News / British man prosecuted for raping teenage girls in Kraków [47]


I doubt it: the checking process for working with vulnerable kids in Polish state institutions (e.g. orphanages) are pretty rigorous, but it is waived entirely for priests.

News / British man prosecuted for raping teenage girls in Kraków [47]


No checking system will ever be perfect, people will slip through, mistakes will be made, only a person's past can be checked, not their future. However, any system is better than none at all, doing anything is better than doing nothing: Poland has no checking system at all and is doing nothing at all to introduce one. This will have entirely predictable results.


Of course not. And if a Polish man's sperm is found inside a rape victim who has been very nearly beaten to death, why that is simply proof of an anti-Polish plot!

Life / Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you? [118]


Believe what you want: the reality is that women in Poland can take years off. As of 1 January 2012 maternity leave will be 20 weeks, plus holiday allowance earned for that time. However, it is simple to find a doctor who will sign a mother-to-be as unable to work from the third month of pregnancy onwards, meaning leave can easily be 11 months, plus the five weeks' holiday allowance earned in that time, which makes more than a year.


Whether you claimed maternity pay or not is up to you; however, if you had a full-time contract, you were entitled to it, at 100% of your average salary over the past year.

Genealogy / ORP Błyskawica Crew Records? [46]

@sushka

Your story is very similar to one I read recently in a Polish paper:
Gdansk In Your Pocket had the pleasure this week of meeting a man called Stefan Paliwoda, a British man of Polish descent, who had travelled to the Tri-city to visit amongst other things, the Polish WWII destroyer Błyskawica.

Alternatively, navy.mw.mil.pl

UK, Ireland / The truth about the purchasing of cigarettes in the UK [11]


Actually, there is a press release about the case which was put out by Hoverspeed. Hoverspeed want as many people as possible to cross the channel. So is their release likely to be unbiased?


Why shouldn't he open his bag immediately? He has nothing to hide: he isn't the one claiming that 10000 cigarettes are for his personal use.

News / British man prosecuted for raping teenage girls in Kraków [47]


The only thing which surprises me about this case is that it took so long for it to happen. It was always a 'when', not an 'if'.

And I absolutely guarantee you that unless Poland introduces background checks for people who work with children (or at the very least for people who work unsupervised with children), the second case will be a 'when', not an 'if'.

Travel / Why does everyone seem to hate LOT Polish Airlines? [380]


Actually, they have to pay a fine for every illegal immigrant like you which they bring to the USA, so it is their job to check your paperwork.

Travel / Why does everyone seem to hate LOT Polish Airlines? [380]


So LOT did exactly the right thing. That's superb to hear: I'll make sure to use LOT for my next trip, now I know they deny Polacks boarding if they can't be bothered to get to the gate on time. Marvellous news.

Life / Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you? [118]


Clearly you aren't Polish.

Life / Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you? [118]


I know a guy who has a female employee he hasn't even seen for five years (two kids plus six months' holiday plus a bit of sick leave), but she's still an employee.

Life / Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you? [118]


And let's not even go into the women who carefully time pregnancy, maternity leave, illness, holiday (of course they have full holiday allowance for all the time that they were off) and then getting pregnant again.

UK, Ireland / The truth about the purchasing of cigarettes in the UK [11]


If you seriously believe this rubbish, why are you limiting yourself to making a few buttons smuggling 50 cartons of fags? Go speak to some Turkish smack dealers in Amsterdam about buying 10kg from them and then selling it on in UK. After all, UKBA can not look in your bags or touch you and it is illegal for them to even try.

UK, Ireland / The truth about the purchasing of cigarettes in the UK [11]


Smart move: give them all the suspicion that they need that you have something to hide and give them due cause to check what you've got up your ringpiece. They claim that you were acting in a suspicious way and that your actions when challenged raised further suspicion and that is all they need to stick fingers up your arse. But whatever floats your boat.

UK, Ireland / Cigarettes in Poland (cost, brands). The situation in the UK? [57]

Yes, the Customs and Excise Management Act of 1979 no longer applies to anybody at all, which is why people who have 20kg of smack in their bags are now allowed to say "Fcck you copper! I ain't opening sht." when asked to open their bags.

Genealogy / Andrzej Lelek to find Zofia Jaworska / Danuta Szpalerska - my husband's relatives. [7]


Ways to guarantee one gets help, number 281.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]


On the other hand, you can find yourself flying through a press release in five minutes and getting paid for half an hour's work. Swings and roundabouts.

UK, Ireland / Cigarettes in Poland (cost, brands). The situation in the UK? [57]


Hmm, a sixty-a-day man are you?

UK, Ireland / Cigarettes in Poland (cost, brands). The situation in the UK? [57]

Not sure to be honest. I'm pretty sure that I've seen Drum but Golden Virgina and Old Holbourne are not things that I can remember seeing.

Perhaps one of our Wroclaw members can help with regard to what is available in Wroclaw?

UK, Ireland / Cigarettes in Poland (cost, brands). The situation in the UK? [57]


Sorry but all of those are very unusual in Poland. Would Marlboro be acceptable? They are everywhere.

USA, Canada / Does anyone know about Americans or Canadians deported from Poland on Visa irregularities? [14]

Don't worry, dear boy, the border guard in Poland have guns and a reputation for not taking any shiit from any illegal immigrant, particularly not when the information they received about an individual illegal immigrant also contains very specific warning that the man in question is extremely violent, especially towards women.

Work / Internships in Polish mass media [23]

Sorry not to be able to help more.

Why not try getting into media where you are and then looking for a post out here?

USA, Canada / Does anyone know about Americans or Canadians deported from Poland on Visa irregularities? [14]

Possibly a little bit of the last one. But it is more that a lot of Americans either think that visa requirements do not apply to them or believe that they can continue to make trips across the border every 90 days or something like that. And more and more of them are finding out the hard way that neither of those beliefs are correct.

USA, Canada / Does anyone know about Americans or Canadians deported from Poland on Visa irregularities? [14]


He's the one who applied for a karta pobytu and then found out his school hadn't secured the promise of a work permit which he needed.


Yes, dear boy, of course you do. Just as you now own a wonderfully successful Indian restaurant in Warsaw.

Work / Internships in Polish mass media [23]


There is no English language print media in Poland that would give you a job or an internship.

USA, Canada / Does anyone know about Americans or Canadians deported from Poland on Visa irregularities? [14]

Yes: I know several Americans who have been deported for overstaying and I know more who have either had trouble on exit or were denied re-entry into Poland. Those deported were caught in a variety of ways: one was reported by his ex-girlfriend; one was arrested for being drunk and when they checked his passport, they saw he'd been in Poland for more than 90 days; one had his residency request denied because his school hadn't secured the promise of a work permit for him and as he'd been in Poland for more than 90 days by then, he was deported; one was (we think) reported by the boss of the school he'd just left without giving notice (because they were three weeks late with his pay); one was stopped for jaywalking. I know three Americans who have got stuck in Ukraine (tried to come back to Poland and were denied entry at the border), one who wasn't allowed on his flight from London and one who got stuck in Kalingrad.

Life / Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you? [118]


Lucky then that the students I came to teach had already had many years of studying English.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]

That is by no means undercutting everybody: I know one guy who charges as little as 7zl per 1,800 characters.

The thing is, companies are starting to realise that, as with language lessons, with proofreading you get what you pay for. With that in mind they are willing to pay four times more than they can pay.

Life / Vandalism on cars in Poland [64]


Clearly you do not live in Warsaw.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]

Well, if it is a 100 page translation of a biochemistry report which was done by a half-arsed translator who had no understanding at all of the concepts, it is going to take far longer and so you want more money for it. If the client expects you to do 16-hour days in order to hit their deadline, that will also require more money.

As for billing, it is always always always per 1,600 character page (including spaces) or stretch that to 1,800.

You probably want at least 20zl per page (standard rate would be about four pages per hour).

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]

Depends on how long the text is, what the text is, when the deadline is, who the client is, etc etc etc.