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Environment – Romania Without Dracula

Romania Without Dracula

Category: Environment

  • In a Clear Mind – Meeting Omu Gnom

    In a Clear Mind – Meeting Omu Gnom

    New Album out on December 24 2018

    Hrana out on March 22 2017

    I met  Omu Gnom for an interview at Fabrica, Bucharest, just before Christmas and a week ago I went back there to attend his concert. You could tell that he is a charismatic and thoughtful chap from his very energetic yet unhurried young audience. While I could not but feel like an ideal bunica (grandma) to them all, I enjoyed their quiet mounting number, many of them  flocking in straight from Piata Victoriei, where together with other hundred-thousands Romanians of all ages, they had been protesting in front of the Government building. Back home, my teenager sons dismissed it all as a clumsy raid into a world apart from mine, ideally sympathising with my unfortunate interviewee. Who, in fact, relying on his clear mind, did prove their perception completely mistaken.

    Why Omu Gnom? Is there any ironic intention in this word combination? 

    It’s a combination between two names, om, which means human being, and gnom, which is a gnome, a mythical creature that lives in the underground and keeps the wealth and the richness of the earth. Basically, when I was little I liked this word gnom very much and then after a while – about ten years  afterwards -, when I began to write, I found that omu gnom sounded even better with their combined syllables, also because “to be a man” in Romania is like something important: sa fi un om! meaning you have to be someone good, with some standards, to try to do good with everybody. In fact, this is one of my targets in writing: I write stuff that uplift people that listen. And yes, I am an optimistic person, also with the pessimistic writing I always want to give at the end a little reason for being optimistic.  As for the combination, I like playing with words: in the word gnom you find also the word om, so I play with the idea that a gnom is little as opposed to om, someone much taller. So, it basically has it all, started from a little spark. Any other meaning comes afterwards and that is the beauty of dealing with words: you know where you start but never know where you are going to end up.

    Why they call you Domnul Profesor (Mr. Professor)?

    At the ARTA (Atitudine, Răbdare, Tehnică, Ambiție) I have different kinds of students, some just want to write lyrics and have their creativity pushed forward, so I help them with their word playing and everything that has connection to music, others are more interested in rhythm, how to put your words into the rhythm and how to make everything be packed, put in a good package. Yes, I have been doing this for two years, I have two classes and all my students are ok, actually you cannot save them all but when you can save more than half of them that is really great. By the way, how do you know they call me “Domnul Profesor”?

    [I found it out in an online interview :)] In fact, you appear as a true educator, literally: helping to take things out from within

    Yes, I want to help people with a better understanding of life, the world order and society. I don’t know if I succeed but I try to do my best to do that. Practically, my opinion of writing is that if you have a skill and you can make other people listen to your words, you must go for it. Maybe you are here for that reason as well…

    What would you have been, hadn’t you been a singer?

    Ok, this is the question every journalist puts you! Each time I give a different answer, so… today I answer to you: probably an investigative journalist.

    Getting to your music, How do you manage your work, I understand that you create all your music…

    Yes I sample the sounds I like, I make all the bits, I am a butcher. Say, I like an Italian song, maybe from the Sixties, I chop it up and add it with something else and I make music. This is Hip Hop. From my point of view, Hip Hop – or at least a part of it – is the possibility to create a movie with different characters from other movies. Which is what I basically do.

    Which are your channels to sell your CDs?

    It’s not a label, it has been a crew for seven years now (Ateliere de creatie) and I have a website,  omugnom.com, for three years. We are independent, we do not have a formal distribution and we rely on support: you can free download our stuff and if you want the original you donate, also if you want to support us you can donate. I am my own manager, my own PR, everything… It’s ok. I am still at that level. It is growing but we shall see.

    Practically, my opinion of writing is that if you have a skill and you can make other people  listen to your words, you must go for it. Maybe you are here for that reason as well…

    Coming to the hip hop Romanian scene. I read Vice 2010 about it. What’s your opinion?

    Actually  I know people that are considering writing a book about the Romanian hip hop. To give you a brief idea, it all started back in the first Ninties, when some radio shows began to broadcast American stuff, after that some local bands appeared. R.A.C.L.A. (an abbreviation of Rime Alese Care Lovesc Adânc – “Handpicked Rhymes with a Deeper Meaning”, Ed.) issued the first hip hop album. Then came the B.U.G. Mafia (Bucharest Underground Mafia) and many more. What the Romanians did after the 90s? They went, say, East Side, that is more lyrical, like RACLA, Getto Daci,  and West side in a more gangster style – so called gangsta rap – like BUG Mafia (Bucharest Underground Mafia), La Familia. At present these different styles are merging together: a combination of toughness – because also on the streets in Romania you have gangs and mafia – with some lyrical contents. Personally, I don’t follow gangster rap, I am more of a spiritual guy, but there are very good street rappers among them.

    Which are the singers who inspire you most?

    In Romania I like Methadon 3000, Norzeatic [he is now in Tokyo to study Japanese] and Deceneu. So these are my main influences.

    About your song Limpede: what is the story behind this song?

    It means “in a clear mind” I started working on this song during the Roșia Montana protest (a successful protest against a mining project in 2013, Ed.). I talked to people and observed the events: I was starting to wake up and watch what was happening in the world, what was happening in Romania. So I made the song with the idea that you should have a clear mind to focus if you want to deal with something. This should be normal for a human and this is what I also say to my students. This attitude also regards your opinion: you need to have a clear mind, even if your opinion is a collage of different opinions, it still becomes something yours and original, reflecting just you, who collect it all.

    In Printe cuvinte you say ai grija sa n-ai griji (“be careful not to be careless”) and “read, open your mind”: quite beyond simple singing life’s ups and downs and the fatalistic mood so recurring in Hip Hop…

    I am a kind of conscious writer. This is where my style is taking me to. And frankly speaking, I would like to earn some money in things that I believe in. I will never leave rap, though. I like that my message reaches more people. I am sure that an open-minded person would be interested in it. For instance, on December 11th (General Election Day, Ed.) I took part in an event called Conteaza Voteaza (“It counts if you vote”) at Expirat, a new Bucharest club in Halele Carol, where you could join in only if you brought along your voting stamp. And it was a good show in a whole new environment for me: I had a very good reception. I made my freestyle on politics and people enjoyed it and wondered who I was. That made me think that I should let my music go to places where it had not gone until now, because there are people that would appreciate it.

    What I basically do, I try to make things that will help you develop. I write things for me, as well to improve myself. I like saying to myself: “it will be ok, try to be better, come on!”, “here are these politicians that are robbing you, don’t be stupid, think! Think! And it will be ok!”. I don’t know if this happens everywhere but the people in Romania must be constantly reminded that they are in control of their lives and that if they think critically then everything is going to be ok. Maybe it is a general human problem… More, now we have too much information and you feel lost: we have Google and everything is there for you but we don’t know what to search anymore and we are tired of all this. I don’t know if I have the right to give advice but I am trying to play my part in this. And I am doing it for myself, first of all.

    Now we have Google and everything is there for you but we don’t know what to search anymore and we are tired of all this.

    Comparing your mood to that I can grasp in the current Italian rap scene- some names: Salmo, Jay Ax, Marracash, Sfera Ebbasta, Guè Pequeno -, I find yours inspirational while theirs, allow me a risky generalisation – full of spleen and nihilism. Does it make any sense to you? 

    I don’t know the music of these artists so I cannot relate to the description. What I can do, though, is to talk about my music, my message.
    I don’t want that the people that listen to me thinks it all sucks and there is nothing to do about it. As a proverb says, in every situation there are at least two solutions. Of course you have to say things as they are, but that is not enough. Obviously there is room for everybody in hip hop: others deal with fatalism, nihilism, drugs, whores… This is my style. I have parents that are fans. At a concert in Sibiu a sixteen-year-old guy came up and asked me to take a picture saying “I am here because my father sent me, he told me, you’ll like that guy!”. These are kids that have a good relation with their parents. Me and my parents did not relate to music in that way. We are in 2017 and more open-minded persons have become parents: we are starting to change. But what this era in which everything needs to be fast is doing for us, is that we also want fast results in everything. But there are not fast results to do things: it comes in time. You cannot jump the stairs from floor one to five.

    Getting to the youngest generation, I observe that they are very responsive to change and open-minded, they have ambitions, speak many languages, more than I can see in our young people in Italy.

    You are right, but a major problem here in Romania is the education system which dates way back. Everything depends on the lack of inspiration. The world has changed but school subjects are still taught with old boring methods. You see, to be a doctor or a teacher requires vocation. This is the basic thing: you have to be prepared on that, meditate much, be ready to be a model for them. So, you realize one of the reason they want to be there (at school) is YOU. The problem comes when teachers start to hate their job and apply strict rules, which, in fact, should not be necessary at all. As a consequence, they do not let students have their own opinions, which would help them so much! The school should prepare students for life, it should help them to express themselves but no, the school wants everybody speak the same, dress the same, think the same, learn the same. It’s an unending subject anyway…

    As an Italian observer, when I first arrived in Bucharest, all your quarters of dehumanising communist blocs deeply shocked me,  “how can individuals survive in there?” kept on asking myself… In an interview you said that you were born “printre blocuri nu dupa blocuri” (through the blocks, not in their mentality). What did you exactly mean by it?

    True, it is a nice wordplay…That is one of our major problems, that we had fifty years of communism and it affected the people’s mentality. For that injury to heal requires time, so right now we are still on the healing process: we are not ready to do something because the wound is not healed yet. It may seems but if you look around the wound is not healed yet. I mean also the young people – not only the fifty or forty-year-old, but also the twenty years old, they have wounds as a reflection because what the children see is what the children do: they follow pattern behaviors, consciously or unconsciously. I can see things that I do myself, without my knowledge, because I saw them at my parents. So, basically patterns of thinking and patterns of choices. It is also a matter of vocabulary… We have then to work out this communist thing in a way to manage its fucking impact on us.

    Still, anything to save out of the communist heritage?

    That’s a good point. The best thing in communism was that you had housing, a job and some money, you had nothing to buy but you had money, now you have many things you would like to buy but you don’t have the money: welcome to capitalism! Communism and Capitalism are the two sides of the same coin: we were so hungry of everything that we wanted it all, and now we have got all that crap from capitalism. The American model sit perfectly on us; these people here had stayed for fifty years with everything portioned, the money, the food, they were not allowed to leave the country; now they want it all. Yes, the Romanians have this incredible need to do shopping and they want to be sure that everything is there at their disposal. It sounds silly but it is understandable and to cure this will take time, generations. In fact, the youngest are starting to realize that and are developing a different mentality: when I speak with eighteen-year old, we understand each other.

    What this era when everything needs to be fast is doing for us, is that we want fast results in everything. But there are not fast results to good things: they come in time. You cannot jump the stairs from floor zero to floor five.

    How do you explain the results of December’s General Elections?

    That kind of result was highly expected. You cannot change everything like that. People are not ready for that yet, because they don’t know what they actually want. Imagine, that result does not reflect the actual will of our population and of our society. Let’s do this exercise of imagination for the sake of argument. Imagine this: 10 people are ALL the people who have the right to vote. So the people who have the right to vote are ten but only four of them actually went to vote. So now, the attention of everybody is on these four people because from everybody’s perception, those four people represent ALL the people. So now, these four people become ALL people, and from these four people who have become ten people, five voted this party (PSD, Ed). In fact, considering the ten initial potential voters, they are just two! So basically, what we should do is to focus on why didn’t six people go to vote? What do they want? The first answer is that “because they are sick of this shit, and it is a shit and nobody wants to deal with this shit”! Most prefer not to get involved at all. A smart person or party should focus on why these are not going to vote and learn something. No! The real problem is that they prefer saying “we are so good; we did ten, twenty per cent…” Still, if you consider the eighteen millions that are entitled to vote, you have gained nothing! In fact, I have my theory – and probably at a certain point I will create my ONG and try to propose things – is that you should not have an election which is validated without fifty percent of the people coming to vote. This is not normal, this is not a majority, why is this legal?! All in all, I think the strategy of the main parties is to keep those six people out of ten from voting: they do not want them to use their vote; they want them to feel sick about it. The real point is that to get diamonds from the mud you have to get dirty and those six do not want to get dirty.

    Coming to the present, with hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets as a reaction to the latest political developments, how should we read that in a clear mind?

    Here in Romania we have a constant displeasure regarding politics and politicians. They have been robbing the country since the communism fell and somehow many people seemed to have got accustomed to their lying and their habits and lived their everyday life not wanting to think about it. I was saying in the previous question that a large part of the people who have the right to vote didn’t vote, that is a lot, around 60%.
    What is going out now? The party that won the elections was trying to give themselves and their partners in crime a law that would help them avoid jail time. That was the last drop for many, so they are starting to protest. The emotional state was in such a way that the protest became a snow ball with the maximum of half a million Romanians on the streets in a Sunday evening.
    I think we are witnessing history in the making. The majority of “I don’t care” just started to get involved and are starting to make a statement against corruption.

    Next concerts or oncoming projects?

    I am almost finished with my project with Dj Undoo. We have an album that will become available shortly. We have been working at this for quite a while and I am really looking forward to make it public. It is a personal, classic one.
    We will be present with a concert in most of the major cities in Romania so come see us live this spring.

    Bio Info:
    Songwriter and beatmaker for seventeen years now, Omu Gnom produced his first solo album      Ai grija sa n-ai griji in 2011 obtaining a very excelent reception. Nu uita sa nu uiti came out shortly after, in collaboration with Norzeatic and other underground artists and Djs. In 2013-14 he focussed on another project, Atentie la neatentie, with a strong social message, with the song Limpede obtaining a warm reception in most of the Romanian cultural media.

    • Performing at Fabrica on February 3 2017 photo by opisicaneagra.ro
    • Sunday February 5 2017, mass protest in Piaţa Victioriei photo by Fabiana Papastefani
  • Interview – Mike Ormsby

    Interview – Mike Ormsby

    After having enjoyed reading Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania, I wanted to know more about the author Mike Ormsby and his subject matter. A British writer and former BBC journalist, World Service trainer and musician, Mike welcomed my questions with the same enthusiasm and passion I had found in his writing. With his wife Angela Nicoara, also journalist and writer, he has chosen Magura, Transylvania as his main place of residence. 

    What kind of reactions has your book received in the course of time? Can you detect any difference in its reception between Romanian and English readers?

    Since 2008, when the book was published, the majority of my readers seem to have enjoyed it. Most of them find it amusing, direct, and accurate; I’m glad about that. My first publisher was a bit worried and said, “Romania is not ready for your book – it’s too honest.” I replied, “But if not now, then when?” As it turned out, Romania’s literary critics gave the book a very positive reception and several described me as “our British Caragiale”. Most readers on Amazon, GoodReads, and so on, have been very supportive too, and I’ve made new friends this way. Of course, some people do not enjoy the book and post negative reviews, but that’s life and I don’t mind unless they misrepresent or tell lies about my work, as some do, because that’s not fair.

    To answer the second part of your question, many Romanians seemed surprised that a foreigner could observe, understand, and write about their country in a way that ’opened their eyes’. For example, a Romanian Army general told me that he thought his wife was crazy for looking after street dogs, until he read my book. Now, he sees them differently and even helps her.

    As regards nationalities, I have not sensed differences between the reactions of Romanian and Anglophone readers. On the contrary, I see similarities. For example, many Anglophones and Romanians see this country clearly and are honest about its pros and cons. In my experience, when such people read ‘Never Mind’ they tend to share my own outlook and find the book to be fair and realistic. However, the opposite applies: some foreigners (often tourists) and some Romanians (often nationalists) wish to ‘defend’ the country from perceived attacks and do not share my outlook.

    You wrote the book eight years ago and I have read the book now finding its tales still very topical. Do you think that anything has actually changed since then, if so, how?

    Most drivers are more courteous and less aggressive, now. There is less smoking in public places and people seem more interested in healthy living. On the one hand, I hope Romania continues to change in such positive ways. On the other hand, I hope some things will not change: Romanians’ hospitality, their generosity, quick wit, fatalistic sense of humour, their remarkable ability to improvise with tools, and their ability to make fun of the bad times – haz de necaz. Those aspects I will always respect and cherish.

    Many young characters in your tales show personal ambitions, various degrees of cynicism and little interest in getting involved in community issues. Can you see now a change in the general trend, with young generations more politically and socially active, see Rosia Montana and Colective movements, or do you consider them niche phenomenons of major cities?

    It is several years since I’ve lived in a Romanian city, so I can only answer based on my experience of life in our mountain village. Here, young people seem keen on community issues. For example, for the last two years, my wife Angela Nicoara and I have been picking up litter from local roads and forests. A dozen local children got involved and we’ve since gathered almost two tonnes of litter. I’ll tell you more about this later.

    The gap between the richest and the poorest in the country has widened further, with the middle class caught up in a quagmire and in search of a new political representation. What should we be expecting at the oncoming political elections due on December 11? Anything new under the sun?

    As a politician might say, I’m glad you asked me this, although, actually, I’m not glad, because I have no idea what to expect. Put it this way, if Trump can get to the White House (as I expected), and if the UK can exit the EU (as I did not expect), then anything is possible in Romania. I hope for the best, but fear the worst.

    Many of your characters experience at least a period abroad, which always help them observe the country more lucidly. These diaspora people, some leave for good, some finally chose to come back. Is there a role diaspora people can play in the present/future of this country?

    Politically, ex-pats can help by voting in Romania’s elections. Financially, they can help by sending cash home, and many do. Culturally, they can help by making sure that their children are raised as bi-lingual speakers, this is very important. Personally, they can help by being decent people – as so many are – in order to help counter balance any negative stereotypes of ‘Romanians’. In my experience, travel changes us all, sometimes for the better. So, there’s hope for us all, and my suggestions could apply equally to Brits; we are no angels.

    Among the many pending issues facing the Romanian society, lack of a basic environmental education and total absence of a recycling and waste management policy represent major ones. Tell us about your video about picking up litter, and about the idea behind it.

    Angela and I decided to make the video after a villager yelled an ironic comment while we were picking litter. Before I tell you what that person yelled, a little context might help, as follows.

    Despite our many invitations to them, no local adults help us to collect litter in Magura. Instead, they offer excuses, e.g. I’m too busy. Some parents even tried to forbid their kids from helping us to tidy up because they think it’s undignified, dirty, and ‘not our problem’, even though many of them own guest houses and thus benefit from a cleaner village for tourists to enjoy. Naturally, we are disappointed, especially as our work takes only a couple of hours every month or so. Anyway, moving on …

    We were with local kids collecting litter from a mountain lane, when a local yelled, “Hah! Vino Mama, sa ma vezi cum lucrez la spatii verzi!” Angela told me that this was a sarcastic reference to a communist-era work slogan: “Mum, come and see, I’m working in the green spaces!”

    We’d been thinking for a while about making a music video with some of the village kids who attend my ukulele class, but we had not chosen a song from our repertoire. So, we decided to use that communist-era slogan for a new song about collecting litter, a song urging local parents to help us. We were sitting in a pizza place at the time and we heard ‘Every Breath You Take’ in the background. We realised we could adapt Sting’s nice tune but add our own lyrics about litter in Magura. Angela found an experienced cameraman to help shoot and edit the film, and a neighbour choreographed traditional dance steps for the kids. We added a comic touch – dancing with bags full of rubbish – and paid homage to Bob Dylan with our flash cards listing the sorts of things we find in the village. You name it, we find it!

    The video shoot took several days and was very hard work in hot weather. It can be tricky coordinating a dozen kids, for shot after shot, but they were very cooperative. When they got tired, we told them, “This is how it feels to be a movie star, it’s a lot of work!” That made them feel a bit famous and they’d brighten up.

    So far, our video has had around 30,000 hits on the Internet and dozens of supportive comments. Lucian Mandruta from DigiFM posted it on his Facebook page, which helped. If you wish to watch, here is the link: ‘Amazing Romania!’ Please share, every thumb helps. But will local adults? We’ll see.

    For all its shortcomings and chronic problems, Romania is the place you have decided to call home. What is it that attracts you most here?

    When I first came to Romania in 1994 as a BBC reporter, it felt very different to other countries and attracted me in a way I could not resist. I had never visited a former communist state in eastern Europe and found this one fascinating; most of all, I liked the people. A few months later, I came back to teach at Scoala BBC in Bucharest and stayed a couple of years. I met Angela and then we moved to Bosnia, the first of seventeen different countries that we would live in during the twenty years that followed. Our life was very nomadic and we had no chance or wish to settle, but, eventually, we took a break and bought a house here in the mountains of Transylvania. We like the clean air and quiet atmosphere, after years living in big cities such as Jakarta, Khartoum, and Baku. We like pets but were never able to own any, since we moved too often, so this village is ideal for those we adopted recently – three dogs and five cats.

    Last summer, a Romanian friend told us that he has no desire to live anywhere else because, ‘This country has just enough rules’. That made us smile and I know what he means. For all its problems, as you say, Romania has a special something that you won’t find elsewhere. When I’m away, say, in England for a few weeks, I miss that special something, whatever it is. However, Angela and I do get restless after too long in one place. Once a nomad, always a nomad, perhaps? Our feet are starting to itch, I fear!

    If a ‘sufletul romanesc’ exists, what would you think it consists in? What role plays irony in it?

    What’s in a Romanian soul? Great question! Certainly an affinity with the land – Romanians seem to enjoy a deep and lasting link to the countryside and the pleasures it affords. Every Romanian seems to know where to procure good fruit and vegetables, or the best tuica that money cannot buy, and so on. I think such links keep one’s feet on the ground, literally and metaphorically, although it took me a while to appreciate that, perhaps because most people in the UK no longer have those connections. What else? Hmm, perhaps an ability to get around the rules – or such rules as exist – to survive. Certainly a morbid fear of death by draughts, an allergy to seat belts (especially in an aircraft), and a chronic inability to wait in an orderly queue. Irony, yes, definitely. It’s the ace of the cards that life deals you, here.

    Any other project coming soon?

    I’m working on a collection of short stories set in Transylvania.

    Cover photo by Cosmin Bumbuț

  • Mum, come and see… Kids Singing Green

    Mum, come and see… Kids Singing Green

    While Romania needs to hurry up to cross the 2020 finish line with all its EU waste targets met, the situation on the ground becomes more and more unsustainable. At its core we find a cultural challenge which needs tackling by any possible means. Irony and direct involvement may prove amazing tools, as Amazing Romania! seems to suggest. It is a video produced by Mike Ormsby and Angela Nicoara who chose to deal with the Romanian green issue in a very creative way.  In his RWD interview Mike Ormsby has revealed us the origin and the funny details behind the video shot in Magura and starring very special (and crucial) actors. 

    Enjoy the video and, above all, share it!

    Excerpt from RWD interview to Mike Ormsby:

    “Angela and I decided to make the video after a villager yelled an ironic comment while we were picking litter. Before I tell you what that person yelled, a little context might help, as follows.

    Despite our many invitations to them, no local adults help us to collect litter in Magura. Instead, they offer excuses, e.g. I’m too busy. Some parents even tried to forbid their kids from helping us to tidy up because they think it’s undignified, dirty, and ‘not our problem’, even though many of them own guest houses and thus benefit from a cleaner village for tourists to enjoy. Naturally, we are disappointed, especially as our work takes only a couple of hours every month or so. Anyway, moving on …

    We were with local kids collecting litter from a mountain lane, when a local yelled, “Hah! Vino Mama, sa ma vezi cum lucrez la spatii verzi!” Angela told me that this was a sarcastic reference to a communist-era work slogan: “Mum, come and see, I’m working in the green spaces!”

    We’d been thinking for a while about making a music video with some of the village kids who attend my ukulele class, but we had not chosen a song from our repertoire. So, we decided to use that communist-era slogan for a new song about collecting litter, a song urging local parents to help us. We were sitting in a pizza place at the time and we heard ‘Every Breath You Take’ in the background. We realised we could adapt Sting’s nice tune but add our own lyrics about litter in Magura. Angela found an experienced cameraman to help shoot and edit the film, and a neighbour choreographed traditional dance steps for the kids. We added a comic touch – dancing with bags full of rubbish – and paid homage to Bob Dylan with our flash cards listing the sorts of things we find in the village. You name it, we find it!

    The video shoot took several days and was very hard work in hot weather. It can be tricky coordinating a dozen kids, for shot after shot, but they were very cooperative. When they got tired, we told them, “This is how it feels to be a movie star, it’s a lot of work!” That made them feel a bit famous and they’d brighten up.

    So far, our video has had around 30,000 hits on the Internet and dozens of supportive comments. Lucian Mandruta from DigiFM posted it on his Facebook page, which helped. If you wish to watch, here is the link: ‘Amazing Romania!’ Please share, every thumb helps. But will local adults? We’ll see.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania

    Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania

    Mike Ormsby, Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania 
    Kindle Edition, 2, 211 pages
    Published June 28th 2012 by Mike Ormsby (first published January 1st 2008)

    Admittedly, it has taken me some time to discover Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania, first published in 2008, yet here I am now, eager to fill that awkward gap.

    In this collection of fifty-seven short stories, Mike Ormsby, a writer and former BBC journalist/World Service trainer, chronicles various moments of his experiences in Romania between 1994 and 2006, when Romania became his home.

    Published simultaneously in Romanian as Grand Bazar Romania (translated by Vlad A. Arghir), Ormsby’s book received a range of reactions – from sheer enthusiasm to harsh criticism – mostly depending on readers’ personal visions, expectations, and sometimes, on their nationality.

    Personally, I could not help getting absorbed in tales that so vividly evoke situations and characters almost identical to those I have come across, eight years later.

    Irony – and, even more valuable, self-deprecating irony – seems to me the X-factor which makes you enjoy reading this book, to the point that some local critics have dubbed Ormsby ‘our British Caragiale’, after the 19th century playwright and satirist. Alas, I wish I knew more about Caragiale – just another one of the huge gaps I still need to fill – to fully appreciate that comment, surely enough, though, the author’s funny and bittersweet tone works as an antidote to his keen empathy with Romanians and their unique land, providing him with a safe distance from which to observe the scene.

    Indeed, Never Mind the Balkans is not the only book about contemporary Romania under “modern foreign eyes”, so to say, and I will be dealing with at least a couple of others soon enough: Philip O’Ceallaigh’s Notes From a Turkish Whorehouse  (Insemnari dintr-un bordel turcesc, translated by Ana-Maria Lisman), and Voyage en Roumanie by Alain Kerjean; each contribute in their own way to unveil some of the deep mechanisms at work inside contemporary Romanian society.

    Back to Ormsby’s book, it strikes me for having succeeded in assembling such a vivid gallery of characters, so powerfully close to the “real thing”: you cannot but feel grateful for that. In each story, the author blends into his surrounding and allows characters to speak for themselves. His voice is never invasive nor in the least sounding like the usual “wise guy from the West”. Rather, quite often he limits himself to acting as litmus paper within his environment, letting people and situations speak for themselves. Like in Why Not, where his artistic projects with his friend Adrian finally cannot but crash when faced with the dumb indifference of an incompetent journalist, whereas in Nice Sofa, Ormsby lucidly stops aside to actually wonder, “Was it my fault? Was I some wise guy from the West, with big ideas?” So, as I went on reading – always with valuable help from my Urban Dictionary – I enjoyed descriptions conjuring up, in a bunch of words, whole human landscapes and situations.

    More. Many tales leave you with a surreal aftertaste, not an infrequent impression in Romania. Take Labyrinth, where characters successfully incarnate one mainstream approach to life here: “Live by the rules and don’t get stressed.” Others – with generous help from serendipity – focus on the past or dig into local history to finally present you with little treasures, like Buried, where, en passant, Mihai Eminescu is described as that chap “with the rock-star looks”. The tale sheds light on the little known, tragic biography of a promising young translator, Corneliu Popescu, whom Ormsby discovers by chance while searching in the public library for English translations of Romanian authors. As a teenager, Popescu translated Eminescu, and brilliantly so, but died alongside his mother in the 1977 earthquake.

    Another kind of sadness takes you when reading tales like Șpaga, depicting the use of bribes as the mainstream strategy to solve any practical problem or life issue, applicable at every possible social level.

    The good thing about these tales is that they are not Bucharest-centred: Ormsby travels the whole country and encounters very different human habitats. In The Wrong Place, we end up in a small village, Tușnad, with poor Tanti Dorina who is caught in her damp bed between past and future, whereas in Too Good To Be True, a hiking trip takes us up into the Carpathian Mountains, dangerously close to angry sheepdogs. But it is definitely in tales like Faith, Hope, and Chablis that I most appreciate Ormsby’s voice. Here, two worlds – West and East Europe (allow me to generalise) appear to get extremely close one another, yet something goes wrong and it does smack of us-and-them – indeed a chasm – unless prejudice and self assurance are not won by good will and a sincere wish to understand “the other”. I won’t say more, because I do invite you to pick up this book and enjoy your reading.

    Overall, I am grateful to Ormsby and will steal a quote from John Lennon, one which the author passes on to his friend George, a character we meet in several tales: “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.”

  • Printre Cuvinte – Amid Words

    Printre Cuvinte – Amid Words

    Rap is not my genre but rappers may tell us something about the mood of the youngest ones: they powerfully echo shared disillusionments and hopes (?) and on national scales they “localise” nightmares and dreams of the latest generation. Their voices are worth listening to if you are interested in catching the mood of the youngest citizens in a country. In Bucharest Omu Gnom is one of them and the lyrics of his Printe Cuvinte (Amid Words) welcome you in the world of the Colectiv Generation.

    Omu Gnom, Printre cuvinte, 2016

    Sunt nebun, spun unii că da, dar eu dau vorbe de duh
    Că atenție unu, sau bunică-ta
    Dacă nu te implici, nu o să întelegi ce s-a relatat
    E ca și când ai băgat cereale, să știi integrale la BAC
    Nu ne-am născut pe planeta asta doar s-o populăm
    Trebuie să ne găsim drumul, să vedem după ce scop umblăm
    Ce lideri votăm, ce neghiobi urmăm
    Ce vrem de fapt să facem, si ce top urcăm
    Ne trezim uneori, dar parcă încă dormim
    Toți la aceeași masă, sătui de mâncătorii
    Dar fiecare se uită la altă farfurie și e cam trist,
    Când vezi omul bulversat ca un câine rasist
    Vezi ce ai în casă, înainte să te uiți pe fereastră
    Uneori am impresia, că suntem toți împotriva noastră
    Când de fapt, suntem toți la fel
    Și toată șmecheria, e că armonia salvează România

    Eu pot să-ți vorbesc mult despre una, alta
    Dar tu ești schimbarea ta, tu ești meșterul și unealta
    Ai răbdare cu tine, caută-te, găsește-te
    Descoperă-te, bucură-te de tine, liniștește-te
    Astea-s vorbe goale, dacă nu îmbraci cu ele fapte
    Teoretic pare ușor, și practic par grele toate
    Totul până începi, și apoi o să găsești ajutor la tot pasul
    Te-ai săturat să te-nvârți în cerc, precum compasul
    Trebuie să ai credință-n bine, să fi spiritual
    Nu contează că ești ateu, creștin sau musulman
    Trebuie să facem ceva, ne-am învățat prost de tot
    Vrem totul deodata și fără efort
    Omul e obișnuit să creadă că tot schimbă foaia
    Mereu agitat, se precipită ca ploaia
    Și daca-l întrebi, zice că așa vrea să fie
    Dar degeaba știe ce vrea, dacă nu vrea să știe

    Diferite situații, aceleași stări
    Toți vrem răspunsuri, dar nimeni nu-și mai pune întrebări
    Bombardați cu înformații, ne pierdem printre cuvinte
    Toți vrem schimbare, dar nimeni nu vrea să se schimbe

     

    English Translation:

     

    Omu Gnom, Amid Words, 2016

     

    You are crazy, some say to me, yes, but I give words of wisdom
    Attention that someone, or your grandmother
    If you do not get involved, you do not understand what was said
    It’s like when you put grain, you know all at the BAC
    We were not born on this planet just to inhabit it
    We must find our way to see where we are heading
    What leaders we vote, what fools we follow
    What we actually do, and what top we climb up
    We wake up sometimes, but as if still asleep
    All at the same table, tired of eaters
    But each looks at a plate and it’s kind of sad,
    When you see a man confused as racist dog
    You see what you have in your house, before you look out the window
    Sometimes I think that we are all against ourselves

    When in fact, we are all the same
    And the whole trick, is that harmony saves Romania
    Diferite situații, aceleași stări
    Toți vrem răspunsuri, dar nimeni nu-și mai pune întrebări
    Bombardați cu înformații, ne pierdem printre cuvinte
    Toți vrem schimbare, dar nimeni nu vrea să se schimbe

    Different situations, same states
    We all want answers, but nobody are raising questions
    Bombarded with information, we get lost amid words
    Everyone wants change, but nobody wants to change
    I can talk to you more about this and that
    But you’re your own change, you are the master and tool
    Be patient with yourself, look for yourself, find yourself
    Discover yourself, enjoy yourself, relax
    These are empty words if you do not turn them into facts
    In theory it seems easy, while practically all seem hard
    All that till you start, then you find help at every new step
    You’re tired of spinning round and round like a compass,
    You must have faith in a better world, be spiritual,
    Does not matter you are atheist, Christian or Muslim
    We must do something, they taught us more badly than anything
    That we want it all at once and effortlessly
    Man is accustomed to believe that everything changes sheet
    Always restless, precipitates as rain
    And if you ask him, he says it wants to be
    But in vain he knows what he wants, if he does not want to know
    Different situations, same states We all want answers, but nobody asking questions Bombarded with information, we get lost amid words Everyone wants change, but nobody wants to change

  • My Take – Walking Down Bucharest Parallel Worlds

    My Take – Walking Down Bucharest Parallel Worlds

    20160711-dsc_0333
    Piata Revolutiei July 2016, Installation by Sever Petrovici-Popescu


    “Imi place foarte mult sa ma plimb prin Bucuresti, am avut o perioada in care am mers foarte mult pe jos si mi-am dat seama ca Bucurestiul are o arhitectura extraordinara ce trebuie pusa in evidenta. Sunt o gramada de zone faine, mai ales in zonele dintre cartiere si centru.”

    Omu Gnom

    If you believe in the power of serendipity Bucharest is the place to be: here the music of chance may easily lead you to discover something intriguing just round the corner. If you can afford to invest some of your time in random walks, then just go for it. At times you may even experience shy forms of travel in time.

    Adding up to your playlist

    When on a stroll down Bucharest streets, once you have skipped the challenging gaps and holes of most of its sidewalks, watch around for clues. Say, you walk along Boulevard Dacia, your eye catches the sign of a small museum which, like a Theatre in Magheru, is dedicated to a Nottara: no time to pop in? Just take a note to look it up later and you will have added a charming piece to your  Romanian music playlist: Siciliana, composed by Constantin C., actor Constantin I. Nottara’s son.  If you head centre you may then stop to observe the elegant peacefulness emanating from the historic villas surrounding park Ioanid – these days mostly turned into diplomatic residences; you muse on all the secrets those windows and gardens have been guarding since their first appearance on the city map.

    Contemplating new forms of barbarism

    You decide to turn into a smaller lateral street – it never really matters which – and walk past the remains of a rusted iron fence containing a garden grown wild around an old villa on the verge of vanishing. Most of these fading buildings belong to a sophisticated and – curiously enough, for quite many Romanians today – to a nostalgic past. With a good help of your imagination – here comes the travel in time – you catch a glance of what, several decades back, must have been an aristocratic residence with its framed windows, its richly decorated iron bars, its glass-paneled winter garden… At their latest, these villas date back to the so called interbelic period. Shortly after WWII the new communist lords methodically destroyed as much as possible of all the past elites’ symbols: from impalpable aspects such as their social status and lifestyle down to their homes and very material existence, in an attempt at wiping them out of the urban landscape. Yet history repeat itself. Not ideology, rather a  get-rich-quick mentality nowadays threatens to wipe out what survives of the architectural heritage. Critics say a significant number of these historic buildings could be strengthened, rejuvenated and saved – but that the owners prefer to leave them empty, waiting until it is necessary to tear them down for safety reasons and then, in their place, building a modern high-rise. Over the last decade the historic centre of Lipscani has undergone a massive renovation effort which not always has preserved all the charme of the original places.

    New tenants for old buildings

    As you walk down less central areas you are more likely to discover other interesting buildings. Hidden behind wooden boards and remains of deftly wrought iron fences, they seem almost claimed back by chaos. Yet, to a closer look, quite often these houses in complete shambles are not neglected at all and have rather ended up hosting  a whole new set of tenants. They often happen to be Roma families that, having no other place to go, have installed themselves there, until local authorities, on behalf of legitimate owners who have finally regained their property rights after decades of legal fights, kick them out. Paradoxically enough, such a phenomenon did not exist in Ceausescu’s days. Back then the Roma community was integrated – though forcibly – in the Romanian society, both by being assigned a regular job and housing in the very same blocs along with all other Romanian citizens. After the collapse of the regime, that fragile social balance broke down for good, with democratically elected governments regularly failing at envisaging any kind of social inclusion policy, triggering – instead – new waves of racial discrimination toward the Roma citizens. Now back to the street. You can tell the Romas’ presence from the colourful mess of clothes hanging out to dry in the sun along makeshift laundry wires, or from the vibrant frames perceived through the palisades: dirty toddlers watching older peers’ skilful ballgames, cute girls laughing on thresholds, older women in their chenille bathrobes sweeping dusty courtyards – a minor rite which assimilates them to gadji housewives, reminding us that true, whole world is country. Most times, should you pass by over weekends, the scene would be enriched with manele tunes magically rising up from nowhere, electricity being somehow provided for in a place where regular utility bills stopped being mailed ages ago.

    Bucharest live show

    Leaving behind this layer of urban life, you recover your adventurous walk along a typical street with clusters of wild car-parking: no sidewalks for you, the only option being to keep going along  the carriage way beside high-speed cars (the bigger, the speedier). Few more strides ahead and in front of an unexpected  art noveau building you run into a TV crew arranging its equipment for an interview to someone hot expected to emerge any minute from his/her lawyer, as the elegant brass plaque suggests. Citizens must be informed: be it a football player signing a new contract, a vedeta divorcing from his third husband, a politician just charged with plagiarism of his university degree or, more simply, for yet another bribe scandal. As you observe the calm professionalism of the young TV crew operating amid the traffic, the notion that the world is a stage here appears reinforced  with the idea of a dangerous stage.

    Eternity Street

    Surprises are in store even when walking along more peripheral quarters like Colentina or Pantelimon. There, on each side you are surmounted by gigantic ten-storey residential buildings Romanians call bloc. You stroll far away from picturesque neighbourhoods still you never give up and continue your quest for useful clues to understand more of this big city. They could be found in the icons worshipped in candle lit silence inside an orthodox church squeezed amid the blocs and the traffic, or amid the surreal silence circulating amid the tombstones of those resting in peace in cemeteries surrounded by beehive bloc. Take the almost abstract address of cimitir Progresul 2: Strada Eternitatii, Eternity Street. Definitely yet another layer of this big city.

    Me and the rapper

    I stop walking and head home. Serendipity does not stop operating its charms though. Checking out facts and information, I find out that Omu Gnom, a young underground rapper born and raised in the Drumul Taberei quarter – not suspected of indulging in the picturesque like a middle-aged Italian expat – also finds walking down Bucharest streets a unique experience. That is easily explained because all parallel worlds pass through Bucharest, somehow.

     

     

    • Bucharest, serendipity on sale in strada Academiei
    • Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta, pop art on the go
    • Bucharest is a mine of architectural styles, at times with an edge
    • A balcony for two
    • Bulevardul Protopopescu, how many stories buried inside there?
    • Chaos prevailing
    • Bucharest, corner of strada Academiei, Modernist building
    • Glass is a recurrent and often invasive element in new buildings
    • Architectural clashes reflected
    • Piata Iancului backyard, Typical ten-storey bloc
    • Colentina area, Cimiterul Reinvierea, the dead resting amid the blocs

     

     

     

     

  • Story – Despre Smerenie, About Humility. And Pride

    Story – Despre Smerenie, About Humility. And Pride

    Romania through the prism of a  video. On last April 7, Dan Teodorescu released online  his song Despre Smerenie (About Humility): the video soon went viral and triggered a national-scale debate, both online and offline, to the point that people’s responses provide clues as to the range of mentalities coexisting in today’s Romanian society.

    The Song, the Singer and the Friends

    “Azi-noapte am avut un vis (Last night I had a dream)/ Catedrala Mântuirii Neamului Românesc era gata (the cathedral had been finished)/ Iar eu… m-am dus la catedrală, de dimineaţă, să-l caut pe Dumnezeu“(And so I went to the cathedral in the morning, to seek God…).

    Singer, songwriter and Taxi band leader Teodorescu uses the pretext of a dream to suggest the idea that God is more likely to dwell in intimate spaces rather than in extra-large Cathedrals.  Reference is made to the construction of the People’s Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest. The former engineer and teacher is not new to this kind of controversial performances. Taxi band leader for more than sixteen years, Teodorescu is perceived as an engagé artist, active in raising social awareness in a range of issues permeating different aspects of contemporary Romania; he belongs to the civil society currently engaged in promoting critical thought in a country still in search of its post-communism identity. No doubt responses to his work have always been varied. Nuanced criticisms – dismissing him alternatively as naive, pretentious, over sophisticated, politically correct or simply boring, have always been coexisting with stern appreciation and enduring support. The general impression is that he is aware of playing a kind of Jiminy Cricket’s role in a society where mass consumerism models, corruption and nationalistic pride conjure up to keep the leverage of power.

    Dan Teodorescu, Taxi band leader. In 2014 they celebrated 15 years of activity
    Dan Teodorescu, Taxi band leader. In 2014 they celebrated 15 years of activity

    This time his song  Despre Smerenie touches a very delicate point in individual and collective consciences:  the impalpable sense of christian humility. Like he often does to better convey his messages, he has  invited some famous “friends” – 34 celebs – to repeat after him the refrain “Dumnezeu preferă lemnul si spaţiile mici” (God prefers wood and small places).

    This chorus of sort is composed by a gallery of Romanian opinion leaders such as writers, actors, cooks, singers, journalists, intellectuals, each belonging to different background and generations:

    Dan Bittman, Cornel Ilie, Monica Anghel, Virgil Ianțu, Andi Vasluianu, Dorina Chiriac, Ștefan Bănică, Robin Proca, Andi Moisescu, Dani Oțil, Paula Chirilă, Horia Moculescu, Toni Grecu, Irina-Margareta Nistor, Dan Byron, Teo Trandafir, Oreste Teodorescu, Pavel Bartoș, Ada Milea, Călin Goia, Mircea Cărtărescu, Horia Vîrlan, Guess Who, Laura Lavric, Andreea Esca, Răzvan Simion, Alexandru Andrieș, Emilia Popescu, Grigore Leșe, Mircea Baniciu, Alexandra Ungureanu, Oana Pellea, Victor Rebengiuc.

     

    Thirty-four  Friends … Minus One

    In fact, the reception of the video did prove controversial to a point that one among such “friends” decided to step back from the project. Soon after the video was released and the unexpected wave of harsh criticism broke through, folk singer and performer Grigore Leşe announced his retreating  claiming that he had been somewhat fooled into it, not having been clearly told that the song aimed at criticizing the construction of Catedrala Mântuirii Neamului Românes. On his side, Taxi band published a comment on their Facebook page affirming that Leşe had had the opportunity to watch the video and know the lyrics in advance.

    Folk singer Grigore Leşe
    Folk singer Grigore Leşe

    As a result, Teodorescu decided to withdraw the video in respect of Grigore Leşe’s choice to pull back from the project. Still the band informed on their Facebook page that they would continue to believe in the project Despre Smerenie and that they would return with the new version of the video soon after Easter, with a variant where Mr Leşe would not appear.

    Teodorescu also declared that he regretted that he was not able to properly convey such a simple message. He strongly believes in God and his text was meant to be a parable, the lyrics underlining his spiritual approach. For him  God is to be found in a wooden church because he thinks God prefers simplicity and modesty – which does not mean that God can only be found in wooden churches… Teodorescu clarified that he had never intended to promote any petition against the construction of the Cathedral, but just chose to quote from the holy scriptures, his final message  only being that opulence and haughtiness have no connection with faith; had he wanted to launch a manifesto against the Cathedral – he observed – he would have taken action much sooner than now, before the construction commenced at all, and in a totally different form.

    Pride (and Concrete) for a Cathedral

    The controversial reference goes to the Catedrala Mântuirii Neamului Românes (Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral). Currently under construction in Bucharest – 60% completed so far – it is located on the arsenal hill next to Palatul Poporului (Parliament’s Palace aka People’s Palace) and will be the patriarchal cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church, as well as the tallest orthodox christian church – about 125 meters high – in the world.

    The plan of the cathedral complex includes a cathedral building, a soup kitchen with capacity for 1,000, two hotels and parking for about 500 cars. Designed to seat approximately 6,000 worshipers, it is greater than tenfold the current patriarchal cathedral. To build the complex will be used 100,000 m³ of concrete, 45,000 tons of rigid armature and about 25,000 tons of flexible armature, ten times more than a ten-storey block. The complex is also designed to withstand earthquakes of 8.5 on the Richter scale.

    Bucharest, People's Salvation Cathedral rendering. It will be ten meters higher than People's Palace close by
    Bucharest, People’s Salvation Cathedral rendering. It will be ten meters higher than People’s Palace close by

    The Cathedral is built with money from donations and with financial support from the state budget. The total investment amounts to almost EUR 100 million, with EUR 45 million spent so far, which is more than half of the total costs. Official sources say that “an additional EUR 45 million would still be needed for the church. The project has been meeting a wide consensus among the Orthodox faithful who represent 86.45% of the Romanian population, according to the latest census (2011).

    While a real debate about pros and cons of such an impactful work has never gone public, over the last years many voices from the civil society – among them a number of NGOs –  have been heard criticizing  the project, claiming that public money should be invested in more strategic public sectors such as hospitals, schools and social housing.

    In fact, the idea to build a national cathedral dates back to more than a hundred twenty years ago, at the time of Carol I. A catholic himself, he  proposed it as a symbol of national unity and pride.  Yet the project had to be shelved due to lack of consensus on design, location and funding. Further attempts at implementing the idea followed in time but always ineffectually, due to historical events such as the 29′ crisis, WWII and – not least – the advent of the communist regime. It was finally, on 29 November 2007, that Patriarch Daniel of Romania could lay the foundation stone and give his blessing, consecrating the site at Arsenal Hill.

    Dragumiresti, Judetul Vaslui, Wooden Church
    Dragumiresti, Judetul Vaslui, Wooden Church

    Wave of Responses

    Father Vasile Bănescu, spokesman for the Romanian Patriarchy, expressed the official position of the Orthodox Church regarding the song and the video: even though not perceived as utterly anti-christian, they convey a message overtly against the Cathedral. Nor were more official words needed to comment on such a poor song with so little knowledge behind about the National Orthodox Cathedral project – expressing as it does only the artists’ preference for a certain kind of ecclesiastical architecture. Rather, the spokesman regretted that the National Cathedral project was still little known and a  lack of dialogue was part of the problem. The Patriarchy hopes that the personalities involved in this song and video are mature enough to accept a dialogue: while differences may arise,  the symbolic meaning of the edifice should be better understood. In fact, the suggestion is that the Cathedral is not meant to convey any message of humility – a virtue that is built over time inside each one’s heart – rather to bear witness to the dignity and identity of the Romanian Orthodox.

    Bucharest, October 2011, a Pilgrimage to the building site of Catedralei Mantuirii Neamului that will be dedicated to Sfântul Apostle Andrei (Saint Andrew), the apostle who first introduced Christianity in Romania
    Bucharest, October 2011, a Pilgrimage to the building site of Catedralei Mantuirii Neamului that will be dedicated to Sfântul Apostle Andrei (Saint Andrew), the apostle who first introduced Christianity in Romania

    Alongside the official position of the BOR (Biserica Ortodoxa Romana), an unexpected wave of different responses flooded the net: from harmless ironic parody of the song, like Despre sminţenie by comedian Valeriu Andriuţă, to more militant videos – one even showing a book by Mircea Cantarescu (a “friend” writer in the chorus) being burned.

    The unprecedented harsh reception of Teodorescu’s song made journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu – a usually lucid analyst of the contemporary Romanian society – express his opinion. Firstly, CTP found the song pathetic and not funny at all. He believes that the authors should have researched more on the subject before insisting so much on such a quite naive refrain. By expressing their preference for wooden churches as opposed to stone buildings, Teodorescu and his friends fail to consider a historical fact:  over the past centuries catholic Austro Hungarian rulers used to forbid  Romanian Orthodox to build stone churches, making them opt for smaller wooden ones. On the other hand, Popescu expresses his deep worry at the violent and disproportionate reactions of so many “faithful”, which reached alarming points of radicalization: “where are we heading to? Towards a Theocracy or a country led according to religious criteria?  Do we have some ayatollahs without turbans around here?” he cannot help wondering.

    Journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu
    Journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu

    Mircea Badea in his tv program on Antena3 In Gura Presei (In the Mouth of the Press) ends up criticizing Teodorescu posing as God’s spokesman communicating what God prefers, as well as the hypocrisy of many of the “friends” who while promote humility and modesty lead very opposite life styles. Another well known tv commentator Dragos Patraru on TVR1 Starea Natiei choses to dismiss video and song as a basically unnecessary exercise in pretentiousness and lack of commonsense.

    On the other side, supporters of Teodorescu’s song can be found also in somewhat alternative Orthodox environments. Father Savatie Bastovoi, a Moldovan Orthodox monk, poet and theologian did like the videoclip: “the fact that all these people, whom I knew were searching for God, finally found him in a small place, can only make me happy.” He also goes as far as suggesting that the great emphasis put on the importance of building a monumental Orthodox Cathedral paves the way to the actual realization of the Mosque project, following the first steps taken on last July with the Turkish government.

    In more general terms, Teodorescu’s supporters – mostly among NGOs activists and progressive environments – seem to appreciate his courage and claim that his is perhaps the most serious public debate about the Salvation Cathedral yet:  high time people expressed their views freely.

    Among the “friends” is folk singer Laura Lavric who declared to DC News: ” I answered Dan Teodorescu’s invitation with pleasure and I did not expect criticisms would reach such a controversial point. God can be found wherever you seek, both in a small church and in a large church. Those who comment and say that this song is an affront against the Church and against God, should think about the thefts of thousands euros that were made: that is the real sin before God. I do not think Dan Teodorescu brought any offense with his song. He did as he felt. I repeat, I would have never imagined that we could get this far! I do not think it is a mistake to express one’s deepest feelings. As a believer, I think God  can be found anywhere. But if it is a large church, I do not believe God wants opulence. It is not a manifesto against the People’s Salvation Cathedral. I repeat: I never imagined it could all  get this far. And know what, are we talking about churches? God can be found also in a corner of your very home.”

    Folk singer Laura Lavric
    Folk singer Laura Lavric

    “The message contained in this song is simple commonsense, I cannot believe that it triggered such harsh reactions”, declares Teo Trandafir, a well known show woman. Again, “commonsense” is the keyword everybody  use when commenting on this song but behind it a whole range of different attitudes and mentalities seem to coexist – at time, even conflict -, in today’s Romanian society.

    Welcome Side Effects

    Meantime, from the Patriarchy, a week ago Father Vasile Bănescu made a surprising announcement: “In the last few days, as a response to Despre Smerenie video, online donations to build the Cathedral have skyrocketed to 15 thousand Lei per day.”

    Bucharest, building site of the People's Salvation Cathedral, close to People's Palace, built by Ceausescu in the Eighties.
    Bucharest, building site of the People’s Salvation Cathedral, close to People’s Palace, built by Ceausescu in the Eighties.

     

     

     

  • Interview – Pavel Constantin

    Interview – Pavel Constantin

    Football was his first love, cartoons his foremost. He belongs to the generation of those who back in 1989, the year zero of contemporary Romania, were the age of today’s millennials.  Born in Bălușeni, historic Moldova, in 1951, after having been an animation film maker, Pavel Constantin has become an established freelance cartoonist and book illustrator. His cartoons have participated in a number of international exhibitions and published in newspapers and magazines in his country and abroad.

    From football player to cartoonist: which is the hidden thread in your story, above all where does your creativeness spring from?

    I believe that each of us have their great passion in life. For me it was football. It all started when I was eight and lasted until I was thirty-five. I used to play in Aripile Bacau, a B Division team.  From that passion I inherited something that has followed me in my drawing activity: a sense of fight strongly needed in any form of competition. Yet my biggest passion will ever be Maria Sa – Caricatura, His Majesty Cartoon.

    What kind of studies did you attend, what was your background?

    I did my studies in Supersonic Aviation. I also worked for seven years in an airport. Then I studied several years in Plastic Arts. I owe much to some great artists who taught me how to draw, while my family has always been providing me with strong support and motivations to pursue my artistic activity.

    In Ceausescu’s days were there “official” cartoons, was any form of state satire feasible if not openly admitted? Or, despite the harsh censorship, could cartoonist schools survive in any clandestine form?

    The spirit of satire and caricature could exist very well also during the Ceausescu’s era. It was not that difficult to defy censorship. As a matter of fact we did experience frustration for our lack of freedom of expression. Yet, paradoxically enough, that very fact did help us to figure out  ways to develop our projects even better: we needed to draw with more subtlety and cleverness so that the men of the Cenzura could not grasp our hidden meanings.

    When the regime collapsed you were already well in your thirties. How did this major political change affect you?

    It was good when Ceausescu’s regime collapsed because a great number of newspapers and magazines sprang up. Over many following years I have been collaborating with a number of them: Adevarul, Azi, Bursa, Cotidianul, Monitorul, or magazines like Plai cu Boi, PRO TV Magazin, etc. Nowadays I have no more collaborations of that kind because many publications have disappeared due to the rise of online press, instead I have been contributing more and more with the international press.

    Looking back at those days can you remember which were your expectations as a creative professional and how much of them have been really fulfilled?

    After the decline of many newspapers and magazines I did experience a strong sense of frustration and disappointment.

    Which were your motivations to be a cartoonist then and which now, if any different?

    I had motivations both then and now. Before 1989 I experienced a great sense of satisfaction when my cartoons appeared in the press, even though for very little money. After 1989 I have begun to be published in the international press. It is another kind of satisfaction, because before 1989 foreign publishers did not venture to publish cartoonists from the communist area. Another great source of satisfaction is that now we are unconditionally accepted, we can participate in any kind of international cartoon context. Even more than that, my works have been drawing the attention of some art galleries, interested in organizing solo exhibitions in their venues.

    Do you think your perception of  contemporary Romania differs from that of the younger generations of caricaturists, if so how?

    I like to believe that I am a good patriot and that I love my country very much. For that reason my cartoons never “hurt” the spiritul romanesc. In the national press I do critically approach topical issues like theft, corruption, lack of respect for forest heritage and environment protection in more general terms and so on.

    Your cartoons convey a subtle sense of criticism towards the country’s establishment. How do you place yourself in the contemporary political satire landscape?

    Unintentionally a cartoonist may even convey a favorable message for their country. Yet that kind of approach belongs to other genres of publishing skills while a cartoon in its very essence is meant to criticize and raise awareness rather than praise.

    What kind of followers do you have, in which proportion Romanian or foreigners?

    I have never been much involved in finding out nor has it ever proven a concern to me.

    What do you believe are the key elements which still need to be developed and communicated more effectively abroad in promoting your country?

    In order to be promoted both at home and abroad, I believe that the key elements are always hard work and aiming at perfection. In our specific field, it means contributing with our drawings and “graphic metaphors”. In fact, we need support to be successful in that. For instance, I am personally grateful to ICR (Istitutul Cultural Roman) for having supported all the expenses for me to participate to a cartoon exhibtion in Haifa, Israel, where I received a prize. I might have also gone on my own expenses but I appreciated their generosity and strong will to support a Romanian cultural activity. Now  may the ICR office in Rome ever support a similar project so to arrange a solo cartoon exhibition there?

    Do you believe in a suflet romanesc, if so, can you try to define it for us?

    I believe that Sufletul Romanesc exists and is unique. It must be looked for especially in traditions and folklore but not only.  We need to be very mindful so that we do not lose it for good.

    Do you consider yourself more of a Romanian citizen or a European one?

    I used to feel like being only a Romanian citizen, but through my collaboration in most recent years I believe I have become now a European citizen.

    You were already an adult when Ceausescu’s regime collapsed, how much do you believe has actually changed and if so, with what kind of effects?

    After Ceausescu’s regime collapsed I won my total freedom of expression. That was a major achievement. I also believe that for many Romanians quality of life got much better. In fact, democracy has been producing may positive things but unfortunately also bringing about a range of negative effects. I do not need to add more because that is clearly visible to everybody.

    Where – if anywhere – would you draw the line over the past 26 years which separates the old from the new Romania? Has new Romania already been born?

    A division line does exist between old and new in politics and even in the economic situations of each family, like it happens in so many different fields. Yet I refuse to believe that, as far has the sufletul romanesc is concerned, anyone may draw a line, an actual line between a before and after: can anyone draw a line on the surface of a river or on a flowing water source?

    What is in store for 2016, which will be the highlights, both at a personal and national level?

    I have great expectations for 2016 (local elections are due in Spring 2016, general elections Fall 2016, Ed.) but also for the years to come: the country should finally get rid of thieves and corrupt politicians who brought Romania back to the Middle Age. Essential to that process would be that all stolen property be duly reintegrated. Should that not happen, it would all have summed up to un teatru de doi lei,  a two pennies’ worth show.

     

     

     

  • Interview – Rechi Nashul

    Owner of Reky Travel, Rechi Nashul is a young entrepreneur from Sibiu quite active in promoting Romania and especially his native Transylvania.

    I first met Rechi in Rășinari, a Saxon village 13 km away from Sibiu. He was one of the organizers of an Electric Camping/ Full Moon Picnic event. Rechi and everybody at the party made me feel completely at home. Curiously enough, among the participants was also Tudor Giurgiu, the initiator and president of the Transilvanian Film Festival, who the previous night had presented in Piata Mare presiding the  Sibiu Festival. The food, the music and  the full moon completed the scene. Three years since then and I am glad to dedicate the first RWD interview to him, who has never stopped committing in a number of engaging projects.

    You belong to that young generation that has chosen to invest their energies in Romania instead of leaving the country  in search of different opportunities. What made you do that?

    I discovered very early that our region has a lot to offer. Transylvania and Sibiu are nicely located between the Carpathian Mountains. In the highlands surrounding us there is a unique cultural landscape with beautiful villages and rich natural and cultural heritage. If you have a passion in showing this to visitors the decision to stay here and live like anywhere else in Europe is not very hard. After 2000 the opportunities where everywhere so I just had to pick one up.

    Can you perceive this kind of choice as a growing trend?

    It is still a small trend but especially among the young couples and families I can see a lot who are chosing to stay or move here and enjoy a more quite livestyle but still be very active in developing their country. All you need is a good cause and you can easily find the means to achieve what you wish.

    Can you tell us something about your field of activity?

    We are living out of tourism, the so called Incoming Tourism. So we bring visitors from Austria, Germany and Switzerland on cultural and active trips in the region and show them what is worth seing, the small highlights of the less seen Romania.
    Since 2008 we started organizing gastronomical events where we cook with the local communities and show their traditions, old recipes, local products, music and promote everything that belongs to the local heritage. We reached now twenty events in the rural area, one festival in Sibiu and many events in the cities across Transylvania, all of them with a total of some 3.000 participants per year.

    Networking seems a key factor in your business model – if we may call it so – can you tell us about My Transylvania project, how it works and who it involves?

    We started to cook with the local communities and in the beginning we had as participants young people from everywhere in Romania interested in developing the rural areas. Everyone has a small project, works for a tiny initiative and has very creative ideas. So it became a kind of a platform where we exchange information, celebrate each others’ results and promote sustainable development. There are three NGOs which are directly involved and about ten new partners each year. Every events we organise is meant to promote some new small business or initiative in the region.

    What is actually meant by turism alternativ in Romania?

    We don’t want to show what is already well known, we hope for our visistors to look for forgotten villages or remote areas. We tell the beautiful stories of the people we meet, eat together, listen to local music and celebrate our diversity. There is also a fight for less bureaucracy, authentic experiences cannot always be payed via a bank transfer and get invoiced for. The majority of the local producers don’t have a registration but as a physical person you cannot just be illegal. So we want to show that a lot of unexpected resources are there to be used.

    Are your target clients only foreigners or also locals?

    Some 40% of the visitors are young families and coming from cities around Romania and about 50% are foreigners with their residence in Romania. Only 10% are what one would call typical tourist from abroad.

    What do you believe are the key elements which still need to be developed and communicated more effectively abroad in promoting your country? 

    There is a gap between the real Romania with its hidden beauties, most of them in the countryside, and the big highlights such as Dracula, Bucharest and cities in Transylvania. Beside the asphalted carways there is a different country, one full of rich culture and nice natural landscapes.
    The gastronomy, the traditional agriculture, the nice traditions and interesting stories of local personalities are not even mentioned in the promotion campaigns abroad.

    Do you believe in a suflet romanesc (romanian soul) or your Transylvanian roots are much deeper and stronger?

    I believe in being a European 😉 and enjoy having the history of three ethnic roots in my family. As a European I am happy that we can preserve a huge cultural diversity. For example, the local cuisine in our region has influences from a total of eleven European kitchens. Where can you find something similar?

    Do you consider yourself more of a European citizen or a Romanian one?

    I am a Romanian and a European citizen. Recognizing the value of the local culture instead of the global standardization is what I am fighting for. The nature and territory, the climate and people from the area give us a unique charactere in Europe, similarly to many other regions across the continent.

    You were just a kid when Ceausescu’s regime collapsed, now have your own kid. With what kind of memories do you look back at that era, in what way – if ever – do you think it has affected you personally and with what kind of results?

    I can now appreciate some of the good education and the tighter family connections we had in those times. Being a child then, I have only good memories. But I am very happy to live the present days with a lot of freedoms and personal liberty to pursue  own’s goals and ideas.

    Where – if anywhere – would you draw the line over the past 26 years which separates the old from the new Romania? Has new Romania already been born?

    I think that a new Romania is on the way to be born. We have now the most acceptable political power in the last 26 years and a lot of people of the second generation (35-40 years) are thinking on changing the way everything works. If not by politics than through their work in NGOs.

    What is in store for 2016, which the highlights?

    There are small highlights in our agenda:

    • We had in January for the first time a live cooking event outside Romania, in Vienna with Transylvanian Cuisine, to promote the Romanian gastronomy.
    • We have this year eleven new villages in our programm, which had never before any kind of event going on there 😉 It should be good.
    • There are also some new concepts in the gastronomy festival in Sibiu (Transilvania Gastronomica) for which we hope to be awarded a nice title for 2019, European Region of Gastronomy. In 2016 the award went to Catalunya in Spain and Minho in Portugal and for 2017 Lombardia and Arhus in Central Denmark where the winners.
    • We hope to open an old barn as a gastronomy school in October, serving the small producers in the Southern Transylvania.

  • Planner – Transylvanian Brunch!

    They search for old, forgotten recepies and cook them with the local communities, neighbourhoods or families in the villages. Therefore they use only local and seasonal products, making you experience the local culture during a hike and a tour of the village.

    The private events which they offer are organized on demand, in the Hartibaciu & Tarnava region, between May and the middle of October. The prices and the minimum of participants are in the table below.

    Transilvanian Brunch EUR 25,- / Pers., Min. 30 – Max. 200 Pers.
    Picnic in Cindrel EUR 25,- / Pers., Min. 40 – Max. 200 Pers.
    Flavours and sounds of Transylvania EUR 25,- / Pers., Min. 30 – Max. 80 Pers.
    Electric camping EUR 35,- / Pers., Min. 50 – Max. 100 Pers.
    Cina in natura EUR 50,- / Pers., Min. 40 – Max. 80 Pers.

    Check below the 2016 Agenda

    AgendaTG_2016

     

    Transilvanian Brunch

    Find out more about Transylvania

    Rechi Nashul

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