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Posts by JonnyM  

Joined: 9 Mar 2011 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 15 Mar 2012
Threads: 11
Posts: 2,611 		From: Warszawa!
Speaks Polish?: tak

Displayed posts: 2622 / page 9 of 88
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JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]

f you are legal offspring of a noble family nobody can take the title away from you -

And nobody can confirm it, since titles no longer exist in Poland and there is no authority to rule on their validity or otherwise. Unlike the UK, Holland, Sweden etc where such things are officially regulated.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
News / Topless sunbathers acquitted in Szczecin, Poland [128]

Poland was the only country in the world to have nude beaches

Really? Why not read some of your posts. Which are suggesting topless bathing is illegal here and that Poland is somehow backward. One might even wonder what your interest is in Poland. Except trolling of course.

Now run along and play on the railway track. There's a train coming in a few minutes.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
News / Topless sunbathers acquitted in Szczecin, Poland [128]

You made yourself sound really stupid. It shows how little you know about America.

Erm, you do realise we're talking about Poland, don't you?

you fiercely defend Poland

Makes a change from accusations of 'polonophobia'!

Now stop trolling and run along.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
Work / Minimum basic salary in Poland [96]

It was in the media about 7 or 8 years ago. If I remember the owners were a Dutch company. I don't really remember any more.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
News / Topless sunbathers acquitted in Szczecin, Poland [128]

Well i wish i could find some articles about Polish women sunbathing topless ...but sadly Polish girls don't go topless for fear of harassment and fines.

Go to any one of the naturist beaches in Poland and you can stare at plenty.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
Work / Minimum basic salary in Poland [96]

Indeed. I'm almost certain that if you opened up a factory in many of these villages, they wouldn't take the jobs anyway - they wouldn't want to work to someone else's standards and ways.

Some villagers up near Szczecin burnt down a veg processing plant on a former PGR. Why? Because the owners banned them for health and safety reasons from drinking vodka near the machinery. They'd modernised the workers' flats, increased salaries but the Neds said they didn't care about that.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
Work / Minimum basic salary in Poland [96]

Try to make potatoes to grow.

Easy enough - any of us can do it.

's also dragged down by many peasants in villages who live off small parcels of land

Pretty well. The equivalent of Chavs in the UK in many cases.People who for decades steadfastly refused jobs in nearby towns because they'd have to get up on time and stay sober.

Not bad. A couple both earning average wage can easily afford decent accommodation in a Polish city by those figures.

A lot of people live on that and manage holidays, cars etc.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]

a kingship would end if the King renounced his thrown and left??

The last king was deposed around 200 years ago. Poland did have all sorts of princes (whose titles derive from various states) plus other minor aristocracy. Several did make 'unsuitable' marriages over the years and many emigrated. A surname would really help here.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
News / Topless sunbathers acquitted in Szczecin, Poland [128]

display one's genitals

Shows how much more liberal Poland is, doesn't it? Since there are beaches where one can legally wander around completely nude.

For one, we have a new liberal president (Barack Obama) who supports legalizing gay marriage and marijuana.

Not that new and a shame so many of the rest of the politicians have sworn to block his every move.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
News / Topless sunbathers acquitted in Szczecin, Poland [128]

n Poland (where topless sunbathing is still illegal)

There are several nude beaches in Poland, where full frontal nudity has always been legal. There is one at Gdansk, one on the Wisla close to Warsaw and as far as I know there are several others. They are clearly marked on maps and have been there for years.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

It is extreme trolling really. Poland has always had a dichotomy between the rural and small-town 'religious conservative' Ciemnogrod and the urban, more enlightened, centuries old liberal tradition. It isn't possible to reduce the situation by saying it's backward. There has always been so much more here.

Much of the OP's premise is just plain nonsense.
JonnyM   
19 Feb 2012
History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]

I wonder if the OP has confused the story about the Russian and the Thai. That would be about 5 generations ago. There's probably plenty on the internet about it. I believe there's a Polish connection.
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

.Why don't you all just **** off of Poland,once and for all?

Perhaps when you stop sponging off the Polish state. After all, somebody has to pay tax here, don't they...
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
History / Lech Kaczynski - was he a good leader? [88]

They took the 20% away from Lepper and Giertych - yes. But they lost the centrist voters that won them the 2005 election - and with it, the Government.

Basically they were voted out at the earliest possible opportunity. And also lost the subsequent election.
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

That's still not a compliment

But is a fact. And Poland's economy is growing.
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

So you're denying that Poland is the largest net recipient of EU funding, much of which comes from The Netherlands? A boycott of all things Dutch would be near impossible in Poland.

As I remember, you even offered to pay your share back. Did you ever get around to honouring that?
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

I am in Poland.

Back for a holiday?

Don't forget to avoid motorways, trains, trams, and any public sector building. If you're boycotting things paid for by Holland, that is.
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Compare Warsaw to a grim ex-mining town/village in the UK and it's far better off, for instance. Jonny will tell you more than me, but in general - there are parts of Poland that are far better off than parts of the UK.

Very much so. A 3 bedroom house in some of those places costs less than a studio flat in a bad part of Warsaw.

Walbrzych is an ex mining town and probably my second least favourite Polish city.

Konin and Kutno are pretty high on my list.
JonnyM   
18 Feb 2012
News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

When I say "we",I mean "We the Poles".

Says you in America.

OK boycott. Start by disconnecting from the net as the EU paid for the setup and don't leave town as the EU is paying for your main roads

Exactly.

There are calls for boycott of Dutch goods such as:

Half of those companies aren't Dutch anyway.

Starting boycotts is also inviting boycotts. It would be a shame if other Europeans started boycotting Polish products due to certain political parties' opposition to us buying property here.
JonnyM   
17 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Most of the stuff the farmers sell on the street markets in Warsaw comes from the wholesale veg market, more often than not imported from Holland :-(

Cheaper than the supermarkets, but then again they don't pay tax or overheads.
JonnyM   
17 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

do try to avoid unnecessary / unrealistic levels of debt.

Same here. If I had a quid every time someone criticised me for not getting a mortgage on a second flat when prices were rising I'd be rich. And if I'd taken that advice I'd probably have had negative equity now and a big headache.

the mindset of why somebody would be asset rich and cash poor.

That seems to be a situation that people end up in - old ladies in huge houses in the UK that they can't afford to heat. There are plenty of people like that in Poland and likely to be more given the rural 1990s building boom with all those vast 3 storey houses.

What do you think drives them to maintain that kind of position?

I don't think the guy in question has much of a clue about anything. He shouldn't have been able to borrow enough to buy the second flat and would be unlikely to be able to pay off the credit (which by the way is in Swiss Francs) by selling it. He's in a bit of a Catch 22 situation. Perhaps he's thinking about his old age
JonnyM   
17 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

From your experience, are they carrying mortgages on these properties or are they owned outright through inheritance?

Now that's something you'd have to ask someone, isn't it.

Off the top of my head, three acquaintances come to mind. One has a very low mortgage on one flat, the other he inherited, I've never asked him about the dzialka and he earns about 3k. Another person has one flat which I think is inherited, a very posh buy-to-let with a huge mortgage secured as far as I know partly on the other and an income of about 1.5k. He can hardly afford to eat properly. The third inherited one flat, bought the other for peanuts in the early 90s without a mortgage and is now effectively unemployed living of the rent from one of them.

These stories are not unusual in Warsaw.
JonnyM   
17 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Can you expand on this?

Average wage, 2 flats and a dzialka.

the coop is sooooooooooooo expensive these days...you would need a bloody divvy if u shopped there.

It's dearer than it used to be. Do they still put reduced stuff out late in the day? I know people in England who only go shopping at teatime to get the bargains. That happens sometimes in PL but not as often.
JonnyM   
17 Feb 2012
Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

A lot depends where you are in England and how you shop. It is possible to live OK on very little by shopping at traditional markets for fresh veg and meat (mostly a Northern thing), going to Aldi, Jack Fulton's etc (in the North mainly) as well as getting your divvy from the Co-op.