Life / Blasphemy not OK in Poland! [54]

Olaf - most witty

Life / Blasphemy not OK in Poland! [54]

As for me - I was just quoting what the Anti-Defamation League says on its website. I added the pagan bit ...

Life / I hate Warsaw. The worst part about living here is the people who move here from small towns, villages.. [129]

Magdalena with her blistering personal attack must come from Warsaw (with parents from a little town). They're like that ...

Life / Blasphemy not OK in Poland! [54]

I think we should fight all forms of bigotry, defend democratic ideals and protect civil rights for all - and put an end to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens. Including pagans.

Life / Whats a good gift to send to someone in Poland for Christmas [40]

Polish Christmas present ideas - add your own suggestions

Enough of all that hunting around in bushes, fighting it out at dawn with them damn pesky un-fun guys ... buy grow-your-own mushrooms

gadar.pl/grzybnie/grzybnie-grzybow-jadalnych-grzybnie

This is going to be my Christmas present to brothers-in-law, uncles, cousins ... the whole lot of them can make do with a box full of ... !

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Rozumiemnic

I find your views bizarre. Perhaps you do actually think that young unmarried mothers have a whale of a time and experience no troubles whatsoever and require no help from society. Or perhaps you think that married mothers don't have it tougher than women who don't have kids. Or perhaps you think the vast experience of professionals in the field counts for nothing.

The whole area of abortion rights and wrongs is a minefield. As is young single parenthood - I was brought up in a single parent family by the way. People like to sound off with kneejerk reactions. Like you. I think that abortion on demand, which is the practice (not the law) in the UK has been a disaster resulting in mass abortions on a scale that was never dreamt of back in the 60s. I think personally a blanket ban on abortions is unwise on the grounds of public health - illegal abortions etc - and I think that moral issues are always important in terminating life.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Rozumiemnic

No - just the typical experience of my cousin who runs a sexual health clinic in north London and an acquaintance who was a social worker in Croydon. Getting emotional and - oh oh offended - is a neat cop out from confronting unpalatable situations.

Being a single mother is very tough - being a young single mother even more so. Add to the equation the common scenario of very low educational achievement and you have a wonderful recipe for misery. I have a good friend who is a successful, well-educated single mother - but she is an exception and had her child after getting her education.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

2 examples:
a. The girl opposite my house got pregnant aged 18, gave birth and lives with her parents. The father did a runner. Now aged 24 she's got a bloke and is planning to get married.

b. I've just been to a "shotgun wedding" - the girl was young, radiant and rotund ... people smiled a little nervously but it happened.

Compare that with the UK's 2 usual options:
(i) the girl goes ahead with the pregnancy, gets emergency accommodation (sharing a building with some unsavoury characters) and social worker support; eventually she gets a council flat. She discovers 18 months on that she can't cope on her own and kid goes into care, life ruined.

(ii) the girls kills the baby.

Life is tough and crises happen. Crises like unwanted pregnancies. But there are always things that can be done. Unmarried mothers always attract comment, but they are not shunned. Poles are not monsters. Perhaps the UK way ahead is actually harder for the woman and child. Killing them with kindness.

And let's face it, having kids is always going to limit you in certain respects. My wife would have done so much better professionally in England and Poland if she'd stayed childless.

Deformed foetuses though - that is a much harder issue to deal with. I have no answers.

Food / Confusion over flour names in Poland [46]

My wife bakes a lot - cakes and bread (bread machines are good news). You have to look carefully at the number, as that gives you the info you probably need. Names can be confusing.

History / Lusatia allied with Poland? [19]

With the exception of folk dances and half-remembered snippets of language, Slav culture had probably died there already. History is littered with failed states that have faded out of living memory. Ever heard of the Kingdom of Elmet?

News / History lessons no more in Poland (Tusk's change) [61]

As can be seen by the sometimes hysterical posts in this thread, education debates are marred by politics. Yes, the government is wishing to water down history teaching. And there is a case to be made for change, but you won't hear decent arguments being made by either "side" because they will be drowned out by the media. Often Polish education in the past has demanded too much content. Unfortunately, it seems that the future is going to be characterised by the exact opposite.

Even more unfortunately, history is not the biggest loser in the educational shake-up that's been ongoing over the last few years - including pre-Tusk. The biggest losers have been the sciences and maths. If you talk to higher education staff, they will readily bemoan the remedial lessons forced on them by the substandard knowledge base of their students. It's a general dumbing down process afflicting all aspects of Polish education.

Why is this happening? A leading educationalist explained to me that the original decision was taken in the 90s to open up educational qualifications to the huge number of people who were treated as failures under the old system. The end result of this is that a lot of people have qualifications of lower worth and some highly intelligent people have under-appreciated qualifications. And general levels of knowledge and ability have gone down.

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

Des Essientes - you've really earned my respect by your intelligent arguments and persistence. The PO activists who moderate this forum can afford to be persistent, as it is their job to post. It's interesting how weakly they argue and how quick they are to argue against freedom of speech. It's also slightly bizarre for individuals like Pawian to start insulting me for living the life of Riley in 1980s Communist Poland. He can't possibly think that I'm not Polish and yet have been present at an anti-Communist demo at Warsaw University in 1988. It might also surprise him to know that I was part of a letter-writing campaign on behalf of Michnik. Amneswty International - I think it was the Diss group. Instead Pawian made no bones about thinking me hypocritical scum. Jon, meanwhile, tends to view people living out of town as right-wing racists.

So, folks, there we have it. Freedom of speech sucks, get used to it. And anybody who argues for freedom of speech is a right-wing loon worthy of insults chosen at random.

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

Compare Michnik's conditions in jail with the fate of ordinary mortals who ended up there and you will see the massive, undisputable difference. Something you fail to see through your intentional blindness.

Normal mortal student thrown in jail - kicked off course, endures harsh conditions in jail.
Michnik - received good conditions in jail. Bed, study materials, received visits from his course leader, finished his course.

You can't see the difference?

Normal mortal student in 1988 - faced by large numbers of charging zomo, he runs.
Michnik, wearing skullcap to indicate who he is, calmly watches as zomo run right past him - protected by his cloak of invisibility borrowed from Harry Potter (idea picked up later by JK Rowling.

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

Jon Jon, you really should know that trite argument doesn't cut the mustard with someone who has the slightest bit of knowledge. That sounds like spin from a hired politico.

A few pointers to those who might otherwise naively believe you: While other prisoners lived in appalling conditions, Michnik was allowed to finish his studies - Kuron being allowed to have one on one seminars. Michnik travelled around Europe staying in consular accommodation when normal Poles couldn't even get out of the country. When Warsaw University students held a protest in 1988, Michnik was there. Me too. He didn't have to run from the Zomo.

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

Ironside
Of course he's right to say that! Only someone who is utterly naive would view GW as anything else. I don't know how this bloke expressed himself however.It's the sum of their chosen stories and the slant given in them. Some articles are balanced, though. As for Michnik, he was undeniably given special treatment by the Communists.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Meathead, you're confusing biofuel for vehicles (mainly corn) and biomass for electricity generation (maily wood).

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

I know researchers and they say biofuel is essentially a waste of time, but seeing as the authorities are paying ... and this sort of makes you think about all the public money going into global warmist research

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Right at the heart of the debate is the precautionary principle. This states that even if anthropogenic global warming isn't happening, or if it is happening and its effects are not bad, we must adopt the stance that we have to bankrupt everyone in a vain attempt to stop it, whatever "it" is. Robespierre used similar logic - until his head parted company from his neck.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Carbon sequestration is astonishingly difficult on a technical level.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Huge increases in installed capacity can be achieved through efficiency upgrades at existing power stations. Clean coal is not a joke, by the way, although clean nuclear obviously is.

Life / Jerzy Kosinski - Polish author and liar [127]

The holocaust industry has evil aspects to it. Jerzy Kosinski was a very successful part of it, lying very profitably to an audience that paid handsomely.

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

Try the Jerzy Kosiński thread.

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

My family's history of dealings with Jews:

Solec - little town on the Vistula. Pre-war, grandad + ggd had a cobblers business which was put out of business by a cabal of Jewish rivals which successfully managed to pressurize local leather sellers NOT to sell to him. When the bad times came, one of his erstwhile rivals offered him money to take in his daughter as his own, for safekeeping. He agreed, but the girl's mother changed her mind. The girl was brought round later when the Germans were rounding up Jews, but ggd was too scared to take her in at that stage, regardless of the money.

A little town, that shall remain nameless, near Radom. "Wujek M. ", who was active in Bataliony, hid Jews in his potato bunker, not telling anyone about it until the 1990s. Two of them became central to his later life, since they acted as his "protectors" during Stalinism. They were both in the security apparatus, one being Bierut's ADC. M's son went on to have a career in the military and through working his contacts got his sons good jobs, one in a big state concern.

My wife's headmaster was Jewish, hidden by Catholics during the war (as was his wife to be). An excellent teacher and organiser, he enjoyed high standing in Zwolen, a little town in the back of beyond which had once had a large Jewish community.

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

The thing is that if Pole A does something wrong Pole B will call him a bad person. If Jewish Pole (Polish Jew) A does something wrong, then his ethnic group is involved too.

Jews didn't mix, for whatever reason. Coming from a town with a large, Muslim ghetto, I can tell you that this always goes down like a lead balloon. And "my" ghetto spawned suicide bombers.

Add to this: (i) the Jewish-led Bolshevik Revolution (read Volkogonov - chief KGB archivist) and the shock waves this sent through Poland, (ii) the heavy Jewish presence in the security "services" post WWII and you get a heady mix. And let's not forget the Jewish clique that lost out in the Party in-fighting in 1968 and then came back in the form of Adam Michnik, arguing for a better form of reformed Communism.

And if that weren't enough, you get Jewish campaign groups stirring matters up for their own ends. Perhaps someone has heard a Jew proclaim what a great place Poland was for Jews for centuries (who were there by choice, remember) before it all went bad thanks to the Germans. I haven't.

Haven't we seen echoes of this in the British attitudes to Muslims in recent years - and for far less cause? 50 dead at the hands of terror bombers, granted, but they always posed a lesser threat to the existence of the British state than the evil (yes, Communists were evil) Jewish-led Red Horde that made it to the gates of Warsaw in 1920. A touch more understanding, please. And less hypocrisy. In light of the circumstances and the times, Poles between the wars were fairly OK. In contrast, Hitler's rabidly anti-semitic politics were formed at the time Jewish Communists tried to take over by revolution in Germany.

Food / Comparison of supermarkets in Poland. Which one is the cheapest? [33]

The farmers I know (am related to) have two sections to their farm. They don't use chemicals on produce they are going to eat themselves.

Life / Polish Christmas Carols - your favorites? [20]

Merged: What's the worst Polish carol?

Bah humbug!
I love Christmas in Poland, but I don't like most of the carols. Mournful or saccharine sweet. Nothing to bellow along to tunelessly at midnight mass!

I particularly dislike Dzisiaj w Betlejem!
Agh!

UK, Ireland / Raising Bilingual Children - How are you teaching your children? Your experiences? [74]

Background: English father, Polish mother.
My 2 kids were born in England but came to Poland aged 5 and 3. We pushed Polish in England - I read the kiddie books (Tuwim etc), we had childcare from Poland and Polish TV. Polish was the children's first language. On coming to Poland, we reversed everything. English books, TV - and my wife spoke mostly English at home. Now they're 17 and 15 and doing very well academically in Polish schools, perfectly bilingual. We didn't follow any particular philosophy, just made it up as we went along. TV, though, was perhaps the biggest factor in boosting English at home in Poland - even now we watch little Polish TV.

I just wish my teenage son was a little harder working and turned his music down!

USA, Canada / What do Poles think about drinking raw milk? In America, unpasteurized milk is PROHIBITED. [49]

Milk is an excellent food for infant mammals.

Stop drinking it when you leave infancy - you'll use less toilet paper as well!
Anyway - ever heard of IGF-1? Great for making things grow.

Fortunately, there are govt regulations to curb excesses - did you know there are recommended pus levels in milk?

I'm no anti-milk freak - don't get me wrong. I just don't think that the American obsession with overdoing milk is healthy. People should have a reasonably broad-based diet.