Abstracts for Dilema veche no. 242

Andrei Plesu
Notes, moods, days
The author presents a few thoughts from his personal diary on willingness, crying, death, and creation, starting from The Short Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach.

Gabriel Giurgiu
Frustration, shyness, cliché
There are three reasons why European topics cannot be found in Romanian media.

Lucian Mîndruta
The Supreme Soviet at the White House
A parallel between George Bush's actions and the Soviet Union's ones starting from the American crisis.

Magdalena Boiangiu
The voters' anger
On why 29 percent of Austrian voters prefer leaders with an aggressive message.

Sever Voinescu
The one percent doctrine
About the uselessness of the one percent doctrine dealt with by Ron Suskind in his book The One Percent Doctrine.

Vintila Mihailescu
The guilty epistemology
The article debates if it is possible or not to remember the communist period from an epistemological position, starting from a congress in Bulgaria.

Ruxandra Tudor
Salted lakes, churches, and monasteries
The author describes some places in Romania that are worth a visit, although they are not seen as tourist destinations.

Weekly dossier: Why do we read literature?

Dan.C.Mihailescu
To feel comfortable with being yourself
A possible explanation for the need to read.

Sanda Cordos
A place where life is more profound
An essay defending the idea that from reading one learns to live.

Simona Sora
Three questions about reading
An enquiry into the reasons why people read, which books changed them, and which books bored them the most.

Abstracts for Dilema veche no. 243

Andrei Plesu
When the right wing is overwhelmed
Andrei Plesu was recently invited to a conference in Bulgaria, where prestigious intellectuals from Eastern Europe discussed the relevance of left and right in today's world. The author writes about how he felt facing a majority of left wing colleagues.

Sever Voinescu
How good is greed?
Voinescu analyzes the ideological implications of the current economic crisis. He considers the rumours about the death of capitalism to be highly exaggerated. Capitalism itself did not create this situation, believes Voinescu, but its separation from common sense and its lack of moral conscience under the motto "Greed is good" did. Reality teaches us a lesson: Greed is not good.

Gabriel Giugiu
The failure of the American financial system
Giurgiu emphasizes the role of the American Federal Reserve which several years ago decreased interest rates in order to boost economic growth. Cheap loans did indeed boost the economy, but over-estimated the value of property and shares. State intervention thus distorted the market, leading to the current crisis.

Dan Carp
The falling bubble
Carp analyzes the current crisis registered in the Romanian real estate industry, presenting several aspects of the situation and the way it affects ordinary people. The prices have savagely increased in recent years and have created an estate bubble which is now on the verge of exploding since few transactions still happen and many companies are bankrupt.

Rares Niculescu
Romania hunting non-existent illegal immigrants
Rares Niculescu, member of the European Parliament, discusses a recent proposal made by the European Commission about a common policy concerning illegal immigration. Among other measures, the draft asks member states to ensure that ten percent of registered firms are controlled. As Romania is not a destination country for migration, it would have to control ten percent of companies for non-existent illegal workers.

Cristian Ghinea
When journalists' principles lead to public lynches
Cristian Ghinea writes about the unfair treatment Sarah Palin has received from the American mainstream media. He compares this severe treatment of a young politician with the benevolent one received by another young politician, Barack Obama.

Weekly ossier: Ruxandra Tudor, Major emergency situations – nature and us
The main subject this week assesses the preparedness of the Romanian state to properly react to natural disasters. This cover story concludes that despite the recurrent floods registered in the past years, many of the projects remain only on paper and the system is under funded.

Abstracts for Dilema veche no. 244

Andrei Plesu
Culture on the Internet
Far from considering himself a computer addict, Andrei Plesu admits that the computer is a fantastic machine he would not like to live without. When it comes to writing, he prefers the keyboard to paper and pencil; when it comes to finding information Plesu will never hesitate to Google – the Internet is fast, fun, and user friendly. However, when it comes to its "cultural performance", the author declares his scepticism.

Gabriel Giurgiu
The useful Albania
The competition between Romania and Bulgaria in their attempt to become EU members has been, as the author states, quite interesting, lots of fun, and full of things to remember. Each time the Bulgarians seem to win over the Romanians or, in turn, every time Romania is one step ahead compared with Bulgaria, the attitude the "loser" embraces is "last but not least". The "least" in this case being Albania, a country that can be compared with neither Romania nor Bulgaria as it is poorer, more corrupt and more "embittered".

Sever Voinescu
The Afghan obsession
Lately, all western public debates focus on just a few subjects like the American elections, the stock market, and the economic crisis affecting the great financial centres, and Russia which somehow has managed to shake up its foreign affairs. There seems to be no interest in the most catastrophic disaster the western democratic countries are about to experience – the violent confrontation with the Talibans and the demented Jihad, which claims to be about to strike "once and for all".

Andrei Botez
Estonia, no bigger than the blink of an eye
Botez travelled to the country of "the most beautiful clouds" and writes about some of the things that impressed him most. This country, for example, struck him as one of the smallest places he'd visited – walking through a forest, he could smell the Baltic Sea; when taking a photo of a place he got the feeling that the whole country could fit inside the frame; travelling by train, every station seemed to be a check point on the border.

Alexandru Calinescu
Nobel Prize, the never ending story
Conflicting debates regarding the winners of the Nobel Prize seem to have become a rule. Although there is no doubt that the reasons why the Swedish Academy awarded Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio the Nobel Prize for Literature are well-grounded, the voices asking "did he really deserve it?" are many. Some say he did not, because he is not a great writer – and as long as France still has Michel Tournier, the claim is that Le Clézio should not have been awarded the prize.

Adela Greceanu
Different dimensions of poetry
A group of Romanian poets went to Sweden in an attempt to promote Romanian poetry, to meet Swedish writers, to exchange opinions, and to talk to their audience. Some of the places they visited were The Book Fair in Gothenburg, The Poetry Workshop at The Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, The Creative Writing College in Biskops Arno, and The Poetry Festival in Uppsala.

Madalina Schiopu
Ethics on the Internet – freedom as a burden
Lately, the virtual space has been infested with all kinds of bawdy video clips either by famous or ordinary people. Obscene material is available all over the Internet. On the radio and in some newspapers people are invited to make bets on who the "actor" in the next porn clip will be. Nobody seems to know why or how these videos and personal conversations end up in the public domain and in the hands of newspapers and radio stations.

Dan Shafran – interview
"Romanian Culture is considered a phenomenon in Sweden"
In a conversation with Marius Chivu, Dan Shafran, the president of The Romanian Cultural Institute in Sweden, talks about some of the most important moments of his career starting with 1982, the year when he left Romania and went to Sweden. Some of the questions he agreed to answer focus on the Swedish interest in Romanian literature, the Romanian cultural prizes awarded to foreign artist, and some of the literary works he has translated.

Stela Giurgeanu
"Life behind bars – Jilava State Penitentiary"
Romanian Harm Education Networks launched a programme called "Initiative 38" in an attempt to prevent HIV infection among prisoners. On this occasion, a group of journalists were invited to join the programme and talk to the inmates about their life behind bars, the conditions in prison, and survival.

Abstracts for Dilema veche no. 245

Andrei Plesu
The pathology of transparency
Plesu wonders how it is possible for the members of government and parliament to do their jobs if they spend a lot of time on television shows trying to explain what they are doing for the people. Plesu wrote this article 11 years ago, but the problem seems a persistent one.

Mircea Vasilescu
On our own in the EU
Romania engaged an international company specialized in public communication in order to improve the Romanian public image in Italy. Last year, a Romanian citizen was arrested in Rome for murdering a woman. The incident, widely reported in the press during the electoral campaign, damaged the relationship between Romanian immigrants and Italians. The author analyzes the possibilities of improving the Romanian image by a government action.

Luca Niculescu
Who is absent cannot state his point of view
Niculescu notes the absence of some Romanian leaders at important international meetings. He writes that problems of great concern for Romania were discussed at those meetings, among them the summit of French speaking states in Quebec, where Romania had to hand over to Canada the temporary presidency of the organization. The author thinks Romania is wasting the opportunity to state her point of view.

Magdalena Boiangiu
The class and the race
Boiangiu analyzes the run for presidency in the US and the role of social structures in this election. She thinks two important issues will decide the result: class and race.

Sever Voinescu
About leaps
Voinescu reviews some big leaps in Romanian history. The last one: Romania took only seventeen years from 1990 to gain admission into NATO and the EU. He concludes that this fast development is to blame for many gaps appearing in Romanian society.

Andrei Manolescu
A little Romanian guide to Madrid
The author observed how Romanian immigrants behave in Spain. He saw how many workers and other Romanians seemed to be dishonest.

Anca Mizumschi
Why is it necessary to be concerned with traffic before inventing the car?
Mizumschi compares Hamburg and Bucharest traffic. She is impressed by the behaviour of drivers in Hamburg and concludes that centuries of civilized behaviour is required to achieve such a result.

Interview with Frank Melloul (manager of Societe de l'Audiovisuel Exterieur de la France)
Bringing different cultures into accord
Frank Melloul explains the French government decision to mix all French media institutions aimed at other countries (RFI, France 24, TV5 Monde). He speaks about the special relationship between France and Romania, a reason for maintaining RFI transmission in Romania.

Iaromira Popovici and Stela Giurgeanu
Romanian villages, European villages
The two journalists visited two villages (in Gorj county) that were declared European villages by the European Commission in 2005. They found that one of them, Topesti, benefits well from this status while in the other one, Musetesti, nobody seems to be utilizing this opportunity.

Weekly Dossier: Is capitalism going to hell? (About the financial crisis)

Emil Stoica
The Recession
Toica, who lives in London, explains the causes for the financial crisis, the reasons for government intervention, and tries to estimate the future effects of the recession on the Romanian banks and economy.

Doru Cojoc
The beginning of a short socialist period for America
Cojoc analyzes the possible effects of the recession in the US. He thinks the present state interventions will last only a short period and concludes that the Americans will reject any government rule which is likely to interfere with their personal financial freedoms.

Mihai Panaite
What EU can do in times of depression
Panaite thinks it is not possible for the EU to act decisively to curb the financial crisis because it doesn't have enough power and mechanisms to do that. He also writes that under the present conditions it would be better for Romania to immediately adopt the euro.

Dan Popa
The crisis always rings thrice
Popa describes the atmosphere and the rumors spreading in Romanian banks in the last months. He relates the story of a manager who asked a priest to bless the bad debts bank files.

Abstracts for Dilema veche no. 246

Mircea Vasilescu
The price of parsley in the EU
Recently, the president of Romania Traian Basescu, as well as the leader of the Social-Democratic opposition, Mircea Geoana, invited the Romanians who work abroad, especially in the EU states, to come back to their native country. Vasilescu exposes the populism of such statements coming from politicians who have not thought about the consequences of such an approach.

Magdalena Boiangiu
An arrogant woman
Boiangiu analyzes the personality and the political actions of Tzipi Livni, the Israeli minister of foreign affairs and leader of the Kadima Party: "Sometimes a politician wins when he or she will not exercise the art of compromise, until the point where it becomes opportunism or betrayal".

Lucian Mindruta
Why I like other people's holidays more
Many discussions have taken place regarding the import of American/Anglo-Saxon holidays such as Halloween or Valentine's Day. With a sense of humour, Mindruta admits he prefers such holidays to the traditional ones, and explains why.

Cristian Ghinea
About how a black man can be president
Has the race factor played a role in the electoral campaign in the US? Have blacks and whites alike chosen their favourite candidate based on this? Ghinea tries in all honesty to find some answers.

Daniel Daianu
Keynes is back, not Marx
The economical crisis opened up for the discussion about the necessity of some economic policies characterized by some as Marxist-inspired. The economist Daniel Daianu considers that, rather than Marxism, it's the Keynesian idea of governmental intervention which is back.

Weekly Dossier: A second Cold War?
The war in Georgia and the new political developments in Ukraine – among others – raised the question of the possibility of a new Cold War. The lack of an ideological conflict make the observers deny, optimistically, that history can repeat itself in such a way. But let's not forget that history is unpredictable.

Adrian Cioroianu
Russia: a new pragmatism or an old Cold War?
In the relations between Russia and the West, Russia of today builds a genuine ideology of revenge which might deepen in the future. Maybe the West does not see itself in a new Cold War with Russia, but Russia acts as if it does.

Vladimir Tismaneanu
A new Cold War? Russia and the democratic world
The West – NATO and the EU – cannot accept the Russian dictate, but it would be an error for the West to view contemporary Russia as the old USSR, is the opinion of the political scientist Vladimir Tismaneanu. Besides, both parties have to take into account the shared interests in facing the dangers of Islamic terrorism.

Zoe Petre
Is the Trojan War over at all?
The West's attitude towards Russia in the last two decades has been a mixture of wishful thinking, optimism, and blind deference. The question is not if we will witness a new Cold War, but if the Cold War ever stopped.

Published 2008-11-07

Original in Romanian
Contributed by Dilema veche
© Dilema veche
© Eurozine