News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

It is worth noting that cases like this helped in Ireland tipping the scale towards legalizing abortions.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Savita_Halappanavar

It is easy to have a black-and-white view on such complex issues like abortion, but the reality is more complex and requires more flexibility in order to account for extreme cases. Otherwise you end up with women dying as we were still in the Middle Ages, or women (or even children) being forced to carry their rape baby to term.


It can be one in cases where it is necessary to save the mothers life, like cutting out a tumor, especially when the baby is dead or dying and threatens to kill the mother as well. It can also be part of the mental recovery of a raped woman.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]

Yeah, aside from the self-inflicted immenent and long-term political and economical, the UK is doing "fine".


Poland is probably the country that benefits the most from the EU. Financially and economically it is a clear win without a downside, and in political terms the EU provides one last line of defence for Poland's democracy against the increasingly autorcratic PiS.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]


Indeed. Everybody knows that Brexit was and is a terrible idea, but humans sadly have the tendency to double down rather than rethink their convictions. Pretty much everything the Brexiteers promised to counter the warnings of the Remainers has turned out to be wrong. "Easiest trade deal in history" "No border in Irland" "No need for much paperwork for import/export into the EU" "A quick trade deal with the USA". Of course according to their logic, this is not the result of falsw promises, but others trying to sabotage Brexit....

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

Considering how many of her adversaries within her party she overcame, that seems safe to say. Merkel has been accused of many things, but never of being a puppet of her party.


Apologies, thanks for the correction.

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

It is rather interesting to note that when it comes to women in high government offices, conservative parties in Europe have a surprsingly good effort. The Tories made Thatcher the first prominent female politician to lead a country and later had with Theresa May their second female PM. Merkel became the first woman as chancellor of Germany, with her party colleague von der Leyen becoming the first woman in charge of the European Comission. PiS gave Poland its first female PM, although she was little more than a puppet.

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

Something I find rather interesting is the portrayal of murders done by the husband/boyfriend against their wife/girlfriend. In Germany those were often euphemistically called "Beziehungsdrama" (relationship tragedy) but a few years ago the coverage of it started following an international trend and called it "femicide" instead. I was initial sceptical about this term, but after realizing how many women are murdered by their male partner, and that they were indeed ultimately killed because of their sex, it now seems appropiate.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]

To quote Helmut Schmidt. "If you have visions, go see a doctor."

Off-Topic / Where are you from? [59]

Just a matter of time. Germans are mostly reasonable people, and once it sinks in that the fear of muslims is anything but reasonable, they will change their mind.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

Yeah, I'd rather see the money invested in more useful infrastructure.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

Yawn, nobody cares Dirk.

Off-Topic / Foreign news in Polish media [108]


But how long will this last? Both the SPD and Green party have pledged to ease restriction on asylum laws and both parties will likely end up in government. Their probable partner, the FDP, has no strong opinion on this, they however want to make it easier for qualified migrants to immigrate.

As for the AfDs' party program, it is honestly a joke. It completely leaves out complicated yet pressing issues like our pension system and is on other intentionally vague to not scare off somewhat moderatw victors. The AfD has nothing really to say except on refugees, and that point is simply no longer relevant to most voters.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

As for men and impulsivness, there are plenty of studies out there about it.

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40473-015-0031-8

wgno.com/news/local/why-are-men-more-impulsive-tulane-brain-institute-study-hopes-to-answer-that-question/

And so on et cetera.


What I do and what men on average do has little in common. Men are statistically more likely to commit murder and rape, I have done neither, does that make the former statement invalid? I get it, we can add women to the many groups of people you despise and move on.


Well, the USA elected someone opposite with Trump and its' democracy was almost brought to its' knees as a result. Tree huggers might chain themselves on tracks, but they are not known to storm the parliament. I am far from a fan of the current Green party, but they had with Joschka Fischer one of Germany's best foreign ministers in their ranks, so who knows what they are capable in the future.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

Well, the chance for a green chancellor was there in May/June, but the thoroughly inexperienced (and some would say unqualified) Baerbock blew it. The Green party will almost inevitable be part of any coalition, but they are not going to get the chancellery.

News / Heavy fighting. Legia Warszawa brutally attacked in Croatia by pro-German fanatics saluted by local mob ! [49]


None of whom I might add had done any harm to him or Serbia. Ferdinand was completely sidelined from government since the Emperor disliked his well-known sympathies for the minorities in A/U.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]


Merkel has done a lot of things right. Managing the Euro crisis, forging an European response to Russia's agression against the Ukraine, brokering Minsk II to name some examples.


Merkel allowed the EU to mess up the vaccination program - although the diverging demands of various countries were mostly at fault - yet she gets also credit for getting through the crisis better than any other mayor European country (or the USA for that matter) in terms of victims. And while the vaccination roleout was slower than it could have been, we are catching up to the likes of the UK who did benefit all that much from their advantage all things considered (they still had and have restrictions).

No doubt what will define Merkel's legacy is how she has dealt with the two challenges that will have the biggest impact on future generations: The survival of the EU and Climate change. If the EU survives Merkel's departure for say 30 years, then her place in the history books is assured. As for climate change, she has done more than others, but maybe not enough. That being said, most of her contemporaries will be judged harshly as well, many of them even more than her.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]

Looks like the Spectator is still salty that all its predictions about the imminwnt demise of the EU during the Eurocrisis and later after Brexit have again and again by frustrated by Merkel. No doubt there is also some jealousy that she is Europes' most impreasive politician of this generation while the UK (and the conservative party) has only produced failures and mediocrities.

History / Why Was D-Day So Significant for Poland ? [266]


No, because there were no independent polls in Nazi Germany and the regime had obviously no intention on casting doubts on the German resolve for war. We have however many Gestapo reports that inform us about the mood at social gatherings and at bars, and they are overwhelmingly pessimistic. Germans knew from their experience in WWI that there would inevitably huge suffering for both soldiers and civilians.

History / Why Was D-Day So Significant for Poland ? [266]


The acquisitions maybe, but we know that most Germans were unhappy about the outbreak of the war, as many Gestapo informers noted.

History / Why Was D-Day So Significant for Poland ? [266]


And commited a genocide within that short time frame. Though admittedly the Nazis were later even more "efficient" in that regard. It is good that we finally acknowledged this and settled this issue with rather paltry amount of money.


Well, the Soviet Union did not exclusively consist of Russians, most of the fighting was done in what is now Belarus and the Ukraine, and in terms of percentage both people suffered higher losses than ethnic Russians. Many Ukrainians are in fact annoyed that the suffering and triumph is often solely attributed to the Russians.

Besides, nobody calls the Weimar Republic German Reich, even contemporaries rarely did. Nazi Germany or the Nazis is and perfectly valid description.

History / Why Was D-Day So Significant for Poland ? [266]

And that is the estimsted based on the inflated numbers given by the GDR. By 1989 a citizen of the GDR earned officially 1/3 of his counterpart in West, though in reality it was more like 1/5.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]

MLP has pledged to cut the Cohesion Fund for Eastern Europe and is - together with Salvini - interested in forming a partnership with Russia. I imagine that neither of those things are within Polands' interest. MLP also wants to leave NATO. Think about what that means for Poland's security in the future. An America that is increasingly unwilling to defend Eastern Europe against Russia. A Germany that can't defend Eastern Europe. And France who simply won't defend Eastern Europe. Not exactly an appealing scenario in my court.


Amen to that.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]


Why, it is de facto the same thing, or where do you see differences?

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]


And true. And expensive, since Poland received already far more money than any European country via the Marahall Plan. In fact, given that the Marshall Plan consisted of approx. 150bn€ in todays money, then Poland is close to getting what all of Western Europe received.


Tradition television is dying anyway. More and more people are watching Netflix, HBO et al.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]


It is called EU cohesion fund ;)


Indeed. Springer and Co. want (and need) to make money.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]

Well, their direct interventions were neglible, but they certainly helped funding the democratic reeducation of the German people and provided an additional safety net (that was thankfully never needed). The EU is trying to do the same for Poland but sadly for the democracy in Poland, their options to interfere are much more limited.

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1800]


Particulary this aspect has always been puzzling to me.

Russia under Putin is a corrupt oligarchy that persecutes minorities and wages imperialistic wars against its' neighbours. All things those guys supposedly abhor, yet they always feel the need to defend Russia-

News / School shooting in Sweden. Should Poland be worried about a copycat? [24]


This is not entirely true. If we are going back in history, then we will always find cases in which deranged individuals attacked public spaces like the Cologne school massacre from 1964. Back then the explanation was that people who had experienced war were more likely to crack, but as we know now, this does not explain all cases.

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1800]

So he was a hero then?

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1800]

If Assad had that kind of support among the population, he wouldn't have needed Russia and Iran to bail him out, just as the GDR would not have needed Russian tanks to secure its' rule if it had truly received 99% of the votes. Lukashenko also wouldn't take such drastic measures if he had that kind of support either. Maybe Lukashenko did win previous elections fairly (though obviously not with the margins he claimed) because he could present himself as the anchor of stability, but as the previous year showed, especially young people are no longer satisfied with this.


Assad started the killing when he arrested and tortured people to death because they were peacefully protesting.


Very true. Say what you want about Merkel, but I think she nailed it when Putin tried to intimidate her with a dog. Like she said to journalists afterwards. This is all countries like Russia have: Intimidation, no succesful economies are attractive policies.

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1800]

Basically he is of accused of organizing protests against the government, aka something that wouldn't be punisheable in any democracy.

That he was tortured and now faces decades in prison for it tells you anything you need to know about Belarus.