News / Poland in ruin or flourishing? [35]


Roger has been living in Poland longer than you, I don't think he needs you to tell him things he is (and we are) already aware of


Good; so we now know that you are a good citizen and give to charity and to cancer research; many others, including I am sure on this forum, do the same without finding the need to broadcast it constantly


Maybe decide to go back to communism?

News / Poland in ruin or flourishing? [35]


Yes, but since Poles are also able to vote when abroad (at least in the general elections), that should have no impact on the overall outcome

News / Poland in ruin or flourishing? [35]


Maybe you have a point.

What has always struck me is how divided the Polish vote is geographically, ie the Eastern part voting PiS and the Western part voting PO. I initially thought that this might be linked to a difference in the origin of the population with proximity to Russia on one side (less developed) and to Germany on the other (more developed). That doesn' t withstand deeper analysis because we all know that Western Poland was repopulated with people coming from the old eastern territories.

I think the split comes from inappropriate/late policy decisions by the successive Polish government in the 1990's/early 2000s, and especially the lack of focus on infrastructure issues. Motorway links between the East to the West were not built at the time when Western firms were making decisions about the location of their Polish factories. As a result most factories were located in the Western part which was already connected to the Western European markets via a preexisting network of motorways. The East West network now exists, at least partially, but it was built far too late when most investment decisions were already made. Show that also in politics time is of the essence..

News / Poland in ruin or flourishing? [35]


Roger's view is fair and balanced and also reflects my own perception of how Poland has evolved. I remember in the early nineties that you could still find horse driven carts in the countryside, now they have almost disappeared. Polonius, what do you expect? I think that for a country that has disappeared of the world map for over 100 years, that suffered a devastating war and then 50 years of communism, Poland's progress has been astounding, and that should make all Poles, whether living in Poland or elsewhere proud. You are obviously an educated and intelligent person, maybe it is your US background and its avid consumerism (everything immediately!) which is preventing you to see the reality?

Life / What are the things which cause culture shock in Poland? [164]


True but the originals are to be found in Germany!

Life / Polish people are the most ignorant people in the world! [331]


You're right, it was more the second adjective in befranklin's sentence I was thinking about...

Life / Polish maid very flirtatious? [36]

Tell her you are gay and your marriage is only one of convenience..

Life / Top 5 things I like about Poland [55]


I agree about the trends, ie Poland becoming more "processed/industrialised" and Britain waking up in the past 15/20 years to more fresh produce and more variety in terms of food, in line with continental habits, as shown by the increasing number of markets in the UK. For example, North End Road market in London, which used to be quite scruffy and dinghy when I was in London has now been become nice and plentiful. So maybe the lines (trends) have crossed since I left Poland!

Life / Top 5 things I like about Poland [55]


Come on Jon. I lived 8 years in the UK and 5 in Poland and there is no comparison.. I am not saying you cannot get quality ingredients/food in the UK but you have to pay quite a lot for it. But the real difference is that in the Uk the majority a people eat processed/industrialised food on a daily basis, and I am sure this explains at least in part the high obesity prevalence in Britain. In Poland , at least while I was there (until 2011), it was very difficult to find "microwable Tv dinners" and most household bought fresh produce and did the cooking themselves. And the "standard" fresh produce you bought in Poland (eg tomatoes) were much tastier than what you buy in supermarkets either in UK or in France. But maybe things have changed

Life / Top 5 things I like about Poland [55]


Why? Unless mistaken, steak tartare (less then blue!) is allowed in the UK..

Life / Top 5 things I like about Poland [55]

i don't think it is typical American, if anything I would have said its is more typical southern European (Italy, France, Greece.;). And that is also increasingly the direction many are moving towards for at least 2 reasons :

- when you cook them less, all the vitamines/minerals in veggies do not get washed away
- it allows you to get the real taste of the produce.

Cooking less meat and fish is also a tendency I noted over Europe, even in the UK. 30 years ago, asking for your steak bloody/blue in Britain would get you an "are you sure?" from the waiter, now they don't bat an eyelid!

Life / Polish people are the most ignorant people in the world! [331]


- Yes My fellow Americans!
Sometimes I think my fellow countrymen/women the French could compete for this title!

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]


Another derogatory comment!

News / Degenerate "rainbow" eyesore to disappear from Saviour Square (Plac Zbawiciela) in Warsaw [297]

But Polonius, pardon me for asking, is Nie Zalezna a reliable source?

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


Depends whom you ask. Edith Cresson, ex Prime Minister of France, famously once said that " a quarter of British men are gay"! Mind you, she also compared the Japanese to "yellow ants striving to take over the world". I reassure you, she wasn't Prime Minister for very long!

Law / Tunisian man got married with a Polish girl. How to get a temporary residence in Poland? [29]


yes, but the French governments have made it a specialty to ignore EU rules and implement laws for political reasons which they know are contrary to EU and will ultimately be rejected (I am sure they can afford good lawyers who warn them beforehand). They take the political benefit immediately and when the law is finally overturned several years later by the EU, they are no longer in power so they don't care. The latest example is a law passed regarding taxation of non residents by French tax office which has just been overturned by the EU court in Luxemburg ; but who cares, it is the previous government who passed the law, non residents do not vote and do not demonstrate in the streets of Paris and now the current government will have to reimburse hundreds of millions of euros.

Life / Top 5 things I like about Poland [55]

Agreed, Polish diet is usually not very healthy plus quite monotonous. But there are some dishes which are unique to Poland (or at least difficult to find in Western Europe ) and delicious, eg zurek or makowiec.

News / Poland loses bid to built Jaguars and Land Rovers [23]

The E-type was the real stuff. Alas, no longer made!

News / Poland loses bid to built Jaguars and Land Rovers [23]


Only partially. Britain was indeed at the vanguard of the industrial revolution, but other nations like the US (invention of light bulb by Edison) , France (internal combustion engine, photography, parachute,bicycle ), Italy (battery) played a major role.. Even the phrase 'industrial revolution' was coined not by an Englishman but by a Frenchman.. It is true that, unlike the Frogs, the Brits are more doers than thinkers, with the former also more knowledgeable about "revolutions" than the latter :)

News / Poland loses bid to built Jaguars and Land Rovers [23]


A little conceited aren't we?

History / Age of Enlightenment in Poland? [80]


As far as I am aware, Britain does not have a proper "codified" written constitution (ie one that would start with article 1 and finish with article xx). It is rather the combination of acts of parliaments, judgments etc.. which together "acts" as a constitution. Or are you thinking of something else?

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


In fact, not polish is right, Sweden, like other Scandinavian countries, is a highly feminine country but probably not in the way he means.

Feminity (and masculinity) are one of 6 characteristics in Hofstede's framework for cross-cultural analysis. Hofstede developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to examine the results of a world-wide survey of employee values by IBM between 1967 and 1973. The theory was one of the first that could be quantified, and could be used to explain observed differences between cultures.The other 5 dimensions are : individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance (strength of social hierarchy), long-term orientation, indulgence versus self-restraint.

Masculine cultures' are task oriented and feminine culture more person oriented. Masculine cultures ' values are competitiveness, assertiveness, materialism, ambition and power, whereas feminine cultures place more value on relationships and quality of life. In masculine cultures, the differences between gender roles are more dramatic and less fluid than in feminine cultures where men and women have the same values emphasizing modesty and caring.

On Hofstede's ranking for masculinity/femininity (scale from 1 -very feminine - to 100 -very masculine), Sweden scores 5, versus 43 for France, 62 for USA, 64 for Poland or 66 for the UK!

History / Age of Enlightenment in Poland? [80]


Indeed; let's not forget that Poland was the second country in the world to get a written constitution (after the US and before France), that it was one of the most "democratic" countries on the planet where kings were "elected" and not "de droit divin" (OK not elected by everyone but by the "nobility", which unlike in other European countries represented a sizeable chunk of the Polish population). In fact, one could even argue that one of the causes of the disappearance of the Polish state from the European map for a couple of centuries was precisely that Poland was "too" democratic given the slavic character of its inhabitants and the difficulty to reach compromises and agree on a few priorities.

History / Age of Enlightenment in Poland? [80]

Hundreds of German popes????

History / What was better in Poland under communism? [67]


In your dreams!

News / Poland loses bid to built Jaguars and Land Rovers [23]


Quite the opposite in this case. Since they are selling their cars in the Eurozone, choosing a country where costs are also in euros minimizes exposure to FX risk

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]


And?? One just has the travel a little around the world to see how much free space there still is on the planet. This ongoing joke about "overpopulation" started a few centuries ago with Malthus and his likes, making alarmist predictions which in the end prove wrong..

History / Poland PRL era shops in pictures [17]

Similar process in Poland in PRL times.. I remember buying shoes or a coat and going through the same number of queues.

Still exists in a toned down version in Italy, where, when at a bar, you often have first to queue to pay and then hand over your receipt to get your expresso!

Law / Long Stay Proof of Income with an application to support myself in Poland [6]


There is a risk so you better check and have a look at the double treaty between US and Poland (should be available online). The normal rule is that when resident in Poland you are taxed on worldwide income and assets, although there are many exceptions.

Food / SURVEY OF THE POLISH CONSUMERS' CONSUMPTION HABITS OF CAFÉS [28]


Indeed, and no coincidence when one knows that those territories used to be German and that Germany belongs to the "coffee" consuming side