Why Do You Love Poland?

Not till the 80s anyway and even then it was minimal. They only started helping once it was convenient - after poles Czechs and the baltics already did the heavy lifting and ussr under gorby was on its last legs


It was mostly german companies and French to a lesser degree. Currently 2/3 of capital in polish banks is foreign owned. Omly about 1/3 of poland is in the hands of poles. That's why pis is now finally taking back control of sensitive sectors like media and finance and putting them back in polish hands. No more liberal german conglomerates talking sh1t about Poland and trying to guilt trip us about eu investments and that were not showing solidarity but not taking in migrants... fts keep that on german airwaves

Do you live in Poland Slawek? Were you here? There were no "Polish" competitors of note in the early 90s. The commies destroyed and misappropriated the lot.There was plenty of co-op tea (British) and toilet cleaner in communist supermarkets when I checked, and the only people stealing anything of note was government.

Nothing new today then on the last point.


Like SKOK you mean?
(PLease Mods - get some smileys in here! Dirk's ignorance of the facts knows no bounds)

You quoted chesnuts and I quoted one of yours.


Now I know you are talking porky pies or you were undercover yourself , they would have slammed you into the concrete before taking you in for questioning.

Don't forget I have family in Warsaw who also lived through those times.

No boyo. Don't do lies - not sharp enough.They went to grab my camera so it was me who manhandled one of them. Middle aged tossers against someone who boxed for Nottingham boys? Anyway, I was an outsider, so shouldn't really have got involved, but I was like Dirk at his age. Scared of nowt.

There was no EU law or British law to save you from your fate back then , boxer or not they would have popped a 9mm in the back of your head the buried you under the grave of some glorious party member, that's what they did back then , you are telling a porky pies or you were on their side.

Just asked the wife. They were local informers, party members, who took umbrage at my photographing steam trains. So no guns.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Polish cities seem more pleasant for living than Czech and Slovak ones. Have yet to see them, don't know if you can believe in Street view.

Polish cities and towns seem to have much more greenery, flower pots and tree-lined streets. I don't know, there is something that make cities without city trees too sterile, like a concrete jungle. Bratislava has just a few tree-lined streets and boulevards, same for Prague. For me Warsaw and Budapest > Prague and Bratislava.

To my ears Polish sounds better than Czech and Slovak, it's not harsh like them (the change of stress?). It is difficult though. Polish women dress trendier than Czech and have better facial feautures in general than Czech and Slovak ones. It's goid that there are more Poles than Czech/Slovaks in the world. Sure, I've met Polish jerks but even they are less annoying than CZ/SK/RU ones. To me Czechs, Slovaks and Russians are more agressive than Poles.

I've always been fond of Polish culture more than Czech and Warsaw seems more livable than Prague. Prague is like a historic Las Vegas. No trees on streets so it turns into an oven in summer and the streets are too narrow. The Pesa trams are better than the newest Skoda ones, you don't feel the bumps as much and they don't accelerate/stop too rapidly making you lose balance. Polish people fail to see the goid things they have! Yes Prague has better infrastructure and more historic buildings. But Warsaw seems more greenand pleasant to the eye. Gimme a modern town with lotsa trees over a sterile historic town that relies too much on old bricks and cobblestones (but can't bother with providing shade). It's rare for European capitals to be green, maybe Berlin, Amsterdam and especially Sofia are full of parks and tree-lined streets. In most others you have to see threes only in the parks.

@Rich Mazur, gotta go along with ya there.

@Amen, Dirk! English is typically the most underestimatedly difficult language there is. Oh, it looks sooooo, so "easy", compared say (on the surface) with Polish, German, Icelandic or Navajo, but between the correlative spelling/pronunciation dynamic...HELP!!! By contrast, at least from a purely phonetic perspective, Polish is a piece of cake:-)

AK had 16,000 men in Warsaw in August of 1944. Soviets - millions east of Wisla. The idea that Stalin would blink and change his plans to make Poland communist just because his army found some surviving Polish fighters was ridiculous. It looks even more ridiculous today now that we have the numbers.

Paris survived intact. Prague did, too. Warsaw didn't and neither the 200,000 Polish civilians because of AK and their crazy strategizing.

Look who's talking. First off that was under POs tenure and second a polish bank took it over.

Maybe we should talk about Amber Gold and PO figures involvement? Or how about all the properties and deals tbat pis is now figuring out? What about lustration which pis initiates, despite having a few of the old guard in it itself, and each time PO does everything to shut it down? What about Jaruxelkis family and SLD sitting at a dinner hosted by the Kremlin and taking money from them? Man I can go on and on... Pis has its issues like every party. Yet koderasts and PO losers cry when they bonuses of 10k to.100k which is nothing compared to all the cash they pocketed esp from eu projects. Now its pis turn to take some off the top from eu funded investments.

Again. If you dont like the situation and want to make your voice heard in a meaningful way, meaning not on PF, then freaking vote already. And even omce you do and your party or person loses thats the wish of polish citizens. That's how a democracy works. PRL is over as much as you dont like it and its skeletons which are now primarily in PO would be over too had they not consistently rejected lustration.

Well he is sure proud about his anti Polish posts here on PF, he even ignores warnings about his abuse, shame he cant be bothered to to make a difference at the ballot box, see another one of his chestnuts below.

You? Polonia can go suck an egg (I am on 4 warnings so can't say what I really feel about Polish scum).

Oh wait - I just did:)

Now, now friends! Let's keep a civil tone.

Look who's talking. First off that was under POs tenure and second a polish bank took it over.

Maybe we should talk about Amber Gold and PO figures involvement? Or how about all the properties and deals tbat pis is now figuring out? What about lustration which pis initiates, despite having a few of the old guard in it itself, and each time PO does everything to shut it down? What about Jaruxelkis family and SLD sitting at a dinner hosted by the Kremlin and taking money from them? Man I can go on and on... Pis has its issues like every party. Yet koderasts and PO losers cry when they bonuses of 10k to.100k which is nothing compared to all the cash they pocketed esp from eu projects. Now its pis turn to take some off the top from eu funded investments.

Again. If you dont like the situation and want to make your voice heard in a meaningful way, meaning not on PF, then freaking vote already. And even omce you do and your party or person loses thats the wish of polish citizens. That's how a democracy works. PRL is over as much as you dont like it and its skeletons which are now primarily in PO would be over too had they not consistently rejected lustration.

@Rich Mazur

That's because poles are fighters. I know this is a novel concept for people who wont stand up to invaders and occupiers that are murdering, raping and pillaging their country. You say you love your family so much, would you fight if you were living in poland back and some nazis or soviets started raping them, killing them and stealing all your stuff? I sure as hell would.and I'm pretty sure you would too, even though its easy to criticize them from your couch in 2018

The French are pussies and haven't won any significant wars on their own since Napoleon. If poles had all the troops and hardware that france did in ww2 we probably wouldn't of been overrun or at least could have drawn out the war so long tbat the nazis would leave on their own.

But everybody knows that SKOK was a PIS ploy - that's what brought them down. Just like in communism; finance playing politics. Or rather, politicians playing with finance.

What about the general with the sunglasses? Do keep up.I have consistently, since I came on this board, mirrored my Polish families' side of things that he should have answered for his crimes. Admittedly Harry and Delph saw things differently, but knowing what we know. old Wojciech was a wrong 'un.

Walesa on the other hand is only guilty of being not very bright and bombastic. But Poles elected him, and you keep cheering for the ballot box, so why be selective.

He is no friend of Poland thats for sure.

How many more times....
People (bus drivers, cleaners, dishwashers, street buskers, even ex university employees - who admittedly were never qualified to work there in the first place) who have lived in this country for 30 years and paid taxes have more say in the way in which Poland is governed (in terms of their rights to an opinion and lobbying their representatives) than anyone of Dirk's age who has lived their whole life in America.

IMO. And that's all it is. Irrespective of whether they can be arsed to be citizens or not. Citizens don't pay more taxes than non-citizens. .or vice-versa.

I am maybe overly happy to snipe at a member of Polonia who loves his mother country so much. So much that I am sure that he cannot wait to come here and don his Doc Martens and pay taxes and join in the fun.

I also will be returning to my Alma Mater in Blighty in due course, either alive or otherwise, but will not be leaving until I am ready and have served my 65 years - if I have Dirk's kind permission?

Walesa is an ego maniac, who among others promised every adult person in Poland 100 000 000 in old Polish zlotys to secure his presidency in 1992 - even now this amount is a rather biggish sum for an average family in Poland (100 000 000 PLZ is more than 20 000 PLN in current prices) and he is a major traitor of the people

the only major SKOK scandal was with SKOK Wolomin that was run by the aquintances of Bronisław Komorowski from former WSI (military secret services) - if there were any involvment of PiS in the SKOK Wołomin which happened long before PO lost power - PO would thouroughly investigate it including setting up a partliamentary commission like the one that PiS set up to investigate the Amber Gold affair

Sorry Doug Polish law states no Citizenship no vote, I have paid lots of foreign taxes , but never once have I expected the right to tell them how to run their country or derided and abused the people who have put the bread in my mouth.

So get back to the bar, but whatever you do don't show them your timeline here.

Yes, I suppose we had the same controversy over Churchill. That's the way of great figures in history. I was talking with the wife tonight after the barney with Dolno. She was saying how selective my memory was. What communism was really like. She said that if you buckled down, didn't create a fuss, did as you were instructed, then in a small place like Dabowa Gornicza there was nothing to worry about.

She forgot to mention the simmering undercurrent, the curfews, the beatings, the internments (she suffered this herself, and if she could identify her captor today, I would nail him to a tree), - so I reminded her, and she said - oh yes - people didn't do anything - because after all that - they were scared.

Walesa wasn't scared, and neither were his colleagues. They had balls (of iron).
You should all be ashamed.

Then get your citizenship and vote already!! Jesus dude you've been there since the 90s and your still not fluent in polish and dont have citizenship? Whatsamattawithyou???

Anyway, of course you can lobby all you want. However as im sure you know money talks, bullsh1t walks.. plus its going to be hard for you to lobby effectively using only English


Earnings and taxes have nothing to do with voting power. We've long abandoned the standard that only land owning men could vote. Honestly I wish that people had to pay a certain amount of taxes and/or own land in order to vote. Itd eliminate all the benefits leeches votes who don't contribute to the economy. But alas that is not a determinant of voting eligibility in any modern democracy - citizenship is.


Gucci loafers for the summer... And fyi i pay business and property taxes too not that it matters one bit. A person can be a homeless bum begging in the rynek or a millionaire they get one vote - as long as theyre a citizen.

That's how it works Doug. So if you care soooo much about politics and constantly talk about po and commies good, pis and nationalists evil.. freaking make your voice heard, learn polish fluently and vote! Youve been there over 30 years for God sakes.... to me that's no sifferent than the migrants, even poles, who go to the UK or US live there for decades and refuse to assimilate, learn the language but constantly b1tch about a certain political party.

Not drunk in 10 months (it was a metaphor). And actually my voice does matter, because I have right of stay, and if I make a complaint to city hall, then they have to log it. That's all I need as a local inhabitant. After a certain period of time, Poles will come to their senses and normal service will be resumed, have no fear.

Well in your book we should all be ashamed to be Polish, funny thing is that you are not Polish and very proud never to be so, tick tock waiting until you are 65 so that your pension will allow you to return to Britain.

Doug, if you speak you to them in English or broken heavily accented polish theyre not going to give a rats ass what you say... just like the lady didnt give a rats when you tried to return something back to the store after citing EU law....

Now if you were nice to her and asked her kindly instead of citing some eu law she probably would've let you exchange it or give you store credit.

What happens in practice is often far different than the.'official standards and procedures. I would think you'd already know that living in poland since the 90s...


This is exactly what i mean Doug. You constantly put down polish people and poland - not just a party you dont like or nationalists or whatever. But as the keyboard warrior that you are, youd never say in the tri cities that 'Poles will come to their senses.

Oh so we are all mentally ill now, and you alone are the voice of sanity

Wałęsa wasn't scared because he was brought to the shipyard by SB on a motorboat specifically to dismantle the strike which he almost managed to accomplish

Dougpol is just furious he cannot effectively change anything in Poland by means of his own powers (the powers he believes he has) that's why he comes here and moans

Mindless patriots die first. Once they are dead they are useless. What was the point in fighting tanks on horses?

Every fight should be evaluated for the risk and reward. Killing Heydrich was best example of stupid kind of bravery. The gain: nothing. The loss: 340 in Lidice, plus Lidice. Brilliant.

What are you even talking about? You don't even know what is what? Who has been feeding you HS?


Was it in the 90'? So you were Ok. In the 80' they could lock you up and threaten with consequences to you and your Polish family unless you do something for them. In 70' just call dudes who would kick the living sh.. out of you and put you in the slammer as a spy. In 60' they would just hang you as a spy unless HMG would pay for your sorry ass.

so stop mocking your own family members for being scared - you ignorant fool.
Making pictures in a commie country that is spying. geez

Walesa wasn't scared because he was an informer. There were people with balls - Walentynowicz, Gwiazda, Maciarewicz....Walesa is an a.hole.

he must be an avid consumer of TVN Fakty - Dougpol you know living off TVN Fakty news is similar to living in a parallel universe


you actually believe Poles fought tanks on horses? oh well let me see - German propaganda and a commie filmmaker have swayed the world opinion it seems

But Soviet propaganda caused him the greatest harm.

Well up until he left Poland he swallowed all the Soviet propaganda that was intended to disconnect him from his nation and family, they succeeded in that but failed to turn him into a hero of the soviet empire because he moved to America and not Russia to further his own ambitions.

Sadly he is left with the all the old stereotypes, the Soviet propaganda machine certainly left it's mark on him.

For more information on the mechanisms and lengths they went to brainwash the youth of Poland read below.

The Secret Police as a Means of Social Engineering
in the Polish People's Republic: The University
Enrolment Process in 1947-1956

e-revistas.uc3m.es/index.php/CIAN/article/viewFile/2904/1610

Once you know what caused the damage, you can get help to fix it.