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The reason why I always felt “at home” with computers is my first homecomputer, a “CIP”. Which was my first, back in the late 80s.

A few weeks ago we celebrated 30 years (10x3 years, man!). A lot of documentaries and retrospectives and I hardly kept up with them. But I did watch a few and learned (or refreshed my memory with) facts I either did not know or had forgotten. I will first list, and then, time-permitting, summarize them.

Although I already said I’m not voting, due to atrocious bureaucratic hurdles at a time when it was supposed to be as easy to vote as possible in the most expensive election so far, I’m having second thoughts. Voting is an opportunity to give some unknown hopeful a chance, so I will have a quick look at the lesser known candidates who are worthy of a second look (apart from frontrunners).

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.

Recently, a new candidate for Romanian presidency, Alexandru Cumpanasu, has finally undergone more media scrutiny after having had to make some candidacy-related disclosures. We look into some of the claims made by this individual (whom we strongly dislike) and track down the most likely “university” he is attending, linked below in sources.

I haven’t been able to find many movies with by Romanians or about Romanians at TIFF 19 (Toronto International Film Festival) I thought I mention them before the Festival is over.

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.

While I am naturally a bit upset by the multiple levels of irony in this story, I have to admit I'm also quite irritated and disappointed. It appears that the German police has actively engaged in ethnic profiling at the Saxony Highfield festival, reported in the German press as "racial profiling", most likely because of the Gypsy/Roma/Romanian Confusion. Let us consider this news together with a few more concerning the diaspora.

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.

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.

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.

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).

In the past few days, most of the Romanians I know received two important gifts: PSD didn’t win the elections and Dragnea, its [widely considered] corrupt boss, was sentenced to jail and went there shortly thereafter. Though I’m not a Dragnea/PSD fan, I find the celebrations a bit empty. What bugs me is that only one candidate answered my questions re: #EP2019, and I fear that the vast majority of voters never tried to clarify the programme of the candidates they voted for, nor have they tried to interact with them. Let's try to find reasons.

Cu exceptia introducerii, acest articol este in limba romana. As promised, I publish the answers received to the questions posed over the past few days with the deadline set on May 15. We did not specify a time for the deadline and as we write this article, it is possible that someone else may be sending us a reply. If that’s the case, comment on this article to let us know.

Recently, on the WhatsApp group I share with my former classmates, one of us posted an article about Soros. I don’t know exactly why he did so – there’s a small chance he shared it because it’s such a dumb article that it’s funny, but this is a good opportunity to look at the mythology created around the boogeyman Soros. As it happens, this article would be best written in Romanian, as anyone capable to follow an article in English has already made up her mind, which is why a summary in Romanian will soon follow.

A recent “viral” video clip shows the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, moving the Union Jack (the UK flag), out of the way as he talks to reporters. This act of “elimination” is probably the least interesting of the ones discussed herein.

This is an (Austro?-)German movie shortlisted for the Foreign Oscar and filmed in Bucharest. It’s great and rated 7.6 on IMDB, with a Metascore of 93. It is also remarkably warm and positive toward Romania.

After repeating what’s (still) irking me about #corruption and the way it’s tackled and perceived, I get to summarize the events of the past few days (since Executive Order / Ordinance 13) and provide you with my much unwanted and unneeded opinion.

I am beginning to see the limits of my enforced-positivity in terms of absorbing and interpreting the current political events. Yet the political situation in Romania is remarkably similar to what’s happening in USA.