Liberalism and Democracy in Romania

If you grasped the idea of Romanian liberalism (incompetence, payola, dull policies, taxes over taxes, abnormal laws, etc.) it'll be better not to try Romanian democracy.

The Romanian Cousin

www.noiq.ro - You don't need IQ for beauties

What to do...

Any criminal regime, like the Eastern Europe's ones from the XX-st century, has as a first task on its agenda the political, the intellectual, the moral, and the economical beheading of the people. Well, not necessarily in this order. Suppose one regime like that will come into power in Romania. Who shall be on the beheading list? There are some powerful owners, so that economically we would have victims. But morally, or intellectually? Be serious. Not to speak about politics...

Qualm

Nausea, anger, disgust, faintness... One can have all these not good at all experiences living in Romania. Year: 2007. Millennium: 3rd. Europe... believe it or not! A former prime minister cannot be called in court because... he did not approve his indictment. A bunch of present members of the govern seems fit to enter the fifth grade. And no, they are not precocious.

The Miracle

A group of public intellectuals established a sort of committee for writing a new Constitution. Finally, a very, very, very good idea. But let's jump first...

Clashes

On the national radio broadcast service a gay sings "how beautiful you are tonight" (about a girl).
The forreign affairs ministers says "if one will demonstrate that I turned the shame against my country, I'll quit." (He made a phony figure when he met Condoleeza Rice.)
The president met the top public intellectuals of the country in his villa at the sea shore. The guys who defended him loudly in the referendum campaigning. They are the only guys who know.

Bush "lost" his watch

in a "crowd bath" in Albania. I'd suggest him not to meet any crowd of Romanian MPs. He'll go home in his panties.

What's the...

difference between a social-democrat and a liberal? The first is willing to become history only by hard-pushing; the latter has initiative.

What Do You Need To Run a Country

A bunch of rich friends (who will let you down as soon as you have nothing to offer anymore), a pair of advisers (by whom you'll pay your debts abroad), serenity in lying, and a good, healthy lack of interest for the people. If you are stupid, also, the least you can get is the minister of health's office.

What's ours?

"Life was a continuous repetition of work, sleep and funerals" - Fred Copeman.

On Liberty [made in Romania]

As Hobbes said, "there is not ordinarily a greater sign of the equal distribution of anything than that every man is contented with his share." But seeing the political actors today, methinks the problem has changed. At least in the case of liberty, we have to say that there is no greater sign of equal contentment than that every man finds its share unequally distributed, especially when he should be in prison, but has instead the greater liberty to chase the pedestrians with a limo.

Absurdania

That should be the name of this country. Today, millions of Romanian citizens are living in the more civilized countries of Europe. The foreign affairs minister pompously said that their votes will not be hindered. Well, if we count the 18,212,980 on the lists, minus 639,870 (the number of ballots sent abroad!), we have 17,573,110 voters expected to come to the poll centers in the country. Well, I don't think there are today in Romania so many human individuals! That means, if all individuals having the right to vote are going to vote, we'll have a percent of participation around 65. As we cannot count on that, probably that percent will be (on aggregate, home and abroad) somewhere around 50, if we are optimistic. Add here the way of putting the question, which will let many as bewildered as if they would be in front of a Martian, and you'll have a result at heaven's will. Now, what did all those surveys counted? What all these "politicians," "sociologists," "political analysts," etc. are discussing? The vote of the people? What people?

How To...

pull the strings for distorting a referendum, and... lose the game.
1. First of all, you have to change the electoral law, after you have fixed up all the details for the referendum.
2. Second, you can set up the ballots, so that most of the voters won't know if they have to say "Yes" or "No" - no matter what they really intend.
3. Third, you can make an alliance with all political foes, calling their supporters to vote like yours.
n. Last, but not least, you have to distribute just about 500,000 ballots abroad, when the official statistics say that there are 2,000,000 Romanians living abroad. (Notwithstanding that there are probably more than 5,000,000!) That way, you just shut their mouths up, which is, alas!, not enough...

Corollary: You must be really stupid to believe that most of the people are so stupid as your advisers say.
Second corollary: Stupidity is equally distributed among political parties' supporters.

N.B. Any resemblance with the plans of Romanian government is pure reality.

Why Politicians CANNOT Win

For they all (well, the democrats excepted, but that's an accident) curse the president, and, contrary to what they believe - namely that if they are together they're right also -, the people's instincts work impeccable, signaling that it is something wrong when all "liberals," "social-democrats," "grand Romanians," and "conservators" are united for "saving Romania."
That's why, although there will be fraud and chicanes on poll, the dismissed president shall regain his seat.

Justice Doesn't Go Right

The public prosecutor who is in charge with the harsh cases of the leaders of Conservative Party and Hungarian Democratic Union is proposed for dismissal by the brand new minister of justice. Hard blows are gonna come.

The Ominous Country

When you wake up in the morning, this country may seem beautiful. In fact, it is beautiful until you have to get in touch with the authorities (of whatever kind). Any person can be happy until it comes the day in which he tries to get the mail from the post office, to respect the law - and get an ID card, for example -, or to pay a tax. Then you are in front of the Law, which is stupid, humiliating for the common citizen and enforced by a usually stupid clerk, happy to humiliate everyone around... In the main time, the first priority of the politicians is to change the (newly changed) Constitution, for it is weak!!! And (for the major part of them) to dismiss the president, who has violated it, they claim.

Freaking News (What their Mums Taught them Better)

The Romanian l-i-b-e-r-a-l* government has planted a new tax, alongside the hundreds and thousands already in place, some invented by social-democrats, some by themselves. It's a tax for protecting historical monuments, 2% from each amount betted. From the state lottery to the last owner of a slot machine, every "fortune game operator" shall pay the tax. It is not the only one in the industry. There are already in place: license - 5%; the tax for the minister of culture - 1%; the tax for the national sports agency - 5%; profit tax - 5%; social tax - 10%. There is still room for many, so... smile, and make the bets! The winner of the lottery pays taxes only if the amount won is bigger than... I don't know how much. Which is double imposing, anyway (in fact, these are already imposed amounts).

And now, the deliciousness of the fact. Of course, each operator will need another form, which will be filled and registered separately, as it is the case for the dozens of taxes paid by each economic agent. And then, the sum has to be spent. That's the point. Somebody will have some more cash, painting a statue or digging a hole for strengthening it. No wonder if some schmucks will declare their own houses (taken from the former owners lawfully) historical monuments.

For those who don't know what "governing" is: imagine a bunch of guys, most of them irritated, taken from their business, gathered in a room. One of them says, inspired by a mate that has a firm, "Hey, we have a problem out there! The historical monuments!" Nobody cares, and the ones that knows both terms are few. But a voice raise, "let's put a new tax." "On what?" "Well, the lottery hasn't got any tax in the last years." "OK, done." And so on...

*in the old good European meaning!

Ueber Sinn und Bedeutung (On Sense and Signification)

The headquarter of the Bucharest Electoral Office for the May 19th referendum has been established in the State Circus' building.

Why Democracy Doesn't Work...

when it is planted backward? [i.e., it is not "discovered" step by step, in a quest for power equilibrium, but made in laboratory, with the only aim of classical principles' contentment.]

Simply because you can have a bunch of guys settled to follow their own rational interests. They choose rationally, they respect all the principles of democracy, but the result is a pure "taking over." They took over the Romanian democracy, with a limping Constitution, sets of well pondered laws, and several herds of "supporters" (bunches wanting to plant their interests among the top rationale...)

And the result? A marvelous picture. A free elected man can reach the no. 1 on the list of public enemies, for obscure reasons. The others seek not only his substitution, but his total destruction, as the "social-democrat" leader yell in front of a crowd gathered to taste free beer and "mititei." Another "social-democrat," ex foreign affairs minister (Adrian Severin), blames the Western Conservatory Press (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Standard, Wall Street Journal) for taking side in the "democratic fight" and being intoxicated. As if these positions weren't astonishing enough, the "liberals" fill up all the media and the public place with their love declarations for the social-democrats. You cannot help yourself to ask: What the heck did Basescu? Tried to disband the business junta?

Mocking democracy [The politics of blowing up... everyone]

I guess democracy shows its value when it falls to the hands of a couple of hundreds Romanian MPs. The last one coming from Romanian "democratic" politicians gathered in the House of Thieves is this: they have dictated that for the May 19th [Orthodox Saint Patrick, which happens to be the family name of one of the most controversial Moguls pulling strings in Romanian politics] referendum the president cannot have TV and radio time for campaign, unless a party gives him its time. Marvelous, isn't it?
I bet no Western democracy could devise a hot trick like that: you have to vote for the president's fall or comeback, but the campaign shall be sustained by parties! "Incidentally," most of them [in fact, all but one, relatively poor represented in the House - o Thieves, yes] having the president as the public enemy no. 1. No president allowed! Ceausescu seems a little child. He would have had a decree for that. Of course, if it weren't his case. From now on, Romania is governed by a democratically elected junta.

I apologize for naming the Romanian Parliament "the House of Thieves." Hope that no honorable thief, looting small potatoes and some milk for the little one, will chase me for that. I would have called it "the House of Grand Larcenists," but - alas! - they need translation for such complicated terms.

Schwerer Kampf

Hard fight, indeed, but not only between the president and his personal enemies. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published an article signed by Karl-Peter Schwarz, "Die Kleptokraten putschen" ["The Putsch of the Cleptocrats"] [Awkwardly enough, the word "Putsch" comes from German, but is so well suited to Romanian political scene - and history, too - that one would think the Germans have stolen it from us!] Anyway, the author made a couple of very insightful observations on Romanian politics, and on the recent events. The language may be a little strong, but remains softly compared with the harshness of Romanian editorialists. The only problems seems to be that of the target [or at least the target most people think of - the opposing group of 322].

A couple of Romanian newspapers have taken excerpts from the article, and published the translation in their electronic editions. Of course, the most important one, the one comprising the sour conclusion of the author, was omitted. Readers' comments were, as usual, split; one may remember the issue of making propaganda in the newspapers' forums, thrown in the media as being liberals' operation. Well, the social-democrats and others aren't absolved neither, even if the media stood still after a couple of articles. Actually, it is hard to believe that more than a dozen of percents of the posts on Romanian newspapers' forums come from the honest readers. Mostly there are curses and filthy accusation thrown at "the enemy."

But the beauty comes only now. They've made it! They subscribed to FAZ, and now the fight goes ahead. In German, this time. Playing as German readers, or emigrated Romanians, some of them started their dirty job there. With the same old accusation from home. Isn't funny?

19...

of May. It is the date of the referendum over President's dismissal. The next step will be that of modifying the law, so that even a small number of votes should suffice for sending the president home for good. In all this turmoil there's a good thing: people shall be occupied with the "political crisis", doing nothing else. Which is very good, given that when they do something, it is more often than not a bad thing.
[A friend called me several days ago, asking me to join an instant gathering for sustaining the freshly demitted president. I told her, "No, thanks, I'm at the library, and I'm doing fine." "Well, do you prefer this crisis situation to last?" "What crisis? I was in the library all day, and - I swear - there's no crisis here!"]

Who killed at Virginia Tech?

In an insteresting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Gary Lavergne says, "More than four dozen innocent people were gunned down by a murderer who is completely responsible for what happened. No one died for lack of text messages or an alarm system. They died of gunshot wounds." And, "(...) as long as we value living in a free society, we will be vulnerable to those who do harm -- because they want to and know how to do it."

Well, it's true that gun shots killed people there, but here we have a little trick. Even if they would have been protected by alarm systems, the death cause wouldn't by different. It is far from appropriate to put in the same balance two different things on scale of events. But the two phrases above rise the question: Wouldn't be better to have a more equitable distributed system of protection? I mean, yes, some guy may be angry on some class mates, a little deranged, doped, or with who knows how much alcohol on board. But why he doesn't go in the Parliament, or in the local police office, or even on the street? I think the most accurate answer is that in other cases the risks to be stopped (sometimes even before to begin your "revenge") are bigger. Opposing these risks we find those of getting in a university campus or in a high school. And with that it should start any discourse on this subject.

The Beauties of Democracy

We have a new president: the president of the Senate. The dullest man on Romanian politics. One who couldn't win a seat, not even in a local council, if he wouldn't have been put on list by his party. The elected president was demitted by 322 guys like him, all MPs. Isn't democracy beautiful?!

The Ramshackle Country

One month before the elections for the European Parliament, and all the media discourse targets the conflict between the toughest men of the country (one weaker than another) and the parliamentary games for keeping the Govern alive. The newest sidewalks look worse than the oldest ones in many countries of Europe. The Govern pays about 1,000 euro for each ramshackle automobile switched with a new one (being it Audi or Mercedes). The citizens make barbecues parties, even in graveyards, leaving behind seas of waste. The cigarettes, the energy, the railways tickets, and just about any little thing you buy often have new prices, higher than the old ones. The inflation is going down. The US dollar does the same (which means that in US dollars prices are much higher, every day). We cannot go in Sweden without a passport. The red on the traffic-lights is green for everyone (driver or pedestrian) who wants that. For a little holiday everyone recommends you the Bulgarian seashore. Cheers!

Happy Easter Romanians, wherever you are!

Paşte Fericit! Frohe Ostern! Joyeuses Pâques! Srećan Uskrs! Bona Pasqua! Páscoa Feliz! Kaló Páskha! Kellemes Húsvéti Ünnepeket! S prazdinkom Pasxi! God Påske!

That’s because the 23 languages accepted by the European Commission felt under our hands. Thanks god it’s only the languages. Yeah, I know, many of the above languages aren’t EU’s, but it’s enough, I guess, for all Romanians from abroad. By the way, more than 90% of the Romanian newspapers and magazines on the internet are written in a strange language, to which you have to mentally add diacritical marks in order to read it correct. Otherwise you can take “face” as “daughter,” “Easter” as “pasta,” etc. Almost all official documents, even those issued by Romanian Parliament and the Justice Courts are written in the same way. Romanian literacy in electronic text editing is a scarce resource nowadays.

But let’s see where we are…

The people are on the streets, markets, and hypermarkets. God knows where they are rushing, and why they buy everything’s on sale.

The good old and brand new prime minister is fighting with the president, being prepared to make an alliance with whoever promises some help for that. Aside, he’s fighting to maintain the tax for imported second-hand cars, which can lead to less money for Renault (indigenous producer!!!) and his own affairs (almost all his money come from importing new cars), whether in his property or not. He says that isn’t good to transform Romania in a junkyard. As if one can compare a 100,000 km Mercedes from Germany, which is still a car, with a 250,000 km “tin can” Dacia, which should be named rather motorized wagon. There are herds of Dacia, all over the place. As if Romania isn’t already a junkyard for cheap, plastic textiles, or every other merchandise not allowed by civilized countries, but “good for us.”

The legislative flock is occupied striving against the same president who’s the nightmare of the prime minister. In this time, all the awkward laws and norms from Europe seems to have found the best place to be enforced: Romania.

The media in its turn is occupied with the political war, crisis or whatever the journalists call it. Each newspaper or TV channel points the finger against the personal enemy of the owner, who becomes for weeks “the first public enemy.” To be more attractive, it envelops the finger in the outstanding deeds of the local or international stars. Recently the limousine of an idiotic character was bumped in an intersection in Bucharest, getting a media coverage bigger than all other traffic news of the week.

The education minister wants to build campuses; the former one bought new vans to transport the children from isolated villages to school. And so, we have an overall investment progress. The education is doing well. So well that in many high schools the main occupation of teachers is exchanging pickles recipes, while the students pay for personal preparations, with the higher level of disinterest ever, most of them waiting just to get the hell out of the school. In colleges there is a more feverish activity: most of the undergrad students are hunting reasonable marks, involving in this effort the entire arsenal they can get: copying from the internet or from colleagues (at exams). There are many cases in which they can get the exams with money.

The health minister is the best. All he cares about is reforming. The reform goes so well that you should be happy if he gets alive from the hospital, with no more than one new infection, other that the hospitalization reason. The doctors are fleeing abroad, as well as the nurses. The older population spends days every month to get the “free” medicines, from which half they don’t even need. But it’s “free”!

And so on… But the people are happy here. They continue cracking the walls for getting nicer houses (most of them in blocks that one could expect to fall down every minute, without any earthquake help), they walk through the alley filled with human, feline and canine pooh, cross the street without taking in consideration the traffic light is red or green (the drivers don’t care either, so, why bother?) and, above all, they cherish the liberty. The liberty to bump into each other, to yell curses, and to get rid of things, all over the place: on the sidewalks, and on any cavity. They throw and stick paper napkins and handkerchiefs, chewing gum, plastic bags, food remains, flower sun seeds shells and all such unnecessary stuff. After that they spit. Satisfaction guaranteed!

But there’s a bright side every time. You can cross the border easier. The official statistics say that around 2,000,000 Romanians are abroad. Methinks that is a gross underestimation. From the village where my mother lives, even the priest fled in Spain. In every fifth house there’s at least one man or one woman gone in Spain or Italy. They are called “the strawberryers,” and probably there are six or more millions of them, not only for picking strawberries (that’s the origin of the name), but for other works too: studying, driving, building, cleaning, taking care of babies and grandmas, programming computers, etc. Happy Easter for all!

Swimming tax

The president is nearly suspended, the members of the big-hopes-manufacturer government of "European" Romania yell all over the place one against another, the transportation minister plans to build several hundred swimming pools (after all, any swimmer can carry big time merchandise), and the prime minister itself fights with EU for the pocket-fat of the new car importers, swearing that it's good for the people to buy just new cars and local trash cars. I have a hunch: they build swimming pools just to strike us with another tax.

The "Intellectual" Politics (What Their Moms Don't Know)

Quoting a famous intellectual whose “brilliant ideas” flush over the readers of a Romanian hemi-tabloid: “The posterity remind with account to Napoleon the line he addressed to Goethe, that ‘politics is Destiny’ – ‘La politique c’est le Destin.’ Enigmatic through its lapidary, the sense of this formula is nonetheless limpid. It says that, when the basis of political power widens significantly much, the politics is inconturnable.” [My emphasis on the last word is due to the lack of English word for the French ‘inconturbable’, meaning: ‘which cannot be avoided.’] [H. R. Patapievici, Evenimentul Zilei (Day’s Event), March 22, 2007]

Why, if you can’t understand the last two sentences, I’ll translate them, as, in fact, should be the case (from Romanian to Romanian) for the newspaper readers, too. He wanted to say, “The formula, enigmatic through its lapidary, has a nonetheless limpidity. It says that, when the basis of political power widens significantly much, the politics cannot be avoided.” And he goes on, stating that “we live in a time of politics, when politics is everywhere.”

Aside from this bland observation, we should say that the guy speaks, unintended, as the whole political class do, commentators and analysts included. They embed plain ideas in enthralling quotes and not so well commanded hard-to-understand words, twist the phrases so that one can hardly recognize the sense from beneath, then draw the conclusion: It’s not good! That is not good! Then, when someone comes up and tries to shed some light on the “problem,” they react: Shut up, you’re not a celebrity! Or something like that. So that politics is everywhere, and everybody discuss politics. And when it comes to work, there’s no one. And when is one, he probably ‘cooks’ something. Do you remember the experiment with the monkeys beating the daring one who would try to get the bananas, apparently without reason? (They were rained with water before, every time they tried to reach the bananas, and then replaced one by one, each newcomer being beaten in his place – by the vets knowing what could happen –, and so… educated.) Well, you got the point!

Tic-tac-toe (Hate You Too)

The Romanian Parliament established a commission for a close examination of Romanian president's (recent) deeds. RCP (which is not "Romanian Communist Party," but "Romanian Conservatory Party") accused the president of "quarreling, hate disseminating, national dissenting politics, and usurpation of state's external affairs." Quite impressing charges, especially given that they come from a group of ex-communists, or capitalized communists - as they should be called - and sounds like a good old 'ironing' of a unique party's enemy.

In facts, that is the situation now: the big party of 'good' unleashed politicians, strongly decided to hunt down everyone who dares to disturb the status quo, against a tiny group of politicians, journalists and intellectuals excited by the EU accession and the new opportunities for reform. Where the latter ones put an "x," the former erase the game table and lies down quickly three "zeros."

Go Finance

It is a wonderful experience, Romania. Where else in this world could you wake up, turn on the radio and find about the brilliant ideas that visited the finance minister over the weekend? For the last weekend, the biggest one was that of awarding old, shabby, bumped car owners with 500 euro, to bury them. (No, in Romania there are no car cemeteries, so the burial will be a funny digging operation.) Now, the money are coming from: first enrollment tax, established by the same genius for the second hand autos coming mostly from Germany.

So, while pretty good cars aren't allowed in Romania without a tax way bigger than their price in Germany, the junks on four wheels can fill the roads with smog, fog and screws. You can buy them (at hot prices!) and enroll it again, without any tax. Just don't buy a cheap, good car from Germany! It will affect the pockets of the "local producer." And we have to protect our Fra(e)nchise economy, don't we?