Life / Polish-Canadian wanting to move to Poland - trying to start a new life, make friends, combat depression etc. [10]

I would highly recommend networking with some fellow poles and visit first. You don't want to jump right into such a big decision especially if you don't have the funds or prospects for work just yet. Be prepared to make a fraction of what Canadian jobs pay even with a bachelor's but then again many things are cheaper. I can give you the names of a few corporations that pay decent by polish standards in my city but never really looked outside of it and even then it was more out of curiosity.

Also private practice medicine in poland (outside of zus of course) is great from my experience in the sense that its cheap and the medicine is holistic. Not sure about psychiatric care but general practice and dental is great from my experience. Maybe they can help you get off the strong ssris and maois or find some more appropriate meds with less side effects.

I have my ups and downs too. Such is life. You find something that you enjoy and move on with your day to day responsibilities. For me it could be kayaking, travelling, riding the hog, going on a date, sparring at the gym, drinking at the clubs whatever. Find a few hobbies and people who are interested in them. Its a great way to meet people, network, make friends, meet a significant other, etc.

Love / I am in love with a Polish man but he is trouble [15]

He's either

A) a criminal

B) pretending to be a criminal to play the bad boy card

C) could have some very strange perversions he is embarrassed of

D) a young emo/goth dude. Does he wear all black and have a brooding disposition? (He's not evil, he's just read too much Bram stoker and listened to too much Cannibal Corpse)

Personally if a girl told me straight up I'm crazy, I'm evil, I'm a $lut, etc it would def put me on guard. Then again the crazies tend to be the best in bed.

Maybe ask him where he works or what he does for a living? Maybe ask him what kind of girls or fantasies he's into? That could help narrow down his 'evil' side or why he believes he's such... Maybe he's just a drug dealer or something. In that case its a personal preference on how you view such activities.

Either way is be very careful... Its like the story of the old woman who brought a frozen snake into her house and was surprised when the snake bit her... The guys telling you he's evil - that's a big warning sign. Its one thing to say on a date things like I'm shy, I'm from a poor family, I'm unemployed, I'm horny, hell I've had a girl tell me straight up she's diagnosed bipolar before. But evil??

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

When I've visited Poland I've found poles are generally accepting of them but some poles kind of view them as 'the help.' Its mainly though because they tend to have lower income type jobs that immigrants have when they first arrive in a country just like poles who settled abroad . I've met very kind ukranians and they speak better polish than me after being there under a year lol

Love / Advice needed... Canadian guy to meet a Polish woman in Poland [15]

Ya def don't go to Poland without a degree. IT is a hot paying good career option atm in Poland. Even people who simply know how to program code provide security etc are in great demand too even if they don't have a 4 6 8 year degree. However youd need to know locals to squeeze yourself into a job like that. Its way better working for foreign corps though esp American British Scandinavian German etc. Not sure about Canadian but there is a lot of American ones.

Love / Advice needed... Canadian guy to meet a Polish woman in Poland [15]

@delphiandomine

How could you call him and polish men general cavemen? Many polish women are with foreigners of all colors and countries but nonetheless polish women generally marry polish men. Only a small portion of marriages in Poland are interracial - the vast majority are not. There are many polish women though with American guys, canadian, british, german, even with Indian guys as well as men from former French African colonies. Quite frankly I'm happy that Poland is now more on the world stage and guys from all over love polish girls because they're (in general of course) not only beautiful but well educated smart and family oriented. Nonetheless though the majority of marriages in Poland are between two poles... Just as in almost any other country - koreans marry koreans, Mexicans marry Mexicans etc. Idk why you'd classify roughly half the polish population as cavemen that's very rude. Just try to lay off the insults please so we can get some more new people around here

Love / Advice needed... Canadian guy to meet a Polish woman in Poland [15]

Lol polish women aren't gold diggers

Bwahahahah omg I'm almost crying..

But ya there is good and bad but still there's a lot of man eaters in pl. Ukranian even more. Russia idk I like Russian and cZech girls more than polish personally. If the girls from a good family though regardless of her nationality has an education perhaps speaks good English go for it. Id stillrecommend tho going for a polish girl living in Canada us or uk n if you guys have a serious relationship u can consider travelling there or even establish a vacation apartment house whatever

Law / Importing cars into Poland [8]

Thanks.. Aww that's too bad because I'm into old school American cars and some Mercedes coupes.. Especially the ss novas and chevelles 442 cutlass 560sel etc. Guess ill have to send over some cheap Japanese or Korean car if its going to mean saving a lot of money on the taxes and fees.

USA, Canada / If you moved from US to Poland, could you please share your experience? [16]

[moved from]
@Polonius3

I plan to move to Poland too. Its not even just the ideological differences but the taxes inflation high CPI along with stagnant wages that drive me insane. Its difficult for an educated young male to purchase a young home or get a good paying job even with a bachelors. One of my best friend is a lawyer and he lives with 3 other guys in the city and they have to argue over whoever is going to cover tonight's pizza or the next round. Even those who work really hard in good jobs appear not to be moving forward but rather living just to pay bills and not putting any significant capital aside.

20 30 plus years ago one could become an electrician welder or whatever and support a family. Now single breadinner households are becoming more and more rare. In one way its good because it empowers women but on the other hand bad because now an extra person in the house has to work to afford the same things for the family that a single breadwinner could previously attain for the household. Even middle class trappings like a 2 story home and an annual vacation are like luxury goods now.

Some 50 years ago my grandma lived in the us and she made $7.50 an hour. That may sound like peanuts but she paid $40 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment in a middle class neighborhood.

Now a family who has a household income of 70k in NYC, San Fran, Chicago, etc can't afford to buy a home in a decent area let alone send just 1 kid to the local private college unless he or she receives a scholarship. Hell its hard to live on 100k in those cities.

Things have been going down the tubes since around 2007 and its not getting any better. Yes the government says that we only have a 5% unemployment or whatever yet when you go on bls.gov and search for the graph that shows 16 to 65 year olds not participating in the labor force along with the reasons for not participating you'll see that tens of millions of adults (I believe 80 million) simply aren't participating in the labor force and the largest group is those who aren't working simply don't want a job. Other reasons included schooling, early retirement, taking care of family, poor health, etc but by far the largest group were those who aren't working simply because they don't want to.

Quite frankly I don't blame them. Why would I flip burgers for $8 an hour if I could sit at home and have the government pay for everything. It comes out to the same as making roughly $15 an hour - or twice as much as a person would make at a McDonald's.

Well, someone has to support all this people... According to some statisticians 1 in 5 Americans are on food stamps. If they counted other forms of government aid - medicaid, welfare, rent assistance, tanf, etc I'm sure that number would be higher.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

It was a theoretical number - 2k 5k 7k whatever.. Plus numbers can always be negotiated.

Second, macron along other with leaders from germany, belgium, etc threatened many different things all related to economics - issuing a per migrant fine, cutting off eu funds, economically sanction Poland We are discussing theoretical ramifications. What actually happens is anyone's guess. They've also thrown around many different inconsistent unclear punishments but all of them are economic.

As a pole, born and raised, I'm well aware that poland would rather pay than accept migrants from the middle east or Africa - I wrote that in my last post. Its up to poles and the polish people to decide what happens in our country and more than likely well chose some financial burden over bringing in people from a totally different culture, religion, and language. We can tighten our belts if need be to protect the homeland. I'm not denying that.

Yes the eu commissars do know about the war in ukraine but they care more about sanctioning Russia rather than the migrants that came out of this crisis. Politicians undoubtedly watch tv and read the news much like anyone else. The migrant crisis from ukraine and even the war itself was rather under reported. The whole focus was and continues to be the war in Syria and Iraq and the refugee crisis from Africa and middle east. They simply didn't care all that much about it - like you said - and I think its simply because it wasn't on the top of their agenda. The leaders in the eu tend to be ignorant (or simply don't care) on many things pertaining to the east whether its our culture, our history, our desire to remain a homogenous catholic country, etc. However, szydlo could've taken the opportunity as a world leader to put some more focus on the Ukrainian conflict as well as all migrants coming from it and explain how much Poland has helped refugees already.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

I'm not saying that she isn't smart. If she was stupid she would have never made it to the post of prime minister. However, the rhetoric she used when addressing parliament is not going to sit well with her counterparts in western Europe. For one, an ardent supporter of migration quotas can be upset by szydlos language and use his or her power and influence to sway his colleageus, especially those with similar views, to act against Poland and szydlo. Thus she will have to look towards the visegard for allies, which is fine, while deterring how to come up with billions of dollars that can suddenly vanish from polish coffers, which isn't fine.

Is taking in 2,000 migrants from Muslim and African countries worth losing billions of dollars in eu funds worth it? I don't know.. That's for the polish voters and their elected officials to decide. However, I predict that they would rather not have migrants than keep the tap flowing. Many Poles complain that they personally haven't benefited from eu funds but nonetheless this money definitely helped build up a modern road and rail system.

Hence I think szydlo could've been more diplomatic in her language and point out that the Ukrainian migrant crisis is overlooked and under reported. She can explain and have her staff write a report explaining how Poland took in ukranians, chechens, a few Georgians, as well as a few Iraqis (most of whom left for Germany) and issued them work permits and list any other ways that Poland or even ngos and charities or even the church helped these groups. She can equate Poland with german policies and point out that despite having a far smaller population and far smaller economy, they opened the door to a million foreigners. Then she can turn the tables by gently implying that these countries didn't help the Ukrainians but Poland did and that itd be wrong to not consider certain Ukrainians as refugees when they too are fleeing war and poverty. Not all Ukrainians are fleeing war - only a small percent are just like the migrants that came to Germany. Its said that less than a quarter are from Syria. (Why there are able bodied men running away to Europe instead of fighting for their country is beyond me but whatever) She can say that's fine - Germany and the west chose to help those from Africa and the middle east, while Poland made the deicion to help those from ukraine, chechnya, georgia, etc.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

Ukranians came to Poland asking for work and a new country to live in, not the other way around. Besides, id think most Ukrainians and poles in Poland are on the same page as far as migration from distant cultures and religions is concerned.

That's one thing though that szydlo is doing wrong. Instead of making a speech on how Europe is falling apart due to migrants, how Poland won't be blackmailed, how Poland will rather be sanctioned than take migrants, etc she's just begging the eu to impose financial penalties or at the very least cut off eu funds. This language doesn't appeal to her more liberal counterparts in the eu and they make seek to punish Poland just because of her language.

If she was smart she would instead explain how Poland has taken in a million refugees/migrants despite having a far smaller population and economy than Germany. No one could say 'no you didnt take in any migrants/refugees' because the 1 mil work per.it she can then counter by calling those people racist for not considering Ukrainians as migrants or refugees when they too are escaping a protracted war and fleeing poverty - just like Syrians and Iraqis. To further illustrate her point she can state that Poland did allow in a large number of Chechens also - far more than the 2k or whatever the eu is demanding.

News / Poland directly threatened by ISIS. Do Islamists planning terrorist attacks in Poland? [390]

There was a story about Isis camps in Mexico with operatives trying to get into the us.. Turns out it was b.s. and in reality the sinaloa cartel publicly stated they will murder any Isis terrorists that are discovered in Mexico. They didn't want the coyote dollars. Smart on their part...

I don't deny that Bosnia has its share of issues with terrorism namely al Qaeda and foreign mujahideen. Hell even Osama bin Laden had a Bosnian passport... Not to mention the hundreds of millions the Saudis funneled to Islamic charities and mosques.. However Bosnian terrorists threatening Poland? Unlikely... Maybe Serbia due to ethnic tensions.. That's why you guys need a josip broz tito ii lol.

I'm sure there's some crazy country bumpkins outside urban areas just like everywhere. Rather recently the federal bih police conducted a huge raid on a village suspected of terrorist activities. In fact there are some villages in Bosnia where they simply prefer not to have outsiders. I don't think that's so weird. Hell one of my neighbors gets the cops called on him regularly because apparently the WASPs don't like black men running through the neighborhood.

The question is whether Bosnia will continue its anti terror activities, if only to appear they're really taking an interest to appease media (their budget is also rather limited), or if they'll just take the lazy approach and say well much wealthier countries like France England Belgium Germany etc have problems with terrorists so who are they to say what poor lil Bosnia should do.

Also id like to tell you that one of my best friends is Bosnian. He came to the us with his family in the early 90s. One of the most generous fun loving friends I've ever had. Unfortunately he passed away last year.

News / Poland directly threatened by ISIS. Do Islamists planning terrorist attacks in Poland? [390]

Polish police will root them out.. Also from the perspective of Isis an attack on Poland would be very difficult to pull off and the propaganda value would be next to none. They'll focus on countries with more clout like England and France where they already have some sympathisers.

Isis is on its knees. They're pretty much finished in Iraq and will be finished soon enough in syria. The problem with that is though many of these jihadis will return to their home countries.

Funny how even Isis is too extreme for groups like al nusra and al Qaeda which are gradually being touted as 'the good guys'

Also Isis is gradually shifting towards insirping lone wolf attacks rather than recruitment for jihad and syria.

If you follow dabiq (may be illegal to read in your country) you'll see how their message has changed since they've been on the ropes.

Work / Warsaw Poland - stock market investment? [8]

Yea it depends on the brokerage firm. Some won't even take you on a client if you don't have a certain net worth or invest a certain amount. When I worked as a broker our minimum was $5k but most people held between $25k to $100k although we had a few that were 500k to 1 mil. There's a 10% commission half going to brokers half to the house. About half my clients were wealthy farmers and ranchers. Some of these guys had a 7 or even 8 figure net worth yet no internet connection.

This was my first 'real' job and the way I tried to distinguish myself from the more experienced brokers is through customer service. I was happy to get anyone though and ill never forget when one of my clients put in a huge buy order for silver and I made a $40k commission check. The whole reason why I became a broker is because I thought it was the best paying job for me at the time without a bachelors and I needed money to pay the remainder of my tuition. I basically made a year tuition with what was my largest order there.

Right now bitcoin is at a new high. I plan to sell within the next hour its starting to get into bubble territory again. Sell, wait for correction, buy, and repeat... Easiest $3k profit on an $11k investment in two weeks I've ever made.

Work / Warsaw Poland - stock market investment? [8]

Yeah thats what i was thinking.. Perhaps establishing a hft firm in Poland or even buy some software and a super fast connection to a flat or office right by the gwp. I haven't been able to find a whole lot of info on high frequency trading in Poland so I'm wondering how widespread it is and how much volume it accounts for. I3n the us estimates range from 97-99% of an average trading days is all hft firms.

Yes the gold and silver I have is bullion specifically krugerrands (south africa). I don't really have much left though a couple grand worth that ill probably keep well into my old age and give some to my kids or nephews and neices.

Also I haven't heard of any citizenship requirements to buy and sell securities on any exchange if its your own money. But if you want to work as a trader or broker in Poland id imagine you have to get a work permit/visa and be licensed.

Speaking of which... How did polish society take the whole amber gold scandal? It wasn't all that much money in the grand scheme of things but I'm sure that it undermined the confidence of some individuals that perhaps aren't too familiar with the workings of a market and entrusted savings to a broker.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

Poland still isn't a country where everyone is treated fair under law.. However its gotten far better though. Now its more related to business and property disputes rather than violent crime. Many poles including myself still feel there is a bit of corruption and bribery in Poland. As one poster said before 'kombinowac' is a favorite past time of poles.

As far as Ukrainians go, I wonder if the Ukrainians will continue to come to Poland and remain there now that they have visa free travel. Id say yes because the culture is similar and many Ukrainians feel very much at home in Poland. However the permits the government issued are temporary so they could be asked to leave in the future. Personally I think the Ukrainians are a net benefit to Poland and its economy. Plus its a good bargaining chip with the eu since Poland can say it took in a million plus Ukrainian migrants/refugees.

Work / Warsaw Poland - stock market investment? [8]

@Wulkan

Thanks for the correct nomenclature. Rather long proper name..

@Ziemowit
Thanks for all this info. Wow that's a heck of an roi. Bit risky with leverage but good to hear it turned out okay. I do plan to educate myself more on the companies listed in the exchange as I plan to move to Poland in the relatively near future. I currently have investments in real estate, stericycle (short at the moment, I use to work for this company and received a 10% discount but could only purchase 2x a year on a specified date which usually got leaked out driving up the price), walmart, bank of america (bought in November 2012 and has nearly tripled but I'm still holding), a small cap mutual fund, bitcoin (I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on ethereum too) and a small amount of physical gold and silver. Most of these are long term holds with the exception of bitcoin but I still tend to check up on them a few times a day during hours. As far as bitcoin I have a chart running on my phone all the time. Its on another rally again I wonder if it'll break $3k.

I would like to buy some shares once I move to Poland and get more familiar with the business and corporate environment there. Yes I do expect the polish market and its indices to be more volatile than its us counterparts but that's not always a bad thing. With only 300 some companies on the exchange it wouldn't be too hard to get familiar. I did read some brief history on the gwp and apparently the day it opened there were only 5 firms listed with about 2k USD turnover. Crazy how things changed since then.

Also when did this bubble burst? Was it around 2007 or the years following? In hindsight as a whole Poland took the recession quite well although I bet the traders and brokers were rather anxious during that time.

Also is the volume dominated by HFT like in US?

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [565]

Why couldn't the crazy van driver in uk be more like the boys in saudi : /

youtu.be/OjqC474bRbA]

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

@Crow

Now that's what I like to see! Wish we had more Slavic soldiers training together

Life / Are Polish Women very promiscuous towards foreigners and refugees? [197]

Yea I don't think the government event kept statistics on hiv/aids during the commie years. Much of the hiv that was spread though was due to drug use namely kompot. A dealer would walk around with a big syringe and sell doses out of that large syringe. Oftentimes people shared the liquid which would have some blood in it or share a needle.

Also polish girls may find foreigners unique and exotic and all but will typically settle down with their own kind. They may sleep with a foreigner for the experience just as men do with foreign women. I don't think that's unique to poland though but rather the world at large. People are generally intrigued by things and people that are different.

During communism and even the early 90s there were hardly any Africans or other foreigners in poland. There were some students from the young pioneers club from other commie/socialist countries or allies of such countries. In general though poland was even more homogenous than it is now and even now its well over 90% polish.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

Any incriminating info michnik has on kaczynski or any other polish politician has already been published.. Much during the election season.

Also Kaczynski is supposedly rather un familiar with technology and doesn't use a computer.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

@Ironside

While some things in wyborxza aren t that bad and some of their reporting is pretty fairly balanced, the Adam michnik character is another story... He is a anti polish council of foreign relations social Marxist one world zionist piece of crap. People like him are why the rest of the world continue to think of poland as the armpit of civilized Europe.

Pis has been criticized for making media less fair and unbalanced. If they were the big boogeyman they would've appropriated wynorcza and made michnik a persona non grata for life. Anyway that's what id do if I were Kaczynski. Get some incriminating info or pictures of him or even trump up some charges on his organization and walah. Its still way more humane than what russia would've done in this case. Michnik would've been given a cup of polonium 210 black tea of a few slugs in the back if Kaczynski acted like Putin.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

I wish i had enough liquid capital during the Ukrainian fire sale... Ukranian government was selling state industrial assets for pennies on the dollar to raise money for the way. I.e. a $100 mil steel refinery being sold for $3 mil with say $1 upfront rest on credit...

You can bet those factories have been totally scrapped with all the more expensive equipment being shipped abroad and the rest sold for scrap

News / Poland Targeted by Israel-Based Financial Fraud [18]

In the us such matters are settled by the ftc (federal trade commission) sec (securities exchange commission) and fbi if there's suspected federal crimes like mail or wire fraud. In poland its probably the same organisations just with different polish names.

Financial crime in Israel flourishes because of a sort of don't ask don't tell environment. Also, the israeli government knows who's doing what.. Believe me these guys have tech that's a decade ahead of the U.S. I use to work for an Israeli IoT company. Israel is at the forefront of r and r research and has some of the most intelligent programers, coders, network admins, etc.

Also, if itd a few hundred thousand ornanfew million Israel will most likely go after them. Now if there's say an extra $129 mil in an Israeli bank, well then instead of sending investigators they may send a political operative to solicit a campaign donation.. Or even may just want a bribe to look the other way.

Each country is unique but the bank secrecy laws and easy of doing business in Israel is pretty similar to places like switzerland, Cayman islands, panama, Hong kong, macau, wherever. Only difference is the sugar baby/sugar daddy relationship that Israel has with the us. Also israels clout reaches far and wide for such a small country due to the many jews who obviously feel a high sense of patriotism towards Israel.

Also from my experience tax reports are done quarterly in the us when the company has to release their EBIT and updated balance sheets to shareholders. My dad does his corporate taxes like once a year but he's a rather small operation and isn't publicly traded. Nonetheless a monthly tax report would seem a bit redundant but depending on the company, their product or service, it could be vital and important. Im going just based on my experience which is of coursendifferent from others. Sales reports are typically done monthly or even quarterly or as late as semi annual/annual depending on the type of product and its relevant sales cycle. A case of coke that will most likely be sold to a gas station has a far shorter sales cycle than software which will assist a company on implementing the next generation of some technology or a new MRI machine.

Classifieds / Drive me around Warsaw June 1? [13]

That's actually a pretty standard international price for like an 8 hour tour even cheap when compared to some other places. So yeah 270 / 8 = 33.75 hourly roughly the same cost of a chaffeuer service here. You're paying for someone who is bi or tri lingual and has an intimate knowledge of warsaw and not shy speaking. Plus they most likely are part of a company rather than just a private individual hence driving up the cost.

What surprised me when I booked my flight for my upcoming trip is that business class for 2 ppl round trip cost $14k. And yet those were the last two seats available! The seats I got a literally like 3 rows behind business yet still cost 3.2k round trip for 2 ppl. When I booked a flight in February it was almost half the cost.

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [565]

What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?

Nothing! You already told her twice!

No but seriously that's not right... That's always really bugged me when id see a man hit, even if its a slap, a woman. Then the jury gasps when the prosecutor explains how the woman murdered her husband or cut off his junk..

You'd think you wouldn't have to explain to some men that you can't hit your wife, you can't have sex with a teenager, you can't force your wife to stay in the house but no...

I remember watching this one documentary (I believe vice) on Afghanistan where a rather high ranking us officer explained to his counterpart in Afghanistan that he can't have citizens - especially chai boys - at forward operating bases or police stations. The afghani officer responded 'well what do you expect them to fxxk? Their grandmothers!?'

Perhaps it would be a good idea to place incoming migrants and refugees into a sort of education camp for a short period of time so that they can learn the social norms, customs, and also provide them with info on how to obtain language lessons, hospital services, whatever. This is what south Korea does to north Koreans once they arrive in the country. No one there complains that its cruel or anything and the people who go through it appreciate it because without it they'd feel even more lost in a new society. However some people equate such education centers as concentration camps even though clearly its meant only to help newcomers assimilate.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [560]

@Harry

Hahaha that's awesome. Like they say never judge a book by its cover. Nothing better than when someone gets their a$$ kicked when they deserved it. The worst is that the same pu$$ies will call the cops on you crying like a lil baby.

Ya I get that same routine when I travel around the us to places where there aren't many foreigners. The funny part is that its usually like a cashier or guy mopping a floor who says something like 'this is America - speak english' or 'go back to your country' ill usually ask them, in perfect non accented english, if they're wordly enough to know a language besides english and offer them a brief history lesson on how unless you're a native american, you too are the descendant of European immigrants.

Work / Work Culture and Expenses - 11000 PLN gross in Poznan [27]

Depends on local laws and contract. In the US if you flat out quit you most likely won't be compensated for paid days off nor will you be eligible for things like unemployment. However if you are fired (or if your on good relations with your boss and ask him to fire you but still give you a good reference) you will be able to receive your paid days off and you can get unemployment benefits. It depends on the company's policies, your employment contract, and local laws. I don't know what the situation is in poland or outside the us so id recommend doing your own research as it pertains to your company and contract as it varies from company to company person to person. A Yahoo CEO can get fired after a very short time on the job and receive millions in severance where another person will receive nothing or at best 2 weeks.