This morning I woke up and started reading the headlines from Romania as they recently happen late in the afternoon or evening so the reactions of the press can wait a day to be approved by the government officials in charge of spreading “the truth”.
The anger, which I’ve felt today was incredible and I had to relax a bit in order to be able to write this piece.
First, when talking about Romania there are a few things you should know before judging.
Even if you have a positive or negative judgment about the country, you should know that this is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU and the numbers of people being prone to manipulation remain alarmingly high.
To figure this out, you need to go back to the roots of it all, the Romanian People’s Republic.
The Socialist Republic of Romania was a Marxist-Leninist one-party communist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 and the ripple effect of this period is still very strong in today’s generations.
During this period, the indoctrination of the Romanians was so deep, that it still feeds the monsters that are running the country in the current days.
Besides the indoctrination with communist ideologies, the citizens were lead to believe that there is no other country in the world better than Romania, there are no mountains or sea such as the ones in Romania anywhere and all other countries are treating their citizens with disrespect by being capitalists.
But, the concerning behavior which still remains is the attacking of critical thinking. This was disguised under the forms in which long hair, jeans, and having a standout look was an outrage during communism. Even if the young generation that is now living in Romania has grown up with the opportunity to express themselves, their childhood takeaways still include the judgement of critical thinking and they have a huge trust in the press.
In 2020, over 45% of the Romanian citizens have their toilets in their backyard without having access to water in their homes. The same goes for gas and heating.
Oh wait, about 70% of the citizens have never even traveled to another country or even if they did, it was only a popular holiday destination in Europe or to a country in which one of their next of kind is working as a guest worker.
We must also mention the fact that the press is run by all types of “left or right” wing party affiliated “business people” and the level of education is the lowest in all developed EU countries.
I have intentionally placed left or right in quotation marks as they all originate from one single socialist/communist party, The National Salvation Front. This political organization was the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the Romanian Revolution in 1989.
During the past 30 years, all political parties have descended from this party by launching their own parties and we must also mention that during these years, around 70% of the members have migrated from one party to the other, depending on who won the elections.
To conclude on this, whatever you hear, there is no right-wing party in Romania. It’s only left-wing and nationalist liberals.
Now let’s get back to the current scenario. The coronavirus crisis was perfect for the current government as they can go back to their roots and of course, use every trick in the book to manipulate, create fear, and of course get richer. Don’t get me wrong, all political parties that have been elected in the past 30 years have done nothing but fatten their party members pockets from the state budget, but now it’s really the time to grab as much as possible.
Never let a crisis go to waste may apply to innovation, adapting, but in Romania, it’s all about control, grabbing as much money as possible by sneaky maneuvers.
I think everyone remembers the huge protests in Romania a couple of years ago when the Socialist Party created a lobbying law. Well, that was not an original protest, as it was fueled by the opposition, and we can certainly point out the facts to prove this.
80% of the protesters haven’t even understood what the law was about and the opposition fueled press has once again done their part of the manipulation. I’ve also taken part in the first days of the protests until I’ve noticed the issues with the participation and the idea behind it.
If the anger which fueled those protests were for real, today it should be tripled due to the laws that are being implemented between the crisis.
We might face a situation in which not only you are not able to travel anywhere due to the manipulated numbers that are being reported as COVID-19 cases but might face realities such as being stripped of your property for being “diagnosed” as an asymptomatic. Oh, did you know that Romania is the only country in the world that will take you by force to a hospital in which you would not stay for a day without the dangers of dying from some bacteria if you are “diagnosed” as a positive case of COVID-19?
Yes, that’s right, by force, and enforcement by the government!
The procedure was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Romania, but the involvement of those running the show are willing to step over all constitutional rights and manipulate the public via the “trusted press” that the Constitutional Court of Romania is wrong and the people should not be guided by the constitution or live by it. This is 2020 in a “democratic” country that is part of the EU and NATO.
They are going so low with this idea that the manipulation is scary. They are not stating the fact that the law has a loophole which was also created by the government to still be able to quarantine those “diagnosed” positive by mandating that they stay at home for 14 days or face being fined and added to a penal record.
This leads back to the manipulation of what I was talking about earlier about discrimination. Large media outlets are pushing this ideology of those that have now by their constitutional rights left the hospital and entered into a quarantine which is under the surveillance of the police are the ones that are spreading the disease and they are a danger to society.
Social media is full of backers as some gene was activated in their communist DNA about sticking with the “trusted media” and the fake right-wing that is behind this mascarade.
80% of these people are even claiming that the constitution of Romania is stupid and should not be followed, but forget why a constitution exists in the first place. They forget that without a constitution that has to be respected, they would not have any rights as human beings or citizens of the country in which they were born and live in.
But, you can’t blame these people as they have never given a second thought about being a critical thinker, they just go by their own lives and accept the scenario which is given to them, which in these times is horrific.
Smoke and mirrors, blame it on others
I’ve mentioned the fact that Romanians during the time of communism were lead to believe that all neighboring countries are corrupt and against their own people. Well folks, hold on tight because none of the international media outlets have reported on the accusations of Alina Gorghiu – Co-President of the National Liberal Party, the party running the show now in Romania.
On a televised show on B1 TV (Romanian news channel) where she was invited to share the opinion about the current situation, she stated that the neighboring countries of Romania are lying about the number of cases and keeping them low while Romania is the only country in Europe giving out the real numbers.
This is the same person, which started earlier that in politics you are allowed not to obey the Constitution.
The scenario doesn’t stop here as Romanians are now being restricted by many countries because the group in charge of reporting the number is manipulating the records day by day in order to advocate the state of alert in which Romania still is, so the ruling parties can still grab as much wealth as possible.
There have been many cases in which the total number of deaths fell and there were cases in which they reported around 300 positive cases from around 2000 tested when in reality they’ve “tested” around 13.000.
The testing is also an interesting situation as the Ministry of Health declared that they have about 300 centers in which citizens can go test themselves and in reality, there is no such thing. A list of these centers and their addresses don’t exist and it leads you to believe that the numbers are made up.
Basically, the numbers reported now are almost equal to the cases reported during the 2 months lockdown.
Obey their rules and daily accusing the public
I don’t think there has been any other country in which citizens were kept under stress daily by their Prime Minister and President, being accused of spreading the virus, etc.
They are still doing this now as the state of alert expires on the 15th of July and they need to have a reason to extend this period for another 30 days or so while planning for mayor elections on the 27th of September. It’s interesting how they are recording the highest numbers of cases and screaming at people for not obeying the rules and they are planning a public election in September.
It’s funny how the people of the country are not reacting by a violent protest because in Romania you can’t enter a shopping mall or supermarket without being scanned for your temperature or wearing a mask. This is enforced by security guards, who will not give you access to these facilities if you don’t comply. They may even use force if necessary.
The same applies to all institutions where you are submitted to the same rules.
While the citizens are being told to obey social distancing rules and wear masks, the Prime Minister, with the Vice-Prime Minister, Ministry of Interior Affairs is smoking and drinking champagne, wine and beer in one of the government’s office.
Don’t believe us, well, here is a photo taken this June where you can see the masks are just placed on the table and they are smoking cigars, drinking alcohol and just chilling.
Way to go Mister Prime Minister Ludovic Orban! You can read more here: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/romanias-orban-breaches-own-coronavirus-rules-pays-fine/
When asked about this, he said he know that he broke the rules and he will pay the fine. This is how the Prime Minister of Romania shows an example to the people he accuses everyday of not obeying the rules.
He is not the only one being liberal if it’s about themselves and harsh with others. Rareș Bogdan, an elected party member who became a member in the European Parliament last year has celebrated his daughter’s birthday with a huge party last month.
Although large parties indoors are officially banned and authorities are relentlessly urging people to avoid crowds as the number of Covid-19 cases is “growing” again in Romania, the above-mentioned character brought together more than 100 people, to have fun. Most of them danced and mingled inside the restaurant. A Romanian newspaper filmed the shindig with a drone and leaked it while this interesting person of the Romanian politics scene told a local television station that he had no remorses for what he did.
Does this make any sense to you? It just makes you think if it’s all true and the numbers are being kept high for a political agenda.
Of course, they are doing that! The much expected economical relaunch of Romania, which was supposed to save Romanian entrepreneurs and the +1 million employees who have lost their job. Romania has a workforce of around 4.5 million from which around 700k were wiped out completely during the lockdown and another 1 million remain in furlough. The remaining workforce has to drive enough revenue to ensure the salaries of +1.5 million government employees, public pension for the retired, and all social costs.
The HUGE program includes a small percentage of help for the companies they’ve shut down during the imposed lockdown and large percentage into public investment, of course.
We must not forget that this is also a year in which parliamentary elections are held and the government has to use every trick in the book to win points. The program will make you believe that in 10 years, Romania will top Switzerland or Luxembourg in infrastructure and life quality, but this is a promise which has been made by every political party that has ever taken part in an election in the past 15 years or so.
The business environment was only spared of penalties during this period, while they still need to pay the huge amount of taxes per workforce, etc. by autumn.
The government launched a system in which they’ve to guarantee a part of the loans for the companies which need credits from banks. It was announced at the beginning of April and the site went down for one month.
Basically, this program was created in order for large companies to request bailouts from banks and the state giving the guarantee. It is very dangerous for smaller companies, which are directly impacted by any lockdowns that may be imposed and the company might run out of revenues in order to cover the loans.
You see, in Romania, there was a huge gap between the social classes and this gap has deepened now and it seems that the corruption is so high that they don’t even care about the outcome. The country is sinking fast and those that are now on vacation should realize that the economical effects of the lockdown have not even started yet. Autumn is going to be ugly, but most will not say anything as they are constantly being brainwashed that a certain political party has to be destroyed.
For this, all the big guns are now being fed by state money and we are not just talking about party member-owned business as usual. The underground organized crime cartels are all benefitting from the business as well.
In late March, a shipment arrived in Romania of a million medical masks — desperately needed goods for a country facing the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. But relief soon turned to disappointment for medical staff on the front line.
The three-ply polyester masks were “crap,” recalled a health worker who declined to be named for fear of losing his job. “We had to throw half of them away. The elastic would break when we tried to put them on.”
But the shipment had one obvious beneficiary: a middleman company controlled by a convicted organized crime associate and ex-employee of a government ministry once run by Romania’s current prime minister, Ludovic Orban. (He told OCCRP he didn’t know her.)
Documents obtained by OCCRP partner RISE Romania show that B.S.G. Business Select SRL secured a no-bid deal worth over 800,000 euros to supply the masks and nearly 26,000 protective suits to Romania’s strategic state healthcare supplier, Unifarm, which distributed them to health facilities across Romania. (source: https://www.occrp.org/en/coronavirus/convict-and-coronavirus-romanias-million-mask-mess)
Hence, the hourly mention of mask-wearing, now even changing it every 3 hours with a new one. These party affiliated businesses need to recover their investment.
We must say that among the loudest voices is Raed Arafat, a Syrian-born Romanian intensive care physician of Palestinian origin, specialized in anesthesiology, currently Sub Secretary of State under the Health Ministry, who is running a show under which they censor all critical thinkers. They are basically censoring all information that might have any contrary connotation while continuously attacking critical thinkers of disinformation. In a country in which the communications of the Government with the citizens are at the lowest possible, daily errors in reporting, they have the guts to attack the people on social media of manipulation.
Happy to say that all the country is falling for these dirty tricks and many are already waking up, making it impossible for the authorities to declare a state of emergency once again, even if the numbers are high (based on who knows what base).
While most of the press is continuously partaking in the huge manipulation and we must mention all large media trusts such as DIGI24, Antena 3 (which in May 2020, became a partner channel of CNN) and so on, there are some smaller outlets that are trying to figure out the truth but only based conclusion drawing. This is because the authorities never reply to their questions, they keep sending the description of COVID-19 as an answer.
There are some civil movements that are backed by a growing number of physicians, nurses, lawyers, and clear-minded people that are taking on the government, and in my opinion, one of the loudest and smartest voices out there is Pompiliu Diplan, Businessmen and Software Engineer. He is not alone, local and now international Romanian TV channel Nasul TV has done a great job in reporting the truth in this period. Among the leading voices heralding the truth we also have to mention Dana Budeanu, who has been sharing her live report videos daily in the past 3 months.
I’ve reached out to Pompiliu, who is preparing a demonstration this Sunday against a very controversial law that will allow the state to mandate treatment for you even if you are not expressing symptoms, confiscate your goods, and basically take away all your human rights to life. If the law passes as it is proposed, it will be a disaster and in my opinion, this is all part of the plan to include mandatory vaccination and imprisonment of each individual in hospitals that have the conditions of third world countries, filled with bacteria which leads to nosocomial infections. This is all thanks for the corruption which lead to the dilution of disinfectants in the hospitals up to 10%.
I’ve asked Pompiliu to give me his personal opinion about what is the outcome we should expect and what is the plan in his opinion, here is what he replied:
We are seeing the slow-motion development of a political catastrophe – unfolding before our very eyes. The plan is not different in Romania than the one for the whole world – medical- digital autocracy, the suppression of any potential dissent, and the enforcement of stakeholder capitalism as desired by the World Economic Forum (Davos) with strong dictatorship traits. It’s just that Romania, for some unknown reason, finds itself at the cutting edge position of sociological experiments in this absurd story.
As you see, I’ve chosen the title of this piece because Romania is lost, I don’t know if it ever was at its right mindset, but we are going to touch rock bottom soon and it will be devastating.
So, if you are among those pointing fingers about the rules in Romania or the fact that your country is rightful to restrict the travel of Romanian citizens to your country, think again. If you have connections on social media or have friends from the country, grab the phone and ask them about the corruption in Romania. Ask them about #Colectiv! Ask them about the billions of EUROs stolen from the state purse! Ask them about why they only have access to low-level treatment and are going to become Guinea pig for the pharma industry!
The views in this article are my own and are not reflect the view of our company or Picante.today
