The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by mafketis  

Joined: 31 Mar 2008 / Male ♂
Last Post: 6 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 43 / Live: 23 / Archived: 20
Posts: Total: 11929 / Live: 7227 / Archived: 4702
From: tez nie
Speaks Polish?: tak
Interests: tez nie

Displayed posts: 7250 / page 124 of 242
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mafketis   
14 Jul 2021
News / New American Ambassador to Poland? [26]

It looks like the inimitable and awesome Georgette Mosbacher will _finally_ be replaced, although true to form, the Polish government is trying to make it as difficult as possible....

Mark Brzezizski (son of Zbiegniew)

The problem is that Poland wants him to renounce his Polish citizenship - while Brzezinski claims he can't renounce something he doesn't have....

wyborcza.pl/7,173236,27328163,poland-is-blocking-the-arrival-of-the-new-us-ambassador.html?disableRedirects=true

This is seen as Poland, once more, being an unreliable and hostile ally - anxious to humiliate the US....

Other reports today suggest that a workaround has been found...
mafketis   
14 Jul 2021
News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

To be clear here, my entire objection to this proposed law (in legal terms) is the retroactive element. If they tried to use retroactive legislation to take TV Trwam off the air I'd be just as opposed. If they wanted to prevent non-European (however defined) interests from having a media presence in the future, fine but don't use such a law to attack an existing broadcaster.

There are separate political issues (like PiS's transparent attempts to replicate PRL style media or what a crappy ally this makes Poland seem like to the US) but the legal issue comes first - retroactive legislation is wrong.
mafketis   
14 Jul 2021
Genealogy / Names that Poles share with Hungarians and Slovaks? [10]

It exists....

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teodora_(imi%C4%99)

edziecko.pl/ciaza_i_porod/0,79473,,,,imiona-dziewczynek,Teodora.html

I've never encountered a Teodora in Poland and the wiki link suggests it's not.... common (the most recent notable Teodora died in 1942)

There are currently less than 7000 Teodora's (out of almost 20 million Polish females) so.... not so common....
mafketis   
14 Jul 2021
News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

not extending needs no justification

Yes it does, because such a decision can be appealed (and if no reason (uzasadnienie) is given the appeal will easily succeed unless you have crooked judges willing to do whatever the party leader tells them to (which actually PiS has spent a lot of time cultivating).
mafketis   
13 Jul 2021
Life / Laxatives in supermarkets [8]

"laxative" is "środek przeczyszczający" google is your friend....
mafketis   
12 Jul 2021
News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

That is the same kind of stupidity of Polish "elites" which once led to partitions of Poland

There is a.... segment of the Right in Poland that desperately wants to bring the country back into the Russian sphere of influence.... and this is part of that.

damages our relations with the USA which PiS considers their main ally

PiS thinks it can treat allies the way it treats party members - regularly humiliating them.... (like that poor unqualified woman they nominated as Ombudsman who embarrassed herself in the Senate)

sanctions which the EU imposed on Belarussian officials

What's the konfederacja position on that? I'd expect them to support Lukashenka since that's the kind of government they want for Poland
mafketis   
12 Jul 2021
News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

No one has noticed or cares about PiS's latest attack on the press? A new proposed law is transparently aimed at TVN (often critical of PiS policies).

politico.eu/article/polands-government-takes-aim-at-us-owned-broadcaster/

tvn24.pl/tvn24-news-in-english/eus-vera-jourova-we-follow-closely-the-situation-related-to-tvn24-5146230

It's times like this that I miss Georgette.... she would be banging on doors at this blatant attack on press freedom and attempt to return Poland to PRL media standards....
mafketis   
9 Jul 2021
Life / Languages understandable by Poles? [38]

Poland's national poet claimf Lithuania as his "ojczyzna"!

He was not talking about the modern country of Lithuania.

Lithuanian is a Baltic language (like Latvian) sometimes grouped with Slavic as Balto-Slavic but not really very similar apart from borrowed vocabulary....
mafketis   
8 Jul 2021
Travel / Polish people have a weird attitude torwards tourists [82]

Nearly twenty years back or so

While I've actually been in Poland for that twenty years (or more)....

Random Polish people aren't going to fall over someone because they're a foreigner. Foreigners (including ones who speak Polish) just aren't that rare anymore. I was in a work meeting earlier today (conducted in Polish but most of the participants weren't Polish).

And most people don't care or think about tourists at all. Those in tourist dependent sectors will be a mixed bag.
mafketis   
8 Jul 2021
Travel / Polish people have a weird attitude torwards tourists [82]

Polish people are extremely friendly and hospitable for people they've invited or guests they have some connection to. They regard open and obvious friendliness in other circumstances rather suspiciously and feel no real need to be outgoing and friendly to strangers....
mafketis   
8 Jul 2021
News / Unfulfilled promises by PiS [559]

he will make it a million times higher..

The problem with your style of cynicism is that it makes any real improvement impossible.... nothing that can actually be done comes close to what you would like and so no positive change is possible and so why not support the crooks that are slightly less unappealing....

I'm not happy about Tusk being back - the great failure of the last 10 years of Polish politics has been the failure to produce leaders who aren't fossils.

Tusk had his go. Someone else needs to step up and if they can't/won't then that's just societal and institutional failure (one of the defining features of the age - and not just in Poland, see Merkel, A. still no closer to stepping off the stage).
mafketis   
4 Jul 2021
Language / Endearment, friendship, etc. in Polish [38]

men get attracted to the so called "mean girls/women" too.

there are different types of attraction for most men

short term sexual gratification - meanness can work here as a proxy for 'crazy' which is a proxy for 'uninhibited' and 'kinky'

long term life partner (wife) - here meanness is a definite turn off, a controllable degree of.... spunk (US meaning) or self-assertiveness in the right context is an asset (will be able to keep kids in line) but not generalized b|tchiness
mafketis   
4 Jul 2021
Language / Endearment, friendship, etc. in Polish [38]

"Małpiszon" definitely isn't common and sounds more like an inside joke

I've heard it a few times and it did seem they knew each other (but it was also flirting).

I'd prefer to be called "śliczna" than "mała"

what about ślicznotka? And yeah 'mała' definitely seems to have a young and dumb feeling...

research (science!) has shown that on average women find men with the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) more attractive than well-behaved men.

Not all women and not all to the same degree but general female attraction to 'dark' personality traits and social dominance is pretty well established.

Recently saw a reference to research that indicated that women find men displaying happiness to be less attractive than those displaying pride or shame.... for men it was more or less reversed with happy looking women being the most attractive.

Human attraction patterns are what they are....
mafketis   
2 Jul 2021
Language / Endearment, friendship, etc. in Polish [38]

"Jaka sliczna!" as a term of romantic admiration?

IME I've hardly ever heard men use any form of 'sliczna' (except quoting a female).

I'm not saying it doesn't happen but.... it seems more like a female word (like 'lovely' in the US).

Some things I've overheard guys use as flirting include 'malpiszon' (monkey) 'mała' (little thing/baby) or my favorite 'cwana bestia' (cunning beast)
mafketis   
2 Jul 2021
Genealogy / Polish looks? - part 2 [81]

There is definitely a Polish look.

There are several typical Polish looks... Ewslc conforms pretty closely to one of them.
mafketis   
1 Jul 2021
History / What do Poles owe to Jews? [599]

So how does one determine Jewish ethnicity rather than religion? Especially since so many ethnic Jews are no longer religious at all......
mafketis   
1 Jul 2021
History / What do Poles owe to Jews? [599]

the immediate offspring is automatically Jewish,

As far as I know Soviet nationality policy (evrej-) didn't work that way....
mafketis   
1 Jul 2021
Genealogy / Polish looks? - part 2 [81]

You could pass for a Polish person but that about it.

I'd put it stronger than that... he's in the top third for looking 'Polish'.
mafketis   
1 Jul 2021
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Now the shoe dropped.

I'm wondering if Tusk mentioning the idea of a comeback (that almost no one wants) is his way of getting Trzaskowski to step up to the plate and take over PO rather than spinning his wheels with some new formation?
mafketis   
1 Jul 2021
History / What do Poles owe to Jews? [599]

Judaism is matrilineal.

Judaism is a religion

English vocabulary is not very clear here (and neither is Polish).

Russian handily distinguishes between the followers of the religion (root: iud-) and the 'nationality' or ethno-group (roughly Ashkenezi jews who have a lot of distinct genetic markers like any ethnic population) (root: evrej-)

So in Russia most evrej- don't really practice the iud- religion while a few who do practice iud-ism aren't evrej-...

Much clearer....
mafketis   
30 Jun 2021
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Tusk bashes Kaczyński and the other way round. :):)

Old men spitting and clawing at each other.... isn't there enough of that on this forum?
mafketis   
30 Jun 2021
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

a few other young PO leaders, especially Trzaskowski, don`t want to see Tusk back

I'm with Trzaskowski (I'm not a stan or anything but he's about the best they've got at the moment). Tusk has had his day and I really don't think he has much to contribute anymore. He needs to retire in dignity.