Bucharest in photos

A guy with serious guts, working at the 8th floor of a block. On the outside.

Bucharest in photos

A while ago, somebody wanted to rent a floor in a residence situated a few blocks from my place.

But, it seems, he was undecided what clients to chase - Romanians or Anglophile foreigners - and, I suppose, he gave himself finally to the idea of appealing to both, while making a small economy. So, he began his "to rent" message in English, but finished it in Romanian. The picture above is the unhappy, yet funny, result; enjoy.

PS: I'd still say, based on my experience, that Romanians - and especially the Romanian youth - speak better English than many other European nations.

Bucharest in photos

February 14th, 2008. Day of a concert - in the Revolution Plaza, the very heart of Bucharest - of one of the best electro Romanian bands - Şuie Paparude. I was just passing by when I saw the lasers, a few hundreds of enthusiasts and I stopped to watch the concert.

It was exquisite and very surreal.

If you want to get an idea about the band, I invite you to listen to their best-known song so far.

Bucharest in photos

 

Cişmigiu gardens, night view.

Bucharest in photos

This is a image of the Parliament Palace that you just cannot see every day. It was taken on January 1st, 2009, one hour after the New Year.

Enjoy.

Bucharest in photos

This is the tomb of Nicolae Ceauşescu, located in one of the cemeteries in Bucharest - the Ghencea cemetery, which is situated not far away from the football stadium. I do not have any photos of him alive (the only time I saw him face to face was in November 1989, one month before his fall, when he came in visit to Bistriţa. I was 9 years old at the time.), but if you are curious I guess you can find pictures of him on the internet.

Nicolae Ceauşescu was president of Romania from 1965 to 1989. He was not a democratic president, he was a dictator, and a really crazy one - very similar to Kim Ir Sen, of North Korea. He had the end of a dictator, as he was "judged" ("condemned" is the better word) and shot by his lieutenants - led by Ion Iliescu - on Christmas day, in 1989. They had him shot to secure their power.

Why do I put here a picture of his grave? Because, 21 years later - that meaning today - 61 % of the Romanians tend to believe that Communism was good, and there are more Romanians who have a good opinion of Ceauşescu than Romanians who believe he had done wrong. With a small effort, I think we could have got to the same level of nostalgia for Communism as the Hungarians some years ago, when 72 % of those Hungarians interviewed stated they believed it was better with the Iron Curtain.

The truth is that during the Communist period things were much, much worse. I remember - and I wonder how the others forgot - what an adventure was to buy bread and milk (as a child, I was the one who had to stand in lines), how it was impossible to buy any kind of meat (except, maybe, fish), the terrible view of the empty stores, and the complete and omnipresent misery. Everything was owned and controlled by the state; as an individual, you owned some clothes, a TV set and a car (if you were lucky). And if you owned a car, getting the gasoline for it was the daily adventure of your life.

But above all, the worst thing was the level of control and the complete lack of freedom. People regret that, back then, you had to have a job. It was just another mean of control of the state upon the individual. People regret stability (as compared to the anarchy of post-Communist Romania), but it was a stability of a paralyzed society. A society paralyzed by the state who controlled it.

For myself, I can tell you I was a child, but I hated what I saw back then: the absurd levels of control, the absurd levels of propaganda (two hours daily, on the national TV station - the only program available, and I had already enough of it long time before the fall of the regime) and the inner poorness of people, who were just surviving biologically, because spiritually they were dead.

Most of all, I hated Communism because one of my uncles - who tried to get to the free world (getting out of the country was strictly forbidden) - was caught one night on the Danube, on the border with Yugoslavia. They declared him mad, put him in a psychiatric hospital under appropriate "treatment", and completely destroyed his life. It was because of this that he had time to stay long hours with me when I was a small child, while my parents were working. So judge for yourself.

With love,

To blog or not to blog? My feelings about the 2010 Romanian blogosphere

Gotta tell you this, guys.

I've been spending a few weeks studying in parallel the occidental blogosphere and the Romanian one. In the first case, there were the Blogger blogs of note (January, February and March 2010); in the other, the ZeList Top 50 – a.k.a. the most prominent 50 Romanian blogs. In case you were wondering where all my recent - and ironic - references to the Romanian blogosphere came from, you have a part of the explanation.

So, this is what I discovered, and what I can tell you with the right hand juxtaposed to my heart: unfortunately, the Romanian blogosphere sucks. But I am afraid that word is not strong enough. The Romanian blogosphere, as it presents itself at this very moment throughout its most visible blogs, sucks big time. On the other hand, you can find excellent Romanian blogs - and you can find those that I like and recommend in the Romanian bloglandia chapter. Unfortunately, these are quite few.

Among the 50 most prominent Romanian blogs, there was one only I could like enough in order to add to the blogroll: www.bookblog.ro. It was added already years ago. The others were all very similar, because they all spoke about politics, media and can-can. Very few were actually blogs, and not sites (considering their content and lack of personalization). And that, even if the authors themselves were clever and well-educated people.

Most Romanian blogs date from 2008 and 2009. So, ok, there was a technical delay with the West, and most of the Romanians got to have internet access in 2006 and 2007, but to see that beginning date on almost all the blogs I wondered through made me think that most of the Romanian bloggers chose this activity out of mere opportunism. It was a fashion to have a blog in 2007 and 2008 in Romania, and those who gained success kept it out of inertia. While, you know, there are, for instance, Romanian bloggers who started posting in 2003, never made the mainstream and had writing skills. One of them was linked on this blog until recently, and it was the oldest Romanian blog that I know of. Most unfortunate, she quit blogging. It is a decision I fully understand. I cannot blame her.

Another thing is that Romanian bloggers, blogging in Romanian, don't like using Romanian diacritics, so there are moments when you have to literally guess what they meant to say in the first place. And this is a matter of basic respect towards the readers. Afterward, I did not like the strong/indecent language – which seems to be a sort of standard - and the grammar problems many of the blog authors do have.

But I guess the most disturbing and unpleasant thing is that most of the Romanian blogs I wandered through are boring, boring, and… boring. You have usually the same political or media subject, presented in the very same way, and that is it. So I say it again: blogging is civic, blogging is citizen journalism, so it has to speak about civic matters, but at the same time blogging should not be a copy of the classical mass-media.

Are there any rays of hope for the Romanian blogosphere as a whole? I think so: there are some civic and humanitarian initiatives and campaigns who really add value to it, lately. But I do not know if that is quite enough.

Sad conclusion: I find myself in the funny situation of being unable – with some exceptions - to relate to the blogosphere of my own country.

Bucharest in photos

Hmm, dilemma:

I'm in a big, and I mean, BIG, hurry. But, take a look: narrow sidewalk + car parked on it, while other cars are speeding on the roadside. A pillar is blocking my way + the imbecile driver (may God teach him a lesson) did not think of the people who have to pass by. How could I get through?

I guess I need to pull down some more kilos. Or perhaps I should learn how to fly.

Sometimes, it is really not funny to walk in Bucharest. Disrespect is, unfortunately, a very frequent issue here.