Well a day late (and a dollar short, as we say), it looks like the Romanian media and blogging/online world has woken up to ACTA. I suppose that’s good. I know doing an informal “poll” of people I know, nobody had heard about this (here in Romania) until just now.

Obviously as you saw in my last post, the same is not true in Poland and several other countries. They were quite aware of it ahead of time and mobilized to protest when their governments signed this odious treaty.

I really can’t get into too much length here but this is exactly what I was talking about (number 3 at the link) when I said Romania needs more “horizontal” discourse. The commercial media this past week has been obsessed with the snow and then the “old” protests against the government and never mentioned ACTA even once. Romanian bloggers were of course largely too busy posting jokes and stupid pictures. Therefore nobody even knew about ACTA and thus were robbed of their democratic right to give their input.

I am now working with others on a plan to change this – to make sure that both dialogue on the issues that are important to Romanians (and people living in Romania) has a place to happen and that issues are covered without waiting for the commercial media to get around to covering it. It’s a little ambitious but I am an ambitious son of a b—- :)

In the meantime, here are the list of Romanian European Parliament representatives who voted in favor of ACTA:

Cristian Silviu Buşoi (Grupul Aliantei Liberalilor si Democratilor pentru Europa – ALDE)
George Sabin Cutaş (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Ioan Enciu (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Cătălin Sorin Ivan (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Ramona Nicole Mănescu (Grupul Aliantei Liberalilor si Democratilor pentru Europa – ALDE)
Ioan Mircea Paşcu (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Rovana Plumb (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Daciana Sârbu (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Adrian Severin (independent)
Claudiu Tănăsescu (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Silvia-Adriana Ţicău (Grupul Partidului Socialistilor Europeni – PES)
Corneliu Vadim Tudor (independent)
Adina-Ioana Vălean(Grupul Aliantei Liberalilor si Democratilor pentru Europa – ALDE)
Renate Weber (Grupul Aliantei Liberalilor si Democratilor pentru Europa – ALDE)

The last one on the list, Miss Renate Weber, has a particularly stirring defense of her corporate overlords at the link. If you have the motivation, contact one or all of these people (including old Corneliu “Purple Glasses” Tudor himself) and let them know what you think.

Meanwhile I note that Elena “Supermodel” Basescu voted against ACTA, to her ever lasting credit.

Folks, time is running out. It’s time to get educated, get organized, get motivated and get cracking. Not just on this issue but on all the issues facing us.

STAY TUNED TO THIS SPACE FOR MORE TO COME!