The release of Vladimir Tismaneanu’s book Lumea secreta a nomenclaturii [The Secret World of the Nomenklatura] constitutes an event. Not so much because of its content though as the author remains faithful to his own style pasting and copying information and part of the texts in the book from older published works and his personal […]
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Is it the Fall of the Great Mediator?
In the bestiary of east European political monsters Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is a peculiarly elusive species. When he first came to power in 2009 both the remains of the 1990s liberal anticommunist concert (think tanks-media-the old right wing parties), and the ordinary people were thrusting contradictory hopes on Borisov’s shoulders. The liberal elite […]
In December 2012 students started a series of demonstrations against recent government reforms of higher education. In Budapest and many other towns the students set up discussion forums, organized strikes, and occupied streets, squares and bridges. Besides the slowly reacting official national and local Student Union (HÖK, HÖOK), the newly organized Student Network (SN, HaHa) […]
On Wednesday, 20th of February 2013, the Bulgarian government headed by Boyko Borissov has deposited its resignation. What happened? What comes next? Over the last week, Bulgarians in most big cities have been out in the streets, protesting against the increased electricity and heating bills. While the increase has happened gradually throughout 2012, the bills that […]
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Occupy Petrom. A Ballad of Small Stakes
News release issued on 9th of November, 2011: during the 3rd quarter, Petrom registered record profit of EUR 275 million, having all chances to exceed 1 billion of profit for the entire year. Why have you never protested in front of the central OMV-Petrom headquarters?, I asked, at a reunion, some young trade unionists gathered […]
Twenty years ago, in March 1992, NSF (National Salvation Front) split into two factions: the DNSF (Democratic National Salvation Front) – led by Ion Iliescu – which later became PSDR (Party of Social Democracy in Romania) and then SDP (Social Democratic Party), and DP (Democratic Party), the subsequent name taken by the NSF faction led […]
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Those Protesting in Romania Today
In a paper already famous – “Time for Outrage” – Stéphane Hessel urges his readers to get outraged, claiming that the basic ground for resistance is outrage. Hessel was often rebuked that outrage is not enough, that collective action meant to bring about change entails more than that. Still, Hessel tells us that it is […]
de Vlad Bolocan Pretty much so, yet in a robinhoodish way. It appears spontaneously, shocks and disappears. When, in 1969, Noroc sells 2,5 million copies of a four-tracks single, everyone starts searching for Moldova on the map – the guys in Siberia and the ones in Berlin. De ce plîng chitarele (Why are the Guitars Crying) reaches the 6th place in […]
de Petru Negură Identity and Cultural Conflicts One of the main tasks attributed to Soviet Moldovan writers and “creative intellectuals”, from the creation of the first literary organization of the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was to create a system of cultural values (around […]
Preliminary Data In the following, we will be referring to the modern era (late XIXth century to the present) cultural structures and mechanisms of theMoldovanRepublic, but also to a certain cultural configuration that has emerged and continues to evolve there in the last few years. I will attempt a brief overview of the field and […]