It has been brought to my attention that a company selling some so-called colon cleansing product wanted to threat with a law suit a Romanian skeptical blogger because he wrote some articles showing that any such products (the one produced by the said company is the most known/popular in Romania) are pure quackery and there is no scientific basis for the claim they make in order to promote their products.
In his articles he also explained how, in fact, the mucoid plaque, the thing that supposedly proves the efficiency of the product, it is a result of taking the product due to its ingredients, and how no such mucoid plaque was ever observed in any colonoscopy, colon surgery or any other situation where you'd expect it to be seen. He also quoted specialists and lots of other scientific references, showing an honest approach to the issue.
As a response to the initial take-down message from the company doing business with people's crap, the blogger said would like to see scientific proof for the claims made for the product, and when that was to happen, he would take down the articles and publish a correction.
The company decided that the best way to continue this was to try to make a legal threat and ask 100.000 euros (one hundred thousands Euros) as damage in a country where, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, the total average monthly personal income is about 180 Euros.
The blogger, as a reply, decided the threat should be made public and wrote another article which probably made the company very unhappy, because they decided to sue Wordpress so they would take down the blog.
And that's exactly what they did, they sued Wordpress, and sent some documents to Wordpress who sent them to the blogger. Among the documents there were 4 pdf files containing each an original article (in Romanian) from the blog and only 3 pdf containg English translation for only 3 of them. The one missing was the one where the blogger himself showed there wasn't any legal basis for the threats they made initially against him.
Here are the translations (ironically, made on the company's own expense):
Initial article entitled "ColonHelp doesn't help the colon. But it empties your wallet!" (original here)
Initial Article.en
The second article entitled "Again about ColonHelp and intestinal cleansers" (original here)
Follow Up.en
** Missing translation of the first reply to threats (original Romanian text here)
The second article about the threats entitled "People who clean the colon have filled the fan with shit" (original here)
Threats 2
The Romanian blogger explains himself more of the details on this issue in his latest article on his blog.
The company is called Zenyth Pharmaceuticals and Wordpress will probably lose the lawsuit by not presenting themselves in any way in the Romanian courts, but I think some Streisand effect would really help the asses of this company to get them kicked in their rightful place, at the top of the hall of shame.
The product name is called ColonHelp.
Please spread this information as wide as possible.
Do NOT link to the company's site (it would raise its search engine rank), but link to the blogger' article or the translations.
If any Romanian speaker cares to translate the untranslated article and publish it somewhere on the web, I would be more than glad to update this article and add a link to that translation.
Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts
Friday, 12 October 2012
Saturday, 15 September 2012
Why a lack of skepticism is dangerous...
Some of my Romanian readers might know that for the last two years I've got involved in the skeptical movement to such a degree that I am a co-producer of a bi-weekly podcast on science and skepticism (in Romanian) called „Skeptics in Romania”. Some might even be regular listeners of the show.
(There isn't much to see now visually on the site, but me and the other people behind the project have some ongoing plans to change that.)
In spite of our modest site, up until now we had some successes, one of them being the publication of an article on us in a known Romanian printed publication and another being the invitation to a live show face to face with Oreste Teodorescu, a well known Romanian mysticist and woo promoter.
During that live show we managed to show a demonstration (video below, in Romanian) of how astrology gives the impression of working, without actually working, and, taking into account we had no prior TV camera experience and that it was a live show, I think we managed an honourable presence.
We also have a series of interviews in English with some really interesting people: Dr. Eugenie Scott, Prof. Christopher French, Prof. Edzard Ernst, Samantha Stein and others. We did these interviews at Denkfest 2011, in Zurich, and we integrated the translated (voice over) interviews in our podcast. The conlusion is that most of our activities revolve around the podcast, so let me tell you more about that.
The podcast has a somewhat fixed structure, it starts with a conversation between ourselves, then we have a segment on the history of science, technology, skepticism and woo, and then we have a segment called „The dangers of not being skeptical”. In this segment we present cases of people who lost their lives, their health, their money or any combination of the former because they were duped into some scam, science-y sounding non-science, unfounded claim or some other woo.
Having lost recently my brother-in-law to a form of cancer known as Hodgkin lymphoma, I became especially sensitive about miracle-cure claims for cancer, and this section of the show has lately seen its fair share of such cases. Honestly, if there could be a way to prosecute the irresponsible, ignorant and/or cynical people promoting all sorts of quack "therapies", especially for cancer*, I would really like to see it happen. But there isn't, and we're trying the best accessible approach, informing the public.
During my brother-in-law's last two years of his life, he went through lots of chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions, repeated periods of hospitalisation, and lots of drugs. This is the best of what we currently have for treating and curing most forms of cancer, and too many times this isn't enough. I can't even imagine how stressful and discouraging it must feel when the best of what we have doesn't help.
Here is where the desperation and hopes of patients and their families meet the purely irresponsible cynical or ignorant promoters of woo and quack therapies. Because it takes either an ignorant or a really cynical (I really feel this word isn't enough) person to prey on the suffering of other people to make easy money under the false pretence of offering a cure.
It almost happened to my brother-in-law and his family, because they almost went for some herbal concoction promoted as a cancer cure on some forum, blog or page of a seller of this fake therapy. It was really hard for me to make them understand why using such a product it not advisable, not even in parallel with the medical treatment due its possible counter effect or interactions with the real medical treatment, without them getting the wrong idea that I wasn't trying to help. While trying to be brief and informative not to lose their attention, I told them how "natural" doesn't necessarily mean "good" (uranium, lead and Irukandji's venom are all natural), and how plants are drugs because they all contain chemical substances (and no, "chemical" does not mean "human made" or "artificial") which could interact with the medical treatment.
But most people don't even have the chance of having close by a person with a more science-leaning thought process and a skeptical mind. Those unfortunate people are the most vulnerable people and constitute the biggest chunk of the victims of baseless pseudo-cures or pseudo-treatments.
On our last show, I presented the case of Yvonne Main, a cancer suffering patient who mistook an invasive carcinoma for a cyst, and irdologist Ruth Nelson for a real healthcare giver.
Yvonne, after seeking medical advice from a person that essentially promotes the dead idea of guessing diseases by looking at the eyes**, used natural treatments for about 18 months and, after all this time, her carcinoma grew to a size of 10 to 11 cm, eating through her skull and causing damage which was later attempted to be countered through bone transplant from her ribs.
Ruth Nelson wasn't prosecuted in any way and continues her practice of quackery unharmed.
This is not the only case, nor even one case from a select few where woo and quackery lead to grave consequences for patients. There are many, many more; they're so many that even after splitting them in categories they seem too many per category, especially when you realise these are only the findings of, essentially, a single man:
This is part of what I have been doing in the last few years, instead of working on Debian. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Maybe it's good. I want to know what do you think?
* you will, most likely, never hear such a promoter of non-therapies say that there isn't just one cancer, and that, in fact, „cancer” is a name for a certain family of diseases which are all called „cancer” - that's a first sign that you might be dealing with quack
** probably in the line of thought that „the eyes are the gates to the soul” so they must tell something significant about health
(There isn't much to see now visually on the site, but me and the other people behind the project have some ongoing plans to change that.)
In spite of our modest site, up until now we had some successes, one of them being the publication of an article on us in a known Romanian printed publication and another being the invitation to a live show face to face with Oreste Teodorescu, a well known Romanian mysticist and woo promoter.
During that live show we managed to show a demonstration (video below, in Romanian) of how astrology gives the impression of working, without actually working, and, taking into account we had no prior TV camera experience and that it was a live show, I think we managed an honourable presence.
We also have a series of interviews in English with some really interesting people: Dr. Eugenie Scott, Prof. Christopher French, Prof. Edzard Ernst, Samantha Stein and others. We did these interviews at Denkfest 2011, in Zurich, and we integrated the translated (voice over) interviews in our podcast. The conlusion is that most of our activities revolve around the podcast, so let me tell you more about that.
The podcast has a somewhat fixed structure, it starts with a conversation between ourselves, then we have a segment on the history of science, technology, skepticism and woo, and then we have a segment called „The dangers of not being skeptical”. In this segment we present cases of people who lost their lives, their health, their money or any combination of the former because they were duped into some scam, science-y sounding non-science, unfounded claim or some other woo.
Having lost recently my brother-in-law to a form of cancer known as Hodgkin lymphoma, I became especially sensitive about miracle-cure claims for cancer, and this section of the show has lately seen its fair share of such cases. Honestly, if there could be a way to prosecute the irresponsible, ignorant and/or cynical people promoting all sorts of quack "therapies", especially for cancer*, I would really like to see it happen. But there isn't, and we're trying the best accessible approach, informing the public.
During my brother-in-law's last two years of his life, he went through lots of chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions, repeated periods of hospitalisation, and lots of drugs. This is the best of what we currently have for treating and curing most forms of cancer, and too many times this isn't enough. I can't even imagine how stressful and discouraging it must feel when the best of what we have doesn't help.
Here is where the desperation and hopes of patients and their families meet the purely irresponsible cynical or ignorant promoters of woo and quack therapies. Because it takes either an ignorant or a really cynical (I really feel this word isn't enough) person to prey on the suffering of other people to make easy money under the false pretence of offering a cure.
It almost happened to my brother-in-law and his family, because they almost went for some herbal concoction promoted as a cancer cure on some forum, blog or page of a seller of this fake therapy. It was really hard for me to make them understand why using such a product it not advisable, not even in parallel with the medical treatment due its possible counter effect or interactions with the real medical treatment, without them getting the wrong idea that I wasn't trying to help. While trying to be brief and informative not to lose their attention, I told them how "natural" doesn't necessarily mean "good" (uranium, lead and Irukandji's venom are all natural), and how plants are drugs because they all contain chemical substances (and no, "chemical" does not mean "human made" or "artificial") which could interact with the medical treatment.
But most people don't even have the chance of having close by a person with a more science-leaning thought process and a skeptical mind. Those unfortunate people are the most vulnerable people and constitute the biggest chunk of the victims of baseless pseudo-cures or pseudo-treatments.
On our last show, I presented the case of Yvonne Main, a cancer suffering patient who mistook an invasive carcinoma for a cyst, and irdologist Ruth Nelson for a real healthcare giver.
 |
| Yvonne Main, died from an invasive carcinoma after seeking help from a iridologist, and delaying real medical treament for 18 months |
Yvonne, after seeking medical advice from a person that essentially promotes the dead idea of guessing diseases by looking at the eyes**, used natural treatments for about 18 months and, after all this time, her carcinoma grew to a size of 10 to 11 cm, eating through her skull and causing damage which was later attempted to be countered through bone transplant from her ribs.
Ruth Nelson wasn't prosecuted in any way and continues her practice of quackery unharmed.
This is not the only case, nor even one case from a select few where woo and quackery lead to grave consequences for patients. There are many, many more; they're so many that even after splitting them in categories they seem too many per category, especially when you realise these are only the findings of, essentially, a single man:
This is part of what I have been doing in the last few years, instead of working on Debian. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Maybe it's good. I want to know what do you think?
* you will, most likely, never hear such a promoter of non-therapies say that there isn't just one cancer, and that, in fact, „cancer” is a name for a certain family of diseases which are all called „cancer” - that's a first sign that you might be dealing with quack
** probably in the line of thought that „the eyes are the gates to the soul” so they must tell something significant about health
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
[content:lang:ro] I wrote to my representative
This post concerns Romanian politics, internal affairs and improper direction of public funding for new hideous churches in spite of education, culture, health, technic development and old monuments. Thus I will write this in Romanian. Curious foreigners can try to read the text via Google's translation.
Din cauză că suntem în secolul XXI și consider că e o prostie imensă să băgăm bani în biserici în detrimentul educației, culturii, sănătății, dezvoltării tehnice și a vechilor monumente, iar politicul din România pare dornic să dea bani cultelor, am ajuns la concluzia că este cazul să-i scriu reprezntantului meu (teoretic) în Parlament, Deputatul Florin Iordache. Am aflat de ce colegiu aparțin uitându-mă aici și apoi în lista oficială cu deputații.
I-am trimis textul de mai jos:
L-am trimis joi, încă n-am primit răspuns de nici un fel. Pasul doi e să sun. Măcar să înnebunească dacă tot sunt nesimțiți. Așa că, puteți afla de ce colegiu aparțineți și apoi puteți identifica pe cel/cea ce vă reprezintă în Parlament. Scrieți-le, sunați-i, a venit momentul măcar să se enerveze, dacă nu să-și facă măcar o poleială de datorie.
Din cauză că suntem în secolul XXI și consider că e o prostie imensă să băgăm bani în biserici în detrimentul educației, culturii, sănătății, dezvoltării tehnice și a vechilor monumente, iar politicul din România pare dornic să dea bani cultelor, am ajuns la concluzia că este cazul să-i scriu reprezntantului meu (teoretic) în Parlament, Deputatul Florin Iordache. Am aflat de ce colegiu aparțin uitându-mă aici și apoi în lista oficială cu deputații.
I-am trimis textul de mai jos:
Mă numesc Petrișor Eddy și sunt unul dintre cei pe care îi reprezentați în Parlamentul României. Este pentru prima dată când scriu unui parlamentar care mă reprezintă în conducerea statului român și o fac pentru a-mi exprima în mod clar și răspicat ideile și opinia în ceea ce privește subiectul pe care îl voi discuta mai jos. Am 30 de ani, sunt programator, am muncit și mi-am plătit taxele de când am fost angajat, din anul 4 de facultate până în prezent, adică de vreo 6-7 ani. Nu, acest mesaj nu este un strigăt de ajutor, nu aștept pomeni, nu am milogit niciodată, mereu am muncit deși văd că pentru unii parazitismul fiscal a devenit un mod de viață. Din acest motiv sunt revoltat.
Sunt revoltat pentru că:
- deși plătesc taxe și impozite care ajung la peste 60% din venitul brut, nu primesc în schimb nici un fel de servicii, nici un fel de infrastructură, nici un fel de respect, nici un fel de eficiență
- deși lucrez de ceva timp, am observat că pe unde am lucrat competența și performața erau o necesitate; în aparatul de stat nu este cazul
- deși sunt destui ca mine care plătesc taxe și impozite, vocile noastre sunt ignorate și banii noștri sunt aruncați pe fereastră de cei ce administrează fondurile colectate.
Domnule deputat sunt revoltat că de 15 ani de zile dispar în medie aproximativ 4 școli zilnic și apare, tot în medie, o biserică la fiecare 2 zile, iar asta se întâmplă cu accepțiunea aparatului politic. Spitalul din Caracal, ca orice alt spital din România, e prost dotat, nu există personal suficient, nu are fonduri pentru medicație pentru pacienți, pe scurt, este un dezastru care e pe cale să se întâmple. Și cu toate astea, banii se duc spre biserici. Se fac donații de școli și terenuri către biserică, în mod ilegal și abuziv chiar în județul Olt.
Ultima perioadă în care religia a condus lumea s-a numit Evul Mediu și cred că orice om care a trăit măcar 5 ani în secolul XXI poate să observe că nu religia ne-a adus mari beneficii, ci știința și tehnologia. În Evul Mediu „tratamentul” se făcea prin „sângerări”, „tăieri sub limbă”, „scoaterea argintului viu” și tot felul de alte superstiții fără nici un efect pozitiv sau chair cu efecte negative.
Între timp umanitatea a progresat și am descoperit medicina, curentul electric, am explorat universul, am aterizat pe Lună, am pus zeci de sateliți artificiali pe orbită, am aflat foarte multe despre univers și lumea care ne înconjoară, am inventat noi materiale (plasticul, pânzele impermeabile, kevlarul), am investigat lumea fără idei preconcepute după metoda științifică, iar lucrul acesta ne-a îmbunătățit viața în toate aspectele ei. Sperantă de viață a crescut de la aproximativ 30-40 de ani în Evul Mediu, la 70-80 de ani în prezent, totul datorită științei aplicate. Datorită tehnologiei și științei pot să vă scriu aceste cuvinte și știu că vor ajunge la dumneavoastră, nu datorită unor incantații sau ritualuri, nu datorită telepatiei, deși mediul ăsta de transmisie se apropie foarte mult de ceea ce definește ca fiind telepatie :-) . Cu toate astea, unii consideră că religia trebuie finanțată pentru că e religie, nici măcar pentru că ar avea programe sociale, contribuții cuantificabile reale, nu, doar pentru că este religie.
Am citit foarte multe articole din presă, articole bine documentate, și am senzația că trăiesc într-o lume inconștientă când văd cum banii care ar trebui să ajungă în drumuri, școli, spitale, cercetare, medicamente, programe sociale cu real impact, ajung în noi și noi biserici de beton în timp ce monumentele istorice, bisericile din lemn, mănăstirile cu adevărat valoroase sunt lăsate în paragină. Asist cu o senzație de dezgust continuu la felul în care ne batem joc de cei ce ne salvează viețile, medicii, de cei ce ar trebui să ne facă educația, profesorii, de cei ce ne sting casele dacă iau foc, pompierii, și, de felul în care ridicăm misticismul religios la rang de virtute. Este de-a dreptul jignitor și aberant ca alfabetizarea științifică în secolul XXI să fie atât de joasă încât să avem 42% din populație care cred că Terra este centrul universului, să avem oameni care cred că astrologia este științifică, să NU avem nici măcar o universitate în top 500 în lume, este jignitor să fim în permanență în coada tuturor clasamentelor pozitive și în fruntea tuturor celor negative.
Recent money.ro a publicat un articol în care esitma foarte conservator că averea Bisericii Ortodoxe Române se învârte la peste 3 miliarde de euro, are scutiri de impozite, are zeci de afaceri și cu toate acestea, statul continuă să scutească cultele de impozite, ba chiar le oferă bani într-una. La o asemenea avere nu cred că mai poate fi vorba de necesitatea finanțării de către stat. Oamenii pot decide să doneze direct către bisericile lor bani și nici nu mai implică pierderile inerente ce apar datorită administrării fondurilor de către stat.
Statul nu este un organ aparte, statul trebuie să muncească pentru mine, cetățeanul, iar eu sunt împotriva acestui tip de batjocorire și înapoiere voluntară a noastră îndreptată împotriva noastră. Alexandru Ioan Cuza a secularizat averile mănăstirilor închinate celor de la muntele Athos, deci unor terți extreni țării, așa cum aflăm din scrierile istoricului A.D. Xenopol, deci nu există nici o obligație a statului să finanțeze o instituție anacronistică:
A.D. Xenopol „Domnia lui Cuza Vodă Vol.I”, „CAP. VIII. AI doile minister Cogalniceanu Secularizarea”, pagina 291:«Nu vom atinge de cît împrejurările care au condus la redobîndirea averilor, ajunse în stăpânirea călugărilor străini, atingînd chestiunea închinărei mănăstirilor pănîntene către acele din Răsărit, numai întru cît va fi de nevoie, spre a înțalege măsura secularizărei însuși.»
Din aceste motive și multe altele, deoarece sunteți și reprezentantul meu în Parlamentul României, vă cer ca să votați pentru proiectul de lege inițiat de domnul Prigoană în ceea ce privește tăierea finanțării personalui clerical de către stat și cât și a altor legi care ar putea duce la eliminarea privilegiilor pe care le au cultele, în condițiile în care singurul motiv real și corect pentru care o entitate ar putea beneficia de scutiri de taxe sau privilegii fiscale sunt doar cele ce nu urmăresc interesul financiar și, totodată, au un impact social cuantificabil în mod clar.
Dacă doriți, aș fi bucuros să vă răspund la eventualele întrebări sau neclarități în ceea ce am scris, dacă este nevoie.
Vă mulțumesc anticipat!
L-am trimis joi, încă n-am primit răspuns de nici un fel. Pasul doi e să sun. Măcar să înnebunească dacă tot sunt nesimțiți. Așa că, puteți afla de ce colegiu aparțineți și apoi puteți identifica pe cel/cea ce vă reprezintă în Parlament. Scrieți-le, sunați-i, a venit momentul măcar să se enerveze, dacă nu să-și facă măcar o poleială de datorie.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Remus Cernea invited at Realitatea
Remus Cernea was invited at Realitatea TV and the attempt to ridicule his and Mr. Potârcă's (a counter roma/tzigane candidate) candidacies was obvious. The show was supposed to start at 23:00 and started 15 minutes later, all of that after a huge chunk of air time for a candidate from a big party.
In spite of that and the little time he spoke, Remus managed to avoid being trapped and managed to send his message accross.
For undecided Romanians, here are the recodings of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C02T-e2Gt28&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqRPBkA2GE&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dACUQnjM85Y&feature=channel
In spite of that and the little time he spoke, Remus managed to avoid being trapped and managed to send his message accross.
For undecided Romanians, here are the recodings of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C02T-e2Gt28&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqRPBkA2GE&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dACUQnjM85Y&feature=channel
Friday, 10 April 2009
Is Romania part of the European Union?
This is a really slim and really incomplete description of the events turning really bad for Romania and severely bad for Moldavian civilians.
WHAT THE HELL IS EU DOING? Romania is a member of the EU and it seems all the attacks against Romania are not addressed in any way by the EU, on the contrary, EU members either assist passively, look the other way or even allow us to understand that indeed they think Romania is involved.
- Moldavia calls his ambassador from Romania
- the peaceful protests turn violent on Tuesday (while Voronion recognised for Ria Novostni that they allowed the protesters to control for a day the Presidential building and the Parliament (in Romanian)
- the Moldavian public is kept in the dark by the authorities: the national radio-television doesn't cover the events, the independent media is not allowed to report the events
- in the rural areas of Moldavia no other media is accessible except the national television which is controlled by the Communists
- Moldavian police men tear down a wall close by the Moldavian Parliament during the violent turn of the protest
- Moldavia accuses Romania without any proof of implication in the events in Moldavia
- The Romanian ambassador Filip Teodorescu, and the Counseling Minister of the Romanian Embassy in Moldova, Gabriel Gaboran, are declared persona non grata in Moldavia; Romania can't do the same since the Moldavian ambassador is not in the country
- Vladimir Voronin announces visas will be introduced for Romanians (an abussive measure since the EU should have been announced of such a measure with 48 hours in advance)
- Romanian authorities respond by:
- a ferm denial of the unproven accusations - from what I have seen CNN and Euronews simply don't accurately represent the declaration, and the texts put under quotes - the word "provocation" - imply that the Romanian position is not honest
- they declared that they will NOT declare the Moldavian ambassador as a persona non grata and that the regime of gratuitous visas for the Moldavian citizens will not change
- EU DOES NOT ANSWER AT ALL TO THIS ABUSE AGAINST EU CITIZENS
- Wednesday protests are quiet but media access is highly restricted and inaccurate information is aired through the national Moldavian Television
- Romanian journalists from Antena 3 were harassed, followed and, fearing for their safety, they appealed OSCE authorities in Moldavia to be able to leave the country safely
- Wednesday and Thursday many arrests occur in Moldavia and the Romanian officials requested the Moldavian officials to tell them if among the arrested people are any Romanian citizens; no answer was provided by the Moldavian authorities
- France, Sweden and Czehia
and some other EU membersdeclare that they "understand the complexity of the relationsensible issuebetween Romania and Moldavia" and appeal to Moldavia to rebound the diplomatic relation with Romania - WHAT? In Diplomatic lingo that seems to mean something like "we know Romanians are idiots, but please, Moldavian authorities, let's get back to dialogue" - Today, Friday 10, the Moldavians are called to protests and the authorities are authorized to use real ammunition
- Teachers, university administration personnel, opposition representatives announce that people should not attend the protests and measures will be taken against anyone allowing people (mostly youngsters) to attend the protests
- Russia declares that "the EU has a member state that hasn't clearly delimited its borders" which obviously refers to Romania, thus attacking Romania and alleging that Romania has unionist expansions; EU DOESN'T DO ANYTHING!
WHAT THE HELL IS EU DOING? Romania is a member of the EU and it seems all the attacks against Romania are not addressed in any way by the EU, on the contrary, EU members either assist passively, look the other way or even allow us to understand that indeed they think Romania is involved.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
About the protests in Moldavian Republic
Many people in the western world are completely unaware that in the Moldavian Republic there is an ongoing protest against the current Communist Party which is at power after the parliamentary elections held on Sunday. The protestants accuse the Communists of election fraud and there are numerous reports of dead people being recorded as voters, people which, by religion, chose not to vote, and other several people which couldn't have voted.
Tuesday the protests took a violent turn, apparently "aided" by some instigators which were reported to be seen as recording the protesters, taking notes and, generally, not fitting the picture. During the day the national television broadcasted absolutely no information on the events, and aired documentaries, cartoons and no news on any of the protests. To me, this looked very much alike what the Romanian Television aired during the Romanian Revolution in December '89 when during the fights in the streets of Bucharest the Television aired no images from the centre of Bucharest.
But, back to Moldavia, at the end of the day, sadly, the Parliament and Presidency buildings were devastated, making it easy for the Communist leaders to produce some disinformation propaganda based on real footage.
Yet again, sadly, but it seems under the protection of some of the aforementioned instigators, the flags of the EU and Romania were waved at the highest levels of the Parliament building during the time the protesters allegedly took over that building (there were several reports that the Police forces actually simply let them in, without actually needing/being forced to do that; also the passivity of the policemen seen in the footage from Romanian televisons was obvious).
As many Moldavian students live and study in Romania, some of them wanted to go home and take part at the protests happening in Chișinău. To their surprise, many of them were denied the right to enter their home country. Many, if not all, Romanian journalists were also denied access in the country accusing alternatively technical issues, lack of proper papers (although only the passport or the ID card was officially required), lack of safety, or simply refusing without reason.
Today, the Moldavian president Voronin, accused Romania as being behind the manifestations in Chișinău, Moldova's capital and said it will declare as a persona non grata the Ambasador of Romania in Moldova, and thus forcing him to leave Moldova within 24 hours. He went even further and said that visas will be required from now on for Romanian nationals. As soon as this was announced, it was one of the most invoked reasons by the Moldavian customs as a rejection reason, although, according to Moldavian Embassy officials in Romania, no rules or procedure were known for the release of visas for Romanian nationals.
Also, during Wenesday, Moldavian crossing points were opened and closed alternatively but incosistently accros the entire border for Moldavian nationals. Romanian nationals were denied in most cases (although some Romanian truck drivers were reported as allowed to cross). At some point during the day the Moldavian officials from the customs told the Moldavian students awating at the border that they are offered access on the condition they go direclty home with the buses provided by the Moldavian customs and were warned that going to Chișinău wasn't a smart choice for them. Some of the information from students which managed to enter their home country suggested that is advisable to not enter the country since they were going to be denied of the right to leave the country later, when they were to return to Romania to their studies (after Easter).
What's sadder is that the Moldavian voting system is built in such a way that the vote counting, in the end is done by Government officials behind closed doors, inside a Ministry. OTOH, the international official observed the things which happend in public, but did not see any of the dead voter lists (since they were not present when those votes were casted), and declared the vote as mostly legal and without major or significant incidents.
According to the media, before the elections, the Communists were credited with 35-37% of the votes in an independent poll, while in the exit poll conducted by the Communists themselves they were credited with 42-45% of the votes. In the end the last official partial results credited them with approximately 51% of the votes.
About Vladimir Voronin, it is a known fact that he has double citizenship, Moldavian and Russian and is a reserve general within the Russian Army and currently has a pretty nice pension from the Russian state.
All I can say is that, although the Moldavians' desire to have a real democracy is a legal and reasonable request, the western world chose, due to the international circumstances, to look the other way around and not to incommodate Russia in any way. Moreover, to accuse Romania to have unionist desires an act upon those desires is planly stupid since now Romania is part of the EU and Moldova uniting with Romania is simply impossible now, since Moldavia's economy would sunk even more the fragile and regressing Romanian economy and Romania would instantly fail the EU requirements which would mean disaster for us.
Tuesday the protests took a violent turn, apparently "aided" by some instigators which were reported to be seen as recording the protesters, taking notes and, generally, not fitting the picture. During the day the national television broadcasted absolutely no information on the events, and aired documentaries, cartoons and no news on any of the protests. To me, this looked very much alike what the Romanian Television aired during the Romanian Revolution in December '89 when during the fights in the streets of Bucharest the Television aired no images from the centre of Bucharest.
But, back to Moldavia, at the end of the day, sadly, the Parliament and Presidency buildings were devastated, making it easy for the Communist leaders to produce some disinformation propaganda based on real footage.
Yet again, sadly, but it seems under the protection of some of the aforementioned instigators, the flags of the EU and Romania were waved at the highest levels of the Parliament building during the time the protesters allegedly took over that building (there were several reports that the Police forces actually simply let them in, without actually needing/being forced to do that; also the passivity of the policemen seen in the footage from Romanian televisons was obvious).
As many Moldavian students live and study in Romania, some of them wanted to go home and take part at the protests happening in Chișinău. To their surprise, many of them were denied the right to enter their home country. Many, if not all, Romanian journalists were also denied access in the country accusing alternatively technical issues, lack of proper papers (although only the passport or the ID card was officially required), lack of safety, or simply refusing without reason.
Today, the Moldavian president Voronin, accused Romania as being behind the manifestations in Chișinău, Moldova's capital and said it will declare as a persona non grata the Ambasador of Romania in Moldova, and thus forcing him to leave Moldova within 24 hours. He went even further and said that visas will be required from now on for Romanian nationals. As soon as this was announced, it was one of the most invoked reasons by the Moldavian customs as a rejection reason, although, according to Moldavian Embassy officials in Romania, no rules or procedure were known for the release of visas for Romanian nationals.
Also, during Wenesday, Moldavian crossing points were opened and closed alternatively but incosistently accros the entire border for Moldavian nationals. Romanian nationals were denied in most cases (although some Romanian truck drivers were reported as allowed to cross). At some point during the day the Moldavian officials from the customs told the Moldavian students awating at the border that they are offered access on the condition they go direclty home with the buses provided by the Moldavian customs and were warned that going to Chișinău wasn't a smart choice for them. Some of the information from students which managed to enter their home country suggested that is advisable to not enter the country since they were going to be denied of the right to leave the country later, when they were to return to Romania to their studies (after Easter).
What's sadder is that the Moldavian voting system is built in such a way that the vote counting, in the end is done by Government officials behind closed doors, inside a Ministry. OTOH, the international official observed the things which happend in public, but did not see any of the dead voter lists (since they were not present when those votes were casted), and declared the vote as mostly legal and without major or significant incidents.
According to the media, before the elections, the Communists were credited with 35-37% of the votes in an independent poll, while in the exit poll conducted by the Communists themselves they were credited with 42-45% of the votes. In the end the last official partial results credited them with approximately 51% of the votes.
About Vladimir Voronin, it is a known fact that he has double citizenship, Moldavian and Russian and is a reserve general within the Russian Army and currently has a pretty nice pension from the Russian state.
All I can say is that, although the Moldavians' desire to have a real democracy is a legal and reasonable request, the western world chose, due to the international circumstances, to look the other way around and not to incommodate Russia in any way. Moreover, to accuse Romania to have unionist desires an act upon those desires is planly stupid since now Romania is part of the EU and Moldova uniting with Romania is simply impossible now, since Moldavia's economy would sunk even more the fragile and regressing Romanian economy and Romania would instantly fail the EU requirements which would mean disaster for us.
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