Dictator wanted for Iraq

Animated GIFs

The US autocrats, President George Bush jr. on top, have been explaining the invasion of Iraq in March 20, 2003 for four years and four months now. They have been explaining it in speeches lacking credible arguments and in made up reports, ceaselessly playing the authors of Iraq's democratization. But the play is very poor and today they can fool just an insignificant number of naives or constants fans of the Texan man in the White House. The US boasted about grabbing Saddam Hussein, the ex Iraqi President, in December 12, 2003, describing the event as the great American victory driving Iraq on the way to democratization. The fuss continued by masquerade trial, with the Baghdad Justice dancing on the Washington tune and it culminated in the hanging of the dictator in December 30, 2006.
In the meantime, the Sunni majority who had helped Saddam Hussein dread the population for almost a quarter of a century started the insurrection against the Shiite majority who had taken over the political arena in Baghdad right after the war. The suicide bombing, the kidnapping (some real, some faked) and the beheading of foreigners and Iraqis suspected of supporting the coalition turned into custom. The number of Iraqi civilians killed on behalf of the democratization will probably remain unknown. Not even an approximate number will be released.
The US military lost 3,670 soldiers by early this week. The Democrats and most Americans have been tenaciously pleading for the withdrawal of soldiers from Iraq as soon as possible, but the US representation in this country is now a record: 162,000 people.
Three days ago the US and the Iraqi forces killed about 30 people in raids on the Shiite district of Sadr City, Baghdad. A communique by the US Army announced the victims were Islamist militants, but it mentioned no word about the difficulty of making a difference between terrorists and civilians when you are on a flying helicopter or about the risks involved in an air raid against a district of civilians.
Claiming the military action was meant to help the Iraqi people and free them from Saddam Hussein's Sunni dictatorship, they started a war actually motivated by oil, fishy business, political propaganda interests and pride. Some of the Americans are not paradoxically concluding that a new dictatorial system would be the only means to settle the continuing crisis in that country. Or at least this is what a lobby group is proposing. The group is led by Michael Oppenheimer, a head of the Global Affairs Center in New York University. His opinion is that dictatorship is right now the likeliest solution to save Iraq, since there is now authoritative, rather 'unconstitutional' person to rule the country. Oppenhaimer's lobbyists aren't only supporting the US public opinion's stronger and stronger appeals that US troops should withdraw, but they also think three more years are needed for settling an 'efficient' dictatorship there. They have even thought that a 'good' dictator should be identified in the first or second level of the Iraqi army.
It is essential that Bush shouldn't appreciate the idea. Or he would arrange some bluff so that the dictator would take over and he has someone to sack in the last year of his mandate, unless he manages to open a small war against Iran or North Korea.

Ileana Cornea
Ziua sambata 11 auguste 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Patriarchy addresses CNSAS against Mircea Dinescu

Romanian Patriarchy addressed the CNSAS (National Council for Research on the Communist Secret Service Archive) yesterday against the statements by CNSAS member Mircea Dinescu. The latter claimed His Holiness Antonie Plamadeala, a Securitate (Communist Secret Service) officer during the Communist regime, had asked dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to promote him a general. His Holiness Antonie Streza, a Bishop of Transylvania, denied Mircea Dinescu's information on his predecessor Antonie Plamadeala, also denying the latter had been in connection to the ex Securitate.
Constantin Stoica, a spokesman for the Romanian Patriarchy, announced yesterday that a layman representing the Patriarchy fetched the complaint meant for the CNSAS president Ladislau Csendes. The document is to reach the parliamentary committee coordinating the CNSAS activity most likely next week, Stoica mentioned. (...)
According to the Romanian Patriarchy representatives, Mircea Dinescu's comments are incompatible to his status as member of the CNSAS. (...)
But Mircea Dinescu was relaxed when learning about the complaint against him, claiming he had disobeyed the CNSAS law on the unveiling of information. He mentioned what he had disclosed was not in the CNSAS archive. He commented: "I can't wait for them to complain about me ! They will be surprised to learn that the information I unveiled was not from some CNSAS record, but from a totally different source". He also argued that he had disclosed the respective piece of information because the CNSAS had already announced checks on the records of those representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church to run as candidates for the Patriarch seat.

D.E.
Ziua sambata 11 auguste 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Civil society demands sanctions against 1989 manslaughter authors

The leaders of some associations and commissions have demanded Liberal Bogdan Olteanu, speaker for the Chamber of Deputies, to have the lustration law ban access to public ranks to those responsible for the manslaughter in December 1989 and the fratricide in June 1990. They have also asked the MPs investigated for murders should be suspended.
The letter is authored by Sorin Iliescu, leader of the Civic Alliance, Vladimir Tismaneanu, president of the Presidential Commission to Analyze the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, Florin Mihalcea, leader of "Timisoara" Society, Teodor Maries, head of the 21st December, 1989 Association, Antonie Popescu, president of the 1990 Bucharest University Students League and George Costin, head of the 1989 National Revolutionaries Association.
The argument of their claim is that Romania's public life has been "infested" for more than 17 years by those involved in historical murders. (...)
Talks in late August
The speaker for the Chamber of Deputies has invited the authors to talks on the lustration law late this month. Bogdan Olteanu has replied by an open letter too, mentioning he is glad to see civil society's real interest in raising an issue many want to muffle to public attention and debate.
Bogan Olteanu argues in the letter: "The lustration law is one of my political objectives under the present mandate. I believe that, together with the electoral reform, this is one of the most important aspects of the political reform so much talked about lately. This is why I have many a time argued that this draft should yield. But I have also expressed disappointment with the twisting of the lustration law' main meaning as the parliamentary debate has been progressing with it".
The Liberal official expresses opinion that the project is flawed because of personal vendettas hiding behind law articles. (...)

Oana Rotaru
Ziua sambata 11 august 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Magyars mock President Basescu

The Romanian President's opinion that the methodology used for teaching the Magyars Romanian should be changed and resemble the methodology of teaching foreign languages has caused nationalist irritation and ironical comments.
Dan Voiculescu, a president of the Romanian Conservatives, was the straightest one, claiming that to equate Romanian with a foreign language was "an offense against Romanians and new defiance of the Constitution". He claimed President Traian Basescu was thus encouraging the Magyar radicals grouped around the Civic Magyar Union, which he shouldn't be doing.
But not even the Magyars have been pleased with the President's approach and they responded by mocking comments. Kelemen Hunor, a vice president of the UDMR (Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania), commented: "I am glad that, after 17 years, President Basescu has discovered the soda here on the spot, because the UDMR has been mentioning it for 15 years now". He added the system the President took as preferable was already settled in the new education law.
Gazda Zoltan, a president of the Civic Magyar Union, opined the President had finally got into contact with reality and he added he was hopeful that the Romanian education minister would take the appropriate measures. But the latter official wouldn't comment on it. He was just surprised that President Basescu hadn't made such recommendations to the ministers preceding him.

A.I.
Ziua Vineri 10 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Ex President Ion Iliescu angry with prosecutors' conclusion

According to the ex President of Romania Ion Iliescu, the conclusion of the indictment military prosecutors provided to the Supreme Court is "utter aberration". It regards the death of four people during the coal miners' attacks in June 1990. The ex President claims judicial authorities displaced the responsibility for the incriminated acts from the criminals to those supposed to protect order. He commented: "The conclusion of the documentation released by prosecutors is utter aberration and it may have serious effects on constitutional order and the protection of public order".
He is against the charging
The ex President is also angry that he is mentioned as charged in the indictment. He opines political speculation is out of place in Justice authorities' evaluations. He argued: "I can't possibly refrain from expressing disagreement to and rage at being mentioned as charged in the documentation, although there is also mentioned that the inquiry is now progressing in keeping with the Constitutional Court's decision. Although the inquiry isn't over, prosecutors are already accusing that President Iliescu, elected in May 20, 1995 by 85% of electors, ordered the violent action of soldiers against the demonstrators in the University Square".
He claims there is also an attempt to divert the inquiry from those guilty of causing "the vandalism" in June 13, 1990 against some state institutions to the military structures and units that struggled to do away with the prevailing anarchy and restore order. He mentioned: "The innocent victims of June 13 were the effect of anarchical acts, but not of the needed action by state institutions, meant to restore order".
According to the ex President, the indictment also includes a "mistake" by settling that peaceful protestors were repressed, whereas, he argued, "it is notorious" that it was about "organized anarchy groups who assailed and devastated public institutions: the Bucharest Police headquarters, the Interior Ministry building, the Romanian Secret Service headquarters, the Public Television".
Civil prosecutors in charge
A different department of the Prosecutor's Office is working on the most important case, regarding the involvement of the ex President, thought to be the main guilty of the events in June 1990. Prosecutors pressed charges against him in June 19, 2007, accusing him of severe murder. This part of the case was transferred to civil prosecutors to handle due to the Constitutional Court's decision, according to which military prosecutors may not investigate on civilians.
Investigators' conclusion is that ex President Ion Iliescu decided initially to repress demonstrators in June 1990 and he thus abused his attributions. In the indictment there is an ample description of the events taking place during the coal miners' attacks in June 13, 1990 and the conclusion reached is that the President ordered and coordinated the peace keeping forces' action against demonstrators. The conclusion is straight: "It is to be highlighted that the initial decision to repress demonstrators was reached at the highest level and coordinated by the ex President Ion Iliescu himself." Prosecutors add: "The action plan was drawn at his request and, as an elected President, he ordered military action with war munitions and more equipment against the demonstrators violently protesting. He thus abused his attributions".
The Supreme Court decided yesterday that the trial on the death of four Romanians during the coal miners' attacks in June 1990 is to start in September 21, 2007. (...)

Andrei Ghiciusca
Ziua Vineri 10 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Romanian Police chief to work in America

The Romanian Police chief Dan Valentin Fatuloiu is to cease his leadership of the General Inspection of the Romanian Police. The Romanian interior minister Cristian David appointed him yesterday an attache for domestic affairs in the US. Someone to take over the Romanian Police is to be appointed after he leaves. According to the Interior Ministry, his rank will be that of a councilor-minister. (...)
Rumor has it that there are 3 candidates likely to replace Police chief Dan Valentin Fatuloiu: Marian Titulescu, Bucharest Police chief, inspector Eugen Corciu, a deputy chief of the General Inspection of the Romanian Police, and Gheorghe Plai, now a chief of the Police in the district of Botosani. (...)

O.A. & P.C.
Ziua Vineri 10 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

European Parliament ultra nationalists cost $ 1,34 million

According to the US publication Intelligence Report, the making of the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty group in the European Parliament is an important stage in the radical right's attempt to seize power on the continent. The authors claim the group was achieved after the Romanian and Bulgarian extremists had reached the European Parliament. Due to representatives of the "Greater Romania" Party and the Ataka group in Bulgaria, the number of extremist Euro-deputies reached 21 and they could therefore become a parliamentary group. (...)
There is estimated that the ITS group will thus be the beneficiary of $ 1,34 million every year. (...)

Anca Hriban
Ziua Vineri 10 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Cover for Basescu

Luxten Lighting Company won the auction arranged by RAAPPS (the Self-Governing Department for Administration of the State Heritage and Protocol) for the Malu Rosu Farm in the locality of Gruiu. Since presidential interests were at stake, competitors didn't matter.
Politicians and businessmen have learnt a piece of information that Basescu's family is involved in the affair and that the Romanian President's wife owns the farm. In exchange to this 'service' delivered to the President's family, Luxten Lighting Company is to get favors, one of them the contract to handle the optic fiber in Bucharest Netcity. The company paid just 1,344,700 Euro for the fox and pheasant farm of 170, 314, 71 square meters, animals and buildings included.
But the farm will be worth more than 10 million Euro after the Bucharest-Brasov highway reaches close to it. Despite their considerable capital, reliable experience and employment of powerful businessmen, the competing companies (SC Sigur Construct General, SC Nova Estate, SC Alrado Marketing & Services, SC Euro P.E.C.) stepped back or were defeated by Ionel Pepenica.
The President's connections with Luxten Lighting Company date back. His daughters earned thousands of Euro when working for the company. (...)

Mihnea Talau & Marian Ghiteanu
Ziua Joi 09 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Popeye eats spinach

The PD (Democrat Party) is seized with turmoil. President Basescu criticized the leaders of the ivy-party. Without Basescu, the PD is history. Without the PD, Basescu has got no party. The PLD (Liberal Democrat Party) is too much of a substitute to sooth him.
Therefore Basescu got angry and he ordered the PD guys to come to senses and mobilize to get back that 10% of electorate leaving the party. But the real thing to mourn is the 20% the President has lost in terms of citizens' trust. The Gallup pollster has detected it, but the IPP (Public Policy Institute), keen on fooling people, has denied it at once.
President Basescu rebuked and warned the PD leaders, mayor Adriean Videanu in particular. In Cotroceni Palace and in the Democrats' headquarters percentage is all that matters and they would do anything for it. Opinion polls influence people, especially those easy to influence, who make the majority. How come? Easy. The majority goes with the mob. If the mob says Basescu is a rude guy who doesn't want the Romanian retired to lead a good life, everything is finished. If the mob says Basescu is brave and due to him the piles of trash in Popesti-Leordeni vanished away, everything comes back to life again. They notice the cleanness, they don't analyze the method.
People aren't interested in learning the grounds of the macho attitude displayed by the President of the mafia men (in business with trash, concrete, marble, public lights and so on). People just see it is tidy now because of him. They praise the effect, they ignore the cause. Some deviate the President's appeal to the PM and conclude as follows: Tariceanu got mad when he saw the garbage pile, he wanted to do something, but he was unable too, whereas Basescu wanted to do something and he was able to. If they are smart guys, like the lodger of Cotroceni Palace claims, the Liberals shouldn't be relying on the 10% the PM has gained. By Mafia-like good deeds and vendettas of the same kind Basescu and the PD can put an end to the negative trend and get their top positions back due to the fooled Romanians.
People must learn who are President Basescu's luxury garbage men who did the tiding up for more than 1 million Euro. Had they been volunteers, they would have done it without being kindly asked to. Where does the money spent on it come from? How is it accounted for ?
It is to be noticed as well that a President searching through garbage for percentage in opinion polls is a desperate man. But this is the old bluff story: Popoye would eat lots of spinach and strike back, although the enemy had defeated him. Basescu would eat anything to gain his percentages back. And the Liberals seem to be as passive as satisfied cats, as if the significantly decreasing scores of President Basescu and the PD could help them and their candidate to Presidency - who is he/she ? - make constant, strong and irreversible progress. But the PSD isn't asleep.
The presidential resources, the services included, must be disregarded on no account. Basescu is far from having worn out his potential as a President for the Romanians who listen to faked Gypsy music. He is aware that, if he stays just an electoral leader, he can regain only by demonstrative actions. The garbage operation is accompanied by similar populist initiatives. The President took his official suit off and he put on his casual clothes instead. He kisses people while wandering through Romania and he gives precious directions in the places he stops. After a few more local initiatives with immediate effects, due to and performed by his clientele, his score in opinion polls is sure to improve. The President has got debts to pay to groups of interests, legitimate ones, of course, since it is about one more mandate as President ? So what ? Basescu should be assigned to clean the entire country and show he can do it, for his clientele would thus go bankrupt.

Roxana Iordache
Ziua Miercuri 08 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

European ultra nationalists to meet in Bucharest

Corneliu Vadim Tudor, leader of the PRM ("Greater Romania" Party), is arranging a reunion of all the ultra nationalist leaders in Europe in People's House, Bucharest, in an attempt to save his party from collapse and the "Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty" group in the Parliament of Europe from going extinct.
The congress of the European ultra nationalist group known as mentioned above is to take place in the Parliament Palace, Romania, in late September. The PRM officials reached this decision last week in a stormy meeting.
PRM sources claim the party president insisted it should be kept away from the press. They say Corneliu Vadim Tudor wanted it so that the press wouldn't report on well-known "extremists" in Europe coming to Romania to attend the first congress of the "Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty" group. On the other hand, Corneliu Vadim Tudor warned the press had many a time given a hand to a label for the PRM such as "a xenophobe and anti-Semite" party.
According to PRM sources, delegations from all the parties affiliated to the group mentioned above, headed by controversial leaders such as Jean-Marie Le Pen, Alessandra Mussolini or Jorg Heider, are going to attend the event. The British independent deputy Ashley Mote is expected to attend too.
Failure would mean catastrophe
As strategy is in his nature, the PRM head wants it to take place in late September so that it would be close to the election of MEPs from Romania, for which a date hasn't been set yet. This election is crucial to the nationalists in the group mentioned above, because a failure of the PRM in the elections would lead to the dismemberment of the group in the Parliament of Europe headed by Bruno Gollnisch and they would no longer have the necessary number of MEPs.
On the other hand, Corneliu Vadim Tudor is hopeful that a luxurious congress would refresh his party's electorate. Both the PRM and its head have lately lost significant points in opinion polls and the party may fail to make it to the Parliament of Romania.
Dismissed by the EPP
Corneliu Vadim Tudor has many a time tried to build a European look for the PRM. He even struggled to get the party affiliated to the large EPP, but his efforts were fruitless. After some talks in Italy and a visit to the Vatican in 2005, the EPP leaders set some conditions for the PRM to join their group. The first was for Corneliu Vadim Tudor to no longer head the group, because in Europe he was perceived as an extremist and xenophobe leader.
He pretended the PRM was changing and he appointed Corneliu Ciontu a president of the party. But since talks with the EPP were doomed to fail, he got his leadership over the party back and organized a congress, not in keeping with the PRM status, by which Corneliu Ciontu was expelled from the party.
Since the Romanian party was affiliated to any European group, the EPP refused political relations with the PRM. And therefore Corneliu Vadim Tudor has started to court the EU outlaws, now members of the ultra nationalist "Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty" groups.

Razvan Gheorghe
Ziua Miercuri 08 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

PLAGIARISM THAT KILLS

Two months ago, Gardianul and Ziua dailies published evidence showing that physician Ionel Sinescu had copied entire passages of a medical work paper published in America. Last week, the same physician was accused of having provoked Patriarch Teoctist's death. Is it a coincidence ?
Almost like a premonition, our colleague Dan Coste published, on 24 July 2007, a synthesis of the plagiarism accusations in the Romanian medicine, reminding us that physicians Ionel Sinescu, Mircea Beuran, Anca Patrascu hadn't withstood the sanctions that every researcher in the world should withstand. The last inter-title of the article was "Warning for death" and it drew attention upon the fact that these medical careers, built up on account of an intellectual theft, may kill people. It has already happened to Dr. Doina Dumitrescu, admiral Cico's wife, when one of her female patients died after a common facial lifting. It was Prof. Dr. Constantin Ciuce from UMF (University of Medicine and Pharmacy) Cluj-Napoca who had accused Dr. Dumitrescu of plagiarism. Well, it's obvious that a direct link between the intellectual theft and the death of a patient cannot be established, but, in a way, the prototype of the intellectual who had started up by these methods announces such a risk. The plagiarist is mainly preoccupied with getting titles to enable their access among elites of a certain field. Otherwise, why should they steal someone else's paper, only to boast that they write books, thus running the risk of being ridiculous? A true researcher wouldn't give his work in a laboratory on the privilege to be around politicians, while the plagiarist is always elbowing to find supporters. The case of Dr. Anca Patrascu from Craiova is almost a classical one. She had got the taste of the political congresses since childhood, as she had been at the stand even next to Ceausescu. She is now pulling the strings in PSD (Social-Democrat Party), and authorized her concubine to represent her even in the relationships with her subordinates! Prosecutor Panal's ex-son-in-law (Panal was the most feared in Craiova during the communist times) is able to sue a newborn if s/he dares disturb Dr. Patrascu.
At least now, when even the Patriarch's death is suspected to have been provoked by a plagiarist physician, the College of Physicians and the Ministry of Health should quickly make an inventory of such kind of accusations and take measures against these elite thieves. It would be natural that the university world gets rid of this worthless stuff by herself. However, the plagiarism phenomenon is awfully extended in this field, and the solidarity with the proven plagiarists is a kind of surviving method.
If the plagiarism in literature or in philosophy does not kill, in medicine it can be anytime the substitute of the Lord of the Scythe. Eventually, who is a plagiarist? It's an individual who, while being aware of his/her reduced capacities, still wants to be above all. S/he first wants to be a doctor, then a professor, and when s/he developed the taste for upstarting, and sees that's feasible, well, s/he wants to get an academician. S/he does not have arguments with anybody, for fear not to be ridiculous; instead s/he always threatens with suing, which s/he never initiates.
The plagiarist is the ideal figure for those imagining occult scenarios, as s/he can be used in any situation, and can be convinced by means of promises or blackmail, two guaranteed methods, in the case of the plagiarist.
Sinescu says he didn't know who the personal physician of the Patriarch was. Even though I might find some friends to threaten me with changing my bathtub with a low quality shower, I daresay this statement hides something much more serious. I'm afraid that God knows what occult society was revolted on the Patriarch's longevity and wanted to help him get more quickly to the heaven. I'm also afraid that whoever they might have been, they've perfectly chosen the murderer to carry out their order.

Ion Spanu
Ziua Marti 07 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

President Basescu, a Mafia-style cynicism

The conduct of the ruling personalities during the deathwatch of His Beatitude Patriarch Teoctist was according to the sad solemnity of the moment. Some have contested the participation of the former and current ruling figures, in both the vigil and the funeral. Unlike them, I consider that their absence would have been a lack of consideration to the passed away patriarch of such a nature to harm the national sensitivity. Otherwise, if the had been absent, they would have been thrown stones at from the pages of the newspapers and the talk-show studios. The same newspapers and talk-show studios condemned them for having participated.
The marvel - i.e. the normality, for us - hasn't last more than three days, after which president Basescu has forgotten about the piety he had showed the evening of the Patriarch's death, stood a few minutes at the catafalque then went out, leaving the people with their grief. But he forced the political and electoral capital a day before the funeral to the charge of the intensely emotional event and decorated the Patriarch post-mortem. He had granted him the Romanian Star with sash, which has never been granted to a Romanian before. The Patriarch hasn't died on the battlefield, nor has come back to die in the native country after a long exile. Traian Basescu had had the whole time to honour him as long as he was alive, the way Emil Constantinescu had done, on the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II, for the reunification of the Church.
But the president couldn't have decorated the Patriarch as long as he was still living. With his patriarchal humour, father Teoctist would have given president Basescu to understand that he had to define the reason. And that reason would have been for the collaboration with the communist regime, as Tismaneanu report shows. The head of State had backed this report in the Parliament and later on taken over as such by the international leftist press. In order to condemn the communism as a criminal regime, president Basescu needed to condemn the Romanian Orthodox Church and Its head, after which he decorated posthumously the condemned collaborationist. He should explain to us how this is possible. He either keeps to his breast the Tismaneanu report and then he withdraws the Patriarch's decoration, or he maintains the decision regarding the decoration of His Beatitude and withdraws the Tismaneanu report from the market. Tertium non datur.
Anti-communism is trendy, retroactive and selective. The ones, including the opportunists of communism, defending the Tismaneanu report and condemning those who contest it forget that it was no need of a report to condemn the communism as a criminal regime. Communism should have been condemned from the very beginning, i.e. from December 1989. However, even president Constantinescu didn't do it officially. The sudden anticommunist Basescu, the president uncovered (yet) could have done it ex officio, provided he had really believed so. We skip the fact that, if he had considered the communist regime as a criminal one, he wouldn't have served it to a personal profit. Also, if he had regretted the fact that he had served it and he had sincerely believed it had to be condemned, he would have done it without anyone having asked for it. But he didn't do it until Sorin Iliesiu, a personality of the civil society and of the cultural life, so candidly asked him to. And that was to lift up his percentage.
The percentage counts. Panic-stricken that he's lowering while PM Tariceanu increases together with the pensions, president Basescu ran from the Patriarch's crypt to the Glina hole, so as "to show that it is possible" to make dirt disappear overnight. But he didn't show this by the time he was the Capital's general mayor. He has now mobilized his clientele, which has served him with 1 M Euro sanitation services. It is for the work they got last time and for the ones they'll get next time, plus the flowers on the fields. That's a macho insolence and a Mafia-style cynicism. As for the population, they go into ecstasies. As Marin Preda put it: What, are we a people of idiots ?!

Roxana Iordache
Ziua Luni 06 August 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Patriarch's doctor: He had urinary infection, there should have been no surgery

The Patriarch Teoctist would have survived, claimed his personal doctor, the man who had taken care of the Church official for two decades. Nicolae Ursea is a Ph.D. in medical sciences a GP and an expert in nephrology. He claims the doctor heading the team who performed the surgery on the Patriarch Teoctist had lied to him about the latter's state of health, at times when it was more than critical.
Professor Ursea takes distance from his colleague's opinions and he explains he wouldn't have recommended the surgery performed last Monday, because the Patriarch was suffering from a urinary infection to be treated by antibiotics rather than by surgery.
One more clue showing the Patriarch didn't know the surgery stood 50% chances to succeed is that he didn't proceed to confession and communion, which is unimaginable in the case of a monk aged 92. ZIUA demands the Prosecutor's Office should open official inquiry.
N.U.: I took care of him. I was his personal doctor for 21 years... Medically speaking, there were two things: 1. Not to touch him without talking to his personal doctor. They should have called me and brought me next to him from wherever I was. 2. He wasn't anybody, there should have been consultations among experts. He was suffering from urinary infection and this is why he was urinating often... They should have treated the infection, waited for a few days and then... Three weeks ago he had an episode of the kind too. I treated the infection and the frequent urinating faded... But then it came back... They should have treated it again and waited... If he needed to be operated here, we would have proceeded to the medical tests and so on...
Rep.: Did he need to be balanced and were they to bring the blood pressure back to normal ?
N.U.: Of course. What should I say? (...) I phoned Sinescu and I asked him last Monday: "I hear you did the surgery, sir". He answered: "No, I didn't". But the surgery had been performed and he was dead.
Rep.: What time was this ?
N.U.: It was 12:30. "No, I didn't do the surgery". And then I said: "Please call me when you do". He answered: "Yes, I will let you know when I do it".
Rep.: Well, this is something very serious... They kept you away from him deliberately...
N.U.: Yes, they did... (...)
Rep.: How could he ?
N.U.: He could. He dared lied to me, he dared not call me and so on. This is unacceptable. In deontological terms, one may not perform a surgery on someone when he has got a personal doctor. He was a personality, not just anyone... I kept his heart and brain all right for 21 years.
Rep.: And, thanks God, he was perfectly well...
N.U.: He was perfectly well. I took care of him appropriately and I draw a treatment scheme and he used to come... We had become friends, you know...
Rep.: Had there been no infection...
N.U.: They shouldn't have performed the surgery for a urinary infection. (...)
Rep.: We hear he would spit blood. Do you think complications might have emerged, by any chance ?
N.U.: Yes, probably.
Rep.: They didn't do the basic tests, the X-raying....
N.U.: He says they did the basic ones. That's what he says...
Rep.: I asked at the hospital about it: they would have had no time for the X-rays, because the X-ray women starts work at 9.
N.U.: He had all the medical tests done three weeks ago in the Carol Davila hospital. I had them all done. He had an infection, I proceeded to treatment, I fixed it and everything was all right. The infection came back. He needed an anti-infection treatment and then they should have talked about surgery.
Rep.: Why were they in such a hurry ?
N.U.: I don't know why they were in such a hurry. Why ? They lied to me on the phone, saying there was no surgery... Such an exceptionally valuable man, God's true envoy on Earth. So kind, so gentle, such a noble soul...
Rep.: Therefore we can say he would have survived...
N.U.: Yes, he would have survived... Without calling his personal doctor ? This is unacceptable. It is elementary. They should have called me to talk about it and I wouldn't have recommended the surgery.

Victor Roncea & Lidia Popescu
Ziua Vineri 03 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Basescu and PD regress

Did parliamentary elections take place next Sunday, the PD (Democrat Party) would get 43% of votes and the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) would reach only 17%, according to the latest opinion poll by IMAS, accomplished in July 8-17.
According to the research, the PNL (National Liberal Party) would get 11% and the PNG (New Generation Party) would reach 10%. 5% of Romania's electors would vote for the UDMR (Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania) and 5% for the PRM ("Greater Romania" Party). The PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party) would reach some 4% and the PC (Conservative Party) just 2%.
As far as trust is concerned, President Traian Basescu tops the list due to 51% and Gigi Becali comes next with 34%, followed by Theodor Stolojan (28%). 17% is the score for Mircea Geoana, Calin Popescu Tariceanu and Emil Boc.
Trust in the Romanian President has lost 5% and the PD has lost 7% as compared to last month, the study shows. PM Tariceanu enjoys 4% more and the PSD has gained 2% more as compared to June. (...)

Roxana Andronic
Ziua Vineri 03 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Terrifying rudeness

A nation can be respected if it respects itself. Respect for its greatest personalities, those who made its history and identity, is one extent of it.
As far as we are concerned, it isn't always so, unfortunately. It may be painful and, furthermore, it may be a clue showing the level of civilization and maturity reached by our society. This is what counts in the international eye first. Then there count the other components of the definition: political, economic, social, military and security.
As normal, society has had a deep response to the death of the Patriarch Teoctist. It was also normal that the Romanian government should declare Friday to be a national day of mourning, in order to properly emphasize the exceptional importance and vital contribution of His Beatitude the Patriarch Teoctist, paid in the 21 years of guiding the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Unfortunately, Dumitru Dragomir, a deputy representing the "Greater Romania" Party and a president of the Romanian Soccer League, announced boycott of the government's decision, informing the soccer games would take place as scheduled. The boss of his party, a man very Christian in his public stance, didn't protest in any way. And no one protested in any way: no one who paid a last homage by the coffin of the Patriarch Teoctist, no one who signed condolence letters. You know those letters forwarded to all the press agencies at once so that they will reach the news as soon as possible. This is how our politicians are like: they know so, they feel so and they do so.
The very serious problem emerging at this point is the powerlessness of the state and state structures to impose obedience to a decision as essential as the one on the national day of mourning. The deep crisis of authority Romania is going through allows for defiance of any decision because of the very autonomous areas, very numerous, in which the one who holds local power can very well defy central authorities. Very authoritative in his field, Dumitru Dragomir shows the world not only his utter disgust with the moral values which he theoretically committed to respect by his membership of the "Greater Romania" Party, but also the fact that in today's Romania he may very well care about nothing.
Do you fancy that, when in France there was a national day of mourning when General de Gaulle was interred, they were playing soccer games and the public opinion or the political class didn't express strong opposition ? And let's hit the other side of international politics for an example. Do you fancy Italy housed any sports competition the day Pope John Paul II was interred ?
All the Romanian politicians who will be attending the funeral should feel deeply humiliated by the attitude of Dumitru Dragomir, a member of the Romanian Parliament, by his terrifying rudeness. But only in case they haven't got tickets accompanied by an invitation to the Golden Blitz Restaurant, which is good for opinion polls.
It is not the Romanian people who should feel shamed. Those thousands and thousands of Romanians who queued to pay a last tribute by the coffin show the worth of the respect and common sense that need to be admitted as such. It is the others who are a problem. In fact, they are a huge problem, just like the destructive, dramatic and spreading rudeness they embody.

Cristian Unteanu
Ziua Vineri 03 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Romania asked to send troops to Sudan

Romanian received a solicitation to sent troops to Darfur, Sudan. Unofficial sources say it comes from French authorities.
Romanian military experts are now analyzing the solicitation. Depending on the financial resources available and the international mission commitments the Ministry of Defense has got, a technical report is to be sent to the Supreme Council for National Defenses so that a political decision will be made.
Right now there are 1,492 Romanian soldiers in missions abroad. Most of them (660) are in Afghanistan and Iraq (492). (...)

D.D.
Ziua Vineri 03 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

An energy tax for Europe

George W. Bush's disastrous war in Iraq has put Europe in a bind. The United States long has been Europe's protector. Now, because of a war it wanted no part of, Europe finds its security undermined.
Chaos in Iraq has empowered Iran - a much more dangerous country for Europe than Iraq ever was. And, with America bogged down in Iraq, Russian President Vladimir Putin has resurrected Soviet-style bullying tactics. Would Russia otherwise have dared to threaten to re-direct its nuclear missiles at European cities ?
Not only has Bush destroyed Iran's most formidable enemy and bogged down US troops in a hopeless cause; he also has enriched energy-abundant Iran and Russia by pursuing a war that has dramatically raised energy prices. High crude oil prices make it easier for Iran to build nuclear weapons and for Russia to use energy blackmail to threaten Europe.
But Europe can fight back. By imposing a stiff tax on energy consumption, Europeans would reduce both consumption of energy and its price in world markets, in turn cutting the flow of funds to Russia and Iran.
Because crude oil is priced in US dollars, and the dollar has depreciated against the euro, European consumers have gotten off relatively easy from rising energy prices. So an energy tax roughly equal to the euro's 33% appreciation in recent years would be about right.
Europeans might be forgiven for thinking that the Americans, who pumped up oil prices in the first place with their military misadventure in Iraq, should be the ones who "pump it down" with an energy tax. But, with a "Texas oil man" in the White House, it won't happen. Perhaps after 2008, the politics in America will change in favor of an energy tax, but such a tax is needed now.
Besides, given the strength of environmentalism in Europe, the issue is tailor-made for Europeans to take the lead. Moreover, Europeans do not narrowly equate national security with military spending. They know that confiscating the checkbooks of Russia and Iran would probably make the world a lot safer than building another submarine or aircraft carrier. Indeed, an energy tax would not only effectively counter the argument that Europeans are "free riders" when it comes to defense; it would be tantamount to defense leadership.
Still, with the amount of real resources transferred to their governments already high, Europeans might balk at a further increase. That is why the energy tax must be imposed as a tax substitution, with income or payroll taxes simultaneously reduced to keep real resource transfers to government at a constant level. This would increase economic growth as well as strengthen national security.
Critics who worry about the cost of the energy tax have not thought about tax substitutions. They also do not seem to realize that an energy tax is a much cheaper way for Europe to protect itself from Iran and Russia than alternative means, such as a defense buildup.
Europe currently lacks military muscle because it made a decision a half-century ago to be protected by the US and devote the saved resources to building up its welfare state. This strategy - which worked well for decades - always carried the risk that at some point America's resources might be tied up elsewhere, leaving Europe under-protected. That risk materialized with the Iraq war.
But Europeans are showing little taste for increased defense spending, Iraq or no Iraq. Even France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy - thought by many to be a pro-American foreign policy hawk - is backing away from his campaign promise to maintain defense spending at 2% of GDP.
In a recent speech to the French defense industry, Sarkozy conspicuously failed to repeat the pledge, instead warning that he soon might cut France's defense budget. According to a respected defense industry publication, Sarkozy changed his mind after his party's smaller-than-anticipated victory in June's parliamentary election.
The reason Europeans are reluctant to increase defense spending is expense. Cutting welfare spending - where the big money is - would be painful. Solemn promises made over the years would have to be broken (people would not get the social services that they paid for with a lifetime of high taxes), lives would be shortened (less money for hospitals and nursing homes), and overall hardship increased.
Even economic growth will not prevent a tradeoff between defense and welfare spending for Europeans. Fifty years of defense dependence on the US has created a powerful "peace industry" in Europe whose primary business is to fight defense spending tooth and nail. They will want to protect all social spending, regardless of the consequences for foreign policy.
A counterweight to the "peace crowd" may be new migrants from Eastern Europe, for whom cuts in social services would break no promises, and for whom job availability and wage levels are more important. But it will take some time before the new migrants gain decisive political influence, and the problems of Iran and Russia for Europe require immediate attention.
In short, Europeans will not allow Bush's Iraq war to become a war on their welfare state. What makes the energy imposed as a tax substitution tax particularly attractive as a defense measure is that it leaves the welfare state intact while making Europe safer, greener, and richer. Why wait ?

Melvyn Krauss is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
www.project-syndicate.org

Melwyn Krauss
Ziua Vineri 03 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Foreign Ministry abides by couple pattern

-- Senator Eugen Mihaescu unveils to the ZIUA readers the family related network in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The senator, a vice president of senators' foreign affairs committee, argues that the 'ambassador husband-councilor wife' pattern seems to prevail in Romanian democracy. It is family networks instead of office relations that control foreign affairs. The senator comments: "They make the secret network in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who does and undoes things. When they get appointed and they are to leave on mission, they approach it socially: 'I have sacrificed myself for the Ministry and for you, Mr. Minister, for so long ! Then get me that job and give my wife one too !' ".
Here are some married couples with high official positions abroad the senator mentions on his list: Ligor in Madrid, Davidoiu in Dublin, Gaginshi in Washington, Mircea in Alger, Rusu recommended for Rome, Stoian recommended for Strasbourg, Matache in London, Sava in Camberra, Montanu in Rio de Janeiro, Cojocaru in Paris. There are also couples of former Communist activists: Buje in Lyon, Opris in Paris.
Senator Eugen Mihaescu is demanding Adrian Cioroianu, Romania's foreign minister, now busy handling the sex scandal bursting out because of ambassadress Manuela Vulpe, to clean Romanian diplomacy so that he would stand a chance to remain in its history. (...)

E.M.
Ziua Joi 02 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

MPs cost thousands of Euro

The IPP (Public Policy Institute) released yesterday a study on the monthly expenses for the activities of Romanian senators and deputies.
One MP may cost us up to 7,425 Euro a month. Senators and deputies on hotel accommodation spend three times more than their colleagues in other dwelling places. In 2006 Romanian deputies spent on trips in the country a quarter more than in 2005.
These are some of the research conclusions unveiled yesterday, after an analysis of MP activity expenses in January 2005-October 2006.
In the study there is emphasized: "The IPP does not want to insinuate that such funds are necessarily too large, but to outline the need for total transparency on such expenses, which the parliamentarians should be the first to stimulate". (...)

Roxana Andronic
Ziua Joi 02 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Our virtual Middle Ages

-- Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is the most impressive collective intellectual project ever attempted - and perhaps achieved. It demands both the attention and the contribution of anyone concerned with the future of knowledge.
Because of the speed with which it has become a fixture in cyberspace, Wikipedia's true significance has gone largely unremarked. Since its sixth anniversary in 2007, Wikipedia has consistently ranked in the top ten most frequently viewed Web sites worldwide. Everyday it is consulted by 7% of all 1.2 billion Internet users, and its rate of usage is growing faster than that of Internet usage as a whole.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia to which anyone with a modicum of time, articulateness, and computer skills can contribute. Anyone can change any entry or add a new entry, and the results will immediately appear for all to see - and potentially contest.
"Wiki" is a Hawaiian root that was officially added to English in 2007 to signify something done quickly - in this case, changes in the collective body of knowledge. Some 4.7 million "Wikipedians" have now contributed to 5.3 million entries, one-third of which are in English, with the rest in more than 250 other languages. Moreover, there is a relatively large group of hardcore contributors: roughly 75,000 Wikipedians have made at least five contributions in any given 30-day period.
The quality of articles is uneven, as might be expected of a self-organizing process, but it is not uniformly bad. True, topics favored by sex-starved male geeks have been elaborated in disturbingly exquisite detail, while less alluring matters often lie fallow. Nevertheless, according to University of Chicago Law professor Cass Sunstein, Wikipedia is now cited four times more often than the Encyclopedia Britannica in US judicial decisions. Moreover, Nature's 2005 evaluation of the two encyclopedias in terms of comparably developed scientific articles found that Wikipedia averaged four errors to the Britannica's three. That difference probably has been narrowed since then.
Wikipedia's boosters trumpet it as heralding the arrival of "Web 2.0." Whereas "Web 1.0" facilitated the storage and transmission of vast amounts of different kinds of information in cyberspace, "Web 2.0" supposedly renders the whole process interactive, removing the final frontier separating the transmitter and receiver of information. But we have been here before - in fact, for most of human history.
The sharp divide between producers and consumers of knowledge began only about 300 years ago, when book printers secured royal protection for their trade in the face of piracy in a rapidly expanding literary market. The legacy of their success, copyright law, continues to impede attempts to render cyberspace a free marketplace of ideas. Before, there were fewer readers and writers, but they were the same people, and had relatively direct access to each other's work.
Indeed, a much smaller, slower, and more fragmented version of the Wikipedia community came into existence with the rise of universities in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Europe. The large ornamental codices of the early Middle Ages gave way to portable "handbooks" designed for the lighter touch of a quill pen. However, the pages of these books continued to be made of animal hide, which could easily be written over. This often made it difficult to attribute authorship, because a text might consist of a copied lecture in which the copyist's comments were inserted and then perhaps altered as the book passed to other hands.
Wikipedia has remedied many of those technical problems. Any change to an entry automatically generates a historical trace, so entries can be read as what medieval scholars call a "palimpsest," a text that has been successively overwritten. Moreover, "talk pages" provide ample opportunity to discuss actual and possible changes. While Wikipedians do not need to pass around copies of their text - everyone owns a virtual copy - Wikipedia's content policy remains deeply medieval in spirit.
That policy consists of three rules: 1) no original research; 2) a neutral point of view; and 3) verifiability. These rules are designed for people with reference material at their disposal but no authority to evaluate it. Such was the epistemic position of the Middle Ages, which presumed all humans to be mutually equal but subordinate to an inscrutable God. The most one could hope for, then, was a perfectly balanced dialectic. In the Middle Ages, this attitude spawned scholastic disputation. In cyberspace, the same practice, often dismissed as "trolling", remains the backbone of Wikipedia's quality control.
Wikipedia embodies a democratic medievalism that does not respect claims to personal expertise in the absence of verifiable sources. To fully realize this ideal, participation in Wikipedia might be made compulsory for advanced undergraduates and Master's degree candidates worldwide. The expected norms of conduct of these students correspond exactly to Wikipedia's content policy: one is not expected to do original research, but to know where the research material is and how to argue about it.
Compulsory student participation would not only improve Wikipedia's already impressive collective knowledge base, but also might help curb the elitist pretensions of researchers in the global knowledge system.

Steve Fuller is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He is the author of The Knowledge Book: Key Concepts in Philosophy, Science and Culture.
www.project-syndicate.org

Steve Fuller
Ziua Joi 02 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english