Poland and Everything Polish: The Modern Look

Let's talk about everything Polish: culture, food, fashion, modern brands, as well as Polish heritage, and travels in Poland.

Poland is a country that has changed tremendously in the last two decades. As economists point out, it is one of the largest economies in the European Union, and the only one which hasn't suffered from the last recession. Economic development is accompanied by changes in many other fields, including Polish culture, fashion, lifestyle of contemporary Poles, and even food, and restaurant scene in Poland.

As a country with long and interesting history, Poland has a very diverse and fascinating tradition, habits, and heritage. From Polish folk art, such as paper cutouts (wycinanki), to Polish traditional food, such as world famous pierogies (Polish dumplings), kielbasa (sausage), and vodka. However, there are also many other things that are typically Polish, and equally, or even more, interesting. While they are less famous internationally, all those things are definitely worth learning about.

Take Polish food and restaurant scene. Polish traditional dishes bring to mind a hearty peasant meals - pork shnitzel (kotlet schabowy), pickles (ogorki koszone) and sausages. However traditional Polish cooking as practiced in the houses of the Polish aristocracy and bourgeoisie has much more to offer. Just think of tenderloin steak tartare, Polish cheese (twarog or tvarog), Polish cheesecake, apple-pies, smoked eels, roast venison, roast duck with apples, as well as the many forest mushrooms. All these tastes are totally delicious and worth a bit of mess while cooking from scratch. Plus, their revival can be observed in any Polish restaurant, bar, cafeteria, coffee-shops, even cubs etc. from Warsaw, to Gdansk, to Poznan, to Wroclaw, and Krakow.

What is more, it is totally worth checking out the contemporary Polish art, culture, and fashion. Starting form the more intellectual side, Poland has been long a country of talented filmmakers (such as Roman Polanski), and there are many interesting contemporary movies made in Poland. The same can be said about Polish literature, theater, and Polish design and architecture, which often makes news in professional media. Fashion-wise, Poland is not only a birth-place of many famous top-models, but also it is a good place for fashionistas. There are plenty of Polish designers and Polish brands worth window shopping or even shopping. Polish street-fashion with a touch of hipster and vintage look is also amazing.

All these Polish elements make this country worth visiting, and travelling around, during Euro 2012 or any other occasion. Just be sure to sightsee Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Gdansk, and Sopot, as well as a national parks and nature spots, such as Mazury (Mazuria), Bialowieza, Zakopane, Tatry, and others.

Fair Tax: Good for Everyone?

The Fair tax is a tax proposal that would replace all federal income taxes on personal and corporate income with a new consumption based tax system. The fair tax would tax us only on what we choose to spend on new goods and services, used goods would be exempt under this proposal. While the fair tax might sound like a good idea at first. When you stop and think about it, the fair tax proposal does not sound quite as good as some might lead you to believe. The fair tax taxes at a rate of 23% of every dollar you spend including the tax. Therefore, out of every dollar you spend, 23 cents of it would be taxes. This makes the 23% a little misleading because it is actually a 30% traditional sales tax.

When I first heard about this proposal, originally it sounded like a good idea to me. No taxes on money you earn, just on what you choose to buy. Sounds great right? However, after examining it a little further, here are some of the problems I see with it. First off, it hurts new car and home sales. Why would anyone buy a new car or a new home? When they can buy a used car or home and pay no taxes. Therefore, it would hurt jobs in the automotive and housing sectors. Then there is the fact that the more money you make the less of a percent of it you spend on new goods or services. Therefore, the rich would pay significantly less taxes because the tax system would be based on how much you consume not how much you make. The middle and poor classes would end up paying more in taxes under this proposal, based on the simple fact that they spend a much higher percent of their income on necessities.

The fair tax proposal does nothing to address government spending. Until the federal government can learn to stop spending frivolously, any proposal that is come up with will be in vain. We as a country need to let congress know that we are tired of the way they are handling our tax dollars. That the government needs to stop wasting tax dollars on wars and things that we should not be involved in and start living within our means. Until we start to pay off the national debt, it will continue to be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

So is the fair tax proposal good for everyone? You decide.

Burn, Baby, Burn

What would it be like to watch your home burning down to the ground and you escaping with just the clothes on your back while a team of firefighters stand around refusing to put out the fire, and seeing their fire trucks sitting in the distance doing nothing to help?

Unbelievably, this is what happened to a couple who hadn't paid a $75.00 annual subscription fee to their fire department. In the underworld, this is known as a protection fee. If you pay it, your business can live to see another day. If you don't pay it, don't count on the survival of your business.

Into this mix, is the mayor of that town who, in his infinite wisdom and humanity said, "If they don't collect fire fees, the fire department can't survive and if they make exceptions to the rule, no one will ever pay the fee."

When I read that news item, I was not only shocked, I was furious. That people could be so cold-hearted and emotionally stunted, is beyond my imagination. The mayor is an elected official and, presumably, he and the firefighters have to take some kind of oath to protect the citizens to the best of their ability.

I looked up the word firefighter in two dictionaries just to see how they defined the word. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary gives as its definition, "one who fights fires, especially for a living" and Cambridge Dictionaries Online says, "someone whose job is to stop fires and to save people and property from being harmed."

Obviously, these firefighters don't know the meaning of the word firefighter or they wouldn't have deliberately destroyed someone's home, regardless of the reason. Their actions had as much criminal intent as those of an arsonist.

Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What goes up, must come down. In our daily lives we experience it in terms of reaping what we sow. It has a boomerang effect in that our every word, thought and deed comes back to us. To put it another way, this universal law is known as the law of karma.

We may not fulfill the retributive karma right away or even with the same people, but we will fulfill it at some point. And it always comes back measure for measure.

The other day this couple lost their home due to the callous treatment by the team of firefighters and the mayor. The law of karma may take years for it to be experienced by every member of that team but they will all experience it at some point, no matter how long it takes.

If it happens many years from now, these people may not see the connection, but if it happens soon, most of those people may see the light.

Visualize this scenario: a huge fire breaks out in that city and every firefighter is sent to cover it. The mayor rushes to the scene for an op ed opportunity to get his name in the newspapers and interviewed on television. Meanwhile, there is a fire at the mayor's house and no one in the neighborhood is around to report it. While he is getting his picture in the papers, his house burns down. Add to that, he has forgotten to pay the premium on his homeowner's policy and they drop him. Now he has no insurance, no home, no clothing, and no valuables.

It is just a couple of weeks till Christmas and this couple whose house was left to burn down to the ground won't have much to celebrate this year. They got out of the house alive, but they have nowhere to live, nothing to eat, and no clothing to survive the winter weather.

If the law of karma were put into play now, the spirit of Christmas would burn as intensely bright for the mayor and his firefighters as it will be for the couple whose home they intentionally destroyed by their refusal to save it. And every bite of their Christmas dinner would taste like the ashes of destruction they deliberately caused these people who didn't bow down to their demand of a $75.00 protection fee.

Just when we thought that protection fees were only associated with underworld crime, we find out that elected officials and people who are put into a position of trust, are just as capable of violence and a lack of humanity as the mob bosses and their henchmen.

by Connie H. Deutsch

Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver. She is known throughout the world for helping clients find workable solutions to complex problems.

Connie has hosted her own weekly radio show, been a weekly guest on a morning radio show, done guest spots on radio shows around the country, and appeared as a guest on a cable television show. Connie wrote a weekly newspaper Advice Column for sixteen years and has been invited to speak at local colleges and given lectures around the country. She also wrote the scripts for a weekly financial show on cable television.

Connie is the author of the book, "Whispers of the Soul" and is the co-author of an E-book, "Getting Rich While the World Falls Apart" which is being offered as a free download on her website. She has also written and produced two CDs on Meditation and Relationships and has done coaching on customer service and employee relationships.