Radio România Internațional

Category: Society Today

  • A better social and economic protection for independent artists

    A better social and economic protection for independent artists

    The Romanian Government in early April issued
    an emergency ordinance regulating the status of the professional cultural worker.
    The normative act has been worked and reworked on for almost two years now. The set of regulations seeks to bring to normal
    the fiscal and socio-economic condition of all artists, writers, actors who
    work in an atypical way, who are not like the usual employees. Concurrently, the
    bill seeks to give an impetus to cultural workers so they can make the most of their
    creative potential, at once being able to stay active on the labor market.


    Romanian representative
    Delia Bădoi has been mandated by the
    Ministry of Culture to become a member of the working group the European Commission
    has created, with a view to elaborating a European set of regulations for the
    artist. Delia Badoi has also participated in the elaboration of the normative
    act in Romania. Here she is, briefing us on the circumstances they have been working
    on until recently.


    The basic
    idea was that in Romania, as well as in other countries, cultural workers,
    artists, could work under the general legislation. Practically, there was a series
    of laws still valid, as we speak, laws we can find in the Labor Code
    legislation and the copyright law and suchlike. Yet apart from that, we have obviously the independent forms, for
    instance, the authorized self-employed person, plus the fact that some of the artists
    work through their own firms, they are legal persons. Our legislation is quite fragmented
    as regards the working conditions, meaning we do not have a unitary legislative
    document that can include a series of stipulations capable of preventing a series
    of economic vulnerabilities regarding the activity of the cultural sector workers.
    And then this set of regulations, just as it had been stipulated as early as the 1980s when
    we practically had a UNESCO directive issued for us to compose it, has the clear purpose of render
    the intermittent, atypical activity of the cultural sector more unitary, an activity
    which is at once very specific. So the necessity was quite impending, to place
    under the same umbrella a series of measures we labelled as benefits, rights, enabling
    cultural sector workers to have a normal status.


    Actor Doru Taloș is also the initiator of
    the Cluj-Napoca-based Reactor cultural independent project. His professional
    experience so far has made him aware of the risks posed by a profession which
    is not clearly recognized and regulated from a fiscal point of view. With
    details on that, here is Doru Talos himself.


    I have been working, for
    the last nine years, in Romania, carrying a workload that sometimes was much larger
    than average. And yet, my
    employment record includes one year and a half. So I do not have accumulated service
    in my field of activity, I have not contributed to the pension fund so far and
    these needs are getting more and more serious once we get older. Up until last
    year I did not have health insurance because I could not afford it. And I also
    hope that, once a legislative framework is implemented, once a series of fiscal
    benefits is implemented or awareness is raised about the specific needs at
    that level, things can improve and we can reach a formula by means of which we can
    also cover these absolutely important needs and expenses.


    Therefore, the passing
    of the bill of the cultural worker status can only be viewed as an auspicious
    sign, as one first step towards the status of Romania’s freelance artists becoming
    normal.

    Doru Taloș once again:


    We are extremely vulnerable,
    in the long run, and we expose ourselves to certain risks since we fail to ensure
    some sort of sustainability capable of offering a series of long-term guarantees
    as well. This normative act, I hope it would bring some sort of clarification
    for the people working in the field, at once making them responsible, so that
    by assuming this status we can have a form of long-term survival, which means
    it should take us to the point where we can feel we carry our activity as a
    long-term job. For the time being, my feeling is that all those working in the
    sector are willing to work as long as they are ready to make a series of
    sacrifices, while, sometimes, such sacrifices, you can make them only at a
    certain stage of your life. The needs I had when I was 25 have nothing to do
    with the needs I have at the age of 35. And then clarifications are needed, so
    that it can become a long-term profession or a kind of commitment that can work
    on a long-term basis.


    Here is Delia Badoi
    once again, this time speaking about the content of the law proper:

    It is important to specify that, under this status, a cultural
    activity contract will be created. In effect, it will be a type of standardized
    contract we will be working on, as the very moment the worker is registered,
    the registration will be submitted to two institutions. First off, the incomes
    will be declared to the inland revenue service by filling in the standardized
    form by May 25th and submitting an affidavit specifying the incomes
    and the cultural activity fall within the activities stipulated by the status
    of the cultural worker. Then another type of registration will be submitted, to
    the Ministry of Culture, in a specific register, where the names of the workers
    proper are included. It will most likely be a little experiment for the next
    three years, when it is clearly obvious what the specific interest is for that
    area, how much people understood what they had to do, how much they wanted to
    have that set of regulations or how much good or bad we do. Yet, the worst-case
    scenario would be for that set of regulations to be inexistent, as it is through
    that set of regulations the improvement is pursued, and the plight of the
    intermittent work is eased, for the work in the cultural sector. And then, through
    the cultural activity contract, the legal status of that specific activity is
    acquired.


    Just like any other category of legislation,
    the set of regulations targeting the professional cultural worker is
    perfectible. However, as we speak, the envisaged categories are happy an important
    step has been taken, so that such workers’ vulnerable status is overcome.



  • The Education Laws

    The Education Laws






    For 5 years now, the current education minister, Ligia Deca, was the
    official coordinator of the Educated Romania project initiated by president Klaus
    Iohannis and reviewed throughout his 2 terms in office. Implemented these days
    in the form of the new Education Laws, the project is aimed at providing
    solutions to the serious problems in Romania’s education system. Suffice it to say
    that ever since the 1989 anti-communist Revolution, legislation in the sector
    has been habitually amended by the successive education ministers from various
    political parties, but nothing managed to address the issues that teachers,
    students and parents warned would severely affect the educational process.




    After an initial consultation stage in 2016-2017, the Educated Romania
    project was posted for public review in 2018. As a presidential adviser on
    education, Ligia Deca directly coordinated the project, took part in debates
    and in drafting the final report, issued in the summer of 2021. More than 60
    structures in education and close to 13,000 people worked to put it together.




    Last autumn, president Klaus Iohannis appointed Ligia Deca as education
    minister, arguing that Educated Romania is a badly needed national project,
    which must translate as soon as possible into legislation. The undergraduate
    education bill aims at reducing school dropout rates, among other things, while
    the higher education bill is designed to support European cooperation for
    Romanian universities. Teaching staff professionalism, improved access to early
    education, curbing functional illiteracy, adjusting curricula to the labour
    market, updating test and assessment methods, as well as increasing assistance
    for underprivileged children, are also important goals being pursued.




    But for most children and parents, the question is what happens with the
    high school admission and graduation exams, the National Evaluation and the
    Baccalaureate, respectively. The Baccalaureate will include an additional exam,
    testing students’ basic skills, and another change is a Baccalaureate exam for
    technological colleges.




    Ligia Deca herself recently spoke about the high school admission exam
    on Radio Romania:




    Ligia Deca: Essentially, it is
    the National Evaluation as we know it, with Romanian language and literature
    and Maths exam, plus a mother tongue exam where applicable, followed by a
    possible high school admission exam only for those profiles where there is competition,
    and only for 60% of the seats available. The other 40% of the places will be
    earmarked by a computer system taking into account the National Evaluation
    results. Students and parents should know that these changes will not be
    implemented as soon as the law takes effect, in one or two years’ time. We want
    predictability, so the kids going into 5th grade in the first year
    after the law takes effect will sit for the National Evaluation and high school
    admission in the new format. Specifically, high school admission exams will be
    implemented as of 2027 at the soonest, and the Baccalaureate either in 2028, or
    in 2029, depending on how soon we finalise the curriculum reform.


    The new education bills are designed to shift the focus of the education
    system on students and to nurture the potential of each kid. How will this be
    achieved? Minister Ligia Deca explains:




    Ligia Deca: We are talking about
    a paradigm shift. It’s not about the curriculum being chosen by a particular
    school, but about the curriculum being chosen by each particular student from
    what the school has to offer. We want this optional component to be enhanced
    and better adjusted to children’s potential. At the same time, each student
    will have a portfolio which will reflect their educational progress, allowing
    us to step in much sooner than we do now, in case of problems. For each
    education level there are provisions in the law that improve the connections
    between school counsellors, form masters, parents, the other teaching staff, so
    as to have a customised plan for each student. Also, the national programme on
    reducing functional illiteracy will include standardised annual tests, which
    will enable us to see where we should focus, where we can move up to more
    complex subjects for high-performance kids and so on. So these laws will be
    better focused on students’ needs.






    As for the teaching staff, what will change in terms of their salaries
    and professional assessment? Minister Ligia Deca:




    Ligia Deca: The Education Ministry
    and the main trade union federations have been working, these past months, on
    what the salary system should look like in the new salary law. We have
    submitted these documents to the labour ministry as early as in February, to
    help them draft the section on the public education system in the salary law. There
    have been talks with the trade unions and between the unions and the parties in
    the ruling coalition. As for assessing the work of teaching staff, we have agreed
    to explore together ways to adjust the instruments we already have, such as the
    performance bonus, as well as ways to implement new instruments, such as
    allowing 2% of the salary funds at the discretion of headmasters, to be given
    as incentives for the teachers who get more involved in school projects.




    For the time being, figures indicate that school dropout is one of the
    major problems in Romanian schools, with Eurostat saying Romania sees the
    highest dropout rates in Europe. And the rates are even higher in rural
    communities. Another problem is functional illiteracy, measured in the 15-year-olds’
    results at PISA tests, where Romania is significantly below the European
    average. The shortage of teaching staff is another problem that has been
    lingering unsolved for years. And not least, violence in schools and the use of
    controlled substances in schools are increasingly common problems of late. (AMP)

  • The Four Day Work Week

    The Four Day Work Week

    Over 20 countries in the world have recently run pilot programs exploring the idea of a 4 day work week. More than that, a few countries have introduced officially the option of working 4 days a week.




    The initial data related to it have proven promising in many cases, since cutting down on the work week helps employees improve their work-life balance, in terms of reducing stress and of general happiness. The four day work week has been successfully tested in Australia, Iceland, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, and the US.




    The question is, what exactly is the 4 day work week? In one version, it is 4 days with 10 hours of work, following the 40 hour rule, instead of the 5 day, 8 hour rule. However, this experiment has revealed major dissatisfaction with this formula, leading to increased levels of stress. Another version was 38 or 36 hours per week, instead of 32. At the same time, while most versions of the 4 day work week count Friday towards the weekend, others make Monday the additional spare day. A few of them make Friday the free day for half the employees, with the other half having the Monday off.




    In the UK, 92% of the companies that have tested the 4 day format without increasing the daily workload want to continue with it, while 30% say they want to keep it for good. Even if this would revolutionize completely the work dynamic on the work market in Romania, right now only 4 out of 10 companies would agree to this formula, as revealed by a recent poll run by the BestJobs employment platform.




    After the difficult last few years on the job market, with the trends of the great quitting and quiet quitting, this measure would be welcome in order to help with employee retention. More than that, according to the study, the Labor Code allows redistributing activities, depending on the job or the work being done. There are options for an unequal distribution of work time, with 40 hours a week being worked, but with the decision being left to a given employer as to how they would reduce the number of work days.




    80% of employers would like to work 4 days a week, even in the 10 hours a day version, according to the BestJobs study, but 40% of employers are afraid that this schedule would endanger the ability of workers to concentrate, which would affect productivity. Almost 35% are concerned that, on the long term, workers would become exhausted by the daily workload, even though the results of the international study run to the contrary.




    Speaking of their additional free day, about 60% of respondents said that they would spend more time with the family, about 45% of them say that they would handle administrative tasks they could not handle during their working hours, 40% say that they would dedicate more time to their hobbies, and almost 40% say they would simply rest. In other words, the reduced work week would lead to a more balanced way of life.




    Ana Visian, marketing manager for BestJobs, said: “Just as remote work was seen as an exception before the pandemic, this seems to be the case with the reduced work week right now. It is no surprise that such a trend is well received among employees, especially after the negative impact on mental well being over the last few years. Employees would have more free time, in order to break away from the pressure of their job, which they can dedicate to their family and loved ones, or invest in activities with a good impact on physical and mental well being, as they themselves indicated in the study. Employers should be open to such a measure, because it will be at least as well appreciated as flexibility is now, and will contribute to attracting and retaining valuable employees. In addition, formulas can be found to distribute activities such that some of the workers could be found in the office each work day, matching the schedule of the customers.


    The results of the BestJobs study show that 4 out of 10 employees now work in a hybrid system, while 29% work entirely remotely, and 28% are in the office at all hours of the workday. The hybrid system is different according to each company, so that a majority of them, 37%, work a single day in the office and 4 days from home. 20% go to the office 3 days a week, 28% go there two days a week, while 14% work a single day from home.




    We spoke on this topic to Ana Calugaru, head of communications for another recruiting platform, eJobs Group, and she confirmed the results of the study:


    “Romanian companies right now are not open to the idea of a 4 day work week. There were select cases of testing this model before the pandemic, but it was not proven to be too effective, on the contrary, employee performance was negatively affected, which is why they reverted to the 5 day week, the classic model. Of course, employees are looking at results from the outside, they are looking at results that companies outside themselves are having based on this model. This is especially true in the context in which employees really want to have this benefit. However, only a few are considering implementing such a measure, at least for the foreseeable future.


  • Women overcome domestic violence

    Women overcome domestic violence

    Discussions about domestic or gender
    violence by and large focus on physical or body traces the partner’s blows left
    on the other’s body. However, each time, such blows come with their
    psychological aftermath as well. The psychological violence the abused women
    are subject to, on a daily basis, is less talked about. We should not forget
    domestic violence is dealt with in the legislative system and is the main cause
    of the stumbling block the victims needs to overcome if they want to drag
    themselves out of that toxic relation. Psychological violence is the main topic
    of Restart, a play written by Ozana Nicolau who also stage-directed it at the
    Replika Educational Center in Bucharest. Inspired from the stories of victims
    who succeeded to free themselves of the abusive relations, Restart is a stage
    performance that benefitted from the collaboration with such NGOs as I Choose,
    based in Sibiu and Anais, based in Bucharest. Furthermore, playwright Ozana Nicolau recalled
    episodes fin her childhood when she heard about women she knew being beaten by
    their husbands or concubines. Ozana was wondering why no adult had any reaction
    to help those women or condemn the situation. At the moment, the Romanian legislation
    stipulates, among other things, a temporary restraining order issued against the
    attacker, police intervention in the wake of a simple emergency call. As we
    speak, the victims benefit from much more help from the authorities and the NGOS,
    yet the emotional abuse still keeps the victim prisoner of the noxious relation
    for a long time. Restart is a play about how to overcome that kind of violence.

    Stage director Ozana Nicolau, dwelling on that herself:


    Physical violence is the one that is visible, it is blatant, it is punished
    by the law. Yet it is possible, as there is that kind of emotional violence
    that cannot be seen and which is not punished by the law. That is very hard to
    prove. And that’s where our idea started from: let us see what happens in the
    mind of a woman who, even though she has a lot to suffer from, she still feels
    guilty. She is often manipulated so she can feel guilty or powerless, so she
    can feel she cannot quit, she has no solutions. And I found it important to
    render the fact that sometimes our mind can play tricks on us and that sometimes
    it can be our hindrance. Of course, when we regain our strength, it is also the
    mind that helps us snap out of it, and rebuild everything from scratch.


    There are only two characters in the play, featuring
    actresses Mihaela Rădescu and Nicoleta Lefter. The latter will be telling us
    what prompted her to play the role of the victim, initially, and then the role
    of a woman who eventually overcame gender violence.

    First
    of all, it was Ozana’s offer, I wanted so much to work with her and with
    actress Mihaela Rădescu. And the topic also attracted me,
    since it was a topic that needed to have a voice. And it is true that in state theaters
    there are not that many stage performances with such a discourse. Then the
    stories were deeply touching for me and, indeed, having read them, I also got
    to meet some of those women, since they came to the show. And yes, I find that
    very important. It seems to me it is a step that needs to be taken and
    supported. And you also take a great responsibility, knowing the stories are true,
    those women do exist and they came to see the show. You realize your gestures matter
    a lot, as we speak. When you’re on stage telling their story, you feel the
    energy coming from the audience.


    It is true the show has
    the gift of generating the spectators’ empathy for the victim’s trials and
    tribulations. And actress Nicoleta Lefter was in turn moved by some of the episodes
    rendered on stage and experienced by some of the abused women.


    I
    was impressed by the testimonies. One is that of the woman who says that after
    the separation or the divorce occurred, for a good many years her husband harassed
    her with lawsuits he filed against her, against the friends who helped her,
    against parents and policemen. Which means everything doesn’t end in separation
    alone. That, for me, is an ordeal. And the worst thing was that it was not only
    the woman who had the trauma. When there are also children involved, I find
    that a lot more serious, as they don’t know how to get over that. You, as an
    adult, can somehow succeed to overcome the moment, but for a child, that can be
    pretty bad because it can leave scars for the rest of their lives. And,
    perhaps, if things are not discussed and solved correctly, children themselves
    can end up being aggressors or even victims.




    Restart is not Ozana Nicolau’s
    debut stage performance inspired from social realities. A few years ago she stage-directed Foreplay, a play also written by Ozana, about adolescent mothers, and also presented by Replika Educational Center. This kind of theater,
    socially anchored, comes as a modality to draw attention to some problems occurring
    quite often in the day-to-day life. Does something like that at have any impact?

    Ozana Nicolau once again:


    I think the impact does
    exist. In earnest, of course it is much less strong than we would have wanted
    it to be, as a theater hall has several dozen or even several hundred seats, if the hall is bigger. Yet the message is conveyed since people carry on and
    speak with colleagues at work, with friends, with their families. To give you
    an example, the other day I received very positive feedback from a woman spectator
    who came with her 14-year-old son who initially didn’t want to go to the theater.
    He still had the impression theater meant just theater for children or puppet theater.
    And then he came over, saw the Restart stage performance and said If that’s what
    theater means, I want more of it . And I found that extraordinary, the fact that
    he came and he liked it, even though it is a pretty difficult topic for his
    age. I think people want to see topics that are fleshed out from their
    day-to-day life. I don’t think they can find, in a theater show, the specific
    solution to their problem, but I think they may find a direction, a way of
    looking at things, or at least an encouragement, the hope things can also be done
    differently and that they need to know they’re not alone.


    Another message that
    came from a pre-teen, who was also a spectator for Restart, was to thank his
    mother for bringing him over to a theatre show where he saw something he didn’t
    want to become: and abusive husband and an abusive father.(EN)



  • Ukrainian Female Refugees in Romania

    Ukrainian Female Refugees in Romania

    Since the start of the war in Ukraine, 3.5 million Ukrainians have entered Romania, and, of them, about 100,000 have settled here temporarily. Of the ones who made this choice, over 5,700 got work contracts, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor. As most of the people who decided to stay are women with preschool children, it makes sense that a significant portion of them have found jobs here. Among them are the beneficiaries of the Seneca Association, a charitable NGO who is also running a bookstore. Association founder Anastasia Staicu was, in fact, present from the first days of the war at the border between Romania and Ukraine, in order to help refugees with translation services, since her primary language is Russian. This kind of help started diversifying, and Anastasia gradually came to help the mothers, daughters, and grandmothers who settled in Bucharest integrate into Romanian society. Let’s listen to her:


    “This is a community of over 200 people who learned Romanian at the Anticafe Seneca, where we have intensive Romanian classes. They make friends amongst themselves, and we are also making friends. We set up a room particularly for this purpose. It is like a classroom that can accommodate about 20 people. We have to say we would not have made it if we didn’t have with us a flawless teacher, Ms. Rodica Fagut. These are not just intensive language courses, but also courses in cultural and social integration. They go together to theaters, they watch together old Romanian movies, and newer ones too. It is a community that is truly dedicated to integration.



    Anastasia Staicu managed to hire as bookstore attendandts three of the members of this community, after they gained an acceptable level of Romanian. These jobs help these women gain a living, but also adapt to an unfamiliar country, just as the war in Ukraine seems to last longer and longer. Here she is telling us about it:


    “Before they sign up for the courses, we have them fill in the reason why they want to learn Romanian. If, in the early war, the main reason was ‘so I can get by in the street’, ‘so I can talk to people I have met’, now more than half say that they want to get a job here, and settle for the longer run.



    Since most of these women are mothers, their main concern is their children. The Romanian state provided them with a few pilot school centers, where they can continue their studies. Since these are not coping with demand, it was decided that for the next year Ukrainian children should start being integrated in Romanian schools. This, obviously, raises a number of concerns, as Anastasia Staicu told us:


    “There are six hub schools in Bucharest, with more around the country. I know that, starting with the next school year, these children will have to be integrated into Romanian schools. Legally speaking, the assumption is that they had a preparatory Romanian language course. The fact that now they will simply be signed up for Romanian schools without even this preparatory course will be further trauma for them. Maybe the little ones will adapt. But the teenagers, those between 13 and 17, will have to learn right along with the others a curriculum that is not so easy. I know they will have a hard time. Now more people get the fact that the war will last two more years at the least. Women put children first, they understand very well that they have to focus on their children. They deserve more support, more organized support, especially in education.’



    Among the women from Ukraine that put their child first was Caterina, who came with her son to Romania a year ago. Here she is telling her story:



    “When I came here I was in depression, like everyone else, it is not easy leaving behind home and family, to cross the border into the unknown with your child. Not much later, I understood I had no road forward except by adapting, because I am the only one responsible for my child. At first I could not find a job, and I got hired at a social assistance center, where I was helping the mothers and their children who needed housing, transportation, and documentation. After that I was lucky to get hired here, at Seneca, where we have a friendly group, where we help each other, and continue to help Ukrainian citizens. My whole family was left behind in Ukraine, from grandparents, to parents, to my husband. We keep in touch as much as the Internet allows, and we all hope in a victory.



    Caterina was helped by the Seneca Association not only to find a job, but also form a support network made up of mostly women refugees from Ukraine, but also Romanians willing to help. In this way, she is able to weather this difficult period with more ease, trying to keep up a smile and her optimism. The same is true for Tatiana, a woman who arrived a year ago from Ukraine with her 12 year-old daughter, three cats, and a little dog. They were helped by a friend who had already settled in Romania. After the anguish of leaving her country, the uncertainty of the road, of crossing the border into an unknown country, Tatiana adapted gradually, learning Romanian, and becoming a bookstore attendant. She also got to know the country better. Here she is telling us about it:


    “During the first 4 or 5 months I got to know Romanian. The friend I found here goes kayaking. He took me and my daughter on every one of his kayaking trips. He found housing for me, which was very difficult, considering how many pets I have. But for me, discovering Romania was a revelation. Now it is much easier, of course. During the time I spent here I started learning the language, which changed everything, because you no longer feel like an intruder. For me and my child it is not yet safe to return to Ukraine. Speaking of my daughter, for her adaptation is more difficult. It is pretty difficult without knowing the language. However, she has a pretty friendly atmosphere around her. Her teachers and colleagues are very open, and, in addition, she knows pretty good English, and that helps a lot. She is adapting, but it takes time.



    For now, it looks like these women will have a long time to spend in Romania. But, since their inner strength helped them through the worst times of becoming refugees, they will continue having the daring that is needed to face down future challenges.

  • Food restrictions, but not junk food

    Food restrictions, but not junk food

    Lent
    has begun, in Romania. Lent is a period of time of special importance, when
    the soul and the body prepare for the feast of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Everybody
    is familiar with food restrictions, but today we shall tackle a relatively
    recent issue – the unprecedented invasion of the poor-quality fasting food. We’re
    speaking about the vegan junk food, as nutritionists call it. Junk food dishes have
    a delicious taste, yet very few of us question the ingredients of such food, with a potential which is as dangerous as the other type of junk food we’re so familiar
    with, the ordinary fast-food. We fast, we have no problem with that, but let us have a closer look at how noxious a ready-made vegan burger can be, which we stir-fry for five
    minutes before we eat it. For that, we sat down and spoke to Claudia Buneci, a Functional
    Health Coach.

    Claudia explained what fasting junk-food is, and why we’d rather
    avoid it.


    The major flaw of the fasting junk-food is that, in
    effect, we do not stand to gain if we fast on that specific sort of food. This vegan junk-food, as I call it,
    is made of some food supplies having preservatives, they have all sorts of
    dubious ingredients, so those are not ingredients as we understand them, they also
    have colouring agents that are in no way healthy, also, they are a source of trans
    fats, the most noxious fats for the cardiovascular system, and for our health
    in general. Sometimes they have sugar content or very much salt, precisely because
    salt or sugar cover they basic taste. So, practically, what these processed
    products bring is a lot more inflammation, a lot more strain for our body to
    digest them, rather than nutrients, rather than food for our cells.


    Nobody
    says we need to be too hard on ourselves, in a bid to to comply with culinary restrictions at all costs from this moment
    on and until Easter. Nutrition experts value the idea of having a simple meal, which
    can be at once nourishing and tasty. Fasting food, or vegan food, if you will,
    is simply yummy and also a gift we make to our body. After all, mens sana in
    corpore sano,     a healthy mind in a healthy body, as they say. Here is Claudia Buneci once
    again, this time explaining how our food needs to be thought out so we don’t
    starve ourselves and we don’t deprive ourselves of the most relevant nutrients.


    Healthy fasting food is also tasty. I want our listeners to bear that in
    mind, the fact that we do not have to put ourselves through so much strain and
    also, it is important to bear in mind it is plentiful. I should like to emphasize
    the fact that each fasting meal should have a source of vegetal protein and at
    this point, let me give you some examples: newt, lentils, peas, beans and even
    mushrooms, buckwheat, chia. It is important that our meal should be thought out
    around a source of vegetal proteins so we can have energy, feed our muscles at
    this time of the year, lest we starve ourselves and have appetite for eating every
    ninety minutes. It is important for our
    meal to be thought out around this healthy vegetal protein. I’m not saying soy
    is not a healthy vegetal protein, yet I should most recommend fermented soy,
    then secondly, the non-fermented bio soy, while third-placed comes the non-MGO
    soy, the traditional soy, if you will, but we need to make sure it was not
    genetically modified, it is a form of protein I should not like to recommend it
    processed, but as close to its natural state as possible soy beans you should
    boil, then there is the all too familiar tofu. Then, of course, I recommend we
    eat lots of vegetable. It is not by happenstance that fasting periods occur when
    they are set, throughout the year, in the peak period for us to purify our organisms,
    when we should support our liver, where very many fresh leaves are available, very
    many vegetables, so, if we want to make the most of fasting, at all levels, the
    spirit included, a purified body is needed. I recommend we eat lots of
    vegetables and fruit, but we should lay emphasis on quinoa. We want to enjoy
    our fasting in every respect and we want it to be a period of thoroughgoing
    purification of our body. Also, we have the pseudo cereals at our fingertips,
    which are extremely valuable, nutrition-wise and which also provide a protein, millet,
    quinoa, buckwheat. They have a protein, but they also have a complex, quality
    carbohydrate: oat is very precious, but we want it in its integral version, and
    not some flakes we eat with a lot of sugar.


    Apart
    from all that, a handful of nuts, every now and then, provides healthy fats to
    our body, rapidly inducing the sensation of satiability.

    Functional Health Coach Claudia Buneci:


    We should also have nuts,
    seeds, yet we should not make them our staple food, we must have them in small
    percentages, they need to be quality stuff. And if it were possible to crack
    those nuts the very moment we intend to eat them, that would be perfect. I should
    like to mention the pumpkin, the chia, the sesame seeds or the linseed, with
    the latter three being ground or poached, when we have them, so we can digest
    them. We need to have variety and colour on our plates and we should not forget
    the fasting meals must be thought out as plentiful meals. We’re in dire need of
    protein, of the carbohydrates I’ve mentioned earlier, provided by the pseudo
    cereals and the vegetables, such as the potato and the sweet potato, for
    instance, then we also need the fats we take from nuts, from seeds, but also from
    the quality olive oil, from avocado and linseed oil. We need complex meals with
    all their macronutrients and with as many micronutrients as possible. (EN)



  • Youth Access to Culture in Small Cities and Towns

    Youth Access to Culture in Small Cities and Towns

    Culture is not just a value in itself, but also an instrument to enhance other values. Also, in today’s world, cultural spaces are not just places dedicated to culture, but also vehicles for social and political principles and attitudes. Based on these principles, the study called Cultural Consumption Among Youth in Small Cities and Towns, supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Romania, sought to see to what extent cultural activities in smaller urban spaces overlap with the feminist perspective, and if young people associate cultural manifestations with social values. Another premise of the research was the precarious state of culture infrastructure in smaller cities, such as the scarcity of libraries, shuttered or non-functional culture centers, or with a shifting use. The research included 225 youth between 13 and 20 years of age, 75% of which are girls. This majority of female participants was not intentional on the part of the researchers, it is just that more girls opted to fill in the questionnaires and take part in interviews. We were told this by Carmen Voinea, the coordinator of the research, who told us that respondents made a clear connection between a certain kind of cultural consumption and gender issues:


    “What we noticed in their answers was that, crisscrossing cultural consumption, there are larger issues related to gender equality and social inclusion. Some of their needs were, for instance, the existence of cultural spaces in which diverse people, including the LGBT community, may feel safe. What also emerged in questionnaires was the need to solve community problems through culture. In addition, many of the people we spoke to told us that they started getting familiar with feminism and gender issues through film. We tried to see their subjective relationship with these spaces. Even though we have, on paper on in reality, museums, libraries, cultural centers, they are not very attractive to young people. Their content is not adapted to them. They feel a need to be involved in a more participative role, to become co-creators in some cases, involved in these cultural spaces and their products. The fact that we had more female respondents indicates a higher interest on the part of young women in cultural consumption, and the way in which it intersects with feminism.



    The cultural consumption of young people depends on the cultural infrastructure and its offerings, just as their habits reflect that variety and richness of these offerings, or their scarcity:



    “First of all, we noticed that the most common cultural activities of teenagers are solitary and domestic. Also, the cultural activities available to them in public spaces are not very diverse, or adapted to them. In addition, even though a high percentage of them believe that going to the movies is attractive and interesting, 45% of them said that they have not viewed a film in a movie theater in the previous year, and, more than that, 48% of respondents said that they had to travel to a nearby town or city to reach one.



    Many young people stated that they wished they had a movie theater in their town. The research revealed that, in their mental maps, the old, shuttered movie theater was a meeting point, even when they had never been to a movie there. That being said, this research also has some good news:



    “Libraries, as they appear in the mental maps of youth we drew with them, were a surprise. In some towns, libraries offer to youth not only a space for reading or a place to borrow books, but also a space where they could come up with their own activities, such as the Korean culture club, or karaoke evenings. In Calarasi and Slatina, for instance, some young ladies said that the library is their favorite space in town. In the library they found a space where they could develop, and in which they were able to take part directly in cultural consumption as co-creators. In fact, public spaces continue to be most frequented by young men and women. 70% of the places they go to consume culture are public. At the same time, when it comes to discussing feminist issues, they usually resort to private and informally set up places. So, even if public infrastructure continues to be their go-to place, there they don’t find enough opening to tackle feminist issues.



    In conclusion, the study called Cultural Consumption Among Youth in Small Cities and Towns recommended to authorities to work on reviving cultural activities in public spaces, and to make them more inclusive, because there is demand for it out there.

  • How would Bucharest look like in the case of a major earthquake?

    How would Bucharest look like in the case of a major earthquake?


    A 7.4-degree earthquake on the Richer scale occurred
    in eastern Romania’s Vrancea seismic area on March 4, 1977, at 21:21 hrs local
    time, at a depth of 94 kilometres. The seismic movement was strongly felt
    across the country, mainly in the south and east. The tremor was also felt in neighbouring
    countries, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary, but also in other countries in central and
    southern Europe, as well as Russia, in an area north of Sankt Petersburg.


    In the ’77 quake, just
    as Romanians label it when they reminisce the catastrophe, from memories or by
    hearsay, of the country’s 40 counties, 23 were seriously hit. The tremor
    claimed the lives of 1,578 people. Over 11, 300 people were injured, of whom
    1,424 eventually lost their lives, that is 90% of the total number of the
    deceased. Almost 7,600 people were injured in Bucharest alone! Back then, icons
    of Romanian cultural and artistic life were among the dead: actor Toma Caragiu,
    television director Alexandru Bocăneț, vocalist Doina Badea, literary historian
    Mihai Gafița and prose writer Alexandru Ivasiuc.


    In Romania’s capital city, most
    of the deaths occurred in the wake of the total or partial collapse of more
    than 30 buildings, medium or high-level block of flats, some of them iconic for
    the city’s architecture. Also, a hotel and a wing of the Chemistry Faculty
    collapsed, as well as the Transport Ministry’s IT Centre. The Bucharest West thermal
    power plant was a whisker away from exploding, because a ceiling collapsed and a
    fire broke out. Many other buildings in Bucharest were severely or moderately
    hit.


    The devastating earthquakes that
    hit Turkey and Syria in early February and their dismal aftermath, but also the
    tremor that hit Romania in early March 1977 prompted the Romanians to reach the
    worrying conclusion that no lesson has been learned as regards the impending
    necessity to consolidate the buildings assessed according to various degrees of
    seismic risk!


    Here is architect Ştefan Dumitraşcu, speaking about the present-day situation in Bucharest.


    When I held
    the position of chief architect at the Municipality, for two and a half years,
    these buildings were identified and more than 180 of them had been going through
    a technical expertise so that solution could be found, for their safeguarding
    or consolidation. Moreover, two and a half years ago, through the Municipal Administration
    of the Seismic Risk Consolidation Works Administration, as part of the General
    Council in Bucharest municipal city there were 81 construction sites, especially
    created for such works. Unfortunately, because of changes in administration and
    because of a different mindset, as we speak, we have zero consolidation
    building sites.


    Mostly in the capital city’s
    central area, a great number of old constructions, built before 1977, are very
    fragile, because decades have passed and no renovation works have carried
    whatsoever, let alone anti-seismic consolidation. That is why, according to
    Stefan Dumitraşcu, we’re running out of time.


    We are, however,
    in the eleventh hour, maybe in the twelfth hour, if we want to make sense of
    what we must do. A consolidation operation cannot be completed overnight, it is
    a building site that lasts for a year, a year and a half, for a building
    erected in 1940, let’s say, an eight or ten-story building located on the
    Magheru Boulevard or Voctoria Road, two of the capital city’s most significant
    thoroughfares. As I was saying, on one hand, we can educate the people, in a bid
    to find the right alternative solutions for regrouping, helping and intervening,
    in the case of an earthquake. Everybody is unanimous in admitting that a major
    tremor in the Capital city will occur, and it will occur, that’s for sure, and
    it’s out of the question, with us, like, on a fine spring afternoon, going out
    in the park and waiting for the army to show up, carrying products from the
    State reserve and giving us a bottle of water each, and a can of meat. No way!
    Something like that must be very seriously organized and we also need to have a
    competent management at the Municipality, so that consolidation works can be
    resumed as soon as possible.


    The prefect of the Capital
    city, Toni Greblă, also cautioned that it was not the lack of funding that hindered
    the buildings anti-seismic rehabilitation, but


    …The
    carelessness of some of the administration officials who do not have a proper
    preparation of the projects enabling the start of the buildings’ rehabilitation
    and their anti-seismic consolidation. In the last 15 years, no municipal city
    can complain, and at that, especially Bucharest municipal city, that they did
    not have money earmarked for the rehabilitation of buildings. Year after year,
    funds provided by the Development Ministry remain unspent, and that, because we
    are unable to work in order to develop projects for the anti-seismic
    consolidation, and implement them.

    The consolidation of the
    buildings assessed for seismic risk can be fully financed from the budget but
    also through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Romania, after registration is
    made for a dedicated digital platform. Waiting for their buildings to be
    consolidated, could the Romanians know, at least, what the country’s safest
    cities are, in the case of a strong earthquake? Attempting an answer to the
    question is a seismologist with the National Research-Development Institute for
    Earth Physics, Mihail Diaconescu.


    Of course we
    can know that, but I’m not so sure how sound that would be. What are we going
    to do, migrate to those cities, all of us, and depopulate part of the country? ʺ
    The thing is, construction and consolidation works should be carried, for all
    that has been affected in time. The moment we set about building something, not
    us, as natural persons, but as the State, as construction companies, we need to
    comply with the construction code. If that construction code is complied with, the
    danger does not exist anymore, that of the house crumbling on us.


    So, as we speak, how would
    Bucharest look like, in the case of a major earthquake? Far worse than 46 years
    ago, possibly. According to data provided by the Development Ministry, in
    Romania, there are 2,687 buildings assessed according to various degrees of
    seismic risk. Most of them a rein Bucharest, of which several hundred are 1st
    and 2nd-degree buildings according to their seismic risk potential.


    However, the situation is far
    worse. According to a survey carried by the Bucharest Municipal City’s
    Emergency Situations Committee, should an earthquake happen, having the same
    intensity as that in 1977, in Bucharest, 23,000 buildings could suffer serious
    damage. Of those, 1,000 could collapse, partially or totally. (EN)

  • Civic Initiatives for Sustainable Living

    Civic Initiatives for Sustainable Living

    Protecting the environment, but also human health, through simple living, close to nature, with a minimum of pollution, is the duty of both public authorities and regular citizens. In Romania, where the circular economy is hardly encouraged by decision makers, ecological civic activism is maybe slower in developing, but it is definitely doing so. In addition to NGOs, individual initiatives have emerged, which have a lot of adepts. One of them is that taken by Corina Ciurea, who, in addition to her regular job, keeps a blog and a vlog sharing her experience of consuming as little plastics as possible, generating as little waste as possible. For Corina, this is a continuation of her way of life close to nature, when she was a child in the countryside. During high school, as she was approaching maturity, her first decisions had to do with protecting nature. Here she is telling us about it:


    “About the time I was finishing high school, I started selective collection. I started taking plastic objects, glass, and paper to those big bell shaped containers who were put up in the streets. Gradually, as I gathered more information, I tried to reduce consumption, and to make smaller the bags I was taking to the recycling bins. This was my ideal, zero waste. But it is more like an ideal I aim for. In reality, it is more a wish to be closer to nature. In todays society it is more like impossible to live without generating waste. In Romania we have no circular economy in which waste goes back into circulation, being absorbed, and gaining added value. So my conclusion is that we should reduce consumption, not get stressed, because no one is perfect, we cant live perfectly, but we can do our best under the circumstances.”




    We asked Corina Ciurea to share her experience regarding the stages of living as sustainably as we can:


    “The first thing I stopped buying was plastic bags. Like any Romanian, or any human being, we had a bag of bags at home, which kept getting bigger. So why get more? Let me use these. I used them until they fell apart. Then I took them to get recycled, if they could be. Then I replaced them with cotton bags, or a durable material that wouldnt break down easily. So that was the first change. Then I stopped getting water in plastic bottles, I replaced them with aluminum or glass. And with a water filter at home. Another change was to take a textile bag when shopping. When I started this, the movement was not so popular, I kept having to explain, at the market or the store, that I didnt want a plastic bag, even when they were free. After that, I looked at the bathroom, and I replaced liquid soap in a plastic bottle with solid soap in cardboard, or without a wrapping. Then I replaced my plastic toothbrush with one made of bamboo, and so on. I dont recommend that we make all the changes at once, just one once in a while, slowly integrating them into our routines, so that our system of habits doesnt collapse under the weight, leading us to believe that we are trying the impossible.”




    Meanwhile, Corina got to the point where she hardly ever uses plastic, and, if it cannot be avoided, she uses recyclable plastic. Fortunately, Romania now has online and brick and mortar stores selling organic products with no plastic wrapping. These are popular with the zero wasters, a movement that Corinea Ciurea encouraged, organizing around the country international campaigns, such as Plasticless July. She continues to contribute to growing the zero waste community in the country. Here she is telling us about it:


    “This has grown, but it is still timid in Romania, it doesnt have so many adepts, but they are strong, and wont quit. I seems that every year we gain more people. The pandemic set the movement back a bit, things had started moving in the right direction before 2019, there were even very visible events, companies that were involved, but I think were getting back on track. There are some EU directives that help us, so I am optimistic.”




    The adepts of sustainable and low pollution living can now get information thanks to a project developed by civil society. The ViitorPlus, or FuturePlus, Association, has many programs for recycling and selective waste collection, and one of them is called Map of Recycling. Here is Mihai Tanase, director of communication:


    “The Map of Recycling is an online platform. As a project, it has existed for 10 years, but it is under its present form since 4 years ago. Right now we are present at the national level, we have collection points all over the country. There are 15,000 points, which can be bins on the street set up by local authorities, or sanitation contractors, they can be collection points in shops, pharmacies, or gas stations. They can also be independent collection points. We organize them by types of materials, so there are points that take in recyclable materials, such as plastic, paper, cardboard, or glass, other points take in appliances and electronics, textiles that can be donated or recycled, others are for used cooking oil, or expired medication, which are both toxic waste. The traffic is increasing. We had over 700,000 users since we launched. Last year we had over 200,000 users, and this year over 550,000 clicks. As we said, traffic is going up. In addition, the map is designed as a participating platform, any user can register and add more collection points to the map.




    Mihai Tanase added that the educational dimension is also very important:


    “The ViitorPlus association has a number of missions of social entrepreneurship, environmental volunteering, education, and environmental awareness raising. We do this mainly through the map, which is our main tool, but we have other methods too. We do informing and awareness raising for adults, with articles on the site. They speak not only about collection, but also about consumption reduction, and reusing things. This prevents excessive consumption and waste generation. We also have an environmental education side for children, and educational sessions for teachers. We provide them with informal lessons about the environment, and they teach them in class.”


  • Children facing the risk of separation from their families

    Children facing the risk of separation from their families

    The
    Romanian Government as of late has endorsed a bill meant to regulate the prevention
    activity targeting children’s separation from their families. The text mainly
    deals with the vulnerable communities, in need of permanent support because of that. Such families live on very limited means, which prompts quite a few members of
    those families to leave Romania for a better-paid job. But that has dramatic emotional
    implications for the children that have been left behind.


    Many
    parents opt for sacrificing their children’s emotional balance and leave Romania
    for a job abroad. Crippled by their parents’ lack of affection, some of the
    children develop abnormal patterns of behaviour. They have school problems,
    they’re quick to rebel for no reason. The school is unable to manage such crises
    and neither are the other members of the family. Upon their return home, the children
    the parents find are totally different from the ones they’ d left behind when
    they left the country.


    And
    at this point, the law intervenes, or is supposed to intervene. According to
    the Government’s spokesperson, Dan Carbunaru, the bill will enable the
    implementation of a set of measures meant to prevent separation. Therefore,
    such families will be granted emergency aid. The aforementioned bill is the
    foundation act for the National Child Observer. It is an informatics module, to
    be included in the National Informatics System. In plain speak, the local
    public authorities will be able to access the updated situation of the families
    whose children face the risk of separation. The bill also stipulates measures
    targeting the rehabilitation of children with disabilities, psychological and psychotherapy
    intervention services for these children.


    And
    that, because our children’s psychological and emotional development should be
    treated very seriously. We’re highly likely to run the risk of dragging behind childhood
    traumas all our lives. If we don’t do anything about it in time, we’ll find it
    even harder to do something about it later.


    Psychologists
    are capable of telling the fear of separation from the separation anxiety. Elena
    Maria Dumitrescu is a psychotherapist in cognitive-behavioural problems. Here she
    is, explaining the difference between the separation fear and the separation anxiety.




    I believe it is important for us to be able to tell the fear
    of separation from the separation anxiety. Ever since we are born, we need
    safety, which makes the newly-born and the infant, respectively, to manifest
    the fear of separation from the attachment person. The process we all go
    through in our early experience is a natural one. The thing is how we go through
    that stage, and that is connected to the way significant people in our lives
    fulfil our emotional, but also our material needs.


    Therefore,
    the fear of abandonment is the newly-born and the infant’s greatest fear. The
    way the parents express their affection is vital for their balanced development.


    We’re
    well aware of how vulnerable children in such communities are, given that
    parents go at all lengths to be able to face the conundrum: should they first
    provide for their children, sacrificing them emotionally, or should they first
    give them love but have them feel the pinch and the discomfort or a life in
    poverty? So strong may be the ensuing emotional outburst, that nobody is capable
    to sort it out.


    Psycho-therapist Elena Maria Dumitrescu tells us
    how the children’s behaviour may degenerate, when they do not receive their
    parents’ affection.


    Certain events, but also failing to properly fulfil such needs, can be
    perceived by children as unsafety, so they’re sure to move from the fear of separation
    to the separation anxiety, thus generating a low-grade control of perceived reality.
    You can see that happening with the children who limit their own opportunities
    to explore the environment, to develop new abilities, to cope with certain new
    challenges or to ask for help. In certain situations, the children are separated
    from their families and they will perceive the physical but also the emotional distancing
    from people in their lives whom they hold most dear. And that leads up to an
    increasingly low tolerance of uncertainty, a mechanism underlying the state of
    anxiety and its symptoms.






    How
    the programs the Government seeks to implement in the vulnerable communities, that
    still remains to be seen. For the time being, please note that is the south-eastern
    county of Tulcea alone, over 300 children on the brink of separation have been offered
    aid through a European project carried by the Romania SERA Foundation. The
    figure of 300 exceeds the initially-envisaged number of children, which only
    stands proof of the fact that such programs must develop in our country. (EN)





  • Gratuity charge, added to the bill

    Gratuity charge, added to the bill

    Starting January 1st, 2023, a new law regulates the taxation of informal payments made by customers for various services. The best known of them is the gratuity paid at a restaurant, generally known as tip. As of January 1st, the state has been charging 10% of the value of the tip paid at the restaurant and included on the bill. In terms of procedure, before being issued, the bill is given to the customer, who decides on the tip value, either as percentage, or in fixed amount. The customer also has the option to not leave a tip at all. Before the law was enforced, the decision to legalize the tip stirred heated debates. On the one hand, customers feared this could force them to offer a tip even if they did not want to, while service providers thought that, following taxation, they would be left with a much smaller tip.



    Nevertheless, business operators in the hospitality industry believe that this law will only have positive effects for everybody, as Dragos Anastasiu, a spokesman for the Alliance for Tourism, said: I only want to point out that tip is not compulsory, but optional. It has been, is and will continue to be an action of any customer who is satisfied with the services received and wants to show it by offering a tip. Why is this law helpful? Because it regulates a habit and because it is a necessary thing, given that over 50% of the customers going to restaurants and hotels use credit cards and over 50% of them want to also pay the tip with the credit card. By regulating the tip, more than 90% of it goes to the staff, as compared with only 40% before.



    Before the tip was included on the bill, some employers used to keep tips for themselves, and not give it to staff. Ioan Biris, a restaurant owner and head of the Employers Organization of Hotels and Restaurants in Romania, hails the decision to regulate informal payments: The winners as far as this law is concerned are the employees. At present, the relationship between us and our employees is transparent. Our industry has been criticized, for a long time, for the small salaries it pays. In effect, the revenues of workers in the industry are mostly covered, alongside salaries, by these tips. Everybody knew that already. Not being a legal issue, it was difficult to promote and measure. Only now things are as they should be. When young people want to make a career in the field, they have the chance to accurately calculate their revenues. This will probably make the number of young people choosing to work in this industry go up.



    In financial terms, the positive effects of this measure were obvious shortly after January 1st. In the first week since the law was enforced, 50% of the tip was paid with the credit card, so in a manner that was very easy to register and tax. There are also advantages for industry workers who offer accommodation, not only for restaurants. Among the payments received by hotels, tips only represent 3% to 5% of the total. Calin Ile, head of the Hotel Industry Federation in Romania, explains: This law, through its form and fiscal deduction, gives company owners and decision makers the chance to support the activity of the accommodation units they use. We, for example, have many customers among the companies that organize team building sessions or have business delegates. Consequently, in the hotel industry, the amount allocated as tip for the employees will be much bigger. Another important thing that we expect to happen is to have service quality increased, so a bigger connection between the work deployed by the employees and the reward they get for it. Tip is optional and will be offered only if the customer is satisfied with the service provided. As customers, we will have the opportunity to reward those who work better and, as service providers, we will do an as good a job as possible, because it is closely linked with the pay we get.



    Moreover, the measure to regulate tips will discourage those who want to unfairly take the money. Calin Ile: As regards the issue that some hospitality industry employees brought to the attention, namely, that there will be employers who do not give the tip to the employees, I want to tell you that this is illegal. This is illegal and employees who find themselves in this situation can make complaints at the fiscal authorities. We cannot let this law to be prejudiced by some employers who do not respect it. I am confident that most of them will distribute to staff all amounts resulted from tips, in keeping with the law.



    Employers in the hospitality industry hope this law will attract more labor force to a sector that badly needs it. (EE)



  • Seasonal flu is back with a vengeance

    Seasonal flu is back with a vengeance

    For more than two
    years, from February 2020, when Romania recorded its first Covid-19 case, until
    March 2022, when all pandemic-related restrictions were lifted, words like
    cold, viral infection and flu all but disappeared from public discourse.
    All this time, both specialists and ordinary people were entirely concerned
    with the Sars-CoV-2 infection. The last time Romania faced a seasonal flu
    epidemic was in February 2020, right before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
    After a two-year hiatus, respiratory infections, a common feature of the cold
    season, are suddenly back in the spotlight, owing to their rising number. The
    infamous Covid-19 waves have now been replaced by an avalanche of flu
    cases. Hospitals are crowded and emergency wards are full of people with fever,
    cold sweats and a cough. Doctors say Covid-19 coexists with the other types of
    viral infections. But how to distinguish between them? Dr. Cătălin Apostolescu,
    the manager of the Matei Balş Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Bucharest,
    explains:


    All diseases caused
    by a virus are called viroses. Some of them stand out for their specificities.
    One such example is the Sars-CoV infection we’ve known for the last two years.
    Another is the flu, which is known for being able to evolve into more severe
    cases and even cause death. Yet another example is RSV, the respiratory
    syncytial virus, which in children, in particular, can cause severe forms.
    There are also other viruses, such as rhinovirus and the local coronaviruses.
    Most vulnerable to these viruses are again the youngest and the oldest among
    us, as well as patients with various chronic diseases that can influence the
    evolution of such a virosis in a negative way. I’m thinking of people with
    heart problems, those with respiratory diseases, diabetics and patients with
    diseases causing immunosuppression.



    So, what is to be
    done, given that the effects of the viruses are enhanced, among others, by the
    unseasonably warm spell in the weather? The authorities have published a list
    of recommendations for the population, urging people to avoid crowded spaces,
    wear face masks in enclosed spaces, ventilate rooms, maintain hygiene, stay at
    home if they show signs of respiratory infection and ask the advice of their
    family doctor from the very first symptoms. Hospitals are recommended to screen
    their staff daily, to restrict visitor access and provide protective equipment
    for staff who come into direct contact with patients. We don’t want to
    introduce restrictions, but to work with the population so that we can keep
    this natural, seasonal phenomenon, the flu, under control, health minister
    Alexandru Rafila has stressed:


    I prefer
    recommendations to restrictions. The experience during the pandemic proved we
    were right – the situation was much better when we made recommendations, the
    population responded much better to them than to restrictions, which also
    generated a lot of tension in society. I prefer the population to be our
    partner, not to make the situation in general more tense, especially as we are
    also faced with a very complicated economic context.



    With children going
    back to school on 9th January after the Christmas holiday, education minister
    Ligia Deca says she is not encouraging pupils to miss school. The rather
    unfortunate experience of closing schools or on-line teaching during the
    pandemic is not to be repeated. Ligia Deca:


    We are in no way
    advising against class attendance. After two years of pandemic, we believe it
    is important to keep up the pace and have a high percentage of class
    attendance. The focus, as I have discussed with the Health Minister, should be
    on prevention. There are several recommendations. First of all, families should
    make their own triage at home, based on identifying certain symptoms, following
    which children should be isolated at home. Then, a daily triage should be
    performed when children get to schools. When symptoms are obvious, parents or
    legal guardians should be notified. We also recommend the teaching staff and
    pupils should wear face masks, although this is not mandatory. We want all
    children to have access to education, and if they display symptoms associated
    with respiratory diseases, they should be isolated at home and later be given
    the opportunity to catch up with school curricula.


    What should Romanians
    expect this year? Will things return to the normalcy prior to the pandemic, or
    will we witness a new episode of the pandemic started in February 2020? No one
    knows, even if both optimists and pessimists are confident in their beliefs.


    One thing is certain:
    every year before the pandemic, Romania went through periods of seasonal flu
    from 2 to 4 weeks. The only difference is that they usually peaked in February.
    This year, the seasonal flu came earlier, and the cases multiplied particularly
    in January. This is owing particularly to the 2020-2022 period, when viruses
    spread more slowly due to health restrictions introduced in the context of the
    pandemic, yet also because immunity at society level has gone down. In other
    words, the Health Ministry says, the current situation is neither unusual, nor
    should it raise excessive concerns. (CM & VP)



  • Encouraging education in Romania’s hospitality industry

    Encouraging education in Romania’s hospitality industry

    Romania is facing a workforce crisis
    just like many other European countries, these days. Perhaps to a greater extent than in
    other walks of life, employees’ shortage in tourism takes its toll on Romanian economy.
    We do have high-schools and vocational schools specializing in tourism, yet a
    sizeable part of the graduates opts for other career paths or simply avoids employment
    in Romania. You want to know the reasons why? The de-motivating salaries and
    the seasonal status of the job.

    A member of the Romanian Hotel Industry
    Federation’s Steering Committee, Marius Bazavan will now be giving us an
    outline of the current situation on the Romanian labor market.


    Marius Bazavan:

    I can see personnel
    fluctuation taking a downward trend. Fluctuation is increasingly on the wane.
    People have started to settle in, at the workplace. Personnel shortage is on everybody’s
    lips these days. We cannot hide that, but, as we speak, personnel shortage does
    exist, in terms of numbers, but also quality-wise, if we take into account the people who
    are skilled to work in the hospitality industry.


    For a better quality of services, but also in a bid to
    attract youngsters to seek employment in the hospitality industry, a guide has
    been recently compiled, by the Edu4Tourism Association,
    with the support of the Romanian Hotel Industry Federation. We’re
    speaking about The Hospitality Industry Practice
    Guide    , an educational instrument targeting teachers and pupils,
    at once setting the task to accomplish several clear-cut objectives: the percentage increase in the case of pupils who, having graduated
    from a specialized high-school, can opt for choosing a career path in the hospitality
    industry offering support to the parents, in a bid to make them understand the
    activities and the jobs their children can embrace in a tourist unit, and the
    support of the economic agents in need to of skilled personnel, so that they
    can offer high-standard services.

    Călin Ile is the President Romanian Hotel
    Industry Federation. He will now be telling us what exactly the guide means,
    for tourism industry operators.


    Calin Ile:

    It is a bridge between us, who
    activate as hospitality industry operators, the people involved in education,
    in high schools, in tourism schools part of the Romanian education system, between
    pupils and parents. We intend o created this dialogue bridge between us, so we
    may find the best solutions that can help those youngsters integrate in our industry,
    and in a bid to render our industry more pleasant so that we can give them the
    answers they need, for them to form the best opinion, all that enabling them to
    make a well-informed choice, whether they want or not to work with us. We
    wholeheartedly wait for their options. I believe that, before procedures and
    operating systems, it all boils down to a human relation, it is all about each
    and every one of us getting involved in supporting these youngsters in their
    effort to find a way in life. And we think a nice and fair way for themselves
    is also a career path in tourism.


    As for the incentive that can be offered to youngsters,
    it can be provided by the current tourism employees, provided education units
    set up, for the training stages, partnerships with the economic agents
    operating in the field. With details on that, here is Catalin Ile once again.


    Also, there will be an
    impetus for tourism employees to act as mentors and get involved as training
    tutors. And, last but not the least, I think it will also be a curiosity for youngsters,
    for pupils, to pick their training option, to do their training stages in our
    units. So it really is an incentive we provide for the three categories I’ve mentioned
    before, in a bid to properly consider doing their training in tourism and subsequently,
    even have employment in tourism.


    The Hospitality Industry Practice Guide
    has an electronic format; it is downloadable from any electronic device and
    includes essential information for the pupils who may wish to be good tourism
    workers. Or at least that is what project coordinator, Rocsana Borda, says.


    Rocsana Borda:

    It
    includes a teaching syllabus, jointly created with those of the Edu4Tourism.
    Also, it includes everything related to the annexes of the training, the pupils’
    evaluation, the steps to be taken. What you need to tick when, for the first
    time ever, you need to do the cleaning of a hotel room, well…cleaning is just
    un example. All these materials are a click away. Actually, the guide is
    downloadable. Anyone can download it, completely free of charge, so that they
    can get the information they need. I should also like to add that it provides a
    description of the jobs that are part of the hospitality industry. We should also
    consider a hotel also means an IT department, accounting, it also means
    marketing, it’s not only about the receptionist’s desk and the kitchen. It’s all of that in one single place.


    However, over and above anything else, the guide is an
    example of how economic operators get involved in tertiary education. Without such
    involvement, the workforce cannot be trained at a high-performance level. (EN)









  • The labour market in Romania in 2022

    The labour market in Romania in 2022

    Looking back at the labour market in 2022, recruitment specialists say it’s been a good year, in terms of job opportunities. Actually, only those who did not want to, did not work, despite the energy crisis and the issues triggered by the war in Ukraine.



    In late March, for example, the National Employment Agency registered 230.3 thousand unemployed people, the unemployment rate then being 2.64%. Quite low, if we think that job offers increased practically from month to month. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased slightly, reaching 2.96% in October 2022. The recruitment platform ejobs, for example, registered the largest number of posted jobs in the last twenty years. Ana Călugăru, Head of Communications at ejobs, has more:



    2022 was the best year so far for the job market, and when we say best we mean primarily the number of opportunities that appeared on the market for candidates. It was the year with the largest number of jobs in the last 20 years, that is, approximately 420,000 jobs were posted on ejobs.ro from the beginning of the year until now. The fields with the most open positions are retail, services, food industry, tourism, call-center, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing – outsourced services) and transport logistics. In terms of applications, most candidates have submitted their CVs for retail, call-center, BPO, IT, telecom, services and banking jobs. More than 10 million applications were registered during this year. The skills most sought by employers were, with a fairly large increase for this year, digital skills, but we are not talking about an exclusive skills segment. Candidates from absolutely all professional fields, at all levels of experience and for all fields were sought in 2022.



    It was undoubtedly the year of the candidates. They contributed to the fine tuning of the labor market. People became more selective and knew what to ask for. The criteria for looking for a job were divided into many categories – from the working atmosphere, to how safe the building they work in is or how far it is from home. Not only the salary was decisive. This made it difficult for recruiters, who no longer found people so easily. Ana Călugaru:



    It was a year, let’s say, somewhat more difficult for recruiters, because it was not so easy to find people for the positions they had open for 2021 and even for 2020, but the fact that so many new jobs appeared in the market shows that it was a good year for companies, after all, because businesses went to full speed.



    It’s interesting to observe how the dynamics of the labor market change, sometimes radically. We have witnessed, say recruitment specialists, truly unexpected twists and turns. This subtle exercise of power tipped the balance in favor of the candidates, but experts now expect something else. Here is what Ana Călugăru predicts:



    If we talk about the employee-employer dynamic, yes, it has changed. Unfortunately, in the last two to three years, we are seeing very sharp 180-degree turns and a cyclicality with a fairly short turnaround time. If in 2019 it was a candidate’s market, in 2020 it became an employer’s market, in 2021 it started to become a candidate’s market again and in 2022 it was exclusively a candidate’s market. Economic signals, somehow, make us believe that 2023 will tilt the balance a bit in favor of companies. These things are not necessarily very good signals for the market, because any movement of this kind creates imbalances that affect one or the other.



    After the pandemic, many companies called their people back to the office. After the experience of working remotely, few expected it. The happiest were those who managed to negotiate a hybrid way of working, as Ana Călugaru told us:



    Regarding remote jobs, yes, 2022 was a year when companies called their people back to the office, but not to the extent we expected. At the level of 2022, 7.3% of the total number of posted jobs, respectively 30,000, were still remote jobs. We see, however, that towards the end of the year the number of jobs that can be done from home began to decrease, a sign that 2023 will be a year in which we will already see a massive and perhaps even definitive return to office.



    In 2022, candidates were much more active in looking for new professional opportunities compared to 2021, applying, on average, to 6 jobs per month, twice as many as in 2021, according to the data provided by another online recruitment platform, BestJobs Romania. Moreover, the total number of candidates was 62% higher in 2022 compared to the previous year. Among the candidates who completed their CV on this platform, 54% mentioned at least one previous professional experience. 35% of them specified at least one foreign language among their knowledge and 14% that they had a driver’s license. Almost half (47%) wanted to be contacted by recruiters with job offers, even if they were not actively looking for a job, and 5% were willing to relocate for the new job. 98% of the candidates stated that they wanted to know the salary or salary range for the job they were applying for, and most of them applied mainly for jobs with the salary disclosed. (MI)


  • If you gift away, you stand to gain

    If you gift away, you stand to gain

    Central Africa…somewhere, far, far away. In Rwanda….
    Orthodox Christians pray, together with their priests. Inspiring them is Father
    Nectarios, a Romanian missionary monk.


    Hailing from Tulcea in the south-east Father Nectarios,
    whose layperson’s name is Alexandru Dima, is only 30 years old. Young as he may
    be, Father Nectarios has had very special spiritual experiences. It was not by
    chance that upon his ordination he was given the name Nectarios, while his presence
    on the African continent is not a happenstance one, either.


    The urge to depart there came from Father Damaskin the
    Gregorian, of the Gregoriou Monastery in Mount Athos


    Father Nectarios:

    ʺI arrived in Burundi, Africa, on
    September 11, 2019, at the Orthodox Archdiocese of Burundi and Rwanda.
    Therefore, my Bishop is colored, he is African and pastorates two countries.
    There, not having any knowledge of Swahili of the Chirunde local idiom, I started
    learning Swahili. The Swahili Language is
    spoken in, like, 17 countries of the African Continent. There are 56 or 57 countries
    on the African Continent, while Swahili is being spoken in the central, Western
    and Eastern part. It is some sort of African English, just as English is in
    Europe, for us, so is Swahili for Africa. I learned that language, I perform the divine service
    in Swahili and that’s how I got to find my bearings, in the places I also travelled
    to, as well, in Africa or in other countries. After a month, the Bishop had me come
    to Rwanda, he told me It is here you are needed as in Burundi we have a cathedral
    of the Greeks, but in Rwanda we had nothing. I performed the Holy Mass outdoors,
    in tents, in rented rooms or in the field. And the Bishop told me I was needed
    here, in Rwanda, and, with God’s help, if I can, I should build a church.


    And he did build it !


    Father Nectarios:

    ʺThe cathedral that was built, for it, the plot of
    land was bought by my Bishop, Inokentios, and only the foundation was laid, that was the best he could do in 2014, while nothing else had been done, from that
    year and until 2020-2021. I took over the work and, with the help of God, this
    year we also had its consecration, on October 30. We worked day in, day out,
    for the cathedral, masonry, plastering, painting. I brought a painter, a boy
    who was very skilled, from Iasi, Alexandru, he painted the church in three
    months, he works uninterruptedly, that boy. As for the iconostasis, the wood,
    the sculpture for the iconostasis, the lectern, the pulpit or everything else
    that was manufactured there, the iconostasis, we brought in a boy from Congo,
    who was skilled in carpentry manufacturing work. We do not have the machines so
    that we can work fast, and with perfection, but we did try manufacturing work,
    and to the best of our abilities, everything came out fine.


    The church is scanty for the Rwandians stepping in,
    that is why many of them continue to listen to the mass in the courtyard. In the
    lectern, a couple of dozens of children sing, also in Romanian. Father Nectarios learned Swahili, so why shouldn’t they
    learn a little bit of his mother tongue too !


    Father Nectarios:

    ʺIn time, I carried a lot and I brought priest’s garbs from Romania, I take care of the communion wine, of candles, of
    everything related to performing the divine service proper. When I got here,
    the priests didn’t have win for the Holy Communion and they were performing the
    divine service with fruit juice. They bought fruit juice from the shop, the cheapest
    one, to perform the Holy Communion or, instead of frankincense, in order for
    the smoke to come out of the incense burner they put a little bit of white wax
    from the Catholic churches. And that was a kind of choking smoke, like the one
    of a train locomotive. They are very poor! In Rwanda, Orthodoxy has been
    accepted since 2012, but very little has been done to that effect. When I came, in 2019, I started everything from
    scratch. What we’ve got so far are two small parishes and the cathedral that has
    been built. When I arrived, there were roughly 2,000 believers, baptized by
    Bishop Inokentios, while this year – we built a cross-shaped baptistery, with a
    stairwell, a nice one, we put water in there and we perform the baptizing
    there, since April and until now, recently, we have baptized 3,500 to 4,000
    people, or thereabouts.


    However, quite a few of the Rwandans who embraced the Orthodox Church also do that because, apart from the spiritual aid, they receive material
    aid as well. When he doesn’t perform the divine service, Father Nectarios…the
    Romanian…travels across Rwanda, far and wide, in a bid to discover the needy of
    the land.


    Father Nectarios:

    ʺThe Christians come to the church also
    for poverty reasons, since we gift away, and the Orthodox Church does indeed gift
    away. I put a lot of passion so that I can gift away as much as I can, with
    every Divine Service, no matter how tiny that gift is, but I make sure I gift
    away from the bottom of my heart, a candy, a piece of cake, a little loaf of bread,
    a bottle of milk… while in my day-to-day life, in the morning…today I skipped
    that…we perform the Morning Service, while on Saturdays and Sundays, the Holy
    Mass. After the Morning Service, on weekdays, I am off to do my fieldwork. I
    set off in the morning and I find myself still at it in the evening, when it
    gets dark outside, as a lot of people wait for me, quite a few of them write
    letters…Father, I need a house, Father, I need clothes, I need something to
    wear, my children are sick! I focus on a situation; I am exposed to other situations.
    And there’s nowhere I can run, you know, I want to run, but I can’t. Oftentimes
    I felt I cannot cope with it any more and even this week I said to myself it is
    too much for me. But I have no choice!


    Whenever he comes to Romania, Father Nectarios is busy replenishing the stocks, so to say, that including the donations he receives from his fellow citizens, dozens
    of suitcases he then takes with him to Rwanda. Communion
    wine, priestly garbs, candelabra, paints…and many, many other things.


    ʺMy record high is made of
    82 trolleys, this very year, in April. They were so many! When I departed from
    Bucharest, I have a staging post in Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam I have a
    non-stop flight to the Airport of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. So what I’m
    saying is, for the 82 trolleys I had, we boarded the plane, but the plane had an
    hour and a half delay and the flight attendant kept saying on the phone, though
    the receptionist’s we apologize for the delay, it s because of too much
    baggage. I didn’t say anything, can you imagine how I got holed up in there,
    in my chair? Because they were all mine!


    Whoever wants to, they can support the orthodox Mission in Rwanda
    – it is an appeal made by Father Nectarios, who recalled an urge made by one of
    the Romanian Orthodox Church’s famous spiritual advisers, Nicolae Steinhardt, who
    used to say that if we gift away, we stand to gain! But paradoxically, we gain
    not that which we have plenty of, but that which we lack.


    And, since the Winter Holidays are drawing near, here is
    Father Nectarios once again, this time with a well-wishing thought.


    I am 8,000 kilometers away
    from Romania. I think the distance between us is rather big, but I should like
    to take this opportunity and thank you for the fact
    that I can go public and extend a heartfelt well-wishing thought to all our Christian
    Romanians from everywhere, in Romania and in the diaspora, so from the bottom
    of my heart, may the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ fill their
    souls with joy! I wish them all a blessed 2023, a year with spiritual fulfilment
    and joy, harmony and a united family! (EN)