News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

..and sends them off to Poland, no doubt, is that it??

Well, Poland is no longer the backwater of yore, my friend, and precisely for this reason, many Poles are doubtless justifiably concerned that importing too many asylum seekers from Georgia or Turkey will not necessarily raise the GNP once the former have become full-fledged members of the European Community.

That's the key point, I think.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

More backward??? I highly doubt that, sir.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

Georgia is Christian more in the sense of Orthodox Christianity as practiced in Greece as well as Russia:-) While not a Sunni Muslim nation like Turkey, Georgians are nonetheless not Western European Christians, and despite lying in what is technically Eastern, not even Central, Europe, Poland for instance is much more Western than Georgia! A point to consider.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

Their patience though will doubtless be tested to the max if Turkey's and Georgia's joining the EU will mean more of "them" at your borders:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

I think Austrians are reacting AWAY from mainstream liberalism much the way Britons by and large reacted AWAY from perceived Bruxelles meddling in their affairs in the guise of European imperialists, and thus voted en masse for Brexit.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Furthermore, individual European countries, particularly smaller, homogeneous states such as Austria, Sweden or Denmark for instance, are NOT a melting pot society as is the US said to be, never have been and if folks have their druthers, never will be either! Multiculturalism a la Merkel's failed migrant policies, has been foisted upon Germany, Poland to a far lesser degree, and the countries mentioned above. It is not something they either asked for or were consulted about beforehand. People are slowly getting tired of other such as "Mutti Merkel" forcing the spinach of "tolerance or else" on them and making them eat it, like so many an overbearing parent supervising their wayward charges!

As an AfD supporter recently quipped, "I've been an orphan for the past fourty-six years of my life, so why would I suddenly start to need a mother?"

Personally and as an American-born observer, I still see the need for tolerance, lest we repeat the mistakes of recent history. However, the way the EU has handled her migrant policies, were I an average citizen from one of the above countries, I too might have joined the pack, I'm sorry to say.

Language / "Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use? [200]

In English, "Polish people" sounds absolutely fine. Of course, we can also just as easily (and correctly) say/write "the Poles" or "the Polish", as one expresses the idea of "the Spanish", "the French", etc.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Perhaps had there been a referendum in any of the affected EU countries and the citizenry were able to decide for themselves, there wouldn't have been such an outcry nor this type of move by the Far Right:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

@spiritus, nobody ever said life was always going to be convenient! Our own homegrown American former Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes publically decried the keeping alive of "a generation of feeble-minded", as it could infect the entire country.

What he forgot is that those feeble-minded had no choice in the matter and never desired to be born, much less as brain damaged:-)

A tough decision, yet not made any the easier by rightist fear mongers peddling quick answers.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

Seems a bit dodgy to me, this whole business:-) Why would Poland of all places be courting Georgia or Turkey?
Don't like the looks of it!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Hopefully, sanctus mal spiritus, the reactionary stench from the bowels of intolerance are merely a phase YOU'RE going through! And you people call yourselves Christians??! Christianity, the last time I checked, preaches unconditional love for ALL of G_d's children, even of those who transgress. That means, even when it hurts, even when it's not convenient, we don't fall into the trap of quick fixes and easy answers, merely to assuage your bad conscience, considering you have one.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

How right you are, Dirk!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

@The Other, I agree. While Kurz' Peoples' Party and Strache's Freedom Party are no immediate cause for alarm, their agenda over time might be something to keep an eye on. And you're right, Hitler too was grossly underestimated in the beginning, by both his enemies as well as his friends!!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

My view of politics is quite in depth, thank you very much Ironside, so quit trolling:-)

As a matter of fact, the Austrian election is a bell weather for what may well occur in European politics over the coming years!! If the lovely AfD party has become the THIRD single largest political faction within the German Bundestag, how can that bode better for the PiS in your Sejm, the far right in the French Parliament etc.?? Not too well, I fear.

Some boring backwater Austria ain't, my friend, but perhaps the crucible upon which the fate of conservative thinking in Europe might hinge.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Oh, but the Young Republicans DID vote for Trump en masse! Similarly, it was clearly the youth of Austria who put Kurz over the top:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

@Wulkan, one converts from a religion to another, one adopts an alphabet to fit the prevailing need:-)

@DominicB, you're correct. Poland though remained far more Western in her Christianity than either Greece or Russia, but for a variety of other reasons.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

As with the Trump upset "victory" here in the US, I feel simply that the advent of a new, emboldened rightist agenda nowadays, from Denmark to Russia, reflects a long smoldering empathy fatigue among an electorate gradually fed up to the gills with the problems of the disenfranchised in society. They want to finally, once and for all disconnect themselves from the problems in the human condition with which they'd somehow been putting up for thousands of years, and now, the far right has come back...once again on a new broomstick, catering to the impatient, defiant, yet passively demanding Millenials. They just want to relax and enjoy life! LOL

I ought to have seen it coming some time ago, in the early '90's in fact, when a New York TImes article appeared, "Even G_d Needs a Vacation", concerning the growing trend among even seasoned clergy of all faiths to shut down their cell phones, beepers etc. and stop fielding calls from those whom they considered "problem parishioners".

Pretty ghastly stuff.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Poland adopted the Latin alphabet simply to feel closer to European Catholicism.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Merged:

Curious as to whether Kurz' victory will embolden European Ultra Right

Just wondering what members think about Austria's Peoples' Party and Sebastian Kurz as Chancellor. How it affect Germany, Hungary, and Poland?

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Merged:

How Will Kurz' Victory in Austria embolden Far Rightists in Germany, Hungary, and Poland?

As Sebastian Kurz seems poised to become Austria's Chancellor in the biggest right swing upset in that country since the end of WWII, I'm curious as to how this will affect people like Alexander Gauland, Orban Viktor or Poland's PiS leaders.

Any thoughts on the subject?

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Right, Vesko!

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Do some research yourself, kaprys:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

That's what I've been saying all along.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Incorrect, if you go far back enough to early, especially religious, texts.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Return to the very start of the thread for further enlightenment.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Untrue, kaprys! Then again, you entered the thread discussion a bit late:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Reminds me of that classic education best seller "Eye kant reed, kan u?"

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Would you say that Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian or Bulgarian written in Latin script also look "cool"?

History / Terrible past for the Jews in Poland? [930]

Merged:

Polish-American Historian Takes Issue With Goldhagen

A US historian has come out with a book contesting Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's assertion that gentile Poles were largely complicit in the mass murder of Poland's Jews!

Be interested in hearing the Forum's views on this matter.