MEDALS Romanian rowers walked away with six medals, five gold and
one silver, from the European Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. So our
eight, double scull, pair-oared boat and lightweight single skiff won gold in
the women’s competition on Sunday. A day before the Romanian women’s four came
first in the race while our men’s eight became silver medalist. Romania lined
up 11 crews at the aforementioned competition and came second in the medal
ranking after Britain. We recall that rowers from Romania had walked away with
five gold and three silver medals from the previous edition of this prestigious
European contest held in Munich.
STRIKE Teachers in Romania are likely to carry on
their all-out strike into this week as well and they blame the government for its
failure to come up with a viable solution to the crisis. Trade unions have
called on the government to bring a new amendment to the pay law, allowing
beginner teachers to get the average gross salary in the economy. They are also
asking for a 25% pay rise until the salary law comes into effect. The spokesman
for the government, Dan Carbunaru, has announced the government’s offer remains
the same, a bonus of 25 hundred lei in two installments, in the months of June
and October to benefit around 220 thousand teachers.
DAY The Day of the Romanians all over the
world is a special moment and it has a major emotional, spiritual and cultural
dimension, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis says in the message conveyed on
this occasion on Sunday. According to him, Romania has a large Diaspora, which
could represent the force capable of promoting the Romanian values and
spirituality in a continuously changing Europe. The Day of the Romanians all
over the world is celebrated in the last Sunday of the month of May in order to
acknowledge the importance the state attaches to the communities of Romanians
living outside the country’s borders. In Italy this day has been marked through
a series of theatre shows. A team of professors and students from the
University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest has kicked off a project entitled,
‘A Caravan for the Romanians all over the world’, which has already had its
first shows in Rome and is going to give more performances in Lazio, Turin,
Padua and Venice. In Bucharest, over 300 Romanians from the historical
communities and from abroad have attended a three-day event entitled
‘Here-There’ unfolding under the auspices of the Romanian president.
‘Here-There’ comprised a series of events staged by the Department for the
Romanians All Over the World jointly with the Fine Artists Union in Romania and
has brought together artists from Romania and abroad from various fields, like
art, design, music and literature.
HOLIDAY Catholic believers in Romania on Sunday celebrated
Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the other
followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. This holiday, which completes the Easter
cycle – the Resurrection, the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit – is
a major Christian event always celebrated on Sundays, fifty days after Easter.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands believers, including the president of
Hungary Novak Katalin, participated in the great pilgrimage on Catholic
Pentecost in Sumuleu Ciuc, central Romania. The event there brought together
Catholics from all over the world, most of them Hungarian-speaking believers,
including from countries like Australia and the United States. The pilgrimage
in Sumuleu Ciuc boasts a history of 450 years and has at its center the
miracle-working statue of Virgin Mary in the Franciscan Church there. Legend
has it that around the year 1567, the Transylvanian Prince John Sigismund would
have tried to impose Unitarianism to the Roman-Catholic believers who managed
to keep their faith with the help of the aforementioned statue. Hundreds of
gendarmes, policemen and firefighters have been deployed for the good
functioning of the pilgrimage, while the local authorities have imposed traffic
restrictions.
(bill)
