I translated with Google Translate and partly corrected the first two paragraphs.
In the hot year 2012, by summer, when it emerged the plagiarism of Victor Ponta, what exasperated me at one time was the answer given by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Marga, when asked by some journalists about it. Mr Marga, relaxed, said that there is nothing true, only some people harassing the Prime Minister. I could not imagine before that a professor, former rector of the university, a man who knows well what intellectual theft is and who could not claim to have been misinformed, can present as ridiculous, with such insouciance, the serious accusations faced by his direct superior. But it did happen, as we all know.
But not Andrei Marga is my subject. It's about all of us who, from then until now, in public, hold a recurrent conversation about plagiarism: a bad habit expanded so much and to where you do not expect, a moral gangrene whose healing is difficult, possible only by "member cutting" (bloodletting?). Meaning, by radical solutions that cannot be taken overnight. The truth is that Ponta's patent theft, once revealed, triggered an avalanche of investigations that have produced some cleaning up now (see Oprea, Toba, Mang), thanks mainly to tenacious investigative journalists (like the wonderful Sidonia Bogdan and Emilia Şercan). There had been a good side, undeniably good to this whole scandal that otherwise has made us the laughing stock of the world with such an impostor in the premiership. A substantive discussion in society started, social dialogue partners have moved all their attention on this subject, institutions began to move (slowly and without standing up, it is true). They discovered many cases, almost innumerable, we were awestruck by the magnitude of this phenomenon, that you now can expect anything. Rather, you expect almost anyone to be guilty.
Ponta’s plagiarism, while shameful, is not as significant as his efforts to deny and hide it, which is remarkably similar to revelations about my physics teacher from high-school, and his subsequent efforts to hide it all and erase those events from the Internet. Moreover, reports about this teacher’s plagiarism appeared in the press in 2004, years before Ponta’s, but nothing was done and they are today largely forgotten.
It turns out that Iosif Sever Georgescu had created in the meantime his own Wikipedia page, where, back in 2015, I added a link to the Hotnews/Ziua article I had quoted, under the word “controversat”. As shown in the screenshot above, taken from the history of the page, this addition was then deleted in March 2016 by an account bearing this guy’s name. This individual does not appear to understand what Wikipedia is for and the importance of a balanced article as he is constantly deleting the reference to his controversies. Looking at his account, you find that his only contribution to the project is the hagiographic article about himself.
Back in the early 90s, there were multiple articles published by at least 10 newspapers (there were many back then), reflected also by TV and radio stations about this person’s “methods”.
Here’s a few translated quotes from the Ziua article, linked in the previous article, mirrored by HotNews, again Google Translated.
Roxana Iosif: "We could not take it anymore! We thought, me and the colleagues who decided to protest, that we’d be fake to go on smiling, giving thanks and pretending that everything was perfect, to bury four years of humiliations, insults and especially of lies. Even if that is customary at the end. I can give examples: there were several “forceful suggestions” to get tutoring [with the same teacher who’d give bad marks], to come up with something (i.e., bribe).
The physics teacher gave us papers made by him, made us translate them into English and send them on our behalf in a competition in Warsaw "The first step towards the Nobel Prize." Obviously we would "qualify" and the teacher would be filled with glory and appeared on television. And once I accepted because it was dangerous to refuse. Now I'm sorry. And I'm sorry that I did not talk about earlier. "
Hypocrisy as System
Eugene Russo: "I had no personal conflict with this teacher, I participated in the Olympics in physics, but I do not think it's normal for a teacher to build his prestige on falsehoods. Participation in that competition is a level above that of high school students and complex experiments for which we do not have the equipment in school.
I think the main reasons the students accepted are fear and opportunism. "VV: " (..) I cannot complain, I had a gentler treatment from this guidance teacher, I can say that he left me alone, but other colleagues had to move from class to escape harassment. Sometimes there are conditionings: if you do not take private lessons from me, you won’t pass this class. Or other forms of bribes for marks.
All this is known, it has been discussed in the teachers' council but nobody wants to take action. ".Alexandra Techera: "Teachers did not intervene because they are afraid of their own status being challenged, which would create a precedent."
Eugene Russo: "Thus a system of favoritism was built, preferential, of one-way communication. Although we have teachers OK in competence, too few are able to achieve true communication with students."
Monica Tatoiu, director of a large cosmetics firm, remembers what it was like at "Sava" 10-12 years ago when teaching there as a math teacher: "I had great conflicts with Professor Georgescu due to my class where I was head teacher because he was holding over children’s head arbitrarily a note of 3 to the end, then suddenly he’d pass them. We went out in the press, but nothing budged.
"I was happy to hear that one of the graduates this year of the College of St. Sava - definitely one of the leaders of tomorrow - denounced a professor who demanded bribes for good grades. What extraordinary lesson for those who were afraid to take action against corruption! This single act of courage gave me back my confidence in the future of this country! "
Michael Guest, former US Ambassador to Bucharest
Not only that, but this individual has been awarded a medal by Sorin Oprescu, the corrupt ex-Mayor of Bucharest, shortly before he had been ousted, on his own request: go.zamo.ca/onorgeorgica.
When it comes to plagiarism in the Romanian school system, the pedophile principle is at work: “get’em young, keep’em hooked”.
This was the second article in Georgica Saga. Amu, sa iesim pe Straße!
Sources / More info: contri-procu, wiki-history, wr-jump, wiki-delete