Plague!

Discussion in 'Off Topic International' started by -frog-, Mar 13, 2020.

  1. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    It's been two weeks of school here.
    The sanitary regime is still in place - the kids are not allowed to mix between the classes during breaks, or in the canteen, the parents are not allowed in the school building at all, we leave the kids at the doorstep.
    My daughter's a third grade pupil, the 1st-3rd graders have a separate entrance, since they also use the school dayroom, so they are also exposed to greater risk.
    The dayroom was also intended for 4th and 5th graders, but they've ben excluded from it, since they can legally return home on their own.

    There are also other restrictions - whenever a student is found infected, the whole class, including teachers and parents gets quarantined.
    Happened to 5 or 6 classes of Lublin's 30+ high schools, not a single case in the 60+ primary schools found yet (but for example Warsaw has 3 of its 300+ primary schools on partial lockdown).

    Some kids with more sensitive skin already report dermatological issues due to the frequent disinfection, but that's about it.

    The economy seems more fucked up, than the school system, anyway.
    I'm in the process of buying a new house (but I don't want to sell the old one, which I'm intending to rent to pay all the bills), so I have to cover some of that purchase with a mortgage... the typical time for considering a mortgage loan application in Polish market was (prior to the pandemic) 5 to 10 days... now it's like 6 to 8 ... weeks.
     
  2. vasco

    vasco Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2005
    Messages:
    4,375
    Good luck with the mortgage.
    I wouldn't dare to think of a loan, here they're a bunch of sharks with an office dress code. They even got the nerve to complain about the population's weak loan appetite, blaming it on a lack of "financial education". The thing is the rates here are huge and the banks lack honesty.
    I can go on about it, but I'll stop.

    How's the state of mind after the elections?
     
  3. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    Depressive.
    The dark side grew stronger, the power is no longer with the people.
    There's a bit of optimism though - the dark forces won by a margin only, and that hugely unfairly (with the support of state-run television, the entire government, and majority of the so called church).
    Still - I have work, overwhelming quantities, and hence no time for despair.

    As far as mortgages are considered the typical APR here is 2.2 to 2.8, so if I plan a 20-year mortgage the total cost thereof will be less than 1/4 of the sum borrowed (if I succeed with at least some earlier repayments that is). Few people buy real property without a mortgage here, which makes us similar to the western markets, but we (as a nation) have been familiarized with housing loans in the socialist times, and the interruption of mortgage market only lasted some 5 or 7 years (end of 1980's, beginning of 1990's).
    Before finding that house we looked for a plot of land to start our own construction project (which we later abandoned due to lack of sufficient time) and all the landowners we met were rather surprised that we did not need a mortgage to buy (stating that, as a rule, only developers pay cash) - this says much about the current market.
     
  4. vasco

    vasco Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2005
    Messages:
    4,375
    It's the same here.
    We're trying to stop politicians messing one of the most beautiful places in the city. The whole purpose, for them, is to get EU funds. They admitted it to us, face to face.
    But we hardly have time for our family.
    On the other hand, those politicians (state agency personnel, in fact local politicians being given a sinecure) are living happily on public money and taking a nice bribe in the meantime.
    They don't have the time management problems we do and their lives are much simpler.
    One can only envy them.
     
  5. vasco

    vasco Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2005
    Messages:
    4,375
    I see Trump's got it. Any bets?
     
  6. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    My bet's that we (Poles) are going to get fucked, real soon.
    They've closed the schools here when they had 20 cases a day, now it's 2.5k... and the schools are still open.
    As far as Trump is considered - here goes "who needs face masks?" - he had it coming.
    I just hope that he, and all the Americans survive it well... and learn something from it.
    I am the administrator of one of the local facebook groups here (a group for local residents of the district where I live)... just fucked off one of the members for repeatedly posting non-related (i.e. not related to the district and its life) content. The dumbass was a "plandemic adversary", and (since I've warned him in public that I'm kicking his sorry ass out if he posts any of that shit again) there's a shitstorm currently developing.
    2.5k cases (up from some 8-9 hundred throughout September)...
     
  7. vasco

    vasco Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2005
    Messages:
    4,375
    I remember how happy I was when Ceausescu and his wife were executed. On christmas day, yay! I wasn't too much into christmases back then, now I like the food. 31 years ago the food was scarce, now I'm eating like a westerner.

    If Trump dies from a virus, would it mean he was killed by his own kind?
     
  8. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    I remember that I was 12 or something like that when the Caucescu's were executed.
    The recording from that execution was televised in the main evening news here, and almost everyone had Romania's choice for "savage" and "uncivilised".
    We now eat like westerners, we were eating better things back then.
    The food was far less processed, there were far fewer preservatives in it.
    We do smoke our own ham, from time to time.
    When I was doing that with my father, back in 1980s 1kg of store-bought raw ham equaled to some 0.85 kg of smoked ham (we used saltpeter to pickle it overnight first, so the weight loss was not so great and the meat remained juicy).
    Now 1kg of butcher-bought ham will give you 0.7kg of smoked ham, 1kg of superstore-bought ham - 0.6!

    Romania was far different than Poland IIRC.
    We were both poor countries. Romania was poor, cause it was made poor by its rulers (on the other hand Mrs. Caucescu was known, throughout the entire Eastern Bloc, to have thousands of pairs of expensive western shoes - she sent planes to do the shopping for her in the most exclusive boutiques in Paris and Milan). Poland was poor because our rulers "overdone it" in 1970s (Poland took huge loans from the west to modernize itself rapidly, and the leap was huge, but the money was spent recklessly, the spending resembled more a "shopping spree" than sane investments - e.g. we bought licences to manufacture western beverages in 1970s - both from Coca-Cola and from Pepsi - half of the country was served by the license-built Pepsi plant, the other half by Coca-Cola - so if you were lucky (these beverages were always short in supply) you could buy Pepsi or Mirinda in Lublin or Cracow, but in Gdańsk or Warsaw they had Coca-Cola and Fanta instead - stupid, ain't that?).
    The food was rationed here, but only some products - meat, meat products, butter, chocolate, alcohol and sugar.
    We were never short on vegetables, poultry, diary products (except for butter - which was exported in vast quantities to pay for the insane politics of 1970s) and fish - so you can say the shortages have kept us on a healthy diet.
    Romania had serious food shortages due to collectivization of its agricultural sector (something that the commies have never succeeded to do in Poland - we had individual farms, and farmers all that time - moreover, most of the food always came from the private sector) and huge investments in the heavy industry (while Poland was turning away from the heavy industry towards machine industry and consumer goods industry ever since 1970s).
    And - we had the luck to be ruled by the anti-communist opposition, at least in the first years of systemic transformation.
    What happened in Romania was a shuffle of the communist elites, some of which called itself "democratic" at some point.
    We had the economic "shock therapy" applied by Mr. Balcerowicz, you had the slow and prolonged transformation of communist economy.
    Which doctrine was better?
    Well - our came at high social cost in the beginning, yours made you wait for the benefits of transformation far longer, while the cost was comparatively the same, just extended in time.
    Poland was bankrupt in December 1989 (we were unable to even pay the interest on the interest on our debt back then).
    Romania had a clean account in December 1989 (Romania repaid all of its foreign debt before the transformation).
    We also had similar level of DGP (per capita) back in 1989 - 1817 USD in Romania, 1769 USD in Poland. In 2019 these figures were 12483 and 15595, respectively.
    ,
     
  9. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    Grave, grave news.
    We hit "top 5" today (Saturday).
    28k cases in a 37M nation (and that's with over 40% of tests positive, so the "grey number" must be at least 5 times that).
    We're fucked.
    Say a prayer, or sacrifice a chicken, or whatever your gods may require for that end for us (or just praise the almighty FSM during your coffee break).
    I wrote that our govt is just a bunch of monkeys, but they've fucked everything they could.
    Now they're closing the whole country.
    Businesses are closed.
    Schools are closed.
    Universities are closed.
    Bars are closed.
    Kindergartens aren't closed (cause they'd have to pay the parents to stay with their children if they'd close them).
    Churches aren't closed (cause half of their electorate would dislike closing them).
    We're fucked.
     
  10. mcgru-

    mcgru- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2000
    Messages:
    61,265
    Location:
    Tomsk, Russia
    ufff... we have only 21k cases/day among 140M.
    i had a kind of flu 2 times since Sept 2 with same symptoms: 3-4 days having +37.3C then norm. And in that cases i was arounded with wife's "flu" (being at sea, she and her sister felt bad 2 weeks, then sister's analyzes showed covid, so my wife's flu probably was a covid too in light form) and my elder D-i-L's approved covid in ight form. So i think i had lighest form covid 2 times already.

    But anyway - imagine why japaneses had not all died still? They have terrible people density in cities. What is the cause they are still alive?
    I think it is from the masks wearing culture - they struggled bird flu, pig flu, and usual flu many times before - they know what to do.
     
    vasco likes this.
  11. hezzey

    hezzey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2018
    Messages:
    624
    Yeah. I think so too.
    I mean, to reiterate, Japanese people, as a stereotype, DO AS THEY ARE TOLD BY THE BOSS, In My Country [English Speaking part] that is called SHUT YOUR MOUTH, DO AS YOU ARE TOLD AND GET IN THE LINE. Really, that IS a thing said here. And if ya don't like it?
    Off your go into a Logging Camp in the Tundra...
    We have had plagues here, in Canada, before.
    IF a person did not do as he/she was told, they would get stuffed into Box, sat on a flat Car behind a train [Or shot in the head and dumped into the sea.... Life if the shits,........., and set off to a camp... We have done this all before...... Already know what to do.
    This is the land of um, I forget, it dwarfs everywhere, this is a HUGE forest...... LOTS of empty Land, lots of lakes, for a Mouth-Piece to get thrown into...
    Can still happen, that is called the Epidemic Act, or something like that... It means, simply, SHUT-UP, DO AS YOU ARE TOLD, GET IN THE LINE!!!!
    The Yanks are doing pretty bad, I think Canada may Ban Non-essential Travel between Canad and USA [that means Trucks and trains, with food and manufactured good, NO people. Truck Drivers have to go sit in a room and fill out forms, and THEN get the fuck out of here. A logistical headache!!!!!!. There is a quarantine here, not perfect, but we are scared of the [stupid Murkans, not ALL of them are stupid!!!]........ .... WAIT, Already done? March 23????? Oh, okay...
     
  12. hezzey

    hezzey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2018
    Messages:
    624
    be clean, get a mask even if [some people] refuse to, STOP CHANTING STFU!!! you ain't a special Snowflake!!!!!!!!
    Is yer Right to not wear a mask?
    Rights?
    Right?
    JUST DO IT. Better safe than sorry [like Infect yer grandmother right? or the whole family!!!!]
    We are going to beat this, and then we will take time to recover, AND THERE WILL BE ANOTHER, and another and another.
    Time to STOP spitting on the street, coughing into your hands, in each other face, picking yer nose, Don't Like To?
    SHUT UP GET IN LINE DO AS YOU ARE TOLD, and you ain't special!!!
    Don't kill anyone you don't even know! OR DO KNOW!!!!
    I love you all!
     
  13. hezzey

    hezzey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2018
    Messages:
    624
    FUCK That was 8 months ago and the agony continues.
     
  14. mcgru-

    mcgru- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2000
    Messages:
    61,265
    Location:
    Tomsk, Russia
    render?
     
  15. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    Actual footage shot from a drone in March.
    Warsaw has changed, a lot, during the past 30 years.

    That was when we still had 200 cases a day.
    Hard version of lockdown.
    We are nearing 30k now.

    Last time I was in Warsaw was 2 weeks ago (on October 23rd to be more precise), when there were 14k confirmed infections a day, and it took me over an hour to get from the eastern bank of Vistula (near the National Stadium) to the S-17 motorway exit. If I had to travel from the western (major) part of the city, it would surely take me no less than 1.5 hours to do that.

    And you can barely see a car in this video (that's midtown Warsaw, western bank).

    Warsaw's got a major problem with traffic, and it's been so for ages.
    When I'm picking up someone from the airport there (our airport in Lublin is very small, and it serves a dozen or so of international connections only, so we usually fly from Warsaw or Rzeszów) I reserve an hour and a quarter for the first 140 kilometers and an hour and a half for the last 25.
     
  16. mcgru-

    mcgru- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2000
    Messages:
    61,265
    Location:
    Tomsk, Russia
    a week ago there were riots on abortion prohibition - could they be a cause of infection cases increase?
     
  17. -frog-

    -frog- Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2003
    Messages:
    5,303
    Don't think so.
    There were no riots, but peaceful protests (huge).
    Yet the protesters were all disciplined, wore masks...
    Belarus did not experience a significant rise in infection numbers, even with huge street protests continuing for months there.

    I guess the current situation must be linked to the fact that they've opened all schools in September.
    We had a steady level of 500 infections a day for 2-3 months, with controlled foci of infections that were quickly isolated.
    Most of those foci were found in workplaces (larger ones - coal mines, huge meat and poultry processing plants, offices) and following family celebrations (traditional Polish wedding receptions in particular). In the third week of September "source unknown" or "source could not be located" begun to prevail in official reports.
    By October (when they opened the universities) we had 2k cases a day.
    On October, 10th we reached 4k.
    8k on 15th.
    16k on 24th.
    The protests begun on 22nd, with the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal.
    We were fucked before this happened.
     
  18. hezzey

    hezzey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2018
    Messages:
    624
    sorry. Deleted it all. and this is what is left showing!
    Enjoy the tunes that follow!
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
  19. hezzey

    hezzey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2018
    Messages:
    624
    [edited I deleted text]


    Moslty Bullshit lyrics, typical of Macartney] Great title!!!!!
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
  20. hezzey

    hezzey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2018
    Messages:
    624
    Denny Lane was wonderful, I miss him!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guitar wizard!!!!!!
    Paul McCartney is now, fat and a BIG MOUTH, a LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    he organised some good music!!!!!!
    I do NOT pray for Yusif Stalin to come back!!!!!!
    BUT something needs to be done about humanity!!!!
    Simple solution is to enforce birth control.... Is too late. Simple is NOT easy!!!!