I am in general interested in politics, more than the average of an ordinary citizen. De fines gold, when I visit a country – but not only – I become interested in its politics and continue to keep a track of it. USA, Central European countries, Ukraine, Balkans, France, Belgium… in different periods I have been very much in touch of local politics [...]

Very often I encounter all sorts of so-called maximum, advice or characterizations of the category “to live your life”. I see most people around me are really obsessed with this right, offering and serious issues and questions like: But I still live my life when? I do not really like living life! I need to do [...]

In the morning, you are a driver or a pedestrian or a passenger using any transportation means to get to work. When you get to work, you become an ID typing access codes. Then you are a job title, among various other employees. When you have a little spare time, you become a visitor online, surfing the Internet . After work, mergi acasă pentru a [...]

Arts are by definition occupations based on inspiration. And inspiration, no matter how we define it and no matter if it's visual, musical, literary, etc.., is not something controllable or assigned to a particular scheme. Inspiration, just like talent, varies from one individual to another, three mai mult, in the case of an individual, may vary [...]

At the Airport, in taxi, in hotels or restaurants – everywhere you hear Russian. In most cases, when people address you, Russian is the first option, for practical reasons (there are many Russians who don't speak Romanian, but all the Romanians in the Republic of Moldova know Russian). Everywhere, you see only Russian communist architecture, and at the first floors of the buildings, some poor stores, so empty [...]

Camino de Santiago – the magic of a path

Itinerary:

I took a flight to Santander, on the Cantabria Coast, aiming initially to accomplish three stages of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (which has in total 32 stages, arround 780 km). Arrived at Santander, I went to Pamplona the same evening, with the idea of hitchhiking [...]

I started to watch Aki Kaurismäki's movies early this year. There were, so to call it, two beginnings in one. One start for another start. Or rather a pause, a non-movement, an oasis of calm in a sea of noise, screams, shooting and explosions, car jumping in the air and terrorists [...]

At any 2 hours from Bucharest, few know that there is an alternative to congestion on Prahova Valley, respectively to boredom „escape” always the same and the same building resorts and crowded world. From Câmpina, Doftana Valley and turn right, after any 20 miles, descoperi a superb lake, surrounded [...]

For some time now, when I get through cities such as Brussels and Paris and I'm going to put every hotel (minimum 3 stars), rar am part of a comfort ireprosabil. Notice, in special, as cleaning leaves much to be desired more. Even when it comes to the same hotel, or the same hotel chain, park [...]

An amazing story!

Born in 1950 Bucharest, in a family of intellectuals, brilliant graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts. Since very young, proves to have a tumultuous personality, with a culture that often intimidates those around him. He lives with the feeling that he has a mission, a destiny, and his destiny is the work [...]

Aţi cunoscut vreodată senzaţia de tipul „Oriunde m-aş duce, orice aş face, sunt înconjurat de prostie?”. Cu diferenţa, however, de a nu fi însoţită de concluzia subliminală „Eu sunt mai deştept decât toţi!” – aşa cum se întâmplă multora – but, rather, de o autentică teroare sau, at least, lamentare: „Vail lor! Vai mie!”.

After: [...]

In one of my travels around the country, at a conference, I had the opportunity at a time to talk with one of the organizers, a student. The discussion had started accidentally:an indication by a hut, at roadside, I remember suddenly brought a wonderful holiday they spent, in student, the chalet that. [...]

I heard a rumor. They say one has to proceed as follows:
1.You create a blog, using an imaginary name. It is free and takes 2 minutes.
2.You create another blog, having another name than the first.
3.Iti never creezi a blog, with another name than the first two.

When it, you represent 3 different sources, so you can issue any [...]

It's been a long time since I've become familiar with this phenomenon, and maybe it's time to describe it. I think it deserves an insight.

It's about a type of behaviour, always the same, which unfortunately fools us most of the time, and for the same reason: the variety of its appearances.

We continue to refer to [...]

If you live in Romania and you have not yet realized that this is a country of geniuses that know everything, try the magic question “What do you think?”. You'll see immediately that, at any moment, everyone has an opinion about anything. Evident, the more ignorant is the person, the more willing to share an opinion that person will be.

We all laugh when, on [...]

by Michaela Ciobanu

Ne-am Fri Cunoscut 15 October 1969, the anniversary of a colleague from the Faculty of Letters in Bucharest, care se numea Carol Malinovski, good friend Mircea Ciobanu. Then, Ciobanu was a young first year student at the Institute of Fine Arts, Painting Department, Master class Corneliu Baba. Have 19 [...]

(Tagline) Brothers, they say the pandemic swine flu is coming . They say there will be millions of victims. They say we shall all die. Everyone is in crisis, So let me feel threatened as well.

Well, do you still remember those old thrillers about mad cow disease, where the main character was Apocalypse Cow? Then, followed Ugly [...]

Often, I notice that subjective truths are treated as a sort of Pandora's box or as a sort of a shame to the intellectual progress. It's subjective, ie, relative, it's a kind of inferior truth, because it only applies to the person in question. Objective truth is a kind of “truth accepted by most of the people”, [...]

First, I should say: sărăcia now e ca-n Europe. After: what is called poverty in Europe, elsewhere is a blessing of fate. In relation to what poverty means Africa, in India and in most countries on the planet, no counterpart in the Western world. Nobody, nobody [...]

How to make someone perceive, at once, all the misery and limitations of the human condition, which are inevitably reflected in each and everyone's existence? How to make someone understand, suddenly, how much sadness is in being born and in dying, in seeing those others around you disappear, or [...]

As soon as I allow myself to reflect on the nose along, I find all around me a lot of cases impossible to solve. Even I feel that living in a world that, overall, is extremely limited options for improving. World of opportunity seems to take place only in the sense that other, the [...]

To the poet Eminescu, the Communist schools raised hosannas with such zeal that they intoxicated generations, burying any genuine emotion in wooden phrases and prefabricated comments. At the same time, the journalist Eminescu was deliberately left in the shadow, out of embarrassment in respect to some inconvenient statements that he had made, such as those of anti-Semitic touch.

Strangely, after 1989 things [...]

I got the idea of writing this article from a book by Jeff Jarvis, entitled “What would Google do?”. He starts from an interesting idea, namely to consider, first, which reasons are behind the success of giant Google, and then, to imagine decisions and similar behavior in other [...]

My experiences during past several years, with minor exceptions, were quite dissapointing. So I started to look for clear limits between the reality of the Romanian theater and that of the vehement snobes (a vast majority belonging to the feminine public – sorry) who go to theater because it's trendy, because it's an intellectual pleasure, or because this would mean [...]

My impressions, older or younger, about the plays seen in Bucharest, are crystallized around two main types of approaches, which I will describe below.

First is also the oldest. A sort of “sweet classical style”. The type of approach in which each actor “running″ [...]

The acronym ISI is quite known to those who do research or teaching. Usually, it strikes you like an obstacle, a fundamental condition for promoting, for your professional reputation, or for receiving an award. The syntax looks something like that: “If you don't have an ISI article…” followed by [...]

I remember I once received an invitation to a concert of a famous and much-publicized Chinese pianist. Despite the enthusiasm of most of the people, the guy seemed to me sort of a trained monkey and I understood why a friend of mine joked about him, saying: let's listen to some Chinese Mozart. Indeed, so much show [...]

To write, to compose, to paint…means to testify, in order to share with others.

From this perspective, I would say that the act of creation, in arts, (literature, music, visual arts etc.) reveals, in its special way, a sacred dimension.

More and more people nowadays tend to escape into virtual reality. The phenomenon called “Second Life” is probably best known, the most dynamic, with the most followers. A parallel life – what a tempting concept, the perfect opportunity for taming frustrations, through imaginary compensations. Therefore, Second life is, essentially, a platform [...]

In an article titled Business 2.0, talking about a new model of business conduct – participatory, non-agressive, flexible and innovative, promoted by companies like Google. I can not ask me how the information revolution would show benefits in other areas. In politely culture, example.

I would think, for instance, [...]

When you don't create your own living model, others do it for you. You only have to let yourself carried away. De perform, by watching the news you don't live in the Present Tense, national or global, but in the reality of some sensation-obsessed journalists or of some politicians hungry for votes. If you spend all day watching soap operas, it's [...]

I like Monica Macovei as a person. She surprised me in some occasions behaving naturally, as a normal person, as a woman who knows where her place is. Not showing that kind of tiresome self-righteousness (sorry, but I could not find a satisfactory Romanian equivalent for this mixture of moral self-indulgence and hypertrophied ego – suggestions are welcome) [...]

I once heard the following anecdote about Constantine Noica. It is said that the philosopher, to the surprise and disappointment of his admirers, used to watch football matches. Asked, with well-motivated curiousity, how could a great philosopher such as he be concerned by such things, Noica answer something like: I am not interested in football, but in footballity…

I think that people, [...]

We live with the idea that Middle Age was a dark era, because it was dominated by irrationality, ignorance and superstition. This “label” was however created in subsequent periods, which were considered emancipated by virtue of the rationalism they cultivated. But this landmark shows nowadays, in its turn, signs of aging. Today, we live the times of [...]

Some 15 years ago I went on a trip in northern Moldavia. I had heard of a monastery called Sihastria and of an old monk, Cleopa.

The weather was beautiful (it was by mid-August), so I told myself I could go there. I went to Targu Neamt without knowing other details. When I arrived at the bus station, I asked [...]

Among my many colleagues there is a Muslim who came to Romania from Morocco. He has a name which, should I wish to make it public, I wouldn't know how to spell it; We call him, in short, Ali, and he is very proud that we found him such a nickname, as a sign that we get along well. [...]

…or about how sometimes the wheel is turning.

First time I understood what an activist meant, was last year. In summer. A colleague organized a meeting expected to lead to a certain result regarding the adoption of Web 2.0 in the organization. The guy brought on his project's money 3 “geeks” from different corners of the world [...]

În anii ’90, se spunea despre cei care erau atunci în floarea tinereţii că sunt condamnaţi să fie o „generaţie de sacrificiu”. Pentru că trecerea de la comunism la economia de piaţă presupunea ajustări structurale de asemenea proporţii, încât era clar că ne aştepta o perioadă de mari dificultăţi pe toate planurile. Tratamentul de şoc [...]

Some’ two years ago I needed a car. You know how it's like in Bucharest, you don't have a car, you don't exist. But this was not the reason why I wanted a car, it was because I simply needed it. Of course I had no money for a new one, so I thought about buying a second (seven) hand one.

My girlfriend thought about us buying a Tico. Small and [...]

We are dominated by fatalism much more often than we would like to or than we realize. I think the list of examples below is relevant in this respect and remains open…It starts from different manifestations of fatalism, currently most frequent, which in their turn reveal, in depth, a rich typology.

1. The emergency state [...]

I've read somewhere that the success rate of the placebo effect is, in average, over 30%, and it can reach even up to two thirds of the cases, under conditions of intense expectations.

In severe cases, the rate is smaller, while in lighter cases (headaches, asthenia, etc.) placebo effect may be responsible even for [...]

Fragments. Questions, Searches…and answers, breathings

Considering these realities:
- the editorial totalitarianism, regime in which the authentic writer-artist is nothing but an employee at the mercy of the publisher;
- Th global over-production of books, due to the ultra-specialization of book authors, among which I mention biographers, thriller and soap-opera makers

There are movies that don't tell you very much, when you see them for the first time. Unexpectedly, however, the more time passes the more they grow in your mind, instead of being forgotten. Maybe you were not in the proper state to get their message, maybe you were not able to digest everything at once, or [...]

Leaving is dying a little, but also discovering and learning.

LEUVEN, after one year of study
It's a wonderful medieval town. If I had to compare it, it would be like a bit like our Sighisoara.

Leuven has a lot of Flemish students, in their majority, but also many foreigners. It's full of bikes and cyclists students. [...]

I think that, that if God had wanted us, people, to multiply in a different manner – for example with the help of the rain or of the sun and without our involvement – He would have made this possible. If it made sense for babies to be brought by storks, directly from the clouds, without us [...]

I once heard this story about father Galerius. At some point, during the time of the communists, he was supposed to go preaching in a village somewhere. In that village, people did not go to church anymore. Seeing this, Father Galerius publicly announced the following: next Sunday, at 10 [...]

Decisions such as the introduction of biometric data in passports, or to facilitate the interception and recording of telephone calls , justified in the name of an ambiguous concept called “siguranta nationala”(national security), have brought many people to remember Big Brother's world, as imagined by George Orwell in his novel “1984″. “Big Brother” knows everything you do and [...]

Between 18 and 20 December 1989, after the revolt in Timisoara in 16-17 and ahead of the Bucharest and other cities in 21-22, Nicolae Ceausescu found time for an official visit abroad – the Tehran, in Iran. It would be the last of the long or record. In momentul in care s-a [...]

Isn't it that you already forgot how it was with the visas?? Remember when staying in line at embassies and consulates was the national sport every summer?

I never understood this barbarity called visa… It's beyond my understanding that a civilized country in. XXI century, a country which should find another way to manage the entry of foreigners in its territory [...]

It's been a long time since I've wanted to articulate this idea. Some things that happened to me recently and some articles I read, helped me – I mention them at the end of text.

It refers to intellectual prostitution. The silence that surrounds.

I work for some time in a UN agency having a noble purpose. People paid very generously, living in a city situated among the first [...]

I think that fools can't go to heaven. Just imagine what kind of heaven that would be, and how long it could last…

Stupidity, in the sense to which I refer, is more than lack of knowledge, is blindness of the spirit. Unlike naive ignorance, stupidity is always something dark, destructive. Therefore, [...]

Someone once told me that, in any novel, the main character is always the author. I don't know about others, but I, in “Master and Margarita”, of all the characters, I was most impressed by the writer himself. The catharsis he is undertaking is one that must be interpreted, in my opinion, in a mystic note.

The cover of the Penguin edition [...]

Do you want a wage of several thousand euros a month, with progressive increase in time, without having to pay any tax to any State? Do you want to have a job where it would be almost impossible for someone to fire you? Do you want to have the opportunity to be transferred for work, [...]

Long time I lived with the belief that untamed demagogy , institutionalized lie, corruption, imposture and opportunism were “values” specific to an Europe isolated beyond the iron curtain, because they had become essential for the survival of Eastern communism, which cultivated them with great zeal through a propaganda-based ideology. On the other side of the curtain, Western Europe seemed [...]