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Our favorite former SF author, CTP, is back with another seemingly antiziganist or racist controversy, again on former PM and current PSD candidate for president, Dancila. He made fun of her family name etymology (likely Romani or Gypsy) and an anti-discrimination group / person entered the fray.

Hotnews has previously interviewed Romanian diaspora people, which we covered, and we have also been profiling others in the diaspora ourselves. This interview is somewhat new in that the interviewee is "returned" - and we expect to be many more like him in the coming years.

The most important debating tournament in Romania took place at the “Mihai Viteazu” high-school and the reporter summarized a debate with a BIRT on whether the Romanian government should provide reparations to the Roma community for the Holocaust. This is worth a discussion.

In a recently published article on Euronews (en-roadfat), Alice Tidey asks the question where in Europe are roads deadliest; the answer is posted even before the question: Romania. We decipher a recent “ProTV News” news segment (spt-victime) where Titi Aur, a “defensive driving instructor”, reveals a deeply seated murderous misunderstanding in terms of the rules of the road, a misunderstanding that he shares.

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.

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 (PD). 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. (The title term refers mostly to economy (i.e., population drops below the level required to carry the economy or more specifically old age pensions) whereas PD refers to demographics.) Since then, I’ve found a bit more so here it is.

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.

@Simona_Halep’s win is an amazing victory and an event we’ll be remembering and talking about at least until her next Grand Slam.  Sadly, it was only hours before all those hungry to for publicity started to throw shade, claim ownership and speculate it for their own nefarious ends.

I watched it a few days ago and promised myself I’ll write down my thoughts before this forgettable creation disappears from memory. On the plus side, I identified a Romanian actress in it.

I’m becoming a Nastase hater. Can’t this guy just disappear from news altogether, or realize that we’re no longer in the 50s and the 70s are over?!

One thing about population in Romania that we can all agree on is that it is in free fall. A recent article has revealed to me that, supposedly, the number of Romanians moving out of the city and into the country side is greater than the number of Romanians moving into the city.

It seems as if every new PSD government has to go through a baptism of fire. The latest such event has luckily resulted in no deaths. One of the club founders (or former co-owners) is Catalin Botezatu, which translated word-by-word is Baptized, Cat.

Another article (after Sevil) that does not give me any particular pleasure but must be, nonetheless, written is on Kovesi and the ethics of her thesis. More specifically, how things we said about Ponta’s should apply to Kovesi’s as well, yet few of us have the courage to maintain that kind of consistency in our own convictions, let alone demanding that Kovesi does in hers.

I have meant to write at length on this individual and, as expected, not only that reality caught up with me, but it left me far behind. I never expected for things to go this far, which is why I am revisiting it now.

The current culture clash about some Norwegian child welfare agency having seized a Romanian couple’s children over physical discipline and the ensuing protests coming mostly from religious groups has a recognizable background: it’s a rehashing of the century-old conservative vs liberal quarrel. I have respect and admiration for Norway and their altruistic, enlightened and generous foreign policy and foreign aid, but this case may be more than just that.

It’s been a while since we haven’t talked about poverty in Romania and solutions. A recent “debate” caused by an over-the-top article on not giving money to the poor gives us a chance to look at it again and also address our reticence with BDSM practices.

Some recent Romanian news led me to consider the possibility that many Romanian men suffer from an undiagnosed affliction: Uterus envy. Let us together discover what that means, and how this was already named “womb envy” by a psychoanalyst named HORNEY.

I have in the past voted for the (former) President Basescu and even raised to his defence (more or less) when he was accused of slapping an impertinent child. Yet his latest display of inconsistency is more than I can bear.

There was a time when women were dreaming of a “knight in shining armour” but a steady decline in the prestige of shiny things coupled with a long set of economic crises have put an end to those romantic times. Today women seem to want a man who’ll pay and they rely on the State for protection and Facebook and/or Twitter for DIY reputation management (aka PR). A recent article on dating and paying for it (ctch-tspr) reopened a long-forgotten subject, a subject I haven't attacked in a while (since between 12 and 12-B, to be exact), despite a desire and even a plan to do so.