Many years ago I was eating dinner in a restaurant in Bucharest when my companions began pointing and whispering excitedly. It turned out that Gheorghe Hagi was eating at a nearby table. I not only didn’t recognize him by sight but I had literally never heard of him despite the fact that he is widely considered to be this country’s greatest football (USA: soccer) player … Continue reading The Grandmaster
Looks like I wasn’t the only one: Romania’s National Bank (BNR) was left without electricity for about 20 minutes on Friday because of an “incident”, as electricity provider Electrica put it when contacted by HotNews.ro. BNR Governor Mugur Isarescu was not present at the bank headquarters when the incident took place. Continue reading Singing in the Dark
I haven’t been enticed by television in many a year now (thank the gods and the Man Jesus) but back in 2004, I was unemployed and freshly relocated to Romania, trying to learn the language. I watched a lot of television in those days and remember quite well the presidential elections of that year, in which a more respected politician named Teodor Stolojan bowed out … Continue reading The Bitter Taste of False Power
I will warn you ahead of time – this is going to be a long one. Yes, for an entire week I was indeed “dead” – not in the corporeal sense but in the “virtual” sense. I was cut off from the internet for an entire week. My electricity was cut and without it, almost every trace of my modern life disappeared in an instant. … Continue reading Am Venit Sa Dau Drumu’ La Lumina
As I’ve mentioned before, I tend not to follow the daily ins and outs of Romanian politics but I do keep an ever-vigilant eye on what the oleaginous Mugur Isarescu is up to at any given time. I came across this article (in English) about Romania’s budgetary cutbacks and how they are affecting the healthcare system in this country, which included this: Following a 7.1 … Continue reading The Grand Master Says the Medicine is Working…For Now
All Things Romania 