Anyone know what's happening in Poland?

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r00tb33r
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02 Jun 2022, 3:39 am

Quote:

Anyone Know What's Happening In Poland?

This is an actual memory I have of Poland. Saw a man plowing plot of land with a horse as we were blasting down the Polish countryside, driving elsewhere in Europe. The year was 1999, at the turn of the millennium. Could've mistaken it for 1699.

magz
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02 Jun 2022, 3:41 am

^ I remember farm horses from my childhood, indeed! They were already rare, small tractors were more common, but horses still could be found back then.
Come now and see what has changed

This news is from 2018:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countr ... y-the-ftse
First of the former Soviet Bloc states to achieve a status of developed economy. Starting as one of the poorest in the group.
My life experience was changes, changes, changes. The only reality I know are changes and most of them for the better.

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cyberdad
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02 Jun 2022, 5:47 am

magz wrote:

When were the trips taking place?
Because from 1980 to 2022, there's 42 years, during which really a lot has happened in each of these states.
If your parents didn't compare each state year by year but rather visited this and then that and later those, their impressions would most strongly depend on when, not where.

My father was working for agriculture agencies connected to FAO and did a number of consultancy related trips to Eastern Europe following the fall of Communism in 1989 till when he retired in 2010. He and my mother spent a lot of time in what was East Germany.

cyberdad
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02 Jun 2022, 5:49 am

r00tb33r wrote:

Quote:

Anyone Know What's Happening In Poland?

This probably explains why the FAO were providing aid to Poland in the 1990s.

magz
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02 Jun 2022, 6:10 am

cyberdad wrote:

If he saw Poland several times between 1989 and 2010, then I'm sure he did notice the speed of changes.
As a FAO agent, he most likely visited the worst-off agricultural regions in countryside Pomerania. It was really bad there around the fall of communism and local communities collapsed even more during the transformation. Struggling up from that took a lot of time and effort.

The same processes took place in Ukraine, only with some 15 years' delay.

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cyberdad
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02 Jun 2022, 6:21 am

magz wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Yes I was not sure what his main consultancy work was but it had to do with productivity yields and soil science (hence my comment on the horse and plough churning up the topsoil).

He had many friends in the former East germany but unfortunately he lost touch since most of them have now died.

Yes he said all the countries in the eastern bloc have progressed quite fast, as I mentioned the Baltic states and Czech/Slovakia were the quickest. Other places like Croatia he said were a magnet for tourism and the culture of the people there is warm and open to foreigners.

I asked him just now over the phone and he said Hungary did well and so to Poland. I told him about your post and he agrees with you that Poland has made great strides in terms of development.

SpiralingCrow
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02 Jun 2022, 7:16 am

cyberdad wrote:

What I am trying to understand is why Poland does not try to be more like the Czech republic or Slovakia and focus on developing its industries and agriculture and tourism rather than focus on things like abortion, gays and minority rights. Why all this obsession in Hungary, Poland and Ukraine over right wing stuff?

Countries that go down this road too long collapse.

I live in Czech Republic. It is one of the least religious countries in Europe. That is why you don't see as much fuss over abortion and anti gay rhetoric. From what I have noticed, Czechs tend to stay within their own sphere. If it doesn't invovle them personally then they are less likely to get involved. It has been reported that the alt right here has received funding from Russia. The most recent protests were in regards to measures introduced due to pandemic. But numbers are relatively small and they are ineffective at sowing widespread discord.

magz
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02 Jun 2022, 7:50 am

I think, religion is one thing but Polish people are generally more activist, in all possible directions at once. Which makes us prone to polarization... and ready to function well in crises.
There was a BBC article trying to touch that quality some time ago.

Reports of alt right being funded from Russia sound familiar here - I mentioned it at the start of the topic. Our far right activists "suspiciously" keep making exceuses for Putin :chin: which makes them kicked out of mainstream right, to everyone's benefit (except for Russia, of course).

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cyberdad
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02 Jun 2022, 7:17 pm

SpiralingCrow wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

This is a valid reason for my question then. Countries that are highly individualistic and less religious tend to be more industrious (I am thinking the Scandanavians but also Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders) tend to be more developed.

Poland and Russia are strongly controlled by the catholic and Orthodox churches. This makes the populations psychologically easily primed to being controlled by manipulative governments. I would throw the US here as the far right christian conservatism is dominant in that country which has been causing so much internal strife for many years.

kraftiekortie
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02 Jun 2022, 9:18 pm

Poles are pretty industrious….

cyberdad
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02 Jun 2022, 11:08 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:

Poles are pretty industrious….

They are, but that's the point of my original question....why aren't they doing as well as their neighbors?
Spiralling Crow gave a good answer.

magz
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03 Jun 2022, 2:35 am

cyberdad wrote:

kraftiekortie wrote:

Poles are pretty industrious….

They are, but that's the point of my original question....why aren't they doing as well as their neighbors?
Spiralling Crow gave a good answer.

Why do you claim we're not doing as well as our neighbours? :scratch:

Any data supporting it?

I'm under an impression that you're not talking about real Poland but about your own prejudices about a country and people you've never seen.

Emotional cherry-picking videos are not a source of any understanding of what's going on in a different culture. If you want to know what's going on in Poland, look for actual data, try to see the contexts and listen to people who are here. If you want to keep pushing your prejudices despite all the information countering it, then your actions are simply offensive.

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Joe90
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03 Jun 2022, 4:28 am

I hope nothing's happening there - I'm planning of taking a vacation there this year.

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magz
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03 Jun 2022, 4:30 am

Joe90 wrote:

I hope nothing's happening there - I'm planning of taking a vacation there this year.

Welcome!

Can I ask in which part?

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Joe90
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03 Jun 2022, 5:31 am

magz wrote:

Joe90 wrote:

I hope nothing's happening there - I'm planning of taking a vacation there this year.

Welcome!

Can I ask in which part?

Auchtwitz (don't know how to spell it). Me and my boyfriend really want to see the concentration camps because he's really into history and I want to explore and educate myself. I really have to do it.

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kraftiekortie
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03 Jun 2022, 5:43 am

Auschwitz will teach you a lot.

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