Poland 2010 ( A bad year )

In Poland, 2010 has not been your average year. The presidential election this month that brought Bronislaw Komorowski of the Civil Platform Party to power took place in the shadow of catastrophic flooding, a plane crash that claimed the life of Komorowski's predecessor, and with the ghost of Frederic Chopin providing the soundtrack.

Did we ever have a bad year like this before? I mean after 1946...

I can't wait, finally, we have a Prime Minister and President on the same political page!

such a pessimistic view of things. I just returned from Poland, the weather was great, the new President has been elected in a democratic elections, which means that there will be less Kaczynski's influence in keeping the Poland divided. I don't see a reason to live in the past anymore. In my opinion Poland has been able to overcome a dangerous situation when there was a vacuum of power after the Smolensk crash. Lesson should be learnt from that.

I think that people should start to be responsible more for their own actions instead of blaming things on tragedies and the weather, since both cannot be avoided. It is important HOW the conflicts and tragedies are handled, NOT that they happen at all.

Indeed - in fact, the only bad thing about the whole situation is that Kaczynski hasn't changed at all - and now we're going to be "treated" to about 500 days worth of mental collapse on his part, leading to another loss in the Sejm elections.

he is finished, although he is not going to let the power go easily off his hands - it would be interesting to watch ;), but then again, there are more important things in Poland that Kaczynki and I don't see a reason why it should be all about him. I did quite a lot of driving on Poland and I thing that building more safe roads is more essential then what will happen with the duck.

So the flood and the crash ain't that important or what?

The flood wasn't anywhere near as bad as 1997 was. It could have been, but it wasn't a major disaster. Many of the people flooded owned property on flood plains, so they got what was coming.

The crash? Didn't really change anything. In fact, it proved that Poland could cope with the loss of a lot of their top officials, which is very reassuring.

The biggest disaster in post-war Poland.

Hardly. I'd call the systematic persecution of AK members worse, or the total economic collapse in 1980-1981 as much more of a disaster. The fact that post-war Poland lost many of the elite from pre-war is also a disaster. Or the 1997 floods were also catastrophic.

The plane crash, while significant in a symbolic way, didn't actually change anything - Poland is no worse because of it.

it was a tragedy that lives were lost. As for whether Poland's situation is worse because of it- time will tell. I just remember the speech of a newly elected German president in Warsaw when he was standing next to new president of Poland and that alone was a sing of new Polish - German relationship in making.

Too early to say. In 25 years we will know.

Emotionally maybe, but irrelevant in any practical way.

Ok tell me ONE country that lost 96 of its elite in 1 day? after 1946...

maybe elite is not as important as one might think. That would explain why Poles have just slowly moved on after the tragedy.

Hey, the year is not yet over. There are still 5 more months to come. Perhaps it will get better for the rest of the year.

>^..^<

M-G (yay!)

it already has. The weather has been great for tourism- at least at the sea side and everywhere else as well. The mud from the flood has dried out a month ago, there is a new president and all David wants is to whine- let him. Just returned from poland a couple of days ago and things are OK there, considering the situation.

Of course I have my peeves about the state of the Polish roads and their drivers, but that is nothing new.

Im not whining...

I just think this is the WORST year in Post-war Poland...

81 to 89 was worse..

I'm not talking about several years...

instead of summarizing the bad, you should focus on the good, and on the future... don't just sit there and cry how poor Poles are because of what happened... sh!t happens you know, but it can't stop us moving forward... so move on...

Well if you would look at my threads you would notice that they ain't about "Bad" or "poor" Poland...

I can assure you that in 50 years "2010" wont be a good year for Poland in the history books.

so change the title of this thread and climate of the 1st post...

For people, in their every-day-life, I'm sure each year 81-89 was worse than 2010.

From that perspective absolutely.

I wonder what percentage of Poles prefered communism?

funny enough, you can still hear that from some Poles...

Some very poor people say that. During communism everybody had a place to live and a job, with very few exceptions.

yep