Well, the new Romanian government has been in power for just a week and has already made me laugh. This morning, I saw Justice Minister Florin Iordache confidently declare that 2017 was going to be Romania’s year – finally! – to graduate from the MCV program and become an adult member of the European Union. And yet, just a few hours later, the EU official … Continue reading 10 Years of Fail
Oh my, this story really made me laugh. Original link in Romanian is here, but the gist of it is that long-time Romanian president Traian Basescu has had his (Republic of) Moldovan citizenship stripped by the new (Moldovan) President Igor Dodon. This truly is hilarious on several levels. After spending literally his entire life in Romania (and president of the country for 10 years), Basescu … Continue reading Stripper
Well, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks since I last wrote about Romanian politics. When we last checked in, the ruling PSD-ALDE coalition had urged President Iohannis to nominate a Muslim woman for Prime Minister. That didn’t end up happening. Instead, Iohannis appeared on television and rejected her nomination without saying why. This led Dragnea (the man who would be PM except that he … Continue reading Baby’s Dirty Bathwater
A couple of years ago, back when I was still getting my bearings on Moldova, I kept being dumbstruck by how many employment offers were posted everywhere. Yes, a few were for lucru legal in Europa (legal work in Europe), but the vast majority were for local businesses. I couldn’t help but wonder – if Moldova was so poor, why were so many businesses desperate … Continue reading WOTD: Hamal
I spent Christmas with a good friend who lives in the far east of Romania. There’s quite a lot of interesting rot to see out there if you know where to look. Here are some highlights: My friend knew of a few abandoned wine tunnels back east, where there are many. The one of brick is pre-communist, while the one of concrete was built during communist … Continue reading Do-It-Yourself Romania: A Miscellany of Decay in Vaslui County
All Things Romania 