Romania is the most corrupted EU state

According to the critical analysis by Reuters Agency, the outcome of the fight against corruption is at a standstill because of hesitating politicians, political confrontations and inefficient public administration.
The Reuters analysis is an ample account of the progress Romania and Bulgaria made after joining the EU in terms of commitments assigned before the accession. The report, 75% of it on Romania, includes severe conclusions.
Failed reforms
6 months after joining the EU, Romania and Bulgaria failed to prove credible progress with the fight against corruption and organized crime, despite the enlarged legislative reforms. The report mentions Brussels officials are concerned about it and some EU states say the two poor Balkan countries joined the EU too early. Both Romania and Bulgaria are under monitoring and they may be sanctioned after the European Commission releases report in June 27 and decide the two newcomers can't meet requirements on the fight against abuse.
Both states reformed the juridical system and passed laws establishing institutions to fight against corruption, in keeping with the EU demands. Still many foreign observers claim the outcome of it is at a standstill because of hesitating politicians, political confrontations and inefficient public administration. The diplomat of an EU state in Bucharest is claimed to have commented that he could never see the proof of results or the impact on society, although there should be evidence to show authorities' intention to fight corruption at all levels.
According to foreign observers, fraud is so deeply rooted in Romania and Bulgaria that very many local politicians don't want to implement efficient reforms. Judicial system members are often very close to criminal groups and the new laws lack mechanisms of application. And the disputes among the governing parties are one more problem, although both the Romanian and Bulgarian governments see their populations decreasing. There is estimated that reforms ceased completely the moment when the two states got EU membership.
As far as Romania is concerned, the ex Justice minister Monica Macovei is perceived as author of a complete renewal of the juridical system and there is mentioned that last April she was sacked as minister because of political arguments. Commentators opine that the present Justice minister, Tudor Chiuariu, is inefficient. Sorin Ionita, a member of the Romanian Academic Society, comments that what Romania's new Justice minister wants isn't clear yet. He adds the minister seems to be after setting limits to prosecutors' attributions.
The trial against Adrian Nastase makes no progress
Another example used is the trial against Romania's ex PM Adrian Nastase, at a standstill for several months now because of a Constitutional Court dispute. The trial is seen as a test for the ability of the reformed Justice system to handle high level fraud cases. (...)
Bucharest still needs an efficient agency to monitor politicians' personal properties, an institution Brussels officials believe to be crucial for the elimination of abuses. The report mentions that the Romanian Parliament initially restrained this institution's power and the MPs are now to pass an improved version on the respective law draft. According to Transparency International, Romania is the most corrupted EU state because of failing public policies used to fight and prevent corruption in public administration. (...)

George Damian
Ziua Sambata 23 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Aidan White: Romanian press lacks credibility

Aidan White, a general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, opined in yesterday's press conference in Bucharest that Romanian press was losing its credibility. He claimed there was an unhappy connection between politics and the media, which was harming the independence and ethics of journalists. He argued that more and more journalists were part of the corruption effecting on the media. The IFJ official underscored one didn't have the right to ask for changes unless one was changing. He outlined the word "corruption" was too often used in Europe to describe Romania and Bulgaria and opined that trust in the mass media could be regained by efforts. As for Romania, he claimed there are too many politicians pursuing business interests in the media.
As for the President of Romania Traian Basescu, the IFJ official described his speech as fully inadequate and permeated with clues against journalists' right to get information and ask questions. Cristian Godinac, president of the MediaSind, argued in his turn that the President's offenses against the political class and his verbal violence against journalists were a perilous precedent and he described it as scandalous that journalists should become a laughing stock for politicians. (...)

T.B.
Ziua Vineri 22 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

The King and the Country. The Republic and Moscow

The National Institute for the Memory of Romanian Exile, the only governmental institution under the auspices of his Majesty King Mihai I, arranged a reunion to celebrate 80 years since His Majesty had been crowned. The reunion took place last Wednesday, June 20, in the Cantacuzino Palace-The Enescu Museum in Bucharest. The attendance of King Mihai and Queen Ana crowned a graceful evening.
Mrs. Marilena Rotaru, author of the event, and Mr. Dinu Zamfirescu, a president of the above-mentioned, were hosts. They reminded that Romania hadn't actually ceased to be a constitutional monarchy, even if Moscow had ordered a republic onto it. After 60 years, the Trison Group, a children's chorus from Chishinau directed by Stefan Caranfil, sings wonderfully. Their Romanian is unbelievably beautiful. They sing "Romanian, My Country" in Bucharest, Iasi, Moscow, Kiev, Paris, Berlin. The children of Basarabia sang it and the Royal Hymn to the King of our dismembered country.
Some will give superior smiles or snarls and claim that those present at the encounter with the country's history that is still alive prove suffer from nostalgia or from unachievable aspirations. But it is those who think Romania has been in an illegal state since December 30, 1947 who delude themselves. The illusion that such illegal state can go on forever will be shattered, even if the self-delusive ones make a majority, because of lying propaganda. In 1990 we commented that the Communists who had betrayed the country had fetched republic to Romania by Soviet cannons, but without providing such an illegal deed with legal grounds. Of course they didn't care about the law, as they knew things were already settled so that Moscow would reign over Romania instead of the King. It is just that they failed to impose an illegitimate rule by legal, that is legislative, means. They broke the Constitution and the other Romanian laws to pieces.
The Abdication of His Majesty King Mihai I has never been made legal in Romania. After King Mihai had been forced into abdicating, in order to save the lives of over 1,000 young people arrested for blackmail, the National Assembly members got together. But the Parliament had no quorum. And even if there had been a quorum, after the abdication had been adopted they were to settle Regency, because of the Constitution. A republic could not be proclaimed via a monarchist Constitution. A new Constitution, a republican one, would have had to be adopted to this end, and people would have had to agree or nor by means of a referendum. No such legislative measure was taken. The servants of Moscow disregarded people's choice for monarchy and defied the Church. King Mihai I was anointed a King, which is clear even to Gigi Becali.
Romania's reaffirmation as a constitutional monarchy must be the major bet of the Tariceanu government, a thing that should have been done in December 22, 1989. Iliescu and Moscow's reactivated servants were actually the ones who had plotted the whole bloodshed masquerade so that the true Romania would stay in exile. And now, after 17 years, the Constitutional Court is making 0 out of the court cases on the 1989 Revolution and the 1990 coal miners' attacks. The owners: Iliescu&Basescu.
But we are lucky that the illegal republic coming from Moscow can be overthrown by the most fervent supporters of President Traian Basescu, with Gabriel Liiceanu top of the list. He has announced he is working on a project for a new Constitution. A monarchist one, naturally. Mind you what Mr. Liiceanu's is uttering in his wonderful voice in the film of his friend Sorin Iliesiu: Monarchy Saves Romania.

Roxana Iordache
Ziua Vineri 22 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

A rude President

Journalists are free. This is what Traian Basescu used to claim during the electoral campaign that made him a President. Another lie of this caricature character who represents, the way he does, the Romanian state. Ever since reaching Cotroceni Palace, he has been ceaselessly offending the fundamental liberties and rights of the press and its representatives. And the last incident by the Black Sea shore, when, two days ago, Basescu called journalists rude simply because they dared film him while on public space, is the climax. It is Traian Basescu who is rude, actually.
Let's remember some things about the troubled divorce between Traian Basescu and the press. The first thing the President did after just claiming "Journalists are free" was a public, noisy and brutal refusal to allow journalists, just like under different administrations, their right to accompany him in his visits abroad. The refusal grew even more explicit when the reporters filmed the wind bringing up the presidential lock of hair, never seen before. It was in 10 Downing Street, when Basescu was saying goodbye to Tony Blair, the official he had met with on the famous Bucharest-London-Washington axis. After all, why did I say then and why am I saying now that, by banning journalists' access to the presidential aircraft, Basescu tried to restrain press freedom? After all, why wasn't he right to say that journalists, if they wanted to watch his activity abroad, should take civil planes? The reason is simple. Any visit by a head of state calls for severe measures of protection and protocol. High level meetings are usually part of a whole net of foreign contacts, asking for fast trips from one office to the other. Journalists who are not in the official delegation stand poor chances to report on such meetings. Had Basescu truly wanted journalists to participate, without discrimination, in foreign events, by means different than traveling by the presidential plane, Presidency would have provided a charter at the expense of the press and to the benefit of the press as well. But it did not happen.
Basescu's incredible rudeness is visible in all the incidents ever since. All the gross insults for some journalists, newspapers, TV stations and press owners. It culminated two days ago by the seaside. Basescu called some journalists rude because they were filming him while he wasn't at work. It is time for public opinion to realize that Presidency employees, with Basescu's knowledge and even at his wish, inform journalists when he leaves for places on mortal purposes. They do it so that the media will show him doing what common mortals do. This is what happened in the referendum day and two days ago too.
The second thing public opinion should know is that a head of state has never got days off. This is one reason why his bodyguards never leave him and the wages they get comes from the public budget. As seen, he is neither criminally responsible when, while not in the office, he steals a journalist's cell phone.
Thirdly, any person, a head of state included, may be photographed and filmed by anyone when moving in public space. We have got a rude President !
P.S.: But the presidential flatterer in the person of Catalin Avramescu, whom Basescu has just bribed with membership to the Administration Council of the Romanian Public Television network, is not one of the rude journalists.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua Marti 19 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

President can't understand the part press plays in democracy

Last Saturday while by the seaside the Romanian President insulted journalists once again. He called them "incredibly rude" and civil society representatives have responded. They express concern about the President's attitude, which they are critical of.
Stelian Tanase, political analyst: "He is impossible to understand"
"The President has got no reason for such attitude and his response to the press shows how democratic he is. Such a thing couldn't have happened in a civilized state and I think civil society must react strongly. He is actually sending an undemocratic message to his own electorate, probably also because after the scandal with the reporter from Antena 1 channel his popularity has been growing. After the referendum he has shown a certain nervousness because of failing to capitalize his popularity and overthrow the government. Although not aggressed, he is aggressive, which is impossible to understand. Basescu reiterates offenses against the press, although he enjoyed press support. Things were calm around him that moment and he had no reason to get irritated".
Renate Weber, president of Foundation for an Open Society:
"A President can't invoke the right to private life"
"Traian Basescu should understand a President of state can't invoke the right to private life to defend himself, especially when he is in a public space. He can't make use of this. When he is in public it is normal for journalists to wish to get information, for a President doesn't work 8 hours a day. His attitude is part of his view that the press must serve him and he can't understand the part the press plays in democratic society".
Ana-Maria Mosneagu, executive manager of Pro Democracy Association:
"Have control over his speech"
"Such conflicts are so unfortunate. It is important to emphasize that the communication between the President and citizens is achieved via the media. It is desirable that the President should try to have control over his speech when citizens are present and especially when the media, fond of slips, is there".
Zoe Petre, historian:
"Disrespect for the press"
"This is not the first the President has had such attitude, but it is illustrative of his approach to the press. The President makes use of the press, but he takes it for an instrument, and not for a power in state. It is an instrument he disrespects, which is regrettable. Even if they have a love-hate relationship with the press, politicians generally respect it. In this case, it is disrespect for the press, which seems very unpleasant to me. Journalists must reply, especially after their support for the President".

Ovidiu Banches & C.A.
Ziua Marti 19 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Post-communist left - a history of lie

Ion Iliescu's letter 17 years after the miners' race on 13-15 June 1990 is only a fragment of the interminable lie, misinformation and manipulation by which the post-communist left has dominated our political life. There are many decades those of FSN (National Salvation Front)-FDSN (Democratic National Salvation Front)-PDSR (Party of Social Democracy in Romania)-PSD (Social-Democratic Party) need to wash out the dishonour and the evil they've done to Romania. We know when the lie, misinformation, manipulation, as well as the murders, have started - on 22nd December 1989. But we don't know when they come to an end, as the party of Iliescu and his political associates haven't got away from staying into power.
In Romania, the left has been into power for more than 60 years. From 1944 till 1989 the radical left has been into power, that is the communist, Stalinist, totalitarian one, which has spiritually, morally and physically destroyed the nation and has reduced the country to beggary. After the communist left collapse, it was normal that parties of the liberal democracy came to power and we had a capitalist economy, able to generate, together, economic prosperity, individual liberty, equal rights for all citizens, a rule of law based on the separation of powers in the State. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed something completely different, we have had a monstrous left, whose objectives were the consolidation of the gang and individual power, the staying into power on an undetermined period and the compromised use of the State's resources to enrich its own clientele. Given their manipulative ability of a former-secret-police-nomenclature-type, at first they had managed to get the large support of the "popular masses" (in May 1990, Iliescu won the presidency by 85% of the votes, and FSN won the general election by 66% of the votes). Meanwhile, the December diversion with the dead people, the FSN turning from an executive and legislative power into a political party, the miners' races, the manipulation of the free election, the plundering of this country, and an endless list of sins won't ever be omitted by the history books. And we won't have to wait long until some of those responsible are prosecuted, and the guilty ones are condemned and go to prison. (This is until Basescu - another FSN chap, and his successor grant them a pardon).
What is happening now in PSD is the beginning of the end of a party that has swallowed too many years of our lives. The situation inside this party doesn't even deserve to be analyzed. Instead, we have to wait for the results of the five consecutive elections that are to follow in the next less than two years and a half. Although PSD is a party in a terminal stage, it still massively and negatively influences the Romanian politics. The fact that the last important historical party, PNL (National Liberal Party), is still governing against their ex-partners in the DA (Justice and Truth) Alliance, against Basescu, whom Tariceanu owes the nomination as a PM, but with PSD's massive support, shows us how much evil the party of Iliescu, Nastase, Geoana, Vanghelie&comp. still does.
After more than 60 years of left domination, 60 years of right domination should follow in Romania. I'll do no more reckoning, but after lie had dinner with presidents and PMs, with governments, ministers, parliaments, justice, time has come not to live in truth (as it would be impossible), but simply to get rid of lie. As my favourite author showed, democracy depends on the moral and spiritual state of a nation. For our nation to experience a moral, spiritual and christian rebirth, we must remove from power and from politics the source of evil - the undemocratic left.

Dan Pavel
Ziua Luni 18 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Prosecutors charge ex President Ion Iliescu

The ex Romanian President Ion Iliescu has been charged with the death of 4 Romanians during the coal miners' attacks in June 13-15, 1990. Ongoing criminal investigations are on participation to murder.

D.I.
Ziua Marti 19 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Revolution and miners' races files, at crossroads

The 21 Decembrie Association, the Civic Alliance and the Students' League ask - by means of a letter sent to president Basescu and to the representatives of the European forums - for support in the files concerning the revolution and of the 1990 miners' race remaining in the custody of the military prosecutors. The signatories of the letter consider that the handing of those files to the civil parquets would delay for an illicitly long period the trial of the cases.
Chairman of the 21 Decembrie Association, Theodor Maries claimed, yesterday, in a press conference, that the transfer to various civil parquets and police sections of these files for a solution would seriously affect their finalizing in a short while. "In reality, all these maneuvers to repeatedly modify the criminal proceedings, by a direct legislative way or by the agency of the Constitutional Court, aim at ensuring the protection of some important political and military officials, who for 17 years have been avoiding investigations and being sued for the criminal deeds and the murders they had committed", said Maries.
In the opinion of the chairman of the 21 Decembrie Association, the Constitutional Court has "illicitly" postponed to pronounce over the complaints of "so-called" unconstitutionality of the standards by which it decided that the files left at the military parquets at the time the legislation was being modified should remain in the custody of the same institutions until investigations were over.
Maries appreciated that accepting those complaints would be an unforgivable and contemptuous act towards the victims, and also a provocation of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, as the supreme judiciary instance showed the mentioned provisions were constitutional.
Court, to pronounce today
The Court's prosecutors will make a decision today on the military prosecutor's objectivity, after the European Court for the Human Rights had decreed that military magistrates cannot be objective, whereas they are twice subordinated, once to the Ministry of Justice and the second time to the Ministry of Defence.


Ovidiu Banches
Ziua Luni 18 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Macovei's secret

-- Upon the former Justice minister's order, a team of military experts searched through the DGPA (General Directorate for Protection and Anti-corruption, the secret service of the Ministry of Justice) - SIPA (Service of Intelligence and Anti-Terrorist Protection, the secret service of the Ministry of Interior) archive in 2005, but the outcome of the investigation hasn't been made public
ZIUA daily in possession of address no113595, issued from he Ministry of Justice on 14 December 2005, by counselor Mihai Pruna. He informed the "SoJust" Association on the partial results of the control the experts from the Ministry of Defence carried out through the archives of the secret service of Justice. The audit the military carried out revealed the fact that SIPA (Service of Intelligence and Anti-Terrorist Protection, the secret service of the Ministry of Interior) officers, many of which came from the ex-Securitate (the communist secret police), abusively investigated acts of corruption of some magistrates and State officials. The former management ordered the destruction of some documents that should have been preserved for 5 to 30 years, according to the law. Also, the lack of an organizational structure and of internal control procedures for the fund allocation was identified in the financial field. The admission procedure in the system wasn't always observed, in that that some candidates weren't psychologically tested and they weren't requested to submit their police record. A report on the Defense's secret control at SIPA's archive was submitted, in 2005, to the European Commission. Macovei didn't inform the Romanian public opinion on these irregularities and didn't take the necessary legal measures against those who had violated the law. Moreover, informed sources told us that SIPA also made use of a mobile phones tapping technique similar to the one of the secret service of the Ministry of Interior, led by Virgil Ardelean at that time.

Ovidiu Banches
Ziua Luni 18 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Murphy's Laws

The Way It Goes Sometimes...

Patrick's Theorem
If the experiment works, you must be using the wrong equipment.

Skinners's Constant
That quanity which, when multiplied times, divided by, added to, or subtracted from your answer,... gives you the answer you should have gotten.

Horners's Five Thumb Postulate
Experience varies directly with equipment ruined.

Flagle's Law of the Perversity of Inanimate Objects
Any inanimate object, regardless of its composition or configuration, may be expected to perform,... at any time,... in a totally unexpected manor, for reasons that are obsure or else completely mysterious.

Allen's Axiom
When all else fails, read the directions.

The Spare Parts Principle
The accessibility, during recovery, of small parts which fall from the work bench, varies directly with the size of the part, and inversely with its importance to the completion of the work underway.

The Compensation Corollary
The experiment may be considered a success if no more than 50% of the observed measurments must be discarded to obtain a correspondence with theory.

Gumperson's Law
The probability of a given event occuring is inversely proportional to its desirability.

The Ordering Principle
Those supplies needed for yesterday's experiment must be ordered no later than tomorrow noon.

The Ultimate Principle
By definition, when you are investigating the unkown you do not know what you will find.

The Futility Factor
No experiment is ever a complete failure,... It can always serve as as a bad example.

Airplane Law
When the plane you are on is late, the plane you want to transfer to is on time.

Allison's Precept
The best simple-minded test of expertise in a particular area is the ability to win money in a series of bets on future occurrences in that area.

Anderson's Law
Any system or program, however complicated, if looked at in exactly the right way, will become even more complicated.

Anthony's Law of Force
Don't force it, get a larger hammer.

Anthony's Law of the Workshop
Any tool, when dropped, will roll into the least accessible corner of the workshop.
Corollary – On the way to the corner, any dropped tool will first always strike your toes.

Army Axiom
Any order that can be misunderstood has been misunderstood.

Axiom of the Pipe. (Trischmann's Paradox)
A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to stick in his mouth.

Baker's Law
Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.

Barber's Laws of Backpacking
1) The integral of the gravitational potential taken around any loop trail you choose to hike always comes out positive.
2) Any stone in your boot always migrates against the pressure gradient to exactly the point of most pressure.
3) The weight of your pack increases in direct proportion to the amount of food you consume from it. If you run out of food, the pack weight goes on increasing anyway.
4) The number of stones in your boot is directly proportional to the number of hours you have been on the trail.
5) The difficulty of finding any given trail marker is directly proportional to the importance of the consequences of failing to find it.
6) The size of each of the stones in your boot is directly proportional to the number of hours you have been on the trail.
7) The remaining distance to your chosen campsite remains constant as twilight approaches.
8) The net weight of your boots is proportional to the cube of the number of hours you have been on the trail.
9) When you arrive at your chosen campsite, it is full.
10) If you take your boots off, you'll never get them back on again.
11) The local density of mosquitos is inversely proportional to your remaining repellent.

Barth's Distinction
There are two types of people : those who divide people into two types, and those who don't.

Boren's First Law
When in doubt, mumble.

Brook's Law
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

Barzun's Laws of Learning
1) The simple but difficult arts of paying attention, copying accurately, following an argument, detecting an ambiguity or a false inference, testing guesses by summoning up contrary instances, organizing one's time and one's thought for study – all these arts – cannot be taught in the air but only through the difficulties of a defined subject. They cannot be taught in one course or one year, but must be acquired gradually in dozens of connections.
2) The analogy to athletics must be pressed until all recognize that in the exercise of Intellect those who lack the muscles, coordination, and will power can claim no place at the training table, let alone on the playing field.

Forthoffer's Cynical Summary of Barzun's Laws
1) That which has not yet been taught directly can never be taught directly.
2) If at first you don't succeed, you will never succeed.

Decaprio's Rule
Everything takes more time and money.

Dijkstra's Law of Programming Inertia
If you don't know what your program is supposed to do, you'd better not start writing it.

Etorre's Observation
The other line moves faster.

First Maxim of Computers
To err is human, but to really screw things up requires a computer.

Gallois's Revelation
If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes back out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled, and no one dares to criticize it.
Corollary – An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the Grand Fallacy.

Glib's Laws of Reliability
1. Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable.
Corollary - At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.
2. Any system which relies on human reliability is unreliable.
3. The only difference between the fools and the criminal who attacks a system is that the fool attacks unpredictably and on a broader front.
4. A system tends to grow in terms of complexity rather than simplification, until the resulting unreliability becomes intolerable.
5. Self-checking systems tend to have a complexity in proportion to the inherent unreliability of the system in which they are used.
6. The error detection and correction capabilities of a system will serve as the key to understanding the types of error which they cannot handle.
7. Undetectable errors are infinite in variety, in contrast to detectable errors, which by definition are limited.
8. All real programs contain errors unless proven otherwise, which is impossible.
9. Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cost of errors, or until somebody insists on getting some useful work done.

The Golden Rule of Arts and Sciences
Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

Golub's Laws of Computerdom
1. Fuzzy project objectives are used to avoid the embarrassment of estimating the corresponding costs.
2. A carelessly planned project takes three times longer to complete than expected; if carefully planned, it will take only twice as long.
3. The effort required to correct course increases geometrically with time.
4. Project teams detest weekly progress reporting because it so vividly manifests their lack of progress.

Goodin's Law of Conversions
The new hardware will break down as soon as the old is disconnected and out.

Gordon's First Law
If a research project is not worth doing at all, it is not worth doing well.

Gray's Law of Programming
N+1 trivial tasks are expected to be accomplished in the same time as N trivial tasks.
Loggs Rebuttal - N+1 trivial tasks take twice as long as N trivial tasks for N sufficiently large.

Grosch's Law
Computer power increases as the square of the costs. If you want to do it twice as cheaply, you have to do it four times as fast.

Halpern's Observation
The tendancy to err that programmers have been noticed to share with other human beings has often been treated as if it were an awkwardness attendant upon programming's adolescence, which (like acne) would disappear with the craft's coming of age. It has proved otherwise.

Hoare's Law of Large Programs
Inside every large program is a small program struggling to get out.

Howe's Law
Every man has a scheme that will not work.

IBM Pollyanna Principle
Machines should work. People should think.

Laws of Computability as Applied to Social Science
1. Any system or program, however complicated, if looked at in exactly the right way, will become even more complicated.
2. If at first you don't succeed, transform your data set.

Laws of Computer Programming
1. Any given program, when running, is obsolete.
2. Any given program costs more and takes longer.
3. If a program is useful, it will have to be changed.
4. If a program is useless, it will have to be documented.
5. Any given program will expand to fill all available memory.
6. The value of a program is proportional to the weight of its output.
7. Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the programmer who must maintain it.
8. Make it possible for programmers to write programs in English, and you will discover that programmers cannot write in English.
9. Software is hard. Hardware is soft. It is economically more feasible to build a computer than to program it.
10. An operating system is a feeble attempt to include what was overlooked in the design of a programming language.

Law of Selective Gravity
An object will fall so as to do the most damage.
Jenning's Corollary - The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.

Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology
There's always one more bug.

Paperboy's rule of Weather
No matter how clear the skies are, a thunderstorm will move in 5 minutes after the papers are delivered. (or after you just have washed your car).

Project scheduling "99" rule
The first 90 percent of the task takes 10 percent of the time. The last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent.

Sattlinger's Law
It works better if you plug it in.

Segal's Law
A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

Shaw's Principle
Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.

Troutman's Programming Postilates
1. If a test installation functions perfectly, all subsequent systems will malfunction.
2. Not until a program has been in production for at least six months will the most harmful error be discovered.
3. Job control cards that positively cannot be arranged in proper order will be.
4. Interchangeable tapes won't.
5. If the input editor has been designed to reject all bad input, an ingenious idiot will discover a method to get bad data past it.
6. Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.

The Unspeakable Law
As soon as you mention something,... if it's good, it goes away; if it's bad, it happens.

Weinberg's Law
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy society as we know it.
Corollary - An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the Grand Fallacy.

Politically Correctness – (Corectitudinea Politica)

Wikipedia definesste politically correctness – corectitudinea politica ca fiind o modalitate utilizata pentru a "elimina din limbaj si alte forme de expresie tendintele sociale si politice".
Wikipedia, cu siguranta se inseala.
Ce este asadar political correctness – corectitudinea politica ?
Political correctness – corectitudinea politica este, de fapt, o Ideologie, insusita fie de o mare parte a utilizatorilor Internet-ului, fie de unii studenti, cat si de numerosi memberi ai unor partide politice, politicians, ori de mine, Dvs, mama Dvs, tatal Dvs, bunicii si neamurile Dvs, profesori, analisti politici, politologi, politisti, militari, precum si de oricine altcineva dintre cei cu care, inevitabil, intrati in contact in relatiile Dvs de zi cu zi, indiferent de natura acestora.
In fond, political correctness – corectitudinea politica este convingerea personala ca tot ceea ce faci si/sau spui este bun sau adevarat. Fiind politically correct – corect politic, inseamna ca orice gandesti ori spui este si adevarat. Asta vrea sa insinueze ca, cine este politically correct – politic corect (de exemplu: oricine are o opinie) poate sa peroreze linistit ca oricine dintre ceilalti care gandesc ori fac altfel decat el greseste si ca, prin urmare, numai modul sau de gandire si actiune sunt cele care reprezinta adevarul.
Political correctedness – Corectitudine politica se banuieste ca ar fi fost inventata ca urmare a manifestarii unui sentiment de vinovatie resimtit de unii albi din Statele Unite care nu avusesera niciodata de-a face cu persoane de culoare. Ea a fost de fapt inventata de Eddie Murphy cu ocazia unei aparitii datand de prin anii ‘80. Astazi, political correctedness – corectitudinea politica, si in special la noi, a ajuns sa fie una dintre cele cateva particularitati care definesc inconfundabil extremisii de orice gen care pot fi regasiti de ambele parti ale spectrelor "politice"; atat in randul asa-zisilor liberali care nu vor sa-si dezvaluie adevarata lor orientare, cat si al conservatorilor rasisti care se tem sa nu devina obiect de comentarii al unor canale de televiziune.

by Mihai Gheorghiu
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Politically_Correct

Suicides nation

-- Over three thousand Romanians killed themselves last year
The number of suicides overcomes the one of the deaths in road accidents. In 2006, 3 187 people made away with themselves, while 2460 persons died in road accidents. The cases of suicide are being on the increase. Forensic statistics show that most of the self-murderers are men, aged between 41 and 50. They prefer kill themselves by hanging, and this happens especially during the months of April, May, June and July. According to specialized writings, the number of suicides increases dramatically by the end of political mandates, and also in pre-electoral and electoral years. In 2007, in our country it has been recorded an average of two suicides a week. There are signs that 2007 might register a record at this grim chapter. The latest case that has shocked the public opinion is the one of the twin sisters that hanged themselves together. (...)

by Ziua
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

Sentenced by Ministry of Death

Romanians who suffer from cancer are in a truly dramatic situation because they don't get their medicine in time and they have to take ceaseless efforts for it. They are the beneficiaries of no medical tests for free and normal environment in hospitals. Their existence is endless nightmare. The bureaucracy prevailing in the Romanian health system is also the enemy of those suffering from incurable diseases. What such a diseased person has to do in order to get the medicine vital to him is really unbelievable. After the diagnosis has been decided, the doctor prescribes the medication scheme. Then the patient goes to his family doctor to register it and then he is to reach the National Health Insurance Office to be told if his medicine is for free or just on discount.
According to official statistics, in Romania there are over 370,000 people who suffer from cancer and about 600 of them are children. It is only 76,000 who are the beneficiaries of proper treatment. 60,000 new cases emerge every year. 40.000 Romanians die of cancer every year.
200 Euro from the state budget
Although Romania tops the list with the number of people who die of one type of cancer or the other, the funds set by the Ministry of Health for the national oncology programme are 6-7 times smaller than in other European states. This year's budget for those who suffer from cancer is 336 million ROL (about 100 million Euro), much less than such funds in EU states. Great Britain, for instance, spent 4,3 billion pounds on the treatment of such patients in 2005-2006.
Right now there are only 250 oncologists to see to the 370,000 cancer stricken Romanians. 1 patient gets about 200 Euro from the state budget for oncological treatment, whereas in the civilized state such a patient gets about 1, 300 Euro a month. These 200 Euro are real mock, since a Romanian suffering from cancer needs at least 100 million ROL a month, if we don't count the money needed for treatment to take away the pain. As there are few who can afford it, more than a third of patients get treated for cancer in Romania.
Oncology is extinct
The interest in such patients can bee seen in one of the measures taken by Eugen Nicolaescu, also called 'the minister of death'. Last September he signed an order to do away with oncology as a specialization. Given Order 1044/ 2006, several medical branches were engulfed by others, oncology one of them. They claimed there was need to meet European requirements, although they aren't applied in the civilized EU states. In other words, they claimed there were no oncologists in EU states, which is false. The above-mentioned order is the end of a system for professional specializing. The patients are going to be treated by general practitioners who take a 4-month course in oncology.

by Marian Ghiteanu
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

Price of suspension

According to the statements the Executive made before the referendum for President Basescu's suspension, the scrutiny should have cost the State's budget about 60 million lei. Other funds were spent by the political parties and by the suspended president, in his quality of "independent candidate". The Romanian Court of Audit has established the amount was about 8 671 082 lei. With the only difference that Basescu had done significant savings from the donations received, as he spend about 40% of them. This is not because his staff wouldn't have known what to spend on the 1 289 906 lei received as a gift by natural and legal persons. It's because PD (the Democrat Party) has covered the weigh of the expenses, as their share represented about 56% of what all the political parties have spent together.

by Dan Coste
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

Financial Times: Romania and Bulgaria likely to escape safeguard clause

"Bulgaria and Romania are expected to escape European Union sanctions this month in spite of their failure to crack down on corruption and organised crime since joining the club in January." This is the conclusion expressed in a report published yesterday by the Financial Times, commenting on the Barroso's Tuesday warning for the two newcomers. The president of the European Commission claimed that Romania and Bulgaria were to continue with the major reforms the EU requested and show respect for the rule of law.
According to the author, "Mr. Barroso is expected to announce on June 27 that although both countries have made progress, neither has done enough to stamp out endemic corruption". There is also emphasized that the two states' failure to do away with corruption from the judicial system and politics may harm the EU interest in enlarging borders further into the Balkans. The entire report is available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5d54b19a-194c-11dc-a961-000b5df10621.html (...)

by L.P.
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

Before the storm

There is silence for the time being, but it is that silence before the storm. Democrats' bill against the government has ended up as ridiculously as it was born. Why am I claiming there will follow political storm that may turn into a real hurricane ?
The great game with Traian Basescu and Calin Popescu Tariceanu as competitors seems to have reached a break now. Although winning in the referendum after the humiliation he had suffered when suspended, the President has failed to make the government collapse with help from the PD (Democrat Party) and this group's bill against the government. He has also failed to bring a government to make him a president-player.
The PSD (Social-Democrat Party) is also unwilling to obey the standards set by the head of state. Mircea Geoana wouldn't be entrapped by supporting Democrats' bill, even if promised power. Still it doesn't mean that Tariceanu's minority government has got some honeymoon ahead. I have got all the reasons to assume that the Social-Democrats are sharpening their swards thoroughly. If they join the war, it may be the end of the Liberals. And in the meantime the President won't be in the standby in his deadly war against Tariceanu. He will be after making the government collapse, no matter in favor of whom. There are no more solutions Cotroceni Palace perceives as immoral. Any solution to eliminate the PNL (National Liberal Party) is moral. Therefore we should expect the top officials in the latter Palace and in the PSD to meet in an undeclared alliance, but with killing efficiency.
If these are right, we will get a minority government of the PSD, explicitly or just intuitively, within the scenarios plotted by both the PSD and Cotroceni Palace. This PSD government would replace the one in power, made up of members of the PNL and the UDMR (Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania), due to implicit or rather explicit support from Presidency and also due to support from the PD. When may the final battle start ?
After the 2nd Tariceanu Cabinet got power due to support from 70% of the MPs and with the substantial contribution of the PSD and after the Democrats' bill against the government has been dismissed, Mircea Geoana's party needs not only time to change attitude and take action against the government the party supported, but also strong arguments or at least credible pretexts. It makes me estimate that the PSD would be testing the ground for at least 10 days without making any spectacular move. But when may the PSD be taking action ? Most likely when the European Commission releases the report on Romania and there is clue for it. Tariceanu is to go to the Parliament shortly before June 27 to answer questions on the lack of support for some PSD legislative projects to reach the government. If the report on Romania is unfavorable or so and so, the psychological preparation for the opening of procedures to dismiss the government has been made. But until then ?
In the next 10 days we will see incredibily aggressive offensives against the government coordinated by the very President and strongly supported by the PD, not at all discouraged because the bill was dismissed. Public opinion will hear a full list of central administration's failures, many of them inspired by the press, ZIUA included. But there will also be an invented list of failures. President Basescu's visceral hatred will have something to say. I can bet on this scenario, for the action it describes will start right now.

by Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

322 alliance works perfectly

- The failure of Romanian Democrats' bill against the government surprised no one. The document's fate was already sealed when it reached parliamentary debate.
As they were fully aware of the failure, the leaders of the PD (Democrat Party), Emil Boc one of them, preferred strolling along the Parliament lobbies pensively, while the opposite side was relaxed. Social-Democrat Viorel Hrebenciuc and Liberal Radu Stroe were in one corner, smilingly exchanging advice on how to decorate their houses. The Romanian PM was also smiling when reaching the Parliament and he said he didn't feel the slightest nervousness at the coming votes.
"Let's not resemble states like Venezuela and Cuba"
PM Tariceanu told the MPs that he was sad and ashamed of the reasons for such a bill against his Cabinet, within the background of a political crisis caused by "a character taking himself for God's envoy on earth", but embodying the beginning of dictatorship. He claimed it was President Basescu who destabilized state institutions and turned Presidency into a terminator, but not into a player. The PM opined the Parliament was to choose either responsibility or demagogy, either achievements or populism, either Romania's real problems or words.
He argued: "I have never wanted to be part of a fragile system, of one of the nations where political continuity depends on the mood of a character who takes himself for God's envoy on earth and forgets that Romanians voted for us to govern the country." He insisted he was taking pride in the government's accomplishments, although they were enjoying no great popularity and although the state of hospitals and of the health system wasn't satisfying. The PM scored: "I don't represent God, which would be blasphemy. I am just trying to find solutions and work to serve citizens. I have done my best to serve citizens and the country." And he had a message for the President and the initiators of the failing bill: "I will never agree to an institutional structure that will make Romania resemble states like Venezuela, Cuba or the ex Soviet republics. In democratic European states with Germany, France or Italy as political models, the distribution and use of power are balanced. Any other approach relying on demagogy and populism leads to dictatorship".
"We must stick together"
The Romanian PM reminded that the government forced to modify the components got a positive vote from the Parliament last spring in order to continue the activity. The PM asked the PM to leave petty interests aside and release a message of responsibility, maturity and solidarity in order to meet people's claims. Tariceanu mentioned his personal intention to leave politics aside for the time being and focus on his obligations as a PM. He confessed he had been wrong to focus on politics too much. He also claimed that the National Liberal Party he was a head of was going to promote a pattern of social European solidarity to help every citizen lead a decent life. He concluded: "The power is in citizens' hands, not in the pockets of some 2-3 chaps. We must stick together. Let's work and build a European Romania together".

by Raluca Papadopol, Adrian Ilie & Razvan Gheorghe
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

Coposu solution to Basescu problem

The PD (Democrat Party) tried to do the impossible. The maximal objective of their bill against the present government consisted in early elections. The minimal objective was to reach different terms with the PSD (Social-Democrat Party), regarding an alliance of the latter party with the PNL (National Liberal Party), which will explode in the very faces of PD leaders.
Basescu and the PD forced the PSD into things three times. First they did it when negotiating with socialists of the same blood (derived from the National Front of Salvation) and when spreading rumor on and even denouncing a PNL-PSD alliance. The second time they did it was when the PD hurried with a bill against the government to be placed with the hands of the PSD, but against the interests of the PSD. And the third time was when the PD realized the PSD wouldn't make such a mistake and the Democrats came up with the bill, together with the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party), the aborted foetus of the PNL-PSD project.
Ioan Rus, a vice president of the PSD, described the initiative as "frivolous initiative". He commented for ZIUA: "How can one come up with bill against a government who hasn't even got to work? The 2nd Tariceanu Cabinet has been with us for just a few months and they wouldn't let them do something. One doesn't elaborate bills because one is angry with some or the other, without solid arguments. If we talk about bill, then we elaborate one against the entire governing of the "Truth and Justice" Alliance".
There are several reasons why the Democrats' bill against the government was a boomerang. It is aberrant to come up with a bill against a government you quitted just two months before and in just two months the Cabinet led by the PNL had time only to prove that they do better without the PD. Another boomerang effect is that they forced hundreds of local governmental representatives of the PD to resign out of honor because the central leaders wanted so before the PD was expelled from Tariceanu's government. But then they forbade them to proceed to resignation. Unless they resign, the PD would use their own bill against them. This bill has even consolidated, until the future general elections, a majority of all parties, except for the PD, who aren't interested in early elections.
'PD naked' could have been a good name for this bill. By pushing things towards early elections the presidential party admitted being not so keen on the so demagogically demanded uninominal vote, which is actually a Liberal initiative the Democrats grabbed. The Democrats were aware that by the bill they could only get an effect of image, that of parliamentary support from the PSD to the PNL. But they didn't even get this. The demonization of possible support is politically stupid and morally hypocritical. It can be proved that the PSD support for the minority government of members of the PNL and the UDMR (Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania) is the solution to political stability and efficient governing. It is the mirror solution of the one Mr. Coposu proposed to President Ion Iliescu in 1994, in agreement with the US State Department: to change the parliamentary majority by a minority government of Social-Democrats, with parliamentary support from the PNL, the UDMR, the PD and the PNTCD (National Christian-Democrat Party), an initiative the PD appreciated at that time. Unfortunately, President Iliescu dismissed it, which is why Romania failed to join the NATO and the EU together with the first wave.
The PSD can't make the same mistake this time. Support for the Tariceanu Cabinet with view to the 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest and the adaptation to Romania's European status is of national interest. But the PSD has not no choice, anyway. They will come up with no bill against thew government, for it would be suicide. Cristian Diaconescu has already admitted it. The Tariceanu Cabinet will arrange elections on time. The rest is just wish taken for reality. Wishful thinking, as the Americans call it.

by Roxana Iordache
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

PNL-PD Alliance officially broken

Both the Liberals and the Democrats are going to court next week to make their split official. Emil Boc, a president of the PD (Democrat Party), explained yesterday: "We have been waiting till the last minute to see whether it is possible to remake the "Truth and Justice" Alliance by a government of representatives of the PD, the PNL (National Liberal Party) and the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party), but it is not. We are going to open the juridical procedures next week".
Apart from such a symbolical gesture, practical matters are more important because there are 6 vacant MP mandates for the dying Alliance which are now deadlocked. The leaders of the two parties are to meet the following days to decide on how to distribute the mandates. The Democrats and the Liberal-Democrats are going to have talks on means of parliamentary collaboration. The Democrats are for now reticent to common PD-PLD lists of candidates in the coming elections of MEPs in Romania and fusion is an issue not raised yet.

by A.I.
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english

Romania 2007 seen from abroad

The war the ex partners in the Liberal-Democrat Alliance are fighting could not show a positive 'image' of Romania abroad. The whole adventure, culminating in the attempt to revoke the head of state, was first perceived as very worrying. It was presented as such by two main information means. By the political means the representatives of the PD (Democrat Party) provided European officials and bureaucrats and first of all the European Christian-Democrats, their present partners, with their version of the conflict, claiming that President Traian Basescu and the ex Justice minister Monica Macovei had been depicted as victims in the battle against the corrupted, 'oligarchic' system. By the media means the international press reported on similar messages from civil society voices, the same ones highly critical of the 'neocommunism' of the Romanian governments in the early 90s. The diplomatic reports sent by embassies in Bucharest probably took such an interpretation into account.
Still the foreign perception seems to have reached a balance in the meantime. Continental leaders have used the international diplomacy language to say that domestic political battles are Romania's business, like in any democracy. The only thing to be emphasized is that stability is desirable. During PM Tariceanu's recent visit to Brussels, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, a president of the European Commission, insinuated that the report on Romania, now in progress, the first report after the accession to the EU, would be 'fair'. It seems to mean that it won't be negative, as some people have prophesized, speculating that the protection (which we call 'safeguard') clauses will be applied. The NATO Summit due next April in Bucharest has also been reconfirmed, which is proof that domestic disputes are not thought to be so severe to cast doubt on the state's progress as a representative institutional system.
Such visible balancing of the perception is the effect of Monica Macovei's positive image in Brussels and also of the positive image her successor, Tudor Chiuariu, is enjoying. Until a short while ago he was a chief of the Anti-Fraud Department, in excellent terms with the OLAF in the EU. The same goes for the foreign affairs, our interface in diplomacy. Adrian Cioroianu, the new foreign minister, is less experienced that his Liberal predecessor Mihai Razvan Ungureanu. But he too is a valuable historian, just like the latter, and he experienced a few months of being a MEP. As for the support the President has got from the respective group of intellectuals both in Romania and abroad, it can no longer be as credible as it was right after 1990, when Romanian society was split in the former system, clumsily disguised as a democratic state, and true reformists. The authors of pro-Basescu appeals are now offending one of the parties that have made Romania European and they are supporting a President who has got his merits, but who started his political career as member of the Front for National Salvation, a group derived straight from the Communist Party. And I am not developing upon his recent blunders (calling a journalist 'filthy gypsy', invoking 'God's will' and so on)
Briefly, no matter how disagreeable, the political scandal in Romania has been in keeping with Constitution procedures: state institutions are working as usually, even if the structure's stability is weak and - the supreme argument, surely - economy has been ceaselessly improving, with a recently reported spectacular budget increase. Hence a fully positive 'image', nevertheless...

by Ion Bogdan Lefter
Ziua http://www.ziua.net/english