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 Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been … Continue reading The Hollow Men
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, for goodness’ sake? Shameless Cluj-Napoca, the second-largest city in Romania, … Continue reading Garbage Fire
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 straight to the Big C, I’ve been able to more … Continue reading Nasty Scenes
One thing I’ve never understood is Romania’s irrational fear and hatred of Russia. Literally anything that Russia does is always met with suspicion while conversely anything that the United States does is always excused and forgiven. Romania had a brief dispute with the United States when NATO illegally began bombing the shit out of Yugoslavia in 1999 and Romania refused to let American weapons transit … Continue reading Sucker Bet
Oh my. Just when I thought this week couldn’t get any funnier, Liviu Dragnea went and proved me wrong. Dry details in English on the latest hijinks here, but I was clutching my belly with laughter all day Tuesday as I watched Dragnea’s last attempt to save his political power flame out in a blaze of idiocy. To recap, Dragnea is the de facto head … Continue reading The Mother of All Fail Whales
All Things Romania 