Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic?

@Atch: absolutely! I started school when I was ... 2.5 years old and at my place, even if not mandatory, most kids do before the age of 3, even if mothers don't work (well, in my childhood, mothers did not work). In fact, the rule is "as soon as the kid is toilet trained", they may attend school and most of them do. Not only kids learn to socialize, to realize that the world is not limited to Mom, Dad, siblings and grandparents but also they start learning a lot of things (language, drawing, counting, songs, music and even how to write and to read when they reach 4.5 or 5 so when they arrive in "CP" (Polish "zerówka"), they already can write and read to some extent. I have never met any kid back home not in school by the age of 3. Even if the law does not demand the kids to start school so young, I can expect at least 98% do because parents are well aware that the kids can learn much more with qualified staff than at home where most kids are in front of tv all day.

All the Polish families I know do send their kids to school at such an early age. I suppose those who don't live in very poor rural areas and are underprivileged.

As to the toilets and other facilities, they are obviously adapted to kids ;).

PS: In Poland, kids learn to write and read at later age and I have met several language teachers who had a hard time to teach them...

I've always been just a passive observer and never had any links to the lustration process or PiS. Ring their spox and he may direct you. I had vaguely heard of it but didn't know there were 58. I reckon those would be mainly sensitive or opinion-moulding posts in media, education, judiciary, culture, government, etc.


As a precocious "child genius" IMHO you are the least qualified to ponitficate on when Polish kids should start school. Don't you think it should be up to paretns to decide? Or are you big fan of the nanny state which sticks its big nose in everybody's business?

I only remind you that Poland has a long tradition of centralised, proscriptive education and it has no tradition of parental choice.

If, according to people of your ilk, traditional marriage need not be followed then why education?

So you're in favour of gay marriage, then?

Sorry, but you can't simply have your cake and eat it.
Poland wanted capitalism and has had to play catch up.
If they'd chosen the softly softly approach then they'd have gone with the Russian approach to changing over, and look where that has brought those poor f!ckers.


That's your interpretation. I certainly wouldn't want to live in an economy where things like what you've listed are allowed to dictate market prices. Demand and supply baby, that's how it works.


Good, good, last bit is nonsense. Please, try and prove your 'learned' opinion regarding this. And with proper medical journals, not crappy Polish far right websites which you tend to rely on.


You're into syndicalism Delph? Poor auld James Connolly was a Scot like yourself and his plan was for it to take hold in the Irish Republic had the failed 1916 Rising been successful.


There is a lot more to life than that, if that's all you are experiencing then you're living your life the wrong way. But by the same token, if people do want to live that way then who are you to judge. Let people be happy and let them choose their own path.


Excellent post :)


I remember I had to teach a group of 6 year olds once....long story short, asked them to get out their copy books to write and the teacher told me they couldn't write, to wich I said....'oh **** are these disabled kids coz I haven't prepared something appropriate if they are' She says 'no, in Poland you learn to read when you're 7.' To which I laughed...and she looked at me like I had 3 heads ;)

I didn't bother teaching there again.

I most certainly wasn't a child genius. I had way above average language skills, that's all. The reading thing is uncommon but I have a friend who was exactly the same, was reading the newspaper when she was three, much to the amusement of her parents! We both simply grew into adults who love books and reading, not geniuses of any kind.


My qualification is three years of training to teach children from ages 3-12 years and 17 years of teaching experience. Whats yours? And by the way child development is the same regardless of nationality.


Thanks for that. God Almighty the molly-coddling of Polish children is chronic isn't it? Dump them down in a big inner city Dublin family and let them fend for themselves for six months and it'd be the making of them!


I bet you were a little sweetie!

Keep to the topic of the title please

For the benefit of linguistically retarded expats, the term "kiełbasa wyborcza" (literally: electoral sausage) refers to the sky-high promises of electioneering politicians. That is probably what will come to mind when you read about yet another desperate attempt to garner votes from the gullible. PM Kopacz and her Platfus clique have unveiled their latest "promise them anything" tactic.

They want to do away wtih ZUS (social security) and NFZ (health fund) contributions and have only one across-the-board income-tax bracket of 10%. As a result (or so they claim), more cash will remain in the taxpayer's pocket. Looks good.... on paper!

wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/polityka/artykuly/500235,konwencja-po-ewa-kopacz-przedstawila-program-koniec-skladek-na-nfz-zus-10-proc-podatek-pit.html

It is no more or less logical than over-the-rainbow promises of her chief rival.

Logical-shmogical, but could it work. As the superior economist you should know whether such pie-in-the-sky is feasible.

Get rid of ZUS/NFZ? How shall most Poles manage? Most people in Poland cannot afford private health care. I personally do have a private insurance but in case of surgery or major illness, I have to rely on public hospitals. 3 weeks ago, I spent 5 days at (public)hospital and as part of my treatment, I received 2 injections that cost several thousands of ZL. There is no way I could have paid and my (private) health package does not cover this...

Scary!

Neither her pledge nor that of her competitor are feasible unfortunately. Money cannot be created from nothing as they would have the voting masses believe.


Believe it or not, most of what we taxpayers put into ZUS (and thereafter NFZ) goes towards staffing and maintaining this horribly archaic, corrupt and inefficient entity. Less than half the cost is delivered back to taxpayers in benefits (whether it is social security or health care).

Getting rid of ZUS (which is not as easy as politicians make it sound) is no easy feat. Very seriously change management will be needed, and workable alternatives have to be developed first.

@Polsyr: I am well aware of dysfunctionings in Poland and in particularly in health system and for sure some changes in the management have to be made but I am not so sure they don't want to get rid of NFZ and this is scary. Without NFZ, I would have died of cancer as my private insurance did (and does) not cover (heavy) surgery and post operation treatments.

If PO wants to get rid of NFZ, PiS shall make 99% of votes next month ;)

Without a valid proposal for a genuine alternative they might even get my vote! haha...

Yes, I think this is rather what's meant by getting rid of the NFZ. It doesn't mean that public healthcare will go, only the institution itself will be abolished and replaced with direct rule by the Ministry.

Actually, a rather more curious policy - PO have promised to abolish "junk" contracts, which PiS haven't done.

I have no idea how they plan to keep that "promise" to be honest.

I suspect there will be a policy on the table that offers the abolishing of umowa zlecenie and umowa o dzieło in exchange for significant reform of the kodeks pracy.

@Delph: at most very few of said contracts could be changed. It won't be possible for instance in language schools since schools' owners cannot know in advance how much business they can have during any year.

I believe cheap pre election talk!

It could be offered, but can you imagine the consequences? They would have to offer minimum wage salaries and not much else, just to be able to manage the risk effectively.

But with a huge change to the kodeks pracy, perhaps it could work...

Now? now they can promise even Eldorado, nothing can help them.

Not sure why you're so confident, given that the polls are showing wafer-thin majorities for PiS in alliance with Kukiz.

It only takes a 5% swing to PO/PSL/ZL/Nowoczesna and PiS will be in opposition. Again.

Don't worry, you'll get it after elections.

Oh I will. Probably while laughing my head off at PiS not putting together a viable majority.

I still think PSL will be key to this and that the polls never reflect the number of votes they get.

Kukiz may find a sharp drop whereas certain of the smaller parties may end up above the threshold.

You're not so confident about it since you didn't reply to the post below. At least your boss Harold has some balls...

What kind of fool would bet on elections in Poland more than a month away?

No coward would, indeed.

Do you think Petru could be in the same coalition as the ex-commies? I know in poltics everything is possible, but it would seem a bit incongruous.

It's quite likely only 3 parties will make it: PiS, PO & Kukiz, but one or more of the also-rans may also squeak by.
The best solution would be a strong win for PiS - like 45+% where only occasional tactical alliances with Kukiz might be necessary.

Without any bias, I think that if the situation emerged that PiS (and any allies, such as Kukiz or Korwin) had around 220-225 seats between them and PO/PSL/ZL/Nowoczesna/MN had the remaining 235 seats, we would see a technocratic government form. It wouldn't be a PO government, but rather one that was led by a respected non-political figure with the parties getting ministries according to seat numbers. Or we could see the situation emerge where the PO/PSL/ZL/Nowoczesna/MN bloc (let's call them the blue coalition) agree to support Kopacz as Prime Minister in return for some political concessions.

Either way, it seems easy for that bloc of parties to agree to keep PiS out.


The problem PiS have is the stability of Korwin or Kukiz - neither would be good coalition partners. Korwin would disgrace PiS in the same way that Lepper did, while Kukiz's "anti-system" agenda would probably manifest itself in some very ugly nationalism, comparable to Giertych's LPR. Either result is bad, bad news for PiS.

But a question for you - would you accept, as a PiS supporter, a Szydło-led PiS/PO coalition with the elimination of Kaczyński, Macierewicz and a few others?

PiS/PO coalition? Interesting world of fantasy you live in.