Because my family was poor, and the US Military offers a program called GJ Bill which pays for your college after 4 years of active duty in the most horrible places that you could ever imagine.
Aha, the absent generation may be better as the lost can always be traced :)
Seanus, its the school teacher coming out in you, absent may turn up tomorrow. lol
On a serious note, I read somewhere the ' lost generation ' was first used to describe a generation of writers leaving the USA.
The "Lost Generation" defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s. World War I seemed to have destroyed the idea that if you acted virtuously, good things would happen. Many good, young men went to war and died, or returned home either physically or mentally wounded (for most, both), and their faith in the moral guideposts that had earlier given them hope, were no longer valid...they were "Lost."
Seanus, its the school teacher coming out in you, absent may turn up tomorrow. lol
Just to let you know, we're not mentally wounded in any shape or form and we're doing just fine. We're not lost AND as a matter of fact some of us are more successful than you. Which is kinda sad because you're much older than us, and you thought you had it made. Stop patronizing us like we're some kind of crazy runaway livestock.
Poland's lost generation?? What is this supposed to mean? You can't just leave out a generation.
Warszawski is referring to the fact that Poland is losing it's best and brightest to a Brain Drain. And Havok is insisting that the Brain Drain is occurring due to Poland's Social and Cultural system of not allowing people to succeed. From the posts I think that the problem is elitism. Only certain people are allowed to succeed, kinda like the British Class System with a Polish twist. Again what I gleam from the posts is unlike the British Class System with it's birthright, in Poland we have elitism based on good grades in school.
To add my two cents to the melee' (and it's only two cents), Poland cannot expect to build a successful society on cheap wages. The General Population needs disposable income to help drive the economy annnnd success has to be open to all regardless of social standing or education. Or...it won't work and you'll continue to see a "Brain Drain". Most billionaires in the USofA are college dropouts (Microsoft Bill Gates,Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook's Marc Zuckerberg, etc.).
Poland's lost generation? Not the first time and not the last.. Seventy something years ago it was like this:
Czesław Miłosz: Pieśń Levallois
(Baraki dla bezdomnych w Levallois-Perret, 1935)
Boże, miej litość nad Levallois, Wejrzyj pod dymem zatrute kasztany, Daj chwilę szczęścia słabym i pijanym, Dłoń twoja mocna w opiece ich ma.
Przez cały dzień kradli, złorzeczyli, Teraz na pryczach rany swoje liżą, I kiedy noc zawisła na Paryżu, Oni twarz w dłoniach zbójeckich ukryli: Boże, miej litość nad Levallois.
Oni za twoim przykazaniem szli, Zbierali zboże, węgiel w ziemi darli I nieraz w bratniej obmyli się krwi Szepcząc imiona Jezusa i Marii.
W knajpach ich bełkot nieprzytomny rósł, A to ich pieśń ku twojej była chwale. We wnętrzach ziemi, na otchłaniach mórz, W pyle ginęli, mrozie i upale.
To oni ciebie nad sobą dźwigali, Ich ręka twoją wyrzeźbiła twarz. Więc na kapłanów wiernych wejrzeć racz, Daj im uciechy jadła i pościeli.
Znamiona grzechu i choroby zdejm, Swobodnych wprowadź w podwoje Sodomy, Wieńcami kwiatów niech ozdobią domy, Niech żyć umieją i umierać lżej.
Ciemność. Milczenie. Most daleki gra. Wiatr w Kainowych drzewach dmie strumieniem. Nad pustką ziemi, nad ludzkim plemieniem, Nie ma litości nad Levallois.
This part of the forum is English language only. If you don't provide a translation, this post may be moved.
The translation below is not a perfect one:
O God, have mercy on Levallois, Look under these chestnut trees poisoned with smoke, Give a moment of joy to the weak and the drunk, O God, have mercy on Levallois.
All day long they stole and cursed, Now they lie in their bunks and lick their wounds, And while the darkness thickens over Paris They hide their faces in their thieving hands. O God, have mercy on Levallois.
They followed your commandment every day: They harvested wheat, tore coal from the earth. And often they drenched themselves in their brothers' blood Murmuring the names of Jesus and Mary.
Their insane jabber welled from the taverns. That was their song in your praise. They perished in mines, in the snow, in the heat, In mud and the depths of he seas.
It was they who lifted you above themselves. Their hands sculpted your face. So deign to look on your faithful priests, Give them the joys of table and bed.
Take from them the stigmas of illness and sin. The immodest lead into Sodom's gates. Let them adorn their houses with garlands. Let them learn how to live and die more lightly.
that the Brain Drain is occurring due to Poland's Social and Cultural system of not allowing people to succeed. From the posts I think that the problem is elitism. Only certain people are allowed to succeed, kinda like the British Class System with a Polish twist. Again what I gleam from the posts is unlike the British Class System with it's birthright, in Poland we have elitism based on good grades in school.
In Poland's case it is complicated because Poles have the third highest IQ in Europe it is colossal waste to have so many brilliant minds occupied in low level menial jobs.
in Poland we have elitism based on good grades in school.
Actually, this isn't true. Grades in school aren't really meaningful - even university grades hardly matter. I know several directors of large companies in Poland - and many of them didn't do particularly well in university.
But what all of them have in common is an incredible ability to network with other people - Poland still has the "nomeklatura" system, just in a different guise - and I don't think it's any surprise that well-connected parents tend to produce children who get ahead in life. Heck, even I'm benefitting - I've received several offers of work based on reputation alone.
to network with other people - Poland still has the "nomeklatura" system,
Yes,these networks are a plague.Here also suffocating everything creating monopolies.All the state cares about is how to secure the interests of the multiconnected and when they fail it is due to ''everyone's fault'' they try to pass the risk and responsibility to as many as possible with them grabbing only the benefits.Now most have understood the situation and really do not move.Stalemate man.You chose it suck it now.
Moreover they have the illusion that they can rely on counterbalancing factors like immigrants.In reality they are blocked.
In Poland's case it is complicated because Poles have the third highest IQ in Europe it is colossal waste to have so many brilliant minds occupied in low level menial jobs.
--- Oi, how very compassionate you are toward those poor wretched Poles. Feeling such great "pity" for the Poles lifts up your own self-esteem, doesn't it? And how about the Rumanians - what jobs do they do, what IQ they possess, is there any waste - how big? - involving their brilliant minds? You're Rumanian, aren't you, "southern"?
Trying to make it in London or Dublin is the solution chosen most often, because it is so easy. They don't try to change the country – they leave it to rot.
--- It seems the "solution" isn't that easy nowadays - due to the hate propaganda and hating attitudes against the Poles, especially in Britain. Numerous Poles have come back home already. It seems many more may follow when they experience painfully the foreign Polonophobic racism, which seems so widespread not only in England, but in the whole of the UE, and lose their delusions about the idyllic united Europe where also the Poles are allegedly equal, accepted and respected. Those delusional ideas have been hammered into them by, among others, the newspaper you quote - the strongly left-wing Gazeta Wyborcza (run, among others, by the descendants of communist and stalinist activists, right?). So when the young Poles wake up from their delusions about the EU paradise, they may start appreciating their country and traying to claim it back from those who are ruling it the way they do.
because it will spectacularily tumble down into the place Greece is at the moment??? if the economy is growing why the tax revenues are falling?
well going with this logic England or France etc can tumble down into the Greeces place too,yes everything can happen but it doesnt seem likely, and I was rather thinking about the lifestyle and culture of the "West"[that I didnt like] rather than the economy
Those delusional ideas have been hammered into them by, among others, the newspaper you quote - the strongly left-wing Gazeta Wyborcza
Here is just the beginning of an article from the last Gazeta Wyborcza about the homeless Poles in London: Blondyna na wabia
Noc. Ewa pochylona nad laptopem w starej dwupiętrowej londyńskiej kamienicy. Męczy wniosek by wytargować parę funtów od tutejszego samorządu. Z dołu woła Janusz, były alkoholik, albo Tomasz, kiedyś dziecko polskich poprawczaków. Ewa wkłada sweter, dżinsy, upina włosy, by schować urodę. Bierze chłopaków idzie na patrol po nocnym Londynie. Kilku Polaków grilluje w zaułku. Ewa widzi skwierczące szczurze truchła. Upewnia się, że pourywali ogony nasiąknięte naturalną strychniną...
Night. In an old two-story building, Ewa leans over her laptop slogging her guts out with an application to gain a couple of pounds from the local authorities. From below, Janusz is calling out, an ex-alcoholic and Tomasz, once an inmate of the Polish community home. Ewa is putting a sweater and jeans on, pins up her hear and hides her looks. She togather with the lads sets off on night patrol over the streets of London. A few Poles grill in a backstreet. Ewa can see the sizzling sounds of fried rat carcasses; she makes sure that they have torn off tails that are naturally soaked in strychnine.
What would your quote prove? Would it prove that the Gazeta Wyborcza hasn't been encouraging young Poles to go work in Britain? Would it prove it hasn't been promoting the idea of a united Europe paradise where the Poles are equal, accepted and respected?
Do you mean I've been claiming the GW is "the main culprit behind the whole business"? Where? Then again, isn't the Gazeta Wyborcza one of the prominent culprits (in Poland) behind the business of egging on the Poles to leave Poland and work abroad? Of course, the main culprit, concerning Poles going to work in Britain, seem to be the British themselves. Didn't they strongly encourage the Poles to come and work in Britain, didn't they massively recruit the Poles? I remember one of the recruiting fellows bragging the British will grab away all our young people. They dragged the Poles in, exploited them, and then, having used them up, have been vilifying them, depicting them as those who have ripped off the British. Outrageous, psychopathic, unforgivable.
They dragged the Poles in, exploited them, and then, having used them up, have been vilifying them, depicting them as those who have ripped off the British. Outrageous, psychopathic, unforgivable.
Could the Poles resist the temptation or see right through it and say no thanks? Does the whole story make the young Poles wiser and not to go to Germany, where the situation seems to be the same and possibly worse? And what choice do they have when there is no prospect of a decent job here in Poland?
I'm asking myself exactly the same questions, buddy, and the only answer I've been coming up with is that the young Poles should riot like hell in Poland, try to change the relations of power there, try to make the country their own - just as the Hungarians have been doing in Hungary. Enough of the deadly alliance between the Polonophobes from the PO and ex-communists.
Nobody here in Poland is in a revolutionary mood. People are used to endure the hardship whatever it is. By the way, I do not understand what you imply when you mention PO, ex-communists, Hungry, Polonophobes.
It's 9:30 and the temperature in Houston is about ... 76 degrees, mostly sunny. I just dropped in to let you know that I'm going to BBQ all day and look at the palm trees in my back yard because I don't feel like doing anything else.
---- Aren't folks getting piSSed off at the economic-political situation? So you're living here, in Poland, and not noticing it? Anyhow, let's wait and see what happens.
People are used to endure the hardship whatever it is. By the way, I do not understand what you imply when you mention PO, ex-communists, Hungry, Polonophobes.
