PressOne Quarterly #6

VOLUME 6

TORONTO’S LITTLE ROMANIA World Champions RAISED IN SMALL MOLDAVIAN VILLAGES JUST A FEW KILOMETERS APART, GIANINA BELEAGĂ AND IONELA LEHACI RESTORE GLORY TO ROMANIAN ROWING.

CHERISHING ROMANIA

ORCA MEMBERS TURN CHRISTMAS CAROLING INTO UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS.

Caroline and the Reids AN AMERICAN FAMILY TAKES A YEAR LONG SABBATICAL TO ROMANIA.

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PressOne Quarterly | Volume 6

Thanks for supporting independent media in Romania!

© 2018 / PressOne / All rights reserved

Welcome The most pleasant surprise of launching the first international magazine on the beauty of Romanian culture has been discovering the creative ways that Romanian communities are coming together to cherish their traditions.

Our cover story in Volume 6 is about the ORCA community in Toronto. I had the privilege of attending two ORCA events in 2017. What impressed me the most was how “generous” the community is towards helping one another. ORCA makes generosity fun!

We have added another new wrinkle to this Volume – investigative journalism. PressOne.ro is a leading voice against corruption in Romania. The article Shady Deals is an edited version of a much longer investigation by PressOne’s award-winning investigative journalist, Bianca Felseghi.

The Shady Deal story in NO WAY reflects an anti-Hungarian bias. One of Romania’s greatest treasures is the multi-ethnic roots of our language, music and food. It is sad when politicians in any country try to manipulate people with nationalism. As the Bible says “we are all of one blood”. www.pressone.us

Our world needs kind, honest, and thoughtful journalism. Your support of PressOne allows our journalists to bring “light” into the world. Thank you.

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Since 2005, Bianca Felseghi has been a journalist writing for national, regional and local newspapers.

Bianca has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University Babeș-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca. She is nationally recognized for her work on investigative corruption pieces.

MEET OUR JOURNALISTS:

BIANCA FELSEGHI

Bianca also has a Phd in Contemporary History. A common theme in her writing is the legacy of cultural conditioning on the post-communist Romanian society and means people use to adapt to the values of a democratic society.

In her work, Bianca depicts the way common people struggle to understand the process of “obeying the law” and reveals examples of outstanding Romanians reinventing themselves and starting a new life based on healthy and sustainable principles.

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On the flip side, she shines the spotlight on corrupt politicians who try to oppress democratic changes while they preserve their unjust privilege and disrespect for the citizens.

These are the contradictions Romanians face on a daily basis and Bianca finds inspiration in this messy, but essential battle for the Romanian culture.

Since 2015, Bianca has written for PressOne. In 2016 and 2017, she was awarded the first prize for investigative journalism by Cluj County Media Association. In 2017, she was runner-up for top investigative journalism in the national Superscrierea awards.

CONTENTS 07 / TORONTO’S LITTLE ROMANIA

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ORCA members turn Christmas caroling into university scholarships.

17 / CAROLINE AND THE REID’S The Reid family from Salt Lake City takes a year long sabbatical to help Caroline Fernolend restore life to Saxon villages.

31 / WORLD CHAMPIONS Raised in small Moldavian villages just a few kilometers apart, Gianina Beleagă and Ionela Lehaci restore glory to Romanian rowing.

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39 / SECOND HAND GOODS Emil Stoica perseveres through severe poverty to find respect in moving second hands goods from German homes to Romanian villages.

53 / SHADY DEALS PressOne follows the flow of money through four EU countries, two tax havens and a Dutch non-profit into a new craft brewery and Szekely identity campaign.

63 / WHY CLUJ?

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A 2017 World Bank study says more Romanians are moving to Cluj than Bucharest, despite Bucharest being 6 times larger.

Here is one man’s explanation.

69 / LUMINESCENCE Voicu Bojan dusts off his 35-year old bike to rediscover one of Romania’s craziest traditions – Luminația.

79 / YEAR 2017 IN IMAGES

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www.pressone.us

A collection of the best images from our articles on PressOne.ro in 2017.

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“Investing in students is the best thing we can do as a society. That’s the reason why we have the ORCA student grant.

My biggest regret – that we can’t give a grant to every student who applies.”

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Bogdan Stănescu, Founder of ORCA

Toronto’s little Romania ANTONIA SÂMPĂLEAN

ORCA members turn Christmas caroling into university scholarships.

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Toronto’s little Romania

Raluca Vulpe and choir.

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Huddled together, forming a barrier against the bitter wind and blowing snow, the shivering carolers rehearse their first number on the front porch. Dressed in the traditional Romanian folk blouse and dark bottoms, the members of the Ontario Romanian Canadian Association (ORCA), are resolute in carrying on this ancient tradition of caroling door to door despite the chilling weather.

In Romania, their perseverance may have been rewarded with a few slices of homemade cozonac, maybe even some pocket change or ţuica. In Canada, their reward is a check, written out to support a very special cause.

They step inside, gathering around Raluca Vulpe, who transformed a group of patriotic immigrants into a harmonious vocal ensemble in record time. Listening to their voices sing complicated renditions of Christmas songs, no one would believe they started this ensemble just a few years ago. With bright eyes, they zealously sing while I stand aside and search their faces, wondering if their separation from our homeland’s culture was as painful as my own. Since their immigration, has Christmas brought about waves of nostalgia as it has in my heart, or has it always been this merry?

As a child, leaving Romania to settle in Canada was akin to the death of a loved one. The first few days

of shock gave way to a gut-wrenching period of mourning and finally, a dull ache finding eternal rest in a fragile heart. Sometimes, in the early hours of dawn, blissful confusion would reign, allowing innocent joy to be restored until the painful realization of being far from the gentle caresses and familiar scents of my childhood glee.

Over time, the heartache slowly dissipated, rearing its ugly head less and less frequently. Yet even into my adult years, as a perfectly integrated Canadian, the hauntingly sad song of the morning dove or a golden ray of sunlight seeping through my bedroom window at dusk would awaken an aching nostalgia, a longing for a motherland I no longer knew.

Christmas was always the hardest, mostly because the rich smell of sarmale, methodically rolled to the sweet sounds of Madrigal or Stefan Hrusca, seemed to whisper that I was not ‘Home’ for the holidays.

Suddenly, my thoughts are interrupted by a few taps on the shoulder. It’s Mihai Iacob gently offering me the choir’s song book. I reluctantly part with my dark musings and follow this tranquil man to the edges of the group. Mihai is the vice-president of ORCA and a social media guru who quietly sees all the missing pieces, never losing sight of even the smallest detail.

He moved to Toronto with his family when he was 18, in 2001, just days after 9/11. Aside from the soldiers who ruffled through his bags at the airport and some occasional boredom in his high school classes, his move to Canada was positive, bringing with it a sense of excitement and newness. He had no broken heart and very little nostalgia.

carefully keeping track of old memberships while attracting new ones. The reward for his hard work was meeting Veronica Iacob, now his wife, at an ORCA event.

By 2012, he recognized that something was missing from his life in Canada. He attended one of the first ORCA planning meetings and came up with the idea of forming a young adults group within ORCA.

As the choir energetically performs their final song, their echoing voices generate a cheerful hum in my ears. Then we spill over to the kitchen table to indulge in the Romanian goodies that have been laid out, the dizzying smell of cârnaţi undoubtedly luring us over. Mihai heads in the opposite direction, towards Bogdan Stănescu, the president and founder of ORCA as well as the host. His home was the first one on the caroler’s list this wintery evening.

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Being the quiet leader he is, Mihai instantly took on the behind the scenes work of organizing events, managing ORCA’s growing Facebook group and

Bogdan is writing a generous check at his desk, which Mihai happily accepts while mentally calculating the new total of ORCA’s student grant.

The routine is similar in every home the choir visits: sing; eat; accept check; move on to another home to repeat the cycle.

Photos: Veronica Iacob and Ben Cherette

“I had a very small circle of Romanian friends, but I realized that it was with fellow Romanians that I really connected in a meaningful way. We created ORCA Youth, so Romanians could connect and build friendships. And beyond just socializing, we came up with projects to benefit the Romanian community in Toronto. You see the best in each other when you are helping others”

THE VISIONARY

ORCA president Bogdan Stănescu (left) with vice-president Mihai Iacob.

My attention turns to Bogdan, whose kind and humble expression belies his successful business career and unimaginable hardship.

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He moved to Toronto in 1975, at the age of 17.

Since his paternal grandmother was Jewish, she was granted permission to leave Romania and settle in Toronto, Canada. Bogdan – her grandson – along with his mother, father and dog landed on Canadian soil some years later.

Computer Science and Physics program at the York University.

In order to pay his tuition, Bogdan worked as a bartender on the airport strip, working late hours and making more money than he knew what to do with. He cut a deal with his friends. If they would take notes for him in the morning classes, he would give them free food and drink in the evening.

Like Mihai, Bogdan was thrilled about his move to Toronto, leaving little room for nostalgia and mourning. The mourning and heartache would come later – yet the eulogy would not be for his homeland.

Thanks to his athletic abilities, he immediately found success on the high school soccer team, which he led to the provincial finals. Without any prior knowledge of English, he completed Canadian high school requirements and secured a soccer scholarship at UCLA. However, his stars did not align. One week after arriving in California, Bogdan had a serious soccer injury, forcing him to return to Toronto. Back in Toronto, he enrolled in the

The Carolers and a few neighbors.

Toronto’s little Romania He knew he had to focus more on his studies, but first he had to pay for them. It was this very dilemma that inspired him to introduce the ORCA Student Grant many years later.

After graduating from York, Bogden went to work at IBM in the years when home computers had rubber keyboards and their processing power was similar to that of today’s cheapest cell phone. He married a Canadian woman, Irene, with whom he had two daughters. Tragically, when his daughters were 3 and 1, Irene lost her life to a painful battle with cancer. Finding himself a young widower with two daughters, Bogdan’s life became a difficult balance of work and playing tea party with his girls.

Immensely frustrated with the health care system which had let his family down, Bogdan promised himself to one day create a company that would help ailing Canadians navigate the confusing world of specialists, doctors and hospitals. After 30 years at IBM, Bogdan stayed true to this promise and together with his new wife Angela started Medical Confidence.

When asked if he ever felt nostalgia for Romania over the years, his response was very much like himself – pragmatic:

“I love Canada, and I love visiting Romania from time to time, I love the countryside.

But I don’t have a lot of family in Romania and when I moved to Canada, I knew that I was going to make my life here. I’ve always been proud of being Romanian and I’m proud of being Canadian too.

I am proud to preserve my language and my traditions. It is important to me that my daughters embrace them as well. My dad used to meet his Romanian friends in specific coffee shops and I thought maybe we’ll one day have a place to go to as Romanians. A cultural center where we can share the language that we have, the values and traditions. That was my vision for ORCA.”

Stănescu family: Cristina, Bogdan, Angela and Michelle.

Photos: Veronica Iacob and Ben Cherette 11

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Toronto’s little Romania

CHARITY

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Shortly after ORCA became an official organization, people began coming forward with requests.

One plea came from the family of Julia, a baby born with a rare genetic disorder called CDKL5.

In May of 2012, ORCA organized a fundraising gala to simultaneously help Julia’s family with their extensive therapy costs and support related research projects. An independent organization emerged as a result of this gala, dedicated exclusively to putting on fundraising events for Julia and her family.

Donations from Christmas caroling go to the student grant.

Michael (left) and Bogdan.

Bogdan’s point is quite logical. Why expend energy fantasizing about Romania when you can create a mini Romania here and now? Prior to ORCA, Bogdan was active in the Romanian community. He created a Romanian over 35 soccer league and used the league as a platform to organize fundraisers for various charitable initiatives. He reached out to his friends and connections, initiating the first official meeting in February of 2012.

Bogdan set out on a relentless mission to form a tight-knit community based on mutual support and a big vision. ORCA has grown organically thanks to the leadership of many volunteers.

Michael Lapadat, a former ORCA Board Member, has eagerly promoted the organization across Toronto and Richmond Hill. Iuliana Pasco is the brain behind ORCA’s summer festivals and business connect events which attracts hundreds of participants. Gabriela Covaci, who leads the ORCA kid’s initiative, was named one of Royal Bank of Canada’s top 25 Canadian Immigrants.

ORCA Christmas Party Romanian Doina Traditional Folk Dance Group.

With the help of Horia Petrusan, a Board member who keeps ORCA’s financial records, the ORCA Student Grant program has contributed $25,000 to 21 university students since 2012. Most of ORCA’s social events double up as fundraisers for the grant program.

MY KINDRED SPIRIT I notice Ana-Maria Macarie wrapped in the Romanian flag. Her bustling energy and astonishing patriotism are contagious.

student grants are awarded at these Christmas parties.

As the carolers say their goodbyes, I reflect on the evening that was. It occurs to me that whether they’ve shed tears or not, it’s love for the motherland that has inspired these Romanian immigrants to uphold our beautiful traditions and to give back to their community. ORCA has catalyzed a spirit of togetherness and common bond in our culture that I never imagined. I guess you have to miss Romania, before you can fully appreciate it.

I take a seat next to Ana-Maria to inquire about her immigration experience. Finally, I find someone else who sheds tears over her homeland. She had been living in Toronto for four years before she connected with ORCA in 2012. She felt lonely and found it difficult to meet people:

“I am too grounded in my roots. I met Canadians, great people, amazing to talk to, but they didn’t touch my heart.”

ORCA team and Ana-Maria at Tough Mudder event.

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Now Ana-Maria tirelessly plans ORCA events, including a yearly Christmas party where she teams up with another Board Member, Alberto Tihan, to ensure a smooth and fun-filled event. The ORCA

Caroline and the Reid’s

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BIANCA FELSEGHI

An American family takes a year long sabbatical to Romania.

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It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in the village of Mălâncrav. Once in a while, an uneasy cyclist can be seen peddling a wobbly bicycle through the winding streets, escorted by flocks of white geese.

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Above the village, swallowed up by the slumber that hovers over Transylvanian settlements – a laziness so great that even dogs forget to bark – stands the Apafi Estate.

However inside the Apafi Estate, there’s a lot of commotion. The Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) selected 30 young people from the city of Sighisoara and the villages of Viscri, Archita, Mălâncrav and Alma Vii to attend an educational series on the basics of entrepreneurship. Everyone gathered today for the annual Harvard Feast celebration.

Amongst the dancers in traditional folk costumes, trays full of cakes and pastries, booths selling

local honey, homemade bread, and toys made out of husks of corn, five people are standing around looking a little lost.

Then, all of a sudden, someone saves them from the chaos. “Ooo, our Americans!”, Caroline Fernolend exclaimed, welcoming the Reid Family.

THE REID’S FROM SALT LAKE CITY On the surface, Maddy Reid looks like just another American teenager. Hard to imagine how she led her family from Utah’s Salt Lake City to Romania.

Maddy explains “In 2015 we traveled to Italy, but were seeing and doing the same things that everyone else had done. We were simply tourists.

Caroline and the Reid’s

We had also been to Costa Rica, which was an adventure. But we didn’t really get to know the culture very well there.

of the family vacation. Now Mom was the planner, driver and navigator. None of us had any idea what lay ahead of us on the Romanian roads.

I was looking for a European destination that integrated culture and adventure. All my Google searches brought me back to Romania. Once I chose the country, Mom took over the planning. It was not easy for her to find tourist friendly venues in Romania and more than once Mom suggested we consider Paris instead.

So we came to Romania in 2016 and stayed in Valea Zălanului, in Prince Charles’ guesthouse. It was a magical realm and we fell in love. We knew we had just scratched the surface of a beautiful place with great potential. We just needed to convince Dad to come back.”

Shortly before the trip, someone offered to buy the tech company Dad was running, so he had to bow out

CORY AND AMY Cory Reid has been running businesses since he was 17 years. As an adult, he moved his family to Silicon Valley and then to Utah, where he was the CEO of two technology companies.

Photos: Raul Ștef 19

One day it occurred to him to calculate how many hours a child has from the time they are born until they leave home for university. Then he estimated how many hours a day, and week and year he spends with each of his three children.

The paltry statistic was a wake up call. That is when it occurred to him to take a year-long family sabbatical to make up for all the lost hours he spent at work.

Caroline and the Reid’s

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“After turning 19, I moved to the Philippines for two years. I tried to emulate the local people and take on their lifestyle, learn their language and interact with them as often as I could.

By the end of my two years there, I had learned that even though I went to the Philippines with the desire to do something good and be useful to the locals, they were actually the ones who had brought meaning to my life. We wanted our children to experience this kind of thing.

Amy had also lived in Mexico where she taught English at a school in the countryside. When we first started dating, we constantly talked about our experiences living abroad and how families become closer when they embark on a positive and productive project together,” says Cory, the father of the family.

CELEBRATING THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIFE By the time Cory completed the sale of his business, Maddy had moved across the country to attend Tufts University in Boston. He had missed the window to improve the statistic of total hours spent with Maddy. When Cory presented the idea of Maddy taking leave from Tufts for a year to celebrate the Golden Age of Reid family life, Maddy’s reply was “only if we go back to Romania.”

Before committing to Romania, Cory decided two pieces of due diligence were essential. An exploratory trip to Romania with Amy and secret DNA tests. The exploratory trip went just as expected. Both Cory and Amy loved the old Saxon villages and creative passion of Romanians. But the surprise was Cory’s announcement to the family that his ancestors were Romanian.

Caroline (left), Amy Reid and the boys.

“No they are not” was the chorus of voices that are accustomed to Cory’s shenanigans.

“Here’s the proof” says Cory, pulling out his DNA test results that say he is 2% Romanian.

That made Maddy (19), Ethan (14) and Josh (12) all 1% Romanian. So the Reid family cashed in Cory’s frequent flyer miles for 5 business class tickets to Romania. The Reid’s were going home!

CAROLINE FERNOLEND

“Cory kept telling me that my story really left an impression on them. But it’s really not a story, it’s my life…” she begins.

“Their parents,” says Caroline while throwing a glance at the three Reid children, “approached me this spring looking for a place where they could make themselves useful for the upcoming year.

We met, I told them my story and the story of the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) and happily, they chose us.

We are grateful for them. They come from an entirely different planet and we have so much to learn from them. They probably feel the same way.”

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Caroline Fernolend’s name is invariably linked to Viscri, a place that touched Prince Charles enough for him to buy a home in the village. Viscri is now visited by tourists from all over the world.

Photos: Raul Ștef

Caroline Fernolend is relaxed. In the Reid’s presence, the president of the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) transforms into a family member.

“They know me so well they don’t take any of my comments to heart” laughs Caroline.

She sits down on a little padded bench and Josh Reid thoughtfully brings her a mug of herbal tea.

Her newfound family settles around her, as if they were sitting around a campfire, waiting for her to confirm that the American dream is possible in other places around the world.

There is not a single Saxon left in Alma Vii. But there is one important site - just like in all the other Saxon villages – a fortified church. A fortified church that the locals wanted to restore.

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Fernolend comes from a family of Saxons who stubbornly refused to move to Germany after the borders opened in 1990.

“I’m a simple person. I’m from Viscri and I was raised in a traditional Saxon family where we regarded the spirit of community as something important. The fact that our language is still alive and our traditional homes still stand after 860 years of living outside of Germany is evidence that this place and culture has value. In the 1990’s, I convinced my husband to stay.

Why didn’t I want to leave? Deep down inside, I believed that I had an innate

responsibility to protect my origins and traditions and carry them forward. It was extremely sad that in three months, 90 percent of our community had left. The village was empty. Our daughter became the only child in the village.”

A professional economist, Caroline was an accountant at CAP before the Revolution. After 1990, she taught first to fourth grade for nine years because all the teachers left the village. She taught the new generation of children in Viscri to read and write.

For the past 20 years, she has also served on the local City Council.

Caroline and the Reid’s “Our common goal has been to build a better life. One day, Jessica Douglas-Home, the president of the MET organization, told me that she would bring Prince Charles here. She said we would then start working very intensively with the objective of preserving the patrimony.

I was very agreeable, but I had my share of doubts because more than a dozen people had already come by and made this kind of promise.

Later on, we were featured in the Guide du Routard and I was told to begin organizing English and French lessons in the village to host tourists. In 1996, we began with six guesthouses and that’s how tourism was founded in Viscri.”

MIHAI EMINESCU TRUST (MET) Since 2005, Caroline has been the Executive Director of the MET. The primary objective has been to train local residents, the vast majority of them being Roma, to be skilled craftsmen and to care for the architectural heritage of the region.

Having developed a trade, many are now able to earn a small salary and lead more comfortable lives.

“We have facilitated large training sessions and workshops with over 500 people. Citizens have learned a variety of skills.

We started off by renovating the facades of all the buildings.

The houses looked beautiful when they were finished and the Roma tradesman felt very proud of their work.

Immediately, their experience living in the village became very different. Instead of being blamed for ruining property, they were thanked for restoring property. They now feel like they belong here.

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This social experiment worked particularly well in the village of Mălancra. Under the leadership of an engineer who specializes in building restoration, 25 men came together to repair the Apfi Estate. Afterwards, the members of this team started a company and have now become the most solicited contractors specializing in architectural heritage restoration.”

Photos: Raul Ștef

104 villages in the area have contracted or are currently contracting skilled labourers that have been trained by the MET. Many laborers have become local entrepreneurs and transformed their own homes into guesthouses. The MET has also helped locals navigate the bureaucratic procedures that are necessary for proper certification.

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The village of Alma Vii (located in the region of Sibiu), is undergoing a major transformation. This is where Caroline sent the Reid family to live.

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Caroline and the Reid’s

ALMA VII

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“I asked them why they wanted to go through with the restoration project and they said because the fortress has always been there. I told them that’s not a good enough reason. What are you going to do with this restored fortress?” Caroline asks.

“We want to earn our daily bread from the tourism this will bring. We have a special traditional cake and want to sell this to the tourists,” was the villagers response.

Caroline carries on. “And that’s why we began working with them. We connected them with sponsors, architects and engineers and it took us five years to gather the necessary funds.

We thought about what we could do to make the local people feel like the fortified church belonged to them. We went from home to home and asked each family to donate an item which would later be transferred into the new building.

We also built a small restaurant near the fortress. It has an oven used for culinary demonstrations, along with three rooms where guests can stay.

After hundreds of discussions we managed to form a Saxon Association and put together a group of craftsmen, farmers and people who are interested in tourism.”

The Saxon Association choose an appropriate name: Alma Viitor (The motherland of the future).

FROM CEO TO AN NGO Cory Reid has something in him that is typically American: a fascination for new beginnings and the desire to build something from nothing. To build something that will last.

“Everything started with the restoration of buildings, which is important. But the focus needs to remain on people. For this reason, the MET became involved in education. If you manage to do something that impacts the life of a human being, even to increase the willingness to learn by two percent, the result will be significant.

Maddy, Ethan and Josh had gathered some money together before leaving the United States to purchase traditional folk costumes for children in the village of Alma Vii. The goal is to create a new folkloric ensemble. The traditional clothing was purchased from a local family who have mastered this artisanal skill. In exchange for the costumes, the three American teenagers are being taught traditional dancing.

The Reids offer computer and English classes to any interested villages. But it is the reciprocity of learning that makes the experience so special.

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Before taking this sabbatical year, Cory ran a technology company focused on education. He collaborated with organizations such as the Bill and

Since August 2017, the Reid family has been living in Alma Vii. The family is taking Romanian lessons.

At this point, their favorite sentence that they repeat with an almost perfect Romanian accent is: “We take Romanian lessons three times a week!”

Until they reach a level where they can maintain a conversation, they’ll be speaking through their hands until they hurt, as Romanians would say.

Photos: Raul Ștef

The ability to help someone build his or her skill set, will help them support their family and their community. This investment will impact many future generations,” Cory says.

Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael Susan Dell Foundation in Texas.

Caroline and the Reid’s Maddy is extremely passionate about the subject.

“As human beings, what we have in common is so much more than our differences. I can honestly say we have not once said we miss home or regret this. We are learning so much about how things are made and where our food comes from.

The villagers have their own local culture and a lot of knowledge that they can share with us. So being able to learn from each other is the best way of establishing a relationship,” says Maddy.

WILL THIS SABBATICAL YEAR IN ROMANIA BE OF ANY USE? “This is probably a very standard response but it’s reflective of the truth: it opens the mind. I’ve already begun making plans about other places where it would be great to live. After my family returns home to the United States, I’m going back to Europe. I would like to spend some time with farmers and work alongside them before returning home to go to university,” says Maddy decidedly.

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Cory adds. “One of the things that we find absolutely fascinating here, coming from a capitalist country, is to see the impact that communism still has on people’s lives. Going from being told what to do to learning to believe in yourself is a major cultural shift.

But we also feel a deep hope. There is so much potential in Romania. So many young and intelligent people in Romania. So many foreigners discovering and investing in Romania.

It’s a great time to be living in Romania.

Despite the struggles, I sense that people are pushing forward, not falling into hopelessness.

Innately, people are becoming more confident that major change is around the corner.”

Photos: Raul Č˜tef

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World Champions VALENTIN ȘCHIOPU

“When I looked to my right and saw that we were ahead of everyone with just 500 meters to go, I decided that I’ll die with them around my neck before anyone beats us to the finish line.”

This declaration belongs to Ionela Lehaci, who together with Gianina Beleagă, won gold in the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls at the World Rowing Championships on September 30, 2017 in Sarasota, USA. It was the first time in 18 years that Romania was awarded this title. Ionela and Gianina, both 22 years old, were the two youngest rowers in the finals.

Now their sights are set on the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

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September 30, 2017.

Gianina Beleagă (left) and Ionela Lehaci, world champions at rowing.

World Champions

The home villages of the two girls, separated by a forest. Image: Google Maps.

SEPARATED BY A FOREST

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Ionela and Gianina were born in 1995, just four months apart in small Bucovinian villages outside Suceava. Their home villages, Doroteia-Plutonița and Valea Moldovei, are separated by just a small forest. However, these remarkable young women never met until 2014.

For both girls, the sport of rowing began in the 8th grade when Cristi Malis, a trainer from the Sports Club of Orșova, came to their village’s school and asked the tallest students to step out into the hall for measurements.

Once a year, Cristi would recruit new athletes from all over the country. The children from the Moldovan region of Romania were always given priority.

“I’m not sure how to put it. We were healthier, maybe more accustomed to hard work. There are also rowers from Oltenia

County but most of us are from Moldova. I didn’t have a bad childhood, but I worked a lot in the fields, stacking hay, cultivating potatoes. This was life in the village,” reminisces Ionela Lehaci.

Malis arrived at Ionela’s village school on a Tuesday to take her measurements and 10 days later she moved to Orsova to begin training as a rower. The ideal physical stature for a rower is long arms and short legs. Ionela was tall, but had short arms.

“As a teenager, I was extremely determined.

After they came to measure us, I went home and told my parents ‘either you give me permission to go or I’ll leave!’ I have proved that determination is sometimes more important than body type” Two months after leaving home, Ionela became the national champion in doubles for her age group.

Seven years of intense and competitive training have followed.

World Champions

“A competitive athlete isn’t given national holidays and nowadays, weekends don’t exist either. We have ten training sessions per week and that’s about the scope of our social lives.”

Like Ionela, Malis visited Gianina’s village school when she was 13. At that time, she was the tallest student in her school, standing at 178 centimeters and her arm to trunk ratio was ideal.

Gianina completed high school in the town of Fălticeni and trained on Nada Florilor, the town’s lake. Gianina rcounts:

“Training was difficult in Fălticeni, because of the cold winters in northern Moldova.

Nada Florilor Lake was still frozen when spring started. This forced us to go to Snagov for training. Sometimes, we’d go straight to the competitive events without having done any training at all the previous winter.

The harsh winters made it easier for me to balance school and sports. My cycle was school – training – sports. I never wanted

the teachers to notice a difference between myself and the other students.

I didn’t want them to write me off as an athlete. I would study throughout the night even though the next day I would have to be up and ready to go.

I hesitated about continuing with rowing after I completed my Baccalaureate but I allowed myself to be pulled back into it and now look, I’m a world champion.”

FINALLY TEAMMATES Ionela and Gianina trained as rowers in different junior rowing clubs. Currently, one is a member of the Dinamo Sports Club while the other is a member of the Steaua Sports Club. They finally met at the nationals in 2014.

In a very short time, they managed to bring out the best in each other and come together as a successful team. Ionela occupies the bow seat and is the rower who first crosses the finish line, whereas Gianina has the stroke seat.

Photos: personal archive 33

The Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls podium at the World Championships in Sarasota.

Photo: Igor Meijer

They made it to the finals of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Standing at 179 centimeters and 178 centimeters respectively, they were the tallest competitors in the lightweight division.

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“We are the tallest rowers. Most of the other athletes only come up to our shoulders and are very muscular. Our bodies are a disadvantage, but we don’t worry.

At the end of the day, in the lightweight category, the boat ends up carrying the same weight. Everyone weighs in around the limit of 57 kilograms. The technique is the force that thrusts you forward. That’s how you get a greater speed and less physical wear and tear. The latter is an extremely important element because our bodies are overused.

Ionela has shorter arms and mine are longer, which affects the harmony of our team. The ideal is to have the clone of yourself in the boat. But at the end of the day, we complete each other with the three things that matter most: character, determination and love for the sport.”

LOVE FOR THE SPORT When looking in from the outside, it is hard to understand loving the sport of competitive rowing.

The training seems horrific. A normal Sunday includes 45 miles of rowing, sandwiched between morning and evening training sessions in the gym.

Rowers never get manicures because their hands are consistently transformed into large, open wounds.

“We are often told we have the hands of a man. Our hands get used to not being on the oars in the winter, when we hold the bars differently on the rowing machine. But when we hit the water again in spring and there are waves and wind, we hold the oars as we’ve been trained to do.

That’s when you get the open wounds that are easily infected. You bandage them up and grit your teeth. Even your heart starts feeling the burn.”

World Champions

Rowing does not attract the glory or attention of other sports. Children don’t grow up dreaming of becoming rowers.

Society is only reminded of the sport every four years when the Olympics come around.

“It’s not pleasant to have this feeling that you’re about to die after every single training session. But there is an overwhelming sentiment when you are completely one with a powerful, smooth gliding boat. I can’t describe this feeling with words, but it is what makes you go to sleep at 10 pm each evening and forgo

NEXT STEP

Gianina Beleagă

purchased a wedding dress. She will be getting married on the 28th of October and is officially on vacation until November.

“Honeymoon destination? Honeymoons are for fairy tales, not for rowers. In rowing, the only thing you accumulate are wounds, not vacation time. And her future husband is also a rower, so they will be counting their wounds together.”

37

Having returned to Romania only a few days ago after winning gold in Sarasota, Ionela just

I recently saw the film Icarus, which was related to Russia’s doping scandal.

I watched it feeling utterly stupefied: do these things actually happen? I am in this sport because of my passion for it.

If I were to ever cheat, how would I look at myself again in the mirror? The fight that will determine the fate of our boat will be a clean one.”

Photos: personal archive

Ionela and Gianina are well aware of the challenges facing them in the 2020 Olympics. The Romanian Athletic Environment has many challenges. The queen boat, the women’s eight, once the pride of Romania, didn’t make it to the Olympics in 2016 for the first time in history.

the fun of fellow mortals, as my boyfriend would say.

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Covaci’s makeshift dwelling

Second Hand Goods VIOREL ILIŞOI

“That’s why Romanian’s leave, they are looking for respect” says Emil Stoica.

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“Come on, boys, just another step! Let’s do this!” shouts Emil Stoica.

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Six young men are struggling to lift a piano up the stairs of an apartment building in Mannheim Germany. It’s not easy as the instrument has a castiron frame at its core.

After ascending 25 floors, the young Romanian men take a beer break on the landing between floors. The boys chatter about what’s going on in the motherland. They never talk about Germany.

It would be too boring. Everything here is monotonous, like the music of a street organ.

After a brief break, the boys get back to work.

“Boss, what floor did you say we have to bring this piano to?” – comes a question from a man breathing heavily as he supports the piano with the back of his shoulders.

“What do you mean, man? The 16th floor?!

Are you sure? We’re on the 25th floor!

The men roll up their sleeves again, load up the piano and descend nine floors.

For years, I wanted to discover the headwaters of the river that flows goods into the second-hand stores at every corner in Romania. For a week, I had the privilege of solving this mystery with Emil Stoica and his funny team of strong-armed and thick-necked men.

Second Hand Goods Emil Stoica is a stout sixty-something year old man with a sunburned face and a square beard. He looks like he was made to climb up staircases or wind his way through apartment buildings with a fridge under his arms.

His dark, hardened face appears to be chiselled out of coal. But it quickly lights up and becomes as gentle as the face of a little grandmother whenever he smiles or laughs with his lips stretching to his ears. I met him a while back, when I passed through Germany driving a truck that was on its way to England.

The words “Haushaltsauflösungen, Entrümpelungen,” are inscribed on Emil’s company truck. In Romanian, Haushaltsauflösungen, Entrümpelungen would mean something like “a company that dissolves the goods found in your home”- which sounds absolutely ridiculous. I am curious what it means to dissolve households, so I hop in the truck in an old pair of sweatpants.

We start with the home of Mr. Meuth Gerber.

The apartment was rented to a relative of his who recently passed away. He’s now selling the apartment and it has to be emptied immediately.

Men and patriots (above).

–––– Emil Stoica, the Oltean who dissolves households in Germany.

Photos: Viorel Ilişoi 41

Carrying furniture is a difficult task.

Any resting place is a good one.

Second Hand Goods

I expect to find a spacious and well-lit apartment in this well-maintained building with an elevator that’s as fast as lightning. Instead, the two-bedroom apartment is tight, small and dusty, drowned in the darkness of a dreary morning whose minimal light enters through a tiny, poorly placed window.

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Mr. Gerber and his wife, both impeccably dressed, seek refuge against the wall, looking slightly frightened by the incoming attack of Emil Stoica’s workers, four of them this time.

Without much talk, they scatter through the apartment as if they were following a previously established plan. They begin to dismantle the furniture. The worker in the kitchen gathers the plates and utensils into boxes. Another one disassembles the wardrobe in the bedroom, another one does the same for the couch in the living room and finally, another one stuffs clothing – hanger and all - into nylon sacks. Over 100 pieces of clothing are hanging on a separate hanger.

Suits, blouses, skirts, gowns, blazers, pants, coats, nightgowns, slips. The are colourful and seem barely used.

The garments reveal an energetic person. A happy, athletic, clean woman with rather extravagant

taste. She lived a modest life in her home, but wanted to shine and attract attention out in public when she left the dark shadows of her apartment.

In her last years, she suffered from old age and illness. The apartment gives off the odor of urine and once all the clothes are gathered from the closet, two large boxes of diapers become visible.

These two boxes will undoubtedly make their way to Emil Stoica’s second hand store in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania.

The entire life of this woman is about to be scattered in the distance. Soon countless Romanians will be shaking off the unseen dust of the woman from Mannheim.

GRIGORESCU Suddenly, a painting of a peasant girl by Grigorescu makes its appearance from one of the boxes going into the van. It’s a well-done reproduction.

“How nice! Look, you have one of Grigorescu’s paintings in the apartment!” yells Emil excitedly in German, looking over at Mr. Gerber.

“What does Grigorescu mean?” Gerber responds.

“He’s a great Romanian painter!”

“No. But she certainly knew a lot about your country.

I think she was in love with someone from there.”

I place the painting in a cardboard box to be brought into the truck. Grigorescu finally returns home after decades abroad. Stuffed away in a cardboard box full of spoons, glasses, towels and diapers, Grigorescu will soon be a masterpiece in a Romanian living room.

HAUSHALTSAUFLÖSUNGEN

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Now I understand what “dissolving a household” means. It’s not a forced translation because this is precisely what is done. Everything is dissolved, annihilated, the way a corpse would dissolve if it were placed in caustic soda. There is a sadness of about these emptied homes.

Photos: Viorel Ilişoi

The old man Gerber has never heard of Grigorescu.

But he recalls the fact that his deceased relative once visited Romania during communism. She probably got the painting there. Along with a nice hand-stitched tablecloth that she always kept on the table under the chandelier.

“Was she a Saxon from Romania?”, asks Emil.

The homes are emptied using an external elevator that the Romanians mount in less than thirty minutes.

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I’ve moved about 10 times in Bucharest and every time I moved into a new place, I always came across something that the prior resident left behind. And I always left something behind for the new tenant.

A sort of unseen bond was created between those who had passed through over the years.

Here, a brutal line is crossed, separating the destinies of each person. The Germans, who once gifted the world with the Grimm brothers, seem to have no stories. For a Romanian, this is extremely frustrating. In Romania, you never see a laborer working in a home without engaging in a discussion with the owner. There’s always a comment that’s made, advice that is exchanged and gossip that is shared. Dialogue is part of the service that is offered.

How can a Romanian work in a home, especially one that is being dissolved, without being able to discover its past and the person who lived there for at least three generations? How can you leave without finding out what the person did, who she sided with and finally, what was the illness responsible for her death?

The Germans want you to enter into their homes quietly, to work quickly, neatly and then to leave the house empty, wrapped up in the sorrow that they are not capable of seeing”, says Emil.

Second Hand Goods

The sorrow of emptied homes.

Photos: Viorel IliĹ&#x;oi 47

In some of the houses, everything is taken, including the toothpicks.

Second Hand Goods

EMIL STOICA Emil believes that the work he’s been carrying out in Germany for 25 years has helped to patch up Romania’s economy. His goods can end up in Ramnicu Valcea, Botosani, Buzau or Ialomita.

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Emil is a patriot. On the wall of his office are his great grandparents slippers. He wore them when he arrived in Germany 25 years ago. He doesn’t want to forget where he came from.

He remembers his humble beginnings with sadness. He left the country in 1992 at 36 years of age. He was a foreman at the Hydraulic Equipment Enterprise. He had a sentiment that everything would fall apart, like an absurd theatre production.

His colleagues laughed at him when he told them that he was leaving, but a year later, they were all unemployed.

He ended up in France, starving and homeless. He slept in a night shelter in Nice. In the evening, he’d get a bowl of soup and a cup of chocolate milk for breakfast. He spent his days roaming about the city and would only eat when managed to fish out coins that were thrown out into a public fountain. Sadly,

he often had to fight other desperate Romanians for these coins. He kept a journal describing his feelings during this struggle. He wrote down everything from the humiliation to his dreams.

“Lord, help me to find a job and give me the strength to work so that I can bring my wife and children here, so that we could live together in a dignified way,” he wrote in his little journal that he now flips through emotionally with his hands trembling. It moves me to see this strong man, built like a wrestling champion, so vulnerable.

In Germany, where he applied for political asylum, Emil used to walk door to door saying “Arbeit!

Arbeit!”. Work was the only word he knew and the only thing he could do.

There was an American army base where day laborers would show up every morning looking for work. Emil Stoica, famished, would head to the base before sunrise. While walking on a train track, wet with morning dew, he’d say to himself: “If I manage to get to the end of the track without slipping, I’ll be given work today.”

The laborers at a pastry shop.

It was his way of remaining optimistic.

When he didn’t find a day job, he’d walk around Mannheim gathering things that Germans had thrown out. He would grab a fridge or whatever else he found and carry it on his back to the other side of the town where he’d found shelter in a basement. From this basement he would store scraps and sell them to Romanians heading back to the home country.

I hop on the train back to Romania, dressed neatly in a velour coat and a pair of jeans bought from a second-hand store in Ghencea. They cost just 25 lei.

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“On the feast day of Saint Dumitru, October 26, after emptying the home of an exceptionally crabby German man, we head to the pastry shop for a slice of cake.

It feels like a school trip, we line up and everything”, says Emil.

On the way to the train station, Emil tells me, “What convinced me to stay here is the fact that I was treated with respect regardless of the work I chose to do.

Whether I was carrying a fridge on my back or planting grape vines or cleaning toilets at a hotel or sweeping the street.

Here, human beings are respected. That’s why Romanians leave, they’re looking for respect.”

Photos: Viorel Ilişoi

Little by little, this struggle for survival became a successful business. He provides good salaries for 12 employees and built a nice home for his family.

The entire team eats at the company’s office where Nicu cooks lunch for his employees. If there’s too much work, they eat out on the job site. Nicu usually appears out of nowhere with his arms full of grocery bags and serves each person after inquiring what they’d prefer to eat.

The boss has remained an incredibly simple person. He carries furniture and eats alongside his employees.

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Shady Deals Hungary’s national energy producer MVM (a 100 percent state-owned company) is a link in Budapest’s secret financing of a campaign to create regional identity in the Romanian counties of Harghita and Covasna.

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BIANCA FELSEGHI

Cluj-Napoca, January 21, 2016: Reformed Bishop Kató Béla (center, wearing a mustache), together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the funeral of László Tőkés’s father. Photo: Raul Ştef

In 2014, MVM, the Hungarian state-owned power company, with interests in electric, nuclear and natural gas businesses, paid over 27 million euro for 90% of Hivatalos SRL (Ltd.), a company that owned 6 micro hydropower plants on streams in Harghita County. The power plants were worth less than 6 million euro.

It begs the questions: Why did the Hungarian State pay an extra 21 millions euro to the Hivatalos shareholders?

Who are the Hivatalos shareholders?

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What is the link between the Hivatlos shareholders and the Székely Identity Campaign promoted by Igazi Csiki Sör (which translates to “Real Ciuc beer”) and the Orban Government in Budapest?

HIVATALOS – THE “OFFICIAL” BUSINESS The Hivatalos company − a Hungarian word meaning ‘official’ − was established in 2007 in Harghita county.

According to documents obtained by PressOne from the Harghita County Environmental Protection Agency, in 2010 Hivatalos SRL stated

its intention to build 8 micro hydropower plants in Sânmartin, Ciucsângiorgiu and Plăieşii de Jos, on three watercourses: the Uz and its tributaries Başca and Bărzăuţa.

In 2011, 100% of Hivatalos SRL ownership fell into the hands of Lénárd András, through HydroEnergy ZRT, a Hunganian legal entity owned by András.

Hydropower companies thrived during this time, supported by ‘Romania’s Energy Strategy for 20072020’. One of the goals of the strategy was that a quarter of the green energy produced in Romania in 2015 would come from micro hydropower plants.

This energy was bought by the state from private investors through Electrica SA and was then introduced into the national energy system.

Investors were also awarded green certificates for each megawatt-hour (MWh) produced.

In 2011, Lénárd András sold 10% of the Hivatalis shares to the Pension Fund of the Reformed Diocese of Transylvania based in Cluj-Napoca. The Diocese was represented by Kató Béla, who was to be elected bishop in 2013.

We tried to get an official statement from the current director of the Pension Fund of the Reformed Diocese of Transylvania. We enquired about why the Reformed church got involved in this business, as well as the risk it took when investing pensioners’ money. The director has not responded.

Shady Deals In 2011, a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency Harghita determined that the Hivatalos project “was not subject to environmental impact assessment”, meaning it did not pose a threat to the environment. This decision appears dubious, because Lénárd’s proposed power plants fell within a Natura 2000 protected area, called Nemira-Lapoş.

It would later be proven that these miniature hydropower plants, generally built on small streams in the mountains, pose an ecological threat by reducing the water level of the streams to a critical level and threatening the fauna.

In July 2012, the town hall of Sânmartin approved the land use of 7,600 square meters for the installation of a high voltage underground cable to connect the 6.98 MW micro hydropower plants in the area to the national grid.

In May 2013, according to the environmental permit no. 138 / 27.05.2013, Hivatalos SRL was given approval to build 6 micro hydropower plants.

The environmental permit came around the time when investors recognized that micro hydropower plants were unprofitable, environmental disasters.

MICRO HYDROPOWER PLANTS “UNPROFITABLE FACILITIES THAT DESTROY OUR ENVIRONMENT” “The real reason for the overflow of demands and pressures for the approval of micro hydropower plants in otherwise unprofitable locations is the disproportionate economic advantage of Green Certificates.

Excerpt from “Microhidrocentrale, macroprobleme” (Micro Hydropower Plants, Macro Problems) published in 2014 in the National Geographic magazine.

MYSTERIOUS WINSLAND HOLDINGS In 2012, Winsland Holdings, a Cyprus based holding company bought 50% of Hivatalos SRL for 105 euro. At this time, Hivalalos had yet to begin construction of the hydropower plants.

According to Winsland Holdings’s 2014 financial report, this offshore loaned Hivatalos SRL 11.5 million euro in 2013 and 10.8 million in 2014.

Presumably this money was to fund construction of the 6 plants.

Winsland’s representative in Romania was businessman Csigi Levente, director of Kárpátia Magyar-Román Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara(KMRKI) − The Carpatia Romanian-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, based in Cluj-Napoca.

Contacted by phone, Csigi Levente stated he no longer recalls the Winsland-Hivatalos SRL transaction and refused to comment on his involvement in this business.

Csigi Levente during a poker game in a bar in Cluj (YouTube capture).

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This is made clear by the most recent report of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE), which calculated in May 2013 that the bonus of three green certificates per megawatt was too high and proposed a 25% reduction, that is to say 2.3 certificates.

In fact, we have to pay more for our electricity to the benefit of unprofitable energy facilities, which in the meantime destroy our environment and landscape.”

THE HUNGARIAN STATE, THROUGH MVM, ENTERS THE GAME

WHO ARE THE HUNGARIAN STATE’S SWEETHEARTS?

According to MVM’s annual report for 2014, the transaction value for 90% of Hivatalos SRL amounted to 27.8 million.

By any reasonable measurement, the EUR 27 million MVM paid for Hivatalos was ridiculous given that in 2014 the race for subsidies (green certificates) had subsided.

The EUR 27.8 million purchase price is allocated as follows: • • •

Purchase of EUR 17.7 million loan from Winsland to Hivatalos Purchase of Winsland stock for EUR 5.8 million Purchase of Lénárd András (HydroEnergy) stock for EUR 4.7 million

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If we assume that Winsland Holdings had not received any payments on it’s EUR 22.3 loan, Winsland’s profit was only EUR 1.2 million (17.7 + 5.8 – 22.3).

Interestingly, the Pension Fund of the Reformed Diocese of Transylvania got nothing out of the transaction. They still own 10% of Hivatalos.

The big winner was Lénárd András, with EUR 4.7 million in proceeds.

To get an estimate of how much a micro hydropower plant (MHPP) was worth in 2015, we contacted Otilia Nuţu, an infrastructure and energy analyst for the Expert Forum. Ms. Nuțu said the selling price of a micro hydropower plant ranged between 700,000 and 900,000 euro per MW produced. The 6 Hivatalos’ plants were expected to produce 6.98 MW, which implies a total business value ranging from just 4.9 to 6.2 million EUR. Another valuation metric is Hidroelectrica’s auction of 32 micro hydropower plants. In 2015, Remus Borza, then the judicial administrator of Hidroelectrica, said he hoped to get a price of 16 million euro for all 32 micro hydropower plants.

About EUR 500,000 per plant. This would value Hivatalos at EUR 3 million.

MVM justified the huge purchase price by saying the “transaction had sealed the national Hungarian producer’s Magyar Villamos Művek (MVM) entry into the Romanian energy market.” Common sense tells us otherwise.

Lénárd András during the interview posted on YouTube on January 4, 2018.

THE CURIOUS LIFE MR. LÉNÁRD In 1995, at the age of 18, Lénárd András moved to the United States and married an American woman from Plymouth, Connecticut. Magyar Nemzet writes that he and his wife were organizing illegal migration of people from Canada into the US. In 2001, Lénárd was arrested in New York City, along with three Hungarian women who had arrived in the US through Canada. The women had job offers in a US strip club.

In the video interview, Lénárd states that he arrived in the US in the 90’s through the Visa Lottery Program and afterwards illegally extended his stay to work as a painter. He was detained by US customs police when he was returning from helping some friends in Canada. He rejects any accusations of human trafficking.

CHANGES IN THE STRUCTURE OF HIVATALOS SRL OVER A PERIOD OF 10 YEARS.

Lénárd András was indicted by the American authorities, but was released on a bail of 50,000 dollars. He fled to Canada in order to avoid appearing in court.

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It appears his US arrest warrant is still in force and the circumstances of his return to Romania are still unknown. The article recently published by Magyar Nemzet forced Lénárd to give an interview on the subject.

Shady Deals

Csiki Sör Factory, before and after Lénárd András’s investment.

ORBÁN’S INTEREST IN THE CSIKI SÖR SYMBOL Shortly after selling his stake in Hivatalos SRL, Lénárd András set up a craft brewery in Sânsimion, Harghita. The Hungarian name he chose for his product was Igazi Csíki Sör, which means “the real Ciuc beer”.

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As a result of this choice, Heineken Romania, the Ciuc brand owner, filed a civil lawsuit demanding that Lénárd András change the name of his beer.

Orbán government’s indirect way of reprimanding the Romanian subsidiary of Heineken.

Subsequently, Heineken Romania reached a coexistence agreement with Lénárd András’s brewery.

However, as an affront, the latter chose to print the word Tiltott (forbidden) on a red background, over the Csiki Sör label.

Why did Hungarian authorities make it a priority to protect a small craft brewery in Harghita?

The conflict between the small producer in Harghita and the multinational Heineken was used as a pretext by Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister. After a Romanian court ruled in favor of Heineken, two senior officials from Budapest, Deputy Prime Minister Semjén Zsolt and FIDESZ parliamentary leader Lázár János, proposed a law to prohibit the commercial use of “totalitarian” symbols. This would have forced Heineken to discard the red star on its label.

The two dignitaries were quoted as saying that the logo had a clear political connotation, and that the citizens of Hungary were urged to boycott Heineken’s products. This was, in other words, the

Below the name Csiki Sör, the label reads: “Ciuc Beer from 1540. Refreshes, nourishes and invigorates”.

Shady Deals

Lázár János, delegate from Budapest (center) raising a glass of beer with Lénárd András (left) at the Sânsimion factory.

Photo: kormany.hu

In an August 2017 The New York Times article, Lénárd states that the conflict with Heineken had become the symbol of the struggle for survival of the Székely community.

A large pro-FIDESZ vote in Transylvania might give Viktor Orbán the majority needed for him to continue his strong arm over Hungary.

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A spokesman for the Orbán Government asserted that Budapest has a responsibility towards the Hungarian nation as a whole, not limited to the citizens living in Hungary.

These statements confirm the interest FIDESZ has for ethnic Hungarians in Romania who have acquired Hungarian citizenship through the socalled re-naturalization initiative. These newly naturalized citizens could matter in the 2018 Parliamentary elections.

Shady Deals

Oszkár Világi (on the left) at the 2015 edition of the festival organized by FIDESZ in Baile Tusnad, Romania.

FINAL QUESTION: WHO IS BEHIND WINSLAND?

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When MVM overpaid for Hivakalos SRL by 21 million euro, they not only gave András the money to stir up Hungarian nationalism, but they also bailed out the Winsland Holdings investors who invested 22 millions euro in 6 unprofitable hydropower plants. Who were the lucky friends of the Hungarian largesse?

Established in May 2012, Winsland Holdings was owned by an association in the Cayman Islands.

In 2014, the Cayman Islands association sold the Winsland interest to the Dutch company CEI Holding B.V. based in Rotterdam for only 1,000 euro. In December 2015, CEI Holding B.V. decided to close down Winsland Holdings. The offshore has done its job and was now redundant.

Dutch law allows for the real shareholders of CEI Holding BV to remain anonymous. This is accomplished through non-profit entities called STAK (Stichting AdministratieKantoor). STAK’s are a subject for another time.

But we can learn a little from companies in the CEI Holdings portfolio. One of these is a Slovak company, EHCS a.s, whose board is headed by the daughter of lawyer Oszkár Világi. Világi is a Hungarian businessman who became famous for his friendship with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Oszkár Világi lives in Slovakia and is the chairman of Slovnaft AS, the Slovak subsidiary of MOL, the Hungarian oil and gas company. The Hungarian government is the largest shareholder in MOL. Világi was present several times at the Tusványos Summer School in Baile Tusnad, Romania. He and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are among the traditional guests of this event organized annually by a Budapest foundation close to FIDESZ. Oszkár Világi is passionate about football, like Viktor Orbán, and bought the Slovak club FC DAC 1904 in Dunajská Streda, his hometown. The majority of the population (75%) in Dunajská Streda are Hungarians.

THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS So who was the money behind the 6 micro hydropower plants? Our best guess is Viktor Orbán’s buddy Oszkár Világi.

Why does money travel through four EU countries, two tax havens and Dutch non-profit run by a person close to Viktor Orbán – just to invest in a small Romanian business in Harghita County?

We’ll let you come to your own conclusions.

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Why Cluj BARBU MATEESCU

With sincere apologies for the generalizations, here is why I decided to leave Bucharest for Cluj.

Panoramic view of Cluj.

Photo: Lucian Muntean

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Bucharest

In 2017, the World Bank published a landmark study on the migration of Romanians. It is well documented that Romania ranks #1 in the EU for percentage of citizens leaving the country. What is less well documented is the migration of citizens into the 6 major “Magnet Cities”. The 493 page report “Magnet Cities: Migration and Commuting in Romania” is a treasure of colorful maps and figures.

One of the most surprising facts was a response to this survey question:

Which city, other than your current residence, would you most like to live in? The top choice was Cluj. Even though Cluj has just 2.3% of the population, 15.3 % of Romanians would like to live there. Interestingly, more Romanians want to move to Cluj than the capital of Bucharest, which has 6 times the population of Cluj.

PressOne published one man’s reasons for moving to Cluj from Bucharest.

Why Cluj?

FAREWELL BUCHAREST INDOLENT CITY ADMINISTRATION The problems run much deeper than the mayor in office. It is a culture at all levels of city governance.

All of the city infrastructure is obsolete, most obvious being the traffic congestion. Bucharest ranks #1 in Europe and #5 in the world for worst city traffic.

Public transportation is slow, uncomfortable, and excessively crowded, not to mention dangerous. Last month, a trolley car went up in flames in the middle of the city.

STATE INSTITUTIONS They burden the whole society.

A hearty sense of mediocrity has made its home in all of the public ministries and has become the second nature of the Capital.

From traffic flow to lecterns in universities which are kept exclusively for “Mr. Parliament” or “Mr. Minister,” the ordinary people are simply subjects of a disinterested bureaucracy.

CITIZENS LIVE THERE EVEN IF THEY ARE AGAINST OR EMBITTERED TOWARDS THE CITY

Stress is a constant and it produces unanticipated disadvantages. Creativity and energy are diminished. As a result, the projects that were dreamed of yesterday or conjured up today, never come to fruition.

Being a Bucharestian is no longer an identity, but rather a geographical localization. If you’re sitting around the table with your friends, ask them if they believe that they’ll have a quiet and relaxing retirement in Bucharest, or if it’s a wise place to raise a child. Best case scenario, they’ll give you a smile. In most cases, your reply will come in the form of sarcastic laughter.

THE EARTHQUAKE I have major doubts in regards to the local public administration’s ability to deal with the postearthquake efforts. The same doubts apply to the national administration.

With a degree of stupefaction, it will be announced shortly after the disaster occurs that the death toll stands at 1,000 people. In the days following the earthquake, the death toll will perhaps rise to 10,000 or 15,000 due to inefficiency, lack of organization and the debilitating bureaucracy.

I have no desire to be counted among the victims.

FILTHY AIR In a 2015 study of 96 European cities, Bucharest ranked 88th in air quality..

Barbu Mateescu. Photo: personal archive Born and raised in Bucharest, Barbu Mateescu is a 36-year-old sociologist. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.

He is the author of the Sociollogica and over the years, has collaborated with Dilema veche, Revista 22, and the opinion platform Contributors.

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Let’s make something clear. All large cities are predisposed to verbal and emotional aggression.

From this point of view, Bucharest is the New York of Europe, the metropolis where people who live there become

haughty and proud of the fact that “I live here even though it’s difficult, but I can withstand it, because I’m so tough.”

Why Cluj?

Image from Piaţa Unirii in Cluj, taken on the opening night of the 2016 edition of Transylvania’s International Film Festival (Tiff).

Photo: Raul Ștef.

WHY CLUJ? Another chance for Romania. For many reasons, I believe there’s a future for Romania and we’ll one day be able to live at European standards.

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ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC FORCE Cluj’s recent success is the result of various factors.

These include the UBB (Babes-Bolyai University) brand and the close proximity of Transylvania to the Western world. Additionally, there is a dynamic civil society and a local elite, undertaking pragmatic and ambitious projects to improve the quality of life. The result is a competitive city that is young and flourishing, a living metropolis. It is a place where one can work and create.

TRANSYLVANIOPHILIA A rich and complex history with an ethno-religious diversity that you either resonate with or don’t. It reminds me of my European identity.

TRUST, RESPECT FOR OTHERS AND POLITENESS IS THE NORM For someone who has lived in Bucharest, the psychological climate is completely different.

Being around calm and polite people has greatly improved my emotional state.

REAL GROWTH Cluj is in a growth crisis. Some of the signs are evident while other signs will only become visible in the years to come.

A growth crisis is infinitely favorable to depopulation. Growth raises asset valuations and gives people money to reinvest in building higher living standards.

No other city in Romania spends so much time thinking about its future. No other city in Romania has a better future.

CLEAN AIR In a 2014 study of 100 European cities, Cluj ranked #1 in air quality.

Cluj-Napoca

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Luminescence VOICU BOJAN

Luminația is probably the most multicultural and ecumenical celebration in Romania, although no one seems to acknowledge it.

Every year on November 1st, Hungarians, Saxons, Serbians, Bulgarians and Romanians mingle together in the alleyways of cemeteries displaying a sense of fraternity that seems impalpable any other day of the year. It’s the day when the battle-axe is buried and everyone becomes a little bit more alike.

Since I was little, I’ve always liked Luminația. Back then, I would accompany my mother to stuff my face with cozonac, see the glowing cemetery and visit the grave of a Grandpa I had never met. I remember the sweet bread given out by the people at the neighboring graves was much better than ours, because they had more raisins.

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This year I pulled out my 1974 Pegasus bicycle and decided to rekindle my childhood by freezing my hands to the handlebar and riding to Luminația at the Mănăștur and Crișan cemeteries.

I start snooping around the Crișan cemetery around noon. There’s a lot of agitation, comparable to the amount of garbage that has been piled up into a small, colorful hill. Everyone is hard at work, but there is no piety about it.

The men, who are wearing hats and outdated suits, dutifully shovel dirt on top of the graves, gather fallen leaves and clean the surrounding area. The women, dressed in warm coats and armed with

brooms, candles and chrysanthemum bouquets, hurry across the street on red at intersections, just to get to the cemetery a few moments sooner.

I experience a craving to smell the fragrant flowers.

This smell marks the beginning of winter in Cluj, likewise the scent of roasted chestnuts on an open fire marks the beginning of fall. More often than not, when global warming hadn’t become quite so global, the burning candles would melt away the snow piled up in the cemetery.

The opportunity to whiff the strong perfume of chrysanthemums was offered to me around 3:00 in the afternoon, when I accompanied my wife to the graves of her family members. She is also equipped with a broom, a paper bag for leaves, candles and of course, a bouquet of chrysanthemums.

Luminescence I carry the flowers with an air of stoicism. When we arrive in the cemetery, I shove my face into the bouquet, breathe in deeply and exclaim: “Yikes, winter is coming! Let’s all move to a warm country!”

As afternoon gives way to evening, the atmosphere becomes excessively sober. Faces grow pale in the dimming light of the candles, as families huddled around tombstones remember the lives that have been lost.

The least of them all is that of our little guinea pig named Fluffy, who is now resting in an improvised grave in an eternal dwelling place known only by yours truly. At the plea of my youngest son who loved the little guinea pig with so much ferocity that he wanted her to have a resting place in a real cemetery, I relented and became a gravedigger.

There’s also a hamster buried in a cemetery in Feleac, under a handmade wooden cross, but that’s a story for another day.

Then there’s the story of Claudia, who has a dazzling white, marble tombstone. Her grave is now adorned with flowers. Blinking candles arranged into the shape of a cross rest on her grave.

When I was a teenager, she was the smartest and prettiest natural blonde in all the high schools.

She died at 20 years of age, as a result of a simple operation to correct a deviated septum. At that time medical malpractice was an abstract concept.

Then there is my wife’s uncle Victor’s story. He was a handsome and intelligent student who froze to death in the Fagaras Mountains one August day.

His girlfriend was so devastated that she swore she would never marry, a promise she holds to this day.

Or the story of the child who died while sledding down the hill on the street beside the cemetery.

Or the story of the young Hungarian girl whose parents erected a life-size sculpture of her. On foggy days, the statue looks like the image of Christ ascending to the heavens.

It’s Delia’s excruciating story that brings my experience in the Crișan cemetery to an end.

She had just died of an unexpected medical complication. Walking through an alley, I bumped into her father. He is the image of sorrow. Armed with a small broom, candles, a lighter and white chrysanthemums arranged into large, beautiful bouquets, he says to me:

“You know, my son Florin went to New Zealand and my wife very is sick. Delia was our only support, a wonderful girl with a contagious joie de vivre. For many years, we came here to the Luminația together.

A year ago, I would’ve never been able to fathom that on November 1st, 2017, I’d be coming here for her rather than with her.”

Caludia, a beautiful blonde teenager, died of a simple procedure to correct her deviated septum.

Photos: Voicu Bojan 71

I watch with sadness as Mr. H covers Delia’s tombstone with fallen needles and then arranges the flowers and lights the candles before stepping back. Afterwards, he mindfully gathers his bags and disappears down the alleyway, overcome by sorrow.

The van belonging to the Angel’s funeral service sits with the engine running. I don’t want to count myself among the passengers, so I ease on my brakes and slow down. Thank God, today I’ve escaped death!

RIDE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN

An animated priest is standing in front of the chapel, reciting from a long list of the faithfully departed. The place is buzzing with people.

I saunter out of the cemetery to my ragged old bike and begin the 6-kilometer ride in search of a slightly merrier cemetery.

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Oh, I would love to be able to cut through the Faculty of Agriculture’s yard like I used to with my friend Marius when both of us believed ourselves to be Tarzan. The only problem is that the guards have since changed and I can’t take this kind of risk while mounted on a medieval bicycle.

A memory from the past suddenly flashes before my eyes. My friend Cristi and I used exploit this day by mimicking the “Lord have mercy” prayer, while we’d steal a few pieces of cake from the mourners. Once in a while, we grabbed a shot or two of pălincă. Those were biblical days, when no one asked to see your ID card before consuming alcohol.

I ride up the street, passing by the Cultural Center where I folk danced from first to eighth grade. I ride by Vitadulci, where my parents used to buy me vanilla ice cream on Sundays, provided I had abstained from laughing in church.

At this point, I have no agenda or objective. My only desire is to rediscover this place that I still know like the back of my hand. I want to make sure everything is in its place and that my favorite funeral plaque is still standing: “Pilgrim, I was once you and you will soon be me!”

I finally make it to the cemetery. I shimmy my way through the Kürtőskalács (chimney cakes), beggars, icon sellers, candles and piles of chrysanthemums.

The atmosphere feels like a peaceful fairgrounds.

The mood is one of contagious joy, peppered with bits and pieces of absurd dialogue seeping together to form the perfect impression of this place. A balm anoints my heart.

Luminescence

Three white-haired gentleman holding pink cups in their hands are leaning on a tombstone and having a debate. A friend walks by them slowly.

“Hey, come have a shot with us!”

“Are you out of your mind? I won’t even drink when I’m dead. I had two heart attacks last year, one after the other. Let me just tell you…” (this is followed by a detailed and lengthy description of both of the heart attacks, including the dialogue that took place between the paramedics).

“Come on, take a shot for Gligor, God rest his soul. I’m a professor in alcohol, hear me out, I don’t want to do you any harm.”

Just a little further away, a couple is reciting the inventory of the neighboring lots. His mouth is full but she makes up for his silence by speaking enough for the both of them:

“Look, here is Jenu from Mantaca with his wife. Over there are the Burics and behind them is the Caralaba family. That man’s son left his pregnant wife…”

I run into the Cioban, Lingurar, Nerghes and Perde families. They came with their children, grandchildren and grandparents. They huddle together, light candles, open bottles and speak loudly. They’re not shy about swearing out loud.

Photos: Voicu Bojan 75

Suddenly, the cold permeates the atmosphere.

The candles start to flicker brighter while the beggars weave their way through the tombstones like snakes. All around, snippets of profound conversations can be heard regarding time (oh, how quickly it passes) and life (this is it, there’s nothing you can do about it).

Luminescence With difficulty, I begin to recognize my former classmates from primary school: Revnic, who managed to fail third grade. Then there’s Pipas, who punched me in the face out of the blue while were were playing and Lili, who knew the song Ia-ti, mireasa, ziua buna!, commas and all.

For a few minutes, I transition from observer to participant. I light a red candle and place it on my grandparents’ grave, convinced that it will disappear by tomorrow.

On my way out, my stare falls on cozonac at a nearby sweets table. Before reaching the table, I stop to hear a poem being zealously recited by a priest. The listeners seem to be very joyful as priest speaks:

“In the same way as we are full of longing for those who have gone before us, they too look upon us full of longing. They pray for us, unworthy as we are. So let’s bring into mind that this is a special day, this day of the Luminația, the Illumination to recollect ourselves and allow memories to speak to us. Your candle makes a small opening into the heavens.”

Without any warning, a woman extends a large piece of cozonac towards me. “May God forgive him and may he rest in peace,” I say, instinctively, while beginning to chew.

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“May the Lord forgive all of the departed and may He have mercy on us all,” says a voice behind me.

That’s the last phrase I hear during Luminația, 2017. I stop, write it down, word for word.

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PressOne Quarterly | Volume 6 78

year 2017 in images A collection of the best images from our articles on PressOne.ro in 2017.

The funeral train of King Michael I of Romania.

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The giraffe in the snow, in front of Antipa Museum, Bucharest. Photo: Lucian Muntean

A land slide close to a coal mine ruined several properties leaving many families homeless. Photo: Lucian Muntean

In the City Hall election day, a local from Baicoi town is captured next to a comforting text that says: Life goes on. Photo: Raul Ștef

Two special friends in a social shelter. (right) Photo: Lucian Muntean

Social media rumored that the famous Nicolae Grigorescu’s painting “Atacul de la Smardan” was destroyed or sold.

It is in fact stored in the Romanian National History Museum.

A false storm alert messed up the traffic in Bucharest.

Young protester taken into police custody, Bucharest. Photo: Raul Ștef

Blue dressed protester, surrounded

by Police vans. The sign says: “Who falls asleep in a democracy will wake up in a dictatorship.”

Photo: Raul Ștef

The street protests against the abuses of PSD government. The sign says: It hurts me.

Photo: Lucian Muntean

A small young holding the Romanian flag, protesting in the streets. Photo: Raul Č˜tef

Protester, fighting his immobility and the cold weather.

Photo: Raul Č˜tef

Tens of college students from Cluj decided to go to Bucharest to protest against the government, in February 2017.

Photo: Raul Č˜tef

Russian Patriarch, Kiril, together with the Romanian Orthodox Church leader, Daniel, blessing the audience. (above)

Princes Margaret, at the funeral of her father, King Michael I. (top right page)

Dr. Cătălin Cîrstoveanu sharing a disturbing story about the abandoned children in the hospitals, stuck in the bureaucracy. (bottom right page)

The artist Ioana Tudor, recreates her father’s silent strike form 1990, in front of the Govern building. (bottom left)

Photos: Lucian Muntean

School kids in Sâncraiu village, Cluj County.

Photo: Raul Ștef

THE PRESSONE WAY The PressOne way is our belief that the best stories are born when public interest meets a journalist’s personal curiosity.

It occurs when an undiscovered, inflammable substance is sparked by a personal approach.

The PressOne journalist starts with an original idea or approach of a known topic.

It continues with thorough documentation, which is achieved by thinking of the reader, not of somebody’s political or business interest.

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