Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


It has everything to do with Poland if you want to argue whether Poland should have strict gun laws like the UK or less strict ones.

Frankly there should be any discussion since the USA is the best example why the right to own guns without very strict limitations is a very bad idea.


Now imagine if those people had access to guns... Things would be way worse.

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


So you compare the USA with countries that suffer extremely from organized crime? Is this the new benchmark for the USA?


"Strict" perhaps by American standards, but are they comparable to European standards?


This issue is actually adressed in the article I provided.

Of course you'll always have people who have connections and get their guns, but you can make it more difficult for the "average" criminal or "lone-wolf" terrorist to get his hands on them. This is significant because those are the ones who are most difficult to detect before they commit a crime.

Not to mention that this might have a beneficial impact on the police force:

theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/09/the-counted-police-killings-us-vs-other-countries

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


Relatively few yes, and even fewer with guns.


Not sure how this relates to my statement. There is nothing to twist here, the facts are very clear. Gun violence is infinitely worse in the USA than it is in Europe, in any way you can measure it.

nytimes.com/2016/06/14/upshot/compare-these-gun-death-rates-the-us-is-in-a-different-world.html

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

@Dirk diggler
Things would not immediately change since there are already so many guns circulating in the USA, bit give it 10 years and we would see results. Mexico is not the standard you would want to meaure the USA, it is enough to measure them with any European country.

One of the main mistakes of the USA has been its' overreacting in the face of islamic terrorism. 9/11 was horrible, yet the war on terror has killed more Americans (and far more people from the invaded country), not to mention the financial and political costs with no tangible benefit. Meanwhile factors that could be changed like drug abuse and gun violence has claimed approx. 100k lifes. Does that really look like a reasonable calculation?

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

That just goes to show you how some people think.

An American kills almost 60 people but the guy in the Oval Office claims that this is not the time to discuss gun control.

A muslim kills 8 people and the same person says it is time for political action.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

@Zarastro

This was actually written by me on a wrong Nickname.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]


So Poland managed to process only 6000 applications in 3 years? No,the rest are simply not refugees, but economic migrants. Which is fine, because they are tremendously helpful to the Polish economy, but they are a dishonest argument in the refugee dispute.


The EU has always been more than an Economic Union, even from its' very origin. This argument is already ridiculous for those who favoured for Brexit, and it is especially ridiculous for the countries who joined the EU in the 2000s.


This is how the EU works. It could not function otherwise.


Firstly, Poland is no superpower and thus is not above consequences. Secondly, this example is completely irrelevant for the topic at hand.
The EU was founded precisely on the idea to avert this. The EU works on the principle that all countries work together and try to reach a consensus on decisions, on mutual trust. Sure some countries have more influence than others, but it rarely happens that countries get completely outvoted, and this is usually because those countries refuse to alter their position even a little.

I just hope that the Polish people remember this when the consequences of this become clear. I have recently read a few articles about how Southern Europe wants to retaliate. Curbing the structural funds and instead redirecting them for dealing with the refugees in the future is almost guaranteed to happen, once the countries start negotiating in 2019. But apparantly Italy and Greece have also decided to use their influence in Nato for advocating a reapproachment in Russia, and the Italian government has secretly stated that it would veto any further Nato troops in Europe because of this.

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

@SigSauer


Cologne is a regrettable exception, not the rule. The culprits were also not from Syria, but North Africa.

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


Not that there is one in Germany either mind you.

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

Not that Turkey nor Georgia have any realistic chance of becoming an EU member. Turkey is btw. so large that it would require a plebiscite in every EU member state to join, and considering the opposition among the population in many states, there is no way that all would vote in favour. And this is even disregarding the whole Cyprus problem.... .

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


It is once it becomes apparant that those arrests are solely made to weaken domestic opposition and are not upholding basic legal standards. Furthermore there are many foreigners arrested and denied due process because Erdogan wants to use them as hostages against other countries. Dozens of foreigners are currently arrested on ridiculous charges and Turkish officials prevent them from meeting with attorneys from their home countries, which is basic international law.

This is very clear in the case of the arrested German-Turkish journalist Mesale Tolu. Her arrest is in itself against Turkish law (because the judge who ordered her arrest and later denied her bail are one and the same person, something that is expressively forbidden under Turkish law).

I don't think that Turkey is a good partner for Poland, even without those circumstances, since Erdogan has become a close partner of Putin, which should made the Polish government suspicious.

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


The people in the low-wage industry would just love this... .

Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]

Hitler had very little historical knowledge, and what he read was often from autors who could not be deemed as serious historians even then.
Needless to say, the claim that today Germans have anything in common with the Germanic tribes of the past is just as ridiculous. I wrote a university paper on the depiction of the Germanic tribes under the Nazis and let's just say, how they proved the "connection" between the Vandals/VisigothsGermanic tribes and the German people has nothing to do with historical research and everything with wishful thinking. And of course, there were attempts to underline the difference between the Germanic people who had "resisted" Roman influence.

Just an example for how the perception has changed. Historians used to depict the troubles of the late Western Roman Empire as a struggle between Romans and Germanic tribes. But as historians have pointed out, most of the Germanic war chiefs (including Alaric who sacked Rome) were actually part of the Roman army, often achieving high or even the highest ranks, so it is more justifiable to see this as an power struggle between Romans.

Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]

@Crow This is a lot bs you are talking about. Stop projecting modern concepts of nationality into the past.


Oh my god this is so absurd... . Before the Romans came, therr was nothing in Germania except large forests and some small settlements made of wood. They founded some cities (Cologne, Trier) but generally used the same system they applied elsewhere to secure their dominion: Working with the lical elites. They mostly left the tribes alone on the right side of the Rhine and made no attempt to actively "Romanize" them after conquest became impractical. However the Roman way of life proved very tempting to the "barbarians" which is not surprising.

Out of curiosity, have you ever read a modern history book by a respectable historian? Probably not, because if you did, yould know how utterly wrong your conceptions are.

Would you also claim that the Balkans are inheritely Italian territory? Because the Roman conquered most of it and the territory prospered under their rule like never before and never again in history.

The answer is of course no, since there is no direct link between Italians and Romans since the Roman people consisted of basically half of Europe, parts of Asia and Africa.

Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [170]

@Wulkan


Indeed. Poles account for the second largest minority in Germany after Turks, and they are all in all incredibly well integrated. They are often not any from native Germans, and often people are surprised to learn just how many Poles live in Germany.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

@Lyzko

Well, it is quite obvious that Merkel is a very skilled diplomate if nothing else, and personally speaking, I'll likely vote for her again this year.


I have to disagree with you here. I think the way Merkel dealt with Greece is one of the best example for her multilateral approach to diplomacy. When everything was said and done, every country agreed to her suggestions.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


No media outlet is truly objective, just like in every country they have a specific target audience. That being said Der Spiegel has very good investigative journalists, and they are particulary good in exposing scandals and they are very reliable when it comes to presenting facts. It is just important to keep their critical attitude in mind e.g. when reading articles about Merkel's foreign policy (in general they think Merkel is too hard on Greece, too soft on Erdogan and not vocal enough about the detoriation of democracy in Poland and Hungary).

One amusing story which highlights their bias against the CDU. Der Spiegel was vehently against every foreign political decision the first chancellor Konrad Adenauer made (although they did have respect for the man), particulary his decision to anchor West Germany to the West and thus (supposedly) perpetuated division of Germany. Their opposition to his government even laid the ground for the incident that cemented his reputation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel_Affair

In a recent edition that celebrated an anniversary of their magazine, they covered every post-war German chancellor until now. In the passage about Adenauer, they put much emphasis on his (undeniable) more controversial domestic decisions, while they only talked about his foreign policy in passing. They sheepishly ended the passage with the statement: Today, most historians agree that Adenauer was right on the most important foreign political questions of his time. That is a bit odd, considering that Adenauer's lasting legacy was mostly in him laying the framework in which German foreign policy works until today.


@ mafketis


They were begging for other countries to relief the pressure on them by taking in some of the refugees. In fact Tsiprashas afterwards expressed his gratitude to Merkel for her decision.

global.handelsblatt.com/politics/how-greece-learned-to-love-merkel-484454

Merkel knows the fragile situation in the Balkans better than most Western leaders. With the decision to take in those refugees who are still on the Balkan route, she probably prevented an escalition of the situation that might have ended in violence, which could have happened if the countries in the Balkans had decided to shuffle to refugees around until they were stuck by fences.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/05/angela-merkel-europe-unfinished-business-balkans

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

@Lyzko

This is hardly surprising. The SPD wants to distance itself from Merkel because they intend to win the election and have their own cancellor. Usually the SPD is the strongest rival of the CDU, it only has happened twice before that they formed a government together.

Der Spiegel is Germany's most respected news magazine, but they are also since their inception fundamentally against the CDU and want the SPD to govern.

It is only natural that not every party member agree to everything Merkel does, we are living in a democracy after all. That being said, it is important to note that Merkel's biggest advantage is that she is still irreplacable for the CDU. There is nobody who comes even close to her approval ratings or her reputation as chancellor, the CDU needs her to win the election this year. Von der Leyen, while often cited as her likeliest succesor, is often seen as boring and less likely to attract votes.

I'll anser your emails properly later, once I have the time. :)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


The AfD might not even make it into the parliament. Ever since they revealed that their leader have schown sympathy with openly racist and revanchist ideology, the AfD has lost massively in popularity, and Trumps election also reminded many Germans what happens if you vote for guys like this. Merkel on the other hand benefited from this.


Those countries (with the exclusion of Austria) had been begging for help since the start of 2015. Merkel provided them with relief, and particulary Greece was grateful for this.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


And to be fair, all governments can be creative with their accounting. France's current budget deficite would probably look worse without it. It can also take different forms, for example, most European defence budgets would look even worse if pensions were not included, which many governments do.

But what Greece did was unprecedented in scale.


As bad as the situation in Greece is, it is far worse in Venezuela. At least basic products like toilet paper are still available. The fact that Greece heavily depends on imports is another reason why they dont want to lose the Euro.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

True it is possible that some politicians suspected that the Greek numbers were altered. That being said it is very unlikely that they supected how bad they looked in reality, nor could they have known that given how far Greece went to falsify data. And even then, who could have expected that Greek politicians would act increasingly more stupid and spend money so recklessly?

It is also worth pointing out that back then therr were hardly any ways to check the national deficite independently from the data the national governments provided. You had to somewhat trust them on this.


I agree. Germany was btw. initially against Greece's membership, but relented when Greece mentioned the 2WW and after France pushed for it.


It is always possible for a country to leave the Euro, they just need to start printing their own money. Greece had plans for reintroducing the Drachme, but backed out after thinking about it. I have asked my fellow Greek student why the Greeks want to keep the Euro despite its' difficulties, he told me that many are afraid Greece could end up as Venezuela with the Drachme.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]


We are talking about civilians here, not foreign soldiers who ride in on their horses and plan to burn down your houses. Even subscribe to the idea that there is a higher number of potential criminals among them than usual, most of them are never going to commit any crimes, verbally dehumanizing them to such an extent is uncalled for.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Or having an island supposedly full of blind people...

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


1) Austerity was demanded by all of Greece's creditors. In fact several countries were far more keen on punishing Greece than Germany.

Poorer than Greece: the EU countries that reject a new Athens bailout

theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/09/poorer-than-greece-the-eu-countries-that-reject-a-new-athens-bailout

2) You (and many Greeks) seem to have a very strange understanding on how negotiations between two countries work. Tsipras promised that he would end austerity and Euro would keep the Euro if the Greeks voted No in the referendum. All European politicians stated this was not an option. Greece could either accept austerity or leave the Euro. Tsipras was simply dishonest about how the situation looked like. He told the Greeks that they could have their cake and eat it. No country was willing to make any concessions to Greece, and if they had held a referendum in any European country, probably a majority would have voted to kick Greece out of the Euro.

Of course, Tsipras could have drawn the conclusion that having failed to get any concessions, in order to respect the referendum, he'd have to lead Greece out of the Eurozone. However since polls indicated that the Greeks also wanted to keep the Euro (which in return just shows you how bizarre that whole referendum was) he decided to agree to the demands. That was his decision, no one else.


The Greek economy was artificially bloated by reckless public spending and other measures, it is now closer to what it actually produces. It will take Greece many years until it recovers to the standards it held pre 2009, but this time, it will be honesty earned. And as a bonus, it looks like they have learned how to properly fight tax evasion and organize a proper bureaucracy. I just pity the young Greeks who have to pay the price of their parents excesses.

A fellow Greek student of mine told me an interesting story about his small home town. A few years ago, he passed the very difficult test to get a job in the Greek bureaucracy. Yet there are currently no positions open. The one spot he could have applied for is held by a middle aged man who got his job two decades ago because he was friend with the local mayor. The position requires a university education, yet the man hasn't even finished high school. According to proposals by the Troika, such obviously unqualified civil servants should be fired, but consecutive governments have refused to do so. My fellow student decided to leave the country eventually because he has given up hope that anything will change.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


So you just ignore all the verifiable evidence I have shown you (more demand for German language courses) because of your personal impression? That is not very academic of you.


We might have a different understanding what the term "soft power" means. I am using the definition as stated in the article of the Economist. Economic influence is for me part of soft power, whereas military capabiillities are hard power. The way things are handled within the EU certainly don't qualify as hard power, they are done by votes and debates. The only time a country acted blunt and rash recently was when Poland tried to prevent the reelection of Tusk against the wishes of all other member states.


It is Greek austerity and I don't think this is related to the topic at hand. Well maybe except as an example as to why the blatant attempt of Greece to blackmail its' creditors back in 2015 was doomed to fail against the united consensus of the other Euro members.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


You are aware that Berlin is (along with London) the main reason why Poland was admitted so early to the EU in the first place right, when other countries like France were against EU enlargement? And that Germany remains the top destination for Poles so I am not sure what your outrage is all about. The German labour market was not ready for that many new arrivals back then, plain and simple. And apparantly, neither was the UK. Strangely the Brexiteers like to complain that the EU forced them to take in all the Polish immigrants even though it would have been entirely within London's power to prevent it.

That being said I am very happy that so many Poles are working in Germany. There are in general hard-working. well integrated, and unlike e.g. those from Rumania und Bulgaria, are less likely to abuse our social security system.

Here is also interesting article about Germany and soft power:

economist.com/news/europe/21663257-once-language-schiller-and-goethe-then-hitler-german-hip-again-sprechen-sie-power

This article also shows how Germany uses soft power in the Baltic states.

ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/51412

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


With good reason though, as evidenced by the UK. In hindsight it is very obvious that this the smart way to do. Germany was suffering from high unemployment at the time, and letting in competition from Eastern Europe probably would have turned poorer Germans against the EU and foreigners. When the restriction was lifted, Germany needed more workers and we have seen a large number of Poles emigrating to Germany in the last few years. And Germany remains a very attractive destination for Poles.

thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/285368,Germany-most-popular-destination-for-Poles-seeking-work

Currently many European citizens from Eastern Europe are emigrating to Germany. 2015 saw 147.910 Poles arriving in Germany. (Even more arrived from Rumania with 174.000)

zeit.de/politik/ausland/2016-07/eu-buerger-migration-nach-deutschland-rekordhoch-rumaenien-osteuropa


Firstly, German seems to be quite popular in Poland.

goethe.de/en/uun/akt/20512365.html

In fact there has been a noticeable increase in interest for German language classes:

monitor.icef.com/2015/04/german-language-study-on-the-rise-worldwide

Let's not kid ourself, there is no way German could supplant English as the leading language in Europe, even if a few millions more could speak it. English is the language everybody speaks, and this won't change. Let's just hope that Chinese won't usurp English as world language, because that would be far more difficult to learn for Europeans ;


I think this is your bias speaking here. Germany has due historically reasons focuesd on its' soft power over the years, and analyzer acknowledge the extent of this.

thelocal.de/20131121/germany-number-one-for-soft-power

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Children are rarely the problem. The main problem is that they cannotg practice their German at home with their parents.

brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2016/05/23/inside-syrian-refugee-schools-syrian-children-in-germany

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]


Of course they do.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

@mafketis


Germany has in many ways changed its' approach to immigration integration, especially towards refugees. There is now great effort taken to offer refugees education, and German lessons are now mandatory for the new arrivals. So far it seems that this new approach could work out.


I haven't found any statistic on a quick search, and I suspect that it will be difficult to find any reliable data, since there are a lot of factors to consider (e.g. second-generation German-Turks who only have a german passport and so on). From my personal experience though, the son of my former landlord married a Turkish women a few years ago. Her other sisters are also married to Germans.


We have in Germany the problem that in more than almost any other OSCE country, the performance of children in school depends on their parentage. There is still a low number of worker-class children who enter university, even among German-born parents. The same counts for Turkish-born children. One major step to improve this is the establishment of daycares that take care of children the whole day long (whereas previously kindergarten were only open for half a day) so that children can learn and practice their German properly.