News / Russian criticism of Poland - Soviet war memorial removal [332]

Merged: Polish government finds compromise on Red Army memorials

The Polish government has struck upon a compromise to rid Poland's streets, squares and parks of Soviet-era eyesores without overly antagonizing Moscow. So far, efforts to dismantle Red Army memorials has repeatedly triggered protests in Russia and soured Poland's relations with its huge eastern neighbor. Russians view Poles as ingrates who forgot that the Red Army had liberated them from the Nazis, whereas Poles regard the Soviets as yet another occupation force. The memorials will be moved to Borne Sulinowo, a town in NW Poland which served as a secret Soviet military base between 1945 and 1992. It remains to be seen whether the Polish saying "Wilk syty i owca cała" will coem true.

News / Only 1 in 3 firms in Poland pays income taxes [20]

Merged: Big foreign retailers fighting pro-Polish turnover tax

Most of Poland's big supermarkets, discount stores, home-improvement depots and other big retailers are foreign-owned. They have provided the Polish market with a wealth of consumer goods and cretaed some 200,000 jobs. The downside is that they have run countless Polish-owned shops out of business, and most of their profits are transferred abroad rather than enriching the Polish econonmy. To łevelł the playing field a bit, the pro-Polish PiS government have introduced a 1.4% chain-store tax for retailers whose turnover exceeds 170 million złotys (nearly $43 mln), 0.8% for those below that level and no taxes for retailers taking in less than than 17 million złotys ($4.2 mln). "We are against this discriminatory project and will use all legal and institutional means to oppose the legislation," warned a spokesman for POHiD, an organizer affiliating many big foreign retailers. Major foreign chains operating in Poland include Carrefour, Castorama, Géant, Głobi, Intermarché and Leclerc (France); Aldi, Kaufland, Lidl, Makro Cash & Carry, Metro, Obi, Rossman, Saturn (Germany); Tesco, TK Maxx, Phone House (Britain) and Biedronka (Portugal).

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


In Poland chleb should be made entirely or primarily from rye flour. If made from just wheat flour it is called a bułka. French bread is bułka paryska (Paris loaf) and the thinner rod-type type is a bagietka. That is because rye grew better in northerly climes and was more affordable. Only the aristocracy could afford the daintier wheat bread rolls. (From a health standpoint white bread is more starchy and overuse contirbtues to diabetes.) Today things are reversed, and what is known as chleb (Baltonowski is typical) may contain only 10% - 20% flour and the rest wheat, because rye is now dearer.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


CIECIERZYŃSKI: root-word cicierzyca aka cieciorka (chickpeas). Most likely ot originated as a toponymic nickname-turned-surname from at least two locailities in Poland called Ciecierzyn (Chickpeaville).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


These are two enitrely different surname:
KACZMARCZYK: came from karczmarz (innkeeper), and originally meant the innkeeper's son.
KAŹMIERCZAK and KAŹMIERCZYK: trace back to Kazimierz (Casimir) and meant Casimir's son.

News / Poland in the European Union. Polexit? [559]

Merged: Polexit? Polonia petitioning Poland to quit the EU.

The European Union is a major factor in the belittling of Poland and the ignoring of her history.

The European Union means that foreigners buy-out Polish property, and tell Poles what they can and cannot do.

If you agree that Poland should get out of the European Union, please click on, and sign this petition:

petitiongo.org/en/petition/referendum-w-sprawie-wyjscia-z-unii-europejskiej

Jan Peczkis

Life / Polish people are the most ignorant people in the world! [335]


Maybe that's because some of the PF's Anglo-expats are posting less frequently. Some of them disliked the Poles, Poland and things Polish in general, the heritage, history, religion, food, customs, you name it. And they have tried to set their uppity, look-down-on-others, godless, pub-crawling, scotch-guzzling, Marmite and baked-bean scarfing and resultant wind-breaking as the superior lifestyle which everyone should uncritically emulate. Rule Britannia!

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


CHRAPCIO: Appears to have emerged as a nickname for someone who snored, ie the snorer. The -cio is a somewhat endearing diminutive ending untranslatable in English but possibly conveying the message of "cute little snorer".

Feedback / Member warning system to prevent abuse / spam / off-topic posts [145]

Merged: ATT MODS! RE WARNINGS

Why are posters not told over what they are being warned. A fair sampel warning might go: jon357: Today you abused a fellow-poster by calling him a Hairy Ape and that is your first warning.

You posted irrelevant information in the wrong topic and that is your second warning. Three mroe and you're suspended.
Instead you let the warnings pile up and nobody knows why they are getting suspended. That's like Stalinism where the axe fell wherever it might and people didn't know why they were being sent to Siberia or executed.

You can see the warning in your profile. Here are the possible codes:

S - Please do not spam!
A - Please do not abuse other members!
T - Please do not troll!
O - Please do not post off-topic / meaningless messages!
Q - Please avoid excessive / unnecessary quotations!

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

DERUBA: Probably dervied from dera/derka -- the thick horsecloth placed on a horse's bare back before it is saddled. Similar names include Deruga, Derucha, and Derula.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


Of course, you know a better way to build affordable flats needed to house 1.5 million people. Be sure to share it with Morawiecki. Somehow all of the post-roundtable governments so far have not resolved that shortage.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


Part of the funding is that these estates will be built on free state-owned land.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


And what percentage voted for the scamster PO party?

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


He was democratically elected, wasn't he? You may not like him, but that's tough sh*t!

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


I'm not familiar with that particular case but the MO sounds like pure Machievelli. Adminstrators adminsiter, judges rule and assorterd clerks all know what side they're bread is buttererd on and usually act accordingly if they know what's good for them. The Kamil Zaradkiewicz issue is a case in point. He voiced his own opinion not coinciding with Rzepliński's and is being pushed out of the TK. In the US if anyone dares disagree with the one, true and unquestionable LGBT agenda, they also risk losing their job. It's as old as the hills.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


Only legally adopted decisions need be published. Illicit ones like those of the Rzepliński kangaroo court are but worthless scraps of paper.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


One can agree with that...only a fraction of those shady goings-on ever saw the light of day, PO were good at covering their tracks. But a tax inspector I spoke with recently told me the inspectors of the Urząd Skarbowy were bereft of any power to deal with high-level financial abuses. On orders from above (during the PO years) probes were dropped and the biggies belonging to the "arrangement", when caught red-handed and reproted by the media, were allowed to repay debts or unpaid taxes without any interest. In similar situations the little guy got hounded down to the last grosz. One has to hand it to the Platformers, they were slick, glib, slippery and very good at PR. PiS on the other hand are committed, determined and sincere but rather clumsy in the PR and image-building department.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


So you prefer gangster caetels and coteries in the Tusk manner? I guess even hitmen "work" for a living in a manner of speaking.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]

Nice job of work! Keep on nitpicking and fault finding which you somehow never applied to the really awful scamster Tusk regime. The Tusk family, local PO operatives, the mayor of Gdańsk and the Ambergold schemers were all part of one big Baltic mafia. Where were the TK? Where were you when their hand-washes-hand coterie were robbing the country blind?

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


Indeed, when soemone cannot say anything good nor find a single redeeming element of someone else's behaviour, we're dealing with a horse-blinkered fool and "Hairy Bollocks" is as good a descriptive as any. Even Hitler gave the world the VWs and the Autobahn to drive them on.

In my view, PiS are doing a fiarly decent job so far, but I don't like the idea of giving all MPs a 2000 rise. And I do not rule out that as many politicians really settled in there won't be those succumbing to Platformesque skim & scam temptations. Takie jest życie.

News / Mieszkania Plus programme - PiS fulfills yet another campaign promise [50]


More Hairy Bollocks! Ugggh! Barf!


Disastrous attempts were the closure of half of Poland's police stations, the purchase of costly military gear allowed to rust away for lack of proper ammunition, and the heist in broad daylight of 150 billion zł of people's retirement funds. Ostensibly that was to shore up the PO's cash-strapped state budget, but knowing what made that scamster regime tick it is not inconceivable that a lot went to feather the nests of loyal Platformer operatives and other reps of th post-Magdalenka mafia. Somehow the Rzepliński clique did not intervene or even take notice.

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


Like maybe the right to copulate with pets or livestock?

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


No, it's a cyclical process. The pendulum swings and always has from one extreme to the other with an occasionally respite at centre. Whether you personally approve or not, the leftist-liberal/libertine/secularist project still holds some water among those of late middle age and in pre-retirement and OAP circles, but it is receding, as more and more younger folk are looking to traditonal conservative and patriotic values. This is happening all over -- across Europe and in the USA. If that were not the case, Labour would be permanetly in power in the UK, Communists and Social Democrats would rule the roost across Europe.

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


Neither do the real powers that be in Germany, France, Britian, the US etc. care about such legal niceties and political platitudes ("I'm just here to serve he people!"). That is the window dressing for the gullible and swayable voting masses in liberal, authoritarian and dictatorial countries alike everyhwere. Probably Poles may be a bit more immune to such platitudes becuase of their experience: partitions, inter-bellum, Nazi period, Soviet satellite status and the rule of the post-rountable clique. Because also today they tend to say: "Jeśli nie wiadomo, o co chodzi, to chodzi o pieniądze!"

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


That's just so much propaganda for the masses. Nobody cares about democracy or some constitution, least of all the hyper-business-interest bloc known as the EU. It's all about the old outgoing elite facing off the new one -- a situation as old as mankind itself. Re-read Machiavelli -- it's all there and never changes. Or "Animal Farm" -- a nice metaphor. You blokes can't be that naive to believe all those pious political platitudes!?


Probably the only time it'd be written separately would be in such sentences as: To nie prawda lecz kłamstwo! Do you agree*?

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


You're right, many dzięks! You of course know how to translate "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" into Polish.

It is: prowda, tys prowda i gówno prowda!
Yes, voivodeship is by far the preferred version. In older texts one can occasioanlly encounter voivod and voivodship just like the antiquated Cracow. I promise to clean up my Polish, so feel free to remind me whenever I go astray.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=577677


Fair enough. Throughout the American mainstream that may well be the case. But Polonian papers and groups are focused on Polish-related issues which the average person isn't even aware of. Recently there was a protest by young Jews outside the Polish consulate:

jta.org/2016/05/05/news-opinion/world/jewish-high-schoolers-picket-polish-consulate-in-ny-to-protest-holocaust-whitewashalte

Such incidents may not get much play in the mainstream media but they go on the whole time.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


It looks Ukrainian. Your dad's first name was Mikail and your surname Redko.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


The PC mania tries to muzzle people, but the fact remains that Jews in general are astute businessmen but poor athletes, Negros are great runners and basketballers but very poor swimmers, Hungarians lead in suicides, Italians make better lovers than soldiers, Germans are obsessed about "Ordnung muß sein!"... Those are not stereotypes, those are facts.