Yet another common day. The ghost of the former Political Police walks hand in hand with the future ghost of Munaf, the Iraqi - Romanian - American guide sentenced to death after a 90 minutes trial for involvement in the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in 2005.
Theft and tax evasion go just as well as always, still we’ll have more to steal when the European funds get here.
Romanians lost 100 billion dollars after 1989, money that went straight in the pockets of today’s convicts or controversial businessmen, along with politicians, public servants and judges.
It’s time to change, so Cotidianul explains why the frauds would target European funds instead of banks from now on.
One thing is certain: the theft is as good as legal. Five companies in the Danube Delta still fish for sturgeon, allowed by local authorities, but considered illegal by the Agriculture Ministry.
Useless to mention that sturgeon is now endangered species, right? Well, Romania Libera still hopes that things may change and rings the bell.
When stealing in Romania got so simple it’s not much of a challenge now, one should focus on better markets.
Ionel Surdu, aka Taliu, known as cop-killer in Romania, was arrested yesterday in Chiavasso, Italy, after managing an organized crime network for a couple of years, Adevarul reads. Still, he got away with only a ten years sentence.
But it was “just” prostitution, drugs and murder. Back home, being a former officer in Ceausescu’s political police, Securitate, is a far more important crime. After unveiling a series of politicians, writers and sportsmen as Securitate collaborators, the Council researching the archives (CNSAS) jammed when it came to president Basescu.
Most papers already informed that Basescu was not a snitch, but new info says he did have a file, but it was destroyed when he came under the subordination of the Romanian Army. Evenimentul Zilei informs that some political figures still don’t agree with the conclusions and ask for more evidence.
Meanwhile, the Justice Minister Monica Macovei, one of Basescu’s closest ministers, is accused for the death sentence of Mohamad Munaf, the Romanian - Iraqi - American citizen involved in the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists, according to Romania Libera.
Still, many say is just another political handy work of the Opposition and that Macovei can’t be blamed for the Americans’ way of dealing with it.
Good news is, according to the same Romania Libera, that European goods will cheapen in 2007, after the custom taxes are gone. Romanians enough have cash to spend, the paper claims.
But, if that’s true, why all the fuss in Gandul? Because in agriculture products, Romania already has imports 1 billion euros larger than the exports and that really isn’t good news, considering what is coming in 2007.
Even more after 2008, when the Romanian transportation network would really integrate in the European standards, as Cotidianul informs, and we’d have all the railroads and highways we need to import even more.
Why are we Europeans? Analyst Ilie Serbanescu explains it in Romania Libera: “We have a large market, we may steal when we’re between us, but we’re kind of hard working men outside the borders and, even more important, we’re white, Christians and we don’t carry grenades hanging by the belt”.
Now really, we shouldn’t even bother with this stuff: old witches foresee the end of the world, after reading in Evenimentul Zilei
about the next nuclear test scheduled by North Korea and the fact that Koreans believe they are at war. All this while Kin Jong Il is convinced he is about to be judged and executed in the same manner Ceausescu was.
Not even this should matter. Should we survive all this, we’ll be all 6.5 foot tall, with light brown skin, sexually gifted and living some 120 years, as Evenimentul Zilei reads, quoting a study conducted London School of Economics.
