My blog

We have great respect for those who have passed away, we remember our loved ones and those who are far away, we take care of their graves. At the same time, we do a lot for show. On All Saints' Day, we often hear from our Grandmothers and Mothers "it's already twelve o'clock and we are not at the graves yet, what will people say?"

We don't like it when our neighbor buys a new car, but we'll gladly help him when he loses his job. In the early nineties, my high school friend and I sold tiles from Opoczno. I wanted to rent an unused laundry room in the basement of my building as a shop, and in exchange install an intercom for the residents. Since I couldn't get the tenants' consent during the meeting in the stairwell, I decided to visit each of the twenty-eight apartments with a survey in which I included three possible answers: "I am in favor of renting a basement apartment to the Plajta company in exchange for an intercom", "I am against it because ...", "I am against it and I don't know why". Well over half chose the last option.

I once worked with a Mexican. He was in his early thirties and had been living in Poland for a few years. I once asked him what he thought was the worst thing about Poles. He told me something like this: we Mexicans are a very complaining nation, but it was only here in Poland that I saw how people can whine, moan and grumble.

We are very closed. It is difficult to make contacts. We rarely smile on the street. In the first contact we always keep our distance and reserve. But once we break the ice and get to know each other a little, we become incredibly sociable, playful and eager to meet.

We are not very clever, but we are real tricksters. We are masters at bypassing regulations. We hate procedures. We suck up scheming with our mother's milk. During communism, carrying toilet paper out of the plant under your arm was treated more as resourcefulness and less as dishonesty. Much of that has remained to this day.

We are quarrelsome. We like to go against the grain. But not to defend something important, but rather to attract attention. We do not accept compromise. We are disgusted by reaching an agreement. We do not like to give up ground, it has to be our way. We do not understand the principle of "win-win" and we only apply "win-lose".

We do not recognize authorities. When someone with the potential to be an authority appears on the horizon, we quickly clip their wings and question the meaning of what they say and do. On the other hand, we are very easily fooled by all kinds of impostors, cynics, manipulators and Kaczyńskis.

We don't like songs we don't know. We don't like anything that's unknown, foreign, or different. We don't like people who dress provocatively, people who have views that differ from ours, refugees, homosexuals, foreigners.

We still believe that the most appropriate place for women is the kitchen, laundry room and bedroom, and the most appropriate activities for men are work in a company, sports and developing passions.
If we believe in God, our faith is often shallow, for show, focused on moralizing others instead of inner spirituality, and we do not apply in our lives what we hear in church.

We don't give a damn about science. We acquire knowledge on the tram, from friends, from Facebook, from tabloids. We trust our intuition more. We think the media lies. We don't believe in any statistics. Based on what we see around us, we draw conclusions about the whole of Poland and the world. We easily succumb to conspiracy theories. Only 43% of us declare that they have been vaccinated against COVID.
We are distrustful and suspicious. We do not lend trust. We always start relationships with a low level of trust and only gain trust over time. We lose trust easily. We do not give a chance to rebuild trust.

We can't drink alcohol. We choose a lot and cheap, rather than a little and good quality. We don't celebrate, we don't savor. Instead of a meeting or a nice time, we set consumption as a goal.

We are convinced of the uniqueness of our nation. We believe that we have suffered the most in history and that all of us, without exception, are heroes, defending our borders and suffering for others, for which we deserve a special place in Europe and the world.
We have a great sense of humor, but we can't laugh at ourselves. We immediately stiffen when others laugh at us.

We can't stand criticism. We believe that we can only be praised, and any comment is always a manifestation of hostility or bad attitude.

We become unbearable behind the wheel. We can't stand it when someone overtakes us. We think that everyone, except us, drives illegally. We pick our noses or touch up our make-up on the crosswalk and in traffic jams, and we answer text messages while driving.

We are disgustingly entitled. We think we are entitled to everything. Half of those who said they would not get vaccinated against COVID, when asked if they would consider getting vaccinated in exchange for money, said yes.

Are we Poles great? Well. We are certainly different from other nations. For me, Poles are like wine. Old, expensive, an exquisite variety. When I taste it and it melts in my mouth and touches all my taste buds, I don't know if it's good or bad, because I don't know anything about wine.