Life / I was cursing Poland daily, then returned home, but now thinking of going back.. [39]

What amuses me is people who claim a country is great on the basis of having spent some holidays there. News flash: when you are holidaying it is possible to have a good time in Kazachstan, Siberia or anywhere else really. Try living and working in Poland for a couple of years then write another post with your reflections.

It is a country that cares little or none for it's citizens, electing to structure it's laws so as to keep the majority on or just above the poverty line. It is a country with a healthcare system that fails the most vulnerable - children, the elderly and those of a low socio-economic status. It is a country that discourages free enterprise by placing impossibly high taxes and levies on business owners and employers - creating a huge and corrupt black market for employment. It is a country that continually fails children by electing to take them away from strugling parents and dump them in violence-ruled orphanages in preference to helping families stay together. It is a country that controlls trade via bribes and mafia connections. It is a country that swiftly disposes of politicians who will not walk the line.

I could go on and on if you are interested, and give you plenty of hair-raising examples to illustrate each of the points above. I've spent several years living in Poland on and off and had first-hand contact with ministries, customs, healthcare and education. What I have seen sometimes keeps me awake at night. Life is too short to spend it in Poland. Never again. I still own property there and even that will continue to be administered (and eventually sold) by proxy as I have no time to waste on ever travelling there again. There are better places in the world to see.

Law / I am thinking of opening a office (LLC) in Poland! [7]

Don't waste your time unless you are a masochist or enjoy throwing your money out the window daily.
If you do proceed however, please return to this post in 12 months and share your experiences.

Life / I was cursing Poland daily, then returned home, but now thinking of going back.. [39]

delphiandomine - you're completely wrong about what I was doing there. Running 2 companies actually, lucklily I did not lock myself into an impossible contract, and got out as soon as the novelty wore off.

magdalena - grizzly details huh? How about parents being told their 2-year olds eyelids were going to be sewn shut because staff had no time to apply artificial tears at night and hospital policy was not to allow parents to stay with their children at night. Or the parents of a child facing years of rehabilitation following an accident (and ventilated for several hours each day to relieve the lungs) being told that they should consider making themselves another child and forgetting about this one - the problem wasn't excessive as power shortages often happened at the hospital and generators don't always kick in on time... Another set of parents unable to keep watch over their premmie at night (again not allowed) returned in the morning to find that a cardiac arrest wasn't noticed by the staff for 20 minutes and their child is now a vegetable. Away from health and into a Warsaw customs office: an small importer who used several years savings to bring in a container of stock to turn his life around brings his carefully compiled and faultless documents and is told that unless he pays 25,000PLN to share amongst 5 officers he will not have his stock released. He does not have the money but struggles to beg and borrow it, which takes him 2 weeks. When he returns with it it has become 40,000. He cannot pay and customs send the container to the Czech Republic for 'utilization' (to be destroyed, Poland does not have a plant for destruction of the stock in question). He is sent a bill for 96,000PLN and hangs himself a week later. Shall I go on?

Don't get me wrong - I met my share of great people in Poland, including great doctors, dentists. My kids used the public school system which was much better than a private school we first tried there (though the program is light years behind what they now enjoy in Australia, not so much in terms of content but in method), and they certainly benefited from experiencing another culture first hand. I certainly have good examples of life there also. The problem is that the bad examples are so bad that they shouldn't have any place in 21st century society. And that is what I said NO to by moving out. Unfortunatelly it won't be a completely closed chapter until I can sell my property there - another 2 year wait for taxation purposes.