December 2008

Little Emil Boc

by Craig Turp December 16, 2008 Romania

 If there is one man in Romanian politics who you would never, ever nominate as prime ministerial material, it is little Emil Boc. Looking every inch (and there aren’t many of them) the insubstantial puppet of president Traian Basescu he is, Boc reminds me of another little fellow made big, Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Boc’s [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

We Told You So

by Craig Turp December 15, 2008 Bucharest

 Back in September we reported Blue Air’s launch of a Brussels-London route, and how instead of being a ‘complimentary’ flight it would in fact mean the London-Bucharest route becoming the London-Brussels-Bucharest route. Which is exactly what has happened. Flying back from London yesterday, our Blue Air plane made a 50 minute stop in Brussels. That, [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Stolojan, Spare Us

by Craig Turp December 10, 2008 Romania

 So it looks as though Theodor Stolojan will be the next Prime Minister of Romania, backed by the PD-L and the PSD. God help us. Stolojan is one of the most unimaginative people in Romanian politics, a career economist schooled in the 1960s and 1970s and despite any liberal protestations a man who – do [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

We Told You So

by Craig Turp December 3, 2008 Romania

 Surprise,surprise. Country-wide condemnation in every newspaper this morning for the voting system used in Romania’s general election, held on Sunday. As we said it would, some time ago, the so-called ‘uninominal’ has delivered more than a few surprises. A number of politicians have lost seats, even though they finished first in their constituency, while others [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

NetCamp… Live!

by Craig Turp December 3, 2008 Media

 What could be sadder than paying a shed load of money to go and listen to wafflers talking bollocks all day? We’ll tell you: following events at NetCamp via something called ‘LiveText’ (which basically means you sit in front of a computer pressing the ‘refresh’ button every few minutes). If you are that sad, then [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Fruity Soldiers

by Craig Turp December 2, 2008 Romania

 Romania celebrated its ‘National Day’ yesterday, commemorating the day in 1918 when the Romanians of Transylvania (not the Hungarians of Transylvania, note, who were not consulted) decided to join Wallachia and Moldavia. Anyway, the day was marked by the usual military parade, all very Cold War, brightened only by the presence of a couple of [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

The Futility of Blogging

by Craig Turp December 1, 2008 Media

 Oh wonderful. Last night, two major exit polls gave the PSD a clear lead over the PD-L in Romania’s election. Bloggers rushed to comment on events, Adrian Ursu on Cotidianul.ro going so far as to say how well the PSD’s machine had worked: ‘the only party to look like a professional political outfit,’ he said. [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Next Entries →