I just learned about two Romanian-Canadian people, mother and daughter Ana Constantin and Lisa Maria Paun being banned for life by Air Canada and left stranded without proper notice. This is not discrimination, just incredibly poor customer service and it’s an issue almost all of us have to deal with every time we fly.

I have recently read an opinion by some “journo” in a tabloid on how anonymous SIM cards should be sold no more (i.e., make them available only to those producing ID). I argue that the writing privileges of this person should be suspended.

I’ve recently noticed a tweet that seems to indicate the Romanians are 3rd among EU countries least happy with free movement in Europe. That’s remarkable. Why would that be?

I pity the politicians who want to do something good. They can’t clickbait their laws. For instance, the measure to tax sugary stuff can and should be called an anti-aging tax or, in Romanian, “contributia pentru o tinerete fara batranete si-o veatza fara de moarte”.

I watched these days Simona Halep having to retire due to an injury, Bianca triumphing over Genie Bouchard and though I certainly rooted for Bianca, I do regret somewhat both Serena’s and Genie’s respective losses.

Unlike most of my Romanian friends, who are angered by the details of the 112/police (EMS) response to Alexandra Macesanu’s increasingly desperate calls, I am far more upset by police colonel, university professor and forensic psychologist Tudorel Badea Butoi-Severin and the inconsequential censure by CNCD following his deeply offensive, misogynistic, victim-blaming comments. I believe that the hostility and inadequacy of the police response is rooted in the attitude that Prof Butoi has expressed and this bigotry is the root cause of police inaction and incompetence.

In a significant development, the full transcript of the 112 calls by the last victim, Alexandra Măceșanu, has been published. It is unclear to me if these are the official transcripts or rather what some of those who have listened may have remembered or clandestinely recorded. I do not expect that the official transcripts are any different and I am publishing them along with the censured victim-blaming comments made in 2010 by Tudorel Butoi, who continues to provide his “expert opinion” in TV shows.

I keep reading about Romanian Police incompetence and I can tell you that I’ve seen far worse here in Toronto. I learned about former cop and current “forensic psychologist” Butoi telling us why a living girl’s carbonized remains ended up in a barrel (cf Romanian “butoi”). And beyond all these facts, inadequacies and incompetence, the question we want to answer even though we know we can’t is why?

Whereas in English "Caracal" refers to a “medium-sized wild cat”, in Romania it’s a small town, possibly named after the long disappeared animal. Recently, what may very well be a serial killer has been arrested after some agonizing, train-wreck of a police investigation. This would be the first such criminal there in a long time.

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).