Romanian president hits a child in 2004 campaign

The Romanian president Traian Băsescu hit a child in the face during a meeting in the city of Ploiesti, in the previous presidential campaign in 2004.

Băsescu was standing on a stage set up for the meeting and he bent down to receive a memoir from a woman participating in the rally. While he was talking to her, the cameras recorded him hitting the child.

Asked about the incident, the president replied: “I will watch the recording and I will give a public explanation. I can’t remember the incident. There are so many people who swear at me wherever I go. I was probably with somebody else, I wasn’t alone. Maybe the child said bad words to the woman. We’ll see what this is all about. I will give an explanation tomorrow”.

Traian Băsescu won the first round of the presidential elections on Sunday, with 32.8% of the votes and will participate in the second round, due on the 6^th of December. His opponent, the Social Democrat Mircea Geoană, finished on second place in the first round, with 31.7% of the votes.

 

I love mornings

They are my favourite time of the day. At 6 o’clock, when I wake up, everything is dark around me. I turn on the light and thank God for waking up once again.

Then, huddled up, I quickly head towards the kitchen to make my coffee, the best I’ve ever drunk, though almost nobody else likes it. Not even one cat famous for drinking coffee quite often.

I grab my special red pot in which I boil it, sent to me from Romania so that every day can taste good. And my special coffee sent to me as well from my country. The only thing my mornings and I regret is not having with us the yellow big coup, or soup bowl, as some call it, that coloured the beginnings of every day. It is waiting for me. I promised it I wouldn’t be too late. Not more than a couple of years.

And in the meantime, light appears at my window, with trees surrounded by fog. It will be another typically British day with flighty weather.

I take my sweet anything-but-strong coffee with a bit of milk and open my constant friend abroad – my laptop. And news starts invading me, Romanian talk-shows as well, books and a lot of music.

Some words exchanged with the loved ones and half an hour of Pilates make my day and strengthen me. And just to add a bit of flavour – a pair of earrings, a necklace, some nice cloths. Here I am ready for another long hard working day, but as well waiting for tomorrow morning to come.

 

A bloger’s joke

I just found a very nice joke that says:

In the church, the priest meets a parishioner and asks him:

“What brings you to the church, John?”

“Father, I’ve come to confess my sins.”

“You don’t need to, I’ve read your blog.”

 

The war reporter in me

In 2006, one month before my admission exam at the Journalism Faculty, my uncle took me on a car ride and told me: “Don’t become a journalist, this job doesn’t suit you. I see you more as a diplomat”. And looking at me, one may think he is right – nails always polished, necklaces, neatly dressed. But the truth is, for more than five years, I wanted to become a war reporter. Even now I fancy the idea.

On that same day, my uncle, who was in Bucharest at the revolution in December 1989, when a girl standing close to him was shot in the head, told me as well: “This idea will go away when you grow up. Don’t make my mistake”.

So then I asked myself: why do journalists go to conflict zones? From a macabre taste in seeing blood, death, feeling the adrenaline? To at least say they tried to make a difference by informing correctly? To make of this a thing to be proud of? To have what to tell to their grand children? Maybe all these together. I know I wanted to go there mainly for my own curiosity, to see with my own eyes what is really happening.

For many years I wanted to be a war reporter and no-one at all could ever change my mind. Probably I needed to convince myself that I shouldn’t, no matter how long it would take me. I am still not convinced and looking for some answers, but in the meantime all I have is some questions that I ask myself every time the thought of reporting form a war zone crosses my mind.

Why covering the unfair wars devoid of equality nowadays? Why risk my life to talk about a major country, with all the power in the world, conquering for purely economic reasons a smaller one and then pretending it is the best for the latter’s people? The wars have lost their main purpose, that of fighting for freedom, for a cause. Now they are just violent ways in which strong countries can take advantage of smaller, less military equipped ones.

This year, Eastern Europe celebrates 20 years since the fall of the Communists. Talking to some foreign correspondents who were in Romania in December 1989, they all told me they were astonished by the energy of the people, their desire for freedom. How they risked they life by going on the streets, although the army was shooting at them. How they were laughing despite the tragic situation, how no trace of fear was seen on their face.

And now I think I would really like to cover such revolutions, to talk about people fighting for their freedom, for a dream, for their rights. Not to report from an economically-driven war and talk about innocent people dying from another country’s will. As not only wars are unfair and disgusting nowadays, but the death it causes as well.

 

Don Quijote and Sancho Panza wanted to vote

… so they decided to wake up very early on That Sunday and take the train to go to That Place and vote for Their President. Smiling and enthusiastic to be celebrating one year of partnership through such an important decision: the presidential vote. 

After a half-an-hour journey, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza arrived at the closest tube station and saw what they had expected and been afraid of: the opponent of Their President was sabotaging the means of public transport. So a 20-minute trip turned into a one-hour journey. But regardless of the windmills they had to fight against, they were determined to reach the voting office.

The wind was so fierce and Don Quijote was so cold, but the two finally reached The Place where they were supposed to vote. The gates were closed and the street looked deserted, so they rang the bell. A peasant looking guy holding a paper in his hand sent them to another building, “15 minutes of walking”. So the two partners, without Rocinanta, started one more journey.

And all of the sudden, the strongest wind started blazing and the strongest rain started pouring. Their umbrella got broken and they were both wet to the skin, but moved on convinced their vote will make a difference, that they will change something, anything in That Country where Don Quijote wanted to return and Sancho Panza didn’t.

They passed by empty streets, the only brave ones to face the frightful weather. Apart from them, just a crazy British mother without an umbrella, pushing her baby’s pram and crying out loud: “Out of the way! Get out of the way!” Too bad for old Don Quijote, who didn’t hear the woman scream and was left with bruises all over his left foot, after being hit by the pram.

The strong wind seemed to be trying to stop the two from voting, pushing them backwards. Another way in which the opponent was sabotaging them. But they resisted, even the thin Don Quijote, almost carried away by the wind, who grasped Sancho Panza’s arm, for the sole reason he was a bit plumper than him.

And they finally made it to the other That Place, where they were to vote for their future. But when they got to the doors, they found a long queue continued outside the building, in the rain. The tiny two-bedroom looking poll office was full of people trying to find their way towards the five stamps.

After waiting for half an hour, filling in declarations in which they promised they wouldn’t take the plane on that day to Romania to vote once more, they grabbed the stamp and placed it on the name of Their President. Then went to enjoy a happy meal to celebrate their partnership and their great decision.

But as too few people voted for Their President, He didn’t make it to the second round, something Don Quijote actually expected. He just wanted to follow his conscience and promised not to vote with anyone else. And (that’s a secret he told me) he is quite glad not to go again to That Place, to vote for His President and to fight against all windmills in the world. Too bad His Country won’t look like he wanted it.

 

Someone said

“Don’t tell me the sky is the limit, there are footsteps on the Moon!”

 

The number of Romanians voting abroad more than doubled compared to 2004

Over 88.500 Romanians living abroad voted on Sunday in the presidential elections, two times more than in the previous polls, in 2004 and 2000, according to the Romanian newspapers.

The number of Romanians voting for a president in the first round more than doubled this year, compared to the 40.869 people who participated in the elections in 2004 and the other 33.169 who voted abroad in 2000.

The vote for the presidential elections lasted for 35 hours around the world, with New Zeeland being the first country where Romanians could vote. The cities where the poll offices last closed were those on the Western coast of the United States – California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada – at 7 a.m., Romania’s time, on Monday.

The highest number of voters was in Italy and Spain. Over 12.000 Romanians voted in Italy on Sunday, almost four times more than five years ago, when only 3.851 people participated in the elections. The same increase in the number of voters was registered in Spain, as well, with 5.000 people stopping at the poll offices, two times more than in the last presidential elections, in 2004, when only 2.693 Romanians voted.

The results of the vote abroad will be made public on Monday by the Foreign Ministry.

 

The campaign that never was

It comes a time every five years when Romanians have the chance to choose their president among several candidates. But this year, in Romania, there was hardly anything that can be called presidential campaign.

Our politicians didn’t even try to make an effort. Unlike in other more civilized and developed countries, where candidates confront their plans and programmes, even considering the possibility that those are a bunch of political lies. At least, they give the impression they try to win the battle, that they do spend time thinking about promises – that they will keep or not. At least they have the decency and courage to meet face to face and answer to a moderator’s questions, while they do their best to convince people to vote them. Any politician with the intelligence not bigger than a nut would understand that talking to the people, coming in front of them, is the most important part in getting votes and they should appreciate any chance they are given to do that.

But Romania is different and so is everything related to it. It seemed like the last five years of the presidential mandate looked much more like a campaign than the last month, in which the official presidential campaign was supposed to take place. There was no debate in which more than three candidates participated. Some looked too frightened to confront their opponents or too sure of their success to take the risk of making mistakes. Some wanted a debate in three, others in five, others didn’t care. And when the main debated was set for five candidates, someone suddenly changed the format to seven, so those who agreed before didn’t agree anymore. Too complicated? It is just our human nature, our most obvious feature. So, after almost a month of campaigning, more or less – actually less than more – the candidates finally agreed to meet. And not all, but just three of them, those credited with the highest chances to enter a second round. And that just two days before the elections!

It was simply the poorest, most invisible presidential campaign I can recall. It was the campaign that never was.

 

Exit-polls: Băsescu and Geoană in second round

The president in office, Traian Basescu, is on the first place with 32,8% of the votes, while on the second place is the Social-Democrat candidate, Mircea Geoană, with 31,7% of the votes, according to the exit-polls published at 9 p.m. on Romania. They will confront each other again in the second round, on the 6^th of December.

On the third place there is the Liberal Crin Antonescu, with 21,8% of the votes, followed by the rest of the candidates: Corneliu Vadim Tudor – 4%; Hungarian Kelemen Hunor – 3,6%; the independent Sorin Oprescu – 3,5%; the owner of Steaua football club, George Becali – 1,7%; Remus Cernea – 0,4%; Eduard Manole – 0,2%; Ovidiu Cristian Iane – 0,1%; and the representative of the Roma community, Constantin Ninel Potârcă – 0,1%.

The next results will be published at 11 p.m., Romania’s time.

 

Romanian authorities in the UK not prepared for the wave of voters

A source in the Romanian consulate in London said on Sunday the authorities didn’t prepare well enough, as they didn’t expect the wave of people that came to vote for the presidential elections.

Until 12 p.m., around 250 people had voted in the Consulate, a number that took by surprise the authorities. According to the same source, they didn’t expect so many people to come, after the experience with the elections for the European Parliament, on the 7^th of June this year, when no more than 170 people voted throughout the day.

A small room in the Consulate was one of the three places were Romanians could vote, the other two being the Cultural Institute and Brent Town Hall. Despite the strong wind and heavy rain, hundreds of people went to vote. Some of them had to wait in queues outside in the pouring rain until their turn came, as the room was overcrowded.

According to the NewsIn news agency, over 27.500 Romanians who live in foreign countries voted until 4 p.m., 21.000 of these only in Italy and Spain.