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Croatian migrant felt unsafe in Sweden and left to go to amazing Poland


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2018 Apr 19, 10:38am   4,042 views  21 comments

by zzyzzx   ➕follow (5)   💰tip   ignore  

https://voiceofeurope.com/2017/10/croatian-migrant-leaves-unsafe-sweden-now-lives-happy-poland/


Tell us something about yourself and your family

I live in Poland with my wife and my kids. We moved here from Malmö, Sweden, for about two years ago. I came to Sweden with my parents and my siblings when I was a small child. We came from Croatia.

I loved growing up in Sweden: It was clean, safe and everyone was nice to us (well, there of course were some idiots – there always are). I grew up with hard working parents and had a great childhood. It was a good time in my life. My parents did start with nothing and slowly built a life for us.

Sweden allowed me to get an education and a career. I currently work as an IT/tech-specialist at a US-based company. I also have some small side projects involving helping people in Sweden to cope with their situation. I moved my parents over to Poland and my wife’s parents will come here in 2019.

You left Sweden to go to Poland, why is that?

Well… it’s obvious for most people I think. Sweden has been in decay for quite some time now. The schools are terrible, simple medical help takes a long time, the violence is increasing on every level and I simply don’t recognise the country I grew up in anymore.

One other reason was that I felt utterly alone in speaking up about what’s going on in Sweden. On a party almost everyone thinks the same but officially you’re pretty much alone. People are afraid to speak up because those that do are branded racists or populists, It’s very disturbing.

Swedes KNOW that something is terribly wrong but no one speaks openly about it. The media seems to be on the side of the politicians all the time. The people know that migration has led to more crimes, more rapes, more violence, more gangs but the government and media just wants people to focus on the good things about migration. They told the Swedes that migration would save their elderly and would generate billions for the country… and now it seems it’s the opposite that has happened.

But still… the migration must go on. It’s pure madness. Like today – they have “sold” the idea that Sweden has a normal migration rate but no. It’s still very high and society can’t keep up with housing, schools and jobs. Sweden is – and I think most outside Sweden knows this – REALLY BAD at integration.

Another thing was that I traveled a lot for my work and always got a lot of questions about Sweden. People outside Sweden are much more aware than most Swedes can imagine. At first, people talked about how great Sweden was when I started traveling. But lately it’s a different story: people now talk about Sweden as something very weird and disturbing. That was an eye-opener and that happened in less than eight years. You tend to go somewhat blind about stuff when you live in the middle of it. I – thanks to my job – never became that docile.

In Poland people talk like adults. Even about difficult subjects. This is still surreal to me after my time in Sweden. The discussion is totally different here: people are not afraid to talk. At the same time it’s REALLY weird – living here – and then to listen to, or to read Swedish media and what they say about Poland. It’s so much better here and it kind of feels like envy from the former – oh so glorious – Sweden.

The future of Europe stands here. Central Europe is the future. No one in Sweden talks about this. A “Three Seas initiative” or maybe a Central European Union? I don’t know. But for the first time in a long time I feel like I’m home.

You lived in both countries now, what is the difference between Sweden and Poland?

It’s a lot of things. First the culture and history and this is important. They are proud of their heritage. This is not the fact in Sweden. To be a “proud Swede” is racist. I’m an atheist myself but here I tend to go to many church events. Most Poles I know do so as well. I do it because it’s a part of their culture.


I don’t have to believe to find the churches beautiful or the rituals engaging. This is the glue that binds everyone together… and it’s very humbling and beautiful to have the opportunity to be a part of that.

I didn’t know I needed it this badly to be part of something until I came here. It’s important to celebrate history. This is not encouraged in Sweden. But I now know why it’s so important. I’ll never be a true Pole but I will fight for this country if needed. I know… that sounds kind of strange but this is what I feel. Thank you Poland for making me feel like this.

The skills of the people are another example. I work in a tech industry and there’s a lot of talent and a vision here. Much is changing and it’s full speed ahead. Poland is rising, fast, and to be here to be a part of this is awesome. There are a lot of investments going on and I kind of feel the same way I did in Sweden when the IT-era started when everything was possible. It’s easy to find people here with good skills and grit.

The schools… wow. Our kids were pretty wild in school back in Sweden. A lot of whining about homework and they got away with a lot of crap. Swedish schools are like that. It’s all fuzzy and pink clouds and feelings. In Poland… there was none of that.

Today all kids are doing really well. All grades are up. An interesting thing was that the teacher here in Poland had never had such a hard time with new students before. In Sweden… kids in schools get away with pretty much everything. But they love it now and would never go back to their old school in Sweden.

Medical and dental: This is amazing in Poland. Fast, efficient and of very high quality. In Sweden we could be at the emergency room for 12 hours with one of our kids. Here… we’ve never waited for more than 15 minutes.

The real winner is the society. It is safe here, everywhere. No gangs roaming the streets. To watch young Poles greet each other on the street is amazing. You can be out until 3 am and then walk home.

That safety was the real thing for me. I hate worrying when my kids are out or when my wife goes to town with her friends. In Sweden I always feared that one phone call that would make me become an animal. I don’t fear anything when it comes to keeping my family safe. Here I can completely turn that part of me off. And I like that. Here… I can just be me. Father, husband… simply… me.

The people are very friendly and open here. I feel really humbled to the way we’ve been accepted here. Open arms all the way. Poles are awesome. And the food…. Just wow. Watch out for that if you visit. It’s… ehm… easy to get carried away and eat too much. I know because I had to ramp up my training quite a bit to keep up. Eating less was not an option. The food is too good. And it’s clean here. No one throws stuff on the ground. It’s amazing. Everyone just does their part and I love it.

People don’t get offended all the time and cry about it here because adults rule Poland. And it really shows. I also like the architecture, the people, the beer, the gardens and the nature. But also how buses and trains work (they don’t in Sweden). I’m totally in love with this country and its people.

Is there anything you would like to say to native Swedes?

“Stand the fuck up!” Sorry… but that’s what it is about. The time is up and there’s not much time if you want to have a country that you kind of want to live in (it’s now about making the best of what you have – old Sweden is gone). I tried but it was pretty lonely. At the time before we left – most of the people who really talked out loud were pretty fucked up people. Racists and idiots, the ones who did not care and some nationalists with good intentions. Otherwise the standard Swede was absent… asleep, as I call it.

This was one of the reasons I left. My wife was actually afraid her boss would see my Facebook posts and lose her job over it. The articles were nothing bad: from Swedish newspapers, blogs and some of my thoughts. Hahaha… and all my likes were from friends from the Balkans. Hahaha… to brand me as a racist is so dumb but still… that happened.

Also – and I can’t stress this enough – don’t hate or be an asshole against migrants. They’re just trying to make it by their own. Respect that. Redirect your anger, clean it up with good rhetorics and use it against politicians who are behind all the weak laws and who failed to act in time – they are the one who you should be dealing with. Demand answers. When they don’t answer – keep asking.

Read ALL the newspapers and read FOREIGN newspapers. And stop entirely to watch or buy access to mainstream media in Sweden. Hit them where it hurts… their visitor numbers and their ad revenue. Which newspapers are ok to read, you might ask? Don’t. That’s part of the problem in Sweden. Go find out yourself. Read everything and form your own opinion.

And most important of all: STOP being afraid. Speak up wherever you can. It’s YOUR opinion and it matters. Each time you stand up for your beliefs you will become better at expressing it. We all want people to have a good life – we just have different opinions on how to achieve it.

There really are no right or wrong opinions here. If someone calls you a racist, populist or any other dumb emotional crap word – demand to know why. Call the Postmodernists out on everything they direct against you.

And STOP being afraid. Stand the fuck up. And read up on Postmodernism. It’s the new red. Watch out for that and be ready to tackle it. Find others who think like you and try to change things. If you know 100 people… tell them… and then they in turn can talk to their friends. You’re not a grain of sand whose voice doesn’t matter… you’re a part of a larger network that you can influence. You matter, exponentially.

There is this cliché that really fits here. “It’s better to die on your feet than living on your knees”. Of course you don’t die in Sweden if you speak up (but you can lose your job)… but if you don’t you certainly live on your knees if you’re silent. So…

Stand. The. Fuck. Up.

#fucksweden

Comments 1 - 21 of 21        Search these comments

1   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Apr 19, 11:02am  

Great article, Thanks zzyzzx
2   zzyzzx   2018 Apr 19, 11:07am  

Video is complete with English subtitles.

www.youtube.com/embed/s7mWSj2re_M
3   Bd6r   2018 Apr 19, 11:11am  

Very interesting. A few random thoughts: I have not been in Sweden for 20 years now, it must have changed quite a lot since then. If Poland is now safer than Sweden, it's quite an achievement. Poland has its share of drunk, aggressive E. European idiocy, especially in smaller towns, or after football:www.youtube.com/embed/pWXUaupyzBs

What sounds completely true is the persecution of free speech in Sweden, which (hypocritically) thinks of themselves as a bastion of freedom. Unfortunately, same thing starts happening in the US. Perhaps Central European countries will show that it is possible to have honest exchange of opinions without persecution or discrimination.

Another interesting thing about Poland is that they did not suffer much in the Great Recession.
Poland was the only economy in the European Union to avoid recession during the 2008 global financial crisis. Even in 2009, when the whole EU went into recession, Poland continued to grow at 2.6 percent. Today, Poland’s economy is a quarter larger than at the onset of the crisis, while the economy of the EU as a whole grew by only 0.7 percent. Poland’s impressive performance has also been driven by a healthy banking sector. Polish banks remained profitable, liquid, and well-capitalized throughout the crisis. They did not need a single dollar of public support. In contrast to most other EU countries, Poland’s banks managed to increase lending to the private sector during the crisis, supporting the country’s growth.

Poles were the butt of jokes in US, but these days they appear to be doing things correctly.

They also had nearly all their leadership killed in a plane crash, probably orchestrated by Putin, who is unconditionally loved by many on Patnet. http://smolenskcrash.eu/
4   Patrick   2018 Apr 19, 11:18am  

My grandmother was from Poland, and I visited her village of Tuliszków when I was in Europe in college. Times were hard when I visited, but Poland has been on an amazing trajectory since liberation from Communism. It's probably a good place to invest, going to keep growing its economy rapidly.

Poles are proud because they have been stomped on from both east (Russia) and west (Germany) repeatedly, just from having the bad luck of being a very flat country between two larger powers. They have their own identity and they want to keep it. That is their strength, something Sweden just does not have anymore, as the article mentions. So we see Sweden on the decline and Poland on the rise.
5   Patrick   2018 Apr 19, 11:27am  

drB6 says
Poland has its share of drunk, aggressive E. European idiocy, especially in smaller towns, or after football


Those football (soccer) idiots actually have great value in a society. I changed my mind about them after reading about the English soccer lout who literally beat an attacking Muslim terrorist with a chair and nearly lost his life:

A football fan reportedly yelled “F**k you, I’m Millwall” as he single-handedly took on the three knife-wielding London terror attackers armed with nothing more than his fists.

Roy Larner has already been hailed a hero, with a petition launched for him to be awarded the George Cross medal for his actions in the Black and Blue steakhouse on Saturday night.

In fighting back, the 47-year-old Millwall fan gave dozens of others who were in the Borough Market restaurant the chance to escape.


https://www.independent.co.uk/News/uk/home-news/london-bridge-terror-attack-fk-fuck-you-im-millwall-hero-roy-larner-football-fan-lion-of-london-a7775246.html

Note that even the site reporting on his resistance to Muslim terrorists refuses to call Muslim terrorists Muslims, but instead uses "terror attackers" who just happen to be shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "This is for Islam."

So while Millwall is known to have the most violent fans, such people do have a useful function and we should be more appreciative of them.
6   RWSGFY   2018 Apr 19, 11:29am  

What a Nazi!
7   Bd6r   2018 Apr 19, 11:38am  

rando says
Those football (soccer) idiots actually have great value in a society. I changed my mind about them after reading about the English soccer lout who literally beat an attacking Muslim terrorist with a chair and nearly lost his life:

I was actually thinking about exactly the same five minutes ago.

It certainly is not pleasant at all, and even dangerous, to meet those people on the street. I had an extremely unpleasant experience in Moscow in late 1980's - but soccer fans were busy fighting with each other so I managed to escape without damage. They also trash public and private property. However, in times of crisis they may serve useful purpose. In Ukraine, after Russian invasion in 2014, they were the (dis)organized force that did not allow Russian operatives to take over several East Ukrainian towns. www.youtube.com/embed/GmaM2c37I1o
8   RWSGFY   2018 Apr 19, 11:50am  

drB6 says
In Ukraine, after Russian invasion in 2014, they were the (dis)organized force that did not allow Russian operatives to take over several East Ukrainian towns.


Obligatory:
www.youtube.com/embed/LloyKD8Eb-g
9   EBGuy   2018 Apr 19, 12:31pm  

Interesting to see what is happening across the pond.
www.youtube.com/embed/tJ0PZGKYd-Q
10   Ceffer   2018 Apr 19, 12:37pm  

Yeah, historically, Poland is like the guy in the bar who gets caught between a couple of nasty 300 lb. pugilists. Germany and Russia would alternatively advance, rape, pillage, burn and then withdraw, rape, pillage, burn in each direction across Poland. It's amazing they have kept any cultural identity at all.
11   Patrick   2018 Apr 19, 12:49pm  

Tommy Robinson is an interesting guy:

https://tommyrobinson.online/latest/
12   EBGuy   2018 Apr 19, 2:00pm  

Patrick says
Tommy Robinson is an interesting guy

To bring it back to Pat.net's bread and butter.... The government was so desperate to put him in jail and out of the public eye that they combed all the financial/business/tax records of his extended family. They finally got him for making a loan to his brother which was used to purchase a home. His BIL misrepresented the loan money as his own and used it to get financing for a flip. At least that is Tommy's account; MSM accounts differ but I haven't seen source documents that detail his involvement in a greater consipiracy.
13   Heraclitusstudent   2018 Apr 19, 2:40pm  

Ceffer says
Yeah, historically, Poland is like the guy in the bar who gets caught between a couple of nasty 300 lb. pugilists. Germany and Russia would alternatively advance, rape, pillage, burn and then withdraw, rape, pillage, burn in each direction across Poland. It's amazing they have kept any cultural identity at all.

In some ways the Polish are just Russians that are catholic instead of orthodox, and use a mostly latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic.
They eat borscht and drink Vodka too.
They will hate me for saying that.
14   HeadSet   2018 Apr 19, 2:47pm  

In some ways the Polish are just Russians that are catholic instead of orthodox, and use a mostly latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic.
They eat borscht and drink Vodka too.
They will hate me for saying that.


So what is a Ukrainian?
15   Heraclitusstudent   2018 Apr 19, 2:48pm  

Not sure about Ukrainians.
16   lostand confused   2018 Apr 19, 2:51pm  

EBGuy says
To bring it back to Pat.net's bread and butter.... The government was so desperate to put him in jail and out of the public eye that they combed all the financial/business/tax records of his extended family. They finally got him for making a loan to his brother which was used to purchase a home. His BIL misrepresented the loan money as his own and used it to get financing for a flip. At least that is Tommy's account; MSM accounts differ but I haven't seen source documents that detail his involvement in a greater consipiracy

Sounds like what is ahppening to Trump and if they succeed the rest of us .
17   HeadSet   2018 Apr 19, 3:05pm  

Sounds like what is happening to Trump and if they succeed the rest of us

Bingo!
18   Ceffer   2018 Apr 19, 3:35pm  

The computer game series "Witcher" was developed in Poland by a Pole, who based it's story line on Polish mythologies and Polish history. It's a dramatic, rich old world tapestry that is interesting to play through in the game. Poland is mostly flat, but the topography in the game has a lot of small, rolling hills and glades, lakes etc. which are quite beautiful.
19   CBOEtrader   2018 Apr 19, 4:25pm  

Heraclitusstudent says
Not sure about Ukrainians.


lived in ukranian village in chicago for many years. the russians, ukranians and polish all spoke russian to each other.

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