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Entries Tagged as 'OPINION'

Domnikios et Tovaras

January 15th, 2012 · No Comments · OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Translations

Mais il y a une chose bien plus profonde qui distingue les Domnikios des Tovaras : c’est le sens même de parvenu du nom « Tovaras », le fait que celui-ci ne puisse être rattaché à aucune tradition. Car l’étymologie de « Tovaras » n’est nullement latine, mais slave, et les Slaves sont arrivés tard dans ces lointaines contrées, très tard dans l’histoire de Domnikia. Ce sont les Slaves qui ont donné le nom « Tovaras » aux serfs sans nom, car ils semblaient peu engageants et ainsi ils les ont appelé « Tovaritch ». En fait, avant que les Slaves n’envahissent Domnikia, on appelait toujours les fils sans nom des traînées avec un court et tranchant : « Hé, toi ! », et les serfs rampaient avec empressement vers leurs maîtres. Mais, maintenant, que leurs terres avaient été piétinées et leurs attributs diminués, les Domnikios, qui ont toujours et de manière congénitale zézayé, ont édicté que les serfs devaient recevoir le nom de « Tovaras », comme une sorte d’acceptation de mauvaise grâce de l’intrusion slave dans les affaires féodales de la principauté domnikienne.

Et c’est ainsi que les malheurs ont commencé, et que les digues de l’Enfer se sont rompues, et nous allions assister à des siècles de guerres civiles entre les Domnikios et les Tovaras, que, de temps à autre, entrecoupaient de brèves périodes de coexistence durant lesquelles tous retenaient leur souffle.

En Français par Radu PORTOCALA
© Romanian Studies Centre, London 2003 &
© Constantin ROMAN

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HM King Mihai I de Romania 2011 Christmas Message to the Romanian People

December 25th, 2011 · No Comments · Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Uncategorized

HM King Mihai I de Romania 2011 Christmas Message to the Romanian People

In 1940, after the departure of my father, I addressed you for the first time, on New Year’s Eve. I was, then, nineteen-years old, and our Country and, indeed, the whole Continent, were at war.

Today, from la Săvârşin, I am sending you my message, after seventy years of a nearly unbroken tradition. From Bucharest, Sinaia, Versoix, or from Săvârşin my message is addressed to you with the same love, care, respect and hope. In this year of 2011, the same as it happened during my childhood years, or during the trying years of the War, grandparents, parents and children gather, around the Christmas tree, offering gifts, sharing the Christmas repast and being close to the dear ones.
During 2011, I met Romanians from all corners of our country and indeed from Europe. The festivities during the 90th year jubilee gave me the opportunity of meeting thousands of Romanians, who came to Săvârşin or Elisabeta Palace for a celebration which inspired the whole country. This proof of affection and love, crowned by the address given from Parliament to the Romanian Nation had the effect of soothing
the sufferings and shortcomings which we confronted during past decades.
The Queen and I are happy to gather our family around us and acknowledge all that our children and grandchildren endeavored so that the role of the Royal House may continue, for the good of Romania. The nativity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is indeed a family history, a family tried by difficult times, a beautiful lesson about the care given to ordinary people, just as ourselves are part of a greater family. This is a lesson not only of humility, but of pride, of pain as it is of an uplifting sentiment of humanity. In today’s world, this is a much-needed example, when so many people feel forgotten, humiliated or misunderstood.
As the New Year approaches, we wish it to be better than the year past. I have no doubt that we shall experience times of uncertainty and much left to be desired. Yet, we shall never have a chance to secure a safe path for the new generations if we always leave it to others to take care of our responsibilities.

This time of the year, my thoughts go to the Romanian soldiers, who risk their lives and their families’ happiness for the good of the Country. All my thoughts are extended to those who feel abandoned, unloved, or who are unwell. I address my good wishes to those Romanians who know that they contributed something worthwhile for the progress of their country. For the year 2012, I wish the Romanian people and those dearest to them, young and old, living within or without the boundaries of our country, a Happy Christmas, a peaceable spirit and many happy wishes to be shared by those dearest to them.
So help me God!
Mihai R.

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Why I love Shoreditch

October 17th, 2011 · No Comments · Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE

There are so many reasons why I love Shoreditch: the braggards, the hipsters, the charity mums, the Sunday flower market jaunters. Shoreditch is not just a pastiche; it is a living organism that with every day awakes, kicking and screaming to life, reminding the world of what a unique, if somewhat troublesome child it is.

But for all the reasons I love Shoreditch, there is truly only one that pins my heart to a hoarding on Great Eastern Street, announcing to the passing crowds of out-of-town commuters and lorry drivers alike that this is the place of my soul; and that is the sprayed up, pasted-over and fucked-up walls of the hallowed triangle and its periphery.
For as many years as I have worked in the area, and eventually come to live in, I have been inspired to document the activities of each and every ne’er do well that sees fit to climb out of bed at a god-forsaken hour and crawl through the darkened back streets and passages for the sake of their art, for ‘as the city sleeps, the walls they weep’.

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Poetry in English (XCIV): Constantin ROMAN – “Ode to a British Chicken”

October 13th, 2011 · No Comments · Diaspora, OPINION, Poetry

Poetry in English (XCIV): Constantin ROMAN – “Ode to a British Chicken”

Ode to a British Chicken

My British Chicken,
I’m truly smitten
‘cause, if you vanished
I ‘d be really lost.

I‘d rather have you roasted,
As without you
My Menu, on the spot,
Will soon be tossed.

My ever-present chick,
You’re inexpendable
My gas ring will be pining
Without you

And British Gas,
For sure, will be insolvent,
As its best client,
Now will go to pass.

My dearest fowl
You got a life in prison
With all your sisters, without rhyme or reason,
All jam packed cheek by jowl.

In batteries you are now a statistic,
Industrial gulag, which puts to shame
A number rather more characteristic
Of Soviet era, at its grimmest game.

My dearest Supermarket, I’m addicted
To buy for ever all your tasteless junk,
As my dependency is now to be predicted
A boring number of a faceless skunk.

Your sheer manipulation, so disgusting,
Is flying in the face of common sense.
Blindfolded crowds are being hold to ransom,
Automatons with limbs, but without brains..

In my despair I’ll try to be more vocal
But am afraid, as being middle-class,
I will be deemed to fart above my station
And turn my reputation to an ass.

Copyright © Constantin ROMAN
London, October 2011

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Romanian Musings on Bela Bartok’s Memorial in London SW7

October 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Art Exhibitions, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews, Uncategorized

Bela Bartok was born in the Romanian Banat region, at Sannicolau Mare, the son of a Hungarian father and a Serbian Mother. As one would expect of a sensitive child born in this ethnic mosaic of the Habsburg Empire, young Bartok like his central European contemporary composers, drew his inspiration from the rich ethnic music of Central Europe: the composer’s “Romanian Dances” have long been included in the International musical repertoire and in the memory of the cognoscenti, compositions which reflect indirectly the international currency of Romanian compositions, the same pool from which Georges Enesco or Valentin Lipatti have drawn their inspiration.
The life of Hungarian sculptor Imre Varga (b. 1923) reflects, as one would expect, the historical and political meanders of his country, during the 20th century. By comparison, this presents many commonalities with his Romanian counterparts, who showed an equal enthusiasm at adapting to changing political circumstances, first during the right-wing nationalist dictatorship, followed by an anti-Stalinist war in the East, on the side of Germany, only to heap praise on a “liberating” Soviet Army and finally to end up as a member of the European Union: not exactly an easy sailing, during stormy times, when many contemporary artists either wrecked their careers, or chose instead to take the heavy road of exile, as was the case of our subject, whose memorial has just been erected in South Kensington.

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Ganduri Romanesti despre Bella Bartok la Londra

October 9th, 2011 · No Comments · Art Exhibitions, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, Uncategorized

Dezvelirea statuii compozitorului Maghiar Bella Bartok in cartierul South Kensigton din Sudvestul Londrei reprezinta o recunoastere in plus, nu numai a celebrului compozitor de talie universala, dar si un exemplu de promovare inteligenta a valorilor nationale in lume. Acest act ofera un moment de reflectie si poate comparativ cu modul Romanesc de promovare a valorilor nationale, pe plan international, de cumetriile Institutului Cultural Roman, Bucuresti.

Ei, o sa ma intrebati, poate, “ce are sula cu prefectura”? ce legatura aleatorica ar exista intre aceste idei, intre astfel de paralele si implicit de indemnuri?

Bella Bartok si George Enescu
Fara a ma pierde in explicatii alambicate, doar in cateva randuri, ar trebui sa amintim ca Bella Bartok s-a nascut in Banatul Romanesc, la Sannicolau Mare, ditr-un tata maghiar si o mama de etnie Sarba. Cum este si firesc, pentru un tanar cu evidente sensibilitati fata de mediul in care s-a nascut, Bartok s-a inspirat, asa cum au facut-o contemporanii si predecesorii sai din sec XIX, din fondul muzicii etnice din Sudestul Europei: “Dansurile Romanesti” ale compozitorului au intrat de mult in repertoriul mondial si implicit in memoria si sensibilitatea publicului civilizat si avizat, sensibilitate care reflecta indirect valorile muzicii Romanesti – aceeasi sursa din care s-au inspirat si contemporanii sai, George Enescu sau Dinu Lipatti.

Este poate semnificativ ca atat Bartok cat si Enescu s-au exilat din cauza schimbarilor politice survenite ca urmare al celui de al doilea razboi mondial: Bartok s-a destzarat datorita fascizarii Ungariei lui Horthy, ca sa se stabileasca in Statele Unite, unde, in ciuda asistentei financiare si artistice primite, si-a trait cu dificultate exilul, unde a murit dupa cinci ani. In aceasta perioada de destzarare a compus doar doua lucrari: Concertul pentru Orchestra si o sonata de vioara pentru Yehudi Menuhin – violonistul care a fost scolit de Enescu…
George Enescu, impreuna cu sotia lui si-au parasit tara dupa razboi, ca sa-si traiasca ultimii ani de viata la Paris, intr-o perioada intunecata a diasporei romanesti. Aceasta din urma a fost bantuita de recriminari, suspiciuni, lovituri sub centura si contraziceri – cu efecte inevitabile negative. Aici, in Parisul postbelic, bratul omniprezent al simpatizantilor francezi ai Stalinismului, cat si coada sobolanului securist au fost proactive, asa cum au suferit, din experienta proprie, Monica Lovinescu, Eugene Ionesco, Virgil Gheorghiu, Horia Vintila, s.a., indurand persecutia impinsa pana chiar la procesul vrajitaorelor.
Poate ar fi interesant de a reflecta mai adanc asupra efectului exilului asupra acestor compozitori contemporani, Bartok si Enescu.

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Churchill College, Cambridge, Romanian Poetry with George Steiner

April 14th, 2011 · No Comments · Diary, Diaspora, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

NOTE: for those readers who either do not know or do not want to know and especially for those who escaped Romania, this is to say how nearly impossible it was to cross the Iron Curtain during Ceausescu’s hellish dictatorship: many people risked their lives and paid the heavy price of exile – others who had no faith in any change for the better after Ceausescu’s fall, have joined the exodus and millions of uprooted who seek work and settled in other countries – Millions of them!! Romania’s 23 million-population would decrease even faster should it not be for the influx of Chinese workers and the high birthrate of the Roma ethnic minority. Such is the inheritance of five decades of Communism!

extract from:
www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift
(there is a free Romanian translation downloadable in pdf (ask for link – large memory needed ) , because even 17 years after the fall of communism, in 1989, although these memoirs were published in England and in the USA, its translation cannot be published in Bucharest: it was turned down by Liicianu of “Humanitas”, by Patapievici’s “Romanian Institute” (Formerly the Fundatia Culturala Romana) and by Romanian editors with claims of being “aristocrats of the intellect” (boierii mintii) – read “leaders of opinion”.
“

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Petitie a asociaţiilor de proprietari deposedaţi abuziv în perioada 1945-1989

April 13th, 2011 · No Comments · Diaspora, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE

Petitie a asociaţiilor de proprietari deposedaţi abuziv în perioada 1945-1989
Prin decizia pilot Maria Atanasiu c. Romaniei, CEDO a solicitat statului roman să modifice legislaţia de restituire şi procedurile de lucru, în aşa fel încât proprietarii deposedaţi sa-şi reprimească bunurile confiscate sau despăgubirile cuvenite, într-un interval de timp „rezonabil“.

Asociaţiilorde proprietari deposedaţi, solicită ca, la elaborarea legii de restituire şi a procedurilor de lucru, să se respecte următoarele principii:
Respectarea articolelor 16 alin. 1,2; 20 şi 44 din Constituţia Românei., precum şi a articolelor 6 şi 1 din Protocolul 1 al Convenţiei pentru apărarea Drepturilor Omului şi a Libertăţilor fundamentale
Respingem orice formă de discriminare a persoanelor îndreptăţite, precum:

o plafonarea valorii despăgubirilor sau diminuarea acestora faţă de valoarea de piaţă.
respingerea cererilor fostilor cetăţeni români, cetăţeni ai UE şi moştenitori ai unor cetăţeni români, sub pretextul ca nu mai sunt actualmente cetăţeni români.
.Intocmirea unui plan de măsuri clare si univoce, cu rezultate controlabile, cu activităţi, termene şi responsabilităţi bine definite, care să fie raportate periodic autorităţilor europene.
Admiterea rezolvarii revendicarilor în baza Codului Civil Roman, prin complete de judecata specializate.

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20th c Romanian History (I) – Ceausescu & Bokassa

April 4th, 2011 · No Comments · OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations

There was a glaring complicity between the two dictators, Bokassa and Ceuasescu, who, although were worlds apart, they had a lot in common, in particular the cunning of the small-time village satrap, overblown to parody level. They also shared the same tribal feeling about being surrounded by family in key positions, the same attraction for all that glittered, the delusions of grandeur.

Bokassa Coronation sceptre inspired Nicolae Ceausescu

In retrospect Bokassa outwitted all his contemporaries, including his French masters and returned from his exile (where he was kept prisoner in a gilded cage by his French masters), to be allowed to die a revered village elder in his native country. By contrast Ceausescu was less astute than his African pal: Nick and Elena were outfoxed by their trusted lieutenants, who had them summarily ‘judged’ by a parody Court and hastily dispatched in a carnage redolent of the parodic shoots of Carpathian bear in Romania’s mountains.
Both Nicolae and Elena claimed their innocence during their farcical kangaroo court trial of 1989, but nobody came to the rescue of the once feted Hero hailed in dithyrambic verse by his Court Poet, Adrian Paunescu:

“We love Him because this Country is free under the sun
The People of this country are free and the real leader
We love him because He embodies the conscience of the Working people
And that he makes us proud that as a man He is Romanian”

Reallly, incredible as it is in retrospect, the above ditty might have been more suitable if it was dedicated to Emperor Bokassa instead: sadly, Adrian Paunescu, Ceausescu’s fawning Court jester, had to make do with a ‘second best’!

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Moartea martirică a Părintelui Arsenie Boca (1910-28. XI.1989) – The Martyrdom of rev. Arsenie Boca

April 1st, 2011 · No Comments · Diary, OPINION, PEOPLE

“ În 1989 părintele Arsenie spunea celor apropiaţi: ‘nu mă mai vedeţi în curând că aştia mă termină’. În ultimii ani celor de la conducere le era foarte teamă de părintele Arsenie. Era ţinut în satul Drăgănescu iar intrările în sat erau păzite zi şi noapte de Securitate (..). Ultimele momente şi le-a petrecut la Sinaia. Trebuie neapărat să scrieţi asta. Am fost la el împreună cu parintele Dometie care a fost ţinut acolo timp de o săptămână şi jumătate. Si nu i-au dat voie să vorbească cu el. Maica de acolo ne spunea că e la Drăgănescu. Părintele Arsenie avea însă un căţel mic, flocos, negru. Unde era părintele, acolo era şi căţelul. Când am văzut căţelul, mi-am dat seama că este acolo. În cele din urmă ni s-a spus că este bolnav şi că nu poate vedea pe nimeni. I se poate trimite doar un pomelnic sau o scrisoare… După trei zile ni s-a spus că a murit părintele. L-au adus şi era aşa cum era: TORTURAT şi CHINUIT. Se vedea la degete şi la faţă faptul că a fost torturat. Eu am fost la înmormântare şi am văzut: unghiile de la două degete îi erau pur şi simplu zmulse…Toate acestea s-au petrecut pentru că a prezis căderea şi moartea lui Ceauşescu. Nu mi-e frică să spun adevărul, chiar dacă unii mai vor să ascundă acest lucru. Puteţi fi şi un om trimis de cei care l-au torturat şi acum vor cu orice preţ să ascundă adevărul. Eu spun adevărul pe faţă, pentru că mulţi îl ştiu, dar nu îl spun”.

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