Life / Worst aspects of living in Poland? [82]

I think it will be difficult to enforce - there are already rules against burning rubbish but i reckon about a third of the families in my street do that

Life / Left-wing agitators in Poland [49]

Yes if you wanted to have a far right demo in Poland that would probably attract a counter demo if it was in a large town.

If you want to dress up and run around the forest they would probably leave you to it.

Life / Feeling ashamed of my Polish heritage. [237]

So is Trump American or is he Scottish / German ? He is about the same connection with Scotland as your average Bradford Muslim has with the Punjab - his parents are from there, he likes the food, he follows that religion and he sometimes goes there for a holiday.

Life / Feeling ashamed of my Polish heritage. [237]

Well why don't you give your definition of what being Polish means ? That will also be easy to knock down in any argument - whatever period of time you lick there has been o,entry of other genes in the mix - Swedish, Lithuanian, Jewish, German.

News / Pawel Adamowicz, Gdansk mayor, dies after stabbing [354]

More dark humour ?

News / WOSP in Poland [161]

This is a thread about WOSP. There is a separate lengthy thread about the poor Polish lady who was stabbed in Germany.

Life / Bribery and corruption 'fact of life' in Poland? [152]

No - i think that people should be held accountable for their crimes. However pursuing complicated cases is costly and it's difficult to obtain convictions when many witnesses are dead or senile.

As for the KNF case - it took place in November, the govt is heavily implicated being as they looked at changing the law specifically for Getin. The NBP case last week was straightforward snouts in the trough. Glapinski is probably glad that the stabbing took the spotlight away. I dont think Kaczynski can even fire the guy as he has a 6 year term.

Both these and FOZZ have the same effect- undermining confidence by showing that there is weak control over the actions of senior govt finance officials

Life / Bribery and corruption 'fact of life' in Poland? [152]

ft.com/content/949bf91e-e6a0-11e8-8a85-04b8afea6ea3

You can start with the ft or the Economist. However i get the impression anything written by an experienced financial journalist would fall in to your definition of MSM blah blah

In Polish the best coverage of this is would be Puls Biznesu or Rz.

Life / Bribery and corruption 'fact of life' in Poland? [152]

He probably knows as much about state bond valuations as your average electrician does.

By your logic Kaczynski is responsible for the bribes in the KNF. Maybe that is far-fetched, but as for Morawiecki - and experienced banker and formerly head of a large bank he must've had a fair idea of what kind of people he was appointing to crucial oversight bodies. .

Life / Bribery and corruption 'fact of life' in Poland? [152]

Some guys did serious time for FOZZ (and have now been released) but plenty got away with it.

Im more bothered about corruption today than things that happened 25 years ago. The weakening of the KNF and NBP will have serious consequences for Poland's economic credibility (just as FOZZ did at the time)

News / Pawel Adamowicz, Gdansk mayor, dies after stabbing [354]

Maybe he was independent and not official PO - hatdly justifies stabbing him to death does it ?

News / Pawel Adamowicz, Gdansk mayor, dies after stabbing [354]

These comments by the way are on the official fb page of Marsz Niepodleglosci - an organization some claim is a harmless display of patriotism by flag waving women and kids. Of course people have a right to free speech but I am surprised that this organization can not police itself and also that it has charitable status.

UK, Ireland / British men don't really like women [137]

Business trip LOL. Every Russian easter you get a half day to listen to Shostakovich in a public park and then get wrecked on flavored vodka on the tram home. A nasty hangover afterwards allows plenty of contemplatrion of your profession of abusive trolling.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Nice photos :) Baltycka ?

Btw - one German shop and two Polish

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

I think everyone understands the big stick but this is about soft power.

I doubt you were in a Polish shopping mall but if you were then tell us which American stores were there ? Of the Top 100 retailers in Poland I think only 4 are American - all in fast food mcd, kfc, Starbucks and Pizza Hut. Even in that segment the most popular food is now is doner kebab which is basically a German concept.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Germany has a great deal of soft power in Central Europe - it is the biggest investor and trade partner in almost all the former Commie countries. Germany dominates several fields of day to day consciousness (e.g. cars VW, Opel and the luxury brands are the strongest in this region) or retail (Lidl, Deichmann, Rossmann, DM all easily the biggest in this region). Bayern and German soccer players are far better known here than any NBA stars and the music here has lots of German influence whether its high brow or techno / German dance music. On top of that most air connections from Central Europe involve going through Frankfurt or Munich at some point.

When you think about it maybe US soft power is in decline ? Apart from e.g. Facebook, Google then in what sectors is the US really dominant in Polish or Czech or Hungarian life ?

It also makes no sense to say Poland only wants money that is generated by the taxpayers of these supposedly decaying societies. They are obviously not going to give that money away free to a bunch of small town Soltys and halfbrained law students that make up the governing class of PiS. The idea of EU funds is to build infrastructure that will support new markets and stop nations from fighting each other.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Maf one reason for that difference is that the German speaking market is big enough for artists, writers to be successful and rich without caring if it will sell to people in other countries. There is a very thriving literature in German, a big movie scene and a very developed art world.

As for cultural imprint then classical music and modern philosophy are basically dominated by Germans and Austrians (including Jews of course).

Food / Where to buy corned beef in Warsaw? [21]

Its Concept 13 - very nice restaurant either for a date or for business

Food / Where to buy corned beef in Warsaw? [21]

Try the butcher in Hala Koszyki - next to the bar called Cma.

Or steakclub.pl

Lidl hav some pretty good steak sometimes when they have a "luxury" promotion

News / Mass-media in Poland: which are left wing, right wing or centrist? [44]

Depends how you define it IS but yes I am a Polish citizen.

Yes i realize all trust is relative - i dont think there is one person on that list i would be happy to do business with !

Life / Expat Communities in Far-Western Poland [46]

Just wondering why nobody has set up a town in some remote place that all the swivel eyed and tinfoil hat alt right types can live in and run according to their own rules ? Of course there is a long history of that - the Amish, Welsh in Patagonia, jonestown etc.

Can the Polish govt set aside a few hundred hectares and let these guys run their schooling and public services in their own style ? Would make good TV if nothing else

News / Mass-media in Poland: which are left wing, right wing or centrist? [44]

I dont have a high opinion of Schetyna but that is a pretty weird poll if it shows Ziobro as being the third most trusted person in politics

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

This is proper tinfoil hat stuff Bolek - if you ever move here you will be able to mix sith a dwindling band of fellow believers but even in a village most people would think these really weird views

News / Mass-media in Poland: which are left wing, right wing or centrist? [44]

wyborcza.pl/7,75398,24075562,jak-polacy-glosowali-w-wyborach-samorzadowych-rolnicy-za-pis.html

How about that - there are hundreds of similar articles from the October election

News / Mass-media in Poland: which are left wing, right wing or centrist? [44]

Yes that is also important- though increases in disposable income have been fairly strong each year since 2001.

Many of the people who support PiS are not working - either retired or on KRUS

Life / Poland A, Poland B [75]

Yes - attached chart shows the fall in dividends - i don't know eventually what happened in 2017 because like most normal people I have ditched the stock the year before. The shenanigans of the PIS members of the board are well documented

kghm.com/en/investors/dividend

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

5 board members

One German, one Latino, one from kansas, one preppy guy from washington, one from Utah so maybe a mormon.

Yes - the takeover of global finance is well underway

News / Degenerate "rainbow" eyesore to disappear from Saviour Square (Plac Zbawiciela) in Warsaw [297]

Right - holidays in Key West. If you are lucky you might get a free week at the ministry of interior sanatorium somewhere in the forests near Moscow where you can play cards and smoke strong cigarettes.

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

Well it is a hilarious portmanteau of liberals and retards - of course if Gregy ever met a "retard" or their parents in real life he would not have the balls to use that language to their face.

Life / Poland A, Poland B [75]

That's fine if you are sitting on top of oil like Pemex or Aramco but in Poland there is only one such company - KGHM, who have cut their dividends drastically but increase the salaries to the PiS functionaries on the board.

In other businesses then the Polish consumer does pay if PiS uses these as Bankomats to fund their giveaways - a prime example is the banking tax. It has cut bank profits in half but the banks are now recouping it by passing a lot of extra charges on to customers and especially to small businesses - for example my own bank charges for a modest spare time consulting business are over 500 zloty this month. PZU are increasing premia and the power and oil companies also increasing their charges.

I am not totally against a portion of strategic companies being state owned so long as they don't interfere too much in the mgmt. or the free market.