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.