I don’t know of which kind those encounters are, but you can meet a mix of varied things on the roads of a Romanian village, some more unexpected than the others.
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Village encounters
No sleep
This crappy song became a huge hit in Romania, titled “I don’t sleep in the summer” it was used even for political parodies. Back in Vama Veche, on the beach, I saw this tent with a message fitting it pretty much “this is not for seep, sex only”.
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Sausages
The seller was shouting “nu dați banii pe prostii, luați cîrnați pentru copii” which translated from Romanian to English is something along the lines of “don’t throw your money away of craps, buy sausages for your children”, but with rhyme. I was knowing it with “candies” instead of “sausages”.
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Fishermen
When I saw this fishing boat on the Black Sea it reminded me of another fishing boat I encountered in my Indian travel half a year ago: two fishing boats, two fishermen encampments, worlds apart still the same trade.
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Anti-corruption
People in the streets are protesting against the rogue communist government, but this is not all, some others are out to protest against the general corruption (the two are related but not completely the same). So a few artists meet in front of the Peasant Museum in Bucharest with a set of self-made puppets representing the “corrupts” which all of us have to support, walked them on the street and then treated them with a beer.
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Post-referendum
The referendum held by the communist coalition led by the prime-minister Victor Ponta and his fellow senator Crin Antonescu, now interim president, failed, they didn’t succeed to get the majority needed to dismiss the democratically elected president Traian Basescu so their coup d’etat failed at least partially. Now people are in the streets calling those too to do the moral thing and resign, even if this is very unlikely, to say the least.
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Dolphins on the beach
Death is a fact of life, even the noblest or the most intelligent creatures die eventually. Such is life, sad but true.
The object the kid above was looking at was a dolphin dead on the beach of 2 Mai at the Black Sea.
And next day on the beach of Vama Veche, also at the Black Sea, there was another dolphin, this time accompanied by seagulls.
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Hostel Miorita
Believe or not, this is emblematic for the city of Bucharest, the picture is taken on the Lipscani street in the old city, the main touristic attraction.
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Traian and the shewolf
Is a national sport in Romania to ridicule this horrible statue that appeared recently on the stair of the National History Museum in Bucharest, so I had to join the ranks and do my share. A couple of lovers versus a Roman emperor and a female wolf.
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BIAS 2012: the audience
Thousands of people came to see the Bucharest International Air Show and, at least in the eye of a people photographer, they offered on the ground a spectacle just as good as the one in the sky.
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BIAS 2012: the flight
There are so many images from the Bucharest International Air Show 2012 which took place last week-end at the Băneasa airport and they are everywhere, that I think everybody is probably bored by now, so my post will be short, concise and NOT focused on colored fog trails.
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Free Hugs = normal = good
We struggle at near 40°C, the politics around us are in turmoil, still people want a normal life, they try to ignore the problems and go forward. Last Saturday a bunch of kids organized an event (the second year in a row) called “Free Hugs – Summer Love” where they offered hugs around the Herastrau Park in Bucharest.
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Politics in the summer
The coup d’etat in Bucharest evolved to the point the German chancellor, called it unacceptable: the rogue government went beyond the law and suspended a democratically elected president. The street protest continued, but they also chanced, the peaceful protests in Piața Victoriei were took over by a small political party in its hunger for audience, with activists, flags, T-shirts, noise, megaphones and everything. Since that party has its own propaganda machine and I wasn’t there to endorse a party, my coverage will pause. I will probably cover other major events in the meantime, like the big presidential support demonstration and will certainly go and vote in the referendum.
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Activism
Until this week I believe I never did politics on this blog, so is natural for the reader to wonder why I become active in this area so suddenly, do I plan a new career or received some incentives? That’s not the case.
I believe in freedom and freedom of speech, I want to live in a modern and democratic society. And for those to happen, there is the need for a free press, which is lacking in my country:
- the public television is controlled by the government coalition, USL, they recently changed the management and filled the directory council only with their people (before it used to represent the political spectrum proportionally;
- the largest media group is owned by Dan Voiculescu a leader of the government coalition who is also known as a member of the secret police in the former communist dictatorship and is tried for corruption (the trial was nearing a verdict which was delayed by maneuvers of his government);
- Another media group supporting the government is owned by Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, who is currently imprisoned for blackmailing a former business partner;
- other media groups are controlled by politicians and businessmen close to the governing coalition, like Dinu Patriciu.
In such conditions, if one want the truth to be heard, it has to bypass the traditional media and put the reality directly on the internet, where those powers can’t reach it and alter the truth. Traditional media is bought and full of lies, always hired to follow someone’s agenda. We are free.
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Basescu
Later today the communist coalition controlling the government and the parliament will move to impeach the democratically elected president, Traian Basescu. He will be suspended from his function until a national referendum.
I think this particular impeachment is a bad thing for a number of reasons, I think he was the best post-revolutionary president, but this does not means much, since the others were absolutely awful, he did a lot of mistakes and bad things, but at least under his mandate also happened positive things like the country had at least an independence of powers in the state (legislative, executive, justice), the press was free (unlike the previous regime) and we had, for the first time in history a formal condemnation of the former communist dictatorship (while that is not much, is infinitely more than the previous regimes).
So I am not a fan of the president, but I think for the moment he is the best alternative. This slogan from yesterday’s meeting at Piața Revoluției are very close to my own position “I don’t cry for Basescu, I cry for the rule of law and constitutional order”.
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