Dilema veche
Eurozine
Dilema veche
2009-09-04
Abstracts for Dilema veche no 280-286
Dilema veche 280, 28 June
Mircea Vasilescu
What "European issues" mean
Mircea Vasilescu debates the habit of the Romanian media to differentiate between issues considered to be "Romanian" and the ones thought of as "European". The conclusion is that EU affects so many areas that it reaches the local level, and it should therefore be dealt with in this light.
Sever Voinescu
Iran tomorrow
Sever Voinescu believes the recent public gatherings and political violence in Tehran will lead to change in the long term. The Islamic republic as a democratic experiment will fail and a divorce between state and society will become the new reality.
Andrei Pippidi
The story of two cities
Pippidi draws a parallel between Bucharest and Belgrade, two cities with similar histories as capitals of young national states caught between the Balkan past and an aggressive Westernization.
Cristian Ghinea
Barroso still waits. The parliament makes a point
Ghinea analyses the outcome of the 18-19 June European Council and the decision by European leaders to support Emanuel Barroso politically for a second term but not formally nominate him. This is considered a victory for the European Parliament and sets the precedent for participation in the nomination process.
Weekly dossier:
The Romanian conservative current today
This week's dossier deals with the situation of the conservative political current in Romania. Although a very conservative society, Romania lacks a coherent and representative party to promote these ideas. Our contributors propose several points that could constitute the intellectual background of a modern Romanian conservative movement.
Dilema veche 281, 2 July
Andrei Plesu
One and another
An essay on Romanian politics, which is said to not look for the greatest possible good, but for the less significant evil. We are used to acting on the level of minimum resistance, and always accept the better of two immediate solutions without looking for the third and best option. We have applied this principle when electing our presidents and in choosing the Romanian candidates for the European Parliament.
Mircea Vasilescu
The minister, the mayor and our patrimony
One of the great problems of Bucharest is the ease with which local authorities agree to the construction of new buildings in different areas of the city. No authority, or public opinion, has been consulted in connection with the frequent demolitions of old buildings, not only in Bucharest but also in other cities in Romania. Historian (and Dilema veche columnist) Andrei Pippidi, at the presentation of The Black Book of Patrimony, talked about "a cultural parricide" that takes place right in front of our eyes.
Gabriel Giurgiu
Their goat is also sick...
The author speaks about the Romanian "unicity complex", which can be either inferior or superior. His idea against the concept is that, if we are to refer to the political field, other countries have their own negative examples (among which he quotes Berlusconi and Schroder). The conclusion is that the problems our neighbours have should not discourage us from solving ours: witnessing their mistakes may help us prevent ours.
Reihan Salam
The male domination era comes to an end. For real
The actual crisis is also known as "a crisis of masculinity". Over 80 per cent of those losing their jobs in the US are men. The real-estate business is only one example of an economic area that is predominantly male, and their very high incomes were one of the reasons behind the depression. The new financial anti-depression solutions will be oriented towards fields in which mostly women work; education, health and social services.
Stefan Susai
The Chisinau-Moscow train
A story about the train from the capital of Moldavia to that of Russia. Many Moldavians work in Moscow, especially in construction, where the wages are higher. The trains, themselves 50 years old, are like hostels on wheels for unmarried people : people live entire lives there...
Alice Georgescu
Lena
An article written in memoriam of Lena Boiangiu, our assistant editor in chief and Foreign Policy columnist. She was an editor for Dilema veche from the beginning, and also a remarkable theatre critic. She died on 1 July 2009.
Weekly dossier:
The new Maecena: the sponsor
Matei Martin
Private financing for public interest projects
Matei Martin talks about why private companies still sponsor important cultural events in spite of the flaws of the Sponsorship Law. The prestige of the events still encourage private sponsorship. He deals mainly with two major Romanian cultural events: Transilvania Film Festival (TIFF) and the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu.
Tincuta Baltag
How to ask for money for cultural projects (the quick way)
The general manager of the Dinu Patriciu Foundation ( a foundation that mainly sponsors pupils) speaks about the twofold profit of sponsorship: she highlights the advantages to the sponsor too. In a short interview she describes the steps required to obtain a sponsorship.
Tudor Giurgiu
Guide for beginners
Tudor Giurgiu, a Romanian film director who is the manager and founder of the TIFF festival talks about how he obtained his first sponsorships for the festival. His point is that, even if there are no fixed rules for how to act when trying to get a sponsorship, absurd surprises are always possible, but, at the same time, there is also a chance to find someone interested in your project if you present it confidently.
Dilema veche 282, 15 July
Andrei Pippidi
His Highness, far from being ignorant
Based on an article published in Le Monde diplomatique, in which Charles, Prince of Wales, was strongly criticized for trying to stop a reconstruction project of an old British barrack, Andrei Pippidi approves for His Highness' initiative. In support of his view he explains that even famous architects can easily turn a place into chaos, giving the example of a downtown neighbourhood in Bucharest. In this case, says Pippidi, why should Prince Charles be regarded as ignorant and his opinions not taken into consideration?
Razvan Martin
Who is interested in public media reform?
The Lower Chamber of the Romanian Parliament has recently rejected a reform proposal of the law regarding the running of the Romanian broadcasting corporations. With this as his starting point, Razvan Martin shows what it takes to finally have a professional and independent public media -- stronger political will, a mutual consensus of the political parties and a higher awareness of the employees of these institutions, not so willing to make changes. Nevertheless, the law itself seems to throw obstacles in the way of a reform: it lacks both penalties for bad management and protection from the political interests.
Ana-Maria Onisei
"Each movie is like walking on a tight-rope" -- interview with Corneliu Porumboiu, film director
Young Corneliu Porumboiu, twice awarded at Cannes Film Festival, talks about some aspects of his life and carreer, beginning with his parents' reaction when they found out he wanted to direct movies. Porumboiu explains how he managed to make himself known as other than the son of his famous father, a well-known football trainer, and how the discipline of football, which he practiced intensely during childhood, helped him as a film director.
Weekly dossier:
The Romanian patient
Ruxandra Tudor
"Our living standards are not European, but Romanian" -- interview with Gabriela Cretu, former member of the European Parliament
Gabriela Cretu explains that when talking about a health system, the EU can neither set up, not define such a system; it can only define targets -- such as a high level of protection for the patients -- that should be reached. She also explains how this might be possible while taking into account the differences between the member states, emphasizing the fact that they should all respect the patient's rights to the same degree.
Oana Benescu
The doctor-patient relationship, from therapy to conflict
Starting with a short presentation of doctor-patient relations in the past, Oana Benescu describes how this relationship could deteriorate and turn into a conflict. She says that in a greedy society that covets power at any rate, therapy can easily be influenced by politics, power abuse and even by the differences between a doctor and his patient.
Dilema veche 283, 17 July
Mircea Vasilescu
What's the use of the Ministry of Youth?
Amidst the scandal involving Monica Iacob Ridzi, the Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sports, facing Parliamentary inquiry for alleged misuse of public money, Mircea Vasilescu asks what the specific domain such a ministry is called to govern. Judging from the website descriptions of the youth activities pursued by the Ministry it appears that most of them are already fulfilled by other state institutions or by the market. It should be sports then, the author muses, particularly because Romania faces a dangerous proportion of overweight children and crumbling sporting infrastructure. But again, the fact remains that this is not the Ministry's priority: lack of funds and the recent resignation of the state secretary, Octavian Bellu, a famous coach of gymnastics, speak volumes.
Mihai Radu Solcan
Slippery Metaphors
Mihai Radu Solcan questions the suitability of applying the term piracy when dealing with copyright issues. While the original pirates attacked the physical private property, today's so-called pirates attack copyrights. But, notes Solcan, while private property enables the private sphere and thus limits state's intrusion, the copyright introduces a temporary monopoly and enables state's intervention. There is, however, a deeply rooted dilemma, particularly in the context of the new media technology: while the authors do need the incomes for their work, the consumers have more possibilities than ever to short-circuit the market mechanism via piracy.
Andra Maztal & Miron Ghiu
The Dilemma of the Pirates within
Andra Maztal and Miron Ghiu suggest, through a short social history of Romanian piracy, that the contemporary global phenomenon had fertile soil here. During socialism, pirating various cultural products was a way of life for many. From the early records of the 1950s, to forbidden books and LPs of the 1980s and CDs and mp3s of the 1990s, people specialized in free downloads well enough for the new wave of technology not to pose any problems. But, the authors warn, it's not all about downloading but also personal contribution. To keep the system going, one has to upload too. But how does one accommodate the sharing system when the global pressure is for the banning of piracy? While many attempts have been made to crack down on free file sharing -- from state agencies to corporations -- to no avail, Maztal and Ghiu suggest that a more effective route out would be the introduction of a cultural flat fee that would enable unlimited, legal and affordable amounts of information download and would contribute to greater internet equality.
Slavenka Drakulic interviewed by Madalina Schiopu
In this interview Slavenka Drakulic depicts her own experience with information available on Wikipedia. After contrasting the Croatian, English and German versions of her bio-bibliography, she realized that neither were accurate. She went a step further and rewrote the English version completely but the Wikipedia staff failed to replace the old one. This personal narrative makes Drakulic rather sceptical about the future: while on the internet a plethora of information is available, it is produced more often than not by amateurs and not by professionals. Thus, extreme caution and selectivity is required to identify the correct information.
Gina Serbanescu
The Architectonic of the Gesture
When revisiting last year's performances staged at the National Centre for Contemporary Dance, Gina Serbanescu concluded that Mihaela Dancs's "Lulu's Room" represented not only the best show but a breakthrough in artistic expression. The show, based on reinterpreting famous movie lines, told a tale of personal formation and exploration in close connection with the audience. The complexities and expressivity of movements coupled with a particular feeling of interiority made this show truly innovative.
Cristian Ghinea
The Swedes that lead us
Cristian Ghinea's comment on the request that the Swedes take on the presidency of the European Union poses a particularly "envious" question: why are the Swedes so well organized and always a model for others? From designing plans for Moldova's numerous problems to more efficient education policies, the Swedes seem to always be a step ahead. The début of their presidency of the EU highlights the point: several ambitious but pragmatic plans have already been announced, tackling serious issues from ecologic and economic concerns to new policies for non-EU countries in Europe. Most commentators already expect this presidency to be a success. A reason for this Swedish efficiency, the author ponders, might not exactly be the most scientific of all though one that nonetheless holds: the Swedes are so used to high expectations that they now have to deliver.
Sanda Golopentia interviewed by Andra Rotaru
The consensus, harder to reach
Sand Golopentia is a Romanian-born American professor of semiotics and generative grammar. For her work she has been awarded the Academic Merit by the Romanian state. In the interview she describes her American experience and the way she had to get used to a new language and lifestyle. Her academic work written in English has always been supplemented by self-reflecting, autobiographical pieces written in Romanian. In this way she managed to balance the influence and longing for her Romanian roots with the stringencies of the new environment. Furthermore, she talks about her latest contribution to a photo book, The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta, by Peter Kayafas, an art photographer. Golopentia argues that the contemporary world has lost a proper relationship with death, preferring to obliterate it to the private sphere, both in the US and in Europe. The rediscovery of the Sapanta epigraph might be a good starting point for rethinking the relationship between the profoundness of everyday banal activities and a richer understanding of death.
Dilema veche 284, 23 July
Andrei Plesu
Melancholy
Andrei Plesu (who founded Dilema veche and is now it's honorary director) thinks some articles recently published in this magazine are too far from its traditional line. He reviews two articles. In the first one, he noted an overly strong reaction (which contains insulting words) against Traian Ungureanu and Mihail Neamtu (because both of them had criticized, in other publications, the lifestyle of Michael Jackson). The second article that troubled Plesu criticized a cultural TV programme made by philosopher Horia Roman Patapievici because of its low audience number. He made it clear that the big audiences and the general fervour are not his style.
Mircea Vasilescu
What use is the Ministry of Tourism?
Mircea Vasilescu notes that the ministry which was recently founded has nothing to do with the growth of tourism in Romania. He thinks all the achievements in this field are thanks to the landlords. The Ministry of Tourism is presently spending a lot of money on derisory promotions.
Gabriel Giurgiu
The men who regularly travel to Brussels
Gabriel Giurgiu describes those Romanians (still a few) who travel to Brussels in order to get European funds, to work for the European Parliament or attend official meetings.
Sever Voinescu
Kolakowski
The Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski died in July. His life is one of the most beautiful intellectual stories of the twentieth century, thinks Sever Voinescu, because he showed how thoughtfulness could keep one going through difficult times.
Victoria Stoiciu
Moldavia: re-run elections and postponed democracy
Victoria Stoiciu analysed the political status of the Republic of Moldavia before the re-run elections. She concludes that there is a very long way to democracy in this country (even in case of a victory for the opposition) and the process is not at all an irreversible one.
Adrian Cioroianu
The Bible, Verdi and geopolitics: the Nabucco pipeline project
The former foreign minister of Romania describes the political interests related to the Nabucco pipeline project. Many interests great and small accompany this European project competing with a major Russian pipeline project -- the South Stream.
Weekly dossier:
Lunar civilization, 40 years on the moon
Andrei Manolescu
The hidden links between Neil Armstrong and the werewolves
40 years after the first human set foot on the Moon, many people in Romania and around the world are still keeping their old beliefs and superstitions ("the moon is the sun's lover and the stars are their children", "the werewolves eat the moon" and so on). Some people believe in theories denying the reality of the Apollo missions. There are also those who believe that man did walk on the moon, but at the same time they don't want to give up the cultural symbolism related to the moon.
Mihai Zamfir
The moon and sixpence
Mihai Zamfir describes the political significance of the moment when the Americans succeeded in getting to the moon. Unlike the other communist counties, Romania broadcast the moment live in July 1969. At the same time the USSR launched a small spaceship, ostensibly to the moon, trying to create confusion and to dull the American glory. Mihai Zamfir thinks the Soviet officials understood that they were going to lose the technological competition with the US.
Adrian Stanica
It's hard to reach the moon
Adrian Stanica tries to explain how difficult it is to launch a spaceship to the moon. First of all, it is not easy to reach a moving target which is also rotating. And the Earth has its own movement and rotation too. But, Stanica states, all this effort and investment have had a lot of scientific and practical results.
Dilema veche 285, 30 July
Mircea Vasilescu
Carrying out university services
Starting from the poor quality of the private universities in Romania, Mircea Vasilescu affirms: "Many students go to universities now to get, as fast and easy as possible, a diploma. Their pragmatic-contemptible mentality prevails over that of their colleagues who go to colleges to learn and to develop as humans and professionals".
The trials are not like in the movies -- interview with judge Cristi Danilet
The Romanian justice system is often held up as a negative example of corruption and bureaucracy. The young judge Cristi Danilet offers in this interview an inside perspective of the courts, trials and judicial proceedings, and the possible hopes for a better legal system.
Elena Stancu
Ceamurlia de Sus: the last street with Aromanians
The Aromanian language and people are officially recognized as a minority in the Republic of Macedonia, but large Aromanian communities are also found in Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as in Romania where some of them migrated from the Balkans after the destruction of the Aromanian centres in the Northern Pindus Mountains. Elena Stancu tells the story of one of the last villages in Romania with a majority of Aromanians and how they have preserved their language and customs.
TIFF has become an institution -- interview with Tudor Giurgiu, the director of Transylvania International Film Festival
Tudor Giurgiu is an enthusiastic movie director who some years ago had the idea to establish an international film festival in the city of Cluj, Transylvania. Now, the festival is one of the most popular events of this kind in Eastern Europe.
Weekly Dossier:
The Socialist Republic of Romania today (if 1989 hadn't happened)
This issue of Dilema veche proposes a topic both frightening and humorous, an exercise of the imagination: what if the fall of the Iron Curtain hadn't occurred in 1989? What would our lives look like?
Adrian Cioroianu
Long live and flourish the Romanian uchronia!
The historian Adrian Cioroianu tries to imagine the destiny of different politicians, stars and celebrities of today if Communism hadn't fallen in 1989. A scary possibility, however treated with a vivid sense of humour.
A different destiny
In this investigation, various well-known Romanian writers and artists are asked to imagine what would have happened to them if we were still under Communist rule.
Iulian Comanescu
The news of today from the world of yesterday
The media analyst Iulian Comanescu imagines what today's news would be if we still lived under Communism.
Dilema veche 286, 7 August
Andrei Plesu
Inadequation
Andrei Plesu speaks about the excess, in scientific interpretation, of unnecessary, technical or historical details of the subject treated, that do not allow you to see its essence. For example, when talking about the Christian parable of the house built on a rock they start asking questions such as: is the house on rock next to the one on sand? How do you build a good foundation? Etc. His conclusion is that this sort of inadequation remains in a restricted perimeter: in real life, inadequation, even between us and ourselves, is more than present. The possible solution: short episodes of ordering adequation.
Mircea Vasilescu
Two cases that make you cry
Mircea Vasilescu starts with the recently introduced tax when crossing the Fetesti-Cernavoda bridge on the route to the Black Sea. Romanians have started to protest against this tax and also to invoke the EU, where things are apparently different... (even if there are similar taxes...). The EU is used as the supreme authority in cases similar to this. In other cases, international institutions are referred to differently: in the case of governmental agencies that were recently created, the IMF asked for a twenty per cent reduction of their personnel; the Romanian government pretends it is their own idea.
Andrei Manolescu
The Internetization of opinion
Andrei Manolescu deals with the new (not so new...) trend to broadcast your opinion on the internet, no matter what. There is a category of people that do this all the time, some of them are even journalists. Most of the comments do not obey any deontological rules, do not have specific ideas, are offensive and in a bad grammar. Manolescu cannot see the point of such "liberty of expression".
Victoria Stoiciu
Why are Texans afraid that their country is being stolen
An essay about immigration, especially from Mexico, to Texas. Thirty one per cent of the present population in Texas are non-English speakers. Surveys show that, in 2050, the Hispanic population will be in the majority. That is why the authorities have started a series of measures against the extension of immigration, some of them being the building of a wall and cameras on the border. This has provoked a number of tragic incidents which again have led to protests from different organizations defending the rights of immigrants.
Weekly dossier:
The Internet of the street-wise villagers
Iaromira Popovici
Villages, computers, specialists
Starting with a project by Romanian MCIS (Ministry of Communication and Information Society), which mainly consisted of bringing computer technology and specialists to 255 Romanian villages, we dealt with the importance of knowledge society in different fields of economical and social life. The issue concentrated mainly on its concrete applications and advantages in Romania, especially in villages and small towns.
Varujan Pambuccian
Nice words for simple things
Ex president of the Commission for Technology of Information and Communication in the Chamber of Deputies, IT specialist Varujan Pambuccian underlines the importance of general access to the internet for the Romanian citizens when dealing with public institutions. And also for companies.
Carmen Costea
On the knowledge society
A professor at the Romanian Economic Sciences Academy (ESA), Carmen Costea discusses the ethical precautions and implications of the knowledge economy: success in this new economy presupposes open, flexible, permanent, responsible and willing education, specialized entrepreneurial motivation, based on ethics, tolerance and hard work. Together with these we also have human values: respect, admiration, faith, again responsibility... In turn, these will generate new systems of values important to the next generations: tradition, culture, hope, peace, love...