Victory!!!

I’ve planned to write about something else, but the evening news of the results of enrolment on Master’s Studies took me aback. To my surprise they managed to announce them before May break… Admitted!
Load off my mind, at least I’m exempted from the entrance exam, now I only have to brace myself for dealing with bureaucracy…
I congratulate mostly the 86 ones who got in with average (of grades) higher than mine. For all of us it should be the day when our efforts are finally appreciated…

PS. I’ve noticed that some of national flags all already hoisted, before Labour Day…
1st May – Labour Day, the Bank Holiday being allegedly a legacy of communism, today nobody cares about marches and rallies and nobody pays tribute to the representatives of (hard) working class
2nd May – Since probably 2004 Flag’s Day, in People’s Poland Caretaker’s Day (Dzień ciecia)
3rd May – restored in the early nineties, an anniversary of enactment of Poland’s constitution the second in the world and first in Europe.
But now, above all the period of joy, taking three days off to have nine-day-long vacation (once in a few years), picnics, barbecues and so on…

Live it up! Grumbling comes on Monday!

Putting a spoke into his wheel?

Diplomacy is one of those realms in which one has to comply with the certain patterns of behaviour, even if they seem unreasonable… That’s why I have conflicting feeling after receiving the news of Polish Prime Minister’s delivering a speech about (doubtless) virtues of balanced state budget and highlighting this as reason why Poland keeps its head above water in the times of downturn. Was it really a dig at reckless fiscal policy of UK, or just a way of emphasising our accomplishments in that field? Tusk didn’t mean (as he claims) to any other economy but more or less involuntarily pounced at failure of Great Britain with its economy declining for the third quarter in a row… Is anybody to explain me if the British media were right to outrage at Tusk’s speech? Was it a blunder to boast about soundness of one’s own economy, while standing next to the Prime Minister of the country engulfed in recession?

PS. In case of MPC (RPP) session – predictably rates are unchanged…

The triumph of ignorance...

I beg you, put me out of misery, do me that one favour… What drove me insane? The ignorance from the title, the ignorance I encounter almost every day, the ignorance proved by the ones who have pretensions to being the young elite of this country. Firstly the young PhD and Head of Department in Institute of National Remembrance, secondly the young commentator in today’s issue of “Dziennik” (Polish daily newspaper, categorised as quality paper, in fact getting more and more gutter press), both made the same mistake, both made fun of the Russians, outstandingly stupid nation, so dense that they celebrated the anniversary of October Revolution in November – in the opinion of both highbrows if the revolution broke out in November, Soviet Union’s Leaders must have pooled wool over comrades’ eyes. Is there any other explanation? For the averagely educated man there’s one, but convincing – in that time Russia used Julian Calendar, the rest of Europe – Gregorian one. Thus, the day of outbreak, which fell in Russia on 25th October, was in the rest of the Europe 7th November. Both Mr Witty Journalist and Mr IPN’s Brainwasher seem to prove they're too dull to know it… (?) Sorry, if I misinterpret their reasoning but the conclusion seems to me quite clear – they’re undereducated! That casts lights on the intellectual predispositions of the elite which tries to undermine accomplishments of the previous generation of intellectuals. The new elite, new generation of IPN’s revengeful historians trying to rewrite the history, as well as journalists advocating the ideas of “IV Rzeczpospolita”, tracking down “Michnikowszczyzna” and looking of an “Układ”… Hopefully Polish society is getting wiser and more often they assess their drivelling and openly criticises pulp their produce and then publish in the newspapers…

PS. I’m looking for the translation of word “Układ” (by J. Kaczyński) into English – all the suggestions are welcome. My own proposal is set-up…

A freak of nature...

Is he just an innocuous lunatic or does he pose a threat for the law and order in Polish politics? Today Janusz Palikot claims that the IPN portfolio of Law and Justice President should be thoroughly probed into, adding it may include discrediting materials. Nothing but the next episode of political war played out by big boys hitting one another with their toys. However, doesn’t it sound dubiously, especially in the mouth of keen advocate of vetting (lustracja), when he says all the portfolios are trustworthy, only the one of him is trumped-up? Poles are masters of relativism, Mr. Kaczyński is thus an embodiment of one of our worst national features (not only this one). No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time (Winston Churchill). In our democracy there’s enough room for both Palikot and the likes of him and small men like Kaczyński and his henchmen.

Just to keep you in the picture...

Cause actually nothing special (watch out for the bright response at 1:30). I got over after the translations, the next commissions don’t appear on the horizon, so hopefully I’ll spend the coming weekend ticking over rather than poring over something.

Except from this, Poland is shaken up by mushrooming reports on the cases of leakages and other irregularities during the gimnazjum final examinations (I’d dare to say it’s an equivalent of British O-Level – correct me, if I’m wrong, as usually). Such things have already happened and will surely happen, so what’s the point in drawing our attention to? Thousands of school leavers fray their nerves, an outgrown (18-year-old) school leaver and a charlady from his school will get to know each other better in a cell, a principal of the hapless landed in the hospital and pupils from the ill-fated school will have to repeat their examination. Tough luck – the price they had to pay for their folly – that’s what we call a collective responsibility…

Meanwhile the crisis is keeping well, Wall Street Journal announces Chrysler is going to go to the wall next week. Worth highlighting is that we all got insesnitive to the crisis, stock exchanges no longer react on the newly revealed data from real economy, IMF revises its forecasts and projects a contingent contraction of Polish economy. Germany and Great Britain are facing the deepest recession since WW2 and at least outwardly nobody cares…

Bank salespeople were looking for new clients on cemeteries and taking down their names from graves to set up current accounts and credit cards for them. Please keep in mind the sentence “How low can they stoop to live up to their superiors’ expectations?” That’s to illustrate the absurdity of sales target plans…

And the last point before the upcoming session of Monetary Policy Council – I’m sticking to the projection of stopover… And now I dash away to sound out what’s going on in the village…

Expect the next expert’s post on the procedures and conditions of submitting BA thesis – that will be a set of guidelines for the ones who got lost in the bureaucratic jungle of Warsaw School of Economics.

PS. Due to redecoration the dean’s office will be closed within the next week…

Debilitating weekend...

...that unexpectedly prolonged on Monday afternoon. After a squabble in the language school (leave it out for now) my ex-teacher called me up just to let me know there was an urgent translation to be done within the weekend. BTW, the foundation which commissioned those translations is the most disorganised institution I’ve ever had the doubtful pleasure to deal with, they even beat off Warsaw School of Economics! The task set me up for the whole weekend, leaving my head spinning and my mind gone blank. I would truly take pleasure in translating challenging text, but the commission I faced was rather bewildering. Some of the PL->EN translations went quite smoothly as they were written in clear and comprehensible Polish, but in some the authors showed off with their ingeniousness conjuring up totally new words, phrase or just writing collocations which didn’t make any sense. The EN->PL pieces, outwardly those simple ones gave me a really hard time. I found it hard to catch on them, as I’m Slav so I could recognise the false friends excessively used by the creators, but sentences made up of simple words but put together without any sense were sometimes beyond my capacity.

Some examples:
Stage – staż
Complex – kompleksowy
Concrete – konkretny
Physical person – literal once again…
Relay on – rely on (repeatedly!)
It remembered a few more but they slipped my mind...

Maybe I’m not entitled to criticise… My English is not perfect, not everybody (including me, in my perception) is linguistically gifted, but shouldn’t those organisations have their original texts translated by a professional instead of producing their own translations in broken English. Lack of knowledge of the language is not a reason to be ashamed, but writing incomprehensible texts confusing the translators give an evidence of ignorance. I know English has become a Latin of twenty-first century, almost everybody speaks it, but must it be so simplified and spoiled?
Hopefully translations are not going to be my future occupation, it’s monotonous, repetitive job, however one has to stress – remunerative…

My father says: “If you put the shit in, you’ll put the shit out”. It’s about computers but the rule applies to translations as well…

The word in a title which sounds funnily and means “physically exhausting”, although the whole tasks has rather worn me down mentally. I came across it when I was trying to find the English equivalent of Polish splendid word “odmóżdżający”. Does anybody better in English than me has any idea of English equivalent?

PS. Micheal – thanks for the free advertising of my blog (btw who actually bumped into whom? :-)). As I supposed (by getting into muddle when telling that) I misled you by saying about the view count statistics, these ones I found once in my webmaster tools stand for google worms, I couldn’t find that utility, screen of which you had put on your blog on my dashboard – where can it be found?

Scrap-bonus…

...is the next abortive idea highlighted on this blog. Preconceived just across our western border by our biggest trade partner. The economists torn a strip off the new project, but even in spite of the pubic disapproval of the initiative, it gained staggering popularity and was prolonged until the end of the year.

Has any of you ever received a gift for which you had had to pay? That sounds only ludicrously, in fact occurs more often than you’d think. The scrap-bonus is nothing but a kind of gift given by the ruling grand coalition to the voters (general elections in Germany will be held this year). Attempts to bolster up the economy before elections are nothing abnormal, you probably are familiar with the theory of political business cycle – but the psychologists point at another aspect of the bonus – the Germans feel they pay too high taxes, the bonus is for some of them a substitute of supposedly due tax return. Pulling back some of the paid tax looks like a method of outwitting local IRS, they point out.

Undoubtedly, as everything financed from the public purse it’s their money, redistributed in an unfair way. The governmental advocates of the programme argue it’s in a way financed by the extra revenues from value added tax, but the independent experts have no illusions – to find funds to provide for the bonuses the government will have to either go into debt or raise the indirect taxes. Whatever it chooses, the taxpayers would be the ones to pay for it, sooner, or later.

Who’s to lose, who’s to gain? – The attempt to answer this question stirs up more troubles than it would seem. The middle class seems to be the key beneficiary of the undertaking – the lower tier’s representatives usually can’t afford to buy a brand new car, but still pay taxes, the richest citizens in the German progressive taxation system shell out, but probably won’t replace their cars with the new ones under the project, for obvious reasons. Among the beneficiaries one can see car dealers, who don’t have to grant discounts and can take the profits, workers employed in the car assembly plants – incidentally mostly abroad, where the autos sold under the programme (the smallest and cheapest ones) are produced.

Counting up the costs apart from 5 billions Euro earmarked for it one cannot omit costs of scrapping and all bureaucracy necessary to serve the whole process.

Why does the car industry? – the next question coming to my mind. Decision-makers point out every seventh position in the industry can be saved through it. Drop in orders for cars would trigger a ripple effect – firstly the car factories and assemblies are closed down then the falling demand hits its all their suppliers and subcontractors, such wave of redundancies reduces in turn the purchasing power of society and sends the economies sliding…

The German government has already made a decision to bring down the one of the thresholds in the taxation system. Since that will the taxpayer, whose annual gross earnings exceed sixty thousand Euro be classified as rich (these days monthly salary in Germany averages out around 3.100 Euro gross). As said by one journalist that’s the next measure to impoverish the German middle class.

Neither of the politicians cares what’s going to happen in the next year. Everybody agrees the bonus must not be prolonged, so in 2010 car sales are to slump! In eight months German economy will not have already recovered from the recession and the end of the scrap-action will inevitably be a blow…

Meanwhile thousands of German visit Poland to buy brand new cars in our salon (interesting why aren’t the forced to buy it in their homeland), additionally profiting from still favourable exchange rates. Meanwhile my mind boggles at the view of German scrap yards full of quite decent vehicles (car produced in 1999 unless it was crashed is still roadworthy!). Supporters of the bonus accentuate that key aim of the project is replacing the old cars with environmental-friendly ones (at what expense?!). Meanwhile other industries have already followed suit – one can get a discount when buying a new bicycle, washing machine, etc., provided he/she gives the previous item back to the shop. Meanwhile the old cars land in scrap yards instead of being sold to Poland and other new EU member states. Poland has already become a scrap yard – according to the recent report on used cars market in Poland, the ones at least ten years old account for almost a half of the registered vehicles (exactly 44,21% - data from March 2009, provided by Samar). If such bonus was introduced in Poland, every second car-owner could get such bonus, but knowing our consumers’ habits only twenty per cent would be able to lay out the remaining sum in cash… Thank God our government keeps away from such unreasonable methods of stimulating demand…

To my mind… Except for the thoughtless waste of public money, which is taxpayers’ money in fact, scrap bonus is an unfair redistribution of common income. I wouldn’t like to finance from my money the purchase of a new car made by my neighbour. If he wishes to buy it, may he pay for it!

But on the other side of the coin there are the ones who really deserved. If somebody buys always a brand new car, maintains it for more than ten years, he should get it… For persistence!

Awaiting the tumble

Yesterday, after the whole day spent on the family round-up, I took a peek at one of the forums to find out what the “pyjama investors” make of the latest rally on Warsaw Stock Exchange. Predictably, their views were divided – some claimed “that train (WIG 20) will reach the station “point 1921” in the upcoming week”, their opponents dampened their enthusiasm by adding “unless it derails”. To my mind, that train is doomed to derail, only the moment it occurs is still unsettled…
In theory, the assets’ prices should reflect its intrinsic value, in practise the prices are fixed by the game of supply and demand, i.e. market forces, consequently, mostly by the moods of investors, or rather speculators. The latter will sooner or later spot the lack of fundamental factors which could drive the indices up, make up their minds and take the profits, getting the return of more than ten per cent within less than two weeks. Neither the performance of companies listed on WSE, nor our economy give the reasons for optimism, that’s why we have just witnessed a bull raid which might have seemed to be the light at the end of the tunnel. Bull market will be back, but not this spring. Maybe the worst is what we’ve left behind, but I’d project a substantial revival not earlier than in 2010. One of the market analyst said in the first half of the year bears would prevail on the trading floor, but in the second have they would give way to the bulls. I’d argue this will be the year of market timing – these would be the insightful speculators (including clever individual players) to seize the opportunity and make a pile…

After a tragic blaze in Kamień Pomorski, in which twenty one people lost their lives, president declared a three-day national mourning. The already fifth one in his term, what gives averagely one mourning in every eights months. Within the whole decade of nineties we had one national mourning, fully legitimate, to commemorate the victims of the flood of the millennium on Down Silesia (death toll exceeded 50). Within the last few years we’ve gone through so many mournings that we no longer care when it’s announced. I do not deny – it’s a dreadful tragedy, the fatalities dying in flames must have suffered a lot, the ones who saved their lives experienced a terrible shock, often amplified by the loss of their relatives. If possible, make at least a token transfer on the account of city council in Kamień Pomorski. It’s probably the best way we can help them, without the feigned sorrow.

Bank PEKAO S.A.
Oddział w Kamieniu Pomorskim
18 1240 3868 1111 0000 4090 8896
z dopiskiem POMOC DLA POSZKODOWANYCH Z POŻARU PRZY UL. WOLIŃSKIEJ W KAMIENIU POMORSKIM

PS. That’s not the first Easter Monday when we’re woken up by the alarming news of tragedy. On Easter Monday, 17th April 1995 gas explosion destroyed the tower block in Gdańsk. Twenty two people, including the alleged perpetrator, died, the building had to be demolished. The causes of the explosion remain unknown.

And a short press review

Today I take a glimpse at deceptive, calumniating, Jewish anti-Law(lesness)-and-(in)Justice press tube – Gazeta Wyborcza, by some called also “Koszerna”. I’m a regular reader of the newspaper, chiefly because it’s fully available in the Internet. Today’s issue turns out to be particularly attractive as it dwells on the topic I find worth touching upon.

1) The crackdown on con men (as I call akwizytorzy) of pension funds trying to dissuade the “fugitives” from transferring their money into a competitor’s fund, resorting to numerous malpractices and misguiding the clients. The business is still lucrative, which proves an e-mail which I received from my schoolmate two days ago:

Witam.
Jak zapewne wiecie zajmuje się między innymi pracą w grupie *** jako agent funduszu emerytalnego. Moim głównym zadaniem jest podpisywanie wniosków z osobami, które chcą do funduszu przystąpić lub go zmienić. Z tym związany jest oczywiście konkretny zarobek i moja propozycja.
Od każdej umowy otrzymuję prowizję w zależności od dochodów klienta. To, co oferuję, to 30% kwoty mojej prowizji za każdą umowę, którą dzięki waszemu poleceniu podpiszę. Oznacza to, że jednym telefonem możecie zarobić od 10 zł do 100 zł. Wszystkimi formalnościami zajmuję się ja. Oczekuję jedynie podania telefonu zainteresowanej osoby i waszego numeru konta :)
Pozdrawiam
******

Left without response, I’m not going to drag anybody into the shady business of the company accused of the aforementioned malpractices…

2) About salespeople (sometimes, God knows why, called also advisors) in one of the most known banks. How to fall into paranoia trying to reach the sales targets and how to torment employees. Dear client – beware!

3) An outcry on the practices of mobile operators, still focusing on ripping off the customers. It’s only our fault – millions of people keep their numbers in Orżnąć, although its rates are prohibitive, call prices two times higher than competitors, but as long as the clients stay with them they get no incentive to cut the rates.

4) According to one of IPN’s historians, former president Lech Wałęsa was unlawfully granted the status of victim of communist regime, Mr. Żaryn called him also an ulcer on institute’s body.

5) Mgr Zyzak, whom I mentioned a few days ago made an appearance in TV show by Jan Pospieszalski. Two henchmen brought together in room, in the second part of the broadcast historians and journalists debated over his book. It transpired that nobody, including prof. Nowak took pains to go through the entire, six hundred pages long book, but everybody compares people attacking the libel as the advocates of totalitarian order. Freedom of the speech is limited by the dignity of fellow members of society…

Zdrowych, spokojnych, wiosennych Świąt Wielkanocy!

Imperviously...

I can’t find the way to abide by the socially accepted rules... I mostly can’t feel sorry for the idiots who make our roads the hell, posing the danger for theirs and our lives. Let’s take the first example – Friday, 3rd April, railway crossing in Nowa Iwiczna. 17-year-old juvenile motorcyclist waits until the freight train heading Okęcie passes through the crossing, then, without second thought pulls out and gets under, or, depending on the account of events, hits into the side of the commuter train heading Radom. I heard the hooting of ambulances running through the main road of the village, but I wouldn’t had known about the accident and wouldn’t had post it, if I hadn’t run across the post below on the Grono.net (Polish social networking second popular website), on the forum of Nowa Iwiczna.


I was struck by this one – situation is preposterous, guy still lies in the hospital and puts up an ad in attempt to sell off his wreak motorcycle (I assume there was not much left after a collision with the train, even running at 20 km/h). Seems that the providence must have watched over him, so that he got out of it almost safe and sound – only with broken limbs and slightly bruised.

Don’t mind the crash now. Almost all people around feel sorry for such victims of road accidents (although the tolerance for motorcyclists, regarded as organ donors is relatively low). I can’t share that sympathy, the guy described above was not a victim (although one would argue he fell victim to his stupidity), he was a culprit. And the last thing – watch out, Bartek turns into old, grumpy grumbler – where were his parents the hell. Would any parent of sound mind buy or let her/his adolescent son ride a motorcycle. For me unthinkable, for other ones quite natural… The story bear testimony of the changes our new-rich society undergoes.

And another remarkable example

The next day he took back his words, justifying he had not wanted AIG executives to kill themselves. Nobody reproached him – that’s the evidence of public disapproval of the state of affairs in financial giants…

The new beginning...

Something’s over – this time it means only one thing – a sigh of relief…
Sigh of relief after an ordeal I went through within the last two days…

Wednesday – for some the Fools’ Day, for some outstandingly clever ones even the Fouls’ Day, for me chiefly the oral exam date and the first time in my life when I was overcome by stress. Sweaty hands, trembling voice – these are the first disturbing symptoms. I’m in a way ashamed – I could have performed much better, victory was within my grasp. Ten minutes passed by very quickly, my overall conclusion was that I was rambling – speaking fast, with some errors, but without the blatant ones, confining only to the basic vocabulary when obviously I could have shown off. I wonder why did the examiner (on LCCI exams examiner serve only as assistants who hold the conversations with the candidates and the discussion is recorded on the tape and sent to London) need five minute long breaks between the interviews? Was she expected to prepare an overview of the candidate, did she take down I had been stressed out but in general up-and-coming? It’s too late to dwell on it, it’s just the thing of the past and it can’t be helped. I’m curious also if the examiners was not spiteful – did she deliberately asked my about my professional occupation when she saw my PESEL number starting from ******? Was it geared to check me, give me a hard time?

Thursday – for the believers the fourth anniversary of Pope’s death, for me only the date of the written part. Self-assured, equipped in my Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary I approached the tasks. By and large, it was the most exhausting exam in my life. The candidates in this series were expected to:
- understand the intricate article from “The Observer” on the styles of management and demonstrate the understanding by explaining idioms, metaphors – overall it checks the ability to read between the lines,
- write a memo based on the text,
- summarise the content of the discussion in 150 words – I failed here, my “concise” summary was up to 200 words,
- write a letter to the superior, justifying a request for a pay rise,
- write a letter to the client of a financial advisor, giving the advice on investment of inherited 250.000 pounds,
- write a report on the connections between health of senior managers and numbers of days taken off,
- write an invitation from a local chamber of commerce to an presentation of a new office software,
- write an advertisement, meant to be placed in a professionals’ magazine to promote a company specialised in training services.
If somebody says it’s a piece of cake – I can only pay tribute to that one – of course it’s feasible, but requires self-possession and coolness. If somebody is about to take it – think it out and practise on the past papers, available on the LCCI Germany website. After all I can only repeat I hate adhering to the examination patterns – I’m not cut out for being put into unnatural situations. The stuff is clearly only for the clued up ones and still young – out of seven people taking it with me one was born in 1981, one in 1982, two in 1985, next two in 1986 and the last one (me) in 1987.

The results, or the sentence will be given in the second half of June.

Came back home dead on my feet, I was so tired out that I found it hard to speak, took a bath, went out like a light.

Today’s the first day of my “part-time holiday” – it means I’m still busy, still learning. Next week I’ll hopefully cut through the red tape and carry through all the formalities linked to submission of my BA dissertation. The feeling of anxiety gradually wears off, after all it’s the time to ease off. Tomorrow I’ll take a break – but not before afternoon – I’ll wash up and clean the car and forget about the endless struggle.

The blog departs from it’s original subject matter, but who cares?

So to refer to the economy and my favourite topic of pension system – the next critical article. It appears that even the experts (excluding prof. Marek Góra from my school – hated by millions of Poles, including me) made out the vivid drawbacks of the system, additionally unveiled by the bear market on Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to the latest news, the average 3Y return of pension funds was around minus three per cent – that goes along with my projections. I truly commiserate the ones who are forced to participate in the fraudulent system…

Here some citations from the article (chosen subjectively)

Ze 120 mld zł, które wpłynęły w ciągu ostatnich 10 lat do OFE, zarządzające nimi powszechne towarzystwa emerytalne (PTE) pobrały jako wynagrodzenie ponad 10,5 mld zł. To prawie 9 proc. przelanych do funduszy składek przyszłych emerytów.
Systemowy błąd w sposobie wynagradzania firm zarządzających OFE - ich przychody niemal w ogóle nie zależą od tego, co najważniejsze dla ich klientów, czyli zysków z inwestycji - najbardziej uzmysławia sytuacja z 2008 roku. Aktywa przyszłych emerytów stopniały o 22 mld zł, a zarządzający OFE pobrali tytułem opłat rekordową kwotę 1,8 mld zł. Z tej kwoty 740 mln zł to ich zysk. Też rekordowy. Dla porównania ZUS, który jest uważany za drogą instytucję, ale wykonuje nieskończenie więcej zadań niż PTE, kosztował nas w ubiegłym roku zaledwie 3,35 mld zł.

(...)

Manufakturowy biznes
Fabryka zysków. Takim mianem są nazywane w dużych grupach kapitałowych działające tam PTE. Ryzyko prowadzenia tego biznesu jest bliskie zeru. Przede wszystkim zapewniony jest stały dochód. Pracujący klient, który musi być członkiem OFE (podobnie jak opłacać składki do ZUS) co miesiąc wpłaca do funduszu ponad 37 proc. swojej składki emerytalnej. A to marzenie każdej firmy, która w normalnych rynkowych warunkach musi walczyć o przetrwanie, klienta i przychody.

(...)

PTE nie konkurują ze sobą praktycznie o klienta wysokością kosztów, jakie musi ponieść. Liczy się tutaj wysokość prowizji od wpływającej do funduszu składki oraz tzw. opłata za zarządzenie. A im są wyższe, tym mniej pozostaje na koncie przyszłego emeryta. Droższy fundusz oznacza więc niższą emeryturę.

(...)

Interes akcjonariuszy PTE i ich klientów jest różny. Im niższe przychody PTE, tym wyższe świadczenia przyszłych emerytów, a niższe zyski zarządzających.

(...)

Obecna sytuacja na emerytalnym rynku nie jest jednak normalna. Zawodzi konkurencja. Fundusze nie rywalizują w praktyce o klienta wysokościami opłat, stosują też zbliżoną politykę inwestycyjną.

It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain...

…as you start out the climb!

You would be dead wrong to think I’m in a peak form today, although I should. But I see one glimmer of hope – after I pass it I’ll finally be able to indulge in learning English as a hobby, without worrying about stupid certificates. You know what I think about them, but as long as they’re recognized it’s useful to hold them. Every exam, including today’s and tomorrow’s one is a matter of luck. Moreover, today is April Fouls’ Day, so presumably everything can happen – but apprehensive Bartek doesn’t feel like playing pranks today, I’d rather be teased by them.
Keep your fingers crossed, if anybody still reads this blog. Some say positive approach can work wonders. As my teacher used to say: JAKOSZ PSZESZYJEMY