Little joys at the mall

there are some things that can give pleasure in the new, better world. Like the stairway to ASDA.

This is an automatic ramp that people get out of the parking to the shop upstairs. It’s as clean and antiseptic as everything, and a stern female voice instructs us to ‘face the direction of the stair, stand still’ and somesuch. People do, but for me and the kids on site it’s such a joy of life to run up and down this ramp. A tiny gesture ignoring the system, and all that joy without actually doing something evil.

I suppose that’s a compliment in a way…

I will have to get used to British men shouting things at me when I’m walking. Just please no more suggestions that Poland is more traditional and needs more feminists.

British old people

they are amazing. I can’t stop awing them.

When we went to Snowdon we passed many elderly couples jumping on the rocks like they were mountain deer or at least 50 years younger. Always cheerful, never tired, dressed in an array of colourful things they were running down the trail five times faster than we were crawling up.

Working for an English company I discovered that the old people are delightful work partners, too. They are never too tired to talk or too disinterested to listen to some task.

It is incredibly relieving to talk about a new spreadsheet with a lady who is retiring soon after all the havoc that happens every day. The elders have lovely manners over the phone. They even speak in a way that seems more… genteel.

I envy Britain that most of their old people are still around and well. Apparently the NHS care is not as bad as it’s described!

Trading in the UK

I’ve learned already that the Midlands are not necessarily like the rest of the Islands. So I can only speak about the Midlands.

First of all, if you want to trade, you need to have tough skin and rubber ears. What you will learn from other people is:

- I don’t want to trade with you.

- We don’t trade with non-British companies.

- I will call you if I can’t find somebody better.

and the nicest thing that happens is this:

- I’ll get back to you.

Ok, that’s a start.

The locals are not interested in doing business for the sake of it. They might be persuaded to if I’m willing to overpay them a lot. There’s no: ‘ok, I might be interested, let’s see what we can achieve’ attitude. It’s even hard to rent a premises. Sight.

But, what is really easy is to pay for a house. That is just grand. If I’m paying for a house, suddenly they stop sighing, stop looking at a watch, have all the time in the world and actually treat me like a customer. Funny.

Best males claim best females.

Another absurd in the West. There are two magazines that I like: Scientific American and New Scientist. On occasions they publish results of various experiments. Like – how do humans mate? How are we attracted to one another? Etc.

One of the prevailing theories is that ‘the best male claims the best female’.

To me, and possibly because of Polish culture, this is at least absurd. I would not be able to understand what exactly is ‘claiming’ a person? Does that mean saying: ‘you, over here, heel’? It seems obvious to me from everyday observation that men court a woman, and she picks one of them that she like the most. She may pick ‘the best male’, but as we all know, sometimes women pick short and skinny nice guys, or fall in love with a retired man.

I suppose that has something to do with phrases like: ‘I’m the MAN’, ‘bring the bacon home’ etc. Or with women being spanked by their husbands in the USA.

At any rate – very foreign

Red dress experience – again?!

What is it with red colour in the Midlands??? It was really hot for two weeks, and I was able to wear dresses every day. One time I even walked to Sainsbury’s with my backpack to buy something to cook. I wore old black flip-flops, a Karrimor backpack and a cotton red dress in polka dots.

I got whistled at, sung at and shouted a ‘good evening’ at, in an operatic voice. What in the world is going on??? Is the red color bearing some particular significance??

Culture experience – brain clash, mind shut down.

Now I need to face the truth that I am prejudiced beyond rescue.

What I normally saw the world to be was: We are a sea of normality surrounded by Germany, who don’t like how messy we are, Czech and Slovakia, who are rightly furious for invading them with Germans and Russians, Ukraine who feels they need to have another blood bath to liberate themselves, Belarus who is just another Korea, and Lithuania, where there is a steppe. We also have a border with Russia with missiles pointed towards us, beyond the sea there is Scandinavia, where nice people live but not much is known. So in such peril – we have a great friendship with the Allies: Britain, France, and America. And there are also countries like Spain and Italy who are very far, and people go there in the summer, which must mean they are nice.

http://patrz.pl/zdjecia/mapa-europy-wg-polakow

Now I have more and more friends and acquaintances from far-far-away. And this view is torn to pieces.

1. Germany: they actually defend Poland on the Internet. They are nice to talk to, are my friends on Facebook. They have a grim sense of humour, which I like. They don’t like their country as a whole, but they think it’s pretty.

What shocked me here is that they are not hostile. I thought that having been subjected to propaganda for years, they still would. But no. I suppose that I still fail to imagine that this is a re-united country, with people from Commie side being more like us… But when I meet Germans on holiday, and try to talk with them in my mediocre German, they are always trying to communicate. Make me come to see Bodensee.

Well, I think I’m going to have to, just to make them happy.

1. England: they are not a nation of allies, as previously thought. Normal people among them are not much different from any other European, but there is the bottomless pit of horror in the lower layer of society. I found that the reason for the stabbings and not investigating those stabbings too feverishly is to keep the society happy. This country is in fact poor and on the verge of riot.

But on everyday basis, this is a good place to live, very quiet and safe. Roads are good, jobs readily available, Internet in place. What I don’t understand is the hype to buy property, first, second, to rent, etc. Property does not generate the best returns, so it makes little sense.

The thing that appeals to me is the ability to order wine in a theatre – and theatres they’ve got fab.

1. Russia. That is one big puzzle. It seems that I’ve just offended a Russian on this blog yesterday. I didn’t mean to – but I did. He seemed amiable, but turned away now. I am thinking that a large portion of our problems with politics may be this basic lack of understanding what are we saying. It seems that I understand the West better than the East. It may be due to Catholicism throughout the ages, but I think it’s more  due to the fact that Kingdom of Poland was not at all different from Germany of Czech before it became Republic of Both Nations.

It seems from the outside that Russia is making many gestures related to Polish-Russian history, as if we were a major player with them. I fail to see why. I think I will have to go and live there for 2-3 years to understand, but my Russian is no better than German, sadly.

2. Czech. There is a Facebook page ‘We hate Poles’, but aside from that they just don’t seem to care. If all I want from them is to rent a bed and buy fried cheese, they don’t mind. Cool. I think that’s a very good relationship.

3. Ukraine – this just needs to be cleared up. I don’t want to invade them. I don’t want this land back. I want my house back, but am happy to buy it. It’s good that the Orange Revolution was an occasion to show support, because Uncle’s wife, Svetlana, seems a bit unsympathetic. And she won’t let me know how to make sało.

4. Belarus. Some people actually went there, and reported that this is not a starving country militarized to the Korean level and hysterical with blood-lust, as shown on TV. This is a country that still looks przaśnie, like in Communist times, but it’s clean, people have good country food to eat, and seem at ease. My next holiday destination: Grodno, another family house.

5. Sweden. I went there for a weekend, and they seemed quiet, melancholic people. The hotel was clean, the city was covered in 17th century buildings, no problems. So there actually is SOMETHING.

6. Norway. I went for two weeks, driven around and camped out. Conclusions – this is not a rich country. People are not able to afford a lot of meat, they eat fish pudding. They have small houses and pay taxes through their nose. On the outside they are happy, undercover they distill illegal alcohol and smuggle food in from Sweden. This is a double culture. And there is a big following of domestic Satanism – mainly thanks to the book series of Margit Sandemo. They are fit, nice, pretty, and not free to have children for fear of being ridiculed.

7. Spain – I was expecting something more similar to Croatia, but it is very, very diverse. That stories of hidalgos are true, at least in the point about being offended all the time. They do have a lazy lifestyle, which I love, but I was robbed there, so am just another tourist to be shaved off my wallet. I think that this is the same kind of aggression that we have, to finally get somewhere in life.

8. France. Love it, the worst thing that ever happened to me there was a rude waiter. Aside from that, even prostitutes are nice. But, I thought they would be more leftist. I can’t speak French at all, but I can manage ’salut’ before putting my shopping next to the till. Apparently this means ‘hi’ and we are not supposed to use it towards elders. Will have to practice ‘bon jour’.

9. Croatia. They are just like we. In the shop I could buy stuff with some coins – euros, pounds and kuna, no problem. The wine was AWESOME. And the hotels are non-pretentious in our commie-modern style, which grosses out the Brits.

10. Serbia – wild beautiful, aggressive. The trains were clean but very old. I was afraid of this aggression and run away. But I will never forget travelling by bus from Belgrade to Podgorica with highlander drivers. They were so very… efficient, that people on the bus went to sleep immediately after sitting down. After it had dawned, I realized why. We were in an old Ikarus speeding on a mountain path above a limestone canyon. I needed a drink.

10. Montenegro. That’s where I encountered Muslim Albanians. In Ulcinj there are 3 faiths, Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim. They were there forever. There will be no war among them, because Grandfathers will not allow it. The Mosque sings at dawn, then the Churches, never getting in one another’s way. I also got ripped off by Greeks.

11. And America, last but not least.

I’ve lived in Alabama and went to school there. They were all very nice to me, and not very rich. No ranch houses. No nice clothes. Very good fried food, church eat-outs, campings, skate rinks. Good, simple life. But shabby roads and half-empty cities are prevalent. The weirdest thing is that they really believe in the division between Blacks and Whites. Blacks were friends, but wouldn’t come to my birthday party, not to meet Whites. They were surprised that I didn’t want ot be a White. But I explained that I can’t be White American, because I am not American. I am Polish. I still keep in touch with them.

But the things that happen in Politics are evil. Americans have bought Poland off cheap, gave us broken planes, they never keep the deal. They effectively run this country through their agents. The mistake was to take Poland with them to Afghanistan and Irak. There we saw that those wars were not for liberation, they were invasions.

Okay, my hands hurt, my eyes hurt, my brain hurts.

This world is strange.

F*** A** or other words to that effect.

I couldn’t write since last week because of being very angry.  I still am, but after a week I think that I will be able to tone things down.

The reason of anger is how people are treated in the Northwest.

Now I need to clarify those terms.

Ghandi has pointed out to me in his comment, that France, Spain, and other countries belong to the West as well, so I need to make a separation here. My problem is with the Germanic/Saxon Protestant Countries, and that includes the USA. I concentrate on the UK and the USA, because that’s where I’ve spent most time. But I’ve also visited the Scandinavia, Germany, BeNeLux, Austria. I will treat those countries as one cultural unit. WASP countries – though we could easy call them Germanic Modern Countries, because Anglo-Saxon are a Germanic people, and religion is not prominent any more.

By people I understand persons. I won’t go into the ‘regardless of…’ disclaimer because it’s effect is adverse. A person as in any human being – I don’t only mean fellow Polish ex-pats.

Down to the point. It’s hard to say what is happening because it’s just so very unbelievable and disappointing at the same time. We in Poland live in a fantasy world that is only true among us – Police have to give everyone a chance, people take rounds inviting guests for house parties, all serious decisions are considered for a long time. We have the time and space to recognize one another’s worth as a person, not just profit or status source. Ghandi will protest, but this is a quality worked out in the Christendom, and especially in the Catholic world.

Outside there is a whole wide world, some of it I’ve visited. In post-war Serbia I was confronted with permanent aggression of people. Aggression for the sake of conflict, and I understand that it’s a result of war trauma. In Spain there is the summer open season for hunting the tourist gold, and that I can understand as well, because this is the main source of sustenance. In the Northwest there is a world similar to the Wild West – no values, just endless struggle to climb on the heads of others in a futile attempt to escape the daily hell.

The way the Germanic Countries are constructed is this: there is only a limited amount of positive things in the world, and everyone has to compete to be on top. Those who fall behind are to be used. The readers will probably think me naïve not to have learned this sooner. But I come from a country where when a poor woman comes to a shop, the assistants will help her make the most economic choices out of virtue, and not to make her a permanent customer.

This constant struggle for status, goods, power, is very visible on the lowest tiers, and possibly on the highest. But luckily there I don’t have any contacts. I see instead how the British and American people who are qualified as lower class struggle to keep this name. They are one step away from the Underclass, from the rejects, and they fear what may happen if they lose a job. They desperately need to be higher and that they try to accomplish by finding someone worse. Ruthlessly they will beat them into apathy.

This is what has happened hundreds of years ago in the USA, poor WASPs, or GPs had nothing, but they were born with a white skin, and they chose to believe that it was well. They ratted the Africans, Mexicans, Aztecs down, until they’ve achieved what is such a big problem in the USA – non-whites experience great stress and fear of failure, and this stops them not only from achieving, but also from trying at all.

This is what is now being done to Polans in the UK. There are news of people who quit work, because they were being treated ‘like children’. And what we Polans may not understand, is that slaves are treated like children. But how would we have known this, if all we think about is to gain freedom and keep the traditions of freedom?

The British poor people are ruthlessly evil and without any second thoughts, any conscience. They chose to believe in ‘because we are British’, even though they don’t know British history, very little of the culture, achievements. It’s like German skinheads – they are the ‘race of lords’, but don’t know Bohm, never heard Schubert – they aren’t really German.

The cruel and mindless evil, childish in nature, is encountered everywhere and every day. It’s a waiter in a pub that shouts ‘where were you people, I’ve been looking all over the pub for you’, and slams cold food on the table, or refuses to clear it. It’s a stewardess, who will serve everyone except us on a plane. It’s a retired man who will not sit next to me on the same plane, because he ‘will not stand for this’; a shop assistant in a home interior shop who cuts by the ruler for an English person, and unevenly for me. It’s a Director in the company where I used to work, PM Project Services, who had to tell me things like: ‘you Poles are a nation of slaves, and you used to be controlled by Sweden, that’s why you now look a bit like them’. Or an Engineer in the same company who ‘will not go to that dodgy Poland again’, or the Sales Manager who ‘will not pay Polish division because it’s shabby’, or my own manager who thought the same.

This is not only a GP sin, it has been duly and happily adopted by the Commonwealth citizens – from India especially. I’ve learned from Indian colleagues that I only have Polish education, I will never get another job, and no, they don’t think that anyone would want to learn a language like Polish. And where did I buy that camera? Poland, well, we will not service it, it doesn’t even have a Leica lens (it had).

The record belongs so far to Thomas Jean Associates, a recruitment company, who told me this: ‘but aren’t you an Eastern European? You should be on £16000 per year max!’

I’m sure that the dear readers already recognize the problem, and someone might even be tempted to make a statement of hating racism. Well, here’s the problem. That’s not racism that is the problem.

In the root of being dismissive, rude, abusive towards other people lies not a problem of race, but a problem of egoism. People who get to know each other may function very well, regardless of their background. What is needed, is the recognition of other person’s humane, personal quality, podmiotowość. http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podmiotowo%C5%9B%C4%87. Sorry, there is no non-polish equivalent.

And so I arrive at conclusions. I’ve posted before about for the GP countries hide poverty and boast the ‘richness’. How untrue that is. But they have to do that in order to step higher on the ladder that only they see. They try to step on other people’s heads, to save their own heads, and fails to see that other nations don’t really care about any ladders.

I think that what has happened to me, a loss of self-esteem and self-reliance due to bullying and humiliating is precisely what has happened to Black Americans. I played by the GP rules for a while. I tried to fit in, and the only place that I was offered was the lowest – a low paid immigrant. People are not recognized as humans here, but as a threat.

I also understand better what the view of Poland is. Since we are seen as a nation of immigrants, however it may sound, we are not a nation of humans, just slaves who lost and therefore are ‘cfel’. I don’t know the English words for this. It means falling to the lowest tier, and is only used in high security jails my inmates. It seems that the culture of common Britain is the same as the culture of our inmates.

I also understand now why the slander of Anti-Semitism is believed. Anything at all is believed, especially if it fits the image of ‘worseness’.

But it is not Poland where the synagogues burn.