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


Not really. He is the man who popularized the term as name for an economic system for which he also delivered a specific definition for. Claiming that any country "invented" Capitalism is a silly idea since a) capitalist societies have always existed and are a fixture of human life, b) the UK was not inherently more capitalist than any other societies, particulary the Dutch and c) other countries have also produced important economists who contributed to understanding capitalism, with Marx among them.


Well... he is the most important and famous person buried there. Although if I were to visit the graveyard, I'd probably also try to visit a few other graves.

Btw. keep in mind that the grass is always greener in other gardens. The Scots and Rish people do not always consider themselves as fortunate for being nwighbour of the Ebglish.


I did not know that having a peaceful, prosperous and enlightened Central Europe was against Polish interest. Or why it as an Eastern European country would be concerned about supposed designs for Central Europe.

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


Didn't know that Karl Marx was British.


Well, not always, but after WWII certainly. The high esteem we held the UK makes it all the more puzzling to us that the British would undertake something so stupid and self-destructive as Brexit. Or indeed, their bungled response to Covid

As one observer pointed out, the Brits have sadly lost their famed pragmatism at some point.

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


Yeah, but those constellations were far from inevitable. Only a few years before the first parition Prussia and Russia had been on opposite sides in the most destructive war of the 18th century. And Stalin and Hitler were far from natural allies. In both cases Polish diplomacy played a part in bringing those two actors together.


Initiatives that de facto only exist on paper. Some of the Visegrad members even said that they won't follow Polands' anti-Eu path. The truth is that Poland nowadays is completely sidelined from any European policy discussion, even those that should be of great interest to them like Brexit.


At least she stands up for election. She is in power because like her and vote for her, fully knowing what they are voting for. The most powerful man in Poland is afraid to stand in the spotlight, and instead rules via puppets. Not exactly a shining example of democratic conduct.


Didn't you have a bomb explosion in Wroclaw only a few years ago.

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


The HRE was the most highly decentralized state of its' time, particulary from the 1500s onwards. It consisted of up to 350 states,each of whom owed allegiance to the Emperor but were de facto almost independent. Which meant that they formed often alliances with foreign powers against the emperor.


History tells a different story, Germany has prdouced some of the finest diplomats of their time. Frederick the Great, Metternich, Bismarck...

And later the chancellor's of the FRG achieved some significant diplomatic achievements. Adenauer's redemption of the FRG in the West, Brandt's Ostpolitil, Kohl masterfully handling the negotiations for German reunification. Merkel herself showed great skill in handling the Euro crisis, brokering the Minsk II peace agreement and now with the coordination of a European response to Corona.

I mean no offense, but when I think about a country that has a historical lack in diplomacy I think of Poland. Over the ages Polish leaders haf a strange fixation in leading their country in diplomatic isolation, with PiS following this tradition.

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

It would be great if Germany had even a fraction of the power some people attribute to her.

News / E.U. Denounces Poland's Authority on LBGTQ Free Zones [150]

Well, so far no one on this side has ever cited a rational reason for this descrimination so... .

News / E.U. Denounces Poland's Authority on LBGTQ Free Zones [150]

What facts? There is nothing rational behind this. Just pure hatred against a minority.

News / E.U. Denounces Poland's Authority on LBGTQ Free Zones [150]

Preaching hatred is the opposite of wholesome. Not to mention that some of them are bound to have gay children who will directly suffer from this.

News / E.U. Denounces Poland's Authority on LBGTQ Free Zones [150]


There is nothing "decent" about this at all. There is no justification for it whatsoever, just catering to bigotry and hatred.

News / E.U. Denounces Poland's Authority on LBGTQ Free Zones [150]


Human rights violations and forms of stigmatizations are of course of greatest concern to the EU because they directly violate its' core values.

The EU has been silent on this topic for way too long. By speakibg out against this it helps Poland regaining its' honour and sanity.

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


So you admit that EU ascenssion did have aomethibg to do with it? We can argue about the degree, but the prospect of EU membership certainly helped in this endeavour.


You make it sound so negative, as if trade with the SU wasn't a way to decrease tensions in Europe and thus the danger of war, not to mention a tool to get the SU to agree to important treaties like the Helsinki accords? Not to mention that trade between the SU and West Germany remained on a very low level during most of the Cold War, even the gas imports to WG only really picked up in the last 1980s. Therefore the "bottomless German desire for gas" had no real impact on the Soviet Union's economic model.

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


Indeed. The prospect of EU membership already did a lot of good for the country, encouraging its' politicians to implement the necessary reforms and increasing the trust of foreign investors. Particulary Germany agreed alread during the negotiations for reunification that the government would encourage credits to Poland. And the reforms prevented the rise of corrupt Oligarchs like in the Ukraine or Russia.

Just goes to show how invaluable the EU has been for Poland.

History / Battle of Vienna - history movie about Poland / Commemoration [36]

It is interesting to see how much the perception of historical events can differ between countries. In Europe the siege of Vienna is often seen as a pivotal moment, while e.g. from a Turkish point of view, it is oftwn seen as a minor setback. This view is supported by the fact that the Ottoman Empire was capable of conducting a succesful war against Russia only a few years later. Instead Turkish historians often view the the the Austro-Ottoman war of 1716-1718 as the decisive moment, because it not only lead to the most humiliating military defeat in Ottomam history, but also definitely showed that the Ottoman Empire no longer required a large coalition against it.

One way to reconcile those views may be to speculate about what would have happenes if the Ottoman army had taken Vienna. No doubt that the Ottomans would have been able to gain favourable peace terms, but would they have been able to demand the city? And if they did, would they have been able to hold on to it? As historians have pointed out, the Balkans were always an unprofitable part of the Ottoman Empire and a drag on its' ressources. Pacifying a conquered Austria might have been even more taxing. Adding to that the Ottoman Empire faced several internal and external threats, thus making holding on Vienna even more untenable. Furthermore if we look on how politics unfolded at this time, a great deal was placed by the actors to prevent too large gains by a single party, thus upsetting the balance of power. It is thus entirely possible that an Ottoman victory at Vienna would have lead to a bigger anti-Ottoman coalition down the line.

Personally I suspect that an Ottoman victory would have benefited France the most, and allowed it to make even bigger gains into Germany than it already did.

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


He justified paying women less because they are "smaller, weaker and less intelligent" than men. If you read his English Wikipedia entry, he seems to have a seriously scr*wed up picture of women in general.

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


Is this the nutcase who claimed among other things that women were less intelligent than men?

If so, it is hardly a surprise that the party couldn't get more votes.

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


Nothing of that was "long-sighted". It was just a cheap trick to whip up a domestic frenzy, which did lasting damage to Poland's diplomatic position in the EU. Thanks to that the countries in Southern Europe have one more reason to e.g. oppose the sanctions against Russia. And all of that because a supposedly "christian" country was unwilling to help people in need.


The plan wasnt to take refugees from Germany, but from Southern Europe.


Just another reason why Poland's opposition was so short-sighted. They could have taken some refugees, and if they had left on their own volition, they had been out of their hand.

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


You could not be more wrong. Poland is one of the biggest geopolitical losers of the last five years.

PiS has succesfully isolated itself from Western Europe, and its' incredibly short-sighted position in the refugee crisis has antognized Southeen Europe. It has since not played any role in European politics.

Poland lost one of its' biggest allies with Brexit.

Trump's presidency will have serious long-term consequences for the American commitment to Europe. Especially of he wins another term it is entirely possible that he will take the USA out of Nato. Not to mention his huge sympathies for Putin.

Poland stands now without any mayor allies that would support them.

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

Trump hates everything and everyone that is successful and not him. Thus the EU can consider this a badge of honor ;)

It is also too bad that the EU is the such a powerful beacon of democracy und civilization. If it were a dictatorship, no doubt Trump would love it.

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

And the political right with the AfD who are selling out to Russia.

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


That is indeed something that gets conveniently overlooked. If not for Germany, there would not have been any coordinated response to Russia's agression towards the Ukraine, since many countries like Hungary, Greece and Italy just wanted to resume buisness as usual. Even France is not longer really in favour of them. Those sanctions would have been lifted long time ago if not for Berlin's insistence to first see a peace in Ukraine.

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


By the same logic, they also excluded the USA, Turkey and the UK. Which is a ridiculous notion.

You could have tried to include all those countries since they are either neighbours or signatory powers of the Budapest memorandum, but it is clear that Russia would have never agreed to such a constellation that would leave itself so vastly outnumbered.

The Ukraine asked Germany and specifically Merkel for help, since she is known to be a skilled negotiator and and as the only Western politician that Putin takes seriously. Merkel than asked Hollande for assistance, since it can for historically reason not negotiate in such a delicate constellation. As such Merkel could play the honest broker and did in fact achieve a significant success with Minsk II.

Poland was never in consideration, since it both lacked the influence on Russia and was seen as far to hostile to Russia to act in good faith. Though Berlin and Paris did try to include Poland into their East European strategy via the Weimar triangle, and they consult them frequently on Russia and the Ukraine while Poland was governed by PO. But sadly, PiS was fully succesful with their attempts to self-isolate Poland and thus Poland has lost most of its' pre-2015 influence.

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

Keep in mind that this article is from March, when it was yet unclear how fast Germany and the EU would response to the crisis.

There is now reason to believe that Germany might master the crisis better than other countries, though it will - like all mayor economies - no doubt be severely affected by it.

nytimes.com/2020/07/19/opinion/coronavirus-germany-economy.html

All the money Germany saved up under Schäuble might now come in handy.

Law / Asylum laws in Poland [41]

It would be interesting to know the details of this incident. I can only assume that the Dutch have similar standards like other countries and dont just take the word of strangers for it, without checking. If they took the child immediately, than the conditions at home must have been rather alarmimg.

Law / Asylum laws in Poland [41]

The question should be what is better for the child, not the parents. The fact that their child was taken in foster care is huge red flag.

News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]


I don't see that difference. Countries like Germany have also introduced a lot of financial incencitives, but this is not going to fundamentally change the birth rate. Most women who choose not to have children do so because they dont want to give up their career and maintain their freedom. A few bucks more per month wont convince them.

France is doing quite well partly because they managed to integrate mothers better into the qorkforce, by providing them with daycare services and schools that are open for most of the day.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

I wouldnt count on that. Many have already lost a lot of money by betting on the end of the euro since 2009.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


Gay Poles are just as Polish as straight Poles.


Sure, but there must not be a difference between what e.g. a gay and a straight couple can do in public.


Because they want to live as anybody else does, as should be their right.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


That is just fundamental human decency speaking.

There is no justification for any modern society to descriminate against gay people.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


It is indeed terrible that there are still people who find it acceptable to discriminate against gays. And as long as gay couples face discrimination, vitriol and violence by those people it will be necessary to push back with everything available.

Any gay couple should be able to walk hand in hand down in any small Polish village without being antagonized.

Polonia / Polonia in Germany [59]


I found an interesting scientific study (in German unfortunately, but written by a famous Polish-German scholar Dr. Andrzej Kaluza) on this issue:

bpb.de/internationales/europa/polen/40858/analyse

It makes a lot of interesting claims that I could partially validate.

One of them concerns the often repeated claim that Poles enjoyed "minority rights in Weimar. This is in fact not really true, at no point does the Weimar constitution state that. Article 13 merely states that no minority should be surpressed in their cultural identity, but that does not imply minority rights as we would understand them, which means the active support via the state (e.g. financing the teaching of their language). It was forbidden in Weimar to e.g. force a child to abandon its' Polish native language, but the state was not required to provide it with opportunities to nurture it. And there is no other legal document that could be interpreted as granting the Poles minority rights. (The analysis mentions two other documents that have been brought up but thoroughly debunks them, if necessary I can come back to them later but as of right now I am too lazy to translate the complicated terms). So saying that giving Poles minority rights would restore them rights which they lost under Nazi Germany is de factor false. Mind you that was something Polish Germans criticized from the very beginning, and which is why those Polish minority rights groups formed in the 1920s.

There is also an important legal argument which I shall quote here in case I mistranslate it:

Es handelt sich dabei um Gruppen von Menschen, die eine eigene nicht-deutsche Identität besitzen, gleichzeitig aber das Gebiet des deutschen Staates seit Generationen bewohnen. So haben z. B. die Dänen Minderheitenrechte, die ihnen ein deutsch-dänisches Abkommen von 1955 gewährt, die aber zumeist nur auf wenige Landkreise in Schleswig-Holstein beschränkt sind; ein aus Flensburg stammender Deutscher dänischer Herkunft kann dort einen dänischsprachigen Kindergarten für seine Nachkommen verlangen, nicht aber in Berlin.

Basically only groups which are acknowledged by international law, and who still identify as such and who lived in Germany for generations can enjoy special privileges tied to the area they live in. Which is why Danes have privileges in certain parts of in Slesvig Holstein, but not e.g. Berlin.

Since "Ruhrpoles" were never a specific minority group recognized by international law, and by 1945 can hardly be said to still have formed a distinctive group, this no longer applies. All Poles arriving in Germany after 1945 are thus treated as any other migrants.

It is also worth noting that (at least until 2011 when this was written) the only group who consistently used the legal term "minority" were Polish lobby groups, even Polish politicians have not used it with its legal implications. The German interpretation has apparantly been upheld by several courts. The reason why this was never brought before an European court is that most Western European countries do not recognize minority rights to begin with (hence why other countries with many Polish migrants do not even contemplate this).

This is only up to page 2 out of page 4, I'll translate the other parts at a later time.


I really would not recommend this one. This site is dominated by right-wing radicals,