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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 1 day ago
Threads: Total: 73 / Live: 22 / Archived: 51
Posts: Total: 24819 / Live: 14774 / Archived: 10045
From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

Displayed posts: 14796 / page 414 of 494
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jon357   
11 Apr 2017
UK, Ireland / What can I say/do about my Polish neighbours in the UK? [65]

Ryouga, such things are often irritating but nevertheless part of normal life. I have a new downstairs neighbour. My old neighbour, a semi-retired surgeon who I never heard a sound from and have rare but polite contact with has moved into a smaller flat in the building and has been replaced by a couple with teenage sons who behave exactly as a family do. There's noise, slamming doors, one of the kids has a karaoke machine, loud arguments and a barking dog. The opposite of my previous neighbour. If it really annoys me (for example singing on Sunday morning) I bang on the floor and it stops. Otherwise I just ignore it; things like this are usual in apartments and families are often noisy. If I hated living near others and couldn't stand being near a boisterous family, I'd move into 'over-50s' accommodation, or buy a detached house or move to a desert island.

If however your neighbours are truly anti-social (I used to have neighbours here in Warsaw who shagged loudly all night and had a headboard that banged on the wall - the woman was a screamer too) then either raise it with them (this doesn't usually do much) or take some steps. These steps could involve the council, the Noise Abatement Society or whoever owns the freehold to your building. A good first step is your local councillor's surgery.

You'll never have total silence though, especially in a flat (is it social housing?) and it does seem that you spend a certain amount of mental energy on scrutinising your neighbours' every action.
jon357   
11 Apr 2017
UK, Ireland / What can I say/do about my Polish neighbours in the UK? [65]

Agreed Roz. Their nationality is by the by.

@Ryouga, you could try the council (as Roz says, diarise everything) and you could always try the Noise Abatement Society who advise on such matters. I'd add though that "knocking things like furniture over" and "running about" are normal enough behaviour, especially if your neighbours are a family of kids. You can't expect a family to be as quiet as an elderly nun.

I note that you also claimed in an earlier thread to have issues with your previous neighbours (also a family from Poland) and I suspect strongly that if anyone has a problem neighbour it is the people who have the misfortune to live next door to you.
jon357   
11 Apr 2017
News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

Article pokes fun at pathetic Polish Government obsession with its rubbish theories

They know it's a distraction from all the other things they don't want to see dominating the headlines.
jon357   
23 Mar 2017
News / Poles call for EU reforms. [67]

That was a bad time, and one which was followed by a worse one - when the backlash came it was certainly excessive and many Polish people, especially women and children lost their lives.

It's over now, the two countries have moved on and have good relations. Nobody wants to prologue the hurt. That's part of what the EU is about. Working together, not against each other.
jon357   
21 Mar 2017
History / History behind Poland and Turkey's Relationship [120]

Less nice to mythologise the past, prolong dead rivalries, ignore the traditionally warm relations between Poland and Turkey and pretend there's such a thing as national memory.

Dried up old severed heads from centuries ago don't impact on today.

What matters is the Turkish community in Poland, the Polish community in Turkey (and I don't mean the village of Adampol), trade between the two countries and the cultural links that have lasted from Mickiewicz's stay there until today.
jon357   
20 Mar 2017
News / Poland's PiS party members and crime [346]

salaries from the European Parliament as assistants, despite them not actually working as assistants at the time

That sort of behaviour can and does rebound on politicians who do it.

The stench of crime around PiS is unbelievable

As Lech Kaczynski said about corruption: "now it's our f*cking turn"...
jon357   
18 Mar 2017
News / Poland's PiS party members and crime [346]

I doubt whether his past was known when he was appointe

You deliberately underestimate this.

Or a former Polish president (Komorowski) was TW Litwin.

Cobblers
jon357   
15 Mar 2017
History / MAP OF POLAND IN 1880'S [95]

@Ramlinrose, google Jacobi countess and you will see some interesting results
jon357   
15 Mar 2017
History / MAP OF POLAND IN 1880'S [95]

Legend in family..Jewish Rabbi married a Polish Countess. had to be the 1800's.

A lovely story. If you have any birth certificates, death certificates etc from the twentieth century, you might contact the Gmina Zydowska in Warsaw who help people to trace their family history.

Often families develop very romantic stories that become more and more romanticised in the retelling however are based on a (sometimes more prosaic) grain of truth. It would be wonderful if you could get to the bottom of the story.
jon357   
14 Mar 2017
News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

They get mentally enslaved

Speak for yourself.

Korwin-Mikke's comments were as usual offensive and deliberately demeaning. For this he has rightly been punished according to the rules he agreed to when taking his seat.
jon357   
14 Mar 2017
News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

For doing the same job? No, it would be illegal.

Rightly so.

Like women getting rights to keep the child after divorce?

We know your current situation, and we know that custody rules exist for a reason...
jon357   
14 Mar 2017
News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

I wonder if Janusz Korwin-Mikke would have been punished if he said that men are less intelligent than women.

Do women generally get higher pay than men? Do men often have to put up with such illogical crap?
jon357   
14 Mar 2017
News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

He's now been rightly punished. This is actually the third time he's been suspended and a petition about this in Polish was signed by around a million people:

unprecedented penalties. The MEP will lose his daily subsistence allowance for 30 days, a sum totalling €9,180 (£8,047) intended to cover his expenses while he attends parliament. Korwin-Mikke will also be suspended from all parliamentary work for 10 days and banned from representing the parliament for one year.

theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/14/polish-mep-janusz-korwin-mikke-punished-saying-women-less-intelligent-men
jon357   
12 Mar 2017
News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

I've talked to English men from the North of England who still hate her for "closing down coal mines and taking away free milk

With good cause. The devastation caused in some parts of the country was pure evil. Nevertheless. She was a very strong person who rose to the top in the face of competition from men who were very skilled political operators. Korwin-Mikke would not stand a chance against Thatcher
jon357   
12 Mar 2017
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

There's quite a bit online on Polish language websites that explain exactly how that sort of thing allegedly worked for a certain family and who the relevant related VIPs were. And most controversially what their particular roles were.
jon357   
12 Mar 2017
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Did he actually work there?

his brother

Worth asking if anyone else may have been prosecutors or judges and in which period. And if that answers any other questions relating to having an immensely privileged life in that difficult period
jon357   
11 Mar 2017
News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

I-S, Cambodia is a largely rural society which was denuded by a totalitarian regime, years ago, and is still getting over that. Bad things happen wherever capitalism exists.

Tell us IS, why you think the bad things so far away in Cambodia relate to the tit Korwin-Mikke's appalling behaviour?
jon357   
11 Mar 2017
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Everybody. Here and elsewhere. When were you last in Europe? How many times have you been in Rurope over the last 20 years?