A truth worth being told over and over again: Bessarabia is Romania! [Un adevăr care merită spus iarăşi şi iarăşi: Basarabia e România!]

We’re surely living mad times, when some are trying to detach Catalunya from Spain, others to ensure the independence of Scotland, some want to divide Belgium, and others wish to break away from the rest of Italy etc…

Romanians (and especially the young) would like to see their two states – Romania and (the Republic of) Moldova – reunited, irrespective of Russia’s fierce opposition and the EU’s benevolent (to Moscow, not to Bucharest!) indifference.

Reunification looks as unlikely as the collapse of Austria-Hungary or Tsarist Russia looked 100 years ago, in 2012. Nevertheless, the outcome of the First World War of 1914-1918  taught us that it’s better never to say never… 

[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 (21) – Fish & chips / Fish & chips

[EN] Three mouth watering versions of fish and chips: [RO] Trei versiuni care îţi lasă gura apă de fish and chips:

[EN] British (pic 1 – Brighton), Belgian (2 – Brussels), and Romanian (3 – Bucharest). [RO] Britanică (poza 1 – Brighton), belgiană (2 – Bruxelles) şi românească (3 – Bucureşti).

[EN] Could anyone guess which I found tastier? [RO] Ar putea cineva să ghicească pe care am găsit-o mai gustoasă?

[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]

Urme româneşti pe cuprinsul UK (8) [Romanian traces throughout the UK]

Era într-una din desele călătorii între Londra şi Brighton, din primăvara lui 2008. Aveam un loc la geam, pe stânga, în direcţia de mers, şi – ca fotoholic ce eram deja de vreo opt luni :-) – încercam să nu îmi scape nimic: de afară sau din vagon.

La un moment dat, într-o staţie apropiată de London Victoria (să fi fost East Croydon sau Clapham Junction), se aşază lângă mine o tipă între 20 şi 30 de ani. La o fulgerătoare scanare, mi-am dat seama că nu prea am de ce să-mi fugă privirea către dreapta.

Acum este posibil să spun un lucru urât, politically incorrect, poate chiar necreştinesc căci aduce a judecată a seamănului, dar mi s-a părut o femeie urâtă. Ceea ce, de regulă, nu-mi este deloc o piedică pentru o coversaţie interesantă.

Ba dimpotrivă, chiar e mai simplu aşa. Nefiind aşa de simpatică precum turcoaica din faţa mea – cu care aveam să vorbesc puţin mai târziu, căci acum dormea cu capul pe geanta aşezată pe masă – aş fi putut vorbi pur şi simplu, fără conotaţii romantice.

Chiar aveam chef de vorbă, mai ales că suspectam ceva foarte românesc în înfăţişarea celei aşezate în dreapta mea. Nu peste multă vreme avea să vină şi confirmarea că este româncă, pentru că a scos cartea care se vede în fotografie.

Scrisă în româneşte, cu foile îngălbenite de cei cel puţin vreo 20 de ani care or fi trecut de la tipărirea ei, cândva în România lui Ceauşescu. Nu ştiu ce operă să fi fost, doar am prins cu coada ochiului un personaj numit Bertha.

De-acum, curiozitatea mea se făcuse şi mai şi, de parcă aveam un vierme pe limbă şi chiar trebuia să încep să vorbesc, ca să scap de el cumva. I-am întrerupt lectura în felul următor:

“Excuse me, what language is this?”, i-am spus arătând spre carte. “Romanian”, mi-a zis scurt, dar eu nu m-am lăsat. “Would you like to practice your spoken Romanian as well?”, am întrebat-o, adăugând “I can speak Romanian.”

N-am spus nici că “sunt român”, nici nu-mi dau seama dacă accentul meu o fi fost mai mult românesc sau mai degrabă britanic în acea clipă. Dar răspunsul a venit sec: “No.”

M-am întors şi n-am mai băgat-o în seamă, meditând puţin asupra următoarelor… ce îi face pe unii români aflaţi peste hotare să evite sau chiar să refuze dialogul cu un alt român? N-am ajuns la o concluzie – aşadar îmi întreb cititorii!

Foarte interesant ce zice un expat român din Belgia despre faptul că “există o suspiciune istorică a românilor faţă de semeni” şi că “experienţe traumatizante la iniţiative pornite cu dragă inimă, fac din unii români plecaţi să se izoleze şi mai mult faţă de România”.

Recunosc că şi eu, pentru a putea trage cu urechea în voie, nu m-am dezvăluit a fi român, dar nu ţin minte să fi refuzat dialogul cu cineva, odată ce am fost ghicit sau m-am deconspirat eu însumi drept român.

Şi dacă prea micul şoc din trenul către Brighton în urma refuzului dialogului n-a fost prea greu de depăşit, de un şoc cultural, româno-român, aveam să mă lovesc şi vara trecută, imediat după aterizarea mea la Roma.

Dorind să scurtez puţin trambalarea prin aeroport, l-am întrebat direct pe un tip pe care îl văzusem în avion: “Nu vă supăraţi, către tren să o iau încolo?”. Era chiar direcţia bună cea spre care indicam, aveam să aflu ulterior, şi nu ceream decât un da sau nu.

Totuşi, în loc de un astfel de răspuns am primit un gest cu mâna la propria gură din care reieşea că bietul om nu înţelege limba română, că am greşit să-l abordez. Eram sigur că nu am greşit, dar l-am lăsat în pace, nu am mai inistat.

Peste vreun minut mi-am dat seama de direcţia corectă şi peste alte 2-3 ajung să mă urc într-un lift, alături de alte 4-5 persoane, între care şi respectivul şi consoarta, pălăvrăgind de zor în română, la fel ca în avion.

Greu de crezut că, în lift, nu mă vedea, fiind oarecumva în diagonală faţă de el. Dar, în mod ciudat, parcă eu mă ruşinam şi încercam să-i evit privirea. Parcă mie mi-era ruşine că el este român...

[Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

God’s place in a humanist society (13) [Locul lui Dumnezeu într-o societate umanistă]

The Lord only barely blew some cold air over the UK and the ‘X-mas holidays’ (the Christ-less Christmas of so many civilised secular people) became a mess. Planes were grounded, trains – cancelled, shoppers – prevented from bursting into stores.

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People started whining, and most frustrating was the fact that there was no one to (immediately) blame for the chaos. A bit later, the guilty party was found: it’s the airport operators’ fault, the Government says; it’s the other way around, others claim.

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Across the English Channel (or La Manche), in France and Belgium (where this winter has also driven many people mad), they will need to find a scapegoat very soon as well.

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Too bad fewer and fewer civilised people these days believe that, with or without finding someone to put the blame on, no snowflake lands on the soil without God’s will and foreknowledge. Is He bad when His plans interfere with our holidays plans?

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“Oh, it wasn’t your imaginary God, you fool!,” some could dismiss my words. It’s this scientifically proven (?!) North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Which, irrespective of unleashing some cold winters, ultimately contributes to Global Warming.

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If anyone cares, look for more scientific facts supporting this theory about the NAO! I find it irrelevant to the point I want to make – how secular contemporaries naively imagine that anything could be be scientifically explainable without the concept of God.

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They (apparently!) need rational and authoritative arguments, so that they could religiously adhere to them. Few are those who doubt the prefabricated truths they are told, as most people today need to fulfill a psychological urge to ‘know’.

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Which has nothing to do with actually knowing anything. It’s all about feeling that one is in control of the material world. Lies are easier to swallow than truths for that purpose. Trusting God (apparently!) means giving up one’s control over reality.

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“Who is He to know better than I do?,” asks the vain man of today. People’s hearts are so burdened with sin and deceitful surrogates of happiness, that few could possibly imagine the freedom of putting one’s heart into the Lord’s hand.

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The pursuit of happiness (apparently!) means mastering the necessary technology that would provide that happiness. Knowledge and craftmanshipship are primordial, while ethics become (apparently!) unessential.

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Technology promises to guarantee everyone’s ‘I-do-what-I-want’ but remains as fragile as human beings are; it keeps failing even when faced with powerless snowflakes. It’s so ridiculous to see our freedom restricted by winter.

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Every know and then, the Lord reminds us that heartless technology cannot save us; it often makes the chains of our sins heavier. Too bad that those acknowledging this are even fewer that when St. Nikolai Velimirovich wrote the following:

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“Ethics are likened to a lady, and technology like her handmaiden. That is why ethics have to control technology. Eternal values are the territory of ethics and not technology.

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It is devastating for an entire people to put the purpose of their lives in technology, and all of their labor and sweat they sacrifice to the advancement of technology, dragging behind them ethics, like Achilles dragged the dead Hector tied to a chariot.

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A people like that can succeed to build all of their cities from ivory and gold, but if people like Ahab and Jezebel live in them, dogs will have the last word and not people.”

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I dare not assume to what extent today’s Britons, Romanians or any other supposely civilised people are like Ahab and Jezebel. But I am sure that, even when Elijah comes, many will remain unrepentant just like those tragic characters.

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[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]

The European Citizens’ Initiative: could it improve anything? [Iniţiativa Cetăţenească Europeană: ar putea îmbunătăţi ceva?]

As the European Monetary Union (EMU) is in dire straits, the battle for the European Citizen Initiative (ECI) is doomed to be kept out of the media spotlights.

Few Europeans, out of so many burdened with earning a living in a more and more hostile economic climate, know that this ECI is about giving them a chance to forward law proposals directly to the European Commission.
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Even fewer of those few who are aware of this innovation made possible by the Treaty of Lisbon care about whether this invention will ever be brought to life, and if it will ever prove to be an effective tool of participatory democracy.

Most of the people I know (including readers of this blog) are more likely to be part of the ever growing ‘skeptical camp’… Thus, they would probably exclaim something like the following, bewildered with my naivety:

“What participatory democracy?! There’s no such thing in the EU! Can’t you see that it’s all some sort of couch-potato democracy? How can you be so stupid not to see that all decisions that matter are taken behind closed doors?”

“What faith can you still have in the EU or in democracy in general, when you see the MEPs asking for an increased budget, when the eurocrats recently had their pay rise confirmed by the European Court of Justice?”
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On the spot, while under the heavy bombardment of such questions, I admit that one can hardly find much to say against such a diatribe, sprung from the embittered hearts of so many people. Politics has gravely disappointed many people in the EU.

If dialogue with such decidedly ‘anti-EU’ people would still be possible, I’d first say to them that I don’t put faith in any human construction. How could anyone have faith in earthly institutions, and not in the Maker of all things visible and invisible?

Maybe this is precisely what explains their disillusionment… People all over the EU put all their faith in this ‘paradise on Earth’ that allows us to abort millions of children, to live carelessly, and enjoy benefits that Americans couldn’t dream of.

But the piggy bank of the Welfare State is now broken. Having fun till in the late 20s, retiring in the early 60s, having holidays abroad every year, choosing not to work if staying on the dole is more convenient may slowly become a thing of the past.

A golden age of hedonism may be over. It wasn’t (exclusively) the EU’s merit while it lasted, nor it is EU’s fault because it’s no longer possible. A day of reckoning has come, and we should thank God for this chance of coming to our senses.

On the other hand, I would also admit that both in the old EU (EU15), where people had decades of benefits from being part of the Union, and in the newer EU (EU12), there are objective reasons for citizens to feel confused, irritated, and disheartened.

They are witnessing a widening gap between the EU elite and themselves, the ordinary people. Much of what’s on Brussels’ agenda may not be on the citizen’s agenda and vice versa.

Yet this is what the ECI could do – bridge the gap. Wouldn’t it be an interesting to see people (not so many: one million) being able suggest what should become law in the Union? It may not work wonders, but it could prove useful.

Keeping all politicians under a (healthy, not paranoid!) presumption of guilt, some of those who know about the ECI have noticed immense pressures from governments, and quite possibly industrial lobbysts, to make it as ‘useless’ as possible.

Initially, gathering signatures was supposed to take no more than 12 months, from a 1/3 of EU’s Member States (9 countries). Now, the draft bill refers to more time available, 18 or even 24 months, and to fewer countries – 1/5 of 27.

That makes 5.4 countries, but I hope they will reasonably solve the dilemma, without having Belgium split or Scotland secede from the UK to make up for the 0.4 :-)
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Another barrier against an effective ECI is the request of several governments want that each signer should provide the number of their ID card or passport number. This is a requirement that would radically decrease participation.

For fear of not having their data collected many people would probably give up the idea of supporting a proposal. According to an ECAS survey, up to 66% of those required to put their ID number on a ECI could refuse to sign.

The battle against deterrent restrictive conditions for the validity of a ECI is carried out these days in the European Parliament, and those favouring a ‘citizen friendly ECI’ are asking their support for this petition.

It’s pointless to complain about the democratic deficit in the EU, while not trying to address it. Hardly could the ECI turn almost 400 million Europeans of voting age into politically-conscious citizens like the Swiss, but why not try to have a say?
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A petition which could one day turn into a ECI is the one that asks for a complete ban of GMOs in Europe. That would be a great victory against a huge army of transatlantic lobbyists, wouldn’t it?

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

My 8th trip to EU’s Mecca (Brussels) [A 8-a mea călătorie la Mecca UE (Bruxelles)]

My 8th trip to EU’s Mecca (Belgium’s capital, Brussels) – the previous 7 taking place in Jan 2005, Feb 2006, Jun 2006 x 2, Oct 2007, Mar 2008 & May 2008 – started yesterday, as a continuation of my study visit to Rome.

After I was given a tremendous opportunity to get some firsthand insights about the challenges facing immigrants in Italy, as well as how some Romanian citizens live there, I am due to share my experience at this conference.

Not because I am one of the speakers, I honestly hope that this one day conference will be the most interesting EU related event that I have ever taken part in since my Chevening Fellowship at the SEI. It’s not the usual (to some) ‘EU blah-blah-blah’.

It is supposed to be an open discussion about how the free right of movement within the EU is respected, and about the countless problems that occur when people are moving from one Member State to another.

Apart from being a delicate political issue, the freedom of movement has to do with European Political Economy, and the extent to which this freedom is really ‘free’ can show us how ‘integrated’ the 27 Member States are.

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Whether we are eurosceptics or europhorics, I find very hard for anyone to deny the fact that, apart from the EMU, the four fundamental freedoms of the Internal Market are (or should be) the most palpable results of European Integration.
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Among them, the free movement of people is of utmost importance; without it, moving around goods, services and capital would be meaningless. The EU Treaties were written for people not for things, weren’t they?

I know that I am an uncomfortable character (in writing, not in real life I hope :-), and that there are people who may disapprove of several eurosceptical views of mine, as well as despise the fact that I am ‘at war’ with some humanist values promoted in the EU.

On the other hand, others could accuse me of being a ‘EU propagandist’, as long as I am giving speeches on EU topics, and I have been granted some professional opportunities paid by the European Commission (out of ‘EU money’) for the past years.

Well, let my critics say what they please! I believe that there are many necessary good things we could do together, as Europeans. The alternative would be turning Europe back in time, to the first half of the 20th century!

Equally, I think that there are domains that the EU should not interfere with, and I’d like to see many corrections of European policies.

But I don’t believe in anything ever improving by itself. Nor that we could stop the things we don’t like about the EU simply by throwing stones at them. The only chance of seeing our desirable changes taking shape is taking part in the EU.

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

A military power of ‘first rank’ decimated by budgetary cuts [O putere militară de ‘prim rang’ decimată de tăieri bugetare]

A century of ‘Pax Britannica’ (1815-1914) couldn’t have been possible without the UK having one of the best armies and certainly the best Navy at that time. No temporary set-backs (during the Boer Wars for instance) could challenge the superiority of the Brits.

For better and for worse, Britain has shaped the 19th century world, and the world today is greatly influenced by a tremendous British heritage – the most obvious part of it being this global lingua franca, the English language.

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Probably 10 or even 20 times more people than the entire population of Britain make up the number of pupils and students who study English everyday or at least once a week; that’s a huge number and probably unrivalled in history.

No matter how weird this explanation may seem to many contemporaries, I don’t think the spread of English could have been possible without the spilled blood of British military personnel all over the world.

Explaining it all through the ‘American cultural imperialism’ is simplistic. What’s happening nowadays is only a phase of a process that began centuries ago, as British ships sailed all seas, and British soldiers marched to the remotest corners of the planet.

Millions of Britons (including civilians in WWII) endured hardship and faced death, yet what the puppeters of the Perdidious Albion built upon that great sacrifice was often different from one those who perished had dreamed of.

It is the blood of many Britons what drew the borders of the world we live in, and the UK played an important role in the birth of many countries which are now part of the United Nations.

Some are former colonies: worldwide economic powers (USA, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore), regional powers (South Africa), emerging powers (India) or more or less ‘exotic’ destinations (New Zealand, Belize).

A lot of other former British teritories arised to statehood (albeit often an instable or controversial one), from Cyprus, Israel, Iraq or Pakistan, to a myriad of Arab, African, Asian, and Pacific countries.

Finally, there are states whose emergence was a product of British diplomatic efforts or has a lot to do with British interference, like Belgium. There’s hardly any hot spot in the world today with no British footprint.

The often rutheless diplomatic games of those who pulled the strings could not have been possible in the absence of military might. Although gradually vanishing throughout the 20th century, UK’s armed forces still remained significantly strong.

Even for the past decade, when British soldiers were seen by some as poodels cavorting around the American ‘pure breed’ dogs of war, I still think it is unfair to look down upon these professional soldiers in such a manner.

If T. Bliar and G. Glown where, indeed, lousy characters who gambled on the lives of British soldiers, this doesn’t mean that those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t give their best on the battlefield, not that their commanders were incompetent.

Now David Cameron – who declares himself staunchly pro-America – severely cut the budget of the British armed forces. From an economical perspective, there are few doubts that such a heavily indebted country like the UK could have done otherwise.

However, long before the current economic crisis, the British armed forces were underfunded and many of those who lost their lives in Afghanistan died needlessly – very often due to lack of properly armoured vehicles and a shortage of helicopters.

As long as Cameron and Clegg seem to agree on cutting public expenses from all spheres of government activity, the armed forces will not be spared. And I bet there are enough Communists and pacifists in Britain who would have liked even deeper cuts.

All in all, the three branches (Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force) are due to lose a combined total 17,000 people, minus 25% of the civilians working for the Ministry of Defence (in Whitehall or in military bases).

The 20,000 Britons stationed in Germany for the past 65 years will be brought home or deployed to one of the only three permanent bases away from Great Britain, in Cyprus, Gibraltar and the Falklands.

On top of these ‘casualties’, the Army will lose 40% of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks, as well as 35% of heavy artillery pieces. The Navy will scrap 4 frigates – too bad for London that Romania is also bankrupt and unable to purchase any of them :-)

The RAF has to put up with the fact that, out of an initial order to Boeing of 22 Chinook helicopters, the UK will only buy 12. Weren’t these aircraft desperately needed by the troops in Afghanistan?

The sole operational British aircraft carrier (Ark Royal) will be decommissioned, and a new one will not be launched sooner than 2019. Last, but by no means least, by 2027/2028, the UK will have only 2 nuclear submarines armed with Trident nuclear missiles, instead of the 4 it has today.

In spite of these cuts, the FCO propaganda and William Hague himself claim that Britain “will still remain a military power of first rank.” I couldn’t possibly agree or disagree with this claim, as I am no military expert.

It appears likely that Britain won’t miss the lost tanks soon, but I don’t know about the rest, nor about effects of the cuts upon the morale of the service personnel. Will they feel that slimmed down forces could be more efficient?

Have the pro-American Cameron and the pro-European Clegg earned the trust of the commanders that they know what they are doing?

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

God’s place in a humanist society (11) [Locul lui Dumnezeu într-o societate umanistă]

Few things appear to be more disturbing for Big Brother than the Lord of the Christians, the God-Man Jesus Christ, Whom must be banished from the public space of this once-Christian-nation, so that the irreligious, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Wiccan etc wouldn’t be offended.

Unlike Him, all other gods are not only acceptable, but encouraged to appear in the open, so that their presence would prove Britain’s tolerance and multiculturality. Very often though, these gods are imposed, along with the array of absurd rules of their followers.

Such an excess of political correctness – supposedly meant not to trouble people of Islamic faith and their traditions – occurred in some British schools for girls aged 11 to 18, in Leicester, Lancaster and London.

These girls are forced to wear a burqa when they come to school, irrespective of their family and ethnic traditions that may not make such a garment compulsory! It is well-known that this tradition is not an ‘obligation’ in many Muslim countries.

Yet it is enforced in 21st century Britain! And this happens while, just across the English Channel, in Belgium and France, the wear of burqa in public spaces has just been outlawed this year.

I doubt that there are other European nations as tolerant and as less ‘anti-Islam’ as the British are, but how long could they take these abuses of political correctness? Aren’t they fed-up with Big Brother condoning human rights abuses of intolerant minorities?

How come only the God-Man, Jesus Christs, is viewed as subversive, and wearing a cross is deemed offensive, while a bunch of Islamist fanatics – not even representative for the 1.5 million of decent Muslims in the UK – are pampered?

[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]

Chestii d-astea, numai la britanici (12) [Things like these, only at the Brits]

Poate deloc întâmplător, tocmai pe meleaguri bretone mi-am amintit că neapărat trebuie să mai semnalez încă ceva tipic britanic. Nu cred că există oraş în UK care să nu aibă măcar un pub cu numele de Waterloo, dacă nu chiar o stradă întreagă...

....însă chiar că este întâmplător că, pentru o a treia postare consecutivă, pomenesc de Glasgow (un oraş minunat despre care voi mai avea multe de scris), unde am surprins imaginea de mai sus. Apoi, desigur că nu puteam să nu găsesc şi în Edinburgh*** un local similar pe care să-l fotografiez.

Se pare că britanicii nu ratează nicio ocazie de a le reaminti francezilor de celebra înfrângere finală a lui Napoleon Bonaparte. De pildă, Margaret Thatcher, care l-a primit cândva pe François Mitterand într-o sală cu un imens tablou al bătăliei din nefasta zi de 18 iunie 1815.

Nu ştiu cât ţine aceasta de aroganţa britanică, dar am observat că, atunci când se iveşte ocazia în discuţii prieteneşti, nici americanii nu se dau înapoi de la a-i lua peste picior pe britanici, stră-stră-stră... nepoţii celor daţi afară din Lumea Nouă între 1775-1783. Cât despre un scoţian, probabil că nu trec 24 de ore din viaţa lui în care să nu găsească o bârfă sau glumiţă ori numai să strâmbe din nas faţă de ceva legat de englezi.

Vreme de peste un deceniu, dacă plecai din Paris cu Eurostarul către Londra, coborai în... Gara Waterloo. Nu că n-ar fi o gară frumoasă şi aceea, dar din noiembrie 2007, Eurostarul ajunge, în ceea ce a fost numită “catedrala gărilor” – St. Pancras International.

Cu siguranţă, motive pragmatice or fi stat la baza deciziei, pe care am fi naivi să o luăm drept încă un semn de Entente Cordiale. Multe furtuni vor mai tulbura Canalul până ca cele două state vecine şi prietene să fie pe aceeaşi lungime de undă. Sunt curios de cum va fi în 2015, la aniversarea a 200 de ani de la bătălie, însă şi dacă ţara unde se vor ţine festivităţile se va mai numi Belgia.

*** NOTĂ: Oraşul din lume unde – cel puţin la momentul la care adaug observaţia aceasta (13.03.2009) – probabil că mă simt cel mai acasă dintre toate marile oraşe ale lumii în care m-a binecuvântat Dumnezeu să ajung.

[Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]