Tomorrow starts the 9th International Festival of Documentary Film and Visual Anthropology, ASTRA FILM SIBIU 2007.

One of the special programs is “View on Eastern Europe” - a selection of documentaries produced by Arte and BBC/Ch4 in the last 15 years about Eastern Europe.
There will be live transmissions on Arte TV and daily news on TV5, Duna TV.

Promo

In timpul inundatiilor din septembrie orasul Tecuci a fost una dintre localitatile lovite de soarta. Asa cum spun cei de pe Sinistrati.info : “de obicei zarva se face in primele zile. Ulterior, zbaterea ramane doar a celor loviti de soarta”. Au venit televiziuni, au venit politicieni sa faca poze si bai de multime, cativa oameni inimosi (altii) au sarit cu adevarat in ajutorul tecucenilor. Dar apoi s-a asternut tacerea. In mai putin de o luna, romanii, prinsi in valtoarea motiunilor, circului partidelor si penibilei pseudo-batalii anticoruptie au uitat.
A ramas durerea, mizeria, frigul, disperarea …
Sa ne amintim de ei. Sa ne amintim ca suntem oameni. Sa ne amintim ce inseamna a fi oameni.

Un gand bun celor care au scris zilele acestea in blogul personal sau au pomenit pe diferite cai romanilor despre situatia actuala a tecucenilor. Poate le trece amnezia si celor platiti din banii nostri, vor lasa putin ’show’-ul si afacerile personale si isi vor face datoria.

According to the Norwegian daily Aftenposten all A.S.A corporations will have to appoint women on their boards of directors, or be dissolved. The centre-left Norwegian government issued this warning for approx. 140 companies that still did not reach the mandatory 40% of their directors to be women.

“My advice to them is that they take responsibility and find the women they need,” said Equality minister Karita Bekkemellem. She called the law “historic and radical,” and said it will be enforced on January the 1st.

Is it a wise decision- to appoint the top managers based on gender, not based on their competence? Are women really ok with this kind of promotion? I wouldn’t be, I think it is rather degrading.
And what do the shareholders say? After all, is about their money, they don’t usually care if the managers are men or women, they should be competent for their job.

On 2nd of October, Mr. Stavros Dima, the EU Commissioner for Environment, has just joined the blogosphere! I predict it will be one of the most visited blogs in the next months.

I found rather difficult to structure the idea of this post. Simply because it has in background four recent different facts (and many, so many others not so recent), connected mostly by some aspects of the Dark Age of Communism.

1. A Romanian Eurosceptic site (yes, I usually try to stay informed, reading the both sides of a story), AlterMedia (well, not quite ‘Romanian’, since it is part of an international network, but on this particular site most of the authors are Romanian) is talking about the youth of Mr. Barosso, President of the European Commission, presenting a video, with an young and ‘lefty’ Barosso, member of a Marxist Leninist organization. They are quoting the Portuguese MEP Miguel Portas (nota bene - the link is from Mr. Portas’ website, but not to the related story).
Well, I have no reasons not to believe that Mr. Barosso was inclined to adhere to a communist movement, and I also believe that it was mainly a reaction to the autocratic regime that ruled Portugal in those times. They also quote Mr. Portas (again, the link does not confirm this) that the video was posted several times on You Tube but it ‘mysteriously’ disappeared every time. Which made me smile, because …
2. .. I found the same little movie .. guess where! On Mr. Barosso’ website. Smart move, Mr. President! Well, this is why I usually double check what I find on the internet.
3. In the context of Burma events, the European Commission VP, Margot Wallström, was talking about the Palme d’Or-winning Romanian movie, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, saying that “it was a totally depressing ( but true !) film, including how dark the streets were…”. A comment to this, from a Romanian reader, Marcela, was:
“Dear Margot,
I saw the film “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” last week, too. It “rebuilds” only one moment of thousand difficulties, problems of Romanian dictatorial regime where I survived. My thoughts are now for a better life of Burma’s people, too.”
4. Few days ago, I was watching a talk show (”Altfel” Realitatea TV) with ‘three wise (Romanian) men” - Gabriel Liiceanu, Andrei Plesu and Dan C. Mihaescu. They were talking, among other things, about the people (many very young) that were praising the communist ideology, considering Guevara is a hero, arguing that the ideas behind communism are “ok”, but they were not applied accordingly. (Yeah, right! Wake up! The communism did not fail only in Romania, it failed in every country it was “applied”, wether it was Russia and all “Soviet” countries, China, North Korea, former Yugoslavia, half of Germany, Poland or Cuba). Smiling, the three gentlemen were saying that this new trend is mostly generated by people that have no idea what kind of regime this was (because they are too young to know or remember, or they did never live in a communist country), and the cure for this ‘disease’ would be to send them for one year to live in North Korea.

Well, in relation with these facts, I was thinking yesterday: If there are people who pay to spend few weeks in a ‘prison environment’, or as I was reading recently in press - to try for few hours the life a beggar, why not make them pay if they want to taste the life in a communist country?
I wouldn’t go so far and send them in North Korea, where they will probably (literally) die from starvation or tortured in the communist prisons.
But in Romania, where they are already exploiting the Dracula image, I can bet that in one or two years tops, we will have a new offer for tourists: a duplicate of the life in communism. One of a kind experience: darkness, cold, no TV, no food, no the elementary hygienic items or medicine, no information, no freedom of speech, no access to culture, forced to sing for the Big Brother, afraid to speak even in front of the relatives, living just a big and ugly lie. God help us to remain just a holiday experience (kind of twisted, I think), and never again a sad and terrifying reality.

Yesterday, the European Court of Justice rejected the appeal of a Spanish manager, Félix Palacios de la Villa, who took his company, Cortefiel Servicios SA, to court when he was notified of his pension two years ago, claiming that this was against the European principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age.

But, by reaching above mentioned verdict, the 13 in Luxembourg are backing the mandatory retirement age, stating that this issue should be in accordance with the labour legislation in each member state, saying that even though discrimination based on age was illegal, the compulsory retirement age for employees can be justified to stabilize the labour markets and if proper pension is provided, which is compatible with the European law.

If the court had ruled otherwise, challenging the pension system, it would have caused difficulties in social and economic policies throughout all the 27 EU countries, since the goal of mandatory pension schemes is to free up jobs for younger people, helping to improve economic growth, reduce unemployment and pay for the demands of an aging population.

On the other hand, the present EU trend is, besides combating age discrimination on the job, to encourage older people to work longer, to finance their retirements. The gap between young and older employees is particularly acute in Eastern Europe, where young, educated and skilled citizens are moving in Western countries for higher wages, leaving an aging labour-force behind.

In conclusion, as I was saying yesterday , the main demographic/ human capital policy problem is not the mandatory age retirement, but the early retirement, widespread all over Europe, event though there are several groups that challenge the compulsory retirement at a certain age.

I know, I don’t like it either. Due to the working conditions in Romania, I would love to retire at age of 50-55, but I realize this will not be possible for many generations.

I’ve just read the following on Margot Wallström’s blog:

“This weekend 400 citizens, selected randomly from all 27 Member states, will meet in the European Parliament in Brussels for a Deliberative Poll. 87.9% of Europeans have either “never” or “only a few times” discussed EU matters with citizens from other EU countries. In order to understand what they would think if they actually met and talked, this project (launched under our plan D as in Debate, Dialogue and Democracy and carried out by “Tomorrow’s Europe“) brings together a microcosm of Europe. They will discuss two sensitive and important topics : economic and social welfare in a globalised world and the EU:s international role. Deliberative Polling is a scientific method to measure public opinion before and after it has deliberated.”

..and the first questions that came to my mind were: how ‘randomly’ were these people selected? What kind of project is this? Was anybody from Romania? Why, for Heaven’s sake there’s nothing about this in Romanian mass-media?

So, I looked up: Tomorrow’s Europe is a project by which “A scientifically representative sample of the European population, composed of several hundred of citizens selected through a poll held in the 27 Member states of the EU, will be informed in a balanced manner and brought together for three days of deliberation. They will discuss the political and institutional future of the Union. They will then be polled again. ”

362 European citizens, from the 27 member states, aged between 18 and 80, participated last weekend to the first EU-wide Deliberative Poll, where they discussed challenges and opportunities facing the European Union in the medium term. They exchanged opinions and asked questions to a panel of experts and politicians.
A Romanian ‘randomly selected’ EU citizen , Elena Marka Urszuly (?!), an advertising consultant, is quoted on the “Tomorrows Europe“’ website: “I was able to express myself despite the fact that I did not know much about the EU.”

99% of the Romanian citizens “do not know much about the EU”, dear Elena. Don’t you hate that?

“Stop early retirement schemes, reduce unemployment, stimulate part-time employment. Keep them in the job, get them in the job, in every way possible,”

This is what Peer Ederer says in the second volume of the “European Human Capital Index”, that focuses on Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey.

It’s a very interesting and documented analysis regarding the human capital in the region. Including in Romania, where politicians like to say that the human capital is the strongest and the most valuable resourse of our country. A(nother) waisted resource, as you can see.

Among other things, the report strongly criticises Eastern European governments for not investing in people older than 45 years – about one-third of the population, with 20 ore more productive years ahead - thereby creating a “lost generation”. Another one.

The report also presents the demographic situation and the quality of the education systems in the region .
Let’s not forget that an important economic goal of the European Union is to become a knowledge-based economy.
In every aspects, the former communist states, now EU members, should not only to catch up with Western Europe, but also to start compete with them. A goal that may never be reached.

Romania (although one of the biggest state) is somewhere in the middle in the index’ ranking of the region.

The countries that trail the index’ ranking – Slovakia, Bulgaria and Poland – are likely to remain stuck in relative poverty for a very long time when compared to the EU average.

At the other pole, the optimistic one, are: Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania – they might still have a small chance of achieving Western standards of living within the next twenty years.

So, Romania will achieve Western living standard sometime right in between of 20 years and…never. Bad news, very bad news.

Only Turkey, not yet EU member, is the only country with a young and growing population, that might be able to respond to the Europe’s human capital needs. The report states that by 2050, an estimated 19% of the European working population will be Turkish.

An European Commission - UEFA common campaign promoting physical activity will present this season a TV spot during the Champions League matches. The voice belongs to Luciano Pavarotti.

Also, this week is the sixth edition of the annual European Mobility Week, under the theme ‘Streets For People’, that aims to prove that reclaiming road space for pedestrians and cyclists can serve to cut congestion and pollution without reducing people’s mobility. More than 1,500 cities will take part. Bucharest is one of them, although our mayor, Adrian Videanu, seems to think we have no problems with ‘road safety, congestion, pollution and accessibility’. We are quite an example.
Right!

This was one rumor I would like to be true. Actually, I did not find out about it until I saw this press release. At least we now know something about Videanu’s taste in reading.

On Cafebabel there is a short interview by Natalia Sosin (Poland) taken to the Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu.

Besides the discussion regarding his biography and books, Cartarescu also expresses his opinion related to European Union:

‘the French can afford to be eurosceptic, but we cannot. We face the following choice: to be in Europe or to be nobody. This is why I think that Europe has the potential to become a supernation. We cannot say that we are Romanians with pride if we refuse to say that we are Europeans at the same time. Joining the EU means an increase in self-respect. I really wanted it, and was really happy when it came true.’

I agree with the fact that we should proudly call ourselves ‘Europeans’ before asking others to do so, but I have some doubts when he says that the Europe has the potential to become a supernation, not because I’m an Eurosceptic (I’m not) but I think that cultural integration did not keep the same pace with the economic or political one.

I don’t see the French, British, German, Polish…even Romanian people ready to say that we are one (super)nation. Not now and not soon. On contrary, if EU Institutions will try to speed up things (see Constitution Treaty) they will receive the opposite reaction. Besides, nations already in place are discussing disintegration (Belgium and others).