Well it isn’t completely official but the results are clear – Victor Ponta was not elected yesterday as Romania’s new president. Normally, of course, people report the winner and would say Iohannis Klaus won the election and will soon become Romania’s fifth post-Revolution president. But this was not an election about Herr Klaus. The voting yesterday was strictly between those who supported Ponta and those … Continue reading Wunderbar!
Sadly, it looks like everything I predicted in my post Hail to the Thief is coming true. After last Sunday’s elections, Victor Ponta received 40.44% of the vote and Iohannis Klaus 30.37%, meaning the two men will face off in a run-off election next week. I pretty much learned everything I needed to know about Romanian politics when I lived in a village a few … Continue reading The Moron vs. The Manager
It’s a bittersweet time for me. Today, Romanians go to the polls to elect their new president. Ten years ago, I was a new immigrant to Romania. I barely understood the language and my ancient television could only receive one channel over the air. I remember watching a bald man with a Dutch uncle squint, a kind of friendly pirate, cry copious amounts of tears. … Continue reading Hail to the Thief
If you ever need to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, all I can say to you is God have mercy on your soul. The way the legend goes, about 1150 years ago the Byzantine Pope decided to send his homeboys Cyril and Methodius to the Slavic lands on his northwestern frontier and tame their wicked, pagan ways. So far, so good. But apparently Cyril decided the … Continue reading Call the gokmop!
I wasn’t even going to write about this until I nearly fell out of my chair laughing as I saw that it’s now an international story. If you prefer video, click here for the Euronews report (in English) or click here for the TVR report (in Romanian). If you prefer print, here’s Mediafax, here’s Adevarul, here’s Wall Street (Romanian), here’s Ziare.com, here’s Transilvania Reporter (with … Continue reading Gypsies 2, Journalists 0
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