USA, Canada / CULTURE SHOCK! (of my Polish finance who visited the US) [210]

Just to add some spice to this discussion ;-)
The map of most popular sports around the world:

USA, Canada / Which countries are Americans usually traveling to? [114]


Oh boy, another one... It was already stated on this site many times that it has actually not much to do with Poland ;-) Creator of this site made lucky choice with choosing name. Now out of the sudden people from around the world are asking questions here about Poland. The thing is that Poles living in Poland are a small minority here. From what I've noticed most of active users here are either foreigners living in Poland or Polish Americans...

Some foreigners with a couple of years here seems to be well informed, but many of so called Polish Americans usually have no clue about present Poland..

As for an opening post, you seem to confuse attitute toward USA tourists with attitude toward USA politics (ie. war in Iraq or Afghanistan)...

Life / How do the Polish feel about air pollution in their cities? [35]


What did you expect living next to Silessia, one of the biggest coal mining sites in Europe? ;-) Believe me, burning coal in the house is not a problem and CO2 will not hurt you (except maybe global warming ;) The real problem are morons who burn their plastic waste. That is unhealthy for neighbours for sure.

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


Well, no. With roads currently the only problem are the money. With railways still the main problem is a bunch of state companies unable to use funds reserved for them.

News / EU SITE PRESENTS ROSY POLAND (high level of a secondary education) [10]

Meaningless is to big word... secondary school means also technical schools which goal is to give some practical ability. I'm not sure if Matura makes so much difference for let say a mechanic or a barber...

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]

I usually don't complain about my beloved country much but most of the time when I use PKP trains I'm really sorry that they didn't break up in 90'... To put long story short after 89' they were the biggest state company (something like 200000 employes if I recall corectly) and as such they were untouchable due to capacity of organizing big protests. So they are one of the last dinosuars of the communism.


This is not problem of money. There was a lot money for rail infrastructure in recent EU budget. But those f...rs in PKP did not know how to use it so they used something like 10% of it. Actually there is a plan to switch those money on road program which went surprisingly well and used most money for that. Besides PKP is one of the greatest land owner in PL.

I'm aware that trains are almost nowhere profitable and are more like public service. But again those #$## don't know what to do with land in the centre of city where train station suppose to be a gold mine for them...

ech... so I will not risk much if I tell it is a view of many Poles about PKP. They are crap.

News / EU SITE PRESENTS ROSY POLAND (high level of a secondary education) [10]


Where is the surprise here? Education in Poland is obligatory till 18 and secondary schools are free for all. If someone is not totally dumb and not make the same class ten times then for sure is able to get some kind of secondary education.

PS. those economy data from that site are outdated

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]


Support that with some numbers please... I hope that you are aware that 1996 was fourteen years ago? Simple linear extrapolation would suggest that if between 1988 and 1996 yearly medium rate of decline was 25000/8 = 3125, then (2010-1996)*3125=43750

so according to this now would be around 70000-43750=26250 illegal Poles in US.
Which is completely immaterial anyway because illegals in US are not a base for 9,8% refusal rate but lucky guess of US clerk...


Heh, that is the problem with you guys, you don't like numbers from YOUR own Homeland Security department, and wishes more and more. If you want more then find it yourself. After all it is you who are supporting your thesis based only on prejudices, ancient history and some guy who crossed illegaly USA-Canadian border. Well at least you are in line with Hegel:

"facts are against you,"
"So much the worse for the facts" ;-)

And.. I would restate the facts because I really like them ;-) :

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]


That is a shame you didn't read through, I actually have hoped that some american will do and explain. This is data directly from your Homeland Security Department... 70000 illegals in 1996 was estimation, 216 Polish persons "deportable aliens" in 2009 are probably people catched by your security forces. The point is that data from YOUR Homeland Security Department don't support 9,8% out of thin air refusals of USA embassy. All this grumbling by americans here how Poles are breaking tourist visa are based on the past and is not supported by current numbers. I bet that USA embassy clerks are no better. I will restate those numbers:


Of course we can assume that USA embassy clerks are almost 100% effective and their ability of prediction is close to Pythia prophecies... But let me be sceptic about it.

Anyway, after some thinking that refusal rate don't suprise me in the light of previous behaviour of Poles. I mean there is not small legal Polish community in the USA. Their relatives, Polish citizens in 70', 80' early 90' were going there, working and overstaying, and they are all over USA databases. Now even if those people, now in many cases rather older really want to just visit, they are instantly showing up on the clerk screens and are refused. So Poles are paying for their past, well sh..t happens. But give me a break with talking how vast amount of Poles cann't wait to get to the USA and become illegal immigrant there...

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]

That is freacking hilarious:


thenews.pl/international/artykul143966_polish-us-visa-waver-program-tied-to-nuclear-reduction-talks.html

This gay has some Polish roots... Well now I don't blame americans that they don't want more Poles there :-) On the other hand go Voinovich, go! ha ha ha :-)

Wait a minute, he is not:


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Voinovich

Is there some Polish population in his district? Or maybe Crow has something to do with it ;)

PS. this refusal rate dropped to 9.8%

News / Sikorski doctrine - Eastern Europe under threat. Poland's foreign policy. [164]


Have you by any chance been in Goerlitz recently? It is beautiful city empty like a shell at the same time... If any Pole feels that Germany is a threat and Poland should counteract there is no easiest way currently to do it than make some children and colonize Eastern Germany. They would even invite you with an open hands, because they renovated all this beautifull tenemant houses, and half of it is empty... Sadly there is not much to do there in the evenings, more sadly Polish demography is not booming either. It doesn't look like lack of space is CEE problem.

News / Poles don't have a heart for math... says The New York Times [84]


Well, I have to agree on that. Maybe the journalist let loose to much with interpreting professor words. But basically it is not journalists who says that Poland after war mathematically declined but Wieslaw Zelazko, a mathematics professor with the Polish Academy of Sciences... And professor has a point because what decline it was!

Hugo Steinhaus, Stefan Banach or Jan £ukasiewicz weren't just some mathematicians, they were recognized in mathematic world. Unfortunately many of grand Polish mathematicians were killed either by Germans or Soviets during WWII. What is more during communism many scientists emigrated to seek a carrier in the west mainly USA, like Antoni Zygmund, Wolszczan and others. So it is not that it was mathematical desert here but the sky simply wasn't so bright like pre WWII. Besides in many aspects modern mathematics and physics uses super computers, Poland was/is lagging behind this aspect to.

Anyway who wants thanks to this occasion learn something about pre WWII Polish School of Mathematics can start here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_School_of_Mathematics

PS. Benoît Mandelbrot was born in Poland too :) but luckily emigrated before WWII because otherwise we could not see Fractals today (but on the other hand as far as I know Banach Spaces has much to do with it to).

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]

As I said before this topic interested me from the "numbers" point of view. After some digging I found interesting info here (should I send it to wikileaks? ;) ) :

dhs.gov/files/statistics/publications/yearbook.shtm

Among others things it says that number of "Tourists and business travelers" (without student exchange) in 2009 (wich I suppose means tourist visas) was:

-> 133,591

Number of "deportable aliens located by region and country of nationality: fiscal year 2009" from Poland was:
-> 216

The problem is that USA embassy in Poland refuses visa to something between 20%-26% of applicants (data from some blog so not entirely solid). Based on a lucky guess they assume rightly or wrongly that those people would break tourist visa constraints. It is those US clerks refusals wich is compared with this 3% threshold, not some real sins of visa holders. I was trying to find some estimations about overstaying and so on, but the only thing I found was this:

dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/illegal.pdf

and it bassically says that estimated number of illegal immigrants of Polish origin dropped from 95000 to 70000 between 1988 and 1996 (it is total number, not yearly increase). I wonder what it would say for current year.... Anyway I would welcome some fresh data regarding breaking visas conditions putted here by our dear american forumers. Till then I must rationally assume that based on this data it seems that it is not a problem on Polish side but it is a problem of USA embassy clerks attitude... I mean if Poles are so eager to break tourist visa constraints then why only 216 of them were deportable ? Correct me please...

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]


Oh, come on, don't be so punctilious. Of course I meant rich...

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]

Yea, well I know this family ties, it is an issue for them and it should be settled but in the same time it is not that many to treat it as something which could be exchanged for some favour from Polish side..


Can but don't want to, nothing to gain... It would be childish actually, so yes maybe I overreacted ;)

USA, Canada / Canada Increasingly a Gateway for Undocumented Polish Immigrants Entering the U.S. [150]

As a Pole who don't know anyone illegal in the USA and only a two persons who went to work there but legally it was always a mystery to me from where all those illegals in recent years where (some would say Podkarpackie ;) ). Anyway, I've looked into that article to find some numbers...

Ladies and gentelman
* drum-beats

The growth of illegal crossing is staggering it is almost 200% growth from 2007!!
In nominal values we get from ...
* drum-beats
31 cases in 2007 to ... 50 in first half of this year!!

FUZZYWICKETS run to defend your country from the Polish flood!!


PS. personally I must say that USA can eat those visas and F...O.. I have really no idea why it is an important issue for some Polish politicians. What is more I think we should finally introduce visas for americans as an retaliation. 1000$ for three monts, after all they are all reach, aren't they? I know that we will not do that because of all Polish Americans, but now they can get "Karta Polaka" and come without visa anyway so no problem for them.

PS2. It is not that I'm angry with USA about those visa thing, I'm angry with Polish politicians who make a top issue from that. Who cares really?

Work / Polish students among best in OECD [32]

Actually zetigrek it wouldn't suprise me much if Polish students move up in those test.
Basically, regardless of eduaction reform there is important factor which changed in recent years wich is lower number of pupils due to demographic issues. It really makes a difference between 20 and 35 number of students in the class....

News / "To understand Poland you must understand Frederic Chopin" (Stratfor Friedman) [49]

I've read it before and have mixed feelings about it. I mean this intermarium aliance idea is unrealistic in the first place. The main idea behind this article is: Poland is f..ked because of geopolitical position sooner or later... If that is the case the only obvious and logical conclusion would be to get some nukes, many of them not some fragile aliance...

But what strikes me the most in Friedman thinking is kind of archaizm in it. I'm almost sure that this guy reads some stories about ancient nobility and knights and their dominions before he goes to sleep. Of course if something is archaic it doesn't mean it cann't happen. I just think that the internal dynamic in the systems made of modern countries is entirely different than it was the case between even XIX or early XX entities runed by nobility or some kind hard dictatorship. What I mean basically is that as long as Germany, Poland and Russia will have reasonable per capita and literacy levels and high trade turnover then there is no way either Germany or Russia will be able to turn its societies into full scale war with Poland, because regardless of how fast it would take to conquer teritory, pacification would be long, bloody and costly especially considering how easy is today to become a terrorist. As I'm writing this it becomes clear to me that oversimplification in Friedman analysis lies in thinking about Poland, Germany and Russia as a separate blocks. The current reality is different though. So to recreate world fit to Friedman view we would need total impoverishment of societies, total halt in trade and demographic boom, ie. pre WWII conditions. What we have is stability or growth in terms of HDI, growing trade and what is more important interconnection between economies, and demoghrapic decline. Maybe economic decline can be rapid, but demography is hardly movable object. So I think we don't have to worry to much for a couple of decades especially if we add Asian rising powers pressure on Russia far east.

Life / Dzień Świra. ''Day of the madman'' (Polish Cult movie.) [20]

Yeap, this movie is a precious one... Two great scenes:
- in the train:



- Polish prayer (very dark humor...):



This movie is basically the set of caricatures about Polish society.

News / Polish Foreign Ministry 'prepared' for new Wikileaks material [100]


How having a contingency plan in case of unthinkable is provoking? We are paying hard earned money to be part of that NATO aliance. If they are not up to their job WHICH IS among other things making military plans in case of even unthinkable crisis then what is the point to be in such an aliance?

I'm very much in favour of cooperation with Russia, but it doesn't mean we just put blind eye on supposedly Russian cyber-attack on Estonia in 2007 or last year joint military exercise of Russia and Belarus where unthinkable scenario was Polish minority upheaval which ended with nuclear attack on Poland. Very f...king nice on their side.. So, they have their unthinkable scenarios and we should have ours. As simple as that. I don't think it is unreasonable. Unreasonable would be to not have them. After all there are countries, which confronted with overhelming nuclear force are just building their own nuclear bomb, ie. Iran. Compared to that Polish reaction seems to be very mild...

History / The Greatest King of Poland? [117]

^^
1.3% but it is Polish Patriarchate independent from Moscow Patriarchate.
Anyway there is a few orthodox in Poland but not to few to find a new Dimitrij ;)

Hm... as for an open question with even less seriousness I would propose
Władysław III Warneńczyk, the proud father of Krzysztof Kolumbowicz :-) :-) :-)

Life / Why Poland is "surprised" by winter and snow every year? [192]



Actually is not :-) According to calendar winter starts on 22 December. So ladies and gentelman that thing outside is not a proper winter yet ;) :) :)

That is why it is surprising, funny thing is that on 22 December it can all melt..... or not :)
Actually I kind of envy my older family who are telling sometimes that there was a winter when they were walking in ice tunels as big as old man on the streets. Wouldn't it be cool to have at least one of that kind? ;)

Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]


Yeap, Ciechan and Lwówek Śląski are the stars of this year. One word of warning though: those beers are made longer and are more natural, which also means that they have shorter period of usefulness. So look at the labels when you are buying it... It is not like they will sell you something old in purpose, many sellers just treat all beers the same.

History / A comparative paper: comparing Polish border policies with American border policies [5]

Hi

@mstapor1 one thing you shouldn't forget about Polish borders is that part of it is also EU borders. So there are different rules for internal EU borders and external ones. What is more within internal borders there are two types of it Schengen and not Schengen becuase not every EU country is part of a Schengen zone (Poland is) and because of that there are different rules for example for foreigners living in Poland regarding visas and their legal ability to travel within an EU. If I'm correct then all EU neighbours of Poland are in Schengen but as in current world airports are also kind of a border zone, there are different rules for different people there.

Anyway, maybe this will help you: frontex.europa.eu

It is an EU agency managing borders issues, which headqurater is based in Warsaw.

History / Poland, Lacking External Enemies, Turns on Itself [106]

I think that this article is exaggerated. It is not surprising though, because the nature of the press is to exaggerate. I mean those division in society is not really so big except maybe politician circles. Most Poles just don't value politicians much wheter they are left or right. Latest local elections confirmed clearly that this division is really superficiall. On the very low level it doesn't matter if someone is from PO,PSL, PIS or SLD. But pavements, roads and public services counts. I think that the author of this article concentrated to much on the events near the presidential palace. The true is that this place is only a part of a very long "Krakowskie Przedmieście" street. I remember that when I was in Warsaw in summer I went there to see what was all that fuse about. It turned out that entire street was a living place with people in cafes, restaurants, stores, living normal live, only a very small part in front of Presidential Palace was occupied by a small crowd, where most of people were just passers-by like me.

So, to sum things up, using this street analogy, this article shows only this small place in front of presidential palace and misses entire street, that is why it does not show reality but only one of it faces.

UK, Ireland / EXCHANGE RATES BETWEEN POLISH ZLOTY AND BRITISH POUND [73]

As for Ireland, very interesting blog:
"Who bankrupted Ireland?"

golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2010/11/who-bankrupted-ireland.html

Work / Moving to Europe from US (hopefully to Poland). IT, Programming, technology market? [13]

It all depends where and what... In Warsaw as a regular software developer/designer you can count on something between 60-120k PLN gross. If you are lucky and have some unique knowledge in some niche (which means some rare product not only technology) and good timing then you can add 50% to that. Often there is basic private healthcare added to that (which doesn't mean you will not be paying for state healthcare :-) )

Other bigger locations like Krakow, Wroclaw, Tri-city or Poznan are in general about 20% less but with slightly cheaper costs of living also. On the other hand the best opportunites are more of the times in Warsaw, some are only there.

To sum things up, as an regular IT employee you will rather not get rich in Poland, but on the same time you should be able to secure relatively comfortable city life, ie. costs of living will not be a problem.

Language shouldn't be a problem, English is kind of an unspoken standard in IT world (most of the time in clumsy way though). It can also be an advantage if you will be willing to travel in Europe. There is quite a lot of opportunities involving a few months projects abroad. In that kind of projects usuall thing is that you will get your Polish salary, place to live (hotel, room in flat or flat, depends) and between 40-50 eur daily (depends on a country, it is regulated by law - bussiness trip costs etc.).

Good luck :-)

Study / Eastern European Studies internship/ job [10]

Well, if you were good at your studies you can try to apply to them: osw.waw.pl/en/mission-statement

It is a Polish Think-Thank wich mission is to monitor CEE issues. I don't see any hiring gate on their site. But who knows maybe they don't mind some apprentice. The question is would they pay, because they are state funded ... :-) Anyway, I suppose there is a lot knowledge there to gain and maybe they would like some external point of view. So why don't you just email them?

Life / What is the best city in Poland to live in? Relocating to Poznan? [41]


If you considering car trips to your homeland then Cracow would be best because in about two-three years you will have highway straight to the border (and I've heard that because of Euro2012 Ukrainians started to do something about roads from border to Lviv).

On the other hand, I've heard that there is some Ukrainian minority in Gdansk (because of our not easy history...). So if you would like to sing some Ukrainians songs with your compatriots then Gdansk would be good choice...

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


Sorry delph, but you are looking a this thing only from "big city" perspective, when "gmina" level in Poznan is a few hundred thousand people. In such gmina's indeed party emblem can have some meaning. But reality in gmina's below about one hundred thousand people is very different. Usually the heart of that entity is one or two small cities when everyone knows everyone, and I mean it literally. Parties emblems are really a small thing sometimes used to gain some popularity, but by no means important weapon in elections.

The other thing you are wrong about is that gmina level is not enough important for parties. The reality is that among all levels gmina is just behind a state level, because this is the place where the money are, and this is the place where winning party can give a lot of jobs for its trully supportes. So it is not that parties are not trying, they are but it is not so easy to PR things on mikro level, becuase either last mayor repaired your pavement or he didn't and all crosses in the world are not that important when you have a hole in the pavement for to long ;)