Witty bits from what I learned here (5) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat pe aici]

Guess whose was the huge book in the picture? It belonged to another of those beautiful and smart girls in the UK who don’t seem to think only of booze, sex and shopping. And as long as some many judge a woman as loose based upon a single glance, I dare saying she is intelligent after a single 3-minute chat. “Yes, we should learn everything in it”, the cute student answered to me, while holding the book for my camera. Her dream is to become a EU competition law attorney! Too bad that, like many other Brit girls, she doesn’t like being photographed.

Q: Hence, I can only use the imagine of the book to illustrate a classical question/answer ethnic joke I came across a few days ago – Which are the three thinnest books in the world?

A: The book about German humour, the British cooking book, and the book about Turkish democracy. I could only add my personal amendments that, every now and then, one could find a German with some sense of humour, few things around the UK are at least edible, whilst the Turkish democracy has seriously improved for the past decade or so. Nevertheless, broadly speaking, this politically incorrect joke bears enough seeds of truth, doesn't it?

[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]

Witty bits from what I learned here (4) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat pe aici]

Q: Have you wondered why is the European Commission so keen on compelling motorists all over the Union to keep their vehicles’ lights switched on during daytime? Does anyone still believe the crap that they are trying to sell us about European roads becoming safer after such a ridiculous preventing measure?

A: Well, from what I’m hearing from unofficial sources (please don't blame it on our lovely SEI hosts or others whom I may be talking to here!) the only explanation has to do with the successful lobbying performed by two giant EU car producers. One is French, the other is German. I know both their names, and none has plants neither in Romania, nor in the UK - that’s the only clue I’m going to give. It seems that their lobbyists are about to convince most of the EU bureaucrats with responsibility in this area that cars with their lights on during daytime (compulsory in Finland since 1972) produce fewer accidents. Therefore, apart from the Scandinavian countries, Austria, Romania, and a few others, all over the EU this could become law by 2010. Of course that many Brits oppose this, and here or here are some of their arguments! It is very likely that drivers, passengers or pedestrians won’t benefit from the measure, but the car industry certainly would, as light bulbs, batteries, and electronic systems will have a shorter lifespan.

[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]

România, în Camera Lorzilor [Romania, in the House of Lords]

România nu este cu desăvârşire absentă din conversaţiile britanicilor, ba chiar poate ajunge să îi preocupe, mai degrabă accidental, până şi pe membrii Camerei Lorzilor. Cu urechile mele am auzit o interpelare în care Guvernul Majestăţii Sale era întrebat ce măsuri ia pentru a preveni exportul de cai pentru sacrificare în Europa. Nobilele animale - faţă de suferinţa cărora un nobil lord (aşa se adresează ei unul altuia în plen!) nu poate rămâne indiferent - ar fi transportate în condiţii chinuitoare dintr-o ţară UE în alta. România s-ar afla între mai mulţi asemenea exportatori vinovaţi, dar a fost singura nominalizată. Spre norocul nostru, ministrul care a răspuns la întrebare, a belmejit ceva despre faptul că "toate statele UE respectă normele sanitar-veterinare, bla, bla, bla...". Nu ştiu dacă lorzii au fost convinşi, după ce, acum câţiva ani, au reuşit să impună ca UK să interzică exportul cabalinelor în ţări în care se bănuieşte că aceşti nobili prieteni ai omului vor fi făcuţi salam.

Pe de altă parte, mi se pare demn de remarcat că (cel puţin până acum!) niciunul dintre cei cărora le-am spus că sunt român (şi mă refer la cei pe care i-am întâlnit pe stradă, nu în vreun cadru oficial!) nu părea să facă legătura dintre etnia mea şi cetăţenia celor acuzaţi de toate grozăviile prin ziare, dar pe care, prin zonele curăţele ale Londrei pe unde am umblat, efectiv nu i-am văzut. Căci la Bruxelles de pildă, chiar în faţa Parlamentului European, eu unul nu am avut cum să nu-i observ acealşi tip de cerşetori despre care scrie presa britanică, să nu-i aud, ba încă şi să obţin confirmarea, de la o sursă de încredere că "într-adevăr, sunt români". Sau, mai bine spus, din România, nu români - ca să fim politically correct! Din ce scriu până şi colegii, se pare că îngrijorarea există la nivelul autorităţilor britanice, dar încă nu ştiu cât de întemeiată.

Asta deoarece, după cum este organizat şi supravegheat metroul londonez, mi-e greu să cred că voi auzi şi pe aici cântată Drumurile noastre (acordeon remix :) ca în Bruxelles. Ceea ce nu exclude să aud - cum mi-a spus o cunoştinţă de la Paris - români vorbind în metrou despre ce pungăşii mai pun la cale. Multă lume vorbeşte pe aici în hindi, bengali, punjabi, arabă, lituaniană, rusă (plus multă franceză, spaniolă şi italiană - asta da surpriză, că la celelalte limbi mă aşteptam!), cu relaxarea tipică străinilor aflaţi într-un oraş cosmopolit, de parcă nimeni n-ar putea să-i înţeleagă. Dar tare m-aş mira ca Big Brother-ul ăsta care a instalat milioane de camere să nu fi dus (ori să nu ducă) investiţia până la capăt şi să nu înveţe şi să tragă cu urechea.

[Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

Witty bits from what I learned here (3) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat pe aici]

Q: By the time euro coins started to fill EU citizens' pockets (January 2002), many spelled the demise of London as the financial capital of Europe. Placed at he heart of the European Monetary Union and hosting the European Central Bank, the city of Frankfurt-am-Main was seen as the future New York of Europe. So why is it that, after six years, all those predictions turned out to be false?

A: Simply because the number of employees in financial services in London (retail and wholesale banking, audit and accountancy, consulting, brokerage, insurance, and so forth) is greater than the whole population of the German city. Sheer size mattered this time, against all odds indicating that the financial center of gravity in Europe was very likely to move to Frakfurt. London has over 7,500,000 inhabitants (12-14 million in the metropolitan area), while Frankfurt only has over 660,000 people (out of a total of 5,800,000).

[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]

Witty bits from what I learned here (2) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat pe aici]

"The sad fact is that nobody thinks about how Eastern Europe is like" - this is one of the frankest assessments about how our part of the world is seen from London. It belongs to a very bright and beautiful (at least in the view of a Polish colleague :) young researcher, and maybe it's good that we received it just before meeting (in the next weeks) politicians who may attempt to fool us with speeches about how important the New Europe is for them.

However, at least one of the assumptions I had made before arriving here seems to be correct. Indeed, most of the entrepreneurs in UK not only acknowledge the benefit brought by the UK membership of the EU to their businesses, but they are also very well informed about how things are going in Europe. At least partly, this is due to the activity of people (probably not older than us, the 12 Chevening Fellows hosted by SEI in 2008), working for independent organizations such as the Centre for European Reform or the Business for New Europe group.

On the other hand, we are being confirmed that the general awareness of the EU among the British public is quite low, comparable maybe to that in Romania. It only happens that, while for the Brits the EU is a constant source of irrational fear (some imagining that a European Constitutional Treaty would mean that the Queen will no longer be the Head of State :), many Romanians held for a long time an overoptimistic expectation of the EU, viewed as a doctor that would somehow miraculously cure the ills that they didn't cure themselves. No wonder that Winston Churchill once said that "the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

[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]

Witty bits from what I learned here (1) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat pe aici]

I guess it's high time I started a series of blog posts exclusively in English about what I am learning here, hoping that both my colleagues, and our lovely SEI hosts would enjoy reading them. Obviously, it would be pointless to reproduce here lecture notes. Moreover (to be completely honest :), even if I learned by heart all the theories that we're being familiarized with these days, I'll probably forget them sooner or later. But I'll definitely not forget quite a few memorable phrases or ideas.

For the beginning, here's why (put in a nutshell) Communism and planned economy were doomed to fail. As they applied 20th century technologies to a 19th century economy (whose main assets were the hordes of cheap, unskilled labourers), those governments increased productivity up to a point, and even launched the first satellite (1957). Only that in 20 years from then, much of the technology used to take Yuri Gagarin into space would be available in toy stores, and the Communist regimes simply couldn't make that essential swift from the age of electro-mechanics to the age of electronics. Basically, many industrial secrets that Soviet spies were stealing from the West remained locked in archives. Information was useless in the absence of people trained to know what to do with it!

An infinity of other (political, economical, social, moral, and so forth) reasons would explain the collapse of Communism, but to put it simply - even to those born after 1989-1991 - here is a brilliant (and unacademic :) explanation from our Course Director. His words seem to be as carefully distilled as Scotch whisky: "You find it hard to believe that a Soviet planner could come up with the idea of an iPod." It really is as simple as that...

[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]

O prea mică eroare... [A too little error...]

...care nu are nimic de-a face cu ospitalitatea gazdelor britanice, ci cu deschiderea unui cont curent ataşat unui card de debit, la o celebră bancă britanică (nu spun care, că doar vreau să-mi iasă cardul şi să-l pot folosi fără probleme :) Desigur că, inclusiv în România, mai încurcăm chiar nume foarte diferite (de pildă, Tallinn-ul cu Riga), aşadar nu avem de ce să arătăm paiul din ochiul altora, când şi noi ne trezim adesea cu ditamai bârna...

Voiam doar să arăt cât de inutilă este solicitarea de date "de siguranţă" (împotriva spălării banilor şi a transferurilor financiare între terorişti), atunci când funcţionarii unei bănci nu au habar de puţintică geografie. Şi nu d-aia complicată, despre Republica Congo şi Republica Democratică Congo, ci despre două capitale din "cele 27" ale UE.

[Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

Îndrăgostit de SUA, învăţând despre UE [In love with the USA, learning about the EU]

"Unless you make it easier to sack people, you won't make it easier to hire people" (Jim Rollo, Co-Director of Sussex European Institute) - agăţat de această primă idee care ar putea explica de ce Marea Britanie şi, mai ales, economia ei sunt atât de altfel faţă de restul UE, iată că mă arunc şi eu - până acum doar un observator şi critic al blogosferei - în această mare turbată precum Marea Mânecii...

...mai multe n-ar fi de zis din a patra mea zi pe tărâm britanic, unde deja mă simt acasă din primele 24 de ore. Nu ştiu ce va ieşi până la urmă din acest MunteanUK (thanks for the cool brand Mr G!), dar parcă n-aş putea să nu tot scriu despre ceea "văd enorm şi simt monstruos" (doar meseria mea e scrisul), într-o ţară care se încăpăţânează să nu semene mai deloc cu România, dar nici cu sora noastră mai mare Franţa, nici cu celelalte surori latine Portugalia şi Spania, ba încă nici cu SUA.

Aşadar, iată mărturia mea din timpul a ceea ce vor fi, cu voia Domnului, 12 săptămâni petrecute în campusul Universităţii din Sussex, studiind European Political Economy, la Sussex European Institute, ca Chevening Fellow. Foarte pe scurt, aceasta nu înseamnă altceva decât a fi un privilegiat invitat al Foreign and Commonwealth Office, alături de alţi 11 colegi din Croaţia, Estonia, Letonia, Macedonia, Polonia, Slovacia, Ungaria şi Turcia.

[Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]