Basescu's help

A villa stolen by a buddy of President Traian Basescu's is now the central headquarters of the PLD (Liberal Democrat Party). The house on 148 Vasile Lascar Street in the center of Bucharest was also used by the President when he was campaigning before the referendum meant to get him suspended.
Razvan Toader, the man who made the villa available to the PLD and the head of state, is a character close to Traian Basescu. At the time the latter was a general mayor of Bucharest, Razvan Toader was a general secretary of the City Hall. He was suspected of involvement in some fishy real estate business.
One of the transactions casting suspicion is the villa at stake. Razvan Toader's mother got to own it by means of several faked documents. The lawful owner addressed Justice and he is now trying to get it back.
But Theodor Stolojan's Liberal-Democrats don't seem to worry about the uncertain status of the house now sheltering their central headquarters. Furthermore, the 'presidential party' is getting ready to make Razvan Toader one of its parliamentarians. This is how the ex general secretary in the Bucharest City will be paid in exchange for the insignificant money he gains by renting the villa in the center of Bucharest. (...)

M.G.
Ziua Marti 28 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Iliescu laundered completely

"The record of Ion Iliescu did not exist or it was cleaned", said yesterday Dorin Dobrincu, a head of the National Archives. It is to be reminded that before 1989 the ex President of Romania was a secretary of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, a vice president of the district council in Timis (in 1971-1974) and also a president of the district council in Iasi (1974-1979).
The CNSAS (National Council for Research on the Communist Secret Service Archive) reached a decision favorable to Ion Iliescu, mentioning they had no record on his name from the ex Securitate (Communist Secret Service in Romania). Still both the President of Romania Traian Basescu and the Marius Oprea, a president of the Institute for Investigations on Communist Crimes, expressed opinion that there must be a record of Ion Iliescu as member of the Romanian Communist Party. "It is hard for me to think there are no records of the former regime's officials", President Basescu commented, adding that each member of the Communist staff used to have a record, just like "any of us has probably got a record in the company he/she works for".
Marius Oprea explained one year ago that, given the CNSAS law, Ion Iliescu would probably be declared not to have collaborated with the ex Securitate, which was bewildering, since "some ordinary informer must get under public rebuke". According to Marius Oprea, during the Communist regime Ion Iliescu, a first secretary of the Communist Party in Iasi, would give permission to the ex Securitate to recruit informers. Marius Oprea also claimed Ion Iliescu would decide that certain party members, undesirable to the ex Securitate, should be watched or have their homes bugged.

C.A.
Ziua Marti 28 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

The code of honor in Bucharest

According to the Bushido, the code of behaviour and the philosophy of life preparing the samurai for a dignified death, the most important moment of his tragic destiny, the sword must be unsheathed on one single purpose: to kill the adversary. The legends on the samurai stigmatize the attitude of braggers who wave their swords to and fro to announce a fight they never get to fight. The samurai is supposed to utter as few words as possible and, above all, not to threaten his adversary. Such threat is thought to be useless, as long as the samurai's silent and determined presence signifies much more than words can tell. The samurai is the sword itself, they are one and the same being, he expresses the sword and stands for its power. They say that, just as the blade of any samurai sword is something that lives on the blood of killed enemies, but speaks only by killing, the true samurai has got to tell no more than what he tells by his decision to fight.
The opposite of such a code of honor is a totally different philosophy of life and a completely different type of behaviour: the one in use at the Gates of the Orient, where everything, honor included, is mocked. The direct effect of this historical tradition is that no one takes us too seriously, even when words announce that the sword, if there is one and if it is made of steel, could be unsheathed.
Everyone should have been breathless when President Traian Basescu announced ceremonially that this was it, the Moldovan Republic authorities pushed it too far and Romania would give a tough response. The President of Romania said the country was facing a challenge and it would give a response fit for such severe deeds. What did there follow ? God forbid it, no one fancied drums announcing war ! But one expected at least some classical diplomacy action or the Moldovan ambassador to be summoned and demonstratively rebuked in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since there was the evidence Basescu relied on when mentioning the respective challenge. Or we thought that our experts in security and communication systems would at least show up to prove that the intercepting of those phone calls the Chishinau authorities were mentioning were just a cheap fake. But did anyone say a thing ?
Yes, they did. But it was not our officials who said it, it was still Voronin. He has made use of Romania's lack of response after the presidential snarl given when the President was on a leave by the seaside, Voronin has started aggressive offense. It is just like when he explained to the European Union why he didn't need Basescu's offer to help the Moldovan Republic progress on the European way, since he had other partners. Now he is accusing Romania of making a pact with the devil and he is claiming that, since we are anyway talking about challenges, the Romanian side is guilty of financing the unionist move.
And, tough as they are when it comes to mockery, out fighters are keeping silent, which they take for dignified and honorable. They are pretending to know nothing, allowing an unprecedented wave of insults to flow on Romania. As you can see, this wave is becoming so consistent that it may substitute what the Flower Bridge used to be once. Disdain at the entity called Romania has started prevailing: the Magyar Guard in Budapest claims to be ready for action when the case, Voronin is mocking us... What about our national honor ?

Cristian Unteanu
Ziua Marti 28 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english