Diary

Entries Tagged as 'Diary'

“Carmen Sylva – reine Elisabeth de Roumanie” (Gabriel Badea-Paun) aux Editions “Via Romana”, 2011

May 27th, 2011 · Comments Off on “Carmen Sylva – reine Elisabeth de Roumanie” (Gabriel Badea-Paun) aux Editions “Via Romana”, 2011 · Art Exhibitions, Diary, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

Paris: GABRIEL BADEA-PAÜN signe sa biographie “Carmen Sylva Reine Elisabeth de Roumanie” Editions Via Romana
Né en 1973 à Sinaïa, Roumanie, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages de prestige sur l’histoire de l’art, Monsieur Badea-Paun est agrégé de L’université Paris IV Sorbonne, DEA en histoire de l’art, avec un mémoire sur Les portraits de la Famille de Hohenzollern par Philip de Laszlo. Sa thèse à Paris IV Sorbonne sous la direction du Professeur Bruno Foucart a eu pour sujet Antonio de La Gandara, le catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint et dessiné.

Monsieur Gabriel Badea-Paun est éagalement l’auteur de plusieures monographies ainsi que d’articles de l’histoire de l’art dans des revues de specialité en France et en Roumanie. Son dernier ouvrage sur la Reine Elisabeth de Roumanie, vient de parraitre en France aux editions Via Romana.

Four decades ago – A Romanian in Britain (A Story from the Home Office website)

April 23rd, 2011 · Comments Off on Four decades ago – A Romanian in Britain (A Story from the Home Office website) · Books, Diary, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre, especially that I was menaced on a number of fronts: by Securitate operatives masquerading as diplomats keen to end my flouting of socialist order and drag me back to Romania; by a prospective mother-in-law who refused to allow her daughter to marry me unless I accepted British citizenship; and by officials of the British Home Office who assumed that my desire to retain what I saw as my unalienable right of birth, my nationality, might stem from communist loyalties.

Afterwards Lord Goodman decided to champion my cause, writing to the head of the Home Office that I was a

“man of impeccable character clearly determined to belong here and make a significant contribution to our national life.””

In retrospect I hope that I discharged myself honourably of Goodman‘s expectations as I gave generously my expertise in discovering oil and gas for Britain and batting for Britain abroad on the cultural and scientific front, especially in my native country – Romania

Churchill College, Cambridge, Romanian Poetry with George Steiner

April 14th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Diary, Diaspora, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

NOTE: for those readers who either do not know or do not want to know and especially for those who escaped Romania, this is to say how nearly impossible it was to cross the Iron Curtain during Ceausescu’s hellish dictatorship: many people risked their lives and paid the heavy price of exile – others who had no faith in any change for the better after Ceausescu’s fall, have joined the exodus and millions of uprooted who seek work and settled in other countries – Millions of them!! Romania’s 23 million-population would decrease even faster should it not be for the influx of Chinese workers and the high birthrate of the Roma ethnic minority. Such is the inheritance of five decades of Communism!

extract from:
www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift
(there is a free Romanian translation downloadable in pdf (ask for link – large memory needed ) , because even 17 years after the fall of communism, in 1989, although these memoirs were published in England and in the USA, its translation cannot be published in Bucharest: it was turned down by Liicianu of “Humanitas”, by Patapievici’s “Romanian Institute” (Formerly the Fundatia Culturala Romana) and by Romanian editors with claims of being “aristocrats of the intellect” (boierii mintii) – read “leaders of opinion”.
“

Moartea martirică a Părintelui Arsenie Boca (1910-28. XI.1989) – The Martyrdom of rev. Arsenie Boca

April 1st, 2011 · Comments Off on Moartea martirică a Părintelui Arsenie Boca (1910-28. XI.1989) – The Martyrdom of rev. Arsenie Boca · Diary, OPINION, PEOPLE

“ În 1989 părintele Arsenie spunea celor apropiaţi: ‘nu mă mai vedeţi în curând că aştia mă termină’. În ultimii ani celor de la conducere le era foarte teamă de părintele Arsenie. Era ţinut în satul Drăgănescu iar intrările în sat erau păzite zi şi noapte de Securitate (..). Ultimele momente şi le-a petrecut la Sinaia. Trebuie neapărat să scrieţi asta. Am fost la el împreună cu parintele Dometie care a fost ţinut acolo timp de o săptămână şi jumătate. Si nu i-au dat voie să vorbească cu el. Maica de acolo ne spunea că e la Drăgănescu. Părintele Arsenie avea însă un căţel mic, flocos, negru. Unde era părintele, acolo era şi căţelul. Când am văzut căţelul, mi-am dat seama că este acolo. În cele din urmă ni s-a spus că este bolnav şi că nu poate vedea pe nimeni. I se poate trimite doar un pomelnic sau o scrisoare… După trei zile ni s-a spus că a murit părintele. L-au adus şi era aşa cum era: TORTURAT şi CHINUIT. Se vedea la degete şi la faţă faptul că a fost torturat. Eu am fost la înmormântare şi am văzut: unghiile de la două degete îi erau pur şi simplu zmulse…Toate acestea s-au petrecut pentru că a prezis căderea şi moartea lui Ceauşescu. Nu mi-e frică să spun adevărul, chiar dacă unii mai vor să ascundă acest lucru. Puteţi fi şi un om trimis de cei care l-au torturat şi acum vor cu orice preţ să ascundă adevărul. Eu spun adevărul pe faţă, pentru că mulţi îl ştiu, dar nu îl spun”.

Romanian MEP Adrian Severin makes headlines in London’s Sunday Times

March 30th, 2011 · Comments Off on Romanian MEP Adrian Severin makes headlines in London’s Sunday Times · Diary, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations

Romanian MEP Adrian Severin, a former Romanian Foreign Minister, makes headlines in London’s Sunday Times

Adrian Severin (born 28 March 1954 in Bucharest) started his politics career under Ceausescu’s Communist rule, as Instructor (lector) at the infamous Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, the infamous university whuch hatched Romanian Communist cadres. it seems that such qualifications were particularly well suited for a glowing political career after the Communist dictator was put down in 1989.

After this infamous Palace Coup, Severin became a member of the National Salvation Front and the Democratic Party (which he left in April 1999). which was a convenient trampolin for him to be parachuted as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania between December 12, 1996 and December 29, 1997 under the Emil Constantinescu Conservative Administration.

With the accession of Romania to the European Union Adrian Severin became an MEP on 1 January 2007 as a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, .

Four years later, in 2011 the European Parliament opened a formal investigation into alleged corruption by Severin and two other MEPs. Severin insisted he had done nothing “illegal or against any normal behavior”, although he was accused of accepting bribe in exchange of initiating a law amendment. He was called by the Leader of the SD Group in the European Parliament to resign., which he refused, against all factual evidence. As a direct consequence Mr Severin was suspended from his position of Deputy-Leader of the SD Group and was compelled to leave his Parliamentary Group.

Unlike the Romanian parliament where such contrition is unheard of, in the European parliament, at least, when one is caught red-handed and one refuses to leave, one is given the Order of the Boot: which implies that by European standards, at least, all chicken come home to roost – not so in Romania which remains unruffled as such minor irritants are chicken feed!

Mr Severin’s political career is not yet over as his talents will be in dire need in his home country: watch out this space!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12806955

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An9Yo_gyYYQ

Lionel ROUX: “Odyssée pastorale” – Extrait “Chez les bergers des Carpates Roumaines”

March 2nd, 2011 · Comments Off on Lionel ROUX: “Odyssée pastorale” – Extrait “Chez les bergers des Carpates Roumaines” · Books, Diary, International Media, PEOPLE, Reviews

Son and grandson of moving shepherds…

in a biographical and reflexive quest, I was taken to look into a task that was the one of my father’s and my grandfather’s but will never be mine. My photographic quest draws its sources from a history of lines, of features, limits, traces, that constitute and mark a territory. It also finds roots in the ancient culture but in a very fragile way of the pastoral civilization.
In the beginning, there is the course where the line of the family roots stretches out between the alpine province and the Piémont mountains. The path (or rather paths) of the migratory shepherd, the trip that for centuries was brought twice a year by men and herds over the lands.
Shifts of altitude by the ones and shifts of attitude by my shepherd father to draw a line on this nomad life.
My artistic path, my photographer’s itinerary has been continually questionning the pastoral culture of the migration around the mediterranean area and even farther, ever since I was conscious of the fracture by my rejected inheritance.
It is not a simple quest for roots ( of which nomads don’t feel concerned ) but a semi-etnographic exploration of the mentioned event vanishing little by little : The trace of the pastoral routes, the mediterranean and african shepherd’s world.

Mon cheminement artistique mon itinérance de photographe n’a pas eu de cesse, dès lors que j’ai pris conscience de cette cassure (de cet héritage refusé) d’interroger l’épaisseur de cette culture pastorale de la transhumance, que ce soit en Europe ou en Afrique. Il ne s’agit pas d’une banale quête de racines (dont les nomades ne s’embarrassent pas), mais plutôt d’une exploration de ce qui se transforme peu à peu : la trace des trajets pastoraux, le monde des bergers.

Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba: Cioran prin lăutărismul lui Pleşu. Despre inocularea ruşinii de a fi român

February 19th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Diary, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Uncategorized

Motto:
“Toţi depresivii sînt tipuri eminamente subiective…Ei sînt singurii care coboară în adâncimile vieţii pînă acolo unde aceasta se îmbină cu moartea… Politicul aparţine domeniului exteriorităţii. Din acest motiv, valorile politice sînt la periferia valorilor spirituale”
(Emil Cioran, 1932)

După instalarea lui Iliescu la cârma ţării si a lui Andrei Pleşu la cârma culturii, scrierile lui Emil Cioran, care în comunism circulaseră xeroxate pe sub mână, au putut fi cumpărate din marile librării, îmbogăţind avuta editură Politică, sub numele ei de Humanitas (1). E drept că noul nume cam aminteşte de ziarul comunist l’Humanite care a încercat fără succes să-l deposedeze în 1960 pe Vintilă Horia de Premiul Goncourt, acuzându-l fără bază şi pic de jenă că “ar fi susţinut înfiinţarea lagărelor de exterminare în Germania nazistă” (v. Th. Cazaban în dialog cu C. Bădiliţă, Captiv în lumea liberă, Cluj-Napoca, Echinox, 2002, p. 125). Din atacul foştilor ideologi comunişti manifestând o inexplicabilă alergie la scrisul unui romancier de faimă internaţională s-a văzut câtă dreptate a avut Vintilă Horia când şi-a tot amânat întoarcerea în România regimului Iliescu-Roman. Într-una din scrisorile trimise din Spania în primele luni de “democraţie prin rotirea cadrelor” (M. Cantuniari, Bărbatul cu cele trei morţi ale sale, Ed. Humanitas, 2007) romancierul premiat de Academia franceză consemna următoarele: “Aţi aflat că Adevărul şi Tineretul liber au publicat ştirea după care aş fi acordat un interview nu ştiu cărei reviste în limba română din Israel şi New York, care a fost reprodusă de ziarul Independent din Londra, interview în care mă autoprezentam ca fruntaş al Gărzii de fier şi insultam pe Petre Roman. Am desminţit totul printr-un interview telefonic cu BBC şi i-am scris pe aceeaşi temă lui Mircea Dinescu. Este îngrozitor. N’am făcut parte din nici un partid, deci nici din Garda de Fier, care m-a scos din postul de ataşat de presă la Roma” (Vintilă Horia, 27 febr. 1990 în op. cit., p.334). Scrisorile lui Vintilă Horia către traducătorii săi Mihai si Ileana Cantuniari (prima pe 2 martie 1989, ultima din 19 nov. 1991) fac să transpară cadrul libertăţii post-comuniste, precum si aspecte de continuitate în politica editorială dinainte de 1989: dacă Editura Politică nu l-a publicat pe Vintilă Horia (2), nici Humanitas nu o va face. Pentru autorul volumului Les clefs du crepuscule(1990), -scriitor tradus în peste 20 de ţări fără dirijismul folosit pentru împrăştierea operelor şi omagiilor soţilor Ceauşescu înainte de 1990 şi după aceea pentru operele şi omagiile lui Andrei Pleşu (3) -, exilul nu s-a încheiat cu împuşcarea Ceauşeştilor (v. rev. Cristian Bădiliţă în rev. Rost, 16/2004).

Mircea Eliade si Părintele Arsenie Boca despre ieşirea din timpul istoric (Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba)

February 15th, 2011 · Comments Off on Mircea Eliade si Părintele Arsenie Boca despre ieşirea din timpul istoric (Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba) · Diary, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE

*La Paris, pe când era discutat romanul metafizic al lui Mircea Eliade, un critic literar scăpat de teroarea comunistă din RPR observase dezinteresul Occidentului pentru suferinţele românilor întemniţati cu sutele de mii de mercenarii ocupantului sovietic al ţării. Referitor la acest vinovat dezinteres al umaniştilor francezi de stânga, Ierunca nota următoarele: “lui Sartre nu i se cere decât o informaţie obiectivă. Dar el dă dovadă de ipocrizie şi amnezii inexplicabile” (Virgil Ierunca, Trecut-au anii. Jurnal, Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2000). Probabil pe undeva pe aici se află şi motivul pentru care Eugen Ionescu nu a vrut niciodată să-l cunoască personal pe J.P.Sartre. Poziţia lui Mircea Eliade faţă de Sartre credem că a fost determinată mai ales de limitarea existenţei umane la social şi politic pe care o sesizase în scrierile existenţialistului. Pentru un erudit şi un literat care şi-a dedicat întreaga viaţă studierii fenomenului religios, observarea acestei limitării era desigur în defavoarea lui Sartre. Platonician ca şi Nae Ionescu, istoricul religiilor nota într-unul din jurnalele sale că pentru el socialul si politicul ţin de resortul literaturii şi nu al vieţii umane în esenţialitatea ei. După Eliade, evenimentele din timpul sacru sînt cu mult mai reale decât viaţa desfăşurată în timpul istoric (M. Eliade, Fragments d’un jurnal, p.429-430).

Gabriel Badea-Paun awarded the prize “Le Second Empire-Fondation Napoléon”

December 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Books, Diary, Diaspora, International Media, PEOPLE

Monsieur Gabriel Badea-Paun awarded the prize “Le Second Empire-Fondation Napoléon” for his monograph:

“Le style Second Empire : Architecture, décors et art de vivre”

Monsieur Gabriel Badea-Paun had received from Her Imperial Highness the Princess Napoleon the medal “Le Second Empire-Fondation Napoléon”. The ceremony had taken place on 7th December 2010 in Paris at the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in the presence of the Chancellor and Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin.
Born in Sinaia in 1973 Gabriel Badea-Păun has an MA in History and a doctorate in History of Art (Sorbonne, 2005) . He is a Knight of the Cultural Merit (Romania 2009) and in 2010 he received the “King Michael Medal for Loyalty”.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (2) – BUZAU: 1912 – 1948

November 4th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Diary, PEOPLE

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS – BUZAU: 1912 – 1948
On 24 Jul 1917, by Royal Decree, published in the official newspaper “Romania” nr 169, of the Royal Romanian Army’s General HQ at Iasi: Captain V.Z.Livovschi was, “Granted the Order of the Crown of Romania with swords (Coroana Romaniei cu Spade), with the grade of Knight (Cavaler) to Pharmacist Captain (Reserve) Vicentiu Zenovie Livovschi, for the Evacuation of the Military Hospital nr 3, for having frustrated the enemy from capturing several trains laden with wounded soldiers and equipment, from the city of Brasov, in September 1916” (N.B. it refers to the evacuation from Brasov of 3,000 wounded soldiers and medical equipment during a single night, when the Romanian troops withdrew from Transylvania in the wake of German advance)

On the Moldavian front Livovschi who spoke Russian, was a liaison officer with the Imperial Russian Armies Command, a task for which he was awarded by Czar Nicholas II the Order of St Stanislas.

Centre for Romanian Studies