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).

You might think that the word "Hamangixploitation" is a bit "forced", but consider yourself lucky: my first choice was Hamangxploitation and it’s somewhat better than Cernavoxploitation, which may be understood as referring to nuclear energy; sure, that almost sounds Welsh, but if we're talking about the exploitation of the Hamangia sculpture for all sorts of ends that have nothing to do with it, the Welsh-sounding words are fair game.

I’ve recently found some words attributed to this guy (Gheorghita Geana) making an deeply flawed argument on behalf of the homophobic “traditional marriage” movement in Romania. His arguments are not new and I’ve discussed them in “bear’s tail” and elsewhere on this blog (click the relevant tags below for more). The somewhat newer argument is in the style of “Adam & Eve not [insert male name] & Steve”, adapted to Romanian circumstances. More precisely, a Neolithic era group of sculptures, representing a man and a woman is now an example of “heterosexual continuity” from ancient times. Never mind that Romania comes from Decebalus & Trajan, two [male] fathers, much like the Romans come from Romulus and Remus.

Mr Geana (whose last name means “eyelash”) is stealing all my shuteye (or, better said, the time I could spend discussing more important things, such as this new law coming from the depths of obscurantism in the Romanian Parliament). Hundreds of years after the Brancoveanu & sons were decapitated by the Sultan, of all that needs to be done, the PSD parliament feels that this is what’s needed – making August 16 a day to commemorate not just this “martyrdom” but also that of all Christians; a bunch of buildings will be illuminated in red and the national press will have to publish Christian crap (hn-16augbranco).

LE: There’s a “ballad” dedicated to this guy. What I remember reading but can’t find a source right now is that this Constantin Brancoveanu, along with translating the bible, building churches and other institutions, significantly increased taxation for peasants and made their life much more difficult, causing many if not most to lose their land. Additionally, his crap laid the ground for the “Phanariots” to take over. Despite his strong Christianity, Brancoveanu had also been one of the key historical figures under Communists.

Bucharest, the capital city where, though many educated Romanians live, the infrastructure keeps lacking while a mega-cathedral is built and consecrated, has probably the worst traffic in Europe. But certainly, having the newest / biggest cathedral certainly makes citizens stuck in traffic happier and imbues them with optimism and pride. Luckily, the opposition manages to get through some criticism, such as PNL president Orban, who has recently criticized the lack of parking spots and bicycle infrastructure, as well as the thermal (heating) system employed which is supposedly the most backward in Europe (hn-orbanfirea).

More to the point, the City Hall has given out 30000 vouchers of 500 RON for the purchase of electric scooters. Over 15000 can even be rented with Lime (since May, 3 + .60/min, 1000), Flow (since May, 2 + .50/min, 640) and Wolf-E (since April, 2 + .50/min). The same PNL has launched a law to clean up the mess (pnl-pdf). The law defines limits of 25-40 km/h for different classes (hn-dezb).

Apart from choices in the city, Romanians also need choices “intercity” and that’s for most of Europe functioning railways, not the dead end we now have. Turns out, the “railway strategy 2019-2023) needs 12.8 billion RON (cfr-strategia). There’ so much neglect that I suspect most money will disappear without any visible improvement for the first few years.

So what other laws has PSD passed, since they’re obviously not doing what they should?

• pensions (and special ~) law, which will destroy the budget if it goes through as planned.
• a “gratitude law” (similar to China, India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Singapore and a few states in USA) which obligates children to support their elders (hn-recu)
• the Administrative Code via government decree (rather than parliament, as such an important law should be passed, especially after having been declared unconstitutional on their first attempt) and needless to say, there’s major criticism (hn-contro, hn-zegrean, hn-usr)

There’s a lot to talk about, but I suspect you’d rather enjoy some sun outside and let PSD do what they do best.

LE: You can find a similar level of silly intellectualizing with comrade psychologist Tudorel Butoi (dcn-butoi, digi-butoi). Rarely have I read about someone to be so consistently, predictably and demonstrably wrong!

Sources / More info: europass-GB, CVman-GG, ar-ggint, stptvt-ggint, unibuc-gg, vm-vibm, pi-apocatastaza, lem-hamanpi, ae-ca, yt-coal, adv-fmi, w-coalitia, hn-16augbranco, w-hmngia, hn-orbanfirea, pnl-pdf, hn-dezb, cfr-strategia, hn-recu, hn-contro, hn-zegrean, hn-usr, vrs-balada, dcn-butoi, digi-butoi