News / Britain - problem for Poland and Poles? [117]


Where were they before Poland joined the EU? They certainly weren't voting for right wing parties, as witnessed by the huge SLD win in 2001.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]

Nope. You can get permanent residency in Poland based on belonging to the Polish nation, and after 3 years living and working in Poland, you can apply for Polish citizenship. You'll also have to pass an exam in Polish, but for someone who wants Polish citizenship so he/she can live in Poland, it won't be a problem, right? :)

Permanent residency will allow you to live and work here in Poland freely, too.

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


A lot of it, I'd say. Not only does he downplay Katyń as being a minor event (it wasn't, it was the officer cadre of one of the biggest military forces in WW2 getting exterminated and was clearly a huge war crime and act of genocide), but now he downplays the brutality of the Russian attack on Berlin as being 'social justice'.

Pretty obvious what his agenda is, to be honest.

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


I read somewhere that in the early days, there were some people who were committed communists because they genuinely believed that it offered an alternative and better future for Poland - the previous system had failed, so Communism was seen as a possible solution to the militarisation of society. Some were also pretty angry at the previous government's way of doing things in rural areas, where you had rich absent landlords that controlled large swathes of land just because they were someone in the army.

An interesting what-if question - what if the Soviets had allowed (from 1945 onwards) a specifically Polish form of Communism that took into account the needs of Polish society, such as land redistribution and freedom of religion? Would it have been broadly accepted?

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


Definitely until 1956 and the Gomułka thaw, that's for sure. Afterwards is a bit more complicated when they stopped executing people and instead moved towards 'preventative' measures like spying on society, but there's no doubt that Moscow was behind the terror inflicted on Poles under Stalinism. It wasn't Poles making these decisions - sure, there might have been goons doing some dirty work, but the whole system of terror was orchestrated and managed by Russian Soviets.


Makes no sense at all, does it? There was a very deliberate and clear attempt by Moscow to destroy the pre-war Polish nation and replace it with something different. You only have to look at what happened to many AK men and women post war to see that.

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


Ask those imprisoned in Mokotów Prison as to who was running the show. There's your answer.

Interesting that you keep pushing the Russian view on here, including stirring up tension with regards Muslims.

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

Interesting, yet another troll emerges with a stolen identity from someone else.

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


Ooh! I'd love to see any stamps and visas (blur out the personal data!) from the passports - I'm a huge geek for that sort of thing :)


You can't, it was a clear war crime and I'd argue that it had the hallmarks of genocide, especially the way that it was a deliberate attempt to destroy the core of the Polish armed forces. For him to try and downplay it is an absolute joke, and proves that he isn't Polish.

Please back on topic

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

He's also conveniently left out the actions of the Soviet rulers in imprisoning and torturing Polish patriots after the war.

A nice little article to help him with history:

independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/torture-trial-lifts-lid-on-polands-stalinism-1402783.html


Let's not pretend here - until 1956, the Russians were behind the oppression of Poles.

Still, he told us that Katyń isn't a big deal, so it shows him to be what he really is.

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

Interesting, you can read pretty much the same thing word-for-word on the Russian internet. The complete and total denial of Russian wrongoing in Poland is very, very characteristic of the new history being pushed about WW2 and afterwards by the Kremlin.

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

I see we're into the "deny Russians did anything in Poland" phase now of the trolling.

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

Ah yes, more blatant Russian disinformation being spread here.


No, Poland officially does no such thing. The official report places some blame on the Russian controller, but the bulk of the blame is officially assigned to the pilots. As for "many Poles", less than 20% believe in such a thing. The tower also never told the pilot to go anywhere else, they simply informed the plane that there were "no conditions for landing".


He wasn't told to do anything by the President. Another attempt at blaming the President of Poland rather than the facts, I see.


He didn't choose death. He made a mistake.

One can only wonder why you seem so keen on making Poland look bad while whitewashing the Russian role in things.

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


For someone who allegedly lived during Stalinism in Poland, you seem rather eager to whitewash what happened then. I wonder why?


He's just a typical Russian shrill pretending to be Polish. Look at his other posts - he doesn't speak Polish and refuses to answer simple questions that any Polish speaker would be able to answer.

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


And again. How curious that "Rich Mazur" would be not only praising Putin, but repeatedly insulting NATO. And of course, Iraq, the favourite topic of Putin apologists who also like to refer to Kosovo as justifying the 'referendum' in Crimea.

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


Exactly.


Always the same, isn't it? It's always the "respect" for Putin, even though he represents the biggest danger to Poland at the minute.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]

Yes Chris, we know that you hold a deep grudge against Donald Tusk for the fact that the government started actually complying with the law. The law cannot rely on "presumptions", but rather hard documented evidence to support your claim to Polish citizenship.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


Indeed. It's very, very clear that a deal between Five Star and Lega will result in a clear ultimatum to Poland and Hungary - no Italian contribution without migrants. If the Italians refuse to contribute, Spain will no doubt follow. At that point, Poland is powerless and at the mercy of conservatives who put their own country first.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

Win what? Poland and Hungary are heavily dependent on the EU, and cannot 'win'. If they don't like the game, they can leave it, and leave behind the astronomical amounts of cash that both governments heavily rely on.

You're certainly more than welcome to introduce the concept to Polish farmers of "no more farm payments". You'll probably last about ten minutes, but still.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


Except they're saying "enough, and they must be compulsory resettled elsewhere in the EU". Bad news for Poland and Hungary.


And as soon as they do, they drop all their previous rhetoric in order to govern. What was supposed to be mass deportations has quickly turned into resettlement - which means disaster for Poland. Italians aren't stupid, and linking resettlement to cohesion funds will be a very effective way of channelling cash into Italy and Spain at the expense of Poland and Hungary.

By the way, the next deal will probably be decided by majority vote. Italy and Spain are big net contributors with significant influence, and as you say, populists and nationalists are putting together a deal there. Who is going to lose? Poland and Hungary, of course. Do you really think the Italians are going to say "yeah, we'll take on the burden by ourselves, and we'll keep on paying Poland and Hungary large amounts of cash", or are they going to tell their voters that Poland and Hungary will either take migrants or they won't get a single cent of Italian money?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


They have everything to do with it. If freedom of speech existed, people wouldn't find themselves silenced by big corporations routinely in the US. Let's not even mention the behaviour towards Colin Kaepernick, who remains a free agent despite being better than half of the currently signed QB's in the NFL.

Freedom of speech only exists in the US if you have the deep pockets needed to defend yourself in court.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


What do you mean "now in Poland"?

Poland has never had freedom of speech laws. Neither does the US, where large corporations will tie you up in ruinously expensive legal battles until you submit.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

So, the first case came to trial, which was a private prosecution brought by the Reduta Dobrego Imienia - Polska Liga Przeciw Zniesławieniom (how the hell to translate the first part?- Polish League Against Discrimination) under this new law against an Argentine website. The case was thrown out of court straight away based on the fact that the court has no jurisdiction over foreign websites, that it was published before the new law came into force and that the only offence was a picture that was changed after it was brought to the attention of the website.

wprost.pl/10125466

WielkiPolak - opinions? It seems to me that the most sensible situation now is to accept that it only applies to content published in Poland.

Work / What Jobs are there in Poland for an Englishman besides teaching english? [70]


It's just plain ignorance not to learn, and he's obviously one of those "I'm so great because I got a job for 3000zł a month in a corporation because I couldn't get a job back home" types.

Real Estate / Best area in Krakow to live? [43]

Poland's not on the list because Poland was already found guilty of it.

Work / What Jobs are there in Poland for an Englishman besides teaching english? [70]


Yes, bottom tier jobs have no use for Polish, it's true. Someone employed in some SSC for the fact that they speak a foreign language won't need Polish, but if you actually want to be something more than a rat, you need to know Polish. It's certainly not enough to rely on English, not least because the Polish public administration doesn't use it.

Real Estate / Best area in Krakow to live? [43]


Do you know how badly damaged the environment is in the Karkonosze area because of the pollution coming from the Czech Republic?

Real Estate / Best area in Krakow to live? [43]


You said


As far south west as you can get in Poland is Bogatynia and that lovely coal power plant and lovely huge hole in the ground, not to mention all those dreadfully poor villages where burning rubbish is a local sport.

Real Estate / Best area in Krakow to live? [43]


Ah yes, next to the lovely KWB Turów.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tur%C3%B3w_Coal_Mine

Not to mention the joys of living next to Turów coal power plant:
sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tur%C3%B3w_power_station

What a lovely place to live!

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Do you seriously believe that politicians should be allowed to do what they want on the basis of a narrow victory? What happens when the next government promises that any unused land in cities will be compulsory seized for the symbolic price of 1zł? Would you be so supportive then? Or would you say that a narrow majority doesn't give them the right to do as they please? Or, let's put it another way - a Democrat wins the 2020 Presidential election and they sweep Congress. He/she decides, because they won, they have the right to ban guns unilaterally. What then? Do you support them, because they won? By the way, as part of the ban, they introduce sweeping new powers to monitor anyone known to have purchased a gun. What then? You'd demand that the Supreme Court interprets the 2nd Amendment, wouldn't you?

As for floods of migrants and multiculturalism - it's already here. Major cities are getting more and more diverse, you can't move in places like TK Maxx in Warsaw for Muslims, Indians are all over IT cities, Ukrainians are absolutely everywhere, etc etc. Even in factories these days, you'll find plenty of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis working in meat processing plants because locals simply don't want to do those jobs anymore.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Really? PiS introduced a blanket 500zł a month for every child after the first one - socialist. PiS are increasing taxes on the rich to pay extra money to disabled people - socialism. PiS want extra taxes on fuel to pay for electromobility systems - redistribution of wealth - socialism. PiS introduced free basic universal health care - socialism. PiS abolished the upper limit for ZUS contributions - socialism. And so on... The only parties to really advocate economic freedom never gain parliamentary representation.

I mean, I wish Polish society wasn't socialist, because I wouldn't have to pay a large amount of cash monthly to pay for other people's pensions. But...

Polish society is *very* socialist. Even the famous 21 demands of the MKS - pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_postulat%C3%B3w_MKS - look at their economic demands. Recognise much in common with capitalism there?