This blog has a Romanian Diaspora focus, so it’s only natural to go through the diaspora news. But our diaspora is everywhere (much like protochronist Dacians), and some have even returned, while some feel “exiled” in their own country, so we’re not going to discriminate. Especially since we keep hearing bad things about Dinamo, one of the 3 major “national” soccer teams while I was growing up.

A while back, I was having an argument (well, it’s more like I was trying to have a conversation with my designated troll, banned since) about the downside of population decline. He demanded to know why is it bad (which is what I was trying to say) and I thought I provided some studies, but while searching, I was unsatisfied with the quality of the studies I had found. Since then, I’ve found a bit more so here it is.

Recent news (about how more than half of “followers” for “influencers” are fake) reminded me of a network of twitter accounts that seems to exist solely for attacking anyone criticizing Genie Bouchard. These “shadows of a real person” are somewhat darker than the shadow of what Eugenie Bouchard could have been, had she not been influenced by an inner circle that seems to treasure appearances at the expense of true achievement.

I wasn’t planning to write about this game, even though it impressed me and it’s the biggest victory in Romanian tennis. But my Internet is off right now, it will take a while to restore and between writing this article and playing some silly games, writing wins.

Those of us who haven’t forgotten the recent elections (and this includes some of those happy with the results as well as those who predicted a PSD win, were proven wrong and keep looking for a reason to save their reputation) are still somewhat surprised. I know I am. So while looking for a well laid out contrarian opinion, I discovered the blog PoliTichii, obstinately hanging on to a pro-PSD viewpoint after having [wrongly] forecasted a PSD win.

Is it fair to give special incentive to the diaspora to return home? Doesn’t that encourage more to leave only to get the money on coming back?

I haven’t quite followed the morbidly insane “family coalition” initiative (w-coalitia), in all its pathology, but I recently discovered how some UniBuc prof has been using everything, including the Hamangia / Cernavoda sculptures for his fascist crusade against gays. And likely, from the same deep vein of christo-fascism, the nebulous coalition has managed (or is about) to pass a law to stick more Christianity into people’s faces under the guise of celebrating Brancoveanu Constantin, boier vechi si domn crestin (old boyar and Christian voivode).

Soros and at least one Koch started holding hands for a common purpose: they call it something else, but it’s really about ending America’s “world cop” legacy role. Far more important to Romanians, on the foremost blog in the SE Of europe (ran out of capitals), a guest author makes almost as many language mistakes as the owner but has more consistently enlightened viewpoints.

I’ve just read a piece of news that angered me a great deal as it smelled fake, but as I looked into it, I did not find the clear rebuttal I expected. It’s based on an obscure survey question that had not been reported in the media and now is fodder for fake news sites. The title is based on an 80s Italian song which roughly means “rogue nostalgia”, combined with the Romanian spelling of the word that stands for “rogue”, which, in the latter language stands for an insult, meaning “scoundrel, villain, miscreant”. 

Let us explore and make a bit of historical fun of the announcement of Louis CK stepping on Cage’s path, in Romania – a story that may be false and could possibly be fake. Most importantly, CK stands for a Hungarian name, which is why my Romanian compadres might worry that they are being invaded by the Great Hungarian Junta using Louis as a Trojan condom. 

One of my long-term fantasies has been to write the Romanian baccalaureate (aka “bac” / “bacul” / “bacalaureat”, a comprehensive exam you write before the high-school diploma). I haven’t had the time, but I’d like to.

In the past few days, most of the Romanians I know received two important gifts: PSD didn’t win the elections and Dragnea, its [widely considered] corrupt boss, was sentenced to jail and went there shortly thereafter. Though I’m not a Dragnea/PSD fan, I find the celebrations a bit empty. What bugs me is that only one candidate answered my questions re: #EP2019, and I fear that the vast majority of voters never tried to clarify the programme of the candidates they voted for, nor have they tried to interact with them. Let's try to find reasons.

I try to make sense of who voted for whom in this election, and especially who voted for PNL. Surprisingly for me, PNL managed to attract a majority of women / rural / “unoccupied” voters.

The title means “Romanians vote anticorruption”, but then I realized that Romanians know what happened, it’s foreigners who might be more interested in what I have to say about it. I wish I could write a celebratory article, but I can't. Most Romanians who lined up seem to think that they are voting against corruption, but have they really?

Cu exceptia introducerii, acest articol este in limba romana. As promised, I publish the answers received to the questions posed over the past few days with the deadline set on May 15. We did not specify a time for the deadline and as we write this article, it is possible that someone else may be sending us a reply. If that’s the case, comment on this article to let us know.

As previously announced, I am presenting here the questions to ask euro candidates. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to pose the questions, which is why I am posting them here, in the hope that someone else might help asking them and returning the answers.