Kafka Grabs DNA

Has anybody else read The Trial? I've seen frequent stories covering DNA in Nine O'Clock. This other publication seems to think they're violating common judicial practice in their pursuit of corrupt officials, giving too much power to the executive branch.

Rockville in Romania, or 'The city grows for you'

The Baneasa Project seems to be a nice bit o' sprawl. You can take the Tur Virtual, and here are some gems from the interview:

On alienation: "You have to be relatively well off to live there, but its more a question of buying into a lifestyle and an ethos, than wanting to get away from everybody."

On transition: "This is something I believe is a reawakening for Romanians—for so many years they were told, 'You go and live there, or there, or there,' and all the accommodation was exactly the same—you kind of gave up on the choices. The only question was whether you would have a three room apartment or a four room apartment."

On post-Xmas commerce: "you have them to keep people coming to the stores during what would technically be a 'fatigue period' for shoppers"

On mentality: "there wasn't really a retail mentality here until a few years ago... I mean, that whole side of capitalist consumerism is only in its infancy here."

They claim the project has environmental motives, but they seem to be environmental in that way suburbs were in the U.S. a long time ago: cars and lawns and the drive for fresh air.

Aside: Does anybody else find themselves reading in a Romanian accent?

UN opening

The interests of France and the U.S., despite their protests to the contrary. are just so provincial. Romania has no problem attending its committee meeting with Iran.

Climate Change, etc.

Has anyone found any articles pertaining to climate change/global warming concerns?

Coalition of the Willing

Romanian soldier's body repatriated.

Beat This Spread

I was reading the Oltchim won the Champions Trophy article and about a paragraph in I realized I had no idea what sport they were talking about.

Romanians win a European handball final

Curious

Which source are you all most hooked on?

EU Parliament Election Looming

Interesting piece on how the Romanians are unmotivated for and unaware of the upcoming europarl elections, which contrasts with their usual political behavior:

To put this into context, Romanian elections are usually a frenzy of lively televised debates; floods of posters, leaflets, ads and volunteers in T-shirts; hurried visits to the villages with bags of flour and promises to peasants—and epic struggles within the parties to get onto the official list of candidates.

Author says nobody wants the plush job, not even Nadia Comaneci. And that low turnout allows the extremes to more easily field candidates.

Shopping

Traffic

Jen:

Is this one article or three? No women in government, no aesthetic sensibility? My memory of Bucharest is loud, big, grey and unforgiving. So far--team--I like the advertisements.

Urban planning

Read it.

Dracula Castle for Sale

Wow. A thirteenth century Teutonic castle built to repel the Ottomans and once occupied by Vlad the Impaler... for 40 million sterling? What a deal. I can't believe the Romanian government actually gave the thing back to the Habsburgs last year.

Romania's international partners

Besides Chile and China, what else do we know of Romania's favorable international relations? Also, how long has the EU been granting 'association agreements' to countries around the world?

JT

The GINI Index

This index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country. The index is calculated from the Lorenz curve, in which cumulative family income is plotted against the number of families arranged from the poorest to the richest. The index is the ratio of (a) the area between a country's Lorenz curve and the 45 degree helping line to (b) the entire triangular area under the 45 degree line. The more nearly equal a country's income distribution, the closer its Lorenz curve to the 45 degree line and the lower its Gini index, e.g., a Scandinavian country with an index of 25. The more unequal a country's income distribution, the farther its Lorenz curve from the 45 degree line and the higher its Gini index, e.g., a Sub-Saharan country with an index of 50. If income were distributed with perfect equality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the 45 degree line and the index would be zero; if income were distributed with perfect inequality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the horizontal axis and the right vertical axis and the index would be 100.


Romania's GINI Index -- 28

by comparison:

USA's GINI Index -- 45

outside info

for good basic overview of romania - you can always trust the agency...
ill look around for a good brief synopsis of post-89 politics.

noob question. am i supposed to post this as a comment on jenn's post or a new post?

in Rompres:

click on more at end of page then you get a whole bunch of other articles- like this:

Bucharest, Sept 18 /Rompres/ - Only a wise demographic policy will help us, whereas an ill-chosen one will set on the future generations a burden almost impossible to carry under the projected circumstances, President Traian Basescu stated on Tuesday in Sibiu. Attending the opening of the International Conference on population and development - 'Romania's population - where to ?,' the chief of the state underscored that demography is a vital issue.'For the country's population to keep at the current level, the birth rate should be at least 2 children per woman. (...) The population's decline is so steep that even if we reach measures to increase fertility the population will rise only after 2060. The freedom gained after 1989 is not enough for having children. We also need solidarity and economic and social cohesion,' said Traian Basescu.

Focus?

I'm curious as to what everyone's reading - I've been focusing on world news and politics in the nine o'clock; as for rompress, english readers can only access the front page. I've decoded some world headlines in that, but only spottily.

Is anyone else completely baffled by Romania's internal politics?

Petropolitics Stab at Heart of Romanian Industry

The CEO of Rompetrol, a big Romanian oil company, just sold a 75 percent stake to the Kazakhs for around $2.7 billion, despite the fact that he's charged with money laundering and insider trading in relation to the privatization of that very company. Globalization of the oligarchs?