Why all Irish (including officials and media) categorize Polish as eastern european?

beldub

There is two raesons why I am asking.
Firstly as Pole i hate to be categorize as eastern european beause of the long Polish history which rather shows us as a part of western europe and a link between East and West.
Unfortuantelly , since the II World War when we were pushed in to the communist block it looks like whole Western Europe got used to call us easterns.
secondly according to the geographical analysis Poland is in the centre of Europe or very close to that point.
as per following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_centre_of_Europe

punky

Why? Because most Irish people are ignorant of the outside world.
Don't be too hard on us though. It is human nature to categorise people, especially into 'us' and 'them' or 'eastern European' or 'African'.

With plenty of people like yourself coming here that will hopefully change.
Failte.

Tom Dunne

punky wrote:

Why? Because most Irish people are ignorant of the outside world.

That is an incredibly arrogant thing to say and utter bull.

It more likely to do with the partition of Europe after WW2 - the division of Germany was essentially the division between East and West Europe.

landser

... you are from eastern europe. if being called from eastern europe is your major gripe, you're not doing too bad

http://www.mytravelguide.com/g/maps/Eastern-Europe-map.gif

mike65

The last time I looked Poland was between Germany and Russia that makes it east not west. 1823.72 km from Dublin to Warsaw. Its "outlook" on the world is besides the point, Greece is east European too.

Mike.

monkeyfudge

It's not much different to the people getting annoyed at Ireland being refered to as part of the British isles in the other thread.

As a general rule all the the EU ascension states like to think of themselves as Central Europe.

mike65

I suppose it depends (geographicly) if you include western Russia as part of Europe.

Mike.

Archeron

monkeyfudge wrote:

It's not much different to the people getting annoyed at Ireland being refered to as part of the British isles in the other thread.

As a general rule all the the EU ascension states like to think of themselves as Central Europe.

Thats exactly what I thought, and the answer from me is similar to my answer on the British Isles thing. Simply a geographical thing.

OP, is there some sort of insult in being called Eastern European, or do you hear people use it as anything other than just a compass point? Eastern European to me holds no connotation other than a person being from a country that is on the Eastern half of Europe, thats all.

monument

beldub wrote:

There is two raesons why I am asking.
Firstly as Pole i hate to be categorize as eastern european beause of the long Polish history which rather shows us as a part of western europe and a link between East and West.
Unfortuantelly , since the II World War when we were pushed in to the communist block it looks like whole Western Europe got used to call us easterns.
secondly according to the geographical analysis Poland is in the centre of Europe or very close to that point.
as per following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_centre_of_Europe

It's a geographical term. The "centre of Europe" isn't a term used much, Poland is east of centre, thus eastern.

Why do you have a problem with the term?

punky wrote:

Why? Because most Irish people are ignorant of the outside world.

???

monkeyfudge wrote:

It's not much different to the people getting annoyed at Ireland being refered to as part of the British isles in the other thread.

Yeah, it's not because remember the Eastern Europe Empire, the bas tards.

28064212

Because Eastern Europe is not referring to countries that are geographically east of the centre of Europe, it's referring to the former communist bloc. It's a political distinction that happens to include a geographical term.

The British Isles are a geographical name.

philologos

beldub wrote:

There is two raesons why I am asking.
Firstly as Pole i hate to be categorize as eastern european beause of the long Polish history which rather shows us as a part of western europe and a link between East and West.
Unfortuantelly , since the II World War when we were pushed in to the communist block it looks like whole Western Europe got used to call us easterns.
secondly according to the geographical analysis Poland is in the centre of Europe or very close to that point.
as per following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_centre_of_Europe

Germany is more the defining point of the center of Europe in my opinion

Ruu_Old

I don't see why there is a problem with being categorized as East European, its just a geographical thing as mentioned by others.

philologos

if you were to divide Europe in half, Poland would be on the eastern side, simple really

bubthatub

punky wrote:

Why? Because most Irish people are ignorant of the outside .

where do you get off on sayin that

jum4

It's just a phrase, live with it! Poles/Czechs etc have always been referred to as eastern Europeans, now more and more wish to be referred to as central Europeans, a phrase which has never been a part of day to day language. As for wanting to be called Western Europeans, that’s just vanity.

As far as I’m concerned anything west of London is eastern Europe!! (lol should read east)

aidan_walsh

mike65 wrote:

I suppose it depends (geographicly) if you include western Russia as part of Europe.

Mike.

Indeed. Some maps list continental Europe as far east as the Ural mountains in Russia, and as far south as Azerbaijan, which would put Poland central. However, politically Poland is Eastern European (Union).

The CIA World Factbook lists Poland as "Central Europe, east of Germany". For clarification, they too list Russia as being in Europe as far as the Urals.

Interesting idea for a discussion. Politics, before it gets too AH'd?

GreenHell

Anything east of Germany is eastern europe to me. No reason for it personnally, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the iron curtain.

Terry

anywhere east of Ireland is eastern europe.

anyway, i've always thought of poland as being in central europe.

Flukey

It is more a geographical term, though there is the political element, coming from the Iron Curtain. The Urals in Russia mark the actual eastern point of Europe. You do get other terms like Scanadanavians or southern Europe or more commonly Mediterranean countries. You have the Balkans and Baltic states too. So I don't see any real problem with Eastern Europeans any more than South Americans, West Africans etc., as terms that cover a general area including more than one country.

monument

28064212 wrote:

The British Isles are a geographical name.

No, "British Isles" (sic) (when used including Ireland) is a geographical term which stemed from the political, an out of date political term, and, as the real* meaing of the term is out dated, it's also an abuse of the English language.

(* what most people think it means/implys)

aidan_walsh

monument wrote:

No, "British Isles" (sic) (when used including Ireland) is an out of date political term, the geographical stemed from the political, and, as the real meaing of the term is out dated, it's also an abuse of the English language.

Yeah, we're having that discussion over here.

jum4

monument wrote:

No, "British Isles" (sic) (when used including Ireland) is a geographical term which stemed from the political, an out of date political term, and, as the real* meaing of the term is out dated, it's also an abuse of the English language.

(* what most people think it means/implys)

yawn, only the millionth time this has been brought up

Terry

and your point is?

please add something constructive to the thread or don't post in it.

ircoha

beldub wrote:

There is two raesons why I am asking.
Firstly as Pole i hate to be categorize as eastern european beause of the long Polish history which rather shows us as a part of western europe and a link between East and West.
Unfortuantelly , since the II World War when we were pushed in to the communist block it looks like whole Western Europe got used to call us easterns.
secondly according to the geographical analysis Poland is in the centre of Europe or very close to that point.
as per following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_centre_of_Europe

wiki is unregulated so cannot be relied upon.

The way the gravy train from Brussels works is that the lolly flows east and west from the centre so if the OP {old Pole?] wants to be classified as central then the lolly stops. { move to humour]

My take is that we really mean eastern EU

robinph

Anything on the other side of Greenwich is east, how much clearer does it need to be?

Dyr

beldub wrote:

There is two raesons why I am asking.
Firstly as Pole i hate to be categorize as eastern european beause of the long Polish history which rather shows us as a part of western europe and a link between East and West.
Unfortuantelly , since the II World War when we were pushed in to the communist block it looks like whole Western Europe got used to call us easterns.
secondly according to the geographical analysis Poland is in the centre of Europe or very close to that point.
as per following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_centre_of_Europe

yes after being battered by the krauts and then steam rollered by the russians and becoming a part of the red threat to western democracy for FORTY FEKIN YEARS us westerners somehow got the idea that you were eastern europeans, just like all those other commie states plotting the downfall of the west from behind the iron curtain, however can we apologize? :rolleyes:

deaddonkey

it's categorised as Eastern Europe...

because that's exactly what it is.

It's part of the former easter bloc. commies, n all that. it also happens to be east of central europe.

makes sense when you think about it. if you're offended by that, then you've no real concerns in your life.

RattSalad

Check out some of the new threads in after hours.

Dave!

Anything east of the borders for Germany, Austria, and Italy, is Eastern Europe in my mind.

Black Swan

It's all relative.:rolleyes: Well, it's east of something and west of something else. Never been there. It's on my list of places I would like to go.

Tha Gopher

punky wrote:

Why? Because most Irish people are ignorant of the outside world.

If i were to ask you before this thread was created what part of Europe is Poland located in you would have said Eastern Europe. Please dont lie and say you wouldnt have. Germany etc is the west. Sweden and Finland are the north. Czech Rep is central. Poland is East, andformer Yugoslavia is south east. I dont use terms like quit trolling, so therefore quit posting crap. Please

Or is it simply a case that if shown an unmarked map of Europe you couldnt actually find Poland, and you regard it as western Europe because you think its located somewhere south east of where you assume Belgium is?

robinph

DaveMcG wrote:

Anything east of the borders for Germany, Austria, and Italy, is Eastern Europe in my mind.

Except for Greece which is Western Europe.

Pigman II

why all Irish (including officials and media) categorize Polish as eastern european?

Eh cos if you drew a vertical line north south halfway between most Westerly and Easterly parts of Europe (Iceland and Turkey for the sake of arguement) then you'd be on the right-hand-side of it buddy.

beldub

Pigman II wrote:

Eh cos if you drew a vertical line north south halfway between most Westerly and Easterly parts of Europe (Iceland and Turkey for the sake of arguement) then you'd be on the right-hand-side of it buddy.

ok , basically that was what i was meaning:
if you do that you will see that Poland is in the centre of Europe. Centre point will be somewhere near to medieval city called Torun.
I can understand that geographical facts doesnt bother people to much so just wanted to find out why Pols are being called easterns (it's not an offense , just sounds for me like I would be still somewhere closer to Moscow than to Berlin eg.) I think it's more than likely bacause that's what people keep in their minds here.

Terry

anyone want to make a map. i'd do it myself, but i suck at microsoft paint and the programme i used to use is gone from my pc and i can't remember what it was called,so i can't download it.
if anyone knows which one i'm talking about, i'll do up a map of west, central and eastern europe.
it's a programme that is part of microsoft office and you can resize and crop pictures and stuff with it.

Dave!

I was trying to do one, but it's too feckin awkward, so I gave up.... bleh......

Dyr

well its been a while since my geography classes but i'll do me best chief

Pocari Sweat

I would rather just say it is just a geographical matter and leave it at that.


Father Jack Hackett, knew his stuff too, and when deep spiritual and religious matters were offered for him to chew on, he politely and quite wisely gave the response, - "that would be an ecumenical matter."

Ruu_Old

Bambi wrote:

well its been a while since my geography classes but i'll do me best chief

Good enough for me. Quality map making skills there.

exiztone

Is this guy saying he's more 'European' than the other 9 countries that joined the EU in 2004? Seems more of a shame issue than a pride issue. Well, we can call you whatever you want, we do let Israel into Eurovision after all. :rolleyes:

Pocari Sweat

That would be a geographical matter.

Sangre

Former soviet bloc = eastern european

qed.

Pocari Sweat

Now Poland is in Europe is it Western?

Would that be a geopolitical matter?

Terry

well australia is regarded as a western country in political terms. geographically it is far from part of the western hemisphere.