#somewhere in poland

[travelella]

Somewhere in Poland

Marek Piwnicki

[putting-gummigoo-in-places]

How about Poland?

[council-of-beetroot]

Feliks is more than just an incredible shabbos goy. He is shabbos barbie

[melloneah]

i might be going back to australia in march for a little holiday and im SO EXCITED u guys cannot comprehend. watched some home vids from when we lived there back in 2013 and i am So Homesickkkk GIVE ME AN ENGLISH MUFFIN WITH VEGEMITE OR ILL START BITING

[killerchickadee]

So my dad's real dad fucked off when he was a kid. Nobody ever talks about him. I mean I didn't know my grandpa (my grandmother's second husband) wasn't biologically my grandpa until long after he died, I didn't know my biological grandfather's name until I was in my 30s, and I was close to 40 before I ever even saw a picture of him. So I mean REALLY nobody talks about him. So I was shocked when my dad posted this on Facebook:

Which, y'all I'm a WWII nerd, this is actually really fucking cool? And I was like maybe he meant Ed (the "step" grandpa) but NOPE

That's my biological grandfather. I'm 41 years old and this is the first time I've heard any of this. The "yours always" is pretty funny considering he left them and all.

Cool shit.

[boredkitkulover]

i need people from Western Europe to be chill and kind about Eastern Europe. we are not basically russian, we don't speak cyrillic (???), we have our languages, cultures and traditions. we are not basically Western Europeans, we have our cultures and traditions. it's not that hard. Europe is not only five Western countries. moreover, Europe is not only European Union. we are not basically not-European. we have our histories, cultures and traditions and they may be different from yours but it's FINE

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

✨ Mother is mothering in Paris ✨

The full UNESCO speech:

[patchesjam]

I never really posted many photos but poland was a gorgeous country and I miss walking in the south there a lot :)

[eksperimentgaj]

so apparently Adrien has a VW Golf Mk 2? as if I didn't like him enough already

[healrod]

has anyone made a hetalia alignment chart for poland yet. i need to see this

[alexanderpearce]

songs that should be as big as bohemian rhapsody:

the d'ampton worm song from the lair of the white worm (1988)

desperation understand destination isn't ending get the sword get the sword from island of death (1976)

cam ye o'er frae france (traditional)

[ihonestlyhavenoideahowigothere]

Americans Abroad in Europe

I’m not so sure about other continents, but us Americans always sound so traumatized talking about out time spent abroad in Europe. I have heard multiple posts of people saying they were worried to pay for a doctors visit that in readily cost them only 100-300 euro…Europeans apologize to us for charging 100-300 Euro for a Dr’s visit and it’s like…no…no you don’t understand I will happily pay 300 euro do you have any idea how much more this would cost me in America??? WITH insurance??? Do you know what I would do to not have to question whether or not I really have to go to the doctor? Even as a kid I was scared of being so sick I had to go to the doctor because my parents wouldn’t take us to the doctor unless it was really really bad. Dont get me wrong, they took care of us and I was lucky to have a roof over my head but we didn’t have enough to just go to a doctor.

Then for the Americans who work overseas telling us the rumors are true…I’ve read papers and magazines saying in France if you’re sick you’re sick and you don’t have to use up “sick days”, in Eurpoean countries pregnant people get MONTHS of maternity leave but I never fully believed it. In America you are told out of politeness to “take care of yourself” and “don’t come to work if you’re sick” but no one really means it. They tell you that because we have certain labor laws they want to pretend are better than they actually are, they want to make it seem like they aren’t going to make you drag your ass into your shift when you’re coughing and sneezing and you’re pretty sure you’re going to vomit, you just haven’t yet because you’ve trained yourself not to because at a young age you were punished for being sick from school.

We are surprised when your cops don’t have guns. We are surprised when the car backfiring wasn’t a gunshot. We are surprised that you don’t take note of the exits when you enter a building, that you don’t stare at the person getting on the bus with a big hoodie on to see if he’s concealing a gun (because chances are you’ve learned to tell the signs of someone concealing a gun).

It’s beyond culture shock. Culture shock is realizing that German trains are punctual and that there is still a heavy Catholic influence in Ireland. It is the same culture shock as finding out that weed is illegal in most European countries but the drinking age is much lower than it is in America. It is the same culture shock one would get from moving from Nebraska to Oregon and finding out that most stores close at 7-9pm and you will seldom find anything open 24/7. It is the same culture shock one would get moving from southern Texas to the Rocky Mountains and seeing just how long the snow stays on the mountains. That, THAT is culture shock. Being shocked that education is affordable, that healthcare is affordable, that people are given vacation time, PTO, decent paternity and maternity leave…that is trauma.

[eyeofthemoose]

Nothing's like waking up to a spider casually walking on you 🫠🙂🫠🙂🫠🙂

[notasapleasure]

A tale of two Georgias

Note: I wouldn't normally share subscriber-exclusive content from this news site, but I think Shota Kincha's opinions are too important to hide away in an exclusive email this time. If you're so minded, please consider supporting open journalism in the Caucasus anyway and sending some money OCMedia's way.

Highlighting is my own. Of course I support Georgia joining the EU, but absolutely not under conditions that ignore the recent rolling back of democratic freedoms.

---

By Shota Kincha, for OC Media.

On Wednesday, Georgians celebrated a long-awaited recommendation from the European Commission for their nation’s candidacy for EU membership, leaving the country’s candidacy pending just final approval from the heads of EU member states in mid-December. But the Commission’s assessment of the government’s ‘progress’ seemed to be based on wishful thinking, rather than its actions. 

On denying Georgia the status last year, the European Commission outlined 12 ‘priorities’ Georgia would need to address for the decision to be reconsidered — preconditions that largely reflected the spirit of the April 2021 agreement brokered by European Council President Charles Michel between the government and opposition groups.

When the unforeseen possibility for Georgia to formally apply for membership presented itself in early 2022, Georgia’s leadership had already failed on some of the key components of the previous year’s accord. 

Instead of addressing the ‘perception of politicised justice,’ an apparent euphemism for the imprisonment of opposition leaders, most notably Nika Melia in early 2021, the Georgian court imprisoned another prominent government critic, Nika Gvaramia, only five weeks before the European Commission was due to assess Georgia’s readiness for EU membership candidacy.

Instead of the ambitious judicial reform promised in the 2021 Michel deal and mentioned in the EU’s ‘12 priorities’ last year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has continued to shield corrupt judicial officials with a stranglehold on Georgian courts, resulting in more politicised administrative fines and criminal cases against civil activists, political leaders, media managers, or youth with ‘confused orientation’ who risked their freedom to defend Georgia’s pro-Western choice on the streets.

In the run-up to the European Commission’s latest decision on Georgia, the government and security services run by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s goons artificially created an anti-Western parliamentary group, gifted them private channel PosTV, and made violent extremist pro-Russian Alt Info immune to obstruction or challenge. 

If the last five years under Georgian Dream rule had been a steady decline in democratic freedoms, the government’s actions in the months since it applied to join the European Union — including their recent initiatives to clamp down on Georgia’s civil society and constrain protest — far surpassed any and all negative predictions.

But listening to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, one could have assumed she was discussing an entirely different country. 

Despite Georgia’s government persecuting free media, parroting Russian propaganda against the West, refusing to undertake institutional reforms in a way that included other groups and stakeholders, and satisfying only three of the twelve conditions set last year, the European Commission complimented them with no substantial criticism.

I do not believe the EU should approve Georgian membership candidacy later this year, as the move looks set to validate and entrench the government’s precipitous lurch towards authoritarianism. 

The European Commission’s approach may be based on the belief that denying Georgia candidate status could lead to Georgians becoming disillusioned with the EU and the West. But Georgians have been staunchly pro-Western for decades, perhaps even centuries. 

The real danger to Georgians’ trust in the West comes from the West’s indifference to anti-democratic moves by Georgia’s government, which, if left unchecked, will continue to use state institutions to slowly but steadily shift popular mood and policies towards Russia. 

Even were we to allow that recommending EU candidacy status was a justified decision in Georgia’s best interests, doing so did not obligate the institution’s leaders to legitimise the country’s government in the way they did.

Listening to the widely televised announcement by the European Commission on Wednesday, Georgians could reasonably have concluded that democratic backsliding, state capture by big capital, and a politicised judiciary are consistent with Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations, or that related warnings from local activists and media have been baseless or overblown. 

The announcement could also have created the impression that the ruling party has been delivering on reforms demanded by the EU, a powerful notion less than a year before the country’s next general elections. 

The truth is, however, that in inviting Georgia to join the club while neglecting to call out the government’s shortcomings, the EU is playing a dangerous game, and one it has played before. The EU does not want another Orban, and the South Caucasus definitely does not need another Aliyev.

I may be wrong: perhaps granting Georgia candidate status will still be a wise choice on the EU’s part. But even in its recommendation, the European Commission could have sent a clear message that business as usual would no longer be tolerated. 

What Georgia’s leadership heard instead will become abundantly clear in the coming months. 

[plumbogs]

the goths would NOT be fucking british