Roma

Collections And Collectors

By definition, the collector is a person who gathers various objects for his pleasure or for study. Didn't we all have this tendency, during our childhood? Remember how we used to show off on our collections of napkins, stamps, beer caps or chewing gum wrappers, of

The Romanian Was Not Born A Suicide!

political scientist Let us start from the end: thank God Romanians are Orthodox, have not totally renounced the traditional values of the village (where 45% of them are still living, a record in Europe!), do not seem to show an ethnically-grounded morbid penchant for suicide,

The Faces Of Decadence

A civilization starts decaying when Life becomes its only obsession. Flourishing ages aim to values per se: life is but a means of attaining them; the individual being is not aware that he lives, he just lives – a happy slave of the shallowness that he breeds, nurses and

The Psychology Of The Romanian People

CHAPTER 12 – THE PRESENT SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE Even when the villager's household doesn't come down to the worst poverty image, the house and the things around have an expression of ephemeral, of provisional. It is made of wood, set

For As Little As One Life

Grasp the tray of each dayWith both handsAnd join the line passingBefore this counter.  There's more than enough sunFor everybody,More than enough sky,More than enough moon.  From the earth arise the aromasOf luck, happiness, and glory,Tickling your nostrilsEnticingly.

From Lust To Zest

The English-speaking people do not have a perfect equivalent for the French joie de vivre. The latter conveys the accord between body and soul, the excitement at the prospects of the future (advienne que pourra), the feeling of well-being (se sentir bien dans sa peau).

When Time Is My Oyster

Have you noticed the relaxed way in which we actually re-create ourselves in our times off? Dem lieben Gott die Tage stehlen – Germans refer to the waste of time as to a theft committed in the face of God. I remember an episode during my student years, when, at the close

Apartment 93

excerpts (This article is prohibited to my parents, as it may contain: scenes of moderate physical violence, alcohol consumption, conduct which may be easily imitated by said parents, etc. ) I think that my first Bohemian period started off in an unsuspecting leave taken

With My Little Brother, Reinventing The Bohemia

The bohemia, the obnoxious, damned bohemia kills and often not only figuratively. My stomach, for example, stood defeated, alongside with the bowels, the sphincters, the liver, the brains and in consequence all inspiration, exactly on Friday, the deadline for my article.

A Morning Without Abu Ghraib

Dedicated to Ol' Eugen Hang on, ol' man: they caught once a 450-kilo sheatfish! It was nine meters long! They used a sheep for bait! There'd been ducks and geese disappearing from the Danube, but when it took away two children…That's what Ol'

Fishing Days

excerpt The loaded boats – from time to time you can hear the thumping of a strong fish striking against the freshly tarred wood – are lined up in the narrow canal, towed by Michea's tug. Come on, you dark-bay horse, take me to my beloved, don't tarry! Timosca

The Most Beloved Man On Earth

click here for fragment from the movie XIVexcerpt On the contrary, I had been dominated by a celebratory feeling ever since I had left the house. The city, under the sun of an August morning, seemed to celebrate too. Was it a reflection of my frame of mind? I have always