News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


Actually, there's no actual need for children to starve in Poland. When you look at what's available - even in Warsaw, there's absolutely no need for a child to starve - unless it's a result of parental failure. The limited social help available is still enough to put a roof over your head (granted, in 1 room) and food in your stomach - come on, I was just in the local shop and saw all sorts of vegetables available for 1zl a kilo.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


I think a lot of people are willing to give them another chance (not least because the alternative is too scary to think about) - but if they win this year, they'll have three years in which to enact all the legislation they want.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

I think the whole idea is that while running up debts now (still pretty low by European standards), Poland will be able to pay those debts back while things pick up. It's a risky strategy, but I suspect the Estonian Alternative (slashing public jobs, salaries and welfare) would have been seen as a complete no-no.

Tusk will be judged not by this government, but by his actions in the 2011-2015 period.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


Worth pointing out that the stadium in Poznan, although closed for the Lech game, was open for the Warta game.

Life / Customs - First Holy Communion in Poland [42]


Completely defeats the point of the First Communion though - it's a religious service and should be treated as such, rather than an excuse to buy expensive presents. Hence why something religious is appropriate, not money.

Of course, a good idea could be to give some religious items and make a donation to a Catholic foundation on their behalf - many churches will have their own foundations set up to help people in the parish.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


Lustration and spying on journalists was exactly that.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

Take a look at the rankings. And yes, they show clearly that Tusk's government has been failing in this respect too - probably due to the way that they've failed to "unpoliticise" TVP and Polskie Radio.

I don't think it's much of a secret that PiS would viciously attack the freedom of the press if elected - Kaczynski already made it clear that people who oppose "the truth" should be punished.

As for why it's a bad idea - journalists should be free to work without political inference. While Gazeta Polska and suchlike have been posting horrible things, even speculating about Komorowski's health - it's still their right to publish what they wish.

Life / Customs - First Holy Communion in Poland [42]

Appropriate is not to give money, but a religious item. A bible, a rosary, or perhaps a small statue of Mary could be appropriate.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

@pawian
Indeed.

Kaczynski is consumed with the idea of revenge - no matter what he says, he always ends up betraying the fact that he hates PO with a passion - and he seems to sincerely believe that they stole the 2007 and 2010 elections from him. His actions last time towards journalists was an attack on Press freedom - and it can be seen in the way that Poland suddenly dropped dramatically down the Press Freedom rankings when he was around after years of being pretty much free.

PiS as a party are pretty much unelectable - no matter what PO do, they can't lose to Kaczynski. They certainly gained all the LPR and Samobroona voters - but lost all the "middle ground" voters who want nothing to do with politics based on revenge. For that reason, they're condemned to the political wilderness - and will stay there until they remove Kaczynski from power.

I keep saying it - their policies are electable, but their politicians aren't.

I'm more and more convinced that their victories in 2005 was to do with anti-SLD sentiment as opposed to any real pro-PiS sentiment.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Let's just say one - they've managed to keep Jaroslaw Kaczynski out of power successfully.

Anyway, Tusk is on course to be the first Polish prime minister to successfully be re-elected. That should tell you all.

Australia / HELP! Australian wanted to apply for Polish Passport via ancestory [51]

It's not difficult at all, the only reason the process takes so long for people is because many people don't actually have the documents needed to confirm Polish citizenship. You should know that the various nationality acts contained some very tricky clauses which can strip someone of their citizenship.

For what it's worth, it's far quicker in Poland - simply because you can go to the offices yourself rather than doing everything through the embassy.

Law / Working in EU countries and in UK with Poland's Residence Card (Karta Pobytu)? [51]

It's only possible if your wife is resident in the UK at the same time, and you'll also need to apply for the EEA Family Permit in order to obtain your treaty rights. Entering on a tourist stamp will prohibit you from working, and your wife will need to be in the UK with you during your employment there. I can tell you that if you arrive at the border with the EEA Family Permit and your wife isn't with you - you'll be denied entry, or admitted on the basis of the tourist waiver, not the family permit.

In short : a minefield, and not really worth it for summer camp wages.

Law / Working in EU countries and in UK with Poland's Residence Card (Karta Pobytu)? [51]

Family members have the right to live and work anywhere in the EU if they're married to an EU citizen. Most EU citizens make it pretty painless to do so, although the UK is infamously strict in this respect.

Generally speaking, being married to a Pole will allow you to work quite freely (with the appropriate national residence card) in all EU states, plus the EEA and CH.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


I can safely say that Torq's English is fantastic - I very, very rarely notice him making mistakes, and even then, it's often very minor stylistic ones.

History / Where did the power of Poland vanish to, since... let`s say, some 300 years ago? [180]


Wrong. Poland had plenty of numbers - look at how big the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth actually was!

The reason she lost the country to begin with was directly related to internal problems relating to politics.

History / Where did the power of Poland vanish to, since... let`s say, some 300 years ago? [180]


Thankfully, Germans also showed what they thought of racist Poles - they got rid of them ;)

What's the odds that "PolskiMoc" is just yet another Polack from America who has never been to Poland?

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


I'd love to know the truth about this - if it worked, then what the hell is going on? The Russian manuals show that the button can't work in this circumstance - but it's entirely possible that the Polish had made their own modifications to allow it. But if so - why were they using standard LOT manuals instead of ones written specifically for that variant?


This is actually one big problem - it seems that everyone is twisting things to suit themselves.

The real question for me is the issue of training - I don't care if PiS cancelled simulation training or not, there's absolutely no excuse for the multitude of verifiable mistakes made within the Air Force and leading up to this flight - starting with the inexperience of the crew and potential non-current certification of them.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


Worth pointing out that you really can't compare a mothballed TU-154 with the TU-154M variants used by the Polish Air Force.


The results of those tests have never been made public - the only thing that's been made public is certain stuff published by certain newspapers - which can't be taken seriously as it's not official. What we know is that the button in question shouldn't work in similar circumstances - the TU-154M manuals make that clear.

Don't forget - there's one little bit of evidence which would immediately show plane malfunction - and that's the so-called Polish black box, which was decoded in Poland.


The only transcript that matters are the ones released by the investigating committee. But anyway, we have access to the CVR recording - it's in the video that was released by the Russians showing the flight in Russian airspace.

As for releasing it on the Polish side - from the beginning, it seems to me that the plan is to do a thorough, total investigation and then release everything at the end. Quite normal for aviation - apart from the AF447 crash, I don't know of any accident where the CVR/FDR data was released instantly.

Either way, we're still waiting for the result of the investigation. One sad thing is that although the Russian report has problems, it
does make a very good point - the Captain was a "nice guy" - and you don't *want* to have nice guys flying the President around.

I'm just still patiently waiting for the Polish report to be released.


Who asked for an international investigation? Poland didn't - nor is it accepted practice in such circumstances. When that Belarusian plane crashed in Poland, who conducted the investigation? Poland.


He wasn't anti-EU for a start. And then, why would they bother to go to so much attention to kill Kaczynski in Russia and draw so much attention to themselves? He didn't have political power, he was about to be defeated in a landslide in the election - why bother?


And yet you live in the US. HAHAHAHAHA.

Tell you what - practice what you preach and come back and make Poland great. We need people like you, who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the country.


Usual paranoia. What would Russia bomb Poland for?

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


The media?

What does the media have to do it with it?

If you actually KNEW anything about Poland, you'd know that there are very vocal opposition media here - none of whom would have any qualms about publishing any real evidence about this plane crash.

But go on - tell us, how do you think Russia was involved?

History / PRUSSIA - Former Vassal of Poland later occupant | Nowadays Germany? [33]


Now it's just practical stuff - like the Collegium Polonicum in Slubice should become one university with Viadrina and suchlike.

One sad part is that despite the borders coming down and so on - there's still only one school in Frankfurt (Oder) where Polish is a compulsory language.

News / John Paul II's Beatification [134]


Interesting question - would JPII really want such public display?

Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1450]


I think it's your imagination.

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

You clearly have been visiting and looking through rose tinted glasses.

Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1450]

So, how many different countries have you eaten mushrooms from?

I'm very interested to know how you can tell which side of Karkonosze that mushrooms come from, for instance.

Life / Are foreigners welcome in Poland? [305]


Stop.

For a start, they're probably not Polish, but rather "Polack" - a breed of American that claims to have Polish roots, yet knows nothing about real Polish culture in the year 2011. These people have next to nothing in common with Polish people.

I'm struggling to understand why you hung around for 20 minutes after breaking someone's face? I'd be straight out of there, especially as a foreigner - what's the point in potentially having hassle with the police if you've already ****** his face up?

UK, Ireland / Brits say being drunk senseless while visiting Poland is national trait [98]


Hahahaha. I'd love to know where they are - I've never found such a bar yet.

You seem to have forgotten that the vast majority of dodgy types are actually quite fond of the British and are more likely to drink the Brits to death than to fight with them.

Law / What is NIP number? [15]

I can imagine the border guard's face after he tells them "but sir, kindly look at NIP number" :D

News / Raising Poland's legal drinking age to 21 [95]

Quite normal for Rzeczpospolita to post such stuff.

It's not true. Trust us - we live here, we know what we see - and the usual is for 15-17 year olds, just like in most of Europe.

USA, Canada / To move back to Poland from the USA or not to move back....that is the question [124]


Call it a hunch.

USA, Canada / To move back to Poland from the USA or not to move back....that is the question [124]


Of course it does.

He needs to feel that he's not just another failure who works his 40 hours a week in the local "Polski Sklep" and who spends his entire existence online, berating others to compensate for himself.

Law / Opening a Polish Bank Account by a foreigner in Poland. Recommendations. [299]


mbiuro.pl/cennik,pakiety

Might this not be an option?

(disclaimer : I know the owners of the Poznan one)