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	<title>against &#8211; Ziarul Gandacul de Colorado</title>
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	<title>against &#8211; Ziarul Gandacul de Colorado</title>
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<site xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">232272730</site>	<item>
		<title>U.S. proposal to place anti-ballistic missile interceptors in the country</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/us-proposal-to-place-anti-ballistic-missile-interceptors-in-the-country/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mădălina Corina Diaconu]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:53:04 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/us-proposal-to-place-anti-ballistic-missile-interceptors-in-the-country/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 4, 2010 Filed at 11:38 a.m. ET BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) &#8212; Romania&#8217;s top defense body on Thursday approved a U.S. proposal to place anti-ballistic missile interceptors in the country as part of a revamped U.S. missile shield, the president said. President Traian Basescu said Romania will host &#8221;ground capabilities [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-family: arial; color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> </p>
<div class="ecxbyline">By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS</div>
<div class="ecxtimestamp">Published: February 4, 2010</div>
<div id="ecxarticleBody">
<div><strong>Filed at 11:38 a.m. ET</strong></div>
<div>BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) &#8212; Romania&#8217;s top defense body on Thursday approved a U.S. proposal to place anti-ballistic missile interceptors in the country as part of a revamped U.S. missile shield, the president said.   </div>
<div>President Traian Basescu said Romania will host &#8221;ground capabilities to intercept missiles&#8221; that will increase its national security and go into operation starting in 2015.</div>
<div>There was no official confirmation from the U.S. government, but a <a title="More articles about the U.S. State Department." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/state_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org" target="_blank"><span style="color: #004276;">U.S. State Department</span></a> official in Washington said President <a title="More articles about Barack Obama" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" target="_blank"><span style="color: #004276;">Barack Obama&#8217;s</span></a> administration had asked Romania to host the system. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.</div>
<div>&#8221;Romania will not host a system directed against Russia, but against other threats,&#8221; Basescu said, adding that the measure was not directed against Russia.</div>
<div>U.S. Vice President <a title="More articles about Joseph R. Biden Jr." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/joseph_r_jr_biden/index.html?inline=nyt-per" target="_blank"><span style="color: #004276;">Joseph Biden</span></a> visited Romania in October as part of his tour of Central Europe, where he presented a revamped U.S. missile shield plan to replace a scrapped Bush-era plan to install interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic.</div>
<div>Basescu said the old U.S. plan only protected a small part of Romania but the new one &#8221;guarantees full coverage of Romanian territory&#8221; in case of a hostile ballistic or mid-range missile attack.</div>
<div>The decision by Romania&#8217;s Supreme Defense Council came after a meeting between Basescu and U.S. Under Secretary of state for arms control Ellen Tauscher.</div>
<div>Basescu said bilateral negotiations will start soon with the U.S. on this issue and the accord must be approved by parliament.</div>
</p></div>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">812</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Căzut la datorie pentru America</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/cazut-la-datorie-pentru-america/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Redactie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:48:49 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[America]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/cazut-la-datorie-pentru-america/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Non-citizen Soldiers deserve our highest respect I want to share a story with you. It is the story of a young, courageous patriot, who came to the United States seeking opportunity and was so thankful for his freedoms, he chose to join the Army to help defend them. The Soldier&#8217;s name was Sgt. Catalin Dima. [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Non-citizen Soldiers deserve our highest respect </p>
<p>I want to share a story with you. It is the story of a young, courageous patriot, who came to the United States seeking opportunity and was so thankful for his freedoms, he chose to join the Army to help defend them. The Soldier&#8217;s name was Sgt. Catalin Dima. He came to this country to work and start a new life. An Army Reservist with the 411th Engineer Brigade out of New Jersey, Dima felt compelled to join the service with a desire to give back. The 411th was mobilized to rotate into Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. <br />I met Dima&#8217;s roomate and good friend, Sgt. Henry Chin-Hong, while visiting troops in Iraq on August 12 of this year. Dima, a specialist at the time, had asked his roomate to come see me to express some issues he was having getting his paperwork through the immigration process to become an American citizen. He was very anxious to be a U.S. citizen and hoped I could help. Chin-Hong told me the problems and in the weeks after, my staff worked with Immigration and Naturalization Services to help the process along.<br />On October 3, then Spc. Dima, along with numerous other Soldiers, were sworn in as American citizens in the very palace where Saddam Hussein used to live. Dima was overjoyed. His roomate tells how he walked into the trailer where they lived that day and wouldn&#8217;t stop screaming &#8220;USA, USA.&#8221; Chin-Hong wrote to me shortly after the ceremony to tell me about Dima&#8217;s great accomplishment. I was overjoyed and humbled that my assistance helped this American Soldier become a citizen of the United States. He deserved it. He was defending the very country and the people he was trying so hard to be a part of.<br />Dima was the type of individual who followed President Kennedy&#8217;s famous phrase, &#8220;Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.&#8221; Chin-Hongtold us of the late night stories by Dima and the hardships he suffered in his native Romania. Dima would talk about how as a Soldier in the Romanian Army, he would have to deliver pizzas at night and live in a basement with his family. Dima couldn&#8217;t understand why natural-born Ame­ricans weren&#8217;t just walking on air with all the opportunities they had available to them. ţ&#8230;]<br />Dima left behind his wife Florika and three children, Christian, Angela and John. All are under six years of age. He gave more in his 39 days of citizenship than most Americans give in their whole lives. He is an American hero. He deserves to be remembered and recognized with all the great heroes of this century. He lived the Soldiers Creed and the Warrior Ethos everyday. He always placed the mission first, never accepted defeat, never quit, and never left a fallen comrade. He was an expert and a professional. He was, an American Soldier.<br />Today, 14,921 of our Soldiers are not U.S. citizens. Many of them are working on their citizenship. Many of them are also in harm&#8217;s way, serving alongside their 280,000 brothers and sisters in arms in more than 120 countries worldwide. These heroes have chosen to defend their adopted country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They&#8217;ve committed to serving the people of the United States and living the Army values. They deserve our highest respect. Those of us lucky enough to be born under the stars and stripes can learn something from these great Soldiers.<br />For me, Sgt. Catalin Dima will forever be remembered and honored as a great American hero. I only wish I had been given the opportunity to meet him face-to-face to tell him so.</p>
<p>Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth O. Preston<br />13th Sergeant Major of the Army SMA Preston</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Cătălin Dima avea 36 de ani. În ziua în care a fost promovat sergent în armata americană a fost răpus într-un atac cu bombă la Bagdad. În urma sa, în America, au rămas o soţie şi trei copii care încă îşi aşteaptă tatăl acasă. <br />Cătălin Dima a fost ucis în urma unui atac cu mortiere şi obuze a bazei americane detaşate în conflictul din Irak. Americanul de origine română, în vârstă de 36 de ani, s-a născut la Constanţa şi a emigrat în Statele Unite în 1996, s-a căsătorit cu o cetăţeancă americană, originară tot din România (Florica), cu care avea trei copii: doi băieţei (Cristian, în vârstă de 6 ani şi Peter John, de doi ani şi jumătate) şi o fetiţă (Angela, în vârstă de patru ani). Românul s-a înrolat în armata americană imediat după evenimentele tragice de la 11 septembrie şi făcea parte din trupele de rezervişti. El plecase ca voluntar al trupelor americane în Irak, la Badgad, într-o misiune de menţinere a păcii. Chiar în ziua în care a fost ucis, românul fusese avansat la gradul de sergent, ca urmare a recunoaşterii meritelor sale. <br />&#8220;A fost dragostea vieţii mele&#8221;, le-a mărturisit Florica reporterilor de la ziarul american The Times Herald-Record. Pe Cătălin l-a cunoscut în 1997, în cartierul Queens din New York. Ea, fată de imigranţi, el &#8211; mecanic auto. Două luni mai târziu au plecat în Colorado, şi-au făcut tatuaje şi s-au căsătorit. Acum copiii lor încă îl aşteaptă. &#8220;Ei nu înţeleg încă ce s-a întâmplat cu Cătălin. A fost un tată şi un soţ excelent. Nici eu nu-mi pot imagina viaţa fără el&#8221;, spune Florica. Soţia plânge şi strânge la piept fotografia lui Cătălin. Din nefericire, po­vestea lor de dragoste s-a terminat nedrept, aşa cum ea se temea, dar nu credea că o să i se întample vreodată.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">422</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>May 10th in Romanian History</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/may-10th-in-romanian-history/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Redactie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2004 15:37:33 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/may-10th-in-romanian-history/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[May 10th has a triple meaning for the long history of the Romanian people. On this day in 1866, Carol Hohenzollern-Siegmaringen came to Romania as a constitutional prince, cementing the union between Wallachia and Moldavia as Romania. The union had taken place in 1859 under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, but after his forced abdication and exile, [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>May 10th has a triple meaning for the long history of the Romanian people. On this day in 1866, Carol Hohenzollern-Siegmaringen came to Romania as a constitutional prince, cementing the union between Wallachia and Moldavia as Romania.  The union had taken place in 1859 under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, but after his forced abdication and exile, offering the leadership to a member of the European Royal House was the only way found by Romanian politicians to keep Romania together. Carol I, as he was called, ruled Romania for 48 years, and took Romania from the Middle Ages into the modern era. The Romanian Constitution was voted under his supervision.<br /> This day is also associated with one of the most important events in Romanian 19th century history: the complete independence from the Turks, in 1877. Since the 16th century both Wallachia and Moldavia had been under Turkish suzerainty, and the formation of Romania had not changed anything. The war between Russia and Turkey started in 1876 and Romania found this a good opportunity to gain its independence. Romanian troupes fought and won against the Turks at Plevna, Grivita and Smirdan. Head of the army was Prince Carol I. His wife, Elisabeth (Carmen Silva) was on duty herself too, working in hospitals and helping the wounded. The proclamation of independence was intended to be on May 10th, celebrating the arrival to Romania of  Prince Carol eleven years before. But May 10th fell on a weekend when the Parliament was not in session, so an extraordinary session of the Parliament took place a day before, on May 9th. The independence was proclaimed by the Prime Minister, Mihail Kogalniceanu. His speech was acclaimed by his colleagues and the entire population of Bucharest. Internationally, Romanian independence was recognized in 1878, at the peace signed at San Stefano and at the International Congress in Berlin. <br /> The third important event in Romanian history that happened on this day is the crowning of Prince Carol. On April 29th 1881, the Romanian Parliament voted that Romania becomes a kingdom and on May 10th 1881 Carol and his wife were crowned as a Romanian King and Queen. Carol&#8217;s crown was made out of steel, from the material of a Turkish cannon captured at Plevna in 1877. As a kingdom, Romania became more powerful and its voice more important in European affairs.<br /> In pre-communist Romania, May 10th was a beloved holiday, celebrating the Monarchy, which most Romanians felt had brought great advances to the country, and provided a link to Western Europe. During the communist regime, of course, this was a forbidden holiday, and May 9th was celebrated instead, as Independence day form the Turks, the day of victory against Germany, in 1945, and the birth of the Communist Party, on May 8th, 1921.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">272</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Romania: Someone&#8217;s Passing the Buck</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/romania-someones-passing-the-buck/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Redactie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Aug 2003 17:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Romania]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/romania-someones-passing-the-buck/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Romanian media reports that the U.S. Justice Department has apprehended an alleged former Nazi concentration camp guard born in Romania are again raising uncomfortable questions about Romania&#8217;s actions in World War II. The reports come just weeks after an embarrassing scandal in which the Romanian government was forced to retract statements about the country&#8217;s wartime [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Romanian media reports that the U.S. Justice Department has apprehended an alleged former Nazi concentration camp guard born in Romania are again raising uncomfortable questions about Romania&#8217;s actions in World War II.<br /> The reports come just weeks after an embarrassing scandal in which the Romanian government was forced to retract statements about the country&#8217;s wartime role in the Holocaust.<br /> Johann Leprich, now 77, is alleged to have served as an SS Death&#8217;s Head guard at various concentration camps around Europe during World War II. Leprich, a U.S. passport holder, could face deportation from the United States to Romania, the country where he was born.<br /> It was only one year ago that the United States stripped the U.S. nationals&#8211;Nikolaus Schiffer, 84, and Michael Negele, 82&#8211;of their citizenship and deported them to Romania. Like Leprich, the two were alleged to be former Nazi guards and were accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities about their past when applying for citizenship.<br /> The U.S. actions last year set off a storm of controversy, ending ultimately in the December 2002 enactment of amendments to the law on foreigners in Romania in December 2002. The changes state that Romania will not accept on its territory anyone who has been proven under international law to have committed crimes against humanity. Moreover, the government has the right to forbid them entry into Romania and to annul any right of stay that they might previously have been given. Anyone proven to have committed such crimes can be sent back to their country of citizenship.<br /> Romanian President Ion Iliescu charged that it was no solution for the United States to deport people who &#8220;for the past 50 years had been American citizens&#8221; back to Romania.<br /> The amendments to the law would seem to protect Romania from ha­ving to accept the U.S. deportation of Leprich, should that be pursued, but tension remains high over the issue. Analysts say the unease stems from the lack of discussion about Romania&#8217;s role during World War II and its treatment of its Jewish citizens.<br /> The failure to come to terms with the past has led to arguments over the years, but critics say that the elite, mainstream pundits, and ordinary citizens still tend to subscribe to the idea that any atrocities committed during Romania&#8217;s collaboration with Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1944 did not involve Romanians or take place on territory belonging to Romania. <br /> The cases of the three men most recently accused of serving as guards only bolster that argument, some Romanians say. The three U.S. citizens were ethnic Germans born in Romania who were serving in the German army during the war.</p>
<p>CONFLICTING VIEWS </p>
<p>The latest media reports come on the heels of last month&#8217;s scandal in which the Romanian government, in an annex to a press release, denied that any part of the Holocaust had taken place within its borders. <br /> The press re­lease was ostensibly to announce the establishment of cooperative re­lationships bet­ween the Holo­caust Museum in the United States and the Roma­nian National Ar­chives. But Cul­ture Minister Raz­van Teodorescu, who also heads the Romanian-Is­raeli Friendship Association, add­ed an annex stating that &#8220;within the borders of Romania between 1940 and 1945, there was no Holocaust.&#8221;<br /> After the statement was publicized, the Israeli Foreign Ministry asked for an official explanation of the comment.<br /> Teodorescu indicated that he had meant that atrocities committed against Jews and Roma were not perpetrated on territories that were legally and historically Ro­mania&#8217;s, not that Roma­nians had not taken part in them.<br /> The Yad Va­shem Institute in Jerusalem, which is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, res­ponded by saying that the Roma­nian government&#8217;s statements were false and that Roma­nia&#8217;s role in the Holocaust had been confirmed by recent research conducted under its aegis by historian Jean Ancel.<br /> Ancel published 7,000 pages of mainly Romanian-language documents that Yad Vashem says proves that some 420,000 Jews originating from what was then Greater Romania died during the war as a consequence of the state&#8217;s anti-Jewish policies. The Romanian government on 17 June retracted Teodorescu&#8217;s comments, issuing a statement saying that the Romanian pro-Nazi government between 1940 and 1944 &#8220;was guilty of grave war crimes, pogroms, and mass deportations of Romanian Jews to territories occupied or controlled by the Romanian army.&#8221;<br /> Greater Romania included territory that is now part of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine that Romania lost during the war. According to experts, most victims were killed following deportations to the Soviet Union, where Romania&#8217;s pro-Nazi dictator, Ion Antonescu, who is held up in some circles as a national hero, ran concentration camps. <br /> According to Romanian historian Dinu Giurescu&#8211;who is known for promoting Antonescu&#8217;s &#8220;tolerant&#8221; policies ahead of his collaborative role with the Nazis&#8211;Wilhelm Filderman, the leader of the Jewish communities in Romania during World War II, remains the person most qualified to give an account of the number of Jews who &#8220;went missing&#8221; during the war. Filderman released his findings in Rome in 1957, indicating that before World War II, Greater Romania was home to 728,115 Jews. By 1945, only 355,972 remained.<br /> Antonescu is a controversial figure even today, with authorities last year banning official commemorations such as statues of and streets named for the wartime leader.<br /> There are now 5,870 Jews living in Romania, according to the 2002 census, down by almost half as compared with 1992 figures. Of the Romanian Jews surviving the Holocaust, most later left for Israel.</p>
<p>&#8220;This article was first published by Transitions Online (TOL) in July 2003 at www.tol.cz. TOL is a nonprofit Internet magazine and media development organization based in Prague and with branch offices in Moscow, Sarajevo, and London. TOL produces timely, original news and analysis, covering all 28 countries in the post-communist region through its network of local journalists and editors.&#8221;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">189</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Romania: Someone&#039;s Passing the Buck</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/romania-someones-passing-the-buck-2/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Redactie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Aug 2003 17:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Romania]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1940]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1944]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/romania-someones-passing-the-buck/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Romanian media reports that the U.S. Justice Department has apprehended an alleged former Nazi concentration camp guard born in Romania are again raising uncomfortable questions about Romania&#8217;s actions in World War II. The reports come just weeks after an embarrassing scandal in which the Romanian government was forced to retract statements about the country&#8217;s wartime [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Romanian media reports that the U.S. Justice Department has apprehended an alleged former Nazi concentration camp guard born in Romania are again raising uncomfortable questions about Romania&#8217;s actions in World War II.<br /> The reports come just weeks after an embarrassing scandal in which the Romanian government was forced to retract statements about the country&#8217;s wartime role in the Holocaust.<br /> Johann Leprich, now 77, is alleged to have served as an SS Death&#8217;s Head guard at various concentration camps around Europe during World War II. Leprich, a U.S. passport holder, could face deportation from the United States to Romania, the country where he was born.<br /> It was only one year ago that the United States stripped the U.S. nationals&#8211;Nikolaus Schiffer, 84, and Michael Negele, 82&#8211;of their citizenship and deported them to Romania. Like Leprich, the two were alleged to be former Nazi guards and were accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities about their past when applying for citizenship.<br /> The U.S. actions last year set off a storm of controversy, ending ultimately in the December 2002 enactment of amendments to the law on foreigners in Romania in December 2002. The changes state that Romania will not accept on its territory anyone who has been proven under international law to have committed crimes against humanity. Moreover, the government has the right to forbid them entry into Romania and to annul any right of stay that they might previously have been given. Anyone proven to have committed such crimes can be sent back to their country of citizenship.<br /> Romanian President Ion Iliescu charged that it was no solution for the United States to deport people who &#8220;for the past 50 years had been American citizens&#8221; back to Romania.<br /> The amendments to the law would seem to protect Romania from ha­ving to accept the U.S. deportation of Leprich, should that be pursued, but tension remains high over the issue. Analysts say the unease stems from the lack of discussion about Romania&#8217;s role during World War II and its treatment of its Jewish citizens.<br /> The failure to come to terms with the past has led to arguments over the years, but critics say that the elite, mainstream pundits, and ordinary citizens still tend to subscribe to the idea that any atrocities committed during Romania&#8217;s collaboration with Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1944 did not involve Romanians or take place on territory belonging to Romania. <br /> The cases of the three men most recently accused of serving as guards only bolster that argument, some Romanians say. The three U.S. citizens were ethnic Germans born in Romania who were serving in the German army during the war.</p>
<p>CONFLICTING VIEWS </p>
<p>The latest media reports come on the heels of last month&#8217;s scandal in which the Romanian government, in an annex to a press release, denied that any part of the Holocaust had taken place within its borders. <br /> The press re­lease was ostensibly to announce the establishment of cooperative re­lationships bet­ween the Holo­caust Museum in the United States and the Roma­nian National Ar­chives. But Cul­ture Minister Raz­van Teodorescu, who also heads the Romanian-Is­raeli Friendship Association, add­ed an annex stating that &#8220;within the borders of Romania between 1940 and 1945, there was no Holocaust.&#8221;<br /> After the statement was publicized, the Israeli Foreign Ministry asked for an official explanation of the comment.<br /> Teodorescu indicated that he had meant that atrocities committed against Jews and Roma were not perpetrated on territories that were legally and historically Ro­mania&#8217;s, not that Roma­nians had not taken part in them.<br /> The Yad Va­shem Institute in Jerusalem, which is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, res­ponded by saying that the Roma­nian government&#8217;s statements were false and that Roma­nia&#8217;s role in the Holocaust had been confirmed by recent research conducted under its aegis by historian Jean Ancel.<br /> Ancel published 7,000 pages of mainly Romanian-language documents that Yad Vashem says proves that some 420,000 Jews originating from what was then Greater Romania died during the war as a consequence of the state&#8217;s anti-Jewish policies. The Romanian government on 17 June retracted Teodorescu&#8217;s comments, issuing a statement saying that the Romanian pro-Nazi government between 1940 and 1944 &#8220;was guilty of grave war crimes, pogroms, and mass deportations of Romanian Jews to territories occupied or controlled by the Romanian army.&#8221;<br /> Greater Romania included territory that is now part of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine that Romania lost during the war. According to experts, most victims were killed following deportations to the Soviet Union, where Romania&#8217;s pro-Nazi dictator, Ion Antonescu, who is held up in some circles as a national hero, ran concentration camps. <br /> According to Romanian historian Dinu Giurescu&#8211;who is known for promoting Antonescu&#8217;s &#8220;tolerant&#8221; policies ahead of his collaborative role with the Nazis&#8211;Wilhelm Filderman, the leader of the Jewish communities in Romania during World War II, remains the person most qualified to give an account of the number of Jews who &#8220;went missing&#8221; during the war. Filderman released his findings in Rome in 1957, indicating that before World War II, Greater Romania was home to 728,115 Jews. By 1945, only 355,972 remained.<br /> Antonescu is a controversial figure even today, with authorities last year banning official commemorations such as statues of and streets named for the wartime leader.<br /> There are now 5,870 Jews living in Romania, according to the 2002 census, down by almost half as compared with 1992 figures. Of the Romanian Jews surviving the Holocaust, most later left for Israel.</p>
<p>&#8220;This article was first published by Transitions Online (TOL) in July 2003 at www.tol.cz. TOL is a nonprofit Internet magazine and media development organization based in Prague and with branch offices in Moscow, Sarajevo, and London. TOL produces timely, original news and analysis, covering all 28 countries in the post-communist region through its network of local journalists and editors.&#8221;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">8791</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Curse of Count Dracula</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/the-curse-of-count-dracula/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Redactie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2003 18:49:12 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/the-curse-of-count-dracula/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Tourists flock to Bran Castle, known locally as &#8220;Dracula&#8217;s castle,&#8221; though it has little to do with the 15th-century prince Vlad Tepes, who inspired the wildly popular vampire story. A billboard announcing the park site went up near the town of Sighisoara. The town of Sighisoara, where Prince Tepes was born in a house that [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Tourists flock to Bran Castle, known locally as &#8220;Dracula&#8217;s castle,&#8221; though it has little to do with the 15th-century prince Vlad Tepes, who inspired the wildly popular vampire story. A billboard announcing the park site went up near the town of Sighisoara. The town of Sighisoara, where Prince Tepes was born in a house that is now a restaurant-just a taste, say critics, of what lies in store for Transylvania. Matei Dan, Romania&#8217;s minister of tourism, decided in 2001 that it was &#8220;time Dracula went to work for Romania.&#8221; The house of &#8220;Vlad the Impaler&#8221; lies in the center of Sighisoara&#8217;s well-preserved, walled historic district, which dates to the 13th century and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Uproar from preservationists, including England&#8217;s Prince Charles, prompted planners to find another site for the Dracula Park. Dracula Park is now slated for Snagov, a sleepy village near the Bucharest airport, and could open as early as the fall of 2004. This Snagov churchyard will likely be spared. </p>
<p>The Breite Plateau, a broad sheep-grazing ground of 300 acres or so, lies a couple of hundred miles north of Romania&#8217;s capital, Bucharest, but only a ten-minute car ride from Sighisoara, the city of 38,000 that owns the land. Interspersed here and there across the plateau are 120 venerable oak trees. When I drove from Sighisoara to Breite to see those gnarly giants not long ago, I was accompanied by a couple of earnest young environmentalists who darkly warned that the trees would soon be felled. A large white billboard explained why. &#8220;Aici se va construi DRACULA PARK,&#8221; announced the text in crimson letters: something called Dracula Park was to be built there. 			Over the past year and a half, a furious controversy surrounding this proposal has focused attention on an area so obscure that many people today still assume it&#8217;s fictitious: Transylvania. But located high within the curling grip of the rugged Carpathian Mountains in central Romania, Transylvania is as real as real can be-rich in mineral resources, blessed with fertile soil and filled with picturesque scenery. Although its name means &#8220;land beyond the forest,&#8221; this historical province of more than seven million souls was not known as a particularly spooky place until 1897, when the Irish writer and critic Bram Stoker published his sensational gothic novel Dracula. Casting about for a suitable backdrop for his eerie yarn about a nobleman who happened to be a bloodsucking vampire, Stoker hit upon Transylvania, which he described as &#8220;one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.&#8221; <br /> As it happened, Stoker never set foot there himself. English libraries provided all the maps and reference books he needed. His ghoulish imagination did the rest. Count Dracula, he of the &#8220;hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory,&#8221; inhabited &#8220;a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky.&#8221; 			Dracula proved to be one of those rare tales that tap a vein deep within the human psyche. The book has never been out of print, and Transylvania, through no fault of its own, is doomed to be forever associated with the sanguinary count. Which explains both the billboard that went up last year on the Breite Plateau and the outrage it provoked. It was Romania&#8217;s own minister of tourism who came up with the idea of building a Dracula theme park in the heart of Transylvania. For the region as a whole, and in particular for the city of Sighisoara, it&#8217;s only the latest chapter in a long history of unwelcome intrusions from the outside. <br /> It began with the Romans, who arrived late in the firstcentury to impose their harsh discipline and Latin tongue on the ancient Dacian people native to the area. Next came the Magyars from what is now Hungary, followed by various barbarians and Mongols, then the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. Back and forth they all went in true Balkan style, and the dust never quite settled. Romania did not even exist as a nation before  1859, when, in the wake of the Crimean War, the principalities of Moldovia and Walachia united as a single state. Transylvania belonged to Austro-Hungary until 1918, when the Allied powers awarded it to the Bucharest regime after World War I. No matter what flag flew over it, though, Transylvania has been divided for centuries roughly between three ethnic groups: Romanians, Hungarians and Germans. The Germans left the most indelible mark. Colonists from the Cologne archdiocese-Saxons, they were called, because in those days Germany didn&#8217;t exist, either-first came to Transylvania during the 12th century. They preferred hills for their villages, walling them and grouping their houses in tight, defensible rows. Strategically placed in the centers of those citadels were the churches, the last sanctuaries into which an embattled population could retreat. The Saxons made sure their houses of God were as much fortresses as places of worship: massive stone towers with battlements and sentry walkways surrounded by walls with reinforced gates and defensive trenches. Some 150 of these mighty fortress churches remain in Transylvania today, and they are rightly valued among Romania&#8217;s greatest national treasures. <br /> The Saxons were talented, thrifty and hard working, but they also tended to be clannish, maintaining their own sectarian ways through the centuries. German schools invariably stood near German churches, and even today, 800 years after arriving in Transylvania, some Saxons still speak German, not Romanian, which antagonizes non-Saxons. Nicolae Ceausescu, the late, unlamented dictator who imposed a weirdly personalized form of communism on Romania from 1965 to 1989, was a fervent nationalist who actively strove to get rid of the minority Saxon culture. <br /> In the end it was the minorities who finally got rid of Ceausescu. It happened more than a dozen years ago, and the place where trouble started was the city of Timisoara. After Ceausescu&#8217;s secret police, the Securitate, fired on crowds demonstrating there against the regime, a nationwide revolution flared up; within days, Ceausescu and his wife were condemned by an anonymous court and executed by a firing squad. When I arrived in Timisoara to cover that story, town authorities were still burying young people shot in the demonstrations, and the windows of my hotel room were pocked with bullet holes.<br /> Returning to Transylvania last year, I found the area again in turmoil-this time over the plan to build Dracula Park. The chief promoter of that provocative scheme, Romania&#8217;s minister of tourism, Matei Dan, 53, had a sudden inspiration two years ago while visiting a Madrid theme park devoted to Spanish history: Why not a theme park devoted to Dracula? <br /> When I interviewed Dan in his opulent Bucharest office, he was in shirt sleeves and seething with energy. He bounced around shouting, &#8220;OK, I knew my project was unconventional. Original! Shocking! But I want to use it to attract a million tourists a year. Elsewhere in the world there is a very big industry about Dracula worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, but here in Romania it doesn&#8217;t exist. And so I decided it is time Dracula went to work for Romania.&#8221;<br /> Few of his countrymen would argue with Dan&#8217;s economic rationale, but proposing Sighisoara as the project site was another matter altogether. Known as the &#8220;Pearl of Transylvania,&#8221; Sighisoara is the supreme example of a Saxon city. Founded as Schässburg toward the end of the 13th century, the old town remains perfectly preserved. It sits on a hill behind a 30-foot wall punctuated by nine defensive towers, each built by a different guild: the shoemakers, the butchers, the rope makers, and so on.		Dan saw Sighisoara as a potential gold mine, with its cobbled lanes, beautiful buildings and stately towers. Not the least of its attractions is a hallowed house on the citadel&#8217;s main square, identified as the birthplace of Vlad Tepes-literally, Vlad the Impaler. Ruler of Walachia in the mid-1400s, Vlad became one of Romania&#8217;s most revered heroes for standing up to the invading Turks. His standard procedure for dealing with captives was to impale them on stakes, stick the stakes into the ground, then leave the unfortunates to die slowly. Legend holds that he once skewered no fewer than 20,000 victims in a single day. Vlad must have been familiar with the ancient belief that souls of the deceased who had been damned for certain sins could rise from their graves and wander the countryside between dusk and dawn, slipping into houses and sucking the blood of sleeping innocents. Romanian peasants guarded against this by driving stakes into graves to pin corpses down. Vlad&#8217;s father, who was governor of Transylvania before him, lived in Sighisoara from 1431 to 1435, and was known as Vlad Dracul. In Romanian, dracul means devil. That in a nutshell is the genesis of Stoker&#8217;s gruesome tale: the name, the place, the blood lust and the all-important wooden stake, which Stoker reduced in size and turned into a heart-piercing vampire killer. Vlad Tepes lived in Sighisoara the first four years of his life. This is why Dan made up his mind that the Dracula amusement park must go there.<br /> In the autumn of 2001, the minister displayed his elaborate plans to potential investors in a glossy 32-page brochure. It depicts a medieval castle complete with torture chamber, alchemy laboratory, vampire den and an initiation hall where &#8220;young vampires can be dubbed knights.&#8221; The International Institute of Vampirology was to be located near Dracula Lake, a wide pond with a restaurant in the middle, and the Old Tower would house a workshop for teeth-sharpening. Restaurant fare was to include dishes of blood pudding, brains, and &#8220;fright-jellied&#8221; meat, a scraps and gelatin concoction.<br /> When Dan&#8217;s plans were made public in November, many of Romania&#8217;s intellectuals and artists were horrified. The country had already suffered terrible depredations from Ceausescu&#8217;s frenzied construction projects. Now, critics said, the Dracula scheme would cause even more injury. Unfortunately for the park&#8217;s opponents, Sighisoara&#8217;s mayor, Dorin Danesan, turned out to be an enthusiastic supporter. Adapper, 44-year-old engineer, the outspoken Danesan was convinced that Dracula would bring thousands of jobs to town. He soon persuaded his city council to cede 250 acres of land on the Breite Plateau, right in the middle of those magnificent oaks, in return for a percentage of the park&#8217;s profits. &#8220;We&#8217;ve already had 3,000  pplications to work in the park,&#8221; he told me. &#8220;Everyone wants to profit from Dracula.&#8221;<br /> Maybe not everyone. A travel agent from a nearby town said many people feel that Dracula creates a &#8220;bad image&#8221; for Romania. Dorothy Tarrant, an American scholar who has worked in Sighisoara for years, said she feared that the park would become a magnet for cultists. &#8220;They&#8217;ve had a medieval by young people with Satanic motifs, who are drinking and smoking pot and sleeping in the streets. I don&#8217;t see how a theme park could be good for families.&#8221;<br /> Of course what many protesters feared was not just the park but the 21st century itself. Like it or not, modern-style capitalism will soon come barreling into Transylvania, and with it will come not only jobs, investments and opportunity, but also flash, tinsel and trash. There&#8217;s already a disco just a few steps from Sighisoara&#8217;s beautiful Clock Tower, and the basement of City Hall is home to a gaudy bar called Dracula&#8217;s Club, which is announced by a bright-yellow awning, a huge mock-up of a paper cup bearing a Coca-Cola logo, and a heavy rock beat. How long will it be before Sighisoara takes on the carny-town atmosphere of souvenir shops, cotton candy and tour buses? How soon before the local kids are gorging on vampireburgers and greasy French fries, or maybe cruising those quaint cobblestoned lanes for drugs?<br /> Those were the kinds of anguished questions being asked not only in Sighisoara but worldwide, wherever aesthetes considered the matter. Last summer England&#8217;s Prince Charles, an architecture buff and ardent preservationist, added his own influential voice to the rising chorus of dissent when he declared that &#8220;the proposed Dracula Park is wholly out of sympathy with the area and will ultimately destroy its character.&#8221; Suddenly seized with doubt, tourism minister Dan hired a team of consultants from Pricewaterhouse Coopers to make a feasibility study and retreated uncharacteristically into a shell of silence.<br /> In November, Dan announced on national TV that Sighisoara would be spared after all, and he followed up in February by revealing that the town of Snagov, just north of the Bucharest airport, was now his choice as the park site. Romania&#8217;s intellectual and artistic community heaved a collective sigh of relief. The developers had lost; Transylvania had won. As for Dracula himself, it wouldn&#8217;t have surprised anyone very much if the mocking sound of his demonic laughter could be heard echoing once again throughout the alleyways of the medieval citadel that, for now at least, has escaped his curse.</p>
<p>GETTING  THERE</p>
<p>The Romanian Tourist Office in New York offers comprehensive information at www.RomaniaTourism.com.  Maps and print brochures such as &#8220;Transylvania-Cultural Centers&#8221; and &#8220;Dracula-History and Legend&#8221; are available from the Romanian Tourist Office, 14 East 38th St., 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016; by calling 212-545-8484; or by e-mail: rontoăerols.com. Mini guidebooks and advice from recent travelers to Romania are availableat www.lonelyplanet.com.<br />INSIDE TIPS: Visit Snagov soon, while there are still secluded picnic spots aplenty. The magnificent 16thcentury church where Vlad Tepes is supposedly buried is on a nearby island in Snagov Lake. To get there, ask locals where on the lakeshore to find &#8220;Ana.&#8221; For î1.30, she will take you to the island and back in her rowboat. Small pensions all around Romania are terrific bargains. <br />FOR THE GOURMET: If you&#8217;re up for the ghoulish, try the cornball-spooky Dracula Club in Bucharest. The butter in their chicken Kiev is colored deep red. Other restaurants offer various versions of &#8220;stake&#8221; dinners.</p>
<p>Rudy Chelminski</p>
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		<title>My School Years in Romania (II)</title>
		<link>https://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/my-school-years-in-romania-ii/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Redactie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jun 2002 18:36:36 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gandaculdecolorado.com/my-school-years-in-romania-ii/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[And there were no negligence lawsuits either. Nobody would ever dream of bringing a lawsuit against a school, a teacher, a colleague or the like. There were no such lawsuits period. I remember that once in pre-school we were required to bring penknives and cork to school so that we could carve designs into the [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>And there were no negligence lawsuits either. Nobody would ever dream of bringing a lawsuit against a school, a teacher, a colleague or the like. There were no such lawsuits period. I remember that once in pre-school we were required to bring penknives and cork to school so that we could carve designs into the bottle corks. Nobody thought anything of it. When I cut my finger deeply and then developed a severe infection that required surgical intervention, I cried but nobody would have thought of holding anybody accountable. It was just tough luck! Something similar happened in first or second grade. We did not have pencil sharpeners and used razor blades to sharpen our pencils. While doing that, my then desk mate cut me deeply on my chin. Blood spurted out in all directions. No teacher was present because it was break time. I got scared and so did my friend. I called her &#8220;Stupid idiot, imbecile, and so on and so forth and she was repeating after me: I am an idiot, an imbecile, etc. We then went to clean me up at the bathroom sink. I still have a thin scar but she is still my friend. No teacher or parent took any mea­sures. It was a fact of life. <br /> Of course, even in pre-school you had to wear a uniform. You did not find it repressive, or intruding upon your civil liberties. It was the normal thing to do. It promoted unity. You felt good in it. And it was so easy. No anxiety as to what you were going to wear the next day. </p>
<p>The Way We Were in Pre-School</p>
<p>Here we are at pre-school, in our uniforms, posing outside, in front of our building, accompanied by our two teachers. You may note that even then, we were told to keep our hands folded behind our backs. That was very effective in holding us still, you can bet on that. (to be continued)</p>
<p>Simona Georgescu</p>
</p></div>
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