Feeling ashamed of my Polish heritage.

Hello everyone!

I found a forum with Polish people on it which is good. There are almost no Polish people in my school so I think this website will be good :) I am new to this site and I hope I am following the rules as of now. I also hope this post is in the right section (culture and society).

Now guys. Please don't flame me. But as of now I am not too proud of being Polish and its bothering me and I don't like it. I know I may sound stupid, but what's bothering me is that Poland is being run by a bunch of idiots. The economy is not great and all my relatives who live in Poland always ***** and complain on how bad it is over there (low salary, high costs for food etc). They always tell me how the roads and buildings are poor and how they wanna leave because its so bad over there. Its strange because All of my friends, whether they are Italian, Romanian, Czech, Greek, Swedish, French, they are all proud of their nationality but I'm not and I hate it. It really frustrates me when you see Italy, Greece, France and the UK having all those beautiful and historical sites and people visiting them but with Poland its like nobody gives a **** because its not as flashy as those other Western European countries. I'm feeling pretty down and maybe you guys can enlighten me. If you guys want to call me an idiot or a moron, thats fine. I understand if you guys are upset or angered by this.

Where you do you live now.

I would like to commend you for not being such a patriotic jaggoff that you came in here cheering "Poland is the best country in the UNIVERSE".

My solution for you is simple. Stop worrying about pointless ego stroking things and live. The more "proud" someone is the less I generally like them. Humble people are best. Live well...be good to other good people...and you will be much more content than worrying about national pride.

National pride should not be a concern for you. You are a unique individual as such you should worry about yourself rather than what's happening to the nation of your heritage.

I don't think you're gonna get a $hitload of sympathy on a Polish Forum.

I don't think most will take it well. Its not like I hate Poland. There are things about Poland I love, but at the moment I am not too proud. I'm from Canada by the way.

where in Canada? I llive in Scarborough.

Then you have some common sense. Only idiots are that blindly patriotic. The massive Polish inferiority complex makes them annoyingly "proud".

so you feel ashamed cos you Polish, cos people have a fun of our nation and strange no Romanians or Czechs have similar problems? Is that you are trying to say?

I live in Scarborough as well :)

1147 Midland ave close to eglinton.

Your family members before you suffered and struggled to live and to get you to the place you are now. Don't you dare dishonor them with this "poor me" bullsh*t. Those people didn't exhaust themselves so you could live your life staring at your shoes. I'm glad most of my ancestors originated from Poland. They were tough, kind, and hard working people whom I have great respect for and vicariously love Poland because it produced them. You are lucky to have Polish ancestry.

That is all.

You must have forgotten how Polish people love to complain.
I used to take it to heart until I traveled to Poland last time and saw that my cousins and old schoolmates dress better than me, their homes are better furnished than mine, they take more vacation, eat healthier and get more exercise.

So now, when they start complaining, I throw some of my numbers right back at them - cost of living, health care, insurance... and then we can move on to another subject.

Oh give me a break. What have you done that honors them so much Timbo? The current generation would be an embarrassment to the WWII era Poles. Also...they didn't do what they did so YOU could do anything. They did it to survive. They are not different than anyone else who survived horrors...the nationality doesn't matter.

Why do you let your egos rule you so much? The more someone talks about how PROUD they are to be some nationality the more useless they are to that society as a rule.

Let's say you are an above average Canadian, and can actually locate Poland on the map, now, read a few books on its history and stop complaining. Be a good Canadian.


You are trolling?

Hey - you live in Canada, dude. What are we, in Poland, supposed to say?
Can you imagine how much it bothers us? The political system in Poland
and the media who are far from being unbiased and under strong influence from
various political parties make any change impossible. Basically, since 1989
we are getting all the same retards in power over and over again. They just
change their parties' names - you can't imagine what it means to me as
a Pole to not have my representation in Polish parliament (I voted UPR most
of the times and recently PR). I see this big parliament building in Warsaw,
the capital of my country, and I know that there is nobody there to represent
me. You can't imagine what it means to see the faces of the same scoundrels
in Polish politics for over 20 years now and knowing that there's nothing you
can do about it.

You say it's bothering you? Well, fella, it's bothering me helluva lot more.


Every single word of that is true. Poland is a horrid place to live for an average Joe.
Why do you think over 3 million mostly young people left this country since 2004?
Out of all my friends from my home town maybe 30-40% are still in Poland.
In small towns it feels like there was a bloody war - so many people are gone.


This country ain't no good but it's our country and one day, Seb, one day the thin red
line of people's patience will be crossed and when that happens I wouldn't like to be one
of those sons of bit**es who run this country. The grapes of wrath are growing heavy
for the vintage...



Do you really disagree with what he said, mate?

There is no indication that he knows anything about Poland. He is ashamed of something but doesn't make it clear what it is. The stupid politicians is just a distraction.

What is it Sebastian you are ashamed of? Be more specific.

Sebastian

Poland has great things, which justify the visit of many tourists every year. I'm not Pole but migrated from a comfortable Western-European country recently for professional purposes and I can assure you that I love living in Poland, and I love Poland which I discovered 3 years ago. Every country has its ups and downs. Be proud of the specificities of your native country but don't spit on the neighbour, I think that's the rule of a sane self-appreciation.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Most Poles, like Scots, like to complain about things whether they are wrong or not. The fact is that Tusk is a quiet PM and hasn't made too many blunders in his political career. It could be much worse. He is aware of the issues that need treatment, he just needs to put the apparatus in place a bit quicker. Politics isn't the sole determinant of heritage, far from it. Scotland has it better, we have ample heritage and aren't governed too badly at all.

Try to focus on the plusses of which there are many. It sounds like you are prepared to be realistic and that's a great start!

I don't mean to call you ignorant, but are you aware of the qualifications of some of Poland's politicians?

I didn't know qualifications gave you basic common sense

Well you have to admit though, it's a pretty good indicator of somebody's competance.

Not really, my miss has 3 uni degrees (2 masters) speaks 5 languages and not one bit of common sense.

yes there is some truth in that however, if you had a choice between a John Prescott type and somebody who actually has some sort of qualification, you would go for that person every time.

I do not know if there is another country in Europe which made bigger progress then Poland in the last 20 years.
Even western observators tart to notice it. Energy of people decides about country's potential not politicians. That is why I am not worry about Poland's future (-:

Have a look what they write about Poland in the Economist. It is not a Polish magazine I guess (-:

economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15394158

if a romanian can be proud of their heritage than you should be 100 times more proud. Poland had a empire a army that never gave up and i can go on and onThink about what Poland and Poles have done for the world. You cant change who you are so be proud of what you have.

You are obviously about 16 and have no experience of real life.

@Sebastian, I'm not sure that your DNA should be foundation of your mental integrity.
Anyway, first reaction to your post is: "oh, give us a break, be a perfect Canadian or citizen of whatever country you are living in, why should we care?". But second reaction is, that it is rather upon you as an individual to study culture and heritage of a nation you want/need to identify with. It is rather you who must be trustworthy of this heritage not the other way around. If the only thing you need from Polish culture is some meaningless leverage in some quarrels at school brakes then don't bother. If you need positive things look for it. You seem to be a schoolboy, so use your unfulfilled desire in positive way, and when you are doing some presentations for example in literature use polish poets, there is dozens world class of them, like Miłosz, Szymborska, etc. In math class, you can study for example Banach works. You will find plenty extraordinary Poles, if you only try.

As for economy, you are right Poland is poorer than western countries... but in the same time, your relatives seems to be a bunch of grumblers, sorry about that.

As for tourist attractions, well it seems that you don't know much about Poland...
To sum it up, it seems your problem is lack of knowledge. Surely you can find plenty of disadvantages in Polish heritage and in life in general, but if you will be looking only for that part then your life will be full of sadness...

I’ am not sure what you associate with qualified people, but hard work, discipline, reliability and intelligence are usually prerequisites to become one in the first place. I could live ten lives over and these fundamentals would never change. You must be living in some parallel universe on a planet called Bare Minimum.

Let's talk about that after you have been near a university, eh kiddo?