Good choice/pick .Sławomir Piotr Paweł Mrożek - Polish writer and illustrator. Author of satirical stories and dramatic works on philosophical, political, moral and psychological topics. As a playwright, he belongs to the theatre of the absurd. I like listening to foreigners talking about Poland and famous Poles. Poland was behind an Iron Curtain for a long time and nobody knew how many good artists Poland had and have.
There was a comment suggesting that Poland was always occupied. This is not true before the Late 1700's. There was the Kingdom of Poland during the Middle Ages to begin with and later the powerful expanse of the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth, which in 1610 conquered and occupied Moscow. This oft repeated narrative that Poland was always occupied throughout its history drives me as an Australian of part Polish ancestry nuts. Yep, I am a keen Polonphile and very interested in Polish history
@@sebm8511 yes they can. Each country/nation has it's cultural baggage and set of stereotypes. It's usually the average level of ignorance you can expect. This interview is a great example of it.
"Kombinowac" is also close to "improvise". To find the way, the solution in a smart way when the circumstations are really hard and you have to connect many dots to get what you need to survive. You have to improvise. It is from ancient latin : combino, combinare (unite, combine). There is also the mathematics department called: "kombinatoryka" (combinatorics or combinatorial analysis).
Michael, skipping lines using family connections to see specialists may be common in Poland but it raises ethical concerns. This practice can unfairly delay access to care for vulnerable individuals without such connections. It's important to ensure fairness and equity in healthcare access for everyone. An easy (and honorable) way to see a specialist in Poland is to pay for a visit in a private practice.
Kolejna bardzo ciekawa rozmowa, dziękuję. Dałbym dwa lajki, ale nie można ;( Ale, zaraz, zaraz, przecież jestem Polakiem i wiem, jak zakombinować, żeby się jednak dało, to banalnie proste ;) O, i zrobione ;)
What an interesting conversation! I agree with everything Paul said about Poland. I am Polish but living in Germany & visiting PL very often. So I also have the German perspective of thinking about things....It is great to dive into a foreign culture, it makes you more open, it enriches you (well, sometimes it drives you crazy😅) but it's good. Thank you, Michael😍 .
By what margin do you perceive the Canadian healthcare system to be better? As a freshly baked doctor in Upper Silesia, out of sheer curiosity I did some googling, cause I've never put much thought into how it looks in Canada, and it came out that the waittime from getting a GP's referral to seeing in specialist in 2023 was on average 14,6 weeks in Canada (mean value for all provinces combined) while the national average in Poland was 4,1 months in 2022 (17,6 weeks). Slightly worse, but the Canadian statistics which I've used also showed the wait times for each province, with Newfoundland & Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island being worse off than the Polish national average (all 4 in the 25-29 weeks range).
It mostly revolves around the fact that there is a lot more money is the system, and so it attracts the best doctors in the world and state of the art hospitals and standards in terms of how patients are treated, etc. My experience navigating NFZ has been often chaotic and confusing and unsupportive. Also the health care system is truly universal. There is no need to obtain insurance through the company you work for. All Canadians have the same right to the same health care whether they are working or not.
@@lerubenfeld I see. The non-necessity to work to get free care is a huge difference indeed. While I certainly agree about the chaos, confusion and lack of psychological support offered, I can't think of a medical problem right now where you would get an obsolete kind of treatment, a one behind, let's say, France or Germany (the exception to this might be some rare genetic metabolic diseases the treatment for which the NFZ doesn't refund, and it could potentially send someone bankrupt).
I think the best way of translating "kombinować" is "getting crafty". Perhaps requires some more context or other specificity later on, the term itself is pretty ambiguous, but seems to work on most occasions. That being said, I really enjoy this interview form you're coming up with.
Nice listening to you guys. You raise many interesting topics in this interview. There is however an issue that I couldn't leave without a comment. As an opera lover there is nothing I dislike more than the way many operas are staged in the modern, experimental & provocative way. Subsidized by the tax payers, the stage director has to prove as a member of one elite to the other how original he is. Never mind that an average opera guest absolutely does not enjoy it. I watched Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in Zurich Opera (state sponsored) in a grotesque setting. The whole opera was set in a chapel with pigs slaughtered, blood running down the walls & footage of the Auschwitz prisoners. Unbearable - we left. Contrast that with eg. Metropolitan Opera (as far as I know Metropolitan does not have any tax payers' funding) far more approacheable & traditional staging. IMO public money should be spend to the satisfaction of the tax payers not only the stage director's ego. Do you guys actually consider what's the average Kowalski's preference?
I enjoyed this conversation. I'm trying to figure out for myself how two guys from such a progressive and multicultural places ended up finding long term partners in a conservative country like Poland. The other thing I would point out is the Israeli ambassador to Poland, my guess is that he's a typical Jew for some of the Polish people. The claim that the LGBT community was prosecuted for past 8 years in Poland is little silly. Poland has a lot of room for improvement but some reflection on the American realities like crime, homelessness or drug related deaths would be welcomed in such a conversation.
I'm always a bit shocked how people coming to Poland quickly pick up on "kombinowanie" as an actual thing that exists, let alone seeing it as a valid and important practice :)
Hi Michael, i never understand the view that "multiculturalism" is better than "monoculture". I'm assuming by parts of this video you might think this. I'm interested the reasons why someone will think this way, as someone that is a pole but living in a multicultural country i see the dangers and negatives of that system, could you help my understand it better?
53:51 There are interesting studies about humans based on genetics and in short - we're all far, far away cousins. Things like skin color are - as a matter of fact - nothing more than just a concentration of pigments in our skin so just basing on that you can't even talk about multiple races because there is only 1 race - the human race. And it become even more obvious when you reject thinking throuh the prism of evolution THEORY, which is still a theory full of beliefs rather than facts in the way like many religions are full of dogmas.
"Ashkenazi Jewish comes out on the DNA test". That cracked me up. Have you seen the DNA results of any "homogenous" Polish person? It's simply impossible to coexist for 500 years without intermixing. So if you care about genetics, there's hardly anyone here without some % of Jewish ancestry. Unfortunately most people just aren't interested in it.
as someone from an immigrant backgound, idk. i think the idea of diversity as a goal is some sort of weird pandering to upper class white liberals. at its core, it seems classist and racist but i wont expand on that now. i love poland. i nostalgicalyi miss when it was more culturally homogeneous, and it was less divided politically. with globalization and smartphonification, community is eroding. sad. i like how family and friend based poland is, i dont want it to be like america. rahh
the way that some people focus on skintone is creepy to me i have a decent amount of polish family that has olive skin and black hair. sometimes their kids happen to be super aryan looking. who is more white??? who is more polish??? it is a stupid question. culture and personality is so much more indicative of a person than their appearance😭😭 like plsss i think the west never stopped fetishizing and racialising everyone, its just hidden under facades now
@@lerubenfeld totalnie nie to miałem na myśli ja szanuje wszystkich ale z tej rozmowy zrozumiałem tyle że poświeca sie tobie i żydom zbyt mało uwagi. hwała tobie za to że doceniasz swoje korzenie /pochodzenie/. mówisz w swoich filmach ze nie wiesz .... czy jesteś polakiem czy kanadyjczykiem. jednak żydem czy katolikiem sie nie rodzisz to wiara. ja nikomu nie mówie że polacy są meshaszami tej ziemi i bóg stwozył wszystkich. białych, czarnych, zółtych i niebieskich. wiec usmiechnij sie Misek i dalej rób to co robisz nie potrzebujesz niczyjej akceptacji ani pozwolenia.
@@azerenatka dość ciekawe pytanie urodziłem się w gdańsku i do 18 roku zycia wychowałem sie w trójmieście. jednak moi przodkowie pochodzą ze strony mamy ze wschodu. o rodzinie ojca mało wiem bo w zasadzie nigdy nie było to dyskutowane jednak doceniam twoją troskę... o moją higienę pisowni.... to jak podcieranie rzyci jedwabiem... doceniam. urodziłem sie 24.09.1972 roku żeby było jasne.
