeli solders are like little baby angels !

There was no agreement with the arab nations. They rejected the UN partition

the Arabs did reject it but the agreement was still approved with uneven land going to Israel unfair much? You can call it what you want but grabbing and occupying a bunch of land makes you an illegal state.

You're looking at it from a bias and glorified viewpoint and I don't agree with everything you say. This can go on forever so I'm just gonna leave the conversation at that. Our country is luckily not Arab so I think my views are neutral albeit harsh. I'm not going to continue this as you've now repeatedly attacked me on a personal level and questioned my character several times.

DariusTraveller

11 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

THIS is why I'm sick and tired to hear about the holocaust day in and day out, in our newspapers.

Word.... God forbid anyone from denying the holocaust but it's perfectly fine for Israel to run Gaza like a concentration camp without anyone batting an eye.

This is ludicrous!

Well at least you're admitting that you're not perfect now? Big step forward. We're not saying that all Israeli soldiers rape but some soldiers inevitably do and some soldiers do much worse things than just rape. time served in the IDF is a rite of passage for all young Israelis, and is accepted as a normal part of growing up right? Israeli society does not always see the human side of Palestinians. Israelis meet them for the first time during military service, and this perspective is from that of an occupier and an enemy, leaving you with an untrue impression of them. As for as I know Israelis aren't allow to go into the occupied territories except soldiers.

Now don't get me wrong but this highly militarized society along with a heavily subhuman view of everyday Palestinians is a huge breeding ground for crimes. DariuszTelka already pointed out the huge problem Israel has with human trafficking and the people involved, Israel is a small country with a small population so those numbers are staggering.

It's inevitable that an x amount of soldiers are involved in this industry and that they're profiting greatly from it either directly or by being on a payroll. I don't see why it's such an unthinkable thought that Israeli soldiers could rape a Palestinian girl and then let her go or maybe sell her into the sextrade industry. It's already happening in the thousands to Eastern European girls so why should Palestinians be an exception? I mean Israeli soldiers don't exactly have a reputation for treating the Palestinian civilians with dignity and respect. The Eastern European girls don't just come from nowhere. They come into the country from the border so is it THAT unthinkable that Israeli soldiers would want to "test-drive" the girls before they let the human traffickers slip through their fingers?

Things like these happen all over the world even in well established countries who aren't in war. Whether it's rape or just a boob-grace doesn't matter, sexual abuse is sexual abuse. You can't possibly claim that you know all Israeli soldiers sexual preferences and you can't deny that there might be an Israeli soldier somewhere who's keeping a Palestinian or eastern European sex-slave in the basement just for fun. It doesn't mean that it's not a crime just because the crime doesn't happen in the field.

Anyways I'm not saying this to accuse Israeli soldiers of anything but just think about it rationally for a minute. Israeli soldiers or not. They're still human and they make mistakes, therefore they can't be the exception.

To claim that a nation fully plagarized your things just because of a few similarities is very ethnocentric and uneducated sorry to say.

You're right, maybe I overexaggerated a bit. Everyone plagiarized technological breakthroughs from each-other in one way or another. I wrote it the way I did because sometimes I get pretty frustrated when ALL the credit goes to the Greek empire while the Persian empires is just swept under the rug as if it never existed. This probably has something to do with the European superiority taught in western school but that's another story.

When I was talking about discrimination and tension it was more concentrated to Northern and Western Europe. I know that Persian and Arab immigrants do much better socially in the south than in the west mainly because of our similarities. I used to attend an all native private Swedish school for a couple of years when I was a child and I was the ONLY person of color among 500 blond haired, blue eyed youngsters. Needless to say everyday was my only personal version of the movie Fight Club. I dealt with it but after a few years It got pretty pointless. I have no doubt that these kinda tensions would be much much less or even none existent in the south than what I experienced in the far north. When I'm in Italy or Spain I don't run unto any kind of discrimination which is noticeable because I completely blend it, even as a tourist people would presume I spoke Italian or Spanish.

:
once polish forums has you, then you can never escape

Lol, I keep telling myself not to come back and read the replies.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Not true at all.

I'm not talking about Israeli Arabs but Palestinian Arabs, like the ones living in Gaza and the West Bank. Anyways I might be wrong about the territory travel ban as this is something I was told by Israeli teenagers who have refused military service and been jailed for it. My point is that Israel seems like a totalitarian military state and either you're with them or against them. It's still undeniable that Palestinians have been either killed or driven from their land while forced to live in refugee camps in neighboring countries in the millions. As I said I'm not against Jews but I am against Zionism.

Palestinians are treated inferior to Israelis everyday and it's visible everywhere. Whether you want to admit it or not is not significant but building a 400+ mile apartheid says it all without words. I still think what Israel has done is fundamentally wrong. The amount of Palestinian killed is ridiculous compared to Israeli casualties. I'm not saying more Israeli deaths would even things out or solve anything but the way you guys are handling this is wrong. building a wall around the problem so that you don't have to look at it won't solve anything. This is not just me saying this but the international community is also saying it. From the outside it seems like Israelis don't give a flying freck about Palestinian blood which is most likely the truth. I don't know how anyone can justify Israeli snipers shooting kids throwing rocks, This has happened many times before in every possible scenario and yet the same soldier is still on the job. All I'm trying to say is that Israel is one of the most powerful states in the middle east and you guys have a responsibility. But instead it just seem like you divide and exterminate people

I think it's fundamentally wrong to systematically kill and drive people off land that is theirs as much as it's yours. I think it's fundamentally wrong to put an M16 in the hands of a nationalist Israeli teenager and then expect him to be objective before he fires his gun at civilians. And last but not least I think it's wrong of you guys not to build a joint state with the Palestinians. I want to believe that someday you people can live as neighbors in a state that is as much theirs as it's yours but the way Israel is running things now just shows the true intent of the people in power. I'm not saying all Israelis are like this but whoever is running this circus won't stop until the very last few hundred Palestinians die in a reign of fire in an attempt to make their last stand for an independent state.

I don't know how much you agree to this but you can't be that blinded as to say that it isn't what it looks like and that something entirely different is going on.

And btw, I don't live in Iran right now but if I did I would still say these things, Iran isn't some backwards desert nation without decent living conditions. I can watch pretty much any western channel I want back home and I can access the Internet without issues so people aren't as uninformed as you might think. I form my opinions solely on what I read and see, some of the things you've said is slightly different from what I've personally heard from Israeli's that I've met. Anyways they seemed pretty informed and some of them had served the forces more than once so I believe the bleak stories they told me. I can't see why they would lie about their own country?

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Darius, we all know that that cannot be a reality. Israel cannot agree to a 2-state solution due to how its offer around Camp David was treated. The Oslo Accords were broken by Arafat all too often. Clinton, Mitchell, Biden and Obama all talk about it to keep the ball rolling but it won't become a reality to the satisfaction of many for a VERY long time, if at all. Netanyahu won't stand for it.

You're right but As I said, I'm against Zionism and the policy for establishing a national homeland for Jews. They've been there, done that and look how it went. We all know what the Nazi's did to them but the people running this illegal circus state should not be allowed to have a get-out-of-jail-free-card for persecuting another people just because it happened to them. The only right thing to do is to establish one state with a new name, one parliament where Israeli and Palestinian officials sit side by side, tear down the apartheid wall and abolish all borders, give equal rights to all citizens of this new state. This new state should of course have controlled immigration or a complete immigration ban for a very long time until things settle..... Is that so impossible? I think not.

They need to learn how to live together as equals. Many of the problems today exist because people have a mindset where Arab Muslim blood is considered the cheapest blood spilled. Winston Churchill used to refer to Arabs as "dogs" which pretty much explains why the British didn't object to the establishment of Israel or even attempt to dismantle the state by force which they could have easily done. It all just seems to convenient.

Both sides claim they have the right to be there but both sides want to exclude each other from certain areas. The only solution is to unite them under one single state or just wait for one side to exterminate the other.... We all know who's winning the silent extermination right now.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

I agree. We don't systematically kill palestinians. There is no policy to do that. We do however fight armed groups that fight us, as any country would.
Again, you have assumptions that are either completely baseless or highly exaggerated, and you're basing you opinions on that.

I have to disagree.. There's no official policy for the U.S being in Iraq for Oil either but we all know that it's the unofficial policy right now. Systematically driving people off their land while giving them less rights, inferior living conditions and inferior healthcare compared to Israeli's, while controlling them with brute force is systematic killing in some form.

There's an easy answer for that. The arabs would outnumber the Jews at some point simply by encouraging immigration from the arab world that surrounds us (25 countries with a combined population of 358 million people). If that would happen, Jews would not be allowed in anymore. This scenario would lead to a civil war far bloodier than what's happening now.

This isn't a likely scenario, This new state should be for Palestinian Arabs and Jews only, A total immigration ban from anywhere would divert this scenario. It's not as hard as people make it out to be.

That's called Leftist defeatism. It happens in the best of countries.

They seemed pretty patriotic to me, anyways I can't see how a soldier can be leftist in any from, it's against everything a leftist believes in .

By the way, there are many Persian Jews prominent in Israel, such as Shaul Mofaz, former chief of staff, Rita Yahan-Farouz a very popular singer. You can listen to her here:

Didn't know that, I'll check it out later.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Gaza being given to the Palestinians? This suggests otherwise.

Exactly. Controlling a group of people with force solves nothing. Gaza is probably the worst place to be in Israel or even the entire Middle East right now. 1.6 Million people cramped up in a very small space with people living in poor conditions with no identity papers and no hope for the future. Of course the people of Gaza will join these "armed groups" as they're the only hope on the table. There's a reason that Gaza is living and breathing Hamas right now. Israel certainly hasn't helped the people of Gaza one bit. Imprisoning them like the Nazi's imprisoned Jews in Auschwitz won't solve anything.

There's a lot of people in Gaza and they will only become more ignorant, grow angrier and more hostile as the years go by. I don't know how long Israel is going to keep this up but imprisoning these people is not the way to do anything right.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

This is a politician from my home country

Ahh George Galloway :D I've met him once in the U.K. I watch his show on PressTV every week. Love the way he speaks the truth as he sees it and the way he schools the ignorant callers with a firm comeback every single time :D If more politicians were like him we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

He is not anti-Semitic, he is just pro human rights.

Yeah I know, He makes that pretty clear whenever someone accused him of being anti-semitic. He has said several times that he's against the "illegal settler state of Israel" and against "murderous Zionists". I agree with pretty much everything he says except his views on Iran. He seems to avoid answering specific questions on Iranian politics too often, but that obviously has something to do with him hosting his show from PressTV headquarters which is an Iranian state TV-channel... I'm definitely going to watch the video also, haven't seen it before.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Well he says he doesn't believe that there's no such thing as free press in Iran which is a lie. He solely base this opinion on the fact that they let him answer anti Iranian questions on the show. Obviously Mullahs are just using him to boost a positive image of Iran in the West. Sadly enough he doesn't seem aware that it's pretty difficult to get access to PressTV within Iran. Whenever he's asked about journalist being locked up and questioned as political prisoners he just says "I'm not aware of that" or "I personally don't believe that". But of course he knows that it's happening. PressTV is giving him free coverage and they're paying him, so obviously he's not going to poop where he eats which is fair enough.

He doesn't believe Britain should join a war against regime change either which I disagree with. He claims that if the US/UK start to bomb the 80 nuclear sites all over Iran that they'll strike back with a possible full on attack in London. It's a possible scenario but I doubt it. My opinion is of course bias because of the U.K backed coup d'état back in 1953 where I believe the U.K still has a responsibility this day today to correct their mistake. And his opinion is bias because he's completely anti war which is fair enough.

DariusTraveller

14 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

But there is an israeli expression, adapted from Arabic, that says "the dogs will bark but the caravan will keep moving". You keep on with your ignorance. You keep barking. Meanwhile, we'll keep building our country. The best revenge is living a good life. And that we will do.

Well I wouldn't be against it if you guys could figure out how to do it right but obviously with the situation the state of Israel is in today just shows what a massive failure it has been. The Nazi's build an empire on spilled Jewish blood and now you're building a Zionist empire on spilled Palestinian blood with tactics right out of the Nazi handbook.

The best revenge? What revenge? Revenge for what the Nazi's and Europeans did to your people? Why should the Arabs suffer for someone else's mistakes? How many Palestinian lives will it cost to finish building your country? How much spilled Palestinian blood is needed?

What you call "outrageous assumptions" the rest of the world calls reality. This isn't 100 years ago, these days we have video cameras, pictures, the internet etc. As Seanus demonstrated, within seconds you can pull up videos of IDF soldiers abusing Palestinians just because they can. Just because they're Arabs.. Or barking "dogs" as you so racistly put it.

As for "living a good life".. I don't know whether to laugh or cry? An average salary of $28 Thousand USD isn't exactly the good life. Specially when most of the wealth comes from foreign western nations who support the genocide of the Palestinians just so they can create chaos in the Middle East, divide people and loot their natural resources.

Israel is nothing without the Zionist ultra conservative Christians running the U.S and if you haven't noticed the U.S is pretty much bankrupt and well on it's way turning into a 3rd world nation.

You guys or living on borrowed time...

DariusTraveller

15 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Israeli prosperity? You've got to be joking. Palestinians were doing just fine on their own before you guys came along and caused havoc. Back in the old days Jews were welcomed but after a while you guys would systematically keep Palestinians out of the job market by not hiring them which lead to hostility and is one of the main reasons that everything escalated to the levels it did when Jews first started coming in mass numbers. As I mentioned earlier, you along with many many other Israelis tend to have a very short term memory that only goes back a few years... Look at how much the Palestinians have lost over the last 60 years, they certainly haven't gained one bit.

Time to step in and protect the Palestinian people from brutal assaults. They did it in Kosovo so why not in areas like Rafah? It's like a concentration camp and that can't go on.

Because Arab blood is the cheapest there is. I lost count of how many 9/11 ceremonies people held for the 3000 NYC victims but have anyone done just as much for the 600.000 dead Iraqis? No.. How about the 1800 Hurricane Katrina victims where a majority of them were black, did anyone care? No.. People talk more vividly about dessert over dinner than the 200 Iraqis announced dead on their TV running in the background.

As long as it's Arab blood and as long as it's not spilled in their backyards then nobody will care. As the Israeli poster so finely put it, the caravan will keep moving................................................Over dead Palestinian bodies.

DariusTraveller

16 Mar 2010

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Anyway, back to Poland as there are other threads for this. How long were you in Poland for again, Darius? Poland really grants a lot of freedoms to certain groups, esp Vietnamese. You can feel relatively free here, don't you think?

Been there for two weeks, on two different trips, one week each. I can't really say whether or not the country grants freedoms to minorities as I was only a tourist there. I wouldn't say it's as free as other countries but it all depends on who you are. Personally I wouldn't move there as the salaries tend to be bad compared to other EU countries, I know a guy who works there and he was only making 5500 zloty a month which isn't much really, so he was somewhat limited. It all depends on how much dough you make, the more you make the more freedom you have to shut out all the bad things around you. If I was rich and didn't have to work I would move there instantly to live like a king for dirt cheap.