April 2009

‘TV screens desecrate the façades on every thoroughfare’

by Craig Turp April 16, 2009 Bucharest

 Roger Scruton may be a bit too fond of a time when people worked the land for 18 hours a day before dropping dead at the age of 30, but he’s right about the desecration of Bucharest’s facades. Roger Scruton on Romanian wine in the New Statesman

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Just Fancy That!

by Craig Turp April 16, 2009 Romania

 “Hungarians in Romania will never have autonomy. They should be proud to be Romanian citizens.” Traian Basescu, February 3rd, 2009 “The government should make it easier for Moldovan citizens to become Romanians.” Traian Basescu, April 15, 2009

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AC/DC: Going both wayswith the truth

by Craig Turp April 16, 2009 Bucharest

 If you’re going to pull a scam, make it a big one. A couple of weeks or so ago, posters advertising an AC/DC concert at something called the Bucharest Rock Arena began appearing all over Romania. Tickets for the gig went on sale, and, if reports are true, more than €300,000 worth of tickets were [...]

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You couldn’t make it up. Really: YOU COULD NOT MAKE THIS UP

by Craig Turp April 14, 2009 Romania

 In Your Pocket (IYP) has a number of outposts in wierd and wonderful places. Tirana, capital of Albania, is not the least of them. Now, as we do, this afternoon we received a package from the IYP office in Tirana, packed with the latest editions of Tirana and Pristina In Your Pocket.  As usual, the original [...]

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Bucharest then and now

by Craig Turp April 14, 2009 Bucharest

 Browsing through this fine collection of photos featuring Bucharest as it once was, it is striking how similar recently built (recently as in then – we are thinking early 1970s; before the metro was built at least)  apartment blocks look to those being built now, all over the capital. Given that the block above now looks like [...]

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Romanian rugby hits new heights

by Craig Turp April 13, 2009 Romania

 Romania’s national rugby team – once touted as the sixth nation long before Italy muscled in – may now be so bad it loses to Portugal and Georgia,  but at club level its players are up with the best of the best, as this evidence from Saturday’s league game between Dinamo Bucharest and Farul Constanta [...]

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Moldova’s revolting students

by Craig Turp April 10, 2009 Media

 As it appears to be the subject du jour, a few bullet points from us on the Moldovan riots/protests/Twitter revolution (LOL): 1. It all appears to have fizzled out. The revolting students did not – from what we saw – have much real support from the wider Chisinau/Moldovan public. This was probably because the OSCE [...]

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