Travel / Pot in Poland for tourists [285]

Not A big stretch of the imagination for you - you come from a country that contaminates tea and perfume to kill people you don't like

News / Poland and USA vs Iran and the EU [38]

But even America does not share its nuclear know how with Poland - probably wise move given the amount of Russian influence in the MON at the moment.

News / Poland and USA vs Iran and the EU [38]

But they signed up to this at the instigation if the US govt. now that some other moron is in office they have to unsigned ? And what happens if the next guy wants them to re-enter the agreement.

Trump is the self proclaimed best deal maker in the world but this is an other example of how rubbish he is.

News / Poland and USA vs Iran and the EU [38]

I meant why not have it in a forest or a mountain spa ? Or even how about Israel ? Or somewhere else in the Middle East. That would make more sense. Would also be cheaper for the Israeli taxpayer - there must have been a few hundred penpushers, soldiers and security men in my hotel.

News / Poland and USA vs Iran and the EU [38]

Why did they have this nonsense in Warsaw - shut down half the town for no reason. Couldnt they do it at some forest or mountain place ?

History / Poland - problem for Germany? (historically continual hostility of German state on Poland) [154]

You know I have met German police at football games or traffic stops and they never seem the type to lose sleep about Ukraine and pipelines.

History / Poland - problem for Germany? (historically continual hostility of German state on Poland) [154]

What do you mean by comrades ? The people you work with - most Germans would translate mitarbeiter as workmate or colleague ?

Or your friends ? Most people would translate Kamerad as mate or pal or friend.

Strange use of language that.

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

1401 ! Do your bit for the country man

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

There are plenty of other answers apart from immigration

Raise the retirement age - PiS lowered it and I don't see any of the other parties talking about it
Cut or hold benefits - PiS raises them
Increase ZUS rates
Increase birth rates - to be fair they are increasing
Crack down on ZUS fiddles in umowa o dzielo etc

I can't see any of these being tried soon but a broken system is better than no system. You are in the UK Spike so you can see what it is like to take a massive leap in the dark on a huge economic issue.

Opting out is nuts by the way - you are forgoing the free money from your employer and the govt, so you are obviously not the best advocate for wise pension planning.

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

You are talking about opting out of your employers pension scheme ? In the UK that is normally an unwise thing to do so I hope the upsides and downsides were explained to you before you did it.

As for scrapping ZUS that is just nuts - still Korwin has put it to the Polish voters many times and surprisingly they have not been interested

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

Communism has never worked in the long run but there are many social market economies that have worked very well for 80 years now and they are mostly at the top of the charts for living standards and wealth - Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands, Austria etc.

State education is also a pretty good invention - check before and after results for any country where it was introduced. Where it is a free for all then obviously you are going to get an entrenched class system of people that can afford it. Everybody should get the same chance in life and then it's up to them how they use it.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]

I think Solidarnosc got wise to that trick Terri and complained to the govt about it and want the loophole closed :(

Genealogy / Polish & Prussian/German town name cross-reference. [100]

Altgrabau Could be Grabowo near Koscierzyna.

leopoldsberg was the German name of Stare Grabowo - a few km from the Grabowo above

This site is pretty useful for that kind of thing

westpreussen.de/cms/ct/ortsverzeichnis/ortssuche.php

Note there are quite a few Grabowo s in Poland but that is the closest one to Gdańsk

News / PO to boycott TVP in Poland [37]

I have seen plenty of countries in plenty of different decades. Corruption always impacts on quality of life as the ordinary citizens always pay for it.

You can pack whatever heat you want in Chicago - here in Poland your obsessions mean you would probably fail the paychological tests needed to carry a gun.

Antheads - TVN and Polsat are private businesses aimed at advertisers.they do hVe a bias - towards the kind of people that adverts are targeted at. private right wimg stations and newspapers do exist bit less people watch them.

But TVP is funded by the taxpayer and its job is to be neutral not to redress perceived bias

News / PO to boycott TVP in Poland [37]

So point me to another more reliable measure of corruption if you know of one

News / PO to boycott TVP in Poland [37]

There is a separate thread about the US.

Yes - there are many more corrupt places than Poland - russia and any of its client states for starters

But for Poland we should demand a higher standard and also keep improving not go backwards

News / PO to boycott TVP in Poland [37]

If you want evidence about corruption then just check polands current place in the transparency index - After many years of improvement under all govts It has now started falling again, and it is back to the same level as 2014 when PO were in charge (ranked number 35)

I expect when the next set of figures are released: will worsen further. Reasons for this fall are the staffing of state companies with P I S functionaries plus weakening of the legal system and the weakening of financial oversight.

When it comes to corruption I think that they are all as bad as each other - what concerns me very much about PIS is their willingness to undermine democracy and to use propaganda.

News / PO to boycott TVP in Poland [37]

I dont think there is such a thing as a hardcore PO voter

The corruption in PO times was at a similar level to todays corruption.

I dont think PiS has an unprecedented level of support- I understand that you don't read Polish but we have recently had elections during which PIS lost seats compare to the last local elections.

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.

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.

News / Poland's News sources [59]

To me one difference is that a Populist will simply believe that what appeals to the majority of citizens is right , however small that majority is. He also disregards practical aspects and a common theme is that the resulting goodies are often paid for by the people who did not vote for them - normally people who are able to think logically that all govt actions have costs and consequences.

Today's example with the domestic violence law illlustrates that - it is possible that 51 percent of Poles agree with that but the 49 percent who do not are all the doctors, lawyers, police etc that have had to address the issue in the past and will be the ones tasked with its implementation