Polonia / Let's talk about Sweden and other Scandinavian countries [236]

Ok, so here's a bit more information for you.

ncee.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Finland-Education-Report.pdf

'the mathematics content required in lower secondary school (our grades 7-10) is comparable to the average American high school graduate's course of study.'

Grades 7-10 in Finland is fourteen to sixteen years old at which point compulsory education ends and most people choose either upper secondary or vocational school, though vocational school doesn't stop you from applying for university when you finish there.

Let's take a look at the present advanced (as opposed to basic) maths curriculum in Finnish upper secondary school which starts at age 16 and where the changes will be made:

'by completing the advanced syllabus in mathematics, Finnish students have completed math coursework similar to that of a U.S. college math
major.'

Now, what you were not aware of, but what I discovered within a few minutes of googling (because being a teacher I know what to search for in this case) is that whilst making those changes at the upper end of the education system, they will be making another radical change at the pre-school level, and not before time. Maths teaching in Finland will now begin from the age of three and the reason for this is that despite the high standards of the secondary advanced maths syllabus, students entering university to take up maths degrees are struggling with certain very basic concepts. This supports what I was explaining to you earlier and what Montessori discovered over a century ago through her observations and work with thousands of children over fifty years, which is that, the basics are most easily acquired before the age of six through concrete learning. I expect to see Finnish pre-schools using, if not Montessori's materials, then their own adaptations of them.

Do you know it's possible to teach the squares and cubes of number with concrete materials? While children at the pre-school age are not able to verbalize these concepts, they can represent them. Through the use of short and long bead chains, number squares and cubes, and numeral arrows, the Montessori Bead Cabinet concretely demonstrates these concepts.

For example the hundred bead chain of ten bars each comprised of ten beads, can be physically folded into a square of 100 beads, thus ten 'squared' is 100.

montessoritraining.blogspot.com/2012/04/bead-cabinet.html

And years later when the child encounters squaring and cubing in the maths curriculum they remember working with the chains and they understand what they're doing when they square or cube a number. That's why research shows that children who attend a proper Montessori pre-school do better at maths in mainstream secondary than children who attended conventional pre-school.

Polonia / Let's talk about Sweden and other Scandinavian countries [236]

I understand your reservations but you're making a very hasty response to something about which we have very little information. You're making the assumption, because you havent' read otherwise, that maths and physics will no longer be taught at all after the age of sixteen and clearly this will not happen. Why not? Because Finland, like any other country, needs to produce a certain number of mathematicians and physicists and needs a certain number of people with more advanced skills in those subjects for related professions.

Finland has an excellent record in education and there is every reason to suppose that they will continue to provide advanced tuition for those students with aptitude and interest in science and maths. However, I imagine that such tuition will no longer take place in school, but will be farmed out, as it were, with some kind of arrangement being made with universities to run external courses/maths and science labs for selected upper secondary students who intend to study those subjects at third level later on. It seems to me to be a very sensible proposal.

Polonia / Let's talk about Sweden and other Scandinavian countries [236]


Well with respect, I'm not a theorist. I'm a teacher so I have practical experience of this, and for example I've taught the trinomial formula to six year olds who when they return to it in abstract form at the age of twelve actually understand it and they're not mathematical geniuses by any means. Here's an example of geometry in the integrated curriculum of Montessori:

montessori-europe.com/node/269


I said 'the basics' of algebra and geometry.


I'm quite certain that any sixteen year old who is capable of studying advanced maths will be facilitated in doing so.

Polonia / Let's talk about Sweden and other Scandinavian countries [236]


I don't think you read the article you linked to, from Science Alert which states:

Finland already has one of the best education systems in the world, consistently falling near the top of the prestigious PISA rankings in maths, science and reading, and this change could very well help them stay there.

Perhaps you read it but didn't really understand it. Also did you read the full article in The Independent?

What Finland is proposing is actually not a new idea. I'm a Montessori trained teacher for kids up to 12 and Maria Montessori designed 'the integrated curriculum' or cosmic education as she called it back in the 1930s. It has been used succesfully in numerous Montessori schools around the world where the standard of maths and science is generally considerably higher than in mainstream schools. The integrated approach can be used from the age of six upwards if and only if, the child has received a solid maths foundation from the age of three and has attained an understanding of the concept of ten in all its operations by the age of six.

In Finland, which has a high standard of educational attainment, they are introducing the integrated approach for students aged sixteen up at which point they already have their foundation. It's basically about applying existing mathematical knowledge acquired by the child, to real world situations. It doesn't mean that maths and science won't be taught anymore. As a matter of fact if maths are properly taught to a child from the age of three, they can complete all the basics of arithmetic, algebra and geometry including theorems by the age of twelve.

News / CO2 emissions in Poland. Should Poland go nuclear or stick with clean coal technologies? [93]

Nuclear power isn't the only alternative. Smurf would know that, being from Ireland. We have one of the oldest hydro-electric power plants there in Ardnacrusha. It was completed in 1929. We even managed to sort it out so that returning salmon can navigate the river safely past the power station. My grandfather was one of the engineers involved in the rural electriification scheme having trained along with several other Irish engineers at Siemens in Germany. Oddly enough we've never managed to harness the ferocious Irish winds as effectively which is extraordinary really, considering how ridiculously windy it is in Ireland. We do get about 20% of our electricity from wind, but more from natural gas I think.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


It is my solemn duty to inform you that repartee does not have a plural. It is an uncountable noun. Just think in terms of 'banter'. One doesn't have banters and similarly one does not have repartees :)

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

Thanks Polly. I found the actual report and the methodology used. Yes, it was based on a questionnaire given to women.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

The problem is that yet again Polly (and you do this all the time) you've cited 'a report' without specifically stating which one it is or providing a link to it. One must look at the methodology used to come up with the statistics. You will get two different results depending on whether you ask women directly whether they've ever been assaulted or if you use the number of assaults reported to the police. Generally the figure if you question women directly will be higher for various reasons. For example, some women, especially in more 'feminist' societies like Scandanavia, will perceive any unwanted attention from a man known or unknown to them as a form of sexual harrassment or assault. I'm not disputing the statistic but it contradicts other statistics which list Stockholm as one of the safest cities for example and in almost every survey conducted, Scandanavian countries score very highly as safe places for women holidaying alone.

Here's a report compiled by The Economist last year which clearly explains the indicators used to come up with their safety index for cities:

safecities.economist.com/report/safe-cities-index-white-paper

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

Source of that figure?? The west........do you mean the European Union or are you including non-EU European countries plus places like America, Canada etc which I assume you would consider to the be the west? Do you really believe that 65% of all babies born in the last five years let's say, in the western world were Muslim?? That's statistically impossible. For example in my own homeland,77.9% of all births were to mothers native to my country and only 6.2% of births were to mothers from non-EU countries, let alone to Muslims. And unlike your statement mine is verifiable. Let's see the source of your claim.

cso.ie/en/newsandevents/pressreleases/2016pressreleases/pressreleasebirthsdeathsandmarriagesin2015/

In the UK almost three quarters of births were to British women and the most common country of birth for mothers not born in the UK was - wait for it now Anna - Poland! Admittedly that was closely followed by Pakistan and India, but nonetheless, these figures hardly support your frankly absurd claim.

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [332]

Here's the Christmas cake recipe in full:

NB it uses plain flour not self-raising and you shouldn't add any baking powder. Raising agent is not a good idea in a rich fruit cake.

A couple of days before making the cake mix the following ingredients in an airtight container and leave them to absorb the flavours:

250g each of raisins, sultanas and currants
125g each of mixed citrus peel, flaked almonds and chopped glace cherries (I found them recently in Auchan so you can get them in Warsaw anyway)

I heaped tablespoon each of raspberry jam, good quality marmalade and treacle or golden syrup (those can be hard to find in Poland but you could use maple syrup).

1 wine glass of brandy or whiskey

On the day that you make the cake line your tin as described previously. An 8 inch tin should be fine, square or round, I prefer square and it should be about 4 inches deep. Preheat the oven to a very low heat. Christmas cake must be cooked very slowly for several hours for the best result. You know your own oven best, but as a general guide you should be ok with 140 degrees or gas mark 1 or 2.

Cream together 250g of butter or marg and 250g of soft brown sugar.
Beat four large eggs in a separate bowl and gradually add to the mixture.
Then sift together in another bowl, 450g of plain flour and now in you're in trouble because with your flour you should have something called 'mixed spice' which is pretty much unknown outside Ireland and Britain. You can make it yourself but you'll need to make a little jar full and then just use a teaspoonful in your cake:

Here's how it's done:
A tablespoon each of allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg
2 teaspoons each of ground coriander, ground cloves and ground mace
1 teaspoon of ginger
Shake them up together and hey presto!

Add a teaspoon of that to your flour and also a teaspoon of cinnamon and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg.
Gradually fold in the flour and spices with a metal spoon and then add the fruit mixture which has been soaking.

Put your mixture in the tin and smooth out the top. I find the best way to ensure it's even distributed is to put an equal dollop in each corner of the tin and draw the towards the centre. If you're not going to ice your cake with marzipan/royal icing, then you can decorate the top now with nuts before it goes in the oven.

Off it goes into the oven. Do not check it for at least three hours. After that test it with a skewer and if it comes out sticky - carry on baking. This is the tricky part as unless you're well accustomed to your oven, there's no way of telling how long it will take. It once took eight hours for this cake to cook at gas mark 2 !! But it was absolutely delicious and so moist. A bonus is that the house will be filled with the most delicious smell while it's baking. If you think that the top is getting too brown before it's cooked through, you can place a piece of tinfoil over it. It'll protect it from burning. When a skewer comes out clean the cake is done. Pierce the top of the cake with a skewer in about ten places and brush it with brandy or whiskey. Then let it cool completely in the tin ideally overnight. Next day wrap it in baking parchment and tinfoil and put it a cool dark place. About once a week until Christmas you should feed it with some more brandy/whiskey in the same manner as before, wrap it up and put it away again. About a teaspoon is usually enough.

It should be iced a couple of days before Christmas, with marzipan icing which you can make from ground almonds Loads of recipes for that on the internet, very straightforward. It's really just eggs, sugar and ground almonds and I usually add some brandy to the mixture too. You roll it out and drape it over the top and sides of the cake. Brush the cake with warm apricot jam first as it helps the icing to adhere to the cake. Tradtionally Royal Icing goes on top of this, it's like the white icing on a classic wedding cake. When I was a child we had the hard Royal Icing, very brittle, but in recent years a soft fondant variety has become more popular. Although it's great because it gives you a lovely base for decorating, it's really just too sweet and sugary for me, so I just do the marzipan and decorate the cake with marzipan fruits and some baubles, with a big ribbon tied round the outside.

For me Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas without 'the cake', sitting there on a side table in all its festive glory, waiting to be cut, as central to an Irish Christmas as the tree or the presents. Smacznego!

Genealogy / Polish Soldiers Dunblane, Scotland WW2 [16]

Hi Ace you're very welcome. I love mysteries and family history!

I found a thread here on this forum which would be worth reading. An important thing to remember is that there may be somebody of your mother's generation out there who knows something about your own grandfather through family memories.

https://polishforums.com/genealogy/relatives-served-armoured-division-gen-maczek-7733/

1st Battalion Polish Rifles under General Maczek were stationed in the parish church of the village of Menstrie which is 15km from Dunblane. The article I came across stated that sadly 'we have little in the way of names of the troops who were stationed here'. That surprises me as I thought the MOD would have records (they definitely have records for the Polish forces in Britain) but in any case, the problem is that even if you find his unit, how would you know which soldier he was? However, in any case you can get a sense of who he was by reading as much as possible about the Polish forces in Scotland, gathering photos, background information, it'll give you a sense of connection to him. Here's another very interesting article:

makers.org.uk/place/PolishInScotland2WW

I found this little gem on a Scottish chat forum:

'.........at a Polish Army dance in Dunblane in 1946, and I had a rare time. The reason I was there was because the Poles had invited the youth-hostellers from the local hostel... I think they were more interested in the female hostellers rather than the hairy-legged cyclists, but hey... can't blame them for that now can we.'

A visit to the village of Dunblane would be well worthwhile, some of the older people there, who were children or teenagers during the war might just have some little memory that could point you in the right direction. Also check out the local library and county library archives for any newspaper articles or things of that kind. You never know what might come up. Photos from a Polish dance for example might give names of the couples photographed, who knows, it's worth a try. At least you can place their romance in the spring/summer of 1942 so that narrows it down a bit.

Finally I found this book, looks nice:

helion.co.uk/armoured-hussars-images-of-the-polish-1st-armoured-division-1939-47.html

Genealogy / Polish Soldiers Dunblane, Scotland WW2 [16]

The Dunblane Hydro is a hotel isn't it? According to their history, the place was used as a convalescent home for soldiers during WWII and also at some point as a girls' boarding school. It seems doubtful that they'd send a unit to stay in a girls' school (!) or that an entire unit would be convalescing at the same time. So it would seem that your grandfather was there as a patient rather than as part of his unit. Patient records/lists might have survived, but there could be more than one Polish soldier there at the same time, so figuring out which one is the right one could still be tricky. The Red Cross ran most of the homes in the UK during WWII. They might have some records.

However, there may have been a brief period during the change over from hospital to school or vice versa whichever came first, when soldiers were billeted there. I found this record which gives the Polish units stationed in Scotland including Perthshire from 1941-1945. Dunblane is not mentioned as a location until April 1945:

polishforcesinbritain.info/Locations.htm#Loc_T1a

Here's something else that would be of interest to you as it gives you some general background on the Polish soldiers in Scotland at that time:

polishscottishheritage.co.uk/?heritage_item=scottish-polish-coexistence-during-the-dark-days-of-wwii

With another bit of digging around I managed to discover that the 4th infantry division of the 1st Polish Corps was in Dunblane at some point. I found that out from a list of records on the Imperial War Museum site. They came up on a google search as being somewhere in this very extensive list of photos:

iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205224236

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Infantry_Division_(Poland)#4th_Division_organized_by_the_western_Allies

They didn't see any combat after 1940 and by 1946 a group of Polish soldiers were stationed not at the Dunblane Hydro itself, but nearby.

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [332]

Dundee cake is a much lighter fruitcake. The traditional Christmas cake is very dark and moist. Just adding whiskey to a Dundee cake doesn't turn it into a Christmas cake. You can soak the fruit for a Christmas cake with anything you like, but you also have to feed the baked cake with alcohol for several weeks before Christmas and whiskey or brandy is the best choice for that.

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [332]

Yes, I know, it's one of those weird Hiberno-isms that we think of Hennessy's as Irish. The Hennessy family are aware of that themselves. A grocer in Dublin told one of them that during a boycott of French goods by customers one woman refused to buy 'that French stuff' but 'I'll have a bottle of Hennessy's'! They retain very strong links with Ireland even after all this time. Frederic actually lives in Cork in the family's ancestral home Ballymacmoy House.

Life / All Things Christmassy in Poland [332]

Last year Polonius asked me for a recipe for traditional British/Irish Christmas cake. I thought maybe some other members might like to try making one, so I intend to share my favourite recipe shortly as it needs to be baked well in advance for the flavours to mature. I'll be doing mine before the end of the month. In the meantime, prepare ye thy tins!

You can make it in a round or square tin but the lining process is crucial. As Alan Partridge might say, I cannot emphasise that enough. Slow cooking is vital, otherwise the cake will be dry so the tin needs insulating from the heat of the oven. You need an 8 inch cake tin for this recipe.

You line it with a double layer of baking parchment and then do my granny used to do, take at least four thicknesses of newspaper, wrap it round the outside of the tin and tie it in place with twine or cotton string. The newspaper needs to come up a bit higher, about 2 inches, than the height of the tin to shield the top of the cake from excessive browning.

You can also start gathering your dried fruits. They need to be soaked in brandy or whiskey (Irish only please, Hennessy's Cognac or Jamesons). I once tried French brandy and it just haven't the potency of Hennessy's. Also I wouldn't touch Scotch whiskey on principle!

You need:

250g raisins
250g sultanas
250g currants
125 gr mixed peel
250g glace cherries (chopped) I've never been able to find them in Poland :(

About two days before you plan to make the cake you place the fruits in an airtight container and chuck a wine glass full of brandy or whiskey in with them.

In the next instalment I'll give you the full ingredients list and the method. The actual making of it is easy peasy. It's the baking process that's a b*stard as you can never be sure how it will come out, but sure that's all part of the joy of Christmas and if it's a complete fiasco you can always console yourself by polishing off the remains of the brandy or whiskey.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


God give me patience. What would I be trying to prove? I just said that I found it odd that cake, pastry and dough are covered by one word. I mean dough is hardly the same thing as cake now is it? If I offered you kawa and ciasto, how would you feel if I served you a lump of dough? But I would be quite within my linguistic rights and indeed, I may say, I would be sorely tempted to do so :)) it would serve you jollly well right.

Sorry if you felt I cast aspersions on your 'cake tradition'. I know you have cakes, many cakes, I just don't like most of them very much.



But the Irish cáca is pronounced 'caw-ka' like the caw of a crow.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


Well I only know French, German and Irish, each of which have separate words for cake, pastry and dough. For example in Irish dough is taos, pastry is taosrán you can see the connection there) and cake is cáca, biscuits are brioscai and so on.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


Yes I do understand that. I think pastry is not really a part of traditional Polish dishes is it? The 'pie' is a very British thing. Also the way in which meat is butchered so differently in Europe is something very hard to get the head round. I really miss being able to buy a nice joint of beef on the bone for roasting.


To me they're just two different varieties of cherry, one being slightly sweeter than the other. I think the sourer one is lighter in colour. I made jam in the summer using the darker one. It didn't set very well so I used it to sweeten rhubarb crumble. I had much better success with the raspberries and the plums gave the best set. All very yummy though!

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]

Thanks very much for the explanation Kpc. That makes more sense, ciasto as dough in that context ie French dough but then again, why is there no separate word for dough? Why is it interchangeable with cake?

Ciasto as a biccie I already understand although again it seemed odd to me at first, the same word for two very different things. Many biscuits are not at all cake-like. I know the difference between herbatniki and ciasteczki but it does seem to me that there are biscuits which are in neither category, not quite substantial enough to be ciasto but not quite small and crispy enough to be herbatniki, but they have to be ruthlessly forced into one or the other!

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


What I find very odd is that there's no Polish word for pastry. Everything is ciasto 'cake' in my understanding. Thus puff pastry is 'ciasto Francuskie' which literally means French cake. It's not very specific is it and French pastry is often used for savoury dishes so it seems odd to refer to it as cake. Also what would you call shortcrust pastry? Ciasto Angielskie? Steak and kidney pie made with English cake!

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]


You don't really know your history very well do you? Women had far greater freedom in the West a thousand years or fifteen hundred years ago than they had five hundred years ago. Christianity and its reinvention of the female ideal (and yay Christianity, I am soooo a Christian) robbed women of a good many freedoms they had previously enjoyed. For example Viking women had all the independence and freedoms enjoyed by twentieth century women, Irish women under the old Irish system had equal rights with men including the right to enter all professions open to men and served amongst other things a judges under the Brehon legal system.

Also Irony, Susan B Anthony et al are not 'early feminists'. They come very far down the line. The early feminists are women like Mary Wollstencraft. You could also say that some of the founders of the religious orders and the Abbesses of the great convents were also feminists. They managed to get out from under the patronage and control of men to a great extent and forge an independent existence at a time when Christian women were chattels of the men in their families. Also the later ones like Nano Nagle and Catherine McCauley went out into the world from their convents mixing hands on with the poorest and roughest people at a time when women of their class usually maintained a safe distance. Charity was ok as long as you sat at home and sewed garments for the poor or dropped a shilling in a begging bowl but women were not encouraged to involve themselves with the destitute. Those women who abandoned a comfortable middle class extistence to do so went against the social norms of the times as much as a woman who wanted to study science or smoke a cigarette in public.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Polly what's the source of your claim that Poland leads in foetal surgery? America leads in this procedure and it's hardly known in Europe. The Americans trained the physicians in the few European centres where it's peformed and although Poland has expressed an interest they are only novices, certainly not leaders in the field. Spain and Switzerland are the European leaders in the field.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]


Ireland has probably the most restrictive abortion law in Europe. Over 90% of the indigenous population of Ireland identifies itself as Catholic and yet 87% of those polled earlier this year, stated that they want to see our abortion laws reformed. That hardly sits very well with the image of the 'loonie lefties' and 'radical feminists'. It's ordinary, normal people who are pressing for these reforms, not nutters.

I doubt very much indeed whether you have the patience to read the following link, but one can live in hope I suppose. Here's the full report. The survey was conducted by one of Ireland's most highly respected pollsters.

redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/157316-%E2%80%93-Amnesty-International-Feb-2016-040316-Press-Release.pdf

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]


Not sure what you're claiming here. According to her husband it was her first pregnancy. But even if she had miscarried a child previously that does not necessarily mean that she can't have another child. Many women do. Some are advised not to. Was that so in her case?


Are you suggesting that the mother had an underlying medical condition which made it inadvisable for her to become pregnant? Reference was made to her underlying medical condition in the Catholic media but in the context of the infection which killed her, in the sense that it was not the baby per se which killed her, but rather E-coli resulting in septicaemia. If you have additional reliable information about this case then provide a link, it would be interesting.

There are two pertinent issues in this case. One is 'medical misadventure', that is failures in her treatment. The other is the abortion law.
The abortion law in Ireland allows for termination when a mother's life is in danger.
The medical team did not detect the threat to the mother's life.
Therefore a termination was not performed.

However, and this is the crux of the matter, the medical team, did know that the child was not going to survive, that miscarriage was inevitable and yet when the mother and father, requested that birth be induced, doctorrs felt unable to proceed simply on that basis due to the foetal heartbeat being present, as it would have been 'abortion on demand' and against the law.

Inducing the birth would not in itself have saved her life, but once the child had been delivered, it might have been more obvious to the medical team that the mother's pain was the result of something other than the miscarriage. She arrived in hospital on the Saturday having already been ill for two days, but the child did not die until the Wednesday. So for all those days her infection was taking greater hold till it reached a point of no return. If the law were different and the hospital had been able to induce birth on the night she arrived in hospital,who knows? And that's the point.

The coroner in the subsequent inquiry recommended that the law be reformed to provide additional clarification. If the abortion law were not an issue in the case, the coroner would not have felt it necessary to make that recommendation.

Finally and take note, the results of the subsequent inquiry by the Health Service, concluded that

'The interpretation of the law related to lawful termination in Ireland is considered to have been a material contributory factor'


And there's an example of the disrespect shown towards a woman who is herself a mother. Roz is a mother of two children whom she has carried through pregnancy, given birth to, loved, protected, nurtured and cared for to young adulthood and for most of that time, without the support of their father. She is far better placed than you to discuss this issue. She knows what it is to be a mother and to have the life of a child grow within her and love it even before it is born.

The huge stumbling block in this debate is that a man can never know what it feels like to be a woman and to be pregnant. There are not many women who trot off happily without a care in the world to casually abort their child. There are not many women who treat abortion as a form of contraception. There are a few nut jobs (Sinead O'Connor springs to mind with her three abortions is it?) but they are very much the exception. Abortion is an exceptional and last resort for most women. I, like the majority of normal women, would be horrifed and disgusted to see a world where abortion was treated as a casual thing that wasn't a big deal. It is. That's why most women carry on with their unplanned pregnancy and have the child anyway.


As for that crude, sarcastic comment about severely deformed or disabled children........

Have you ever spent time around the parents of a severely disabled child? And seen the love and devotion and suffering of those parents? Mothers do not abort disabled children because they are an incovenience. Have you reflected at all on the shock, the grief, the fear that a woman experiences when she's told that her child, the child that she has possibly longed for and planned for with her partner, will be born severely disabled. And whether she terminates the pregnancy or goes ahead, her life and the life of the father, will be permanently marked by that tragedy. I don't think any mother or father can ever get over it. You demonstrate such a total lack of empathy, compassion or understanding of human beings that you're simply unfit to be debating this topic. You're entitled to your views of course but you're not actually capable of engaging in any meaningful debate on the topic.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

The mother died on Friday so she was clearly very close to death by the time the baby died. The pregnancy had already gone into crisis when the woman arrived at the hospital and the baby could not be saved so even on compassionate grounds alone you'd think they would have induced labour. That was what the woman herself requested, not an abortion as such. Instead they let the child die inside her during which time the mother was in severe pain. The whole thing was horrendous and the country was absolutely shocked by it.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]


Not solely a medical error. Read the facts of the case. The mother was admitted to hospital suffering a miscarriage. The pregnancy was at seventeen weeks and the foetus would have been unlikely to survive. The team could have induced labour but didn't as a foetal heartbeat was present. Although the mother was becoming more and more ill, they did not recognize that her life was in danger, the only circumstance under which they could have performed an abortion. The woman was admitted to hospital on a Saturday night and the baby did not die until the Wednesday by which time the mother was so ill that it was too late. If they had been able to abort the foetus during the initial stages of miscarriage, the mother's life could have been saved.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]



No it's the truth. It's what lead to the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland a few years ago. The foetal heartbeat was present so although she was extremely ill, the hospital refused to perform a termination despite her husband's repeated requests. He was informed 'this is a Catholic country'. The medical team did not detect that Ms Halappanavar was suffering from septacaemia which would under Irish law, have actually allowed the termination. Both mother and baby died. Very sad. So even though our law was more liberal than the presently proposed law for Poland, it's such a tight margin that tragedies like that can occur. If the purpose of abortion controls is to prevent loss of life, it's very ironic when it actually contributes to them.

News / A better Polish solution: aiding refugees in their home region [29]

Polly humanitarian aid to Syria is not an alternative that Poland has come up with as a solution. It is standard practice for all European Union members, all of whom have already contributed significant aid to both refugees and those still in Syria.

Polonia / Let's talk about Sweden and other Scandinavian countries [236]

Did the OP say that he only plans to visit occasionally?? I don't see how he could set up a construction and development company on that basis.


That's funny! I'd say the exact opposite. A wonderful place for a holiday but not that great a place to live for various reasons.


And they're a mixed bag. Their spoken English is frequently anything but fluent, very halting and hesitant and their verbal translations are sometimes not completely accurate. I remember once using a translator for something (I was required to by law to use one for the business in hand) and he mistranslated something I'd said. It was something quite basic (which was how I could tell he'd cocked it up!) so God only knows what a mess he may have made of the more complicated stuff. To be fair I don't think he made a mistake so much as took liberties in unnecessarily paraphrasing what I'd said, but it resulted in an inaccurate statement. Anyway the business didn't need to proceed any further so there were no dire consequences. But all the same........

News / Kukiz and Petru - newly emerging political stage in Poland [57]


Polly it's simply ridiculous to hear you referring to English as Anglo-Jabber especially when it's your native language as much as Polish.

Now having said that, I agree that Polish deserves to keep its diacritics just as Irish does. We are beginning to see them disappearing as people drop the 'fadas' from tneir names in order to make them easier for foreigners to deal with. I don't agree with that at all. Here's an interesting and rather amusing discussion (in Irish with subtitles) which could apply equally to Polish. It's only four minutes long.

I even know a second generation Polish woman in Ireland (in her mid thirties) who can't pronounce her own surname properly, stumbles over it when she attempts to say it and wha's worse, doesn't care! Mr Atch was disgusted and despairing. He still talks about it!

youtube.com/watch?v=BRi31M-7Id8


But it's not an English surname and unless you anglicize it completely and translate it (something to with ducks isn't it??) then I feel the accent should be retained.