History / Warsaw Rising 1944 - National Disaster or Triumph of Spirit ? [515]


I was interacting online a day or two ago with someone about the uprising and they were surprised that while official rememberances absolutely do have a solemn side they are usually not... tragic at all. I mentioned the 2019 outdoor concert in Warsaw with songs from the uprising (most of which were notsad, though some were of course).

It's also interesting that while veterans are very honored usually they don't talk so much about the uprising (the facts of which are well known) but mostly talk about the current situation in the country.

While the uprising itself was extremely tragic, the rememberance is often very much about survival and rebirth which is, I think overall more healthy than simply dwelling on grievances and horror.

News / Brilliant Poles and Polesses - presentation [65]


Pole is neither male nor female... (or both male and female).

Polish women or Polish men work better in modern usage imho... Poless sounds like psycholożka to me (like chalk squeaking on a blackboard).

News / Brilliant Poles and Polesses - presentation [65]


I think I've heard Jock used as a(n) insulting term of address for a Scottish man but only by Brits... I've never heard used like that in the third person. Not saying it doesn't happen but....

Technically jock means athlete (usually in a school context) but there's often a note of condescension....they do sports becasue they don't have the brains for anything else (often not true).

But what I want to talk about now is.... Poless?

No.....just.... no....

News / Referendum to decide about exotic immigrants in Poland [559]


Exotic from a traditional general European cultural framework.....

Exotic just means 'foreign and different' (literally it's from Greek and means 'from the outside').

It's been used in lots of dumb ways over the years and everything exotic to one person is just normal reality for another.....

From a western European perspective the countries behind the Iron Curtain were 'exotic'... (I remember when it was called 'Eastern Europe' and I thought it was very exotic).

The university I went to in the US was very big in Latin American studies. I remember being at one party thrown by an American who'd lived in several Latin American countries. There was a doctoral student visiting from Wisconsin or somehwere like that and couldn't get over hearing people actually speaking Spanish which was very exotic for him (and as common as air for everyone else there).

News / Referendum to decide about exotic immigrants in Poland [559]


I would split economic migrants into two groups....

want to work: mostly asian (india and eastward)

want welfare: mostly african and middle eastern

there are exceptions both ways but those two clusters really stand out....

News / Referendum to decide about exotic immigrants in Poland [559]


Wha'ts going on here? (I assume you understand Hindi)

youtube.com/watch?v=fBAtpjciNdI

A lot of these asian/african factory job videos are by people who probably intend to move westward from Poland but some will probably also stay...

Some months ago I was watching videos for asians/africans who want to move to Malta (tons of immigrants there) and it was clear that many/most veiw it as a stepping stone.

It's an interesting thing going on now and no one that I no of is really studying it....

the welfare seekers get all the publicity but there's huge pent up demand for European style governance in lots of countries... and if they can't get it at home they'll come here (or try).

News / Referendum to decide about exotic immigrants in Poland [559]


Come here and ask them....

caveat: I just put 'factory job in Poland' in youtube and these (among others) came up. I haven't watched them....

youtube.com/watch?v=WksDeMeROBY

youtube.com/watch?v=l5VRm5l7HOw

youtube.com/watch?v=ayhUBu-zgpk

youtube.com/watch?v=vN4gUTslW3s

Life / Owning a house in true countryside of Poland - stories [692]


In the field?

Life / Owning a house in true countryside of Poland - stories [692]


They're throwing the potatoes in a... I dunno.... a potato container?

Or are they banging them against something to shake some of the dirt off?

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


I don't think so, russia co-opted a lot of the right in Europe (and in NAmerica) with it's nonsense RT propaganda about putain establishing traditional christian values in russia (hilarious when you know about levels of divorce, domestic abuse, violence, drug addiction, abortion etc)

Also they just out and out bought some of them.

Konfederacja would be much more likely to join since I assume they've been bought out by russia....

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

In Denmark a mainstream party started taking on positions closer to those of the citizenry and the more rightist party was defanged...

Not sure what's happened in Sweden after the Swedish political establishment made the rightist party there so powerful...

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


The AfD has become the second party of Germany because it is the _only_ party that comes close to approaching everyday Germans' position on migration.

All other parties either have naive views that are clearly maladaptive in the current decade or simply try to ignore the issue of Germany's hopelessly broken asylum system.

It's not the only reason for their growth but it's a big one and represents comprehensive failure of the German political establishment to pay attention to voters.

Want to reduce their popularity? Start deporting migrants/"asylum seekers"/non-citizens who break the law and/or fail to integrate in a reasonable amount of time.

Life / Polish folklore/legends [61]


Well thunder is produced by lightning IIRC so that makes some sense, błyskawica is more specialized for lightning and grzmot for thunder....

Generally thunder is not that common in most of Poland, though today has certainly been an exception to that with alternating periods of strong winds and rain and thunder and lightning and relative calm... very weird, even by changeable Polish weather standards....

Life / Polish folklore/legends [61]


not lightning (lightning bolt or thunderbolt) as in Polish? : )

Life / Polish folklore/legends [61]


There are some that think Jaga is a cognate of Polish jędza..... baba is of course self-explanatroy...


Polish cognate is piorun, I'm sure you know but some readers might not....

Travel / Changing trains in Poznan [29]


Last autumn I remember preparing for a work-related meeting in Leipzig on a zoom meeting. When talking about how to get there by train, one of the German participants started giving directions for how to use Deutsche Bahn and it honestly seemed more like the third world than supposedly modern and ultra-competent Germany...

"If you see a train going in the right direction just get on and then talk to the conductor" was one bit of advice I remember (along with the uselessness of current official posted schedules)..

I ended up not going (bit of a pity since I wanted to see Leipzig) but around the same time I was seeing other information indicating an almost total breakdown of scheduling..... what happened?

Food / BREAD IN POLAND IS DETERIORATING [90]


I remember something called a 'hotdog' in the PRL.... it was kind of a roll and then they punctured a hole in it, then squirted in a bunch of mustard and them jammed in the frankfurter with some mustard spilling out around the edges....probably the single most Freudian fast food I'd ever seen....

The current hotdogi are positively demure next to them...

Food / BREAD IN POLAND IS DETERIORATING [90]

Looking at the title of the thread and the date... yeah I remember bread getting worse in quality at that time, which is understandable and not entirely bad..... Bread in the PRL had to be dense and nutritious but afterwards that wasn't as important since so much other food was available.

What I've noticed in recent years is a rise in smaller bakeries offering much better bread than what you can find in supermarkets. My favorite is tosmak, a local chain (as far as I know limited to Poznań) that has lots of great stuff including what in more pretentious climes might be called 'artisanal'....

But even bread in Biedronka is better than anything you could find in the US...

Travel / Changing trains in Poznan [29]


Once going back to Poznań from Gdańsk the train was very late and a couple of middle aged German ladies were worried about making their connection to Berlin (the layover was originally very long but the late train was eating into that). A friend and I talked to a conductor who said he would call ahead so the train would wait... (probably less than 10 minutes...)

When we arrived at the station of course.... long gone. It was late at night but by that time there were a couple of other passengers helping them and they roused the station master on duty who said he'd arrange for them to get to Berlin...

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


But you didn't invent unflattering aspects out of thin air... the idea that sexual coercion was a basic or common part of life in the PRL is just without foundation.

Did it happen.... some for sure. Was it a pervasive or common pattern or more common than in the US at the same time? No.

You've lost since you haven't presented any kind of credible evidence.

Love / Connecting with GAY MEN IN POLAND [56]


Must be terrible for your wife to live with a man who doesn't desire her.... how'd you manage to get her pregnant anyway? thinking of Gazmanov? Shaman? Gazmanov and Shaman doin' the wild thing?

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


and so was Danuta!

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


In Danuta's store.... her motto is "You have to use butter to get butter!"

someone stop me....

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


Tirówki!

Now I'm thinking that there's a niche market for a certain type of.... adult film....

Picture it!

DANUTA! She-wolf of Społem! The ruthless manager of a PRL store she demands (and receives) sexual favors from staff and customers alike...

taglines: If you want meat.... you can only get it _under_ counter!

Welcome to Danuta's her motto is 'meat for meat!'

Here's a picture of savage seductress!

• 
  dan2.jpg
  

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


Not a single person on this thread with actual experience in Poland (including in the PRL) believes/agrees with your claim that normal women routinely prostituted themselves for favors...

You've lost. L O S T. Take the L.

You have no proof besides second hand intoxicated sources.....

The way things worked in the PRL was actually far more interesting than your weird fantasies about women so desperate for.... what exactly? That they did the deed with.... who exactly?

And the real story of prostitution in Poland in the 1990s was more interesting too... There used to be a square in town where the prostitutes hung out at night waiting for customers but eventually Polish born prostitutes lost a price war to women from the former USSR and Bulgaria.... But they disappeared from the square many years ago.

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


I can't understand you not answering her questions.

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


I read that a lot of the fabric of civic life was tied up in prl institutions and the when the prl stopped... so did they, which is why for many years social clubs or neighborhood activities that are common in some other countries were so rare.

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


Not really, this person had been in Poland for all the martial law period (then back to the US and then back to Poland in the late 80s). Once it's clear a foreigner knows how things are done in Poland the rare/"exotic" factor wears off in a hurry.....

My analysis (and that of my friend) was that the candy bar was less 'payment' and more a sign that the work was really appreciated and he should not hesitate to ask my friend if he ever needed anything that they could do, it was a small personal touch (actually intended for the driver's child) of the kind that Polish people at the time appreciated.

Lots of examples of that kind of thing in the PRL people giving each other small tokens of appreciation (before or after favors were done) to signal a relationship that one of the parties could call upon... no person was an island then and having informal connections was important.

Tha'ts what quid pro quo looked like most of the time then, not weird fantasies about minor officials demanding sex for..... well for what, exactly? I can't figure out that part....

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]


a genuine question....what's going on in that scenario?

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]

How some things worked in the PRL (and for several years afterward).

In the early 90s I was visiting an American friend who was living in Warsaw and working for an agency that was ultimately funded by the Polish government. They were using a car borrowed from an expat friend and it was having problems.... rather than try their luck with a mechanic in Warsaw they approached the driver of the agency and he agreed to look at it and fix anything that he could.

He fixed it and in return my friend gave him a (relatively expensive) candy bar and he was happy.

He didn't want any money and there was simply no way he would actually look at the car for the price of the candy bar...but he did accept the candy as a kind of payment.

Why?