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Entries Tagged as 'quotations'

Ceausescu and Jonathan SWIFT – The Seditious Captain GULLIVER

April 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Books, PEOPLE, quotations

Surely, the Reverend Jonathan Swift never expected, in his wildest dreams to be ‘excommunicated’ by communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu: not that Ceausescu ever read Jonathan Swift! That was not necessary! Ceausescu did not read ANY books at all – he was instead famous for his semi-literacy and for professing a distinctly basic vernacular Romanian…
Yet, amazingly, in spite of such auspicious circumstances, Jonathan Swift managed posthumously to blot his copybook with the Communist dictator… Read on the problems encountered by an editor in Bucharest in the 1980s who tried to publish Swift”s Satyres:
Publishing Swift’s satires in 1985, I myself fought a lot with the censor in order to include “A Modest proposal” concerning eating Irish children, which had become subversive here on account of meat shortage in Romania. Faced with the alternative of not publishing the book at all, or doing it without the famous text, I gave it up. The supreme level of censorship was a department of the (Communist) Party Central Committee.
“Publishing Swift’s satires in 1985, I myself fought a lot with the censor in order to include “A Modest proposal” concerning eating Irish children, which had become subversive here on account of meat shortage in Romania. Faced with the alternative of not publishing the book at all, or doing it without the famous text, I gave it up. The supreme level of censorship was a department of the (Communist) Party Central Committee.”

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QUOTATIONS: How other people see us (1) – Margaret THATCHER

April 10th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Books, PEOPLE, quotations

Interesting insight on her visit to Ceausescu in the mid 1970s: “Margaret Thatcher – the Path to Power” (Harper Collins, London 1995, ISBN 000 255806 8, 656 pages)
I was also shown around a scientific institute specializing in polymer research. My guide was none other than Elena Ceausescu who had already began to induulge a personal fantasy world which matched her husband’ absurdity, if not in human consequences, she was determined to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on polymers. it subsequently emerged that she could barely have distinguished a polymer from a polygon. But behind the defences of translation and communist long-windedness she put up quite a good show.

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Book Review: “Once Upon Another Time” by Jessica Douglas-Home

April 4th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Books, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews, Uncategorized

Once upon another time
by Jessica Douglas-Home.
Quotation from page 169-170;
"the Arbuthnots (British Ambassador to Romania, – LC note) second party took place that evening – a lavish buffet for twenty. As with the first one, people sat in huddles whispering on the stairs and in corners. A gaunt professor of architecture entered and for a time seemed frozen by the sight of the two tables piled high with unheard of delicacies. A waiter broke the spell by handing him a glass of wine from a silver tray whereupon he fell on the food like a starving man.

(LC note- Romanians had next to nothing to eat under Ceausescu in the 1980s, except chicken claws).

I have a picture of Plesu and Liicianu stretching their legs out from the deep velvet sofa, arms clasped behind their necks, their eyes glinting amusedly at me, relaxed and at peace with themselves.

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Vera ATKINS – a Romanian MATA HARI in the services of the SOE

February 16th, 2010 · 15 Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

Before the occupation of France Vera enrolled as a student in modern languages at the Sorbonne, followed by one year course at a finishing school in Lausanne, a privileged education in an incubator reserved for the young ladies of upper class families. This background was going to keep her in good stead as an intelligence operative during WWII, a role defined by Ian Fleming in his classic retort:

“In the world of spies, Vera Atkins was the boss.”
In 1940 Vera returned to England, where her career as an SOE operative took off under Maurice Buckmaster (1902-1992). During her career as an SOE officer the indomitable Atkins sent 470 agents including 39 women behind enemy lines into German-occupied French territory. Her spying persona inspired film makers as she became Miss Moneypenny in a James Bond movie and also the main character in Genevieve Simms movie Into the Dark.

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Sfidarea Idiocratiei (I) – Memorii din Romania si Anglia

December 3rd, 2009 · Comments Off on Sfidarea Idiocratiei (I) – Memorii din Romania si Anglia · Books, Diaspora, quotations, Reviews

CRITERII DE DISCRIMINARE (fragmente): (…) Prima tentativa de a obtine un pasaport a fost la varsta de 14 ani, la eliberarea primului meu buletin de identitate, cand am crezut ca in mod automat sunt indreptatit sa obtin si pasaport. Pentru ca aveam niste strabuni cehi,  eram nerabdator sa descopar familia indepartata din Cehoslovacia. M-am dus […]

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Cambridge Memoir (II) – Peterhouse

December 3rd, 2009 · Comments Off on Cambridge Memoir (II) – Peterhouse · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations, Uncategorized

Cambridge Memoir (II) – Peterhouse 17. Lord Dewar’s rescue No sooner that I accepted, with great glee, my Presidency of the Peterhouse Grad. Soc. the style of leadership had to change. New blood was needed to inject some tonus in the proceedings and I was determined to encourage more social contacts amongst its members, by […]

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Cambridge Memoir (I) – Peterhouse

December 2nd, 2009 · Comments Off on Cambridge Memoir (I) – Peterhouse · Books, Diaspora, quotations, Uncategorized

Peterhouse has the oldest Hall in Cambridge, going back to its foundation, in 1284. The Hall was restored in the 19c century when it was decorated by William Morris. It could take up to over one hundred undergraduates, but as their number grew, two sittings were introduced and eventually a self-service system. Formal dinners got fewer and attendance was no longer compulsory. However, as meals were heavily subsidized from college funds and benefactions,

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Confluente culturale Anglo-Romane – Romancele la Londra

November 28th, 2009 · Comments Off on Confluente culturale Anglo-Romane – Romancele la Londra · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations

CONFLUENTE CULTURALE ANGLO-ROMANE (I) – ROMANCELE LA LONDRA Hotelul Savoy, din Strand, in inima cartierului Westend, era uneori resedinta Martei Bibescu cand trecea pe la Londra si care consemna in jurnalul ei: Regele mi-a intrerupt visarea cu un mesaj de bun-venit – dar refuz sa fiu deranjata. Personajul acesta era George al V-lea, varul reginei […]

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Orwell Diaries (ed. Peter Davison, Harvil Secker, London 2009)

November 17th, 2009 · Comments Off on Orwell Diaries (ed. Peter Davison, Harvil Secker, London 2009) · Books, Diary, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

Orwell Diaries 1931- 1949 Edited by Peter Davison, Publ: Harvil Secker ISBN 9781846553295 (sourced from ten original diary notebooks) I bought Orwell’s Diaries thinking that I could glean more information about his philosophical conversion from Spanish Republicanism to what had become later a lucid critic of left-wing dictatorship. It appears, sadly, that two notebooks of […]

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Romanian-Jewish Topics (Part I)

May 10th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations

Romanian-Jewish Topics (Part One of Two): Quotations from an Alternative Anthology: “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women” Presented and edited by Constantin Roman, Preface by Catherine Durandin, published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London), 2009 1,100 pages, 160 biographies, 600 quotations, 4,000 references, credits, discography and URLs , 6 Indexes http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html […]

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