Yesterday night, the press was ready. Camera crews and journalists circled the property, everyone ready to spring into action when they heard the shot go off. Last summer the comically tragic long-running drama called Politics in Romania was dominated by the story of the conviction of former strongman PSD party leader and ex-Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. Bam, they got him! A win for the good … Continue reading Merry Christmas, Mr. Prime Minister
A few weeks ago I read a piece called The Illusion of Corruption on the blog of a Romanian who grew up in Canada but has now returned to his homeland (and as a side note, the author is a personal friend) and the more I thought about it, the more I realized what he said is true. There are a lot of foreigners who … Continue reading Incompetence on Every Level
You know, I’ve been writing about tropes in Romania for a while in an effort to understand the mentality of the people in this country. Yesterday, a few unrelated events suddenly “clicked” something in my head and I had a blinding flash of insight. The first thing that happened was that I was watching the Romanian news channels, literally all of which were focused on … Continue reading Codependency
I’m a little hesitant to write this piece because Victor Ponta officially took office on May 7, which means technically there are still a few days to go before he has been “leading” this country for a full two months. Let’s review. In January 2012, as part of the agreement with the IMF (my article on this here) to further destroy Romania’s healthcare system, then-Prime … Continue reading 2 Months of Pure Chaos
Obviously the subject everyone is discussing today is former PM Nastase’s suicide attempt Wednesday night. There are about 10 guys building a house right next door to my apartment and every day I get “treated” to their gossip and this is certainly what they’ve been talking about all morning. The story seemed to make sense late Wednesday into Thursday – a man who was formerly … Continue reading The Mysterious Case of the Suicide Attempt That Wasn’t
All Things Romania 