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In memory. And in anger.

(Photo source: Roza Zah) I don't want to go into details of the dramatic forced landing of a plane (misleadingly reported as a 'crash' by the majority of Romanian press) in the Apuseni mountains near Cluj on Monday afternoon. You can find reports all over the web. Suffice to say, this is another affirmation of "Copilul cu multe moașe rămâne cu buricul netăiat" (too many cooks spoil the broth) with tragic consequences underlining a fatal allergy to responsibility, accountability and professionalism in positions where dedication should be a prime factor....

On board the fated plane were two pilots and a medical team of five on their way to Oradea to perform surgical resection on a liver that had to be taken to Bucharest for organ donation.

(Photo source) All seven passengers survived the moment of impact itself, but two tragically succumbed whilst waiting for emergency services that took a mind-boggling SIX HOURS to show up. I do not want to speak of the dispicable bungling, the unbelievable ineptitude and the scandalous arrogance of Radu Stroe (Interior Sinister) and Ramona Manescu (Sinister of Transport) either for it would simply unleash a great spewing of invectives on my part (and perhaps yours too). You can read it all HERE in any case.

The five surviving passengers are currently hospitalised, reported to be stable and under constant medical supervision.

An enquiry is currently underway to clarify WHY it took so long for help to arrive at the crash site. So far, reports say Ponta has fired the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) Secretary of State Catalin Chiper, and asked the Transport Minister to replace two managers (general and operations) at ROMATSA (the state-owned company that administers air traffic services in Romania). He seems to like Stroe too much to get rid of him, however. 

"My first conclusion based on the report drawn up by Deputy Premier Gabriel Oprea is that there were unacceptable deficiencies in the search and rescue operations. In three important institutions, the Interior Ministry (MAI), ROMATSA and STS, things went unacceptably slowly", said Ponta. "Irrespective of subjective reasons such as human error and unfavourable weather, on the basis of the report I have in front of me I believe the intervention on Monday was a failure," he continued.

Too bloody right it was a failure.

The report presented yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea shows that ROMATSA did not take the "necessary measures" to establish the whereabouts of the crash site, begin search operations or ask for help and backup from the Ministry of Defense’s Air Operations Centre. Realitatea reports that the pilot (not Adrian Iovan) was asked by ROMATSA to turn off the 406 alarm signal because the sound was bothering them. Whaaaaat?!?!? In other words, standard procedure was NOT followed. In yet more other words, systems meant to protect people are overseen by morons. See more on the heads currently rolling (not enough of them by far) HERE and see HERE re. Ion Burlui, the head of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) resigning, but Stroe not having the same decency. Au contraire, Radu Stroe has stated that he has no intention of taking such action, although he 'regrets the tragedy happened during his term in office'. How big of him...

The pilot Adrian Iovan, 55, was well-known (and controversial) and had 16,000 hours of flying experience with companies such as Blue Air and TAROM under his belt. He died of hypothermia and trauma from multiple fractures. Radu Zamfir, a doctor and passenger, credited Iovan for saving the lives of those on board.

(Photo image) The second victim was Aurelia (Aura) Ion, a 23-year-old fifth-year student at Institutul Medico-Militar who had volunteered to accompany the medical team. She is reported by the Romanian press to have died of hypothermia and respiratory complications, though this is yet to be confirmed at post-mortem. If the emergency services had found her earlier, IF they had done their jobs, followed procedure and maintained standards, she would have probably survived. She was young and healthy after all. So many 'ifs'. See THIS and weep.

Aura has been promoted to Lieutenant posthumously and lies tonight in the military chapel. Tomorrow she will be buried with military honours. Candles glow and wreaths have been left for her and Adrian Iovan at the Statuia Aviatorilor (Eroilor Aerului) in Bucharest. Mourners have been paying their respects all the afternoon, amongst them singer Mirabela Dauer, Gheorghe Gheorghiu, Marcel Pavel and gymnast coach Octavian Bellu. At least the military have given her more respect and consideration than the Minister of the Interior, the emergency services and the rest of the muppets who should have kept her safe.

(Image source) The Respect Aura Ion Facebook page is an emotional place to be - her death has touched the hearts of a nation. Hundreds of thousands of messages have been flooding in continually - condolence, sympathy, comfort, admiration. In one day alone, 30,000 people visited out of respect for this selfless young woman who had paid for the inept running of her country and the general je m'en foutism with her life. Dumnezeu sa aiba grija de sufletul ei.

How decent (and normal) it would be to have a scholarship created in Aura Ion's honour. That is what people do in civilised countries at moments of unnecessary, shameful loss that could have been avoided had people done their jobs. While parasites enjoy illicitly acquired millions, Aura Ion enrolled to be a VOLUNTEER to give rather than take. There should be a MASSIVE outpouring of love, sympathy and support for her family and I hope a foundation or a scholarship in her memory AT THE VERY LEAST will be established. Anything less would be an offence, not to mention an admission of the blatant bungling stupidity, criminal incompetence and supreme arrogance rife across the whole spectrum of the political and ruling class.

(Photo source: Roza Zah) Today's Romania did not deserve her. It does not deserve selfless, generous-hearted, compassionate and altruistic people. There are, I know, more of them than the Pontas and Stroes. But it is this piddly minority of Pontas and Stroes who have the clout whilst those like Aura Ion must fight to survive in such a climate (or leave)...

If you would like to DO something that may end up having some kind of effect, PLEASE sign THIS petition currently at 3,090 signatures demanding the firing of all those responsible for the plane crash in which Aura and Adrian lost their lives. Aleodor Marian Francu, chief of ROMATSA, resigned this afternoon - not because he feels it's his fault in any way at all, but as a matter of principle. How sacrificial. Of course, once resigned, he and others equally guilty can wash their hands of the whole thing, avoiding any can-holding which could lead to possible jail time (if the justice system were to do its job properly). An attractive option.

Next week, this will be old news and after a flurry of firing a few one-minute wonders and beating chests, it'll all be forgotten - except by the survivors and those who grieve.

(Photo source: Roza Zah)

For more info, please see Hotnews, Capitalism pe pâine, EVZ and Adevarul.

My thanks to 'Roza Zah' for the beautiful photographs taken at Statuia Aviatorilor this evening.

 News Update Thursday 23rd January

Radu Stroe the Interior Sinister has resigned. I guess this ex-securitate agent left feeling pretty pleased with himself, for he threw in the towel he said, out of 'honour'. Smug git. President Basescu signed the necessary blurb for his departure this afternoon. Delighted to see the back of him, but rather concerned this will mean he will not be held accountable.

Ponta continues to hold STS and ROMATSA entirely responsible for Monday's plane disaster and the subsequent loss of human lives.

The conclusions of the government report by VP Gabriel Oprea tell of immense gaffes and blunders, erroneous info, time-wasting and useless phone calls. That much is true. But as long as Ponta protects Stroe, Manescu and anyone else, it is purely subjective. ROMATSA is as guilty as sin but they are not the only ones in the massive anthill of quite brilliant incompetence. They will be the scapegoats though. I'm quite sure of that.

News continues to flood in re: all that went pear-shaped. Some of it is so insane you wonder whether the author was on drugs. Probably not. This is Absurdistan after all, where anything can happen.

For example, Capitalism pe pâine writes that ROMATSA refused a tracking software offered FREE by the UK and Germany, preferring to fork out 48,000 euros for a Romanian version (which was far from functional). Genius. Words just don't do it, do they.

TVR says that the authorities knew the plane had come down 15 minutes after impact, but bodged up search procedures - and when they finally set out, they had three different location co-ordinates... you couldn't make it up if you tried.

As time passes, we discover wide-eyed and disbelieving the huge structural deficiencies within the system (what system?) that lead to this terrible tragedy. There was such an accumulation of negligence and stupidity that one could be forgiven for thinking it a hilarious script for a new French farce. See HERE. There is NO question that jail-time should be served to those DIRECTLY involved for professional negligence and involuntary manslaughter. If there was a sentencing for idiocy, now would be the time.

(Photo source) Co-pilot Razvan Petrescu's condition meanwhile remains serious. He has suffered worrying thoracic and facial injuries (operated today for a broken nose) and will require further surgery on his lower limbs tomorrow. Three of the survivors are under constant observation and unable to be airlifted back to Bucharest for the time being. Sorin Ianceu (doctor at Spitalul Judeţean Oradea) has needed facial surgery; Cătălin Pivniceru (doctor at Spitalul Sfânta Maria din Bucureşti) has suffered broken ribs and facial trauma and Valentin Calu (surgeon) is suffering from thoracic trauma. Dr Radu Zamfir, was discharged from hospital yesterday according to Digi24. He will continue to be monitored at Institutul Clinic Fundeni where he works, however.

Aura Ion's post-mortem has revealed that she did NOT die of hypothermia as previously reported by the Romanian press who have been surmising and assuming all kinds of fiction from the very start, still insistent on calling the disaster a 'crash'.

(Photo source) According to the SMURD chief in Bihor, Aura suffered a fractured cervical spine and massive abdominal haemorrhaging. From the moment of impact, poor Aura was probably tetraplegic. Her agony and terror for the hours she lay waiting for the emergency services to appear is unimaginable. They arrived too late to save her - and it's really no good anyone assuming that she couldn't have been saved anyway. Of course she could. She died hours after the crash - and had the medics arrived within the hour as they should have done, the likelihood is she'd still be alive to tell the tale, albeit paralysed (plausibly temporarily, depending on the damaged vertebrae).

Aura Ion's funeral took place in Bucharest today. Please see some of the photos HERE. The images are overwhelming with the pain of loss and grief, caused by an incompetent state with a warped vision of responsibility and professionalism. For shame.

Update: Friday 24th January

(Photo source) Seems the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Aura Ion's death certificate contradicts the opinion of Bihor's SMURD chief who stated yesterday that she had died from a broken neck (fractured cervical vertebrae) and massive abdominal haemorrhage. He insisted more than once that hypothermia had not been a cause. The certificate written by Dr Georghe Vieru on the other hand reports that she died of hypothermia and thoracic trauma (ie. prolonged chest-wall compression).

I simply cannot understand how the chief of SMURD could have said one thing and been SO emphatic that hypothermia was NOT a cause, whilst the paperwork done by Dr Vieru says the contrary. So, either the SMURD chief didn't know what the hell he was talking about and should have kept quiet (though he was there on site) or Dr Viaru has written a Mickey Mouse post-mortem. And why would he do that?

(Photo source: Tudor Postelnicu, 1989: "Am fost un dobitoc!" Radu Stroe, 2014: "Sunt un dobitoc!") So much fiction doing the rounds. So much guff. In the end it doesn't matter a jot. Had the emergency team shown up earlier, she'd still be alive today. Had people done their jobs, this whole sorry tragedy would never even have happened.

So far, four senior officials including stroe have resigned or been fired. That's not nearly enough. People WILL pay. The question is, will it be the right ones or will it be the usual tune of the little people getting whacked while the real perpetrators lean back in their leather chairs and plonk their feet up on their desks for another day of useless ineptitude?

"The government generally does nothing, and in this case they did nothing to locate the plane. A woodcutter had to find them," aviation professor Nicolae Serban Tomescu said. "The rescue operation was like Swiss cheese. There were holes everywhere."

Local villagers and a woodcutter are now known to have found the plane and its survivors 4 hours after it was forced to land 1,400 metres above sea level in a forest - that was TWO HOURS BEFORE the medical teams showed up, reportedly ill-equipped. It begs belief. Wonderful stories of determination are coming in such as THIS one where a doctor from Cluj says it was the villagers who were the real heros, NOT the emergency services. It was the villagers themselves who wrapped the passengers in their own coats despite the freezing temperatures. In the icy rain, with snow to their knees and sometimes waists, they made stretchers, lit fires for warmth, immobilised fractures with their clothes and branches. They were determined in saving who could be saved. True acts of selflessness.

Meanwhile, the stories about what the emergency services got up to on arrival are so absurd that I'm not going to even bother commenting on them, much less link them. What I will say though is that the ridiculous '2010 protocol for CPR' mentioned by Adela Golea urgently needs to be revised. In addition, Cluj hospital, the idiots, have officially said that the survivors' conditions are favourable  due to the speed in which the medical teams acted. Excuse me while I howl with ironic mirth. 16 doctors, 17 assistants, 2 resident doctors, 1 paramedic, 1 medical student, 7 stretcher carriers, 4 nurses, 2 general dogsbodies and a partridge in a pear-tree. Apparently they were all gathered in a conference hall and congratulated. Numai 'pupat Piata Independentei' lipseste...

(Photo source) Government officials can continue to defend the tragic comedy of errors with excuses of weather conditions, darkness, difficult terrain etc. But it won't cut with the people who are sick and tired of such shoulder-shrugging ineffectuality and idleness. The government is unable to provide decent and functional equipment to rescue crash victims, but is quite happy to invest resources in surveillance. Romania, a country of 19 million with no foreign enemies has SEVEN intelligence agencies, including main domestic and foreign spying agencies. Trific. I'm sure everyone feels marvellously safe as a result.

The much-boasted telecommunications agency (one of the seven afore-mentioned 'intelligence' agencies) frittered away a small 40 million euros in bolstering up the country's national emergency number to make it efficient and functional. What happened to Radu Zamfir's calls, then? A couple of them ended up in Moscow. Go figure.

Ponta meanwhile is trying to salvage the little credibility he has left. Today, he promised that authorities would be "much more efficient" in the future. How will he manage that, I wonder. We know how everyone is terribly good at talking in Romania, but when it comes to action, well, one shouldn't hold one's breath. Ponta has not handled the tragedy well by any means - protecting stroe was just one snafu. On Monday evening, he went on a talk-show and stated that all seven people on the flight had survived. Oops. Another bloop.

More news as it comes to light, though I must admit to being a bit frayed with all the BS and contradictions. Someone must pay for it, though. And those someones are up there on Mount Olympescu, whether they have resigned or not. The big cheeses of ROMATSA are as guilty as sin. STS too. But they are NOT alone. stroe and Manescu MUST pay. If they do, Aura Ion and Adrian Iovan will NOT have died in vain.

Further news: 27th January

Was Adrian Iovan responsible for the plane accident? See Adevarul, EVZ and Yahoo News. Almost certainly. When a plane crashes it is either a) due to a pilot error or b) a technical/mechanical fault or failure. End of. However, we're talking about TWO different issues here - the plane coming down in the first place and then the botched up, cretinous rescue operation. The two should not be muddled as they are entirely unrelated.

If Adrian Iovan was responsible for the plane crash, he definitely was NOT responsible for emergency services taking SIX HOURS to arrive (the villagers got there faster and did a whole load more good) and the long string of bungling that occurred from the moment the authorities became aware of the accident just 15 minutes after the crash. Why people are getting so hysterical to defend Iovan is beyond me and shows a refusal to logicise - much less THINK. What do people imagine? That Ponta said "crash please" and Iovan did? Or there was some kind of extra-terrestrial occurrence causing the plane to end up in the forest with two fatalities? Or perhaps the forest just leapt out in front of him? Come on people. For heavens sake. Separate the two issues and cut the hysteria.

More to follow...

Nastase back to porridge

(Photo source) Here we go again. Adrian Nastase has been sent back to Rahova for a further 4 years without parole for taking bribes in the Zambaccian case, this time accompanied by his wife Dana, sentenced to 3 years respectively for collusion. He was also barred from holding any form of public office position and is forbidden to run in elections for the next 5 years.

The BBC has THIS to say:

Romania's supreme court has sentenced former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to four years in prison for taking bribes.

He was also given three years for blackmail, to run concurrently. The court found that two Romanian officials had helped Nastase to get Chinese goods for private properties in 2001-2004.

His wife Dana Nastase got a three-year suspended sentence for collusion.

Adrian Nastase survived a suicide attempt in 2012 [they don't know the half of it - Sarah's note], just after receiving a two-year jail term in a separate case.

In the ruling on Monday the court found that Nastase, 63, had received Chinese building materials and furnishings worth 630,000 euros (£521,000; $856,000) from a construction entrepreneur, Irina Jianu.

 In return, he had appointed her head of the State Construction Inspectorate. Jianu is already in prison, having been found guilty in the previous corruption case involving Nastase.

(Photo source) The former prime minister left prison only 10 months ago, after serving two-thirds of his previous two-year sentence for corruption.

Nastase was also found guilty of having blackmailed a former Romanian consul in Shanghai, Ioan Paun, in connection with the Chinese shopping spree.

Nastase denies wrongdoing, saying the cases against him were politically motivated.

Romania joined the EU in 2007 and remains under special monitoring by Brussels because of EU concerns about high-level corruption.'

 Nastase said, "it's dreadful and in my opinion, extremely, extremely unfair - a dirty revenge. What more can I say?" Ahhhh.

This time, it seems there has been no soap opera, no fake suicide and no need for Dr Bradisteanu today acquitted of taking bribes and abuse of power (although investigators had recommended 10 years in jail and the confiscation of 9.1mn euros) . The 'good' doctor is currently also being investigated for perverting the course of justice in the 'Bombonel's-fake-suicide' case.. Rather disappointing from an entertainment point of view, but the night is young.

1.8mn lei has also been confiscated from the Nastase family's wealth by the courts and in addition, the Nastases must foot the legal expenses estimated at 20,000 lei, payable to the Romanian state. He has already had to cough up 1.1 mn to Inspectoratului de Stat în Construcții in the “Trofeul calității” case. All that in almost 2 years.

Great news - sa dea acatiste pentru Matusa Tamara! During his time as PM, Nastase amassed enormous wealth. However, in his declaration of 2012, he only mentions one property (the apartment on Zambaccian) and a single piece of land in Cornu. There's a great deal more he 'forgot' to note - most of it being in the name of his wife, Dana. Oh, and he apparently has 500,000 euros in his bank account. In order to pay the 1.8mn lei, then, he would have needed to sell something. Works of art, antiques, a property or two, land... but he didn't. There is question then, as to where it came from if he only has what is noted on his declaration. Perhaps his lawyer ran about collecting donations from helping hands in high places? Can't have been his wife's auntie - she's been pushing up the daisies for quite some time, poor love! Anyway, see more on that mystery HERE.

(Photo source) Perhaps this final flurry of jail time and pay-ups can be seen as just to some. I personally don't agree. The Zambaccian case, the 'Trofeul calității' affair and Aunt Tamara all aside, by aiding and abetting with his cronies, Nastase is one of the creators of today's Romania's super-rich. He sabotaged the Romanian economy and the fight for the country's democracy. The sentence is not 'heavy'. If anything, it's rather lenient. He certainly won't serve the full 4 years, and has enough money stashed away so what has been 'relinquished' won't even make a dent, I'm sure. Where is the hardship?

Regardless of which party they belong to, the Securitate heirs of the scandalous, lousy transitional regimes post-89 which have robbed the country with single-minded determination, crapped on banks, confiscated land, embezzled hundreds of billions of euros for the last 24 years are ALL guilty, guilty, guilty. Without exception. Nastase is a big fish. There are smaller and there are bigger still...

(Photo source) Though some may be in admiration that 'justice has been served' to such a senior politician, others who are more savvy know full well that this is simply a drop in the proverbial bucket. Premier Victor Ponta of the ruling Social Democrats and Nastase's (and Iliescu's) protegé considers his mentor a 'political prisoner' and a victim of Basescu's 'regime', comparing the situation with that of Ukraine's Iulia Timoshenko. Obtuse choice of example, Pontaur. The arguments for why this comparison should be severely and widely condemned are HERE in Hotnews.

I am sure this will mean an acceleration on getting the super-immunity bill passed PDQ. There must be major howlings and gnashings of teeth in the USL bed.

The conditions of life in Romania today can be largely blamed on the greed of the hundreds of thousands of Securitate heirs, whether it be Rosia Montana, the problems with Chevron, the laws made up at the drop of a hat, the killing of dogs, the plagiarising of diplomas and CVs - take whatever you like as an example. It all leads back to the same sesspit in the longrun. Justice MUST continue until the bitter end - and I'm sure it will be bitter. Very bitter. And it probably won't always be just either.

Meanwhile, the comments re: Nastase's return to Rahova are coming thick and fast. One particular comment made me howl with laughter. "He is being punished because he fought for Romania," said his sister, Dana Barb (a babă comunistă and one sandwich short of a picnic). She said she'd told him, "you wanted to be a patriot, and you're punished by all those who wish you evil. You should have looked after yourself, your family, your own interests, instead of fighting for Romania. Anyone who fought for Romania is being punished right now." Look after himself, his family and his own interests is EXACTLY what he did and precisely WHY he has been convicted of taking bribes. Wheeze. 

The leaders of PSD gathered for their first BPN meeting of the year and sent support messages to the poor persecuted victim, adding that they were with him and praying for him. Quite right - they SHOULD indeed be with him. There in Rahova!! Ponta said that Basescu's hounding of Nastase was a great injustice given the "good and important" things he had done for Romania.

No further comment (but eyes rolling)...

For more on the international sites, see Washington Post, Euronews, Aljazeera, Reuters, The Las Vegas Sun, Daily Europe, The Financial Times, Radio Free Europe and The Charlotte Observer. More to follow...

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

(Photo source) The ‘new weapon’ used by protesters in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, is poignantly brilliant and shows what words cannot. They have already adopted other clever methods including nudity and humour, but this one, to me, beats them all hands down. It is the mirror. Yes, a common old mirror. The 'mirror protest' was staged on 30th December to mark the one month aniversary since the dispersal of a pro-EU rally. See video HERE.

Taken out of context, the photo above shows an elderly lady holding a mirror up to riot police. One of them gazes into it seeing, perhaps, what he has become. Does he stop? Does he think how things ever got to be this way? Is he witness to the aggression in his eyes, the violence in his heart, the lack of compassion in his soul? Does it sadden him? Sicken him?

The riot police in Pungesti could certainly do with some mirrors. An entire street of mirrors for that matter. What THEY have become at the behest of Romanian politicians and local authorities is surely not what their mothers brought them up to be. I doubt it’s what THEY planned to be, either. Bullies. Granny bashers. Child beaters. Persecutors. Oppressors. Nodding puppets.

The pure simplicity in just holding up a mirror to reflect an image back at itself is as artistic as it is daring. "LOOK!!" it cries. This peaceful mirror protest encouraged reflection and introspection before the typical lashing out in hateful violence, while also highlighting something unique in humanity we all share. More 'frontal lobe' is hard to imagine.

(Photo source) Presumably, if the mirrors were to catch on in Romania, they would have to be shatter-proof. I have a scene in my mind – totally fictitious of course: an elderly lady in black with basma tied under her chin stands alone in the middle of a street. Riot police advance towards her and with a flourish of determined courage, she holds a mirror up in front of her. She is only small. It is heavy. But she does it. The first police to reach her smashes it with his truncheon, covering the old lady’s face in broken glass.

Perhaps car mirrors would work, though they are too small? I doubt the jandarmi of Pungesti would have any qualms smashing normal ones, even if it did bring seven years bad luck, as we anglophones say. Bad luck? Things couldn’t get much worse there in any case. Could they?

When the powerless are intimidated through terror by their own so-called peace-keepers, ordered by their own government in peace time, one must surely ask questions. Do these bullies dressed in scarey gear that, to me at least, resembles heavy-duty cockroaches, FEEL anything for their victims? Is there NO element of disgust or shame?

(Photo source) I suppose if you were to ask them, they would say what ALL bullies usually spiel off: "I was obeying orders". It brings to mind Hannah Arendt's essay on Eichmann (and I'm not comparing the two horrors - only the mindset), The Banality of Evil. In it, she says, "the greatest evil perpetrated is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons." In other words, give a 'nobody' a little power by way of a uniform, a truncheon and orders to intimidate - and they suddenly puff up like blowfish with a nice warm rush of importance. Perhaps the first in their lives. But they are not 'people' for they do not (and perhaps cannot) think. They take zero responsibility for their actions. It is a combination of ambition and obedience - a blind, thoughtless, questionless obedience. 'Good civil servants' in an authoritarian environment.

Doing terrible things in an organised and systematic way is based on a twisted grasp of 'normality'. Ugly, degrading, humiliating acts become run of the mill, routine if you like, for they are accepted as just 'the way things are done' in the name of law and order. When you ask why, they shrug with an 'asa ni s-a ordonat'. No thought. Just obedience. Humanity? Compassion? Annihilated by those giving the orders. The 'normalisation' of unthinkable things is easy when money, status and power are at stake - and for the Romanian government giving those orders today, all three are very much in the balance. Bullying tactics seem the only way they know to communicate with their people from whom they have stolen and fleeced and to whom they have lied, betrayed, misinformed and abused. The jandarmi are their gophers.

Those who have been humiliated for so many decades find it hard to stir themselves from submission. But since September, we have seen a massive wave of anger and indignance and heard an astonishingly powerful voice (the loudest since 1989) of unity from the streets of Romania and beyond of which I am proud beyond words. The government are becoming ever more nervous and turn to more manipulative methods of control. But whether the protesters' goal is to protect their mountains from RMGC or their land from fracking, it all comes to the same thing in the end. One cannot blame the foreign corporations for the crimes of the Romanian government committed over and over again. One can no longer tolerate the politicians meant to protect them who have sold them, their homes, their souls and their identities in the name of money, greed and personal gain. That is the message of paramount importance. And as the government sees its own future wobbling so precariously, its response becomes all the more desperate. False flags are fed to anyone gullible enough to listen, deflecting blame anywhere but on their own doorsteps. The media is used, abused and dictated to just like old times.

And of course, the  jandarmi carry out their orders obediently like the 'good civil servants' they are. Mirrors are desperately required - literally, morally, spiritually.

Why not start with the literal - reflecting on the oppression carried out 'under order'. I cannot think of a more powerful way to remind these thugs in uniform WHAT they are doing and WHO they have become... It's not implausible that under those helmets and the heavy-duty cockroach suits in Pungesti - and in Bucharest, too - are consciences. Maybe. It happened in Italy - why not Romania?

Visul unei nopti de iarna

(Photo source) (1) 'In case you didn't know: the gays and the non-Christians are plotting to take over the world. They are puppeteering world leaders such as Angela Merkel to dismember sovereign states and take over their resources. Romania, among other countries, is in immediate danger.  This is all about Angela Merkel bossing and threatening our poor Prime Minister, Mr Victor "Copy&Paste" Ponta, telling him he can choose to give away the country's resources with or without the country being dismantled.' (R.U)

I read the article in question, squinting in the shaft of half light full of dancing dust particles.

'The truth in all this is that the country's resources are, indeed, being given away to foreigners, despite public opposition. And that's about the only thing that is accurate in this story.' (R.U)

I punch the pillow a bit and roll over. Will it snow during the night? The forecast said it would....

I doze off again and find myself sitting cross-legged in the same rather dingy room, surrounded by the same huge piles of newspapers and magazines. I reach for another having discarded the first beside me with a snort of disgust.

'In this story,' the voice in my dream continues, 'the only thing that is true is that foreigners will be allowed to purchase land in Romania. So the banner in the picture, with some artistic licence, is pointing to a real issue....' (R.U) I examine the picture, turning it to the little remaining light. It's a photograph from a protest and a big banner reading, 'De la 1 ianuarie 2014 vom râmâne fără tară!' Indeed, the rest of the text is pixie powder. I add it to the one beside me with a second snort of disgust. Glowing an odd ruby-red, the pages shriek loudly and, in the wink of an eye, are ashes. I cannot feel sorry for either of them.

I get up, peeved at fragmented sleep, pad to the kitchen in my mouse slippers, throw back a glass of water and return to bed.

(Photo source) (2) A road... a road to nowhere that you cannot enter and, like Hotel California, can never leave. Actually, it 'falls off' in a field. This is the 10.5km stretch from Lugoj to Făget between Balint and Sanovita, part of the Lugoj to Deva motorway - and due to be inaugurated in just 2 weeks.

'Bagdad Café' music swells to haunting crescendo as the grey sky and its swirling marble clouds drop to embrace the equally stoney grey tarmac of the great unfinished, spookily conspicuous by desolation.

Sova appears (it's turning into a nightmare) dressed as a lollypop man with big shoes and a curly red wig. "The motorway will be finished in 2 weeks, but there's no way to get on to this part as there's no link road. This 10.5km has been nothing but trouble. At one point, it collapsed, and at another, the construction workers went home," he tells Realitatea, before laughing hysterically and disappearing in a puff of dubious-looking smoke, leaving the offensive whiff of boiled cabbage behind him.

I groan and make a mental note never to eat placinta cu branza before bed again, and to be more generous with the vodka when mixing a Cosmopolitan.

Back to sleep finally. I am in my bedroom sitting at my dressing table where the perfume bottles are dancing calypso. Someone has left me a note on a fluorescent pink post-it, written in spikey, horizontal hand-writing with exaggerated loops:

(3) "The Romanian leaders are corrupt. True. Remember, though, that it is Chevron who corrupted them, so that Chevron would be "invited" into the country! After destroying the underground, they will force the people to buy their bottles of drinking water!" 

The calypso screeches to a halt mimicking a stylus ripped off a vinyl. Strange, creepy carousel music now accompanies images in my mirror of the poor, helpless Romanian leaders being beaten mercilessly by Chevron employees with huge clubs, laughing as they work with determination and zeal. Mwahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!!

I wake up in a cold sweat and switch on the bedside light to chase the ghouls away.

All dreams, I thought. All dreams....

I turn on my laptop and watch as the screen springs to life.

(Photo source) (1) On to FB. R.U has posted two articles on her wall - one as insane as the other. They tell of how gays and non-Christians are apparently plotting to take over the world... and PM Pontaur is bullied by Merkel. A scarey 10K+ number of 'likes' for the first one on Lupul Dacic's blog, and 129 for the second on Victor Roncea's, written by Larry Watts. Batsh*t crazy stuff. What are people smoking in Romania right now?!

(Photo source) (2) What about this road to nowhere then? Was that just a dream, or is it real too?

Sorry. It's a true story and will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with how road construction, bids and the like are managed in Romania. See more on the Lugoj-Făget road HERE.

(Photo source) (3) As for the poor Romanian officials being corrupted by Chevron, don't make me laugh! That was a comment I found here on my last blog post entitled 'Romanian authorities or Chevron?' And it is not a rare view either (hence my last post). Pontaur could well be learning some moves from his adviser Weasley Clark - but the image of Chevron beating up the Romanian officials is absurd. False flags all over the flamin' shop, steering attention from the guilty-as-hell Romanian authorities to Chevron who certainly deserve some grief but did NOT ask to come to Romania of their own accord. nd really? The Romanian politicians weren't corrupt before Chevron came and lead them into bad ways? I won't re-invent the wheel, but invite you to go read the post instead.

Operation Deflect Blame seems to be working rather well.

What's going on? IS there an overturned lorry with a cargo of amazingly potent magic mushrooms overturned in a Romanian field somewhere? Has bunica's placinta/salata de boeuf/sarmale been laced with hallucinogenics? Have the martians landed and hypnotised a percentage of the nation?

There are some things one can imagine only ever happening in dreams. But as you see, when it comes to the country of my heart, that is not always the case. What most of us consider 'dream-like' is often Romanian reality. Just lately, 'dream-like' happenings have been the ingredients of a frighteningly high number of real-life nightmares.

(Photo source) As LCC, a friend of mine, correctly pointed out, "when true info and facts are mixed with false info and speculations it is done to manipulate. There's plenty of this now. To me, it is a sign that change is coming. Otherwise, they wouldn't bother confusing, dividing and manipulating people."

There are many who have invested interests in this manipulative (and old!) method of deflecting blame and inciting fractions, thus breaking up a peoples' unity. The Romanian government knows this year is going to be a tough one. It is no coincidence that such contradictory and alarmist claptrap is flying around. We must NOT be fooled by it, NOT go off on a tangent. If we do, we are playing right into their hands. Attempts to confuse, manipulate and divide the masses are rife, just as they were during the lovilutie...

May 2014 bring an end to such manipulation. May it bring clear thinking, organisation, unity. May it bring justice, truth - and most of all, may it bring a free Romania.

I fling open the curtains and see that it has snowed....

Romanian authorities or Chevron?

(Photo source) Perhaps I am an idiot, but there seems to be a fundamental point  escaping me re: the protests in Romania right now.... Can anyone shed some light?

Here's my question: Why is the first in line of fire for criticism and loathing from protesters (outside Bucharest, on the whole) NOT the Romanian authorities? What's with the disinformation?!? It is the Romanian government who invited Chevron to Romania in the first place - Chevron didn't just show up for a bit of sight-seeing because they had nothing better to do. It was the authorities who gave them the permits, the land, the contracts. Chevron didn't help themselves, however much we may dislike them and want to find them guilty of something.

It is the Romanian authorities who ordered curfew at Pungesti and have supported (and instigated) the police intimidation carried out there. They are the ones who have condoned the brutality, the beatings of children and the elderly with batons and truncheons. They are the ones who forbade colinde at Christmas, along with any gatherings comprising of more than 2 people. They are the ones allowing the questioning of anyone trying to leave their homes and they are also the ones who have caused children to be so traumatised by the threatening presence of jandarmi that bed-wetting is now the 'norm' and the schools are archi-empty.

It is because of the Romanian authorities that people like Sandu are on hunger strike for their 10th day in front of the TNB, protesting against the human rights abuse committed in Pungesti by jandarmi. No one, not even Ponta, can minimise the outrageous violence against the citizens of Pungesti by the bully-boys in blue, try though he may. Shouldn't that make people even angrier?

I am certainly NOT a fan of the big US multi-national giant, don't get me wrong. I would like to see the back of them as much as you. But come on!! If anyone should be the target of anger, indignance and rage, it should be the Romanian government and local authorities who, without debate, have NO PLACE running this country through their corruption, their incompetence and their boundless greed.

(Photo source) Enough with the disinformation! Ever heard of false flags?! It's a trick as old as the hills to shift the spotlight from where it is supposed to be.

THIS petition for example, needs to revise its message. Chevron is NOT to blame here - at least, not directly. Sooner or later, they'll consider Romania too much of a pain in the backside and leave - the people don't want them and the Romanian government is so corrupt they'd be better off avoiding them altogether. Any other investers would be wise to keep away too until such a time the seats of power are occupied by those with a pinch of integrity at the very least. It could be a long wait.

As for THIS, it's such a load of drivel that the least said the better, except for being a superb (and memorable) example of propaganda used to stoke a crowd of people who should know better while diverting attention from the real issue. False flags again. There is a little bit of truth in it but you'd need a magnifying glass and deer-stalker to find it.

And by the way, just for the record, neither the US nor the EU are responsible for the mess in which Romania finds herself today. The politicians the country is saddled with were elected by democratic vote, embarrassing though that may be. Although I fully understand the urge to blame foreigners rather than one's own government for then one would have to admit having made a terrible error, that blame is deeply misplaced here and, in turn, misguides those lacking the curiosity and/or ability to go educate themselves.

IF the whole movement has come to the point of blaming Chevron, the US, the EU, Western values in general and the neighbour's cat for everything that's wrong in Romania instead of looking in one's own backyard, then count me out. I no longer support it.

(Photo source) I am fed up with the false information coming from all over the place (Facebook has become a rampant breeding ground for absurdities), and equally fed up with how it is gobbled up so obediently by people who are either exceedingly gullible or just can't THINK for themselves.

It's all very courageous to rise up and take a stand, but for goodness sake, armed with a modicum of knowledge, aim it in the right direction!!! UNITI salvam!

Rant over.

Tolstoï revisited - Stancu style

(Photo source) Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. George Stanca, a true renaissance man (engineer, writer, well-known journalist, publisher, founder of the trashy gossip magazine VIP, jazz singer, ex-chief architect of sectorul 6 and once-secretary of Cenaclul Flacara), has been found guilty of plagiarism and formally charged. Apparently, he signed a translation of a work from Russian to Romanian by Leo Tolstoï that wasn't his using his pseudonym ('G.S.' - very imaginative), 'modified' some 'details' and entitled it 'Memoires'. Genius. And risky. It must surely have been for the dough as there's no way it could've been done for glory. The 'work' was published by Adevarul Holding.

The one year suspended jail sentence is not final and Stanca is welcome to appeal, though it's unlikely the decision will be overturned. Along with the sentence, 1000 copies of his hijacked Tolstoï have been confiscated by the judge and there's a 100,000 euros fine to boot.

(Photo source) In his own defense, Stanca declared that the publishing house allegedly tricked him. He was urged, he said, to sign the translated version of Tolstoï's 'Journal' as his own for a price (lower than the actual translation had cost, for sure). His crime, then? Not to have 'plagiarised' like PM Ponta and the other members of the Copy/Paste Club who merit jail-time far more deserving for their intellectual theft extravaganzas, but to have signed a document stating he was the sole author of a translation he didn't do. He didn't nick from Tolstoi, as the Romanian press are having fun relating, but from a fellow Romanian translator.

Incidentally, at the end of 2009, Stanca was the lucky winner of the prestigious Gaffe of the Year award, which took place in rather humiliating circumstances and lead to his resignation from Adevarul where he was a contributor - his last blog entry there was Feb of this year. For more on that see here - it's a sad story. He is not a popular guy, then. I've heard from various journalist/writer friends having donned my super-sleuth hat that Stanca has had his fingers in a lot of pies post '89, stuck his nose into things that don't concern him and loves digging up dirt on people. Hence VIP. Nice.

In the spirit of intellectual nicking (from those both dead and alive) though, with modifications in all the right places, please find a little chef d'oeuvre all of my own, dedicated to the imposters in Romanian government and copy-pasters everywhere that I hope will be published, cherished and remembered for generations of Romanians to come...

Preface of "Daciana Pupicu"

By Sarah in Romania

Based on Tolstoï's 'Anna Karenina', with modifications in all the right places

The novel "Daciana Pupicu" was written in 2013, 24 years after the Romanian lovilutie, and appeared on the blog 'Sarah In Romania' at the end of the same year. It is one of the author's masterpieces written at the height of great prolific activity and reflects every aspect of her humour and irony.

Set in the period of the peoples' uprising against a corrupt and amoral government and a plagiarising Prime Minister in a time of intense social change, 'Daciana Pupicu', Sarah In Romania's great modern novel of an adulterous affair, is set against the backdrop of Bucharest and Ploiesti high society in the beginning of the twenty-first century. A sophisticated woman who is respectably married to a government pupincurist, Daciana begins a passionate, all-consuming involvement with a less well-heeled activist. Refusing to conduct a discreet affair, she scandalises society by abandoning her husband, child, mother-in-law, exercise bicycle and house in Irish Park, Ploiesti for Razvan Pantelimon - with tragic consequences. Running parallel is the story of the courtship and marriage of Remus Patalama and Gina Patrunjel. Patalama's spiritual searching and growth reflect the religious ideals of the time. Taken together, the two plots embroider a vast canvas that ultimately encompasses all levels of Romanian society. "Now and then Sarah In Romania's novel writes its own self, is produced not by its matter, but by its subject," noted Vladimir Nabokov. "Daciana Pupicu is one of the greatest love stories in world literature."

As Matthew Arnold wrote, "we are not to take Daciana Pupicu as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of prajitura cu mere."

(See the original text HERE)

SYNOPSIS

Part 1 (34 chapters)

A crisis develops in the Ionescu household when Valerica finds out about her husband's affair. Paraschiv's sister, Daciana Pupicu, arrives to reconcile the couple and dissuades Valerica from filing for divorce. Businessman Remus Patalama, Paraschiva's friend, arrives in Bucharest to propose to eighteen-year-old Gina Petrunjel. She spurns him for she loves Razvan Pantelimon, a dashing activist and community organiser who has no intention of marrying.

Meeting the lovely Madame Pupicu, Pantelimon falls in love and starts to pursue her. He and Daciana are so besotted with each other at Balul Martisorului that Gina's hopes to snare Pantelimon are shattered. Daciana, followed by Pantelimon, returns to her husband Virgiliu and son Sorinel in Irish Park, Ploiesti, while the disappointed Patalama returns to his cottage alone.

Part 2 (35 chapters)

Gina falls ill after Pantelimon's humiliating rejection. At the spa in Mamaia where she takes a rest cure, she tries to deny her womanly urges by becoming a religious do-gooder. Realising the hypocrisy of this new calling, Gina returns to Bucharest cured of her depression and ready to accept her ultimate wifehood.

Consummating her union with Pantelimon at The Intercontinental, Daciana steps into a new life with much fear for the future. By the time she confesses her adultery to the already-suspecting Virgiliu, she is already pregnant with Pantelimon's twins.

Part 3 (32 chapters)

Devoting himself to organic leek-farming paid for with EU funding, Patalama tries to find the meaning of life without marriage. He uses his energy devising brilliant business plans for leek and marijuana production with the help of his peasants to optimise the land. Seeing his brother Ovidiu terminally ill with tuberculosis, he realises he has been working to avoid facing up to death. He also realises he will always love Gina.

Meawhile, Pantelimon's career ambitions rival his love, and as he has not chosen between the two, he is still not committed to Daciana. Having rejected her husband, but still unable to depend on Pantelimon, Daciana finds herself in a desperate situation. Her life is in suspended animation.

Part 4 (23 chapters)

Gina and Patalama are engaged to marry. Virgiliu, who has tried to give the impression of domestic tranquillity, finally becomes angry enough to hire a divorce lawyer called Wolf. Anna gives birth to the twins (Aurel and Aurica), but is seriously ill from puerperal fever. On what is believed to be her deathbed, Virgiliu forgives her and feels sanctified by this surge of Christian charity. At the sudden role reversal, Pantelimon feels so humiliated he tries to kill himself. These incidents form the turning point of the novel. After Daciana's recovery, the lovers go abroad to Paris and Daciana refuses divorce (though Virgiliu agrees to it) for fear of giving up her son, Sorinel.

Part 5 (33 chapters)

Patalama and Gina, after some initial difficulties, adjust to being married. Ovidiu's death affects Patalama deeply, and he realises that emotional commitment, not reason, enables one to overcome life's problems. As if to underscore this affirmation, they learn Gina is pregnant.

After Patalama and Gina return from their honeymoon in Laco de Como, Daciana and Pantelimon go back to Ploiesti. Violently affected from seeing her son Sorinel again, Daciana's love for Pantelimon becomes more desperate, for she has no one else. Despite his objections, she boldly attends the Teatru de Revista to affirm her love in public. Humiliated at the Opera Nationala, she blames Pantelimon for being unsympathetic. He is angry at her indiscretions. This keynotes the decline of their relationship, although it is temporarily restored as they go to live in the Poiana Tapului.

Part 6 (32 chapters)

Among Patalama's summer visitors is a socialite who pays so much attention to Gina that the host asks him to leave.

Visiting Daciana at Pantelimon's flat, Valerica finds her own drab life preferable to the Bohemian and insecure lifestyle of Daciana. Complaining that Pantelimon is eager for independence, Daciana tells Valerica she must rely on her beauty, her cooking, her muraturi and her love for lautari to keep his interest. Pantelimon feels especially burdened by the demands of Daciana's love when she calls him home by tweets from a lively political demonstration at Piata Universitatii.

Part 7 (31 chapters)

Gina gives birth to a son and names him Maximus.

Virgiliu, under the influence of his fanatically devout friend, Lena Bobârnac, becomes religious and uses his hypocritical faith as a crutch to overcome his humiliation and loneliness.

Daciana, seeing the irreversible decline of her love affair, loses the will to live, cries 'nu mai pot' and jumps under a freight train from Caracal.

Part 8 (19 chapters)

Pantelimon volunteers for service in Afghanistan. Sarah In Romania uses this part of the novel to express her pacifist principles.

Patalama discovers salvation when he resolves to "live for his soul" rather than for selfish goals. He understands the meaning of life consists in living according to the goodness inherent in every individual. Understanding death as part of a reality-oriented life, Patalama is finally at peace with himself.

(See original text HERE.)

There. Masterpiece. I thank you.

No Christmas for Pungesti

(Photo source) How lucky most of us are to have spent Christmas safe, warm and stuffed to the gills. Those in Pungesti have been far less lucky. There, the abuse of unrepentant police intimidation at the behest of the Romanian government in the name of fawning to Chevron has continued throughout the entire holiday period. Stories coming from the town are overwhelmingly emotional.

(Photo source) One of the most distressing (to me, at least) has been news of the hunger strikes. Alexandru Popescu (Sandu) began his strike in front of the TNB on 21st December following a visit to Pungesti. "I'm tired of four months of fighting and no one taking any notice," he told Claudia Apostol of 'Uniti Salvam'. "What I saw in Pungesti...what can I say? The attitude of the authorities isn't going to change. But at least it has opened peoples' eyes." Please see this video HERE (Romanian with English STs).

Since yesterday, Christmas Day, there are thirty others, including five environmental activists. Together, they will carry out their hunger strike 'indefinitely'.

There is something about hunger strikes that always fill me with horror. Perhaps, it's my own personal schemata: memories of the Irish hunger strikes of the early 80s, resulting in the deaths of Bobby Sands and 10 others. To deprive oneself of food - sometimes fatally - to be deliberately weakened and fragilised in the name of a belief, a goal. It can never end well and it impresses me profoundly. The desperation, the determination for justice, and the certainty that there is no other way in which to get it.... My deepest respect. Especially now, at Christmas time, when everyone is symbolically stuffing their faces to bursting point. Oh, and there were no colinde either. Over the Christmas period, the Romanian tradition of carol-singing was strictly out of bounds in Pungesti since any 'gatherings' of more than two people are forbidden. Yes, you read that right.

Sandu's demands are as follows:

1. Withdrawal of riot police troops from Pungesti

2. Immediate investigation of riot police abuse in Pungesti.

3. The banning of fracking in Romania (both for exploration and exploitation)

4. The punishing of those guilty in the Pungesti file, from the President down to the last head of the riot police, responsible for the creation of such an outrageous situation.

For the first two points, you'd think it would be straightforward to carry them out quickly and efficiently. But since the orders of such abuse come from the top, well, where do you begin...? It's sickening. In reference to point 3, the Romanian authorities are oppressing the people of Pungesti in order to slurp all over the feet of Chrevron. Chevron did not ASK to come to Romania. THEY were asked to come BY the Romanian authorities. If the fatcats of the American mega-giant have the brains they were born with, they'll see what a complete waste of time and drop in the ocean Romania is (the people clearly don't want it - and the officials and Romanian politicians are so darn corrupt they should be avoided at all costs) and get the hell out of Dodge. Why they're still there beats me. For point 4, good luck with that...

There is an ambulance standing by permanently to tend to the hunger strikers if necessary, I understand, and the medics are aware of the situation, too. But still, I fear for Sandu and the others - these people trying to make a difference, standing up to a tsunami of boundless, endless corruption. There are long term effects of food deprivation and hunger that are horribly irreversible, so please God, may this abuse of power END and no one else suffer - either as a result of police batons, the fat hands of Mircia Vlasa (Mayor of Pungesti) who cuffed a 12-year-old on Christmas Eve, or from hunger and cold....

(Photo source) Since riot police took root in Pungesti in early December after violent clashes with protesters opposing Chevron's intention to begin exploration for shale gas, the town has effectively found itself under severe curfew conditions unprecedented in peace time. Children have become so terrorised by the gendarmes' intimidating presence (and with cause) that some have not been able to attend school and others are reported to have started bed-wetting. The annual Christmas party for the children at school was cancelled. People have been confined to their homes, unable to go anywhere without questioning from the police. 

I don't know what the BOR, the Russians, little green men or the wild woman of Borneo have to do with all this - and really, I don't care much anymore. Abuse by authorities is two-fold in today's Romania: first, there is the willy-nilly passing of unconstitutional laws at the drop of a hat which go against citizens' basic rights and then there is the more visible direct abuse via riot police exercising force way above and beyond the call of duty, leading to the outrageous bullying and intimidation of citizens. It is impossible for ANYONE to turn a blind eye to either anymore. Pre-'89, such abuse was appalling, but post-'89 it is truly shocking and shows the terrible fragility of a young Romanian democracy.

(Photo source) It is incredible to think that in an EU member state in 2013, such military intimidation on orders from Romanian authorities can be taking place under our very noses, remains largely unreported by the international press and NOTHING has been done to condemn this over-zealous, barbaric treatment of citizens of ALL ages, ie. both young and old alike. As for the mayor of Pungesti, he should have been thrown in jail years ago - not only for his recent falsifying of documents used in the leasing of land to Chevron, but also for his pilfering from the CAP (common knowledge, it seems) in his good old commie days at the very least.

It is fitting to remember that 24 years ago on 22nd December, communism fell in Romania and an outpouring of hope was born... chiar degeaba? For exactly nothing?

Further information:

- If you would like to read more about the situation in Pungesti and the fight against fracking in Romania, please see THIS new site.

- Please see a report by APADOR-CH on the human rights abuse in Pungesti and other useful links HERE.

- APADOR-CH and ActiveWatch demand the dismissal of the Interior Minister for the abuses committed at Pungeşti: 

- Petition: STOP Chevron and Police abuse in PUNGESTI, Romania (AVAAZ) - please sign if you haven't already done so!

- Facebook group: Frackoff Pungesti for materials on the warlike situation in Pungesti due to abuse by Romanian authorities and Chevron's fracking operations. Articles are posted here in several languages.

My thanks to Liviu C for the additional info and links.

Sarah's 'Ode to Sarmale' - Merry Christmas one and all!

(Photo: Sarah In Romania)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

and a little festive ode just for you! Any likeness to that of Pastorel is pure figment of your imagination!!

Sarah's lil Ode to Sarmale

There’s something ‘bout sarmale

That turns my legs to gel,

I’m sure that all my readers

Know this feeling very well

 *

The prep is ceremonious

And it can’t be done alone –

For that accentuates the ‘dor’

And longingness for home.

 *

Ingredients loved and fashioned

Into each, a yummy roll -

And as you work with diligence

They fill your very soul!

 *

A layer of sarmale,

Varza acra makes one more,

Then we add the slaninuta

Til there ain’t no room for more

 *

A little taste for everyone

For dreams' sake and to savour,

Then we cook it, oh so slowly

Soaking up the Christmas flavour!

 *

And as it's cooking gently,

There are tipples to be drunk -

Noroc with tsuica or palinca,

Til your head is in a funk!

*

Once transferred into the oven

Sweet perfume invades your heart,

For this ‘oeuvre’ of such iubire

Really is a work of art.

 *

Served with golden mamaliga

And a wonderful red wine,

It's impossible to muster up

A better way to dine!

*

Christmas can’t exist without it,

You can try, but won’t succeed,

Coz the loss is overwhelming –

Like a knight without his steed!

 *

So, a very Merry Christmas

May your joys be all complete

And sarmale always with you!

Pentru-n Craciun fericit!

*

Photo source

'Three museums diverted from their mission' by Dr. Sanda Golopentia

(Photo source) Dr. Sanda Golopenția PhD, Professor Emerita at Brown University, RI (US), sent me this text yesterday, and has given me kind permission to share it with you here. In this one article, she sums things up in a nutshell defining what is planned for MTR, Antipa and the Village Museum as 'a serious act of cultural aggression':

Many thanks, Professor Golopenția!

Trei muzee prestigioase deturnate de la munca

și misiunea lor

Sanda Golopenția, Prof.Em. Brown University

            Institutii românești de talia Muzeului Țăranului Român și a Muzeului Satului au nevoie de susținerea inspirată a statului, iar Romania are nevoie de cultură. Prin comasarea celor doua muzee, ambele vor fi de fapt distruse cu bună știință. Fiecare dintre ele are un profil specific pe care se cuvine să-l respectăm și ajutăm să crească, iar nu să-l nimicim, ignorând chemarea lor și trecând cu tăvălugul peste munca și căutările mai multor generații. Muzeul Satului studiază și expune etnografic obiecte complexe — de la case de locuit din diferitele regiuni ale țării, cu împrejmuirile, anexele și interioarele sau uneltele lor caracteristice, la peisajul de sat, cu ulițe, meșteșugari și biserică. Muzeul Țăranului Român, clar delimitat prin nume, ridică problema omului, cu viziunea lui despre lume, cu valorile și conceptele lui, îndemnând la dialogul viu între civilizația țărănească din care provenim și modernitatea, pe care o dorim luminată și încălzită de trecut, în care ne aflăm. Fiecare dintre ele a acumulat în timp un material urias pe care urmează să-l gestioneze și să-l aducă ani de-a rândul în fața vizitatorilor, fie ei din România sau din străinătate. Fiecare continuă să dezvolte proiecte inovatoare și are, prin forța lucrurilor o concepție muzeistică proprie. Și, mai cu seamă, fiecare merită toată atenția din partea guvernului, sau a ministerelor de resort, în fapt nu o merită, ci o impune prin vizibilitatea și calitățile de excepție pe care le-a dovedit. Ambele muzee se bucură de o largă recunoaștere în Uniunea Europeană și de premii de prestigiu, ambele sunt locuri de pelerinaj cultural nu numai pentru români, ci și pentru cei care, în alte țări, caută drumul spre o armonizare a vieților noastre, prinse inevitabil în tensiunea trecut–prezent–aspirații de viitor. Ambele ilustrează capacitățile de creație și sinteză ale poporului român și constituie surse de inspirație de care să ne folosim cu bucurie.

            A caza o instituție care are nevoie de spațiu în locul ocupat de un muzeu de marcă precum Muzeul Antipa, care si-a restructurat de curând spațiul potrivit cu cerințele proprii de expunere, a muta apoi două alte muzee de prim ordin într-o rocadă întunecată, pe cât de bizară, este un act grav, de agresiune culturală. Nu cred că el cadrează nici cu guvernul nici cu variile ministere implicate. Și sunt sigură că, la reflecție, se va reveni asupra unei măsuri în care decizii pripite, neinformate sau indiferente la ce ar fi să respectăm bucuroși, au creat nu numai printre muzeografii și specialiștii noștri în științe sociale și, pe plan larg, în variile domenii ale culturii românești și europene, ci și în rîndurile largi ale celor care iubesc și respectă trecutul nostru, reflectând activ la ce-i datorăm și prin ce îl continuăm, un sentiment de nesiguranță și apăsare.

            Muzee de talia celor trei pe care din câteva trăsături de condei cineva care nu le înțelege e gata să le devieze de la rostul lor adânc, definit cu trudă, în ani, de mulți iubitori ai culturii, nu se refac ușor. Și nici nu avem multe.

            Vara trecută, la Paris, erau expuse fotografii ale unor aranjamente ale Muzeului Țăranului Român. Nu era pentru prima oară și nu era singurul loc de expunere în Franța a muncii muzeului. Alții pot vorbi de alte experiențe. A mea a fost specială în măsura în care am vizitat Muzeul Țăranului Român la Paris, grație inițiativei unui francez, într-o zi obișnuită de vară, fără aniversări sau prilejuri speciale. Am ridicat capul și m-am simțit parte activă și recunoscută a Europei. Datorez bucuria acestei clipe colegilor mei de la M.Ț.R. Obligația de a asigura continuitatea bună a muncii lor ne revine fiecăruia și nu poate fi eludată de organismele menite să ne reprezinte cultural.

You can now also find Dr Golopentia's article on Hotnews, Revista 22, Contributors and Ziare.

Ponta and Plumb set to destroy the Romanian Peasant Museum

(Photo source) Yet another vicious beating from Romanian authorities, this time aimed at the Romanian Peasant Museum (Muzeul Ţăranului Român - MTR)...

PM Victor Pontaur is all for an absurd draft resolution dreamed up by the Sinister of the Environment PSD-ist Rovana Plumb (all those out in the streets protesting against the RMGC project and fracking know her only too well) to move the nearby Grigore Antipa Museum of Natural History there, thus destroying MTR and its grounds as we know it. Actually, it destroys two museums in one fell swoop. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, neither culturally nor financially, and has been vehemently denounced by Muzeul Ţăranului Român's Director Stephen Virgil Niţulescu, who has addressed this open letter to the PM. In it, he says that such an act would "destroy an institution fundamental to the Romanian soul" - an error that would be manifest of the "communist regime."

This comes after 13 million euros was spent on Antipa's entire recent renovation. It was reopened in September 2011.

Grigore Antipa and MTR are the two most popular museums in the whole of Romania - and the most researched on Google in 2013 - but since when did common sense ever have anything to do with the price of fish, for goodness sake?

(Photo source) What's the point of such a monstrous attack on Romania's culture, you'll be asking. Aren't we all. Clearly, this wonderful new space one now finds at Antipa has plenty of promise for Plumb and her ministry. She wants it for herself. A cultural hub that is successful and always full whenever I have visited is wasted as a museum in her opinion. So, shove everything into the site of today's lovely Muzeul Ţăranului Român (MTR), move all those collections to The Village Museum (Muzeul Naţional al Satului) near Park Herăstrău, thus eradicating MTR entirely. Gata. Another great day's work.

Unsurprisingly and just as you'd expect, the two 'new' museums will come under the Ministry of the Environment. Ponta has commissioned Gigel Stirbu, the new Minister of Culture, to handle the project. Ponta's explanation for the change in ministry is related to the Ministry of the Environment's access to EU funds, whereas the Culture Ministry has none. See THIS very good article (in Romanian) for more on EU funds v Culture.

During Gigel's recent swearing in as Minister of Culture, President Traian Basescu advised him against the merging.

"Merge them!" was Ponta's uncompromising (and as usual, elegant) reply.

Paulina Popoiu, general manager of the Muzeul Naţional al Satului, told AFP that nobody had spoken to her at all about the merger project with MTR, and that if it were to go ahead, it would be far from an easy task.

(Photo source) Bucharest's beloved MTR was founded in 1906 under a royal decree signed by King Carol I as a Museum of Ethnography, National and Decorative Art and Industrial Art and was closed during the communist period. On 15th February 1990, the then-Culture Minister Andrei Plesu named painter Horia Bernea director of MTR. In 1996, the museum won the EMYA - European Museum of the Year Award. Over the years, it has flourished not only as a museum within itself, but also as a culture centre for conferences, exhibitions, book launches, concerts and hosts folkloric and traditional crafts festivals. The museum itself documents Romania's fascinating rural past - colourful costumes, hand-painted pottery and a complete 18th-century wooden church. A separate section documents collectivisation in communist Romania.

(Photo source: Clubul Taranului Roman) This is yet another wilful act to destroy Romania's culture, already in the throes of what seems to be purposeful dismantlement. It is certainly not the first time museums are targeted, see HERE and HERE. This most recent development was decided with NO public debate. So much for transparency. Puiu Haşotti (PNL leader in the Senate) has likened it to being on a parallel with Ceausescu and his monstrous destruction of Bucharest's churches, whilst anthropologist Vintila Mihailescu has described it as a 'huge political gaffe' and 'an attack on national identity'. Andrei Plesu, Cristi Puiu, Gabriel Liiceanu and Dan Falcan have also expressed their alarm and deep disapproval. Even Gigel says he doesn't agree with it.

PLEASE add your name to the petition HERE. So far there are 419 signatures at the time of writing. That is NOT enough. If we care enough about Romania to get out there on the streets to protect her land, her mountains and her future generations from cyanide gold extraction and fracking for shale gas and to oppose politicians introducing laws and legislations at the drop of a hat that absolve and promote those wrecking and undermining the country at a rate of knotts, then surely we should be indignant enough to stand up for her threatened history and cultural institutions, too. Right? This CANNOT be allowed to happen. Not again. It MUST be stopped.

(Photo source) There is a public Facebook page for you to visit HERE full of articles, info and events, keeping you up to speed. There will be two flashmobs tomorrow at MTR - one at 14h and a second at 18h. The message is simple: 'Solidarity with MTR'. Please be there if you can.

Update, 19th December: Late last night, it was reported that Pontaur has decided to 'take a step back' from the MTR merger with Muzeul Naţional al Satului due to public uproar at the news. God forbid that Ponta should do anything unpopular!! Good. Regrettably, however, it's just a pause. He is still determined that Antipa move to MTR and mutation of responsibility from the Ministry of Culture to that of the Environment go ahead...

Watch this space as news comes in. It doesn't end here.

Please don't forget the two flashmob events at MTR, 14h and 18h today!

(Photo source) Later: Today's 14h flashmob unfolded with around 40 people in front of MTR, and the 18h 'session' with approx. 30. The museum kindly served hot tea to all, including the bus load of jandarmi. A hearty bravo to everyone who showed up at such short notice and an even bigger bravo to Roxana and others for organising it!

Greed (and that's what this is about) MUST NOT triumph over culture and national identity, any more than it should over environmental safety, health, justice and basic human rights. Not today, not tomorrow. Not ever. And definitely not in OUR Romania...

For more, please see Roxana Dascalu's article for Econtext.ro HERE.

23rd December: Today the Romanian government officially renounced plans to merge MTR with the Village Museum 'for the time being', also shelving ideas to transfer responsibility from the Ministry of Culture to the Environment. Mr Nitulescu expressed hope that the momentary decision would turn out to be the final one, for if it were found to be the contrary, street protests would follow. Too right!

Ponta said that no one ever wanted to merge the museums in the first place. Huh?! Nuff said. What's more important is that Ponta has knocked the project on the head (for now) and will leave MTR alone. The staff of MTR are understandably 'grateful' and have no wish to experience any more 'delicate' situations with Ponta. The museum is safe.

I don't have a shred of faith in the PM, however. As we have seen with examples of Rosia Montana and Chevron, a spotlight lull often means theatrical effect for a false sense of security. They make me fiendishly nervous.

The petition which now has the support of a couple of thousand including Andrei Plesu, Ion Vianu, Marius Oprea, Marilena Rotaru, Andrei Pippidi, Dorel Sandor, Teodor Baconschi, Sanda Golopentia, Bogdan Suceava, Raluca Stirbat, Maria Raducanu, Victor Rebengiuc, Mariana Mihut and Maia Morgenstern will continue. Please, if you haven't yet added your voice, you can sign it HERE.

Watch this space - I'm uncomfortably sure we haven't heard the last of this....