Every capital city has its secrets, but Bucharest has a couple of unusual ones. One of them is this monument, currently located in the downtown Cismigiu Park. To understand why it’s there, we have to go back to the dark days of World War 2. Operation Tidal Wave As I’ve written about before, one of…
Category: Marketing, Advertising and Propaganda
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Trigger warning: if discussion about the Russian language threatens your self-identity, stop reading now! Few Romanians know that their tax dollars have been paying to broadcast news in the Russian language since 1975. Yes, you read that right. Radio Romania International, a state-funded broadcaster operating out of Bucharest had been treacherously providing news content in…
The Troll Threatens to Go Nationwide
I’ve got plenty of meatier subjects on deck for this week, but I thought I’d start off on Monday with a good laugh. The Unsleeping Eye picked up a couple of reports that The Troll wants to take his unique brand of hate journalism to a national level. From here (my translation): Liviu Alexa, age…
Why Do Romanians Hate and Fear Russia?
Over the years, I’ve documented a deep-seated fear and loathing for Russia amongst Romanians, and I really want to know why. Setting aside, momentarily, reactions to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2000, I wanted to know if there is any factual basis for all this enmity. Therefore, I decided to go through…
Glorious Traditions
It’s hot as balls in Romania right now, and the current scandal that everyone’s talking about is the recent revelations about Liviu Dragnea, the unofficial emperor of Romania. It’s not so much just that he’s up to his eyeballs in corrupt practices, but that he’s been laundering millions of dollars while on “fishing trips” in…
Soros v. Romania
Word count: 1868 Oh lord, where to begin? Today, as I was working one of my three jobs (it’s complicated), I came across this story from Craig Turp of Bucharest Life and I simply had to respond. But first, a lot of necessary disclaimers! Disclaimer Time I have nothing but admiration for Bucharest Life. They…
Agitprop Redux
Oh mercy me. Look, I get it that a lot of people in the Republic of Moldova feel very Romanian, and want to get a lot closer to Romania, maybe even to the point of joining the two countries together as one country. But that’s no excuse for this level of fantasy historical revisionism. Note:…
Make No Mistake
From here: George Cristian Maior, who until 2015 was the head of his country’s intelligence service, presented his credentials as Romania’s ambassador to the United States on Sept. 17, 2015. And this: Maior ran for office in 2004, winning a seat in the Romanian Senate as a member of the Social Democratic Party. He gave…
“Genius” Jimmy Wales Is Coming to Romania
Ah, well this is great news, right? Jimmy Wales, ‘the genius behind the Wikipedia’ is coming to Romania on 22 March within the McCann/Thiess Conferences, informs a release. . During the conference, Jimmy Wales will unveil the philosophy behind the Wikipedia and how he managed through this platform to revolutionise the way in which people…
Pot Calling Kettle
Well this is certainly interesting: Romania plans to counteract Russian mass media in Moldova. Dan Stojanescu, the head of the ministry’s department for politics towards and communications with fellow-Romanians abroad said at the first session of the board the time was ripe for supporting Moldova in the sphere of European values through the creation of…
More Propaganda About Transnistria
Hey kids, here’s a question: what happens when you take a Romanian, send him to America for 40 years, and then ask him to write about Transdniestria? The answer is a mishmash of unfounded bullshit: Yet on the face of it, that’s what tiny Transdniester has achieved over the past two years as its pro-Russian…
All Hail Saint Laura
You know, about once a week I get some kind of offer to put ads on my blog, or sell something to foreigners/expats in Romania, or questions about how to do that sort of thing. And I always send ’em on over to Bucharest Life. In fact, even if you’re NOT trying to drive me…
