Ion Tiriac, the richest former athlete in the world, had some choice words to say about the protest actions and as a result he is pilloried in the press. I can’t help feeling that he’s repeating what I’ve been saying.

I like Mr Tiriac, even though (or maybe precisely because) of his contradictory image. When at the beach, with some model (rtv-Laurette), we see him without sunglasses, though she does sport a pair. Otherwise, in public, he’s always wearing his shades. He reminds me of a lesser known Romanian blogger, posing on the beach in a suit, with obvious signs of thermal stress.

I was able to find his interview on YouTube (I, II) but didn’t watch it as it takes almost 2h. I had to rely on two sites, critical of the interview, for the quotes. What our famous 75+ year old gentleman is saying, in his somewhat rambling, run-on interview, is that “between a thief and a fool, I prefer the thief. After the thief there is something left. Corruption is everywhere in the world and at a level more than a thousand times higher.”

He was also critical of the demonstrators, stating that PSD has won and they should be allowed to go with their programme.

As you may recall from my articles on the Resist phenomenon, more specifically 10 and 11-12, I think that a politician can be either corrupt, or ineffective. There’s no such thing as a successful AND honest/decent politician.

The few politicians who managed to get elected on a platform of “honesty” – I’m looking at you, USR – will have staying power only insofar as they develop corrupt instincts. Otherwise, they will disappoint their electorate and fizzle, not through their actions, but rather through their inability to get anything done in the Parliament combined with the inability to keep their electorate informed and get the message across – PR shops cost money.

The “honest” politician’s only chance to register with those who voted them and/or increase their base is “guerilla marketing”, i.e., go “viral” through “out of band” messaging. That’s how we got Remus Cernea championing the “citizenship for dolphins” cause (tnr-cernea), or USR’s Dohotaru dumpster diving in the Romanian Parliament for pretzels (zdh-dohotaru).

These gestures got negative comments. In Dohotaru’s case, the main criticism was that he’d been sent on the Hill to pass laws, not pontificate and go Cernea’s route (who did not get re-elected in the last election).

Whereas Cernea’s idea was a bit silly, anyone who cares about honesty in politicians should have still supported him, but that did not happen. The electorate has now another chance in USR. Incidentally, Dohotaru represents Cluj, where that Swiss girl lived in Pata Rau, a garbage dump that Dohotaru talks about.

Dohotaru’s gesture was courageous, symbolic and valid and it reminds me of Arrested Development’s Mr Wendal:

(..) Uncivilized we call him
But I just saw him eat off the food we waste
Civilization, are we really civilized, yes or no
Who are we to judge
When thousands of innocent men could be brutally enslaved
And killed over a racist grudge
Mr. Wendal has tried to warn us about our ways
But we don't hear him talk
Is it his fault when we've gone too far
And we got too far, cause on him we walk
Mr. Wendal, a man, a human in flesh
But not by law

There’s a lot of talk about Parliament being the “supreme” or “most democratic” institution and it’s all BS. It’s regular people whose power is supreme and our technology has reached a level allowing for their will to be expressed around politicians. This cannot and should not happen overnight, but we need to start moving in that direction.

Sources / More info: rtv-laurette, zdc-dohotaru, tnr-cernea, l-tiriac, hn-hotul