Moldavian President Voronin to Opposition Party Leader: “Go Fuck Yourself.”

Today, in Parliament.

Go fuck yourself. What, you’re threatening us, boy? We’ll find some other ways to deal with you.

Moldova’s Parliament convened today in its first session following the July 2009 elections. These words were uttered by Moldova’s president in reaction to a speech by one of the opposition leaders.  The incident was obscured from the place the cameras were located, but multiple sound recordings are available.

Find below two videos of Vlad Filat’s speech and Mr. Voronin’s reactions. Vlad Filat is the president of the Liberal-Democratic Party, which gained 18 out of the 101 seats in Moldova’s newly elected Parliament. The LDP is one of  four member parties in the Alliance for European Integration, a coalition of forces controlling 53 seats in Parliament, and forming a majority over the 48 seats controlled by the pro-Russian Communist Party.

Here is a translated transcript of the clip above:

Filat: I would like to make an announcement. Honored colleagues — I am referring especially to the parliamentary group of the Communist Party. Do not try, and we ask you, do not attempt to boycott today’s session. The people…

Voronin: Go fuck yourself.

Filat: That’s his upbringing, and what this man [Voronin] is able to do. In case…

Voronin: Don’t you dare threaten us, boy. He’s thinking that…

Filat: That’s what we all wanted to hear. In case… [he makes a third attempt to continue his speech]

Voronin: We will find other ways to deal with you.

Filat: … we will continue the parliamentary session with the Alliance [for European Integration].

Speaker of the Parliament: Thank you. Please convey to the secretary…

[Alliance members of the Parliament applaud.]

[The Communist group leaves the room.]

Filat tells the journalists, “Today’s outburst [the president’s vulgar remarks] goes beyond any limit.”

Here is another video of the incident:

The Communist Party and its president Vladimir Voronin have been in power in Moldova for the last eight years, during which Moldova has sunk to being Europe’s poorest country, and has seen its neighbor Romania accede to the European Union. After the Communists’ possibly fraudulent win in April 2009’s parliamentary elections, street protests in the capital city of Chişinău turned violent and led to the destruction of the buildings of Parliament and Presidency. Evidence surfaced afterwards that the protesters were provoked by agents loyal to the party in power. After the parliament failed to elect a President (the Communists lacking a single vote), repeated elections were held in July.

Moldova has been separated from  Romania by the 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR. To this day, there is Russian military presence in a breakaway region near Moldova’s eastern border. With state-controlled media and a quarter of its working population employed abroad, Moldova is struggling between those nostalgic for the days of Stalin’s glory, and those who seek the promise of a better future inside the European Union.

The World is Flat.

by Thomas L. Friedman.

When I first heard about this book it was not amongst my priorities (for me, economics == boring). But after hearing recommendations from two different sources, I decided to give it a try. I ended up listening to the audio version instead.

What I liked:

• Good answers to questions like:
  • Why does India have some of the best programmers?
  • Why are most of my gadgets made in China / Taiwan / Malaysia?
  • Why does Amazon.com not ship electronics to Moldova?
  • Why do I find it strange that my parents expect their employer to keep them hired for life?
• The author really did his homework. You wouldn’t expect to be finding Linux references in an economics book, would you? (That’s just an example.)
• Good thoughts to consider about the positive side of globalisation. The few globalisation critics I have asked couldn’t give me a good answer to what’s so BAD about it.
• Although written from an American point of view, the book contains enough ideas for people in the third world to be worth the read.

What I liked less:

• It is written in a very repetitive (self-help-like) style. To avoid falling asleep I listened to it at 1.3x speed
• This is not the author’s fault, but there doesn’t seem to be a definite way for countries like Moldova to really get into the “flat world”. India made it, but it seems like we have neither their optimism nor their hard-work genes…

This book has convinced me (yet again) that this is the perfect era to live in, and that technology and globalisation are solving more problems than they are creating. The world is moving in the right direction, and there is no point turning towards the past and swimming against the current.

A quotation from the final chapter:

When memories exceed dreams, the end is near.

Freak

I’m such a freak.

I thought you were happy.
I thought you had a girlfriend
and you had money
and that made you happy.
I was wrong.
I’m such a freak.

I thought you were happy
and I thought I envied you,
or perhaps I really did.
But not anymore.
I was blind.
I’m such a freak.

We went to a pub.
You drank.
I didn’t.
You said I was missing out.
Maybe you’re right.
I thought you were like me.
I’m such a freak.

Peer pressure.
Fuck it.
Fuck you all!
Hate me!
I hate you too.
I’m such a freak.

Every time I’m supposed to be happy,
I think of some part of my life which is not OK.
I thought,
I’m such a freak,
I don’t know how to be happy.
But you don’t know either.
Oh wait,
you do.
C2H5OH.
But that doesn’t work for me.
I’m such a freak.

The smoke stung my eyes
and I felt like I wanted to cry.
Because I wasn’t like you.
Because I never could be.
Because I felt more alone than ever.
I’m such a freak.

I don’t understand.
Show me an adult that’s happy.
Really happy,
not just a mask
like you.
Or me.
Is this the big lesson in life?
The final revelation?
“Congratulations, you’ve come to the end of the line.
There’s nothing for you to see here.
Now you die.”
Congratulate me,
I’m such a freak.

Right now I’m sitting on a chair.
My breath is shallow.
My butt hurts.
And sad music is in my ears.
And I’m writing this freakish poem.
Which is not even a poem
but some kind of hate speech
or a confession
or a cry for help.
I’m such a freak.

And maybe I’ll delete everything I wrote
or maybe I’ll throw my laptop out the window
or maybe I’ll throw myself.
Then maybe I’ll somehow stop being
such a freak.

Clint Mansell is a genius.
And I’m thinking of a drama.
Someone else’s drama.
And how easy it is to feel compassion.
And how hard it is to express it.
And what good does compassion do,
when everybody else just makes fun of you.
(Nineteen Minutes taught you nothing.)
I feel like tapping you on the shoulder
and saying
“Don’t worry —
they’re all idiots.”
But I can’t do it.
And maybe that’s not even true.
Like you,
I’m such a freak.

An idiot and his “social skills”
and his way to laugh loudly
go a longer way
than a freak with his compassion.
This world is so unfair
and it makes me want to cry.
I’m such a freak.

I didn’t know you smoked.
Is it wrong to hate you for doing it?
I feel like I’ve been lied to.
But I saw you
simulating pleasure
as you drew in smoke.
Then throwing your head back
and simulating pleasure again
as you opened your mouth wide
to let the smoke out.
Eyes narrowed.
A superior smirk on your face
as you tapped the thin cigar
(I always thought they were for women)
upon the ashtray.
It was so fake.
Aren’t you disgusted?
Are you all blind?
Or am I
such a freak?

I know.
I do that too.
I try to look cheerful on the outside
and normal
and composed,
when inside my guts are boiling.
That’s why I’m so afraid
of showing my real self,
because everyone will hate me then.
And I’ll be even more
of a freak.

That’s why if you meet my eyes
and I don’t know you
and I’m not somewhere familiar,
you’ll likely see anger on my face.
Because anger is easy to muster.
Because anger is better than fear.
No I cannot afford to show fear.
Or you’ll all know
that I’m such a freak.

That’s why I have S.A.D.
(or at least I think so)
in a mild form
and I never told anybody.
Because that would be
scientific proof
that I’m such a freak.

That’s why I jump if you touch my back.
That’s why I want to hide my face all the time.
That’s why I don’t have a cellphone
and I dread calling you up.
That’s why if you point at me
and laugh
I’ll probably swallow it
and get out as fast as I can
and feel bad all day
and listen to Katatonia.
Like a freak.

That’s why girls are a different species
and I don’t have a definition for “friend”
and like Joel in Eternal Sunshine,
I fall in love with every woman I see
who shows me the least bit of attention.
I’m only brave
when I am alone.
And books are my closest friends.
What a freak.

But I digress.
(Or maybe a digression
is the best way
to make you understand
this hate speech
or confession
or whatever,
and that’s why
I’m going to make this sentence
longer by three words:
one two three.)
This was about you,
and how you make me feel.
I don’t care if you read this.
In fact, I hope you do.
I’m not sure why.
I’m such a freak.

You drew the line some place else.
And I don’t blame you
as long as it makes you happy
(whatever that means).
In fact you almost convinced me
that you’re right and I’m wrong
like so many other times.
But I never learn,
because I’m such a freak.

I won’t do the accounting for you
because I’m sober.
Fuck you!
It feels good to tell people to fuck off,
it gives me power.
That’s where I’ve been missing out.
I never knew the power of the middle finger.
I never thought I could actually choose.
You freed me in a way.
I’m such a proud freak now.

---

Note #1: I’ve just had a conversation which made me unable to write this any further. But since this does reflect my thoughts at a certain moment in time, I want to publish it as is before I decide to delete it.

Note #2: If you feel that I’ve personally mentioned you in the text above, please understand that nobody except you knows that. So don’t feel threatened.

Unbe*******lievable

Mail from the US usually gets here in 7 days. So when it still wasn’t there in 3 weeks, I really began to panic.

And just now I found a letter addressed to me, in a doorless mailbox next to mine, WITH THE ENVELOPE TORN OPEN!

Now, when it comes like that, our Postal service puts a stamp saying it arrived damaged. This one had no such stamp, which means it was “damaged” after it was delivered!

My faith in mankind has suffered a heavy blow :(

Despre Identitate

Ca şi religia, identitatea de orice fel este unul dintre subiectele pe care le poţi discuta cu cineva ziua întreagă fără să ajungi la vreun compromis, pentru că orice “adevăr” depinde prea mult de context. Dacă eram albanez în Kosovo vroiam independenţă. Dacă eram sârb în Belgrad vroiam indivizibilitate.