Archive for the 'Polish and Irish' Category Page 2 of 3

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

We Poles are only scum in the eyes of “true aryan Irish” - racists uncovered.

Published at September 17, 2007 in Polish and Irish and Ireland. 33 Comments

Problem of mass migration from many countries of Europe and World into Ireland can bore, and already born negative opinions among some Irish nationals. It is quite obvious when quite a small country is facing a massive migration when the non-nationals are about 10 pc of the whole population. I - as an emigrant - have been always of the opinion that we - Poles - rather should try (at least) to integrate in some part into Irish society than closing ourselves in Polish ghetto, which is more or less a reality. I have been always against some typical behaviours like speaking Polish when at least one person is English speaker, behave ourselves - following the idea, that every Polish person abroad is an ambassador of our country, and ambassador of all of us. I was the first to call the Garda when I met Polish drunken hooligans troubling in the centre of the town. However I am not of the opinion that we are all bad. We are the same like other nations, and what is very easy to see, we both (Irish and Polish) share many the same bad habits. Thus, I am of the opinion we are nor worse nor better than Irish - a nation of emigrants - as we are at present. Honestly I haven’t faced so far any strong negative attitude towards Poles apart some of the comments to my blog entries. Those comments were showing the typical post - emigrant attitude - “now I am the master in my own country, and you Poles are bloody emigrants”, luckily the number of such comments was limited only to a few. However, I have been getting some rumours about that an exact number of Irish are highly racist and intolerant to all kinds of emigrants. the good example was the racist feedback got by a black Mayor of Portlaoise. From the other hand, it is hard to judge all of those comments, because I am trying to image what we would say if we had a black, or just an emigrant councillor or mayor of one of the towns in Poland.

Anyway, today, while I was searching the net I have came up against the Irish white power, racist internet forum, and the thread titled: Is Ireland being made a part of Poland.

Check it out, and let me know what do you think about it.

P.S. At least, those “white boys” should appreciate our Polish work on Irish heritage. Polish archaeologists are the biggest group on all of the excavation sites in Ireland.

kick it on kick.ie

www.fotoblogi.eu

Yet another TV program about Polish beggars and homeless in London

Published at September 8, 2007 in England, Polish and Irish, Polish Comm, Polish Emigration and Ireland. 12 Comments

TVN24 - Polish independent news channel has just broadcasted program about 3 Polish men who have just come back from London, England. They came to England for work without enough money, without basic knowledge of English, and without any contract. Yet another three who believed that UK and Ireland was the Eldorado - a promised land, where is plenty of job, and you can find it almost instantly. Because they couldn’t communicate they were very easily exploited, loosing money instead of earning. They ended up on the street without money, job and perspectives. Finally they met Travellers, who took they papers and forced them to steal. After some period of time they escaped and met another Polish homeless who helped them and teach them how to beg properly and to get from begging about 20 - 100 GBP per day. They were spending theyir days on begging and then drinking cheap cider. Finally they came back to Poland and now they are struggling to came back to normal life.

Here is the link to the video at TVN24 website. The video is in Polish, but with my description you probably get a basic notion about the program: http://www.tvn24.pl/2071288,0,0,2,1,wideo.html

I wonder, why UK and Irish governments don’t want to limit the number of emigrants that are flowing into UK and Ireland. There is a simple factor to decide who would be let in or not - people with knowledge of English enough to communicate and to fight for their rights. In my opinion problem of Polish homeless and beggars will be increasing since there is not barrier nor system to prevent unprepared people to come over.

The requirements for the newcomers would be quite simple:

- basic English, to be able to communicate (kind of certificate)

- having at least 1000 Euro

- having proof of booked hostel or accommodation for first couple of days

- clear files in Police database (in any European country, such data system exists)

I know it is not ease to introduce such things on the borders, but it would prevent Poles of becoming homeless and begging on the streets, it would keep Polish troublemakers in Poland, it would prevent Irish or British employers of exploiting Polish workers, thus it would assure equal chances to get a job both for foreigners and natives, and finally it would prevent most of racial behaviours since, natives wouldn’t have and big reasons to dislike emigrants (of course if they not regard emigrants as a strangers and if natives not to judge emigrant only in the way that they are emigrants).

kick it on kick.ie

www.fotoblogi.eu

Polar bears and stereotypes: Polish people don’t read the books.

Published at August 21, 2007 in Poland, Polish and Irish, Polish Emigration and Ireland. 16 Comments

Did you know that in Poland white polar bears walk the streets in the towns and cities? Did you know that we didn’t have electricity, TV and radio during the communist era? Did you know that Poland is a country in Eastern Europe (despite the Europe ends on Ural Mountains in Russia, and Poland lies in the very middle of Europe)? I didn’t know those facts neither. Moreover I probably spend most of my life in country somewhere else :) since I haven’t noticed such things. Those stereotypes are quite common in Ireland and Britain. There is another one I have found today.

Today I went to the local (and probably the biggest in town) bookshop, to gain some information about the Polish books available over there. There was only a few books available, unfortunately some cheap 2nd class stories by authors, completely not popular among Polish community. I have asked for some information about the future plans of expanding the offer for Polish readers. There was a Polish girl - shop assistant, who gave me some answers. Unfortunately, there is no any plans for extend the offer. You probably ask why? She asked shop director the same question. Shop director answered her: we won’t sell more Polish books because Polish people don’t read the books.

What is completely stupid and ridiculous is the fact, that her (shop director) assumption was based on the fact, that Polish people don’t buy English books. It seems that she (shop director) can not understand that people outside Ireland or UK speak different language. Her way of thinking and assuming is very simple and limited - if you don’t read in English then you don’t read at all, so there is no point to offer you books in your own language, or at lest to offer you a second class authors and boring stories.

kick it on kick.ie

www.fotoblogi.eu

Irish girls don’t like Polish boys, but Irish boys really like Polish girls

Published at August 20, 2007 in Polish and Irish, Polish Comm, Polish Emigration and Ireland. 28 Comments

About 1 year ago, one of the Polish internet portals devoted its attention to the Irish - Polish relations and relationships. Still the main problem of Polish community is the fact of closing itself in kind of national ghetto, and the lack of knowledge of English practically makes it impossible for many Poles to communicate with Irish. Also the attitude of many of my compatriots to Ireland and Irish, who are not interested in Ireland at all, who are actually and mentally still live in Poland, and who are only working in Ireland, regarding Ireland only as a place of work (since at home they are in Poland), doesn’t help neither. From the other side, there is still some barrier built by Irish, I mean, despite my attempts to socialise with them, I have not so many Irish friends. The article published on Polish internet portal mentioned also that Irish girls don’t want to go out with Polish boys. For Irish girls it was kind of shame or come down with a boy from a country in far East (even maybe in Asia ;) ). In fact, I know one Irish girl who has Polish boyfriend, and she couple of times complained that other Irish girls sometimes laughed at her emigrant boyfriend.

Meanwhile, according to the latest Sunday Independent, Irish girls will have to get used to Polish lads, at least due to the fact, that recently Irish boys have been choosing foreigner girls to go out. There is no doubt, that Polish community is so big, and Polish girls are usually regarded as beautiful, that Irish boys quite often choose Polish girls and quite often I have been listening to Irish, and other foreigner people, complaining that every Polish girl friend has a boyfriend already :)

I found Irish girls pretty, and maybe one day they realise that Poles are not wild troglodytes without manners (except exact amount, that can be found in every nation). :)

kick it on kick.ie

www.fotoblogi.eu

Exploitation

Published at August 12, 2007 in Polish and Irish, Polish Emigration and Ireland. 7 Comments

There is a story about chain of 2 food shops in the town somewhere in Ireland. The boss employs only Polish people who are living together above one of the shops in the apartment rent by the boss. Everybody say that the boss is a nice man, but they don’t talk with him often. Polish people work in those shops 6 days per week, usually 10 - 11 hours per day and they are supervised by Polish girl, who is - as they say - horrible person and reminds them kind of a work camp guard. Sometimes one or two of the Poles are waken up during the night and they are to go to the shop (shop itself is closed, but there is plenty of work in the store house). Sometimes it is 2 hours in the middle of the night and on 8 am the same people have to start work in the shop downstairs. During the day they have to work hard under the watch eye of the Polish girl - the supervisor. There is no overtimes pay, and for 10 - 11 h/day 6 day/week they get 320 - 340 Euro. Moreover, on their payslips they see numbers like 400 Euro or more. They have to agree to that or to go away and loose their jobs. They can’t say anything to the boss or to the Polish supervisor, because the answer is always the same: “if you don’t like that job then go away”. Of course, Polish employees don’t speak proper English, and they are afraid the situation being out of work and starting from the beginning again, but usually after couple of months they decide to quit and then the boss can easily find another unemployed Poles. Irish boss is nice, and he pretends that everything is OK, that he likes his Polish employees and appreciates their work. In the same way he pretend that all food being sold in his shops is made in Ireland. In the pub his Polish employees (both former and present) tell the stories how they are wiping out from the food stamps of Brazil or other countries.

The number of Poles in Ireland is very high, and the percentage of non English speakers among them is also very high. Some of the Irish employers use it. They know, Polish person who don’t speak English won’t be able to fight for his or her rights and since he or she is struggling to get any job, won’t complain. Thus some of the Irish employers pay wages much lower that the minimal wage determined by the Irish law, forcing them to work overtime and 6 days a week. Those employers will never employ any Irish person, because Irish employee will stand up and fight for his or her right or at least quit the job very fast saying to the boss “feck off ya bastard” or something like that.

Problem of exploitation can rise and can cause anti Polish behaviour among some Irish, since the bosses prefer to employ cheap Poles who can be exploited very easily, and thus they are “stealing Irish jobs”.

The story I described above is very well known in one town, and I have heard it from at least 5 people who used to work or who are still working in one of those shops.

kick it on kick.ie