Life / Comparing Poland and Romania [108]


What I was told was that most attacks were against children who were trying to play with them - it's a bad idea to play with street dogs.


The Bucuresti metro is very, very weird, especially the narrow platforms where your back is to the wall and the train seems like 20 centimeters away.

Life / Comparing Poland and Romania [108]


IME they leave you alone if you leave them alone (and many are partly adopted by people or businesses that regularly feed/water them).

The packs apparently were created in the poorest times of the 1990s when people couldn't afford their pets and abandoned them.

Life / Comparing Poland and Romania [108]

Random observations from a few visits (more Bucuresti, Timisoara might be different)

Romania is a lot behind Poland in terms of infrastructure. It was damaged more by communism and afterwards was preyed upon by a real oligarch class (not the puny simulation of same in Poland). So it's poorer with worse infrastructure. The quality of construction in housing is clearly worse than Poland and a lot of could be /would be nice areas are neglected.

Knowledge of English is similar though not the same (IME Romanians lapse into Romanian a lot when trying to speak English though very fluent speakers can be found as well).

Food is really interesting, like a combination of Hungarian and Turco-Bulgarian (kind of equidistant to both.)

Romanians are mostly pretty friendly and open (more so than Polish) but small scale scams are more widespread keep your wits about you and learn the numbers in Romanian and you'll be fine.

The gypsy population is larger than in Poland and full of typical Romani pathology.

If you know a Romance language well you'll start to understand bits and pieces of Romanian very quickly and Romanians are very nice about providing good language models.

Romanians culivate their folk culture esp music, unlike Poles who are embarassed by and alienated from theirs.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


When your only tool is a hammer.....

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [346]

Actually the American version is probably most closely based on the Dutch Sinterklaas but as imagined by Washington Irving who wrote a lot about the descendents of Dutch settlers around New York. But he described an almost troll like short squat figure, rather like a Dutch Burgher. IIRC an anonymous author added the reindeer and sleigh (instead of Sinterklaas's white horse). The elves are probably a reimagining of Zwaarte Piet the blackfaced companions of Sinterklaas.

Others brought him up to normal height but kept the rotund figure. Thomas Nast was most responsible for creating the visual image of the American Santa starting in the 1860s.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


Yes, you are. Picking and choosing which laws to follow is a very dangerous path for a government to follow.


perhaps in your fevered, partisan imagination I am, back here in reality no.

Part of the rule of law, means that a new party in power can't make a running start changing everything it might like to, inconvenient but probably for the best, overall. It frustrates revolutionaries, but revolutions are proven to be a terrible way to try to improve society, incrementalism works a lot better in the long run.

Had PiS accepted the original TK ruling then they'd be able to be working on implementing their program, but now they're stuck in place and alienating many of the swing voters that put them in power. An absolute own goal.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


So what do you propose to use instead of the rule law? The unquestioned authority of the party?

What about education? Correct ideology or impartial reality?

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [346]


Many people fail to realize that complete non-use of alcohol and being falling down drunk are not the only two options.

One family I had wigilia with produced a bottle of vodka about halfway through, people had a couple of shots over the course the rest of the meal and that was that. With all the food the effects were pretty minimal.

Another produced an aperitiff, a nice white wine during the meal, and a digestiff at the end. Again, nice and civilized and no one got even tipsy.

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [346]

Not drink on wigilia? AFAIK wine or vodka with the wigilia meal is pretty common now, not hardcore drinking but sipping wine or a few small shots though the meal.

Maybe this is like the no-dairy rule that few people follow anymore (since herring in cream is pretty common).

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


So... you don't care about rule of law _or_ education. Just how do you expect Poland to prosper? Magic beans?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Just as the vast majority of grass-roots PiS demonstrators sincerely believe they are marching for the future of Poland and not to benefit some shady pseudo-nationalist power mad elite....

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


No hyperbole here..... Is it impossible for you to grasp that many Polish people sincerly think that PiS is not the best option for the country? Do you always have to demonize a third (at least) of the population of the country?

Challenge: Think of a political language that proposes what you want and doesn't insinuate that somewhere between 25 and 60 per cent of Polish citizens are diabolical plotters or hapless victims of smooth talking shysters.

I don't agree with the PiS platform but that doesn't lead me to despise everyone that's ever voted for them.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


This is a big problem in Polish politics, there's no political language that can unite Polish people. All parties are based (in part) on despising a large segment of the Polish public. They're all alike in that, they just despise different large segments so Polish politics will remain a war of all against all for the foreseeable future.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


This sounds like PiS. Care to address things they've actually said or are you happy just to echo the correct party line?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


It was possibly a trap set up by PO with bait they knew Kaczynski could not resist, and.... he couldn't. Are they to blame for knowing their enemy's weakness?

But if he had simply accepted the three legitimately selected members of the TK and chosen two of their own then PiS would be able to try to implement their program. How much of their program is against the constitution, anyway?

My new theory - JK is deathly afraid of success and keeps sabotaging himself so that he can retreat back into the warm safety of failure that he can blame others on (aided by a network of enablers). Now the PiS program is stalled (due to a major own goal) and Polish society is more divided than ever and Poland's economic progress (clear to anyone who actually lives here) is threatened.

Many supporters of PiS seem to be like the dog in the manger (or gardener's dog in Polish) they'd rather everbody was equally poor than have a society where some are more successful than others.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


This implies that anyone who has been successful over the last 8 years is a criminal enriching themselves at the expense of other people - vulgar marxism.


And what will she ask forgiveness for?

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


By this point you think that PiS's plans are any different?


Kaczynski hates democracy and rule of law and the idea of civil society. He wants a society with an unaccountable government (I think his term is 'silne państwo' or some such rot) that can dole out rewards to the good kids and punish the bad kids (the stern father) and a strong church to be the kind mother.

It's a fundamentally non-western, non-democratic tradition that is outdated by several hundred years. He can't achieve this goal because it's impossible but he can do a lot of damage trying.

PO aren't much better but at least their goals are sort of doable, Kukiz is a rebel idiot who will not be able to transform from being against the system to part of it (which he has to do if he wants to achieve any of his goals, though since his goals are so puerile I really hope he fails spectacularly).

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]


google translate does not deal well with very informal or slang usage....

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]


roughly: laseczka (pl laseczki) girl, chick

"ale laseczki!" roughly "Those chicks are hot!"

jakie laseszki can be similar (sounds weaker to my non-native ear) or a question "what kind of girls/chicks?"

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


It's like an economic graph that suddenly plunges downward - Guess when the socialists took power!

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


Who decides who is an "exploiter" or not? Especially with the rule of law in tatters?


You can't hammer entrepreneurs and build up a class of entrepreneurs at the same time. Cannot be done. It's a fantasy and not implementable policy.


What about Polish exploiters? As has been explained numerous times many would rather not work for Polish companies because of the history of nepotism and connections prevailing over competence.

Vulgar marxist rhetoric might make some people feel better but the road to prosperity is long and winding with many setbacks and is best followed at a slow pace with the rule of law, there are no quick fixes and Big Daddy government cna't make the foreign bogeymen disappear.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


source?

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


I think PiS voters still think of entrepreneurs much the say way that the PRL thought about prwyaciarze

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


That'll show the układ! ..... somehow

Economic gravity -

The more restrictions you put on employment, the less employment there will be.

The more tax you collect from entrepreneurs the fewer entrepreneurs there will be.

The more you keep out foreign capital the less domestic capital there will be.

In other words there ain't no such thing as a free lunch - but PiS keeps telling voters there is (to be fair they're not the only party that does that but no other party is as self-righteous about it).

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


nothing I've ever heard them say convinces me of that. Where are you getting it? And "repolonizing" banks is less important to entrepreneurs than rule of law and predictability.

Talking about breaking the "układ" (system) creates instability and businesses run from that as fast as they can (escept for a few shysters). Who's to say that respectable businessperson employing 14 people won't be targetted by the government as part of the "układ"?

If you want to create a business friendly environment you stick with the rule of law even when it's not so fun. Like swearing in the three members of the TK that were legitimately chosen and the first two whose oaths were accepted by the president.


More Russia Today talk. And, if you haven't noticed (of course you haven't you don't know people living in Poland) you'd know that many young Poles would rather work for foreign companies (so hated by PiS) because they're more likely to have clear guidelines for job evaluation and promotion. Polish companies are notorious for promoting on the basis of nepotism and connections rather than merit.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


blah blah blah those are Russia Today talking points, why are you so in favor of a party that's so closely in line with Putinite goals?

I'm in favor of what works and not much of what PiS is proposing has a good track record. The real danger in Poland (which if you actually lived here you'd know) is the creation of an underclass of undereducated and unemployable people. And no, this is not PO's fault but a decades long breakdown in social cohesion which most parties (including PiS) are exacerbating.

None of the parties (including PiS) is willing to talk about this in public or talk about possible remedies which would not be popular with the core PiS voters who are more interested in government handouts than doing the work necessary to improve life in Poland.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


See, I'm not crazy about those things either but literally not a single thing PiS has done so far indicates any desire to tackle those kinds of issues. Instead there's a lot of empty demagoguic puffery and no actual actions that don't make things worse.

PiS's victory is rapidly turning into a consolation boobie prize for people instead of any real change on any real issue that matters.

Again, I'm a fiscal conservative, social liberal (though not a crazy post-modern SJW or anything like that) and I'm in favor of moderate nationalism and a somewhat scaled back EU (and no more "european intergration" oh god, please no more of that).

How would PiS (assuming I could vote which I can't) further my preferences?

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


Then why is PiS making it so easy for opponents? Not very clever if you ask me.


Is this really somewhere you want to go?


PiS (in it's current incarnation which is still its old incarnation) cannot survive without the polarization. It's whole platform is a rejection of all modernity and a desire to return to a Poland that never existed.

If the toxic elders stepped aside then maybe the younger (so to speak) generation could morph into a more traditional Christian Democrat party and approach modernity in a more... realistic fashion.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


No, but the longer the PiS government continues to flout the law with impunity the more bridges it is burning.


Sick fantasy


Well if PiS unleashes force against peaceful protesters then it will have done horrible damage to the Polish nation. Is that what you want?


PiS is the driver of the current deepening divide. All it has to do is follow the law and the protests will die down.


How so? And if so, shouldn't the PiS government have thought of that before setting aside rule of law for rule of party?

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


The first is a bit extreme. I'd settle for publication of the TK rulings and accepting the oaths of the three judges legitimately appointed by PO (as well as the first two of the five selected by PiS, that is the first two whose oaths he accpeted).

The longer the government refrains from doing those two things then the more likely that those two things won't be enough.