euro|topics - Andrei Postelnicu

04/12/2008

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Postelnicu, Andrei

5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Evenimentul Zilei - Romania | 15/10/2008

Andrei Postelnicu on Romania's struggle with its past

Writing in the daily newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, Andrei Postelnicu examines the hidden dangers of the process of coming to terms with the past in Romania. "Without further ado the parliament has whitewashed [former Romanian dictator] Nicolae Ceauşescu, claiming he had no foreign bank accounts. Ex-president Ion Iliescu is also to be spared the inconvenience of criminal prosecution for an abominable moral genocide: the [organised] violent march of the miners in Bucharest in 1990. Both gestures are very much in keeping with an old and extremely destructive trend the repercussions of which we will feel for decades to come. One can see how seriously these two semi-acquittals are to be taken by examining other gestures society has had to put up with in the past two decades - such as the Church's decision to ignore the fact that many priests collaborated with Securitate [the secret service of Communist Romania] or the trivialisation of the moral component in the process of restitution of property confiscated under communism. Taken together they [the acquittals] reflect Romania's propensity to sweep unpleasant chapters of the past under the carpet - facts we don't feel comfortable with and which, if we could, we would simply obliterate from our history. ... Our repeated failure to make sense of our own past only deepens our collective emotional paralysis. ... Society as a whole must bear the burden of anger and disappointment - an obstacle on the path to honesty in Romania's dialogue with itself."

Evenimentul Zilei - Romania | 10/09/2008

The caravan moves on

Only recently, Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia moved production from a plant in the German city of Bochum to Jucu in Romania. Now Romania is facing a similar plight: the Swedish furniture company Ikea has closed down a supplier in the Romanian city of Siret owing to high production costs. 500 people will lose their jobs as a result. The daily Evenimentul Zilei calls for a step-up in regional development measures: "We cannot even claim that this is punishment from the Gods for what we did to the Germans in Bochum when we convinced Nokia to come to Jucu. ... Ikea's leaving Siret is a blow for a region that seldom generates good news. The region of Bukovina is blessed with a unique landscape and other treasures but it has no trumps to attract investors. ... What happened in Siret could happen anywhere. Jucu could one day become another Bochum. Ikea's decision underscores how important the efforts towards regional development are. ... Whether we like it or not, we are competing with far more countries and regions than we think. ... So we cannot afford to sit back and relax."

Evenimentul Zilei - Romania | 21/05/2008

Anti-capitalist voices

Andrei Postelnicu comments on statements by German President Horst Köhler, who a few days ago described the international finance industry as a "monster": "Even Silvio Berlusconi won his mandate as prime minister on the strength of his campaign message about how irksome capitalism is - the very same capitalism that has made him a rich man. And Nicolas Sarkozy is persevering in the Gallic tradition of 'remoralising' global capitalism. ... Without intending to write a treatise on the need to adjust to capitalism, these remarks are nonetheless surprising. With the exception of Germany, none of Europe's economic nations are in a position to offer their citizens anything more than stagnant living standards. So politicians are doing what they often do: blaming external factors for their own inability to introduce reform. ... In this context there is the danger that because of the anti-capitalist voices echoing across Europe, domestic politicians may once again slow down the process of reform, whether economic or judicial."

Capital - Romania | 25/04/2008

Good prospects for the Romanian economy

The British weekly The Economist has predicted that by the year 2020 Romania's economy will be as developed as that of Italy. Andrei Postelnicu comments: "This prognosis reminds us that Romania's current course of progress is chaotic, lacking in strategy and clear measures. Its accession to NATO was the result of the geopolitical situation. Its EU accession ended in a political compromise regarding economic and juristic criteria which the whole world knew we couldn't fulfil. ... According to the Economist, we now have the chance to stop oscillating between the foolish notion that we are the centre of the universe and our image of ourselves as eternal victims. ... Spain caught up with Italian standards in 2006 - with the help of hundreds of thousands of Romanian immigrants. So why shouldn't we be able to achieve this before 2020?"

Evenimentul Zilei - Romania | 05/12/2007

Hairdressers inspire greater trust than politicians

A recent survey showed that Romanians place little trust in their politicians. Andrei Postelnicu explains: "The Church is the institution in which the people place most trust, yet even so, priests ranked only seventh, behind firemen, pilots, scientists, doctors and chemists. This should make Patriarch Daniel think; he ranked only 47th among Romania's public figures. Politicians, too, received a blow - their profession came last in position 30, far behind bus drivers and hairdressers. ... Among film and sport celebrities, Nadia Comaneci and Gica Hagi, stars from times gone by, occupied the leading positions. To put it simply, the ranking shows that Romanians are taking refuge in nostalgia and fantasy worlds - the present is having to make way for the past."

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