Archive for the 'I love Romania' Category
Matthias Lüfkens had a fast post on twitter and made me remind what I was doing 20 years ago and how Romania changed in the last two decades. I followed the link Matthias gave on twitter and discovered the video tour of the Parliament, a must see if you’re in Romania or in Bucharest for the holidays.
Standing 84m above ground level on 12 floors, the building has long been shrouded in mystery, rumour and hyperbole. Originally designed to house almost all the organs of the communist state, it today plays host to the Romanian parliament and a modern, well equipped conference centre, as well as Romanias Museum of Contemporary Art. Much of the building, however, remains unused. Join the official tour of Romania’s most famous building with tour guide Raluca Mitu. [full article and video tour here]
For more about the key sites in Bucharest check out Bucharest In Your Pocket.
Why Invest in Romania
Eastern European countries continue to be an attractive region for foreign direct investment. However Romania distinguishes itself by truly fulfilling the criteria necessary to create the ideal investment opportunity.
Romania has recently made considerable legislative and economic progress. With the introduction of the 16% unique taxation rate on profit, 70% of economic activity now in private hands, advanced price liberalization, an open foreign trade regime, and significant and ongoing advances in the opening of key markets such as energy and infrastructure, the sector is poised for IT investors and partnerships. Romania also continues to improve legislation in the area of corporate governance, for example by introducing new mandatory voting requirements for publicly held companies. Continue reading ‘Romania IT’
Iulian Comanescu writes about a contest in Moldova (Eastern region of Romania) – five Romanian journalists will have the chance to cover a story for 4 days in Moldova.
If you are a journalist and if you want to visit this part of Romania, here is what you’ll have to do:
- know the mainstream subjects in Moldova;
- motivate your desire to visit Moldova;
Send your CV and a “motivational” letter to dlazur@api.md or call Dumitru Lazur, tel.: (+373 22) 22-09-96.
Good luck!
Views: 2,329,092, Comments: 1563, Favorited: 3587 times: Cleopatra Stratan – Ghita
*when searching after “romania”
Eugène Ionesco, introduced to the world the Theatre of the Absurd.
This website, although very old fashioned, is a very interesting project meant to be a museum of portraits and caricatures made by authors from all over the world.
Catalin Paduraru and Cezar Ioan talk about the best Cabernet Sauvignon – River Route Limited.
A modern wine made by Carl Reh Winery – only 5.261 bottles.
BUCHAREST — Romanians to decide today whether they still want their President in office
Some 18 million Romanian voters are invited to decide today whether the country’s suspended President Traian Basescu returns to office or is dismissed in a referendum that has brought havoc on the political stage in Bucharest.
The vote comes one month after the April 19 decision by the Parliament to suspend Basescu on grounds that he breached the Romanian Constitution on many accounts.
The referendum is the climax of a political crisis that has lasted for more than a year, pitching President Basescu against both Liberal prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu and much of the Romanian Parliament.
The conflict has got out of control shortly after Romania joined the European Union on January 1 this year, as many politicians were commented to have drawn back their support for anti-corruption and Justice reforms of which Basescu and his ally, ex-Justice minister Monica Macovei, were seen as major defenders.
Polls over the past week have shown popular President Traian Basescu will receive the backing of most Romanians in today’s referendum despite a fierce campaign by both the opposition Social Democrats (PSD) and the main governing party, the Liberals (PNL.
The questions asks voters: “Do you agree with the dismissal of President Basescu from office?” The two possible answers are “Yes” and “No”.
Thousands of voting sections in Romania opened at 8 a.m. Romanian time this morning and will close at 8.00 p.m. A total of 17,000 voting sections at home and abroad are/will be open for voting today.
Millions of Romanian workers in Spain, Italy and Romanian citizens living across the globe are expected to have a major say in today’s referendum.
The famous Romanian dictator is alive and enjoying a quiet secret life in a resort in Cuba.
Nicolae Ceausescu is now old but he is still conected to the latest global news – he has a new citizenship and he says that he wants to vote on the 19th of may.
Here is an exclusive interview that will probably blow the Romanian political scene…
“Mergi la vot pe 19 mai!” (“Go on and vote on the 19th of May”) – this is our latest campaign and it starts today at CRSC – its main goal is to consolidate the romanian democracy and to be a civil exercise.
Miruna started her first blog. If you don’t know her yet, she is one of the most talented writers in Romania and also a dear friend.
Just one click away…
A sad news for all the romanian music lovers – Gil Dobrica went to heaven leaving us all his great songs and fine memories.
First time I met him when I was a student and I wanted to have Gil singing at our party. He really rocked the stage and I could see he was a natural talent. Last time we met, I invited him to sing at a festival and he was happy to see the people asking for his songs and having a good time.
Gil, rest in peace!
In Romanian TCB actually stands for “Targul de Cariere Bucuresti” (“Bucharest Career Fair”).
The full story is here…
Our creative intelligence was at its best in the last weeks so we managed to create one of the most attractive concepts in the market.
We had to wait for the competition and gather all the vital information from the competitive environment and during all this time we had to think out of the box.
One crucial thing in Bucharest is to find a big place for a career fair. This place also has to be very accessible (preferably in the middle of the city) and to have a strong brand.
This is why it’s very hard to find such a building in the center of the city. While our competition was running from one place to another, we took our time to prepare the concept.
Our first thought: “why do it in a building?” – so we focused on one of the main squares in Bucharest (Piata Revolutiei) and we decided to place it there. This is how we managed to have a 1700 sq m area for the event – in this zone we’ll built a pavilion: very modern, very good looking, brought from Germany.
Another important thing is that we could easily place our event in time as we didn’t depend on other events in the same place. So we chose the last week in April because we wanted to have a distance from the Easter holiday and the Labor Day and the student exam session.
“Piata Revolutiei” gave us the chance to brand something cool. The word “Revolution” implies “Evolution” and we believe that the fair will be a place for career evolutions.
Very interesting will also be the Career Cafe – a place where you can come for a coffee with actual managers or counselors and talk about career opportunities.
As I know that my blog is read by the competition, this is where I’ll stop although I have to thank them: because of you guys we had to work twice as hard and think twice as fast so this event will be great because of you also.
Later update: The press release here.
and check out the website here…
Tonight at 22:20 on TVR – Garantat 100% – a talk-show about branding Romania.
Special guests:
Mihai Razvan Ungureanu – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Aneta Bogdan – Managing Partner Brandient
Bogdan Naumovici – Regional Creation Manager at Leo Burnett
Lucian Georgescu – Managing Partner GAV Scholz&Friends Bucharest
The recorded show will be available here.
Chairman E. Neville Isdell received $7 million in salary and performance-based pay in 2006.
Coca-Cola said that Isdell’s incentive award was based on the company’s strong performance during 2006, including results at the top end of its long-term volume and profit goals (the company’s unit case volume and net income each rose 4% in 2006.
$7 million is also a figure describing another story in Romania and although they seem to like me in China, I’m pretty sure that the fun is still around 
The Delegation of the European Commission to the United States has a banner campaign on the US Internet announcing the enlargement (Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU on the 1st of January 2007).
It was very interesting to find the ad on the Foreing Policy blog while reading my daily digest and I wonder if the banners are targeted on some areas of the world…
While you’re at it, you may also find interesting this post about the first resume in Google Earth format. Could be a good idea for Liviu or Calin.
“Acasa” is a traditional Romanian restaurant on Skillman Avenue. Peter MEEHAN was there and wrote a nice review in The NewYork Times.
Address: 48-06 Skillman Avenue (48th Street), Sunnyside, Queens; (718) 651-1364.
HOURS Noon to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday; to midnight Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Sportswomen have sprinted out of the shadow of their male counterparts to inspire with their own triumphs. Early pioneers fought sexist attitudes and lack of support to pave the way for today’s female sporting champions.
Who do you think is the greatest?
Click here and vote for Nadia Comaneci!
Zghihara, Novac, Cramposia, Babeasca Gri, Babeasca Neagra, Babeasca Rose, Busuioaca de Bohotin, Feteasca Alba, Feteasca Neagra and Feteasca Regala. Francusa. Galbena de Odobesti. Grasa de Cotnari. Negru de Dragasani, Sarba and Tamaioasa Romaneasca – Catalin writes here about the Romanian wines and their ancestral secrets…
Gramo (Gheorghe Stefanov) is a university philosophy professor and was spotted posting a few pics representing personal photo-memoirs – in the nude artistic pictures he appears together with his wife.
As a philosophy teacher, he posted the pictures on the Internet in order to start a public debate about Eastern-European hypocrisy and fake Victorian morals.
As we speak Gramo’s family is seriously harassed by the ex-communist scandal tabloids in Bucharest and their life is turning upside down as the main TV stations broadcasted without persmission personal photos of the couple. The scandal reached the University of Bucharest where Gramo is being investigated (the staff is still dominated by the old ex-communist professors).
Today, Gramo will be attending the university senate hearings and he risks being fired because of his personal blog. I decided to post this message and say “I support Gramo” and I also invite all my readers and friends to write about this and be there for the two Gramos!
For the english users – the story is available here.
NOTE: you can post the logo above on your page. Manafu already did it as Gramo is member of the Netoo Group.
LATER EDIT:
Some of the blogs that wrote about Gramo: Paul, Eduard, Netoo,Victor, Iulian, Ionut, Zoso, No Doubt, Nihasa, Apollinaire, Laurentiu, Sub Sol, Liviu, Alex…
SentiVinum is a wine that involves feelings and emotions.
Beginning with this month, SentiVinum will be a brand managed by Vinul.ro online magazine and I assure you that this is a world premiere!
The wine will be sold only online and in 4-5 luxury wine stores.
Of course, this is off the record, the press release will be available soon.
This is quite an interesting article published on CNN.com about an entrepeneur, a small business and his special guests:
There is only one count in this remote Transylvanian village of 512 souls nestled in the wilds of the Carpathian Mountains — and it isn’t Count Dracula.
Meet Count Tibor Kalnoky, a dashing 40-year-old entrepreneur and son of Transylvania descended from a noble family which settled in these misty lands in the 13th century and lived there until communism forced the family to flee.
Kalnoky, a former veterinarian who grew up in France and Germany, moved back to the ancestral home after communism ended in 1989. In the last few years he has created one of Romania’s most successful tourist ventures out of his ancestral hunting manor — and has counted Britain’s Prince Charles among his guests.
[...]
The famous no-show at the manor is Omar Hayssam, a Syrian businessman who was charged with setting up the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005 and was recently accused of plotting to kidnap the youngest daughter of President Traian Basescu.He is believed to have fled Romania this year from a Black Sea port on a ship full of sheep.
Romanian Intelligence Service came looking for the vanished businessmen and questioned the startled staff. Kalnoky said workers had to sign an affidavit saying they had not seen the Syrian on the lam.
This is the most expensive castle in the world and it’s also very famous – Bran is also known as Dracula’s castle and these days, is out for sale.
I saw the announcement on a real estate website and the requested price is 100.000.000 euro – quite high but the castle is placed in the middle of Transylvania and some would probably pay in order to discover the truth about the genuine vampires.
The announcement above is also controversial as one of the respondents is Adrian Iorgulescu (Romanian Ministry of Culture) also interested in acquiring BRAN.
As we speak, China has over 137 million Internet users (China Internet Network Information Center).
The Latest Statistics (By June 30, 2006) showed 123,000,000 Internet Users and over 54,500,000 Computer Hosts.
An impressive web community of 788,400 WWW Websites and a 214,175 Mbit/s International Bandwidth is also shaping their community.
I guess these numbers can make Sorin and his company to think of new businesses in China also (not only Russia ). Btw, I hear that the investments in Canada, Spain or New Zealand are not a hit (yet)… Sorin?
I must say that in China they are up to date and there is no outrageous censorship. They don’t talk about politics and that’s a good thing because they can carry on with their business. I don’t speak Chinese but thanks to the language tools I have installed on my laptop, I can easily surf Chinese websites and I read the daily news.
For example, Romania made the front page today in many newspapers:
Chinese workers strike in Romania protect their rights investigation
Xinhuanet Capitol Hill : September 7, 2006 publication of the “workers in Romania” have been prisoners, “to investigate the incident,” a text Romania reported Bacau city “WEAR garment factory” Chinese workers hailed by manufacturers imprisoned; Recently, This Chinese garment factory workers to strike in order to safeguard its own interests. China has again aroused the concern of various parties to import workers from Romania, the first city Bacau Italy (Italy) – WEAR garment factory in the recent labor dispute Chinese factory workers on fixed unilaterally raise expressed dissatisfaction and lowering overtime. The two sides failed to reach agreement in the case declared a strike. At present, both employers and employees are still in a stalemate, the management claims that Chinese workers continue to strike, and will repatriate them all. Chinese Ambassador to Romania attaches great importance to the embassy, through a variety of channels to urge the owners to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.
You can read the whole article here…
First to confirm – on 14th of July in Sibiu – My Dying Bride. I assure that even more surprises are on the way: the main attraction will be another band (only one clue: they already received a World Music Award).
I’ve seen talks about Artmania ‘07 on several websites: Zoso wrote about it and Dies Irae also. I have good news for the art lovers: the tickets will be available soon and the prices are quite the same like last year. The new website is under heavy construction and will host a blog for the fans. Hope to tell you more quite soon 
Vinul.ro will embrace a new strategy in 2007. Due to the carefully selected audience on the website, the stakeholders decided to change the rate card for this year and also pay special attention to their visitor’s needs. The advertising formats on Vinul.ro are sold by ARBOmedia and the 2007 CPM price for the leaderboard (728×90 px) is 50 EUR, making it the most expensive website around. Also, for the first time in Romania, the advertisers will be carefully selected in order to fulfill the high demands of the visitors.
Vinul.ro is the first online wine’s magazine in Romania, and a leader of its niche – with an average of 20.000 readers every month, the website reaches all the key players of the wine industry and a large number of the elite wine lovers.
This is the first open course (8th of February 2007) organized by intellCompetitiv. The course will be presented by Conf. Dr. Vasile Paun (Senior Partner and founder at intellCompetitiv).
The course is free and I think this is part of a strategy (another one is planned later this year). Vasile Paun is very enthusiastic about promoting the IC practices in Romania and at some level we identified some keywords for our PR strategy last year. JOBfest, for example, aimed for intelligent young urban professionals as we knew that they will turn Romania into a competitive nation.
If you want to register, click here and rest assured that they’ll get back to you
Margot Wallstrom was with her family and spend the New Year‘s Eve in Romania. She says that she has romanian friends in Transylvania (who once fled the Ceauscescu regime to Sweden) and had a great time with romanian home made sausages and palinka-schnaps.
You can read the whole story here (on her blog) and I must say that she is in my blogroll as a valid example of a great european politician blogger.
A few days ago I wrote here that the Romanian version of europa.eu will soon be available. Romanian joined the EU on the 1st of January 2007 but on the first days of 2007, the Romanian citizens could not access the European portal in their own language.
Today is the big day and I’m the first Romanian to blog about this – everything is so fresh that you can still feel the paint: http://europa.eu/index_ro.htm
The page was published a few minutes ago and please note that the website is still under heavy construction – I wonder how come the programmers missed the deadline with a few days
The first news:
Presidency statement on the intended executions in Iraq
“The Iraqi Government intends to execute Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, formerly head of one of the intelligence services, and Awad Hamed Al-Bandar, formerly president of the Revolutionary Court. The Presidency recalls the longstanding position of the EU with regard to the death penalty. The EU opposes capital punishment under all circumstances.
Both, Mr Al-Tikriti and Mr Al-Bandar, were high-ranking representatives of Saddam Hussein´s regime, which had brutally oppressed its own population for decades. Thousands of innocent people were killed and tortured, many disappeared.
Iraqis deserve a better future. To this end, it will be crucial to bring together all parts of Iraqi society irrespective of ethnicity or religious affiliation. Ensuring accountability for the crimes committed during the former regime can assist in furthering national reconciliation and dialogue in Iraq. The Presidency recalls that in order to achieve this important aim the prosecution of those crimes must adhere to the requirements of a fair process. “
I strongly support this statement.
Cezar blogged about this as we had presidential company on our last dinner downtown: the Romanian president, Traian Basescu together with his wife sat just next to us and enjoyed the specialties like a normal couple.
Traian Basescu is well known in Romania because of his “informal caused” events. He is often seen alone in public places, driving his car or skating along with the youngsters.
Few people know that these events are very well planned. I was talking with Dan Petre a few weeks ago that the new politicians have to mix more with the crowds. The “vip” look with limousines and annoying bodyguards is not what the voters want. So, there are counselors in Romania building new images and political brands.
As we speak, I know only 2 politicians that received and implement this type of political/PR behavior: Mircea Geoana and Traian Basescu. Geoana rides the subway and sometimes walks on the streets during the rush hours. Basescu is more visible as he is the president: he shops in the local Carrefour, he skates, and he is taking his wife to the restaurants or to the movies.
As I was involved in some events where the president was invited, I had the chance to discover all the security details of the “unexpected visit”. First of all, the secret service is no longer wearing only black tie. Sometimes they wear casual or sports wear and they are in the premises 2 hours before the president. After they secure the routes and the exits, they mix with the people. If the event is planned (there is a press release that the president will be there), they send the German Sheppard trained to find explosives.
When dining downtown, the secret service is very careful not to disturb the local clients. They work in couples (men-women) and they seem to be there for a drink. Because the restaurants in Bucharest need reservation (not easy to find a table in a good place for dinner), the officers will keep a table occupied until the president arrives. You’ll notice them because even they are a couple, they don’t talk and they drink water/juice for almost an hour. During this waiting time, other arrangements are made: in order to avoid other “drinking and driving” scandals, the management is asked not to leave branded bottles on the table.
The president is a fan of the Jidvei’s wine as his friend Adriean Videanu (the mayor of Bucharest) is secretly involved with this Romanian vineyard.
Returning to our evening, it was fun because not every day we have the chance to eat with the president – I must say that he confirmed again that he is a “people person” as he was very careful to salute us or to socialize with the regular clients.
For the press:
- the president told his wife that he dismissed his bodyguards for the holidays;
- the waiter came with a bottle of white wine and served him a glass;
- yes, he was driving
The website will be available here in a few days.
Consensus has been established among European leaders over how the EU should proceed with enlargement. Speaking at the European Council on 14-15 December, Commission President Barroso explained that the pace of enlargement depends on the EU’s capacity to integrate new members. “Consensus is clearly emerging around what I call the three Cs, consolidation, conditionality and communication,” he said. While the door to enlargement remains open, candidate countries must respect all the criteria.
