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A few worrisome events shed a sick light on press freedom and “deontology”, as journos like to call the ethics of their profession. In short, those in power do not respect or understand press freedom, while quite a few “journalists” and self-described bloggers do not get their role.

The very recent new USR scandal featuring Andrei Caramitru and the Vice Romania “journalist” Sidonia Bogdan is both disturbing and funny. I don’t consider myself “journalist” but as a blogger I’ve asked candidates questions, with mixed results, and as a political candidate I often had to deal with incredibly idiotic interactions on Facebook, so I sort of see where Caramitru the Young is coming from as well. Let me explain.

A Paris-dwelling potential (?) USR member posts something about a supposed transgression of a USR MEP in a USR private forum, the screenshots are leaked to the media, and the tabloids are milking it for all that it’s worth. The complainant tries to have it both ways, claiming some kind of allegiance to the party and desire to keep the story private, while maintaining the right to “privacy”.

I have recently read an opinion by some “journo” in a tabloid on how anonymous SIM cards should be sold no more (i.e., make them available only to those producing ID). I argue that the writing privileges of this person should be suspended.

Recent news (about how more than half of “followers” for “influencers” are fake) reminded me of a network of twitter accounts that seems to exist solely for attacking anyone criticizing Genie Bouchard. These “shadows of a real person” are somewhat darker than the shadow of what Eugenie Bouchard could have been, had she not been influenced by an inner circle that seems to treasure appearances at the expense of true achievement.

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.

#WTA has recently confused #Romania anti-#corruption #rezist #protest with people coming out in the streets to welcome and congratulate Simona Halep in her recent Grand Slam triumph (gsp-tnr). It’s not only foreigners not getting what’s going on, but even some of those protesting.

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.

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.

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.

Predictably, the fire at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest has resulted in calls for moar regulation! and a search for the culprits. Interior Minister Oprea can breathe now that the media is no longer focusing on his killing of a policeman through unnecessary, elitist motorcades. Let me explain why the requests for more regulation are misguided.

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.

In my previous election adventures, I have relied heavily on the 'testvote' application and even shared and commented my results with you, my readers. I was planning to do the same this time, then I noticed something peculiar: all the candidates have virtually the same position! Upon further investigating, it appeared that either the application has been updated in the meantime or there was an error due to poor Internet connectivity and bad coding.

As I'm starting this article, there's a ton of things I want to talk about, and I'll be lucky if I have the time to get into 2 of them. First, Simona Halep's amazing win against Serena Williams, then I'd like to talk about Romanian accomplishments, education, verbal aggression, debating skills, and Sfinx / Dan Andrei Aldea. Let's see how far I manage to get.

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 swore an oath of non-technicality for this blog, but I hereby have to (almost) break it, for the very identity of this blog is being threatened.

I recently indulged in a counselling experience on Facebook and I thought I might share with you part of it.

Here we are, after vol II with Blogger / Blogspot and vol III with Wordpress.com, at the final installment of our incursion into similarly ranked blogs.

The latest news item about the Romanian Royal House (more precisely, King Mihai's daughter) is not particularly flattering to them, but is an excellent metaphor for state violence, in continuation of the previous article, on the police brutality incident suffered by a Romanian dentist in Alberta.