Global Voices » Romania

Balkans: Online Platform Tracks Reports From Areas Hit by Record Snowfall

Danica Radisic — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:12:22 +0000

Since last week, the Balkans have been hit by massive snow storms, the likes of which have not been seen in over a decade, if not longer. After an unusually long period of nearly no real signs of a typical Balkan winter, last week brought what seems to be non-stop snowfall throughout the region, including the seaside areas around the Adriatic that seldom get any snow.

Men shoveling snow from a street in Sarajevo. Record snowfall has paralyzed transportation in the Bosnian capital, where a state of emergency has now been declared. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12).

Serbia's national television network, RTS, and other media reported on Friday 3 February, 2012, that a state of emergency has been declared by the government, while citizens have been reporting critical situations throughout the country and that municipal services have been doing a poor job of tackling the snowfall in many urban areas.

In an article titled “Serbia Blocked by Snow, State of Emergency in 27 Municipalities, Recommendation to Call Off School Attendance” [sr], the Head of the State of Emergency Sector of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Predrag Maric, is reported to have stated on Friday:

27 municipalities in Serbia have declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. Maric has told Beta news agency that the most difficult situations are in Sjenica, Ivanjica, Prijepolje, Crna Trava and Surdulica, where the height of snow has reached approximately 2 meters. According to him, power supply is “relatively good,” outages are being fixed quickly and there have been no long power outages.

Maric also announced the possibility of declaring a full state of emergency nationwide, which the Government did on Sunday evening, cancelling school throughout Serbia at least until Friday, February 10, among other things.

Several actions have been organized by the online community in Serbia and the region to fend off the snow and to attempt to regain a functional state in urban areas at least, such as a #lopataup (”#shovelup”), organized by one online community leader, Zoran Torbica, and other local Twitter users.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans, the recently established regional office of Al Jazeera news network in the region, has joined forces with the team from Ushahidi to set up a platform for tracking verified information on everything from road blocks, power outages to other critical points and information in the entire region.

Ushahidi is an open-source platform for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping, which was also used in Serbia just after the earthquake in Kraljevo in November 2010 to map and track damage in the area.

Haris Alisic, who heads the New Media team for Al Jazeera Balkans, launched the platform on Sunday evening, and many members of the online community, including some of the region's GV authors, have joined the Al Jazeera-Ushahidi team in curating, tracking and verifying reports from the region.

The adapted Ushahidi platform can be located on Al Jazeera's official site, while reports can be sent in by anyone using the following channels:

- via SMS to +387644218661
- via Twitter by using the hashtags #kolaps #sneg #snijeg #lopataup #iskljucenje
- via email to oluja2012@aljazeera.net
- or by entering information directly into the form on the”pošaljite izvještaj” tab on the Al Jazeera page

If you would like to volunteer your time to help map critical areas and are familiar with using online tools, please contact the author of this article, or Haris Alisic via Twitter, or leave a comment here on Global Voices, and we will contact you for more information on what you can do to help. We also ask that you all begin reporting from your area on Twitter and using the above-mentioned hashtags on Twitter, which are automatically collected by the platform and then reviewed and verified by Al Jazeera and volunteers.

Romania: “I, the Citizen”

Oana Maria Dan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:03:36 +0000

Street protests in Romania have been going on for over a week now. People are demanding early elections, and the talk continues in the Romanian online space on who the protesters are, what they want and what the aftermath of the protests will be. People in the streets do not yet have a leader, but they nevertheless have a powerful voice - and change seems to start happening.

On Monday, January 23, 2012, Prime Minister Emil Boc fired the Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Baconschi – a week after the latter posted this on his personal blog [ro]:

One thing is becoming ever more clear for Romanians with common sense. A life-and-death fight has started between the forces of the past and the project of a new Romania. The opposition has finally activated the entire arsenal inherited from the communists: armed punks, misinformation, hate propaganda. […] This year will be crucial for Romania. The choice is simple: reform, responsibility and safety - or involution, populism and the rule of a club. But the choice will be made by the earnest Romania, the hard-working Romania, the forward-looking Romania, and not by the violent and inept slums lined up, just like the miners of the past, behind the heirs of the former communist [Securitate].

Journalist Bogdan Ciuclaru writes [ro] about citizen responsibility, which Romanians, tired of being listened to only during election campaigns, are starting to exercise:

I too am disappointed by Traian Basescu and I am not willing to allow the couple [Victor Ponta and Crin Antonescu, the two main opposition leaders from USL/Social Liberal Union] to do the same thing to me. Traian Basescu was the last representative of the National Salvation Front generation [the first party formed after the 1989 revolution] that I trusted and even liked. In 2004, he was a phenomenon, a skillful political figure, an alternative to a gang, a sort of a chili pepper… I do not think he cheated me - rather, he disappointed me because he turned exactly into what he seemed to want to condemn or fix. After trying out Traian Basescu, I think we have run out of reasonable options, and the only person I can trust now is myself - I, the citizen… I am not allowed to disappoint at home, in my car or in the street. I am not allowed to disappoint the bank, either, if I think about it. For citizens, the rule of disappointment is stricter. If you want to feel good about yourself, you’ll continue playing according to this rule and be careful not to disappoint your parents, family, colleagues, bosses and so on.

[…] Politics seems the easiest way of practising disappointment 100 times more intensely. When you are exposed to such a disappointment, you are left with few alternative options: voting and protesting. Traian Basescu’s evolution and that of other figures he proposed or supported makes me doubt my first option and pay closer attention to the second. For me it’s not enough to be listened to once every four years. That is the reason I took to the streets… If I did nothing, I would feel I’m disappointing.

I believe it’s a good thing people are protesting and expressing their discontent with a louder voice. This is just about the only way the authorities can still take us seriously. There’s no point in having wireless and central heating and buses if we are constantly followed by this frustration of not being listened to by those who we elected to lead us…

Romanian society has been quite passive over the past 22 years, and journalist Vasile Ernu suggests showing unity by turning the current protests white [ro]:

It’s getting harder and harder to get people out in the streets. We can, perhaps, gather 2,000, or 5,000, or maybe even 15,000, but it’s very hard. Why? For various reasons. We have forgotten how to protest, we have been fragmented, we have forgotten how to be united and brave, we have forgotten that beyond self-interest there’s a common one, which gives meaning to a society. We have gotten used to being humiliated and we have forgotten that we too can be a force that those in power should fear.

There’s still something we can do… What if we start wearing white ribbons or white scarves? We could wear them on our lapel or pinned on our chest, around our neck or wrist. All of them white. We could hang them outside our windows and cars. At first we would be 5,000, after that 15,000, after that 100,000 and after that one million. There would be more and more of us… Not anyone can take to the streets, but this gesture can be done by anyone who feels revolted and discontented with those in power. At first, we'll be shy and scared, but when you and I meet, we'll recognize each other. At first, there'll be just a few of us, and after that more and more will unite and become brave. Gradually, from me to you, from neighbour to neighbour, from a protester to a gendarme, more and more people will be wearing white ribbons. A minimum effort without violence. […]

Some slogans of the Romanian protesters are against the entire political class. Still, who will the voters choose from in the upcoming elections at the end of the year? Catalin Tolontan imagines life after the protests [ro]:

I do not credit ahead of time any of the new political movements. What I believe is we cannot afford to come to the point when we can no longer hear ideas because of how imperfect the voices expressing them are.

We all live imperfect lives, but we expect of those who lead us to live outstanding lives. In such a case, we, and not them, are the hypocrites. Any one of those people at the University Square – women and men I greatly admire are expressing themselves there – has his or her weaknesses. […]

[…]

I have my own doubts as a reporter and old quarrels with Crin Antonescu [an opposition leader and a future presidential candidate], though I like it that these days he dared to say, repeatedly, that political party members are not inferior to those who took to the streets all over Romania. Party members militate daily in their virtual agorae. What should we tell them? Leave us, we are immaculate! Sure, we can continue to hate the differences and long for a man on a white horse. We look towards the horizon. For now white belongs only to the snow, the only solution for those in power, a homogenous and cold snow in which we lose ourselves pure, unsoiled and isolated.

Finally, journalist Radu Tudor comments [ro] on Crin Antonescu’s statement that the resignation of the USL's MPs from the Romanian Parliament is merely a matter of days:

Personally, I have been asking this for a year and a half. After the dark night of the Romanian democracy, September 15, 2010, when Anastase Roberta Alma [president of the Chamber of Deputies in the Romanian Parliament] together with 80 MPs from the ruling coalition cheated on the vote on the pension bill, the opposition seems to have finally understood that it can no longer remain side by side with the thieves of the current regime. […]

I am very anxious and curious about whether the opposition will honour this engagement.

This would mean total solidarity with the thousands of discontented people protesting all over Romania.

This would probably be the final sprint in winning the elections.

Now intelligence is being sifted out from stupidity. We shall see…

Romania: Towards A European Spring?

Vilhelm Konnander — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:32:16 +0000

Gabriela Ionita of Power&Politics World summarizes ongoing anti-government protests in Romania, draws parallels to the Arab spring, and asks if this is the start of a European wave of revolutions.

Romania: “A Tsunami” of Protests Against Austerity Cuts and Corruption

Oana Maria Dan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:27:27 +0000

After five days of protests in Romania, representatives of the Romanian police are assessing the resulting material damage, the number of weapons confiscated and people held in custody at police stations. The Romanian on-line community is trying to explain why people have taken to the streets, what the authorities' response was and what the outcome of the protests might be.

On Jan. 15, journalist Radu Tudor compared [ro] the protests to “a tsunami” sweeping everything in its path:

Thousands of protesters in Bucharest, Brasov, Timisoara, Pitesti, Deva, Sibiu, Iasi, Cluj Napoca and other important Romanian cities have demanded loudly and clearly: the resignation of Boc Cabinet and of President Basescu. A democratic and relatively honorable resolution to this huge tension between the ruling authorities and the dissenting people are early elections.

[…]

In the minds of the majority, the decision has already been taken: the Basescu-Boc regime must end. This has caused desperate diversions with “hooligans” meant to partially compromise the legitimacy of the protests and to discourage people from taking to the streets. The violent rupture between the current rulers and the population can only have one verdict. A tsunami in favor of political change has already started, coming from ordinary citizens. It sweeps everything in its path. Especially, at the top.

Protesters in Bucharest are waving the Romanian flag and chanting slogans of support for Dr. Raed Arafat, but also against President Traian Basescu. Photo by ANDREI IONIȚĂ, copyright © Demotix (13/01/12).

Political scientist Alina Mungiu-Pippidi wrote this [ro] on Romania Curata, an anti-corruption portal:

[…] It was already time for protests. But when collective action is spontaneous, without leaders and planning, we run the risk of seeing again what happened with the [1989] Revolution – the legitimate protest being stolen, twisted and used and others taking advantage of it without actually changing anything of substance.

Traian Basescu deserves what is happening. Going outside the constitutional framework in order to hit a man who had already succeeded in implementing a reform – Raed Arafat – in the name of a future reform that even the World Bank, IMF and Romanian experts had doubts about, showing the same infallibility syndrome that reminds us of Ceausescu, he dropped the only guard that can protect a head of state. And that guard is the law and the rightfulness given to you by goodwill. No one is infallible, anyone can make mistakes, but at least you must be able to prove your goodwill.

[…]

After this week, the civil society has gone into clear opposition and its strength and territorial expansion have suddenly grown. The question is how we could institutionalize such an opposition and use it in order to have fair elections […], and after the elections to use it for controlling those in power. […]

Journalist Radu Lungu answers [ro] the question many are asking these days - “Why have we taken to the streets?”:

Because what is happening in our society is our business. Because we really felt we were not living in a free country anymore. As all young people from our generation, who either remember very little from the communist days or were not even born yet, we too were manipulated by the media and political class. We were told that what is happening in the society we live in is none of our business, that educated people do not mix with the commoners. That we do not have their problems, that in our country nothing is done right and that that’s just the state of things. That standing up against this state of things is the same as being immature, uneducated. That we are going to leave abroad anyway and we’ll be rid of this impossible country. […] We wanted to see with our own eyes what was going on, so we went into the streets with our cameras – unfortunately, we didn’t take our running shoes too, but you pick up the revolutionary fashion as you go along.

Radu Lungu recounts what he saw and lived through in the streets of downtown Bucharest:

At one point, the protesters stepped out into the road. Gendarmes formed a line and closed the group of people in, pushing them back onto the sidewalk. Many people coming back from a night out in the Old Town or standing in front of kiosks in the area were just caught in the middle and held by gendarmes. There was somebody holding some cheese in a bag, trying to explain to the police that he had bought it for himself and not in order to use it for violent purposes. People wanted to show their IDs to the gendarmes, but they refused to grant them this right. […] People were also detained under the pretext that “now they can no longer leave” without being given any explanation. People were constantly asking to be searched and identified on the spot, according to Law 550 of the Criminal Code. Unfortunately, the crowd and the gendarmes could settle this legislative dispute only at police stations. […] Still, the police at the station never had an aggressive tone. Many gendarmes just told us we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Better to stay calm, sign some papers, take some photos and then off we went back home. I want to end my reporting with an appeal to calm and nonviolence. Personally, I will try to get as many people to come with copies of Laws 550 and 60 to hand to gendarmes on University Square. First, I thought of bringing copies of the entire Criminal Code, but then if we had the money for such intellectual accessories we would probably not take to the streets anymore.

A man is held on the ground by riot police, before being arrested. More than 1,000 of protesters clashed with police, who used tear gas to disperse them. Photo by ALEXANDRU DOBRE, copyright © Demotix (15/01/12).

On Jan. 17, following President Basescu’s requests, Raed Arafat returned to his position of deputy secretary of state at the Health Ministry and coordinator of the emergency medical system. Journalist Radu Tudor sees this gesture as the “official recognition that Basescu can be defeated”:

After having publicly humiliated Raed Arafat and having forced him to leave, on this day the infallible Basescu has died politically. But the huge wave of popular discontent is already in motion. Basescu is scared that [the opposition] is taking control of this discontent and this is actually the stake of Raed Arafat’s reinstatement. Neither respect for him, nor recognition of his value, but the fear that the opposition will benefit from the national outrage shown over the last few days in tens of Romanian cities. Raed Arafat’s reinstatement does not reinstate cut salaries, jobs, does not put a stop to prices going up, does not decrease VAT, does not rid millions of miserable people from huge worries created by this political regime. Raed Afarat’s reinstatement is the victory of the idea that Basescu and his gang can be defeated. […]

Romania: “Revolution of Decency”

Veronica Khokhlova — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:36:40 +0000

Power & Politics World reports on the protests in Romania, sparked by budget cuts and the resignation of deputy health minister Raed Arafat. Csíkszereda Musings writes about Raed Arafat and the government's policies: “Basescu and his government seem hell bent on using the excuse of ‘austerity' to destroy education, healthcare and pretty much everything else that the country actually needs.” GV's Ruslan Trad is posting links to media reports on the protests on the GV-CEE Facebook page.

CEE: A Roundup on the Roma Issues

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:51:27 +0000

An anti-discrimination Roma flash mob/dance duel in Bucharest (video - here), and a report by Bulgarian Roma students on media coverage of Roma-related issues - at TOL's Roma Transitions blog. Education for the Roma children in the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - at the Economist's Eastern Approaches blog. (Update: TOL's East of Center also has a post on “the Czech Republic’s segregated education policy” for the Roma students.)

CEE: “Spotted by Locals”

Veronica Khokhlova — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:08:32 +0000

Spotted by Locals: Experience cities like a local features a few dozen locations, including CEE cities of Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, Ljubljana, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. A random sample post from Zagreb, Croatia: Hrelić Flea Market – The Aleph of Zagreb; from Bucharest, Romania: The Haunted House – Armenian Neighbourhood; from Sofia, Bulgaria: Nissim – A True Old-School Bookstore.

Hungary: Memories of Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:44:25 +0000

Twenty-eight young Roma people came together in August 2011 for the first ever Roma Pride Summer Camp where they learned about their language, history, role models and achievements, in an effort to build their sense of civic duty and social responsibility.

The Roma people are Europe's largest minority, suffering from illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and discrimination. The Open Society Institute decided to strengthen their outreach efforts with the Roma community beyond the scholarships, internships and training opportunities they've been facilitating. They had found that the benefits for these young Roma were not being reflected in the rest of the Roma community:

Too many young Roma today do know enough about their own history, achievements, and identity to develop a sense of pride regarding their heritage. Few schools currently teach Roma history and language. On top of this, mainstream society—supported by the educational system—focuses on assimilation, denying young Roma the opportunity to explore their own ethnicity and creating an environment that rewards them for suppressing their heritage. It has to be mentioned that pride does not come only with knowing your language and history but also knowing other people you can identify yourself with. Outside of their families and communities, many young Roma do not often have many Roma role models to look up to. This is also a big reason why many of them are not part of the Roma cause.

So they brought about the Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp in Budapest, where 28 former beneficiaries of their programs came together to learn about each other, about their differences and similarities as Roma youth from across borders and nations. This next video shows an overview of the Summer Camp and interviews with participants who explain what impact the camp had for them:

Barvalipe participant Alina Serban was interviewed in RomaWoman.org where she explained why the experience was so important for her: it brought together so many different people who also happen to be Roma. That is what being Roma is about for her, not just one single identity, not one single stereotype:

Violeta Naydenova is the program coordinator for Open Society Foundations Roma Initiatives and was the Barvalipe camp director. She described the impact of one of the summer camp's activities where the 20 Euro camp fee the participants had to pay was used to buy sewing machines for a charity serving Roma women and children as well as school supplies for an impoverished community:

I was honored to read in their camp evaluations that this action was one of the most liked, following the Roma history and language classes, debate sessions, and trip to Auschwitz. It proved that once people are given the possibility to learn about their heritage many people embrace it, like it, and feel proud about it.

Macedonia: Ajvar, Glorified

Filip Stojanovski — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:03:54 +0000

Jovana Tozija wrote lovingly about making ajvar, a traditional favorite winter provision in Macedonia and some other post-Ottoman countries.

Egypt: Romanian Netizen Lavinia Dieac Shares her Egyptian Experience

Tarek Amr — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:09:09 +0000

Romania and Egypt are two distant countries. They have many differences and many things in common as well, such as the fact that they both had revolutions against dictatorships. Romanian netizen Lavinia Dieac, who lives in Cairo, tells us more about her life in Egypt, particularly the days of the revolution.

Lavinia in Giza Pyramids

Lavinia Dieac is a Romanian digital marketing professional, currently living in Cairo. She has been living in Egypt for the past two years ago. Lavinia likes to blog and regularly tweets about her experience as an expatriate living in Egypt. She has also had three articles published in the Egyptian English language newspaper Al Masry Al Youm.

Following is my interview with her.

Hi, can you please tell us more about yourself? What do you do? How long have you been living in Egypt? Who do you normally blog about?

Hello Tarek, it is an honour to get the chance for this interview, hello everyone. I came to Egypt more than two years ago for a three to six month internship that has become a real job since then. I work in digital marketing and I spend a big part of my time looking into the human nature and at the cultural differences between the people in this part of the world and the one I come from.
The blog started out of the will to share these experiences, so I am trying to write about issues that influence my thinking or my world view.

Have you been to different parts of Egypt? Which parts of it do you like most?

I’ve visited Siwa Oasis, White & Black Desert, Abu Simbel, Luxor, Aswan, Dahab, Ras Abu Gallum, Alexandria, North Coast, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and of course the Cairo touristic places and I’ve yet to see much more.
They all offer such different things (different types of desert, oasis, temples, historic places, snorkeling and diving, sea side chilling, clubbing, fresh fish dishes, camping in the desert vs. luxurious hotels, Bedouins vs. Russians), all very enjoyable, but the most I liked was the desert and the oasis (Siwa, Black and White Desert). Actually it is hard to not include Ras Abu Gallum too.
I like them the most because they very much represent Egypt and its people now, and they are not super touristic like Sharm El Sheikh. Also, it was charming to camp in the desert over night, sleep in such openness under the clear sky, listen to the Bedouin songs, enjoy their food, tea and stories, do sand boarding, bath in the cold oasis during a super hot day and in a hot spring at night, visit the temple of Oracle of Amun Ra, see the white formations and climb the volcanic mountains, walk for an hour along the shore of the Red Sea in the shadow of the rocks of the Ras Abu Gallum National park and then snorkel to see the amazing corals.

You usually tweet about the cultural differences between your country and here in Egypt. Can you please tell us more about those differences?

This could be a long story with many examples about differences.
For me, this world here is many times upside down compared to what I’ve got to know back home: the way people live, work, sell, walk on the street, celebrate, dress, the way they relate to religion, not to mention the way they drive! And the men-women relationship is really different too!
An embarrassing moment was in my first three months since I was here before leaving to Romania for vacation I wanted to say bye to a close male colleague at work by hugging and kissing, as we do in Romania usually. He pulled himself back and kind of said “no-no”, which shocked me and embarrassed me so much. Right away I remembered a similar story shared by another foreigner and I quickly remembered that some people choose to limit the physical contact with people of the opposite gender, some of them during Ramadan only. I didn’t think it was the case with my colleague. I guess that shocked me the most, you never know who is open to this kind of interaction and who is not. This incident made me decide for a while to not even shake hands with guys any more. The decision didn’t last long though cause it is against my natural behaviour.
The gender segregation here makes everything much different than how it is in Romania. The experience of walking on the streets is greatly different. Besides the lack of side-walks and pedestrian crossings, there are the looks and the harassment. I usually like looking at people’s faces on the streets, smiling at them sometimes, but here I have to put on the bad, tough kind of face and walk straight ahead, fast to avoid looking at anyone because I most of the time find them observing me, starring, ogling or harassing. During my recent vacation in Romania I was looking at people on the streets but couldn’t find anyone looking at me as every one was minding their own business. This is funny, but it felt weird I don’t have any more the ‘attention’ I usually get on the streets here. Jokes aside, it felt well actually.
The public display of religiosity is another key difference. In Romania, religion is somewhere in the background; you don’t hear much about it; you don’t see it around too much. It never attracted my attention to it and to its insights as it did since I have been here, where I could observe it everywhere, in all aspects of life, with most of the people. It is even so embedded in the culture that some religious practices are now just cultural practices.
Then, there is the part about being late. I had meetings for which people were late even one and half hours. Imagine that! It is hard to handle it. But it is part of the Egyptian culture, as they themselves proudly say.
But at the end of the day these differences are the ones making the experience here more interesting, and nurture my self-discovery.

Sometimes you tweet about stuff like not being able to eat in public during Ramadan. And not having the choice to tell a taxi driver to switch the Quran recitation off. Is this also a part of the cultural difference? Do you think the Egyptians are more or less acceptable to other religions? Or do some Islamic traditions became a cultural part of the country, such as saying Inchallah (if God wills), you have no problem with them being used, especially that Copts do use them too?

They are part of the cultural difference, because these things define how life is here. The level of acceptance towards differences and diversity is part of how people are.
I am not sure if you ask me to compare this level between Romania and Egypt. Unfortunately in many parts of the world people’s level of acceptance towards other religions or other types of differences is not very high.
From some studies I read, youth in Romania are quite racist against Jews, Muslims, and gypsies. In Egypt, there isn’t a high level of acceptance either, in my opinion. Just the fact that it is not accepted that girls here wear short skirts or sleeveless tops on the streets says a lot about the acceptance towards diversity.
I could also notice many times double standards and hypocrisy, especially when people here say that foreigners coming to Egypt should respect the traditions and culture, but when they themselves go abroad they don’t respect the traditions and culture of the place they go to, they still keep their own and expect the foreign country to accept them.

Have you been to other countries in the Middle East other than Egypt? How different, and how similar are they to Egypt and Romania?

I have been to Lebanon before. I loved the mix of Arabic and European flavour there, and the variety: both ladies wearing veil and wearing short skirts, both places that sell alcohol or pork and ones that don’t, beautiful.

I know you refused to leave Egypt during the revolution, although some foreigners might have been afraid with all the attack the media made on them then and calling them spies? How were your feelings when Mubarak stepped down?

I did stay in Egypt all the time during revolution but strongly felt like leaving when people were divided between agreeing or not with Mubarak to stay until September and to call the protests off.
I wasn’t going to stay if Mubarak would’ve been let to stay because I didn’t trust it would be safe and also because I was feeling that I won’t be able to work with and accept people around that let go of their main goal “down with the regime”. Happily the protests continued and finally Mubarak stepped down.
I stayed in the house in down-town during all that time, for 18 days, just went out twice: once during the bloody Friday when I quickly noticed things are not alright and hurried up back home to see in 30 minutes on TV the camels and the horses attack on Tahrir (goose bumps). The second time was during a peaceful day in Tahrir.
I was following every detail on Twitter and on Al Jazeera and being very close to Tahrir I could experience the reality from my balcony too: seeing the protesters and the police up and down the surrounding streets, been hit by tear gas and been terrified by the gun shots and gas bombs (A video I shot from the balcony).

My mom would tell me over the phone to leave Egypt, and to take care of my health, to sleep and to eat well. I would assure her that I am fine, and that I am just staying in the house, following the news online and watching TV, so it is not a big deal. I didn’t realize until Mubarak stepped down, when I cried for half an hour, that I was under a big amount of stress and emotional pressure during the 18 days, so mom was right about taking care of my health. The crying was of happiness and relief, of surprise that Mubarak was finally out.

As a Romanian, you witnessed a similar revolution more than 20 years ago. And now you are living the one taking place here in Egypt. Can you please compare the two revolutions?

I was only five years old when the ’89 revolution happened in Romania, and we didn’t study much about it in school in the upcoming years, at least until 2003 when I graduated from high school. They say that the truth about what and why it happened will be released after 50 years, when no living people could be directly affected by truth any more.
In Romania, there weren’t this communication tools that Egyptians had, the turmoil started in the west of the country with a small incident in a neighbourhood and took a while to spread across the country, only some big cities were greatly involved in protests, and more than 1,000 people were shot (not commonly agreed yet who shot at people back then – the army or foreign forces).
I am no specialist in politics and history, but from my experience I can say that the two revolutions are quite different due to the foreign interests and due to the communism factor (Romania had closed borders, people had money but didn’t know what to spend it on, had to stay for hours in line to get bread, meat, milk and other commodities, sometimes not getting them even because they were finished), but alike due to the dictatorship.
The revolution ended with the Ceausescu couple being executed by the army after having a brief trial and with an immediate transition to civil rule, unlike in Egypt. The ones taking over were ex-communists indeed, and this lasted for many years with high levels of corruption.
After 1989, Romania started transforming greatly with the introduction of privatization and foreign investment. In a few years it became a country under development with lots of economical potential. There have been improvements registered since, less corruption for example, but now Romania is facing other types of problems and democracy has not really been achieved.

As a marketer, how do you view the spread of graffiti in Egyptian streets after the revolution? And don’t you consider it the revolutionaries’ way to market their ideas, and also artists’ way to market their skills? Can the same thing be applied to those musicians who used to sing in Tahrir as well?

I admire people's use of graffiti to express their revolutionary ideas, and I see it as a communication channel competing with state TV. If only we could have more and more graffiti! Besides that, it brought color to streets and improved the look of many walls.
Indeed some graffiti is very artistic, and much appreciated, but I’m not sure if the artists that made them have any consequential benefits out of it.

Board Game making use of the Egyptian Revolution to sell more

Photo by @lisang

On the other hand, we have seen companies and media producers making use of the revolution to market their goods or movies? How do you see this?

There has been an exaggerated point of using the revolution as a marketing theme. It all became unnatural, while the graffiti and other forms of art seem always genuine and natural. Take a look at what may be the most shameless capitalization on the Egyptian Revolution: January 25 Monopoly.

One of the subjects that is being discussed a lot in Egypt is the Palestinian Israeli conflict. I know you have your own opinion about how it occupies a significant part in people’s daily discussions on and off-line. There has been demonstrations in front of the Israeli Embassy lately, add also Dr. Norman Finkelstein came to Egypt right after the revolution to give a lecture in the American University in Cairo about the same issue, which you were not very pleased with. Can you please tell us more about all this.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a very important matter, for all humans, not only for the involved parties, including Egypt, as it has a complex mix of situations that don’t respect human rights which we shouldn’t turn our views away from.
But what bothers me is to notice this naïve, deep hate towards Israel, and a naïve support for Palestine without being aware that the situation is not just black or white, and before being preoccupied with the urgent matters Egypt is going through first. It is like trying to help someone else before helping yourself first.
Egyptians can’t really help Palestinians if Egypt itself is weak. I thought it is very inappropriate to talk about Israel around 16th of May when Egypt’s situation was problematic enough to give all our attention to, instead of giving it to Finkelstein and to his speech at AUC.
It is also interesting how Egyptians choose to unite under the idea “Israel is our enemy”. I think it is a very thin line between supporting the Palestinian cause and being racist towards Israelis. I find many Egyptians that hate Israel, and they are actually racist too.

One final question, can you compare the ongoing parliamentary elections here to the ones you had in Romania right after the fall of your dictatorship? You think elections is the right thing to be done now, or are there any tips or cleansing to be done first to ensure better democracy? Did you suffer for example for the remnants of the former regime entering the the parliament after you got rid of your dictator?

First of all, I’ll repeat that ‘theoretically’ Romania is a democratic country, but on the ground democracy has not been really achieved. Romania unfortunately has been moving really slowly in the past 20 years, hasn’t achieved much and not many significant improvements can be noticed. In return, it seems that few people got really rich and politicians were corrupt while corporations benefited from Romania’s rich resources.
Secondly, of course there will be remnants of the old regime in the new corridors of power. In Romania we had it too.
I am not sure about how the electoral process in Romania went through in ’89-’90, but it is important to move fast. In Egypt there was a dictatorship (Mubarak’s) changed with another one (military); it is good to see Egyptians not settling for it! That says a lot about how they will accept things to be like in the way forward! I wish them the best with getting a civilian government as soon as possible and am keeping an eye on what they do with the country’s potential. Peace!

United Kingdom: At Age 77, a Life of Inspiration

Paula Góes — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:01:11 +0000

Julie Kertesz is someone who celebrates her 77 years of age as she celebrates life itself. Retired but very active, Julie defines herself as a storyteller and photographer. She is also a prolific blogger, a videomaker and is just getting started in stand up comedy.

She was born in Transylvania (then part of Hungary, later Romania), moved to France at the age of 30, and has lived in London since July 2008.

According to one of her followers on the photography sharing website, Flickr, Patrick Barry Barr, she is a “role-model to people of all ages who desire to lead full and active lives of learning and doing.” He said (in 2005):

Julie70 exhibits a spirit that belies her age, as we tend to think of people in their 70’s, and I marvel at her enthusiasm, the way in which she relishes meeting strangers and sharing her enthusiasm with them. I will be 67 on 11 May, and when I grow up I want to be just like Julie Kertesz.

Self portrait – Julie Kertesz

Julie loves learning and has never stopped studying – not even when it was forbidden by the communist regime of Romania. While working in Paris, she returned to the classroom as a mother of two, only to leave university at age 43 with a PhD in physics.

As she describes in her life story on her blog, there is life after 70:

We are not giving up!
Each of us does something, either to live better or to rest alive.
Alas, I met also old people who looks as if they did already give up, and even some very young ones.
Lonely, in the metro.
Just look at them in the metro of Paris. How different with the man I met yesterday, working in the market. And so many others of us, living our lifes as full as possible.
Ok, we have a certain age, but we do not feel old inside!

Julie uses Flickr, blogs, and personal storytelling to inspire others. In a comment on her blog entitled “Courage to laugh at yourself” (in French) a reader shows appreciation for her endeavors:

[…] tu sais Julie, tu es Une Sage, je le pense. Tu m'aides souvent dans des moments compliqués, je me dis “attends, l'effet Julie va se produire, ça va aller”.

[…] you know, Julie, I think you are a wise-woman. You often help me in my complicated moments, I tell myself “wait, the Julie effect will materialise, it will be OK”.

Perhaps the source of such wisdom is the readiness to dare to experience something new. In the video below, Julie uses her fourth language to illustrate some of her first-time experiences between the ages of 25 to 70:

It was precisely at the age of 70 that Julie discovered photography. In 2006, she created the !afterclass! group, a masterclass on Flickr where 2,500 people get together to learn photography. She also created the people reading group; the never too old group; and strangers no more:

No more strangers. I met them, I spoke to them. I remember them.

This last group inspires people to approach others and, with every interaction, a beautiful human being is unveiled. Click on the pictures below to discover the delightful stories Julie uncovered through “human Interactions” with strangers.

CEE: Top 10 Worldwide Download Speed

Veronica Khokhlova — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:00:52 +0000

Watcher.com.ua reports [uk] that, according to a 6-month study of 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries conducted by Pando Networks, Romania (1,909KBps), Bulgaria (1,611KBps), Lithuania (1,462KBps) and Latvia (1,377KBps) have the second, third, fourth and fifth highest download speeds in the world, while Ukraine has been ranked #8 (1,190KBps).

Syria: World Cities Rally Against and For Bashar

Thalia Rahme — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:23:19 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

As the death toll in Syria increases, the International Community is running out of patience and hardening its tone against Syrian president Bashar Al Assad demanding for change and reforms. Abroad the diaspora has also been involved actively since the beginning of the protests in March 2011. Almost all cities around the world have witnessed rallies and demonstrations, some asking Assad to leave, and others declaring their dying love for him.

From San Francisco (11 June, 2011) and Chicago (July 3), to Washington DC ( 23 July), the US capital, where people chanted: ‘‘Leave Leave Bashar” in front of the White House; almost all big cities in the US witnessed opposition gatherings manifesting their solidarity with the people of Daraa, Homs and Deir el Zor among others.

Here is video uploaded by AhmedIbnAlsham on August 6, where protesters where carrying a poster representing Hafez and Bashar Al Assad and written on it: ”Like father, like son”:

Assad also has his supporters in the US like in California (April 3). Chicago too, held another pro-regime rally on April 3 and June 10 while defenders of the regime met in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York (May 1) to assert their love to their leader.

Wave of rallies hit Latin America as well. On June 26, Syrians in Santiago, Chile, chanted “El Pueblo Quiere Bashar el Assad” or ”The People Want Bashar Al Assad”, as we can see in this footage by Zaizuni:

We move to Europe and start with London (June 18) where Syrians called Assad an assassin, to Brussels (July 23), the headquarters of the European Parliament, to Milano in Italy (12 and 17 July). There, potesters, it seems, are no longer satisfied with reforms or even the call for the toppling of the regime. They want to bring it to trial.

Here's a video by Hazem Daoudi, taken in Geneva on August 6, Switzerland, facing the UN Headquarters:

France which is home to a large Syrian community has been witnessing continuous demonstrations, like in Strasbourg on 2 and 16 July, and this two-week sit-in, facing Place du Châtelet in Paris. YouTube user Mesudh75, posts this video showing a peaceful protest in front of the Syrian consulate and the Syrian Cultural Center in Paris:

In Germany, people took to the streets in Leipzig (July 7), Berlin (July 23) and Bonn on August 6 and August 8, not to forget Munich where on that same day, where this video from HutaafElhurriyyeh shows Germans showing solidarity with Syrians and singing the Syrian National Anthem:

Close to Munich, in Vienna, Austria, another protest took place, where this footage was taken and posted by AhmadSouri during a demo on August 9, in front of the Syrian Embassy:

Anti-Bashar protests also took place in Ukraine (April 22) Romania (June 30), Russia (July 31) and Greece (August 2), calling for the end of fascism:

In Turkey, protesters gathered in front of the Iranian embassy in Istanbul on August 5, denouncing the Islamic Republic stance towards the protest. They were joined on August 7, by members of the Felicity or Saadet party in front of the Syrian Consulate as we can see in this video by khaled111h:

But Assad can also rely on his supporters in Europe, who consider him as the only guarantee for stability and security in Syria. The streets of Paris, France, witnessed severaldemonstrations on June 11 and July 3 , 4 11 and 12 .

Diaspora in Odessa, Ukraine, flew balloons with the Syrian flag on June 4 for Assad. Others marched on June 6 in Kazan City in Russia for the same reason.

Syrians in Armenia also portrayed their support to their president on March 2011:

Despite the turmoil and unrest in the Arab world, and its own inner revolution, its capitals were keen on showing their solidarity and compassion with the Syrians.

This is Tunis on August 6, in a video by wadoodfreesyrian where people were chanting:” Syria is Free! Bashar get out!”:

In Egypt on August 1, OmawiTV shows angry people following the Hama Massacre and calling for the expulsion of the Syrian Ambassador:

In Lebanon, the situation is a bit delicate due to the complex relation between both countries. Quite often, opponents and loyalists of the Damascus regime clashed and the army had to intervene to separate both parties. The latest rally in solidarity with the Syrian people was held on Monday, August 8 in Martyrs Square in Beirut. This was a gathering which was attended by a lot of intellectuals, journalists and activists among which we note the presence of prominent Lebanese composer and singer Marcel Khalife. You can check Mahmoud Ghazayel's photos of the event, on Facebook.

Participants were chanting “This a shout from Lebanon - Calling for Human Rights”:

Jordanians conducted Taraweeh, the nightly Ramadan prayers, on August 2 in front of the Syrian Embassy as we can see in this video taken directly from the scene of events by Basemaggad. Bassem recorded another video in August 8 too.

Similar rallies took places in the Gulf monarchies cities, like in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, on August 8, where we can hear people shouting “Syria is for us and not for the Assad Family”:

Here is another video from Jeddah at night on the same day by hama19822011:

In Kuwait (August 5 and 7) and Bahrain (August 5, 8 and 9, protesters are demanding the expulsion of Syrian Ambassador from both respective countries and the freezing of the bilateral ties with Damascus. Protests were attended by several political figures and members of both parliaments.

This video by daraahoran shows people in Kuwait in front of Syrian Embassy, calling for the overthrow of the Baath party.

Syrians and Bahrainis rallied in Manama on August 9, chanting“Daraa, we're with you, till death !”

We conclude our round up in the Australian continent, where seems the Assad opponents and partisans also voiced their support and vice versa.

In Auckland, New Zealand, approximately 200 people gathered in protest against the regime for killing innocent Syrian civilians on July 30.

Demonstrations were also held in Sydney, Australia, on August 2 against the regime:

In another demonstration in Sydney on April 3, protested to say that ”Bashar is the best president in the whole Middle East and the world there will be no one like him”.

Protests against the Syrian regime, are penciled in for London, Paris and Tunis tomorrow (August 13).

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

Thumbnail and featured image ‘Protest to support Syrian opposition at State Department - Berlin', by Thorsten Strasas, copyright Demotix (06/08/11).

Romania: Ceaucescu's Repressive Machinery

Vilhelm Konnander — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:54:02 +0000

Nelson Duque at The View East discusses the repressive role of the security service, Securitate, in Ceaucescu's communist Romania.

Central and Eastern Europe: Economies more exposed than expected

Vilhelm Konnander — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:47:23 +0000

Edward Hugh of Baltic Economy Watch argues that Central and East European economies are more exposed to risk in case of a Eurozone crisis than what financial ratings say.