Anyone know what's happening in Poland?

Post Reply New Topic

Nothing to do with the topic.

He ruled during the Cold War, along with all of the other Soviet era puppet rulers of the Warsaw Pact, and like them fell when the Cold War ended, and the Iron Curtain fell.

Were talking about modern post Soviet, and post Soviet Bloc, eastern Europe.

I admit that I am not up on current Rumanian politics much.

Romania doesn't make Czech news often. There was murmers of sending Škoda production there years ago but that's all I remember.

Does Poland make good beer?

What's your favorite kind?
Pils and lager beer is kind of staple here and they are quite good. There's also a trend for fancy beer from small breweries.
Personally, I'm a fan of Czech and Slovak beers, low on alcohol but not on flavor - but Polish ones are also generally good.

I'm quite partial to ales off the tap. In Melbourne we have lots of boutique micro-breweries and theres various speciality brews.

We get a lot of imported beers and my favourite are in this order
English
Belgian
Czech/Slovak

I am not a big fan of German, Japanese or Dutch beers (Heineken and Kirin are overrated). I imagine Polish breweries use similar brewing techniques to their neighbors in Czech republic and Slovakia? The Czechs make good quality brews.

Ales are not very common here.
The mainstream is Heineken-like.
IPAs are relatively popular. And wheat beer. And honey beer.
Czech and Slovak beer is rather imported than made locally - not really a problem considering the distances and EU shared markets - and they are about the same prices as local beers.

Ah, Czech beer. A huge source of pride in this country. Ask any Czech they will tell you they make the best beer in the world. If there is one thing that would cause mass revolt in this country it would be a threat to the beer supply. Also, I don't think Czech's would like their beer lumped in with Slovakia despite being one country in the past. Poland probably gets a good selection of Czech beer being so close, but I'm curious as to what Czech beers you get down under. I think US and Canada have Pilsner Urquell readily available. I know that Budvar is also available under name Czechvar.

In my house, the "default" beer is Žatecký Světlý Ležák - Czech-looking but actually Polish. Nothing fancy, just a good, refreshing beer readily available in a local store for a very reasonable price.

Funny that I moved to a beer country and don't drink beer. My boyfriend has a few favorites that he will rotate through depending on his taste at that time. But, Budvar would be the default. I don't drink much, but when I moved here I tried meade for the first time. There are two Slovak brands that are quite excellent that I go for on special occasions.

Pilsners and Budvars. There is a good stock in Melbourne. I mainly drink local Victorian ales on-tap when I go out to restaurants but if I buy, then my favourite is Killkenny which is an Irish ale. It comes in pressurised cans.

Magz, you will have to excuse all my questions. Here in Australia we get only one view of Poland as extremist authoritarian catholic. Religious extremism seems strong in your country.

Oh, man, Bąkiewicz!
He's a weirdo, pretty hated even by many conservatists.
He was very vocal in 2020, culminating with the Independence March when a private apartment was set on fire (in another video you posted - he was the head of that march). After that incident, he lost a lot of support. Now you practically don't hear about him.
I agree that the current govt is way too tolerant on him - but even with it, he's a pariah for mainstream society.

Yes I sometimes wonder why a news station like the Australian broadcasting commission would make such a one sided story about Poland.

Me too.
Maybe because e.g. volunteers defying the govt regulations to help migrants in Białowieża Forest don't broadcast their actions so getting to them to write about it would be much more effort?
And incident-free Pride Parades are boring because the whole Western world has them?
I think there was something in international media about mass protests against additional restrictions to abortions - that was also 2020. It was a hot year here.

Pure sensationalism. The news media isn't really about providing unbiastion news, they show what will get ratings and more viewers.

There are alarming things going on in Poland - but they are not about the tiny but noisy nationalist group shown in these videos.
They are about incompetent populists dismantling mechanisms of control over the government - media, judicary system - and doing exceptionally poor job with finances.
Some EU mechanisms are targetting the judicary "reform". The public TV has became a propaganda machine but attempts at closing private TVs has been met with both internal and international resistance and failed. There are scandals almost every day.
Well, I really hope PiS loses the next elections and whoever comes after them, starts to repair the system. I'm only worried for their electorate - people who buy into impossible promises of everything for free PiS is selling. They won't disappear with losing elections.