Radio România Internațional

Author: Eugen Nasta

  • Recent joint training sessions held on Romanian territory

    Recent joint training sessions held on Romanian territory

    The French colleagues of the NATO fighting group stationed in Romania, last week celebrated the 2024 edition of Goût de France, a Taste of France. The event was staged in a bid to promote French gastronomy. Attending were officials of Fagaras Municipality, Brasov County School Inspectorate, as well as partners, sponsors, collaborators and various other guests.

    The atmosphere was extraordinary, with top-flight participation. The Aurel Vijoli Technological High School/The French Vocational School in Fagaras, in partnership with the Brasov French Alliance, the French Consular Agency in Brasov, with the AIGLE-NATO Mission representatives in Cincu made a team, with the contribution of each member being extremely important. The high school pupils currently on a programme enabling them to become cooks, waiters or pastry cooks took the opportunity and enjoyed a hands-on experience in the preparation of dishes, salty or sweet, dishes that were then on display, much to the delight of the people attending.

    It was the perfect opportunity for participants to learn secrets of the French cuisine, but also to promote army cooks’ skills and culture.

    A joint urban warfare training session with NATO allies has been scheduled on the premises of the Getica National Joint Training Centre in Cincu, central Romania. The joint combat exercise targets the practice of procedures in urban warfare, together with the allies. In the Cincu Centre, the Dolj 20 Infantry Battalion troops continued their training, jointly with contingents from North Macedonia, Poland and Portugal. The troops carried a situational training exercise as part of the BLACK SCORPION 24 multinational exercise.

    The key objectives of the exercise were the improvement of interoperability and the joint training, mounted in order to cope with the international challenges, the learning and sharing of advanced attack tactics, as well as the capturing of strategic positions using modern infiltration, together with assault techniques.

    Also, training has been conducted for the defence of urban territory and the management of resources, in a bid to resist long-term enemy attacks. Such exercises are crucial in their bid to make sure armed forces are prepared to cope with the complex challenges of urban warfare.
    NATO fight groups are an obvious proof of the solidarity within the Alliance, of the determination and the capacity to defend NATO population and territory against any possible aggression.

    As an absolute first, on October 16, the Veterans’ Relay, now reaching its 11th edition and jointly carried by representatives of the Invictus Association in Romania and the Romanian Ground Forces, was received at the headquarters of the Caracal-based (in the south) 22 Infantry battalion by the command of the battalion. After that, the Romanati 22 Infantry Battalion, together with their Portuguese and North-Macedonian partners, passed the baton, after a 55-kilometer-long route, to representative of the Tudor Vladimirescu National Military College in the Craiova garrison (in the south). Jointly staged with the Invictus Romania Association, the event was held against the backdrop of the celebration, on October 25th, of Romanian Army Day.

  • Access to contraceptive methods in post-communist Romania: 35 years on

    Access to contraceptive methods in post-communist Romania: 35 years on

    Romanian society has a troublesome past regarding reproductive health. The country’s troubled past began in 1966. We recall that back then a decree was issued, targeting the Romanian population’s accelerated increase. For the previous generations of the communist regime, access to contraceptive methods was on the brink of illegality, while pregnancy termination was described as a crime.

    But what is Romanians’ relationship with the contraceptive methods, today?

    Andrada Cilibiu is a feminist activist for the FILIA Centre and an expert in sexual and reproductive rights. Here she is, with details on that.

    ” Given there is no free-of-charge contraceptive method especially for the most vulnerable of us women, there is no info or comprehensive sexual education in schools, therefore, it is all clear the use of contraceptive methods use is bound to be low. Which is worrying, considering two aspects: 1) an increasingly growing rate of sexually transmitted infections about which we do not speak that much as, unfortunately, in Romania, this topic related to reproductive health and sexual rights still is a taboo topic, while another aspect is related to teenage pregnancy, to the unwanted pregnancies and to a society that, unfortunately, describes contraception as being similar to abortion, and that is something we do not want.

    We want all women to have access, first of all, to contraception, to information, to sexual education and to safe pregnancy termination procedures. Yet we noticed that in the last 10 years, unfortunately, we have seen a throwback as compared to how Romanian society looked like a decade ago. “

    Andrada Cilibiu has told us how, in the years 2000, in Romania, a family planning network was established, offering access to individual discussions, with specialised physicians, about contraceptive methods, about fears and emotional deadlocks on sexual relations, pregnancy or other aspects of reproductive health.

    Furthermore, expert Andrada Cilibiu added, the network offered free contraceptive methods, while the discussion on sexual education was carried in rather more positive terms. According to the expert, what happened was that those medical doctors retired without training other specialists and without the network receiving other resources.

    Moreover, the years 2000 were marked by massive progress made in the preparation for gaining accession into the EU, which called for complying with certain standards. In another move, Republic of Moldova is mentioned as a positive example, with specialized clinics for youngsters aged between 10 and 24 who benefit from free-of-charge reproductive health services. When asked where we can borrow the good practices from, Andrada Cilibiu answered:

    “By all means from the comprehensive sexual education models we find in the Northern countries or in the United Kingdom or in the Netherlands where sexual education is made, in some of the countries, from the very early years, with info which is accessible to children, mainly laying emphasis on consent and on bodily autonomy, and then, taking one step after the next, as children grow, coming up with other pieces of info on healthy emotional and sexual relationships.

    We have examples of good practice regarding pregnancy termination also provided by the Netherlands, by France, a country which has fairly recently introduced, in its Constitution, the access to abortion rights. We also have Spain, for instance, with a very good programme of contraceptives distribution. But, in fact, most of EU member states have national contraception plans and offer free-of-charge contraception, especially among adolescents and young people, mostly, but also among vulnerable groups. Romania, in fact, is in this minority cluster of countries that do not have, do not offer free contraception at all.”

    In the spring of this year, the Filia Center launched the study “Care for democracy. The political interests of women in 2024”, with a chapter dedicated to the use of contraception by women in Romania today. According to it, 37% of respondents reported using contraceptive methods in the past 10 years, 62% said they had not, and 1% refused to answer. Of the group of women participating in the study who used a method of contraception, 63% used the condom, 55% the contraceptive pill, 42% the withdrawal method, 38% the calendar method, 24% the morning-after pill (considered more of an emergency measure) and in much smaller percentages more invasive methods, such as the IUD, tubal ligation, or contraceptive implants.

    At the European level, the World Health Organization is sounding the alarm regarding the worrying decrease in condom use by teenagers. The WHO study was conducted between 2014 and 2022, included more than 240 thousand adolescents from 42 European countries, and showed that condom use by 15-year-old boys decreased by 9% between 2014 and 2022 (from 70% to 61).

    For girls, the percentage dropped from 63% to 57% over the same time frame. The same study showed that 30% of girls and 22% of sexually active boys in Romania did not use a condom or any other form of contraception during their last sexual intercourse. Andrada Cilibiu says:

    “Unfortunately, I see many young people rather using pornography as a frame of reference on how to have safe sex. There’s a lot of confusion among them, and they end up believing a lot of myths and stereotypes and having a lot of anxieties about their body image, about the romantic or emotional relationships they get into, about sexual relationships, and so on.

    Having neither in the family nor, more importantly, at school, an authority figure to give them information validated by science, and that enters this area of comprehensive information about sex education, unfortunately we leave our young people to their own devices. As a result, they end up having sexual relationships, or enter into relationships where they do not recognize the violence, they do not recognize that what is happening to them is not ok. In this regard, we especially need compulsory and comprehensive sex education for everyone, without parental consent, youth-friendly sexual health services.”

    At the regional level, another study published in 2022 by the British medical journal The Lancet showed that, while the average choice of a condom as a contraceptive method in Eastern Europe (by those who choose to use one) is 37 .8%, in Romania, the percentage does not reach 31%. The calendar method, on the other hand, is used by 19.9% of Romanians who choose a contraceptive method, compared to 5.9% in Eastern Europe. The withdrawal method is preferred by 12.8% of Romanians, and by 10% of respondents from the region.

  • The Cerchez family of architects

    The Cerchez family of architects

    We’re more likely to come across the name of Cerchez, in the history of Romanian architecture, than other names of architects. The name of Cerchez family of architects stems from three families of Armenian origin. Bearing this name were no less than five major architects. Not only were they artists, but also, hey were men of their times: the brothers Grigore P. Cerchez and Nicolae P. Cerchez, brothers Grigore G. Cerchez and Artaxerxe Cerchez and their fifth brother, Hristea Cerchez.

    Speaking about the two pairs of brothers, here is professor with the Ion Mincu Architecture and Urbanism University and president of the Architects’ Union of Romania, Ileana Tureanu.

    ” Brothers Grigore and Nicolae Cerchez were born in mid-19th century, that is in 1850. They did their studies in France, in Paris, and founded the Society of Romanian Architects in 1891. In other words, they are some of the founding fathers of national architecture. Everybody mentions Grigore Cerchez’s name when they refer to the Palace of the Architecture School. Yet not everybody knows that Grigore P. Cerchez is Bucharest Municipality’s chief engineer over 1874 and 1879 and he is the one who drew up all the plans and took the entire action for the systematization of Dambovita River in Bucharest.

    He is the author of the first systematization plan for the city of Bucharest, in 1833. So he came after he had schools built, he laid the foundation of a scientific and systematic development of the city of Bucharest. He became director of Romanian Post and in that capacity, he brought specialized architects in the field, such as Alexandru Clavel of France. He brought younger colleagues and friends and he had Romanian Post headquarters built in all of Romania’s major cities. Quite a few of Romanian Post buildings were built under his supervision. They are blueprint projects, projects that were tailored to this or that urban context. For the second half of the 19th century, we’re speaking about an urban vision in its own right.”

    The first generation of the Cerchez brothers significantly involved in the modernization of Bucharest and in its transformation from a utterly oriental city into a city that was close to the European standards. Ileana Tureanu once again.

    ”In the field of monuments restoration, he is the one who created the Romanian scientific doctrine. ‘The principle that guided me’, he used to say, was to preserve the building just as I’d found it, consolidating it and restoring it, bringing it to the shape it had when it was built, disposing of all the parts that were unskilfully added. Against a backdrop when Andre Lecomte du Noüy’s principles were totally different regarding the historical monuments, Grigore Cerchez laid the foundation of restoration.

    Grigore Cerchez’s brother was Nicolae P. Cerchez, a year younger, both born in Moldova, in Vaslui County, who was also a very important figure in the era. He went towards political involvement and social involvement. He was a deputy in Parliament, he was a senator, and he was able to help his brother complete the programs I mentioned. He was the vice-president of the Romanian Automobile Club at the beginning of the 20th century, and took care of public spaces. He was also an entrepreneur. At the Royal Palace he designed the exterior arrangements, he designed the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Agricultural Pavilion for the exhibition of 1906, a building that received awards.”

    The second pair of Cerchez brothers was no less determined to continue the modernization. Another Gregory and his brother Artaxerxes wrote history. Ileana Tureanu:

    “The second family was also Cerchez. We don’t have any data that they were related, but it was probably something. After 20 years, another Grigore Cerchez appears, Grigore G. Cerchez, also the brother of Arta Cerchez. The two brothers did not go to school in France, like the first ones, but in Germany, in Karlsruhe. Both one and the other, but especially Grigore G. Cerchez, were, in parallel with design and execution, involved in the public square, held public functions at City Hall, and were present in all major city development initiatives, starting with coordination of the 1906 exhibition in Carol Park. Grigore’s brother was Arta Cerchez, who made a less neo-Romanian architecture.

    He started the Eforie Casino and the Movilă Casino in Techirghiol. It was a modern and powerful architecture. He also designed the racetrack. Arta Cerchez won the Sanitary Merit award, first class, for the buildings made in the Carmen Sylva resort. He was, in a way, an initiator of spa resorts.

    He is the one who initiated the study for the history of Romanian architecture. He was extremely vehement. His articles in Architecture Magazine can be picked up and reread today, and are just as valid, powerful and incisive. And one of the reasons why Arta Cerchez considered that Romanian architecture was adrift is that the history of Romanian architecture is not known. And then, he made the decision to launch a national competition for the writing of the history of Romanian architecture, and he would pay the winner out of public money.”

    The fifth Cerchez, Hristea or Cristofi, also left his mark on Bucharest, a representative building built by him being Vila Minovici, located in the north of the city.

  • Sports weekend

    Sports weekend

    Attention-grabbing this coming weekend is the football match pitting Romania against Cyprus. The game will be played in Larnaca and counts towards the third round of the Nations league’ third tier, Group C2. Media in Bucharest has mentioned that roughly 4,000 Romanian supporters are expected to go the stadium, given that the arena playing host to the game has a seating capacity of 8,000 seats.

    The Romania national squad is fresh from two winning confrontations in the Nations League’s first two rounds in September. We recall Romania won the game against Kosovo, 3-nil away, also winning the match against Lithuania at home, 3-1. In the first round, Cyprus defeated Lithuania away from home, 1-nil, then sustained a nil-4 home defeat by Kosovo. The history of the direct confrontations between Cyprus and Romania includes 9 wins for Romania, 3 draws and a win for Cyprus. Head-coach Mircea Lucescu’s trainees’ set target is to obtain six points in two games

    Matches counting towards the Champions League in women’s handball are scheduled at the weekend. In Group A on Saturday, Gloria Bistriţa-Năsăud play a home game against Croatia’s Podravka Koprivnica. According to the as-it-stands table, Gloria are 5th-placed, with two points. With zero points on their record sheet, Podravka and Denmark’s Nykøbing Falster are at the bottom of the table. CSM Bucharest play an away game in Ljubljana, against Krim. Holders CSM are 4th-placed with three wins and one defeat so far. Krim are 2nd-placed, after four consecutive wins.

    In Group B, Rapid Bucharest on Sunday play an away game against Danish team Odense. Rapid have won their first match in the group, against Buducnost Podgorica, at home, and drew against Vipers Kristiansand, away. Then Rapid went no less than eight goals down in the home game against Ludwigsburg, then away from home, Denmark’s Team Esbjerg were seven goals clear in the match against Rapid Bucharest.

    Notwithstanding, Rapid are highly likely to get back into shape: we recall that in the domestic championship this past Wednesday, Romania’s vice-champions trounced SCM Universitatea Craiova, 26 to 17. Also on Sunday, in Europe’s second tier league the EHF European League, in a match counting towards the second preliminary round, Sport Club Municipal Râmnicu Vâlcea play the second leg against Slovak team Dunajská Streda. In the first leg, the Romanian team, won, 28-26.

  • Romania played host to the Land Corps’ Commanders Conference

    Romania played host to the Land Corps’ Commanders Conference

    The South-East Multinational Corps in Sibiu (Central Romania) has recently played host to the 25th edition of the Land Corps’ Commanders Conference. Land corps commanders of the allied states convened for a series of high-ranking talks focusing on land command and control, operational planning, but also on the proper integration of the land forces into NATO’s strategic framework.

    For the Romanian Army’s Media Agency, here is what the Commander of NATO’s Allied Land Headquarters, general Darryl Williams, said “the Black Sea region is very important for the security of the Alliance as a whole, while Romania, through the South-East Multinational Corps is the guaranteeing entity for stability and security in this NATO region.”

    Romanian Defence Minister Angel Tilvar in Bucharest has recently met his Portuguese counterpart, Nuno Melo, who paid a visit to several military structures in Romania. The two ministers held talks on the cooperation in the field of security and joint exercises and initiatives. The Portuguese army has a company in Romania as part of the Craiova-based South-east Multinational Brigade, as well as military in the structures hosted by Romania.

    Minister Tilvar stated Romania and Portugal enjoyed mutual support in the management of the security challenges the two countries face in their regions. Nuno Melo also paid a visit to the Galati Damen Shipyard in the east. We recall the construction in underway, in the Damen Shipyard, of a drone carrier for the Portuguese Military Navy. The contract was signed in November 2023 following a tender.

    The project is financed by the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Program. The ship will carry unmanned underwater, surface and air vehicles. The delivery of the ship was estimated for 2026.
    The North-Atlantic Alliance has dispatched to Romania an AWACS air surveillance aircraft, in a bid to support the Allies’ strengthened presence in the region and in order to monitor the Russian Federation’s military activity.

    According to the Allied Air Commander, the enhanced vigilance in the Romanian air space was legitimate. It had the purpose of strengthening Romania’s capacity to respond to the increased air activity in the vicinity of its borders. Among other reasons, the Alliance took such a measure in the wake of Russia’s recent drone attacks on objectives in Ukraine. The attacks trespassed into Romania’s air space, while pieces of the drone fell on Romanian territory.

    Romania Navy’s Dredger 30 has returned to Constanta Military Port in the south-east. We recall the dredger took part in the second activation of the Operative group for combating sea mines in the Black Sea. For ten days running, the Romanian vessel, jointly with a mine sweeper and a logistics ship, both from Turkey, and accompanied by another mine sweeper of the Bulgarian Navy carried sea surveillance and research missions in a bid to eliminate the danger of mines and to ensure Freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. MCM Black Sea, the Operative group for combating sea mines in the Black Sea, is a three-party initiative of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. The initiative contributes to strengthening the ties with the Allies as well as to the enhancement of the interoperability level between the crews of the partner ships.

    Allied troops from Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxemburg, North Macedonia, Polonia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey and Great Britain, jointly with Romanian Army’s Mountain Hunters, until October 11 participate in the Sarmis-Olt 24. Exercise. The exercise seeks to train and perfect the military’s abilities to activate in a multinational and inter-institutional framework, laying emphasis on interoperability and cooperation between the participating structures.

  • Radio Romania International Sports Club

    Radio Romania International Sports Club

    Romanian handball player Cristina Neagu has become the top scorer in the history of the Champions League. On Sunday, Neagu scored 10 goals for CSM Bucharest in their home match against Danish side Nykøbing Falster, a match CSM Bucharest won, 27-26. Neagu’s recent feat has thus raised to 1,155 the number of goals scored in the EHF Champions league, that is 10 goals more than the previous record, held by Montenegrin player Jovanka Radičević.

    After four rounds, according to the rankings of the most efficient players as part of the League’s ongoing edition, Cristina Neagu is 7th-placed, with 23 goals. At the top of the table, we find Norwegian team Esbjerg’s handball player Henny Ella Reistad, with 39 goals. Following in descending order are Rapid Bucharest’s Serbian player, Andjela Janjusevic, with 29 goals, and CSM Bucharest’s Bulgarian-born Slovenian handballer Elisabeth Omoregie, with 26 goals.

    Cristina Neagu has succeeded the new record of her career having made public the fact, on September 12, that 2024-2025 would be the last in her career. We recall that in December 2023 she had already made public the fact that she would retire from competition at the national team, after the World Championship in Denmark and Norway. Back then Romania wasted the opportunity to qualify to the Paris Olympics.

    Cristina Neagu also holds another impressive record. In 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018, the International de Handball Federation designated Neagu the world’s best handballer. Cristina Neagu thus became the first handball player in history to have won the trophy four times. However, she did not win any major international trophy with a Romanian team.

    With Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea, Cristina Neagu reached as far as the Champions League final. After Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea was dismantled, Neagu was signed up by Montenegro’s Buducnost Podgorica, a team with which she won the Champions League in 2015. With the Romanian national squad, Cristina Neagu won two bronze medals, in 2010, at the European Championship jointly hosted by Denmark and Norway, and in 2015, at the World Championship in Denmark.

  • Athlete of the week

    Athlete of the week

    Romanian football team FCSB after two rounds in Europa league has six points on their record sheet, out of a similar number of matches played. This past Thursday, holders FCSM succeeded a precious 1-nil away win against Greek team PAOK Thessalonica. For FCSB, it was the second win in a row.

    It was a difficult game, all the more so as, from 55 minutes, FCSB were one man shy on the pitch since Darius Olaru was eliminated, being twice yellow-booked. The one-goal advantage provided by Daniel Barligea’s feat in added time was as frail as ever, yet FCSB succeeded to maintain the advantage. There were moments when FCSB’s defensive line-up proved powerless, yet goalie Stefan Tarnovanu made the difference with a couple of stunning saves.

    Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Tarnovanu the Athlete of the week.
    In Thessalonica, Tarnovanu succeeded his first save in minute 9, when he deflected Ghanaian Abdul Rahman Baba’s header. Then on 39 minutes Tarnovanu succeeded yet another last-gasp save as Brazilian Taison attempted a shot at goal.

    In the second half, Tarnovanu again shone, thanks to a couple of saves he succeeded just six minutes after Olaru was eliminated, when Giannis Konstantelias shot the ball from inside FCSB’s box, or when he deflected Russian Magomed Ozdoev’s header. Tarnovanu was again put to the test on 85 minutes, then again, in the first minute of extra time, when he twice deflected Tiémoué Bakayoko’s header. In the seventh minute of added time, Tarnovanu proved he was also lucky: when shot by Ioannis Michailidis, the ball touched one of the posts and the score stayed the same.

    Ştefan Târnovanu was born on May 9, 2000 in Iasi, in the east. He made his debut in football with the local Politehnica’s juniors team. As a senior footballer, in 2018 Stefan Tarnovanu made his debut in League One, when Politehnica Iasi drew against Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe, 1-all. Stefan has been playing for FCSB since 2020. We recall FCSB won the domestic champion title in 2024. Stefan Tarnovanu made his debut with the national team in November 2022, in Romania’s friendly match against Republic of Moldova, when Romania won, 5-nil. Tarnovanu was a full-timer in the national squad’s most recent game in the League of Nations, when Romania grabbed a 3-1 win against Lithuania.

  • Sports roundup

    Sports roundup

    Romanian women’s handball team CSM Bucharest this past Sunday have added yet another win to their bracing record. In a Champions League Group A fixture, CSM Bucharest defeated Danish challengers Nykøbing Falster on home turf, 27-26. CSM’s top scorer Cristina Neagu, with ten goals. Neagu has thus become the top scorer in the history of Champions League in women’s handball, with a record of 1,155 goals. Neagu outclassed the former record holder, Montenegrin handballer Jovanka Radičević. CS Bucharest are 4h placed in Group A, with a record of three wins and one defeat.

    Another Romanian team, Gloria Bistritsa-Nasaud, are 5h placed, having sustained a 28-32 away defeat by Hungarian opponents Ferencváros Budapest. Rapid Bucharest, competing in the league; a Group B, on Sunday sustained a 32-39 away defeat by Danish opponents Team Esbjerg. Rapid Bucharest is 6th-placed in group B.

    In news from women’s tennis, Monica Niculescu and Gabriela Ruse have won the women’s doubles event as part of the WTA 125 tournament in Hong Kong, a tournament with 115, 000 USD in prize money. In the final, Niculescu and Ruse defeated the all-Japanese pair made of Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya, 6-3, 5-7, 10-5. Niculescu and Ruse will most likely go against Hibino and Ninomya for a second time around, in the Billie Jean King Cup inter-countries competition on November 14 in Malaga in the round of 16, when Romania is pitted against Japan. For Niculescu and Ruse, this was the second women’s doubles title they have won pairing up with one another. We recall in 2021 Niculescu and Ruse won the ITF lawn tournament in Nottingham, an event with 100, 000 USD up for grabs.

    Matches counting towards Romanian football Super League’s 12th round were played this past weekend. In Arad on Friday, the local side UTA defeated Petrolul Ploieşti, 3-1. In Ovidiu, Farul Constanţa and Dinamo Bucharest drew, 1-all. In Clinceni on Saturday, Unirea Slobozia and Universitatea Cluj drew, 2-all, while in Cluj, CFR defeated Politehnica Iași, 2-1. Also on Saturday, in Galati, the local side Otelul and Universitatea Craiova drew, 1-all.

    The 12th round’s last three games were played on Sunday. In Sibiu, Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe trounced FC Hermannstadt, 4-nil, then on home turf FC Botoşani outclassed Rapid Bucharest, 2-nil, while in Bucharest, FCSB grabbed a 3-2 win against Gloria Buzău. Universitatea Cluj are still at the top of the as-it-stands table, with 23 points, followed by Universitatea Craiova, with 20 points.

  • Bestiary, a Vanner Collective project

    Bestiary, a Vanner Collective project

    The independent theatre company Vanner Collective is known for its original initiatives in the Romanian cultural space, translating burning social issues into theatre performances. Their latest project is “Bestiary. Consumer good”, co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall. The project opens the discussion about the worrying tension between teenagers’ need for individuality and the pressure to conform exerted by society and the online environment, social media.

    We spoke with Anca Spiridon, Cultural PR, about the sources of inspiration for the project:

    “The source of inspiration for the play and subsequently the show ‘Bestiary’, Vanner Collective’s newest production, were the challenges facing today’s youth, especially when it comes to their presence on social media and the pressure in terms of models of behaviour, of physical appearance and success that they propose. And so, young people, as I said, feel pressured to conform to standards that are not even theirs, are particularly arbitrary, are particularly rigid and do not allow them to express either their individuality, their personality, or authenticity, but rather force them to enter a zone of conformity.

    Nowadays, it seems obvious to me that social media creates, for people of all ages, the young in particular, a pressure to conform to certain standards, by promoting models of behaviour, physical appearance and success that are not even ours, regular people. And especially, we wanted to address the online presence and the risks that come with it.”

    Here is Anca Spiridon once again, this time telling us why Vanner Collective opted for the topic.

    “The Vanner team deemed it necessary to start this discussion, as they more often than not start difficult discussions in the projects they propose, in a bid to show to the public, especially to the younger segments, that there was a time when we all had to face the pressure of society, irrespective of the options we may have made. Whether we speak about the university study program we were supposed to pursue, or about the path along which we had to push our careers forward, or about a life style, or about our look, in particular, or about our choices in general. We wanted to create, with that project, with this performance, Bestiary, a safe space where they could express themselves, so they could see they were not all alone and, why not, to feel more comfortable in their bid to express their individuality. “

    But how did the project labelled Bestiary unfold? What were the methods used for the artistic pursuit and expression? Speaking about that is again Cultural PR Anca Spiridon:

    ”All throughout the project we held a series of workshops and focus groups with teenagers and youngsters and somehow the feedback we got from them spoke about the fact that, indeed, society seems to demand pretty much conformism from them. They have the feeling they are easier to manage, that it is better for them to be subservient, rather than express their opinions or express their personality. And that strengthened us in our belief that we started a good discussion and that we can provide a context where individuality can express itself. We used the metaphor of the sacrifice beasts, perhaps the sacrifice of the self, of one’s own personality, precisely as a departure point in our bid to explore stereotypes and conformism. The Vanner team started off from the idea that if you conform to something, you lose part of you, you lose what you can become. You lose the tribe; you lose the herd that actually belongs to you when you’re being told you need to comply with norms and standards.”

    Here is Anca Spiridon once again, this time speaking about Bestiary, the stage performance that represented the epitome of the whole project:

    „Bestiary is a stage performance based on the text of a new play written by Raluca Mănescu and Denisa Nicolae, the co-founder of Vanner Collective. It is also to Denisa Nicolae that the concept and the stage direction belong, while part of the team is made traditional collaborators of Vanner Collective, yet the team of actors featuring in Bestiary, all of them are very young actors. Through Bestiary, the Vanner Collective team sought to get closer to youngsters, to speak about their specific problems and strike up an intense dialogue with them. Also, they sought to present their own challenges to the public, who may not have experienced such challenges as they have today, with all the social media pressure, or, perhaps, they do not remember them: parents, teachers, friends.”

  • The Ratiu family, an important Romanian family in Transylvania

    The Ratiu family, an important Romanian family in Transylvania

    The Rațiu family (Rațiu of Noșlac in Turda) is one of the oldest and most respectable aristocratic families in Transylvania with a history spanning several centuries and roots dating back to the 14th century.

    The existence of this family was first documented during the reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1368-1437), with origins in the locality of Noșlac, Alba County (central Romania). Along the centuries, the family received several aristocratic titles, having as ancestor Stefan Rácz of Nagylak (Noșlac), who was made a nobleman by the Transylvanian prince in Alba Iulia in 1625. The Rațius remained the only noble Romanian family in Turda, a city ruled at that time by the Hungarian aristocracy and situated in north-eastern Romania. The other Romanian families had been subjected to the process of Hungarization, and gradually disappeared.

    Out of the leading figures of the Rațiu family, we’d like to mention: Basiliu Rațiu, a Greek-Catholic Archpriest or Ioan Rațiu, one of the main political figures of the 1848 revolution, lawyer and politician, chair of the Romanian National Party and one of the main authors of the “Transylvanian Memorandum”. Along the centuries, the Rațiu family gave lawyers, scholars, politicians and clergymen. The name is strongly related to the fight for the rights of the Romanians in Transylvania and the preservation of the national identity against the assimilation policies.

    A leading figure of the family’s recent history was also Ion Rațiu (1917-2000). Born in Turda, the Cluj County, he was a politician, lawyer, diplomat, businessman, writer and Romanian journalist representative of the inter-war National Peasant Party, which later turned into the Christian-Democratic National Peasants Party. Between 1940 and 1990 he lived in the UK, where together with his wife Elisabeth he founded The Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation back in 1979, which is promoting and supporting projects of education and research into Romania’s culture and history, both in Romania and the UK. The foundation offers scholarships on an annual basis.

    After his return to Romania in 1990, Ion Rațiu got directly involved in the process of rebuilding the National Peasants Party, jointly with another leading political figure after the anti-communist revolution of 1989, Corneliu Coposu. Ion Rațiu ran for the presidential seat during the 1990 election, when he got roughly 5% of the votes, ranking third. He later became an MP. In 1991, Ion Rațiu founded the Cotidianul newspaper, the first private publication after 1989. Pamela Rațiu, a descendant of the family and president of the Rațiu Foundation told us the following about Ion Rațiu’s legacy and his candidature to Romania’s presidency.

    ” You know when you meet people that have given so much of their life in the positive directions and for the country or for the people, it’s really just an honour to sit with them and listen to them and try to take some of them in. I understand why people were taken by him and I take it’s incredible to see in demonstrations today people holding placards with his photograph. And there is a great deal to be said in that he was the best president Romania never had, I do believe and that has become a legacy. I think it was a plus, because I do believe if he had succeeded to becoming president he would have been held back and not allowed to do anything that he could have done. He could have made really serious changes, but he would have had his hands tied as many leaders are by all those around him. So, by not becoming the president he became a role model, which has a legacy, a positive legacy as opposed to those who were in place at that particular time.“

    The Ratiu Foundation has a partnership with the London School of Economics IDEAS ThinkTank. The Ratiu forum focuses on programs for Romania or the Balkan region. It is a platform for free discussion on democracy and the democratic challenges in the Balkan region. The forum brings together academicians, practitioners, and Romanian citizens who share ideas and knowledge about the promotion and support of the democratic values in Romania and its neighbouring states. Also, Ion Ratiu’s cultural heritage includes the Rațiu Democracy Centre, which promotes the democratic values among youngsters, through various initiatives for pupils and students. These initiatives include legislative education programs meant to stimulate youngsters to understand and exert their civic rights and responsibilities.
    Here is what Pamela Ratiu told us, about these educational initiatives

    ” What we do, also, is try to follow in Ion’s footsteps. I mean, everything is about the family, we’re moving forward, we’re taking different steps with our partnerships and the work that we do, that, again, it goes back to the values of the family and where we see a possibility, of bringing…you know…we have the good fortune to bring in this expertise to Romania from around Central-Eastern Europe and the Balkans.”

    Ion Rațiu was one of the most conspicuous democratic figureheads in Romania after December 1989.

  • Sports weekend

    Romanian football team FCSB have succeeded their second consecutive win in Europa League’s ongoing season. On Thursday, FCSB grabbed a 1-nil away win against Greek challengers PAOK Thessalonica. The only goal of the match was scored by Daniel Bîrligea, in the first half’s added time.

    FCSB had a hard time on the pitch as on 55 minutes captain Darius Olaru was eliminated, having been twice yellow-booked. Greek champions PAOK, head-coached by the Romanian Razvan Lucescu, never ceased to attack until the end, yet FSCB put on a heroic defensive game and managed to maintain their advantage. So after two rounds in the Europa league, FCSB are among the very few team that have so far won all the points at stake, rubbing shoulders with Lazio, Lyon, Tottenham and Anderlecht.

    On Sunday, play FCSB in the Romanian Super league’s 12th round, facing Gloria Buzău at home. On Friday, UTA Arad are pitted against Petrolul Ploieşti, while Farul Constanţa play Dinamo Bucharest. On Saturday top-of-the-table team Universitatea Cluj play an away match against Unirea Slobozia, while CFR Cluj play a home game against Poli Iasi. Also on Saturday, Oţelul Galaţi take on Universitatea Craiova at home. In Sibiu on Sunday, Hermannstadt play Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe, while FC Botoşani face Rapid Bucharest, at home.

    Three Romanian women’s handball teams this coming weekend will play their fixtures in the Champions League’s fourth round. In Group A on Saturday, Gloria Bistriţa-Năsăud play an away fixture against Hungary’s Ferencváros. On Sunday, CSM Bucharest play a home game against Danish side Nykøbing Falster. In the National Handball League’s derby on Wednesday, CSM Bucharest succeeded a 33-30 home win against Gloria Bistrita. Romanian title holders CSM Bucharest took their revenge, having sustained a 26-30 away defeat by Gloria Bistrita on September 7, in the Champions League’s first round.

    According to the Champions League’s Group A rankings, after three rounds, CSM Bucharest are 4th-placed, with 4 points. Gloria have two points and are 5th-placed. In Group B on Sunday, Rapid Bucharest ply an away game against Danish opponents Team Esbjerg. Romania’s vice-champions so far have three points on their record sheet and are 4th-placed in the group’s as-it-stands table.

  • Sports flash

    Sports flash

    CSO Voluntari women’s volleyball team on Wednesday grabbed a major away win in The Champions league, defeating Rabotnicki Skopje of North Macedonia, 3-nil. The fixture counted towards the first leg of the competition’s third round. The second leg is scheduled on October 9 in Mioveni. Should they secure a win in the double-legged tie against Rabotnicki, CSO Voluntari will be included in the League’s group E, jointly with Italy’s Scandicci, Polish side Bielsko-Biala and German team Stuttgart.

    In women’s basketball, US Romanian-born player Sabrina Ionescu yet again compelled recognition thanks to her most recent performance. Ionescu’s presence was crucial for New York Liberty, the team that secured an 88-84 win against Las Vegas Aces, in WNBA, the North-American professional women’s basketball league. In the last quarter of the match, Ionescu scored and provided most of the assists, so much so that Liberty had a 2-nil aggregate lead in the semi-final against Aces. New York Liberty are one win away from qualifying to the final.

    In men’s basketball, in EuroCup, on Wednesday U-BT Cluj-Napoca sustained a 73-84 away defeat by French opponents Bourg-en-Bresse, in a match counting towards EuroCup’s Group B. For holders U-BT Cluj Napoca, it was the second defeat in a row, in EuroCup’s ongoing season. In the third round on October 9, U-BT Cluj-Napoca will play a home game against Spanish side Valencia Basket.

    In the fifth round of the National League, on Wednesday, women’s handball team CSM Bucharest defeated Gloria Bistriţa-Năsăud. 33-30, in a match hosted by the Multi-Purpose Sports Hall in Bucharest. Holders CSM took their revenge as on September 7 in Bistritsa, the local side Gloria, defeated CSM, 30-26, in a fixture counting towards the Champions League’s first round. CSM’s top scorer was Cristina Neagu, with 7 goals. Bistritsa’ top scorer was Russian handballer Valeria Kyrdyasheva, with six goals scored. Also on Wednesday, vice-champions Rapid Bucharest defeated Handball Club Zalău, 32-29, while Râmnicu Vâlcea Municipal Sport Club trounced Măgura Cisnădie, 32-21.

  • Romanian and US Marines had a joint training session in the Danube Delta

    Romanian and US Marines had a joint training session in the Danube Delta

    It is a misty, late September morning in Mahmudia, a locality on the Sfântu Gheorghe arm, one of the Danube Delta’s three arms in Romania. Each year, here, a stage is being carried, of the Marines 307th Regiment’s Heracleea annual exercise. The Marines get ready to board the assault boats, in a bid to carry an amphibious raid on the Caraorman islet.

    In 2024, the exercise has covered almost all of the Danube Delta surface, that including the Razelm-Sinoe lagoon area or the Babadag training range. It has been a dynamic week, an eventful one, with all the set targets being met at the end of the week. The novelty in 2024 is the presence of two teams of observers and planners, one from Italy, as an absolute first, from the San Marco Marine Brigade, and one of the US Marine Corps.

    The deputy of the Haricleea 307 Marines Regiment commander, colonel Claudiu Visan, stated the US team was made of 15 military, retired as well as active, they were assessors here, on the ground, yet they participated in the process of planning of the exercise. The partnership was initiated many years ago, we can quite aptly speak about a true mentoring undertaking because, according to Colonel Visan, the US Marines are arguably the best prepared, professionally, with much experience in various theatres of operation.

    Before boarding the assault boats, lieutenant-colonel Daniel Dieckhaus of the Alpha Advisors company in Washington, DC, specified the reason of their presence in the Danube Delta.
    “Our mission here is to work together with our Romanian partners, to learn from one another and operate together, to get to know our capabilities, in a bid to become an even more deadly force. We have, in Romania, marines who are very motivated, on both sides. The US ones are very happy to be here and I believe so do the Romanian marines, they learn from one another. The assault boats training is a good thing, our boys get acquainted with how to operate them in this specific environment. The Romanian marines know this area very well, I don’t think there is anyone else capable of knowing the Delta better than they do, they know how to run the assault boats and I am happy we can work together.”

    Lieutenant-colonel Daniel Dieckhaus is a native of the state of Pennsylvania, a place in the USA where the geography is different from that of the Danube Delta. He has been to Romania before and is very happy every time he returns to this country. About assessment and advising, he says they are not carried in the classic sense of the concepts:

    “ We are assessors and advisors, but for both sides we work together, this is not an assessment of the Romanian Marines as against the US Marines, we also learn from our partners, we offer pieces of advice, if the case, if there is more than one way of doing things correctly, in terms of specific tactics and techniques, we share that kind of knowledge. By all means, it is a two-way process where everybody stands to gain. “

    Only a couple of dozens of kilometres further north, on the Chilia Arm, the Russian drones continue to violate Romania’s air space. Sometimes, the drones crash on the national territory. We asked lieutenant-colonel Daniel Dieckhaus whether this situation had any impact at all, on the mission he has in Romania.

    “I believe everybody is aware there is an ongoing war at the borders, it is the backdrop against which we take action, considering the emergency and the importance of our mission. We want to make sure that we and the Marines here are prepared. I am sure al those who will be on the water today have that in mind. Anyone can learn something from the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and here I also include the US Marine Corps. One of the reasons why we are doing the exercise today is to practice new tactical manoeuvres and techniques when we’re on water. By all means, the amphibious raid is useful is this lagoon environment of the Danube Delta.”

  • Romanian men’s handball teams, back into the game

    Romanian men’s handball teams, back into the game

    Romanian handball in recent years has been better represented in international competition by women’s teams rather than men’s teams. CSM Bucharest and Rapid Bucharest women’s handball clubs have constantly been among Europe’s top-flight teams. In 2024, joining the two teams in their Champions league participation has been a third team, Gloria Bistriţa-Năsăud.

    In men’s handball, Dinamo Bucharest has been the only Romanian team to have taken part in the Champions League, in recent years. Dinamo Bucharest has clearly dominated the domestic championship, so much so that in the ongoing season Dinamo have a win-all record. Furthermore, in European competitions, in 2024, Dinamo have had a flawless trail.

    We recall that in the previous season Dinamo proved their mettle in Europe’; second-tier competition, the EHF European League, reaching as far as the semi-finals. In 2024, Dinamo Bucharest have received a wild card for the Champions League, Dinamo have been distributed to Group A, rubbing shoulders with top-notch teams, among which Paris Saint-Germain, Füchse Berlin or Hungarian team Veszprém. After three rounds in the League, only Dinamo and Sporting Lisbon have a win-all record so far.

    Dinamo Bucharest from the very first round impressed everybody when on September 12 they grabbed a 37 to 28 home win against Danish opponents Fredericia. Then on September 18, Dinamo grabbed a hard-fought 28-26 away win against Poland’s Wisla Plock. On September 26, Dinamo thrashed North Macedonia’s Pelister Bitolia, 34-25 on home turf.

    On Thursday, Dinamo play an away match against one of Europe’s best teams, Veszprem. Hungarian title holders Veszprem’s head coach is Dinamo’s former coach, the Spaniard Xavier Pascual, which is a plus for Vezprem. In the League’s ongoing season, Veszprém have so far won two matches and lost one. In the first round, away from home, Veszprem won the match against Füchse Berlin, by the narrowest of margins, 32 to 31. Then on home turf, Veszprem thrashed PSG, 41 to 28. However, In Lisbon, Veszprem suffered a severe defeat by Sporting Lisbon, 39 to 30, so in this coming Thursday’s fixture, Veszprem will have to prove the defeat in Portugal was a mere accident.
    —–

  • Ana Pauker

    Ana Pauker

    Ana Pauker is one of the most conspicuous figureheads in the history of the communist regime in Romania. Ana Pauker played a crucial part in the team that instated the regime of the Communist Party in Romania, between 1947 and 1952. She was also a member of the Petru Groza government, the Communist Party’s first government in Romania. Ana Pauker also held positions in the Romanian Communist Party’s top-notch hierarchy, as well as in the hierarchy of then the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.

    Ana Pauker was born in the eastern Romanian county of Vaslui, in 1893. Her name was Hana Rabinsohn and she was born into a Jewish family: her grandfather was a rabbi. In France, in 1920, Hana met her future husband, Marcel Pauker, also a Jew. The Bucharest-born Marcel Pauker was a radical communist, and his wife Ana joined him in then the Comintern’s activities.

    Ana Pauker became a Soviet agent; she was arrested in 1922 and 1935. In 1941 she was released from prison and went to the then USSR. While still in prison, in 1938 Stalin had her husband executed on the grounds of Marcel Pauker’s being a Western spy. During the war, in Moscow, Ana Pauker was the head of the exiled Romanian group of communists, known as the Moscow faction.

    In 1994, Radio Romania’s Oral History Centre interviewed Ana Pauker’s son-in-law, Gheorghe Brătescu. He took the liberty to quote from a Soviet document, whereby his mother-in-law was appreciated for her qualities but also criticized for her inabilities:

    ”Her characterization, dated 1946, among other things, included the following: ‘among the RCP leaders, comrade Ana Pauker is the best prepared, theoretically, having a great influence among party members. That is why she is the one who, in fact and in all respects, leads the activity of the Romanian Communist Party’s Central Committee. She is very popular with the Romanian people as a result of her illegal communist activities of the past. Apart from her activity in the position of Central Committee Secretary, she heads the parliament’s communist group. She ensures the RCP’s collaboration with the other parties of the Democratic Bloc. She plays an active part in the activity of Women’s International Anti-Fascist Federation. Nevertheless, comrade Ana Pauker has a major weakness as an organizer. She does not use her influence hard enough, but also her authority, for the strengthening of the party ideologically and in terms of its organization’. “

    For Ana Pauker, the end of World War Two and the presence of the Soviet Army in Romania acted as a true launching pad, giving her access to then the political power’s top level. Ana Pauker was elected Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party’s Central Committee. After the forced abdication of King Mihai I on December 30, 1947, she was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

    The early 1950s meant her downfall. In 1952, then the communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej began the elimination of the competing groups. Ana Pauker was a member of such a group, which also included her comrade Vasile Luca. Charged with right-wing deviationism and sabotage, the members of the group were given a prison sentence. Lucretiu Patrascu, one of Gheorghiu Dej’s avowed opponents, was executed. In 1953, Ana Pauker received a home confinement sentence. In 1954, she was expelled from the Communist Party. She lived until 1960 and earned her keep working as a translator of French and German with the Political Publishing House, yet officially she did not have the right to sign her work. She was a member of the translators’ team that created the first complete Romanian-language edition of Marx and Engels’ works.

    After 1965, then the new leader Nicolae Ceaușescu tried to rehabilitate some of the victims of Dej. Gheorghe Brătescu said Ana Pauker was not among them. Gheorghe Bratescu gave us details about her life.

    ”Never ever has there been an attempt to do that. Moreover, she did her work at the Political Publishing House in quite abnormal circumstances. She didn’t even get her salary from there; it was sent to her through the cleaning woman. The latter dispatched the materials the former was supposed to write, and on that occasion, the salary was being sent to her.

    As long as Gheorghiu-Dej lived, she was considered the most dangerous person, especially after the killing of Patrascanu. Which explains why, as regards her political activity, it was not until 1968 since her political activity had been spoken of. Moreover, in 1961, one year after she died, all her decorations were withdrawn from her. In other words, even her memory was somehow rated as being dangerous, so there was no such thing as a possible attempt of recovering. “

    1953 and 1960, paying visits to Ana Pauker were several people, among whom lawyer Radu Olteanu, defender of the communists and anti-fascists in the 1930 trials. But Ana Pauker also had another visitor, a former inmate. With details on that, here is Gheorghe Brătescu once again.

    ” She had no problem paying a visit, she was someone who did time with Ana Pauker, her name was Maria Andreescu, she was known as the Little Old Woman. As far as we could see, she also maintained contact with some of the old acquaintances, friends, comrades, admirers of Ana Pauker. When Ana was admitted to the Colentina hospital, then Maria Sarbu came and paid her a visit. And at the funeral, perhaps spurred by this Little Old Woman, that treacherous, opportunistic old man Gheorghe Cristescu participated, he somehow represented the old socialist movement. “

    Ana Pauker was, just like many others, an individual bedazzled by the ideals of a perfect society which, in practice, translated into terror. And she left this world defeated by its harsh reality.