“Not welcome.”

Romania should post this sign on it’s borders.

After World War II, the United States and Britain carved up Europe and delivered half on a plate to the Soviet Union in order to placate Stalin. Almost overnight, millions of people were sold out by the Allies and shackled in the chains of communism. In these dark days, Romania had the most extensive secret police force in the Eastern Bloc. They called it Securitate… and Romanians still maintain a healthy fear of the very word, even today.

Securitate were known for all manner of brutual atrocities against their comrade citizens. The black-shirted thugs were carefully studious of all foreigners in Romania, tapping their telephones and following their movements. In 1989, Securitate were instrumental in manufacturing the fake “revolution” where dictator-for-life Ceauşescu was usurped by his own communist party and promptly executed live on television.

The government changed its name. It refused to call itself communist, although nothing else changed. The same communist leaders kept firm control of Romania while the public relations machine worked overtime to spread the propoganda of a “people’s revolution for democracy.” They rushed to slap together a hodge-podge constitution. And they changed the name of Securitate.

Re-branded as SRI, the same secret police went about their dirty work of keeping the people in line. They also continued to tap the telephones and monitor the activites of all foreigners. SRI enabled Communist Party leaders and Securitate members to gain control of major industries as state properties became privitized. Today, most Romanian millionaires are former SRI agents or top communist politicians.

Ion Iliescu is the scumbag who made this all possible.

As a prominent leader of communist youth throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, Ion Iliescu was deeply involved with key figures of the Romanian Communist Party during their most impressionable years. When breaking ranks with the USSR, Ceauşescu demoted Iliescu in 1971 and kept him and other pro-Moscovites sidelined in harmless political positions.

You can imagine Iliescu’s taste for revenge. He got it in 1989 by orchestrating his old buddies to foist a pretend revolution and seized power. Iliescu changed the name of the Communist Party to the Socialist Party (PSD). He has been President of Romania most of the years since then. Ion paid all his SRI and PSD friends back by making them millionaires in the corrupt new order.

Times change, of course. Because of the extraordinary circumstances of Soviet-communist intervention in the elections of Ukraine that sparked worldwide attention during the Orange Revolution in 2004, the people of Romania caught a lucky break. Ion Iliescu’s PSD party had been, once again, rigging elections in Romania in order to secure their control of the country and make sure the money kept flowing to their informal cartel.

But with the media attention in Ukraine, the rightfully-elected candidate waved his arms in the air, jumping up and down, screaming, to get the attention of western journalists. Fortunately, they gave him some. International observers came in and declared PSD the loser. Finally, Romania got a chance for real freedom.

Currently, the government is proposing to demilitarize SRI and turn it into a civil servant institution. As the debates are had in political circles, some interesting facts surfaced and were publicly aired. SRI continues its Securitate legacy by tapping the telephones of foreigners.

In fact, it has been disclosed SRI tapped 6,370 telephones in 2005 so they could track the communications of 2,373 people. Yes, that’s an average of 3 phones per person. Home, business, and mobile phone. Approximately 80% are foreign citizens.

Why does SRI actively spy on foreign persons? There’s not a proliferation of terrorist activity in Romania nor any real threat of it.

Most likely, it’s corruption. Sure, they’re going to bug the phones of a few important political dignitaries and such, but there’s still a strong culture of SRI spying on foreign (and domestic!) businessmen in order to supply information to their PSD friends. You know, keep them a step ahead of the competition. Money. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

While no doubt well intentioned, President Basescu tries to put a spin on it by touting the “national security” meme. It is, however, a bit problematic to try and attract foreign investment in Romania while you’re tapping telephones to undermine the competition. Companies generally research well during the due diligence phase of investment. They know about the corrupt PSD mafia and it’s strong ties to SRI. And they know they’ll be spied on.

Romania may as well put a “Not Welcome” sign along its border to deter economic growth. I suppose it’s nice to see the government at least talks about it openly. If you’d like to discuss the impact of these policies, just give me a call…

Don’t let all the smiles of the erroneously designed DVD cover fool you.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is not your typical summer blockbuster. It will not dazzle you with special effects or sexy celebrities. It does not have a flag-waving ending where F-16s zoom overhead to the sounds of Rock You Like A Hurricane. No, this film attempts to represent the gritty details of the reality of life and death for Romanian pensioners as the world keeps right on moving.

Odds are it will touch you. You may feel saddened at the lack of diginity afforded to humans. You may be outraged by the arrogance and indifference. You will probably grapple with the conflict between how much suffering was the cause of tragedy outside his control or whether he brought some punishment upon himself. In any event, you will not be a passive observer of yet another mindless, boiler-plate Hollywood template. The brute strength of realism will keep you engrossed for the entire two hours and thirty four minutes.

I’ll attempt to avoid spoilers by summarizing the basic plot carefully. The movie is set in a rather typical apartment of Bucureşti where we find 63-year old Dante Remus Lazarescu feeling terribly (sometimes violently) ill and in need of relief. As he talks with his cats, interacts with relatives by telephone, and seeks help from his neighbors, we begin to understand some of the background of who he is.

Eventually, his condition steadily worsens and the setting changes to the inner workings of Romanian doctors and hospital staff. Throughout the film are references to pervasive alcohol problems among Romania’s elderly population, revealing details on the challenges faced by medical personnel in many modern cities, and an exposé on the attitude and pecking-order of Romanian doctors.

Director Cristi Puiu must have worked painstakingly hard to create this piece of art. The details are all a perfect slice of life whether it is inside the Ceauşescu-style communist apartments, during an ambulance ride through the streets of Bucureşti, witnessing the disturbingly accurate health care facilities, or in the progression of Mr. Lazarescu’s fate. The characters of Mr. Lazarescu and Mioara are particularly engaging. Dialogue is witty, sharp, and without fluff. Each line seems to have its purpose in bringing us closer to understanding the environment we witness.

All the actors and actresses deliver their parts with remarkable skill which is sure to boost their respective careers by making a strong impression on other film-makers. As a highlight, Ioan Fiscuteanu, Mihai Bratila, and Rodica Lazar turned in particularly stunning performances.

On camera work, it should be noted there seemed to be a distinct lack of stabilizers which shows up as some jitters here and there. Don’t worry, it’s nothing like disaster of Blair Witch. I think the Death of Mr. Lazarescu could have benefitted from some enhanced camera handling to eliminate these quirks. However, I’m sure there were tough budgetary constraints to work within.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the second feature-length film from director Cristi Puiu, won both the top “Un Certain Regard Prize” at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and the “Silver Hugo” award from the 2005 Chicago International Film Festival in addition to recently being nominated for Best Foreign Film at the upcoming 2006 Independent Spirit Awards.

Puiu described the film thusly;

“Mr. Lazarescu speaks about a world where love for our fellow man doesn’t exist, about someone whose need for help is ignored by all around him… Learning the truth about a situation, however banal, can take a lifetime. The story takes place over six hours, but it can’t be told in real time. The filmmaker has to choose those bits of reality to capture. Every time you cut, you turn the camera or your eye towards one situation, you turn your back on another.”

I describe it as required viewing for story lovers and fans of cinematic art. I describe it as clear justification for future, larger projects to be given to the director and several of the actors and actresses. I describe it as: death.

It’s a clear sign of a healthy dose of free speech when three insane people can rant in self-contradicting terms about bizarre things. America may be the king of crazies, but the Romanians are contributing their own candidates for the race to the bottom.

First at bat, Grigore Foculescu struck out in his attempt to establish the 3rd Millenium Party and run for mayor of Bucureşti, complete with his stirring anthem “The Mariner is No More” (a reference to former-mayor, now Preşidente, Traian Basescu). His campaign seemed to revolve around a mixture of International Socialist doctrine and Ceauşescu cult-of-personality plagiarism.

Probably the best part of the freak show was when he put on a little mini-parade, of sorts, to garner votes from the few puzzled onlookers who bothered to glance his way for more than a couple seconds.

Next up, we have Lucian Iordanescu, pre-eminent scholar of the secret witchcraft government, parapsychological expert on phantasms, and, interestingly enough, a close buddy of Foculescu.

Don’t let his soft Texan looks fool you, Iordandescu is deadly serious in his efforts to expose the vast witch plot which currently runs all of Romania by secret councils and rituals and witch-secretaries.

And, finally, there is some bozo promoting Al Qaida support in Romania. This individual appears to be in Medias near Sibiu (but possibly may actually be in Germany or even New Jersey). He may be the known-basketcase “Wilhelm Langthaler” or disciple thereof. In any event, this agitator alternates between using the alias Ioan Stoica, infamous ringleader of an amazingly stupid-yet-successful Caritas investment ponzi scheme, and using the alias Ioan Pongrat, erstwhile Voivod of Transylvania back in 1463.

The content borrows heavily from proto-communist Campo Anti-Imperialista. His free-of-charge web host is T35, a company located in New Jersey who does have a Terms of Use against inappropriate content, if you feel like talking to them about this website they run. They’re connected to JustEdge networks which seems to have been associated with various scams and other ilk for years.

According to his posted information, Romanians can reach “Ioan” at +74 666 2717 while you Americans interested in sharing your thoughts in English can dial 011-40-74-666-2717.

Of course, he may not be any one single person, but could possibly represent a small group of wackos. On various bulletin boards, he has tried to recruit Romanians into joining Al Qaida using the following email addresses: felixroberto2001@yahoo.de, ioanpongrat@hotmail.com, ioanstoica@freenet.de

Before promoting the Al Qaida drivel, this person used to promote what he called the Anarchist Syndicate of Romania which was, of course, a mindless communist front trying to steal credibility from the legitimate name of intelligent anarchist philosophy.

Maybe someone can locate him and make sure he gets the help he needs.