Living in RO Colors

Ei, acum te uiţi la cană,
Că s-a spart! Dar dă-o-n foc!
Nu-mi fi inimă duşmană
Când vezi răul lângă mine -
Haide, prinde-mă mai bine
De mijloc!

Uite-mi hainele, ca spuma,
Le-am ţesut cu mâna mea;
Zici în gândul tău acuma:
“Ce mai pui de căprioară!
Vezi, aşa o văduvioară
Mi-ar plăcea!”

Ha, ha, ha! Să-ţi meargă veste
De şiret!… Ei, cine-mi eşti!
Tragi cu ochiul la neveste;
Treci prin sate ca-mpăraţii,
Dar te-or bănui bărbaţii
Şi-o păţeşti!

Spune-mi drept: ţi-au spus vrodată
Popii că păcate-ţi scriu
Dacă-mbrăţişezi vreo fată?
Să nu-i crezi! Ei ştiu Psaltirea,
Dar ce foc o fi iubirea
Nici nu ştiu.

Nu-ţi plac ochii verzi? Ei, iacă!
Uite-ai mei! Nu te uita
Prea cu dor, că pot să-ţi placă!
O, sunt tineri zeci şi sute
Cari ar vrea să mi-i sărute
Şi eu ba!

Hoţule! Te uiţi la mine;
Ştiu eu ce gândeşti acum,
Că de-aceea ţi-e ruşine -
Eu de-aş fi flăcău odată
Nu m-aş ruşina de-o fată
Nicidecum.

Iacă… stau pe la fântână!
Dă-mi cârligul… Aoleu,
Nu mă strânge-aşa de mână!
Nu m-ai strâns? Şi-ţi vine-a plânge?
Haidi degrabă şi mă strânge,
Că eu vreu.

Crezi că nu? Ba cum s-arată
Ştii tu fata cum s-o-mpaci.
Ori te superi tu pe-o fată
Când o strângi şi ea te-njură?
N-ai păţit? Ia taci din gură,
Că te faci!…

Şi mi-e cald! Şi uite-n faţă
Sunt aprinsă; şi zău nu,
Nimeni nu m-a strâns în braţă
Mijlocelul meu frângându-l -
Dacă n-ai de-acuma gândul,
Poate tu!

Vrei să bei? Şi nu ţi-e teamă
Că mi-e olul descântat?
Cine bea să poarte seamă
Să sărute pe stăpâna
Olului… nu pune mâna,
Că te bat!

Ei, mă duc acum. Deseară
Iarăşi viu! Şi spune-mi drept
Vii şi tu? Te-ntâmpin iară
Ca şi ieri, cu vase pline!
Nu veni!… Şi să ştii bine
Că te-aştept!

Ispita, de George Cosbuc

2008 is the International Year of Languages. UNESCO is launching an invitation to celebrate the diversity of languages, under the slogan “Languages matter!”.

On 21st of February the World celebrates the International Mother Language Day, a great opportunity to think about the “recognition of linguistic diversity and the importance of multilingual education”.

Speaking for myself, I’ve never heard of this holiday until now. A quick google on Romanian pages shows me that I’m not the only one: only 4 results for “ziua internationala a limbilor materne” and 10 results for 2008 “anul international al limbilor”.

We have a new holiday here! What shall we do with it? Well, I thing this is a good opportunity to:

1. Find out who, from your friends and colleagues, has a different mother language than you. Talk to them and find out more about their birth places.
2. Romania has 9 historical regions: spend your summer holiday discovering one of them. Talk to the local people (especially the old people) and pick-up interesting or funny expressions.
3. Keep a diary or blog with all the new idioms you hear from dialects and their meaning. Many Romanian dialects have unique expressions that you’ve never heard of; learn them and use them in your conversations – I’m sure you’ll draw positive attention on you.
4. If you have children or nephews, talk to them about linguistic and cultural diversity; teach them a little bit of a different mother language than theirs. They’ll be thrilled to show off their new vocabulary.

How are you going to celebrate this international year of languages? What interesting events are taking place in your community?

Saint Valentine’s Day

A new book about healthy eating hit the stores: “Traiesc, deci ma abtin” (I live, therefore I abstain) by Doctor Mihaela Bilic.
The book is interesting enough to not skip any page and gives you good reasons not to give up any diet you have started so far. I do recommend it to those who still have questions about healthy habits for eating.

Here are a few details for the book:
- Web-site: doctorbilic.com (only in Romanian; it has an order form)
- Size: 174 pages with many pictures and very legible.
- Price: 49,9 lei / 13.5 euros / 19.6 usd
- recommended by: Mihaela Radulescu, Teo Trandafir, Loredana Groza, Andreea Raicu, Andreea Berecleanu and Oana Cuzino
- as far as I know, the book is available only in Romanian. »

I like to watch the Discovery Channels, especially the Travel & Living channel. I watch it while having dinner (it is not healthy, I know ), I listen to it while I do house work and I watch it before bed time. Recently, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of culinary shows:
1. No reservations, with Anthony Bourdain
2. Feast Bazaar, with Berry Verra
3. Local Flavors, with Joan Cusack
4. Bizarre Foods, with Andrew Zimmern
5. World Café Asia, with Bobby Chin
6. Chic Eats

Not to mention:
7. License to Grill, with Robert Rainford (on Euforia TV)
8. The Naked Chef, with Jamie Oliver, (on TVR 1)

All of the above are interesting, entertaining and educating shows; but so many of them lately. Almost every TV channel has them.

In my opinion, one theme is emerging from all these culinary shows: make the best dish with the local ingredients. Discover the potential and flavors of the local ingredients. Work with what you have and cook the best dish. Experiment, change and listen to your guts.

Interestingly, these advices are true in every industry. But coming from a cute, funny, talented chef…it all makes sense. We all should master the local resources. If we don’t, a foreigner will come, one day, full of ideas and enthusiasm. And he/she will show us what we couldn’t see: the richness around us. After all, the grass is always greener on the other side, right?

When I learned that Gwyneth Paltrow will be hosting a food show with Chef Mario Batali, I only prayed that having a culinary show on TV will not become the new I-must-have-my-own-perfume/clothing-line-because-I-am-a big-star. Cooking is not for everyone, you stars out there. You actually have to cook (it can make you dirty, you know) and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

How do you recycle your bottles? If you are Romanian, I bet you don’t. If you are foreigner, I bet you have options. I’m a big fan of recycling. I’ll recycle everything I can and it hurts my heart when I throw away bottles and plastics. Just because I do not even have 1 option for recycling them. There are no services for the population to recycle their waste.
I do recycle paper and cardboard via Copacul de Hartie (the Paper Tree) - they plant trees bought with the money from selling the paper — and I donate old clothing to the needy. It feels good.

But I would like to do more. A quick google and I learned that there are nice ways to recycle bottles. Some smart people have given this issue a serious thought and came up with this solution: reduce the volume of the glass using a cool machine to do all the hard part. All you have to do is remember to recycle.

Here are some versions of the same idea:
1. Bottler Cycler - Recycling and Waste Management for Bottles
2. Smash and Grab - “Little Smasher”
3. Reverse Vending Corporation - reverse vending machines which utilize advanced technology to identify, sort, collect , process and recycle used beverage containers including cans, glass bottles, PET (plastic) bottles and vending cups.

To have some success with these ideas in Romania, they have to be private initiatives; like initiatives from private companies: malls, super/hypermarkets & co.
Dear Manager from a Big Company, please invest in a bottle recycling machine in front of your big hypermarket - your customers will thank you on their way to spend their money on your business.

I would love to go shopping and leave a bag of bottles at the smashing machine in front of the store. Maybe even get a receipt that says “Thank you Mihaela for recycling with us today. You’ve just recycled x kilograms of glass. You balance so far is y kilograms of recycled glass. You’re on 10th place in your community. ” Only 10th? I have to pay mom a visit and talk to her about her bottles. How many of my friends are not recycling? Hmmm….

Do you get my point? There is a HUGE opportunity on the Romanian recycling business. We need smart and stimulating ideas; business people with guts; green education for the masses.

And at the end of the year, we want to know where our recycling goes: how much energy was saved? Which companies used the recycled materials? Make people’s lives easier and greener and they sleep better at knight.

So….how do you recycle your bottles? (use the form below to leave your opinions)

February 2008. It’s time for Bucharest , our capital city, to choose its mascot. It’s a little late for that, but not too late. So many basic things need attention in Bucharest, that choosing a mascot in 2008 it’s never too late.

A mascot is a person, animal, or object believed to bring good luck, especially one kept as the symbol of an organization such as a sports team.

The city hall did some serious brainstorming and came up with these ideas:

1. from the animal kingdom: the lion, the aquila, the ladybug and the white butterfly;
2. from the vegetal kingdom: the plane-tree, the acorn, the daisy, the snowdrop and the four-leaf clover;
3. architecture: the Palace of the Parliament, the Patriarchal Palace, the Romanian Athenaeum, the ,,George Enescu” Museum and the and CEC Palace.

Wikipedia says that the rose and the golden eagles are Romania’s national emblems. But we do not have a national personification.

The city hall’s web site will host a poll destined the find out the opinion of the people. My vote goes to the plane-tree: if this symbol will win, the city hall will have to plant a lot of these trees in Bucharest, so at least we will have more green around us.

Even the snowdrop is a good symbol: it represents a new beginning, a fresh start and the power to break through the freezing snow. And Bucharest needs a fresh start to clean up its reputation of a dirty, insecure, crowded and polluted European capital city.

Still, I agree with the opinion the professionals should decide the mascot of Bucharest, not the citizens. From my point of view, the people of Bucharest are too disappointed and angry on their mayor & co to make a wise decision.

So far, all the news regarding the Bucharest’s mascot is from news portals. I’m still looking for an official post or poll on the city hall’s website. I’ll keep you posted if I’ll find something interesting .

While catching up with reading blogs over the weekend, I’ve found an interesting post: play tag online with books. I’m sure you’ve played tag in you childhood, you remember the fun you had.
I loved this version immediately and here’s my challenge for you:

1. Pick up the book closest to you, no matter where you are right now.
2. Open it on page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence/phrase on that page.
4. Post below, in the comments section, the next 4 sentences/ phrases.
5. Send this post to a friend or more, and invite them to do the same.
6. Do NOT search around for a cool or smart book; just pick up the one closest to you.

Here is my book: Romanian-English Dictionary, by Andrei Bantas (I’m at the office now ).
Ha (interj) = ha!
Habar (sn) = idea; (grija) care
Hac (sn) = a veni de ~ cuiva to get the better of somebody.
Hai(de) (interj) = come on!

Now it’s your turn! You’re it!

I was wondering, the other day, why there aren’t pro bono lawsuits in Romania. If there are, I haven’t heard of any.

In Romania, most of the people suffer wrong doings without having the power to fight back - the lawsuits are too expensive and the system is very little understood. So why not empowering them?

The system of pro bono lawsuits should work like the our medical system: the lawyers have a number of people under their “protection” and each people have the right to 3 or 2 or even 1 free of charge lawsuit during their lifetime. Like in a game: you have 3 “credits”, use them wisely.

This system will bring benefits to both parts:

- familiarizing the people with the laws and procedures;

- the lawyers will gain more experience and prestige, and get to keep the clients they do good work for;

- more justice will be done in Romania.

So think about it: if this lawsuit is free of charge, who would you sue? Is your problem worth addressing the court? Is it worth spending this “credit” or there are other solutions to the problem?

This is just an idea and needs improvement. But would it make the world a better place?

For your amusement, check this collection of stupid lawsuits.