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Posts by mafketis  

Joined: 31 Mar 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O
Last Post: 48 mins ago
Threads: Total: 43 / Live: 23 / Archived: 20
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Displayed posts: 6952 / page 208 of 232
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mafketis   
18 Dec 2016
Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]

You said Santa Claus, not some folk grandfather figure

Santa is just another incarnation of the motiff, the idea of him getting in houses through chimneys dates from 1809 and the reindeer pulled sled from 1820 or so.

BTW can you prove that in pre-Christian times there was a grandfather gift-giver reminsicent of Father Christmas or Dziadek Mróz?

I have no intention of doing a dissertation and it's a bit of a deduction but all these figures (and the old man at the end of the year) didn't come from nothing.

And of course the church as a long history of coopting pagan practices and putting a christian veneer over them. Nothing wrong with that at all it's a way to make people feel the faith is connected to them.
mafketis   
18 Dec 2016
Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]

I didn't know that. I spent one Xmas in Poland a few years ago with friends, but no-one had presents on Wigilia.

Was this with friends or their families?

Also traditionally Xmas presents for adults traditionally tend to be small and symbolic in Poland (for financial and cultural reasons). That's changing some but it's nowhere like the US where people spend waaaaaaay too much money on presents.
mafketis   
18 Dec 2016
Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]

Poles traditionally get presents from Sw. Mikołaj on December 6th

that's just for kids, traditionally

but the Poles I know in the UK, also give out small presents on Wigilia or Xmas da

Usually presents are opened during wigilia in Poland, Christmas day in Poland is usually.... just lazing around, eating, going to church (if you're so inclined) and/or visiting family that isn't too far away.

Basically, he's only happy when he's being miserable ;)

I don't mind him being miserable, but why insist that everybody else join in?
mafketis   
18 Dec 2016
Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]

The brown fur hat adorned with holly leaves and the pipe of Nast's imagination was not replicated by Coca-Cola

So?

All across Europe you find the folk motiff of the onset of winter (or the winter solstice) being associated with an old man, possibly bearing gifts.

That's the idea uniting figures like Ded Moroz (Dziadek Mróz) and Father Christmas (who existed for centuries before being formalized in the Victorian era).

Calling that figure Saint Nicholas is just one more manifestation of that, another example of Catholicism co-opting pre-Christian pagan beliefs.

Deciding that one of these is the only true incarnation is very weird and I don't understand the logic.

Dude, life is too short to be so upset about Santa Claus.....

If I had my druthers Santa wouldn't be very well known outside the US but I'm not going to start ranting and raving about it.
mafketis   
17 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Austria's vote in the correct path to democracy

How is voting for a party whose policies they agree with _not_ the correct path of democracy?

slow the march of les petites faschistes:-))

If you have to choose.

1. you can wave away the parties you don't like and unpopular EU policies towards greater integration and more non-European migration continue unabated

2. Some parties that are a bit further to the right than you like come to power in order to start changing unpopular EU policies.

(nb 1 is a likely path to civil uprisings in a few EU countries....)
mafketis   
10 Dec 2016
Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]

Historically they differed in that the American Santa Claus of Irving and Nast creation was a rotund, jovial, bacchic figure rather than a saintly one.

Christmas in America also has a rich secular tradition probably mostly inherited from the England. The current version of Father Christmas only dates from Victorian times I believe but similar figures go back centuries.

Where does the Russina Ded Moroz (Polish Dziadek Mróz) come from?

The earliest American colonists (like modern Jehovah's Witnesses) didn't celebrate Christmas because of the lack of Biblical justification. As immigration grew beyond the highly religious Pilgrims and Puritans some, largely secular, English Christmas traditions were celebrated so that might be another factor contributing to the more secular Santa Claus.
mafketis   
10 Dec 2016
Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]

Santa Claus, Poles refer to as Święty Mikołaj, correct?

I would say they're very different characters. Santa Claus can probably be traced to some stories by Washington Irving who largely wrote about the Dutch colonies around New York. That Saint Nick was originally almost a satire of the Dutch Sinterklaas (short and fat instead of tall and thin). The substitution of a sled drawn by a (single) reindeer was the contribution of an anonymous children's book aroud 1820 or so. Also along the way Sinterklaas's slaves were turned into elves (pc goes waaaaaay back).
mafketis   
9 Dec 2016
Polonia / POLES vs BULGARIANS [160]

How Poland is divided? Ideologically? Politically?

Poland is divided in several ways that intersect each other. These include geography (west vs east - the vistula/wisła river is a rough dividing line), politics (winners vs losers in the post-communist system) and generations (old vs young). It's a bit more complicated (it always is) but those are the big divisions. There are also regional distinctions that come from the partitions (basically the parts that were more German(ic) are better off than the parts that were under Russian rule because Russian rule at all times and in all places is terrible).

West vs East (aka Poland A vs Poland B): This is a bit like the North/South divide in Itay or the South/North divide in England. The west is richer, more productive economically and has more of a functioning civil society. The east is poorer and more mired in eastern (Russian) ways of doing things.

Winners and Losers after communism: Many who failed to prosper after the end of communism are bitter and want revenge against those who have done better. The more radical want to rebuild communist-era-style institutions (without communism per se).

Old vs Young: While Polish people are not nearly as socially liberal as their western peers, they generally have litle tolerance for living in the past and they are bored with the endless wars rooted in the communist period. Their main concern is finding a job that will pay them enough to live on and not increasing social safety nets for economically unproductive older people. The oler generation, sensibly from their point of view, votes for more of a safety net for the old and against most types of change, even those that are needed.

I don't personaly know a single Bulgarian person who is welcoming towards the illegal migrants from Africa and Central Asia.

This is true in Poland as well. I work around people who are some of the most tolerant towards other cultures you can imagine and not a single one supported Merkel's madness or the plan to accept her surplus. The only acceptance of the idea of settling the Merkel youth in Poland I've come across is from Brits on this forum who like the idea of weakening social cohesion because they dislike most features of traditional Polish culture.
mafketis   
9 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Hofer hasn't moved on with the times, Van der Bellen has,

It's not clear if Van der Bellen thinks there should be an independent country named Austria or simply a place on the map of the EU super state named Austria.....

Many EU policies work fine and some of them are dismal failures by any rational standard and the EU leadership is refusing to admit this (the same way the communists never admitted to any of their catastrophic failures).

The best way to prevent the real far right from coming to power is to accept some governments that are further to the right than the EU leadership is comfortable with will be winning elections. Nothing tones down radical rhetoric quicker than being made responsible for your policies on the ground.

At present the EU is telling the people of Europe that their is no peaceful way to change unpopular EU policies..... that is far more dangerous than anything the FPO could come up wth.
mafketis   
8 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Civil War to which you refer ended in 1865 and the last from that era died out around the end of the 1940'sLOL

No. The real diehard segregationists were overwhelmingly members of the democratic party until the early 1970s.

Again, you haven't actually mentioned any policy positions.

Please name their policies that you disagree with (I might also). But if all you have is vague fears of the "far right" then you have no real arguments.

The positions I've found from the FPO aren't really far right, but if it and groups like it are not given a voice then the _real_ far right is liable to take over. By trying so hard to prevent a scary far right from forming - you're probably doing more to empower them.
mafketis   
8 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

but the FPO was started almost immediately post-War in Austria by ex-Nazis

So? Is there a reason I should care?. The Democratic party was once the party of racial segregation in the US. Times and parties change.

At present I haven't heard much from the FPO that a reasonable person would have to disagree with. If they were really that bad the press would be all over their policy positions - insteads it's all innuendo and calls to the past.

Tell me something I should disagree with now and stop being a drama queen stuck in the past.
mafketis   
8 Dec 2016
Polonia / POLES vs BULGARIANS [160]

I don't really get how a thread with such title is possible.

The title of this thread is not even the top 30 % of nonsensical stuff on this forum. I really have no idea what the owner or moderators are trying to accomplish.

New threads are often attached to old (often irrelevant) threads and people who know nothing about Poland are allowed to rail on about unrelated nonsense.

Part of the problem is linguistic - the idiotic English only rule means that almost no real Polish people would be interested in posting here.

Another problem is that Poland is a _bitterly_ divided country at present (and no policial actors are interested in changing that) and so discussion about issues affecting the country soon break down into nasty arguments.

Another is that there is a .... British contingent that tends to be kind of ethnocentric and dismissive of the great majority of Polish culture.

Short story - it's a mess and maybe fun for a wallow now and again but you won't learn anything worthwhile here.

What's the political situation in Bulgaria? Is it as bitterly divided as Poland? Is it still mostly avoiding the "refugee" crisis? I also had the impression it's doing better than it had a few years ago.

And Bulgarian, not Polish, is the weirdest Slavic language - no cases and articles? (I'm very fond of Bulgarian and would like to learn more but the real world impinges on these plans).
mafketis   
6 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

For whatever it's worth to anyone, van der Bellen and the Greens won in Austria, thankfully

Why "thankfully"? The anger of many Europeans towards their governments and Brussels is not lessening. And FPO is not really "Far right" (if it were there would be many citations of their far right positions - instead their far rightness is mere stated again and again and again...)

FPO is rightwing period and would have been centrist a couple of decades ago.

The real far right right are waitng in the wings.

The choice for the EU is:
a) accept some governments that are further right than Brussels
b) start paying attention to voter concerns instead of ignoring them
c) war

I'm completely serous. Celebrating van der Bellen's victory is applauding the orchestra on the Titanic.
mafketis   
2 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

May will hopefully allow the Poles to stay in the country, but there's a lot of resistance against that from what I hear,

Will the British public enjoy the middle easterners, sub-saharan africans and pakistanis she will bring in to take their place? Don't Polish migrants have better employment and lower crime rates than any of those groups?
mafketis   
2 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Access to the common market and related foreign investments don't count?

They count but there can only be one 'best' or 'most' and what benefitted Poland most was access to foreign labor markets.

Poland with the investment and EU payments but with al the un(der)employed still in Poland is worse than Poland without the investment and payments with the unemployed in the labor markets of the UK, Germany, Norway etc

Having both is nicer, of course.
mafketis   
1 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

The east European countries were run down to such an extent that no one could rescue them economically. R

True in 1989.... 2004? Not so much. The best deal that Poland got from joining the EU was being to export much of its unemployed population. EU grants tend to come with lots of strings and bureaucracy and are mostly cosmetic. Getting a few million people into jobs (even if not in Poland) was a very good thing for Poland (maybe not as much for the UK Ireland etc
mafketis   
1 Dec 2016
News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I agree. The main problem for the EU is that it grew too fast and that it introduced the common currency.

True, the Euro is a 1980's solution imposed when there was no need for it anymore. The limited benefits don't make up for the downsides (like that fact that in it's current form it's not a true currency but a loanshark scheme)
mafketis   
26 Nov 2016
News / Polish parliament refuses to consider shack-up draft between both traditional and same-sex couples [96]

How many times in the average hour do you think about men having sex with other men?

Asking "how many times" implies that he sometimes does not think of it. My assumption is that he never stops thinking of it....

people worried about Brussels trying to force perverse practices on member states

In modern usage (as opposed to what you can copy out of a dictionary)

perverse =/= perwersyjny = perverted

perverse = uparty (possibly with a bit of bezinteresowne chamstwo and/or dziwaczność)

Well I'm against Brussels forcing people in member states to engage in homosexual activity no two ways about it.

But people obsessing about what a small minority of consenting adults do in private (or how they order their personal lives) is a lot more perverted than almost any sexual practice I've heard of....
mafketis   
25 Nov 2016
USA, Canada / Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname? [128]

The "f" sound in your surname is very faint and inaudible in normal colloquial speech

Where do you get that idea? The w (phonetically f) in -owski names is perfectly audible in all but the most element-ish speech (element in its Polish meaning).
mafketis   
25 Nov 2016
USA, Canada / Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname? [128]

there is almost no difference between Spanish and Polish "o"

yes, the key word being 'almost' (and different types of Spanish have vowels that are different).

I remember years ago an American linguist (very fluent in Spanish) heard Polish vowels demonstrated and remarked on the slightly odd nature of the Polish o (not something non-linguists are likely to hear but it's there).
mafketis   
21 Nov 2016
USA, Canada / Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname? [128]

'Wojciechowski' pops up frequently. The 'cie' part I don't know how to pronounce. Anyone?

roughly

voy-cheh-HOF-skee (HOF rhymes with loaf)

you'll probably never be able to say it

helpful as always....