Showing posts sorted by date for query european union. Sort by relevance Show all posts

I’ve recently noticed a tweet that seems to indicate the Romanians are 3rd among EU countries least happy with free movement in Europe. That’s remarkable. Why would that be?

As previously announced, I am presenting here the questions to ask euro candidates. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to pose the questions, which is why I am posting them here, in the hope that someone else might help asking them and returning the answers.

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.

I’m not a nationalist and though I wish my Romanian friends “La Multi Ani” for our national holiday, a small part of me is uneasy, because nationalism means association with people who share your ethnic background, some good, some bad, but in our case (and, of course, excepting those I know personally), mostly bad.

A recent Op-Ed in New York Times seems to have caused a fair amount of consternation in both Romania as well as among my diaspora friends. Ion could equally be Ion Iliescu, recently green-lighted to be re-investigated in the “Mineriada” file, Adrian Nastase, the suicidal former premier and failed presidential candidate who had become the first test case of prosecutorial overreach in the case of an elite aparatchik, or even Patrick Basham, not afraid to confront the warm, fuzzy racism/scepticism/antiziganism-fuelled consensus that Romania is “doing something”.

Not brown as a result of my trip to Cuba, but rather as a state of mind.

My reservations notwithstanding, I suspect most of the people who voted for Iohannis do not really know who he is, apart from the fact that he is not Ponta. I'm trying to bring a bit more color and background to his wooden personality.

Discussing the tragedy is inescapable. I had started doing this a few days ago, focusing mostly on Andrei Anghel, but didn’t have the time to say all that I wanted to say, which is why I’m continuing here.

While writing about Jihadi Jay Abdo, I had started writing about foreigners who study in Romania and half-way through I realized that this deserves a separate article. I had previously assumed (nature) that the Romanian prime-minister’s (Ponta) many scandals, some centered around his plagiarizing of his doctoral thesis will taint Romanian education and significantly decrease its appeal. Further investigation revealed that many are still interested, although it is hard to determine to what extent the scandals have caused the Romanian tuition fees to be the lowest in Europe, or that is due to other market forces. As usual, the links are listed at the end.

I have been staying away from the news of the moment, but this recent tragedy hits extremely close to home, whichever way a member of the Toronto Romanian diaspora (including myself) chooses to define that notion.

Now that the European results are known and Euroscepticism discussed, after a short detour through Canadian visas for Romanians, we will finally take a look at the Romanian politics.

Today I met another European woman. Originally from Spain, she told me she worked in the Czech Republic for a while as a translator. Upon learning I'm Romanian, she also felt the need to share with me that there were "a lot of Romanians" in the Czech Republic who wanted to come to Canada but couldn't, because there is no visa treaty. When I told her that there were some problems here with Czech Roma getting visa through fraud and the visa had been suspended, her reaction was to remove her Czech work experience from her resume, out of fear that “Czechs now had a bad name.”

I continue to struggle to express my frustrations with the status quo while also presenting the election results. Here I'll start with the facts, hoping that the rest will transpire effortlessly.

I suspect there is a 'TestVote' application for each member country of the EU. I decided to follow my own recommendation from Romanian MEP elections in Toronto and go through this, just before voting. Since there is very likely an English one in existence, and the English vote has already concluded, this article has the questions left in original, in Romanian.

By the time this article is published, I might not be in a situation to reply to comments right away. Still, not long ago I had a(nother) conversation with Blegoo and, visiting his blog, I’ve found some interesting news I had missed. This led me, for a brief moment, to question my love for Netherlands.

Only recently have I discovered the "Superscrieri Prizes" and I thought I share it with you – it’s quite interesting.

The recent debate of Romanian politics in the European Parliament was the grotesque conclusion to this summer of our disco tent.

Traim momente de cumpana. Eu de pilda aproape imi pierdusem domeniul si numai cu eforturi supraomenesti am reusit sa-l resuscitez :D. In acelasi timp, ctp declara ca el e fericit ca se vorbeste atata de Romania, chiar daca nu de bine..

Chiar nu ma asteptam sa reuseasca CCR sa se achite atat de bine de sarcina neutralitatii si in acelasi timp sa raspunda legal si balansat samavolniciei USLasilor. Nu intentionez sa ma prezint la votul de referendum si recomand cu caldura oricui iubeste libertatea sa faca la fel si sa-si vada de concediu. Ai muncit mult ca sa traiesti bine, ai dreptul la un bine-meritat R&R.

Perusing the Romanian press, everything is shocking and all sources of info seem to be tabloids. Perhaps time is ripe for an overview of all the crap that’s overflowing.

Cred ca sunt mai multe de spus despre optiunea sinuciderii, exersata recent de fostul premier Adrian Nastase, in lumina spuselor avocatului lui Nastase, Lucian Bolcas. E important de retinut ca desi condamnat la 2 ani de “zeghe” el ar fi executat oricum numai 8 luni.