Category: Romania Fail Whale

Autophage

Want to see what happens to a country that has spent decades tolerating rampant corruption, stifling democracy, building up a military-police state, demonizing foreigners and ethnic minorities, and pitting citizen against citizen?

Backslider

The CVM was (laughably, now, looking back at it) supposed to be a temporary measure in order to get Romania up to speed in terms of tackling corruption and implementing a fair and equitable justice system.

Different Trees, Different Fruit

What’s the difference between a “real” Nazi and a Romanian in Pridnestrovie spewing anti-Semitic stuff in public and consistently using the Holocaust name for the place where she lives?

Child Abuse

In a few days, Romania’s public schools will re-open, but it’s winter everywhere, and most jurisdictions have experienced sub-zero temperatures and moderate to heavy snowfall.

Unfortunately for a lot of those kids returning to school, they’re going to be coming back to antiquated buildings that have no running water or toilets.

12 Charts About Romania

Here in Chisinau, I’ve met plenty of self-hating Moldovans who truly believe that Romania is some kind of paradise. Romanians, too, are largely glib about the problems that their country is facing.

Time for some real talk.

A Complete and Total Clusterfuck

Nothing makes me feel more relaxed than when the president of a country is going on TV saying shit like “The government literally doesn’t know what it’s doing and the entire economy is in meltdown.”

Fericit și totuși frământat

Hey… How’s it going? Yes, I know. I’ve been gone a while. It’s a long story. Listen. Romania, I’m worried about you. I really am. I’m still over here in the Republic of Moldova, otherwise known as the Stefan cel Mare #1 Fan Club, but I’m worried. Everyone I know in Romania is feeling unsettled,…

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The Hollow Men

Another day in the funhouse world that is Romania. First, the European Court of Human Rights has – yet again – ruled against Romania, this time for torturing people. From the ECHR: Romania committed several rights violations due to its complicity in CIA secret detainee programme. In today’s Chamber judgment, in the case the European…

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Garbage Fire

Lately, I’ve had my mind on my neighbor down the road, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten about good old Unicorn City. Ah yes, my pet name for dear, sweet Cluj-Napoca, a charming city that is, unfortunately, a little too full of its own shit. How many times have I written about this before,…

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Nasty Scenes

Time to take a brief break from all the happy stuff and talk about some real shit. Romanians like to have collective amnesia about their history and forget that beyond all the crazy Communist Ceausescu shit, there was also a “fun” period of fascism. Living here in Moldova, which skipped the fascist part and went…

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