A Polish Allegory

[scott123]

Imagine, if you will, Hitler stopping at Poland and the Allies negotiating a peace treaty that lets him keep it. Move the clock 30 years forward. On all maps, Poland is now Germany.  Nobody's too ecstatic about it, but a great portion of the world no longer views Poland as Poland.  Many Poles (most of the young, possibly even a majority of the nation) self identify as Germans.

A small, dedicated resistance has been active all of this time, waiting for their chance to retake their country.  These freedom fighters reach out to the rest of the world and ask for our help.  What do you say?  Do you say, "well, it's been 30 years, you know, a lot of your people are perfectly fine being Germans, why are you causing such a fuss?" A nation has been annexed, and, for all intents and purposes, it's looking a heck of a lot that the annexation will stick. It also seems apparent that these freedom fighters are vastly outnumbered and don't stand a chance. What do you do?

Do you let Poland naturally morph into what many Poles now perceive it to be, based on what it's turned into? Or does the historical identity of Poland, the Poland of 30 years ago, the 'unadulterated' representation of Poland, have a right to be restored?

[shuboyje]

am I the only one who just wished they had a nice 18" poland to eat right now?

[fazzari]

Scott
The most interesting part of your allegory to me is this.......looking at the realities of the current day, for instance, a Turkish immigrant to Germany does not become a German...he remains a Turk and so do his children.

Your passion shines through in your writing Scott...you have a gift!!

John

[Don K]

When I first saw the title of this thread, I read it as poolish instead of Polish.    A poolish allegory would be pretty strange.

You should be an author Scott.

 

[TXCraig1]

Poland is the name of a piece of land. It doesn't have rights. The people who live in Poland have rights, and since the vast majority are perfectly happy being Germans, no I don't start a war to restore Poland even if I think it would be better for them. Besides, I hear that there are pockets inside of Poland where the complete cultural heritage has been maintained. What's more, the German government will allow these areas to grow without limit if the people so choose. So far they have not. Forcing a war on a population is not how you wind their hearts and minds.

Now if Poland had as much oil as a cheap NY slice, things might be different...

[parasol]

hello all

very interesting topic. actually now that Poland is still not fully independent state. even during the Second World War, the Allies left it at the mercy of Russia. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin came to terms and decided the fate of Eastern Europe. In 1989 the ruling Polish Communists, under the patronage of Russia held a change of the socialist political system to "capitalist". Unfortunately, in this way, not only Poland freed itself from the Russian health but was under the influence of an increasing Germany, the actual rulers of the European Union. today, despite the Polish involvement in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries of Western Europe and the USA in silence looking at the plane crash of the Polish president and 95 people on board in 10.04.2010r. more often and harder Polish patriots (including young people) like a national identity on the occasion of national holidays such as the Warsaw Uprising (1 August 1944) - presentation by armed against German troops occupy Warsaw, organized by the Army as part of the "Storm", combined the disclosure of official business and the highest structures of the Polish Underground State and National Independence Day - the Polish festival, celebrated every year on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of the revival of the Polish nation independent statehood in 1918 after 123 years of partitions by Austria, Prussia and Russia.

Poolish

Poolish in the name of creativity, even celebrates Polish bakers. Emigrating in the early eighteenth century, they took with them the techniques that cultivated in France thanks to the tradition of baking "breads with character", survived decades as such Baguettes. And so poolish is often identified with the French bakery as biga in Italian.
Poolish obtained from mixing equal amounts of flour and water (100% hydration) and a small amount of yeast ... like the thick pancake batter. The batter consistency with such loose enzymes act quickly, contributing to increase the flexibility of the dough (facilitated formation), and later baking volume.

I greet

Peter

ps. I'm sorry for my bad English

[cornicione54]

There's a very interesting discussion on the origins of "poolish" here http://www.facebook.com/groups/universalbread/359464910780241/

It seems the conventional wisdom (inc. Calvel) that it is of Polish origin may be wrong.