News / Anty-Polish v column is located in White House [88]


No, it is not. But it is rather simplistic to dislike a whole nation/religion/race.

If I would say (mind you, I don't - it's just an example) I don't like Poles cause they are lazy, thieves, murderers, rapists, are living on hand-outs, you would be all up in arms, wouldn't you? So how come that this doesn't go both ways? Or can't you see that it is exactly the same?

News / Anty-Polish v column is located in White House [88]



See ... all up in arms ... I rest my case. Now, do you see there is absolutely no difference whatsoever: either you saying all Jews are crap or me saying all Poles are crap (and I even said in my first post "mind you, I don't - it's just an example") :D

News / Don't go to Poland ... because you could end up coming back in a coffin [313]


I have never ever heard such drivel before in my entire life. For your information, sweetheart ... the Olympics start on July 27th. EURO 2012 will end on July 1st. Even if people are fed up watching television, need to be operated on their hemorrhoids because they've been sitting too much on the sofa, they still have 26 days to recuperate and get ready for the Olympics.

You must be a very sad person indeed ... .

Real Estate / What do you pay in rent/mortgage in Poland? [144]

PLN 1.500 a month for 67m2, PLN 220 a month for water, electricity, etc.

NW Wroclaw.

UK, Ireland / Crying Polish truck driver on British roads is Internet hit [269]


... where, if he had come across the wrong type of cop, he would have been tasered or even shot because he was wielding a "dangerous weapon" at a police officer. In my opinion the guy can count his blessings for being given a 30 pound fine and told to move on. The hard shoulder is no place to peel potatoes, no matter how many lorry drivers were in front of him or behind him.

He says he's been a truck driver for twenty years or so and has been travelling all over Europe. His vast experience as a truck driver should have made him wiser. The hard shoulder is a very dangerous place to be, anywhere in the world.

- survivegroup.org/download_files/Leaflet%2022-06-07.pdf
- safermotoring.co.uk/safetyonhardshoulder.html
- youtube.com/watch?v=TjxYUnrbDt0

Life / Cost of living in Wroclaw (rent price too) [119]


They won't provide you with one in the initial stage or in a later stage for that matter ... simply never.


Two room apartment about PLN 1.500 a month. Add about 200 in services and utilities.

PLN 50 a day for two people for groceries gets you a long way.

PLN 100 a month for internet and cable (if you want to have all the foreign stations you can have over here (you might want to consider skyping your daughter in the US).

PLN 90 for a monthly ticket for the buses and trams.

PLN 104,11 a month for Partner Medical Package Plus (unlimited visits to a specialist - limited is PLN 81,96 - IBM deal with MediCover).

Buses that are going from the bus stop near IBM (Szkocka) are the 126, 134 and 136. Have a look on wroclaw.jakdojade.pl/?locale=en (then tab "Schedules") to see where the buses take you and therefore where you'd have to look for an apartment.

Good luck.

Life / Cost of living in Wroclaw (rent price too) [119]

Yes I am ... I will ping you on Sametime

News / Exorcist monthly goes on sale in Poland [17]

At the risk of being lynched by Polonius, but is there any difference with this -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcism_in_the_Catholic_Church#When_an_exorcism_is_needed

Some go to the church, other "seek help" in a "private practice" ... :S. Both are questionable, I think.

Travel / Driving to poland from the west midlands [11]


So check this out - whether you use a TomTom or not, your satnav cannot warn you about the position of fixed or mobile speed cameras while you are driving in France. If your satnav has a Speed Camera service and you continue to use the service, you risk a fine of up to €1500.

uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5560/locale/en_gb

News / There's still hope for Poland! [19]


is normally a euphemism for a journalist saying "I have nothing to say, but I am going to do it anyway - the hell with journalistic ethics".

Life / General questions for those who have chosen to make Poland their home [32]


Got married here.


I was a complete newbie, knew absolutely nothing. Now I can get by, but lack seriously in the grammar department. The lady in my local shop still gives me what I want and seems to find it kind of charming.


A world of difference.


The "normal" things ... trying to get registered, tax number, PESEL, post offices, railway stations, zameldowanie.


Some do, some don't. Just small little annoyances, like driver behaviour, behaviour of people in queues (always someone who stands next to you to ask something to the lady trying to help you, no privacy, people standing so close to you you feel like a penguin in a penguin crèche)


No, am trying to find a job somewhere else. No, I don't, but now that the marriage is over I can't see why I should stay.


I get up at 0650 in the morning, go to work (start around 0800), work until 1800 or so, go shopping, go back home, cook, tidy up, etc. Then in the weekend I sometimes have to work, or I go into town or I go somewhere in Poland or abroad.

Off-Topic / Rotten West vs. Innocent Poland [25]

The case of Megan has nothing to do with the rotten west. It has everything to do with questionable behaviour of one person, the teacher in question. And that questionable behaviour is not running away with someone half his age, but deserting and humiliating his wife this way. I can't even start to imagine how the poor woman must feel. The guy is an adult and should have known better and as a teacher even more so.

Megan is almost 16 (age of consent) and she knew exactly what she was doing. The girl is not missing, she is just a run-away.There is not ONE little piece of evidence of her being groomed, or kicking and screaming when they left the country. The fact that her mother confiscated her mobile, was the proverbial drop. Unfortunately, the British police had to exacerbate everything by issuing an international arrest warrant.

It would have been better for the two to wait a couple of months until Megan turned 16. Then all this circus wouldn't have been all over the press. In France, the legal age of consent is 15, so for the French law they did nothing wrong. If they had only waited a little longer, then all this wouldn't even be a news item. Now both of them have pretty much ruined their lives - they'll probably be picked up and forced to return with their tails between their legs. He will probably be sent to jail for a long time, will never teach again or hold any other job for that matter, cause the guy is sadly a "celebrity" now. And she will be in the spotlight of the media for several months (or even years) to come.

The fact that the girl grew up without a father and probably therefore was in search of some father figure, didn't really help either. All in all a sad story, with ruined lives all around.

Off-Topic / Rotten West vs. Innocent Poland [25]

Old news (Feb 2010) !! Come on ... is that all you can come up, pawian ;) ? I can't see why you are trying to stir things up here. I am sure that we are able to find articles in Polish newspapers that would make the majority of us cringe. Do articles like that mean that the West or Poland are rotten to the core? That's quite a generalisation, isn't it?

So if we come across an article where a Polish man has murdered his entire family, then all Poles are murderers, right? Or when we read about some American cook cooking his wife for three days, then all American women should steer away from cooks in America? Or when we read about one radical priest then all priests are radicals?

Well, pawian, I have to say, it makes life much easier seeing everything in black and white and grossly generalising everything, but with posts like this one would be inclined to question your honesty, maybe even be inclined to think you are some kind of troll who likes to stir things up.

Food / How natural is food in Poland? [25]


Not too difficult .../wiki/E_number

Law / Fast divorce in Poland? [9]

About half a year (own experience).

Law / Fast divorce in Poland? [9]


Exactly my case ... mutual decision, no hassle. It took 6 months ... .

UK, Ireland / Polish in Uk are some of the hardest working and nice people [37]


Now not wishing in anyway to add more fuel to the fire, but how do you explain this -
millenniumindicators.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm
This is actually the UN, not some obscure source. So it is not difficult to see why the OP claimed PL was in Eastern Europe.

Life / Bishops defend Polish family [105]

There has been research done about the relationship between marriage and low fertility levels. And although the bishops are right when they talk about a connection between these two before the 1990's, it has been shown that there is no longer any relationship after the 1990's.

Have a look here -
ssc.upenn.edu/~hpkohler/papers/Low-fertility-in-Europe-final.pdf
- then page 12:
" In summary, the above analyses reinforce the argument that the emergence of lowest-low fertility during the 1990s has been associated with fundamental shifts in the relationships between fertility and marriage. In particular, there has been an increasing disconnection between marriage patterns and fertility levels after the emergence of lowest-low fertility in the 1990s in cross-sectional analyses of European countries, and marriage formation and dissolution are no longer important predictors of national fertility levels in cross-sectional analyses of European countries during the late 1990s (see also Heuveline et al. 2003). Moreover, the above analyses show that the aggregate cross-country relationship between partnership formation/dissolution and levels of fertility has become quite indeterminate in the late 1990s, which is strikingly different from the strong relations between fertility and union formation and dissolution that prevailed 20 years earlier."

There are also some graphs on page 13 of the report.

So what are the reasons:

- page 23 - the lowest-low fertility countries (...) provide highly insufficient child-care support
- page 24 - The labor market is also relatively inflexible in terms of possibilities for part-time work or re-entering the labor force after an absence due to child-birth

- page 24 - high integration of young adults in their parents' home and extended family may even discourage union formation and fertility (Dalla Zuanna 2001)
- page 24 - The moderate and very low quantum in Eastern Europe is in part determined by similar institutional factors hindering high parity progression probabilities. In addition, many of the pronatalist-or at least family friendly-policies in CEE countries have discontinued after 1990 (Macura 2000), and the economic crisis has deteriorated particularly the high integration of women in the labor market. Furthermore, Eastern Europe is characterized by a persistence of economic insecurity throughout the life-course. (Yes, yes, yes, I know, it says "Eastern Europe")

- page 24 - In Eastern Europe, the uncertain long-term outlook regarding unemployment, the housing situation and economic recovery implies that uncertainty affects not only the timing of the first birth but also the transition to the second child and higher-parity children.

- etc
- etc
- etc

In other words, nothing much about civic partnerships - nothing at all in fact.

Life / Bishops defend Polish family [105]

Polonius - it wasn't me who started to bring in science; it was actually you:


.
I just showed you it wasn't. Please make up your mind.

Life / Bishops defend Polish family [105]

But the reason WHY PL is on the 209th position has nothing to do with civic partnerships. So the letter is factually wrong.

Life / Bishops defend Polish family [105]



I hope you see the difference, Polonius. The church wants to make you believe that the declining birth rate is because of civic partnerships, yet scientific data proves otherwise.