Love / Should I bring gifts? - help with a Polish wedding [46]

Or just leave the receipt in the box and make sure that the store allows returns.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


I actually very much like those parts of Poland and spend pretty much all of my holidays there. Nice places and great people. You should go check it out.


That could well be the reason. Polonia do tend to have a lot of misguided (i.e. totally wrong) beliefs about Poland.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

Comparing the 'Polish'-Americans here with the Poles in Warsaw who also hold US citizenship might also lead one to that assumption.

UK, Ireland / EEA family permit from Poland to UK - time and process [60]


You need to contact the British embassy in Vilnius.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Where did I say that people who live in the USA are stupid and those who live in Poland are even slightly smarter?

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


You might have something there. Let's face it, PiS voters are more likely to be both less intelligent and more selfish than average and people who think that they retain the right to say how the Polish taxpayer's money is spent even though they themselves refuse to contribute in the slightest are also more likely to be both less intelligent and more selfish than average.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

That certainly is not what I see in Warsaw.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


While all of that is obviously true, the point made by Des Esseintes does hold: we are not talking about the 'Polish'-Americans here, we are talking about Polonia proper.

Given that that is the case, perhaps my suggestion that the best and the brightest of Polonia moved back to Poland in the 1990s explains the current political views in Polonia?

Love / Should I bring gifts? - help with a Polish wedding [46]

Tacky or not (I personally see the logic of giving money at a wedding), it is what is done in Poland.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


If US Polonia was in step with Poles, 3 out of 10 member of Polonia would have voted PiS. But 8 out of 10 actually voted PiS, nearly three times as many as would have voted PiS if Polonia reflected how Poland voted as a whole.

So why is it that Polonia was so overwhelming in its support of a party that couldn't even get the votes of one in three Poles? Is it that the best and brightest of Polonia returned to Poland (as I suggest) or that only the poorer and less educated left Poland in the first place (as peterweg believes) or is there something else which makes the voting Polonia so different (in terms of political views) to Poles?

UK, Ireland / Getting the most from my hard earned money (transfer money from England to Poland) [41]

Why not open a GBP account here and get paid into that?

As for rates, you're getting a fairly reasonable one there but a good kantor will only take 3 points (0.03zl). You could take your cash out in GBP and then change it with the kantor before putting it back into a PLN account and using that account for your debit card and cash point card.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Do think that you could possibly go a whole day without insulting posters here?


Here we are discussing the ones who do vote in Polish elections. Perhaps instead of simply insulting people here, you would care to address the issue raised by peterweg " Why do they have such radical views so out of step with the Polish population who will be affected by the vote."? Do you agree with his theory that "Maybe its demographics, the poorer, less educated who emigrated?" or do you agree with my theory that the richer and better educated returned to Poland or do you have another explanation? Or do you just want to throw insults around again today?

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


I think that it is actually the other way round. The better educated and more intelligent members of Polonia moved back to Poland after the fall of communism. There were fortunes to be made and more than a few former members of Polonia made those fortunes. To give just one example, the majority of the oldest and most successful McDonalds franchises in Poland are now or once were owned by returned emigres: when McDonalds was first looking for franchisees for Poland it advertised in Chicago newspapers in Polish. What is left as Polonia tend to be the poorer and less educated Poles who left Poland.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

Do you really think that the average member of Polonia could name Poland's biggest trading partner?!

Law / Polish Citizenship, do I have to travel to Warszawa (Warsaw) to get it? [13]


It's got very little to do with being a Polish citizen, unfortunately. I know of a kid here who has never left Poland and was born to parents who have never left Poland but is not eligible for Polish citizenship. But I also know of a kid who does have Polish citizenship despite never even having been to Poland and being born to parents who have never been to Poland and to grandparents who have never been to Poland. Poland clearly needs to get a grip on its laws regarding citizenship.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


People who really love their homeland don't abandon it when the going gets tough there.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


If they replaced the Catholic bit with nutty born-again Christianity, they'd go down a storm in th bible belt.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Makes sense: PiS is popular there.

Did you vote? Why or why not?

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


There you go again with your insults.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Do you really think that the rules here don't apply to you. Three times you have been warned or edited by mods in the last three and a half hours.


No, you need to get your Polish citizenship first.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


To be fair, it is a two-way thing. Most of the Poles I know think of Polonia as little more than ignorant peasants who don't even know what a Polish grandmother is called. The only time they have anything other than contemptuous laughter for Polonia is when I remind them that those people can, at the moment, vote in elections.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


No, but moving to the USA and refusing to do the slightest thing to help Poland most certainly is an action.


Probably about 50% of the number who have failed to ever do anything to help Poland (seeing as women never had to do compulsory military service in Poland).

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


I have repeatedly stated that those persons who are too selfish to meet their responsibilities as citizens should not enjoy full rights as citizens. People who by their actions do nothing for Poland should not be able to vote in Poland; be they Polonia, criminals or whatever.

Do you think you could perhaps manage to reply without insulting anybody? Thanks in advance.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Almost all Poles who know that Polonia vote have the same opinion.

But I suppose that one would have to visit Poland to know that, which is why so few of Polonia have realised it.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


You trying for the world record for superb examples of commenting on the issue and not the people in a single thread?


How about you try to address the issue instead of insulting people?

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


No I think that citizens who fail to respect their responsibilities as citizens should not have full rights. That is why I have also spoken out against prisoners having the vote (and they overwhelmingly rejected PiS).

In other news, in late August I interviewed the director of a school in a small town called Wola Uhruska who was telling me how much they wanted a native speaker teacher. Charming place, I'm sure you'd like it. To find it on the map, just look at Chelm then move towards the border and Wola Uhruska is right on the border with Ukraine.

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


Superb news! I didn't see that Robert had made it in too.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Another superb example of of commenting on the issue and not the people!


Almost all of Polonia could easily afford to pay the same taxes as the average Pole does: but they choose not to. However, tens of thousands of them think that they can still say how the Polish taxpayer's money is spent. That is hugely selfish.


If their career is that good, they can easily pay for somebody to do the work they won't do themselves. I'm more than happy to direct you to schools who will gladly accept the $600 a month you can pay for somebody to do the job here you refuse to do.


Which is why in a few years we won't be able to have a discussion about how Polonia voted.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Again, a superb example of of commenting on the issue and not the people!


As was pretty much noted yesterday, your post was edited by a moderator because it was too on-topic and terms such as "jackasses", "scumbag" and "ponces" are entirely on topic.


Perhaps you could point out the posts in which we lie? Instead of just throwing out a baseless accusation.
Let me give you an example: in this post you claim that "I have engaged in no personal abuse." and in this post I point out the abuse that you have posted in this thread.

Now, any chance you can explain why people who are so selfish that they refuse to pay even a grosze to the Polish Treasury, even though they could easily afford to pay what the average Polish taxpayer pays, should have any say in how the money which the Polish taxpayer pays is spent?


I'll throw in half of the price of that ticket (paid now into an escrow account and released to him when he completes the school year).

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


Superb example of commenting on the issue and not the people!


So you mean that you have never done a single thing to help Poland. Not really a surprise that.

You do know that the vast majority of Polish people do not want anybody who calls their grandmother busia to have any say in how Poland is run, don't you?