The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by SeanBM  

Joined: 10 Mar 2008 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 6 Jun 2017
Threads: Total: 34 / Live: 3 / Archived: 31
Posts: Total: 5781 / Live: 787 / Archived: 4994 		From: Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

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SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
USA, Canada / Polack/American Polonia/Plastic Pole "culture" [568]

I wonder how many of these Plastic Poles would choose Poland over America if they had to? None of them would, I bet.

And what about yourself?
Why did you choose Poland 'over' Scotland?

I lived there

Are you not here?
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

Sometimes I can see your fine mother in you Plastic Pole ;)

I know a few Polish Americans and there is no way they are not Polish.
They had their parents bring them up that way :) they live in Polish neighbourhoods, "should" date 'good Polish girls' through out their childhood.

Some feel closer to Poland (even if they've never been) than to America in a way (in bold for emphasis).
With their grandmother cursing them in Polish and the local Sklep knowing all about their family etc...

Why wouldn't a person in such circumstances feel Polish?
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
USA, Canada / Polack/American Polonia/Plastic Pole "culture" [568]

If you're true to Poland, you live here and contribute to the country. End of story.

That's a bit of a ranty thing to say.
Who died and made you supreme master of who people are? :)

People can of course be Polish outside of Poland.

Nothing to do with sitting on "Jaja's" knee listening to boring stories about how he ran away from Poland in 1919 because he was such a patriot.

So when your little ones sit on your knee and you tell them about how you ran away from Scotland, what will you say exactly? ;p

This is just your little rant thread Delphi :)
It's amusing, slightly insulting and sometimes has an element of truth, I'll give you that but it is not the best thought out thread, although it fits the PF criteria of broad generalisations :P
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

Has there recently been a resurgence of "searching for origins" in the states?
I know many Americans have always known their family history, it just seems to me that it has been more popular in the last decade or so, maybe I am wrong?

Perhaps with the fall of communism and the popularity of the internet, it has changed things, like what people know and how they see themselves.

I find the subject of cultural identity interesting, good thread Patrycja19.
Unfortunately I have more questions than opinions ;p
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

Birthplace and youth, I think - these two things tend to combine to give you a sense of identity.

So even if from this day forth, you were to know nothing about what was happening in Scotland, stopped going there and spent the rest of your days with your table football with your Hungarian, a Polish and Frenchwomen for the next 50 years, you'd still be a Scot?

I am actually asking myself the same question Delphi but just bouncing it off you, if you know what I mean.

I think at some stage identity it a matter of personal choice, which brings us nicely back to the Americans.
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

I don't think it's possible for a 1st generation immigrant to lose his nationality, but I do feel more and more European by the day.

Picture yourself 50 years down the road (out of Scotland), would you still be Scottish then? what would make you Scottish, your youth? your parents? your passport?

As a Paddy, i don't have this problem since most of us live outside the country any way, I am more Irish here than at home :p
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

Something else I'd like to know about the people who respond - when did you or your ancestors leave Poland?

That's something I am interested in too.

How long have you been out of Scotland Delphi? How long, if at all, would it take you not to be Scottish any more?

Is nationality just where you were born? what you feel like? what you have ties to? what you class yourself as? what you associate yourself with? does it have an expiry date?

Of course all these questions are subjective and will differ depending on the person but I think that because this is a Polish forum, most Polish Americans will identify with the American Polish culture, would that be a fair thing to say?
SeanBM   
31 Oct 2010
Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

- How many of you would consider moving to Poland for good?
- If you have to choose, are you American or Polish?

They are not really questions they are more like hypothetical ultimatums.
You have your own thread for this ;p
SeanBM   
27 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Polish minority in Lithuania doesn't enjoy the same rights that Lithuanian minority in Poland
enjoys. Simple as that.

Why aren't they fighting it in the European courts?
SeanBM   
27 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Why do you ask about it? :D . Once you firmly know the right reason - then you know it :D . Not you personally - once you're born Polish and Litwa is involved - you know everything and much better than others :D . And who am i? A reliable litwin - are you sane at all? :D There is no such thing at all, in the nature :D. You simply have no right to trust ANY litwin, simply because you have no such right (maybe by God) :D .

Translation:

Poles like to feel superior to Lithuanians and throw their weight around as if they were gods and they don't have that right.

Simply, there was and is so much information about it (na Litwie, i mean), that it is impossible not to know.....first there occure issue with the spelling of Polish names on the documents, it was some 10 years ago, after some time turned out that the problem is deeper, and there was officially explained over TV that (among other) names of the streets fall under same cathegory. Next - bilingual street names occured, right before the election

Translation:

The bilingual signs was a political tool to get the Polish vote in Lithuania. The problem is that any foreign language with non-Lithuanian characters in the alphabet is too complicated for our archaic and backwards bureaucracy to figure out.

Even though this is a non-issue for everyone else, this is Lithuania! Anyway I think this issue is boring.

You have GDP per capita almost as high as we do - build your own shiny schools
and stop moaning.

I doubt that.

Edit*

31 Lithuania 39 47 36
12 Poland 425 528 423

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Europe_by_GDP_%28nominal%29
SeanBM   
26 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

80% of Lithuanians can speak Russian and 32% can speak English today.

They had to learn Russian when they were part of the U.S.S.R.

Now they are part of the E.U. and want to do international business they are learning English, so yes, there will be many more people speaking English in the future but I think they will still hold on to Russian and Polish because they are such a small country in between such big countries it just makes business sense.

If you look at it the other way round, the countries that don't learn other languages have enough internal market that it is simply not necessary. This isn't the case with Lithuania but is for Poland.
SeanBM   
26 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

One thing about Lithuanians is that they are fairly multilingual when it comes down to it.
Most speak other languages, usually Russian, Polish, English or German as well as Lithuanian.

According to the Lithuanian population census of 2001, about 84% of the country's population speak Lithuanian as their native language, 8.2% are the native speakers of Russian, 5.8% - of Polish. More than 60% are fluent in Russian, while only about 16% say they can speak English. According to the Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2005, 80% of Lithuanians can speak Russian and 32% can speak English. Most Lithuanian schools teach English as a first foreign language, but students may also study German, or, in some schools, French or Russian. Schools where Russian and Polish are the primary languages of education exist in the areas populated by these minorities.

/wiki/Lithuania#Genetics
SeanBM   
24 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Ive just got back from holiday in lit. and found only a very small percentage of (nice) young people spoke english so we had to speak polish to get/do stuff. You could tell by the dryness of their attitudes that the didnt really want to. But happily spoke russian.

It depends on who you speak to.
Polish and Russian are considered the same language by Lithuanians.
Generally from my experience, I would say Russian and Polish Lithuanians get on better with each other than they do with the Lithuanians themselves.

He was specifically talking about a past event which had nothing to do with more recent history.

He was calling the Grand Duchy of Lithuania barbarians before they were Polanised.
Asserting how great Poland was to help them and how thankful Lithuanian should be.

They were the biggest country in Europe, it was a bilateral agreement which benefited both parties.

And why should this topic have nothing to do with more recent history?

I meant that they would have lost their independence

And Poland also benefited.

it was a wooden city before the poles came in and started to build up the city from the ground.

It was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania spanning from the black sea to the Baltic sea.

map
SeanBM   
24 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

He didn't say they weren't independent prior to the commonwealth.

Independence? The lithuanians gained independence and Culture from Poland

He's referring to the time long before the creation of the ussr.

So you happily jump the modern parts of history because they don't suit your view.
How convenient for you.
SeanBM   
24 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Independence? The lithuanians gained independence and Culture from Poland.

No they didn't, they were independent before the commonwealth.

Without Poland they would have been eaten by the russians.

This again? Lithuania was eaten up by Russia, it was in the U.S.S.R, remember?

Lithuania was a barbaric state with no order.

It took Vilnius many years before it could compare itself to the polish cities.

You are wrong.

By the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania

Litwa

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchy_of_Lithuania
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Lithuania is part of the VWP

I didn't know that.

Lithuanians are very very proud of their people in American basketball.
They are the second tallest nation i have seen (after the Dutch).

I see Poland got the short straw.

Another anti-Polish discrimination thread please! :)
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

wouldn't they have already gone to the UK

Poles go to the U.K. because they have a huge gherkin in the capital and like a moth to a flame, they are drawn.

Gherkin_l.jpg

Those Polish freaks who don't like gherkins might like Poland.

.or the US, where they don't need visas?

Europeans need a visa for the states and the U.S. has been unkind to Poland in this regard but it is probably more a matter of the little communist issue.
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

I mean don't start any diplomatic war with them, we've got members in the Euro Parliament, If Lithuania is breaking EU laws, they should speak up and force EU institutions to react.

I totally agree.
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

during the last 20 years we supported them as much as we could

Oh, how did you do that? and what about during communism when they were engulfed by the CCCP?
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

If you think that's bad, you are really in trouble if you are a gay Jewish Polish and living in Lithuania.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Lithuania - LGBT rights Lithuania (Wiki)

81.5% of respondents considered homosexuality as a perversion, disease or paraphilia

Vilnius' city council allowed Lithuania's gay pride parade, Baltic Pride 2010, to take place on Saturday, 8 May 2010. A court stopped the parade from proceeding shortly before the parade was due to take place

If you are going to talk about discrimination...
euobserver.com/9/28680 - EU parliament condemns Lithuanian anti-gay law
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Poland is trying to conduct diplomatic relations in a proper manner (one has to be civil, you know.)

I think Poland are condescending to their neighbour.
I think Lithuanians are pig headed and should wake up to the 21st century.

... that's how it is.

Yep, it is.

the size of two vojwodships? Y

And there you go with your cock waving again!

The size of Ireland, thank you very much :D

It is quality we look for not quantity :p
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

The oil refinery was only one of many things that I mentioned and it was not "a bogus notion"
that I gave. It is exactly as Pawian said...

It was not to help the Lithuanians, it was in Poland's self interest.

It was a catastrophe anyway, They found over 30 hidden microphones in the plant, a fire (suspected arson), etc...

...we did it to help Lithuanians get less dependent from Russia (annoying Moscow was only
a nice bonus for us :))

Buffer zone.

A buffer zone from Russia the size of two vojwodships? Yer havin' a laugh...

So Poland is just helping the Lithuanians?
You are the one having a laugh, so let us laugh together :)

Yes, Jews were main victims of Nazi extermination aided by Lithuanian forces. But Poles and other nationalities too.

The way i heard it from Lithuanians, was that they needed very little prompting from the Nazis to kill the Jews (they saw it as an opportunity) and that it was they who did the majority of the exterminating, not the Germans.

I have never heard such Antisemitic comments as I did in Lithuania, it blew my mind, especially given the history.
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Poles tend to forget or not realise that during WW2 Lithuanians actively helped Soviets and Nazis to exterminate Poles, not only in Lithuania but also in Poland. Lithuanian SS troops stationed in occupied Poland were the first and most eager to carry out anti-Polish oppression.

Have you a link for that, please?
I know that they were hell bent on killing Jews.
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Where did I refer to Lithuania as "that part of Poland up the north East"?

Your post was full of disgust at the "fact" that Lithuanians were not appreciative of Poland buying an oil refinery, you even gave a bogus notion as to Poland "helping' Lithuania break from Russia, it is condescending IMO. and they don't appreciate being used as a buffer zone by Poland from Russia, sound familiar?

Is it all that you understood from my posts (especially the no.10)? Read it again then... and again.

That is not the post I quoted.
SeanBM   
23 Oct 2010
News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Lithuanians have to realize that it is 2010 and we don't need a round table for that.

I don't think round table talks would help.

You're both stubborn proud people who dwell on the past.
Poland thinks of the commonwealth, Lithuania of the Piłsudski.

I see Polish people swelling full of pride when discussing that part of Poland up the north East (Lithuania).
even your own comments at the beginning of this thread show how much you "care" for Lithuania and how thankful they should be.

Our help, be it political (constant and unchangeable support), economic (buying Możejki refinery
to help Lithuania get less dependent from Russia, for example) or military (our planes
patroling their airspace, tanks, afv's and artillery guns given to their army for free)

we saved their asses from Russians since 15 century. It was always Polish troops who made the physical and moral majority in Commonwealth armies, fighting in Lithuanian fields of glory.

They see right through that. Truth is Poland didn't really help Lithuania, it used it as a buffer zone, sound familiar yet?

If that's how they want it - let it be.

I didn't say they were a forgiving people ;)

As always though, the future is in the young and the young people do bring something new to the table, especially since the freedom of movement they have in the E.U.

So I wouldn't worry too much :)