February 2009

Romania takes a small step towards evolving into a modern society

by Craig Turp February 12, 2009 Romania

 Common sense prevails. Evenimentul Zilei splashes this morning with news that Romanian schools will once again be teaching kids about evolution. Three years ago the country’s education ministry took a giant leap back into the Middle Ages and removed all mention of Darwin from school books. Since then children have been taught (often by men [...]

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Pope in ‘Catholic’ Shock

by Craig Turp February 10, 2009 Media

 Just when we had begun to think Adevarul was living up to (its own) hype as the only decent newspaper in Romania (or at least trying to be), it publishes this news story: Cronica Carcotasilor is a rip-off of the Italian show Striscia la notizie. Like anybody who has seen both shows didn’t know that. [...]

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Video Installation Kills Two Million

by Craig Turp February 10, 2009 Bucharest

 Or something like that. According to this post on the blog of some Bucharest melons (who, as you will see if you follow the link, object to the Dambovita Centre and McDonalds but see no problem with vandalism in the form of graffitti…), today will see a ‘video installation’ (trans. ‘video in a room’) by [...]

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Train service from Gara de Nord to Otopeni Airport to start running in two weeks!

by Craig Turp February 9, 2009 Bucharest

 That headline got your attention, didn’t it? It certainly caught ours. So much so that we thought it had to be a joke. Then we read the actual article, and realised it was… For those who can’t make out the Romanian, here’s the ‘news’: An hourly train service will begin running in a week or [...]

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More Dambovita Centre

by Craig Turp February 9, 2009 Bucharest

 Dambovita Centre again, and let us make it clear from the outset: we are not in the pay of these people. Lord no, we’re the worst enemies of real estate developers. No, we are not in their pay, but we do like their plans. Very much. If – and it is a major if – [...]

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Whoever extracts the Black Sea gas, the benefit for the Romanian consumer is negligible

by Craig Turp February 7, 2009 Business

 Hardly had Romania begun celebrating its victory this week in the Battle of Snake of Island than the scandal broke: a concession to extract any gas found under the disputed part of the Black Sea had already been handed over to a Canadian company, Sterling. Cue the usual moral outrage from just about everybody, about [...]

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World’s neatest row of trees to be planted on banks of Dambovita

by Craig Turp February 6, 2009 Bucharest

 The Dambovita Center (above) will – if it ever gets built – be the most impressive real estate development ever to go up in Bucharest. The usual mix of hotel, shopping centre, offices, apartments and, ahem, big wheel, if the end product looks half as good as the artist’s impressions, then it will be a [...]

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