One day before the official weekend, newspapers count the spending money for a trip in the mountains. Forgetting about Ceausescu’s Political Police, for a change, most discover that Romanians have trouble with their finance.

Poor, spending more than it should, without any positive signals from the international financial institutions, Romania is waiting for the Chinese to even imports and exports.

Greenpeace and WWF activists gathered to protest against the construction of a national route between Valea Jiului and Herculane, claiming that the works would irreversibly affect the environment.

Locals seem to care less about the only intact natural forest reservation south of the Polar Circle and say they would rather gain the money, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

Quite normal, since 5% of the populace live with less than 1 $ a day, according to Romania Libera.

Mainly for them, the Government suggested the increase of the minimum income up to 390 RON in 2007 (some 110 euros), thus drawing some criticism from the International Monetary Fund, the same newspaper shows.

Given the fact that the poorest Romanians are the ones working in agriculture, it’s easy to see that, after all, it’s a matter of efficiency, since the Labor Force Migration Office found over 46,000 jobs abroad for Romanians, mainly in Agriculture, with at least 800 euros a month.

(Romania Libera)

Meanwhile, everything else is as smooth as always. Parliamentarians managed to change once again the laws for their own good. The wealth control law no longer implies that the illicit gains are to be confiscated.

Parliamentarian must pay a fee or have their goods “in conservation”, according to Gandul. Some are still more equal than others.

Of course, Romania is still a rich country. It has, after all, one of the most important gold resources in Europe, at Rosia Montana. The only problem is that, after four years of negotiations, no one agrees on how, if and when it should be extracted.

Parliamentarians, having enough gold already, decided that Rosia Montana Gold Corporation has a project that would affect the environment and issued a report against the gold mining, according to Gandul.

The only profitable area left seems to be in constructions, where office buildings developers still have up to 60% profits, but analysts say that even this is a falling business.

Real estate company DTZ-Echinox estimates a 15% profit level, starting in 2007, as Gandul quotes the company officials.

Not much of a problem for local companies. Us, Romanians, know where to knock when things don’t follow the right track: a GfK Prague study shows, as Cotidianul reads, that Romanians are the European absolute champions in bribe. No news, still bad news.

So, we have nothing to do, but sit and wait. The Chinese will solve it all, since analysts already declared for Adevarul that over 400 million dollars from China are to be invested in Romania in 2007, more than double, compared to 2006.

Of course, that shouldn’t be something to be scared of, since George W. Bush strengthens the American domination in space, giving a new boost to the past Star Wars, Evenimentul Zilei informs. Cold War is over, but budgets still have to be spent, right?