The man with the grim appearance in the picture (which I took in October 2007, in Brussels) is Romania’s incumbent president – Traian Băsescu – a character who, in my humble opinion, draws equally irrational devotion and irrational adversity.The paradox is that he probably deserves both the support and scorn he receives, and he’s no better, nor worse than the kind of ruler Romanians deserve today.
He’s the the one against whom all other competitors in the next presidential elections (due on Nov 22nd, with a most likely run-off on Dec 6th) are running, as the vote will basically be a referendum concerning his person.
Should he be granted a second term or not? ...this is the Shakesperean question troubling the few Romanians – probably no more than a third of citizens eligible to vote – who would bother to go to the polls.
I don’t know if the following piece of information is helpful to anyone in making up their minds about voting for or against Băsescu, but I feel like sharing here another ‘witty bit’ that I learned in the UK.
What I heard is a sinthetic description of Băsescu’s ‘finest hour’ – the 2004 victory in the presidential elections, made by someone very familiar with Romanian politics.
A British political scientist described to me Băsescu’s Orange Revolution as being “the revolution of the millionaires against the billionaires.”
As I said, anyone can take this both ways – as an argument in favour or against Băsescu. I’d rather not give my own verdict, hoping that I’ve still got some readers left who would be interested in posting a comment on this topic.
[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]
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2 comments:
Hi Bogdan
Not much to say (or much time, alas) but one thing stood out:
'he’s no better, nor worse than the kind of ruler Romanians deserve today.'
I see from wikipedia that Romania has even more liberal laws than Britain when it comes to killing the unborn. This seems especially shocking given that approx 90% of Romanians identify as Eastern Orthodox.
Do you think that there is any chance of a government that could change these laws?
Dear Gregor,
You may not be familiar with Romanian politics, yet you already noticed a very sad aspect abour this country - we are one of the most abortionist places on the planet!!!
And this is because of the:
1) unrestrictive legislation;
2) wide availability of cheap abortions, both in public & private clinics;
3) huge number of unborn children murdered (up to 11 million only between 1990 and 2000).
It's pretty tragic, but I guess the magnitude of the abortion problem is as serious as in Russia and Ucraine - two former communist countries and (theoretically) still Orthodox nations :-(
There is no chance in the foreseeable future to have the pro-death legislation of Romania not categorically repelled, but at least toughen a bit.
Be it only for the 'abortion question', and this would be a reason enough for Romanians to deserve an authoritarian, rude, machiavellian ruler like our current president seems to be.
I know that many people - even among my readers - won't agree with my vision of a 'collective guilt', but this land is really soaking in the blood of countless aborted children.
I'm sorry, but I can't think of being 'not guilty' - I know women who killed their unborn children, maybe those children were relatives of mine or at least 'fellow Romanians'... I can't help wondering why am I alive, while others have been denied this gift from the Lord...
Among those who didn't choose to flee the country, many Romanians are still awaiting for a providential leader who could help us get out of the big economic, political and moral swamp we are in, but I can't help feeling that such a person was not allowed to be born...
Abortion is probably the greatest wound of mankind... And few people seem to realize it.
We are all desperate for securing our pitiful lives, we are all struggling for earthly posssesions, we are all fighting each other for countless little nothings, while our brothers around us are being killed.
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