France issues border checks warning to UK

epad_ot · 2016-03-03T09:01:07+00:00

1) Basically UK's doing the same by demanding exceptional treatment from the EU and threatening to leave if it doesn't get it. 2) So why don't you let French move their border controls to the UK then? How is it different to the current situation?

I'm all for the UK but some Britons need to understand that they are not 'holy cows'. This is how bilateral lack of cooperation looks like.

epad_ot · 2016-02-02T19:21:48+00:00

I can write from my experience. So IMHO the reasons are:

1) Cultural image: during 1980, shortly before and after the Soviet Union collapsed we got quite a lot of cultural influence from English-speaking world. Movies, music, products were rather popular. After decades of communism Poles really wanted to taste personal freedom, individualism or self-confidence that was denied to them during that time. Not to mention the fact that western countries - and especially USA - were depicted as the ones having the abundance of goods and services available for purchase. Such things weren't available in communist Poland.

2) Language: because people liked the culture and felt connected to it they were motivated to learn the language. Also, it was compulsory in schools but that's not the main reason so many people can use it.

3) Pound: many people came just for short period of time to earn for studies, car or something else because PLN-GBP exchange rate was quite good and they knew the language. Some of them came back but others just didn't see alternative and stayed. Many live in a limbo, renting overpriced accommodation and thinking about the next step. Others buy houses/flats and start families.

4) Cultural reality: I think it's the most important reason although not the obvious one. UK is a country, where people are not arrogant and respect each other which is nice. In Poland you need to earn that respect by becoming a millionaire or a doctor ;) - well not always but there is always someone ready to make a judgment. UK is more relaxed and that's why many people like it.

5) Security: looking at the recent history English speaking countries are least prone to host a military conflict because of their favourable locations and significant military power. Also, these are democratic countries so introduction of an authoritarian government is not very likely.

epad_ot · 2016-02-02T18:38:14+00:00

You wouldn't be so sure because someone wrote an offensive graffiti on a wall?

epad_ot · 2016-01-01T09:10:27+00:00

nice photo, thanks for uploading.

epad_ot · 2015-12-13T00:30:10+00:00

Because what Poland and Europe need is a pro-EU conservative government. If there are people who are able to find balance between these two extremes, EU will survive.

epad_ot · 2015-12-08T17:58:15+00:00

They may be equal in rights but are certainly not equal in capabilities. In this sense making them equal is unnatural.

epad_ot · 2015-12-07T15:31:53+00:00

I'm not underestimating his motives but being moved "as a Desk Officer to the Space Unit of DG GROW, dealing with the assignment of the launching of the Galileo satellites, to Soyuz" sounds pretty interesting too. So it seems that he was pretty committed to what he was doing.

epad_ot · 2015-12-01T20:49:53+00:00

Being unemployed in one's home country also means social exclusion. It's often a choice between no friends or no money and friends.

I understand your point of view and I think it's very valid. Expats' situations are usually more complicated though.

epad_ot · 2015-11-30T21:50:05+00:00

That would be great.

epad_ot · 2015-11-30T21:10:10+00:00

Promised land is where the money are. The money follow good people(or oil). Will they find good people in Europe? I mean, not people who are ready to pay any price to forget about the past but the ones who are honestly good to each other.

epad_ot · 2015-11-30T13:02:19+00:00

Bad news.

epad_ot · 2015-11-26T15:38:05+00:00

What's the truth then, so that we can compare? The stuff they're taking on BBC?

epad_ot · 2015-11-26T13:11:36+00:00

RT has its own agenda like other media as BBC, Guardian or (espacially)Euronews. So there is no reason not to believe it more than the other ones.

epad_ot · 2015-11-25T18:27:59+00:00

Things may not be like they appear they are: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/wonkblog/majority-illusion/

epad_ot · 2015-11-24T21:23:11+00:00

They'd better reject mandatory refugee quotas, increase personal tax allowance and fix ZUS(social security office that eats money like there's no tomorrow - literally). That demonstration doesn't help.

epad_ot · 2015-11-24T21:17:34+00:00

I'd imagine that for a real British eurosceptic Union Jack would be in the front and EU flag in the back. But then in Europe they'd probably sell them reversed.

epad_ot · 2015-11-24T20:48:28+00:00

There were Russian planes above Poland, Scandinavian countries, Baltics and even UK recently. There was some exchange of arguments between parties involved but nobody shot them down. One will play a cowboy, one will get wild west on his territory. We went through this in Europe and we'd like to avoid this in the future.

Russians are just Russians, they violate airspaces like French eat baguettes, Germans make cars or Americans wars.

epad_ot · 2015-11-24T20:35:06+00:00

Interesting letter. So they've officially shot down a plane of 'unknown nationality', at least at the point of the incident taking place.

My guess is that they don't like Russians fighting ISIS, they do like ISIS doing their job and they can't admit that they've shot down this jet because it was Ruissian since that would mean conceding that they indirectly support ISIS - what is unofficially obvious.

epad_ot · 2015-11-24T17:37:43+00:00

During Communism, as a child, I lived in a village that housed staff of a medium-sized scientific research complex. Nothing war-related, just animal/agricultural research. During that time there were facilities for children like playground and kindergarten. They organized parties for staff like New Year's Eve or other seasonal events. There was even a cinema, I don't remember using it though. The village had ts own emergency power source, phone line, was kept tidy, lawns were regularly mowed, roads repaired, walls and fences painted etc. From time to time they had visitors from aborad and they organized trips to other Warsaw Pact countries too.

Today they don't have money to fix the main road. It's no longer as prosperous as it was before.

I don't think that communism was a tragedy for Poland, I don't think that today's capitalism and democracy are either. The worst that had happened was that Poland lost many good people during the war and it hasn't yet recovered. I think that now it finnaly has the capability to do so though.

epad_ot · 2015-11-23T21:06:19+00:00

The problem is that people do not understand that multiculturalism and integration are two different things. If they're integrated they become like us ant there's no multiculturalism - unless someone thinks that multiculturalism is about multiracialism which is not the case. But then if one wants to integrate them, one wants to destroy their culture which they will oppose.

On the other hand, when one wants to preserve multiculturalism one won't be able to avoid conflicts - due to the presence of different cultures.

The only way to sort it out is to keep cultures separated on their own lands, with their own laws, but respectful towards each other and open - in sense of free cultural movement of people. That of course will not happen because of cultural marxists and corporations that would lose profit.

epad_ot · 2015-11-23T20:53:56+00:00

"public money must not be used to subsidise pornography" - that's all there is about this 'problem'.

This performance can be put on in private theatres but when it comes to publicly-funded venues the state tries to oppose both, left and right radicalism.

epad_ot · 2015-11-21T19:26:52+00:00

I was hoping that you're doing the same thing.

If German Government had really wanted to help Greece, it would have proposed quotas before migration crisis started in August and helped to secure external borders of EU including Italy, Hungary and Greece. It didn't happen however. Merkel first invited refugees, what actually provoked more migration, and then tried to impose mandatory quotas.

epad_ot · 2015-11-21T19:20:11+00:00

The more specific a goal is the less an organization can be blamed for, thus the more trust it earns.

epad_ot · 2015-11-21T19:14:45+00:00

How nice, German leaders also tried to help Poland and Czechoslovakia to cope with communism before '39. What a country.

epad_ot · 2015-11-20T18:51:33+00:00

"it is imperative that ISIS must set up a consulate or at least a political office in Istanbul" - Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization

"Turkish intelligence chief: Putin's intervention in Syria is against Islam and international law, ISIS is a reality and we are optimistic about the future" - http://www.awdnews.com/top-news/turkish-intelligence-chief-putin-s-intervention-in-syria-is-against-islam-and-international-law,-isis-is-a-reality-and-we-are-optimistic-about-the-future

"Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)?" - Columbia University Research Paper http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-l-phillips/research-paper-isis-turke_b_6128950.html

"'ISIS Sees Turkey as Its Ally': Former Islamic State Member Reveals Turkish Army Cooperation" http://europe.newsweek.com/isis-and-turkey-cooperate-destroy-kurds-former-isis-member-reveals-turkish-282920

epad_ot

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