News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


I haven't seen any here with my own eyes either (if they're there, they're being picked up by the police, from what I know). I remember seeing one guy years ago in Kraków sleeping at a lawn - he looked like he was homeless. I sometimes see an odd drunk in my neighbourhood and one once took a nap on a bench in the morning.

There's obviously a problem with alcoholism in Poland, but it's not like drunks are just lying there in the streets o_O

Also, keep in mind that Sweden started combating alcohol abuse quite some time ago.


As I wrote to you already - both in Poland and in the UK alcohol consumption increased due to the pandemic, so I'm not surprised by this at all.

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]

@jon357, that's not what I was talking about. I meant that traditionally, culturally Scandinavia belongs to the Vodka Belt:

mybartender.com/articles/where-is-the-vodka-belt/

Whether they've been trying to combat that and how - is another matter. I haven't been to any Scandinavian country, but our English teacher at high school spent some time in Sweden and he told us that they put all those restrictions in place and stronger alcohol is expensive there, because the Swedes were drinking so much.

When something is part of tradition, culture - it's difficult to change or get rid of.

Here's an interesting view:

visitstockholm.com/eat-drink/nightlife/alcohol-in-sweden/

'The differences in attitude towards alcohol, between southern and northern Europe, go back a long way, says Eva Lenneman. In countries like France, Italy and Spain wine has been a part of everyday-life since at least the Middle Ages. Up north, alcohol has been closely tied to holidays, dinners, vacations, weekends, and other festive occasions in general. It's been concentrated on fewer occasions, but the main goal has been - more often than not - to get wasted, to put it bluntly.

"Traditions are hard to change, though. Even if we have a more continental mindset nowadays, we've simply added our old habits to the southern European everyday drinking".'

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


Yes, the vodka culture was so strong there that they had to restrict it :)))


Meaning??

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


And in Scandinavia :)))


Yes, so is the UK and Canada. I was surprised to find out that Canada has one of the highest number of deaths from drug abuse. That's not how I viewed that country...:

thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(23)00011-X/fulltext

"After raging and taking-many young-lives at growing levels for more than a decade, the opioid-death crisis is very much alive in Canada; worse yet, it has become widely accepted as a part of everyday reality and therefore embraced as a kind of 'new normal'."

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


No, we were discussing "Eastern Europeanism" vs "Westernism" :)))


Whatever you say, jon357:

youtu.be/6mzQfsSUe6Y

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


You have a strange idea of a medicine... This guy is still brainwashed.


Oh, Kania, Kania... Haven't you heard what that guy from Królewiec said in that video? They're "not fighting against Ukraine, they're fighting against America". But they're killing Ukrainians, you see? But they invaded Ukraine, you see? So, so what if some dedushka from Królewiec who was shopping in Polish Biedronka before the war and thus knows that Poles don't eat RuSSians for breakfast doesn't hate us? People like him would invade Poland in order to "fight against America" or whatever other reason Putin would come up with and those "non-hating" RuSSians would kill you anyway.


Exactly! lol

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


It was only in response to your earlier comment and I mentioned the UK specifically, because you're such an insufferable British snob, jon357 :))))


It's much bigger of a problem in the UK though. So don't obfuscate :)))

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


That's good :)))


No, jon357, it was you who started this:

https://polishforums.com/news/poles-start-feel-arrogant-superior-southern-54481/4/#msg1927062

"No, however I do feel sad sometimes when I'm in small town Poland and see the amount of vodka on sale in the poorest places."


And drug abuse is a problem in the UK, yes :)

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]

I love fish, but I don't drink vodka (unless some is put into another drink, I guess) :)))

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


No, I haven't, to be honest. Are they as bad as RuSSian history textbooks nowadays though?

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


Oh no, no, no, he has been always a very passionate (let us call it that way ;D) English patriot on this forum and it has been always very... obvious :)))


Well, they aren't exclusively Eastern European - vodka is a Baltic Belt thing and that includes Scandinavia :)

And as for tinned herring ;D:

bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27258303

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


Yeah, but in RuSSia they write history textbooks for public schools, Kania.

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


Oh, don't be such a demagogue, jon357 :)))
What cracked me up was your comment about "vodka and tinned herring" being a "non-Western" thing :):

balticrun.com/vodka-belt-europe/


And Western countries do score highly in the rankings for damage caused by drug abuse:

commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/too-many-lives-lost-comparing-overdose-mortality-rates-policy-solutions


I think it's mainly due to climate:

"Basically, in the Vodka Belt, it's too cold for grapes to grow."

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]

@jon357, of course not. But substance abuse isn't something "non-Western" (the UK and the US have serious drug abuse problem, for example). That's why your comment about the local shop being "full of vodka and tinned herring" cracked me up :)))

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


Wow, I've read all kinds of nonsense from Katyń-deniers, including that Putin falsified Katyń files to please Merkel, but this is the first time I hear of your "theory" :D Another one to my collection of "RuSSian insanity":

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


So do the Brits :)))


So what did The Guardian "cherrypick" and what did it left out, according to you, in that article?? :))


Don't be rude :D

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


Oh wow... By whom??? :D


Yeah, it boggles my mind...

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


I'm not "frantically googling", jon357. The British simply do have a certain "reputation", not only among Poles :)) And I know what a British snob you are, so I always take what you write with a pinch of salt :)))


Well, the press is simply presenting the facts - statistics - how can you argue with that? In Poland alcohol consumption also increased due to the pandemic (according to the "negative" Polish press lol), not only in the UK - I see nothing surprising in that.


Wow, so stats are bad if they don't fit your agenda :D

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


Is it though?:

theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/17/millions-in-uk-drinking-harmful-levels-of-alcohol-at-home-experts-warn

"alcohol consumption have soared during the pandemic."


Judging by the fact that we are at neighbouring spots on that WHO list, it can't be that much worse in Poland though :))):

worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-consumption-by-country


Which doesn't happen in the UK? :))

Btw, here's live camera directed at Rynek in Kielce - looks calm to me :):

kielce.eu/pl/dla-turysty/przydatne-linki/kamera-rynek.html

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]

@ConstantineK, so, are you telling me that Putin ordered to forge and falsify the Soviet documents about the Katyń massacre?? :D 🤦

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


That's apparently something the British are famous for, so you shouldn't be so shocked :)))


During the day? o_O


There seem to be more students coming to Kielce in recent years, even foreign ones from what I've noticed.

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


Soviet documents are "wrong" too? :))):

theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/28/katyn-massacre-russia-documents-web

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


That's not only "Polish narrative". That's also Putin's narrative :)))


Why not? :)))


Well, at least, unlike RuSSia, we import stuff from South Korea and the US and not from North Korea and Iran ;D

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


Why is that?

Btw, years ago - when I was in high school, some of my classmates went to some small town in Austria for a kind of organised plein air painting thingy where they would stay with local families. My classmates would go out to the local club. They would dance and have fun in the foam, but they were the only ones on the dance floor for quite some time. The Austrian teens wouldn't start dancing until they got high. So, I guess even back then taking drugs in the West was already like drinking alcohol in Poland.


That's not an everyday thing in Kielce yet then, fortunately.


I don't know about that... I can't say I've heard that being said in Poland...

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


I was referring to this:

health.org.uk/news-and-comment/podcast/episode-17-tackling-the-drug-problem-in-the-uk-and-portugal

"In the last decade, heroin-related deaths have more than doubled and cocaine-related deaths have grown fivefold. The situation in Scotland is even worse - now the drug death capital of Europe."

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


Wow, so you're that kind of a RuSSian - a Katyń-denier. A complete nutjob and a hopeless case then.


I see you're "the glass is half empty" kind of a person :D Cheer up, don't be so negative :)))

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


I did and nothing like that comes up... Where did you hear that Poles are being compared to the French?


I think you know that's not what I was talking about.


It's not always a bad thing :)))

History / Historical look at various civilisational differences between Russia and the West [159]


So, you will never acknowledge, for example, that NKVD perpetrated the Katyń massacre on the order of Stalin?


Wow, that's an Eastern mentality if I see one:




We're working on that :D

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]

@Alien, compared by whom?

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]


You're right, Poland has still some catching up to do in order to reach the UK level of drug abuse and become more "Western" thanks to this :)))


Do you mean of 40 years ago in Poland or in the West?