euro|topics - Ovidiu Simonca

Observator Cultural - Romania | 01/04/2008

Urban sprawl in Bucharest

The citizens' action group 'Save Bucharest' describes the Romanian capital as a "city-planning disaster" in a recently published study. The chairman of the action group, Dan Nicusor, portrays Bucharest's current construction boom: "Bucharest has a problem: entire districts are under attack. Buildings are being torn down and rebuilt in a chaotic manner. Huge buildings that clash with the rest of the city in terms of both their height and their facades have been built in many streets. Houses built in the 19th century have been knocked down without protest. ... Many are aware that the urban development plan can be sidestepped through local development plans. Romania is the only country in Europe where the parameters are changing because local development plans can be modified by private owners."

Observator Cultural - Romania | 06/03/2008

Actor Victor Rebengiuc on the Romanian revolution

The 75-year-old actor, Victor Rebengiuc, is among Romania's most famous film actors who made a name for himself as an unconventional thinker even before the fall of communism. In an interview with Ovidiu Simonca, he recalls the revolutionary days of 1989, when the old political class took over state television: "On December 23th 1989, those who had glorified Ceausescu just an hour ago appeared on the screen and tried to pretend innocence. They talked a load of rubbish, as though they never had anything to do with our fate. My boy said to me back then: 'Father, aren't you going to do something about it?' ... In a live transmission I recited a poem, held up a toilet roll in front of the cameras and said: You should all wipe your mouths after talking so much rubbish. ... Today nothing happens; the entire political class is united. There is no one to vote for because they're all the same. How is it that members of parliament become millionaires within four years, I'd like to know. Where does all this sudden wealth come from?"

Observator Cultural - Romania | 29/02/2008

Vasile Paraschiv on the crimes of communism

Civil rights activist Vasile Paraschiv was one of the most prominent opponents of the Ceausescu regime. He tells Ovidiu Simonca it was good that Romanian President Traian Basescu condemned the crimes of communism at the end of 2006, but more must be done. "It is not enough to condemn communism theoretically. We need a commission made up of victims of the communist dictatorship, and they should propose a law that would allow all victims to bring their torturers to justice. … We need a law that that would enable us to convict all those Securitate members who injured the Romanian people. This law must not be as unclear as the one that the Romanian Authorities for Analysis of the Securitate files (CNSAS) has worked on up to now, and which was recently declared unconstitutional."

Observator Cultural - Romania | 03/08/2007

Philip O Ceallaigh on life in Bucharest

Author Philip O Ceallaigh, who was born and grew up in Ireland, has been living in Bucharest for seven years now. His first book "Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse", for which he received the 2006 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, tells stories about the Romanian capital. O Ceallaigh talks about life in Bucharest: "Bucharest is not a city that developed normally or naturally - it was forced to grow. [Nicolae] Ceausescu brought in people from the provinces, built apartment blocks for them to live in and forced them to move in... After the fall of the regime hundreds of people - most of them pensioners - were left living in these Ceausescu blocks, where I now live too. These people are aware that after working hard all their lives they now own practically nothing. For these people 1989 was followed by a period of stagnation. In my stories I asked myself how they come to terms with this absurd and hopeless situation."

Observator Cultural - Romania | 13/06/2007

Vladimir Tismaneanu receives a death threat

The Romanian historian, Vladimir Tismaneanu, who once headed a commission of historians entrusted with clearing up the crimes of Romanian communism, received a death threat early this month. Tismaneanu now lives in the US. In an interview he explains that certain details of the threatening letter, which he says is written in the characteristic style of the former Securitate secret service, point to the far-right party 'Romania Mare' being the author. "Several times I have been harshly attacked in the Romanian press, and I have received emails containing offensive anti-Semitic language, but none of them was as violent in its style as this most recent death threat... Over the past 25 years I have never once succumbed to repression... But I left Romania because the false lies hurt me."

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Simonca, Ovidiu

Urban sprawl in Bucharest

Actor Victor Rebengiuc on the Romanian revolution

Vasile Paraschiv on the crimes of communism

Philip O Ceallaigh on life in Bucharest

Vladimir Tismaneanu receives a death threat

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Simonca, Ovidiu

Urban sprawl in Bucharest

Actor Victor Rebengiuc on the Romanian revolution

Vasile Paraschiv on the crimes of communism

Philip O Ceallaigh on life in Bucharest

Vladimir Tismaneanu receives a death threat

Other content