[EN] Political promises / [RO] Promisiuni politice

[EN] Two pics from clean cities like Edinburgh and London. [RO] Două poze din oraşe curate precum Edinburgh şi Londra.

[EN] Is there anyone as naive as to disagree with the words added to the images? [RO] Există cineva atât de naiv, încât să nu fie de acord cu vorbele adăugate pe imagini?

[EN] Is there anything that could change our opinion? [RO] Există ceva care ne-ar schimba părerea?

[EN] I don’t believe in revolutions making politicians swallow their words. [RO] Nu cred în revoluţii care să-i facă pe politicieni să-şi înghită cuvintele.

[EN] Nor do I advise trusting any political saviour.  What did Obamania achieve? [RO] Nici nu sfătuiesc a crede în vreun mântuitor politic. Ce a realizat Obamania?

[EN] I just want to say that, though painful, nothing is as liberating as telling the truth. [RO] Vreau doar să zic că, deşi dureros, nimic nu este mai eliberator decât a spune adevărul.

[EN] To the secular, I give a quote attibuted to George Orwell: [RO] Celor seculari, le dau un citat atribuit lui George Orwell:

[EN] “In times of universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” [RO] “În vremuri de amăgire universală a spune adevărul devine un act revoluționar”  

[EN] To the believers, I remind Lord Jesus Christ’s words: [EN] Celor credincioşi le reamintesc cuvintele Domnului Iisus Hristos:

[EN] “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” [EN] “Veţi cunoaşte adevărul, iar adevărul vă va face liberi”

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

Yearning for a return to Holy Mount Athos [Dor de o întoarcere în Sfântul Munte Athos]

Billions of people living on earth may have never heard of this place, although they may owe their lives to the prayers rising without cease to the Lord from there.

Out of the much fewer people who are aware of Holy Mount Athos’ existence, many may have diverging opinions. They are far from understanding what it is.

At best, some found it fit to give it as an example of an unique cultural heritage of humanity and make it a topic of an international conference reaching its third edition in 2013.

Some see it merely as a historic relic, a monastic republic with a special autonomous status within Greece, which shouldn’t burden the country’s budget anymore.

Others see it as an outpost of gender segregation, as women have not been officially allowed on the peninsula since 1060. Actually, the ban was a few centuries old by then.

Anyway, not a human law, but the Most Holy Mother of God (Theotokos) was the one who forbade the entry of women in this spiritual oasis reserved to men.

Beyond truncated perspectives like the above, Holy Mount Athos is incomprehensibly more than just a physical place, it’s a trancendental reality, a gateway to the Kingdom of God.

Every day, and especially every night, mankind (not just the Orthodox believers) is kept alive by the prayers of the fewer than 2,000 monks living on this Holy Mountain.

It’s not the sort of comforting prayer for those who have already been striken by misfortunes, but the kind of prayer preventing bad things to happen to our gone mad world.

To our secular contemporaries this makes no sense. How could prayers – seen as nothing more than meaningless words sent to a hypotethical God – actually work, they ask?

For me, all three things that I had been told about the Holy Mountain before visiting it appear to have already come true or are in the process of turning into reality…

First: one visit is not enough to understand such a realm where the earth briges the sky; no matter how much you discovered, you’d still feel that there’s so much more to find out.

Second: equally true was the warning that, after having set foot there once, you’d be yearning for another visit. And another, and another, and another…

Third: implacably, as soon as you get there, you’re off for a life-changing experience. Although this change may not happen instantaneously, it will certainly come.

Even if it were to take years before fully sprouting in your heart – assuming you’re not totally heartless – you can’t avoid the feeling that change (hopefully for the better) is on the way…

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

Margaret Thatcher had some kind of a faith… [Margaret Thatcher avea un soi de credinţă…]

Floods of bytes and pixels are being dedicated these moments to the death of Margaret Thatcher, undoubtedly an outstanding personality of the past century.

It would be a futile attempt from my part to write an obituary, as long as countless other political analysts and historians (as a lousy blogger, I can’t pretend to be any of these) have already published good articles about the Iron Lady who helped tear down the Iron Curtain, bring the USSR on its knees, and end the Cold War.

What I would like to do is draw attention to some of her religious beliefs. Although by no means in accordance with the Orthodox Church’s doctrine, her ideas were quite unparalleled in our secular EU and in stark contrast with the concoction of politically correct clichés that current leaders hold as paramount beliefs.

She probably was the last (or among the last) genuine political personalities of human history, which seems to have entered a decrepit phase of copycat leaders, of pathetic strawmen like Tony Bliar, Gordon Clown, David Chameleon, Barack Obama, Traian Băsescu or... Victor Ponta.

Brainwashed by nihilistic ideologies, trailing their twisted moral backbones and crippled ambitions on the world scene, these statesmen (and women – let’s not forget feminine versions, like Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton, of the above antiheroes!) are but ethically eviscerated puppets.

Like all great historical heroes (including her favourite Winston Churchill) Margaret Thatcher remains a controversial character. However, unlike most leaders of our troubled times, she had some form of faith.

A faith as staunchly followed as probably only great characters of yore did, perhaps Oliver Cromwell or John Knox. Here are some of her beliefs about Christianity (taken from here): 

“Methodism isn’t just a religion for Sundays – no faith is only a faith for Sundays. There were a lot of things during the week which one attended. Methodism is a pretty practical faith; there were the mothers’ sewing meetings and the guilds for young people.”

“If you are faced with the real problems of poverty and ignorance and people don’t know how best to grow crops, you’ve got a pretty simple, straightforward task because you’ve got to help, and help in practical terms. 

Because while you’re teaching them religion you’ve got to recognise that they are not very likely to receive it or understand it unless it does mean something and enables them to do things for themselves.

“So you replace poverty by a better standard of living out of people’s own efforts, because everyone’s got talent and ability, and you teach them what we regard as necessary to life, and you teach them religion as well.” 

“So when you’ve relieved poverty and ignorance and disease, if you are not a Christian you think that sorts out the problems of the world. You and I know it doesn’t, because there is still the real religious problem in the choice between good and evil. Choice is the essence of ethics.

If you deny that personal responsibility you are denying the religious basis of life – that’s the difference between me and a Marxist. The values by which you and I live are not values given by the State.” 

“Christianity is about more than doing good works. It is a deep faith which expresses itself in your relationship to God. It is a sanctity, and no politician is entitled to take that away from you or to have what I call corporate State activities which only look at interests as a whole.

So, you’ve got this double thing which you must aim for in religion, to work to really know your faith and to work it out in everyday life. You can’t separate one from the other. 

Good works are not enough because it would be like trying to cut a flower from its root; the flower would soon die because there would be nothing to revive it.” 

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

Life after prosperity [Viaţă după prosperitate]

For decades, generation after generation of people in the ‘free’ Western world have been brainwashed to believe that, as long as they work hard, they can succed in life, and… have it all.

We’re entering the fifth year of Global Economic Crisis and the twelveth year of War on Terror (after two knock-out Septembers, in 2001 and 2008), yet there’s no sign that the world would ever be prosperous again.

After having spent so many years in schools and universities, young people in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece or Romania find themselves to be part of a ‘lost generation’.



Not that the future looks much brighter for American, British, German or French youngsters. No matter how many newer and newer smartphones and other gadgets appear, the future looks dumber and dumber for everyone.

Our world – closely connected and flooded with often useless information – is nothing but a madhouse.

A giant suverillance society, where people are force-fed the dreams they should dream and the aspirations they should have. Apparently free, all of us are allowed to believe in whatever we want, and do what ever we want.



Anything is negotiable, everything is relative. There is no God, nor any supreme good. There are alternatives to everything one man considers to be an ultimate truth.

Everything but two dogmas are to be challenged. The moral superiority of democracy and capitalism shouldn’t be put into question. Dare to doubt these, and you’ll considered an extremist and gradually outcast, disenfranchised, liquidated!

Free (?!) education systems are still preparing people for a free (?!) world, where democratic values were supposed to guarantee the right to a prosperous life for everyone.



But that world is not more. So what are young people to believe? They have been learning about a world of peace, universal human values, and endless economic opportunities. No word about the afterlife, about what truly matters beyond all these fictions.

Everything they learned about was how to become the perfect cannon fodder for ideological and economic wars, to find the meaning of life in consumerism, lured by the fata morgana of prosperity.

Today, the chances of peace are deteriorating rapidly, and human rights are often abused within the temples of democracy that preach them…



As for the idols of prosperous economy, there have all “fell on their faces, shattered and broke into pieces.” The world is not a comfortable place to live in anymore.

There’s no fun, no delight, no pleasure, and no confidence in a marvelous future with major wars (Israel-Iran, Turkey-Cyprus, China-Japan), as well as famine, ecological and economic disasters looming ahead of us.

There must be life after prosperity, but how would that life be?! People (especially youngsters) are not ready to cope with this (not simply unfamiliar but outrightly) hostile new world.

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

The happiness of having a cross to bear [Fericirea de a avea o cruce de purtat]

What is the meaning of life? Why are we born and where are we heading to after death? Do we just vanish as if we never existed? Do we get other lives to spoil or to redeem the mistakes we made in our current life?

In the secular Western world the great majority of people are busy struggling for the ‘here and now’, thus remain untroubled by existential questions. There are so many things to do, so many mesmerizing illusions to run after… Who cares about what comes when this life ends?

The very few who still wonder what’s after death, end up decreeing that it’s all a matter of choice. Anyone can choose what to believe. There can’t be One Truth, they say, unable to understand that an infinity of possible truths is impossible.

Nevertheless, curious or not about what comes after the foreseeable end of life, all people want to be happy, whether they know it since early childhood or realize it later. But how do we understand what happiness is?

Is it the one that drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola promises? Is it the one that makes you lick your fingers at KFC? Is it kept safely in bank accounts, to be consumed in a shopping spree? Is it found in the relentless pursuit of pleasures?

Does a smartphone bring happiness, does a big pay check maintain it, does a holiday to an exotic Asian country boost it? Does making easy money guarantee it? Does taking all these away mean supressing happiness?

Questions like these could go on and on… Is happiness nothing but a chemical reaction, a cocktail of circumstances and feelings?

Is it a sum of achievements? If so, what is achievement? Is it a state of mind? If so, what is mind? Is it the meaning of life? If so, what is life?

The problem with defining happiness is that it is often found in people who have less of the prerequisite conditions of happiness, as defined by the hedonist world we live in. On the contrary, those who apparently have it all in life rarely have… happiness.

The rich, the beautiful, the super talented, and the perfectly healthy don’t have a highest class ticket to happiness in their pockets. It’s not uncommon to see the poor, the ugly, the ordinary, and the disabled having found the happiness that others are yearning for.

This can’t make sense for the rational Western world, can it? But it does from an Orthodox faith’s perspective. For those who understand the Truth, life is not a journey in itself, with meaning and purpose to be found in the scant ‘here and now’.

Seen exclusively from within the constraints of matter, life’s pleasures and life’s griefs are hyperbolized. The modern man seeks more of the first, while desperately trying to run from the (often unavoidable) latter.

However, seen in connection with their unseen Maker, with the ever-after, our lives have different meanings. Happiness unveils itself as unspoilt by petty pleasures, nor diminished even by the deepest sorrows.

Happy are those who have a cross (meaning: suffering, incapacity, humiliation, loss etc) to bear, assured that the reward for everying borne with dignity comes in the afterlife, not those who think that covetously improving the comfort of this life is the key to happiness.

Maybe this is why there are so many crosses*** in Romania, a country so full of unhappy people, since most of us put our hopes in the shallow values of the Western world. Maybe all these crosses are to remind each of us about our personal crosses.

We can try to fit into a better functioning society, where everyone’s goal is to get rid of any burdensome aspect of life, and live plainly, enjoyably. Many emigrate and fit in, many others don’t. In rare happy cases, some find a cross to hold on to in their adoptive country.

People fool themselves that they can be happy among others who don’t know where they are coming from, nor where they are going to. Others imagine that happiness has nothing to do with any metaphysical definition. 

Understanding why we are here and where we are going to can be the toughest thing for a man to face in life. Coming to terms with one’s cross is a long, painstaking process. It could last a lifetime. A life deprived of the comforts and delights much treasured today.

Some think that they are perfectly happy without ever asking themselves about the meaning of life. Or they simply adhere to catchy definitions regurgitated by vain trend-setters of which all ages of history are full.

But would these phony perceptions of happiness last beyond the grave?! Could anyone find a generally applicable definition of happiness without having discovered their personal cross in life?

*** NOTE: The 10 pictures of crosses were taken in various places throughout Romania in 2011 and 2012. For a detailed photo see the first comment below.

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

Lay monuments pointing at the sky [Monumente laice arătând către cer]

Isn’t is fascinating to witness that most (if not all) secular societies’ monuments are still pointing at the sky?

Even after scrapping the idea of divine authority over the earth and distancing themselves from the very concept of God (deemed as obsolete, backward, useless today etc) people are looking up to the visible skies and beyond.

Fewer and fewer are those drawn to Christ’s love, while more and more are those eager to welcome aliens descending from UFOs.

Nevertheless, all people (religious or self-worshipping irreligious), from all places and all ages, have always been secretly yearning for some kind of salvation from a world whose progress has only put and tightened a noose around our necks.

Cathedrals and churches are still towering cities in many countries of the Old Continent (most of which is part of the secular EU).

Some are abandoned ruins (see pics from Scotland here or here), others are turned into cafés or stores, however, they are still here with us, getting in the way of those who banished from God their minds and reject His natural laws.

People can’t live without a certain innate aspiration to verticality, can they? Hardly any monumental work of art could express greatness horizontally. 

Followed either legitimately (“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life”) or illegitimately (through an anthropocentric Tower of Babel), this upward aspiration is inherent in human nature. 

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

[EN] No comment / [RO] Fără comentarii (35) – Friday, 13 / Vineri, 13

[EN] Around the world, more and more people don’t believe in God… It’s not fashionable anymore… [RO] În întreaga lume, din ce în ce mai mulţi oameni cred în Dumnezeu... nu mai este la modă...

[EN] But as the so-called irrational belief in God fades, crappish beliefs – and surely irrational fears! – flourish. [RO] Dar, pe măsură ce aşa-zisa credinţă iraţională în Dumnezeu se stinge, credinţe prosteşti – şi temeri iraţionale! – înfloresc.

[EN] In many parts of the world, people (albeit ‘civilised’ – not practicing Shamanism or Wicca) are afraid of number 13. [RO] În multe părţi ale lumii, oamenii (altfel ‘civilizaţi’ – nu practicanţi de Shamanism sau Wicca) se tem de numărul 13.

[EN] It’s called triskaidecaphobia. When it’s Friday, 13, the fear is at it’s worst – some don’t even live their houses on such a day. [RO] Se cheamă triskaidecafobie.  Când este vineri 13, frica este cea mai rea – unii nici nu-şi părăsesc casele într-o astfel de zi.

[EN] In New York City, rich people – who would have descrided themselves as rational – were not afraid to rise skyscrapers… [RO] În New York City, oameni bogaţi – care s-ar fi descris drept raţionali – nu s-au temut să ridice zgârie-nori…

[EN] But they did not dare to name a 13th floor… This custom is as alive there as it was at the dawn of the last century. [RO] Dar nu au îndrăznit să numească un al 13-lea etaj. Acest obicei este la fel de viu acolo precum era la început de secol 20.

[EN] From the USA to EU countries and Russia, millions of people live with this fear – in milder or pathological forms. [RO] Din SUA până în ţări UE şi Rusia, milioane de oameni trăiesc cu această frică – în forme mai blânde sau patologice.

[EN] Few of them may be ‘practicing pagans’. Most are blind consumers of popular beliefs, wearing the noose of progress. [EN] Puţini dintre ei or fi ‘păgâni practicanţi’. Cei mai mulţi sunt consumatori orbi de credinţe populare, purtând laţul progresului.

[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]